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Out walking my dog at Fawkner Park this morning, turned around to see the whole (almost) team just rock up and start running laps to the sound of Goody’s booming voice. So good to see for a Saturday morning! The buy-in is awesome to see. I’ll report anything I can. Go Dees!!!

Fawkin hell

What I really like is the way he squares himself to the goal face up a split second before kicking. That's a pure footy skill.

We literally can not lose him. Just end me otherwise i reckon. Dead set freak🔥

I read that Essendon players were on a 5 day break after Wednesday. Read that in the article about their best and fairest Peter Wright hurting his calf. Not sure what was more alarming that he hurt his calf or that he is their best and fairest. Anyway looks like we trained hard Friday and then had another running session today. Whilst Essendon players are on a 5 day break. Sounds about right I suppose for both clubs.

I’ve watched this a few times now and I’m still speechless at the acceleration in each subsequent step.

As iterated earlier... I should be at Casey Next week...... AND as ALWAYS on the other side of the Fence! Stay Tuned. Cheers P.F

His name is a spoonerism. Real name Duke Lunstan.

Hearing him talk again, I'm so glad we picked up Richo for our coaching/administration team. I don't have any huge evidence to go by here, but from his experience and general demeanor, I imagine he's a great steadying influence around the club. I think he'd be both a bit of a counterbalance to Choco's exuberance, but also one with the wisdom and respect to influence Goody when the time and place is right. His well chosen words Re JVR are a case in point. Gives him the confidence that the club has faith in his ability to develop his game for the long term at the same time as tempering and toning down expectations of him being a fowardline saviour in the short term to take some of the heat off him.

Spotted Max at Gosch's this morning about 8:20.....

Peter Wright had a great season in 2022, finishing 8th in the Coleman. I’d say he was easily their best and most productive player.

I remember watching Shai Bolton explode onto the scene a few years ago. It’s a similar progression between these two - starting small forward, good game then quiet game. Bolton has really only come on in the last year or two since he has moved into the midfield a bit more. Kozzy still has upside and I think will ultimately go beyond Bolton IMV. Once he is able to get even more consistent, I can see him sneaking into top 20-30 players in the league

He had a 2nd round of surgery on the hand recently I'm pretty sure

I reckon Dunstan was pretty stiff at times in getting more AFL games. There were opportunities there where I felt we needed another big bodied experienced midfielder to come in towards the back end of the year and shoulder the burden off Oliver and Petracca who were getting physically targeted aand heavily tagged. The two finals games were perfect opportunities to bring Dunstan for Sparrow imo. Sydney's experienced and bigger bodies were simply too strong for ours. Then against Brisbane Jarrod Berry put the hard clamps on Oliver and took him out of the game while Petracca was running around on a broken leg, Viney was disappointing and Sparrow was completely overwhelmed and MIA. Someone with bigger body and over 100 games of experience would have been handy to chop out in the midfield. I've harped on this before but Sparrow (yes I know coaches rate him highly) was pretty disappointing for me last year. I know he does the defensive stuff well but when we needed someone to stand up to help the likes of Oliver and Petracca, he was no where to be seen. By all reports he's having a strong season so hopefully that'll translate into stronger influences on games. On Dunstan, I have no idea where he's at now. Clearly Goody doesn't see fit for him at all and it's now looking like another Brayden Pruess perplexing decision in bringing him in even if it's depth. Goody's reluctance to reward VFL form or bring in the required depth when actually needed means the likes of Dunstan will be lucky to play 5 games this year.

Against all odds I've found something official - who knows why it's on this website and not the Demon Shop. https://www.htfm.com.au/products/melbourne-2022-aflw-premiers-official-print-frame-5370?_pos=1&_sid=81109be2d&_ss=r

Coincidentally, Tyson managed 11 Brownlow votes in his first season with us, while Dunstan got 11 in his final season with St Kilda. Just noticed that in his nine seasons Tyson only played every game once, while Dunstan has NEVER played a full season. Bizarrely, he played between 15 to 19 games in six season in a row. Never forget; for a brief moment Dom Tyson was a goal-kicking midfielder in a team which didn't even have a goal-kicking forward.

I don't know if he'd get a permanent best 22 spot at any club. I actually think he's fairly serviceable but good clubs won't play him - as they have higher quality players, and rebuilding clubs wouldn't play him either as they'd rather get games in a youngster with higher upside I believe all parties knew he'd be a depth player here, but the difference is at least here he may find himself in the team at the right time due to injuries or otherwise and play finals, something he wouldn't have the opportunity to do at the Saints or Gold Coast/Essendon who were interested in him

Love Richo gives just enough to hold your interest, they obviously understand where and why we fell down in the finals last year, liked the way he hosed down expectations on JVR whilst pumping him up for future. Maybe someone there reads Demonland.!!

You do have to watch it multiple times. You'd swear everyone else is just stationary as Koz just blasts through traffic. I can't wait to watch him work through the midfield this year. Imagine having to try and tag the bugger.

Agree. The sub could work well for the likes of Dunstan and Sparrow who could come on and provide much needed relief and grunt when games are neck and neck.

