Little Goffy

Soemtimes feels like everyone has a Rioli except us. Must be strange for the family 'Oh, we have to go to another grand final'. Still, we remain the highest scoring team in the game. Can't say we are 'broken' so much, but no doubt an in-form and effective Garlett could've made us even more dangerous. With all respect to Nibbler, Spargo and Hannan, who contributed well, the 'small forward genius' is the one area we don't have any single elite player. Hawthorn barely scraped an elimination final win in 2007, were disposed of easily by North the next week, took Rioli at 14 then won the premeirship in 2008. Sounds good to me. Speaking of which, the North team that knocked out the Hawks in 2007 lost their other two finals by 106 and 87. Easily their two biggest losses for the season. That second loss was against Port, who promptly got filleted by Geelong to the tune of 119 points, which was more than double the margin of any of their other losses for the season. Just mentioning in case anyone has forgotten that finals are volatile and involve many more blowouts than the regular season. Anyway, I think we can say with confidence we have the grunt worked out, and if injury allows we have the key positions in good shape, so I'm definitely on the bandwagon for finding a bit of magic creativity.

And that was just using his forehead creases. 30kg an eyebrow, I hear. Speaking of coaches still in top physical shape, anyone else note Cross in the recovery pool during roaming Brian last week. Insanely ripped still. It took me a moment to realise it wasn't a player - an especially fit player at that.

I'm just a spinning wheel of emotion over this. Hooray for Smith! I really believe in him and he has had so much bad luck! Oh no! Poor Fritsch! I really believe in him and this is such bad luck! But I do feel like it is a sensible structural decision. I wonder if Fritsch will be back in next week?

I hear the sun rises over the land and sets over the sea. Seriously messed up. Remember to keep walking and keep your eyes fixed firmly in the middle distance in front of you. If someone tries to sell you some iron ore, just politely say no. The highs aren't worth the lows, m'friends.

Meh, Gold Coast suffered from what I am officially announcing as the Gary Ablett Curse. Now he's back at Geelong, and from this point I'd reckon that Gold Coast will play in a final before Geelong does again. And no, I'm not saying Gold Coast are about to surprise everyone. Also, the whole thing was botched from the start, at both clubs. I mean... Kevin Sheedy? Wait, was he brought in because he was a coaching genius or a marketing genius? Because it would appear there was absolute failure on both counts. Western Sydney had to name their medal after someone with no meaningful connection to Western Sydney, because he was all they had. Sums it up, really.

I think he's just annoyed that Viney has been called the 'Selwood of the next decade', it is disrespectful to Viney, so Oliver is taking some of the heat. Watch for him to start ducking this week! ?

The stereotype is tedious and annoying but also so completely untrue there's no point caring. The true 'stereotype' is that the decades of disappointment have trimmed away all the fat, there are no 'soft' Demons supporters and the shared pain builds a bond. In the moment, you could even have Prodee and Binman and Dieter and myself all having a joint laugh and/or scream. Even though away from football we've be like 4 pins in a water-balloon full of p!ss tied to a celing fan. We're a mixed bunch unified only by the fact that we are proven to be the most passionate and commited supporter group in the AFL.

I wonder if Jeffrey! Jeffrey! Jeffrey! Farmer can get a movement going, the official 'Freo supporters who are ok about Melbourne and hate the Eagles' seating area. Just imagine the ruckus!

Boo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo

"I am an All-Australian and will not be bullied by..."

Seems obvious and happy for all. But definitely something to wait on for the moment... right now he still has Tony Jewell to chase.

I like to eat rice bubbles dry, with a glass of milk.

We played better in the win over Geelong, for sure. But what we did manage in the win over Hawthorn was sheer weight of effort, and that is what got us over the line. King didn't say 'Demons will lose to Eagles', he said, in effect: 'Eagles are better than Hawthorn' + 'Demons didn't play their best footy against Hawthorn' = 'Demons will need to play better against Eagles'. It's not rocket surgery. And it is a fair call. If you added two really strong key forward targets and a truly outstanding centre-half-back to the Hawks line up for the semi, they would've been right in it. Ha ha, bad luck Hawthorn. Sheppard out is good news for us. And I'll be interested to see who Harmes goes to. Yeo would seem obvious but for all his considerable strengths his disposal is a 50/50 proposition. Wont complain if he stuffs up and hands us another cheap late goal again! I'd expect Harmes would try to clip one of the more tag-vulnerable Sheed or Redden while Viney goes more or less head-to-head with Shuey. Overall, surely our mids will be right on top, unlike Collingwood's which didn't manage to break even overall and got solidly beaten in the last quarter. I wonder how we'll handle McGovern? McGovern's incredible start against Collingwood was THE reason the Eagles were up a couple of goals at quarter time. His eyes would be lighting up at our wild and crazy inside-50s, it may even be worth putting a full time defensive forward on him. Is this the next test for Weideman?

Geezus, ease up.

Maybe it is a protest action, a kind of workplace go-slow warning shot against any more daft rule changes? In which case, #jesuisrazorray

Nice to know we've got a couple of players still pushing for selection. A little part in the back of the minds of JKH and Vince and a few others will be imagining playing in two grand finals in two weeks. Would also make them the 'human interest' story pre-GF, just for a laugh.

Already, Nathan Jones will be remembered for a generation after he retires and have a place in AFL history for longer than that. Nothing is certain, but Jones can now wink suggestively in the direction of a premeirship of his own. And very few players in the history of the game could claim more credit for it. But it is not like Frawley will be crying. He made a choice to be a good player in a great team rather than have the weight of a club on his shoulders, tasted success, and how now also had the fun of being repeatedly knocked out of finals in straight sets.

For any Sydney people, it looks like The Courthouse Hotel in Newtown is a winner. Top atmosphere last night even though the TV area is not large. Sound on, plenty of yelling, plenty of Demons.

Every time I see the helment...

No doubt, that umpiring early in the final quarter had my blood boiling. That was appalling stuff.

Seems like a pretty bizarre manifestation of MFCSS to me! 'We're doing well now, who are we going to lose?'. Anyway, definitely not a topic for 5 hours before a semi-final.

How many times have we gone into a game specifically against Hawthorn with 'they are missing such and such and so and so etc et al so we have a real chance' only to be smashed apart? Amazingly, I now just see it as another chance to treat the old MFCSS. Which... kind of suggests that it is already in remission.

I hate them for an accumulation of little things that kind of come in from every direction. All the thug moments like Spider Everitt dropping his forearm onto a prone Simon Godfrey's throat, the number of Hawks fans who go for maximum gloating while actually being pretty 'lightweight' fans, the rancid hypocrisy symbolised by their 'family club' poker machine empire and personified by Jeff Kennet (who also personifies the gloating lightweight, come to think of it), and the little irritating matter of them blatantly tanking and never being so much as tut-tutted about it. I expect to hate them a little less after friday, nothing comforts more than knowing that they are stumbling while we are on the hunt.

They are still !'heads though.

I look forward to being pointed towards a variety of vaguely soft or questionable decisions and being told 'I told you so'. But in a good mood because we're going to win anyway, despite the evil conspiracy.