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Thank you to all of the Demonlanders who attend training during the pre-season and relay these reports to us. As an interstate fan in a city that only talks about 2 teams it is very nice to have a resource like this that we can reliably depend on for news about how the boys are travelling.

I would strongly recommend that any demons that haven’t been to Alice it is a great opportunity to visit the Red Centre and get to see the Dees play at an excellent Regional ground. The indigenous kids love the game and if you are as fortunate as us you could get to stay in the same Resort as the team. I would also recommend a visit to Stanley Chasm and Simpson Gap via a bus tour whilst in Alice Springs a real eye opener and quite emotional.❤️💙

Well it was nice to ride the bike down to Gosch's Paddock rather than battle the freeway traffic to Casey and there's always a touch of excitement arriving at the start of the new season with all the new numbers and faces. I had to dash off to a meeting in town at 10.20am, so others may have a fuller report, but by then a fair bit of the gp action had taken place and they were into their match sim, so I think I had the gist of it. Firstly I'll knock off the injuries quickly - Angus and Petty were on light running duties - too early in season for me to assess if they are recovering from fun activities in Europe, but clearly both have minor niggles to deal with. Let's wait and see if they are training with the main gp on Monday before we write them off for the season eh. May wasn't there at all. Also absent from the track was Goody, he seemed to leave it to his lieutenants - Reece Conca among them. Chocco was also taking very much a backseat approach as well, preferring to talk to spectators in his floppy hat. Yze, Staff and Matty Whelan were prominent. The only new injury occurred early when Jed Adams seemed to jar his ankle in one of his first run throughs and after hobbling off for a physio check up he returned and was restricted to just run throughs. Adams is listed as 196cm but he looked almost as tall as Will Verrell and the pair were left to do pretty rudimentary running drills when I was there - must have been the most boring session they have ever encountered I suspect. They did have Angus with them for a fair bit, so at least he would have brought a bit of humour to lighten their mood. A quick word on Adams, he is a big boy in the Jake Spencer clumsy mould at the moment - I'd be gobsmacked if he played seniors this year - but he is a big, strong looking boy so who knows down the track. At the other end of the extreme is Jefferson forward who is a light-bodied tall. He seems to be more coordinated than Jed, but it was noticeable that he missed just about every set shot at goal during early goalkicking practice. He was wearing JVR's No.21 as well, presumably he is waiting for his kit to be made with his number. There are always some players who standout at training and ANB again was everywhere when match sim got going. During the drills it was hard not to notice the skill level of Spargs and Bowey and I also thought it worth mentioning that the kicking of Woey's kid was sensational as well - low, flat, hard and direct. Kicking will not stop Taj from making it this year. His ability to win the ball might. Once match sim got going, it was a dreadful mistake to make Olly the chameleon (the player allowed to play for both teams). That meant he not only got the ball 20 times for the reds, but he also got it 20 more for the blue tops as well. But there were a few standouts and the main one was Kozzie who in the highlight play picked the ball up down back, weaved out of trouble, then brushed off a would-be tackler (I think Harmsey) with a don't argue and then proceeded to run for about 30m before sending the ball another 50m deep into JVR territory. Yes if we want a new midfield weapon, then Kozzie is available and I suspect like Trac three years ago, he now has been told that if you are mega fit, then you can join the mids. Trac and Fritter were also prominent and I also liked the work of Melky, who I know we've all written off, up forwar. But I'm sorry it's hard not to also watch JVR move - he will be playing first round barring injury and while he is still a bit of a project tall, he now has ripping Schwarter style arms that means he won't look like a kid when we all get to see him against the Dogs at the MCG on Saturday night. Surprisingly T-Mac was out there training - yes he's a bit overweight but I'm sure his latest diet will sort him out by round 1. Ben Brown also did some light drills, kick/mark stuff, so rumours of his debilitating knee seem to be way off the mark. And Jake Lever did a lot of work, not just with his mouth. He may well be back to his AA form this year.

