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Went down to training at Maroochy this morning and jotted down a few observations. I'll be able to get down to all the footy sessions if anyone has something particular they want to know. * Kent, Terlich & Spencer doing intervals separate to main group. Later Riley running laps by himself. * Overcast & a bit wet under foot (fair bit of rain lately) but doesn't take long to dry up. * Fair bit of match simulation focusing on forward entries from the back half. Viney & Frost getting praised for their decision making & disposal. * Jimmy Plunkett from Leading Teams working exclusively with the Dees I think. Nice guy * Hogan like a caged lion wanting to rip apart his prey. Got a nice confidence streak/ swagger about him. * Toumpas getting a bit of kicking responsibility from the back half. Can't fault his kicking. I think he is becoming a Roosy favorite. * Dunn positioning himself for more leadership responsibility this year perhaps - very vocal. Just a hunch. * Guys looking a bit tired. Maybe the heat? I think they had been at it for an hour or two before I turned up based on the comments from Jones on website. * Noticeable compared to previous training/ coaches that there seem to be less standouts and more of an even spread across the Board. Similar to what others have observed - Sydney-esk? * Hate to say it but Crossy is looking a tad old. One last push? * Didn't notice Roosy much at first compared to other coaches. Not as egotistical. That seems to rub off on the players. There not as on edge about everything. Not quite as much fig-jam going around. * Watts is looking fit, lean and toned. Not lacking any confidence the young fella. * Weren't getting a drill right at one stage (I think) and Roosy made the point of moving to another oval to get it right. * Finished off with some games play. Seeing which team can kick from one end to the next finishing with a goal. * Progressed from Torps to Torps on the non preferred to drop kicks on the non preferred and wound up with a netball ring shoot out. Lumumba and Garlett surprisingly can stroke it alright. Still trying to perfect the photo gig so I'll see if can get a few good ones for you guys over the next few days.

A few notes from today's training: * Training was pretty light so not a whole lot to report. * Overcast humid conditions again. * New guys on the deck. * Trenners doing seated boxing ripping into it as best he can with a moon boot on. * Looked like Vince, Harmes, Riley doing boxing separate from the main group. * A lot of standing around talking tactics today with the occasional breaking into a ¾ pace drill. * Focused on strategy for exiting the back half and kick ins today. * You hardly notice Roosy. Hes just like one of the boys and doesnt put himself above everyone really impressive and the thing that stands out to me the most. If only all bosses were like that. * Petraccas got a real presence about him and stands out without even kicking a ball - Got a confidence about him. * Frost's movement and all round game impresses me. Hes stood out a lot over the last two sessions in my eyes. Kicks it well for a big bloke. * Vandenberg doing intervals separate from the group. I think he's keen to make a go of it. I'm keen to see how he goes over the next few days * Early finish, perhaps doing something off site? * A few crappy photos maybe later tonight. * Probably a bigger session tomorrow I'd say so hopefully a bit more to report then.

FMD, the footy season can't come quick enough.....

You were and continue to be the exact type of "pompous blowhard" you have a go at. Righteously defending not being abusive to players, while being abusive to posters, is insightless and self-indulgent. Making only your type of comment 'legitimate' is controlling and self-important. You disappeared when Neeld went because your righteous scrawl was exposed as the total tosh it was. Your fanboy training reports have not changed in tone or detail despite melbourne being a genuinely terrible team for years. And you certainly do care what others think - you respond with predictable regularity. It aint trolling them, that's for sure. Get the message, champ.

To be fair to DL - this forum is probably less negative then the other club forums I have read ( in particular Punt Road End ) ...however..... This little gathering of head cases is a mere reflection of what goes on at all other club fan forums - with the "woes is us" at one end, the "we can never possibly be anything other than magnificent" at the other extreme and then varying shades of posters in between. We have thoughtful, insightful posters vs the reactors who fly off from viewing a split second of football and finally we have the polite " he could do better" against the "he's a giant spit bucket of spud vomit and should never disgrace our jumper again". The common thread is that anyone who has time to read a football forum like this let alone post is a sad football tragic. ( I am as tragic as they come)

The players I've spoken to had never even heard of Demonland, and frankly it means two fifths of stuff all what they think of the place. Anyone with even a semblance of sense in their cranium understands that this is a forum specifically catered for fans to discuss the club and its players, positive and negative, and that sharing and discussing critiques of players is part of that discussion. The only "hero" is someone disturbed enough to take joy in baiting and abusing people who choose to take part in that forum and are motivated by nothing but interest in their football club. I agree the thread should be closed. Nothing more to be gained.

