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Oh, what could have been in the 2000 grand final if only we'd held onto premiership great Clay Sampson . . .

A deliberately misleading headline designed to drive clicks, create faux outrage and trigger men babies. As you suggest people making comment who obviously haven't read the article (spolier alert the AFLPA have raise the vague idea of a joint CBA, the AFL nothing to do with it, the next tv rights likely to be less so less revenue to share with players). We are collectively getting dumber.

Lol. AFL Accountant: Hmm, our total revenue is not growing as much as our wild expectations and we might not be able to fund everything to the full extent that is anticipated by our stakeholders. AFL Execs: I'm pretty sure that is a problem to do with funding the women's league. AFL Accountant: Well, actually, the entire women's league is less expensive than... AFL Execs: Now now, don't get excitable. AFL Accountant: ...Karmichael Hunt... AFL Execs: Shush now, bigger picture, you know? AFL Accountant: ...Shanghai... AFL Execs: No, no, we have this covered. AFL MEDIA: "Excessive costs of women's game to be covered by cuts to male player's salaries." Personally, I'm just surprised they AFL HQ didn't also blame the lack of funding for grassroots football on the AFLW.

Do you know how much I would've loved to play footy when i was a kid/teenager? Because I'm female I didn't play ANY, it just wasn't an option. It annoys me so much when you all bag out AFLW. Something that's always been an option for men is now just opening up to women. Get behind it instead of trashing it.

What a nonsensical comment. You realize there's been women's leagues for a long time right? (Daisy has 10 flags after all) What exactly would make AFLW be VFL standard? You'd be happier if it was called VFLW? Also, you guys should all try reading the article instead of just the headline.

I was the mouse today and got the cheese, commitments meant I wasn't there until about 9.45. Over to rehab where the participants were: Smith, Brayshaw, Chandler, Gawn. All but Gawn did a ton of running with a little bit of kicking and ball work. Gawn was running a little bit more freely than Monday I thought and doesn't have a brace but just bandages. Cory Wagner was there but I didn't see him do anything although when I got there nothing was on his knee but when I left it was iced so I assume he did some running before I got there. Bennell was at training doing nothing as were Vanders, Petty and Mitch Hannan. The good news, which has already been reported is that Spargo and Melk were in full training and there was no sign of Hibberd in rehab. It was a quiet day. Whites v Blues in ball up and boundary throw in clearance drills. Blues with Weed as ruck got away to a good start with Oliver, Petracca and Langdon dominating but the whites fought back with Viney, Tomlinson and Jordan working with Bradke. We were hoping for some genuine match practice with umpires present but no such luck. The session ended with some teachings which we thought was interchange stuff. Other than that not much to report. TMac's situation is well covered already, Kossies mark was spectacular, Dunkley was a no show, Neita was walking around which was nice to see and we're a week and a bit away from our first hit out. My preseason duties are all but over as I can't make it on Monday. It's been great fun down at Gosch's and good to catch up with old mates Saty, George, Tim and Scoop from time to time.

Vanders is fine, spoke to him Tommy Mc just rolled his ankle slightly, he is fine Crossy pounded Gus and Joel Smith for 2 hours, so no issue there, asked Gus about the arm, tracking fine Hibberd just had a 'small' cork, trained fully ? BAGHDAD BOB'S TRAINING REPORT

A quick video I've clipped together of our former skipper bagging ten against Footscray back in 1994. Correct me if I'm wrong, but is this the most recent instance of a Demon kicking ten in a match? I think the closest since is the Wizard's nine goal second half performance against Collingwood back in 2000.

A huge element of the AFL's plunge on the Women's League is promoting the game and actively seeking the participation of girls and women in football. It is is not, as some would put it, a 'lefty indulgence in political correctness'. It is quite a shrewd business decision that has already seen an explosion in participation of girls and women at the grass roots level. The AFL is actively engaging 50% of the population in football so they may tap that market to make more money. The relatively small amount that goes into the league, when you take away advertising money is cash very well spent shoring up the future of the Australian Football code.

