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I think we should also recognise that Preuss played yesterday while Nar Nar Goon was under threat from fire (where he lives). Decent reason to be distracted. Big shout out to the fireys doing a terrific job who didn’t get to watch the footy.

Time to bring out the ole one handed pickup. The boy's a magician.

Just for fun: Different camera angle, same action.

I like the way Robbo doesn't read anyone else's work. Goodwin has clearly said that they decided not to review the Preliminary Final. And he can't stick to a theme, either. His third paragraph in the section described as "What I Don't Like" clearly reads as something he likes. I give him a D- for Comprehension.

They have put a qualifier on it 'since the 70's'. I agree he is better than our last two Brownlow winners: Woewodin and Healy. Restricting the comparison to midfielders leaves out the sublime Robbie Flower who was a wingman but today would be considered a midfielder. Robbie didn't (but should have) won a brownlow so will be interesting to see how they would compare. I would be very happy if Oliver wins a Brownlow but I will be a lot happier if he wins the Norm Smith medal in a winning Demon team

Bane.

Really happy with their games yesterday, i thought Petty reminded me of a young Jared Rivers when he burst onto the scene in 2004 with his trademark intercept marking. What i was surprise about what his clean ball use. Looks to have gained confidence from having a good year at Casey last year. Wonder if he plays next week? Keiltys leap was the suprise for me. At one stage he jumped over Nankervis and beat him soundly and tapped it straight to Harmes i think it was? Also took a really good strong mark out on a wing which says to me he has good hands. Makes me think whether he could be the smokey 2nd ruckman choice for Max come round 1? I know he has played forward up at Casey and has had some success as well. Do these guys play next week?

After having a read through this thread, most of what i was going to say has been covered. I found that standing behind the goals meant that you miss a lot more than you could see on TV. Especially when the ball was mostly at the Tigers scoring end for so long, and i chose to be at our end. Oh well. The main points to stand out for me from the game were, in no particular order *The playing surface was in spectacular condition. *Considering the amount of time the ball went inside Richmonds Fwd 50 with little to no pressure, i thought our makeshift backline did quite well. That felt like a much bigger loss than 2 goals. *Preuss has major timing issues with his jump at ball-ups. He is a monster though. *Clarry and Angus are Manna from heaven. Ball magnets both, although Brayshaw needs to clean up his disposal on the left foot. *I thought Jeffy was having a real crack until injured. I have a couple of images from that actual contest, but not on the actual dislocation. One Richmond player patted him on the backside on his way off the ground which was nice to see. Poor bugger must have been in a lot of pain. *JKH was better than just ok. His improvement has been noticeable and he is now a genuine depth option, not just an emergency backup IMO. *Jordan showed some promise. Not as lost as i expected him to be. *Charlie Spargo might not be the most skilled, but his work ethic was really good. Did quite a bit more off the ball than i expected. Not as bad a day as some posts might have indicated. *Harmes is in for another great year. I love his attack on the ball, and oppo players. *Trac doesnt do much off the ball, but get him in a pack and his hands are almost as fast as Olivers. Get him fit and stick him in the guts. Much better there than deep forward, as his set shots are still very ordinary. Room for improvement, but he has the tools. *One bloke behind the goals at the MFC end was wearing a Dec Keilty badge... the only one on his jumper. Keilty and Harrison were much better than i expected. Decs work in particular was quite nice. *Tmac must have been a bit crook, as he had so little impact and looked really flat. Just a bad day for him. *Weid is much bigger than last year, but seeing him up close right next to Rance showed how much he still has to bulk up. Very big difference in size and strength was obvious. Even Tmac looked skinny next to Rance. *Cotchin is a D-bag. A big one. *Nev is a champ, and i was a pathetic fanboi when he let me take a photo of him with my daughter. I was like a giddy little pre-teen at their first concert. Nothing lost yesterday other than the injury to Jeff. Hope he makes it back soon. The margin should have been much greater, but with our outs i didn't care one bit. Finally, our pre-season form really IS irrelevant.

Yeah. There is s a reason he was in the top 6, 8 out of the last 10 games for Casey last year. He puts in a lot of effort and is usually a very solid player in the VFL. Hopefully he gets an opportunity sometime this year and we can see if he can really handle it at the top level.

If Oliver was Garry's son he'd be called Clarry Lyon. I'll see myself out ...

Why restrict the comparison only to Melbourne? ?

