Leaderboard

As promised (and thanks to Demonland for increasing the quota for life members), here is the subset of Liam’s photos...

Firstly thanks for the awesome photos. Secondly you had used up 91% of your alloted quota of uploaded storage onto Demonland. I have now doubled the quota for life members.

There is no excuse for not beating Carlscum in 2016 at the MCG in round 22 There is no excuse for taking the foot off the gas in Round 22 2017 against The Bears at the MCG, They were a very ordinary side. In Round 23 2017 at the MCG The Filth played half a side and in the first 12 minutes of the game we did not lay one tackle. We didn’t want to win enough both years. By Round 23 all sides are tired...... It is all about attitude.

Enjoy ==> Mobile => https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-hqQvsv?mobile=true https://six6six.smugmug.com/frame/slideshow?key=jvSv8k&autoStart=1&captions=0&navigation=0&playButton=0&randomize=0&speed=2&transition=fade&transitionSpeed=1&clickable=1

So he spoke, and, from heaven, Father Zeus himself sealed the intent with his words, when your are good, your are good, but when you are bad you go missing, and so consigned to Hermes, command over birds of omen, glad-eyed lions, white-tusked wild pigs, dogs, sheep, and all the flocking beasts that the broad earth nourishes.

But the Cats & Hawks continue to be thereabouts & threaten rjay and it's doubtful that either club will bottom-out. Mid table is as far any club would want to fall in an 18 team comp. Trading for established talent & signing free agents is just as important as the draft if not more so. As an example, we've just traded 2 first round picks for Lever whilst the Hawks picked up Frawley for a song a few years ago. The Cats picked up Dangerfield cheap as well. In recent times we've happily traded draft picks for Vince, Tyson, Hibberd, Melksham, Frost, Garlett, Lewis, Bugg & even Hogan could be counted as a trade. And the aforementioned Lever. Our list is being rebuilt on the back of astute planning. Wanting to draft good players is ongoing for all clubs year by year - but there are no guarantees drafting teenagers ... however, a club can afford to misfire in the draft every now and again as long as that club trades well and continues to bring in free agents. Player development, good coaching & good administration are the 3 other main areas but you'd always hope that your club wouldn't misfire in those areas

Saw most of the session this morning. And while everyone looks good in pre-season, because there is no pressure and it's all about getting to maximum fitness levels for the season ahead, I made the following observations: * Jones not at the session, although was sighted running strongly before the main group came out. * Viney running laps very strongly, before he went inside. * Brayshaw carrying heavy strapping on hamstring, and was hindered when running, although he competed in all the session and the running drills. * Petty and Balic running laps. * Smith, Spargo, Petty, Kent, Weideman, all in the rehab group with Cross running the drills. None of them can be too far away from joining the main group. Vandenberg not sighted by me, but didn't see this group working for long. * ANB, Bugg and Tom Mc by far the leaders in the running drills, with all 3 trying to get over the line first. Tom Mc eventually grinding them down after half a dozen 400m runs, but ANB held on through the lot. Buggy hitting the wall in the last one, but led the early sorties. * King and Filopovic will be more than adequate back-up for Max. Both can kick the ball ( unlike Spencer) and were in the middle of the pack in the running drills, so are building their endurance to the necessary level. Interestingly, Max is certainly in the top 1/3rd in the running drills. The sprinters like Garlett and Frost struggle with the longer distances, not surprisingly, but would beat most over 100m easily. The surprise is Hunt who is out in the leading pack for distance, and we all know he can turn on the jets as well. Saty, 666, Hardtack and little tacker should have some ripper photos, which we should see later. They would have more if they hadn't gas-bagged on about the merits of various photographic equipment, but hey, who am I to criticise?

Interesting discussion, and no doubt the list has improved, but what still concerns me is the way the same list of players took the foot off the gas in the last 2 rounds of 2016 and 2017 Attitude will determine how far this club goes. This club is famous for talking tough before a job is done nobody rates The MFC, we are still laughed at by opposition supporters SEN had the Demon thread up on their facebook page yesterday. Interesting read goodluck Simon. 2018 could make or break you....

