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I poked my head in for 15 minutes this morning at Gosch's. I'll leave the observations on the minutiae of the drills etc to those who care more about that, but my biggest take out from my limited time there was the increased size of Weideman across his whole upper body. He's now a really good size. Whether he gets much game time this year I don't know, with TMac likely to go forward, but physically, he's now just about ready.

Watch some tapes of the Mark Neeld coached games (2012- 2013). It should cure your addiction PF.

I don't know why we can't have a predominantly red strip as our clash strip.

I was there is 1964 and I remember very little other than Gabo's run. These pictures remind me (copied from old slides). The last one is at first bounce.

Amazing news and a small victory for common sense and human decency, in the face of the absolute rubbish coming out of humanity recently.

He was stiff to get dropped after the GWS game. From memory I think he got 18 touches and a goal on debut which is pretty bloody good. I think as far as blokes 'having it between the ears' in order to succeed go, Maynard seems to be leaving nothing to chance.

Well you need to recognize that Craig has never lost his job. He was headhunted by Richmond and did a very good job there managing the exits of Miller and Wallace and establishing a credible football department. He left Richmond to pursue his love of horseracing but didn't know he was getting into bed with a crook. He was headhunted by Campbell at GWS and then headhunted by Evans at GCS. It's not a bad CV. As for his time at Melbourne he was good. He lost some draft picks when Gutnick exposed a previous administrations salary cap cheating. His first few drafts were very good. 1997 drafts landed Johnstone, Rigoni. His first rookie draft was Nathan Bassett, Daniel Ward, Matthew Bishop, Robbo and Junior McDonald. He had some poor years as well. What is often overlooked is he was doing the job of about 5 full-timers. There were no development coaches, no full-time staff sifting through hours of vision - just him. I get frustrated with the criticism of Craig (along with others) because it's never balanced with a recognition of the circumstances of the Club. The reality is we did very well under Fagan, Cameron and Daniher given our circumstances.

Terrible for him.

Hi All, I just renewed my son's and my membership for next year and was talking with the guy about our current tally. He said that as of today we are sitting on "about" 25,000 putting us 1500 ahead of where we were last year at this time. Apparently they started a bit later this year hence the slow start. He also said I should have my membership before Christmas. Good news all round!!

I don't think he posts here, but Tony Abbott, if you're reading this: Have fun at your sister's wedding mate

I'm with you, Steve. I have no idea why he was dropped after that GWS game. His figures for that game stacked up pretty bloody well I thought. Will put it down to "development". The coaches know what they are doing. I personally have NFI. I remember watching a VFL game earlier his year, and specifically remember number 48 being a class above, without knowing who 48 was! Was pleasantly surprised when I found out it was Maynard. Just hope he can be more than that "too good for VFL, not good enough for AFL" player. If he can take the required steps to ensure that happens, he's been an astute pick up.

The centre circle rule and the soft turf due to drop in cricket pitches have killed the bounce. Having to throw the ball up when the ball goes out of the circle makes umpires look bad and wastes time. Bouncing the ball on soft typically around the ground turf instead of the firmer cricket wicket turf makes it much more difficult to get good height. I'd like to keep it for the start of every quarter otherwise I won't really miss it. I do think the throw ups in the middle need to have good height on them though and if that's not happening I can see a role for drones dropping the ball from height in the future.

WTF is the problem? It's only bounced at the beginning of quarters and after goals. Seems to me they are too hopeless at it and the optics are forcing the AFL's hand. The bounce is a great quirky tradition of our game. Gil should grow a pair and keep it. I'd also like to see the return of brimmed hats and long coats for goal umps. They look so baseball-like now.

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2017/11/13/gaz's-demons-training-report-who-were-his-standouts/ “The first to fourth year players were doing their 200 metre runs,” Lyon said. “Angus Brayshaw and Alex Neal-Bullen were the two standouts, along with Jayden Hunt. Christian Petracca looked good, but by the very last one he had the tongue out. They all looked really fine. “Clayton Oliver has come back in good shape, he is flying around. Corey Maynard, I keep telling you, he is the one. He is powerful and had a ripping VFL finals. He will be there. “Harley Balic was there running around, he didn’t look as fit as the other couple, but he looked fine. He is still finding his way in the caper.”