Why would we stop it? Even if it doesn’t turn into memberships, this is always a symbolically powerful game to embrace Alice Springs - a place that loves footy and gets little love back. Also, we don’t turn up to GWS/Freo/Port/GC games at the G so we’re not missing much. I guess am more than indifferent about it…

They were really thrown off by the Socceroos not progressing

The thing I found interesting is he averaged 16 disposals, 5 clearances and a stack of hit outs not only in 2022 but in 15 under 18 games in 2021. He took a nice step forward with marking and goal scoring in 2022 but otherwise seemed to stagnate a bit. And then there’s this quote from the SA Under 18 coach: Bangers Says - Tony Bamford's assessment of Will Verrall ”We didn’t know what was going to happen with Will because he had a really interrupted preseason with some injuries to his groins and hips which he carried through the back end of his U17 year. ”We thought he had gotten over that but as he started to come back into South Adelaide’s preseason in February last year, some signs of aggravation reared again so he had to stop training altogether and restart his rehab. ”That really hindered his ability to get on the track and get his match fitness. ”Had Will Verrall been fit and firing, on all four cylinders, like he was as a 17-year-old, we would have played both rucks at the Nationals. ”Because at his best, Will Verrall is as good as (Harry) Barnett. So (AFL) clubs are doing some work on Will Verrall now based on what he did as a 17-year-old, knowing it was at a really high level.” If 2021 was a true representation of his talent and this year he was hampered by groins and an interrupted preseason then we may have got a bargain.

I find it helps if you know the players' numbers.

yes. that's why i put the ">" sign 😉

I will be broadcasting the interview with Jason Taylor tonight at 8:30pm tonight. Afterwards I will be joined by @george_on_the_outer & @binman to chat about the interview, the draft, preseason training and the AFLW flag. Listen & Chat LIVE: https://demonland.com/podcast Call: 03 9016 3666 Skype: Demonland31

Was Taylor aware of Jefferson's father being 199 cm, and was that noted as a possible upside to his recruitment? On Adams, did we have multiple options open at this pick or where we just hopeful that he would fall through to us? Sestan - having not come through traditional pathway, when and how did he decide to nominate for the draft? Will we expect to see behind the curtin footage of MFC draft nights etc - i love these! Cheers!

AFL Central on Instagram has put this up as the Gather Round fixture. Not official but these guys are usually very good. Round 5, 2023: Thursday night - Adelaide v Carlton, 7:40pm, Adelaide Oval Friday night - Fremantle v Gold Coast, 5:10pm, Norwood Oval Richmond v Sydney, 8:10pm, Adelaide Oval Saturday - Brisbane v North Melbourne, 1:10pm, Adelaide Hills Essendon v Melbourne, 4:10pm, Adelaide Oval Port Adelaide v Western Bulldogs, 7:50pm, Adelaide Oval Sunday - Geelong v West Coast, 1:10pm, Adelaide Oval GWS v Hawthorn, 3:20pm, Norwood Oval Collingwood v St Kilda, 4:50pm, Adelaide Oval

now we are getting into marketing 101 i think we do have good cultural intentions but we did go initially to the nt for the moolah

Current list standing, after the 3 de-listings brought us back to the normal list size of 30. We'll be required to free up 4 (3?) further list places for draftees. The 2023 draft will be 19-and-over since there is no new pool of 18-yr-olds. It comes down whether or not any premiership players are lured away, retirements, the potential to trade in and upgrade (no need to offer cars, wink wink) and then to retaining the right mix for depth. There's a queue forming for backline spots, ruck stocks are very healthy, so players on the fringe there are targets for other clubs. Johnson will be inactive in '23, so that's a spot one way or another. And do we have the 2 best rookies in the league, or what!

Pert: “We will continue with the Alice Springs game,” Pert said. “It’s something that the players and the whole club understands, the importance of the work up there, and we have been playing there for a long time. We always give supporters a replacement home game to go to. “When we played two games in the NT we needed to because we were in financial trouble, then we improved our financial position, and we cut back to one game. “There is not a financial need now, but as a choice - we talked about it, and we involved the footy department as well - and we have no plans to stop playing that game. It’s something that we think is culturally important for the club. We are invested in that decision.” Source

Love that we are back to Alice Springs. Very supportive of the I’ve been to Darwin twice back a few years ago and enjoyed it. Hopefully I can get time to get to the Alice game in the next year or so.

we've won our last 5 games at treager park so in terms of maximising our ladder position it's a real positive

Did you ask if they screened for mummy issues?

