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How in hell are we having this discussion again?

Saty they weren't ready physically. If what you're suggesting is right nobody would consider practicing. Tennis players, golfers, cricketers and the list goes on. They'd do a few running and gym sessions and not lift a bat, racket or club. We all know that's not the case. They practice what they do before a game. They hit ball after ball after ball This is important in an individual sport but doubly so in a team sport because not only do you have the individual skills that need honing you have a game plan to mesh with 21 other players that needs hours of practice. In 2019 we didn't have that and it showed in every facet of our game. People often use Oliver as an example of someone who "didn't need a preseason to have a good season". Rubbish. 2019 was a shadow of his 2018 and if your assertion is correct it should have been better given his age and the natural progression that should have taken place. People are focusing on the injury toll but it's the preseason. The skills practice so many missed out on. The game plan execution so many missed out on. The match fitness so many missed out on. It's been reported that the PA players went to the three quarter time huddle knowing we were shot physically. All they had to do was keep running. They did and they won easily despite the game being in the balance at that point. We weren't physically ready and we were not "ready to go". It's quite simple really.

Saty always thankful for your training reports but this is not your finest work. Given the overwhelming amount of detail the Club (President, Head of football, Coach, conditioning staff etc etc etc) provided about how unready physically the players were this is a bizarre post. It's worse than that, it's actually insulting the players to ignore everything the Club has said about the impact of physical injuries and suggest it was a mental problem. Disrespects the effort players who missed a pre season put in to nevertheless do their gut busting best.

rubbish, l went to training and quickly realised we would not achieve the heights of 2018 after a couple of sessions and posted a few times accordingly. all you need to do is count the number of starting 22 players doing match simulation / match practice to realise we were stuffed. would be great if that stat was/is in each of our training reports

For those who don’t know or can’t remember I originally created the “Air Jurrah” image after his debut against Essendon. I decided to then get the t-shirts made and 100% of profits went to the Mt Theo Program in Yuendumu. From memory we raised about $550. A Demonland member got a tour of the club once and saw the Air Jurrah image in Brent Moloney’s locker:

Even in the worst year some one has to finish in the top 5 spots of a B&F, I would suggest the votes they polled in the B&F is a better indication as to their season performance. Oliver polled 464 votes in 2019 compared to 595 in 2018. Harmes similarly 319 (2019) and 468 (2018). Even allowing for additional votes for finals this is a significant reduction in the impact of their season according to those coaches who vote. Time to let it go and concede that as reported everywhere and as shown by our performances our players were significantly impacted by reduced preseasons.

I got this book for Christmas and knocked it over while camping with family in the last week, and it was an absolutely fantastic read. It’s his life story (obviously) but looking through an analytical lense — his philosophies in life in leadership and how they were shaped by his personal and professional experiences. You get some insight in to his time in to the MFC - in particular how he transformed himself over time, his relationship with Chris Fagan (his right hand man and underrated influence in the relative success over that period) and how the club never really gelled at any stage he was here (financial issues, revolving door board and CEOs and so forth), particularly in contrast with his stint at West Coast at the end. Personally I got more out of reading about his time at Essendon though as a player and then a coach. It painted Kevin Sheedy in a very different light for me. It even made me want to watch the 1993 grand final - puke! Given that it’s heavy on the philosophical side of life, if it’s a yarn with all the gory details of the ins and outs of Neale’s time at the MFC (or anywhere else), this isn’t the book, but personally I lapped up every word and it cemented Neale as one of my life heroes and all time favourite footy people.

I’ve spoken to them and can confirm they’re all on track for round 1.

I think what is happening is you are trying in vain to defend your total misreading of where we were at the start of 2019. You're digging a deeper hole, just let it go and admit you were wrong, everyone who has an opinion is sometimes, you'll feel better and be free.

We'll have to agree to disagree. You're forgetting Jones and Viney didn't train in the main group at all and only played in one Casey practice game before playing round 1. Clarry from memory didn't join main group training until March. It was pretty clear he was missing Goody's keyword for 2020, "connection" which was to be expected. Coming in the top 5 B & F when you're in the engine room of a decimated team isn't that relevant. To suggest all you have to do is run laps and you are ready to go is to suggest that missing all the pre season training doesn't make any difference. Clearly that's nonsense. Brayshaw missed main group training from pre Christmas to well into Feb. Tracc also carried injuries and missed a lot of the main group training and could only run slow laps. That's basically the engine room. Hats off to Harmes but he was back into main group training much earlier than the others and maybe his injuries didn't restrict his running like it did the others. That's nearly the whole engine room. Don't know which preseason you were watching where they were all ready to go round 1.

Well knock me over with a feather. Who would have guessed. Same story that we've had from every assistant since about 1968.

That's extraordinary really. I have been saying for years that the biggest determinant for success in the AFL is a strong preseason preparing the whole team properly in terms of the required fitness and injury (which includes factors such as who is injured, when they are injured, how long they are out how long to get back to fitness etc etc). This has never been more the case than now. The silly soldier out, soldier in, never blame injury mantra is a weird cultural thing where real men are stoic and teams overcome injury with sheer mental strength. Stupid. The bombers are having a horror run this preseason with many players rehabbing from surgery and injury. Watch them struggle. When they do It is worth noting that their numbers in rehab and missing sessions is not even in the same ball park numbers wise as what we experienced in the 2019 preseason.

