Little Goffy

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.

Leave on same pile as Daniel Menzel and, dare I say it, Jack Watts. Interesting player, does some fun things, not what we need.

Well, when you're trying to spoil or mark, good positioning is the key. He's clearly been working on that aspect of the game, if he can now spoil with his 5th vertebrae.

Sorry guys, but to me this just looks like pre-emptive sooking. Deciding in advance that the umpires are biased so that then every time any unfavourable decision looks soft or questionable you can have a moan and say 'see I told you so'. Hawthorn and Melbourne have close to identical free kick tallies for the season overall, and there is no evidence, at all, of a free kick bias in our games against Hawthorn going back quite some years. Rnd 4 2018 - Hawks 27 Demons 24 Rnd 7 2017 - Hawks 10 Demons 15 Rnd 20 2016 - Hawks 19 Demons 16 Rnd 11 2016 - Hawks 19 Demons 21 Rnd 7 2015 - Hawks 14 Demons 14 Rnd 20 2014 - Hawks 15 Demons 15 Some people need to pull their heads in because this is just shameful loser behaviour. I mean really, working up some baseless conspiracy theories, getting ready in advance lining up people to blame... just embarrassing. Best thing to do to stay sane and enjoy the game is make a point of not knowing who the umpires are and not overdoing the second-guessing every time there's a decision.

Ahh, the old probabalistic approach. Quantum football and all that. Time to make some Hawthorn wave-functions collapse.

He sure does run a lot. Mostly away. But honestly, I don't see him as anything we particularly need and I'm not sure he sends the right message with the whole 'espirit de corps' thing we appear to have going.

Seems like every criticism/concern raised about the Demons can be distilled to one simple issue - "They need time to ingrain their systems and for their young group to mature together" As long as it is done well and actively, that's all that is missing. I trust Goodwin, Rawlings, McCartney et al to make a mission of that, unlike past administrations where too many thought it would just 'happen'. It's true for the defence, it is true for the attack. Meanwhile the coherence of such a young midfield group is an incredible acheivement. Is there anything better than knowing that your weaknesses can be targeted and corrected? Sends shivers up my spine, what could be done by this team as it grows together.

How does he balance the pressures of being an elite athlete with also being an adorable dork?

Nothing wrong with bathwater as long as you don't drink it.

That was back in the era before the Demons had a 100% record against top 8 teams and made the finals 100% of the time and had a 100% win rate in finals!

Jayden's attributes. + The number of players now in our best 22 who showed a glimpse, then ended up 'working on their game' with Casey before returning as much more complete, well-rounded players. = Reasonable confidence that there's a respectable future for him.

[insert joke along the lines of 'just how drunk were you?'] But quite true, that filtering would just be to get the best tree to shake. Or the best place to try to roll a snowball. Or the best thing thing to metaphor at. Maybe the best thing to do is just send it to Garry Lyon and give him the mission of returning the scarf to his personal fan. He's got media to work with.

Well, last week I had the PacMan intro stuck in my head before the game. I'm trying not to slide inot the theme music from Treadmillasaurus Rex. I think things could take a distinct turn in the Ennio Morricone direction.