The only issue I see with these predictions, is that none of these experts would have picked Tigers or the Bulldogs to win a flag

Now that our List is complete I've started a new thread for 2018 Contracts etc: I've merged the 'A' Rookies with the Seniors list as 'A' Rookies can now play at AFL level from round one without the need for promotion or upgrade or relying on a Long Term Injury. If you see any changes required please let me know. If you want to know full details on any player go to: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/Team/players/senior Interesting that of 21 players that are OOC in 2018 the high priority ones for me are Petracca and Jetta. Then the McD brothers and Brayshaw. I can't see Jetta and Brayshaw going anywhere. I wouldn't like to see the McD's go but we have good coverage for them at both ends of the ground. And, I recall reading that discussions are happening with Petracca on a new contract so wouldn't be surprised if there is an announcement before too long - maybe a little Christmas present for us .

Normally I'm a glass half empty kind of fella, except when it comes to footy and especially our prospects in the preseason. I have tended towards a more sanguine approach of our upcoming fortunes often dismissing the pessimistic forecasts of independent observers as being ill informed or waiting to be discredited (like any 'normal' football supporter does). I've been burnt over the last decade as invariably they were right and I was wrong. What makes the situation a little different now is the large amount of chatter about our improved prospects. One example that I came across recently was when I listened to one of my favourite AFL podcasts (Junktime) which was recorded just before the draft. https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/junktime-afl-podcast-with-adam-123464/episodes/pre-draft-2017-with-former-afl-23371913 Craig Coombes (ex AFL recruiter for Port who also worked at Hawthorn as a scout/spy as well) spoke glowing of our prospects. He's on the podcast from about the 29 minute mark for those of you not into this type of comedy. He was being asked about the lists as they stand. He has a formula that he uses based on 1-4 year players on the list with a differential applied to those that have played 15+ games and those that are in the best 22. He gives them a score out of 10. In a nutshell he had Melbourne ranked first for development (10/10) and can see us doing a Bulldogs or Richmond this season. He had us with twenty 1-4 year players with ten 15+ games of these he has assessed that 8 are in our best 22. (I’m guessing here he’s talking about Oliver, Hogan, Brayshaw, Petracca, Hunt, Salem Lever, and you can raffle the rest) Yes, confirmation bias here is a dangerous thing, but it’s interesting that a lot of non- Melbourne people are being very bullish about us (which I genuinely can't recall having happened for well over a decade) the same types that when we were crap- told us in no uncertain terms we were crap- so there maybe something in this. I think we have some players who will stamp themselves as being genuinely elite in the next 12-18 months and I'm still a blue sky junkie when it comes to guys like Joel Smith and Sam Weideman. Anyway I always think it’s interesting when a complete outsider with AFL experience is so bullish about us. As the man in the hat would say.. 'do yourself a favour'.

Who would want to sponsor us in 2018 with hard earned Our fixture is a f$&8ing wasteland that Round 23 game last year put us back a long way....

I say this every year: thank you so much to everyone who reports and who downloads photos. For those of us living away from Melbourne it is wonderful to see. And the excitement builds. i must say Hogan looks very scary indeed and Frosts ears look like they were taken from Charlie Windsor!

The “Big Play” has already happened Franklin to the Swanettes for $9 Mill nothing will suprise now....

Jack Viney is a major concern for me. Really hope they don’t rush him this time and put him in when he is good and ready, correction when the drs/Physio’s say he is good to go.

Good friend of mine is well connected at Carlscum. I am referring to the “Get me the Good Stuff game” bones were broken that day, i was told Carlscum players were coming off the ground when rotated and saying “what the hell is going on out there” Players spoke to Ratten about it.

Could well be the case. I have noticed that the regularity and the content depth of the MFC site have significantly dropped since mid-last season. I am not talking about the volume of articles, just a missing depth and perception of members' interests in what is happening. Thank heavens for this Demonland site, fills the gaps and so often, raises the issues, concerns and interests of its contributors in what is generally a fairly pleasant atmospheric harmony.

It's all noise, I want the team to not believe the hype, I want them to think they have no Talent, that way they will do all the hard things, the only reason we did not make finals is every time we had a big lead in games we took the foot of the pedal, it started in round 1 when we let the saints kick the last 2 goals, and it happened all the way till round 22, I hope the team has learnt that its never over until the final siren, we must finish strong.

