Rogue

Stage 5, minus the optimistic 'I can see a plan part'. It's not that I can or can't, that just doesn't figure into my thinking right now. The footy is dead to me at the moment.

Not good at all. Poor guy.

It's not just you.

They're hardly mutually exclusive. I'm good with both.

Yes, I find that frustrating too. I think player threads can sometimes become necessary because sometimes the sheer number of new threads floods the board and pushes everything else off the front page. An example was Scully last year, and even when started on topics slightly different, they were all devolving into the same argument, with the same posters posting the same assertions ('I believe in Scully', 'he's definitely leaving', 'I support the Club', 'the Club isn't doing enough', yada yada). (As an aside, if posters didn't feel the need to repeat themselves across numerous threads the problem wouldn't have been so bad, but hey). Nasher and I are on the same page.

Indeed.

As with anything, some people will be in one camp and some will be in the other. I was never a fan of the concept. However, we gave the idea a shot and got to see how it panned out over some of the off-season and half a season of footy.

Gold.

Jetta's been out a long time. Tough for him because I reckon he might just have gone okay under Neeld. Nice to see them in order of weeks out

Yeah, we'd hate to try and create some interest in a game we're probably looking at making a loss on...

You've gotta be kidding me. If I wasn't a Melbourne supporter there's no way I'd consider going to this game.

Indeed. I don't think Demonology mods could ban people though; they technically couldn't enforce a ban because Tim decided to reinvent the wheel, write his own forum software and then suffer circumstances where he wasn't able to finish it. I remember blokes being asked not to post. As expected, that wasn't always particularly effective. They get pushed off if posters decide the topics are stale and stop posting. At the moment the front page only shows threads that have been posted in within the last 13 hours or so, which is fairly current without threads disappearing from the front page too quickly IMO. The splitting of footy threads between the 'Melbourne Demons' and 'Locker Room' forums has certainly had an impact though. While some of it comes down to personal preference, there are also usability issues like I've mentioned before. If you have too many topics flooding a forum then threads don't get a chance to breathe because they're pushed off the main page before people pay attention. Disclosure: IIRC I joined Demonology first, and although I went through a stage where I read both, I preferred the footy discussion on Demonology for a fair while. However, the constant sniping between Demonology 'personalities' derailed most threads and so I slowly drifted over to Demonland. I haven't read much on Demonology for a fair while and can't remember the last time I posted there.

...except it wouldn't be a Demon flag, i'd be a Hawks flag. Absolutely,

He does indeed, and that's why I've commented positively on this aspect of his game on the forum, and why I applaud those efforts when I'm at the footy. However, you can do those without hitting a guy in the lower back when you're nowhere near any sort of even half-realistic spoiling attempt. Deserves it from who? Do you reckon he deserves it from the tribunal? If so, you reckon the tribunal should let off players when they cross the line every now and then because they're tough? Deserves it from his teammates and the Coach? Getting suspended isn't only a penalty for the player involved, but lets the entire team down. If we were any good, and Tapscott was an important player, careless suspensions like that would start to become a concern. As it is, we now need someone else to line up Scully It'd be different if he was going in hard for the footy and happened to collect a bloke high or something, but 'FGS' he wasn't even in the contest.

The 'argy bargy' is certainly worse - or was a while back; I haven't paid much attention lately - on Demonology if 'argy bargy' refers to playing the man and not the ball. As for the admin/mods splitting off some topics into a general board, I don't think that had anything to do with Demonology dying; in fact, I reckon it made it better, because the footy topics were getting washed away by so much other stuff. Conversely, I do reckon the moderation decision re: the Locker Room has made Demonland a poorer site than it was, though. Thanks for the heads up; pretty amusing. I like Picket Fence's 'post' the best.

Deserves the one week penalty IMO. I like Tapscott's approach when he's putting on a hard shepherd or laying a bone crunching tackle - he reminds me of Whelan at times - but striking someone low-ish in the back as they take a mark isn't tough.

The problem is that often where the goal umpire doensn't know it's because they were in an awkward spot or had someone block their vision etc.

Yeah, it's crazy talk.

I agree.

Clint Bartram (knee) - test Sam Blease (groin) - test James Frawley (foot) - test Jordan Gysberts (jaw) - test Stef Martin (quadriceps) - test James Strauss (leg) - test Leigh Williams (virus) - test Ricky Petterd (hamstring) - 1 week Liam Jurrah (ankle) - 3-5 weeks Neville Jetta (ankle) - 4-6 weeks Michael Evans (back) - 6-8 weeks Rory Taggert (back) - indefinite Max Gawn (knee) - season

We should pick the team most likely to win. If that means picking players who did not play last week that's fine by me.

When talking about footy on a Monday morning plenty of people make a distinction between teams who have lost putting in a poor showing and teams who have lost while putting in a good showing. Apart from wins against Carlton - who are 7th and falling - and West Coast, the teams Essendon have beaten are currently sitting in 18th (GC), 17th (GWS), 14th (Brisbane), 13th (Port), 12th (North) and 10th (Richmond; in a nail-biter). I think Essendon's fixture, which has been soft so far, explains why they were equal first. Once they start playing some likely finalists I wouldn't be surprised if they slide down the ladder and finish with a ranking equal or lower than teams we beat in 2010/2011

I think it was Jamar that touched a ball at the city end that I - and others around me - thought was an Essendon goal, but was called a behind. I was watching it live, though, so my angle may have been misleading. Interesting post, but remember that you can have your entire body out of bounds and have the ball that you're holding still be in play if you hold the ball inside the boundary despite you being outside (eg. to run around someone).

Me too.

It's not possible for me to agree with you more wholeheartedly than I do about the 'Locker Room' sub-forum.