We have a markedly better list than we had in 2018. Last year was the outlier, you can't play above yourself but you can certainly play below. A list of factors conspired to give us season 2019. This is why I don't take into consideration this rubbish of only 5 wins, it's a big leap. It's actually not if we take the 14 wins plus a couple of finals from 2018 and build from there. We learn the lessons of 2019 and don't disregard them but we build on 2018. Top 4 is the pass mark for this season. Anything less is a fail...

C Wagner walking laps, no sign of Dunkley I thought Jackson would take time, but he is getting better and better each session, although learnt a bit going one on one with New, despite the height advantage, Nev nudged him off the line of the ball a couple of times to take easy marks, Jackson probably thought he had him for size The mark from Kossie was a thing of beauty, even Nev was impressed I bloody missed it as well with the camera Standouts for me today in the 'footy were Langdon, Jones, Nev and Lieutenant Lever

Success - win premiership Pass - finals Fail - anything else Like others I think Goodwin is safe as houses as a result of the ridiculous And unnecessary extension given to him prior to 2019 season He has at least until part way through 2021 as a result; if we win a premiership this season he has more time up his sleeve! Personally I see us as a bottom five side; our list just ain’t that good

Footy should be his last consideration at this stage (other than as much as being involved with a club may aid his mental state). One can only hope he can return to a satisfying and happy life after footy.

That's a really good point you've made there Balls. The new horizons that the AFL are looking towards relate to gender and not geography and both sexes will be the long term beneficiaries.

Or when Darling gets a cheekbone injury, some say he will still play round one. If that happened to a Melbourne player they would instantly write him off for the first four rounds of the season.

AFLW is driving a huge increase in participation at the grass roots level, so that's the new horizons that the AFL is pursuing and achieving at the moment. Also as a fair portion of the AFL's revenue is derived from female interest in the game, in the current enviroment, don't think it's good practice to upset that portion of the market and at the same time also perhaps an oppertunity to expand that part of the market as it applies to the commercials of the mens game as well. I do see the AFLW as a complementary addition in these regards and over time moves to equalise the pay of female players as sensible. Much better the AFL fairly aggressively pursue equal pay timetable on their terms than to have it imposed by outside forces.

On one level i agree with the bolded bit. It was always a risk creating new teams and thinning the talent pool and there was a strong argument for leaving it as it was for at least another year. I also agree the talent pool is stretched too thin in the AFL and it has impacted the game (just look at the number of players coming up from state leagues and lower levels something that rarely used to happen) But a big difference between the two comps is that unlike the men's game participation is growing exponentially in women's football, at both the senior level but more crucially the junior level. As Terry Wallace points out the standard will take a huge jump when girls who started playing at say under 12s start entering the AFLW in numbers. That process has commenced and will accelerate quickly in the next few seasons. Which will mean more natural footballers with all the skills like Daisy and less elite level athletes coming across from other sports that haven't grown up playing footy. So the extra teams is in some ways a calculated gamble. More teams, more reach to female fans of those teams driving increased participation and a bigger talent pool. Just look at how many saints fan turned up to watch them. I'll bet 3/4 were parents and their daughters. The other factor about more AFLW teams is that there are more players training at an elite level. And these players go back to the VFLW as fitter an d better players. More teams also increases the opportunity and pathways for young guns and those who aspire to play AFLW.

The grounds would be emptier than a mosque in Slovakia.

Consistency, they end result will take care of itself if we can narrow the gap between our best and worst football. Putting a win loss target or what position we finish to hard for 2020, just play good strong consistent football and I will be happy. No more quarters where we are just plain terrible.

I'm puzzled by the strange game plan - players lowering their eyes and kicking to a leading forward who goals. Weird.

Don't do it, Jaded'.Marriage, the exchange of bad temper during the day, bad smells during the night.': Maupassant.

That’s just a huge kick in the Tea Bag We have had the Players....

