Little Goffy

Was bitterly disappointed when we didn't take Oscar Bert'n'Ernie. I had banners already planned which showed those three muppets standing on each others shoulders while secretly operating their ruckman disguise. In the end, I think we would have lost him Darren Jolly style anyway, as he is strictly a ruckman.

Gawn was a better ruck and on-field presence than Grundy and neither of them were able to adapt effectively to being a 50-50 ruck so Gawn was selected ahead. No ego issue to it, and I must say such scuttlebutt isn't going to endear you to anyone . I think you do however get a pass if you bring in a medical note from your MFCSS specialist! Fullarton didn't play against Essendon because of the weather forecast and because Draper is a Butter Tarzan who could be neutralised by an effective effort from a solid tall, which turned out to be mostly Van Rooyen. I suspect Fullarton is more likely to be given a role against Freo because Jackson is harder to nullify and at the least Fullarton can be given the explicit task to stay with him all day (can there be such a thing as a ruck-tagger?). We'll want to have our tall forwards in their position a bit more because Freo's defenders aren't likely to do a Ben McKay and have four metres gained per disposal. Seriously, McKay had 17 intercepts against us, 12 kicks, 9 handballs, and yet just 82 metres gained. Freo defenders don't try to hatch a chicken from the sherrin before deciding what they want to do. For all that, rain is expected out west for much of this week and the coming weekend, so who knows? EDIT: Sean Darcy is expected to be back in. I think against two top-shelf rucks with very different styles we're just going to have to commit to throwing Fullarton in there.

Unfortunately, no matter how many times you give Stringer a bath, he'll still stink. I also want to quietly slip in that not every gun half-back needs to be turned into a midfielder. I'd be perfectly happy for McVee to take up the Corey Enright status as 'the most underrated 6-time All-Australian in the competition', even as Rivers becomes the new midfield Burgoyne. I guess we'll know in about 250 more games.

And Collingwood can't even spell Isaac.

Is there a week off before finals again this season? Because the Bombers have a September 4th deadline to avoid the 20-year mark and the week off would start finals on the 6th. The last time Essendon won a final without Kevin Sheedy coaching; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_in_Australia Wow, you do not think of Kylie Minogue and Penny Wong, or Hugh Jackman and Scott Morrison, as being the same age. I could almost be satisfied missing top-4 just to play Essendon in an elimination final and crush their dirty cheating entitled souls.

What I'm loving about Pickett's overall progress is the perfectly normal maturation of a deeper awareness of the system and the situation. I think that is what sets players like Rioli and Bruest apart is the awareness that allows them to not only do the brilliant thing but also make sure it has brilliant effect. For all the hype about Buddy & Roughhead, having the creativity of both Bruest and Rioli in a team is pure luxury. It was also an underrated aspect of Eddie Betts' game - about 3/4 of his disposals, throughout his career, were score involvements! Pickett's growing game awareness and demonstrated commitment to personal growth are why any debate about the best small forward from his draft is now leaving Weightman in the dust.

Gold Coast hanging on through the third quarter, which is good for our home final/top 4 aspirations for the optimists (and for anyone anticipating a snort-laugh at the 'Pies dropping to 12th), but for the pessimists it is all about the late sunday shift with upsets for West Coast and Richmond offering pure icing on an already good round 18 cake.

Based on last weeks 'commentary' reviews, is no sound that much of a problem?

"Only"? I prefer "first". 😉 The wider genius question comes down to what we learn from this game. Sacrificing numbers forward in order to scrap and congest close to the ball worked brilliantly in the wet against uncontessendon. Now that we know we can do it, it might neutralise our previously significant weaknesses in the wet. It may also prove to be the moment we come to terms with not having an elite inside mid group this season. Our losses this season have all featured a long tail of players making very limited contributions, but as Windsor, Tholstrupp, AMW and others are getting more involved, confident and effective we may yet overcome that as well.

Oh no. Oh no. I was not ready for Kozzie Pickett's tiny baby in a full koala onesie to keep warm in the rain. That is superb and no matter what else happens tonight that is getting the 6 votes from me postgame.

Maybe the idea is to give Turner a run in the ruck with instructions to do to his opponent everything that gets done to Gawn every week, so that by the time Gawn is back Turner will have been suspended and the AFL will have to pretend that was the rules all along and for the remainder of the season Gawn will get the five free kicks he's been missing out each week so far.

How does a full-forward get 2 intercept possessions in a first half? Has had a hand in almost every Carlton score so far and in some cases has been the difference between 'meh' and a goal. Carlton have matured a lot as a team but there's still just that little bit of dependence on superstars.

I kind of want the Dogs to beat Carlton and then Gold Coast to beat Port just to keep things wild. Plus, that would put Collingwood in 12th, equal with the Hawks who they play next week. Hilarious.

Shush, [censored].

Well, I'm embarrased now. Wheel Elan.

It's only midway through the respective second quarters, but Freo isn't dominating Hawthorn, while Sydney is playing a tentative game against North. Everyone is vulnerable once the wildness of finals start. Geelong didn't look especially impressive in the pieces of the game I watched last night, to the point where I think the 'Pies are in major trouble and Geelong might still slip out of the 8. Everyone is vulnerable is we choose to be the hunter.

Housebound and your TV broken? This game is a proper 'throwing rocks at eggshells' game. Go hard and we could absolutely shatter them, and the rest is details.

Speaking of parrots and rum... Wait, did I already tell the story of how pirate rum was very weak and actually reached a perfect balance where it was as weak as possible (water down for profit, of course) but also exactly strong enough for the alcohol to kill off all the bacteria and such that would infect 'just water'? It is a pretty cool case of nothing more than habits and reactions leading to a precision result. Pirate rum is better for you than water. If you're a pirate, at least.

Enjoy the cheese!

When Clausewitz stated that "It is in the nature of the French to attack", he was referring to a very different spirit than the ennui that had them labelled 'cheese eating surrender monkeys' a century later.

Timothy Reddan-A'Blew has successfully identified 'Lovett or leave et' and therefore gets to choose which Lovett that refers to. Demonstone gets the nod for Little Red Truck being Van Rooyen - Rooyen being 'red' in Afrikaans, where the name (or that spelling of it in particular) is mostly from. Leaving only the much loved Daniher era stalwart who remarkably only played in one finals win. * Rolling attack of the French!

* Rolling attack of the French! Daniher era * Or leave et. Northey-Balme almost precisely * Little red truck. Current young player

Forgive me, I'm new at this and generally terrible at solving them myself. My clues may actually be terrible, too. All typos are deliberate. (E.g. the islnad for Peter Rohde not being Rhode) Hmm, in an oversight, I didn't confine it quite to the 2000+, one of the remaining is from the Northey-Balme era. (As was Rohde, for that matter!) One is a much respected Daniher stalwart and another is currently playing.

Having trouble editing my post with the given answers, Lucifers' Hero got ' fish out of water' as GARLAND Mo64 got 'stupid name for a state' with Peter ROHDE

That's now your 19th post on Demonland ever, and I'd estimate 13 of them have been 'OMG I'm so oppressed'. Join the conversation or don't, but turning up just to sulk is tedious for everyone else at the party.