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Just a note on Sean Wight: He mastered at least 3 codes... Soccer, Gaelic and AFL (VFL)... He was in the top 10 most courageous of all time (watch his games on a bigger, uglier, VFL icon, Plugger!)... I was at his pre-wake at the Bentleigh Club (Jimmy spoke for him, even though he was also diagnosed at the time) ... His athleticism was stunning, considering his knee reco in his first (maybe 2nd) year... to top it off, he played with authentic Brownlow values (like The Tulip)... consider some of the bullying thugs who have won Charlie!

Anyway, back on topic. Watched a bit of training this morning from about 10:30 until they finished after 11. A couple of new entrants in to the rehab group. 1. The coach. Goody had a knee bandaged up and was on crutches before getting carted back to AAMI park at the end of the session. 2. Death, taxes and Dom Tyson getting injured in preseason. Dom had compression on his right calf. Rehab group: Viney, Kent, T Smith, J Smith, Vanders, Mckenna, Weed, JeffyG, Tyson. They were doing a little version of slips catching with footies then a decent boxing hit out. Main group were split in to multiple groups. Seemed to be a lot of small drills. Didn't really notice any particular themes of interest. So really just some tidbits: - Salem and Jetta sat out a drill at one stage, Hogan the last drill and wandered back to AAMI - Frost's set shot for goal remain the scariest thing you'll ever see, but at the end of training him launcher a torp from the goal square to near midfield - Harry Petty kicks with a very flat and penetrating trajectory - Flippers looks fitter in the legs since late last year, starting to look more like an athlete - Balic did extra kicking at the end of the session with Crossy. - Melksham seems a bit more built than last season, not major, just less sinewy.

Sick? No way. Butterflies of excitement. This team is ready people, enjoy the ride

Hi all! I didn't want to start a new thread so I thought I'd give this one a bump. I've just edited and uploaded a video to YouTube featuring Jeffy's 2017 highlights. More to come in the lead up to round one! Go Dees!

Without wishing to enter your dispute, surely his ability to chase down a mid like selwood is relevant in so far as if he can show agility/mobility/pressure acts in the centre square surely that suggests he can do the same when resting forward?

Some guys obviously want to be banned so keep up the sexist posts and you'll find you can no longer post on Demonland.

Would be very long odds to do that 3 times in a row.......lets hope he salutes! Question without notice....Is Egyptian Symbol any relation to Egyptian Ruler?

I haven't seen a running session since he did a time trial with Maynard where he was clearly beaten but not embarrassed. From early match simulation drills he showed an ability to find the ball and use it creatively. He had to get fitter and hopefully that's happened just by doing a good chunk main training and his kicking needed to be more consistent so I was glad to see him working on that today.

Black Heart Bart scratched.

Viney eats 580 Brownlow votes for breakfast.

Disagree on that. Rucks have to be extra mids around the ground and at stoppages. The Tigers used Nankervis and Grigg as ruck rovers as much as rucks to use the old terminology. Dogs the same with Boyd and Roughead when they won the flag. The way teams link from handball at stoppages requires rucks to stay involved. Pedersen and McDonald did it very well last year and we were better with them than with Gawn! But we need Max at his best back in. For us to win in round 1 he has to dominate the taps but he’ll also have to chase Danger, Selwood and Ablett at the stoppages as well!

He’s 7 foot tall and white! There’s only so much agility the man can have. Of course he’s working at it but he can’t chase down mobile defenders. I’d be annoyed if we were playing against him and he consistently pressured the likes of Jetta, Hibberd, Frost, Lever or Hunt! That’s not to say he’s not working on it, improving or a viable forward option it’s just a reality.

Ive gone a bit early, as i may be busy tomorrow....I put our 3 selections in with AFLW Demons....couldnt help myself!

Now that you mentioned it, i must place a tri and first four straight out in numerical order. It goes with the theme of this race. Juicy odds again for the best bets combined and another selection could be added with Binman declaring his "Best".

I was also tossing up between Show a Star and Gailo Chop. So i concur with your best bet D77. Well spotted. Ok so that leaves us with Egyptian Symbol, Show a Star and Gailo Chop. Multi them up now and you get 19.27/1 Oh yeah, and ive never seen a race where the saddlecloth and barriers are the same D77? The odds against that would be astronomical. Maybe they finish the race in the same order?

