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Melbourne player Troy Broadbridge passed away on this day in 2004 while on his honeymoon at the Phi Phi Islands in Thailand. He was one of an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries who perished as a result of the Boxing Day Earthquake and subsequent tsunami in the Indian Ocean - one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Always remembered.

Thanks for acknowledging Troy. x

I always think of The Boxing Day Test and The Sydney To Hobart on boxing day. Troy probably played his best game in his last one. He almost won us the final against Essendon with the job he did on Hird RIP Troy and all others who lost their lives in this tragedy. I read that people were running towards the water when the sea went out before it came back 10 times worse.

I admire Goody, because he is always so calm and measured. Hoping he has a great birthday and he's invited Kozzie to his party and gets him to sign an extension. That'd be the best present of all.

RIP Barry, a great player and a great bloke.

Hopefully a year older, wiser & gets hit with a creativity stick! I would love to see big Max rest at top of the goalsquare with Kossie at his feet , a dynamic duo to get opposing backs twitching! Note: Still appreciate our premiership coach, but just the odd change up in the forward line would be great!

DD I amazes me we have JVR ready to debut and MJ starting on his training wheels plus Tmac BBB, the resting rucks Petty and Adams who has played forward and the Schache about to erupt at his new Club. oh and Fritta best medium forward in the game. 50 goals plus every year. Why do we need another tall forward???

My Grandma told that. Then, all her wallpaper fell off.

Yes, Merry Christmas you lovely weirdos. Don’t know what I’d do without you. Also, don’t come up to me in public.

commiserations, wcw that's just awful and must be so upsetting. they were part of the family, rip

From a kid in the crowd.

I've always said that JJ's best spot has always been as an inside mid. Some of his best games for the club were in the first half of 2021 where he was rotating as an inside mid. His hands, toughness and cleaness around the footy was what stood out the most at AFL. Ironically i thought when he's playing as an inside mid he reminded me a lot of James McDonald with that no fuss attitude. If I had to pick between Sparrow and Jordon as a first midfield options it's Jordon for me, by a fair bit.

Forever a MFC player.

So for tall fwds we have 2 kids that have never played, 2 injury prone old blokes and Schache who couldn’t secure a fwd spot in 8 years at the dogs. Oh and 2 rucks who arent fwds in 2022 lack of tall forwards was our biggest issue. im hopeful JVR will be a player but we can’t hang out hopes on a kid. And I’m hopeful T Mac can get his body right. But a quality fwd in his early 20’s wound be a good get

He is a talent at a level above most competitors - we do not want to overlook him (Fritta) at any stage of a game or season. Gutsy, highly competent, opportunistic and reliable. The only forward who bothers to find space, make space and get the job done - most times, effortlessly. With a strengthening forward line and hopefully, a better game plan through half-back to deep forward, Fritta will have even more freedom to cut loose. He is starting to look like - and be as effective as - Gerard Healy up forward when playing for the red'nblue.

So, did any of you score any decent presents today? All I got was two shrink-wrapped batteries with a sticker saying "Gift Not Included".

looked like party of none

Merry Christmas all. Show us your Dee gifts.

You had me until the last line Jordon will be Mr. Fix it, Hunter a lock for the wing

What can I say - Demonland is prety predictable and easy to troll, but it's still good fun and I couldn't resist. Merry Christmas all 😊.

but with 2 calendar curses coming in (grundy, hunter) we reversed the curse and turned it into a positive 😆

West Coast Eagles great Ben Cousins lands WAFL coaching role at Perth Demons West Coast Eagles great Ben Cousins lands WAFL coaching role at Perth Demons Can't see past the pay wall. ...sorry couldn't help myself. All the best to Ben and really do hope he's turned the corner. Drug addiction is a [censored] of a thing.

I did wonder... Maybe a new brood, in due course, will help the healing gently along? 'Landers all, I'm struck by the personal stories that surface here and, most particularly, by the preparedness of the storytellers to be vulnerable to strangers (though maybe we're not strangers here, so much?) Though one story might seem less, or more, momentous than another to we readers, we respect (I hope) that it is the teller's experience that sets the moment.

Phew...once I read passed the headline.

I clicked Sucker 🖐️ Thanks for the giggle

I received a new Bigger guernsey. Lol.!!!

I was thinking Adelaide when I said Fogarty. But to more important matters, you have breached our standards twice in one day and you are hereby banned from this thread for 32 minutes.

