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Could be worse, they could ask you to marry a Thai Bride like Demonland.com keeps telling me to do.

Demonland: "I wish the club could get a BOJ sponsor." Also Demonland: "I wish the club would stop promoting sponsors to me."

Looked like a craft session, with the Casey guys from Sunday doing a half paced recovery The rest did a number of drills specific to their role in the team ie midfield stoppage work, defenders spoiling, forwards running patterns etc Frost and Wagner did bits and pieces with Frost doing the most, had his usual speed back so not far off No sign of Hibberd Gawn spent a lot of time niggling the mids and got a couple of whacks for his trouble Hogan looks like a caged animal waiting to be released which is only a good thing Lewis proved to me he is human with a couple of ordinary kicks with his right during a drill where they had to use non preferred

The rumour about this Achilles strain is that it was first twinged on the cobbled alleyways of Pamplona ,fleeing horned animals. Could be some bull involved in this rumour. He is running with it however.

Interested to know if you think the club are doing ANYTHING right? Have a look at your posting history, you have; - Given a whack to the club for using Jones as part of marketing - Given Goodwin a huge whack for not playing Trengove (or just taking him to Perth with no intention of playing him), for the way he introduced the co-captaincy, the way the Watts situation was handled, and for playing Spencer in the JLT (FMD). - Implied that the McCartney article had a hidden agenda of him putting his name out there for potential senior jobs that will no doubt rise this year - Think that the club is disrespecting the club by not telling us the full extent of Hibberd's injury All of that just in the past hour. Cheer up champ. The season is about to begin, and with any luck, it's going to be longer than normal for us.

As much as we can play it down, and say its only for 4 points, and there is 20+ other rounds, etc. It's just BS. This game is so important. Its season defining stuff. We win and we will start to believe we are on the way.

It will be nearly as big a mistake leaving Dom out as it is putting Spencer in... Our midfield on JLT form comprises of Oliver, Gawn and some inconsistent support performances. You are getting way ahead of yourself if you think our midfield is up to scratch without Tyson...

I get the impression it hurt him but hes so professional he's found the positives in it. Personally i feel its more an elevation of viney than anything about jonesy

So what? We have to do everything like Hawthorn and Geelong? Times change and clubs are different in their approach. Just because a club does it one way doesn't mean we need to as well. Nathan Jones is a big boy - he was disappointed at first, but clearly got over it pretty quick. If he can get over a decision that affects him so quickly then we can too. I don't get the worry or problem with this at all.

The guys who played at Casey on Sunday had a recovery day direct from Tyson, Nev Jetta all left track early

Ben Guthrie‏Verified account @BenGuthrie_ 5m5 minutes ago Plenty of talk about Watts leaving track early. 'Flush run' day for players who played for Casey on Sun. Different program to main group.

Is there anybody there, said the traveler knocking on the moonlit door and his horse in the silence champed the grasses of the forest's ferny floor. ( Robert Louis Stevensen.)

Goodwin is a very competitive bloke. Probably told jones about viney just before addressing a crucial drive

Just a little rumor I heard from a source close to the club. Goodwin was originally planning to have Jones as sole captain. Jones started to play really well in the round of golf and looked like being the first player to beat Goodwin. Goody has a great relationship with the boys and knew that Nath doesn't get phased by a normal sledge. He threw the Viney Co-Captain at him and Jones cracked the sads. 2 double bogeys from Chunk and Goody remains unbeaten in golf. Just shows what a great coach he is. He knows how the boys tick.

Tyson will not be picked for Saturday's game and here is why: - Positionally speaking, he offers the least when compared to most of our mids and given he's played one awful JLT match and one Casey game in which he hardly dominated, I'm not sure why everyone thinks he's a lock for round 1. He is both out of form and underdone and is competing against a young midfield brigade who have had full summers and played the majority of the JLT with at least one really good performance. - We don't need another slow two-way running ball extractor injected into an already fairly one-paced midfield against a fast St Kilda side on a fast deck. Especially when he has no form behind him. - Tyson would have been a lock a couple of years ago in this particular position due to the lack of depth and talent our midfield had. Clearly we're a completely different midfield and it's now our strength. I honestly don't know why most have him locked.

Look at the bright side, we havent gone about convincing people it was dog related

He's not long come on. Was initially upset about being made co-captain. He was asked about Watts, still no straight answer. No decision made on whether or not Spencer will play round 1. For a bit of fun he was asked in order who he would take from Petracca, Hogan and Oliver. Hogan first then Oliver then Petracca. He didn't think Petracca would take the news very well, while having a laugh. No one deserves to play finals more than Jones, top bloke.

