Little Goffy

A quick recap of Kate Roffey's final three months as president.

Ex Demons currently 2 goals 1 behind vs everyone else 4 behinds (and 1 rushed).

I'll reserve passing an opinion on Trac's little media moment because what it means changes completely depending upon whether it is part of a fresh pattern of engagement or if it is a one-off. Basically, same as when a young forward kicks three and takes a couple of good marks. Good to see, hope to see more, not reaching any conclusions just yet.

Hmmm, if our 11 wins this season is equivalent to their 11 wins in 2019, after they went out in straight sets in two finals series (with a non-finals year in between), then I take it that everyone being impressed by how quickly Hawthorn have rebuilt will be satisfied with seven wins and a bottom four finish every year until 2029ish. I don't mean to take away from the Hawks' achievement - going into this season, and certainly by round 5, it looked like Hawthorn were just going to sit at the bottom for the forseeable future. Personally, if I were looking to steal one feature from the Hawks' operation it would be their conditioning of mature players - all but one (Wingard) of their players 26 and older have played a full or close to full season. It speaks volumes about not only conditioning and luck, but also the commitment to slicing away the less-than-excellent mature players (I'm trying not to say list cloggers) and giving the club permission to have flaws while it gave kids a run. The contrast of course is with Billlings, McAdam, Hunter, Smith and Schache, who were acquired or retained in the hope that they would provide immediate 'adequate' cover, where bringing in another late draft pick could only offer the possibility of being good in a few years. Of course, prior to that the strategy was a key part of winning a premiership because it took us to having a complete team. We also haven't sacrificed a huge amount of draft value to do this, but at this stage I'm sure there would be general agreement that it would be nice to have, say five more kids running around of which even one or two might develop into quality players, than the list space being filled the way it is. Anyway, to return to my starting point - the Hawks 'amazing' list rebuild is literally the worst-case scenario for our own future, so I'm glad to hear so many people enthusiastic about going through that and not grinding axes at the club along the way!

Has Brad Green been in contact yet?

If Hinkley gets the chop and becomes our head of football, what happens to the body?

At the moment Luke Beveridge is on the fast track to being our new midfield coach, too. We'll see if he can recover in the fourth.

I wonder how long it'll take for us to get gambling sponsors now.

The highest IQ member of their cheersquad.

You rang the club to complain? Steven May joined us prior to 2019 and Lever prior to 2018 and you called the club to complain?

Sick of the sight of Geelong. Cats, Hawks, Swans. The rest I can at the very least find an individual player or two I'd be happy for.

Strongly suspect McQualter was better suited to managing the around-the-ground and forward pressure aspect rather than on-ball set-ups. No? If he goes to the Eagles, is Brett Ratten still looking for a plum midfield gig? Come to think of it, about half this season's finals coaches have been on the edge of sacked at some point this year, so maybe we can snipe one of them.

There is a whiff of 'first collision with adult vulnerability' to it all. Plus the nasty realisation that in Australian Football the teams are 4 times the size of basketball, you're individual importance is only 1/4 as much, and even the very very best are only 1/4 better than the generally very good.

Ancient history, and also proof that we cursed them. Remember, the time between now and Essendon winning a final is the same as the time between Essendon winning a final and Malcolm Fraser being prime minister.

They'll be 'meh'-ing all the way to the bank.

It wouldn't be half as much fun if it wasn't for the media pumping them up and inventing new catchphrases for them every single year. Maintains the social licence to continue mocking them.

Kicking 19.9 from 11 games when also mostly a midfielder? I'll take two, thanks! Trying to estimate which draft picks we'll have is like trying to predict the roaming of the wildebeests. General direction, sure, but only the wildebeests know which grass will be green over the horizon.

Gravel! Awsh, it's a good time for some these days. Nice life if you can 'ave it, ey. Prolly washed it down with fresh bitumen, you did. Oh, I'm a loyal man and a Demon through and through, but I'm not too proud to tell ya that if them Magpies came to me with a proper bag o' gravel and a contract I'd be out the door faster than a rash on a knee, I would.

Definitely hold on to that pick 5. As Sydney has shown through it's wild academy gains, access to that top end is priceless and far better than having a couple of late 1st-round or 2nd-round picks. If you've got a few serious guns running around it allows you to focus on needs with the rest of your draft/trade strategy. Even Hawthorn, who actually blew a surprising number of their very high picks, show how much difference it makes to have just a few outright top players to provide a focal point for a team. In this draft I don't think it'll make a huge difference to go higher than five. I think the 7 to 5 jump in the very final round has done us a great service, though. It is fun watching people debate who we should go for or hope to have slide when the debate is entirely phrased in 'this one is great in this way, and that one is great in that way'. I approach the draft without fear. After 5, I'm big on a mid first and early second round pairing. One to get our own choice of the cluster of talls in the 15-30 range, and another to get our favourite slider of the group. I hold onto my Whitlock+Whitlock fantasy. Edit: Spent a little time watching some Lalor highlights since a few other people have been getting excited. Seems unafraid to make the bold kick and also doesn't try to rely on perfection - happy to send it to advantage and allow for chaos rather than try to control every outcome. I value that mentality. Has a lot of initiative (the shared feature of our 2019 superdraftees). What I found amazing was that despite having a body shape that reminded me of Nick Sautner, those tree trunks really pumped hard and got him from tussle to tussle at a pace that surprised opponents as much as it did me. He's the fastest Ent in the Moot, to be sure.

Nick Maxwell, captain at a time when several players (by their own post-career confessions and unashamed reflections) were topping up with all kinds of wacky social ingredients, that Nick Maxwell? If we had the level of disorder, miscreant enthusiasms and plain old anti-social toxicity that Collingwood had then (and has had since and to forever, it would seem) we would be pilloried all week then up in a gibbet every thursday. Next thing someone will tell me Chris Judd was a cultural standard-setter. Max Gawn might realistically be the best captain in the AFL. A unifying and nurturing figure rivalling Jim Stynes.

At this stage I'm happy to wait for him to hand over the captaincy to George.

Who's got the Irish? We got the Irish.

When there's so much fine Irish to choose from, they picked 'tie me kangaroo down'.

I'm listening as best I can but is there anywhere streaming this?

Well, listen, you can't argue with results. @Swooper Northey for the Demonland poster trophy 2024. It's not actually a trophy, it's a poster of a trophy, being held by the poster - no, wait, I mean, it really is a trophy in the sense of a memento of triumph but not in the sense of being a physical trompy, because phyiscally it is a poster but psychologically it is a trophy, and in the poster there is a picture of a trophy which is not a poster but an actual trophy, except it is only a representation of a trophy, probably AI generated, and in this trophy poster which displays a trophy there is also an image of the poster who won the trophy poster of a trophy posing triumphantly holding the actual but non-existent trophy, which is a bit meta and just as well it isn't just another trophy poster of a poster holding a trophy poster because then this would go on for a while. But I hope Swooper appreciates it!