Roosy's Pie Night (after the event)

Since my query about who was going did not elicit any positives, and since it was an intimate affair of about 60 Demon obsessives, including several family groups of parents and adult kids, I guess I was the accidental Demonland rep for the event.

First let me say you missed out. On a sensational gourmet pie at least. I had the lamb shoulder and vegetables teamed with a shiraz or two and it was a seriously high class pie (night).

Entree was antipasto of terrines, prosciutto, salami, pickles, house chutney. Damn fine and I had to limit myself out of politeness since I was at a table with nine strangers who may not appreciate my customary two fisted eating style.

Dessert was some form of brownie with caramalised banana and icecream. It was better than it sounds but I know you couldn't give a rats about the food.

It was upstairs at the Duke. Robbie was MC. Gawnie the special guest but Roosy the star.

What did I learn?

We won't draft Wright even if available.

Roosy did not exactly say this but he gave a very strong indication when the words 'won't take Wright' came out as part of an unfinished sentence. He was going on to say something else but stopped himself, but it was his comments about talls and the TAC that were most informative.

He told us about the special rules for the TAC about no double teaming on talls, no players dropping back to flood and the fact that talls at that level often are mismatched for opponents.

Mids on the other hand are matched evenly and it was clear he reckons a good mid at TAC level has a much higher chance of being a good mid at AFL level than a tall has of making the same progression.

In other words TAC is so unlike AFL that it's not a good guide for talls. He explicitly said - "you can't judge talls in the TAC Cup".

Plus he talked about the need for many mids - high half forwards who play as mids, half backs ditto, wings...you get the picture.

Key message for me was we will draft mids and trade for talls. In fact I wanted to ask would he have drafted Hogan but did not get the chance, but given the Hulk's exceptional body the answer was probably yes.

In summary he does not value draft picks the way some of us do: 'at Sydney we traded many draft picks because it's a lottery, the draft".

He described the loss of Mitch - "probably the best player on the list" - as season changing.

No news there but good to hear it.

He said Howie will eventually return to the forward line better for the experience of playing back this year.

Ours is a very damaged football club - the players bear that damage more than anyone - and it can only be fixed in stages.

He talked about free agency as a huge impediment to clubs like ours and that ultimately most players will lose out as he (heatedly) explained to the AFLPA two weeks ago all the money will go to the elite few and mid-ranking players will drop from 250K a year to 150k.

We are not after any free agents.

Players with big upside are Howe and Tyson, and Salem and Toumpas need two-three years development.

Improvement will come from improving the list but he also said there is 10-15% improvement from higher fitness levels which will come out of this pre-season.

Then there was a raffle - signed framed guernsy, autographed footy and $100 meal vouchers for the Duke so those who got the vouchers actually got their dough back.

Thanks for the report Pit Master

I wish I had gone.

I went to the first and that was a great night.

It must have been a tad disappointing with only 60 or so turning up.

Gawny would have been a riot. ROOSY was obviously giving some great feedback, he seems to be able to know exactly what the supporters want to know. He delivers it well.

I will go next year if they have similar formats.