Leaderboard

It was hot and windy, difficult conditions that we handled pretty well. Rehab: Vanders and Petty. Pretty much the same as last week. Joined all drills other than the zoning drill I will describe later. Jones and KK. Walked a few laps and then did multiple 100 metre runs around the boundary at about half pace. Neither looked at all inconvenienced. Hannan. Similar to Jones and KK except he ran straight line 100m working up from slow to three quarter pace. Did some specific exercises with one of the physio's concentrating on gait and agility. Spargo: unsighted Bennell: a late arrival and did some gentle boundary running. Tomlinson and Baker: walking That's it for rehab. All the other players did the full session other than Jackson, Rivers and Pickett who joined some of the drills and some specialized drills away from the main group. It was a "craft" day today from what I could tell. There was no match sim but many drills concentrating on specific areas. The main drill of interest was two "teams" practicing zoning and kicking within the zone. The players were continually telling each other where to go, where to stand and alerting them to opposition positioning. The "playing area" was about half the size of a soccer field. Other drills involved marking and spoiling exercises in a three man up situation. Still others involved kicking to leading forwards and there was some "loose" goal kicking practice. The session was only about 2 hours and not nearly as intense as last week, nor as long. The session was one where individual players didn't really stand out but Steve May's kicking is a thing of beauty. In difficult conditions he regularly found tight targets. Beyond that no player really caught my notice for either good or bad reasons. Pickett was there and moves really nicely, is clean with the ball and disposes well. He'll play earlier than many think, particularly if Bennell isn't available. Jackson continues to impress with his skills (and I only mention this because of the concern prior to draft). All in all a low key session in hot and difficult conditions.

Here's my two bob's worth FWIW: *On my way to training rode past Tomlinson, Bennell and Baker jogging the tan. All moving freely and looked in good spirits. *Took note of the rehab group mainly. VDB & Petty started there but soon joined tha main group. Fingers crossed for VDB. He is ripped! *Hannan looks a fair way off. *Really hoping KK comes on. Not sure he is in rehab for concussion but , to me, looks detached from the group. May well just be his demeanour but all those around him totally foccused. Hope I'm off the mark. *Having said all that, Jones cuts a frustrated figure. Not exactly sure of the problem? *Rivers is a specimen. Tall mid, oozes confidence as has a body ready to go. *Never seen Jetta fitter. *Tomlinson would have to be the tallest and bulkiest og wingmen! *Absolutely trying to be realistic but this is a massive group in main training. Only one not on the park at all was Spargo, I think.

I went today and haven't seen this many in full training for a long time. I was so happy to see Jack Viney fit and in everything, you can just tell he's loving being out there. Like everyone else has mentioned this pre season you cant take your eye's off Petracca, I'll tell you right now the penny has absolutely dropped, he's in for a big one. Others that are way ahead of this time last year - Lever, May, Weid, Hibberd, Oliver, TMac. My only concerns are Tomlinson who's starting to miss a large chunk of pre season & KK who seems to be in no mans land just at the minute. Also this was the first time I'd seen Luke Jackson up close..... Wow.

I'm not going to tell you he's going to run out there from day one a dominant because like all kids they need time to develop but i honestly don't think ive seen a kid that quick & agile for his size, he's super competitive, he can obviously take a big mark and his awareness in congestion was excellent. Also im not sure what the panic was with his kicking, it looked just fine to me. I could honestly see him playing as a midfielder in a few years.

He is progressing nicely, had a bit of calf issue but is now back full training, has good hands, neat kicking skills, of course like Jackson, gets knocked around by Gawn and Preuss when doing ruck drills Was working 1 on 1 with Stafford the other day on his goal kicking, didn't miss one Important bit is, he loves being a footy player, always smiling, think he can't believe his luck, playing for the club he supports, like Harmes

"That's what we [censored] got you here for!" Love it.

My first time in 2 years - in town from NSW visiting family. Exciting to see so many on the track. May’s left foot is laser like. Jackson shows good hands low down. Nice chatting to you towards the end of the session @Baghdad Bob. Very much agree that Petty will be a gun.

Exclusive photos.

Every time I read your posts i do it in the voice of Donald Trump, then they make sense, in a Donald Trump kind of way

love the recent addition of the links to the training report @Demonland, well done.

