Leaderboard

Braved Melbourne's lovely morning and headed down to watch training for about 90 minutes this morning and the first thing I noticed was Clarrie (Oliver) sliding along the ground like a 5-year-old on the slippery surface. He was attempting to make a try during a warm-up game of Touch Rugby. Gawny, being a Kiwi, seemed to be enjoying it most and clearly there was a sense of happiness across the group which comes from winning and also having a cooler morning to train. Most of the fringe players and Angus, Harry, Dunny, Viv and Terlich and Oscar did not train, which was doubtless because they were busy training at Casey preparing for this weekend's VFL practice match. The younger ones - Weeds, Kingsx2, Hulet, Billy and ANB all would have been down at Casey as well I'm sure. The one surprise (to some of you) was that Hunt was with the main group at Gosch's - shows how they rate him and probably highlights that he has now had three practice games (starred in VFL apparently on weekend), so does not need another match. All those who played against the Saints trained at Gosch's, with the exception of Oscar - who if you recall did not play NAB 2. Dawes did plenty of running as did Newton, Jetta and VB - the latter of whom did plenty of kicking/breaking drills with Crossy. VB looks fit to me, although I didn't see him kicking with the left foot - can't remember which ankle he aggravated though but I imagine it was his left. I just felt for poor old Crossy - has was getting hammered, pushed and shoved by VB. VB looks like he could play this weekend, but I can only assume that because he has played 1 and a half games already, they felt there was no need to rush him. Trenners and CP5 were also with the main group - so no VFL for them this weekend as Misson has stated. Salem marked the ball only with his left hand and sat out a few things - so clearly they are being careful, but not too careful with him. Once they got into things, it was ruckwork for Gawn, Pedo and Frost as they jumped into bags. The rest practiced moving the ball quickly against the green shirts who generally numbered about half of what they were up against. Goodwin could clearly be heard calling out to move the ball on quickly on numerous occasions. It seems to me we have an English soccer set up - Goody is coach and Roosy is manager. It begs the question that next year's key appointment will be who is Goody's younger understudy - I'm tipping Nathan Van Berlo. The only other thing worth commenting on is that Hoges was sporting long white socks - not quite the same as doing a Fabulous Phil with white boots, but not far off. He was typical Hoges - quite a character who is starting to remind me more of Jack Riewoldt. I didn't stay till the end so I can't comment on how many goals he slotted or whether he was doing his Kennedy stutter impersonation.

Since there have been a few comparisons to Richmond, I'll throw in my thoughts. List-turnover shmist-turnover! In five seasons, going as far back as 2011, only 20 players have featured in the top 10 of the Jack Dyer Medal. All but four of those 20 are still on the Richmond list in 2016. Nathan Foley, Shane Tuck, Daniel Jackson, and Robin Nahas, who each only featured once in that time. But the really stark figure is how many players have featured repeatedly in the top-10 at Richmond since 2011; 5 out of 5 - Cotchin, Martin, Deledio, Riewoldt, Houli, Rance 4 out of 5 - Grigg (injured for half season in 2014) 3 out of 5 - Morris (not yet playing in 2011, injured for half season in 2015) Everyone else combined - 11 appearances. To sum up - Richmond are completely defined by just eight players, who between all of them them have suffered approximately 30 games out due to injuries in total, in five years. They've been remarkably lucky, and it's no wonder they wilt under the whole-team pressure of finals. When I started looking at this, I knew I'd find results along these lines, but the extent is even shocking me. Far from having a high list turnover and renewal, it looks like since 2011 Richmond have had the most stable top-end list of any club. And their ages are now 28, 27, 27, 27, 27, 26, 25, 24. Suddenly it clicks why Hardwick has been given the extra couple of years. That's about how long they have before they fall off a cliff. (In my head I call this kind of list situation "Levitating Potato". It is up, it is staying there, but it wont be going any higher and deep down you know that there's nothing really holding it up and physics will take over again eventually. Melbourne did it in 2004-6. Carlton from 2009-2013. Richmond since 2013. And of course North Melbourne are the modern masters of it)

