La Dee-vina Comedia

Disagree. They have always been unbearable. As to the crowd, I'd like to think there will be an expectation of an improved performance leading to a much more competitive game. It's so typically Melbourne...we might expect the players to react in such a way that we could actually win. Which will lead us to ask...why can't they always play like this?

Maybe dumb. Maybe stubborn. But don't discount the experience differential. Goodwin was coaching his 27th game versus Clarkson's 309th. If players didn't age physically, we would expect a player with over 300 games experience to be able to overcome one in his second year. It's an interesting article and shows how important structures are. What I can never tell on the day though, is which coach is being proactive and which reactive.

I also like the "Lest We Forget" on the back. Simple but ensures the ANZAC theme is on both sides of the jumper.

There's a snippet in the Fairfax press today (two different stories in The Age and Financial Review) which both make the point that Rupert Murdoch's father tried to prevent Sir John Monash from leading the Australian troops in WW1. Why? Because Murdoch Sr couldn't control him. Apples. Tree. One of the great strengths of social media platforms, such as Demonland, is that we no longer have to rely solely on what the traditional media chooses to tell us. One of its weaknesses, though, is that people are not sufficiently rigorous in the assessment of what they are reading and too many people still choose to believe what they want to believe.

To be fair, the people are their own worst enemies by lapping up what the media provides.

The difference, though, is that the Bulldogs already had some excellent "ageing leaders" in Bob Murphy, Matthew Boyd and Dale Morris. Apart from our two imports (Lewis and Vince) we've had just Jones. Similarly, perhaps they're not as aged, but the Tigers had real leaders in Cotchin, Rance and Reiwoldt.

Not quite the arrangement of letters I was thinking of, but, yeah.

Childish, I know, but I just keep thinking about the diminutive Mr Guy, some St Kilda footballers and a box of matches.

It might explain why he played poorly, but it doesn't explain why he continued to play. It's not like we had other injured players on the bench. Nevertheless, irrespective of the foolhardiness of playing on, it shows great courage. I suspect he played with either (or both) a numb hand or significant pain relief which knocked him about, because he clearly looked out of sorts. Get well soon.

I caught about 5 minutes of each of the Channel 7 Footy Show (is it "Talking Footy"?) and Footy Classified. Both shows happened to discuss the matter in that time and with only 8 so called experts between them, none gave a convincing argument for or against the tactic. Both shows drew on historical precedent and both showed ignorance of the rule. That is, on both shows the panelists admitted to not understanding what the rule actually is.

There's merit in this argument. It seems to me that Pedersen seems to play well first up from a break, with gradually diminishing returns until he is once again dropped for a few weeks. In addition, in this particular scenario, with only a five day break between games, it's possible that a few of our more mature players may need to be rested for one of the two matches, although not necessarily just the second one.

I suspect the editorial meeting at Fox Footy questioned which would be a better selling story: One Brayshaw moving west or a different one moving east and decided to go with the former. "Keeping an eye" on someone is no more than what every club should be doing with every player in the competition. If that's all Fremantle is doing with Angus Brayshaw, it's no more or no less than what the other 16 other clubs are probably doing.

Just like last year, Hibberd nowhere to be seen in the Demonland votes after the first few weeks. Lets hope he gets back to his AA form for the rest of the year.

Fair comment. Wow. Just wow. ENYAW, you're either taking the P15S or drinking too much of it.

This is an example of team maturity that only comes about once other core skills and fitness levels have been achieved. I'm also convinced Hawthorn has more than a Plan A and can switch between those plans quickly as the need arises. On the other hand, we're still learning our Plan A and are nowhere near being ready to worry about doing the little things well.

Given we know you're a passionate Demon, it's obvious what you mean. But to the dispassionate, neutral supporter it's possible that this could be interpreted to mean you want Rance to attack poor, old Tim Smith once again!

Hold on...please don't interpret what I wrote as fact. I was intending my comment to say that Vince played as if he had a sore back and couldn't bend over; and I thought that Lewis looked like there was something wrong with him. I apologise if what I wrote looked like I was reporting something factual. That wasn't my intent.

You know that bathwater the Melbourne players are said to be drinking? Let's not throw the baby out with it. Our problems yesterday were structural as much as anything else. Let's try and fix that. Two changes are needed for that purpose alone. Gawn cannot ruck with Harmes as his backup. It's not Harmes' fault and he certainly gives his all. But it means Gawn has to ruck for too long when it would be better if he spent a few minutes each quarter in the forward line. To fix that, one of Pedersen, Weideman or Frost has to be playing that role. If Weideman is ready (done enough work), I would play him as he is more likely to be in our future plans. The second structural problem is the slowness of our backline. Jetta is really struggling (and was never that quick), Vince must have a sore back as he continually chose to (try to) kick the ball off the ground rather than bending over and I suspect without any evidence other than what I could see that Lewis was actually ill yesterday. He looked completely unable to generate any power. I actually thought Lever was OK, although he struggles when the ball is at ground level. I would add either Hunt or Brayshaw to the back six in place of Frost. In the end, assuming no injuries, I would replace Bugg (what a momentum killer!) and Frost with Weideman and Hunt. Let the rest redeem themselves.

6. Oliver 5. Salem 4. O McDonald 3. Jones 2. Neal-Bullen 1. Hogan And here's the good news...most of the best players yesterday were our younger crop. I considered giving votes to Gawn but I couldn't work out what he was doing. Was he sending a message to his teammates or the coach with his attempts to "do it all on his own"?

The Age story online is now fixed in the simplest way. Gawn is now one of the top 9 ruckmen in the AFL.

I agree. And I suspect (it's only a hunch with no hard evidence) that getting out of the pokies business was a condition of getting whatever State or Federal financial assistance we might receive. I may end up with egg on my face, but that's the sort of bargaining that goes on when seeking State or Federal funding. By the way, the McGuire announcement, which is also in today's Herald Sun, may not be the full story. Governments like drip-feeding good news stories, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's more to come. Perhaps a further announcement in the State Government budget next month.

I'm not in favour of "term limits" for club Presidents. As long as Glen Bartlett continues to show he's an effective President and wishes to be re-elected, he has my vote. But for all the talk about Nathan Buckley's tenure, how does McGuire's position as President of the Pies not face scrutiny? I don't deny that he has done a lot for that club, but given the ongoing on-field poor performance, what appears to be a declining membership and frankly, declining relevance, where is the anguish among Collingwood supporters for renewal? I find it all quite strange.

Petracca named in the back pocket. That'll fool Clarkson. I know we shouldn't take positions named seriously..but I can't decide whether naming Petracca in the back pocket is creative or so absurd that it's not creative.

I'm sure we'll get a report from Satyricon. He went in disguise...

I, for one, will now ignore everything Chaplin says. To say one of Wagner's best games was the Geelong game (even though we're talking a small sample size) is patent nonsense. While it's fair enough that the coaches build the confidence of the players, even Wagner would know that he had a poor game against Geelong. Nevertheless, since then he has steadily improved and clearly deserves his place in the team. His problem, although not necessarily this week, might be that we could end up with too many players who deserve their place in the team and some will have to miss out. Nice for us as supporters; presumably disappointing for those players.