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I don't believe anything till Fox news tells me it's true.

you're excused dazzle. you're not getting paid to post

If he carries his preseason form through to the season proper then the Tyson/Salem trade is starting to look pretty good Damien....

Exactly what I was about to type - he's a 'little ripper' this kid. Recruiting Lewis, Hibberd and Melksham now allows several of our players to play roles they are probably naturally more suited to. In the case of Salem, I think that's in the midfield regularly floating forward. He's a smart player and his disposal is elite. Bodes super well for the future.

Even Weideman threads are Watts threads now?

I hate Choo Chho. His name should be Clearance Oliver.

It was very anticlimactic. They were congratulatory and expressed their admiration for the way the club had rebuilt. I was both magnanimous and humble when they wondered why SOS had recruited the likes of Palmer and Smedts and then went into a tirade about losing Ediie Betts, Jeff Garlett and now Zach Toohey. I nodded and said, "I know the feeling". The food tasted magnificent.

SOS recruited Kristian Jaksch. Twice.

Carlton are questioning the MRP as to why Viney was not suspended after his head hurt Murphy's hand.

The Weed will be kicked out of the forward's club for handballing to Viney in the goalsquare when he should have torped it 60m into the Casey Fields carpark!

Lost me... Is he a shark or a coconut? When I lived in Darwin palm fronds took out more tourists than crocs. Those buggers were deadly from 10 meters up. But seriously... we have a great backman. And backmen live under the worst pressure. A forward kicks 1.5 and we say 'if only'. A back man saves 10 goals and then screws up in a howler it's all we talk about. Tmac is a blessing to our club and we'd be a lot worse off without him. *Spoken as the rep of the defenders: CHB, Keeper, and Goalie

Give the journo a break. It's just alternative facts.

I dont mind this Bump at all as it shows how far we have come in 4 years. I dont understand the need to attack someone for doing so as well. It also show how resilient and tough Melbourne supporters are for sticking it out because this journey is about to get a whole lot sweeter. It would have been easy to give up after the Essendon debacle a week after but we all stuck at it and now we about to reap the rewards. Good on everyone for sticking fat on this incredibly tough journey we have been on.

Get off his back or I'll smash ya.Just remember the game v GC Scums at the G.Cool as a cucumber-the rest of our team were spuds that day.

Wondering if I can talk about Tom McDonald here?

On that basis, I suppose 3rd in the B&F in a middle rung side is fairly average too. Even though that dude dominated the competition and was named the All Australian ruckman.

Fork 'em, Watts had a very good season last year, not an average one. Even the biggest Watts' critics accept that.

Salem was hard as nails as a junior. Hard at it and a fierce tackler. He possesses all the right attributes to make it as a midfielder. It is just that his body allows him to play that role this year, whereas in the past he was a bit undeveloped and had an illness. Will be a gun mid. Was always going to be the case eventually.

I was at the game yesterday and this (last hour) has been the first chance I've had to read this thread. There are two things I'd like to add to the discussion: Firstly, it was amazing to see three loose Melbourne players in our forward fifty when a couple of years ago we had trouble getting the ball inside fifty. Secondly, I want to praise Jesse Hogan for his character during an incident before the game. During his goal kicking warm up, he kicked a ball that hit a child in the crowd. The child went running off into the crowd to his parents while Hogan dropped his practice and followed the child to make sure he was okay. Hogan from the fence, called over the child to speak to him which he did. Not only during play is Jesse a champion. P.S. Go Dees!

He's just a very clever footballer. A case in point was his little knock on in the first term that allowed Salem to kick a goal - it was only a small thing, but purely instinctive and showed that his footy IQ is very high. Alongside Petracca he has the biggest ceiling of the youngsters on the list, and if he keeps working hard to improve then the sky is the limit.

I'd rather our young kids all came down with chronic fatigue syndrome in round 15 than ever become anything like Richmond.

I guess if it was chess or darts, then yes, two matches.

Calling them journalists does a disservice to all genuine journalists. The greats of the past must turn in their graves. They are paid to write stories and have no concern about their sources or the accuracy of the information. They are inept and lazy. Just think about it. If they were good journos would they be footy scribes. Like seagulls scrabbling for a feed.

