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Guys, it hasn't been reported yet, but to show you how tough & committed to the cause that Aaron is, he suffered a triple fracture to his cheekbone early in the second quarter and despite blood trickling continually down the inside of his nose & throat he totally downplayed the knock and kept playing. Was even the only player to go in and remonstrate with Stratton after the crude knock on Weid. You can see why the Coaches & teammates love him in the side.

I think I found it.

I think @goodwindees mentioned that surgery was already booked by the time the players finished up on Sunday night. My best guess is that Burgo/Goody didn’t release the news because they wanted to see how the surgery went and what the surgeon’s advice was on a return to play. That way they can give one update such as “had surgery out for 2 weeks” rather the news being fragmented over a couple of days.

Both players will be good in their own way. I dont understand why threads like these need to be brought up every single game just to prove a point. I liked Weightman in his draft year and he has all the tools to be a good small forward of the competition in years to come. Same as Koz. Right now both Koz and Weightman are just young kids finding their way through their AFL journeys. I'll continue to enjoy watching both talents for what they are.

A David Neitz story from an impeccable source ... When Neitz injured his neck and was forced to retire he was eligible for an AFL mandated injury payment from the club of several hundreds of thousands of dollars but, because of the club's dire financial circumstances at the time, he didn't take the payout - that's the kind of leader he was. There have been various cases made for a number of our captains and I'm not sure if Junior McDonald has been mentioned, but he should be and is under-rated. We've generally been well-served in this area. Anyway, this thread is about Maxy and I am genuinely hopeful that he can be the best of the lot and lead us to the much longed for flag.

Tomlinson could come in to man Robinson on the wing.

Beat me to the punch, I just came to post this. Great question from Gibson, who obviously reads Demonland (hi Ben) and great explanation from Goodwin about the need for calm and clarity in the box. It’s these types of answers from the coach that convinces me Goodwin is a high quality leader. Stuffs me why supporters would prefer a coach who loses his cool and cracks in high pressure situations.

I watched last week's game again and couldn't see the turnovers from Lockhart that everyone talks about. I saw them in our match v Geelong (or maybe it was v the Tigers). He doesn't get a lot of the ball but has all the attributes to be a good small defender. I thought there was a couple of plays last week that he made the right gutsy calls to leave his opponent and impact the contest which lead to a score for us - I think he wouldn't have been credited with a possession though. With the setups of most forward lines, there's room for him and Jetta at the moment.

At this stage we are extremely lucky on two fronts. The first is that we have a relatively small injury list. The second is that our fitness manager happens to have a soccer background, especially EPL, where short breaks between games is a given.

Let's be honest, 99% of us have absolutely no idea about leadership within the club. Captains viewed as 'good' by the public are simply those that play well in winning sides. Case in point is Cotchin, who suddenly transformed (in the eyes of the media and public at least) from a terrible leader to RFC's greatest ever captain on the back of a couple of flags. It goes without saying that leadership is important, but how anyone thinks they are in a position to assess a captain's worth from outside the walls of the club goes beyond me.

That we have played a number of midweek ANZAC Eve games on a 3-4 day break then backed up a few days later and and a year or two go we had several back to back 6 day breaks with travel should hold us in good stead for this block of: 4 day, 6 day, 4 day, 6 day breaks between games. For the 4 day breaks players will focus on recovery and training will be light duties. Good to hear Goodwin's confidence in the team to play thru.

My assumption is that those types of supporters don't actually understand "emotion". To them you are either calm or violent/angry, and any subtly between them is lost. Those supporters don't want to see Goodwin smile, laugh or cry. They want to see him yell and scream and break things and lose control. Pretty toxic, if that is your only measure of "emotion".

Then what's the point of Burgess doing a weekly injury report to the public when it's a personal matter?? You've contradicted yourself here Sat....

“If you’re emotional, it’s really just a self-indulgence thing and it takes you away from what’s really important.”

