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"I WISH I KNEW WHERE I WANTED TO BE WHEN I WANTED TO BE WHERE I WAS TODAY" Picture this.... temperature around 25 warm , balmy DAY and the Fence enjoying the majesty of the very pleasant surroundings of Casey Fields, does this sound inviting? Well I can tell you it beats the hell outa a weekend in Siberia anyday! But out here you still have to worry about slitherers but they are far more dangerous and bigger entities which have the capacity to be a .. more menacing presence .... which might or might not be related to the sign above! The usual drone of House music emanating from the Boom Box speakers at Casey Fields just blended nicely into the soundscape of what was another "Full On" Blitzkrieg Training session today. The following report was filed for the Demonland Brethren so what are you waiting for...... read on Absentees NO MAJAK No W.A Contingent except for Kossie On modified duties Jayden Hunt Warm ups This is done two ways 1 At the new indoor facility where players go through a thorough graduated stretching and graduated drill sequence 2 Out on the ground where small drills focusing on precise ball movement, quickness of delivery and rapid fire ball drill sequences are related to in tight match simulations One of these was a drill which I now call "Three Blind Mice" Players run backwards, with ball, Pirouette and run forward in a triangualar type sequence zig zag and then deliver the ball slighly off balance. It looks like the type of drill which equates to players being surrounded by opposition and then need to squeeze a correct delivery whilst slightly disorientated and slightly off balance. Skills , Drills and Maneuvers Two groups were maintained with one doing whole ground ball movements from various positions of stoppages both forwards and back and selecting again correct options for longer run and carry type work and also ground switching. The other group then continued in small confines contested ball work and again emphasizing delivery, blocking harrasing and disposal under pressure At the completion of this drill an excellent drill where players were involved in a triangular formation with 3 players moving the ball with precise handball which was punctuated by the gadfly tendancies of two harrasers who provided contest and pressure. This was an excellent drill in which hardly any group made a mistake! Delivery was precise, Handballs were given at the right moment then opening up the play. Following that a full match simulation was conducted under match conditions which again featured some at times breathtaking full ground transferance of the air conveyance! At the conclusion of that another minor activity some run throughs and Goal kicking was maintained and warm down completed a just over 2 hour pretty intensive and hard workout Player watch Several players really stood out for mine and I'll go through them now ADAM TOMLINSON A few on this site have commented on his "Readiness" but after seeing him again today he WILL be ready to go round 1. He marked well, moved well, was assured and showed NO sign of being hampered by his knee reco. He looked bloody good. DEAKYN SMITH Caught my eye on a few occasions with his Charismatic ball skills and skill level, will be one to watch in 2022 BAILEY LAURIE Looked much more assured and confident with some very "Astute" decisions and ball use TOM SPARROW Every time I see this kid I just keep thinking he plays like a turbo charged Ollie Wines, he is a bull who is becoming more confident and imposing. JAMES JORDON Scott Pendlebury Mrk 2 in the making here. JAKE BOWEY How much better can this kid get? Just never ever makes a mistake just cruises along the ground mopping up better than a thirsty Jex in the desert! JOEL SMITH Looks confident in body and took some excellent intercept marks and delivered very well in run and carry sim. N0 27 AND 42 Not sure who they are but boy did they do some excellently crafted runs and deliveries "Lace out" I wondered whether 1 was Luke Dunstan but not sure. OUR STANDOUTS Im putting a few buck on Clayton OLIVER for the 2022 BROWNLOW He just does not stop improving , some of his escapism and brute strength and dazzle from stoppages is almost impossible! Our culture is being driven by Max, Tracc, Stephen May and Jake Lever were irrepressible and Ed Langdon ANB, J.V, BBB, and Big Mac were all eye catching. Fritta snapped a couple of "Freak Goals" and Harmsy and Rivers assured as was Christian Salem IMPROVERS Fraser Rossman shows signs of steady improvement once smothering with full body on a Clarry Kick and Toby Bedford, and Kade Chandler committed very well. FINAL COMMENTS Competition for places is at all seasons high with selection headaches aplenty. Long gone are the days of limited backups and I forecast based on what I've seen little let up from the professional and exacting standards established in 2021

Awesome, Great I love the guy. After the first 5 minutes in his first game he was our best midfielder After first full match he was the best pure midfielder I had seen at the club in 45 years. After his second season he was the best player at the club. After his first Premiership he is a triple B and F winner @ 24. And still he is under rated. The guy is an absolute legend and there is heaps more to come.

