Dappa Dan

Pretty sure he wouldn't have heard you. lol They play the game hard those guys, and they're not snipers, even with the Gaff thing. I'm not sure Lecras wanted to go on with it once the song was playing either. From what I could see he was trying to ease the situation off. Certainly a lot of his team mates, even rookies like Venables were trying to congratulate Jonesy instead of pushing and shoving. I reckon that's great. It was one of the games of the year, as everyone's saying, even without the context. You'd be shattered to lose, but you'd not have lost any pride.

I'm wondering if maybe it was just that LeCras kept competing after the siren went. Honourable no-nonsense player like Nev hears the siren to confirm he's playing finals in 3 weeks, his body goes relaxed, and as it had just happened, Lecras might have thrown his elbow back to get separation as you normally would in case it was called play on. At least that's what I'm picking happened. In the heat of the moment, going on with it after the siren is the kind of thing that makes a player fume. Let's not forget also that we can't pick and choose the "good" records just because they play for us. Lecras is hardly a dirty player.

It's crazy. Two of the least successful teams going round, my two. Now look.

Reports are that he didn't go down to the rooms, just went to bench and stayed watching. I think it's the same thing that's been keeping him out of action in recent weeks just flaring up again, but not needing treatment. I'm hearing conflicting things about Wentz. They're saying he'll play, but that he wont get touches in preseason. On one hand I'm like, yeah, sure... He has to play this year for us to be any chance at all, so any game he plays he won't have had much time. Week 1 is as good as any. On the other hand I don't want him to struggle. One big positive was Sudfeld. They're high on him at Eagles. It's clear Foles will have a job, either in the next 2 months, or at seasons end, and Sudfeld will get a lot of playing time any time Carson gets hurt.

Nicholls is worse.

If there was one AFC fan in here and we had to pick a team for him, Jags would be it. Lots of people picking them as AFC champions. We're spoilt here in Dland.

Ha... Are you?

Jeeezus.... When you hear Jesse got hurt, after Eagles last season, you have a whisper of a hope. If Foles can do it? Weed can do it surely... (and win a Norm Smith)? Then reality hits and I find myself praying we can beat the Eagles like we did last year. Tmac, with no Jesse, and then somehow, impossibly, they give us SOME joy. I still have hope. After all, noone had less reason for hope than Eagles fans after Wentz (Hogan) got hurt. And if they can do it in the richest league in the world, they can do it in the AFL. (Or at least, make finals). But never mind the red and the blue. Let's enjoy some of that strange... We are on for one of the more exciting NFL seasons in demonland history. When was the last time we had storied franchises in the NFC making history? Rodgers making his glorious return, Wentz, Dak, Goff, Garroppolo, Ryan, Newton, Stafford, Cousins, Eli (I know you love him Macca), Wilson, Winston, Smith, Trubiski, Bradford/Rosen... oh and there's that matter of Brees.... That's it. I mean. That's 16 SERIOUS QBs. The closest thing I can find to a QB storyline that isn't interesting is the Cards Bradford/Rosen situation. Which sounds suspiciously close to the Eagles situation 24 months ago,.. This is gonna be a good year boys.

You couldn't write a better script mate! @Gorg with his Rams. You with your Pack. Me with my Champs. We may never enjoy this kind of relevance ever again. Your matchups are exactly right though. I can't wait to watch my Eagles, obviously, but a very close second are the Rams... I'm a Gurley lover... And Aaron and his Pack will never disappoint. Next is the Texans for me. Big Ben, AB and their shrinking wasteland, the GOAT and Belly... It's gonna be a theatrical year. The PERFECT antidote to the worst of all disappointing demons years. I'm pumped.

Oh man. Imagine a Browns/Boys match. Not gonna happen cos they're opposite conferences... Probably for the best for Dez. If he's ever gonna return to his best, I daresay it's not gonna be in the NFC.

Of course he will. Will he do anything? Now THAT'S the question. Welcome back!

Sav, Graham, Bennett... It's old news. Come on @Gorgoroth @Macca get around it!!!

Been a while. Don't worry, wont make a habit of it. lol

Good post. He's good ordinary, isn't he. You need those guys in a list. Bugg's another classic case as you say. But unfortunately he's played every game this year and done serious minutes in important roles. The other old footy axiom... is he a premiership midfielder? Or to put it another way, if we're going for a premiership, and he's depth (10-15 games a year) that means we're pretty good. But if he's playing 90% game time for 22 home and away games... Do we need to recruit/draft someone better to take his spot to threaten for a flag? No doubt today his disposal was one of a number of things that cost us the game. Going forward though... he is still young. Can he develop a couple more sides to his game? Develop a tagging ability like Harmes? Negating forward role? There's still time of course, he's only 22 and only just cracked the magic 50 games a few games ago. But personally if he's as good now as he's ever going to be, we're going to need to look elsewhere.

