Demonland

Yes. Everything will remain the same with the exception of people that have changed their original name. From now on you will log in with your current Demonland name. If that's what you always do then there is nothing that changes.

I'll just sign up all the employees in my organisation and stack the vote. Too soon?

Overnight tonight. I'll post about it later.

I suppose I should be thankful that back in July when the National Under 18 championships were coming to a conclusion I wasn't beamed up to the starship Enterprise by its chief engineer, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott. At the time there was something in the order of 200 young footballers taking part in the carnival and I knew well the names and attributes of the best of them but had I returned from a race around the stars under the guardianship of Captain James Tiberius Kirk last week to discover who Melbourne drafted, I would have been in a state of confusion. Not a single player taken by the Demons represented his state in the championships - there were no All Australians and no familiar names from that period of several weeks when a number of those interstate games were shown in their entirety on Foxtel and discussed in the media and on the Net. One might have been forgiven for thinking that the Demons had traded out of the first four rounds of the draft to pick up some big fish but no - in fact, they had two selections in the top ten and all of the players they took were off the radar for one reason or another before and/or during the season. They were the "nowhere men". Clayton Oliver, the first choice at three which was parlayed into four when Melbourne bid for Sydney midfielder Callum Mills was an injured, restless soul when the 2015 season started - AFL Draft 2015: How Clayton Oliver came from nowhere Recovering from osteitis pubis, overweight and unable to do much of a preseason, he moved from the Bendigo Pioneers to the Murray Bushrangers. He missed the cut for the Victorian Country team but by midseason, with improved fitness, the powerful inside midfielder made his run. By season's end he was the Morrish Medallist and a star of the draft combine with significantly reduced weight and skin folds. This is what his coach at the Bushrangers told Inside Football:- Melbourne's other top ten selection which eventually came at pick 9 was Sam Weideman from the Eastern Ranges. An AIS AFL Academy member, he started early in the season against two VFL teams but succumbed to stress fractures in his ankle - season over. His story is chronicled in these articles. AFL BLOODLINES: WEIDEMAN WANTS TO FORGE HIS OWN LEGACY Sam Weideman reflects on draft expectation, famous surname, ankle injury AFL Draft 2015: Sam Weideman wants to make a point After the draft - Sam Weideman documents his draft experience before and after joining Melbourne The talent manager at the Eastern Ranges where he was a teammate last year of Christian Petracca had this to say:- The Demons continued to think big with their remaining choices, selecting ruckman Mitch King (who is shown in a number of Bushies highlight reels deftly palming the ball down the throat of Clayton Oliver) and key position player Liam Hulett. Again, both players were highly thought of by the recruiters but injuries had conspired to keep them off the radar. And the Demons' first rookie selection, Josh Wagner is a 21-year-old defender from the NEAFL. The club's other rookie draft selections confirmed the redrafting of Viv Michie and the selection of Joel Smith as a Category B rookie. As a result of the drafts, the club's playing list for 2016 is:- PRIMARY LIST: Angus Brayshaw Tomas Bugg Chris Dawes Lynden Dunn Sam Frost Colin Garland Jeff Garlett Max Gawn Jack Grimes James Harmes Jesse Hogan Liam Hulett Jayden Hunt Neville Jetta Matt Jones Nathan Jones Ben Kennedy Jay Kennedy-Harris Dean Kent Mitch King Heritier Lumumba Oscar McDonald Tom McDonald Jake Melksham Alex Neal-Bullen Ben Newton Clayton Oliver Cameron Pedersen Christian Petracca Christian Salem Jake Spencer Billy Stretch Dean Terlich Jack Trengove Dom Tyson Aaron vandenBerg Bernie Vince Jack Viney Jack Watts Sam Weideman ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY A Max King Viv Michie Mitch White Josh Wagner ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY B Joel Smith * player quotes from the current edition of Inside Football

