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I think the $250k bet @ $5 fixed odds from P Jackson's account has probably altered the market to some degree. Edit - spelling

I think every year, we should make the captain the best player from the previous year. Better yet, we could change it on a week-by-week basis based on the best player from last week. Good luck this week as skipper against Sydney Wattsy! Alternatively, we could go down the very radical route of accepting that our young captains were chosen for good reason, and stick with the decision we made instead of pissing about with it. Just a thought.

I noticed several occasions when the ball was locked into our defence for a throw-in or ball-up and Dawes was basically acting as an on-field coach, organising the set up of the forwards, directing the positioning of Fitzy and Watts. "Don't get dragged to the ball, Fitzy, come back about ten metres. That way if there's a quick kick forwards you can attack it, rather than have it land on your head. Jack, you stay in the middle of the park to leave space on the wing, so you can choose to lead into that space or slip out to the fat side for an easy switch of play." (Making up the words, obviously, he was doing it all with his hands.) Saw him do the same thing with Hogan in the half-game against North in the NAB cup as well. He keeps us organised, and over time he'll make all the other forwards into better players. Worth every cent? God damn right.

He talked us up. Said we have a nice forward line and a back line, with very good KPP's at both ends. Just needed to sort the midfield. He said we have the talent and a good base to work from.

Good interview with Col Garland on the Sunday Inquisition on ABC on Sunday - he's a ripper, it's probably in here somewhere: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-30/the-sunday-inquisition-round-14/4790190?section=sport Said he and Chip have had plenty of experience working together with the amout of ball coming in over the last few years and need games together with Tommy to get that real understanding going. Said how Terlich and Clisby are great mates off the field and are really contributing to a stable back 6.

I guess you don't know what the word rookie actually means.

Thought it deserved its own thread that Paul roos has been backed in from $6 last week to $1.80 this morning.... Looks like a done deal

People seriously don't give Jack Grimes enough credit as a captain. I really rate his leadership. Trengove, not so much; but Grimes is great.

Not really.............Gerard asked him tongue in cheek about the betting plunge, and what did Roos know about it, and he just laughed it off and said nothing has changed since last week. When they talked about the game later in the show, Roos rattled off Frawley, MCDonald, and Garland saying we had a solid backline combined with Clark, Dawes, Hogan and Watts up forward, and it was really just the mids that need work. Mike said to him something about Roos having looked over the list, and again Roos just laughed it off. I've thought since he was originally asked about the job, and refused to categorically rule himself out that we will get him, and after watching him again tonight, I still think we will. He's on the couch with two MFC supporters, they must be into him to take the job!

I agree, but it's not just that. Instead of going to him and giving some spiel about how good he is and talk of the promise (and potential) of all these kids we have - tell him that we have changed things so that he can have an environment that will help him get the most out of himself professionally and personally. When I hear MFC officials talking about the future by reeling off names I cringe - talk about the culture you want to have, the environment that will be in place, the goals you have set for your football department. Thankfully, there has been less of that this year with Jackson as CEO and the fact that MFC officials are dropping like mid-tier actors in the movie Contagion.

Let all do 'Chip' a favour. He'll have less sleepless nights knowing Hogan and Boyd are on his side. I'm all for going MIDS MIds and mids, but Boyd is too good to pass on, IF he is available. Better still Boyd can have the luxury of biding his time with Casey for the better part of the year. As much as we drool over Hogan not being able to front up this year, Boyd be a better player for it in the long term as Hogan is doing now. We wonder why our delevopment is shite, its because we are forced into 1st year players being thrown to the wolves. Hogan and Boyd are 2 that can handle playing men, but even they need time to settle in. Other point IF we are in a position to grab Boyd,we do it, but he plays for Casey, then should Clark, Watts ,Dawes or Hogan go down, he comes in off the bench, we ease him into it. We would also have the luxury of rotating our gun forwards off the bench,therefore keeping them fresher.It would be a defenders nightmare trying to keep all under control. add in the factor they would 'blow up' trying to keep running with them. Toumpas and Viney have had a year to get a feel for it, so this will help us in 2014. Trades and PSD or all the remaining picks, we go all out for the best mids on the table. You hear other clubs starting to oppose us getting a PP, perhaps we wont get one, they know our list isnt as bad as it seems. We grab Boyd, and snag a quality mid or 2 or 3, its game on.

...and suddenly our list is looking alright, in a better position than the Doggies and the Saints. Last week we had the worst list in living memory, go figure. Funny thing about the media is they don't have any memory.

Thanks for selling him Filth. He is what you lack. Enjoy the Q stick [censored].

You're right. Not new and totally unnecessary.

