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I've noticed in the last year or so that there has been a lot of stupid bickering and name calling derailing threads. I'm just asking can you please stop this rubbish? If you don't like or agree with someones opinion so much that you feel like you have to respond with insults why don't you just put them on ignore. It is becoming a chore to read through some of these threads listening to you guys throw stupid insults at each other. Dazzle, Moon, Stuie (I know there's a lot more but that's all I can think of right now) I'm talking to you guys. I enjoy reading your posts on football but for a long time it has just been you guys calling out other posters and such. I know a lot of posters are dumb and I'm probably one of them but for someone that comes here to read about Melbourne news it sucks to have to wade through pages of posts of you guys just arguing together.

He reminds me of one of the original oompa loompa's (see new avatar)

Very sad day, RIP Tassie

I like the draw, we've been given every opportunity to win 6 before the bye, and twice against the old enemy, tigers, Dons... should be something to savour there. If we can win consecutive and even get on a roll early on... the confidence will build quick in a young team. First nine games should hold few fears with GWS GIANTS (11th) Essendon (15th) North Melbourne (8th) Collingwood (12th) Richmond (5th) St Kilda (14th) Gold Coast (16th) Western Bulldogs (6th) Brisbane Lions (17th) All winnable.

The Northern Territory deal must cease.

You don't reach with early picks. The FD know who they want with this pick and if it was going to be a reach they wouldn't have bothered trading up...

I find it quite ironic that in the thread decrying bickering and insults we have littered it by insulting various posters... They mostly deserve it, but I thought I would point out the irony.

Flashback... oh dear!

I do. It is a completely ridiculous concept that is often thrown around. For a start the purpose of a fixture (i wish it was a draw) is not to reward a team for its performance in previous years - finals are the reward for success. Besides it doesn't bear scrutiny as a concept. Look at Collingwood's fixture this year. 5 Friday night games and 5 Saturday night games (we have 0 Fiiday and Sat night games btw). What is this a reward for?They played finals in 2013 but not since. By the the above logic they should be penalsied for poor performance yet are not. Essendon finished second last and get 2 Friday night games this season. Geelong had a poor season yet get a better draw this year. Carlton, despite being woeful for years got 5 night games last year. And on and on. The fixture is one of the best equalization levers the AFL has at is disposal yet every year it releases a fixture that is about tv ratings not ensuring all clubs have capacity to maximize revenue and exposure. Its a joke - and a short sighted one. Collingwood have a huge fan base which is just strengthened by prime time exposure. Yet the AFL bang on about ensuring all clubs are competitive and can grow. Well its impossible to grow without exposure. They should follow the NFL lead where the coveted Monday night slot is equally shared among all clubs, big and small - despite pressure from the broadcasters.

Hopefully a very sturdy couch,covered in plastic to avoid the need for degreasing,steam cleaning and disinfecting after victory.

You've cited four losses in games that we actually won this year...take your negativity and shove it.

No we don't. That is farked logic. It is our right as a fundamental tenet of the competition to have an equitable draw. Stop the bulltish about 'we have to earn it'. It is incredibly difficult to improve our financial position when we don't have marqee games, friday night games, games against crowd drawing Melbourne clubs, televised games in peak time etc. As it stands West Coast and Coll spend $300k a week - a week - more than us on their footy departments. That is massive in terms of player development, recover, training methods, coaching etc. They get that because the have better stadium deals, get more televised games etc. The current system simply entrenches the existing status quo. 7 out of the last 9 grand findals have been won by 3 teams. If that is equalisation, I'll eat my hat. The competition is rigged. Even Carlton had 6 Friday night games and 2 Saturday night games this year, totally undeserved. We need to fight for an equitable draw and better stadium deals to get on a level playing field.

So they play Brisbane 4 times?

Yeah, and while we will be resting half of our best 22 for the finals as well. Squibs.

We've been "one of only two Victorian teams to travel to Geelong" every year for the past 20 years.

The worst thing about the AFL fixture is teams playing each other twice before not playing other teams once. I hate it.

