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Good Evening fellow demonlanders, as posts from Darwin seem rather thin we shall attempt to fill the void. Team arrived at midnight last night, according to our source the flight was delayed. Consequently the training session was delayed somewhat, commencing just after 11:30 am this morning rather than the advertised 10:30 am start. Which was just fine, the Marrara ground is a picture, its surface is well grassed and some additional 'outdoor' new seating has been built on the outer side of the ground adjacent to the Michael Long Centre. The grandstand now honours the late Maurice Rioli no doubt Junior Boy will be in attendance come Saturday night. Being the nominated 'home' team Demons really get the pick of the facilities using the more modern change rooms and gym facilities of the Michael Long Centre. Fremantle get the more antiquated visitors dungeon deep in the bowels of the stadium we assume. Perhaps a swap of change rooms would be in order after Captain Viney's call for the team to get back to the 'basics'! Goal kicking practice for a few of the forwards was the first appearance of players on to the ground. Led by a Tom McDonald mini-clinic, he has a rock-solid goal kicking technique, head and ball position is maintained prior to a faultless ball drop and an efficient and linear kicking action, a bio-mechanics masterpiece. Even Bayley Fritsch struggled for accuracy deep in the forward pocket but Tom split the middle consistently. Goody appeared and purposely strode up to the coaches box to take in the view, which was decidedly smoky after recent scrub fires close to the oval. Sunset will indubitably be enhanced, hopefully it will not affect athletic performance game time. Meanwhile the small advance party were called back inside for what appears to be another meeting. The bane of the modern workplace it seems, although contemporary orthodoxy suggests footy as well as being a "game of inches" is won or lost between the players ears. Hope they were listening. Whilst this was going on one of the factotums was placing colourful plastic position discs around the forward fifty arcs both ends of the ground. The full team session was about to begin! Max Gawn demonstrated his ability to kick the high degree of difficulty checkside goal with ease from the tightest forward pocket position as the team positively bounded out of the team meeting on to the ground. The team approached training in a spirited and positive frame of mind. The mostly brief drills initially focused on sharp ball handling skills, hand-balling, short-passing by foot and some contested drills gaining possession in packs without much contact. After the the first series of ball-handling drills the team divided into forwards, mid-fielders and defenders. For what appeared to be succinct on field tutorials with the line coaches. Sam Frost joined the defenders, as did Bernie Vince who seemed to be the only emergency traveling up. But surprisingly, given Goody's mantra about total team defense, much of the later part of the training session was dedicated to ball movement into the forward fifty. The colourful plastic position discs came into play, with a complex drill which almost seemed to mimic marching girl precision with speed, with variations on a big "W" pattern. Anyway lowering the eyes, delivering a well weighted and directed pass either by foot or by hand was the theme. Post-training those fans in attendance including your top-end correspondents got to meet the players. After last year's disappointment here against a resurgent crows outfit, the guys seemed to be enjoying the territory warmth and hopefully can re-discover the spark to re-launch our assault for a finals berth. Go you Mighty Demons !

Complaining about the umpiring before the game has begun, I like it. Get on the front foot

On Jeff. I only saw the first quarter last week but saw him lay 3 tackles, including one in the defensive 50, and a a 50+ metre sprint to lay a bump resulting in our first goal. Perhaps this is more what the footy department were after.

We queried Maynard and Wagner in Round 1. We queried Tim Smith and Tyson against Port. We queried Petty over Frost and no small forward against the Saints. Goodwin's selections have cost the club 3 wins in an even season. It will most likely cost the club finals. The sycophants like you that say "I trust the FD" make me sick.