Matt Balmer of AFL Draft Central has done us Demon fans a favour with his Final AFL Draft Power Rankings Part 1. The reason for that is he’s running down from 50 to 1 with this first lot therefore covering players ranked 26 to 50 which covers the range of all four MFC draft selections in 2017. I will link the less important ? power rankings when they come out next week.

How about a question mark in the title? I read it and was hopeful it had been given the boot. Bring back the disco blue.

The very highest "yes" voting seats were actually Labor- and Greens-held seats in inner Sydney and Melbourne. It was also great that there was a huge "yes" vote in many strongly-held Liberal seats e.g. Higgins. The highest "no" voting seats being in Sydney's West and Melbourne's Bruce and Calwell doesn't surprise me either. Their inhabitants tend to be (one or a combination of) lower-educated, working class, migrants (especially those of Asian descent), Catholics, Muslims and/or happy clappers of the type who featured in the "no" campaign ads. But let's not make this wonderful result a stupid left-right Liberal-Labor political argument. The vote was a resounding 62% and it's terrific, especially for all my gay and lesbian friends who all want to get married to their long-term partners.

The current AFL admin, with their hands on the controls of our game, are about to balls it up again. Pun intended. There used to be this thing ... the art of ruckwork ... a unique position, with a unique skill set. And apart form making our game different, it was another thing to watch and enjoy ... like pack marking .... like a leading full forward ... like two centremen playing man on man for 120 minutes ... as the two ruckmen had to contend with a ball that doesn't go perfectly vertical, and bounces to a different height each time, so they had to judge where and when it was going to go, and get to it, and tap, palm, or punch the ball to their teammate. Some ruckmen were beanpoles. Some were big fat buggers. Some had mighty leaps. Some were practically nailed to the ground. Various kinds but they all had this beautiful thing, the art of ruckwork, at their disposal. Because of their misguided "fixing" of rules that required no fixing, the AFL have watered down this skill set gradually to the point where it is nearly non existent. Now it will be a totally predictable tipoff. Totally predictable means every ball up will be a set play, which means more players in their assigned position ready to charge in the moment leaves the ump's hand, which equals more congestion. Just what the game needs. well done AFL. Will their poor arms drop off because of the amazing physical impact of throwing up this odd shaped thing? Why haven't we heard of boundary umps hospitalised with dislocated arms? They give it a hell of a heave. Possibly because some rules of the game, which made having a ruckman in your lineup an advantage, have been altered bit by bit over years. If the AFL are going to remove every variable from the game, anything which "might cost someone a grand final!!!!!", then they might as well simulate the whole thing on computers and send the results out on twitter. Save a heap of dosh on player payments. Season can go for 34 rounds too. I seem to recall Eleni doing a pretty good job of bouncing the ball .It's not like it requires incredible strength. Watch a female golf pro hit the ball. They can really spank it and no one would call them "strong". Fit and well skilled, yes. "Fit" and "well skilled" are things that are within a lot of peoples' reach, particularly if they are full time professionals with the time to devote to fitness and honing their skills. (Spot the glaring red flag.) Bouncing the ball is a skill that the AFL have allowed to atrophy over the years, to where it is now almost terminal. Like an endangered species with two breeding pairs left. It's probably going to die out because it may now be too late for remedial action. Watch replays of old. One and two umps bouncing the ball all over the ground, all match, on surfaces nowhere near as consistent and of good quality as today. Incredibly, they didn't end up hospitalised with their arms falling off due to the impossible physical demands of bouncing a wet muddy ball all day long. And they didn't recall it if it didn't go straight up. It was up to this facet of the game, the art of ruckwork, to come in to play to anticpate, allow for , and counter this imperfect flight of the bounced ball. A beautiful thing. Now to be another football dodo and another regression of our game towards hybrid rubgy.

