Webber

Swans have been grossly, woefully uncompetitive in 2 grand finals in 3 years. Whatever they’re doing in the lead-in week is just plainly the wrong thing. Otherwise, not sure how I’d feel if I was a Swans supporter.

One of the things that’s remarkable to me is how blatantly the media ignore the obvious contradictions that are Jack Viney and Max Gawn to the ‘disaster’ culture narrative they’re trying to spin about the MFC (let alone the flurry of re-signings from our young guns). Here are our two greatest leaders, passionately, vocally committed to the club, both of whom drive standards of professionalism that would be the envy of any player, EVER, both just re-signing to make them one club players. Both of whom weathered the pits of this club’s recent history, then drove it to the ultimate success. How does any player not look to them as exemplars of the professionalism in loyalty we fans treasure most? How does Max Gawn’s resolve as the playing group’s leader, (arguably I guess) the best ruckman ever, a SEVEN-time all Australian, become frankly irrelevant in any media discussion about our club. Even more staggering when his media appearances around the CP5 saga were quite brilliant - consistent, empathetic, resolute. If I were a player seeking to model my career on anyone (on or off-field) it would be these two, and as a supporter, I know who I hold in highest regard as true Demons.

Excellently summed up. Not sure the 10 evolutionary steps are taken by many (most?) people though……3 often seems to do it

Agree, and that they assume a position as legitimate journalists is arguably worse

Oh good, another piece of quality, integrity loaded journalism from Tom Morris. (I won’t be listening).

Not since watching Robbie Flower (in 1987 particularly) have I gone to the footy fully aware that in watching Max Gawn, I’m experiencing Australian football greatness. Something singular and unrepeatable. It’s the same feeling I had watching Shane Warne bowl, or Haile Gebrselassie run. The broader audience won’t realise this until he’s retired of course, for the reason as stated - he’s just Max, and his immeasurable excellence is just what we expect. That he’s become the leader and personality we see, with a sage demeanour beyond his years, is just extra. Well done Max, you are truly that waaaay overused word - a legend.

So THAT’S the reason he’s not being traded/seeking a trade. I honestly wonder if any journo out there has thought about trying to invest a little investigative rigour into the TRUTH, one that isn’t full of moronic speculation and quarter truths for the sake of pure controversy. Anyone? Bueller?………

@WalkingCivilWar, your reporting is priceless. In a single post, you’ve given us lesser Dees fans the only information that matters, thus rendering every piece of toxic, muck-raking, click-baiting garbage from the likes of Tom Morris and his slimy, self-promoting ilk irrelevant. As someone invested in a sympathetic, considerate, always respectful engagement with the people you’re ‘reporting’ on, you’re more a journalist than they could ever hope to be, simply because your approach grants you access to the truth, without those so-called ‘journalists’ frankly pathetic need for attention. Not only that, but your calling out the fact that some players DO read Demonland, and are personally injured by the critical nonsense that goes on here, way too much, was wonderfully gutsy. I truly believe it will change some behaviours. I know it’s been said, but you’re a treasure, nay, in fact a Princess (and I too know which one 😉).

Go well and enjoy your retirement BBB, and the pile-on of deserved love on here. You were a joy to watch running around in the Red and Blue, and we can only hope you’re staying on for the AFLW team. A beacon of great club culture right there, which of course NOBODY in the media will find newsworthy.

And what’s more, the actor (and long time stand-up), Brett Goldstein, is nothing like Roy Kent, and hosts one of my favourite movie related podcasts - “Films to be buried with”. Check it out.

Please tell us you understand it’s - when YOU THINK they deserve it. Also tell us you understand that almost none of us here are interested in your thoughts, and no player will ever be better for reading them.

Good for you, you’d have to be proud of yourself. Hard, tough, resilient, perfectly thick-skinned of course, and brilliant at heaping pointless, unnecessary s### on any player, whom you don’t know, and never will hopefully, of being whatever type of no-good you want us all - AND THE PLAYERS - to read about. Here’s the thing Cranky. Your bagging of players isn’t really about them, it’s about you.

Do they? As WCW said, they’re kids. Maybe the ‘adults’ on here, most of whom are decades older than these boys, with years of apparent experience and wisdom, could ease up on the ridiculous critical bagging they hand out to these very young men, who are ALL trying to survive in a massively taxing, ultra-competitive sport.

Emotions aside, logic would’ve lead me to initiate the thread as it stands, albeit given the loss on Sunday, being 1 of 179 games Simon Goodwin has coached, I would of course be 0.55 % less enthusiastic in my agreement with your great rant. As you’ve tried to prosecute this last couple of seasons - mostly falling on deaf ears and blind eyes - one game isn’t a litmus test on a season, let alone a coaching career. It’s said a week is a long time in footy, but sometimes it really just isn’t.

