What are the Dees thinking?

Sportal - October 13, 2009, 12:34 pm

October 12!

The Caulfield Cup is still days away, the Melbourne Cup still three weeks away and the domestic cricket season has barely started.

And as for the Boxing Day Test and the Australian Tennis Open, well they have barely registered on the sporting radar as yet.

Yet there is AFL wooden spooner Melbourne beginning its pre-season training campaign for a competition that doesn't start for another five-and-a-half months or four months if you include a pre-season competition that is on its last legs in terms of public interest anyway and is likely to be scrapped once the Gold Coast enters the competition in 2011.

And the question that has to be asked is why?

While the move will no doubt have the support of frustrated Demons fans everywhere after watching their team finish last in the past two seasons, it's a move that is more about image and being seen to do something different to lift an ailing team than one that will have any practical benefit come the start of the 2010 home-and-away season.

Fans will no doubt argue that the Demons' players have had their six weeks' annual leave after their season finished at the end of August and as highly-paid professionals what else should they be doing at this time of the year.

And shouldn't they be taking every opportunity to improve after two dreadful seasons under coach Dean Bailey anyway?

But surely a team in Melbourne's position - worn down by two years of constant defeats - would need as much time as possible to mentally refresh for another season next year.

Hell the club has not even staged it's best and fairest count for the 2009 SEASON yet.

What possible motivation is there for the senior players in particular training at this time of the year when their first pre-season match is still four months away?

Melbourne's problem is not that their team isn't fit enough or well prepared enough to compete with rival teams but rather its talent pool is thin after years of poor recruiting and list management decisions.

And starting training in mid October is hardly going to fix that.

Only years of smart drafting and nurturing of young talent can solve Melbourne's woes.

Premiers Geelong and runners-up St Kilda will not begin their pre-season campaigns for at least another month but who would you back in a match in Round One next year between Melbourne and either of those teams despite the fact the Demons will have been training for a month longer?

And while the Demons' decision may benefit them in the pre-season competition, when only the most hardcore of fans care about results, it's hard to see how the team will be fresh in the tough winter months of July and August next season when they have already been slaving away on the training track for almost 10 months by then.

Indeed you could easily argue that beginning pre-season training now will have an adverse affect on the team at the business end of next season rather than a benefit.

But when you have won just seven games in two years you have to be seen to be doing something, anything to gain a so-called competitive edge over rival clubs hence why the Melbourne players are already slogging it out before even a single Sheffield Shield game has been played this cricket season.

Is the guy really this stupid?

simple answer, yes.

If I could respond to the Sportal author, with much respect, 'Cool story, bro'.

Whoever wrote this clearly has no clue whatsoever. I sincerely hope that they are not getting paid for this.

It's unattributed.

Heh, no wonder.

Honestly, half the posters on here could write a better piece.

A third...

Definitely an eighth...

And to think some people get paid to be this bad at their job...

Damian Barrett isn't any better.

Jack Trengrove Australia's most wanted

Jack Trengrove Australia's most wanted

Can you please post a link to the article as it sounds like a fake to me... or at best a blog by some nobody.

Damian Barrett isn't any better.

Jack Trengrove Australia's most wanted

Jack Trengrove Australia's most wanted

In fairness to Damian he doesn't write the headline.

Can you please post a link to the article as it sounds like a fake to me... or at best a blog by some nobody.

In fairness to Damian he doesn't write the headline.

Yesterday's Melbourne Age story on Melbourne and Luke Ball was about as bad as it gets in that it contradicted a number of statements made publicly by Dean Bailey. The Age is often criticised for its agenda journalism where the facts often aren't allowed to get in the way of a good story. Unfortunately, the sickness seems to have found its way to the sports pages.

What are the Dees thinking?

...........................

Junk!! Written by a nobody whose not prepared to put his / her name to it.

Yeah, this article is stupid. As if I give a flying crap when they start pre-season. I love how they speak on behalf of Demons fans. Or at least think they are. They're making out that starting pre-season before the Spring Racing Carnival is suicide. I thought it was a natural occurrence for teams that didn't play finals to slowly start up training around mid-late October?

It's just that time of the year when all the senior footy writers get time off, so the junior writers/coffee makers/janitors all get a crack at writing something, obviously this was the janitor, scraping the bottom of the toilet for this piece

Age is often criticised for its agenda journalism where the facts often aren't allowed to get in the way of a good story.

By whom?

By whom?

the more astute observers...

the more astute observers...

what do they say about the australian?

What's 'ill informed' about the Sportal argument? I don't agree with his opinion but I don't see where he has his facts wrong.

what do they say about the australian?

Let alone the Herald Sun.

I'd like to see a name. Who's to say this isn't written by a non-AFL follower, who doesn't understand how important pre-seasons are to individual players? Could have been written by an NRL writer, or a cricket writer.

I kinda think journalists should be required by law to put their name to everything they write.

I don't agree with his opinion but I don't see where he has his facts wrong.

"Melbourne's problem is not that their team isn't fit enough or well prepared enough to compete with rival teams"

This says we're as fit and as well prepared as rival teams. West Coast etc say Hi.

"slaving away on the training track for almost 10 months by then."

Non fact. Clearly implies no breaks, a massively longer training period than everyone else, and all types of training = slaving away on track.

Also, winning 1 game in 6 over 2 years has given him/her the totality of understanding to proclaim that the players "need as much time as possible to mentally refresh for another season next year". I think it's a fact (but I could be wrong) that the author has no training in psychology. Hec, training is slavishly hard.

He/she also fails to mention that, in order for a club to start pre-season early, the players have to agree to it (75% support is needed, I think). So it's not like we're forcing our players into training when they don't want to.

The majority of the players agreed to this.

They get 6 weeks off and more time off over Christmas on top of this.

I wish I was in a similar position and was getting paid the dollars that most of them are on.

Pipe down!!!

Fwiw, Liam Jurrah could not get back into training quick enough. He's returned from Central Australia, fresh as a daisy and raring to go. I predict a very, very big year for our Warlpiri warrior in 2010.

Fwiw, Liam Jurrah could not get back into training quick enough. He's returned from Central Australia, fresh as a daisy and raring to go. I predict a very, very big year for our Warlpiri warrior in 2010.

Ah RudeBoy......thankyou. :D

Yep......................pants creamed!

"Melbourne's problem is not that their team isn't fit enough or well prepared enough to compete with rival teams"

This says we're as fit and as well prepared as rival teams. West Coast etc say Hi.

If you think our problem is that we're not fit enough or well prepared enough you're kidding yourself. As the author suggests, we don't have the talent at the moment. If I wanted to be condescending I'd say 'Geelong and St. Kilda etc say 'Hi''.

"slaving away on the training track for almost 10 months by then."

Non fact. Clearly implies no breaks, a massively longer training period than everyone else, and all types of training = slaving away on track.

Talk about reading into that line what you want!

Also, winning 1 game in 6 over 2 years has given him/her the totality of understanding to proclaim that the players "need as much time as possible to mentally refresh for another season next year". I think it's a fact (but I could be wrong) that the author has no training in psychology.

It's an opinion. Clearly you disagree, but it doesn't follow that the author is ill-informed.

If the author of this article cared about writing an informed article you think they would have contacted someone from the football department and asked them why they were starting this early.Pretty simple really!