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A terrific story has just come to light about a young boy from Hobart with muscular dystrophy who follows the Demons ,and Petracca ,when he saw him at training took hm around to all the boys and took him on a tour of aami park had lunch with the boys and got Hogan to autograph a pair of his boots to give to him. Doesnt stop there as Petracca became friends with the lad on social media and kept in touch and got him a room pass when we played North in Tassie. Not long after Petracca was picked to play against the saints ,one of the first things he did was pay for two tickets ,with his own money,to fly the boy and his dad over for the game. Brings a tear to the eye. Talk about recruiting guys with character....what an absolute legend!

At training yesterday, William (7) and I were on the boundary watching Christian & Jeffy having shots from the boundary, when Christian dropped the F-bomb after missing one. Now, my son has heard plenty of colourful language and he wouldn't have even noticed it, but Christian came up and apologised for saying it in front of Will and gave him a high 5 and proceeded to stop having his shots and took a few minutes out to find out who we were and where we were from. After Will told him we'd come over from Adelaide and saw both Casey and Melbourne on the weekend but had to go home straight after training he said "I'll try my hardest on Saturday and when we sing the song we'll make sure you can hear it all the way over in Adelaide" The kid is a ripping young man indeed!

I've got it and I'm 38 in July. Would it be too much pressure to message Christian and ask him to hurry up with the premiership?

Didn't mean any offence Middymalt. I've got muscular dystrophy, and a sense of humour, both of them are pretty messed up.

When I played - think Simon Godfrey disposal, Tony Libratore marking, Aaron Sandilands pace, and the heart of Joel Bowden - I was the complete package

Whilst no where near as interesting as the other stories, I met him with my 4 y.o. son on Grand Final day. We had our dees gear on, so naturally he made a bee-line for us. He spent a good 5 minutes just chatting to my son, he is fantastic with kids - really relates to them on their level. Needless to say he's got a fan for life. My son was worried about his broken toe, and has asked every week when he will be playing for the dees. Needless to say he is very excited that he is playing tomorrow and will be proudly wearing his No.5 jumper!

Jeff must be an absolute priority. Close to the premier small forward in the competition and our forward line looks infinitely better with him in it.

Typical North, want to have their cake and eat it too. Just like Port wanting the China deal but refusing to give up a local home game. Flogs.

This whisper makes no sense to me. There is zero ambiguity on our coaching structure going forward. Roos is going - contract will expire - Goodwin will coach - a contract in place. I would be gobsmacked if there was any significant movement in the coaching structure at all.

I still think Dawes' best is better than that of the other two. If he can get his body right he's still best 22 for mine.

Apparently Freo have signed Nat Fyffe's younger brother, Owen Fyffe.......................0 and 5 I'll go now,.

We scattered the detritus there to represent St. Kilda players.

Some of you seriously underate Pederson. Dawes could not have done half the things that Pedo has so far this year

How about that. A good person/footballer with talent that isn't a cokehead or borderline rapist. I feel like we stumbled across a unicorn.

Pederson is Blue Collar no doubt. But he gives 110% every game. Forward or back watch a replay of the games this year. Focus on Pederson throughout. Number 21 is always competing Very underrated worker.

I know it's not our home ground but it's our home game. Past home matches the crowd hasn't been great and that is mainly due to the teams performance. But we need the fans to get there tomorrow and make it loud like it was last week. We are playing some good footy at the moment and shock horror we are winning and going for our 3rd in a row. Petracca will be making his debut which will be exciting. It would just be great to see a lot of red and blue.

Sharpest I've ever seen on here. It's a gift.

Maybe we could have a Melbourne Academy covering all of Melbourne. Following on from the others, it seems fair and reasonable.

My cousin died of muscular dystrophy around 14 years ago , coming from a small family it was a devasting experience that lasted 20 years, I remember at the time my auntie told me the federal government contribution to find a cure was around $50,000 lousy bucks a year, I hope that's changed I know Darren Bennets son also suffers from it it's horrendous disease that holds no prisoners my cousin lasted to the age of 22 and that's a fair lifespan from someone suffering it, well done Christain your all class.

http://www.aflplayers.com.au/article/petracca-looks-after-his-little-mate/

Fun stat. If 61% of the 4,289 Demonland members bought some form of MFC membership pkge, 40,000 would be ticked off. Yes...it's lunch period.

Football is more than just a game. Great effort by CP5, the club and most importantly, by the boy and his dad.

Has been a gem. Thanks Mick M

Some interesting stats (from the Hun today, but Champion data is the source). You don't win games of footy without a midfield and finally we are getting some clearances. FINALS CONTENDERS? HOW THE DEMONS HAVE IMPROVED STATISTIC 2016 2015 2014 Contested possessions +7.6 (6th) -1.0 (11th) -1.5 (12th) Inside 50s +0.8 (8th) -9.0 (15th) -11.6 (18th) Goals per inside 50 29% (3rd) 23% (15th) 21% (18th) Mark play on % 39.5% (5th) 31.7% (17th) 27.6% (17th) Points scored 101.8 (5th) 71.5 (16th) 60.7 (18th) Points from turnover -5.4 (11th) -9.0 (13th) -16.5 (17th) Points from stoppages +11.0 (4th) -12.7 (17th) 11.7 (16th) Number of stoppages 59.8 (8th) 76.3 (3rd) 74.0 (1st) Hit outs to advantage +5.6 (2nd) +0.2 (7th) -0.2 (10th) Clearances +3.2 (4th) -3.5 (16th) -4.7 (18th)

http://www.aflplayers.com.au/article/petracca-looks-after-his-little-mate/ Another article.

