Leaderboard

Unsighted: 4 new draftees (presume it's AFL induction time). Vanders, McKenna Rehab: As PB outlined. Joel Smith did a bit of footy work and plenty of running with Viney. The other 4 did a lot of footy work and you'd think wouldn't be far off joining in the main stuff. Jones looked ready to go. Weid's kicking was a bit off in the swirly breeze. Balic joined the rehab group after his long run. Lots of different group drills really mixing it up but the focus was definitely on sharp kicking and clearing congestion. Most interesting drill might've been working the ball cone to cone in the middle of the ground then getting it in to a forward v defender one on one with Garlett and DJ both swooping on any loose balls from 30m or so in front of the contest. And I was also impressed with Dion. Not under any pressure but he was timing his run, gathering and snapping nicely. The full corridor 9 on 9 or whatever it was had mixed results but Lever was composed with the ball and Clarry took it on and kicked long to targets nicely.

Went down for a look this morning. List of things I observed in no particular order. . - Maynard and Balic completed their 2km time trials... Maynard finished about 200m in front. Both were well and truly spent at the finish. - One particular drill was just focused on the "Dustin Martin don't argue". Picking the ball up off the ground and pushing off a bag/opponent with the hand. - Jones, Weid, Kent, T.Smith in rehab. Ditto Viney and Joel Smith but they were running lap after lap rather than the balls. - Brayshaw had his thigh taped up and at one point removed himself from the main group to complete some run thru's. He joined back in soon after. - I was most impressed with Dion Johnstone. Put on some muscle and his skills on both side of the feet was a highlight. Crumbing off the forwards and kicking them from all angles. - Lewis certainty entrenched in the back-line group. Vince also down there. - Omac looked noticeably bigger in the legs and arms. - Trac also looking fit without any strapping on the knee.

Got down to Gosch's today for about 80 minutes... observations other than those already mentioned, Bernie's predicted demise was premature! His ball handling and kicking to position in the conditions was of the highest quality and he was up to speed in the sprints Ditto Lewis Impressed by Filipovic's increased bulk, athletic running and sure hands Jetta terrific in man on man defensive rebound activity Oscar McD consistently effective at spoiling in the arial contests Tom McD had the safest hands in the marking exercises I watched Petracca bustles like a bull and gets what he wants Bugg is looking like best 22 again Lewis an unlikely dead-eyed-dick on the day Oh yes, a bloke called Clayton continues to make the difficult look easy

Got down there for an hour. I am sure it was AVB running laps while I was there? Jones, the Weid, Kent running laps after some limited ball work earlier away from the main group. Jones looks fit to me. Keilty went down in a marking contest and spent 10minutes looking very ginger on his left ankle but recovered well to dominate some later drills. I liked the series of drills pitting defence against offence, the emphasis in working the ball out of congestion. Where was this competitive training stuff in the Bailey, Neeld years? Some of the tacking was very willing which I like to see as well as drills which forced players to work together in confined spaces. This is replicating game day which I think you should be doing at least 50% of the time at some stage of the preseason as well as honing your kicking and hand balling skills in conventional circle work. Liked the work of Clarrie, Vince, Maynard, The Track, J MAC and Hogan.

Got along for about an hour with Mrs Worship, Agree with everything everyone else has said. Only a few things to add. Thought Tim Smith cannot be far off rejoining the main group, was impressed with how good his marking, speed and kicking was. Also looks to have put on a bit of size in the arms and shoulders. Jones looked ready to go and for those Kent followers; no he didn't look like he was going flat out at everything but he and Jones were very competitive with each other and there was a lot of banter and smiles, didn't look disinterested at all. Balic looked a little sore/tired to me and I saw him get quite a bit of treatment from one of the trainers. This would have been after the 2km trial, which we didn't see, so that may have had an effect. Some of the funnier /lighter moments in the main group were seeing Jeffy trying to stop/tackle Maxy and at one stage JKH had to take on/tackle first Jessy and then Max in quick succession. Really enjoyed the 9 x 9 drill mentioned earlier and the comments about Dion were what I saw too, but it was also interesting how often Keilty was on the end of the possession chain kicking at goal. I can't not mention young Clayton, I wasn't paying particular attention to him today but he is eye catching and he will surprise a few with his further improvement. From what I saw today I think the Cats might get a bit of a shock in the opener. Can't wait.

I get the feeling that Tomas Bugg is pushing hard to make amends, and take his game and contribution to a new level. I thought he was going ok when he had the brain fade last year, so can play... another level of fitness and intensity as a defensive forward, line breaking runner to receive could have him flourish.

Its one thing not rating a player in the team you support and making your case as to why. I have no issue at all with that. What i do have an issue with is so called supporters bagging their own players, particularly when it is as petty as this post. I cant stand it, whether it is my club or another one. You often hear it at the footy and i am embarrassed when it is a demon fan. Basically a personal attack on a 21 year old kid busting a gut to play for the demons. Questioning his courage? Ridicuiling him? Pathetic.

I'm thinking it could be Dom Tyson... Not fashionable with some, in particular 'joeboy' but coming up to the 100 game mark this season. He had a good first year with us but has been a bit inconsistent following on from that. This is a real make or break year for Dom, he either steps up or falls back in the pack. Injury free...

Petracca will continue his natural progression and be dominant more often. Salem for mine, as one who will surprise spectators in general with how damaging he is. O-Mac will benefit greatly from Lever's presence in the backline, in terms of both leadership and support.

Yep, it's a bit of a racquet, isn't it................

