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Just as you climate change deniers will conveniently take everything that Murdoch chooses to publish, as gospel. And I'm referring to the Murdoch press who relegated the fires to page 4 in favour of a picnic races day last week (oh, and you have to love this bit: "The Shoalhaven fires were lit between July and September last year, with Kempsey recording 27 deliberately lit fires, NSW Bureau of Crime and Statistics and Research data shows." - nothing to do with the current fires). Approximately half of the fires each year are caused by a combination of human activity and lightning strikes (the latter being attributed the the largest of the current fires). The other issue is prevailing weather conditions and fires spreading through cinder attacks. A report from a source that stands to gain nothing through bias: https://globalnews.ca/news/6366259/what-causes-australia-wildfires/

The CFA are in no doubt as to the real driver behind our worsening bushfire conditions: climate change. https://news.cfa.vic.gov.au/-/climate-linked-to-earlier-longer-fire-seasons-cfa-and-bom-researchers I'm a volunteer firefighter - it's nuts - we were down fighting fires in Gippsland at the end of March, and then we had terrible ones again even before summer had started. As for fuel-reduction burns: don't get me started. Yeah, they can help - I've worked on lots of em - have had em on my own property - but they're difficult and risky - and getting moreso - I've been to fires caused by runaway burns (eg Lancefield) - main reason we don't do more of em is the shrinking window of opportunity - and the cost - and the threat of being sued if you burn down somebody's house. From what I've gathered, we need to do more strategic controlled burns, not mass hectares. Most frustrating part of it for me: it's apparently all my fault. I woke up one day last week after some quite dangerous, painful experiences with the fires at Plenty and Sunbury - wandered down to my local coffee shop, made the mistake of reading The Hair-oiled Scum and read that : it's all down to me and the rest of us who vote for the progressive side of politics - according to the Murdoch columnists and letters page (and Craig Kelly today) it's all because 'the greenies' won't let you burn the place down. I thought, like - yeah, right - The Greens are a huge influence on Gladys Berajiklian Here's one thing I learned from The Scum : next time you hear somebody calling out for more 'backburns', thump them, because they don't know what they're talking about.

DS living in Sydney I am very grateful for you and any others who go to the trouble to write up what they see at pre season training. It's really appreciated. However, I have to say I read them mainly to read who's training and not for most poster's opinions unless they are repeating info they've been directly given by the coaches or to a lesser extent the players. To state those players were ready to go just isn't logically correct. To be correct it would mean that you can miss up to 50% of the pre season sessions and it doesn't matter. Of course you can't be the same player without them. I went to pre season sessions in mid Dec and late Jan and from memory Trac and Gus were in rehab throughout that significant part of pre season. Roosy once discussed how little time the coaches have to actually train the players in the preseason. He said that if a player misses the conditioning work pre Christmas they never catch up and it heavily impacts their season. Post Christmas they have to concentrate on developing how they play and not conditioning. Clearly if you line up the 2018 Clarry who's done all the sessions and the 2019 one the first one is going to stomp on the second one and that's born out by his stats and he was a lot less effected than Trac and Gus. It's a nonsense to dismiss that impact and think they are ready to go.

or all three at once and then their heads explode

Not ignoring at all. There are lots of ignition causes - but fires are all about the conditions. Global warming heats things up and dries them out. Primes the country for the fire. Anyway, didn't McCormack say it was all due to spontaneously combusting cow poo?

Unfortunately, Mr hardtrack, we are trying to have a conversation with people whose minds are watertight and closed. I have a neighbour like that. He told me two weeks ago - he is a Herald Sun/Australian/Andrew Bolt fan - that Climate Change is rubbish. He's a terrific neighbour, a very decent human being and I've always liked him. However... In other words, what I'm trying to say is we're wasting our time arguing with people who have beliefs which go against the grain of scientific evidence. Copernicus had the same problem...

For what it’s worth Saty I think Oliver, Harmes, Petracca and Brayshaw were ready to play, if a touch underdone. They’d done enough training and match sim. You are correct there. Viney, Jones and to an extent Melksham were not and the first two probably shouldn’t have played. Thats the preseason component of fitness to play. There was also so many other issues impacting the type of team the players were coming back in to. Frost and Oscar weren’t ready to cover May and were unsure of their roles or place in the side. Sparrow wasn’t ready at all and was chucked in because Lewis was a late out and we needed a healthy body. KK and Vanders (and JKH) going down late suddenly meant we were short wing options and C Wagner was there. But the biggest failings of last summer wasn’t that individuals weren’t ready it was that the team was underprepared due to missing so many players. The team wasn’t training with the right intensity and whilst that’s easy to say in hindsight and hard to say at the time I think it’s clear now.