Utter beast, and the truest of red and blue legends. With Max and Nibbler, also the heart of reliability in the team.

Just listened to binman’s second solo pod, and felt compelled to start a separate thread to bring attention to his defence of Simon Goodwin. It’s brilliant stuff, an antidote to the kneejerk, ignorant bagging of his coaching both now and previously, driven of course by the cold hard truth. Not the menace of selective agendas, of cherry-picking outlier stats, events, or subjective interpretations based on reactive disappointment to unreasonable expectations, just plain old common sense and factual clarity. Well done binners, you won’t convince everyone, but of course we know how ‘truth’ works in the modern world.

It’s an interesting one, Jaded. Little ‘avulsions’ of the fibula often happen when the lateral ligament is torn in a ‘rolled ankle’, and if they’re teensy, we tend to ignore them, so going by the ligament tear and how that’s responding. If it were a grade 1 ligament tear, they’d look to get Max up for this Saturday, so I’m thinking it’s more toward grade 2, hence the 2 games missed scenario. If Max is coming good tho into next week, they will however go by that (as per his own suggestion). The fibula chip is kinda irrelevant.

Not intensity so much as accumulated load at high speed. Either way, if he’s completed rehab and ticked all the boxes, risk is minimised for ANY game type.

And what’s the loss? We visually scrutinise the players every week, so what does adding a numerical attribution to that witnessing count for? Same with height, waist size, inside thigh measurement, and so on. If it makes the players feel less threatened by those ridiculous levels of scrutiny and judgement, who wouldn’t be for it?

I wasn’t targeting you, just seemed a good jumping off point. Non-reporting of projected timelines is never going to happen. There’d be a melt-down. People should be smart enough to educate themselves on the reality of injuries, and should be encouraged in that way. As with injuries as a whole in the AFL however, they’re largely under-commented on. Particularly as relates to club fortunes and impact on success, of course. You know It’s a tough man’s game and all that, so we shouldn’t complain.

And it’s not a perfect science, Andy. Not even close. Repeating an annual refrain, injuries, injury management, projected return to play, and outcomes of RTP are all a ‘best anticipated based on what’s known at any given moment’ situation and projection. What people fail to factor in are the personalities and psychology of any given player. They ALL struggle psychologically with not being able to do the thing they’re paid for - their beloved day job. As such, anything from fear of re-aggravation to denial of possible re-aggravation, or even of a problem to begin with, have to be factored in. It’s incredibly tricky, and fluid, and on a case to case basis, often really hard to predict. We know what we know about the physical nature of injuries of course, and the biomechanics causing them, then what’s ’physically’ required for RTP, but that’s still just a corner of the picture. The predictable lament by some, maybe many (not you of course 😉) - “he’s STILL 4 weeks away, how can that be? Are they incompetent?” - reveals, to put it kindly, a mind-numbingly repetitive misunderstanding of injuries and injury management.

That’s extraordinary. No wonder the game felt so unrelenting at the time. Btw, what is the ‘45km’ you refer to?

To that, way back when working in London, I asked a returning client if he was still ‘feeling crook’. He honestly had no idea what I meant, only if it implied he was a criminal. I suggested he watch more Neighbours.

Are you descended from Jane Austen, WCW? Delightful turn of phrase. So much better than ‘was crook’.

Came back to this thread hoping to enjoy some genuine contrition from posters who were moronically bagging Harry Petty before Saturday. You know who you are, one in particular who went hard, embarrassingly repetitive, and personal. Apart from @M_9 and @Roost it far’s really owning their comments though, the others have been pathetically conditional with their mea culpas. As @The Chief said, that’s the best contested marking game for an MFC forward since David Neitz. That’s the kind of player the FD think Petty can measure up to. But here’s the thing. He was coming off an injury that is too frequently a career killer, had another foot issue during his rehab and pre-season which took him off weight-bearing, and that’s simply a rubbish prep for a season. Horrible. And then some. He played half a game in the VFL and did nothing. Nonetheless, the FD brought him back to big show the very next week. For those on here who lost their minds at this selection, why do you think the selectors did that? They would never have expected him to perform to anywhere near his best under those circumstances, yet they had a plan. Saturday showed just how much it was the right plan. Petty is essential to our flag tilt this year, in a forward line that has familiarity with each other, and some [censored]ing continuity (fingers firmly crossed). Some, or maybe most of us got it. Geez, I hope people think a bit deeper next time.