I feel genuinely sorry for him. Not quite up to AFL standard, but too good for next level down. And ridiculed, roasted and hated on social media. I love my footy but I really feel for blokes like Vickery. I hope people just leave him alone to get on with his life.

Mick Ablett must not do much list analysis before he runs with these suggestions. In an earlier show after we had brought in Lever he said that, given we love Lever so much, Oscar Claravino would be a good pick up as a similar player. Now he's got us taking a ruckman to play at Casey for the next 8 years behind Gawn?

Congratulations to all the ssm supporters and ss couples. A resounding yes by the Australian people speaks much louder and will mean much more than any change of legislation by a limp Government ever could have. If you ever feel like starting a thread on industry super funds I would be really interested in what you have to say.

" Corey Maynard, I keep telling you, he is the one. He is powerful and had a ripping VFL finals. He will be there." - a quote from Dollars... can anyone shed some light on him for me, midfielder? forward? has he got talent? has he got weapons?

Going to put my 2 cents in here. Have loved Joel Garner for 2 years now. Really great kick, good speed, good decision maker, natural leader. He was in top 10 calculations coming into the year and did not get enough of the ball this year. He will fall down the draft order, and I think that he is a great fit for us. We have accumulated accumulators (Oliver, Viney, Trac, Brayshaw, Hibberd etc) and having a guy who gets 15 touches of a half back or wing and goes at 90% by foot complements what we have really well. James Worpel is one I am warming to now. He is an inside beast, AFL ready, whilst plays like Oliver, he kicks instead of handballs. There is a really nice piece on him today on AFL.com about his year and how his contested ball, tackling, clearances have been outstanding, his decision making has been second rate. However, his kick to handball ration is 7-3 which insane for an inside mid. Work on bringing that back to 1-1 and take his time a little more with his kicking, his 20m burst, his hunt for the football could really add good depth to our midfield. Hamish Brayshaw is one I wanted as a rookie last year and I wanted as a rookie this year (we have no spots) so bring him on down with our mid 40's pick. Ooozes leadership, is a great kick of the football, great overhead contested mark, clutch with his goal kicking. The knock on him is his speed, he has had a bad run with injuries, but really good decision maker. Is he what we have a lot of (Melksham, ANB, Stretch, AVB, Hannan)? Absolutely, but this is a fairly vanilla draft and he is a low risk option, like his two brothers, and will play 100 Andrew Swallow B+ games for whatever club drafts him. Also, Melbourne invited him to the combine and are one of four clubs (Syd, North, Collingwood) to show interest in him. As for our first pick in the draft, I'd say best available of the top 20 that drop. Personally, I think that might be Matthew Ling. I think O'Brien, Petrticcle, Richards and Moore go higher than expected (high risk high reward) whereas Ling is a quick player with good skills off half back who is a nice player without having the potential to be a top player in the comp. Thus, think he'll slide. Looking forward to seeing 4 new Demons soon!

He hurt his shoulder in Round 17. There was plenty of season before that for him to show those "great" attributes you speak of, but playing at Casey with a serious chip on your shoulder isn't going to help your chances.

With all due respect "our game" has never been in better shape. You may be living in a different era and not coming to terms with the evolution of "our game". This is not to give blanket approval to everything the AFL does - but think the AFL do get the mass majority of their decisions correct. Lets be brutally honest, the majority of the rule changes are forced upon the AFL because of clubs manipulating the rules.

Pro I have an earths sciences background and your logic is absolutely correct No sane person would look at 100 earth years and draw any proper conclusions. Remember we could walk to Tasmania 20000 years ago nothing in Geological time The sun is the only source of energy past and present that matters The earth adjusts to variations in energy It is a miraculous well balanced machine If theee people like the Hood want to really worship some thing significant then worship the sun.The hoods have been hoodwinked I have tried but you cannot have a logical converstaion with these people Climate change is now an industry egged on by the leftist rags like the age and the ABC

Kent still on Hols?? He was on Hols all of the season gone !! Needs a friggen rocket!! If Van Ders is still injured then after a full year of I would seriously question whether he will get back!