Leadership - Tick Kicks goals - Tick Experienced - Tick I never rated the guy at the Pies, but he makes a huge difference to this side! Will be even better when Hogan and (if he ever recovers) Clark come back into the side. Love this guy!

Just watched a replay, 100% sober this time. I've been one of his critics, but that is surely one of the best games Dan Nicholson has played. A noticeable improvement in his kicking (82%DE) but more importantly his endeavour going both ways was first class and all of his 11 tackles were crucial. Take a bow Nicho.

why are we comparing them?

Chris Judd at one point near the end was about $1.33 with one agency to come to Melbourne Betting markets like this are for imbeciles

"It has been a massive go, we don't normally see this much action in a coaching market unless people have some inside information," Centrebet's Michael Felgate said.

Any chance for old times sake taking one for the team and letting us know if you hear anything!

To think Grimes is going to step straight into the seniors is laughable, he needs a run at Casey first.

I agree with the first part but not necessarily the second. We didn't pick Toumpas due to needs or best fit, we picked him because there wasn't a single judge of young talent who had Wines in front of him, and that obviously included our recruitment staff.

I take it you didn't watch Strauss' game for Casey on Saturday then? Back on topic, re Fitzpatrick, he has played seven games, he has overcome shoulder surgery, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and being diagnosed with Diabetes 1 (and the changes to lifestyle that entails), he has played his guts out at Casey and been rewarded. He is growing in confidence with every game and until Clark is fit, he will do me up forward, it is up to him to keep his place on the list and if he continues on from Saturday he will do it From somebody who has watched him in junior games and at Casey, when he had the shot from the boundary I sat back and said to my lovely lady he'll kick this.....seen him do it before

Who else loved the double fist pump over the heart after his goal?

I get the feeling you don't like Collingwood?

Neeld was judged on 35 games, not 2. And I'm battling to understand your logic about decent showings against the Saints and the Dogs proving you right. That sounds upside down to me; surely if we'd been smashed, *that* would prove it wasn't all Neeld's fault?

We won a game of football and showed lots of promising signs throughout the match. I shall remain ecstatic until at least Tuesday

I brought this issue up earlier. HOW GOOD IS WINNING! It is amazing that the week our coach (interim) states that the Dees need to remember that winning is the most "important" thing, we WIN. SInce Danniher left, I think the message that a win is the priority was only mentioned for the first time in the past week. 6 years of coaches just wanting us to be competitive. Well this morning I wore my Demons Hoody proudly and strode amongst my fellow man, basking in the joy that we had a heart stopping win and had not simply been "competitive". We play Sydney next week, a win is unlikely, but I want the message to continue to flow out of the Demon camp that we are going for a win. No more of this "lets be competitive" bollocks.

I petition that the initals JT be exclusively reserved for Jack Trengove. All other players must be referred to using some other method.

To quote the philosopher Vin Diesel; "it doesn't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning is winning".

well make the suck up call and speak in a low growler type voice when you receive the goss ,get straight back to us and dump him again

Frawley was frankly pathetic on Cordy when he allowed him to take that mark without even providing any body pressure. If it were anyone else who did it, they would be howled down all week on the Demonland forums.

A couple of comments. First, in defence of Maxy Gawn. Max has not had a full pre season and continuous game time for three seasons now. I have watched him at training during his rehabilitations over several seasons and have been extremely impressed with his irrepressible enthusiasm and diligence in the face of considerable injury setbacks. During the first three quarter Max showed what he will be capable of in the future, and I have no doubt he will be critical to our success in future years. The other point I would make is he plays a very mobile game style for someone so big. It constantly surprises me how often he makes a crucial tackle or takes a telling mark all over the ground when you would expect him to be in the middle half, so it is a high impact, high energy game style, which at this stage of his development is going to be exhausting. It was never planned that he should have played first ruck this year, and has only done so in the face of injuries to Jamar and suspension of Spencer. The bad luck (bad management) in missing out on Hannath only added to this dilemma. If I have a criticism about Saturday night, I think we should have used Dawes and Fitzy in the ruck more throughout the game to preserve Maxy's energies for a full four quarters. I think it will be a crucial lesson for everyone. I have no doubt max will be in the top half dozen first ruckmen in the AFL in years to come and we need to nurture him during his apprenticeship. Secondly - Fitzy! I think he has huge potential, and has been plagued by injury and illness throughout his MFC career. He is just now getting to full fitness, and by playing regularly under Craig seems to be gaining confidence with every match. This guy is 6'6", and has an incredible tank and speed. If you watch the team train, particularly early in the season where there is a lot of running, he is an elite athlete, and is incredibly quick for such a big man, and has great endurance. Given another year's development, and constantly playing under Craig to gain confidence, I think he could be anything. Sadly though, I suspect he will be used a trade bait to get some elite mid fielders. I cannot see us playing Clark, Hogan, Watts, Dawes, Howe, AND Fitzpatrick in the same team. Fitzy is the logical one to miss out. Given Sheedy's comments yesterday where he said he went to Saturday night's game and saw a number of players in whom he would be interested, you would be surprised if Fitzy was not near the top of his list, given their lack of tall key position players. They also have a surplus of elite mids. Could be a good fit??? Thirdly, maybe our midfield stocks aren't as bad as we imagine? Don't forget we have Grimes and Viney out at present, and toumpas is just starting to find his feet (and looks to be an elite player), and Trengove seems to be coming back to form under Craig ( and is increasingly looking like he was in his first year). We probably need one or two more elite mids. In the meantime with an improved Roden as well, and the outstanding jones (both of them) we may give a few teams a bit of a shake for the rest of the year. Add hogan next, plus a fit Clark, and you never know what might happen...... Anyone for a premiership in the 50th anniversary year since our last one?????? Now wouldn't that [censored] off the other Melbourne clubs (and the AFL) - and Tony Shaw???