Fair enough I guess. Although it's worth pointing out.... Are you aware that you don't have to read it, and we do? I reckon that's enough now, don't you? You've said nothing new for the last half a dozen posts, and I'm sure you're as sick of this as I am. I look forward to getting back to you on this in the future, and proving once and for all how out of your mind you are in your suggestion.

I don't THINK he's kicked them?! I KNOW he has? Of course he hasn't done well when we're controlled through the middle. Who has?! Even BUDDY doesn't do well when his midfield gets controlled. That's every forward IN HISTORY. You're taking pot shots at him now when his midfield isn't on top? Give me strength... "When we have an open forward 50, and 2 or 3 talls in there to divide the defenders, he can do Ok." Of course, again... every forward line going round that applies to. But you're picking and choosing your history again. His previous three seasons he would be double and triple teamed, bring the ball to ground, or just mark it and kick it himself. TMac giving him company in the F line is a recent development. He used to have the job on his own, with terrible midfields feeding him the ball, and he STILL kicked 40. Once again, your facts are nonsense, and your reading of his footy is miles off. It's the opposite of what's going on, actually. "You can speak slowly, you can speak all night to the wall for all I care, your wrong." Literally NOTHING you've said has been a rebuttal of anything I've said. Pretty much everything I've said has proven, in multiple ways, that you're wrong. I don't often get into these inane discussions with posters because they're exactly that... inane... but this is amazing. I haven't come across anything as far separated from reality on here in a while. "Jesse is not suited to playing as THE Deep forward. unless they leave him one out." Jesse played his first seasons as the only deep forward, and in case you missed it, the whole league has been double teaming him his whole career when given that role. WRONG. AGAIN. Incredible.

You'll probably get called a sook by a few on here, but I reckon you're right to bent usefully. I think the biggest key in there is your period you've been a fan. 18 years. I've been a demon since I was a kid and watched Stynes/Lyon/Schwartz. I was a bit out of the loop in 2000 when we got to a GF, but the following 6 seasons we were, on and off, relevant. It was easy to follow Nietz and Bruce and Yze as, at the time, they had the potential to do something. Then of course since then, the hell we've been put through. It's possible that in the early years you weren't as immersed as some, and have only really been immersed after we were really in it. I have to say though, I remember reflecting in about 2014 or 2015 that as bad and bleak as it seemed, even though we knew 10 goal losses would be the norm, I still didn't want to be anywhere else but watching the demons. And I have to say, during the worst parts we had the option of just opting out. Switch the TV off, don't look at the sports pages, go do something else. Now it's a lot worse. We're expected to do something, so when we don't, it stings more. When you expect nothing, it's all part of the plan when you get nothing. But when you low ball it, and just beg to make finals, and you end up missing out... it's worse than almost any other disappointment. We were supposed to improve this year. We're supposed to be a premiership threat, and it's most certainly not the case. So I can get that it would hurt in a way that sticks a bit worse than your usual failed season. I'd direct you to the list build though. We've always been about our core group. And its their profiles where I think you'll see a good reason to stay firm with MFC. Every year you ask, who are the guys that in the next 3 seasons are considered "core." Or in other words, the names you cling to and don't consider trading. Hang on to for 200-300 games each. If you take that philosophy with Sydney, it's guys like Parker (25), Kennedy (30), Buddy (31), Rampe (28) Lloyd (24). Along with some lesser lights like Hanneberry and Jack who aren't killing it like they usually would. The only core guys under 25, you could argue, are Aliir, Heeney and Mills who are all under 25. There's a reason they always compete well. They recruit a bunch of younger guys who always learn from great older guys while their mid-twenties brigade dominate. Once you have that in your list, it's simpler to educate players who are coming through. The demons situation is way more difficult. Our core, the names that have led to our rise up the ladder, are almost all under 25. Think of Oliver at the top of the tree. Hogan, Tracca, ANB, Hunt (last year), Lever, Harmes (recently), OMac, Salem, Viney, Brayshaw, ... These guys are the main reason we're having any success at all, and are playing full games in roles of massive responsibility. The only guys really holding a spot and causing opposition headaches that are over 25 are guys like Lewis, Jetta, Hibbo, TMac, Gawn, Jones, Melksham and Garlett. That's a small smattering of leaders. What I'm confident you'll see in coming years is that first group all stay and move into the mid-late twenties group. When they do, we'll improve a lot. The youngsters that take their place will come from the upcoming drafts, and you'll see the list resemble the successful teams' lists a lot more. To put it simply, we're not in our peak yet with this current build. On one hand, that's great because we get to see a lot more improvement. On the other... it means that the stakes get even higher in the coming years. And should we lose a GF, this Swans game will feel like a fond childhood memory in comparison.