I think you mean Tommy (Lahiff).

In lieu of any real training reports at this time of year I can provide a little eye-witness report from this morning. Jack Viney and Jake Lever completed at least an hour of solid and intense running at an oval where I was also doing some group fitness training – so I was able to watch them pretty closely for the 60 mins while I was there (in breaks between my own intense workout of course!). 100m sprints, 50m sprints, shorter and more dynamic agility work, then some kicking of the footy. Was very impressed with the sprinting they were both doing given their recent issues of the last few years. Both looking very smooth and quick, not hampered at all, from what I could tell. Jack especially looked really smooth, fast and lean. Not much else to add but from my perspective they both look in tip top shape and appear to be two very highly driven individuals. On the morning of NYE there was also a slightly larger group with Lever, Salem, Jetta and Weideman at the same ground but they were finishing as I arrived so didn’t see how they went on that occasion.

Yes, almost 200 charged (not arrested, but heh, we know that you're playing fast and loose with the facts), but not charged with arson, charged with "fire offences". Only 24 have been charged with arson. Most are for infringements to total fire bans and "discarding a lighted match or cigarette". https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw-fires-legal-action-taken-against-183-people-this-bushfire-season-20200106-p53p97.html And to add, this from a Gippsland News reporter: "The Victorian Premier has told ABC Gippsland that none of the bushfires in Victoria have been confirmed to be deliberately lit. This fits with what police told me on Saturday - just one man has been charged with attempting to light a fire."

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/bushfires-firebugs-fuelling-crisis-asarson-arresttollhits183/news-story/52536dc9ca9bb87b7c76d36ed1acf53f Almost 200 arrested. The country is on fire due to arsonists. The climate change cult will conveniently ignore that though.

On the club site now... AFL training sessions Date: Friday 7 January Start time: 9.45am Location: Gosch's Paddock Let's change the date to the 10th of Jan... Someone is still in holiday mode.

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.

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.

The stages of climate change denialism: 1. It's not happening / it's a leftie/greenie conspiracy / the scientists are making it up / it's just normal weather changes. 2. Well yes, it's changing but it's always changed and it's nothing to do with us / what acceleration of change? 3. Maybe it does have something to do with us, but it's too late to do anything now / other countries are worse.

Dear JSK, for short, the paper Jara referred to as The Scum is the wee little brother/sister of the most biased Murdoch paper of them all, a paper ex editors have disowned, a paper devoted to spreading the nonsense notion that Australian bushfires are started mainly by arsonists. Obviously some of the fires were lit be deluded maniacs, the demented losers who do such things are an unfortunate component of the human species. To suggest though this is the cause of the catastrophe confronting those poor victims of these fires makes a mockery of their pain and suffering. It puts you in a bad light as well, young man. It suggests you have a capacity to suspend your powers of disbelief when you are confronted by fantasy, lies and propaganda. And, just by the way, the climate change cult you refer to is actually composed of scientist after scientist who have been making dire predictions for over 30 years, most of which have tragically come to bear.

The best commentator Melbourne moment I can remember: I get goosebumps every time I hear "Melbourne fans, breathe it in!"

Let's just say, Mr Bing, it's kind of difficult to get past the politically correct censors in order to state the bleeding obvious because there will always be, unfortunately, members of the community who insist that one cannot politicize an issue which for most of the world is a scientific fact of life, namely that there is climate change, that Australia is an ostrich with most of its torso buried in the inferno, that squawking excuses and sliding away from responsibility and believing in miracles is not a solution. This topic is simply way too important to simply be censored for so-called political content: many of us have children and grandkids, they will pillory and hate us justifiably for simply doing and saying nothing. We must act, when will the warning bells become more urgent? Evil things happen when good people do nothing. We are in the midst of that crisis. What more evidence do you want? How many more hectares, how many more rainforests do you want to turn into embers?