It's a decoy. The beard is to provide some shade for Oliver from the sun.

It looks likes Matt Jones goes in for Jake Gains so Jones' gain in Gains' loss.

Not sure why everyone is so critical of Freo / Ross Lyon. If Sylvia just has a good pre-season they will be alright.

WTF did I just read?

I have no problems limiting the number of young kids in the team who are struggling to play 80%+ TOG. With limited rotations, no subs and a fast Etihad track, we are one mid game injury away from disaster. Hunt, Wagner and Trac make for enough inexperience. You bring in two more mids in Oliver and Brayshaw and it's simply a risk we don't need right now Yes it's a strange feeling, but we are not in a rebuild mode anymore. We are obviously trying to win and make finals and we need to have the fitest and most in form team out there, not put development of kids as our top priority. It's a nice change.

I think you underrate him.

So you are saying that the program has changed with a change in focus from running to football. I got into a conversation with David Misson in January and asked that exact question and he said exactly the opposite. His answer was if anything they were running more in preseason ( excluding draftees and rehabs) because after 3 preseasons they were fitter and needed to be fitter. He did say we are not running more in terms of time spent running but running harder/faster/more intensity than we have ever done before. He said we were light years behind other teams in terms of fitness and it would take 3 preseasons to catch up. He also said we were doing about the same amount of football work. I also asked him the question about soft tissue injuries and he suggested that each season a general running program is designed and it has been upped every season but special consideration is given to players with a history of soft tissue injuries - that is why they have reload days at training and put players in the rehab group more than others. They have been careful with Dawes but even that didn't help. So from what he said I don't think the injuries early in the piece were from too much running - injuries happen.

If you want to listen to an amazing story ... get on SEN with Andy Maher and listen to him talk to Mick Peters about his son Lucas & Christian Petracca. It will nearly bring a tear to the eye ... http://www.sen.com.au/audio#10FDmzK3ihsCLGAI.97

Harvey, Thomas and Brad Scott - a lot to dislike

This thread. From feel good, to close to home humour, to plain old morbid in the space of two pages.

I read somewhere that Nev Jetta is about to re-sign too. Good signs all round.

If Jesse isn't clear what the coaching structure will be next year, he'd have to be a little bit thick.

Freo are in a similar boat to where we were early in 2007. Went into the season thinking that at worst we were in the finals mix and then it all went horribly wrong after 1/4 time Round 1. Freo are in a little better position in that they still have some good young players like Fyfe, Neale & Bennell (although he could be a cancer). But like us in 2007, they wont be able to fully start their rebuild until the end of the year. Makes for a long season!

Pedersen is a significantly better overhead mark which he uses to great effect especially down back. It seems like every week he clunks a big pack mark at the top of our defensive goal square. Pederden also provides much more service in the ruck than dawes and over the last 12 months put some good form together (injuries not withstanding)

St Kilda supporters on Bigfooty saying we rely too much on our older players. Oh, the sweet irony.

Very intriguing match for sure. Could be the top 2 after Round 6, but funnily enough I dont see either team playing off in the GF

No, he has it. All the power to you, DA.

Completely agree WYL. One look at the 20 goals clip on the website will show you he was involved in many of them, not to mention the work in the backline when giving Gawn a rest. In time, Weid will hopefully become the other KPF we need which will add to the competition for forward spots. It will be interesting to see if Dawes can leave the rehab cycle behind and recover fitness and in form. Needs to bang the door down hard, I can't see that happening anytime soon.

Funny how Max says he has a long beard 'to stand out'. Like a guy 208cm tall needs to do something else to stand out.

Wow Mick's mind is definitely starting to fail him now. What a stupid thing to say. I don't care if you're a soup kitchen volunteering, kitten saving, stand up guy; if you elbow someone in the back of the head on a footy field while he is lying on the ground defenceless then you deserve weeks. The MRP made the right call on this, stuff like this has no place in the game. And if Mick thinks Rance should've got a free pass for his cheap shot then maybe Mick doesn't have a place either.

Nutbean, you might want to re-think this ambiguous language. The image of Oliver playing at Picket's standard is a bit frightening. Hopefully Picket can agree this time.

He provides pressure on Pedo and Frost to keep performing. If they fail to do that then he gets his chance. Nothing you already knew.

The term "not impressed" tends to suggest that he thinks he's being hard done by. I could understand if he's disappointed, because most players are when they're dropped. But his form to date doesn't warrant being "not impressed".

The current cap has achieved what they set out to achieve. Further changes are completely unnecessary and just highlight the backwards approach of the commission in believing that they are there to be in charge of the game rather than to facilitate it.