Nasher

My wife would consider me disappearing with the kids for an entire day the best Mother's Day gift there was :D

Could also just be the coach’s preparedness to ask him to do it. How many other coaches would say “hey I’ve got an idea. Let’s ask our winger, who already does more running than anyone else, to stay on the field 100% of the time so our more bursty players can get more rest”? I’d say it’s combination of coaching staff, fitness staff and Ed himself all having a deep understanding of his capabilities. It’s incredible in any case!

Spot on. Eventually we are going to come up against an team that reckons they’ll be able to go head to head with us, rather than go in to damage control from the first bounce. That’s when we deal out the first major belting. I’m sure we are all in furious agreement that we hope it’s Hawthorn in round 7. Hopefully they keep winning a few and have their tails up.

I've said it before, but I think if Kane dropped the facade of needing to be controversial, he would be a good football commentator. Underlying the facade is solid insight.

Hehe. I had a post half finished that agreed with your family other one that I never posted. I thought they’d be competitive. I was a bit taken aback by how bad they were.

Amen Ben. I’m 38 and this is the first time I’ve had the luxury of a team that is the real deal. And it could just as easily be the last. I remember as a teenager in 2000 watching the Essendon juggernaut roll us in the granny, thinking, who’s ever going to stop these bastards? Vossy’s Lions did the next year, I blinked, and suddenly Essendon have been in the wilderness for 22 years. Here’s hoping they stay there another 22. Screw being angry or setting impossible standards. I’m just enjoying the ride. We’re 4 games in and I’ve spent zero minutes entertaining notions that we’d lose any of them. We just haven’t looked like it. The last two teams have hoisted up the white flag before the bounce and have tried to outscrap us - lol. Good luck with that. The thrilling footy and dealing out hidings will come. We had to wait a while for it last year too. No team ever plays like that every week, I’m more than happy to settle for coasting to 30 point wins without breaking sweat until the purple patch comes.

That run Sydney made for the finals in 2017 was off its chops - if I remember rightly they were 0-6. If we ever see that again in our lifetime I'll be stunned.

That interpretation of it did go through my head too, but at the end of the day, we don't know the real dynamics of the relationship with Max and Joel, or any of the players. It could be hurtful or they could all just laugh about it - who knows.

Kozzie will never be dropped as long as he's doing the team/defensive things; especially if the next best is Kade Chandler, and I don't mean that unkindly. For the type of player Kozzie is, you just wait for the form to come, because it will.

That was it really. Started with a comment of May having missed Lever, then that. He said it with a smirk on his face - I think it was just dry Max humour laced with a tinge of truth.

That run-up put Benny Brown to shame there, @Demonstone!

Did you hear Max's comment about May having a hard time getting Smith to stand in the right spots the last few weeks? I chuckled.

Weid or TMac for Brown. Toss a coin. Smith won't play as per the Goodwin "ain't broke don't fix it" rule.

I think so. Thought he really stood up on a night where Petracca, Oliver and Brayshaw were all (relatively) quiet.

Agree on this. It's obvious they're both at least a class below Brown. Can't wait for him to come back.

SACK GOODWIN amirite? Far out. The bar has gone through the roof with some of you people. It was a good, strangling win. Not great, not particularly exciting - the Jordon touch on the line was the only time my heart rate got above resting, but we got the job done. I'm just waiting for someone to say we're the worst 4-0 side of all time or something.

Tokens than you can’t funge, obviously.

Or it’s just the truth.

Picked a spot roughly in the middle, scrolled all the way to the end to find my name was like the second name on the next line. D’oh. Got goosebumps when I found it. How good. I’m part of it.

We had a VFL team called the Devils too in the early 00s. We were pretty strong for a few years with the likes of Ben Beams kicking around. I doubt defunct teams get to keep rights to names.

North Hobart Oval is too small and pretty run down now, and there’s nowhere to park. Pity as that’s where I grew up watching the North Hobart Demons (and how I came to barrack for Melbourne). Back to back flags in 91 and 92 were awesome as a kid. Good omen - 21 and 22 for us? The public would flip their lids of the state government committed funds for a new footy ground. There’s just no appetite for it given the state of our health and education system here. If an AFL team came to town, it would have to be based at Bellerive Oval (currently named Blundstone Arena).

Hard to believe he’s 19 years old and 10 games in to his career, he looks like a veteran. I reckon he’s an example of what happens when all the blocks are in place. He’s developed as a player at the fastest possible rate, because the system surrounding him has allowed him to. I can’t imagine him playing like he is if he’d walked in the door in 2012.

Let’s not get too carried away Sue.

No chance in the world B.Brown doesn’t play. Assuming he was just a close contact and didn’t actually have COVID, I highly doubt he’s been sitting on his bum playing Xbox. He’ll have been on the treadmill or running laps of his yard, or something. He’s a professional, and he was in great form that he will want to continue. In: Lever, Brown Out: Hunt, McDonald

On the umpiring: why doesn’t the AFLW draw from the same pool of umpires as the blokes? Not that the men’s umpires are always that good either, but if the AFLW is the elite competition, they should have access to the supposed best umpires in the business right?