RORY SLOANE DRAFT STATS: Date of birth: 17/3/90 Height: 182cm Weight: 76kg Club: Eastern Ranges NAT FYFE DRAFT STATS: Height: 186cm Weight: 73kg DOB: 18/09/91 Recruited from: Aquinas College/Claremont DARCY PARISH DRAFT STATS: Height: 181cm, Weight: 73kg, DOB: 25/07/1997 Recruited from: Geelong Falcons SKINNY? SMALL? PLEASE. WE WANT FOOTBALLERS, HE IS ONE. DON'T JUDGE HIM BY WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE.

Sorry to say one of our 'Greats', Bob 'Tassie' Johnson has sadly passed. RIP "Tas" ... and thanks for the great inspiration as a player. you do us proud.

Won't say no to playing Norf at Bellerive though. My kids may just attend their first AFL match.

Thanks for putting this up....outststanding...

The man was a hero for many in my generation. He could play in the ruck and up forward but he was peerless when he was at full back. Those drop kicks would often hit the centre of the ground and of course, he was always a feature of the World of Sport kicking competition. I can still see Bruce Andrew with hair neatly parted in the middlle, lifting the board to show he was awarding Tassie 9 out of 10 for one of his kicks. Vale Tassie and condolences to his family.

What a shockingly uninformed comment. Round 23 on a Sunday (Fathers Day) at 1:10pm against a pathetic club like GWS in a year when we had played poorly in the second half. Great scheduling. But keep blaming your fellow supporters who pay their money for memberships each year. I buy 6 memberships each year and if I choose not to go its none of your stinking business. Maybe I might not buy memberships next year and see how the club goes.

I can cop most of it, but playing a home game against St Kilda, at their home ground is truly horrible decision making. The one home game a year at Etihad is really pissing me off.

Couldn't care less about the fixture. Only good thing is that we play most of our games at the G in the early rounds which we should take advantage of and come out with a bang. 'If it is to be, it is up to me.' (Us).....

Hopefully Freo will revert back to their steady state of crappiness by the time Jesse's contract is up for renewal.

I'm just happy the king of peanuts Rhino Richards is gone.

Are we totally sure hogans_heroes/Petraccattack isn't Yze Magic?

I can now answer my own question about the number of Bombers left at the club and still facing possible sanctions as a result of next month's CAS hearing - Essendon home to just 13 of original 34 players facing WADA appeal ahead of hearing So it has come to pass that an adverse decision at the final hearing of the charges will not be such a disaster for the Bombers' playing list and the club will now certainly be able to soldier on but paradoxically, Essendon, through its lack of transparency and its determination to stave off a full and open hearing into what happened at the club in 2012 has caused much of the damage. I think the AFL is also accountable for some of this when, in its haste to avoid the embarrassment of having Essendon in the 2013 finals dealt with that club inappropriately and before the investigation was finalised. Yes, and there were people at ASADA who also dropped the ball. This should all have been long over - the victims of the delay are the club and the players ... and of course Hird himself is gone as coach but should face further repercussions before this long and sorry saga is done and dusted for good.

I Disagree

Alice Springs is no hotter than Brisbane or Perth in winter - great climate. And it a 2.5-3 hour flight, less than Perth, not 5. But I agree that the Darwin game should always preceded the bye. Only fair to both teams involved. But fairness has never been part of AFL thinking.

What an ordinary fixture. We'll make finals because of that.

Terrible draw No Friday nights, only playing Carlton and Brisbane once, playing St Kilda at Etihad both times, again Geelong in Geelong, Hawthorn twice. 4 home games at the G against away teams. Absolutely rubbish draw. I just don't understand how the AFL can get away with this bias scheduling. From both a financial and a footy perspective, this is bad. The footy results should be up to us to control, but financially it is hard to make a buck when they make us play Gold Coast, GWS and Adelaide at the G. Not to mention our own decision to play in Darwin, which always comes back to bite us. P.S.- even after beating Geelong in Geelong last year, they still couldn't give us the chance to play them at the G. [censored] joke.