Good move to make it vs one of the franchises Crom, pear, and meth coke all have far too much support there

Limiting the run up of the ruck diminished that advantage.

I feel for Sabreena. It seems she had a falling out with someone at Freo, and was looking forward to a fresh start. She's only 22, so hopefully she still has plenty of football she can offer someone. She didn't look like she was in the same form this season as she's been in previous seasons, I hope she's able to regain that. I wonder if it was predominantly match fitness that was lacking this year as she had all of last season out with injury.

It’s amazing the change in player size not so long ago those sizes would have made you among the top 10% of player heights.

good get. this guy built our flag.

Something is holding up the 'Gather' Round 6 fixture which was scheduled for release on Tuesday. I wonder if is clubs squabbling over whose Home game it will be? And whether it is compensated somewhere else? Or stuff like that. I wouldn't mind playing one of the WA teams that round in SA. One less long haul trip. At least two Eastern states will get that advantage so hope it is us.

So we know 4 of the first 16 rounds. Round 1 - Bulldogs, Saturday night, MCG (Home game) April 24 - Richmond, Monday night, MCG (Home game) June 12 - Collingwood, Monday afternoon, MCG (Home game) Round 16 - GWS, Time TBA, Alice (Home game) On that basis we may be doing a bit of travelling in the second half of the season again.☹️ as there will be at least another 5 interstate games to fit in. Hopefully, those last three games don't compromise getting a decent break between games or a full bye round break.

Van two-en. I'll let myself out now..

FFS, might as well release the rounds every Thursday night along with team selection.

Paddy Ryder was 196cm. Amazing to think he was still a more than competitive ruckman in this era.

Agree with the sentiment raD. There seems to be only two teams in NSW, unless they happen to play another team in the league. Then you get to see scores for four teams out of 18!

He only looks short because he's standing next to a 206cm lad.

Building our membership base can only be a good thing, and we do get a replacement home game.

Meh. At what point do we stop this? Big profit this year. Is this really necessary? It certainly isn’t translating into much local support. Am I missing something? I’m less than indifferent about it.

Amazing to think Jeff White was such a dominant ruckman for not only us but even around the league when he was at his peak. He was only 195cm tall but his crazy leap was his biggest strengths.

Great that we go there but it is a shame it won't be during Indigenous Round. GWS. A nice change to not be playing a team from WA or SA that usually has a strong following in NT. Will give us an opportunity to embed our identity and the Demon Spirit as the AFL team to support.

Loving the confidence of young JVR to want to take on the famous #2 - will be nice to see that special jumper back out on the ground Have a sneaky feeling that our new #26 might impact sooner than some think - his draft footage was very impressive, looks like he has good disposal, can take a mark, capable at both ends of the ground

Watching them celebrate the past week has almost been as enjoyable as watching them play. Well done to the club, too, for all the content - the pics and videos have been awesome. I love the fact that “Demon Spirit” came to be the umbrella term for everything required to win the premiership, from the selflessness to the camaraderie, to the attack on the footy and more. A social media hashtag that became a creed for the team.

Sometimes players have lots of injuries in a particular jumper number think by changing the number they might get a better run with injuries, yes players are superstitous.

Harley Reid - needs no introduction Darcy Wilson - skilful mid Coby James - good little player Zane Duursman - my number one pick, forward/mid- in the game bailey humphrey re-emerged Duursma was BOG by a space. Patrick Hughes - quality midfielder Archer Reid - very promising key forward Joe Pike - promising ruck are al names to lock in as possible top 25s

FINALLY our upgraded facilities came through! Thank you MFC and thank you Vic govt!

I conducted the interview with Jason this afternoon. At this stage it looks like i might replay it Thursday night now so that both George and Binman can join me to discuss the interview, the drafts and the AFLW Flag as well.