I've already switched off mentally for the year and won't turn back on until we've booked a spot in September. I counted last week that I've attended around 272 matches in my life since 1991, for 94 wins, 178 losses. I haven't seen us win a final in person since 2002. I've sat through 19 10+ goal losses, have never seen us beat Geelong live, have never attended a match where we've beaten a team with Buddy Franklin in it, lost countless matches where we've been outright favourites. And I pay $600+ per year. I've been uninspired all year, and switched off in my head after round 23 last year. I care less, but still get frustrated. If they lose against Freo, I'll be the same as I am now. If they win (and I think they will, comfortably), I'm still not validating my bandwagon ticket. I've earned my VIP pass. I'm not cashing it in yet.

This is a big game for the boys. Norths 2nd's have been in pretty poor form in their inaugural VFL season after finishing their alignment with Werribee, although Pruess has been dominating the ruck, leading all in Hit-Outs and HOs-to-Advantage, should be a good test for King and Flipper. There's still plenty of spots in the Senior side up for grabs and in particular the boys who have been dropped recently are going to want to put on a big display. Petty will want to make-up for his disastrous debut. Vince, Bull, Tyson and Weideman will all want back into the AFL side asap. Keilty, Baker and Balic are getting closer to a debut and Pedo, Wagner, Bugg, Kent and JKH are going to have to play well. Great to see AVB and McKenna back from long injuries, very interested into seeing how they play. With such a strong line-up, at home, with a large number of the boys wanting to be playing Seniors, Casey should come out flying and dominate the day. I will obviously be keeping a very close eye on Keilty to see if he continues his great form, especially with Frost out of the side he will be the Number 1 lockdown defender.

This can add to your distress. Against Port we had twice as many F50's than Port did. We did not receive 1 single free kick in our F50 for the whole game. That means that not 1 single infringement by Port was deemed to have happened by the Umpires. That is just unbelievable when we have double the F50's of an opponent. To make matters worse, a doubtful mark and goal was paid to Wingard and a couple of 50's and goals were handed to Port. None were given to us and a goal was taken off Melksham for a man on man block, as called by the umpire, which doesn't exist and then a mark was taken off Brayshaw 20 out, directly in front, in the last 5 minutes of the game.

And there you have one of the major reasons why so many people don't love their footy as much as they used to and so many former players refuse to watch the game anymore. I now find myself watching our games and barely a few minutes of a couple of other games each week.

Tell you something funny about john Snow. When Ray Illingsworth's eleven (Pommy Captain) came to Melbourne a week early for the Christmas Test, John Snow rented a large limousine of the day, and had an expensive 'stick-on' magnetic sign made for the side of the car. It read: 'John Snow, interational cricketer'. Well, Snow then proceeded to drive this sign and vehicle all around Melbourne for a week before the Test Match, starting on Boxing Day. His reputation as a demon fast bowler had the Melbourne public shaking at the knees. The whole of Australia was terrified by the reputation of John Snow that this created; he was so fast, so reckless, so accurate, so likely to damage the Australian batsmen, serious injury awaited those who must endure the John Snow bouncer and his blinding pace! Plus, he had a 'mean streak' to match this Test Match preamble. On the day of the Test, at 11 am, the England team was assembled onfield at the 'G. Out walked two timid, nondescript, modest but tidy Australian batsmen. It looked like one of them was to open as the batting face as John Snow confidently caught the ball tossed to him by Illingworth, the Captain, and Snow began his 250 metre (yards in those days) stomp to his run-up mark. He turned, spat on the ground, and began his menacing run-up gaining pace each step of the way, intent on damage to a batsman ... and that batsman was the mild-mannered Keith Stackpole. Well, whack! It was a boundary. Stackpole went on to hit some 26 runs off that opening over of six balls (instead of the 8 ball overs of today). Snow's bowling never recovered in that Test series and in other international games. From all reports, it seems as though he didn't hire motor cars, limousines and use singwriters again.

This. Hopefully the nuffs read this.

