Little Goffy

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.

I'm perplexed at people thinking Spargo should be dropped. I know his numbers are huge but he just keeps buzzing in and out being helpful. As others have pointed out, he seems to always be doing the little team things like getting in the way of opponents, shepherding, and you can tell he is both alert to what's around him and has good habits with the on-field talk to avoid stuff-ups. I'm confident he'll be a very handy player and also sure that right now he's making a good contribution. He's like the useful sidekick character in every hero movie ever made. Plus, there is this. I mean, really. He's the human personification of the cure for MFCSS.

>10 year member Somewhere along the Glen Wavery line. Assuming they are still a member, it wouldn't be hard for the club to filter their membership database to match those possibilities and send out an email. It'd be fun! They could offer a reward for clues, throw in a whole ceremony of returning it to the owner, hell Garry Lyon could turn up.

Here's a curious thing I noticed comparing the round 4 game to the Elimination Final, and then followed up with a look at more games over the season. We've gone all Benjamin Button out there - the current team taking the field is a good slice (a few months average) younger than the one that started the season and that is a consistent pattern over the year. A lot of it at the moment would be Vince and Garlett out of the team. But still... shouldn't we reasonably expect to age by about 6 months, not get younger by 3?

Wow, Harmes is twice the player he was in round 4. In fact, by the numbers he is just shy of being 3 times the player, comparing the EF to Rnd 4! Very, very different scene now. As I see it, Harmes gives us another competent player inside the mess of pressure and tackles. I'm more concerned about that overall weight of struggle than about a specific tag, given that the Hawks must've gone close to the season record for tackles (113) in the round 4 game, which is close to double their normal output. All the talk of methodical and precise Hawthorn is fine and true enough, but they beat us with berserk pressure then, as did Collingwoodand and Richmond, making up our only three losses of any significant margin. Clarkson will know that weakness and the Hawthorn onballers will be under instructions to sacrifice their own game to unsettle and disrupt ours. It wont make so much difference up at half-forward (where it is always a nut-house for us anyway) but from the clearances, and in the general tangle, we're gonna need every competent body we can get or the quick handballs and tap-ons will all be happening knee-deep in brown streaks.

Have you tried laying eggs? I hear now is a great time for it. Get that summer body with just a few minutes effort each day. No more brooding, you'll be back free-ranging in no time. All the chicks are doing it and they say everyone loves their thighs. Ok. I'm letting that one go. Apologies all around. I'll get m' coat.

A bit of 'feeding the chooks' as they say in the National Party. Get the media part done enough to keep everyone happy, then get back to focusing on the real job. Hopefully helps clear the noise from player's minds, 'That's done, don't need to think about that now.

Probably clean it off for this weekend, just to be sure nobody thinks you're a Hawthorn supporter.

Just 3 clearance and 3 inside 50s. Also spent time forward yet didn't kick a goal and only managed one assist all game. An occasion where the stats do a reasonable job of telling the story - Dangerfield was often sighted but rarely noted. With all the frees against and clangers, yep, he'd have to be below a 5. As for the ratings of the Demon players, well, I think the main thing I thought was important was that very few, if any, players really failed on the day, and as long as their ratings reflect that I can't really worry too much about the details. Still wrapped for any extra praise on Weideman as I think every little extra piece of confidence that comes his way will add up. Looking more and more like we're going to have to figure out a permanent 3-talls forward line next season. I'd say it can work if they balance their loads to all spend as close to 100% time on field as possible, letting the mids use the bench more.

Has there ever been a better way to say hello to the Demonland crowd? Welcome to the nut house! We're all on the happy meds this week! I can't suggest anything better than online searches would find for you, but I wish you luck!

In my mind Salem is emblematic of our strength of excellent players a step down from the hyped star level. Also emblematic of the number of players we have, who have had to overcome all kinds of strain and pain and frustration to get where they are now, at a personal level mirroring the club's overall experience.

My fear of bathwater is simply gone. I'm hereby never mentioning the stuff online even again. Bubbles might still get a mention, but probably not in a public forum.

I know it is just a trick of the light and the image resolution but to me it looks like all the Geelong players are covering their eyes. There was a moment for me, I don't eve know when in the game (oh no, I'll have to watch a replay I guess), when Neville Jetta just completely dominated Dangerfield, even though the incoming ball was a bit to Dangerfield's advantage. I stopped worrying then, started soaking it up.

Yep, the Sydney pub I ended up at was all about the Rugby League, barely an AFL person, let alone a demon. But even that crowd was cheering during Hannan's run-in - possibly helped draw some attention when I momentarily lost it when his opponent slipped and I yelled "RRRUUN" like some kind of horror movie cliche.

Yep. Yep.

What the hell, I've got the startup music for PacMan running constantly in my head. FOCUS.

I am lying absolutely still listening to the rain up here in Sydney. So calm, so peaceful. Except for the continuous feeling like someone has, just accidentaly, not very hard, kneed me in the balls 30 seconds ago.

One things that would really help the gameday threads is a crowd roar function where all the dozen or so simultaneous posts of 'wooo!' or 'damnit you sp-ud' can be merge into a swirling animation or something. When you're trying to get more info on a game you've only got sporadic online radio for, it isn't much help scrolling trough an entire page of 'Tyson you %*}@' or 'Yes, Petraccaaaaa here is my daughter's phone number'.