Standing ovation for Nathan Jones is genuine and moving. He represents our club like no-one else.

I can see Sparrow taking a couple of centre bounces next year a quarter, and then spending a bit of time on the HF flank and the bench. His finals series was too good to ignore and he’s coming into his 4th year so he’s approaching his prime as a mature footballer. Probably best 22.

Should post that on the Geelong site. Might get an offer.

There’s always doubt, and there’s always tinkering/improvising on existing protocols. Otherwise known as trial and error. Ask David Schwarz. The women’s issue is troubling, and complicated. At the moment, their rate of ACL rupture is somewhere between 2 and 3 times that of men. There’s a number of theories as to why, none of which dominate. Anatomical differences (thigh to lower leg angle, narrower notch at the bottom of the femur that’s more likely to ‘cut’ the ACL in rotational activities), hormonal consequences (monthly ligamentous softening), developmental differences - are girls/women coming to the sport later less bodily ‘attuned’ or familiar with its bio-mechanical specifics? Current thinking is that it’s likely a combination of all these factors. The industry is trying to find screening measures (being doing this for decades) to assess the likelihood of ACL injury, and specific training to lessen likelihood, but I suspect nothing will change until the women’s game is made of girls/women who’ve all been playing from ‘birth’, like the men, and the ACL vulnerable are weeded out before they get to adult status. Even then, incidence will be higher. Do you then alter rules, etc to mitigate incidence, and how? Complicated. No, soccer doesn’t have the same joint forces through the knee. Less game time = less running = less load. Less body contact (no tackling), less spiking joint forces (jumping, landing), and arguably less rotational repetition. Australian Football is unique in its lower limb demands, all of which makes it a perfect storm for the poor old knee.

Surprised not to see May in the top 10 at this stage. Salem rightfully up near the top. The first half of his season was brilliant.

Selfless role player who has improved significantly over last 2 years How many I50 targets hit in GF??

The Norm Smith Memorial Trophy is a coach’s award and this year the winner was Alex Neal-Bullen.

I'm glad Glen Bartlett got some recognition. Nice touch Kate Roffey

I’m just disappointed I didn’t think of this first and create a thread about the club targeting me… ’Pros - will be cheap. Cons - no turning circle, no left foot, …and he’s 43’

These beauties arrived today.

Clarry chooo choojust a stunning year😂

Plugger Mac was great until injury late in the season; great to see him polling so strongly

Wrecker - we need far more than three midfielders, and I have absolutely no doubt that Sparrow will join Harmes, ANB and JJ(and Dunstan) in playing his role in this classy midfield.

James Jordon tracking to be Pendles-like? Normally you’d think gross exaggeration and extreme wishful thinking, the ramblings of the delusional, but the way this club is tracking at the moment it could end up underselling JJ.

Great write up. How different is it being a Melbourne fan now. I remember so often there would be 2-3 players that should not be playing seniors. Boy am I glad those days are done.

For $999 you can have a spade full from my backyard

A year or two ago I would have been jobsmacked and frustrated by this, but now think it's great. Other posters above have made some excellent points and here's mine. I don't believe there is much if any correlation between someone's ability to play (or be a star) vs coach, understand, communicate and teach. There are many cases of average players being legendary coaches and vice versa legendary players being average or poor coaches. Mark Williams would know the character and quality of Conca as a person having come out of the Richmond system. He wouldn't recommend anyone if he didn't believe in them. Choco is one of the game's great educators and Conca can continue to develop his ability to educate. Better yet, being new to the coaching/player dev team he'd come cheap (I hope) and should offer a high impact on cost/benefit ratio with the soft cap.

Our 23 year old daughter graduated at La Trobe yesterday. She has a hyphenated Polish German name. I remarked to my beautiful wife during the proceedings that the percentage of Anglo names in the hundred graduates was possibly 10%. That's why I truly loved Christian's comment that 2 out of the 5 winners were wogs. Fantastic stuff, us wogs and other derogatory names are our future.

