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TMac and AVB playing!? Strike me purple

May, I am reliably informed, will play in Marsh game 2. This is from a source that is closer to match day activities than CEO Pert. Take it FWIW, but that is the info I received from the mouth of a MFC person. I received that info last weekend. So, unless something changed between now and then, i'll assume he will play down in Tassie.

Seeing Vanders, T McDonald and J Smith out there makes me feel happier about our injury list. Plus Brayshaw and May expected back for game 2. Great result.

Pretty strong team overall. Great to see Vanders back as well. Fingers crossed he gets through the game well!

Maybe (pardon another pun) but given the elbows that Ablett was throwing around and getting away with during the season proper I think we can all agree that the tribunal is inconsistent and would appear biased towards certain players.

I love a cherry picker. Look at the forwards around him. Trac, Melksham, Fritsch, T Mac and Vanders... As I said, pretty strong overall.

A incredibly significant game for me and my family. This was our terminally ill mum’s last game. As four generation Demon family, we went with mum every week. On this day as we walked with her slowly through the car park after Robbo had done the business, she quietly said “that’s it boys, I’m done. That will be my last game, but what a wonderful way to finish with a win like that” (against our mortal black and white foes)! She was gone a few months later, but we will always remember this day. Go Dees!

Fanboy.....

I don't like that we have emergencies, would rather we just keep injured players out on the ground

'Tis the season to sell some hope apparently... “I think Melbourne are going to bounce back and be the Cinderella story,” Mooney told foxsports.com.au on Tuesday afternoon. “They remind me so much of what happened in Geelong in ’06 and ’07. We were supposed to have this great year in ’06 and we absolutely fell apart and everyone nearly got sacked after a review. “We came back and got super fit, super strong and it all clicked for us. Talking to a lot of Melbourne people who were at Geelong at the time said it reminds them of Geelong in ’06. I think that’s going to happen again.” Geelong great Cameron Mooney believes Melbourne can win the 2020 premiership after nightmare 2019

I am pumped that we are into it again and am especially happy to see Vanders named in the squad. Surely this must have come as a big surprise to just about everyone on this site? Jackson. Kossie. Sparrow. AVB. Langdon. Tomlinson. Fully fit Lever. Fritta back in a FP. Melky also fit and back on a fwd flank. So many reasons to be excited about a "meaningless" match. I cant [censored] wait.

“We expect Angus Brayshaw to be available next week following his elbow injury and both Steven May and Max Gawn are to be considered for our second Marsh Series game against Hawthorn in two weeks.” There you go

It will be me. ANB will run into an open goal, miss and then I'll break my hand as I punch the wall. It's inevitable.

For our Round 22 2018 match I purchased a premium ticket on the WC Members wing on a ticket reseller website and loved every single minute of it. Best day of football I've ever been to listening to those whingers whinge all day. Worth every overpriced cent I spent. Will only be topped by a Premiership.

OK, the positive: Feeling a little chuffed as I have managed to arrange a site visit in Perth on the 23rd of March which means I will be able to get along to round 1 on the Sunday! My first interstate game which hopefully is a good omen The negative: As I was going to be in Perth anyway I tried to just book a ticket through TM but none were available. In the end I have booked through a link on the club's website and have signed up for a flight, accommodation and ticket package. all seems a little too controlled for my liking. Anyway - V excited - Go Dees!!

If I get any updates I’ll be sure to post them. No fake news here.

Watching Hawthorn v Saints and Frost is having a shocker!

What is the problem with Mitch Brown? He played some good games at Essendon and by all reports is training well. You know how a change of club can do wonders. We will see if your criticism comes to fruition,

Am surprised to see such a strong squad- the build of our best 22 is there, so hopefully we’ll see some good connections. Great to see AVB, Smith, Tomlinson and Langdon in/back in the red and blue. Hunt is a bit of a worry if he’s not cracking the preseason squad. Always been a fan but has looked lost for the last two years.

