La Dee-vina Comedia

Not the worst metaphor going around. After all, one of the best dancing partnerships of all time was Fred Astaire and his sister Adele.

We are getting excellent reports this year. A big thankyou to everyone who describes what they've seen. I note DeeSpencer referred to Marty Hore's kicking and (paraphrasing) mentioned him using his trusty left boot. A question for our trackwatchers...is there ever any specific training to make the players improve their kicking on their non-preferrred side?

Also an old school teacher. Taught at Richmond Tech in the early 80s

Firstly, I admire you courage in going to Chadstone in December. I wonder whether NB not doing more is related to the agreement between NB and the club? Is it possible if we wanted more in-store exposure we would have to pay for it? In sponsorship terms, that might mean less cash from NB in return for that exposure. It might have been discussed and we decided to take the cash rather than the contra.

Not sure I agree with this. Some of the best kicks in the history of the game "leant backwards". For example, Mark Browning and Jordan Lewis. I also think Salem "leans back" when he kicks. Perhaps it's just a trick of perspective in still photographs.

Old dee, you've officially moved from pessimistic to maudlin. Cheer up...there is a bonus to be found from poor performaces. One can rock up to the G late on gameday and still get a good seat.

I hope for your sake that the offices of Demonland aren't raided by the ATO and your true identity given up.

Can't tell if you're pleased or disgusted.

Love your work, Luci, but you've said "We have the 2nd highest number of players in the age group 'sweet-spot' of 22-26yo. Second only to Bulldogs who have 22." By my reading of the table, St Kilda is top with 24 and we're second with 22. Or am I reading it wrong?

Maybe for Day 1. If I were coach I would give Brown pride of place on day 1 to make him feel appreciated. I wouldn't want him to feel like he'd been banished to the sidelines because he's a journeyman/rookie. (I appreciate others might have the alternative view that understanding he's a rookie might make him work that much harder.)

Not quite. OMac was pick 53.

Movember is over. No excuses. Someone needs to tell Brown (and Lever) that moustaches are not enhancing their appearances.

My goodness. That's wonderful writing.

Which raises another question. What's the point of rookies? Why not just add the player to the main list? I suspect the answer might be either (or both) minimum contract length or minimum pay level.

The Herald Sun article says he "has been charged with causing serious harm, recklessly endangering serious harm and fraud." Serious charges. The story behind the story will be fascinating.

What are the rules around playing rookies these days? Do we still have to have a longterm injured player or can we nominate one or more rookies to play for us just because we want to?

I'm not sure I ever thought I would ever see the word "craft" attributed to a player the size of Preuss. It just seems wrong.

I'm truly grateful for all the reports from our track watchers at this time of year. But, let's face it. Summer is boring. So, we need diversions. I'd like to ask Demonlanders, which famous first line best sums up your feelings about the MFC. I've proposed three below, but feel free to add your own from any written work whether it's a book, play, song, etc. My top three, in order, are: "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there." (from "The Go-Between", by LP Hartley) "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." (from "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy) "Now is the winter of our discontent." (from Richard III, by William Shakespeare).

I preface this by saying I have no medical training, but I would have thought boots would be helpful rather than harmful. I would have thought that without stops, Viney would have to push his feet harder into the surface to stop from slipping and to get the grip necessary to push off in whichever direction he wants to go.

Definately. (Sorry, can't help myself)

I guess we should just be grateful that the Guardian's link didn't have an apostrophe in the middle word of "admits-its-defeat".

You'd think one of the site's administrators would of fixed it by now.

Auskick. They won't have enough time with a 10 minute half-time break for the Auskickers to have their fun.

Great post. We should also remember that across the competition not all the 18 year olds who have just been drafted will make it to become hardened warriors in 10 years time. Many will find the dream extinguished in a very short time. Let's hope that our boys make it, but if they don't, that they can be happy that they gave it a red hot go.