Judging by this photo it will take a lot to convince me that Joel Macdonald hasn't stopped making his millions to return to playing for Melbourne.

I hope to see Clarry add to his game this year. Everyone knows he's elite inside the contest but let's not forget he's a beautiful kick and as he showed in his junior years he's more than capable of going forward and kicking goals. Clarry has a few more strings to his bow than a lot of ppl realize.

He could have just wrapped him up in a tackle & it would have been over.. They wouldn't of had time to get to the line & clock the ball for a FG attempt. All he litreally had to do was hold him up where he was & the Saints win the ball game

I wouldn't want to be announcing a new sponsor any time in the next fortnight. The Australian Open will be consuming virtually all the media interest. Any leftovers will be absorbed by the Big Bash League.

Clayton Oliver?

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

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

You're on the right track, Ron. If you keep up the good work, you'll be loathing 17 clubs like the rest of us.

Jones looks perfectly fine, jumping, sprinting, turning and kicking well. Weid's looked like the wind and being a bit underdone was playing with his kicking. But he looks strong and fit, just more like a guy who's missed some time and is still getting back.

sounds like there wasn't a house left standing. knew i should have got into the construction business.....damn

well that's just plain selfish !

Dunno about you lot, but those ads scared the bejeezus out of me and had a lasting impact. I've never been ten-pin bowling since.

No he was with main group

Work?

Oh my god... Just when you think you've seen it all in this sport

Have you ever. Seen. Anything. Like. That.

Holy [censored]. What an end.

Who else, hmm... Patrick Cripps. And he didn't even win the Rising Star in his year. Jaegar 'Omear, Dyson Heppell, Joel Selwood, Cyril Rioli, Oliver Wines, Marcus Bontempelli. It is definitely true that most young players, no matter how talented, only really dominate by their third or fourth year these days. But I'm not sure that is any different to how it was a decade or even twenty years ago.

If only someone gave Dave Hughes the same advice.

I think Maynard will be an instant hit for us but if we are to really improve its the likes of Brayshaw, Salem and Weideman that need to turn it on.

Turn that frown upside down, OD. I see OMac having an AA year, Weid to kick 60 goals by Queen's Birthday and for Clarry to hit Joel Selwood in a tackle in Round 1 so hard that his head is buried in the MCG turf.

I think and hope Maynard will improve but I'm still struggling to see how he gets significant opportunity to play games and particularly midfield minutes. If he is to play regularly he's going to need to improve as a forward. Salem, Jones, Brayshaw and Tyson can all play more of an outside role, Petracca obviously spends a lot of time forward and I'd like to see Oliver develop as a forward as well, but he's still down the pecking order. Similarly there's nominal forwards like ANB, Hogan, Melksham and Hannan who can rotate in to the midfield mix. I guess I want to see more that shows he's not just an good prospect as a stoppage player but can run and link around the ground as well.

Get over the idea that OMac needs to go back to Casey to learn. He's my prediction for a breakout year, if there is such a thing.

You guys need to get out more.

see http://www.saints.com.au/

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.

Will miss Liam's excellent work. But I hope he and you enjoyed your time at Gosch's paddock.

I haven’t tried it, but I would hope that by linking directly to the image, it should be embedded in the Demonland post and therefore you see it without going to Facebook (it could just be rather tedious for the person posting when linking to large numbers of images). The fact that there are a few who can’t view images in Facebook is the reason I post a Facebook link to the album as well as upload a subset of those images. But you won’t have to worry about Facebook for a while as my son and I are back home in Sydney now ?

Asking for a friend...if I (sorry, my friend) isn't on Facebook or Instagram, would he still be able to see these photos? If not, that would be a selfish* thing to do. (*Sarcasm alert...just in case)

I blame the sprinkler

How was that crazy catch off the Atlanta players knees? The following link provides the video of the play ... the videos that follow on adds some humour and analysis to the Eagles win (including the dog mask bit) Torrey Smith makes immaculate-ish reception after pass bounces off DB's knee

Then don’t read it. You are too forgiving on this weak organization. I don’t consider that wise at all

Yep Wadda, I reckon keeping up a bit of an interest between the Carnivals helps when the Carnivals come around. We develop an eye for the good horses so when they pop up again it makes distinguishing the form easier. There will be a few horses coming over from the Ascot carnival and the same goes for those that ran at the Gold Coast yesterday. Those 4 horses that won the feature races yesterday are all worth following up on. All won well and all ran sizzling times. 'Care to Think' was just off running the track record (it ran 1:20.72 for the 1400m) yet had to come from the outside barrier and was 3-wide all the way. Viddora carried 59kg and could be anything. Sunlight is a real speedster whilst Pierata looks a gun 3yo.

Everyone dips, yes. But a good club will climb again in one or two years. The MFC seem to be improving, but we still do not have a steel resolve to not be beaten. That problem has always existed since i first watched the Demons in 1971. The final rounds of 2017 were very worrying. We gave up before the season ended, even with 12 wins.

Yep TPF39, pre-season anxiety genuinely stimulated; these photos have that magic effect. Anticipation seems to be at fever pitch right across the board. Thanks to the great photos from those who have contributed to this site.

Great photos again Son of Tacky. Love the flame red hair of Baker. If he gets pulled by his wild mop, does that count as a high tackle?

Cheers HT, Liam and Saty for the pics and everyone for the updates. Much appreciated

Angus Brayshaw. Hopefully we get a full season out of this kid so he can showcase his potential.