Since supporting the Dees as a kid in the late 70s we have not had a superstar player with the exception of perhaps Robert Flower in the early 80s when Flower represented 80% of the talent on the entire Melbourne list. In all my years of supporting only two other players excited me to the point that I thought we had finally recruited a superstar. These players from the early 90s are Schwarz and Jackovich. Unfortunately neither went on, Jackovich partied too hard and Schwartz was never the same after 3 (back to back) knee reconstructions. Since this time there has been no Melbourne player that I have believed has the genuine capacity to be the best player in the league, to be a genuine superstar. In 2013 circumstance allowed me to attend nearly all Casey games. From round 1 it was clear that we had recruited something very, very special, a young 17yo by the name of Hogan. Each week I went to watch Casey, each week I became more impressed at what I was seeing. Super fast, super big, amazing agility, fantastic kick, calm, cleaver and hungry this kid has the entire package. Watching him was something in-between Carey and Lockett. Yes he looked that good. Whether playing CHF or FF the guy is all class and skill. I believe he is only the 4th Melbourne player in my lifetime that I believe has the ability to develop into the best player in the league. Now some here will say "stop, don't put any more pressure on this kid". However, from my conversations with him and from what appears to be his character, I don't think expectations are going to make any difference to the young man. Clearly the expectation horse has already bolted, he is on a $500,000pa contract which makes him the highest paid player in the history of AFL not to have played a game. Some random on Demonland saying he has the ability to be the superstar is not going to make any difference to expectations. In saying that I don't expect Hogan to be Carey next season, 30 goals from 20 games would be an excellent return and put him on track to become a superstar. So for me the most important player for 2015 for the MFC is Hogan. I am so excited!!!!!! Go the hulk.

I just don't get this whole "Match day Experience Crap"....I just want to go to the footy and watch my team play.....I don't want Pre match entertainment.....I don't want a game day announcer telling me that I should now yell out for my team,I will do it when I want.....I don't want adds blaring and bursting my ear drums.....All in the name of "entertainment" What I would like is to have the seconds play before the main game so I can see the young blokes first hand and see the progress they make through the year without having to go all over the state to see this...... Football people go to watch the game but the AFL think we are theatre goers and like the Americans we cannot go for a few hours without some other form of "entertainment". I think the fixture is the main concern.....Even I won't go when we play Freo at the G at 4.40 on a Sunday evening I know I am old fashioned......I know that I live in a modern world but sometimes old is better, I don't need instant gratification. P.S. I hate 20/20 Love test cricket.

The only thing to add to TimD's excellent post is to say that this is not a public forum, there is no licence for you to treat posters as you wish - Demonland is privately owned and liable to those selfless few who maintain and moderate it. So I suggest you start to not treat this site as the cess pool you seem to think it is and have some awareness of your own behaviour.

Oh dear, I thought we sorted this out last year, better repeat it, the only thing I take seriously on this site are my training reports, which I provide for interstate and overseas supporters, as they can't get to training, the conversations I have with the players add a bit of colour, same with the photos on Twitter, that's why for a laugh I can get them to do the guns photos , the players know I post their comments and they don't have a problem, as I said if a question crosses the line, they tell me so, and don't answer it As for the players avoiding supporters that is just laughable, they enjoy the interaction The rest of time I am taking the [censored], because I do find some of the blowhard pompous postings risible, it is a public forum, so I take opportunity to [censored] a few balloons, if you don't like my posts don't read them, easy

That may just mean they have a better grasp of reality that Dee supporters.