Agree, Harmes has slid a little under the radar, but boy is he aggressive. He's about the only MFC player that has a Dustin Martin-like fend off, can break lines, and throws his body on the line time and time again. I see Bugg in the same vein, stringing solid aggressive and self-less (dare I say it, but very un-Watts-like). So here are my predictions for a few of the list: Harmes - kills it, tank is better than last year Petracca - disappoints somewhat, still too much pasta, his tank not quite there Hogan - delights with the new structured fwd line, really settles and finally starts kicking beyond 50m arc ANB - solidifies permanent B22 Oliver - terrifies all opponents, gains a second tag for most of the year Salem - has a few blinders, but no change Frost - makes better decisions and improves greatly

And here are the last photos you will get from Liam via myself until we come back for round three (if we can make it for training that week). We hit the road towards Sydney and home, tomorrow. As usual the full set of photos can be found at the following link, and for those unable to access Facebook, a subset follows. https://m.facebook.com/tim.fleming.75/albums/1580660441969233 It appears I’m limited to just 1.63mb of file upload on Demonland ?. Is there a maximum amount of data per person over a certain period, or is there some way I can circumvent this limitation? (when I uploaded images for Monday’s training it indicated I could upload up to 18+mb of files, now I’m limited to 1.6mb)

Watching this game ... the Weapon and hird on the boundary line BT commentating saying that he’s met the weapon and how he’s turned Essendons fortunes around ... lol how funny BT

Agree whole heartedly . The strong sides have longed realised that "rebuilds" are a myth. Perhaps dropping to mid table (tenth) every now and then is acceptable but prolonged finishes in the bottom quartile are club killers. Pretty obvious that the AFL is desperate to lift Carlton out of that brigade before the club suffers long term damage. As to MFC we're on our own destined to wallow in mediocrity which will only be remedied by 10 plus years of solid performances... we can but hope it eventuates. The relative success of North has papered over some cracks but if they were to become easy beats they could easily once again feel some outside pressure to relocate etc.

I agree with many others about the importance and likelihood of Brayshaw and Salem lifting a level. Two very smart footballers who can make things happen and just need the proverbial clean run at it. I've full of anticipation for the 2018 seasons of Hogan and Petracca, as I'm sure everyone is. And I'm really keen to see Nibbler and Stretch mature and each force themselves into stable spots in the 22. BUT If I'm making a tip for the true stunner, the big breakout that has everyone talking, I have to go for Mitch Hannan. I think the time off to reflect on his initial success and to identify the next steps will do wonders for his confidence, the extra preseason of fitness will greatly help him get more involved more often, as will the extra pre-season of training for his role. Add to that, in my opinion he will benefit greatly from the forward line restructuring with the departure of Watts, with extra involvement, responsibility, and space. I think he will really thrive as the fourth 'resident' in a forward line settled around the Hogan, McDonald, Garlett core. Mitch Hannan, playing as a versatile medium forward, 30+ goals and a really good all-round contribution.

Injuries are critical each year. For every team. Even though I loathed our appalling finish to last season, I'm actually surprised we managed to win so many games (and it should've been more) given the injuries and suspensions we had to endure for big chunks of the season: Gawn, Viney, Lewis, Jones, Hogan, Smith (x2), Salem, Bugg, Brayshaw, Garland, Vince, Spencer, Watts etc. It was ridiculous. Hats off to Goodwin for not making excuses for our performances. We did however have a lot of important players out throughout the season - even our injury toll within games was bad. With a bit better luck on the injury front, we just have to be pushing for the top 6 or so. After all, we were very competitive last year with a younger, injury depleted list - it's more experienced and Jake Lever is now wearing the red and the blue.

Craig Coombes might make an interesting podcast guest @Demonland

Didn’t Voss say when he was coaching that we would be the next superpower team or something like that and look what happened. Its nice when people thInk we are going to be a great team but let’s see what they produce on the field first as we all know when expectations are high how disappointing our team can be. Time will tell.

I agree rjay ... should have said 'To add to Oliver' However, most can probably see that he is only going to get better & better. Trading up to pick 3 (later to become pick 4) to acquire Oliver has got to go down as one of the best recruiting coups in living memory. Certainly for our club. The best bit is that we beat out the Dons who were reportedly going to draft him with one of their top-end picks (Essendon had picks 5 & 6 - directly after our pick)

I think Oliver is already there 'Macca'...opposition coaches already know it but it will take the hangers on in the media and AA committee this season to figure it out.

If you’re uploading images to Facebook (or Instagram etc..) as well as here there’s also the option of copying the Facebook link and clicking ‘insert image from URL’ on here. It will save your upload quota. Just a tip for young players.

It definitely did. Just putrid.