I don't usually give a damn what players say in the media. It's usually all to do with media training to avoid saying something that embarrasses them or the club. But this is pretty bad. I just got done saying how good he was, and how he's becoming a 4 quarter player we need with attributes a coach can use. Then he says all that. Clearly thrilled he's coming of age and not really that stressed about the result. Bloody daft.

Jesus your formatting needs work. The question on midfielders was rhetorical. You're floating ideas of trading our best footballers, I'm making them sound absurd. Have done it half a dozen times now. Not that you're paying attention. So to sum up. Hogan's going nowhere. You're proposing trading him because he's not a deep forward (which he is), or because he's not accurate (which he is) because you feel you can "get value" in unproven draft picks (which you can't guarantee) and because you can play an AFL quality deep forward in Weed (he isn't). Do me a favour. Don't quote me again. Especially not to repeat your babble a sixth time.

I'll say it again and slower this time. He's kicked almost as many goals as those other deep forwards while playing less game time there. TMac has been our deep forward more often than him. The point isn't even that (which is correct, despite your blindness), it's that the forward line IS FUNCTIONING. We're the best attack in the game?!! He's kicked 9 bags of 3 or more this year. Where was he kicking them? From outside fifty? From the wing? Open your eyes. He absolutely is a deep forward and absolutely is effective in the role, even with TMac in the side. Now. You can say he isn't all you like... it's clear you're delusional and blind. The FACTS ARE.... He IS a deep forward. Is playing successfully when put in that role and will continue there. Can't kick accurately? This just goes on and on doesn't it. His 4 seasons to date. 41.19, 41.33, 20.6 and 47.23.... DO the math. He's shooting at better than 66% in three of those seasons. Yet again, you're flat out wrong, and guilty of idiotic groupthink handed to you by god-knows-who in the media. Jesse doesn't HAVE to play high. He has to kick goals. And he's doing that. When he plays deep. The "best" thing is to trade him? No. It isn't. Pure and simple. The best thing is to keep the AA KP forward at the age of 23. Hahaha. Tyson a second rounder?!!! Are you taking the pi55 now?

I've been hanging onto that "we play well away" thing too. It is true that we don't play well at the G. Every time I see us play there, unless it's against appalling oppo like GC or Blues, we just seem lost. It'll be something they deal with in off season, you can be sure. For now though, WC win is our best window. I have a feeling we'll end up looking at Friday night's game in round 23 like we did the Pies game the same round last year.

Jesse is absolutely a deep forward. Has been playing the role (along with others) all year and kicking bags. He's 6th in the Coleman after playing part of the year wandering up the ground and even at centre clearances. Something you don't see Hawkins, Riewoldt or Brown do. You've got to open your eyes. Again with the Weed. Been in the system 3 years and still can't get a game. 8 goals in 15 games. Jesse kicked 40+ in his first season. And you want to go with TMac and Weed... You want to take the best attack in the game and go into it with just TMac and a kid who is yet to prove he can do anything. I guess you could be right. After all we don't know the end result of Weed's career yet. I'm confident Hogan will end up the better player by a mile. I hope we stick with good players instead of trading them out because we're so disgusted with our current crop of mids. If you're that upset about how bad guys like Oliver, Tracca, Viney and Brayshaw are going, you could trade one of them? Or maybe hang in for another year or two and see how they go when they crack 100 games. See you in 8 years.

You're proposing trading him... That's what I'm challenging. My God. You're wanting to get Whitfield in the team over Hogan? This just gets better and better. And what's this? You're claiming the age profile of our mature players is cause to move Jesse on? Lists get turned over every season. You get to move on a couple of older players EVERY SEASON if you're doing it right. What's that got to do with trading one of the best KP forwards under 25 in the league? I said it before and I'll say it again. You don't trade out good players to play your VFL guys, or to trade in other clubs' offcasts. You're out of your mind. I've put the Weed/Whitfield> Hogan stuff aside for later. This is just going to get funnier every year.

Well. Not really. A handful of nutty posters aren't worth tangling with. Almost noone on demonland is looking to learn things, everyone just wants to post their own drivel and disappear. Like suggesting trading Hogan and playing Weed. lol

That's what I was saying.