One of the things I loved about the game against the Hawks was seeing Pickett getting frequently involved and getting to good places in support, whether or not he was rewarded or even got a stat out of it. It shows a little in the 'goal of the week mini-video on the main Demonland page at the moment - he was weaving in and out of the action ready dragging players with him and even closing in on the hot spot as the goal was being kicked. But the moment for me that really shone (and made me feel like we were definitely going to win) was a passage of play I think late in the third quarter where through sheer manic attack and slapping and bundling along Pickett was largely responsible for moving the ball forward about fifty meters despite Hawks outnumbering Demons for the length of the scramble. He must have physically touched the ball five times in ten seconds but statistically wouldn't have had a 'touch' to his name. Sums up why I think we've got a winner in this kid and why I'm going to enjoy watching him for years. Can I make a special request to anyone with editing skills for a mini-video of that ridiculous passage? Might be hard to find because it didn't result in a goal or anything special as an outcome, except Hawthorn once again were knocked back up the ground, out of an attacking position, and left with no options except to kick long to Gawn! It is also the perfect reminder that Pickett's stats are completely ignorable - he's doing his thing and it is definitely not bureaucratic!

"Our plan is not to rest anyone – our plan will be to pick the best team," Goodwin told reporters. "Now, we certainly won't be reckless with that. If players are sore and unavailable, then they won't play. But, our plan is to play the best team available. "We think we've prepared our players to handle the loads that are going to be presented to them and we're certainly not going to be a club that's going to be in the process of resting players." Goodwin said Burgess' program during the COVID-19-enforced season shutdown prepared the Demons' footballers for the potential of four-day breaks, which are now a reality. They have one of the healthiest playing lists in the competition, with Aaron vandenBerg – who underwent surgery on his fractured cheekbone on Tuesday – the only first-choice option unavailable.

Both RJay and AF are quick to point out that Oliver is a great handballer, RJay uses the word 'sublime' and AF says his handballing is 'incredibly damaging,' but I disagree entirely. A sublime handball is like the one Bennell did under pressure to Hannan last week and is going backwards to Smith as Oliver did three weeks ago incredibly damaging to anyone but our side? And what has been happening is that way too often is the panic handball he has used to Gawn or to Viney to avoid the tackle. He still did it twice last week, but there were so many more positives to his game. Oliver is a great exponent of the quick give, which often can break up the swarming numbers around the ball and give a teammate a chance to go forward. And Oliver certainly is not a woos. He goes hard at it. But what has infuriated me is that for the past four years no one seemed to take him to task for taking the safer, easier sideways or backwards release option to a player in no better position than he was. That was until the media two weeks ago turned on our club (we were 1-3 after all) and looked at our stuttering game plan. I can guarantee you that Goody and Ben Mathews sat down with Oliver after the Tigers game and went over where he was going wrong. It is only two weeks since his nadir, but already you can see him trying to look forward with his options. He's still a bit panicky, but I suspect that eventually he will become the genuine linebreaking A grader that we have all been waiting for. I've only met him once a few years back, but I suspect he still doubts his abilities a bit. He said to me back then that he was too slow, yet even back then I reckon he was among our top five players for speed. He is genuinely quick, not like Jayden Hunt, but more like Chris Judd. Yet up until the past two weeks he wasn't willing to use possibly his biggest asset because the safer, easier option was to give it off. I also reckon he is a good kick, even though he has made mention of his own poor kicking in interviews recently. As we saw in the Yarra comp, he can nail a torp and a drop punt. He still leans back a bit and his ball drop is sometimes from too high in his rush, but as with Trac, the more times he tries to make that long or clever play, the more he'll find his target. And he has great peripheral vision, so he will find his target more often than not once he has the confidence to use his foot skills. It is very unusual that a player who has won two best-and-fairests is being talked about as flawed, but I reckon in the past two weeks he's finally taking on the game (his only real flaw anyway) and whilst we may not see him at his best for a month or two yet as he adjusts to this new role, the base is now being laid. And with Trac more likely to be tagged than him, he will probably enjoy the extra freedom. As with our side, we are seeing a growth in Oliver taking place at the moment that will guarantee we are a formidable side in years to come.