Uh oh, I believe BBO came home via New York. This might explain the purpose of his trip to Indo...

Ill be a little more brutal. For us to jump up the ladder the five most important players are not the ones that shone last season. My expectation is the likes of Jones, Tyson, Vince, Dunn will do the same again this season. I even include Jetta in this as his performance in games played was very good. I also include Lamumba in this list as he had a fine season with the Pies last season. We need the players that started to show a bit without starring to step up to the next level. Gartlett - was poor last season for Carlton but showed previously he can play - we need someone who can crumb and kick goals and he has a track record Howe - I know some believe he is a one trick pony but I think he has the tools to take his game to the next level McDonald - Shoot me but he does have some brain fades/disposal and decision issues at time - I want him to limit these and become an excellent key defender Gawn - So far his body has let him down and because he has not a fair run without injury he also has looked like he runs out of puff pretty quickly. But he has also shown he can take a grab, tap a ball and is no slouch at ground level for a man 2,975 cm's tall. Hogan - going against everything I have ever posted about not having expectations on players who are young and haven't played yet, what I have seen at VFL level I just feel he will "arrive" very quickly like Jeremy Cameron. I'll add one more - Viney - he has all the hunger to succeed but just hasn't put the runs on the board yet. I think he can make big steps forward this season. If we get similar output from the first group mentioned this upcoming season as we did in 2014 and my list of 6 make significant contributions we will move up the ladder.

I'm about to break my NY resolution of not posting here but there you go, it lasted two weeks. Frankly I'm not much interested in what drills the players are doing, how vocal Dunny is (leading to the conclusion he's leadership material despite poleaxing his teammates at training), who's flying (Strauss last year was very close to our best on the track - that worked well) and how well organized training is. I'm interested in who is in rehab, how long they are there for and what's wrong with them (although from a privacy point of view I shouldn't be). I'm interested in what the players say because frankly it's much more relevant and interesting than what most posters here say, particularly the ones who haven't seen training. I'm also interested in who's training in what group and who's struggling and flying in the running drills (purely as a comparison to last year). Saty's posts address the things I'm interested in more than most others. Thanks. As far as the players are concerned - if they didn't want to speak to him they will not. They do because they trust him and know him from his presence around the club and the things he does to help. It's why Mission and others will speak to Saty. Personally I'd much rather read Saty giving it to those who brainlessly criticise him for his contribution that the pompous righteousness of RPFC who continually wants to be the school headmaster of the posters here and set us all straight on things we don't really understand. But that's just me and I actually don't support either approach. As for those who so boldly say they'd have no problem telling a player to his face what they think of him - well bully for you. It says more about you than anything else. With free speech comes responsibility, something which is sadly lacking here a lot of the time and why I think this once great site has lost so many of its good posters and been reduced to an occasional read and contribution rather than something to be involved in regularly. I wonder how long it will be until I break my resolution again.

Love seeing the team bonding stuff. Viney, Brayshaw, Petracca, Tyson, Michie, Jones... that's a core worth getting around. Look at Petracca's abs!!!

Dangerfield to Dee's is a no brainer. We'd have the cap space with Clarke and Frawley leaving this year, and few other players pressing for top 50 AFL player type pay deals at the moment. He's in the top 10 players in the competition. A midfield of Dangerfield, Jones, Tyson, Vince, Viney, Brayshaw, Petracca, Salem, Toumpas, etc... would allow us to compete with and defeat the best teams in the competition in 2016, at least in the midfield. If we play soft, and let him go to another club, it simply means we're accepting being mediocre for longer.

Dangerfield to D's is a tricky one. One player does not maketh a team. IMO you have to have a list and a team ready to go to justify going and spending $1+mill on one midfielder. I don't think we have either yet. I was desparate for us to get Judd but now you look back on it would it have been worth our while to have been spending $1.2mill a year on him for the past 7yrs or however long it has been. What has it ultimately achieved for Carltank? I'm sure it was great having him around off field but in the big picture what difference did he make to their fortunes in the end. In the end they haven't had the list around him to justify it. Do we really have the list yet to justify that sort of spend on Dangerfield? Maybe by 2017 but not by 2016. I'd rather spend it on someone like a Jeremy Cameron who is going to complete your goal to goal line spine for many years to come.

