Lucifers Hero

I had a closer look at the coaches votes and at the end of round 21 this is a summary: Oliver had 16 'minor' votes for a total of 104 and Bont had 4 for a total of 101. As umpires vote 3,2,1 these 'minor' votes are unlikely to feature in Brownlow voting so I have omitted them from the above. Bont has 5, BOG, and 4 second BOG. ie 27 Brownlow votes if umpires see it as per coaches. Oliver has 2 BOG and 4 second BOG ie 14 Brownlow votes if umpires see it as per coaches. I doubt Bont will get votes in rnd 22 and 23. Oliver may get 1 ca vote for rnd 22 and either BOG (which he deserves) or second BOG for rnd 23. If Oliver gets lots of 1 votes from the umpires he might get closer to Bontempelli but those 5 BOG's look tough to overcome. I haven't looked at Wines but he could pip Oliver and finish second. Edit: Did the summary for Wines up to round 21. He has 5 BOG's. 1 second BOG.ie 17 Brownlow votes. He has 33 'minor' ca votes which might be good for a few 1 Brownlow vote. He will probably be BOG in rnd 23 but not get votes in rnd 22. Again those BOG's will be tough for Oliver to overcome, if umpires follow coaches.

AFL website shows Hunt out for 1-2 weeks. However, "The Demons think Hunt is an outside chance of returning for this weekend's qualifying final against the Lions, having originally been tipped to miss a month with an ankle injury. He is the club's only concern heading into September". - Riley Beveridge If not this game then certainly the next, especially if we win this week and go thru to the Prelim. He must have worked awfully hard to get back in such a short time.

AFL website shows Hunt out for 1-2 weeks. However, "The Demons think Hunt is an outside chance of returning for this weekend's qualifying final against the Lions, having originally been tipped to miss a month with an ankle injury. He is the club's only concern heading into September". - Riley Beveridge If not this game then certainly the next, especially if we win this week and go thru to the Prelim. He must have worked awfully hard to get back in such a short time.

Welcome to the Jayden fan club! Something about the lad. Clearly a fave of DL female posters.

Crikey. Could have sworn I saw Hunt listed as a fave on your profile recently. But then again covid lockdowns have a way of messing with time. Or maybe the image of him as the backdrop on your profile page confused me. Love them all!!

I reckon the rest of the team did also. It looked like a set play. Not one of our players went near the drop of the ball keeping their opp far enough away from Max so they could not intercept or put body on him. Max had an acre of space around him.

Jayden is your, @Jadedand my favourite player (well for me equal #1 with Salem). It strikes me as unusual (in a nice way) that we, the three most frequent female posters on DL have him at the top. Desperately hoping we stay in finals long enough for him to get back.

"Lever said Jones “might be hurting deep down” but had retained his typical professional manner. He said Jones had been best on ground in two of the past three VFL practice matches and was fighting for a recall". https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/new-season-starts-now-demons-dare-to-dream-in-premiership-hunt-20210823-p58l07.html Draw your own conclusions.

RS, Coaches Award and AA team announced on Thursday night, August 26. HOF tomorrow night. I would say the AA squad should drop any time now.

Updated for the errors in the last version. Edit: To change Salem's age as advised by @stynewillalwaysbeonthevinebelow.

Ha, ha. I meant Quadrella. I could claim I don't bet but then the 'Tri' and 'Quad' are give aways. So I will claim a momentary brain fade. And glorious it will be!

There was a cross to a clip, during one of the Football programs on Fox last night.

Touk Miller was too far behind at round 21 to catch Oliver. Bontempelli was probably ahead after round 20 but not polled well in the last few games. Hopefully he hadn't stockpiled votes in the early part of the year. Wines will go very close. Great year and no other consistent enough player (except Boak at times) to take votes from him. I reckon it will come down to the wire between Oliver and Wines with Bontempelli maybe sneaking up on them if being a media favourite influenced the umpires subconsciously. As an side, Gerard Healy has Oliver for the Brownlow and for the Norm Smith in a winning demons side!! Throw in the Rising Star to Jackson and we have the Trifecta!!