CHANGES 2015 - The Nowhere Men by The Oracle I suppose I should be thankful that back in July when the National Under 18 championships were coming to a conclusion I wasn't beamed up to the starship Enterprise by its chief engineer, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott. At the time there was something in the order of 200 young footballers taking part in the carnival and I knew well the names and attributes of the best of them but had I returned from a race around the stars under the guardianship of Captain James Tiberius Kirk last week to discover who Melbourne drafted, I would have been in a state of confusion.Not a single player taken by the Demons represented his state in the championships - there were no All Australians and no familiar names from that period of several weeks when a number of those interstate games were shown in their entirety on Foxtel and discussed in the media and on the Net. One might have been forgiven for thinking that the Demons had traded out of the first four rounds of the draft to pick up some big fish but no - in fact, they had two selections in the top ten and all of the players they took were off the radar for one reason or another before and/or during the season. They were the "nowhere men". Clayton Oliver, the first choice at three which was parlayed into four when Melbourne bid for Sydney midfielder Callum Mills was an injured, restless soul when the 2015 season started - AFL Draft 2015: How Clayton Oliver came from nowhere Recovering from osteitis pubis, overweight and unable to do much of a preseason, he moved from the Bendigo Pioneers to the Murray Bushrangers. He missed the cut for the Victorian Country team but by midseason, with improved fitness, the powerful inside midfielder made his run. By season's end he was the Morrish Medallist and a star of the draft combine with significantly reduced weight and skin folds. This is what his coach at the Bushrangers told Inside Football:- Melbourne's other top ten selection which eventually came at pick 9 was Sam Weideman from the Eastern Ranges. An AIS AFL Academy member, he started early in the season against two VFL teams but succumbed to stress fractures in his ankle - season over. His story is chronicled in these articles.AFL BLOODLINES: WEIDEMAN WANTS TO FORGE HIS OWN LEGACY Sam Weideman reflects on draft expectation, famous surname, ankle injury AFL Draft 2015: Sam Weideman wants to make a point After the draft - Sam Weideman documents his draft experience before and after joining Melbourne The talent manager at the Eastern Ranges where he was a teammate last year of Christian Petracca had this to say:- The Demons continued to think big with their remaining choices, selecting ruckman Mitch King (who is shown in a number of Bushies highlight reels deftly palming the ball down the throat of Clayton Oliver) and key position player Liam Hulett. Again, both players were highly thought of by the recruiters but injuries had conspired to keep them off the radar. And the Demons' first rookie selection, Josh Wagner is a 21-year-old defender from the NEAFL. The club's other rookie draft selections confirmed the redrafting of Viv Michie and the selection of Joel Smith as a Category B rookie.As a result of the drafts, the club's playing list for 2016 is:- PRIMARY LIST: Angus Brayshaw Tomas Bugg Chris Dawes Lynden Dunn Sam Frost Colin Garland Jeff Garlett Max Gawn Jack Grimes James Harmes Jesse Hogan Liam Hulett Jayden Hunt Neville Jetta Matt Jones Nathan Jones Ben Kennedy Jay Kennedy-Harris Dean Kent Mitch King Heritier Lumumba Oscar McDonald Tom McDonald Jake Melksham Alex Neal-Bullen Ben Newton Clayton Oliver Cameron Pedersen Christian Petracca Christian Salem Jake Spencer Billy Stretch Dean Terlich Jack Trengove Dom Tyson Aaron vandenBerg Bernie Vince Jack Viney Jack Watts Sam Weideman ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY A Max King Viv Michie Mitch White Josh Wagner ROOKIE LIST: CATEGORY B Joel Smith * player quotes from the current edition of Inside Football