I trust the FD because I feel I have no choice but to trust the FD. Unlike you I can never say with any level of confidence that my idea would have worked better than the one that was implemented. There have been just as many instances where the collective wisdom potted a FD for a decision and were proven completely wrong. The collective wisdom also only sees a small portion of what has gone in to the decision; the rest is completely invisible to it. Trusting others to make decisions that are completely out of one’s control doesn’t make that person a sycophant, it just makes them self aware. I work in an industry where the outcome of the (complex) choices of my team makes become visible to the public, and believe me, the criticism I have seen out there is so misinformed that you have no choice but to laugh and ignore it and get on with the job. As a footy fan, I don’t know if I’m just a woefully misinformed member of the public, but without the decades of experience in the industry I reckon I probably am, and I reckon you probably are too. By the way, I’m not saying FDs never get things wrong - obviously they do. Neeld’s FD got pretty much everything wrong, it is plainly evident from the results. Just highlighting the danger of assuming we could do a better job from our armchairs.

So bloody inconsistent spoils the enjoyment of the game 50 meters - clear and unequivocal against Martin who came in from the side : not paid HTB prior opportunity - again Martin had opportunity to fend off : “no prior”!!

given umpires vote on players for the brownlow..... ....how about players vote on umpires for the downlow?

Not a bad gif but I prefer this one..

Re: Frosty, Stretch and to a lessor extent Jeffy (as he fully knows what's required) let's remember they haven't played any senior footy for over 10 weeks. Will all need a couple of weeks to acclimatise to the pace/pressure and match fitness required to perform effectively at AFL level. Still need to see a solid contribution but not expecting miracles in their first game back after such a long time away. Fingers crossed they can bring something decent over the coming weeks and become solid contributors in a strong finish to the year.

I'm hearing quite a bit of discontent on the Media over the 50 metre penalties! Finally we might get something done about the trigger-happy field umpires expecting players to dissolve or transport themselves 10 metres away instantly. The resultant penalty often becomes a certain goal. Here's a few observations... The clarification on the restricted zone was never intended to lead to many of the penalties we are now seeing applied by the umpiring fraternity The current application of the 50 metre penalty for this offense is sporadic, painfully inconsistent (depending on the umpire/offending player/team), and for this reason, GROSSLY UNFAIR! The penalty should only be applied if the opposition player is attempting to hold up play or have a negative effect on the player who is taking or about to take the kick If the opposition player is running away from the protected area, IN ANY DIRECTION, he/she should not be penalised It really is a matter of common sense! The disturbing reality is that the current crop of whistle blowers don't have any! They identify themselves as severely lacking in knowledge of the game!

People have been asking for more speed and now we have it but I wanted to talk about J Smith. He came in following Levers injury, we then looked too short against pies and port so Petty was bought in but Smith some how survived and got to then play as a mid size or rebounding defender role taking over from Vince. He the has a terrible game against the saints, meanwhile Vince shows he wares in the 2s and we commit to Wagner for another year so we must see something in him. Question is how does Smith hold his spot? You could maybe even try Hannan down back in that role rather than dropping him, hes certainly a better play atm and couldn’t be worse than smith in that role

It has now become theatre. A player wins the ball, gets tackled with no prior, is driven to the ground, is unable to release the ball due to the bodies piled on from the stack on the mill, an opposition player holds up one hand as evidence that he is tackling with the other, all the players (but not the umpires) understand that it is time for a whistle and a ball up as the ball is trapped. Instead, the umpires (who have no feel for the game and cannot read the players' understanding) watch and wait while the players are standing around so that they can, with a grand gesture of bending forward and spreading their arms, penalise the poor bugger at the bottom of the pack. Pure theatre and a pox on the game. When the ball is trapped between players the game should stop and restart. To those who believe that this approach would detract from the game, I urge you to attend an ammos game or watch replays from the 80s and 90s. The current practice of letting play go on until everyone has had a touch of the ball just so that a free kick can be plucked out is a disgrace and ruins the spectacle and the contest. Our game is so much better than this and deserves to be freed from this ugly period. J'accuse!

