mauriesy

Funny how Smith is claiming Mitchell Johnson is taking 'lower order wickets'. He took five of their top seven, including the two openers, in both SAf innings.

Those were the days when wine selection was easy. No such thing as a cabernet sauvignon with aromas of blackberry, wet grass and oak. Just Claret. In a cask or flagon.

We turned the heater on last night.

Funny, Johnson is the only one who hasn't taken a wicket.

A month or two ago on his radio show, Red Symons said he had once briefly met Tom Waterhouse. As part if the discussion, he told Tom he 'never bet on anything'. Tom replied 'you should come and work for me'.

Did you know there is a World Banana Forum? http://www.fao.org/wbf/en/ World banana production rose from 48 million tonnes to 106 million tonnes between 1990 and 2011. I hope you all buy fair trade bananas.

Nah, the media has just headed off to St Kilda.

A Demonland wedding? Will you be claiming official expenses from Demonland when you get back?

Boyd fires as Ranges win flag

I'd like Geelong and Sydney to win. But I think Hawthorn and Freo will.

The meta-No T$ B$ thread within a thread.

I was just trying to see if someone could.

For any newcomers to Demonland, could someone summarise this thread?

Everyone should add "sy" to their user name for the next month to honour our new coach. Like Redlegsy or Old Deesy.

The Paul Roos thread is only 17 pages behind this one. Get posting!

If the Messiah arrives, there'll be no Haydn for the players.

I know that ... the old perennial is Richmond's choice of Tambling at #4 over Franklin at #5. (The Rules of this thread also forbid me from suggesting Martin or Rohan over $omeone else!) I can weather failed recruiting of a few picks. But not 75% of our list over the last 8 years. Clearly, some of the players on your list and mine might be an OK bottom-end of a team in the 8. But they're not top-end or even middle of a team aspiring to be in the 8. I also wonder about 'spine theory' versus 'engine-room theory'. It seems to have started from as long ago as Daniher. We seem to have a put lot of resources (and subsequent misses) into building a premiership winning 'goal-to-goal line' or 'spine', and not much into the midfield engine room. That our total good midfield after 8 years of a multitude of first-round draft picks is Nathan Jones (plus Jack Viney now) is a disgrace. I'm getting tired of the continual requirement to move on up to a dozen NQR players every year. The recruiting has just got to start getting better and more strongly emphasise a hard midfield.

How would you feel if instead of: Petterd, Weetra, Morton, Maric, Cheney, Watts, Blease, Strauss, Bennell, Jetta, Bail, Gysberts, Tapscott, Cook and Davis we had: Tippett, Goldsack, Rioli or Dangerfield, Mayne, Bird, Hartlett, Hill, Ballantyne, Hannebery, Sloane, Walters, Savage, Lewis Jetta, Fyfe, Darling and Puopolo. They were all taken after our respective picks. Plus we could have got LeCras with the pick we traded for Paul Johnson, and Andrew Swallow with the pick we traded for Byron Pickett. We've been 'Prendergasted', and it will take years to overcome.

And I have severe misgivings about Jamar, Evans, Spencer, Blease, Watts, Strauss, Pedersen, Tynan, Dunn and Tapscott. Half the team.

I think he'll play centre, rover, wing, half back, half back flank, back, back pocket, half forward, half forward flank, forward and forward pocket. Maybe even ruck once or twice. Anywhere he wants to, really.

Who said I'm trying to blame others? GWS has a team of up-and-coming stars, we haven't largely because of our own ineptitude. I'm just suggesting that we can't think of GWS (or the Gold Coast) as an automatic win, even now. Clearly that's not the case. There's also a few other teams that GWS will beat on their home turf.

Why? They've got far more talent than we've got. A lot of their super-talented 2011 picks have now got 20-30 games. Pity players like Viney, Kent, Toumpas, Fitzpatrick and Gawn haven't built that much experience. Yet we all expect them to be winners. I'm not saying we shouldn't have won, but if you want to suggest that they are still easybeats you are mistaken. Let's see how much we lose by to the other 'easybeats' this weekend? In 3-4 years every team will be lamenting how much of a leg-up these two new franchises have been given.

Of course I'm disappointed the team lost. Of course I'm sick of losing. Of course I hate our drafting. But when you play against a team whose draft picks in the last two years have been: 2011 #1 Patton #2 Coniglio #3 Tyson #4 Hoskin-Elliott #5 Buntine #7 Haynes #9 Tomlinson #10 Sumner #11 Greene #13 Adams #14 Smith 2012 #1 Whitfield #2 O'Rourke #3 Plowman Plus T$, Ward etc. there's got to be a time when they stop being easybeats.

Amused by all the England supporters who claim in response that they were also wronged by other decisions (all of which were 50/50 at best). The only two howlers so far have been Broad given not out when he was clearly out, and Khawaja given out when he was clearly not out, both in England's favour. How many questionable decisions equal one howler?

And if you ever post off-topic*, it will roar to life like a hotted up Lamborghini. * There's only one subject that's off-topic.