Obviously not enough real footy news is seeing some posters going a bit stir crazy. Can't we just accept that some posters add value, others don't and most of us fall somewhere in between. Who cares if someone's a bit precious or gets on their high horse. Let's just worry about what's happening on the park, not they way it's being written about here. Personally, if I were a moderator, I'd lock this thread now. Nothing new or of value is being added.

That is exactly right chook. In a listed company, we get the chance to vote for change. I would have no interest in telling a CEO he's useless, nor would I ever say it to his face. It doesn't mean I go to water, it means I'm following the protocols that allow me a say. A football forum is similar in a lot of ways. My say may only make .001% of difference just like my vote but I'm absolutely entitled to say X,Y or Z is pathetic and should be delisted. Whether anything gets done about it is out of my hands, but it doesn't mean I'm not entitled to discuss it. Those who feel that because we support them we shouldn't criticize them are absolutely off the mark. If anything we are far more responsible for holding them accountable for their performance. I look down on those when the criticism goes to a personal level but as long as it is football related for as long as I'm a member of this site I'll give my honest thoughts on every player and I don't care much for people who tell me I shouldnt.

Saty keep the reports coming for us interstaters any information colourful or otherwise from someone at training is definetly appreciated.

Apparently he was Pi eyed

Grab an international membership, if you aren't already a member it works out that you get a Dees membership on top of the AFL subscription for about thirty bucks. If you're already a member get the digital add on as it's cheaper through the club than from the AFL. http://membership.melbournefc.com.au/packages/view/199/International-Digital-Membership

oh god not this thread again.....

I had thought he was coming to Melbourne to live with Bernie and play for the Dees?! At least that's what someone here reckoned late last year when they spotted him having coffee somewhere with Bernie and looking at some real estate cards in a Richmond shop window ...

It's probably a positive sign he's not hanging around the Crows, but I still think we're a far cry from landing him. We need to start showing some serious improvement on-field. Knocking off a few of last year's finalists would be a good start.

From Adelaide's perspective are they really going to appoint a bloke as Captain who won't commit to the club? How stupid would they look if they make him captain and he then still left at the end of the season. Not great when the leader of the place knicks off as the Bulldogs found out this year. I think they have done the only thing they could have in the circumstances

I dunno, I do enjoy Happy Smiling North KoreaLand forum moderated by Kim Jong Un.

I agree, but the sadness lays in the fact that the Club thinks it is nothing but negativity

If everyone came on to Demonland to talk about how good the club is no one would read it.

I too can vouch for the AFL subscription. I was away for 3 weeks in June and took out a month subscription. Watched the Dees beat the Bombers at 2am in New York. Had to watch the last quarter in the toilet so as not to wake up the wife with my yelling at the iPad. Quality was great too. Here is the last 2 minutes of that game just because. http://www.afl.com.au/video?guid=654572

I agree. A union like the AFLPA should not favour a few of its members over the interests of the majority. Not sure what line player managers would take, but leaving them aside, I think that if the AFL got into the ears of the non-elite players, the AFL could enforce a different regime without fear of how the AFLPA might react. But I guess a lot of average players have foolish dreams of becoming elite and are prepared to toe the current line. A bit like Walmart employees in the USA thinking one day they will be millionaires and voting Republican.

Exactly. There is nothing wrong with that at all. The MFC has to make itself more desirable, which it is doing.

Again, it's not the training reports that people take issue with. It's the way he attacks people on here without provocation, simply because they're critical of a player he has a close personal relationship with. Having been on the receiving end of multiple derogative attacks from Saty, I take issue with his childish behaviour when responding to other posters here. Doubt you'd be defending him if he called you a pompous blowhard and keyboard warrior just for criticising Jordie's kicking or Grimes' clangers.