Whispering Jack's travels in time continue ... A HIGHWAY OF DEMONS by Whispering Jack CHAPTER THIRTEEN - THE WEED AND I I was a young kid in school pants when I discovered my family had something in common with the family of champion Collingwood footballer, Murray Weideman - they both ran milk bars in Alphington, a working class suburb to the north of Melbourne. It was 1959. Murray was much older than me and already a local hero, having played in two Magpie premiership teams, including the infamous 1958 flag which destroyed Melbourne's hopes of making it six in a row from 1955 to 1960. His nickname was The Weed but because he was a pretty tough bastard, they also called him "The Enforcer". Later, he had a brief stint as a professional actor wrestler. By contrast, my most courageous act was to "dob" on a thief stealing snowballs from the confectionary section of the family business. Weideman must have been quite a lad with the women. He married a Miss Australia winner. I was more interested in comic books and stamp collecting than girls back then. Though we had little in common, the Weed and I were brought together in dramatic circumstances on one cold wintery evening. We were only a few decades and three or four miles away from Squizzy Taylor territory and it was still hard to make a quid in the inner northern industrial suburbs. This was a tough neighbourhood where petty crime and violence, often fueled by alcohol were rife. On occasion, opposition supporters were farewelled at the end of local sporting contests by angry mobs swinging axe handles in their direction as they ran to their vehicles only to discover missing hub caps and sometimes, even tyres. Naturally, there was illegal betting everywhere and although that was mainly on the horses or games of two up, football was also on the agenda. It seems that one particular gang had bet heavily on Hawthorn to beat Collingwood and wanted to influence the result by intimidating the participants. And who better to intimidate than the best player? One night a fusillade of shots rang out in the street, leaving several bullet holes in the front shop window of the Weideman family milk bar. By the following morning, the local constabulary had arrived at our nearby premises to ask questions. Did we know anything about the incident? I was terrified and thought my father was about to be arrested. I still can hear him repeating the words Sergeant Hans Shulz later made famous on television, "I hear nuttink, I see nuttink I know nuttink!" Of course, we were innocent of everything but the fact that we were the nearest opposition business and though the story was widely reported in the newspapers and the threats against Weideman continued (Collingwood even hired private detectives to tail him to games), the furore eventually died a natural death. The Weed was tough but he was far more than a hit man of the game. He stood only a tad over 6 feet and an inch (about 187cm), then a good height for a key backman or a centre half forward and he could really play; he won the Copeland Trophy for Collingwood's best and fairest player in 1957, 1961 and 1962. He often locked horns with Melbourne's hero Ron Barassi and it was always worth the cost of admission alone just to watch them in the contests. We got our revenge for '58 when we beat the Pies on a rainy Saturday afternoon in September, 1960 to record an 11th Melbourne premiership and in doing so, kept the old foe to a record low grand final score of 2.2.14. That evening, proudly serving in the store wearing my red and blue jumper with the famous Barassi number 31 on my back, I was euphoric enough not to mind the torrent of abuse coming from the disgruntled, toothless, drunken Magpie fans passing in as they made their way home to steal the odd snowball. By the time we repeated the dose four years later, Weideman had retired from VFL football and the family had sold the milk bar to a family of Richmond supporters so the humiliation of the black and white army prevailed in the area for at least another decade and more after that. His retirement came not before the Enforcer caused havoc in his final game for his team against Melbourne. It was Round 16, 1963 at the MCG and the Pies were out of the finals race while the Demons were in hot form and heading for their tenth finals series in a row. Despite its superiority over the old enemy (they won 19.15.129 to 10.8.68), the home team was reminded that there was no love lost from the soon to retire tough man of football. Players went down like nine pins and more likely than not the hulking figure of the Collingwood skipper was seen standing over limp, prostrate bodies. In a different time and a different place, those punches have made him champion of the world. Those who were bowled over that day included, in no particular order, Frank "Bluey" Adams, Kerry Rattray, Hassa Mann and Tony Anderson. It was a fitting swan song to Demonland given the torment he and his team suffered throughout his long, illustrious career. The Weed dabbled with mixed success in coaching, both in the country and interstate and he returned for an uneventful two years at the helm of Collingwood which sunk to its first ever VFL wooden spoon under his stewardship. The last defeat of that forgettable stint was a loss to Melbourne at Victoria Park. His son Mark, also played for the club but injuries curtailed that career and he came nowhere near the qualification requirement to bind the next generation of Weidemans to the Collingwood Football Club. The stands at Victoria Park are now silent and the surrounding suburbs are the playground of the gentry, no longer working class and more cafe society. Milk bars have been replaced by 7/11s and convenience stores operate out of petrol stations. The underworld has moved elsewhere and the enmity between Dees and Pies is almost in armistice mode. And while ghosts with shriveled black and white scarves might still wander through Grange Road, Alphington on windy nights, there's not a snowball's hope in hell that you could convince them that a young Weideman has emerged from leafy Vermont in Melbourne's eastern suburbs to become a Demon.

