Leaderboard

Hi all, i discovered Demonland over the weekend and immediately signed up. I live in South West France, near the beautiful Dordogne River. I've been a Melbourne supporter for more than 60 years. I attended the '64 Grand Final and still vividly remember the Gabelich and Crompton goals. I have been an overseas member for four years and watch every game on watchafl.

I don't care about AFLX, but doing it as State of Origin could have been quite good and with only seven players per side even the smaller states like New South Wales and Queensland could have been competitive.

A new one: And an old one, but history keeps repeating itself:

Exactly. 2/3 of Demonland have this whacko on ignore and only see his posts when quoted. Thanks Dazzle ?

Strictly forbidden from playing frisbee or basketball with dogs.

Note to Gil & fellow nuffies: if I didn't have any interest in watching my own team play (and win) AFLX last year, why would I have any more interest in watching this ugly, red-headed bastard stepson of a concept? Wow, even more publicity for the already dangerously over-exposed Dangerfield and Betts! Broadly speaking I understand the idea behind having a version of the game that requires less space, less players and less physicality, but the execution of the idea has been so bad it has no chance of ever gaining acceptance. And only the AFL (and perhaps Cricket Australia) would cannibalise their own product by running it at the same time as they are trying to get publicity and sponsors for AFLW.

A weekend on the puss. I admire your stamina.

No one else has mentioned but I thought I would... Lever, Brayshaw and Stretch were really good with the kids today. Signing autographs, taking photos and the like and just being polite, while the kids were nagging them through training. The club has come along way since I was a Redleg which was good to see.

Or 'Max'.

The first year players were back at Etihad today. Saw a couple of young Demons this morning.

Not even watching Daicos could get me to attend any Collingwood games unless we were playing them. My detest of Collingwood was so strong from the 1960s through to approximately 15 January 2019, that I just couldn't watch them. However, your comment about Daicos is understood. It's hard to believe that the bouncing "round the corner" kicks at goal we now see performed regularly just didn't exist until Daicos showed how it could be done.

Two groups of Roo supporters at different gatherings - both down on Preuss going.

This might of been brought up in another thread, Was thinking the other day, one way teams have been trying to stop max is smash into him early. You see them run into Max hard for the first 1-2 center ball ups of the match (and after half time). Do you think it is worth sending big Pruess into the center for the first bounce of the quarter and then let him drift forward and max to follow the ball? or let him take the first 5 min and let Maxy run out the quarter? Max will always be the number 1 but protecting him against a Nankervis who just wants to put some "hurt" onto Max might be a big upside of the man monster Pruess in the side. sorry if this has been covered, just bored at work.

If he makes it can we call him “Luke”? :)

Thanks for the training reports- much appreciated! Any observations on how Jeff Garlett has been training?

Flower is the greatest goal-kicking wingman of all time. Flower is the most brilliant Melbourne player I've ever seen. I have a feeling Oliver will be the most effective Melbourne player I'll see.

We all do, they're compulsory in-car equipment. But like most of the locals, I only wear it in emergencies. Right-wing populism isn't really my thing.

2019 will be a big development year for de Weide.

WOW! Weeds is a big boy now. He's not a fast guy or a manic endurance athlete so he needs to rely on his excellent pack marking and strength in 1-on-1 contests. We saw a glimpse of that in September, with an extra few KGs and newfound confidence, and no Hogan, look out! Makes a mockery of those who wrote him off early. ME INCLUDED!

R Flower was consistently the best footballer i saw for 14 years. Just sublime. That said Oliver is a full tilt jet who could go down as one of our club greats

The Chief and family are sponsoring Tom in 2019 and very pleased to hear the chance of him cracking a game are looking good.

Being a crap kick has not stopped Dangerfield from being a jet.

Dunno bout the rest of you, but i cant wait to see the clash strips.

too sensible, clint

I'm based in Madrid for the next few years after moving here at the end of last year. Would be keen to catch up with any other Dees supporters to watch a few games if there are any here?!

The entire point of the Cat B rookie is to take a couple of years to work with them and teach them how to play. A slow start right now isn't really an issue. We'll see in time. About all we'll get this pre-season is how much of an athlete he is.

How can a footy club be complacent after scoring 0.6 in the first half of its most recent game of football?

Robbie was the best Demon I have ever seen. He was poetry in motion. He would do a blind turn take a specks and run bounce left handed then kick with his right. He was a ball player and a true champion.

Here's a thought depending on match day role why wouldnt the club offer special access package with Bernie into rooms etc and market it as "Weekend with ( at) Bernies" ??

I mainly focused on the rehabbers today as the new draftees were at Marvel for induction. In that group were Brayshaw, Oliver, Petracca, AVB, Stretch, Hunt, Harmes, Baker, Jones, Melksham, Lever, Jetta, O.Mac and T.Smith. Melksham, Brayshaw, Oliver and Lever all running boundary laps with a few of them vomiting towards the end. Jonesy doing sprints and a lot of boxing. He's getting a lot of work done on his lower back from the Physio. Petracca also needed further work on his knee throughout the session telling the Physio "It hurts when I stop moving." But he looked to be fine movement wise. All the rehabbers were moving really well actually. Everyone just ticking off each session and building nicely for round 1. Standout for me today was AVB with his leadership, he was really vocal and serious and wasn't letting anyone slack off. He was also showing Stretch and Baker how to tackle. No Viney on the track today.

Hunt, for all his admirers, looks to be back, was zooming around today with ease Standout for me today was Salem, some of his kicking was sublime when they did ball movement As I have mentioned before, competition for spots is going to be fierce, which is only a good thing

One of only two players I can genuinely say I went to a game just to watch them play. The other was Gary Ablett Sr.