Kinda funny approaching the draft this year ( for me ) . In past years its been the most interesting aspect almost for the year...that fleeting 15mins of hope etc. This year , however, I find myself strangely ambivalent. Yeah, great , we have 3 and 7 and hopefully that produces something of note as well it might but I now see myself finding greater hope in what we already have. This is new territory for me. I think I might not be entirely alone here either. Again I marvel at the dedication of some as regards following all the little tackers through the various under age comps and poring over the profiles etc. In past years I like many have had an opinion on this player or that and where we've come a cropper have been only to happy to add my voice if due and warranted to a chorus of disdain. Over the next seasons I will have to keep something of a back seat as to our selections this year for I really know very little about the choices. About the only thing that fuels a point of view is do we go the old line 'best available" or go for the "best-suited" Ive always really been a member of the best -suited camp and see little to dissuade me. I may differ with others simply for believing best suited means two good prospects at midfielders.. Time will tell I suppose. Given we have 2 in the top 10 I cant see how we can stray too far from teh path of getting someone(s) half way able. The trend at the club it to focus on core ability and footy nouse now. The "talent -athletic ability " style projects may be catered differently as per the Joel Smith situation. I've long held the suspicion that the Beep testing and all its associated mumbo jumbo is only just this side of selling snake-oil. How often do we see players and the commentary goes along .." he's not terribly fast but always seems to find space " How do these tests account for effective decision making ? The metrics for this convoluted stats makers are about numbers. That's all well and good but it strikes me as the same chasm of understanding between linear physics and chaos theories. This also goes to the idea of how we think which is organic in nature. The game of footy is as much about instinct as it is physical prowess. Im hoping the club will look to those kids who exhibit good football skills and playing styles Interesting ( to me ) that the only time Hogans name appears on the leaders sheets of the 2012 draft camp are on 4 occasions see http://www.topendsports.com/sport/afl/testing-draft-results-2012.htm equal 9th beep /shuttle equal 10th on 3km trial He can run up and down and play for periods is what this tells me..has something of a tank.. thats actually useful to know Not to be seen on the kicking efficiency nor the jumping. He was amongst the heaviest ( whatever that can allude to ) and has big mits !! Also interesting to look at those lists and see how many of the top 10's havent really aspired to much..A few have bu I think like hogan its simply because they can PLAY FOOTY WELL and thats what Id like to see 3 and & used for ...two lads who can play footy well. So much else can be thrown at them in terms of resources etc but if you cant get the pill nor use it effectively nothing else matters. Ill be interested to see who we do select but I really do have a higher faith faith in the club at being able to determine our needs and find the footballers to assume that role. I Have misgiving in some others areas but as far as come 3 and 7...I really have no idea...nor care that much , in so far as preference or likings for any particular player. One thing i do expect is........to see very little of either in 2016 !! go Dees

FINALLY A QLD GAME!!!

We leave Victoria once in first 12 weeks to play the GCS. Many winnable games. Did I count 4 interstate away games for the year? I think the fixture is fine, if we're good enough we can easily pencil in 10 wins. If we go on a jeff farmer rampage we'll get 12-14max Famous last words though, plenty of teams wanting to rebound. The fixture is only terrible if you're biased enough to think there is only one club that needs taking care of, there are 18. Many who finished high this year and have worse schedules, clubs who didnt do as well that now have better schedules. We need to play well this year to get favourable prime time drawing spots, then we need to play well for 5+ years and increase membership base for more prime time spots. Otherwise its an unreasonable request that doesn't fit into the reality of afl marketing. Look at Adelaides schedule for perspective, they play the top teams for the first 10 weeks.. and still continue to play more. If they're not up to it they could only get 8-10 wins max if they beat sides down the bottom only.

Chin up big guy. He loves being a Dee.

We don't play Carlton until round 22 We don't play Geelong till round 23 Its beyond a joke.

So we play a home game against St Kilda at Etihad on a Saturday, while the MCG is free on the Friday night... Is the AFL retarded? 1. No home game against Essendon or Carlton (again) 2. North in Hobart 3. Home game at Etihad 4. 3 MCG home games against interstate clubs at shocking time slots 5. St Kilda twice at Etihad 6. Three away games to close out the season. 7. Geelong in Geelong. Again.