Take a drink for every mention of "so, um, yeah", "so, obviously" and "appreciate that". Only joking, Clarrie. You cashed in all your public speaking points for an upgrade in football talent. A wise decision! GO DEMONS!!!

Of the wings, Langdon was superior. Bradshaw had an amazing GF and sacrificed for the team to play defensive wing but he still did struggle to perform offensively. Not a criticism coz someone has to do the hard work but I can see why he’s outside the top 10.

not really

The Ron Barassi Junior Trophy for leadership - Max Gawn

I guess his "genius" is knowing which injuries can safely (and beneficially) be "pushed through" and which ones require rest and rehabilitation.

The Harold Ball Memorial Trophy - Kozzie!

Wow Tmac is in the top 3 after round 15. I think that's deserved though. His first half of the year was close to All-Australian quality.

Toby Bedford took the Troy Broadbridge Trophy earlier this evening. Steven May gets the James McDonald Trophy and a tie for the Ian Ridley Memorial Trophy to Neville Jetta and Ben Brown.

Wow that's a lot of kids doing well in a premiership team. Also, nice reminder of how well Salem started the season before tapering a bit in the '3rd quarter'. He sure knew when to put on his best game, though!

The Votes After Rounds 1-8

It is difficult for a football person to transcend football. Rare air up there with Smith, Barassi, Flower, Stynes and now Daniher. Feels right.

Great report might aswell get the 22 premiership cup engraved now

Hard to see anybody take this away from Oliver. 1. Oliver 2. Trac 3. May 4. Salem 5. Gawn Norm Smith Memorial Trophy (most consistent): Its a hard one, but probably Oliver takes this as well? Ron Barassi Jnr Trophy (best leadership): Lever (assuming Gawn is not applicable as Captain?) Harold Ball Memorial Trophy (best young talent): Hard to go past Bowey Ian Ridley Memorial Trophy (community work) : Hard to know this one - presume Jetts still doing the good stuff. James McDonald Trophy (Melbourne spirt): Going out on a limb here to say ANB as the ultimate role player who was able to turn back from the 'abyss of delistment' and forge himself as premier small forward.

Dont take the watch overseas or youll end up on Border security :)

Exactly, this new article 'revealing Burgo's secrets' is regurgitating his philosophies that I'm sure he's discussed publically before. There must be some balance and nuance to his philosophy of pushing players through their injuries. For instance we rested Jack Viney for a substantial period this year to get him right for the remainder of the season. Similarly, I also seem recall us resting Christian Salem. In retrospect Jack Trengrove pushing his body on with his injured foot probably wasn't the best thing for his career. I think there is probably some key knowledge and judgement about when to keep pushing and when to back off that makes or breaks this strategy.

A very nice dilemma to have - Rivers would fit in as a midfielder or as a rebounding halfback ….. we have decent half back depth so he may well be offered some opportunity to show his wares in the engine room, if and when the brains trust sees it as appropriate. Jordie could have benefited by our current fitness and skills development team. He was reputed to be the hardest worker at training …. ANB has risen from honest battler with questionable skills to an essential cog in a Premiership team. Who really knows what could have happened if ……….

Has any premiership ever brought as much joy to its supporters as this has to ours? I can't stop watching the GF and all the other games leading up to it. I'm so proud of this team, that refuses to give in and has confidence to know that wherever they are, they can still win. It's good to see the supporters are just as united as the playing group. My kids have forgiven me. I've watched all the games we played throughout the season, several times, but I won't watch the Collingwood game, for obvious reasons.

Who do you think is going to win the Keith "Bluey" Truscott Trophy tonight and be declared the winner of the 2021 Melbourne Demons Best & Fairest in a Premiership year? I reckon it would have to be Clayton Oliver. That's my very confident tip. He was the most consistent player the whole year. My top 5 is as follows... 1) Clayton Oliver 2) Christian Petracca 3) Max Gawn 4) Jake Lever 5) Christian Salem Anyway, it should be an enjoyable evening as I think the Melbourne Football Club is live-streaming the event?