Couldn't care either way. There's a lot of emotive twaddle here about the "game". Missing the bounce will end up like missing the drop kick, place kick, 19th and 20th men and "stacks on the mill" (you think today's game is "congested"?). As for female umpires and "strength", Eleni Glouftsis is better at bouncing the ball than most of the men. Maybe not as high, but much more consistent.

I don't have a great deal of energy to complain or get emotional about this, but my general feeling is just plain old sadness. Another quirky cultural trait soon to be abruptly sacrificed at the alter of modernity. I've spent an inordinate amount of time explaining our great game to foreigners, and this will be just one less opportunity for me to see their eyes light up.

So if AFLHQ introduce sword-fights to replace the centre-bounce we should be right.

No I am into facts and measured data and observation, not sure what you work with? The 20 year pause, give me a break, 1998 was a hot year but as hot or hotter years of global average temperatures have occurred regularly in the 2000's. We are on track in 2017 for a top 3 hottest years ever recorded with no El Niño in operation by the way. But gee 98 was fricking hot, so what? Forget the the religious rubbish, you are the myopic ideologue here. What are your scientific qualifications and what scientific papers have you published to justify your statements of so called facts? You make a lot of polemic like assertions about the science based on what? All you do is cast aspersions on NASA and thousands of scientists who are working in the field, observing what is changing, collating data and interpreting what they are seeing, delivering scientific papers for peer assessment. But no I am supposed to listen to your ravings, give me a break! I am an engineer who works off facts and logic. I have no qualifications in the field of climate change so I don't know, but my response is to trust in those who do know, the scientific community and the respected agencies who report on climate change. If there is a conspiracy altering facts it is most likely to be coming from the vested interests in the fossil fuel industry than from corrupted university scientists. We have listened to deniers like you for 20 years and done nothing, now we need to act

Well Gil follows the compulsion of his predecessors to make at least one rule change every season. Pity he can’t think for himself, and / or leave the rules alone for at least one year.

The Dalai Lever

So many of the great features of the game are gone. The features that made our game unique. The bounce is a wonderful thing that helps to make our game what it is. How exciting to see that first bounce of the day and to a slightly lesser extent the bounce at the beginning of each quarter. To see this replaced by a limp throw-up that hardly goes above the umpires head will be sad thing to witness. It will be a tragedy to see it go, and once it goes, it will never come back. It is unbelievable how our game is being systematically ruined. Just think of all those things that have changed, eliminated or disappeared due to the misguided attitude that the changes are for the better of the game. If anyone thinks it is for the better, you have rocks in your head. The bounce is unique, it is an iconic part of the game that tells you "ladies and gentlemen we have a contest on our hands", and we see two ruck man going head for head. God help me. God help the game.

He stuffed our recruiting moved to Richmond and stuffed theirs, GWS should be celebrating that he has gone.