Need I say banana?

It all comes down to money. Why do we have Clark and Dawes? get the right person and make him an offer he cannot refuse. Works every time.

Enjoyed the game but boy we have some midfield problems. Our set up seems all wrong and when Libba and Minson tear it up in the middle yet we can't stop it there are massive issues. Boys tried hard and the one thing that is always missing from Melbourne which I saw last night - players running to their team mates to pat them on the back, offer support, pick them up and generally encourage them is the biggest and most obvious sign that this playing group have turned the corner and are playing for Craig (and maybe their careers). They seemed committed and happy to be out there. That is a huge slap in the face for neeld and to me vindicates the decision to dump him (not that it needed any more vindication)

I have little doubt that within three years Kent, Terlich and Clisby will be part of the midfield rotations as well.

This has blown the [censored]-O-METER to bits! You should be worried about chafing, rather than Watts. He will be a great player and has stated his commitment to the club. We will need players like him, that and because he seems to annoy you like a hemorrhoids, you could just pop down to the chemist and get some cream for that... Cheer up charlie. Enjoy the win and watch the replay with Jack Watts getting the job done.

Neither has Ross Lyon and he is the best in the business

It would have been easy for Craig to put down the last quarter fade out as the team running out of legs but he didn't. Instead of that he emphasised that the team was poor in the last quarter. Craig was quoted as saying ... That's what our players need to hear. At 3/4 time in our next game our players won't have an excuse to fall back on if they don't run the game out.

IMO Dawes' best asset isn't his marking and goal kicking. It's his second and third efforts. His defensive efforts when the opposition have he ball. As the old saying goes if he doesn't mark it he will bring it to ground. Once it's on the ground he will fight to keep it in our advantage. This is something I think watts can learn from Dawes. With his pace over 20m and size/strength he will become a weapon

id still take toumpas at 4 over ollie, good delivery to our forward setup in 2014 will highlight his value

His brain fades seem to have dried up as his confidence grows.

I reckon Dunn's been playing some great, consistent footy down back. I can't even remember him giving away a single free kick last night. No arm chopping, no pushing in the back, and some excellent rebound efforts. He can stay right where he is. I'd much rather him there than Peddo Bear.

What gets up my nose dd is that when NN touches the ball he is a star but when Watts does something good its he is number 1 draft pick and its been a long time coming or something along those lines. I have never seen a player who has 12 or 13 touches a game consistently be referred to as a STAR It's an absolute joke.

Ditto. I thought defensively we were as good as we've looked all year and didn't get caught out of position as often as we have in previous weeks, Alot of this could be attributed to a noticeable willingness to just run harder. The last quarter lapse seemed to be more mental than anything else. Obviously it was a foreign position to be in and we just didn't know how to hold onto a lead. Thankfully we were still ahead when the siren went. Another few minutes and it probably would've been a different story, Ralph - what predictions have you made that "are all pretty much in the ball"? I think claiming that the performances of the last two weeks, under a new coach, somehow validates Neeld, is pretty big stretch, albeit a predictable one. If we'd been smashed the last two weeks, Neeld advocates would have said, "See? The problem wasnt Neeld." This is more about just not wanting to admit you were wrong about the bloke than anything else. Plus, he's gone. There's nothing to be gained by continually banging on about him. Move on. The players have, clearly.

We ran out of legs but it was a terrific effort for the majority of the game. Before the bounce we would have taken any sort of win. We played like a team .... at last.

Misogynist? Putting aside the fact that I'm a female and was clearly joking, how was what I said misogynistic?

Anybody else aware he's played about 7 games?? How bout we suspend judgement until he's got 20-30 under the belt.