For the most part, you're right - the vast majority of the Australian landscape has evolved with fire. The vegetation (namely eucalypts and acacias) has adapted to cope with droughts, floods and frequent fires. But not everywhere. Substantial areas of rainforest (particularly along the Great Divide in northern NSW and QLD, as well as SW Tasmania) have not. Rainforests don't spring up overnight - millions of years is not hyperbole. If and when they burn, they are out competed by plants that are adapted to fire. And yes, we are seeing fires push into these areas. Please don't misunderstand me - I'm certainly not some tree-hugging greenie crying over trees while family and friends are worried about losing their homes. But if that's not evidence that we're in an unusual bushfire season, then I don't know what is. Nah, we're not. It's certainly earlier than usual. The bush (at least most areas in NE Vic and Gippsland) is usually still fairly damp through December. Most of our major bushfires have historically been largely restricted to a single, 'perfect storm' catastrophic day. Black Friday: Jan 13th. Black Tuesday (Hobart): Feb 7th. Ash Wednesday: Feb 16th. Black Saturday: Feb 7th. Like I said, fires are far more complicated than most people think, and I'm not certainly not pointing the finger at anyone or any one factor. The word 'unprecedented' gets thrown around a lot to the point that it's virtually lost its meaning, but I think it fits here.

In my opinion Richo inherited a bog ordinary list and culture and then was handed some ordinary draft and list management decisions throughout his tenure. I suspect he is a lot better coach than his record suggests.

It wasn't surprising that the opposition during that period were accurate......we had little in the way of defenders! With little pressure, easy shots ensue. During that period we were missing Lever and Jetta for the whole time. May - all the period except for 1 game. But we also lost Hibberd, Salem, Lewis and Hore at some point for a couple of weeks. So it wasn't bad luck, we just didn't have the cattle to hold out the opposition. One would think that putting Lever, May and Jetta into those games in 2019 would have seen the opposition kick a couple of goals less. It was remarkable how close we were in those games..... The positive is (as you have alluded.)...it shouldn't happen again with the players now on the pre-season track.

I'm responding to you, but it's wasted on you, so it's really for others. What couldn't be replicated by simply running was contested work. In a quality preseason contested work, i.e. bumping into bodies, tackling, competing for pack marks, getting up quickly after you've just been brought to ground, sprinting to tackle when you're fatigued, etc. is all part of the necessary preparation to get you ready for the most brutal team sport in the world. None of our midfielders completed even half a proper preseason and most didn't start any contested stuff until February. It also doesn't provide players with any confidence that they're ready. They know what's required and they also know what's less than ideal. Confidence is huge in footy and most players heading into round one would have had serious trepidation as to whether they'd done the work required. Preseason running to get a fitness base simply doesn't cut it in the modern game, chap.

Huh? Of course an opinion can be wrong. For example yours about the impact of injuries on 2019. Facts are facts. Are you aware that there are a growing number of people who have an opinion tbat the earth is flat and others who believe the CIA replaced all birds with robots? And millions of americans have a very strong opinion that God created the earth in 7 days. They truly believe that to be the case. In these example the opinions are wrong. People have every right to have these opinions, as of course you do, but be that as it may they are wrong.

Yep one more shovel and you'll see China.

