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Emerging star locked in until 2020

Your top end correspondent was in attendance at yesterday's Dees 'training session' at TIO stadium. Which was more akin to a stroll in the park basking in the warmth of the dry season sunshine. Add a little goal kicking practice at the Michael Long Academy end and coach Goodwin leading a whole team rehearsal of what seemed to be positioning for a forward half of the ground defensive press. Goody cut a dashing figure out there radiating confidence and if the clock could be turned back a decade could join the dynamic demons midfield this evening in a blink. Mingling with the kids and players at the end of the 'session' where autographs and selfie snaps were sought after. If one die hard long term demons supporter could be indulged a moment of reverie here in the arcadian fields of Marrara " If you build it they will come " .

It should have been an awesome game.1 v 5 and a finals birth tantalising us for the first time in over a decade. Im just finding it hard to get fully hopeful about it knowing we're missing so many core players. But tbh I couldnt see how they could win last week either. The dees have continued to shock me in a good way this year .....and there would be no bigger shock than winning tonight. Still, Im hoping ...and perhpas the Darwin factor, and knowing the conditions, may give us some leg up.

It's sad that a great caller of sport, who is battling a serious illness, may end up being remembered for the sycophantic, fawning and poor commentary that he is now delivering. Bruce was so much better previously and one can only think that the illness is to blame for the drop in his once great standard. He is a genuine nice guy and maybe like footballers should have retired when he was still playing/calling reasonably well. I wish him well in his battle and appreciate all the great work he has done in the past and personally I will recall the best of him and not this year's football commentary. All that said, he is still better than some of the inaccurate, biased, AFL bum kissing, umpire protected commentary, that is served up by some of the other so called, football commentators and callers .

As long as Kim Jong-un doesn't launch an intercontinental ballistic missile at Darwin tonight then I don't have a problem with us playing there. Go Dees!

For everyone ripping into JKH, are you even watching the game? He's getting in close, winning the ball, taking it cleaning and using it decently. Been one of our better players. Geez some of you are toxic.

One thing that I think holds us in good stead for this game is that with Watts, Tyson and potentially Viney all returning next week, it puts plenty of pressure on players to hold their spots. Guys like JKH, Harmes, ANB, Pedersen, Kent etc, will want to keep their spot with finals looming on the horizon and hopefully that means we have more of our mid tier players stepping up and making an impact. With Salem and Jones also returning in the coming weeks it means competition for spots will be fierce. Feeling quietly confident about this game as I think we'll have a red hot go, but a loss tonight won't define our season nor impact our chances on making the finals.

If we win tonight I think I may remove the lid completely....

Goal of the Year for Hunt! Nice way to put icing on his new contract!

Pedo the only player in the league to put himself on a worse angle after taking a mark 15m out

A la the report give me a break, two guys going for a disputed ball I think. Play on.

If Zak Jones gets off for his bump then Vince should too. The Betts elbow was dumb.

Whoever decided to elevate BT as a Primary Commentator on friday nights with Bruce should be charged and sent to Guantanemo Bay for a good thrashing. Seriously it is unwatchable, i am glad others are feeling the same.

I had a dream last night that we were getting smashed by the Crows. But it was at the MCG so I’ll take that as a sign we’re better off being in Darwin. As a Melbourne supporter who spent his first 6 years of life in Darwin and surrounding areas before moving to Brisbane and then finally to Melbourne when I was 8 (being indoctrinated into the cult of the Demon by my grandfather just in time for my heart to be broken by Essendon in 2000), I’m stoked to be supporting a club that plays a game each year in what still feels like my home state after all these years. Surely our pre-season training camp and expertise on this ground, coupled with our good performance against the Crows earlier in the year will hold us in good stead tonight. I’m hopeful but pessimistic, as any sane Melbourne supporter should be.