From the Facebook page: Training Report #2 A.K.A the Max Gawn show It’s Max Gawn’s world. We’re just living in it. I turned up 40 minutes late to training, kept guessing by the inability of the open training times page to load. Feel like I don’t miss a lot though. Guessing I would have missed stretches, warm-ups and a kicking drill here and there, so that’s okay. What does happen when I show up is I have a shocked expression on my face. There’s about 26 players here but the quality of those has improved on last week. For instance, Maxy Gawn is here after a trip to New Orleans, Dom Tyson makes an appearance, as does Tom McDonald. For a large part of the session, Tyson and McDonald are rehabbing, doing a lot of running drills. Gawn, however, joins in with the main group on occasion. More on his progress later. First part of business when I get here is the group put in some quick drills when they run in twos. For instance, you’d see Brayshaw and Harmes running together (and looking good), while Harley Balic is improving. The vibe is much more competitive than last week. They’re after good times. This was only brief – a lot of focus, interestingly enough, was on ball skills this morning. After that, the Dees set up a full ground drill. One group working on stoppage work here and there, another small group trying to take marks from a kick up forward. Gus is one of the players up forward (interestingly enough – he spends plenty of time as a forward in these drills) and looks okay again. Clearly the drill is of good quality judging by the applause at the end. After that is quite a red-hot drill – a full-grounder which almost resembles an intraclub at times. The primary focus is ball movement here. It’s also here where Maxy captures the eye for the first time. Bit of a footnote – there’s a piece on the SEN Facebook page with Tim Watson talking about Maxy and how fit he is. He reckons he’s in as good a shape as you’ll ever see from a ruckman. From what I saw out there – he’s pretty close to the mark. Not only is he looking VERY trim, but he’s also moving incredibly well. It’s probably characterised by Maxy taking advantage of an intercepted ball from a teammate, then setting up another with a brilliant handball which eventually finds its way to Petracca who kicks a ‘goal’ in this drill. The prowess of the other ruckman in this side – Mitch King – is also going swimmingly. This is realistically one of his first chances to show the Dees how far he’s come post-ACL and the evidence looks pretty good. Kingy clunks a contested mark over Hunt – not overly impressive on paper but the method of his madness looks extremely impressive – hitting the ball at speed, and holding on to it while his body is at all these different contorted angles… if that makes any sense. Anyway, it’s impressive. He might get game time this season. In fact, he probably will with our ruck situation. The other bloke who impresses me with his field kicking is – again – Angus Brayshaw. Playing as a forward in this drill (as mentioned), Gussy finds space to get a couple of marks after some good ball movement. First kick – absolutely threads the eye of the needle, perfectly weighted to (I think) Maynard who is running back towards goal, going over a defender in the process. It’s an excellent kick. Just to rub it in a bit, Brayshaw then gets another kick. Same spot, same method, rolls around quickly, looks again and takes even more risks with this kick. Again, it’s spot on, except it’s dropped this time around. Seriously, this kid is legit this time around. The boys then revert back to the two-by-two running drills. Gawn, Tyson, McDonald are doing separate running activities. At this point, Gawny has his shirt off, almost as if he genuinely wants to rub in how good a shape he’s in. Honestly don’t blame him. Again, Brayshaw and Harmes are constantly up the front. Good areas. After that, the Dees decide it’s time to do some set shots. The change up has been intriguing. All eyes on Gus as one proclaims ‘safe as houses Gussy’. He doesn’t let them down. In the meantime, Trac is cracking it after every snap shot he does, dropping quite a few f-bombs here and there. That’s November for you. More running to finish off – this time it’s more in the form of set time running – they’ll start off with a two-minute run, followed by 90 seconds, one minute and then a very quick run at the end. Again, Nibs looks good. He’s constantly up the front. This time, Maynard is also setting a very good place, sticking with Nibs most of the way. Billy Stretch looks good too, again. What startles me during the last run, however, is Maxy – randomly joining in – and keeping a very good pace with Nibs and Maynard. I’m shook. It’s just one session but that was a hell of a statement sesh from Gawny. He wants his All-Australian spot back. You can tell. Training finished up after that. A rather quick one this time around, but quite a spirited one. I might be able to make my way down on Friday. Let’s see how that goes.

You track watchers are unbelievable. Passion and dedication. Hats off to you. You deserve medallions of honour. The rest of us enjoy the fruits of your efforts.

I want him recruited just to annoy @dieter.

When guys like Watts TMac and others are considered reasonable alternatives in the ruck, and teams like the Doggies hardly fielded a real one, I think this is a great move by the club and max. If he can be even more mobile, take really solid grabs and act as the cutout for kick ins etc, swing forward and kick a few, and generally be fitter and more agile, I think it really adds to the team. The slow, lumbering ruck is almost being made redundant. This is also where King and Flippers come in.