Sticks his chin out...

For all the reasons bb lists this comment is palpable nonsense, on two levels. One being that it is an incontrovertible fact most players were not physically ready to go round one. Indeed arguably most never reached optimal fitness levels. Two it is supposition on your part that most players were not mentally ready. It may well be true of some players and there have been some comments from mfc people implying that (e.g. lewis), but nonetheless it is supposition. I am assuming you keep repeating this nonsense to create some drama. But perhaps not. Maybe you actually believe it to be true, in spite of all the contrary evidence and the statements from the club. I'm not sure which of these two scenarios is stranger to be honest. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

Agree. And i'd add tmac. He is critical I reckon. I also think melksham is super important.

I think (hope) we can be competitive this year with Burgess and the recruits but to win the big games we need Oliver Brayshaw and Petracca to go to another level and be A grade match winners....

Based on last year we need about 21 players to undergo very serious [censored] development

I think this thread is about the MFC Captain! Cotchin of the Tigers is now the poster boy for captains, but I can remember during 2016 and midway through 2017 he was hammered for not being a real leader, then miraculously he becomes a great captain! Viney showed great leadership in the 2018 final wins and I can recall a number of other games where he has shown exceptional leadership to drive the team onto wins. It will be great to see him play after a full pre season, rather than going in unprepared and carrying significant injuries. Judge him at the end of hopefully an injury free 2020! Max strikes me as a different kind of leader, but I’m sure if he becomes captain or co-captain, will lead by example and having another terrific season. Jones disappointed me as a leader for one key reason, have hardly see him chase a player over the last two years, maybe it was due to injury, but as a problem MFC has had over a number of years as a team, that really disappointed. I know it’s simplistic but I think of a root cause for one of our problems. The other leadership we lack showed up against Port in the first game last year, with Max being attacked the whole game and getting no support! Also happened in 2018 prelim against the Eagles! I think this is where the likes of May, Lever, and Vandenburgh were really missed in 2019, not sure if Viney played that game, but at some point you need to stand together! Hopefully we show this leadership across the ground in 2020! In my view this is one of the reasons we lose to Collingwood so often, they look like they believe they can just push us around!! So standing up and being counted is what I’m looking for from all our players. Richie Vandenburgh led the Hawks to change their mentality particularly against the Bombers, to go from victims to the aggressors! Then onto Being a great team. Leadership starts at the top, but it’s up to all the players to step up. Go Demons in 2020!

To any Demonlanders caught in these horrific bush fires. My thoughts and prayers are with you, I hope you all come out of it safe and sound. A house can be rebuilt, a life can't

Surely there's not a single player with an interrupted preseason so far??? ?

As @McQueen says, you're leading with your chin. If we have a better year this year on the back of a better physical preparation that will prove you were wrong? Seriously, think it through.

None of those things are "the same things over and over". They are all different things. The only same thing over and over is your obsession about what happened in 1965 affecting our performance today.

These fluff pieces dont worry me what are they gonna say “yep we’re going to dish up much the same rubbish as we have for the last 15 seasons...”

"Richardson impressed" that he's not unemployed.

Surely it was obvious it was going to be a fluff piece by the title. Why read it if it’s not your cup of tea?

Corey does a lot right but just doesn't have the reaction time to make good decisions when the pressure is on. You can just see his mind ticking over, good players get it right often, great players are freaks. Will be handy depth...

So we've got Richardson saying this and Nathan Jones saying mid year that Craig Jennings is (was) one of the best footy minds he's ever seen plus a compliment for his work with AFL X - I'm beginning to think we might need to appoint Jason Dunstall to give us an actual non-mfc appraisal of our coaches abilities. ? If we're down the bottom mid year, i hope he has a clear schedule.

Great article. I am very interested to see what the changes are to the game plan that he alludes to. It does seem significant that they are working on drilling the game plan even before Christmas. This is so much more advanced than we were last year. Hopefully this highly drilled game plan and significantly increased fitness leads to some better outcomes in games this year.

We haven't won a Premiership in 55 years. Which "things" over and over that we've done since 1964 would you want to stop doing because they haven't worked? Changing coaches every few years? Changing the playing personnel? Changing the Board?

At the forum, they had all the GPS stats up and only 2 players did more than 50% of the loads required last preseason. Max was the highest, at 80% from memory. The issue was only mental to the extent that players quickly had no confidence in anything due to their poor conditioning.

I agree with both of these posts... ...he is small, average pace (too slow for his size) but has high footy IQ & is smart with & without the ball... The tackles are the big negative for me. Opposition teams used it to advantage, he was their exit strategy. He's useless to us if he can't fix this.