Whispering Jack's travels in time continue ... A HIGHWAY OF DEMONS by Whispering Jack CHAPTER THIRTEEN - THE WEED AND I I was a young kid in school pants when I discovered my family had something in common with that of champion Collingwood footballer, Murray Weideman — both ran milk bars in Alphington, a working class suburb in the north of Melbourne. It was 1959. Murray was much older than me and already a local hero, having played in two Magpie premiership teams, including the infamous 1958 flag which destroyed Melbourne's hopes of making it six in a row from 1955 to 1960. His nickname was The Weed but because he was a pretty tough bastard, they also called him "The Enforcer". Later, he had a brief stint as a professional wrestler (aka actor). By contrast, my most courageous act was to "dob" on a thief stealing snowballs from the confectionary section of the business. Weideman must have been quite a lad with the women. He married a Miss Australia winner. I was more interested in comic books and stamp collecting than girls back then. Though we had little in common, the Weed and I were brought together in dramatic circumstances on one cold wintery evening. We were only a few decades and three or four miles away from Squizzy Taylor territory and it was still hard to make a quid in the inner northern industrial suburbs. This was a tough neighbourhood where petty crime and violence, often fueled by alcohol were rife. On occasion, opposition supporters were farewelled at the end of local sporting contests by angry mobs swinging axe handles in their direction as they ran to their vehicles only to discover missing hub caps and sometimes, even tyres. Naturally, there was illegal betting everywhere and although that was mainly on the horses or games of two up, football was also on the agenda. It seems that one particular gang had bet heavily on Hawthorn to beat Collingwood and wanted to influence the result by intimidating the participants. And who better to intimidate than the best player? One night a fusillade of shots rang out in the street, leaving several bullet holes in the front shop window of the Weideman family milk bar. On the morning after, the local constabulary arrived at our nearby premises to ask questions. Did we know anything about the incident? I was terrified and thought my father was going to be arrested. I still can hear him repeating the words Sergeant Hans Shulz later made famous on television, "I hear nuttink, I see nuttink I know nuttink!" Of course, we were innocent but given that we were the nearest opposition business and were foreigners to boot, we were naturally the prime suspects in the eyes of the law. The fact was that during his entire lifetime, dad only found himself in the vicinity of a gun barrel when the weapon was pointed at him in the camps by the Nazis or by vigilante Poles when he came home to reclaim his family’s home after the war. The milk bar story was widely reported in the newspapers and the threats against Weideman continued (Collingwood even hired private detectives to tail him to games). After a while, the furore died its natural death. The Weed was tough but he was far more than a hit man of the game. He stood only a tad over 6 feet and an inch (about 187cm), then a good height for a key backman or a centre half forward and he could really play; he won the Copeland Trophy for Collingwood's best and fairest player in 1957, 1961 and 1962. He often locked horns with Melbourne's hero Ron Barassi and it was always worth the cost of admission alone just to watch them in the contests. We got our revenge for '58 when we beat the Pies on a rainy Saturday afternoon in September, 1960 to record an 11th Melbourne premiership and in doing so, kept the old foe to a record low grand final score of 2.2.14. That evening, proudly serving in the store wearing my red and blue jumper with the famous Barassi number 31 on my back, I was euphoric enough not to mind the torrent of abuse coming from the disgruntled, toothless, drunken Magpie fans passing in as they made their way home to steal the odd snowball. By the time we repeated the dose four years later, Weideman had retired from VFL football and the family had sold the milk bar to a family of Richmond supporters so the humiliation of the black and white army prevailed in the area for at least another decade and more after that. His retirement came not before the Enforcer caused havoc in his final game for his team against Melbourne. It was Round 16, 1963 at the MCG and the Pies were out of the finals race while the Demons were in hot form and heading for their tenth finals series in a row. Despite its superiority over the old enemy (they won 19.15.129 to 10.8.68), the home team was reminded that there was no love lost from the soon to retire tough man of football. Players went down like nine pins and more likely than not the hulking figure of the Collingwood skipper was seen standing over limp, prostrate bodies. In a different time and a different place, those punches have made him champion of the world. Those who were bowled over that day included, in no particular order, Frank "Bluey" Adams, Kerry Rattray, Hassa Mann and Tony Anderson. It was a fitting swan song to Demonland given the torment he and his team suffered throughout his long, illustrious career. The Weed dabbled with mixed success in coaching, both in the country and interstate and he returned for an uneventful two years at the helm of Collingwood which sunk to its first ever VFL wooden spoon under his stewardship. The last defeat of that forgettable stint was a loss to Melbourne at Victoria Park. His son Mark, also played for the club but injuries curtailed that career and he came nowhere near the qualification requirement to bind the next generation of Weidemans to the Collingwood Football Club. The stands at Victoria Park are now silent; the surrounding suburbs are the playground of the gentry, more cafe society than working class. Milk bars are a dying breed, replaced by 7/11s and convenience stores that operate out of petrol stations and by the supermarkets that trade until late at night all week long. The underworld has moved elsewhere and the enmity between Dees and Pies is virtually in armistice mode. And while ghosts with shriveled black and white scarves might still wander through Grange Road, Alphington on windy nights, there's not a snowball's hope in hell that you could convince them that a young Sam Weideman has emerged from leafy Vermont in Melbourne's eastern suburbs to become a Demon.