Starting to look like the same fixture year in, year out, with a bit of tinkering. Commercially it's disaster except for QB and Anzac eve. Thanks Ch 7 for freeing my Friday nights....every cloud has a silver lining. Loosing GF side in Darwin! I'm a 0% chance of fronting up for 3rd trip to Darwin

Seriously. Have been having a think about him and whether or not we'd be tempted to pick him at 7 if we go with one of Curnow, Francis or Weideman with pick 3. I understand why he's not being talked up as a top 10 draft pick but as far as elite skills, agility, football smarts and general lording go, he'd have to be top one or two surely. He is Cyril's nephew and he looks like he could be every bit as good. The question then becomes: Will he? Here's a little story. I used to play footy for Old Scotch in the Amo's, (the school in which Cyril boarded) and a handful of the blokes I played with either finished in the same year, played school footy with him or were mates with him. A particular conversation that remains with me was the story of why a player with his elite football skills and athletic capabilities went outside the top 10 in the draft and basically there were two main reasons. The well documented one being that some of his combine test results were less than satisfactory and had made recruiters question his work ethic and application. But the more significant reason and one that still makes me smirk is that during the interview process with clubs at the combine, he'd choose (depending on which club it was) to either present really well or to present really poorly. And this, (so I was told) was the main reason he wasn't picked up before Hawthorn and Hawthorn was where he was keen to go to. Now whether you choose to believe it or not, I don't mind. However, it certainly gives me a bit of perspective, (albeit from a sit-at-home draft expert) when assessing potential 'risk' factors involved in taking a player who certainly hasn't 'dominated' numbers wise at TAC cup or Nationals level. As they say, we're assessing these kids on the players they'll become, not what they already are. Daniel Rioli has elite AFL traits and attributes. He is the type of player that we are genuinely crying out for. He is as talented as his uncle. He performed unbelievably well at the draft combine unlike Cyril. Unfortunately I don't know what his strategy was during interviews... I think our list and club are now in the position to draft a player like him, (who doesn't have favourably comparable numbers to the other highly rated players being spoken about). I think it's time we take someone with his talent levels and develop him into the player we hope he could become. It seems a long shot, but I'm convinced. (That handball at 38 secs. GTFO.)

Worse fixture in a long time.. St Kilda at ES twice!? Hawthorn twice, Geelong at skilled stadium..again!

I hope my royalty cheque is in the mail!

Louie I clearly remember both AD and someone else from the AFL coming out before the Dons saga started being highly concerned about the input of 'sports scientists' and there decision stumping club doctors. It was raised at an AFL medico's forum if I also recall. They don't appear to have acted until after the horse has bolted with a sly phone call to Ess just prior to the blackest day in sport.

It is an Australian characteristic I reckon. We're taught from a young age that our opinion matters. We're encouraged to vigorously express our opinion with little regard for someone expressing an alternative view. We're encouraged not to back down and think that shooting the messenger will somehow win us points. We lack empathy for alternative points of view and many of us maintain a superiority complex that is staggering. Australians overseas get a reputation for being know-alls and being ridiculously aggressive in expressing our often ill-thought out opinions. Demonland is no different to Australian society.

This is based on absolutely nothing but I have a good feeling about Joel

Every good team has good, or at least reasonable players, at places 22-30. Some stagnate there, and contribute when asked, and some move upwards to best 22. Players (maybe other than the occasional tall) filling these rankings need to have more than one string to their bow so can't expect to "own" a specific position. Without these versatile back ups teams struggle as the season wears on. Some posters here seem to expect that every player on the list of 40 should be best 22. Maybe maths isn't their strong point.JKH is at least in that 22-30 range, better than several of last year's "depth players". Some seem to love to name anyone not best 22 (or even 18) as "spuds" or "duds"!

He reminds me of a young Bert Newton.

Reminds me of a young Jonno Brown

In hindsight, potentially the worst post in DL history. Toumpas and Garlett instead of Hogan... the club would have been dissolved by now if Olisik was in charge of recruiting.

I've rarely seen a draftee likened to a current player actually turn out like that player.