La Dee-vina Comedia

It's probably partly blind optimism. But I also think the club had struggled to know how to deal with the Preliminary Final. I sense from comments made during the off-season that the club had decided to park it as just a "bad day". By doing so, it might have allowed the players to avoid reality and, frankly, keep drinking their own bathwater. Until last Saturday. I now expect the players and coaches have been reminded how much hard work is necessary, not just to win a Premiership, and not just to win a game, but to win every moment in every game.

The Age had 12 tipsters picking Melbourne and zero Port. I can't remember The Herald Sun exactly, but it was something like 23 to 4 in favour of Melbourne. The bookmakers all had Melbourne at very short odds. I can't see how you can now argue a Melbourne defeat was "probably the expected result". Expected by whom? Having said that, I still believe the reaction on here is an over-reaction. We received a reality check. How we respond will be insightful. For what it's worth, I'm tipping us to beat Geelong. And while I tipped us last week, too, I feel more confident about this week than last, probably because any complacency (which apparently is a disease one can catch from drinking one's own bathwater) should now have been extinguished.

It's over-reaction for one game; if the losses were to continue, the reaction would then be appropriate.

I understand the point you make, but one of the big selling points to sponsors is access to the membership database. I don't know how much value it adds in absolute dollar terms, but I'm sure the more members there are (irrespective of the type of membership or whether or not they attend games) the more a sponsor is willing to pay to get access to that mailing list. Hence, getting the maximum number of members as possible is not just about match attendances, it's also about satisfying sponsors' expectations.

And looks like he's at least trying to smile. Proof that he was never interested in staying with us.

Seeing as you asked, I wonder why anyone assumes that the announcement of a "review" must mean that whatever is being reviewed must be problematic? I would expect a well run club (or business or government agency, etc) to conduct ongoing reviews of all aspects of its business including those sections which appear to be running well. To not do so risks (1) inefficient practices, (2) not identifying corruption, (3) ignoring potentially fatal flaws, (4) misdiagnosing problems, (5) failing to operate at the optimal level. I have no idea whether Dave Misson's position was at any risk. But I do know we made finals in 2018 for the first time in many years, and maybe his work contributed to that result. And your summation that he "looked at other opportunities with his family" is frankly misogynistic and assumes that his wife only looked at getting a job in Canada because her husband's position was fraught. What nonsense.

I don't wish to sound ungracious to Gold Coast, but the Melbourne that was struggling against PA is nothing like the Gold Coast that has been struggling all the time KK was with them. I don't know if he's ready to play, but if he is, he doesn't have to wait for the rest of the team to find form before he gets picked. It will still be a better team than what he has had to put up with over his career to date.

And the 4th one played Carlton and were not particularly impressive in defeating them. It may be that beating Carlton is not going to be as easy this year as the last few, but until we know more, all we can say is that Richmond didn't seem that impressive in victory and therefore all four preliminary finalists had uninspiring starts to the 2019 season.

I'll take this at face value, but what I really want to know is whether he went into the game with the ankle problem or whether the injury happened during the game. If he went into the game with that injury, and if it was the cause of his poor performance, it is obvious in hindsight that he should not have played. But I wonder whether it should also have been obvious with foresight?

Wow. To use the usual analogy, I assume you would also agree with this logic: all dogs are animals; all animals have four legs; therefore all dogs have four legs. It has been well covered elsewhere that Misson is leaving to travel overseas to accompany his wife who has a new job in Canada.

Is that Maynard, Preuss and Stretch? If so, I can't work out what's going on with player numbers. It's been a bugbear of mine for some time that Melbourne players haven't been using their Melbourne numbers when playing for Casey. It's so much better for the supporters if they use the same numbers. But if I've named the players correctly, it would seem that Maynard and Stretch are in their MFC numbered jumper and Preuss is not. So, what's happening this year? Are the Melbourne players wearing their Melbourne numbers when they're at Casey or not?

Great example of how the father-son rule doesn't always work.

Usually takes half a season for a football team's admin to turn on none another. Demonland got there in a week. If this is any indication, it's going to be a long season at Demonland HQ.

I didn't give ANB votes, but thought about it. He was one of only a few players that consistently applied pressure. And, in my view, it was the lack of pressure across the ground, particularly by the midfielders and the forwards (with some exceptions, ANB being one) that cost us the game.

No footy department would ever publicly admit this, but I wonder if, for the first time in many seasons, we weren't preparing a team for Round 1 but for the Finals. That means accepting the possibility of missing out on early wins for a bigger prize later on. It's not without risk, of course, because you need enough wins to make the Finals, but there is also not much point in making Finals, just to make up the numbers. So, I'm choosing this optimistic scenario, at least for this week. Makes the loss more bearable.

Watts played a woeful first quarter and was good in the next three. He was good because we had inadequate forward and midfield pressure. If anything is a barometer as to how we played it is that Jack Watts was able to execute his sublime skills precisely because there wasn't enough pressure placed on him.

Our defenders weren't good on Saturday, but they weren't the major problem. The lack of forward and midfield pressure was where we came undone. The only forwards who put any pressure on at all were Melksham, ANB (but not without his usual fumbles and poor shots at goal) and, to an extent, Spargo. Only three midfielders did their job (Harmes, Brayshaw and Oliver).Which means all of Jones, Fritsch, Viney, Gawn, Wagner, Petracca, T McDonald and Weideman were somewhere between diabolical and ordinary. I've left Sparrow out of that group because for a first gamer, he was OK. Changing defenders won't do much if we don't worry more about the forwards and midfield. It doesn't necessarily mean wholesale changes, but it's either a question of fitness or psychological. Goodwin's job is to find out which and act accordingly. I'd bring in May. But it's not necessarily a defender that goes out. Hunt could move forward or to the wing and one of Wagner or Sparrow might go out. And if Viney is truly not fit, rather than just rusty, he needs to go out until he's truly ready. Stretch, even with his weaknesses, would be a better proposition than an unfit Viney. In: May, Stretch Out: Wagner, Viney (inj...code for not fully fit)

Interesting turn of phrase under the circumstances.

You're unique. The only person on Demonland who didn't think Salem was our best.

6. Salem 5. Melksham 4. Harmes 3. Brayshaw 2.Oliver 1. Hibberd The first three deserve their votes; the last three I found extremely difficult to find. "Best of a bad lot" is the cliche that comes to mind.

Not necessarily. Plenty of industries have "non-compete" clauses which restrict a person after they cease working with one employer to prevent them working for another for a period of time. There is usually some form of financial compensation involved, although that is sometimes built-in to the contract rather than paid after exit. Having said that, I think the free agency for delisted players is fine as a concept.

As the off-season comes to a close I wanted to say thankyou to all who have been active on Demonland in the off season. As always, it's been informative, entertaining and sometimes maddening. And it's been a decent time-waster, too. Particular thanks to all those who posted training reports which helped us appreciate the work being done as we head into what we all hope will be a successful 2019. Similarly, thanks to the site administrators and moderators who keep this wonderful form of social media going. Go Dees.

Your post is missing a satire emoji.

If I was a Port supporter, I'd be worrying that Ken Hinkley hasn't realised this is Round 1 and is instead picking a team to help him win a game of Scrabble.

Practice match or for points?