1. It's unfair to the Norm Smith medal winner. 2. Hird hasn't admitted to his guilt, therefor he's not tried to rehabilitate himself, he's tried to rehabilitate his reputation (a totally different thing). 3. Bringing The Game Into Disrepute: Hird contributed hugely to the games most disgraceful scandal. Giving Hird this honour (to a degree) condones his behaviour so further increases the games disrepute, while reminding everyone of it all again when we should let it fade into history for decades. - Stupidest AFL move in years

Only interested in the positives - I think JKH has turned the corner and is obviously a midfielder and not a small forward. O Mac continues his development down back, Lewis played his best game for us and Hunt has returned to form. i wish Darwin would secede from Australia and be ineligible to host games.

Just did a ladder predictor. Had us scraping into 8th spot only to play a red hot Sydney on their home deck. My lord we need our players back. The last couple of months have been an exciting ride but we're running on fumes now. On the positive side, it was nice to see Jesse Hogan working his way into some good form. But please can we get rid of our Darwin fixture as soon as financially possible. I love Darwin. I was born there. But I love the Demons more and this is like seeing an abusive parent (Darwin) beating up your first love (Melbourne).

Am I the only one who thinks Vince's first one was way worse than his second?

That'll be a long night if we aren't playing well!

Im off to the Sporting Globe in Richmond to watch the game with SWYL.....join us at your peril!

He shouldn't be allowed to do that, though. Which other president gets to sit in on a show and go bananas in defence of their coach? When he's on Fox Footy Ed should stick to focusing solely on the games being played and put Collingwood aside. It'll never happen, but it should.

Relax. The mods have this. But seriously, they really do. I am a member of a lot of forums, some really well modded, some ok, and some badly, and I think this place has worked it out the best. There is leeway: football is an emotional game. People get fired up if their favourite player is bagged or somebody defends their whipping boy. It's understood and accepted, but there is a line. The line: When arguments degenerate into name calling and idiocy the posters are given a rap over the knuckles and told to pull their heads in. The posts are also quickly deleted to stop the 'third man in' from seeing it later and picking up the argument again. The slaps: if the combatants or others want to continue the blue in that thread then the thread is locked and people given a good foot up the arse, the severity of which depends generally on the history of the posters (mostly) or in some cases a particular post that went way over the line. Small bans for those that need to know that they are heading down the wrong path. Medium bans for those that don't seem to get that they aren't just crossing the line, but are starting to [censored] on it, and perma bans for those that have no interest in following even basic civility. I've modded and admin'ed forums, and I can tell you that striking the line between letting people vent or tell another poster that they think they are a scrawling abortion and an idiot so stupid they make stupid idiots look smart, and the need to be able to step in at the right moment and stop that without losing good posters, is bloody hard. And that's just as one person. It gets a lot bloody harder when you have 3,4,5,6 people doing it and all of them have different ideas on where the lines are. Here, it seems to me, that the staff are all on the same page, and I haven't seen much in the way of inconsistency since that trumped up Hitler Rhino got the boot. That's a pretty good effort. There is one personal bugbear that I do have here when it comes to personal attacks, and that is the constant and unrelenting attacks on Saty. I'm sure some people no longer read his posts, but instead see the username and immediately go into attack dog mode. Yes he is a pain in the bum with his delusion that coaches and players give him secret inside information. Yes, he is a pain in the bum when he defends players that everyone else can see are running around like headless chooks. Yes, his talk of sunshine and rainbows when all we can see is rainclouds make many of us want to bang our heads on our keyboards. BUT - the man is one of the most one eyed demon supporters I've seen. He loves his team to the nth extreme, and will not listen to anything that dares suggest that every player on our list is a superstar in the making; that all our coaches are tactical geniuses that make Alexander the Great look like a lolligagger; and that our recruiters have just given us a couple of Don Bradmans of football with our rookie picks. I wish I could believe like he does. Unfortunately most of us have had cynic beaten into us. Let him go. Let him enjoy his club. A lot of what he says is good oil, you just have to ignore the sprinkles.

Ash sorry to hear you refer to your wife as ex. Hope you are going ok. Keep posting here, most would enjoy your contribution.

Regardless of what went on in this particular situation, some of the comments in this thread do an excellent job of demonstrating the sexism still prevalent in society. And the assumption that some men make that they are the only ones in the room. Is it any wonder women don't always feel particularly welcomed by AFL culture, let alone on boards like this?

