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Oh please. Deledio held him after the mark. Dunn gave him a little nudge to let go. Cry baby Deledio had a whinge to the umpire who wanted nothing of it. Let's not make the game any softer. Dunn's dumbest piece of play was a silly evasive move and chip kick to Nicholson attempting to go over Martin that led to a bad turnover. The rest of the time he avoid Dunn-isms.

Signed my 6 week old up for a membership.

Someone who surprised me from that game was Dunn, I thought he played with a lot of maturity which is something I'd never expect from him.

Well, you lost your money didn't you? He didn't ask to dislocate his lisfranc and have soft tissue issues playing for your club - but here we are. Show some respect.

Re Trengove ... he's got very good vision and he can find the ball a lot. He's a great kick and a more than excellent mark for his size. He can also bring his teammates into the game like many can't. Class is something that can't be measured and Jack is a classy player. His best position is as a half forward or as a high half forward although considering there's all different types of midfielders these days, Roos could also find a role for him in there either a fair bit of the time or fleetingly. I thought he set up a number of our plays on Friday night with his creativity. 13 marks indicates that he ran well to position and space. He was our best player within a terrific team effort. Roos will allow him to play his natural game and then we'll see him blossom.

Probably doesnt get the credit he deserves on here. He is easily in our best 22 and very important with Garland being down. He is no longer the Dunn of 2010 that many still associate him with.

It has only been one game and you have Bernie Vince in our top two midfielders...lol... Funny that... Suppose people only really see, what they want to see... Ask yourself this.... If Cross or Viney or Toumpas pulled out the numbers that Trengove did? What would you be saying? Would you be excited? Trengove has been far better for us, then he gets credit for.... His on field performances slip due to the pressure of captaincy, bad instructions, poor game plan, injuries and no support on or off field... Yet on here, the boots keep kicking into him.... When Scully left us for millions, it was Trengove who committed for four years... Then some [censored] almost ruins his career, by the placing the whole club on his shoulders and making him the youngest captain ever!!! WTF!!! He's hardly worked out his own game and he's given the captaincy... the club used him as there show piece, just like they did with Watts... The club built up unreasonable expectation and almost destroyed him... Then on top of that, he stands accused of using bloody AOD cream!!! Are you kidding me!! Farout!! Trengove has given us and the club far more then we have given him... When he is out of contract, the other clubs will come knocking and I wont blame him if he leaves..... after what he has been through, i wouldn't blame him if he left the game all together...

Trengove is easily in our top three midfielders... His class can't be taught... Its a hell of a lot easier to play like Bartel does in a strong geelong team, then it would be to play in last years demons team... Im sick of the player bashing on here.... Trengove just walked away with 29 possessions...

Two things i take from that interview 1) He wants to stay, his default position is to stay. If the team shows improvement he will stay ("the contract will sort itself out") 2) If we remain a shambles he may exercise his right to look at other options He seems open and honest. Chip ain't no Tom Scully

This had the potential to be a massive reality check. Geelong won't allow Melbourne to hold possession like Richmond did.

I think what is being overlooked about the list is their footy skills. Yes, training has been significantly more sophisticated this season and we have very competent people in charge but the best teachers in the world can't train donkeys. We have a much better list than many think who will adapt quickly to Roos style. What we are witnessing now is a coach who has looked at the list and is coaching to its strengths and particularly the individual player strengths. He is putting players in their best positions and getting the most out of them rather than the last couple of years where players strengths have been somewhat ignored and they have been asked to play roles that they have been unsuited to. Rohan Bail's game might be a flash in the pan but I'd suggest it's the best he's played for the club. He was allowed to use his main strength which is his gut running at pace and make the play. Last year he was purely a defensive forward and was unable to use this strength. It's this aspect that will be our greatest improvement this year and why I believe we will surprise many. For a couple of years now we have been using about 50% of the players talents. Important factors indeed but it's the Roos game style that will most benefit Trengove as he can now play to his strengths. TBH we need to recognize we played a brand of keepings off on Friday and had more possessions than we've had in a while. Trengove got 50% more of the ball than usual but so did the team. I really liked his game and he played as I remembered him under Bailey. I liked what I saw but it did worry me a bit that we had so many more possessions than Richmond but only managed to fall over the line when it clearly meant more to us than them. Having said that I think we'll enjoy this year for the first time in a while.