Late to the game here, but I welcome any and all research on this topic. It absolutely falls under reasoned and justified discussion of the league, purely because, for top-level footy, it's a completely new area that all (or most) players, teams and clubs have to learn to address. This goes down to changeroom design, training of coaches in this regard, and so on. People who say that if there is a link to injury, then women shouldn't be playing, blatantly ignore the massive health and social benefits that the many players who'll never do an ACL enjoy. More research can only help, given that men's bodies have historically often been the default in medical science. There'll be more and more data as women's sports (particularly contact ones) move into better-resourced, semi-professional territory. Probably if menstruation is a factor in ACL injuries, it's likely to be a risk factor that coincides with several others to create a 'perfect storm' scenario. Anecdotally, it feels like there are fewer ACL injuries at VFLW level, for example, but that's just an impression not actual numbers. On a slightly different angle, openness about menstruation, while uncomfortable to some, is of vital importance for girls and young women's continued engagement with sport. It's not so much about someone's cycle impeding their ability to play (there's wide variation in the impact for individuals), it's the stigma and silence around it that causes worries - without going into too much detail - about uniform design, facilities and access to knowledge about how to manage it or even who to turn to for that support. I hope AFLW can be part of addressing that - I've gone into it here just because, how often does this topic come up on Demonland! ?

He looks in great shape and his "match sim" form was terrific before Christmas. He also did a lot of running in rehab prior to Queensland so here's hoping.

West Coast’s record without occupying bottom, or second bottom and throw in 15th while you’re at it, is in serious trouble when we smack them by 15 goals R1.

Yes Richmond lost by 113 in R23, can we just ignore their other losses by 88, 70, 70, 68 and 46? By contrast last year our biggest losses in this range were by 80, 53, 43, 41 and 40. At 3 quarter time we were in front or within a goal of our opposition in 12 matches for only 5 wins. It's well documented that our poor pre-season and injuries meant we weren't able to run out games.

When : Friday 21st at 7.10pm Where: RSEA Park (Moorabbin Oval) Another Friday night game for the Demons who have defeated fellow finals aspirants, the Kangaroos and the Bulldogs, over the past fortnight. We are in form and playing good, confident football. The Saints on the other hand are an expansion team coming off two losses and who have a percentage hovering around the 50 mark. This has danger game written all over it. Probably the biggest advantage we will have over the Saints is that our team has had the benefit of four years playing and training together. Even our emerging talent of Hanks, Zanker and Heath (all 20yo or younger) have had at least two years in the system, whilst some of older heads in D. Pearce, O’Dea, Paxman, Downie and Scott have been there since day one. Someone will probably prove me wrong but I wouldn’t be surprised if we have had the most stable list since the launch of AFLW. For that reason alone we should win. Go Dees

I think it does the Weid good to get pushed into the ruck a bit - gets him a bit angry, fired up and into the game physically.

This will be one of the things I will be watching most intently on Saturday night. We will need key back depth. At his 2018 level O'Mac was good enough. If he can improve a few notches on 2018 through that long maturity curve of KPPs, then I do think he could be a very important yet underrated part of our success going forward.

Can't play them all. I dare say they'll get a run in the following game while others are managed.

Time for Omac to show us if he has improved.

He was our second highest goal kicker in 2019.

Some people have no idea wiseblood

Spargo? Hasn't he been in either rehab or a moon boot for most of the preseason? I know both games mean nothing, but wouldn't it be better to run him on Friday instead?

From the starting 18 I'd suggest Harmes goes to half back, Petracca on ball and Jones to half forward.

Just got a notification from the app but no data?? Anyone else?

I think percentage is a much better stat than number of wins to get a gauge of how a team's season went overall. 2019 Demons Percentage: 78.6 2016 Richmond Percentage: 79.5 When it turns, it can turn quickly.

Have you meet him OD or is this just another cheap shot which is something for which you certainly have "form".

I spoke to May at training (queue Dazzle telling me I'm a fanboy) and had quite a chat. It was a cyst that was giving him a little trouble, nothing major. My understanding is it got infected and they are dealing with that. I can't imagine taking a cyst out would cause any long term damage. But he's hardly done "the bulk of the preseason". He did the block before Christmas and has done the week in Queensland but other than that he's not been in training. It's a shame because he's lacked the chance to work with the other backs in match sims. I'm going with Chell on this. I reckon he'll play the second match and will play game one. Here's hoping anyway.