What heat? It was beautiful at Hotschs today @Baghdad Bob covered the session really well Had to go to work so photos later including a beauty of AVB riding the bag in marking practice he is definitely back

No wonder Frost was not encouraged to stay ?

If you go into a game with 16-17 players requiring surgery as soon as the season finishes. that may give an indication as to why the team was cooked.

Final List for 2020 (excl Bennell) We have 1 list spot (either Rookie or Seniors) which is for Bennell. If he isn't recruited it can be used for the SSP (ala Lockhart in 2019) or the mid season draft (ala Dunkley in 2019) Ages and Games played have been updated. This year I have added the 'Free Agent' (FA or RFA) status of players at end of current contract, if applicable. More than half our total list is out of contract this year. Makes for extra competitiveness. The most critical re-signings imv are Petracca, Fritsch, Petty and Viney. If anyone sees any 'errors' please let me know. I'll ask mods to pin this thread. The 2019 version can be found here:

Former Tiger who played during their lean period from the late 50s who was finally rewarded with a premiership flag in 1967, the year before he retired. RIP

Go on......

I believe the AFL assigned experienced non-WA umpires to WC home games a few years ago to stem the clear bias the crowd "BOO!" was causing and their free advantage has moderated. GWS deliberately played pretty unsociable football this year so it's no surprise their differential was up. Beveredge was bleating about it after this year's final. Unsurprisingly he made no comments when the Dogs threw the ball all 2016 and got the greatest armchair ride in that year's GF. Having said all that, AFL football is extremely difficult to umpire and the abuse umpires get is a total disgrace. Grand Final umpires are booed when they are announced on gameday!

At 7 Dec 2018 last year we had 30,096, in 2017 28,354 I'll get the full table up again soon. Getting this years numbers may be a problem, at the moment the Club is not publishing them, so if Demonlanders renew, just ask the staff on the day......

I would happily take Tarranto over Kelly and Whitfield. Absolute star in the making.

We were physically cooked half way through the first quarter. None more so than maxy, who was visibly struggling in the heat (it was really hot at the ground). The hawks has spent the entire semi smashing him so that had to have an impact. But I think we were also cooked mentally, a related but still different issue. The eagles jumped us and we simply could not stop their momentum. And we made some howlers that fuelled that momentum. So yes we absolutely played poorly, no question. The discussion about goody supposedly not reviewing the game is just so silly. As if he didn't. However I think his focus would not have been on issues such as game plan, game style and strategy. And why would it? As he pointed out we didn't play anything resembling the 'Melbourne way'. Our game plan had got us there and we had beaten the eagles on their home deck with it only a few weeks prior. A game style i might add that is very similar philosophicaly to that of the tiger's who easily could have won the last 3 grand finals. We simply could not execute it on the day. In this respect that game was a microcosm of our entire 2019 season. No, his focus would have been on why we were not mentally ready. And what he and the players can do differentely next time we are in an analogous situation.

He speaks highly of you as well 'DD'... I've found Sheeds to be a top bloke, he's been a great ambassador for the game with time for fans of all clubs & loves getting involved with some friendly banter. This he hates us stuff is always overblown on here... Seems like a conspiracy theory of the highest order...Sheedy hates us, man didn't land on the moon, vaccinations cause autism.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/540240/rivers-benefits-from-draftee-camp Last week Rivers, Jackson, Pickett, Tomlinson, Brown and Landgon went on a 3-day camp with Goodwin, Jetta and Gawn where they learnt about the club, life as a Demon player and played some casual sports. On a different scale but it reminds me of the program the Hawks have to take new recruits to walk the Kokoda trail. Terrific initiative. Footnote: I wonder if there is a hint in the attendees of our next captain...

Paddy Guinane?! Haven't heard that name in a very long time! Rather sad we hear of such blasts from the past again only after they have passed away. Was a fine player back in the day. Condolences to his family.

Jackson wearing his new #6 guernsey.

I was focused on skills and was impressed by Petracca, Vandenberg kicking well particularly in small spaced games. On the flip side Hunt, Harmes, Langdon, Brayshaw and Viney missed 50% of their passes to lead up forwards. When they couldn't do better than 50% to talls like Jackson, Weideman it was demoralizing to watch.

Anything to make it easier to navigate the training threads.

