deanox

they have been soft this year. to some extent i dont mind. i would rather see everyone get off and just keep the game going. you dont want stars out for weeks...and you want to see body contact and big hits. who doesnt? but some times players need a slap on the wrist...

yeah good post. a very important point you make is that it has been a lack of form/skill due to injuries, not a lack of endeavour. after watching sundays game that is my belief as well. we tried much harder on sunday than we had in the previous two rounds. with so many outs we are struggling. our use of the ball has been down. is that form, luck or confidence. we are a wounded side playing well below their best. while we may well be 0-8 at some stage this season, i think we will come good. maybe too little too late and we have to try again next year...but its not a lack of trying at the moment.

they are not bound fair nough... but i think a slur on a fmaily emmber is a slur on a family member. saying something about sex with a 6 year old is no more provoking or wrong or illegal than a comment on sex with an older married person (his mum). the same offence could be taken from each comment and if you want to say that only one is good enough as a justifiable defence for violence you are making a judgment that the respect and love someone has for their child is greater than the respect and love they ahve for their parents. if you are talking about a criminal issue, if he had of said i robbed your mums house, would that be an acceptable defense because it is a criminal act? what if he said 'my uncle slept with your mum when she was 6'. would that be as insulting?

gouga i agree entirely...words are words. if a supporter on the other side of the fence had of said something and he had of hit them provocation would not be an excuse big enough to get him off. what was said did not force him to hit him, more than once. a downgraded penalty would have been acceptable but to let him off completely is a joke.

sounds bout right to me dappa dan...

in all honesty, there are at least 3 threads on this subject already throughout the message boards. BB cannot be toblamed for any of the structural injuries (mclean, neitz, robbo, frawley, bartram, TJ) which have occured at the club. this leaves: maloney, sylvia, holland (soreness on sunday), rivers, byron picket, weetra are the soft tissue injuries around the club. moloney and sylvia can be associated with ongoing OP issues, prior to BB. pickett can be attributed to being unfit and the long plane trip. this leaves hollands soreness, rivers and weetra. only 3 soft tissure injuries of which 1 was not bad enough to keep him off the field.

in the first 90 years of football, how many promising young stars had their careers cut down early by OP? why is this a new problem?

demondave...mark williams kicked 6 goals, 3 or 4 which came from freekicks. and the others didnt all come on bell...wheelan had a stint too. remember that we got smashed across the ground and a quick leading forward with space and good delivery is always going to be dangerous. bell has been one of our best. he has endeavour and he has class. a combination sorely lacking across the board at the mfc. belly could be a midfielder,. maybe a good one. but i am sick and tired of mfc players being made into something they are not. green and davey should be forwards who maybe rotate into the centre to change match ups, provide spark or pace. they are not midfielders. bell is playing good footy in the backline. and i would like to see him stay there for a while and let his form continue. lets not muck around with him just yet. something to remember about bell is that he is from country SA and had limited formal coaching until he was drafted by the dees. before that he played on natural instincts and skills so the learning process is different from a kid who has played rep footy since he was 12.

the picking of kids who are 17 nd without gaurantee of making it amazes me. i really think we should be picking enough to have a reserves comp, so that players can develop ion the 2's and only join the senior team when they are guns. yes we might still pick kids a bit younger than ready but they then develop into footballers...our top competition, the afl, is not as good as it could be, as a large number of players are still learning the game at this stage...

source? its not that i dont believe you, its that i wish it wasnt true...

have you read this robbo_king? http://demonland.nozzs.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=741 im guessing you havnt... http://demonland.nozzs.org/forum/index.php...ic=4974&hl=

ok lets have a think about this. we get the same amount from the afl as everyone else (maybe a bit more because of the CBF). do you still get your own gate reciepts? because this would put us behind the 8 ball a bit, but how much exactly? the only other reason i can see that we wouldnt have as much money as other clubs is sponsorship. is sponsoring collingwood or essendon really worth that much more than sponsoring the dees? you would think that they would get similar levels of coverage and advertising (yes i know we have less members and less games on tv) but are the difference really enough to have us down a mil or 2 in sponsorship?

which will mean the development of an afl reserves competition. most likely the 10 vic clubs will have their own seconds comp. i think this is a fantastic idea. it will allow the afl clubs to develop players how they want. they need to make sure that we have lists of 50 players again however, and that all are of a good enough standard. the vfl will be the next comp down. the vfl wont like this as it takes away a certain level of interest in its teams.

dutchy layed a good enough game in round 1 to be rated the 3rd best player for the demons in the average of two games but he was dropped after round 1. due to match ups i dont mind. good to see him back this week, but i hope he wouldve been picked, even if rivers was fit...

its bad to peak early? do you still have optimism for us?

3 weeks ago, who wouldve had miller leading the votes?

us geelong and freo, the most unpredictable teams in the comp...

surely we cant win 8 of our next 9 lol

well we are the two oldest footy clubs so at least we have some history. but the reason we dont play collingwood is because a) it wouldnt get enough people to the game and B) we play them on q's bday.

good point jaded. it is also interesting to note that if we take the leigh matthews, substitute system on board, once a player is off injured they wont be back on. reducing the risk to these players of a second injury. the other side of the coin is that, players might be risked out on the ground when they would have normally come off for a short break to ice/rest/whatever. or injuring the oppositions star player could now put them off the game for the whole game, not just the first quarter...

i'll add to what i said. by making players play through any soreness or injuries (such as winding or a heavy knock) it will bring back physical hardness as an advantage. if people were using their body it takes more out of the opposition who need to get up and run to the next contest. if they don't you have an extra player floating around. unfortunately i cant see the afl going back to this substitute system as it will slow the game down significantly, and they risk causing injuries to their stars players, who they need on the park. but i think it will be a good move for footy. it might slow it down but it will bring back the contest, and make the need for good skills more important than ever.

just wondering if we had an update on the demonland leader board after last week?

using those gps trackers they use now they have found that some of the fast bowlers in cricket cover as much ground during a game as an afl midfielder. from the daily telegraph: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/stor...5006069,00.html brad hodge (australian batsman) has been running an extra 13 kms on top of his usual training... you can only have a runner if you injure yourself during that particular game. im not saying thats what happened im saying thats what should happen. true, you dont kick the ball with your foot, unless you are a fast bowler kicking it up to yourself... yes there are difference bettween footy and cricket. many differences, but not quite how you described it

should there be a distinction between concussions and structural injuries? i agree we need to do something about the interchange bench. the problem with the substitute system is that there needs to be some level of treatment of a player on the ground...what if he gets a knock to the chest and is winded do you take him off for good, or make him stay on and fight through it. i actually like the idea of making the player work through it. it will bring back the hardness of the game. you have to be able to last all day.

im a bit sore, but i'd play this week if they wanted me too...i think the word sore needs to be replaced with slight strain whereever possible when describing footy injuries...