Some good points there. Perhaps the role could be shared between Dunstan and Sparrow via the sub mechanism. I'm still a believer in picking a team having regard to conditions (wet, dry, heat etc) and the strengths/weaknesses of the opposition. Obviously Goodwin has another view

No max unfortunately :(

Smith is my smokey for this season. He looked a fair way off last I saw him, but I just love the way he moves. He has that smooth running style where he glides across the ground. I could see him carrying the ball out of HB.

Pickett, If you take theme requests for your reports, I would like to put forward the Herculoids or Battlestar Galactica.......with a later season one being the Cartoon Shazaam!!!

he'd waltz into half a dozen teams and be amongst their best inside mids he's very serviceable depth

Taj Woewodin and Deakyn Smith have put on significant muscle over the break.

Considering the lack of training reports today due to the closed session, for those interested, I'm working at the AO at the moment and Big Benny Brown is currently participating in the 'Glam Slam'. It's not much to go on, but he looks to be moving pretty well. Good forehand on the big man.

Yes he did try his heart out, particularly in Casey's GF win where i thought he was in our three best players. There were times last year when he must have thought "what more do I have to do to get a game ?". Particularly frustrating when players like Melksham were getting games based on very average form in the 2's. It is important that young emerging players like Chandler see some light at the end of the tunnel and be rewarded for good form at Casey otherwise it sends the wrong message and can have a negative effect on the overall morale of the playing group. It would be great to see players like Chandler, Howes, Disco and Van Rooyen make the transition to senior footy this coming season.

I’m not sure if this has been posted already but here is Supermacodo’s truly wonderful review of the Grand Final http://mfcdemonblog.blogspot.com/

Yeah I can vouch for that as well. My D Max X Terrain ordered 9 months ago has been quarantined in Melbourne along with hundreds of other new cars as part of Bio Hazard regulations. 🥶

Sparrow Weid Joel Smith The Demonland Holy Trinity

They did this for years multiple uphill run repeats up to Toorak road I think I will wander over. Thanks for the info.

How much charge is left in the batteries?

Great Britain (or just Britain) is the main landmass/island occupied by countries England, Scotland and Wales which together with Northern Ireland form the United Kingdom. Wasn’t always this united…

It is indeed the same hand. Not surprised it’s taped up; I saw it without tape, the scar is long and deep. And that was a couple of months ago.

I hate a graph without a legend. To be fair both Max and Jack are legends but what the hell do those bar graphs show?

Looks like the next official open training session is on Wednesday at Gosch's Paddock. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/teams/training-times Date: Wednesday 1st February Time: 9:30am Location: Gosch's Paddock

Was strapped on Wednesday too but I'm not surprised given the proximity to his surgery and other reported incidents involving his thumb/wrist.

The changes are sensible, but still overly finicky. But they need to change more. For a start, the nominating a Ruckman rule is ridiculous; if they really want to stop a third man up, and I don’t really understand why they want to, then you just penalise a team if two people compete at the same ruck contest. And the one that really drives me crazy is the 30 second rule. You are supposed to play on quite quickly around the field but you are given 30 seconds to prepare a shot for goal. Fair enough I suppose. But when the kick is then an attempt to pass to another player – as was once brilliantly exploited by ANB - the team is given another 30 seconds, and that is ridiculous. It should be limited to 1 thirty second allowance per forward 50 entry.

Sheesh.. 🔥 Ps please sign a 10 year deal Koz.

Chandler looked promising in a 2021 pre season game against Richmond at Casey kicking 3 goals as a genuine small forward including a clever goal on the boundary. I know it was only a practice match but you don't accidently play well against a mostly full strength side featuring Dustin Martin. He just hasn't been afforded the opportunity at AFL level, and the rare chances he's had, he's only played a 20 minute game coming on as a sub over the last couple of years (although he did have that 4 possession "full" game against Carlton in 2021 which wasn't great). Hopefully for his sake, he gets at least 11 games this year for someone that's been on the list for 5 seasons.

Absolutely have no idea but Graham Molloy was no winger.

I give David credit for attempting to answer without going straight to the back of the book to look it up.

You at least got a participation award!

Not there but Trac just put up an instagram story of some of the lads in the changerooms and they look spent. Utterly spent.

I hope it is also physical aggression because teams like the Swans went hard at us and they won. In the GF the cats sat the Swans on their [censored] in the opening minutes. Dees need to do the same.

I’m glad the club recognizes how unrealistic that 2021 finals series / season was and how impossible it is to replicate such a perfect dominance. It was a once in a lifetime performance we will never see again, and we need to stop trying to fall into the trap of wanting a repeat of it. lol @ Richo talking about the “websites” talking up JVR 😂

HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY, BLAITHIN! That’s my flag she’s proudly holding. Well, it’s her flag now. Apparently she thinks she slept wrapped in it on the Premiership night but she’s not sure. Methinks Guinness might’ve been aflow that night. 😁

This is just a big ad for D'Orazio's management company. Spare yourself the 2 minutes.