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I don't see that as a valid analogy. It's not as if the AFL is running an abbreviated form of the game (like T20) that is competing for attention. They tried AFLX but it was a dismal failure and deservedly so. Thursday night footy is not a threat to AFL. Personally, I love it. Too much footy is never enough!

Everyone is waiting for you to do it, you have been a bit slack in that area.

Incoming rant .. Our media department has been treating the supporters with contempt for many years. They are hands down the worst and most lazy in the AFL. We get some happy snaps and 1 minute videos with terrible music. It's insulting imo. We have 74k followers on Twitter and 152k followers on Instagram, yet the club does nothing to leverage that support. It's maddening too me. Show us what is happening during preseason, take us inside, tell us positional changes, who is training well, the injury list, interview some players....we have 45 of them. Do what all other AFL clubs comms are doing. Goody said on SEN that they are going to open the doors so we can show our "culture". So far that has proven to be a lie. Rant over. Thanks to all the Demonlanders for the training reports.

THE TIME MACHINE HG WELLS Prelude: Picket Fence arrives at Casey Fields and finds THE VENUE OPEN!! Storyline: Fence hears a faint swooshing sound in car park and a materializing object which is the Time Machine from the 1960s Classic movie of the same name. Prospective Writers dialogue as follows P.F What the??? Cheezus it’s the Time Machine from The movie, complete with a semi transposed Rod Taylor in the role of inventor George Wells. George Wells. Where am I? and who are you? P.F “I am known as Picket Fence for reasons that aren’t relevant to this narrative. Well.. you are back in the 21st Century and to be precise Monday 22nd of January 2024. How did you get back? last thing I remember was that you went forward in time to look after Eloi from those nasty Morlocks. George Wells “Yes that is true but the Metro Goldwyn Mayer have this plan to remake the movie using off cuts and creating another end scenario” P.F “ I see, I spose it doesn’t matter that you are meant to be deceased”? George Wells “ Look in this day and age if they can De age Harrison Ford in Indi 5 then I can be recreated, anything is possible in movieland! P.F “ So why are you here”? George Wells “ Well Metro are looking for extras to play the parts of Morlocks and they are of the belief that such people live in a locality known as Magpie Land , wherever that is, can you help”? P.F “ Yep sure but I gotta do my training report for the late arvo edition of Demonland. Just to refresh my memory what do these Morlocks look like”? George Wells. “Yep just look at this picture” P.F (Gagging)” Geepers they are horrid allright. Yep I know exactly where to find heaps of them, so I’ll file this report and then we will go. I hope you have 4 wheel drive in that Gizmo? George Wells “ Roads where we are going.. we don’t need roads” Script Editor Sorry wrong movie!! CASEY TRAINING REPORT 22/1/2024 NO SHOWS Clarry, ( More later) T.Mac, Joel Smith, also didn’t notice Koltyn Tholstrup, also not sure I noticed Trent Rivers, Tom Sparrow was doing laps as well. REHAB, Salem, ( Running laps) Jeffo ( On Bike and weights)Melky Bike, weights and some sideways manoeuvers. Jake Lever ( Did what looked to be a minor leg injury and spent rest of session on the bike! Lachy Hunter did a mammoth running session and ball work at full speed and looked unhampered by his calf injury.Andy Moniz Wakefield laps SKILLS , DRILLS and MANOEUVERS, I’ll leave the small drills out and you get the idea of multitasking, just concentrating on small group drills, ball, skills and interweaving patters focusing on correct options and correct disposal. These open and Clozed drills are more of less similar to others that I have reported for all of my traing reports. Discrete nuances of slight differences seem to keep things charged up and would also alleviate the potentiality of same old same old. Main Match Sims There were several components of each of the following 4 training drills 1 Running in waves selecting correct handball , kick and creating excellent options using ground space and alternative entries into the forward half from transitioning out of defence 2 Precision kicking to multiple targets on the lead. 3 Stoppage work near goals and either resulting in players kicking goals or creating avenues to rebound out of defence. 4 Whole ground transitioning using a lopsided manpower whereby the white shirts were outnumbered 10 to 18 With Red shirts running in waves. What this meant was the defence were outnumbered many times so had to choose to run to the player most likely to receive from the ball carrier. This was interesting in itself and players rotated through Red shirts and White so everyone had an even go of defender or attack. PLAYER WATCH Jack Billings Put on a clinic today, was in everything and his astute positioning , skills and polish were phenomenally good. Kyah Farris White A quick learner, looks to be developing some skills, Pace and decision making. I thought some of his grunt and efforts were good today! Kynan Brown Will of the wisp, but quick hands, elusive and explosive pace, Might surprise a few early here. Taj Woey Looking like he belongs, has taken some incremental confidence into this year and links up well on the move! Disco Turner I know I haven’t been a fan but he looked composed in defence and took a couple of good grabs and ran well out of the rebound. Blake Howes, Likewise to Disco Turner looks like settling and created some good ball use movements Josh Schache Took some great CONTESTED Grabs and also played well as ruck around when required could be a surprise packet this year Adam Tomlinson, well I thought he trained outstandingly well today looked a complete and competent defender. Marty Hore, Played bigger than what he looks and I thought was excellent on the Half back Flank. Shane Mc Adams IS A FREAK,!! Just knows where to run, is stealthy, crafty and will make a HUGE impact this year. Caleb Windsor Well I can see why we drafted him, full of class, and excellent by hand and foot. Will play games this year! The usual Cast of Spargy,Kossy, Nibbler, May,Tracc, Gus and BBB also were significant. Final word goes to Noah Yze. ON WHAT I SAW TODAY, he is a monty to be drafted by us, has skills, speed and is a very very good player already! TRAINING HIGHLIGHT??? This one is for u WCW FRITTA near centre of the ground, gathers the ball, CRASHES NOT 1 BUT 2 TACKLES and layed the ball off VERY CLARRY LIKE. Now just to get the great man back!!! FINAL THOUGHTS It remains to be seen if we have fixed our forward entries and conversion rates, some relatively easy shots just miss, but it is the just miss that bothers me, In close game like last years finals and just goal or just miss can make all the difference. Great to see 100 or so people enjoying training INSIDE the ground for a change, nice one MFC cheers to all P.F P.S Slithers had the day OFF!

