Little Goffy

Ok. Some quick points. - It's not satire. It's banal 'humour' on the level of giggling about [censored] and bums and Billy Brownless wearing a tutu. Put a line through that pathetic distraction. This, this here, is satire; http://static.squarespace.com/static/51823e8fe4b0cb6af951b0f8/530da11ae4b0b6000571887f/530da905e4b04afdaa6ed542/1393422573858/2012-11-15-Inviolable.jpg?format=300w - There has, as usual, not being an explosion of 'mass moral outrage'. What there has been is various people rolling their eyes and saying 'come on, put some thought into it, try not to be an 4rse'. Once again, apparently without being aware of irony, the "It's political correctness gone mad" police are now well established as the moral panic mongers. - Making out that child rape is something to have a laugh about at the pub is not harmless. I don't believe in valorising trauma, but expecting people to not be upset, to 'make it easier on us all', is not helping to expose pedophiles. It is influencing victims to stay quiet. It directly contributes to victims concluding that they wont be taken seriously, and in turn directly contributes to perpetrators getting away with it, both legally and in their own conscience. Speaking of satire, maybe this will help some people grasp the idea; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snNZkpAgNw4

Child rape jokes never really seem funny to me. I guess I'm a little odd that way. I'm content to file this under 'idiot boofheads who lack a meaningful grasp of what they're doing'. But it is still important to note that, yeah, that really wasn't ok you dumbarses. Unfortunate because it seems a lot of good effort, and even thought, went into the rest of the gear.

The optimism lasted a little longer than usual, but really, the season was shot when we lost to St Kilda in round 1. (missing their entire midfield except BOG Clint Jones) That and the 93 point loss to West Coast in Round 2, and the easy 5-goal win to GWS in round 3, combined to leave us all in a desperate state of mind. Surprise wins against inconsistent or out of form teams above us (Carlton, Adelaide, Richmond and Essendon) gave us a glimmer in the remainder of the first half of the season. But ten losses in a row, with 4 of them by more than ten goals. Nope. Won't do. This year was a failure, and for me, Paul Roos has put a question mark next to his name.

There have been a total of 162 finals 'appearances' since 2005 - 81 games. (not counting the GF replay) Of those appearances, 102 have been by just six teams. That's 63%. The bottom six teams in those nine years since 2005 (not including Western Sydney or Gold Coast) have a total of 20 appearances. Or 12%. Twelve. And how will 2014 complete those numbers? For the top 6 of the decade; Collingwood, West Coast and St Kilda have dropped out of finals. Hawthorn, Geelong, and Sydney are in the top 4. A minimum of 7 appearances, assuming they lose all possible games. Of the bottom 6; Richmond, Essendon and North Melbourne fill out the bottom 8. It's a good year for the bottom clubs, with at least 4 appearances in finals. This season could push the bottom-6 share up as high as 15%!!!!! OMG! Equalisation totally works! Yeah, I think the 'cycles of success' thing is obsolete now. St Kilda and the Bulldogs were the last teams to ride it. Now there is just fluctuation and key factors, like the changes at Port - there was no cycle, there was just an injection of competent people. And that's how things were before Free Agency has begun to really bite.

Right up until the last game, I would have considered Max Gawn's steady progress as being a 'quiet' individual achievement of real importance. But certainly Neville Jetta's arrival as a genuine, consistent AFL player is hugely satisfying. Pederson and Dunn's improvement is significant. And I'd like to take a moment to remind everyone of how I was on the 'Pederson is a useful, hard worker who does the unglamorous team thing' from as early as the pre-season games. Dom Tyson's excellent season, and the way he lifted again after something of a slump mid-year, really excite me. His the numbers for his final six games are not even A-grade, they are star. The rough per game figures for that period are; 27 disposals at 75% efficiency, 5 clearances, 4 tackles, 6 marks, 5 inside 50s, and a goal. The Demons have gone from one midfielder worth mentioning to two.

Really good for everyone to be reminded that we're not alone in our passion during the hard times.

I like the look of going [Early Picks cluster] + Stretch + McDonald There may be a question on whether McDonald is available by our fourth round pick. Possible argument for the addition of an extra third rounder as part of a deal moving off pick 2 e.g Pick 2 for Luke Parker and pick 40. Schwing!

What's an A-grader, if not Nathan Jones? Compares about evenly to Josh Kennedy, Jordan Lewis, Travis Boak, Callan Ward, Dayne Beams, Rory Sloane. The only way Nathan Jones isn't A-grade is if you only count about 5 midfielders as A-grade. He's also taken on a leadership burden heavier than perhaps any other player in 20 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Melbourne_Football_Club_leading_goalkickers I think whoever wins it this year should earn the nickname Onyons.

The one thing this has usefully done is prove that AFL is a much more demanding game than the fat, slow, dumb rugby codes. Anytime you get into a debate about which code is more elite, just drop a mention that some of the best players of the modern era in the rugby codes could barely strap a book on in the AFL. Also, it establishes that Andrew Demetriou is an even worse recruiter than Barry Prendergast. Big call I know, but it is there to be made.

i-Fuschias 2.0?

You've said it before and been pulled apart about it before. How many times will it take? Let's try a few more, this time from the last couple of drafts. Because apparently Hill, Pendlebury, Gibbs et al just isn't convincing. Josh Kelly.184cm 74kg James Aish 184cm 74kg Jack Billings 185cm 76kg Lachie Whitfield 187cm 75kg Troy Menzel 187cm 78kg Will Hoskin-Elliot 186cm 75kg Luke Dahlhaus 189cm 76kg Nobody is saying that every kid under 80kg is going to magically be a star, but it is completely NOT a basis for writing a player off. I hate myself for getting sucked into this, but the case is just so open-and-shut that I can't let go of the hope that even Picket Fence will get his addled mind around it on day.