Your posts have such an objectionable (and excitable) tone, nonetheless... As others have mentioned, James Hird was dogged by the same injury and missed plenty of football, but here's some more detail from a 1999 article: - In 1999 he missed 20 weeks because of a recurring stress fracture in his right foot - since Hird's fabulous 1996 season _ which culminated in his third best-and-fairest award at Windy Hill and a Brownlow Medal _ injury has forced him to miss two entire seasons - Out of a possible 66 games, Hird has played in just 22 and none since shattering the navicular bone in his right foot in round two this season - Who can forget the vision of Hird fighting back tears after limping from the MCG to sit on the bench on the first Thursday in April this year (1999). It may have been April Fool's Day but it was no joke that Hird had broken down with a recurrence of a foot stress fracture - In his 110th game, the 26-year-old was as shattered as the small bone in the instep of his right foot as he watched his team-mates power over the top of the Kangaroos in the round- two clash - Hird has had his share of injuries since his debut, but the stress fractures, caused by a heavy work load, have proved disastrous - in round 10 1997 he received a stress fracture in his right foot that prematurely ended his season - further scans in February 1999 showed the fracture had continued to widen. The bone eventually shattered early in the April 1 night match against the Kangaroos at the MCG - New and radical surgery was performed, this time involving metal screws to hold the bone together, a bone graft and the use of a synthetic protein to speed up healing. Melbourne orthopaedic surgeon Julian Feller injected Osteogenic Protein-1 into the navicular bone to promote regeneration and growth of skeletal tissue Summing up - from 1997 through to the 1999 season Hird had recurring issues with the navicular bone in his right foot. Sound familiar (except for the foot) ? Finally clear of pain and injury Hird resumed round 1 in 2000. He went on to captain a premiership, play another 143 games, kick 156 goals, make 3 All Australian teams, 3 Anzac Medals, and 2 more Best & Fairests. Unlike (some) others, I'm convinced Trengove looked like he was running in quicksand due to his then undiagnosed foot, but someone like Weber could perhaps shed more light on the likelihood of that. Trengove may not fulfill his once undoubted potential, but Hird shows that it's entirely possible. Trengove will embark on his comeback at a younger age than Hird. http://www.examiner.com.au/story/643652/hird-the-news-about-james/ Btw, I don't expect any of this information to resonate with you, as I'm aware of how you roll. I've done it more for others who may be interested.

An in-depth analysis of Melbourne Demons’ best roster, chances of playing finals footy this AFL season Just had a read of this article by Ben Gibson, couldn't tell you much about the bloke, can't tell you if he is a Demons fan or not but this is a really good write up on us. His best 22 for this year is more than fair and is surprisingly insightful. Reading all this positive press for our boys is not only great for us as supporters but will give our playing group a really good morale and confidence booster. Looking forward to a belter of a year with our current group. NOTE* 1 omission who wasn't mentioned in this list was M . Jones, while he will never be a Viney or Brayshaw, I have been really happy with how he has been managed by Roos and Goodwin and respect the clubs patience with him, granted in the past he has had some absolute howlers there is something about him that I really enjoy when he plays well, the kid isn't afraid to kick a goal or 2 either. Hope this year is kind to him and he can really come out of his shell, I think he was only on the field for 11 minutes on Sunday and managed 6 possessions prior to his head knock. Good on him.

I seriously doubt there's anyone on Dank's end.

The difference is the quality we have to work with. I believe our young midfield with the addition of Oliver is the best young group in the game, add Hogan and McDonald as KF & KB and you have fair bit to work with. Don't undersell the impact of Petracca either, think Hogan last year coming off a serious injury... Trengove is fingers crossed but if he overcomes the injury, and so far so good then he will be a better than good player for us.

The city of Melbourne doesn't need three stadiums to host four games of football per weekend. The AFL just needs to sort out a more equitable distribution of income to ensure that the poorer clubs can compete.

Me ! Mindless boozing. Biffen _ Mindless drugs. dc - shagging greyrinsers. old dee - drinking free pinot. redleg - watching redtube. SWYL - Dreaming of the phillipines . W Jack - probably trying to cash in on the Mafia slayings. Dr. John - leading some sort of sexually charged pagan festival in Hopping Dicks. Moonie - jacking off for sure. 'luded - strange bastard - doing some alien [censored]. Moonie - in case you missed it - jacking off for sure. Earl Hood - inspecting hairstyles - FMD that is weird. What a bunch of sickos. By any logic the whole site should be closed down.

The thinking behind this is everything that is wrong with footy. Just give us the 2s, a cold pie and some peace and quiet.

Lets hope not ! .. Jack is a [censored] of the highest order. Has a face you just wanna punch. Thanks for the report though Dee!

OK so a little bit of digging and I've discovered the 4th hardest thing comes from Champion Data, who calculated a points system using the difference in each team’s FOR and AGAINST totals at the end of last season’s home-and-away rounds. For example, Hawthorn at +904 points is rated hardest to play against and adds 904 to your "difficulty total". Carlton at -829 is the easiest and reduces your total by 829 points. When you tally it up this way, we do indeed have the fourth hardest draw. BUT...Hawthorn is the only one of last year's finalists who we play twice, so I'm not really sure there's too much to complain about, and no-one has really complained about it until now. The fixture thread on here is almost all focussed on the commercial aspects, like scheduling and home opponents etc. No-one seemed to mind at the time, and I don't see how this new (old) assessment changes that. Edit: Oops, meant to respond to you p-man

If Trenners is playing BOG in the VFL, he's in the team immediately, not only because he'll have form and is quality, but because his presence WILL inspire his team mates and the MFC supporters... Can not wait to see it!!!