While waiting to go through my photos i have time for just a couple of observations about the crowd. I spent the first quarter between both interchange benches, then made the foolish decision to stand behind the goals... first at the Richmond supporters end, and then switched to the MFC end. Both times I was at the end we were kicking to which meant I didn't actually get to see much of the action for a full half of footy. What most stood out was how bloody pathetic the boofhead Tigers cheerleaders were. Constantly throwing cringey insults at the umpires, and moaning about how we could do anything and get away with it and they got pinged for everything. Plenty of "go to Specsavers", and "See Centrelink for a new job tomorrow maggot"... etc etc. They were really yelling. At a practice match ffs. It was constant whining by a bunch of pot-bellied, middle age bogans who were covered in tatts. At our end, I was impressed by how much younger our supporter group was. It's great to see so many younger people in MFC jumpers. (Having said that, we were outnumbered 10:1 based on club merch being worn) We also didn't yell abuse when a free went the other way. Also, our female supporters are INFINITELY better looking. Our ladies have 10% as many gaudy tatts, half as many chins, twice the IQ, four times the teeth and less than 1/4 of the stomach rolls. It was 2 different worlds separated by only the length of a footy field. A real eye-opener.

Darcy Parish is better.

Gus wont be far behind - especially if he tidies up his disposal. Two absolute stars who also seem dedicated to the club. Love what Harmes is bringing as well.

Certainly the best Demon midfielder I have seen. Covers territory at pace, gets to multiple contests, hits the contests at pace, leaves the contests at pace, finds the footy in traffic and in space, makes space out of no space, good kick, sublime hands, sublime handballer, knocks opponents over, good mark, I could go on, but youse get the drift. He's different to, say, Judd. He's more like a combination of Voss and Black.

It's a fair comment @Deestar9 - he has been given a long contract to show his wares - so he wont be the finished article this year... Part of me rolls my eyes at his lumbering cumbersome movement - part of me is thrilled with his bohemoth throwing of bodies... but as long as he can clunk a few marks, jag some goals and give Max a good rest when required...

This was an obvious pisstake for us given how many players didn’t play, who rucked for most of the second half, the backline setup and the fact that Frost took half the kick-ins *shudder* Anyone getting worked up about losing by 2 goals in a practice match with 1/6th of our starting backline, and half of our starting midfield, against a full strength top 4 team, needs to get a life.

Including his own drafts.

I went to Shepparton to look at a couple of players close-up. Oliver was one of those players. He may not be a brilliant high mark or play with the dash of others. He is not a Dusty Martin or a Robert Flower but as I watched the game I began to realize that this son of Mooroopna is already one of the great players of the MFC and a future great of the game. Outstanding people in life have a unique set of skills that set them apart from others. It is an hereditary trait. It can't be practiced or copied. If you think of all the great footballers over time, they were unique and special. The Tigers have Dusty and we had Robert Flower. When thinking of Flower it is with the privileged memory of a player whose like we will never see again. We have some great young footballers. However, they do not all possess a distinguishing characteristic that makes the way they play unique. Angus Brayshaw is a ball magnet but I would not walk over hot coals to watch him play. But I would walk over hot coals to watch Oliver. Wiseblood, Clint and Tony have described his attributes perfectly. What amazes me watching him is his mind-body connection. The speed of his brain, the assessment of the situation, the decision making and the speed in which he uses his body and hands to possess the ball and do something with it is unbelievable until you see it. He is so quick that unless you are fully focussed, you miss it. And this speed means that his opponents miss it and also miss his delivery. You don't know where the ball is going to go. As others have pointed out he is often to quick for his team mates. As a result of his unique skills, Oliver is almost impossible for opponents to counter and match up, at least for the whole game. Oliver may be held or his influence reduced, but he will still manage to break out and do something special. His speed of decision making and action is something that I have not seen before. It is beyond belief.

He will play more senior games for us this year than Tyson would have. Plus people were screaming out for a solid back up for Max. Now we have one. Alright, he wasn't super for a first up practice match, but he is what we need long term.

Thank god Sydney matched our bid on Mills. Thank god Gold Coast traded us pick three. Thank god we took a risk on a draft bolter and didn't play the safe pick in Parish.

A couple of photos from the pre-game warmup

Nev was a champ and let me take a couple of photos with him and my daughter. I loved him already, but now I want a statue of the great man on my front lawn. More photos and a bit of a report to come... just downloading all my memory cards.

Is it possible that Hunt's positioning is dictated by the coach? Could they be trying a thing or two? Let's not be so hasty to criticise. At his best, Hunt is a weapon and we should encourage him to find his way back.

Thank Paul Roos instead. He was the man who asked Taylor to take a closer look at Oliver.

Hahaha no I'm not that much of a nuffie. Although Dec has done some work with the cheer squad so he has a lot of fans amongst that group.

Injury permitting he will go down as the greatest Demon of all time. Special player.

My file is bigger than yours

It seems we aren't allowed those types. They must all be superstars who hit every target and make zero mistakes. ANB has his shortcomings, but he kicked 27 goals for us last year and played a vital role in many games. He is a little underrated by our supporter base.

A few more.... I have more to edit but i wont clog up the site unless others actually want to see more. Just let me know.

More images from early in the match

Because you’re a negative nally.

