Little Goffy

With a variety of herbs, half a kilo of mixed beef and veal mince, several tomatoes, a carrot, zucchini and garlic, and significant cheese stocks to go with a series of flat pasta sheets, do the Demons really have what it takes to produce a carbonara in 2025? And can they afford the garlic bread?

I don't want to put you on ignore because you make a lot of interesting contributions and do have real insight into the club, but those eyerolling moments let you down badly. Seriously, imagine getting snarking at someone for asking a football related question on a football forum.

Used to be the [censored] had to cross all the way over the line. I remember when nobody got offended unless you used a naughty word or suggested that the Ark story pre-dates the bible and there might be something very wrong going on at a boys school in Ballarat.

"We want people to notice us" Wears generic running top from the second rack at Mt Gravatt Rebel Sport factory outlet.

Ooh, I've got an idea for a team. Harking back to one of the original draft vexations of Demonland. We must all be willing to take up some slack until Demonstone rediscovers his quizmojo.

I took the 'first name initial only' as some kind of important clue and wandered around in the wilderness for a long time. Coincidentally, R. Herring would be eligible for the team.

"We now have a detailed list management strategy to guide us, so our decision-making is strategic and well-planned" I believe the settlement itself was on the basis of disability discrimination. Essendon were claiming that Dodoro had 'half-****ed' his job, but Dodoro insisted that that really was all the **** he had to begin with and he had given the club 100% of it.

Yeah, I got it, but now I'm too busy slapping my forehead to send a message.

A colleague of my wife was clearing out old stuff and we picked up a Roomba-like device. Generic robot vacuum creature. Unfortunately it seems quite intimidated by the world. It comes off its little starting block, wiggles a bit, has a quick look around the immediate area, and then decisively 'nopes' the whole scene and goes back to its starting deck. Poor thing. Does anybody know a good AI psychologist? Not Dr Sbaitso, something more Gen-Z A.I.

That alleged new symbol is clearly just an infrared scan of an egg being cooked. Only thing I can't decide is if it is a side view of a poached egg or a top view of a fried egg. To reference an ancient egg related public health ad, "This is your football code on marketing."

Plus the poster boys for premiership-influencing kids, Selwood and Rioli. And just for fun extending it slightly to players who had a meaningful part in a premiership before their 50th game - Jackson, Pickett, Rivers, Bowey, and Sparrow. Picks 5, 7, 9 and 13 in two seasons is a massive surge of potential talent to complete a best 22 which is already competing. Anyone pretending that can't have an impact is just being sour.

With pick 5 the chances of getting a gun midfielder with an attacking style ready to play round 1 is close to 100%. Wild stuff. Pick 9 looks like a choice between talls (Armstrong, Tauru, Shanahan) and even more dynamism in general play (Reid, Allan, Smillie). I feel like if we go full on for the poised, high-initiative midfielder types again this season we could end up with a whole new look in a very short space of time. Compare the movement style of Rivers, McVee, Windsor, Thostrup, Langford and Reid to the current midfield core based primarily on the powerful bodies of Oliver, Viney, Petracca and Sparrow. But for real fun, imagine the surge that can come while we still have those powerful bodies and can back it up with the mobility of that next generation. For a brief moment we could be going into games expected to win clearances and also expected to win the around-the-ground movement.

I swear, he had more running bounces in that footage than our entire team for 2024. I'm not even kidding, and they weren't pointless bounces either. That and the collection of sharp passes on aggressive instincts make it very easy to want him running around on the attacking half of the ground. There was one pass were he centred the ball with an ambitious kick to his own CHB area. It worked out okay but I felt my hair fall out as he did it! So, yeah, attacking side for my sanity's sake.

Commitment to the family company is admirable but that is a weird t-shirt his dad is wearing.

The two who have made an impression in my mind are Smith and Smillie. Might be a bit optimistic to imagine both making it to 5 and 9, respectively, but that's where my head is. Last year I was disappointed we didn't take Curtin, but I am thrilled about the prospects for Windsor. I'm pretty chill about it all. This ain't no Prendergast sausage factory we're running.

Stats are unreliable but; Seventh in the league for goal assists per game, despite being subbed out twice, including once in the first quarter. Also contributed a handy goal a game. As a role player in attack he is excellent value. It seems unusual to describe someone who can change the tactical situation purely with their own vision as being a 'role player', but, well, that's his role!

It'll be interesting to see how Demonland and the other major sites manage the ID requirements. "Click the following to prove you aren't just three kids in a trenchcoat"

Some of this has a bit of an Iran Hostage Crisis feeling.

It's an interesting one because we have a real gap in the player age spread from Oliver (now 27), with only seven players age 23 to 26. We're going to need at least some of them to develop into quality leaders ready for the 2028 premiership.

If I were Tom Campbell I'd be absolutely frothing at the mouth to get into 2025. He doesn't even need to suddenly deliver his best ever football. the poor guy never got a run at it, always either stuck behind a clear 1st ruck or at a club which simply didn't care much about the ruckman. The only two seasons (2017 and 2021) where he got any kind of run at it he did fine - not spectacular, but fine. He's not an answer to our forward issues except that he can be out on the ground as a supporting ruck, is a proper big lump who can take the impacts as well as contest overhead, and clearly has the humility and experience to work with a clear first ruck. Campbell isn't a star but if he is doing his job well it lets Van Rooyen, Fritsch and so on do the job they are actually best at, and that could make a very big difference.

Personally I've got my eye on Theo Soros and Richard Shonary. Or next year's potential Irish recruits, the twins Simeon and Anthony O'Nym. Funnily enough they look nothing alike.

Just clarifying in my own head - at this moment we are in the 8 and we are waiting on the result of Essendon v Carlton. So... uh... C'arn ya bluebaggers! * *Offer expires 9.30pm Nov 2, 2024

North going into 2025 is very much like Melbourne going into 2010. Obviously many specific differences - North have been given far more draft concessions and other support than we were, and have been right at the bottom for longer than we had been at that time. It'll be interesting to see if their injection of maturity this trade/agent period will help stabilise them enough to be competitive and gain some belief. Also interesting to see what comes of their draft wave - we still haven't really seen anything of Goad, Dawson and Hardeman from 2023, and some of their picks from previous years are still in the 'promising' category rather than breaking out. They could very suddenly become very scary, or else... hmm... it is hard to see North surviving as a club if they don't at least become competitive in this wave.

Some people get 2 year contracts, some people get 4 year suspensions. It's a funny world. Glad he's set at Geelong because I was genuinely anxious about him coming to Melbourne, providing close to nothing on field and continuing to be an off-field swamp at a third club.

Ko****knee is the zero on the scale. Story goes that he did a peripheral awareness test where little lights go off at various points around you, and you just have to push a left or right button when you notice the light. During the test a technician came over to check it was working properly.