La Dee-vina Comedia

We should ignore the listing of the players in the two Casey teams until after finalisation of the Melbourne senior team. The four players named on the Melbourne bench will be removed from Casey's team as, perhaps, will be the designated carry over emergency. I'd expect Barry to then be "promoted" to the Casey seniors. It's not Casey's fault, but the published teams offer no insights or reliable information.

Must be a lot of fun picking the Casey team...and then rewriting it to include the seven on the bench for the Melbourne team of which at least four won't play for Casey.

Ridiculous post. Ablett's out for the year with an injured shoulder. Don't you know anything?

If we couldn't get a priority pick in 2013 surely we're no chance in 2014. As has been suggested elsewhere, the AFL may well have handed us two priority picks in 2013 - Peter Jackson and Paul Roos.

You can both be right, though. Finishing above us 7 times does not necessarily mean they had to be "good". Just better than basically the worst team of the last decade. Using the current ladder as an example, we're above St Kilda, but does anyone seriously think we're "good"?

I like the way you've cut out the middle man and potted your own post. Nasher should be pleased - helps reduce the number of posts overall.

I like F Scott Fitzgerald's comment: "An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes." In my view, the modern equivalent is adding LOL, although having said that I've probably just offended a few posters...

As a matter of interest, is Hogan coming second at the VFL level?

Maybe players are more resilient than we give them credit for. Remember how one particular journalist swore black and blue red that there would be a mass walkout at another club because of the way the players were treated? Never happened.

That's a leap of faith suggesting that Lachlan Murdoch actually had a strategy. Darned if I could discern one.

Looking at it that way, I reckon even though I'm in my mid-50s and never won any premiership medals at any level, if I'd played small forward (a physical impossibility, by the way) in 2012/13, I suspect I would have had the same influence as any other small forward during that time.

Whether Frawley is going to leave or not I don't know, but I doubt an opinion based on how he felt about the club 12 months or so ago is necessarily any guide to how he might be feeling now. In that time we've added Paul Roos, a whole new development team, Dom Tyson, Christian Salem, JKH, etc and crucially, he's been playing in a team which has actually had a chance of winning most games in which it has played. That, in itself, would surely make playing today far more enjoyable than any time in at least the last 2 years and probably longer.

On the flipside, playing one game before the season is out might get rid of any pre-first game nerves before he plays a game that really matters. If he's fit to play, just like any other player on the list, if he's in the best 22 he should play.

My head hurts. I'll just congratulate Byrnes on his career. Any player who plays one game for my club gets my praise and thanks.

That's why I'm really keen for the Ten Network to succeed in a bid for Saturday games. Ten is not as wedded to being a source of news as Seven and therefore is less likely to want a 3.20 pm start. I could see Ten broadcasting a 2.10 pm game live which would allow them to go to alternative programming from 5.00 pm (which may or may not be their news).

"the Hawks game will be tough" surely wins the award for Demonland Understatement of the Year. However, it's a sign of our improvement this year that it was even written. Last year it would have read something like "the Hawks game will be a wipeout/an embarrassment/impossible to watch" (select whatever you think is most appropriate).

Just read this in isolation. I'm not sure I'm more troubled with the idea of Peter Jackson at full back or James Frawley as CEO.

Toumpas is listed in the Herald Sun as being "5 weeks". Presumably that paper still thinks we're a chance for finals. I haven't done the maths myself...are we still a mathematical chance? or do we need a few clubs to be disqualified (a la Essendon 2013) first?

Normally I would not support clubs "playing games" with players, their contracts and list management decisions. But mental health issues require special care and a few white lies which might help an individual's recovery and well being are definitely worth "playing games" for.

As a matter of interest, has anyone ever suggested that the four field umpires (ie, including the emergency umpire) all umpire three quarters of each game? That should do two things to help. Firstly, the umpires are more likely to be able to keep up with the pace of the game. Secondly, more umpires are getting "game play" experience which should improve standards in the longer term. On the downside, there may be a question of consistency and it may be hard for an umpire to umpire a quarter, then sit out one and come back for the last two. I've never seen it discussed anywhere.

Just taking it one week at a time, I see.

You might have been ripped off. Are you sure that wasn't the price for a large coke?

I completely understand and agree. But your second sentence might be like a second language to some. We probably need to explain for anyone under 50...'Bread' is the name of the band who sang "If...". Presumably readers on Demonland don't need an explanation of '186', though.

Probably helpful we're playing a finalist. Otherwise we'd have been slotted at 4.40 pm on the Sunday.

Terrible song