It means, Skuit, that the writer of the said piece was temporarily suffering from a case of the dreaded 'sticky finger syndrome' whilst using a keyboard (an alien device not half as utilitarian as pen and paper) to inform your good self - and all others using this disseminative form of communication - a particular thought of some widespread, supported interest. The transgression did not deter from the essential meaning or clarity of the said missive and so, most would ignore the occurrence as if to sympathise with the presence of the aforementioned affliction, and simply categorise its occurrence as just another cursed exemplar of the many trajedies of this modern life. Here's one for you that I hope you will find amusing, at least: How do you use the word 'and' five times in succession? A signwriter was working on a pub, out the front. The publican came out to inspect his work - but that work was not yet fully completed. The publican read, in beautiful lettering: 'Bull and Bush Hotel'. He was not very happy with the spacing of the sign. He told the signwriter that there needed to be more space between 'Bull' and 'and' and 'and' and 'Bush'.

Flattracca Or Flattraccattack

Good thing you guys aren't the FD, Wagner has played just 28 games, let's judge him at 50 , if he gets there.

Complaining about the umpiring before the game has even begun is the most MFCSS thing I've ever heard. I love it.

Those 50m protected zone goals are killing the game. Cost is last week and some rediculous ones over the last 2 weeks the hannebury one last night was the worst of all-time.

Yep, that is what’s meant. The ‘only’ is a reference to the absence of the fence, rather than a set of goalposts missing. The ground will only have goal and point posts, no fence.

Good lord! It’s hard to watch footy these days. 3 of the worse fifty metre penalties paid to Geelong late in the game had a massive impact in the outcome. 2 for infringes where the players were trying to exit the area and one where the players did not hear the whistle. What a disgrace the officiating is. And meanwhile, wtf has happened to Hannebery? Looks like a 50 yo out there!

Since we only play one way we don’t need a set of goal posts to defend.

Thanks again Tarax, like your use of words, the humour, colour and expressions.

It's Leppitsch that's done it. It's his work that turned them into a defensive brick wall. Every time the oppo get the ball there's no one to kick it to.

And it’s allowed them to build a game style that stands up. They’re a great cohesive football team. We can only dream we wind up as good as them one day.

Also, anyone saying leg speed isn’t important only needs to watch Richmond to see they’re wrong. It’s all teams can apply pressure, but Richmond’s leg speed across the whole ground is the defining trait that sets them apart from other teams.

My perception of Weed will change considerably when the ball starts sticking to his mitts. He's never going to be the mobile/agile player that Curnow is so our best hope for Weed is that we sort out our shizenhausen forward entries so he can get a better crack at the more conventional leading forward role.

I apologize in advance for mentioning this, but while I still think Weid will make it, it appears we have let a future champion in Curnow, who we were considering at the time, go, by selecting Weid. While Weid is still struggling to cement a place in the side, Curnow has better stats than Jono Brown at the same age and is being hailed as a future champion. Not sure how many champions we have and he was there for the taking. Jesse, Tom and Charlie, a seriously good key forward trio. Yes I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but just saying and I did apologize at the outset.

It was heard on the grapevine that Razor was being sent to Darwin hoping that the humidity would cure his Willy problems, causing some shrinkage, no doubt. Y'see, Razor has his Willy growing out of his forehead and golly, poor chap, just can't see for nuts.

I can definitely see why people are peeved at this, it sure does raise some eyebrows and I wonder what sort of message it sends to others, even Petty v Frost and Keilty etc, there have been a few examples this year. I for one am in the we need Garlett camp and I hope he rips it up and kicks a bag, we are a better side with him in. A bad season for Garlett may be 30-35 goals, I can take his bad traits as he hits the scoreboard and is a match winner.

Last night a prime example of the idiocy and stupidity of the law makers. Again instances of infringement where players were scurrying to get out of the zone with no intention of creating hinderance or infringements and the look at me look at me's with trigger happy fingers pinging hapless players with this abomination of a rule and its interpretation. Do something about it Gil!!