Been on here for 12 years, and can say I have had my fair share of personal barbs thrown at me, and it has never really bothered me. I don't take it personally, I'm just glad I have a place to talk about the mighty dees every odd night.

Why are people going on about Darwin? This is our first interstate loss of the year. We've lost more games at the G than away. Adelaide are not on top of the ladder for nothing.

Vince is cooked but I disagree about Lewis (tonight)...I've been one of his biggest critics but thought he was good tonight.

There was a time when I had some issues about giving up home games for the ? but these days, our record at the G isn't all that flash. We've only beaten Carlton (twice) and Collingwood there and have had costly stumbles against others who were outside the top 8. On the other hand, we're unbeaten at interstate venues and have done well away from home losing only to Geelong at Etihad when Max and Tim Smith both went down with injury and we ran out of gas. I don't have high expectations tonight but getting the points would probably cement us in the finals race, albeit with lots of work to do.

TORP OF THE CENTURY!!!

On a brighter note, attached is a pic taken earlier tonight at TIO in Darwin. Carnival atmosphere here, but too many Crows.

Close in clearances and stoppages. Winning contested ball against the league's best contested ball winners. More inside 50s. We are losing in delivery going forward, and utterly deplorable defense structure when they're rebounding. We have competed well but structurally we've been badly outplayed.

They'd be doing the exact same thing to us at the G right now.

LONG BOMBS MUST STOP NOW!!!

umps robbed Hogan of 2 majors

Thanks. I was expecting a bit more pre-game stuff, Foxtel decided Dangerfield was more important.

Looking closely at the two sides, an anagram of Adelaide Crows is 'Caseload Weird' - real backline issues at crowland? - while an anagram for 'Melbourne Demons' is 'Norsemen mould be' which obviously points to our Viking berserker approach to the game. Plainly, this all suggests a Dees win by 13 points.

Be still my beating heart !!!!!

In terms of informed, well, it's in Darwin and we're playing the Crows. Other than that, good luck.

Am I missing something? I really haven't been on the end of many if any personal attacks on Demonland. Either that or I've been too thick to realise, which is quite possible. Perhaps though, it's also about building some resilience and an acceptance that some will not like your views and, by extension (rightly or wrongly), you. Accept that and it's all beer and skittles. And, of course, those few individuals who have disagreed with me have no doubt either been psychotic, wrong or both. I was wrong, however, about Lucas Cook. He won't make it.

Based on his recent contract extension, I would suggest nor is he.

He wasn't at the start of 2017 for mine either.

We've won every game I've expected to lose this season. We're going to lose tonight.

If we pull off an upset tonight, top 4 spot is well and truly on

I think I'll take some valium pre game.

And Gus, Salem and VDB also missing from our best 22.

Did I read somewhere that Adelaide haven't played Darwin before? If so, let's hope it might work in our favor!

Thats St Kilda third or fourth flogging for the year, and they have barely had an injury all season. We are twice the team that they are.

Going ok Live in Cranbourne East these days, about a 2 min drive to Casey Fields, so I get to watch Casey pretty regularly. Last few years have been tough following the Dons, but no conversion to the Dees yet.

I've had a bit of time lately and have watched a lot of our games again - admittedly the one's we've won - and I've marvelled at the skill and effectiveness of this kid. And yet not many are talking about him, here or in the media. His hands are elite in tight, rarely does he fumble, his vision and decision making are elite - so often making not only good decisions but the best decisions. His skills by foot and hand are terrific, he rarely make a mistake. And his contested ball work is excellent as evidenced by 18 contested possessions on Sunday. In the latest MFC website article Rawlings talks about McDonald, Wagner and Oliver but there is no mention of Trac and yet he's been equally impressive. When he was recruited I was expecting "freak" like moments but we haven't had many. What we've had is a player who does all the ordinary things very well and then just teases us with some really good things - long goals, contested marks and slick handballs. Everyone, including me, loves Clarry but in my mind Trac is level pegging and vitally important to us. He just doesn't seem to get as much recognition, hence this thread.