I was watching the Keys and Gray show on bein sports the other morning and Richard Keys stated that the Notts County football club ( 1862 ) is the oldest football club in the world. I tweeted them and set them straight.

Oliver is the reason when you look back now and old posts that argue we have not had great players or elite players you nod and say "now I get it". He consistently plays the game at a different level to nearly all but the best of the best. Its almost like watching a different sport.

No one should ever be compared to the incomparable Robbie who played his footy in a higher universe. Clarrie will end up in the pantheon at the next level down. Very rare space. Added the following from 2016 Best hands at MFC since Obst. Best vision, awareness and selection of disposal choices in close that I have ever seen at MFC. Most successful teams have high class distributors (think Sam Mitchell, Greg Williams, Michael Voss) whose touches propel their teams forward. If handled properly, Clarry will rightfully belong in this company. The FD's challenge will be to develop the receivers to complement his role and his skills.

Some random observations; Pruess - I'm far from convinced, but will reserve judgement for now. Looked classes below at times and I honestly thought Keilty was better in the ruck from a technical standpoint. Brayshaw - prolific, although would like to see him clean up his disposal slightly. Does he have a right foot? Petracca - I thought he was alright. Imposed himself in the contest at various times to great effect. Goal kicking still a huge concern. Clarry - a class above. He'll win the brownlow same year he takes us to a flag. Hoping its 2019. Frost - vintage disposal on display at times. Hoping he hasn't taken steps back from his improvement in that area toward the end of last year. Tmac - Destroyed on all fronts. Chalk up the L and move on Tommy. Fritsch - all class. Fast becoming a favourite of mine. Pure footballer, can't speak highly enough. Kelity, Petty and Hore - some pleasing displays. Hope they can build on it. Garlett - liked his first quarter, didn't get much opportunity after quarter time then forced off. Judgement reserved for now. Omac - continues to be exposed when he's number 1 down there. Expecting that to be corrected when May comes in next week. Disposal has improved though, to his credit. Hunt - not convinced yet, although it is always enjoyable to watch him spool up and tear across the park.

Both have good hands above their head. Keilty has a really nice leap and a few of his taps were far superior than Preuss. I would like to see at least one of them get a game next week. Also wasn't Keilty meant to play forward? Was it the heat and Preuss not being able to ruck all day a factor?

Well i am happy with Weidemans progress and think long term he will turn into a gun forward in the Josh Kennedy mould, Curnow would have been pretty bloody amazing!

I'm probably the most negative poster on demonland and even I walked away positive from that match. We had so many guns out. - I think petracca looks more explosive than last year and stronger and he laid some good tackles today. People just need to keep their expectations in check, it was him or McCartin. - ANB is copping unfair criticism. He is a midfielder, not a half forward. He is doing his best in a position that isnt his natural position. And I sleep a lot easier at night knowing theres a guy in our 22 that is going to run all day. - I was impressed by Kielty and Petty. Petty just need a year in the gym. Jordon didn't really impress me. Looked slow and timid but he's a baby so let's look at him in 3 years. Sparrow isnt a great kick but he doesnt really need to be. By the time he cracks best 22 he will be a permanent inside mid. - McDonald did look slow. Got punished by Rance. As long as he isnt injured I dont care. -i thought Hore was sloppy by foot but at least was willing to have a crack. - Preuss was a kangaroos discard. what were people expecting. He is good insurance if Gawn goes down. He will play majority forward anyway and that means the oppo will need a key defender on him - oliver and brayshaw guns: going straight into my fantasy team.

Normally you might say this is a big call, but it really isn't. His ability in close, his excellent hands, footy IQ and so on is just sublime. You would have expected him to struggle a little to find his feet after two shoulder ops over the summer, but it didn't make a lick of different. 32 touches in under 70 percent game time says it all. A gun of the highest order.

His awareness of what is around him is just sublime. Those look away handballs have purpose to them. Unfortunately the receivers don't always have the same sixth sense.

Trying to think of a suitable Batman villain moniker for Pruess. Given his size he must be King Tut.

It’s no longer fiction. Batman does fly.

He has only played 8 AFL games...give him a season training & playing with Max & I think we will see why

I’d be pretty concerned if I were a Richmond supporter, they only just got up in the end vs a very undermanned team. We kicked 100 and with minimal damage injury wise. Put Steven May out there and we win that game. Add a few more and we do it comfortably. Goody seemed to try a few new things, which in the end is all JLT is good for. Plenty to like.

Don’t forget the coach may have given specific instructions to certain players, who are then playing unfamiliar roles. The score is irrelevant, it was a good game ! they fought it out

Fair point, bing. I also think they are better players when they have better players around them, if that makes sense. They are only relied upon to play their role and they can do that with minimal fuss when asked. Today they were required to play more game time in prominent positions and it showed. They had a dip, but ultimately lacked the class to keep it going for more than brief patches of the game.