Why do you keep harping on about this? We get it - people wanted Oliver dropped, which was a classic Demonland overreaction. No need to mention it in every post you make.

We won't. He'll have to wait or develop more strings to his bow. That's a sign of a good team.

Lots of theories around why Goodwin and Burgess didn’t mention the injury when given the opportunity, but isn’t the simplest and most likely explanation just that they didn’t know about it at the time of the reports? it seems like the type of injury that a player could probably attempt to conceal and not alert the club staff until a few days later when it didn’t seem to be getting better?

The rain and Martin out means I think we can't go in too tall. As such, I think only one of Jackson and TMac plays. I wouldn't be surprised if it's TMac with Jackson getting rested for next Thursday night vs Port. But that will mean someone else has to replace vandenBerg. Presumably that will be Jones, but that doesn't particularly thrill me. You are crazy. Neale is a top 5 player in the comp at the moment.

Williams. I don't think Cameron would be a good target for us, would cost a fortune and he wouldn't be getting the delivery he gets at GWS. Plus I have faith in Weideman to develop and Jackson to be able to play that roaming CHF role.

That was 9 years ago. He wasn't wrong.

If wet I’d keep Jackson in over T Mac. mcdonald is poor below his knees.

I like Lockhart and I presume Goodwin's giving him an extended run. He's making mistakes by getting caught with the ball but I think there's already improvement. He looks for and hits targets, has vision and is creative. I like that he looks inside and doesn't do the auto bomb down the boundary line. His lack of stats might be because he's given a job. I don't like that he gets caught with the ball and that he has no (or less of a) tank but both are improving. Smart footballer, quick enough and not afraid to tackle.

I'd say he is getting a run as the coaches know more than us. While he might not get much of the pill, he is clearly doing his job defensively and therefore he keeps his spot. Our defensive unit last week was terrific so I can understand why they don't want to mess with it. As for selection, there aren't too many surprises. Tomlinson may get the nod for AVB, while it wouldn't surprise to see T Mac back in for Jackson, even though that would be harsh on Jackson as he played well last weekend.

I don't understand how Lockhart seems to be an automatic selection. He doesn't get involved much and has given away goals every week with his mistakes. Am I missing something here? Give me Jetta any day.

Harmes may have his hands busy with Neale.

I reckon a big problem with rotating players is that with all its zones, patterns and structures team synergy is critical in footy circa 2020. You mess with team chemistry at your place peril. Rotating players risks increasing the chanced of osing games in this block and disrupting the chemistry going forward, increasing the chances of losses in the next block. Even with a fitter, rested team. And in any case we need wins now.

It's a big pity old "bruise-free" Robinson is going to miss his date with VDB.

I'll be interested to see how they go against Neale this week. I think he has been the best performed player this year with Trac probably just behind.

I think we see this in the lack of free kicks he gets despite being scragged and held constantly, and how fast they are to pay very soft frees against him for illegal contact or holding. When they talk about protecting the ball players, he is exactly the type that should be protected, because talk away the holding and he would single handedly open the game up.

While I understand where you are coming from I think this is a bit harsh and he has a long way to fall before realising this risk. Oliver is super damaging in a less overt way. His extraction and creative, fast hands, means that he sets up a lot of past that wouldn't have happened otherwise. While Trac bursts through and kicks long, Oliver did under and squeezes out to advantage. To become "just an accumulator" I think he need to lose that ability and be more loose, uneventful outside touches. He is still one of the best and most creative extractors in the game, and is probably playing more well rounded footy than in the years he won the bnfs. He is averaging 25 disposals this year (4th in the comp), equal to 31.25 in full length quarters (he has a higher kick to handball ratio than Petracca this year too) and 5th in ave contested possessions. He is 7th in ave clearances (3rd in centre clearances) and 25th for tackles (only half a tackle off being 15th). His turnovers are up by one per game (2 when factoring in shortened game time) which is sight concern but it is also a symptom of kicking more, which we've asked of him. On those numbers he should right in the frame for AA discussion. Unfortunately he gets marked very hard by umpires and media for some reason (vs their favourites).