I believe the horse above has a promising future. It's definitely a talented galloper and I'm sure it will be someone's "Best" very soon. It was scratched due to a virus or some kind of blood infection. Hopefully it's not too serious and we'll see if it can return after its short break. In regards to Show A Star, I thought the 1 and the 2 were the obvious dangers but the weight difference was the determining factor towards Show A Star.

'Show A Star' was the first horse I had picked out as my best bet D77! ... then superceded by 'Egyptian Symbol' but only just. I also had 'Nature Strip' picked out but was concerned about the hot favourite 'She Will Reign' ... in the end Nature Strip was scratched so my mind was made up.

Others' actually

My "Best" comes from Warwick Farm Race 8 No.4 - Show A Star.($2.60 Win) First look at the track but his last run (win) was very good. Pushed hard from a wide barrier to lead the field up, kicked away on turning and fought off a few late swoopers. Big drop in the weights from last start will see him carry 53.5kg. There are one or two in the field with early speed so it will be interesting to see if Tim Clark goes for the lead or if he'll be happy to take a sit just off the leaders. Currently it's only a 7 horse field, the $1.60 for the place might appeal to some that fancy the horse for a top 2 finish. Happy Punting!

Well yeah ... there's a fair bit of depth in the race and that may be the reason. Rich Charm's last run was as good as it gets in terms of the time run and the fact that it was in a Group 2 race (and it beat Missrock) And, it's got a very good strike rate ... it is up a few kilos from its previous 3 runs but before that won over 1200m carrying 59 & 60.5kgs. I was in the same quandary with Goodfella and at one stage was going to nominate Goodfella as my best bet - for the place only though. But I baulked at doing that as 1 scratching would have meant no 3rd dividend.

Noble Park full-back Ryan Morrison, Mitch White (MFC), Jay Lockhart (North Launceston) and the returning James Freeman all signed with Casey Demons last night. Tweet from Paul Amy.

I miss Sean Wight.

Actually it is. Gawn resting forward would generally be deep forward, he'd draw at least one tall defender (possibly 2), and our forwards would know the balls likely to come in long and high at Maxy, be at his feat then work hard to apply defensive pressure if theres a turn over... If you're implying Max is unaccountable or disinclined to chase, I disagree.

I like all long suffering Dee supporters feel a bit crook in the guts at this time of year, 2017 gave us some great wins, un-explainable poor losses, a massive fade out against the lowly Lions and then a gut wrenching loss to the Pies. The Lions win set off alarm bells in my head once again, so I wasn't as surprised as some that we played so poorly in Round 23. This year I am not expecting it to be an easy road to the finals, there are 10 other teams that can make it, I want and expect this group of players to guts out wins that we would have lost and put teams to the sword that aren't 100% on or are injury depleted. No more mister nice guy's, I want mean hard, tough players that play for each other the Club and us supporters. Nothing else will be good enough in 2018. Go Dee's....................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Port will finish top four off the back of the players we have given them over the past two years? Crikey. I should stop following the Demons while I’m still young.

Apart from our 3 best bets so far (Gailo Chop, Egyptian Symbol & Show A Star) we've also made mention of 3 other horses that we fancy to feature ... Caulfield Race 5 No. 6 Smart Coupe $8 (Wadda) Caulfield Race 6 No. 1 Rich Charm $8 (Demon77) Warwick Farm Race 6 No.2 Goodfella $9 (Macca) That's not a bad 'Spec' multi ... 575-1 All 3 have decent form and are realistic chances. Anyway, here's another look at last year's C F Orr Stakes ...

Lol, any win is a good win, the last leg is Race 8 No.9 - True Excelsior. $2.80 was its fixed price in the multi. Not sure about your question, I might have to look it up.

Saved for the Futurity Stakes in 2 weeks time? Also over the 1400m ... which seems to be the ideal distance for the horse. The race (The C F Orr Stakes) is a good betting race all the same ... a number of the fancied horses have drawn out wide which makes the race even more competitive. I've at least narrowed it down to 6 horses now but finding 2 or 3 clear-cut winning chances (for a multiple trifecta) out of those 6 is proving difficult. I can see a couple of decent dividends coming up though (Tri & First 4)

Is that Bomber with a copper looking over his shoulder?

So.... a fella at work gave me his 3 "Best Bets" at the Valley tonight. I quickly rushed to put the multi on at $24. Leg 1 - Race 3 No.1-Despatch. Result-Scratched at barrier. Leg 2 - Race 5 No.9- Oscietra. Result- Scratched at barrier. Unbeliavable!! What are the odds for the same to happen in leg 3?