THE YEAR THE SKY FELL After a number of years of linear movement up the ladder, the Melbourne Football Club unexpectedly went into serious decline in 2019, slumping from fourth to 17th in a season that coach Simon Goodwin described “a complete wipe-out”. Those around the club who tried to analyse the apocalyptic events that unfolded during the year were hard pressed to find a single reason for the debacle but the most plausible explanation was that the club’s troubles stemmed from a lack of fitness and injuries that derailed the season before it began. There was a significant amount of optimism surrounding the Demons over the summer months. Some of the pundits in the media were even suggesting that they were flag favourites based on their forward momentum over a number of years, their midfield strength as shown statistically by their control of stoppages and their high scoring in 2018 suggesting a coherent system of play and a powerful forward line. The team was maturing and it was thought that the sky was the limit but, as it turned out, the sky fell. Melbourne’s newly appointed head of high performance Darren Burgess recently said that he believed there wasn’t much the club could have done about the situation the club found itself in both before and during the season. “Having done a lot of research on what happened last year there was a lot of comment about their fitness or lack of, the surgery just kills you,” he said. “When you’ve got 17 or 18 players in surgery and 16 were in their best 22, it just kills you.” And so the club went into the pre season without many of its key players, particularly in the midfield. The signs in the two JLT Community Series matches against Richmond and Brisbane were not good although when considered with the hindsight of knowing they were against two of the top three place getters after the home and away season including the eventual premier, it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. The team ran out of steam in its first game - at home against Port Adelaide and then failed miserably at Kardinia Park when despite winning the hit outs and clearances and making 73 inside 50 entries to 48, it was thrashed by 80 points. These figures are bizarre enough but the trend was already set for the season. The team could win the ball well enough out of the centre but conversion into goals was a problem while opposing teams had no problem with their own accuracy on the rebound. They managed to kick straight (a rare occurrence for the year) against Essendon in their third game but the Bombers were more accurate making it 0-3 for the Demons and a difficult start from which to recover as the injuries began to mount. The win against the Swans in Sydney was welcome but two more disappointing losses put the club in the danger zone. A couple of unconvincing victories against Hawthorn and Gold Coast provided some respite and a trip west looked promising for three quarters against the Eagles before another fade out put paid to the club’s hopes for the season. All the while, the injuries mounted - they were compounded not only in the number of players out but by the length of time out with their injuries. For most of the first half of the season, the Demons struggled with losses in their defensive half but after the mid season break for the bye, the club successively lost all of its key forwards and won only two more matches - against Fremantle and Carlton to limp home to a five win season and 17th place on the ladder. In the latter half of the year, the club tried a reshuffling of the assistant coaching panel but nothing could help as the team lost seven on end, albeit a number of the defeats could be regarded as honourable given the material Goodwin had to work with as the season rolled dismally to a close. Max Gawn and Clayton Oliver created history with a tie for the Keith “Bluey” Truscott Memorial Trophy. Co-skipper Jack Viney finished third and he was followed by James Harmes, Christian Petracca and Bayley Fritsch. With highly touted recruit Steven May hobbled by injury, it was left to a VFL player, Marty Hore to take the honours of best newcomer. Given the injury woes at the club, it’s not unsurprising that the Casey Demons also struggled although their ninth place finish was commendable in the circumstances where coach Jade Rawlings and later Sam Radford had so few players with AFL experience available to them. The AFLW team missed captain and star player Daisy Pearce on maternity grounds and also missed out on the finals under the weight of a massively skewed conference system. A surprise loss in the first game against the Dockers didn’t help. In the end, a big win against Adelaide was required to make the finals - a win that simply didn’t even look like eventuating. Karen Paxman, Elise O’Dea and Lauren Pearce were the pick of the squad. And so, as we enter a new decade, the club can look forward to a few acquisitions in the playing side, notably wingers Ed Langdon, Adam Tomlinson and forward Mitch Brown, the possibility of a rejuvenated Harley Bennell and a trio of youngsters from interstate. On the off field side, the experienced Alan Richardson comes onto the coaching panel and possibly the most important change in light of the fitness and injury woes of 2019 is the signing of fitness guru Burgess who is tasked with raising the sky back to the heights of 2018 ... and further.

Happy New Year to all the Demonlanders. Whether I agree with you or not I respect the hell out of every single one of you for the dedication and loyalty you show the club through so many hard times. Let's hope that 2020 is the year the curse is finally broken and we see a long overdue flag.

Mate, mate, can't be right, I didn't read it in the Herald Sun, nor have I heard it from the infallible Font, Mr Bolt, Andrew....

Exactly - all of which are more or less constant from one season to the next. The one variable that *has* changed is the climate with these extremes of heat and dryness, and that's what's acting as an accelerant here. Which of course is the main point: arson or whatever only impacts how fires *start*. What we're seeing isn't because more fires are being lit, it's because once lit, they're just taking off at intensities we've never experienced before. Due to ... (etc. etc.)

Yes?

I used to like? 3GL.... Ump bounces the ball, big tap by Polly, Goggin charging through, Walker gets to it, great spoil by West..... Goal to Melbourne Bad luck cats, 2 free kicks missed.....

wasn't that hard to pick at all DS if you have been to a few training sessions before to compare with. if seasoned track watchers can't distinguish between the worst preseason a club has had in a long time and other preseasons then they are deliberately turning a blind eye or don't know much about the game

The first time Clarry kicked a ball to Tmac was during preseason match 2.

I hope all our Country Members are ok in these Bushfires. stay Strong. Long way to go yet...

Happy new year, I hate you all!

At least i give an opinion. Have no idea what yours are, You just throw darts ?

A player told me Gawn will be captain

Danny Hughes from Full Back BANG!

“And goes BANG straight through the center...” J Dyer 3KZ is football

I did not think the constraints of Christian constructs would have any relevance to any of your actions. i regret you have succumbed to these dogmas. But thanks for reminding me of the passage of time, the day of the week. I seem to be in some strange time warp where cricket , tennis and bush fire monitoring have no respect for such frames of reference. Indeed even night seems to seep into what was formerly daylight hours. These are very strange times.