The advent of Bernie Vince and some of other "buys" from the off season have been a revelation. There was always going to be a comparison between he and Colin Sylvia because they were virtual swaps but they are different players but I think what struck me was that Bernie was going 100% even though it was a practice game. Colin was always hot and cold and would go in and out of the game in an instant.

He was great vs RIchmond and will be one of the first picked every week, and rightfully so

Spot on. Also, as I said elsewhere, with teams having new players in the pre-season there should be a focus on naming the players, not showing how knowledgeable the commentator is or thinks he is.

It was clearly evident with not only Dunn, but the rest of the team, what the plan was when they had the ball. Neelds game plan confused the absolute sh!t out of everyone and therefore made them appear as (and frequently labelled on DL) stupid footballers. The ability of the playing group has been questioned over the years as has the development of them in relation to playing the modern game. After that one showing it should no longer be debated that the majority of the players have been poorly developed at the club. I'm expecting a quantum leap in improvement this year and I'm pretty confident I won't be disappointed.

Oh FFS. Did the recruitment of Salem, JKH, Hunt and Vince not tell you something about what Roosy wants? And the quote says 'nearly not able to stop'. That nearly is Viney, McKenzie, Jones, Michie, Tyson and Aidan Riley.

Sorry.....Just to go back to the commentary..... How come now we have one calling the footy and THREE providing special comments.....I just want to know who has the ball and who it is passed to......I don't need to know the ins and out of what players SHOULD have done and what would have happened had they done it. Dermie the dill, criticised a Melbourne player for not getting the ball to a team mate 3 sec sooner......It resulted in a goal anyway And while I am at it.....What with the interviews DURING the play?????Surely there is time at quarter and half time for that crap......

The secret to Trengove's success will be elite endurance and confidence. When you don't have the characteristics you've mentioned, but you have good skills, make good decisions, have a strong body and are a very good mark for your size you need elite endurance. Trengove has been compared to Bartel 100 times before and it's a good comparison. Run all day, good positioning and standing up when it's counted. Other than marking, Bartel isn't elite in any one facet of the game. But as a package he's been fantastic. With belief, Trengove can become a terrific all-round midfielder.

Yeah I mean hes only a Best and Fairest from another club who has a higher career disposal average than any Melbourne player of the last 10 years

Also, it's interesting to note Trengove's eyes when he has the ball. They never stop darting around to check out all the options. He may not have quick feet, but he clearly has a quick brain.

Watched the second half before and we were better in the last quarter that the third in my opinion, we seemed to improve as the game went on. It was also very interesting to hear Brereton say that Pederson was making lead after lead and running himself in to the ground to clear the forward line and shortly after, Roos praised him for his game. I guess there are a lot of instructions given to the players that we aren't privy to and that's why we sometimes think a player has been ordinary when he's done exactly what the coach wanted him to do.

Dare I say it, but to me Alex looked like a real 'footballer's footballer'. Smart, very disciplined, team oriented and played within his limitations, just like Brett Lovett did for so many years. I'm not calling him as the next Brett Lovett just yet, but Roosy loves players of that ilk, and I have a gut feeling that he might be around the MFC for a fair while.

It would be funny if it weren't so worrying. I don't think I've seen a better example on Demonland before of the pathology that can be whipped up from pure inane speculation.

Am I reading this all correctly, have people actually lost their minds?!?!?!? Why is there two pages about Mitch wanting to leave footy for photography when some guy says he has a "source"? I'm out...