I think we can win this game, even with those 3 playing.

I read the article that has this pic and it states that Geelong's Round 1 opponent is Essendon. Is this for the pre-season games? I do not buy into the hype around these three playing together and I hope that our Team does not either. There is only one ball in play at any one time and we will need to be putting pressure on the ball and the man with it at every contest, no matter who the opposition player is. Let the Cats sit back and fall into the trap of thinking they have it won because these three are going to win it for them. I am confident of a win first up.

Balic is another one on a tightly controlled program, building up his base fitness, so one session main group then maybe a rehab etc etc the Machine/Doc/Crossy is in charge of it

Get Bugg to knock them all out. Game over.

Motlop now at Port....... Both Dangerfield and Selwood struggling to get to the starting line for round 1.

For anyone that watched the (albeit limited) games that Ablett played last year, he was still an unbelievably powerful player. Great test for our midfielders in the first game because these 3 will destroy teams this season.

Except for the most unusual circumstances, if Max has to chase a medium sized player like Selwood it is only because his teammates have let him down. He doesn't expect them to ruck and so they should not expect him to rove. When Max rests forward, it is not to play like Jeffie but to stretch the opposition with his height and marking ability and create a mismatch to our advantage. If, as Saty says, he might surprise us with his skills at ground level, then it will be a bonus, not the main game.

So nothing to do with my questioning of his agility/mobility/pressure acts when resting forward? Thought as much.

Completely disagree.............. you figure out the bit I mean

Yeah shorten the field size? Just like the good old days of backyard footy with my mates playing 5 a side. Lets face it 1 Women's footy is a novelty where skill level apart from a very few exceptions is poor. 2 Any Average grade men's suburban side would beat any AFLX women's team Easily IMO

I’m happy to be a one eyed Dees supporter and fully understand AFL’s remit to maximise revenue, but disagree with small clubs get fairly compensated. As a potential sponsor who would you take this year Carlton with 6 Friday night games, no Geelong trip or Melb with Anzac Eve & Easter Monday? But of course, Friday night games are given on performance, cough cough! The draft and salary cap combined, provide a way to get access to best young players and stop top clubs paying over the odds every time. Salary cap gets rorted with outside 3rd party deals, but it would be much worse without it, just think Man City - EPL, Barcelona, PSG, & Bayern to see what happens with no draft or cap. Who has the money to pump into FDs, the wealthiest clubs. Which area of the AFL do you work in?

Probably won't help for the first 100 years, as they learn how to kick properly. More mums out in the backyard teaching their little girls, on the opposite foot, for two or three hours every night. Equality is a pain...........

I'm quietly confident. I thought we should have finished top 4 last year. We knocked over one Grand Finalist on their home soil, and should have taken out the other but for injuries. Brain farts undid us. Not playing out 4 q's did us. I think, as our list matures, that will get less and less. We have the list and the support... the real question is if we have the cojones .

I'll settle for a long sequence of comfortable, routine, unremarkable victories.

After the debacle at the end of last year, I had a feeling of peace come over me and i guess it was from knowing that its done and dusted.I wouldn't be kicked in the guts any more.The pathetic finale to the end of the year had taken it all out of me and i dare say a lot of other supporters of long standing (in my case 53 years)It was like stuff this,i'm going fishing next year.But as the new season approaches,and I look at our list,with all our youngsters with another year under their belt,and hopefully not so rotten of luck with injuries the old spirit is coming back with what I started this thread with a nervous feeling in the guts. I'M BACK IN. GO YOU MIGHTY DEMONS.

Me 3.

the hokey pokey?

One would have to be very Left to think labelling the ABC Left is "unfair".

The radio news is good. Have always liked it more than any other media. But as a package, I would rejoice at the death of the ABC because of its enormous lefty bias in any show that has opinions on it. It's the media arm of the ALP. Any channel that allows anti-Australian filth like yasmin to put its face forward deserves to have its funding withdrawn. imo Do you work on a particular show, or is it a more general job that you do? I'm surprised we didn't discuss it while on the turps in Philippines. Are the personalities there as big headed as we see on commercial media?

Gerard is a nice person, knowledgeable, balanced, and experienced. I doubt you'd hear a bad word about him. I find him boring.