Who would have believed in October 2014 that we would have a player the likes of AVDB. What a scoop by our Recruiters. His hardness at the ball (and man) and goal kicking skills gives confidence to his team mates. He hasn't the silky skills of Angus Brayshaw but to my mind he plays an equally important role.

Add two more to the tally. Just got off the phone, after buying two more memberships.

Hmm just a juvenile joke that his recovery program may have sparked some future ideas. I'll take it elsewhere.

This has to be the biggest storm in a tea cup I think I have read

"At the third stroke it will be 11:59 precisely . . ." For those old enough.

This may have been posted by others, but geez I'd be bloody thrilled if this guy could get back on the park and find a way to perform at his peak. It's a long shot obviously, but the character of the bloke and for all he's been through (and been put through) I'd be happier seeing his return than any other I can recall. Good luck Jack!

Hi all, Enjoying a break before the start of the season but I thought you might be interested in this - Casey Scorpions 2016 season preview

If Hawthorn can sell their games to Tassie, we can do the same. I'd rather every game played at the 'G, but I'd also rather my club making money. This rubbish about NT=loss of premiership points, is just that. Rubbish. How anyone could have a problem with the selling of one match for $500k is beyond me. We haven't won up there because we've been an incredibly ordinary football side. There are other factors, yes, but once we're up and about we'll be winning these games and getting a $500k paycheck. I'm glad PJ is running the club. What a star.

Hmmm.

I was wondering the same thing. To me it sounds like it was a drinking club with a cricket problem.

however....the press conference was at AAMI and the stage was on a north/south positioning with Jesse facing east/west - if his left eye moved but right eye didn't by my reckoning he is off to play for the Doveton Eagles.

When asked about his contract, he looked to the left but his right eye didn't move. I don't want to over analyse this press conference but I think he's off to Fremantle.

Lindsay Tanner's machiavellian behaviour as a politician will not be an asset to the EFC, Coming from the union movement he was essentially a numbers man, part of the labour/ALP machine, who was an effective political operator but lacked creativity and vision. I always thought that he looked like and acted like an undertaker. Perhaps an appropriate role given the diseased state that this once great football club is in. Ernest Lindsay will not provide the inspiration, vision or leadership that the EFC needs at this time. He reminds me of the old trade union leader that has not understood the changes that have occurred in society and the workforce and is pedalling the same old message not realising that the message is out of date and falling on deaf ears. I would think that many must be horrified by his leadership. His statements suggest that he is yesterday's man and not the person to lead his club to the new beginning that the club needs to recover from its terminal condition.

Hardwick made a lot of changes early on, he can be commended for building a reasonable list in the period of the compromised drafts but it's what's happened in the last few years that I would be concerned with if I were the Tiges. He hasn't improved the list over the last few years of lost finals...you would have thought there would be some big changes and maybe even some creative list management decisions to make the Tiges a real finals threat..but no, steady as she goes seems the mantra. It seems he thinks he has a premiership list. I may be way off the mark and the Tiges will go on to great success with Hardwick at the helm but I'm betting he doesn't see out his time and gets his marching orders way before this contract is done. I think Gale's stats show the foley of using them to make this kind of decision.

After Kevin Bartlett was sacked as Richmond coach, he said that fans would write to him every week and suggest their "best 22" and why didn't he just pick that 22, and why wasn't so-and-so in the team, etc. His answer was, you NEVER get to play your "best 22" because you always have someone injured, or someone out of form, or someone who doesn't match up against next week's opponent. He's a bit of a clown on the radio, and he does it deliberately, but when he talks sensibly about football he actually makes sense. If Trengove is up to it fitness-wise, and plays halfway decent at Casey, he will get a game. Who he replaces is impossible to predict. And will it be for one match or will he hold his spot and the replaced guy then finds it hard to get back in the team. Etc etc etc. Compiling your "best 22" is meaningless because the coaches have to deal with a thing called "actual 22" which is fluid, depending on ever-changing circumstance.

It's having a go at the whiners who always complain about these commentators hating the MFC and never having a good thing to say about the MFC (as recently as last Sunday's game). Here they are making very reasonable assessments of where the club is heading, so that, in my opinion, must grate on some of those who love to hate the likes of Derm, King and Dunstall (who I have often heard praising the MFC, while others seem to experience selective deafness) etc. The post is not directed at any individuals... just the victim attitude that so many MFC supporters seem to have developed.