All right, in the spirit of cards on the table, I'll have a go too. I imagine most of the thinking will be similar. Retired; Clark, Byrnes. Delistings/token trades: Strauss, Blease, Tapscott, Evans, Nicholson Possible trades; Spencer, Fitzpatrick Free Agent loss: Frawley Rookie upgrade: Neville Jetta Rookie 'downgrade': Clisby For a net change of at least 8 open positions on the list. Pick 2 traded for a quality young-mature player, ideally a goal-kicking midfielder such as Luke Parker, Stephen Hill, Steele Sidebottom. It would be a dream to build a package that got us a late round 1 pick or early second round pick back. 2nd round - I believe that if we do get a priority pick or a free agency compensation pick, they will land at the end of the first round/start of second. Thankfully, there are a lot of promising players who may well still be available at those picks, ranging from Midfielders like Duggan, De Goey, Maynard, Blakely, and Ellis. Key position players like Lamb, McKenzie, Goddard, and Marchbank. The options are there and we only need a couple to slip to us. 3rd round and later - I'm thinking we'll be lucky enough to take Stretch in the 3rd round. My main concern is that there aren't a lot of great new ruck options, which is an area we still look weak for the near future. A couple of key position players 'who can relief ruck' are floating around in mid-late draft, and I'd imagine we'd be considering grabbing a mature-age ruckman with a very late pick.

If I'm not mistaken, Frawley is the only one of that group of 9 who has played more than 3 games this season. I think we'll cope. Who knows, maybe we'll pick up the equivalent of James McDonald, Johncock, Goodes, Barlow, Dalhaus, Parker, Bruce, Mitchell, Hird, Grant and Rockliff with our later picks and never feel pain on the football field again! Ok, that was flippant, but the point remains, late draft picks are not inherently duds and some of the champions of the game, both recent past and present, have emerged from very, very late in the draft. Edit: just to clarify, I'm actually quite pleased about Riley and especially Bail, who I think gets an unfair rub from many Demonlanders. Terlich I raise and eyebrow about but I don't write him off completely. My point is that even the back end of the draft is better than retaining the several players who are not AFL standard and wont become it without at least a major mental reshuffle (and change of environment).

Well, I think you'll find that what the uneducated majority reckon is that Terlich isn't actually up to AFL standard. Too loose as a defender, and lacks the vision or skill to go with his willingness to take the game on. Also, Bate was 3rd (or 2nd?) in a B&F not that long ago. And that's why a few people have raised their eyebrows about him being re-signed. Either he improves significantly in 2015 or he'll be spending the whole year at Casey. As for Bail and Riley. A few people won't be happy as they see Bail as simply not being up to it, skills-wise, but I think there'd be consensus that he has the kind of character and workrate that it would be good to have as much as possible of, so people will nod and move on. Still ten players left on the 'possible delistings' table. I'm tipping seven to go, and that'll be enough for 2014.

Outright half of the posts in this thread are dee-luded's odd ramblings, including him bumping his own thread from a year ago. I keep thinking I know what he's on about, but then it muddles again on the next line. It seems to be a kind of general lament that; a ) Footballers have lives, doing things like studying graphic design and visiting orphanages, instead of getting trashed in bars and having group sex, like the good ol' days. b ) The club has coterie groups of businesspeople, lawyers, and the like, who are quite pleased about being businesspeople, lawyers and the like, and may lead footballers to think that being a businessperson, lawyer, or the like may be a good career choice. c ) The lack of firm manly handshakes. d ) Nobody seems to want to hang out with him at club functions. I mean, he went to all that trouble of following Todd Viney around for 40 minutes, and Viney barely even introduced him to each new group he mingled with. Bloody stuck up I reckon. e ) Basic literacy is being dangerously over-valued in the football community. But dee-luded will do his best to overcome this particular roadblock.

Ahhh ha ha ha. Richmond.

Choke, your brother was just being a snide little turd. There's something wrong with anyone who can doubt the commitment and passion of Melbourne supporters who turned up to a game, late into yet another miserable season, the 8th in a row. For what it's worth, your brother is a North supporter. 27 finals played and 2 premierships in the last 20 years. They've dropped below 10 wins just 3 times in those 20 years, and not once in the last five seasons. The least time they had 6 or less wins in a season was the early 1970s. Their recent teams have included some of the all-time greats of the game, and some of the most charismatic and high-profile individuals. And their membership and attendances barely scrape ahead of ours, despite comparable base numbers of supporters. In fact, for all the quirks of the fixture, it is fun to notice that Melbourne's match attendances this year have been higher than North's, whether counted as overall or as home games only.

See also - has been used almost entirely as the sub, or subbed off.

He basically tampered with the draft by refusing to talk to clubs other than his preferred destination. He is very slow and once again has an injury question mark. I say we rookie list him, he can play out a season at Casey, helping them be a bit more competitive.

We're winning total possessions. We're winning contested possessions. We're breaking even on clearances. We have seven players with more than 20 disposals, all going at >75% efficiency. We're losing a bunch of other general stats, but not by a margin that would suggest a ten-goal drubbing by an opponent that has clearly starting hitting the snooze button. What the hell is going on? Are we just going sideways until we cough it up? Are we all in a little circle at about CHB, handball it around until a West Coast player in the middle gets it, then it's his turn?

We're winning the disposal count.

Has anyone else been noting Frawley's performances lately with a kind of accepting sigh, and thinking "Well, he's not our problem any more"?

Hey, don't want to make a fuss or blow it out of scale, but really best not to use 'raped', y'know?

So far tonight the most interesting and inspiring thing I've learned is that the auto-censor on Demonland doesn't pick up 'shitfest'. Or maybe it is a special exemption for tonight?