I think that we are in a pretty good spot re-injuries. We appear to be pushing the boys very hard on the track, but being ultra-conservative (and slow to re-introduce them) if they have injuries or niggles. Of the current injury list, only Preuss is clearly out for part of the season (aside from tyhose injured prior to the pre-season in KK, Bennell and Neitschke. My guess all (the TBA) will be back in full training over the next couple of weeks to a month, and if we were in the season proper some of the "injured" players would be working through it to play next week...

It’s my wedding. Wedding planning is about as enjoyable and good value for money as being a Melbourne member. A lot of stress for a day of good fun.

That injury list is not as big as it seems, Gus is fine his fit and has done almost all of the preseason, only resting his elbow and he has not missed 1 running session, tmac at this stage is not injured, just a slight rolled ankle, may will be back running next week, gawn has done the whole preseason, and will be back running next week, Smith is fine was kicking only on left not because of injury, but was told to only kick on that foot for practice, MFCSS is going into overdrive with fake news.

The 30 yr old can still get airborne

Not really much to report from the session. I spent most of it with BB, so he will be able to report further... Yes, the injury list looks long, but really, apart from May, Angus, Gawn and VDB, how many would be in the fist 22? Of those 4 Brayshaw is running freely and keeping up his fitness. Max is running freely and strongly, even with a brace. VDB is the unknown and also May. Smith can't be far away, and while he is running freely, he was still kicking the ball left foot only. BB and I cannot work out what sort of foot injury can allow one and not the other? Chandler was also doing repeat 50-100's, but the wrist is something that is only cured by time. Same for Brayshaw and his elbow. The important thing is even with 14 players listed, we still have 30 out there training fully. That included Melksham, Hibberd and Spargo who all participated in the small amount of match practice/simulation. So back to the track....it was very light and not much out of the ordinary apart from Kossi Pickett already having contender for MOTY! Hard to describe as he just came from nowhere in a pack and the next thing you saw was him perched sideways above it with the ball in his grasp. The trackwatchers and players erupted with awe, but the Channel 10 crew behind us were kicking themselves as they weren't set up properly. Still they wanted to know who he was, so hopefully the cat hasn't been let out of the media bag....just yet! There was a mids group near us with Bradtke and Weidemann doing rucking ( given the injuries to Max and Brayden, we may need them). Petracca and Langdon were prolific with their ability to get the ball and clear the pack. Interestingly, Jackson was part of this group, but not as a ruck. He held his own against Oliver, which was no mean feat. Sorry, not much else to say...so over to BB if he can think of anything else..... ⚕️ SATYRICONHOME'S INJURY UPDATE ? BAGHDAD BOB'S TRAINING REPORT

I think you would have to look at the scenario a little deeper. Playing WC over there (where I suspect we will get the 2 WC umpires) Followed up by the AFL love child and runner up in last years Premiership, would not be the normal start to a season in most of those cases. So those two loses would normally come at a different part of the year. Getting those 2 out of the way in the first 2 rounds shouldn't have any bearing on the rest of the season.

sorry rgb but that is just a load of platitudes as for equal pay. why? afl players are on individual contracts based on their own personal talents, limited of course by the salary cap. The salary cap is set from a share of the afl income (from men). less afl income, less salary cap, less individual contract value. So the issue of aflw player payments should (utimately) be an issue of aflw income. There is no entitlement here. male afl players don't all get the same contract value and the contracts they do get reflect a combination of their individual talent and the profitability of the afl comp.

Below average compared to what? There's no professional womens league to compare it to. At the moment women can't dedicate their life to the sport and train for it to the same level the men can because theres just no money in it. Why would you dedicate your life to something you can't get a career out of? If they want the womens competition to be better, for all the players to be better, they need to put more funding into it so that training to be an AFLW player is worth it.

