Leaderboard

I’m also hoping Hunt becomes a regular again in the 22. Question to everyone, where would Hunt suit us best? Imo, after reading training reports and observing a session last week a spot in defence is there for him to cement. We all remember his dash and carry over the last few years, but with the 6-6-6 rule in place now you’ll need to back your player’s ability to win the one on one should you lose the centre square clearance and the ball comes swiftly into your defensive 50. He has the pace to close down an opponent, his leap isn’t bad at all so he can spoil and as you stated he’s added muscle over the summer. He could find it a lot easier picking up one of his spoils and dashing out of defence with less numbers in front of him now. I mainly watched the defensive drills last week and most of them consisted of practising for the above scenario. Ball would come in rapidly to a man and the objective was just to kill the contest ASAP. Hunt was like a wild beast trying to get to the ball before his opponent marked it. If that wasn’t enough of a workout, the coaches kept Hunt and Jetta out on Goschs well after everyone headed to the showers. They were standing in the goalsquare and repeatedly had the ball thrown up in the air and the sole objective was just to spoil the ball to the boundary. The coach’s directive was loud and clear. Make sure that ball is dead after it comes in quickly to enable us to get our numbers back, set-up and back our strength of winning the clearance. Apologies for the long-winded post, but this is the kind of stuff that interests me and hopefully other members on here whenever I get a chance to observe a session.

This is a pic from friday. To think some peanuts on here actually think hes still carrying puppy fat or is carrying too much weight. He is an absolute ripping nick! Just shows how hard he has been workinh on his fitness on and off field.

2009 2019

He’s a player. You can be a flash in the pan and get on the end of a few every now and then but, that EF against Geelong, he showed he has all the tricks a great key forward needs to have. Strong marks. Crunching tackles. Repeat efforts. Well timed bumps (Dangerflog) Sweet kicking action. Etc. As long he stays fit and has great pre-season, I’m confident the Weid will be even more valuable than Hogan.

To give credit to the photographer, if anyone on here is a Facebook user, this lady is a volunteer photographer for the AFL and captured some fantastic shots (over 250) of the boys last Friday. Here’s a link to her page.

Who’s the fat pig on the right?

He was training his guts out on Monday in the heat and slotting quite a few on the run...

I was looking after a mates car while he was in Europe for 6 months and after about 8 weeks it broke down right outside The Planet. I just left it there till my friend came back. It was a very recognizable car and when he returned from OS a lot of people who didn't know he had gone, questioned him about how much time he was spending at the Planet. He wasn't very happy.

Nuffies gonna nuff.

Apologies as I'm technically illiterate, but can a fellow Dlander run me through the process on blocking other users. There's one I need to put on ignore asap

Did the umpires take turns at putting blindfolds on?

E-nuff of this 'nuff talk' as it leads to nuffin. Fairy nuff?

Not saying that the 09 list is anywhere near as good as this year, WJ. Just think it wasn't all bad.

As much as I don't hold anything like the same sort of grudge agains Hoges as I do against that little [censored] $cully, I really do hope we smash Freo this game and send a strong message to Hoges for the sake of any others that might want to jump ship. I'd prefer no uncalled for boooing (though I'm sure there will be some), but just for the MFC to turn up and put on a display of force that Jesse will remember and make him think about what he has walked away from over on the East Coast. ...and at the end of the game when Steve May shakes Jesse's hand, he won't just be saying thanks for the game, he will be saying thanks for this opportunity.

Great Video about Jake's recovery, showing some of the exercises just arrived on my phone - Melb App Access all Areas

@Rodney (Balls) Grinter I will say this though - Omacs form early in the season can be attributed to jake lever covering the space omacs man was leading to. I thought omac got more exposed with lever gone and that’s where my original came comment came from. Hibbo and nev are wonderful but they can’t do it all. Other than that we’re basically singing from the same sheet of music I think.

Good thread and nice to see so many positive posts so far this year...

Love that match up, ultimate one-on-one. Wonder who would have the upper hand? Nev by a whisker perhaps? Brilliant photo Dazzle, thanks

Allegedly ...

Notice Jamie Kah is riding winners in Melbourne now inc 15/1 shot today. May pay to follow.

I hope he just... plays his role early. Just bring other teammates into the game by protecting their access to the footy, in air or at ground level, and collect a few possessions. I won't judge him on his scorecards at all... in the first half of season. Just be a strong team player...

Best Bet Strike Rate 75: 29 - 12 - 11 Australian Group & Listed Races Next weekend we get to see the 2yo's in the Blue Diamond Preview's as well as a few Listed Stakes races from Caulfield & Randwick - a precursor to the Autumn per se. And in less than a month we'll see the great mare Winx running around in the Apollo Stakes.

Compared to previous seasons i've never been more excited for the next one to start.

While he has a long way to go, what I really admire about the Weid is his willingness to chase, tackle and be a giver rather than a receiver. Has a big big future I think.

This aspect of his game has always been a strength - just the bloke to regularly take that ball out of the backline in 2019 - if it can ever penetrate near the last line of defence - with our threatening forward line running berserk into spaces or midfielders doing their flat-out run and possession routines nearing the goalmouth. This team offers so much ... like tanks on the battlefield ... clearing riff-raff, penetrating deeply, controlling direction and approach, sheltering the forward eschelons like assault pioneers ... can't wait ...

Just need to get 80,000 Demons supporters to the MCG every week and make it a cauldron like the Eagles have over there - seems to work for them. They who booos the loudest wins the most dodgy free kicks!

Harmes is no slouch either! Hopefully Hunt can stay fit and build on his early career form. He looks to have put on some muscle in the upper body over summer. He could become a serious weapon for us, and is probably the player I'm most excited to see in 2019.