I believe the club asks Saty not post on Demonland so everyone just believes no training took place.

Just increased the numbers by two - a full mcc/mfc premium membership with a complimentary junior membership Young Sam has an exciting period in front of him and can't wait to see the Dees in action this year Go Demons!!!!!!!

I hate Carlton.

Why?

Bump. The effect on the local Womens and Girls leagues up here in Canberra is double the amount of players at training then at the same point last year...

Goodwin's picked up all his coaching acumen from Roos AND his media foot print.... Do you really, really think he's going to tell the media anythink? Roos was the master of talking for 20 minutes and giving away zero, internal thinking.

The figure I'm sticking to is 42-43,000 based on the increase over last year and the fact that in the past few years the major increase seems to happen right at the beginning and is just maintained not increased through to the end. However, I'm a bit more optimistic this year based on an expected improvement in our performances in the pre season and early part of the season. We'll see. There's still a lot of previous members who didn't sign up last year. As PJ has said in the past, the Club broke their confidence and has to win it back. I would say they should have gone a long way to doing that now and those people have a lot more of a reason to come on board now.

I think there are free thinkers and followers on both sides Wrecker. None of us has exclusivity on the rational nor the idiotic. I'm just as embarrassed by Social Justice Warriors as you are no doubt by Birthers.

AF do we have to wait another 18,000 years for the cup?

Who's paying you?

This kid just needs to consistently play, He could be our best midfielder come 2018/19. As hard as viney and he is as skilled as Watts. Need an inside mid?, Salem can do it, Need some foot skills on the outside? Salem can do it. We only have 1 other midfielder who is skilled enough to do that... and he has spent his whole career up untill now at Hawthorn. Give Salem a really good run at it. I still have pretty hopes.

Availability Heuristic: vivid events effect our judgement more than less-memorable events. It's why we think shark attacks are a greater risk than falling coconuts. Also, the difference in how we assess the seriousness of back vs forward line clangers reflects our inbuilt aversion to loss in comparison to equivalent gain. Turnovers in the backline are potentially much more costly. There's a PhD in Behavioural Economics here for someone. (Agree about Harmes.)

I'm going to quote myself because the AFLWL isn't as popular as it could be yet. The Dees are flying and could easily play off in the GF. Get on the girls. We beat Carlton and are in it to win it. Go Dees

I coached the seconds at Ainslie last year and the amount of times I had to say to young blokes "you got dropped form the 1s, who gives a [censored]," was eye opening... We have built up this pervasive fear of the slightest bit of failure, that someone has to address getting 'dropped' from pre-season games on the national news! If you are looking for an example of a player that can be dropped multiple times, stay strong and make a career for himself and play some top quality footy, you don't have to look very far - Jack Watts is a fine example! The genius of Watts has taken ages and he seems to take a leap forward and then he dithers, shows fiery brilliance and a blip of indifference, brings the house down, and then lets himself down. But it is the trying times like these that seem to define him, or at least he defines them. With every criticism, and there have been plenty here, he has eschewed them and continued on, and he will do it again in 2017. He's Jack Watts. I'm Malcolm Gladwell and this was Revisionist History. (Note: It's a really good podcast)

Jones has a bit of a deadly left foot on him these days which is remarkable considering where he came from

Salem with be in our top players whatever position he plays in. The main reason Roos played him in the back line is because we didn't have the right people to play there. Anyway, it was good for his development. We now have several players who can be attacking and accurate out of the backline so don't see a reason for him to play back again. He is much more dangerous around the middle and forward.

Salem is absolutely a midfielder. Its laughable that people say he doesn't possess hardness.... You've obviously been watching a different Salem, he's strong at the contest and his skills are superior to Jones, Viney and co. I guess it's yet to be seen whether he possess' the consistency to win enough football through the midfield but I'm genuinely excited by his skill set. The guy is improving and he looks a natural goal kicking midfielder.