Tomlinson for AVB.

Some distance from the match in guessing. People have watched the replays so not looking for how it happened. The footy shows have done their reviews and not focused on his or his injury. Only keen dee fans follow injury reports and it wouldn't register with other clubs fans a low profile player like avb got hurt. Noise managed

I’ve been watching all the video content the club has put out lately, and Ben has been doing a really good job. His questions are well thought out and often asks similar questions to what a supporter may ask. This is another great example.

You just don’t believe info that you haven’t heard... It bothers you... I have been privvy to a lot of information over 6-7 years, most of it coming to fruition i don’t always quote it on here, but seeing a noticeable change from both Goodwin and the Gamestyle i thought i would pass it on

I don't get the secrecy here. Maybe from a tactical perspective. Not taking anything away from AVB because he's tough as nails and would genuinely frighten opposition with him on your tail but tactically it's not like hiding an injury to a Max or Clarry or Trac or key position forward. I doubt it would change Brisbane's tactics one iota. Again no disrespect to vanders. For me the omission from Burgess makes me doubt any of the information he gives out in the videos. Don't get me wrong Burgo could be the greatest thing that has happened to this club. Omissions like this have been a running theme from the club for years, probably all clubs but I only care about this one. If injuries are so top secret why even provide these video updates and if they're not telling the whole truth which is evident here based on the intel in the OP how can we truly trust anything that is posted by the club. Providing content is great but if you can't be honest for tactical reasons then don't release a clip saying we got through the match unscathed when a blokes had his cheek split in three places.

You're kidding right? David Neitz is #1 - club games record holder, club games as captain record holder, club goals record holder, member of the Hall of Fame, Coleman Medallist, Best and Fairest winner, 7 x leading goal-kicker, All-Australian.

We've had some very good captains over the years but this guy might just turn out to be the best I think. Since he's taken the role his game has gone to a new level - he's leading by example as a true match-winner. And I think he has a communication style that everyone can relate to.

Leigh Matthews I think. This is peak Demonland. Two weeks ago we were as bad as the Neeld era. Now we're the best side in 50 years. Neither of those are true.

You sound a bit upset that someone here gets real inside info from the club. Keep it coming @goodwindees ... Ill be expecting big things from you in trade week.

Lol.

Neale is key. A total A Grader. Harmes seems the obvious go to option.

May played on him last year I think and i would not be shocked if he does so again. If they can shut down the space he can lead into, may can negate his marking strength, which a small can struggle to do.

Neitz > Lyon. If you can't see that I cannot help you.

Disappointing to see Vanders out but it makes it easy on selection. T.Mac for Vanders. B: JETTA, MAY, LEVER HB: SALEM, O.MCDONALD, HIBBERD C : LANGDON, PETRACCA, HARMES HF: PICKETT, T.MCDONALD, BENNELL F: JACKSON, WEIDEMAN, FRITSCH' FOLL: GAWN, OLIVER, VINEY IC: BRAYSHAW, MELKSHAM, LOCKHART, HANNAN

Kozzies uncle when he played for us would nail a few blokes and always made our blokes stand tall. I was bit of an enforcer for Aaron Davey who would be targeted quite heavily during the 2006 year.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m far more bullish about our chances after the last couple of weeks (team selections have played a big role) but let’s just cool our jets for the moment.

Beat some decent teams consistently before talking like this I am so tired of potential. The team we beat on sunday have won 12 Flags in 50 years This team has got the potential to beat Brisbane next week That is all we should be concentrating on