Just saw Maxy at lunch. Can confirm: he ate fritters and poached eggs (will this impact his run for captain??) he cannot fit through door frames he was limping but also smiling

Usually I'd have something to add when I stroll in here mid week but everyone's already covered the main points. (Plus the traditional derail that must occur in every AFLW convo, yawn. Got to say that most Dees supporters commenting here seem to understand the context of the league better than the average AFL men's fan...no surprise there, of course ?). Love seeing the enthusiasm for an unexpected win here after the loooong offseason! My favourite thing about watching footy is seeing players develop and improve, picking out the ones with potential and then (hopefully!) seeing that realised at the highest possible level. Obviously, AFLW has that in spades, so for that and many other reasons, I find it very enjoyable. So there are are two players I do want to highlight who I didn't see mentioned up thread. Shelley Heath and Harriet Cordner. Heath is one that I could see great potential in when she debuted in 2019. Her game on the weekend, especially when it was there to be won in the last quarter, showed all of that starting to come together. She just went and went and went, super tenacious and looked really fresh as other players tired. Harriet is a sentimental favourite for obvious reasons but she's improved so much over the first 3 seasons and had a big VFLW campaign, winning Casey's B&F (Birch, Zanker and Jakobsson were joint Runners-up, for those playing at home). It was a massive task for her to shoulder most of the ruck duties against North's ruck duo, particularly King, who is some 10 cm taller and much more experienced in the role. Harriet did a great job and was well supported by her teammates. Here's some photographic evidence of her efforts (credit to Cassidy Captured photography). Ok, so I guess I had a bit to say after all. Go Dees!

Games are free to enter? How many would have been at the Richmond/ Carlton games if they had to pay $25?

The men shouldn’t drop. Any female increase should come from the over-inflated saleries of the AFL commissioners.

Charge admission, the AFL will be losing a bucket on AFLW, it's not cheap to host a game with venue hire, staff, umpires and everything else you need to pay. Simple solution we have to pay to watch men at both AFL and VFL level, we should have to pay to watch the elite females of the sport and they should get a percentage of the gate receipts. The AFL is scared as they don't want attendance numbers to drop, if you have a premium product people will pay to watch. The issue with AFLW is it's not a premium product, the talent pool is way to small to cater for the number of sides in the competition. It should be 8 sides max and only the elite players get drafted. Expansion for the sake of expansion doesn't make sense, it killed the mens game for 10 years and the product is still no where near as good.

Jaded..... 4-6. Add it to the list !!!!!!

It literally is the elite level of women's footy. Doesn't matter if you think "it ain't ready" (what does that even mean anyway?), it's here, so deal with it.

I couldn't care less who they play or don't. If we are going to be any good we have to win this 1st round, not only for players own confidence but for the club as a whole plus of course relieves the pressure on the coach with a first up win. We can do it with who ever plays for us or them.

I'd have it the other way around Gawn (C) Viney (VC) Tmac/Harmes (DVC)

The media trend of pretty straight ahead AFLW-related stories with deliberately inflammatory headlines is growing by the minute. The digital age is now officially the professional troll age.

Awesome. Hope your day goes off like a frog in a sock. Plenty of us to cover the worry of pre-season injuries so you can concentrate on getting your lines right at the altar. Dont want you fluffing your "repeat after me". Relax, we got this !!

3 votes ... D. Schwarz (Melbourne)

What an outstanding player he was! Hard to believe he still isn't a Hall of Fame member after retiring 20 years ago! Probably the best all round Demon player since Flower.

I have no idea what you mean.

No, he walked back to AAMI with no discomfort

With the way the players and staff are being overly cautious with any minor tweek or injury, I wonder if this is a result of the review last year where they may have discovered that they didn't give enough attention to even the most minor of incidences, and as a result allowed worse injuries to occur. If so, it would explain why everything is being checked out and assessed this year. Sadly, it's adding increased anxiety for us fans.

If Viney was demoted and it causes the issues you mention it just confirms this club is a bunch of [censored] losers and a lost cause.

This guy looks like he is about to kick that ball into a distant galaxy. Serious question - how far can this bloke kick a Sherrin?

This does nothing to ease my anxiety as you are just shuffling more players out of position. Help! The sky is literally falling.

Is it really hard for the club to give fans an update on KK. I feel like a lot of us fans are more concern around his health then getting back on the footy field. Yet club like always give donuts..