I was one of those people. It was never about his ability, he is clearly a very talented footballer. It was because he could never get on the park. It doesn't matter if you're Chris Judd, if you play less than 10 games a year on average then you're of no use. I'm glad he's playing well and I hope he continues to play well and stay fit and healthy. He deserves a good run at it to build some form and show everyone what he can do. I like him in the midfield and forward. He's a liability down back, teams would often target his opponent for attacking forays (source: opposition coaches) as he was poor in defensive one on one contests and often caught on the wrong side of his opponent or losing body contacts at crucial times. In the midfield he is tough, fast and skilled. Love him there and resting forward as he can chip in with a few goals. He's got a great balance of inside and outside skill. If he can stay fit he'll be one of our best midfielders for years to come. Hoping he turns into a harder version of Adem Yze.

I'm just happy he's still playing for Melbourne, there were more than a few who wanted to trade him last year and regarded him as just trade bait. Salem will be a star I said it then and I'll say it again, questions over his hardness are just ridiculous, he gets his own ball and uses it better than most in the side, that goal he kicked from the wrong pocket yesterday shows that.

Who are you ???? ???

After a decade of a firmly fastened lid it is off in my household. We have a vastly superior side to four years ago and I am confident we will win 13+ games in 2017. Sorry a small delay I just threw the lid over the back fence. GO DEES.

Quite comfortable with this now. He obviously needed a refresher course in maintaining training standards and received it. It's a shame he needed it, but I reckon Macca is on the money with his "block-head" concept (even if the term itself is questionable) - it's clear Watts doesn't have the singular drive that the likes of Viney have. I don't begrudge that - I see drive as a trait just as inherent as talent - you have it or you don't. The important thing is that Goodwin and co continue to work with Watts to ensure the standards remain high rather than "disciplining" him, which is hopefully what is happening here.

True, he'll be fine. But will he be a better player for it?? Doubtful I'd say. He'll just be behind, having not played the pre-season games. He's best 22 and available, so I certainly hope he plays rd1.

Nut-free and a crowd of Demon supporters sounds impossible to me ...

Last year was a genuine development year and we saw players promoted before having genuinely earned their spots (Hunt, Wagner, McDonald) and we saw others with no future but good form miss out. This year is not a development year, this year is a year to get our best possible result. I fully support playing Weideman in all practice games - at some point he will be a permanent feature and he could have been this year if he'd shown something. But in two games he's had 12 possessions and one contested mark and kicked two "joe the goose" goals. Yesterday, when we dominated the game, he was ineffectual as a tall forward. If he plays against Saints they will have a low risk player to combat and that will allow them to put more resources to Hogan. Watts must play round 1, if he doesn't we aren't serious. For all the talk I don't get the Watts situation. He's effectively had a two match penalty for "not showing the appropriate intensity at training" but "has done very well at training for 3 or so weeks". What on earth happened to let it get to a situation that meant an appropriate penalty was at least 2 games? Watts is not a rebellious difficult person. He's a guy who is continually seeking advice and feedback. How could it have got to a stage that he's at risk of missing? The club have GPS data on every training session. They have 2km time trial data and they would have weights data and probably a whole lot more. Did nobody tell Watts he wasn't training hard enough and that if he didn't lift his game he'd not be selected? I'm befuddled (I love that word) by the situation. On other selection decisions I think Garlett will play. It was a 3 to 4 week injury and he had 5 weeks to go. He doesn't need match practice he just needs to be switched on. Kent and Tyson, assuming they play next week will get two games under their belt as they'll play for Casey the week before the season proper. And Spencer doesn't get a spot R1 on Etihad.

Wouldn't have thought Tommy Mac would drum up so much conversation after a 9 goal win, but here we are. Defensively, he's terrific. Get's led to the ball on occasion but is only rarely beaten in one on one situations, and he is deceptively quick off the mark as well. It's not often you see a bag of goals kicked on him. What it comes down to is his decision making. His kicking is not necessarily that bad, but he almost backs himself too much and at times says to himself 'I can pin point a pass to a teammate 40 metres away through 4 opposition players', when really he should just look for the outlet up the ground to a 50/50 contest. It's made to look worse than other turnovers as they are in the back half where the damage is far greater. If he learned to ignore the 'riskier' kicks, especially the ones where he looks to bring the ball in board and you can't help but look away in fear, then discussion around his disposal and 'clangers' wouldn't happen.