La Dee-vina Comedia

Who's in favour of the club providing Demon facemasks instead of scarves with the 2021 membership?

I'm not a fan of Smith, but I'm not surpised. The emergencies each week are usually, if not always, made up of a forward, a defender, an onballer and a ruckman. Picking Smith suggests he's the next best defender and only likely to play if one of the others is unavailable. Having said that, I don't know the Brisbane team at all. If it is going to be wet, and with Stefan Martin missing, could we possibly be contemplating not playing our Oscar because there's not an appropriate match-up for him? In that case, Smith could come in. I hope that doesn't come to pass, though. I thought Oscar was good last week and I'd like to see him get some continuity with May and Lever. My best guess is that Tomlinson will come in for vandenBerg (because a two way runner is going to be valuable in the wet and I think Tomlinson is better for the role than ANB or Jones ) and that T McDonald will replace Jackson (because I think Tom's bigger body will be better suited to the conditions than Jackson's).

Things might have changed recently because of Covid, but isn't Neitz still involved in the coterie or commercial side of the club? I seem to recall him being involved in fundraising or glad-handling sponsors in some sort of official capacity. I have no idea (if mymemory is correct) whether it was a paid or voluntary role.

Is it wrong to say that if it's really wet it might be appropriate to have Rivers floating back? (With appropriate recognition to Denis Commetti for the last three words above)

If it's going to be wet I suspect Jackson will not play. I just feel his lighter frame will not be conducive to him having much impact on a wet day. I'd rather players with lower centres of gravity, such as Tom McDonald, who are more likely to stay on their feet.

So, Goodwin's been reading Demonland again.

Fair enough. You've got a source you're happy with so I'll accept what you say.

Two animal facts I've learned from football commentators are that (1) fish rot from the head and (2) cat's apparently have hard heads.

With all due respect, Pollyanna, wouldn't any such injury payment be covered by the club's insurer and therefore not impact on the club's finances?

My guess is that the general public will accept a crammed schedule this year because of the circumstances but would prefer a more traditional roster in 2021. I'm not even convinved that Thursday night football (in a normal year) is wanted, although that could just be my bias against it. Cricket found that when it extended its season and played matches virtually every night people lost interest. Clearly there is a tipping point when too much of a product diminishes its value. I expect, therefore, against logic, the AFL will try to cram lots of games into the mid-part of next season.

Good post. I have no idea where Langdon, Tomlinson and Bedford went to school and I don't care. Salem's Brighton Grammar credentials are well know given he was in the same team as Josh Kelly and Jayden Hunt.

I assume if we lose this weekend, the thread title will be changed to "Current team potentially worst in 50 years".

Yes, that might change things. Mind you, if I were North I'd seriously consider returning to the comparative warmth of Qld between the two games rather than spend an extra week in Hobart in winter. Nasher might have a different view, of course.

As it should be, right now. Without the dollars, not only does the AFL men's competition suffer, so too will AFLW, junior development and grassroots football. North and Melbourne both being based in Qld and playing in Tassie is conceptually no different to North and Melbourne both being based in Victoria and playing in Tassie. Slightly longer travel time, that's all.

Interesting strategy. Apart from being accused of tanking, the better strategy might be to rest players when playing teams you don't expect to win against, to make sure that you do win the ones you should.

I like the way you've put the whores into Hawthorn

I know it's popular to find reasons to blame and/or hate Essendon at every opportunity, but the bye was not inflicted by Essendon but by a positive Covid-19 test (which may have been a false positive) on an individual. With the virulence of this disese, it could just as easily have been one of our players who tested positive. It is still possible that one of our players may test positive and should that affect the AFL season in any way, I would not want the MFC to be blamed for it. Furthermore, if McKenna had the infection and it spread from him to other Essendon players and then to our players, we would not just be mortified for the impact on the competition, but for the health of our players and their families. Let's keep the blame game to a minimum and instead appreciate what the AFL, all the clubs and all the players have done to keep the season alive as much as they can.

As a matter of interest, and possibly also fairness, given player salaries have been cut this year, have the fines also been reduced? Similarly, each week's suspension has a bigger impact as one game in 17 is a much bigger proportion than 1 in 22. Have there been any changes formally announced which allows the MRO to reduce penalties to accommodate these differences?

I'm pretty sure there was a photo of Spargo in a moonboot with the original group of players who went north.

I apologise for appearing to be city-centric. I was only trying to see if the Victorian regional option is practical. If it were to be, I'd be all for it. Right now, though, I can't see it working, not just because of any air transport issues but because the non-Victorian State Governments will not want to allow teams that are anywhere in Victoria and not just Melbourne to return without a 14 day quarantine period, if at all.

Are the regional airports capable of taking planes that fly longer distances, such as from Brisbane and Perth? I can't imagine the AFL wanting anything other than direct flights between hubs/bases and wherever games are to be played. That might require chartered flights, rather than regularly scheduled services, but I suspect anything that's not non-stop would be a deal breaker. That might require airports to have long runways and appropriate avionics, etc. As to your comment about a GST re-jig, I'm with you all the way. In fact, Demonland has been lacking a good debate on horizontal fiscal equalisation and vertical fiscal imbalance.

Which is marginally better than Wancorona. Sorry, everyone.

Apart from on-field personnel changes there have been two noticeable game style changes in the last two weeks. Firstly, Oliver has stopped handpassing most of the time and is now kicking the ball much more often. Secondly, there has been a clear change in the way the players deliver the ball to the forward line. The long bombs, for the most part, have been replaced with targetted passes. I'm interested in knowing why. I find it too much of a coincidence that both those changes happened at once. Have we changed our coaches? Were the players getting mixed messages from the coaches previously but are now getting clarity? Is hub life giving the players more time to absorb and understand instructions? I recall that Essendon made a successful change mid-season (was it 2019 or 2018?) when they removed the hapless Mark Neeld because they found that the coaching structure didn't work. (I know that Neeld is an easy target, but I think everyone involved at Essendon was at great pains to say it was a structural problem, not a personnel problem.) Have we done something similar?

What's that? Isn't potential forward-looking?

Reading between the lines, I'm expecting to see the traditional 'Round-by-Round' fixture replaced, at least for a while, with a more, dare I say, "flexible and agile" format where some clubs will play more games than others over a 3-4 week period. It will make the ladder a little less relevant during that time with some clubs perhaps having played 10 games while others might only have played 7 or 8. This might make it easier for schdeduling but play merry havoc with footy tipping competitions. If it happens like this, the Melbourne v Essendon game will be just like any other game and played when a suitable date becomes available.