I always find it interesting to hear other people's views on footy supported by evidence - even if I don't always agree with their interpretation. I think it's harder to pick who will slide than who will climb. Interestingly over the course of the shows different panelists made sound arguments about why sides like Freo, Sydney, North and Richmond might slide and why sides like Gold Coast and St Kilda might not rise. There seems to be a lot more uncertainty about who can make the eight. Overall I found the sentiment around Melbourne a little more bullish than I expected (even on the back of a good NAB). The one piece of information that I found exciting was our list profile. 16th youngest and 16th experienced. I think once we get 50+ games into Hogan, Petracca, Brayshaw, Oliver etc we will be hosing down expectations rather than being miffed at being overlooked. As a quick aside one of the panelists made an interesting point. Geelong have recruited Zac Smith to ruck, yet have Vardy, Clark, Blicavs and Stanley as ruck man ... any chance they have overcompensated for injury prone talls at the sake of other areas on their list?

Just trying one on.

You're welcome.

Just got a call to say a ticket is coming my way. Happy days. This will be the 14th Dees game I will be at and we are 13 from 13 so it's a certain win. It will be good to (hopefully) beat Norf after all this time, especially as we used to beat them for fun.

I'm doing nothing other than getting into mindless, circular arguments about a game where grown men try and kick an inflated ball through big bits of wood, with other mindless Demonlanders

Can't believe you think it was Hogan's idea to have the pre-training interview.

if we get to 13 wins i'll dance a jig of glee. 10 wins is optimistic in my view. i just want to see no more blowout losses, and winning the close ones. do that and we might get to 10-13 wins.

Some journo should ring him while he's doing his fake phone call trick.

I hope Max doesn't need it.

I hope we finish higher than the Crows. I have a mate who's a passionate Crows' supporter (yep, he's a [censored]) and he always runs down the Demons. He was doing this the other day in front of a group of friends. And me obviously. I said to him, 'cop a tip mate - we'll finish higher on the table this year than your contrivance of a club, the Toyota Camry Crows Inc'. He responded, 'you serious?!'. Me, 'absolutely'. Him, '10 cases of beer on it?'. Me, 'absolutely'. Bring it home for me Dees ...

The surprise for me was this: 'The classy wingman will be a great addition to the side next season, but the Melbourne faithful will have to be patient before watching Melksham strut his stuff on the MCG. A new, objective take on what Melksham brings to the team.

Why do people assume that without NT, mfc would play two more (total) games at the G? Yes, two more 'Home' games but lose two 'Away' games at the G. Net gain: zip! I heard Peter Jackson discussing NT yesterday. I'm paraphrasing but the equation is like this: Sell 2 games to NT and members get two offset games at the G OR probably play more games at Etihad (especially once the AFL buys it and will be looking for more games to play there. Low crowd Vic games would be the targets). For him right now it was important to get the club into good commercial shape and said he was pretty sure which members would prefer (NT vs Etihad) as we sure don't like going to Etihad! PJ didn't say this but the AFL could also fixture our 'Away' MCG games to Etihad. Notice how interstate finalists want more games at the G. Notice how Carlton and Essendon are asking (and getting) more games at the G. The only way we will get more games at the G and better fixtures (venues, teams, time slots etc) is if more people come to our games. The only way we have some bargaining power with the AFL on these is if we are stronger financially, with memberships and crowds. So, if I read the tea leaves correctly PJ is laying the financial foundation for MFC to get back some bargaining power with the AFL. At the moment we are still a bit like 'Oliver Twist' - not quite beggar status but certainly with cap-in-hand mode. So careful what we wish for...

I am not sure how much of an outsider this bloke, Ben Gibson, is? To me, he seems like the consummate closet Demon supporter. Maybe he was the guy behind me down at the pub typing into his laptop during all three matches of the NAB Challenge? I only hope that we can see this group all fit and available when we hit the last half of the season. My only query: are we better served by Frost/Pedersen rather than Dawes this year? I guess it depends to a degree on whether Max stays uninjured and can run out games.

Attempt at flattery Ernest?

I don't like selling home games and I want us to build this club up to the point where we don't need to sell home games. Unfortunately, we're not there yet. Until then, I will deal with the Darwin game (the Alice Springs game is nothing terrible IMO). I don't like it, I'd rather us find somewhere else to sell the game instead of Darwin, but if the NT government keeps paying and the AFL encourages it, let's just suck it up and focus on winning football anywhere, any time.

Great idea. Just shnazzed it up a bit.

I hope lots of Demonlanders will be doing exactly that hb. Being an 'interstater', I'll be hanging out for lots of informed reports and opinions.

Canadians are the ones that are strange by definition. Don't confuse us with Americans who, as a group, were silly enough to elect George W. twice and appear stupid enough to make Trump the Republican nominee.

If we're going to debate this properly, we need to recognise that only one game a year is played in a hot, distant location. The other game is played in Alice Springs which is cool in winter and not as far away as Perth.

Oddly enough it is $1.00 at the moment.