Going by the photo, he's only kissing with a closed mouth and isn't dedicated enough. Not 100% committed..................................He's gone.

I remember being at that match with a Richmond supporting mate and laughing loudly at the stupidity of it all

Rams 31 Saints 23 Pats 27 Chiefs 20

Roosy gave us a winning mentality. We played to win and we trained as winners should. He developed the kids and turned them into men. Look at who we drafted in those years and look at the difference now. No one can promise you the current draft crop will become stars but effort and toughness can be promised and will be delivered. Also, we fell off a cliff leadership wise because most of em got delisted/traded or retired. Now we have 2 players over 30 but a group of real leaders.

He had it good, this doppelganger boy; he should have tried being 7 years old in North Sunshine in 1957 being sent to the local catholic school wearing nothing but lederhosen, a t shirt and a pair of underpants - home made to boot.

How must Neymar be feeling after only scoring a brace overnight against Guingamp? 2 of his teammates scored hat tricks (Mbappe & Cavani) in a 9 - 0 win over their opponents.

Early 20’s and cashed up doing FIFO. Probably 80% of their clientele.

I tend to agree with a lot of this actually. Especially re: nev and hibbo.

I know of the daily plannet, but not as far as knowing what street it is on! A mate of mine did use to live in a street in the Croydon area which is "The Nook" - there is a brothel on that street too.

Thanks. Demonland is a fantastic site and we're lucky to have it, but the amount of nuffies on here is incredible.

Smokey, the emphasis on this was really the 'most' and with respects to Oscar and Frosty the 'servicable' as previously applied to them (although Oscar's early season form and Frosty's back end were far more than just servicable). Having monster key position backs is somewhat over rated these days. Outside of Hawkins and perhaps one or two others like Kennedy and Brown (...and as you suggest these days T Mac), there are very few other dominant key position forwards going round that require an elite key position back to match them up, because due to the flooding of backlines they have become less effective. You seem to have expectations that good teams only consist of players that are elite in every way sighting Frosty's previously erratic kicking - just look at Frawley's performance in the semi against us ...and Frawley is a premiership player. Good sides rely on system more than individual brilliance and it's clear that under Goody that's what we have become. If there were any two players that really held our backline together it was Nev and Hibbo and I don't think it's any surprise that we lost games when Hibbo (and Melksham) spent time on the sidelines 3/4 the way through the season. It's these two and that we have pretty solid, settled backline around them capable of getting the job done (even less May and Lever) that I think most teams would have been envious of. Having the old head of Lewis to help steer the ship was pretty handy too. BTW, Oscar is only fairly young in terms of key position backs, I think will keep getting better and would slot right into most sides in the comp going forward and the combination of defensive and offensive damage that Frosty can now do quite reliably will also make him a handful for opposition, so I'm not going to under rate their future potential either. As for the backup option of moving T Mac to the backline, the context was last season and last season, we had J Hogan as well who was more than capable of holding together the forward line together if T Mac had been needed to hold the backline together (which he wasn't).

I’d like them to throw Lewis forward, he’s a great kick for goal.

Couple of very good Group 1 races at Sha Tin tomorrow. 'Beauty Generation' should win the mile race but 'Conti' is a real up and coming lightly raced 5yo and it could run BG close. Moreira on board Conti (11-2) but Zac Purton is on Beauty Generation (1-8) In the Sprint race Mr Stunning will take a power of beating but DB Pin, Beat the Clock, Fifty Fifty & Little Giant are all racing well and Mr Stunning might have to go around all of them to win (if it settles back) Sha Tin - The Stewards Cup 1600m ($1.8Million Aud) Sha Tin - The Centenary Sprint Cup 1200m ($1.8Million Aud)

They both look in ripping shape.

He was swung forward against the Hawks a few years back and turned the match for us there, so it’s not the worst idea. Personally I’d like to see him settle on the wing. Ideally him and KK own the wings, so we have good running power, elite pace in Hunt and elite kicking in KK.

Pretty good sign for the future that he polled the most coaches votes in front of 90,000 people in his 20th game of footy. I’m not convinced he’ll have an epic 2019 (say 40+ goals) but as long as he shows incremental improvement, then I think we’ve got a pretty serious centre half forward on our hands.

close DZ... I'll go with 66-6_ 66 goals 6 pts

A snippet from a Ben Guthrie article on afl.com.au from this mornings training. While McDonald's determination to keep presenting at the footy was noteworthy, Kade Kolodjashnij's foot skills; Bayley Fritsch's aerial ability, as well as his decision-making, and Michael Hibberd's run and carry were among the other highlights of the match practice.

No, but did a full rehab session, they work just as hard Another good session today, lots of work with quick ball movement Garlett was very good today as was Hibberd One of the new guys burnt Lewis in one of the ball movement drills, a quick quiet word, good to see There was lots of banter and laughter today, but the drills were slick Harmes, who is no slouch, was doing a a bit of one on one with Hunt, Hunt just used his zip to break free, after about six goes, Harmes out loud 'he's just too quick' to everybody's amusement

Ribbish. It would have been more remarkable if we had not have been injured and we went through the season practically major injury free. It's not like our backline is total rubish without Lever and May. More than enough capability to hold things together between Hibbo, Nev, Salem and even guys like Oscar and Frosty proved they can provide solid defensive options. If we had got desperate, we could have thrown T Mac back there and as it was, I think Max Gawn provided any additional coverage in the air we might have needed. Most teams in the comp would be pretty envious of our backline without Lever and May, but having them there gives us so much depth back there now it's not funny. Competition for spots will be fierce and guys like Hore and Lewis will have there job cut out for them getting a game, but that's a great thing because players so often get injured and fall out of form.

The fact we made the prelim without him for most of the year is quite remarkable really. I hope he isn't being rushed back. Get that knee right Jakey, we need you in September.