Likely 'Milestone' in 2020: 50 games: Fritsch, Hannan, Vandenberg, Weideman, 100 games: Petracca, J. Wagner, Salem, Harmes 150 games: Hibberd, Jetta, May, Tomlinson 300 games: Jones. None will be more richly deserved than Jetta and Jones. Loyal stalwarts of our beloved demons. Along with Oliver (90+ games) and Brayshaw (90+) games, the 100 game brigade is quite a formidable midfield. It is what most clubs hope for: that their top talent grow and develop together. They are reaching the 'sweet spot' of age and experience. Bodes well.

Were we cooked physically? Were we cooked mentally? Or was it that, having beaten them at the same ground a month before, WCE put in some homework on us and worked out how to pick us apart? And if it was #3, was it a sneak preview of what other clubs were going to do to us in season 2019? Sixteen other clubs were watching. That's why the game should have been reviewed, even if the club already thought it was #1 or #2. You have to know these things, not guess.

Good, the asking price for someone like Whitfield and Kelly would be too high. ...and not value for money. Whitfield has an excuse for his GF performance but Kelly was soft. It was left to the junior mid in Tarranto to fly the flag.

West Coast. Would love to see the Home/Away breakdown. Those Perth umpires deserve a bullet.

I haven't seen enough of him Dazzle to know what the club might have in mind. I'd be stunned if he played midfield early and I think if he plays early it will be as third forward with ruck relief for Gawn. What I do think is this kid has some pretty unique talents. Someone call him a unicorn. Develop him properly, don't rush him and play him when he's earned it and is ready in a role that doesn't demand too much of him. ANB: my take on ANB is that he's a fair player in a good team but one who will struggle in a bad team (like last year). He's got skills that can prosper when there are good players around him but he can't make the play at AFL level. It's why he struggled last year. Gisberts: I don't understand why people continue to pot this bloke. It wasn't his fault he was picked early by an incompetent national recruiting manager and joined a disfunctional club. He won two rising stars, he earned Brownlow votes. He was an MFC player who after the arrival of Mark Neeld may well have suffered some mental illness issues. So how about we just get off the kids back, in another environment he may well have thrived, he could certainly play.

Also an old school teacher. Taught at Richmond Tech in the early 80s

Ah, the picture of my mother-in-law's front door step. Reminds me of the great Rodney Dangerfield joke: ' Every time that we go to my mother-in-law's home for a meal, we say grace AFTER the meal.'

FFS, I love bagging umpires as much as anyone, but in reality maybe 1 game in 100 is decided in any meaningful way by controversial decisions. It's a bloody hard game to umpire, and good umpiring doesn't equate to a 50/50 split of free kicks. Could it be better? Of course, but umpires aren't on the long list of reasons we haven't won a flag since man first walked on the moon. I love how these lists provide conclusive proof that the likes of Collingwood get an armchair ride, while we conveniently ignore the fact that the equally feral Essendon and Richmond fans don't seem to influence umpires in their games. I'll concede the WC trend is clearly fckd though (for those interested, the chances of obtaining a positive free kick differential for 17 consecutive seasons are roughly 7.5 in a million if umpiring is unbiased).

I expect Fritsch and Petrecca to garner significant interest from other clubs. Will have to trade, but no doubt the monetary offers will be significant, Fritsch in particular if he kicks 30-40 goals. Third most important player behind Oliver and Gawn.

Thanks @Baghdad Bob.

Simple answer: Shane Mumford.... https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/mumford-seeks-help-from-umpires-to-fix-free-kick-woes-20190919-p52sy7.html

I'm sure @Satyriconhome can provide the answer to that but I would have thought we'd be training next week too but I'm not basing that off anything. EDIT: Actually we trained all the way up to Friday 21st December 2018 last year so next week should be the last week before the Christmas Break.

All clubs, all the time, week in, week out - are reviewing strategies to beat any other club... the oft trotted out line of, 'we will just focus on us', is well a smoke screen'. The magnitude of the loss is important in so much as, that we can acknowledge throughout the season, the team put numerous clubs to the sword. If we kept losing matches by 4-6 goals week in week out, then clearly teams had worked us out/the system didnt work. However this was not the case. I wonder what the conversation would have been if we lost by 5 goals... would we be unlucky, would we be tired, would the WCE have worked us out? We got annihilated because we were exhausted. You don't lose matches by 11goals purely by strategy, its either a Neeld era team, or the players cant run to position. AND then linking the belief that 'we was worked out in 2018 prelin' to how we performed in 2019 is reductionist and simplistic. If the players haven't trained, and don't have the capacity to run out games, then in the modern era of aerobic fitness, the team is f'd.