Careful timbo - I was condemned recently as a fair-weather band-wagon jumper for not knowing of some MFC bloke who was recruited thirty-odd years prior to my earthly emergence - by all geriatric reports a true champion of our club - despite having comprehensively researched and incorrectly concluded last year that Tim Smith was our staggering first ever inclusion of your name-sake. Some other guy named Tim briefly played for us in the 20s apparently (from faulty memory) - which I'm sure those castigating parties from the comparative 50s fan-club knew absolutely every last detail about.

Yep, we'd obviously be 14-0 with a percentage of 180 if it wasn't for the umpires. Bastards.

May is a contracted captain of another club. We just overpaid for Lever as though it would fix all our defensive issues and now can't burn a 3rd first rounder on May. Our midfield is terribly unbalanced and we can't spend another 1st rounder on the backline. Jordan Roughead as a free agent would provide a 200cm 105kg key defensive option and genuine ruck depth if Gawn went down. I appreciate he's not quite a full back and not quite a ruckman, but we desperately need some mature bodies and extra height back there. Oscar is always 2 years away from having the necessary strength, and it seems there is no competition for his spot given the club has banished Frost. Roughead would be a much better free hit for us than coughing up a first rounder for May.

The umpiring and the 50m penalties being handed out on a platter are just disgraceful, non sensical and ruining the game. The umpires appear clueless and handing out penalties contrary to common sense and fair play. Just disgraceful and a blight on the game.

Speaking of selection of players to travel to Darwin, I have heard that Demonland's very own cross dressing royalty will be in attendance at the game. Rumour has it he/she will be part of the half time entertainment, perhaps involving music and interpretive dance....

As if the AFL won't be playing razzle dazzle half-court rules within a few years. Visionary preparation.

I got the Dees down to Toorak Primary for a footy clinic the day after the Queens Birthday game against Collingwood, there was fritch, hibberd, Vince, Clayton O and Garlett who attended. one of the kids asked why they lost to Collingwood, Garlett looked at the other 4 demon players and said “they lost coz I wasn’t playing” welcome back Garlett

Some great races there Macca. Ive got a huge weekend coming up....when are the dees even playing? Got Dave Grainey playing up here in Ballarat Sat night, parties all over the place.....soccer all night till dawn.... Ive got to go into training just to keep up!! Best Bet: Flemington Race 9 No 1 Hellova Street TAB $6.00 Horse has a fantastic strike rate. First up 4 from 7, placed last 9 starts, loves the soft going, (9:3.4.1) placed 8/10 at the distance inc 4 wins...and Oliver on board. Not a lot else in the race and seems like good odds to me? Each way all day at that price. (Ive also spent a bit of time in Prague and there are many Hellova streets there)! Hellova place!! Not to mention the Demons...Hellova team arent they?

Thats unbelievable odds.....the horse just aint that bad. Got 9.20 the place....im on!

Bitter?

That was an absolute shocker. The protected zone 50 rule really needs to be overhauled/removed.

? We are saving Bugg for the Sydney game.?

More power to positive innovative ideas! Yes school holidays commenced Monday 2nd of July through until Friday 19th of July. According to Goody's press conference team are scheduled to arrive today, Thursday and train at Marrara stadium 10:30 am tomorrow morning. Weather has been warm and windy daytime early Gurrulwa perhaps, today winds are more moderate though. Evenings swing back to more like Dinidjanggama with heavy dew forming. Awaiting selection news hopefully skilled footballers like Billy Stretch will get a call up and be on the flight up here. Your top-end correspondent team are both basking in the most pleasant dry season climes awaiting Saturday nights game with anticipation.

Don’t. Forget........it’s on Ch 7!

Very good player but the ridiculous hyperbole online today is insane. It’s turning him into some sort of mythical, superhuman player that many wanted him to be, but he simply never was.