My daughter will be wearing number 6 on her jumper this year. She has just turned 3 and loves Daisy. When we walk around the city she points her out on posters or walls and shouts with excitement if she comes on a tv advertisement. Make no mistake Daisy is a marketing weapon for Melbourne and a role model for a generation of young girls who love footy.

On actual output to date Hogan shouldn't be on that list yet. Even in a down Year last year Hawkins kicked nearly ten more goals. Roughead is a jet and deserves to be there assuming he is fit to play. Riewoldt is a former Coleman medallist who also kicked more goals than Jesse last year in a dud team. Some other seriously good forwards like Jack Gunston don't make the list either. I think Jesse will move into the top five on that list before long but I like that our players are starting to be judged on output rather than potential.

I can't see the value in playing out club issues in public, I'm sure Goodwin would have known that allowing players to answer questions about Watts ommision was going to cause a stir. If he wants to put pressure on Jack he should do it on the track, not in the HUN. If he wanted to get a three time B&F captain off side, the best way to do it is to tell him over a golf game that he was no longer sole Captain. The question is, why? Jack V was going nowhere, he should have been told he would be captain in due course, this just doesn't make sense. The Trenners no play appeared to be an insult and even if it wasn't, perceptions are everything, they played 23 so it wasn't as if they wanted strict match day conditions. He may be a good coach, I hope so and I desperately want him to succeed, but I'm not impressed with his handling of these issues so far. He may have his reasons but I don't have to agree with them.

Pro your's is a quite logical response to these concerns. However I remember thinking much the same in the Schwab era when they got rid of Junior and Bruce and later on we saw the Grimes and Trengove co capitancy decision sacrifice two careers. Each time I said to myself the MFC full time professionals must know better than me and my negative thoughts. However unfortunately my ignorant predictions came to fruition back then and we nearly destroyed the club. Let's hope this time some questionable MFC decisions actually will raise standards!

Season defining eh? I love this site, and at times it's amusing (Stevetheman and ProDees little flamewar for example) but bloody hell, the amount of handwringing blows my little mind out the back of my head. Yep, if we lose to the Saints, Goodwin, the coaching staff will effing pack it in eh? That's it, here is concrete evidence that we are ahead of ourselves etc etc. As a supporter a win might make you feel good, a loss might make you feel shite, but to think that the professional outfit that is the 2017 MFC model would buy into that [censored] means you're still thinking about this as a prepubescent snot nosed kid would - about their first dance or first farrk with someone and how it will impact on their life...

It was a joke Sue. My friends laughed when I told them I was going to become a comedian. They're not laughing now.

Here is the awful thing - go waste 2 hours: http://www.afl.com.au/ladder/ladder-predictor I had 14 wins with a loss this weekend... The lid id off for me, but I haven't lost the lid...I know exactly where the effing lid is! I am still holding the lid. Should I put it back on? ... I'm going to put it back on.

If deemed fit enough to play, Tyson, Kent and Garlett should all be automatic inclusions. They make the side better. I'm still very skittish about the potential selection of Spencer. I don't think he'll suit the ground or the style of play we want at all, not to mention the time he takes away from Gawn in the ruck, plus I don't really rate Gawn as a forward. It will be fascinating to see selection on Thursday night.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/jack-vineys-promotion-to-melbourne-demons-cocaptaincy-was-coachs-call-20170321-gv3an0.html Definitely a captain's call by Goodwin. Telling the leadership group and the incumbent captain after he made the decision is quite different to how top clubs like Hawthorn and Geelong operate. Huge accolades to Jones for how he has moved forward from the deflating news.

Not if it was a guinea pig. A guinea pig would not be a good thing.

I don't think it's an outrageous list tbh. You can't fit everyone in and they are all senior players in the comp bar Lynch who is a star and Greene who is AA. If for example he had included Daniher and not Hogan then it'd be an eyebrow raiser. What does it really matter anyway? Brown was the one championing Hogan to be paid over $1m a year. He rates him very highly.

According to Caro on footy classified, the "Saints reckon the Demons are getting ahead of themselves." Makes matters even more intriguing.

He didn't trip over his dog?

Watts had a lot of gametime in 31 degree heat on Sunday - maybe on light duties only?

Once again, headlines belie the truth of the story. The Age headline says "Nathan Jones miffed by Melbourne Demons' captaincy move " He was "disappointed" and "frustrated", but he clearly is accepting of it and looks ahead. So, to err is human, but to express yourself is a cardinal sin? Once again, just bad journalism.

