IN THIS week's Sliding Doors, brought to you by ventraip australia, our chief football correspondent Damian Barrett puts the missing 2018 Demons, Don Pyke's boxing craft, Brodie Grundy, Dyson Heppell's foot, Trent Cotchin's hammie, and more in the Doors' spotlight.

What's Barrett saying about your club? What's he saying about the AFL? Check it out.

If Jenko and Pykey actually ever did go toe-to-toe ... then the big forward would have reach, youth and a heap of weight on his side; the coach would have smarts, and ring and life craft. But they both threw in the white towel when they chose to publicly address the fabricated offerings of the low-lifes on social media. The real media hadn't touched the issue. On a separate matter, Jenkins won't be a Crow in 2020.

Shame I have to respond but no boxing this week, just trying harder to get a kick. Go Crows! pic.twitter.com/8zRWcZvsF1 — Josh Jenkins (@JoshJenkins24) August 5, 2019

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If Zorko plays in the QClash and properly pings the hamstring which ended his game prematurely last weekend ... then that would be disastrous for the premiership push. Rest him. It's not worth the risk. The fairytale is no chance if he's not in the finals storyline.







If the Teague Train wants to make it impossible for his club's directors not to book a ticket on his ride ... then he'll need to bamboozle Dimma and the Tigers at the 'G on Sunday. He wins this, it will be like the Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (the 1974 version with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw, not the remake with Denzel Washington and John Travolta!).

If there's been some rucking greats like Polly Farmer, Simon Madden, Len Thompson, Don Scott, Big Nick, Peter Moore, Gary Dempsey, Dean Cox, Jim Stynes, Shaun Rehn, Paul Salmon and a whole lot more ... then Brodie Grundy is tracking very nicely to join them. And so too is the guy he's up against this Saturday, big Maxxy Gawn.

If Heppell is adamant he's not going to be sidelined with his very problematic, and sore, foot ... then that's admirable. But I hope the short-term gain for Essendon doesn't transfer to permanent problems. Best case scenario: play him this week, get the finals-guaranteeing win, don't play again until first week of finals.

If I was running the Dockers ... then the Hill exit would be simple. I'd get his management to negotiate with Geelong over Tim Kelly, and to not bother with a formal request for Hill to leave until something viable was on the table. Remember, Hill is contracted.

If the Cats can emerge from round 20 on top of the ladder yet still be subjected to searing, brutal media scrutiny ... then they know they have no choice but to cop it. But at the backs of their minds they must be wondering how that can happen when the disastrous plight of the now-17th-placed Demons barely gets a mention, ever.

If you've already had a lot of bad headlines of the unwanted type with Karmichael Hunt and Harley Bennell ... then you certainly don't need more with Brayden Crossley.

If Himmelberg is an OUT for Friday night's game against the Hawks ... then that could prove problematic. A genuine star.

If long sleeves were good enough on occasions for Carey, Bartel (and for him, sometimes with yet another layer beneath), Buckley and Hird ... then surely it's OK for the 2019 Hawks, particularly on a bizarrely scheduled Friday night match in one of Australia's coldest places, Canberra, where it might actually even be snowing for the game against GWS. In these days of full focus on player welfare, too ….

If anyone knows where the 2018 Demons went ... then please call 000.

If Malcolm Blight was too low at No.6 on the Roos' best-ever player list ... then Keith Greig was in his rightful place at No.2. Greig is too often left out of the wider discussions about the game's best-ever players.

The top 10. What an amazing group of star players. #North150 pic.twitter.com/wGT4Vt6icQ — North Melbourne (@NMFCOfficial) August 3, 2019

If Ollie Wines and Scott Lycett are playing SANFL this weekend ... then I simply don't get it. Yet, weirdly at the same time, I respect Hinkley even more than already was the case for being prepared to do that for a match he simply can't lose.

If Rance has taken away the Tigers' stresses attached to a potential return in 2019 ... then fret still remains over the timing of Cotchin's comeback game. Round 23 looms as too soon, given that would be just a three-game break from his latest hamstring problem, which by the end of this weekend will already have caused him to miss half the season.





If Steven and Hannebery are both among the ins after a combined mere six matches from 38 this season ... then Ratts is clearly rolling the dice. It's a big, risky roll, and Ross (trying to re-emerge as) The Boss will be hellbent on exploiting it.

If you're sitting 15th on the ladder but your worst loss is by 42 points and five of your defeats have been by one, two, seven, seven again, and 10 points ... then come national draft time it's going to be an unexpected bonus.

If a crucial top-two ladder spot is to be achieved ... then the Crows simply have to be beaten on Sunday at home.

If you're entering round 21 a game out of the eight as well as a whole heap of percentage points ... then Bevo is on the brink of coaching the first team in 38 years since Hawthorn (1978 flag) of failing to make finals in the three seasons after a premiership.