We had one player last year that averaged more than 20 possessions - N Jones. We recruited two - Vince and Cross. Mitchie and Tyson can also find the pill. Jones will be a better player with Cross and Vince around him. So all of a sudden we have a midfield that can get numbers. We haven't had that for some time. Mitchie we will have to wait and see but he racked up numbers for Peel Thunder. Vince will be a very good addition for us. He and Cross also have something to prove to their respective past clubs.

Hey Guys. What a game! The inclusions of our new recruits has so far been a success. To see the rolls played gave me great encouragement for the teams future. Vince, Cross, Tyson and Michie were all fantastic. Like everyone else, I was mightily impressed with JKH. What a star of the future. Grimes back to the halfback line, Trenners everywhere, Dunn and Chippa our back line generals, Alexis chiming in beautifully. Toump seems to have a completely new roll this year. He seemed to be playing high half forward and rolling back to the scrimmages. It looked like he was running more freely than ever. What gives me hope is his ball usage. After a very indifferent first half, I can now see what he is going to bring to the table. That kick to Ro when Toump was setting up for a set shot(watch his eyes when he's faking the shot on goal just before the release to Ro) then the pass to Howie to set up for a goal were awesome. I have no fears with Toump. N.Jones showed us another side to his game with help on the inside. His kicking has always been great, but wow, he is unbelievable. Is there nothing this man can't do!! The new guys were amazing, and I think we are going to have a great year. I'm not expecting finals, but with some talks to come back, depth players now, and of course, JV soon!!! C'mon Dees, lets show them how good we can be this year.

What took you so long!!!!!!

Please can we NOT compare T Scum to JF? TS should not even be spoken about in the same breath as JF.

Roos has already paid for himself. That much is fact. A science fact.

This thread is genuinely ridiculous.

I spotted PJ in one of the sponsors tents. I couldn't help mysef...I walked straight up to him, shook his hand and thanked him for everything he has done.

I disagree about playing a second string sides. You just need to look at the Australian Cricket team to see how important momentum is. When we weren't winning ALL aspects of the performance were down. Now we are winning, our batting regularly gets above 400, our fielding and catching can do no wrong, and all bowlers (not just Johnson) are bowling at an elite level. The Demons are coming off such a low base and have such a young group, I think playing our best sides in these games gives us an opportunity to not only develop that momentum in game performance, but also build it in getting our supporter base behind us. I would venture to say if we won the games against Geelong and Hawthorn (not beyond the possibilities if they play second string sides and we don't), then I think we could build a membership beyond 40k for the first time, the football world wold sit up and take notice, and it would build immense confidence into the playing group. Bring it on. We have a lot to look forward to.

as she used to be wrote, surely?

People have tried to make the point that it wasn't the "win" that excited them, more-so, the way we played as a team and used the footy. Something we haven't done for years. Alas, the point seems to have been made in vain.

Wines was not there for Roos to pick. The Toump may or may not amount to something above good. I dont think theres that doubt with Ollie. We dont have him...a shame And we move on

BB - Totally agree, however the falling over the line despite the huge possession differential had something to do with the lack of quality tall timber. Throw Clark, Dawes and Hogan down there and I'm confident we win that match by at least 6 goals.

Really like this post. Roos' game style is based by players without the ball running hard, long & often to make good position. It doesn't rely on everybody to be an elite kick, but it does require everybody to run & make position. It's only when this fails to happen that there is lots more pressure on the kicker and things start to get a little shaky. A number of turnovers happened because nobody made good position so the kicker had to take a much more risky option. A number of times, Bail was able to lose his opponent simply by running long and hard and smart. Bail's value is that he possesses the unusual combination of endurance with speed; the others are Jones & Nicho. We also have a few with excellent endurance: Trengove, Cross and McDonald. Cross usually won the Bulldogs' 3km trials, at a club who I would have thought had a reputation for hard running; he only finished 3rd or 4th in ours. So it plays to our strengths. It will take a lot of fine tuning for us to be a really dangerous team - I too am worried about how many extra possessions we had to get to manage a close win. But it's frankly amazing how quickly they've got the basic building blocks into place.