From what Jones has said, it does at raise concerns about Goodwin's approach. Add to that the Watts situation (where if it was Neeld, people would be blaming the coach for the player's poor attitude). If Jones & Watts play well then the coach gets a big tick. If they don't and we are also losing games, watch all hell break loose on here whether justified or not. Let's hope Goodwin knows what he is doing and it all works out well.

It is the great man's birthday today, his 49th. SEN breakfast mentioned it this morning and vowed to try and track him down. Garry Lyon was less than confident of success saying he was last heard of running a fishing trawler near Coffs Harbour. They thought they may be able to make contact via Glenn. Let us hope SEN has some success.

Geelong are playing 2 games at Etihad (North & us) and another 2 at the G (Pies & Hawks). The remaining 7 games are all at Skilled. Even if their members dont travel up the highway, thats still 7 games for $99, which is less than half the usual $215 for a regular 11 match home game membership. As for North, don't they get compensation games like we do for the two NT fixtures? Even if not, they are only playing 3 of their home games in tassie, so thats still 8 games for $99

Saying "I think they'll make the 8" is very different to "I'm willing to put a large chunk of my company's marketing budget into an unproven sports club I feel will be good but I can't be sure and has about a third of the media exposure of other organisations at almost the same price". Let's not understate how hard it actually is to get sponsors, especially when your brand is synonymous with losing, has low-level exposure, and has a very geographically concentrated following, as Melbourne does. I seriously believe Melbourne would be the toughest sporting club in Australia to land a sponsorship deal for. Much like our on-field performance, the gap between the benefits and risks is huge. You can either get insane exposure sponsoring a club with a really peculiar but refined and classy brand, or you can get close to zero exposure. In both cases we're above and below most other clubs, respectively. It's a really tough sell. The way I see it, PJ and Co. are going all out, selling at a premium price and refusing to compromise. You either go hard or go home. Underselling the club is probably off the table, but overselling is on. I doubt PJ would ever accept a Reach-type sponsorship just for the sake of having a brand on there. That just cheapens the spot. IMO, having it empty boosts exposure of the brand tenfold, more so than selling it cheap just to have someone there. It's a rather fascinating approach. I'm not anywhere near as worried as some of you are.

The record books show it the case because until recently the sport has been full of nepotism and a long continuous boys club. Very few people from outside the system get a shot - you only have to look at the number of players who go immediately from playing in to AFL level coaching - there's a pretty huge queue of coaches they get the privilege of skipping. The reason you can't pinpoint the reason why AFL coaches must come from the pool of players is because just like with other elite sporting codes: there isn't a reason.

I made some inquires for my mate, turns out the club doesn't want an espresso bar that specialises in toasted sandwiches as a BOJ sponsor. I explained to the marketing man that the sandwiches are gourmet and pretty pricey but he just wasn't interested. They do a toastie that uses three different cheeses, three!

Thanks Dees. Not worth a new thread but for anyone interested Jordan Lewis is continuing his weekly appearances on Tuesdays on AFL360.

gone but never forgotten , he was someone my wife looked at as inspirational he gave her hope in the dark days , when she beat breast cancer we watched and followed his fight , even later when she found out after a few months of being breast cancer free to be told she had terminal bowel cancer , we still hoped she like Jim fought a brave and long battle , its good to talk about this , I can't believe its 5 years for Jimmy. He loved the Dee's I feel for his family , his friends , a great man is always missed. we never forget, they say with time its gets easier , it doesn't i can tell you that. RIP mate

I would think we saved a chunk of salary cap space though. And we now have two players on the long-term injury list, so it doesn't matter anyway.

Jayden Hunt should get Nippy's Choccy Milk to be the sponsor Anyone who see's his Instagram stories will know what i'm talking about

Well jesse - what are going to do about it?

Footy season can't come quickly enough....

First round draft picks to GWS are the equivalent of pick 88 to all other clubs. Seems to be a commensurate trade to me.

Jonesy's probably said it before, (but I don't think anyone should mind me repeating it), that what has kept him at the club and what keeps driving him to be better, after all the hard times, is to be there when the club turns things around and has that success. Committed, motivated, loyal - what more could you ask from your captain, gota love this bloke. ...And though he has troden a different path, I think Jack Viney is cut from the same cloth.

Yeah nah.. Unless you were typing in invisible ink, you didn't say any of those things or make any of those points. Nice try though.

Similar to 36 men chasing a bag of air. whenever you express all sports in simple terms they sounds silly.

Vince makes a poor HBF. Very good on wing and in mid. Good on HFF no idea why we persist with him at the back.

Please don't tell people to settle down. Following a footy team should be fun - at least some of the time. Given the 10 years of utter garbage we've witnessed I think we're allowed to get a little carried away when our young talented core give us a little hope.