The problem isn't necesarily the compensation, it's the net compensation. When we lost Frawley, we were effectively removed from free agency so as not to risk diluting our compensation. This would be a concern for the AFLPA due to there being a situation where it reduces the number of clubs being able to actively bid for free agents.

You know what - this annoys me just as much. No one is averse to his training reports and 99% of people here are more than happy to read them, even if there are some (including myself) who cringe at some of the interactions he has with the players. What we get annoyed at is his self indulgent, holier than thou approach to how people discuss this club on a forum site. If he didn't care at all, which he laughably claims he doesn't, then he wouldn't bother posting so much and replying to every minor little comment that's left for him. If he just posted his training reports and responded to questions without getting personal or responding to any form of criticism then we wouldn't be filling each training thread with crap. Even though I don't bother reading them anymore and will stick to those given by posters like GRRM this idea that he "shouldn't let the bastards grind him down" is ridiculous and mostly made of his own doing.

I always thought that my warning posts were earned because my intellectual content was becoming too high for the commoners.

That's it Saty, you've crossed the line. What about the country Vic supporters that cannot get to training on a scooter? Don't you care about us? I think your reports are terrific, I can handle your biases. In my opinion all reporting comes with a bias, we simply learn to deal with it by compensating or ignoring. So keep up the good work, but don't forget country Victorians.

For a second there he reminded me of what some of those retired guys look like when they are playing in those "Old Man" State of Origin matches. A little less fluid in the joints is probably a good way to put it. Having said that I have no doubt about his value to the team and I suppose that preseasons would take a toll on the older guys more. I'd assume he was just pretty tired at that point and that he would be able to freshen up nicely in and around games during the season. Wouldn't take it too seriously, I'm just relaying my observations.

Really hope Roos/Goody/PJ get Crossy committed to us for 2016 in a coaching capacity, if he decides to hang up the boots. Apparently Eddie is a huge wrap for him and wants him at the Pies in a similar role.

Nice to see the Brisbane Heat put to the sword by the Melbourne Renegades.

If you are feeling at all nauseous, don't watch the footage of Tom McDonald kicking on his left foot during the Nathan Jones interview.

I'd rather not chase him now given the young midfield we're currently assembling and developing. I think it would be wiser to keep some cash spare for the years ahead. That and reckon Dom Tyson will be a better player than him.

he was a dees supporter so i guess not, od

thanks guys, it would be a boring site if we all agreed with one another. As we are seeing in France, freedom of expression is not to be undervalued. Je Suis Charlie! Or as Hemingway once wrote "we are all apprentices in a craft where no-one becomes a master."

I equate critiquing players with reviewing a movie. Actors/Directors are paid to produce entertainment that we the public pay good money to see. We discuss, criticise and applaud individuals and a performance as a whole. Football is no different. For me it is all about being constructive. Calling players wimps, spuds and hacks to me is unnecessary and serves no purpose. To suggest that Jack Watts impose himself more physically at a contest or McKenzie/Terlich improve their disposal worded respectfully is something footballer should expect as they are being paid to perform and "put on a show". I do like balance in criticism and also prefer posters who criticise but also praise when praise is earned.

As someone who has only read this forum for a long time, you could all stop sniping at each other! I have never posted until now because I don't want to be taken apart for saying the "wrong thing". I am a new Demon supporter, because a family member is in the team, I am overseas and this is the best way to find out all the news. Interesting threads go way off track because too many people take offence to differing opinions. It is ok to have differing opinions, it is not necessary to crap on and on hoping to get everyone thinking the same way as you, or knocking them for thinking differently. Quite frankly some of you are just plain nasty.

Mitch is no longer a Demon I have no care for him anymore. My interest in him is when they play us and I hope we contain him otherwise he is irrelevant to me. I wish him no personal harm nor do I wish to see him be a great success on the field at the Cats Time to move on. The old saying "You can't worry about who you haven't got, you can only worry/control those who you do have" is very appropriate in this circumstance

I heard this on the radio late last year, Clark has done the opposite to Moloney. He's gone from Brisbane to Melbourne to Geelong (Monoley did the oppositie order). What does this have to do with anything? Nothing, but I found it interesting.