To be fair, the last few years I was just yelling "kick it" because I was sick of watching them handball themselves into trouble. Hoping this is a new era etc etc.

84% they said. Consider this, Georgiou's kicking action is right, everyone else is doing it wrong.

Love him he's got flair, skill, personality and a good football brain.

Maybe what I'll be yelling is use the option and use the switch. It's not about short kicking it's about skilled kicking to get the ball up the ground. The switch and the square up in to the middle are the crucial kicks. The run from the mids and half forward is what powers the game plan. The best patches of play involved beautiful diagonal kicks out to the wing that opened up space for the rest of the team to spread in to. The other consideration was that we played at Etihad and you are going to get pushed back to your backline more at Etihad and have to share it around more. At the G we'd still focus on ball retention but at the same time probably get a higher ratio of long kicks to short kicks.

I was at the game last night and watched the reply this morning. Still feeling good about it but the replay did bring a dose of reality and perspective. Apart from some moments of great tackling from both teams there was very little tackling/swamping/pressure applied over and over again in the same moment of the game. Both teams seemed to focus on running, defensive structures, and controlling possession. So I ask myself, how will JKH, Pedo, Bail, Michie etc... do when they try the same things under main season pressure? It is this kind of question that just can't be answered until that pressure is applied. Our kicking a times was horrible (Richmond's was worse) so Roos is right in saying we still have a lot of work to do. What I am really pleased about is we can already see a game plan emerging and we played as a team.

We looked like a footy team for the first time since the Swans game in 2010.

With a name like Dwayne, what can you expect? I mean who looks at a baby and thinks "Lets call this little baby Dwayne". He was always going to struggle in whatever he did in life.

Many years ago my mum (a Footscray supporter, and not someone that takes things overly seriously) wrote a letter to Dwayne because she felt that he wasn't just biased in his views, but he was also badly informed when it came to talking about Footscray and their players. What came back was a long, patronising reply that not only showed him to be an arrogant [censored] but a thin skinned one. The gist of it was that he was a professional and therefore knew all that there was to know about the game, and she was just a supporter who didn't really understand either the media or football. And there was a real undercurrent of 'you're just a woman so what would you know' to it also. Now mum is a life long friend of Kevin Sheedy, Norm Smith came to her wedding, her brother in law just happened to play in 3 flags for us, plus she goes to every Footscray game she can - by herself usually because dad won't go to any game not at the 'G. But this Dwayne character talked to her as if she was a child interrupting the adults. She wasn't upset by this though - that ain't her style. She laughed at the reply and happily shows it to anyone that might make a comment that Dwayne is a good commentator. I'm yet to see such a person not change their mind after reading the self absorbed and condescending drivel he wrote her.

Oh and I like Dermie. Yes he's a tool, but a tool I like.

So I'm watching the game at the pub up here in Queensland with a Richmond following friend. Cover band blaring in the background. Paul Kelly's 'Dumb Things' is playing as Trengove turns it over in the last quarter. Minutes later and the cover band is predictably having a crack at 'Holy Grail' as JKH ran into goal for his third. I found myself fist punching Brett Lee style in front of the bar to the bemused looks of mainly disinterested onlookers. Realized it was pre-season. Sat down. Slightly embarrassed. True story.

Hang on a moment.... you said it was from a source... now it is from your perception of his Tweets?? Comedy gold.

Lol, tongue in cheek comment re Mitch's lovel of photography sees Demonland go into meltdown.

My mail is that Clark did his hammy about a week or so ago and that it's the third time since just before Xmas. As alluded to above its a by product of recovering from a long period of passivity similar to what Matty Richardson went through when he was coming back from the same injury. It's a bit of a worry but the good news is that it can be overcome and also that it's not the old foot injury that is the ailment.