DEMON WITHIN

Thanks mate!

Can someone with a herald sun or a subscription please summarize what jay Clark said about keeping hogan today? I don't have access. Thanks in advance

ROFL! now there is a 4th demon with a broken jaw...from laughing

This was the part of the article i mentioned in my initial post...from afl.com GWS has a two-year window to secure uncontracted players. The parameters for the selection process should be as follows: Players need to be coming off contract at the end of this year or 2012No players older than 25Focus on teams outside the top eight, with a particular focus on those near the bottom of the ladderPlayers who have shown an ability to perform consistently well in teams that strugglePlayers with strong on-field presence but not necessarily their teams' best players These guidelines should be rigid and adhered to strictly. The rationale behind focusing on teams outside the eight and towards the bottom of the ladder is twofold. Firstly, it's easier to play well when a team is playing well, so GWS should be looking to identify players who have shown they can perform well in poor teams. Secondly, when things go wrong these types of players aren't distracted or put off by the result. They know no other way and have the strength of mind and determination to push on. Carefully selecting the most appropriate type of uncontracted players would allow GWS to concentrate on helping develop the younger players knowing their senior players are mature enough and resilient enough to stay the course irrespective of the result. With this in mind GWS should be targeting the following players for the positions of captain, vice captain and deputy vice captain: Jed Adcock, Beau Waters and Jack Trengove. Its important GWS compliments these three possible leaders with enough soldiers willing to follow them into battle without question or fear of failure. Callan Ward, Liam Picken, Easton Wood, Tom Rockliff, Nathan Jones and Tom Logan would be outstanding lieutenants. Ward, Picken, Wood, Rockliff, Jones and Logan have total disregard for their own safety on the football field, which is exactly why they should be high on GWS's wish list.

My point wasnt we should all try to be armchair critics and tell the coaching staff where to play players...more was thinking that instead of describing player X as "poor kick, bad decision maker, soft etc." we could look for positive attributes in players more. A number of times i have read this year that players before being drafter were "over-analysed"...i dont know if anyone read this article. Players such as Jack Darling and Michael Hurley were talked about being overly analysed by recruiters who only saw their deficiencies, but failed to see in hindsight what gifted "footballers" they were. Put in the right environment, with the right teaching and positioning, players can thrive. I see the clubs best at finding the intangibles to get the best out of players as Sydney, Collingwood and even Fremantly at the moment...Sheedy must look at Kepler Bradley and wonder whether his other love child Courtney Johns would be kicking bags over there at the moment!

Im not sure if anyone heard the piece of commentary by Dennis Cometti (one of the few i actually enjoy listening to as he is both comical and usually well informed) on the weekend. He said that clubs are often very quick to reel off the negatives they see in players and tend to overly focus on what a player cant do, over what a player can do. This is in my opinion %110 true...supporters i feel are entitled to give a bit of a subjective view on things as we are limited in our inside knowledge, but hearing that clubs do this too, surprised me and dissapointed me. I am certain that one of the great strengths of great clubs and teams centres around maximising player strengths...Collingwood are an obvious example where they have developed a game plan (a great one too) and made sure that each player utilises their strengths to the maximum gain for the team and covers the deficiencies of any individual by placing them in a role where this is least exposed. What do people think. Are there strengths that we could be maximising from within our team? Are there players languishing in the 2s that if given a new role could be thriving? Another quick thing i heard the commentators mention was "every time we see jones and petterd play they play well..." interesting to hear this positive feedback from commentators...jones was also mentioned in an article of "heart" players that GWS should target...clearly rated outside of the club, whilst much maligned on this site.

For fear of contradicting myself i want to place a few extra pieces of information out there to further illustrate sides of this argument...these are the possible draft decisions which may have changed the landscape of our team... 2007- Morton (pick 4) vs Dangerfield (10) 2008- Watts (1) vs Hurley (5) 2009- Scully (1) or Trengove (2) vs Martin (3)...Also missing out on a player we chased like Luke Ball (pick 30) 2010- Cook (12)vs Darling (26) Now what i do know, is that the footy department has a long-term and not short-term plan. If we can all look back to the year McLean and Sylvia were recruited...this was directly a response to requiring 2 big bodied inside midfielders. We also all know the many disastrous examples of picking for needs first...i strongly believe (and i dont want this to become a who will be better than who discussion) that the recruiting people believe our picks have greater upside long term and that their skill sets will offset the physicality and aggression the other players i mentioned bring. For those that attended the draft function in 2009, they will remember Chris Connoly describing Tappy as the enforcer in our envisiaged grand final team...so they do still think this quality is golden. I like all of you want the ultimate success, i AM willing to continue to be patient, but i want out players to start to develop KILLING instincts and REAL HARDNESS...this will lead them to become like the hard, consistent champion teams like the Lions, Cats and now Pies...and nothing like the DOGS with "hardness" (apologies to hodge and mitchell) like the Hawks

Watching the tigers vs pies game tonight, i have put my finger on something that has concerned me about the best 22 we have put together through the draft over the past few years...the key ingredient i feel we lack is agression, appetite for the contest or big personalities that set a team alight. Collingwood needs no explanation...they hunt and are more aggressive than any team ive seen since the all conquering brisbane team. But let me compare us to the also young and inexperienced tigers... I think we are a much better list than richmond, but what i love about their team is home pumped up their best players get...riewolt, deledio, cotchin, martin and even the lesser lights like king all possess that excitement factor. When they are up and about, they just bring so many others into the game... Who are our players that really get fired up? Moloney, jones, sylvia...i struggle to think of those that impose their emotional and physical attributes on a game, even when we are on top. I wonder if this is because we arent yet confident in our bodies (i notice the 3 players i chose are all bigger, stronger) or whether our top picks who i think wil be our future leaders are quite intraverted characters. this is something difficult to teach and maybe will naturally improve with time and confidence, but i do think we need to start doing the little things like congratulating team mates after goals...getting other team mates involved and fired up...and obviously continuing to do those lifting things...smothers, tackles etc. Thoughts?

Anyone that can help...I was away over the weekend and missed the game. Even if it was average I still wAnt to watch it. Anyone know when it's on foxtel today or tomorrow?

Yep, the fixed polos are in too! And when you head in...check out the retro hoodies...had to get one they looked so good!

For all those that have been awaiting the new New Balance jumpers then you should head down to the demon shop and get one! They came in yesterday and look bloody awesome! and the staff there are also lovely and were happy to hook me up with a proper AFL number on the back. After MUCH deliberation...it had to be trenners! go dees!

I actually can't believe im posting on this thread as I hate hysteria,but I got an early morning message from a distressed friend who said that Eddie McGuire said on triple m this morning that scully to gws is a done deal. I refuse to believe this but dont understand why he would say this. Did anyone else hear the comment? Maybe there was some context I've missed since I only heard this second hand

So i hear all these murmurings about a new bulked up Cale Morton ... this is a running joke in my family as we never thought we'd see the day he added some weight to that lanky frame! Problem is I can't locate any pics to confirm these rumours...could someone post one up here please?

Firstly, how much better has the website and demons media coverage in general become...whiteboard wed is just one of soo many cool insights into the club and what the people that matter think about our progress as a team and a club! Interesting insights this week...stats can get lost on me at times but this breakdown got me excited! Looking forward to some coverage over the summer...is a weekly update too much to ask? I mean we all go stir crazy without our footy fix...especially now that cricket is [censored]!

I want to emphasise that i am in no way getting excited by this (see judd saga)...but burgoyne nominated us as one of 3 clubs he is interviewing. Ssource todays Age