Little Goffy

55 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Onley is a big boy. As tall as Lever and built much bigger. 

Does that make him Wrench?

50 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

I told Wheels about this photo and he said he hasn’t seen it.

He said, “Oh if it’s on Demonland I’ll see it anyway.” 😳

I bet he drops by anytime he wants to be reminded he's a legend. Couple of people who cracked the sulks on here about drafting Latrelle had better wear shoulder pads when they visit training.

43 minutes ago, Demonland said:

JVR off to the rooms to get what looks like his bottom lip stitched up. 

Geez, people are going to learn quickly not to talk back to this new coach.

30 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Heath playing forward on TMac

I like this. Feels like Heath being challenged by a smart and dogged veteran with experience as both forward and defender and who even understands ruck duties. TMac given the classic defender's challenge to outpoint an opponent a little bit taller and faster than himself.

Finally I got one. They are all background characters in a bar in Mos Eisley.

Although I suspect that is more than 10% of Demonlanders.

2 hours ago, Demonstone said:

Well, nary a nibble let alone a bit. Time to cast a little burley on the waters.

This may help to steer you in the right direction.

28 minutes ago, Demonstone said:

Still no responses. It would appear that more visual assistance is required.

I'm gunna have to go with 'wut?' and 'huh?'

I'm in a cranky mood because I had a theory and it was very nearly great and because I was embarrassed about firing off a dozen guesses for a recent quiz, I wanted to check it thoroughly which meant I wasted about half an hour figuring out something which could only be shown wrong once I had the full set checked.

You [censored verb]] [censored noun]

I think I'm just reiterating what multiple people have argued already, but I'll point to an analogy;

In the current game, Fraser Gehrig would be a borderline liability. It would be a balanced equation between his contested marks and his goalkicking accuracy on the one hand and the sheer number of easy rebounds made possible by his lack of agility to chase, and lack of versatility in how to create goals. Mark on the powerful lead or mark overpowering a one-on-one... then dust. Even Jack Darling, whose strengths are superficially similar, became a dramatically more mobile and flexible player who could get involved in other moments.

The contrast with Gehrig would have to Tom Hawkins, whose sustained a decade of top quality football when he parked the traditional 'forward ego' and became a really effective, smart team player. There are multiple seasons where he was the standout lead in score involvements and he never dropped out of the top-10 of that rank, alongside and ahead of the likes of Bontempelli, Petracca, and Martin.

The only other key forwards to get into that range include Jeremy Cameron consistently and then Taylor Walker and Charlie Curnow when they are in good form.

Fun fact - there are multiple seasons where Hawkins and Cameron went 1 & 2 for score involvements at Geelong. In the premiership season they went one and three for the whole competition, with peak Petracca slipped in between.

A well organised system with players who believe in it will get you the results. It helps if they are athletic beasts but it is not crucial. What matters most is that they are still useful when their proverbial one-wood can't be part of the play.

As a side note. Tom McDonald's successful, premiership-crucial, foray as a forward was built on second efforts and chasing and staying involved. He led our 2021 goal assists, was third in score involvements, in the top handful for tackles inside 50 (as well as Ben Brown which is unexpected and supports the argument), and was our highest ranked non-defender for 1%ers (again with Brown in the vicinity).

Get tall forwards who can play like they aren't only tall forwards, and you're going to do well. Get medium forwards who can also play like they are tall when needed, and you are going to do well.

[rant over] [apologies]

Oh no Demonstone has hired a social media hype agent.

The optimal result long term for Australian football is that West Coast win a majority of their home games to keep the fans entertained, but then lose everywhere else to ensure the Eagles never again soil finals with their presence.

Also, if west Coast consistently have an early pick and use it on local talent, it really helps other clubs with the 'go home' problem

I little voice in my head says this 'one day or half day each week' will be taking the form of a long lunch and Cook provudung Guerra with a series of well lubricated introductions to a procession of power players.

14 hours ago, Bobby McKenzie 2 said:

Not guilty! Just expressing a fact.

That's the most Picket Fence thing you could possibly say!

There's a solid chance that Clayton will do very well at GWS.

What we know about him is that the one thing he's good at in life is football. It's not just his job but his vocation and solace.

As we've seen, when that goes wrong, he comes a bit undone and it takes a ton of effort and love to get him out of the spiral.

GWS will likely get some top grade football out of Oliver, but the risk is that even as he does he'll chew up the time and energy of coaches, leadership players who could be doing better things.

Who could Gawn have been mentoring instead of babysitting a 27yr old?

What revitalisation could Goodwin have been doing instead of being stuck holding his stars by the reins?

It's sad we had to move him on. It's not a mistake.

He had only marginal interest from only a few clubs, even with a discount of half his salary.

I'm posting here just to bump the thread because I'm interested in any updates people have about Lever, AMW, and our general health, but... Surely at this point we can confirm that Essendon is just straight up cursed?

afl.com.au

As they should be, but it's pretty rough on the kids forced to go there.

So my scrabble points theory was pretty close to the mark... sort of.

As per tradition, I will take my participation award and eat it.

Huh? One? I count two; Langford and Humphrey.