Nowadays its to watch the team win

Robbie was the reason people went to games during the 70's and 80's.

Unfortunately I was too young to see much of Robert Flower, although he is the reason I barrack for our great club. Oliver though, is the potentially greatest talent I have ever seen play for our great club. The kid could be anything!

little bit of difference. Flower was like a fast twig. Oliver is like a fast log. I never worried about Ollie like i used to worry about Flower. In fact with Flower for three years i had to cover my eyes. I don't blink in case i miss stuff with Oliver and if you do blink, you will. Your sentiments are great, isn't it sweet............

IMAGINE by Whispering Jack The Demons made their official return to the training track for 2019 on a sunny Saturday morning at Goschs Paddock with most of the interest initially centred on a small patch of ground in one of the pockets where the rehab group was going through the paces. Some good pieces of news on that score. The rehab group is considerably smaller than it was prior to the Christmas break with Christian Petracca (knee), James Harmes (shoulder), Jayden Hunt (shoulder), Neville Jetta (shoulder), Oscar McDonald (hip) and Tim Smith (foot) all having fully recovered and training with the main group. More good news. The remaining rehabbers were all training at a reasonable level leaving one to think that they all should be right for the opening of the season, with the exception of Jake Lever (knee) who might not be that far away by the end of March. Key midfielders Jack Viney (foot), Angus Brayshaw (back) and Clayton Oliver (shoulders) have been on modified training programmes but appear on target to return to full training in the next month along with Oskar Baker (hamstring, Mitch Hannan (knee), Billy Stretch (toe) and Aaron vandenBerg (shoulder). Nathan Jones was apparently troubled by hamstring tightness and took it easy with a bit of sparring practice and Jake Melksham was the only player missing (possibly because his wife is expecting a child any day now). And after Friday’s shocking news of Tom Mitchell’s broken leg at Hawthorn’s training, the really good news was that nobody ended the session on crutches or in a moon boot. The story going round during the break of a renewal of Tom McDonald’s toe woes was just that - a tale with no substance. There’s a blister on a big toe but mine’s worse than his and it’s not going to stop me from being at the MCG on Saturday 23 March when the season starts with a game against Port Adelaide. So with that game in mind, the attention turned to the blokes who were training their butts off in the warm-up to what promises a tough month or two heading up to the 2019 season. I’ve tried to steer away from all of the media speculation about Melbourne being one of the top three in line for the premiership but the inescapable take away from the session is the observation that the maturing list now runs strong and deep in quality and the club’s recruiting appears to have added icing to the cake. We are light years away from the position we occupied when Dave Misson arrived to find that the club’s fitness and training regime was well below the standards of most AFL clubs. We no longer need to go into raptures about young draftees stepping up to the plate for round one because that simply isn’t going to happen. The younger recruits will all be given plenty of time. However, there are three (perhaps four if you add former Collingwood VFL player Marty Hore) ready-made potential additions to the team who have arrived from other clubs to add strength to Melbourne’s 2019 campaign. The added depth will certainly put pressure on the veterans like Jones and Jordan Lewis - that sort of pressure being another plus for teams that want to go places in this tough competition. The addition of another club’s captain to your list is something that doesn’t happen often so my first observation is that Steven May from the Suns looms as a significant addition to the ranks. That was made clear from my first sighting of him on the track - he cuts a very imposing figure out on the ground and one can’t escape the feeling that his move to Melbourne is one that will be a great one for his career and for the club. Imagine him and Jake Lever as additions to the defensive structure of the side that took part in last year’s finals. Imagine another revitalised former Sun in Kade Kolodjashnij and a fit and re-energised Jayden Hunt and/or Billy Stretch added to that mix tearing down the flanks or the wings. At 206 cm and 109 kg Braydon Preuss is a big man and it’s hard to reconcile why North Melbourne let him go. True, Todd Goldstein had a good season last year and Ben Brown and Majak Daw (before his tragic issues) were considered adequate pinch hitters in the ruck but Preuss is a monster who promises to provide major headaches to opposing clubs that struggle now to counter Max Gawn. With the new rules coming in this season, pity their ruck divisions at centre bounces and pity the defences having to counter resting talls. Speaking of pity, I want to go back to the rehab group for a moment and talk Jack Viney who set the tone for the rest of the players in this group with his steely determination and toughness. Back in the day, it was generally considered that being on the injured list gave players the opportunity to slack off a bit at training. Pity anyone with that view when Jack Viney’s around! Late in the session, he was doing repetitions around the boundary with Brayshaw and Lever and he attacked them with brutality. It was understandable that he was able to beat off the latter but, by the end, he had Angus gasping in his wake. Viney was restricted to only 10 of a possible 25 games due to those nagging foot injuries and was rarely able to play at his best when he was on the field. On that basis, you could almost consider a fully recovered Viney as a “recruit” in 2019. The other players who impressed at training were 2018’s big improver James Harmes and the youngster who could take that improver’s mantle, Bayley Fritsch who seems to be relishing his first full AFL pre season. Then there’s Christian Petracca. I’m looking for him to really break out this year. Imagine that!

Wow. That would be interesting and amazing on so many levels. Lol

If Dangerfield and Patrick Cripps had a baby and that baby had a baby with Nat Fyfe and Dustin Martin’s baby, that baby would be Tom Sparrow.

Reminds you of Andy Lovell with darker hair? Hard to tell.

Feels like 48...

Well, based on what Bernie said, sounds like Tony Bamford was spot on with the second part of his prophecy re standing out at training in his first Month. Let's hope he's also right about making it as a long term AFL player!

I don't I want us to be hated for the same reasons. Decades long success and numerous premierships.

He reminds me of Andy Lovell with darker hair. Hope he is just as good.