2016 Melbourne enters the 3rd and last year under Pual Roos as Coach. For the first time in a while Melbourne had no involvement in Free Agency. The Trade period saw Jake Melksham arrive from Essendon for pick 25, Jeremy Howe departs to Collingwood and Jimmy Toumpas to Port Adelaide for Ben Kennedy and picks 29 and 50. Jack Fitzpatrick was traded to Hawthorn for pick 94. In the first year of trading future picks the Dees traded picks 6 29 and 2016 first rounder for Picks 3 10 and 43 from Gold Coast in an attempt to get ahead of the bombers who had significant compensation picks. Picks 10, 43 and 64 then went to the Giants for Thomas Bugg and Pick 7. Melbourne had started its use of future picks to significantly improve their draft hand. Daniel Cross retired, but stayed as an assistant coach, Viv Michie, Rohan Bail, Mark Jamar, Jordie McKenzie and Aidan Riley were all delisted. The National draft saw Clayton Oliver (4), Sam Weideman (9), Mitch King (42) and Liam Hulett (46) added to the list. The Rookie draft saw Josh Wagner (6) and Viv Michie (24) and Joel Smith (41) added as rookies. Melbourne's list is starting to resemble a poker deck with four Jacks, a couple of Kings and quite possibly a couple of aces. Clayton Oliver, Jake Melksham and Joel Smith are now added to the list of only men still standing along with, Jack, T.Mac, the skipper, Salem, Christian Petracca, Angus Brayshaw and Alex Neal-Bullen. The season saw steady improvement with 10 wins and a rise on the ladder to 11th. Melbourne's future round trade to Gold Coast had given up pick 8 in the 2016 draft (picks 6 29 and future 8 for Picks 3 10 and 43) Enjoy. 2016 - Starman ==>https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-MhQnCP/i-nzqkvQm/A 2015 - Foundation ==> https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-MhQnCP/i-VLMSNqD/A 2014 – New Hope ==> https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-MhQnCP/i-Wkj43BD/A 2013 – Annus Horribilis ==> https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-MhQnCP/i-bWkHdxp/A

I like thursday night footy... when it's not us. Living 2 hours away makes it very hard to get to, drive home and then rock up to work at 8am friday.

Usually in the grass

Also a fan of Thursday night footy.

I accept that Thursday night football is here to stay, even though I don't like it. I know the AFL claims that it's "a hit", but I wonder about what its definition of "a hit" actually is? The analogy is T20 cricket. Cricket Australia claims that T20 is a hit but is also concerned about the future of test cricket. Has the "hit" which is T20 cricket irretrievably damaged test cricket? Similarly could too many days per week of AFL ultimately damage the long-term health of AFL football? I'm going back a long time now, but in the 1980s, the then VFL commissioned David Crawford (a well-known consultant) to review all aspects of the competition. This was when most teams were technically insolvent. Out of that review came the professional competition we know today including the independent commission and national expansion, amongst other things. Crawford was adamant in that report that the VFL had to resist US-style professional sport with its private ownership and high-priced tickets. He wanted the VFL to remain the popular and supported at the grass roots level rather than being a product only available to those who could afford high prices. I fear that the administration of the AFL over the last 10 years has lost that understanding and now wants to mimic everything that happens in US sport which will eventually be the code's undoing.

fixed

Yeah granted, I have learnt (the hard way) that he is just always there always constant and will go down as one of the best Dees ever! ALWAYS trains to highest standards!🤩

Thanks for the report PF, but you must have missed the Demonland community memo - apparently we have zero depth and 2024 is already a write-off.

Dad and I ventured down there today, and McVee was excellent today...that kid is an absolute gun...took on Trac 3 times in a row, and beat him on all three....Trac let out a few swears after...

Hundreds of thousands of TV viewers and those that attend the games is what really matters, DZ There's a high demand but it's not everyone's cup of tea

Thanks Dazz it appears that it is a combo of both BUT stay at home he is covering a lot of territory running up the ground even as far as almost CHB before sprinting back to forward line. If this is the plan, it might, just might Click!