'The Countdown' has featured a few times of late. . https://www.afl.com.au/video/666764/hey-coach-make-this-rule-crystal-clear-name-a-medal-after-him?videoId=666764&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1629347831001

Reckon May would be rapt he didn't go to the Pies!! Would love to know what May said to Max. From the hugs it looked like they share a special brotherly love. We have various players as designated leaders but how good is it for our young team to have a few 'mature' heads in those two to look up to. The trust and belief would be sky high right now.

Max's leadership stood tall in so many ways. In the last quarter his actions said: Follow me lads. And they duly followed. Time and time again he willed them on. The 44 pt comeback and the mobbing of Max after the siren will galvanise the team for a long time to come. And send a few shock waves through the other finalists. I particularly liked that after the siren he was like a shepherd lovingly looking after his flock. He has been a very good captain. Saturday was his breakout game as a Leader.

As if I needed to shed more tears 😢 That is beautiful. Love the Gawn and Petracca hug. Even more moving was the way Gawn reached out to May whose face was pure joy and hugged him tight. There is something special happening between them.

Scott took Dangerfield and Selwood off late in the last qtr. (I'm guessing to keep them fresh for next week as he said in his press conf he would have liked the pre-finals bye). It backfired. With 5 minutes to go they were both stuck on the bench. The ball was in our fwd line and I was yelling to keep the ball away from the i/change bench. Not sure when they got back on but they couldn't stop our momentum. It looked like Scott had packed up, preserved his 'stars' and readying for next week to be the 'Home' team. Instead they face Port in their cauldron!! Own goal!

Ollie Wines has had two excellent weeks so he could easily overtake Oliver in the Coaches Award. Bontempelli has had two poor weeks so unlikely to win. They may also cost him the Brownlow. I reckon Oliver needs to get at least 8 votes tonight to win it as he probably didn't get any last week. Shame he didn't kick any of those goals.

Agreed. As noted in an earlier post - they should bring it back to the G!!

The AFL had to jump thru hoops to get 'sterile corridors' set up with State CHO's. If Vic goes into total lockdown again what are the chances of those corridors being shut. I suspect the AFL will be madly working the phones with Premiers and it would not surprise to see the 8 finalists leave Vic before the weekend is over and go and hub somewhere they can still get into.

The old 'keep your friends close, but enemies closer' motto, eh!

Certainly that makes the risk of snap lockout of crowds at Optus much higher. Wouldn't it be ironic if all states banned crowds and the GF had to be played at an empty MCG!!

Fair points rjay. Would it have mattered who was on the National Cabinet as the State Premiers went there own separate ways almost immediately. Premiers from the same side couldn't/can't even agree with each other or adopt similar policies. It is every man/woman for themselves. If there was ever any goodwill it is long gone and I suspect having the Leader of the Federal Opposition in the National Cabinet would have made little difference. He is hardly someone that engenders confidence and leadership, either. Like you, it worries me that our choices are Albanese or Morrison. But if we had a good system of governance, in times of crisis it shouldn't matter. As it is, with States having the Constitutional power to go their own independent way, any PM of any side of politics is somewhat of a 'lame duck' at the mercy of Premiers and their much relied upon CHO.

Or when a country has a Federation where much of the power lies with States who can't even agree with each other, have media spats and are hell bent on doing their own thing. Our Federation is unique and it significantly determines how policy is made and implemented. rjay, You may well be aware of how our Federation and Federal/State constitutional power division affect policy making and implementation but I suspect many on here (and in the media) do not. It sickens and saddens me that in our country, a democracy, we have Australian troops at state borders and curfews during peacetime. How many countries in the world stop its own citizens moving freely within its own boundaries let alone use troops to enforce them? I back up @daisycutterthe blame game and bickering is counterproductive be it on this forum, the media or in politics. We are eating our own.