Martin Pike and his x4 premership medallions also say hello. Beast of a player, on (and off) the field. I seem to recall from his Open Mike interview, that by the time he got to Brisbane, he'd realised that he had to pull his head in amd Leigh Mathews certainly wouldn't have put up with any crap, which might also have had something to do with it.

The 'Demonland Player of the Year ' usually gets it right. The Oliver Petracca quiinella should be a dead set, ring a ding, shoo in!

I ordered an item that was due in on 13/12 - called them last week and they told me it would be received 13/12 and shipped via express post so would come before Christmas. Still "Awaiting Fulfillment" so I called again yesterday and they said it has been received and is in the warehouse being sorted/counted and would be sent via express post in next day or 2 and would come before Christmas. Here's hoping!

On one of Burgo's podcasts he and Brukky talk about comebacks from ACLs. AFL is the only sport apparently with a 12 month rehab. Soccer and NFL are 6 months, and the rate of injury recurrence in soccer and NFL are the same as AFL. Burgo also pre-empted the argument that AFL is somehow harder on knees and he argues the opposite. If Tomlinson comes back in round 1 and does his knee everyone will blame Selwyn. If he comes back in round 8 and does it everyone will blame bad luck. The odds apparently are the same either way.

Haven’t seen or heard of it for ~ 5 years.

Grand final form does not carry into round 1 next year. Its a completely clean slate going into the new year. This was the key message that was given to Luke Dunstan by Simon Goodwin. If there is an opportunity there that a player can make us one better then the grand final team then I'm taking that over anything. That means a fully fit Jayden Hunt replaces Hibberd, and pending pre season form and injury, Dunstan could easily mount a case over Jordon, Sparrow, and potentially Harmes.

If it makes the team better why not? The last thing we need is complacency. What if Dunstan, Hunt, Smith and others get of to flyers at training and in pre season games. Competition for game time will be the hottest for years, maybe for all time at the Dees.

Got the signed jumpers yesterday to go with my Herald Sun premiers poster. Just have to find wall space now...

Well he played in the match simulation last Friday, and they wouldn't have done that if he wasnt 100% fit, so on that basis unless there is a hiccup I think he would be right to go in round 1

I recommend that everyone have a listen to this episode in the podcast. It's basically Burgos story about his time at the Dee's. So much more than what is covered in the article.

From an Explain Pain (and Fatigue) perspective - the body wears in, it doesn't wear out. Not only was Burgess/Gooodwin/et al. exposing the body physically to distress, but emotionally to the discomfort as well - both are forms of exposure therapy and imperative in managing the experience of pain . Which dovetails in to the anecdotal experience of what @tiers has mentioned above.Here is one of the coolest video's I have ever seen on explaining the science behind pain, as well as been amusing, it takes very complex understandings and makes it digestible. Without boring people about one of my favourite topics -(pain and psychology) - what influences the pain (and fatigue) experience is 'meaning'. What I mean is the meaning behind the experience, will amplify the 'felt' experience. Take Dermott in the 89' grand final - he wasnt superhuman - his brain was sufficiently able to experience the discomfort in service of what mattered - as it was a grand final (the meaning) - this would not have happened in round 18. What does this mean for Burgess and the playing group - well, clearly there are thesholds that the tissues being used can sustain before its over its tipping point... but what Burgess and Co have done, is slowly increase the baseline of that threshold....and the lived experience is that the players can cope - both physcially and emotionally - and this is ALSO what plays out in the final quarters of matches - its belief - and I mean genuine belief that the players can 'run out' games - as its based on lived experience, which means that they are less stressed (which impacts on fatigue experiences --> disposal efficency) etc... I would presume the athletes will also now be MORE willing to continue to train in a similar manner, and push the envelop - due to the rewards that have come in 2021. (Like Pavlov's dogs - linking success to earlier discomfort in service of something important).

This reminds me of the great cricket fast bowling conundrum. Modern day fast bowlers are considered to need R & R to maintain top condition and performance for a season. Some years ago, a number of retired fast bowlers (Merv Hughes vintage) explained that the more they bowled, even when slightly discomforted by injuries, the better and more resilient they became and could maintain a full summer season of Shield matches and Test matches where they were required to bowl over 20 overs an innings. Is there too much so-called science in sport? I am starting to think yes.