The problem with the Petracca one was simply that he missed the shot himself. As we can see from the highlights reel, he made up for that with many many goals from difficult shots. The problem is, criticism like this meant that he then spent several games giving off to other players, when he should have taken the shot himself, only to watch them miss it, and, and some cases, lose us the game. He is paid to kick goals, not to assist.

I'm a Dees man, but loved Barry Round. Fair, talented, footy brain par excellence, legitimately tough, ornament to the game. Barry and Rod 'the Tilt' Carter were the best reasons to watch the Swannies every second Sunday back then. May you continue putting it down the throat of those nippy rovers ever more Barry.

Party of one Uncle?

JJ started the year in very good form, yes, his reluctant slow plays were frustrating but: 1. He replaced Brayshaw, let’s not pretend they were looking for Robbie Flower out of him. 2. We lost our CHF with McDonald down. Without a lead up target it’s hard to pull the trigger on quick kicks to smalls 3. The backline lost a lot of bounce with Salo out/down on form and Lever not intercepting at his best 4. He copped a pretty nasty injury and then lost a bit of zip/change of direction (neither were his strong suit to begin with) Three of those issues should be fixed and he has all summer to work on moving the ball on faster. From what I saw of one training session he was doing just that and looking good doing it. He’s had an elite tank for a couple of years now but his frame has been that of a strong kid more than a man. He’s only just turned 22, he’s only entering the age and game range where he can use more power and acceleration I’d still back him to retain his spot wing and Hunter will get used in versatile roles.

I think a lot of demon fans can handle not winning flags, it's the melancholy and irrelevance our club was mired in for years and years that was the killer... hopefully we can profit well from our current form and follow the formula of other clubs that never bottom out... Go Dees in 2023!

Although a lot of the diehards on here will have already read it, I hope I am one of many who have got their hands on it this Christmas. Fantastic read so far. I am now counting myself lucky to have only witnessed the horror of 2000s and not been around before that. Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas, the only mark on today will be the significant drop in premiership memorabillia to unwrap.

If we play such a predictable forward entry game, bombing it to the left forward pocket boundary every time, then it suggests that JJ was playing to instructions, as if he wasn’t, he would have been dropped or changed the way he played. As Adonski just posted, he was 4th in the B&F at round 16. Obviously the Coaches thought he was playing well and to instructions. I posted on DL before JJ had played a senior game and when most on DL wanted him delisted, that he would be a senior player. Incidentally, were you one of the ones who wanted him delisted? I don’t blame JJ for his slowing the game down, I blame the Coaching.

It'd be a bit safer if we only included players that had actually signed on to the year in question.

He'll do everything that's the kind of champ he is.

Try suring. I agree Max should assist the defence by playing a kick behind play.

ManDee Kent and SONS Go back to Gawny playing loose in defence marking forward thrusts of the opposition. He didn't do that and still thinks led the saviour of the forward line. I believe we have enough tall forwards back free of injury or coming on (JVR) now that Gawny is best saving goals by his superior marking.

Action - point taken, however (in general) I don't think captains should start on the bench. The leader needs to be there at the first bounce to lead.

2021 felt like a little bit of providing opportunities to players, 2022 felt like pick 2021 premiership team where possible, only badly injured players in Salem, TMac dropped, the odd player dropped on form e.g. Rivers who looked to carry a leg injury all year, then Bowey got bullet and not given a look in thereafter. Zero dare in selections. Hopefully 2023 JVR given a chance and Chandler 4-5 consecutive games. Grundy and Hunter make us stronger!

Having first read the last three chapters of this book (covering the 2021 season) on the day it turned up in the mail, I have now finished the rest of it and would like to offer my praise to Ian for an outstanding effort. He has covered the 57 years in remarkable, well-researched detail featuring interviews with an amazingly wide range of players and officials that have been involved with the club during that period. Unlike many footy books, the author was able to unearth new information and facts that were previously unknown, as least to me. Should you be wavering in your decision to buy the book, waver no more. It's excellent and highly recommended, in particular for those of us who have followed and loved Melbourne Football Club for a long time. I'd rate it as 9.95 out of 10, only deducting the .05% for a very small number of spelling and factual errors.

Great read for the devoted. I know first hand that Ian has put years of professional research and interviews into this self-publication - without knowing at the time that a Premiership was in the offing. As a passionate fan himself, Ian not only taps into what a largely miserable time it has been to be a Dees supporter these last 57 years, but keenly explores the why, and then relives and re-examines the path to the joy of the 2021 season. Highly recommended.