Saints cop the same raw deals we do except at least we get to play at the G (better stadium deal) and get to host ANZAC Eve and Queens Bday every other year. Saints aren't the problem, the AFL's inequitable policies that create these disparities are the problem.

Well in my defence, after the round 22 win I was in Club 92 (eagles premium lounge) hanging [censored] on Trevor Nisbett. And the preliminary? I’d bailed from the ground at halftime. Next time without fail. ?

With a bit of a segway over to the Burgess' Management Plan for Preseason Games thread and as indicated by @Kent and @spirit of norm smith, my take on the injury list and those missing full training is that having put in a solid block of preseason training before Christmas, we are now in a conservative injury management mode to make sure that we have as near to a full list as possible for the start of the season and aren't playing catch-up all year getting back a critical mass of top line players or carrying as many injuries for those that play week to week throughout the season. At least that's what I'm hoping.

Put your house and kids on it. There's no way this could possibly go wrong.

I think the 4 year horizon with finals each year and a flag is very reasonable looking at our list age profile. I've tried to make a graphic representation below of the age of players at the start of the 2020 season. I used 5 characters per player name so it works like a graph (yes I know it's not exact because it's not a mono-spaced font). I have also bolded (who I believe) are locked in best 22. I think this data shows that we've definitely entered the window now and the current group has 4 years to deliver. Nev is the only lock who is guaranteed to be gone. The next set of Melksham, Gawn, TMac and May have 3-4 good years left - at the start of year 4 none will be older than 31. We've got an absolutely fat line now at 24 that is going to move through to 27 across this period. It's also reasonable to expect that some best 22 locks will emerge from the 18-21 set e.g. Petty, Jackson, Kozzie. 32|Jones 31| 30|Jetta,Hibbo 29|Brown 28|Melks,Gawn-,May--,VdB-- 27|TMac-,Benne 26|Tomli,Hanna 25|Viney,JWagn, 24|Salem,Harme,Petra,Brays,Langd,Lever,Hore-,OMac-,Hunt-,Preus,Kolod,Neal-,Lockh,Smith 23|Frits 22|Olive,CWag-,Weide 21|Baker 20|Petty,Sparg,Chand 19|Niets,Bedfo,Bradt,Sparr,Dunkl,Jordo 18|Jacks,Picke,River Data source: https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/tp-melbourne-demons?year=2020&sby=15

Seems every year we remind someone of some team. Time for us to make our own story and for it not to end up a sad or tragic one.

The druggies have supposed fantastic facilities out at Tullamarine with 2 MCG & Docklands Ovals. Look how good that has turned out for them. The Tiggies on the other hand are squeezed into a small pocket on Punt Rd, look at the damage they are currently doing. Give me one quality MCG sized surface, that is all that is needed.

Yep, just slipped over to Bomber Blitz (it's ok, I've showered since) and they sound very much like us and will be relying on a few members that are attending to give updates. I wonder if the Demon twitter feed might get a workout? As a side note; I don't make a habit of visiting other fan sites but my clear impression is; none of them come close to the functionality and visual excellence of DL. Kudos to you Andy.

Nice right and left hand breaks off Greens Point.

As a proud mornington peninsula resident I've decided to take the arvo off to drive 25 mins to Casey for this one....even though Ive been going to the footy forever Im not that great at posting my observations but am happy to update on anything notable...will double up for the Crows match the next day too

This is exactly what a club that has been starved of success needs ? Just as he played football with a dashing abandon, Melbourne CEO Gary Pert sets no limits when predicting on-field success. Melbourne throwing caution out the window with ambitious flag call

At training last Wednesday he wasn't even running. I'd say he's a long long way away but I'm only guessing.

Do people really think the club has just done some dot points and have no plan to go with it? I mean, take this for example: You don't think for a second that the club has far more information, direction etc behind closed doors, and that they are just outlining to members and supporters what we want to achieve in the next four years?

It is actually unlikely that all those teams make it IMO.