A few others might be a little stiff to miss out. Despite a poor season Van Rooyen deserves more respect for the way he kept plugging at it with defensive efforts and team play, in contrast to unaccountable ball-butcher Caddy. I'd also certainly take Van Rooyen's poor 2025 ahead of Amiss' poor 2025.

Windsor and Lindsay have both shown real promise but on gross output in 2025 it is fair enough that they're just outside the list.

I strongly suspect our places on lists like this will be very different 12 months from now.

So much change, so much opportunity for any given player to assert themselves. It'll be fascinating.

Coincidentally (I'm sure, thank you non-corporeal robot overlords) my facebook spam just offered me a link to an article in The Atlantic about how utterly messed up the sports broadcasting has become in the US.

Paywalled, of course, but the intro paragraphs kind of tell you the thrust. I presume. Who can be bothered signing up for a free trial of such things?

The Atlantic

13 hours ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

WE HAVE A WINNER!

@Ghostwriter COME ON DOWN!

If the W Awards venue is still set up, that would be fitting!

No longer teetering between glory and madness, but fully embracing both!

I'm still stuck and teetering between surly and sullen.

I declared myself 100% stumped and request, nay, DEMAND clues.

Ideally clues that give it away completely at the exact moment I next check demonland.

3 hours ago, Harvey Wallbanger said:

I don't think Kosi would think his salary for the next 9 years is "variable". Yes, the contributions to Clayton's contract are indeed settled.

It is conceivable he'd go full Gary Ablett Jr (and we'd happily throw him an extra 100k or two just for goodwill.

I mean, world war three, domestic hover cars and a digitally enabled hive mind could also happen by the end of the contract. And I think we all understand that Kozzie Pickett is probably the best hover car race driver in Australia.

On 22/11/2025 at 22:25, Harvey Wallbanger said:

Because we are committed to paying a portion of Clayton's salary through until 2030, and the amount was material, we are required to recognise that expense immediately, even though the cash payments will be made in later years. Given the immediate recognition of the expense, our player salary payments will run at a lower level through until 2030, i.e. the next five years'expense will be 100% of our salary cap MINUS the payments related to Clayton.

Fascinating. So the financial account of the liability is assessed now but the actual disbursement will be as per the salary cap accounting each year.

Presumably this differs compared to, say, Pickett's multi-year salary because that is still potentially variable, while the payout to Oliver is considered unconditional dead money.

Each row is worth the same scrabble score, provided Trent Rivers is on a double word score, the H in Nathan Jones is on a triple letter, and you cheat extensively.

But I actually feel like I'm on the right track here.

(I am the dog that brings its own red herring to the hunt)

Oh, Fremantle, never change.

21 minutes ago, Robbie On Skates said:

Are we due for a James Hird, Nat Fyfe, Max Gawn type steal.

Yeah we are.

Hard to get a proper steal when we keep pushing our picks to the front of the draft! That said, Langford was a steal even at 5.

It's interesting that our excellent draft record under Taylor is built on getting most of the early picks right and then bringing a steady flow of solid citizens who fill the best 22, ranging from Nibbler to Rivers to Chandler.

If not for the curse of 426 ruining our tall forward selections, we'd be close to flawless in our drafting.

13 minutes ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

this is on topic but also sort of not. With the picks chosen, what’s the best 23 looking like? Are any of the new pick ups walk up starts like Linsday and Langford were?

I suspect Xavier Taylor could take the field very early. Versatile role, not frail physically or mentally.

Matthews will be making sure he's fully ripe back from injury, Onley will be doing 1000 hours of handball drills, and if you can predict what a Pickett will do you just got yourself a SSP place as a small defender.

Funny side detail - White doesn't appear on the draft details list on footywire. Presumably it is a glitch in the system where they don't have a slot for filling 'rookie F/S pre-selection'. Has it even happened before?

Geez, we were in the running.

I was going to say something along the lines of comparing it to the men's 2000 season where it was 'always going to be Essendon', but... no, it wasn't like that at all. We were right in this one and a few deep breaths at the right moments could have tipped it.

I'm already in hunt mode for 2026. For a couple of seasons now I've been stewing on the feeling that we are on the cusp of being terrifying, and having some really promising young players, both tall and small, just makes me look forward to next season all the more.

1 hour ago, Cranky Franky said:

Thank you Captain Obvious. So enlightening.

And in the PSD we had first pick & picked a dud instead of a champion - and then told supporters it was a coup.

Okay, so, let's imagine you've got five bricks.

You pick up the first one and drop it on your head.

You pick up the second one and drop it on your head.

You pick up the third one and drop it on your head.

You pick up the fourth one and drop it on your head.

You pick up the fifth one and drop it on your head.

You exclaim "There's something wrong with that fifth brick, it dropped on my head! Stupid brick!"

Talk of being able to train at Caulfield by 2028...

Everything that is happening at our club makes sense if you back-fill the timeline from the 2028 premiership.

Funny thing is, if Gold Coast are anticipating losing Ben King, then they'll be death riding themselves because obviously he'd get them an additional first round pick in FA compensation.