It's not just a matter of if it aint broke don't fix it. We are way behind in updating the software and we are at a point that they will no longer support our version soon and if something breaks then we are not covered.

It wasn't something that was really up for a vote. I just wanted to get a quick straw poll on whether the consensus agreed with me.

Looks like Pavlich. Hope he plays like him. Welcome.

I believe that warning comes in the club's welcome pack.

How long until there is a thread saying we should have drafted Darcy Parish? Too soon?

I see in your signature that you were formally astrodee. Is that not the name you use to log in to Demonland?

I would assume that if you have someone on ignore and then they change their name you would still be ignoring that person despite the name change.

I doubt that will be an issue.

I doubt the makers of this software for this forum would [censored] up their users forums like that.

It will only affect people who have changed their initial name that they signed up to Demonland with. For you personally if you signed up as dpositive then your username and display name are the same and you don't need to worry about anything. Prior to this change if you started as ABC but changed your Display name to XYZ then currently you would be logging in as ABC as that is your Username despite your Display Name being changed to XYZ. Under the new software everyones Username (the name you log in with) will be replaced by your Display Name (the name everyone on Demonland see above your avatar). In the above example the poster will have to now log in as XYZ to post on Demonland rather than ABC. If you have never changed your Display Name then it will not effect you as your Username and Display Name were always the same.

I would assume that you would then use Tony Tea exactly how it is written as your login name spaces and all.

Why would that happen?

I'm assuming this affects you as that was not your original name on the forum. I'm not sure why they are forcing people to make this choice.

In the next few days we will be upgrading the software for the message board. It is quite a big upgrade and is necessary. As part of the upgrade I have to make a choice between members retaining either their Username (the name you log in with) or their Display Name (the name people know you as when you post). For most people these will be the same. That is the name you log in with is also your display name. There will be people that have CHANGED their name on the forum and therefore their Username (original) and their Display Name (current) will be different. I am thinking that when we upgrade I will go with the option of continuing with the Display Name as that is the name that people know each other by. This means that when we upgrade the software you will HAVE to log in with your Display Name and NOT your Username. For the majority of people nothing will change. So if for example you originally signed up to Demonland as DEMONFAN1964 but have since changed your Display Name to HOGANFORPREZ you Username to login to Demonland will no loner be DEMONFAN1964 but will now be HOGANFORPREZ. You will have to change this in your browsers if your browsers have saved your settings. Let me know what your preferences are but it looks like I will be going with the Display Name option as any users who have changed their original name probably don't want to go back to that.

test post. please disregard.