Of all the features that are common to good teams, it is games played together as a group that is most important. Aerobic fitness and mental strength can be trained into the players but the intuitive and instinctive responses to team mates' play counts for at least as much if not more and can only be developed by training and playing together as a group for an extended period. Pre season 2019 did not allow this to happen and the team suffered. Pre season 2020 is looking much better. 2020 Go dees.

No inside knowledge but going by the training reports & his history it wouldn't surprise to see KK retire either pre or early season.

I'm wanting three blokes to improve their delivery into the forward line by 25% They are Oliver who gets the ball ANB who gets the ball and Hunt who gets the ball. I'm considering these folk as our most important development.

If we’ve spent pick 3 on a bloke who won’t play in the seniors for at least two years then I’d be thoroughly amazed. If you can’t see what Jackson has in terms of capabilities and then mesh it with an AFL program and deduce a set of possible outcomes that couldn’t see him play earlier rather than later, then well, we have plucked a guy that should’ve been a third rounder and we know that’s not the case.

I don't think KK really needs development as much as he does to get over his concussion problems. Unless you are talking about him learning to better position his body and be smarter about which balls to go for like Gus Brayshaw reportedly did post his concussion problems.

I hope the Weid and Preuss perform and we let him develop in the background. as it should be for a tall. and bring him in when he knocks the door down and some.

1. Nietschke 2. Bradtke 3. KK After that we have 40+ players who should play well enough at VFL to have a chance. We don’t know much about the first and even second year kids but I’d expect most to impress at Casey. The gap on our list between 20th and 40th best player is very slim. Baker and Spargo seem to have done the least training so it’s unlilely we see them in the early rounds.

I actually think both the Wagner brothers are not that far off being pretty decent, solid footballers in their respective positions. Good athleticism, reasonable skills and bucket loads of courage (thinking mostly of Josh in this respect). The things I guess that are a bit questionable about Josh in particular are his decision making and skill execution under pressure. I think players like the Wagners could probably be categorized as nearly, but not quite playing at the required standard to be regular firsts players. It's probably is these kind of players and guys like Lockhart, Spargo etc that we need to take a step up and play a role for the team when required, such that their presence in the team is seamless and helps us get those 3 or 4 more wins during the season to take us from finishing just inside the top 8 to inside the top 4. Not to say that their development can be mismanaged, but players like Jackson, Pickett and Co are probably going to be good players regardless and their talents will push them up to playing seniors where they will have plenty of opportunities to develop an understanding of what is required to play at the top level.

Totally agree. We need our best 6-10 players (which includes above 3) to improve that little bit and play to full potential plus the last 10-15 players to go up 10-20% and we'll be right up there.

We'll likely see him for 10 games or so barring injury, but I think people need to temper their expectations with him. Just because he's a pick 3, doesn't mean he'll play and dominate immediately. Tall players take longer to develop, and going by the few bits I've seen from training Jacko appears a long way off it. He's brilliant with ground ball for a bloke his size, but he really struggles with contested marking and was getting schooled by Omac last time I saw him. All his best moments I've seen at training have been using his smarts to avoid a contest - floating across a pack to take an uncontested mark or not going up with a pack and gathering the ball like a crumber when it's not marked. He's got potential, but fans need to have patience with him. Most development required for genuine best 22 candidates in my view are Weid and Baker. Weid has shown he can play well at the level, but needs to cement himself and play his role consistently at AFL level. He needs to stay on the park, kick a goal a game, provide a marking target and repeat leads. If he stays fit, works hard, and his teammates honour his leads, then he'll come on in a hurry. Baker has some great traits and his pace could be a godsend for us, but he needs to learn how to use it at the right time eg. running to create space, running away from content, when to slow run to make sure his kicking is effective etc. Still not convinced he'll make it, but I hope he does.

Baker will knead more development that Neita will kneed (sorryx2)

The Weird, has to go from an occasional contributor to dynamic KPF.

Such an open question. In terms of fitness? Skill work? Game plan/rules understanding? I realise it’s a combination of all of these and other things so we are really narrowing it down to the newbies and the rookies... For me it’s probably Bedford. His time trial running has been fantastic so he’s got that right... shown a few glimpses last year so I reckon the staff should be investing heavily into Toby. He and Kozzie could prove really dynamic in the forward half as a pairing.

I'd love to have a wager on that.

As someone who got suspended from this site for using a term which rhymes with a four letter word beginning with f and finishing with k - oh, yes, not THE word but , I repeat, a word which rhymed with it - I commend the Censors on Demonland for allowing the many swear words on this blog to remain intact. is it a sign that Demonland now accepts common community standards? Why, I even heard dem words on the ABC!!!!

Funnily enough I agree with Dal Santo. Could be in the minority but I’ve felt unsure for a while about Max being solo captain. Max is a marvel captain or not. Personally, I’d like to see them back Jack in as the solo captain for next year and stop the co-captain model and if they don’t, Max is a ready made replacement. I keep going back to the 2018 Elimination and Semi where Viney was just outstanding after missing a chunk of football. My belief is he can get back to that. Either way, I feel we are in a good position leadership wise for 2020. Get May, T Mac and Lever out there full time and the support crew looks good.