We didn't have the list, he knew it & has expressed similar in more private surrounds as has been reported here. It's why we recruited May...but he was only part of the story. This trade/draft period we were able to fill more gaps. No club has a perfect & complete list but ours is much closer now.

If the biggest issue for us in pre-season is debating the limitations of ANB and whether he plays Rd 1 then we have had a pretty good preparation. Fingers crossed it continues.

The "gun n run" of 2018 is risky with underdeveloped young players as they slow up later in the year and into next year....so hopefully last years experience ,player and coach development , and a balanced workmanlike game plan with real cohesion is evident now.

This goes back to his failed application for the SC job at the dees. He's hated us ever since.

I am not a great fan o f ANB but Cherry-picking stats from a year in which a team came near to last as against the premiers is a bit disingenuous Try comparing their 2018 stats or their career stats which you can find from the site you have sourced. You maybe surprised.

Re. ANB - his role is there, it is clear and not many on the list can play it. I posted this in the Pickett thread. So sick of people ignoring his value: "What you're describing is exactly what ANB was to us in 2018. He was a big, non-spectacular part of our success with a number of games hitting the exact numbers you'd be looking for out of your high half forward: Rd 2 - 21d 1g Rd 4 - 22d 1g 6t Rd 8 - 23d 2.2g Rd 9 - 17 d 4g 5t Rd 10 - 23d 3g 6t Rd 11 - 25d 1.2g 5t Rd 12 - 19d 1.1g 6t Rd 17 - 17d 2g 5t Rd 19 - 22d 1.1g 12t Rd 20 - 22d 2g EF v Cats - 20d 1.3g 9t (and if you rewatch this game, he brought the heat very early and was key to our big 1st Q) For the year he kicked 27.19, averaging 1.1 goals a game at 17 disposals and 4.7 tackles. For an undersized roaming HFF, that is high output. Does he make perfect decisions? Far from it, but his ability to move from contest to contest and use his endurance to get goal scoring opportunities is unmatched in our side. Like many others, his demise in '19 was another reason we couldn't replicate our 2018 form. He needs to bring this form again and make it consistent over a period of years, but I do not understand the constant criticism of him and why people cannot see his value. "

I popped down for the fifth time this pre-season (sad i know). Across all those sessions, three players have stood out. 1) Bayley Fritsch - He's impressed every time and today he had a birthday - torched Joel Smith early and then made Stephen May look second rate in match practice beating him in the air and on the ground. Goody now has to decide whether he plays him out of the goalsquare - which is what he did against the Roos in Rd 23 last year. Only proviso I'll make with him is that he also trained the lights out last pre-season and when the real stuff came on, spent the first six weeks struggling before stepping up to the semi-elite level. 2) Alex Neal-Bullen - This guy is putting in a huge summer without his best mate Billy. He made a few big tackles today and read the ball off the pack beautifully. He kicked a nice goal from 45m today as well. And it's been the same every session. He even threw in a 400m lesson to Jackson and Lever at one point today. ANB has been high intensity from the outset and only injury will cost him a spot in our Rd 1 team. Whether he stays in will be determined by the results in our first two games, small forwards invariably struggle in losses. 3) Jay Lockhart - Those of you over 50 will remember how nimble and clever Alan Johnson was as a defender. Well Jay has been almost up to that level with great evasiveness and an ability to get the ball moving quickly. He's a very accurate and long kick which makes him ideal as our set up man and watching him use his voice to direct others made me aware he's got the nous as well as nerve. The issue of course is that to get into the side he has to show why he should be picked ahead of Lord Nev. Jay has more rebound than Nev, but yet to see whether he cam match Nev's prowess in one-on-one battles. The other player he has to get past to play Rd 1 is Nathan Jones, who more than likely will play half-back, subject to injury. So I'm not about to say he's in for Rd 1, but Jay is certainly putting together an impressive body of work that will make him an easy inclusion down back once there's an injury or two. There's been plenty of others who have caught my eye so far and it's really pleasing to see T.Mac, Melky, Joel Smith and even Weid so far down the track after injuries last year.

Loved Sean Wight.