With the bounce about to disappear, athletic ruckmen will be the go, not big heavy lumberers, going the way of the full fwd wrestling the full back

Eleni Glouftis first woman Afl umpire, l recall she umpired a Melbourne game one of our home games in NT, can't remember exactly, sometime this year. Eleni struggled to bounce the ball after a goal was kicked . I think she by passed the bounce and one of the umpires then took on the bounce of the ball. Quote me on that. Another reason why the bounce may go.

This post is manna from heaven. I now get to ask questions and hold you to account to each one. We begin. Despite seeming like a deranged idealogue you have excellent qualifications to argue fact. So I'll give you some. Btw, I'm an amateur observer with no scientific qualifications, so you won't find this hard. Phew. But the facts I present below are well researched, not mine, and if you differ please advise. I'm sure you'll indulge me by answering every question I'm about to pose with sound scientific reason. If you don't know don't guess. Remember there is NO consensus in science. As the great Albert Einstein once said, "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right. One experiment can prove me wrong". I thank you in advance and please number every response. 1. Humans contribute approx. 3% of atmospheric CO2 and nature contributes 97%. Do you agree ? 2. CO2 is 0.04% of the atmosphere, which is the equivalent of 4 cents in $10,000. Do you agree ? 3. Out of this 4 cents in $10,000 humans contribute 3%, i.e. 0.12 cents. Australia contributes 1.5% of that 0.12 cents, i.e. 0.0018 cents. Do you agree with these calculations, i.e. Australia contributes the equivalent of 0.0018 cents in $10,000 in the contribution of atmospheric CO2 ? 4. Do you think there are 100+ influences that contribute to climate change, i.e. solar activity, cosmic rays, ocean circulation, clouds, volcanoes, water vapour, El Niños, etc. or do you think that 0.04% of the atmosphere, i.e. CO2 is the sole driver of temperature ? 5. Do you think NASA has manipulated recent temperature graphs ? If not, I'll prove they have. 6. Do you think NASA scientists have publicly agreed that there was no significant warming in the 20th century ? If not, I'll prove they have. 7. Do you think climate scientists were worried about global cooling in the 1970's ? If not, I'll prove they were. 8. Do you think solar activity, specifically sunspots, could be the driving force of climate change, like scientists prior to the fund addicted generation of the 1980s and beyond ? 8. Explain why we've had cooler periods with 10 times atmospheric CO2, i.e 4000 ppmv, as opposed to our present levels of 400 ppmv ? If CO2 is the driver of temperature how is this possible ? 9. Ice cores from Antarctica prove that CO2 lags temperature. Even alarmists acknowledge this was the case. Do you agree or disagree ? 10. Arctic minimum sea ice extent is greater in 2017 than 2007 in supposedly hotter temperatures and the decade from hell. Explain how sea ice extent defies temperature ? Or is data being manipulated ? If you requite proof of the last 10 years of minimum Arctic sea ice extent I can provide it. I have more, but thought I'd start with an easy 10. You and your engineering background should kill this and educate me.

I propose we scrap the umpires altogether and reduce the rules to a computer algorithm fed by camera angles. Just obliterate the maggots back to Nothing Park Reserve on $100 a match with ample human abuse thrown in. Bring t on. They deserve nothing less.

Maxy will love no bounce, he killed it round 1 when it was thrown up every time suits a good tap ruckman won’t suit the big brutes like Mumford

Wait until Wentz is back. No-one will remember Goff. Fair game by Adrian Clayborn for the Falcons yesterday - 6 sacks. Jags kissed on the dick after throwing the game away twice yesterday.

Good one AFL. Another iconic feature of the game being attacked. So each Ruck Duel will be perfect now will it? f$&@ the AFL Commission

The big one is out - but I’m not convinced that the Demons would use two of their four draft picks on 196cm potential tall key position players - Knightmare's November phantom draft: The first three rounds

Great to have your input again this off-season DeeS. Really appreciate it!

Feel free to plug anytime you want. In fact we'd love to have you on the Podcast in the new year to discuss the book and other depressing Dees related stuff.