Well well, the good horses won today at the Magic Millions and the quaddie was all there for the taking (not that it paid much!) Not for me though, money back on the 9th but no other collects. Sunlight wins the 2yo Classic and looks to have a terrific future and is now being set for the 'Slipper' Care to Think won the cup race after drawing badly and being 3 wide for the race Pierata won the Guineas in very impressive fashion - another 3yo with a bright future. Viddora can really sprint (the horse is being set for 'The Everest')

Looking at that list other than Petracca and Tom Mc Donald (UFA) you would think that most would sign on as the year progresses. Good players among the rest but no real stars. 2019 has Hogan and Oliver amongst others. Would like to see them both signed this year but who knows.

This is an article from the week leading up to the Carlton match: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/dons-longterm-weight-gain-brings-shortterm-pain-20120415-1x1mm.html This paragraph from another article is particularly cringe-worthy: “At the start of the 2012 pre season coach James Hird promised the playing group that they were in for their hardest pre season ever, with an emphasis on bigger bodies and overall fitness. Apart from the occasional one paragraph news article tracking the Bombers progress through the pre season we have been basically kept in the dark with the club choosing to close down most training session from the prying eyes of the media... Internally the club appears to be ecstatic about the progress made over the pre season”

Couldn't help yourself As stated elsewhere the FD have a completely differing view of Omac As Goodwin stated the 3 amigos are gelling well and Kielty who also trains with them is getting all the same info which can only benefit him Salem jokes about this, being politically correct, it's in his DNA, reckons he shaves before training but by the end of the session needs another one Harmes is Nr 4, actually asked for it, he is my pick to go to another level this year

.....and as long as we star somewhere in between those lines we should be fine. P.S. O Mac also looking good.

Demons co-captain hopeful of facing Cats in round 1. http://m.afl.com.au/news/2018-01-12/cautious-viney-still-weeks-from-full-training Apologies if this has been posted already.

Interesting theory. Never seen a team win a Premiership when they haven't made the finals.

True but.... the rules of the game have changed. I don't think this has been factored in enough. Teams have an extra week off before finals. This means a whole bunch of things including getting players refreshed or back from injury etc. Important when you are struggling desperately to make finals. The Toiges and Dogs had the best Septembers. The Toiges defence conceded 5, 8 and 9 goals in finals. Quite extraordinary. There was alot of focus on their forwards but the defence for me won it. I thin what it means now is that making the finals gives everyone a much better chance of winning a flag. It's why I was so dirty on missing the finals. You just never know. Particularly in such an even year.

Flights and Grand Final tickets booked.

I know exactly what will happen: Watts is capable of good games of footy, and when he plays one there will be posters on here who will cry foul about the trade immediately. Hell, it doesn't even need to be that good of a game. He might snag 3 goals, 2 of which are 'Joe the Goose' style, and they'll yell from the rafters that we should never have let him go, the trade is a disaster, Goodwin is an idiot and so forth. Then he'll go missing for a few games. So will those posters. Then he'll play another decent game and out of the woodwork they come again to get stuck into the trade. It will be the same as the boot camp stuff. The moment we lose a game, a team kicks a few goals in a row etc. we will get the smarmy comments about not doing the boot camp, we're soft, we're no good, it's been the same way for 54 years etc. Then we play well and, funnily enough, they go quiet. Until they feel the need to pipe up again.

There is something in that, Deemented. Never recognised it before but you are definitely correct. Maybe is a 'readiness' thing brought on by training with Port - aligned to mental acuity in order to understand the purpose of the game? Could be wrong but he looks comfortable....

That man Frosty is looking totally awesome ... he has pace, muscle and no-one would like to run into him! Very exciting for the new season. I'd reckon that Frosty might make a good fullback given a bit of confidence.

The most startling revelation to come out of these updates is that Jay Kennedy Harris does not have a hyphen between Kennedy and Harris. It's all happening.

Bloody fantastic pics Tim. Covered all the names I mentioned. Balic looks quite tall in every pic I see of him. Must have a bolt-upright running style. O-Mac looking good, and noticed Weideman looked to have bigger arms than last year. Thanks for making the off season a little more bearable. Great pics.

And a few more...

A few of the newer players (please don’t ask me to identify all of them... I’m hopeless). Note that these were all taken by my son Liam...

Frost really is a ridiculous human specimen. If he can improve his consistency he will be so valuable with his pace coming out of D 50.

This doesn't look good for him. Sounds like he's coming from a long way back. Having a look at him prior to Christmas, it looked like he struggled to maintain muscle during his rehab. Here's wishing he makes it back and soon.

The look on Moloney’s face is priceless.

I lost mine in round 23.