Agreed. And Brendan McCartney is on record as saying that it was a very ordinary win over Hawthorn and the writing was on the wall for the following week. I found the Geelong finals win far more satisfying than the Hawthorn finals win.

Wrecker, we're not in the middle of summer. We are in the 5th week of a 12 week season. All of the previous major fires started in late January through to early March. This round of fires started in September. That's why I use the term unprecedented. Pat Mcnamara, former National Party leader in Victoria acknowledged the same fact on the radio 16 minutes ago. I'm not the only one. All of the Fire Authority big knobs in NSW were desperately trying to send the same message to the Federal Government as early as April last year. To ignore the Fire Authorities, as the Federal Government and the NSW Premier did, is not politics, man, that's putting your head in the sand and saying, I don't want to hear you. Some would even call it total incompetence.

Spot on. I raised this point that the opposition’s accuracy was killing us as much as our own poor footy. Not sure if it was coincidence or to do with our lack of fitness. Check out this for a crazy 6 week period between rounds 7-12 which ultimately killed off our season. Melbourne - 53.80 (average 9.13.67) Opposition total. 76.45 (average 13.7.85) That’s basically an 18 point loss but 2 more scoring shots a a game. Hawthorn, GC and Collingwood combined a total of 12.0 in the last quarters of those three games. That’s surely just bad luck. (Ironically we won two of those games but that’s beside the point. The above mentioned opposition accuracy conversion of 63% over 6 weeks is a complete anomaly and would be unlikely to be repeated again this year.

In my opinion it is unlikely.

Yes that's true Phil Rhoden, not so much his drop kicks but his torpedo's punt kicks were so precise with the days it was like showing off his torpedo skills. It was always the perfect spin in the air as the crowd would sigh in awe almost all the time. Although he never had much of the ball in his games and played.mainly in the reserves.

Jack Watts deserves a mention.

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...”

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?

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.

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

In an effort to move past the teeth gnashing and knee jerk reactions to this year's disappointments it's time to acknowledge that the real reason probably started a few days after the loss to WCE in the Preliminary Final last year when something like 17 players were scheduled for end of season operations to fix ankles, shoulders, hips, knees and heavens knows what else. This cruelled our preseason which most recognize is the foundation stone of strong on field performances. Fitness is a non negotiable in footy and we just don't have it. It was reported here that Craig Jennings (I think) said that at one stage in the preseason we had 12 players fit enough to complete the main session indicating that the injuries we had went well beyond those who had operations. Key players effected included:- Our entire starting midfield had interrupted preseasons - Viney, Harmes and Oliver had operations and Jones and Brayshaw had injuries. If my memory is correct none started with the main group until February and some not until March. Three of our best forwards had interrupted preseasons - Tmac had both ankles operated on, Melk had hammy issues and Trac a knee operation Our best defenders had interrupted preseasons - Jetta a knee, May with his issues and Lever recovering from an ACL. From memory Hibberd might also have had a operation. This is a list of the "main crew" who had little or no preseason.. Then there were players like Stretch, Hannan, Oscar Baker and Hore who were also significantly disrupted. Through no fault of anyone, unless you want to suggest we send 13 of our Preliminary Final players off for end of season surgery in August, these players lack fitness because of the lack of a proper preseason. I think this lack of fitness underlies the majority of the issues we have faced this year including:- an inability to run out games inability to play 4 quarters basic skill errors - these occur when plays fatigue a lack of confidence a lack of connection a lack of two way running Compounding this has been a wretched run of injury in season. AVB, Smith, May, Melksham, Hibberd and Jetta have been significant losses. JKH, Stretch, KK and Garlett have added to our issues. On Champion Data stats we lost 89 games to injury to our best 22 in the first 10 games - 50% more than any other team and this on top of a poor preseason. You can carry some injuries but there reaches a stage when you lose so many that the game just falls apart because you're playing too many players who are NQR. We've seen this with Richmond and Collingwood. Is it any surprise that Geelong and Brisbane are doing surprisingly well. They've had no injuries of note. And is it any surprise that Gawn and Salem have performed so well. To my knowledge they had good preseasons. The vitriol directed at players, coaches and fitness staff beg the reality of our situation. Calls to rebuild, change the coach and radically change the game plan ignore core issues that have led to our situation. Posters are far too keen to find blame rather than find reasons. I've never been more confident that we've got the building blocks to be very good. There are some gaps in our list we need to fill and we could well do that in this trade period. This has been a disappointing year but is not reflective of our Club or the players and staff.