Little Goffy

I think Nibbler, McDonald and Pickett completing our B&F Top Ten is also quite fitting. They are there because of their contribution to the overall result rather than individually stellar season. Most of our B&F are there because of their teamwork commitment, I'm sure, but it is harder to tell that is the reason when the individual players are also mind-meltingly brilliant!

Wow that's a lot of kids doing well in a premiership team. Also, nice reminder of how well Salem started the season before tapering a bit in the '3rd quarter'. He sure knew when to put on his best game, though!

Our cake doesn't need icing. Certainly not patchy icing!

Similar thoughts to Wrecker here; If you've got a 25 year-old with 100 games under their belt, you'll probably get another 5 years and 100 games out of them. But an 18 year old is maybe a 1/3rd chance of giving you even 100 games at all. A team that is older on average is just a team that has managed to collect more AFL-level players over recent years. Put another way - it matters that Josh Kennedy is old because he's Josh Kennedy. Nathan Ablett is also pretty old now but you wouldn't be concerned about the impact on your list if he retired! And as always with all statistics, you've got to break it into the segments if you're going to get any real value out of it. In this case, you really have to know about the bulges at the ends - if you've got too many kids that will cause problems even if they are talented. If you've got too many 'genuinely older' players you've got risks to endurance, injuries, and retirement suddenly blowing a hole in your team.

Have fun everyone! It's a wet and coolish day up here in Sydney so I'll be wearing the scarf. Please post photos here - it will be great to have the memento on Demonland. In fact, should we start a thread specifically for posting event photos?

Could be a record-breaking get-well-card handed around at the 'G.

Bring back the bugler.

At this stage I'm willing to believe that the Saints are where you'll find the personality problem.

Will rotate with Luke Donston.

Given how many kids we had out there, the grand final was not that far off our draft day!

It is just too slow for me. And there's the same problem that means it hasn't even worked for suicide bombers; they often have time to produce offspring before detonating. I've got a very strong commitment to the social contract, the safety net, and a society that doesn't leave people to die of starvation in ditches, but when people call nurses and doctors 'medico-fascist' and will later expect to be triaged into ICU taking critical resources away from blameless others, my inclusiveness is sorely tested. Feel free to tap your desk in irritation while contemplating that whole countries are going back into lockdown solely because of anti-vaxxers and also very much to protect those same people who refuse to do a most basic thing to protect themselves. I also haven't seen any stalls set up at the nuffy-marches where people can sign a commitment to not accept the several thousand dollars worth of treatment a significant Covid19 case requires and which the community will, despite everything, provide to them. The mood could change a little when we see something tangible like the AFL 2022 season disrupted because of this gitswarm.

Adem Yze was definitely annoyed when he was 'retired', firmly believing he had more left to give. I believe he was pretty chipper on the night, though! Generally I've got the impression that the club has made quite a bit of effort to reconnect in recent times with a message that this has been a long journey and those who kept us going at the hardest moments are a part of this victory. Not to be underestimated how much Nathan Jones' situation has compelled people to recognise that not everyone who got us to this point got to stand on the podium.

AFL trading is a village market where everyone knows everyone and knows they'll be dealing with each other for decades to come. As opposed to a ruthless metropolitan share trade floor or the like. The relationships matter. In the end the big value will be the accumulated win-win deals you can make with people who will listen and even come to you with ideas, not the occasional deadline staredown.

Richmond went 7 years with only one or two changes to their B&F top 10 each year, and many of those changes were injury related. The moment it became hard to be sure who their best / most important 10 were, they were winning premierships. We've got several players who could be considered in our bottom six but also have an argument made that they are in our most important ten. It's freak'n magnificent. Not a useless body on the field.

Add to list of things that are close to inevitable and also very good. Not many things on that list but always nice to add something.

I'm trying to think of evidence to support keeping him. Best I can come up with is; - BT's channel 7 commentary is a huge boost to radio. - every time BT and Daisy Pearce are both commentating a game, the most positive version of feminism goes a bit more mainstream. - it keeps BT busy enough to not run for parliament.

Basically the club has said to Goodwin, "Take this group, take these mature champions you have, see what you can get out of them and then once they start retiring and the list begins to turn over you can see how you are feeling." I'm happy with that. There's clearly a pretty deep bond between the coach and the leading players at the club. Knowing they are committed to chasing glory together can't hurt. I still maintain my theory that Goodwin took a personal pay cut prior to 2021 so that we could afford our elite panel (Bringing in Burgess, Yze, Williams) under the soft cap rules. I often find it hard to believe when people still scrounge and scrap about money whenever their income is over $5,000/week so I'd believe it now if someone told me he was still on pretty modest coin in recognition that it is the coaching team as a whole which maximised his strengths and completely overcame his weaknesses. Personally, I wouldn't put it past possibility that Adem Yze will be our next coach. If all goes to plan he might even get a 'freebie' Chris Scott style premiership before our current monstrous group of 24-26 year olds begin to retire! La la la la who said just because we won a premiership I can't get wildly unrealistically optimistic in October?

Just crossed my mind that by then it might even be realistic for me to make the trip down. Visit family (not one of whom I've seen in six months), visit friends (almost as sparse), do birthday stuff, and go nuts at the 'G. Should we be planning a Demonland rally point? Should someone bring a banner?

Historically the ultimate smokey is James Hird, tucked away in Canberra and taken at woopwoop pick. Unfortunately people are now aware of the existence of Canberra. Even Tuggeranong (Aaron Hamill) which is technically Canberra I suppose. Now, to be 'invisible' you really have to be from woop woop and beyond. It hurts a little to remember but, wow, what a thought it would be to have someone like Liam Jurrah arrive in the system and supports we have now.

I'm currently (in a quasi-professional capacity, what a strange world) reading good ol' boy Clausewitz's On War and came across a quote specially designed for this thread and the Demons 2021. ... "it is the noiseless harmony of the whole action which we should admire, and which only makes itself known in the total result. The inquirer who, tracing back from the final result, does not perceive the signs of that harmony is one who is apt to seek for genius where it is not, and where it cannot be found." There was no moment of genius or extraordinary innovation in the Demons 2021 that set us apart. We simply got to the point of acting as a unified group on the necessities which everyone kind of already knows about.

That we absolutely deserved the premiership we won gives me a little thrill every time.

Hibberd seems like an ideal post-2020 'playing assistant coach' type. All the enthusiasm and all the determination. Provides support which lets the coaches within soft-cap limits focus on their most crucial duties. Plus, he's proven himself to not be easily written off.

What I find noticeable is that he never rushes it. Neither of those kicks and few if any of his other shots from play seem hurried OR hesitated. It's actually really impressive despite being completely undramatic. "No dramas" Clayton, that's our guy.

I'll be looking forward to your musings. I imagine a lot of the details of those games will feel very different now - particularly the mid-season wobble and scoring problems which now just looks like a process of getting our proverbial together but was a bit alarming at the time.

We just got Luke Dunstan for nothing and Dunstan is one accurate kick per game short of being as good as O'Meara. Expensive and unnecessary. But at least I get an excuse to bring out my favourite picture of him;