DubDee

Thanks for the pics I will shed a manly tear when Trenners makes his comeback. Great (and unusual) to see us practice footy at this time of year! usually we just run and run for the first few months the intensity you can see on each face. i have a good feeling about this group

he posted on FB apologising for not reporting recently - due to some family health issues. he then added "not too serious" so im sure the master of prose will be back in action in Jan

would be great to see JT back next year, we'll have to be patient though. he hasnt played a game for 2 years and is coming off a zero base. hopefully he will be right for casey in round one. play a couple of months and not get any soft tissue injuries and be vying for a spot for the Dees by mid year Id be staggered (and elated) to see him in the AFL before round 10

He is a less likable version of Fev. and will follow the same route as he is a fool. id be surprised if he is still playing AFL in 4 years. he does a lot of damage tio the image of the AFL and its support of women in general. the tigers will not suspend him for any more than 2 games just like the Hawks did as he is too important to them. they cannot improve without him. so its a perfect example where the AFL should step in And get a [censored] haircut!

injuries play such a massive part in a 22 game season - eg GC and Brisbane this year but for the risers, id say GC will take a big step. just missed the finals last year and were decimated this year with their entire midfield out. will benefit from Bennell not being there and Eade will get them in shape Apart from them, The Dees will finally rise up the ladder after 9 years in the bottom 6 and finish in the top 10 The pies will also improve - as much as I hate to say that - Treloar is a gun. For the Fall - Adelaide will slide, St kilda will finish just above the Blues (time will catch up with Nick and Joey). And I think the Hawks will finish outside the top 4. coming 5th. better players getting older, hunger is very hard to maintain

what are the changes? Just leach back?

impressive! does he fight crime by night as well?

you're livin in the past man

Not without a chance against port and north either. Anything less than 10 wins is a fail for me. if we get on a run and dont have too many injuries.... who knows!? Cant wait to SMASH St Kilda in round 6. just grind them into the ground, literally.

theres a lot of players that are just over the 10 game mark that would have done well: Heeney, Lever, De Geoy, Cockatoo but I guess you need to draw the line somewhere and 10 games is as good a number as any Id pick Mills to win it next year. Too much to expect Tracka to play 22 games after an ACL - but he is a freak so who knows?!

We finally drafted some key forwards! maybe we wont have to have the likes of Rivers/Garland/Frawley/T Mac playing out of position soon? exciting

Even the profit we posted was talked down by the herald sun. in the title it said something about how equalisation was helping the Dees manage a profit. fark me. might be the case but free agency and the fixture certainly dont help! that paper is a disgrace - if you want to know which player has new tatts or a new hairdo then the herald is your paper

I still think Other has a good chance

I assume they have done away with the 10 -1 count down which sucked and will just call them out starting at 1? the coverage couldnt be worse than last year - but I back them to somehow lower the bar. lets talk to some kids' parents while pick 25 is being read out and we can't hear it! arrg!

im wondering if it more the trend of inside, strongly built mids being a safer bet with a high pick. Guys like Toump, O'rourke, Aish that are elite users of the ball and that killed it in the juniors just dont seem to have as good as strike rate as the more inside bigger guys - Brayshaw, Wines etc. not saying it is that cut and dry but it may be a trend. all about risk and reward I guess. we would have argued in 2012 that Wines will have a impact straight away but his ceiling is not very high. but these days you dont need too many elites users of the ball - once you can kick well, its all about the stoppages

Stretch is still small as he has a small frame - although he has bulked up some and looks toned/fit. he would not last long in the centre square. but he'll be fine on the wing you cant say every player if they work hard will end up like Fyfe. some guys just dont have the frame and thats what the Dees will be looking at with Parish. genetically, is he more of a yze/bruce/fletcher or will he develop significantly with hard work - get that barrell chest and and broad shoulders you need to break a tackle

Happened with the Bont and that has worked out pretty well for the dogs. he got noticed in his last few games but it wasnt until the week before the draft that the rumours circled that he might go top 5 him being 'ranked' as 12 is the media and pundits/fans. the clubs know best and leasks start to come out in the last week. maybe sometimes on purpose to throw other teams off the club will just do their research and pick the best lad and ignore all the gossip

Can't believe its two days away and we aren't even sure who pick 3 is let alone pick 7! Man I would love to see how te dees rate the top 10. Maybe we didn't have one player ear marked for pick 3 we just judged the talent to drop off around pick 8-9 so we wanted to grab two good young guys.. I know two years ago we seemed to rate the top 10 differently to other clubs. Alluding to the fact that we wouldn't have picked Kelly at 2 and we rated Salem higher etc. such an even group I think it is unlikely we will get a grade A gun but hopefully we get 2 very good long term players Can't wait!

thought id look back at KPFs taken early between 08 and 2012 2008: 1 Watts 8 Vickery 2009 8 Butcher 19 Grifiths, 24 Carlisle 29 Gunston 38 S Reid 2010 2 Sam Day 11 Lynch 26 Darling 2011 1 Patton 9 Tomlinson 2012 10 - Daniher I quickly scanned the top 50 of each draft for KPFs - there was surprisingly few! Although I probably missed some. I think it shows that they are almost as likely to come from later picks than from top picks. Patton is a gun but injury prone. 2009 where butcher was touted as top 3 and then all others ended up being better than he is. Sam Day hasnt done much. Unless there is a standout, use the high picks on mids as KPF are risky business. and YES i put Watts down as a KPF as that was what he was drafted as.

The under18 Talent dude was on SEN this morning - he is also affiliated with the geelong falcons. sorry didnt hear his name or title properly as my 2 yo was yelling nonsense (takes after his old man) he was a massive wrap for Parish. paraphrasing: most complete midfielder, will go in top 5. likened him to Joel Selwood! and this is not a he might turn out like selwood - he said that at the same age they are very similar. Andy M asked about the knocks on him not being as super competative as Selwood and he said Parish is a country boy and is hard at it and driven to succeed. he mentioned, curnow and mathison as well and was positive but not nearly as glowing as for Parish by the end of it I was pretty keen on parish!

that would be sweet. but i dont reckon he has the class of Le Cras. he is tough though. i expect him to be in the midfield before long

i like your confidence mate. you've convinced me!

i wasnt saying we dont need forwards I was just addressing that saying we dont need midfielders is ridiculous. most of the year we had Jones, Vince and Viney as our only strong performing mids and we need a heap more than this. we have high hopes for our good youngsters obviously. Tyson/Vanders in particular might step up next year fwd line depth, we have Hogan, Dawes, Pedo, Kent, Garlett, Pecracca. maybe include Watts id say the depth is comparable between mids and fwds for us. average for both. big upgrade from pathetic which our midfield was 2 years ago pick best available. dont want us to take a risk and end up with a Gumby or Butcher when a quality mid was out there. im not against a fwd at all, we need one. once we dont overlook a better option

this we can certainly agree on!

Are you kidding?? suddenly melksham has been added to our great midfield, hows things have changed. he got dropped twice this year from the dons terrible midfield. I dont want to bag a Dees player and I want him to succeed, but he has been quite poor to date despite some decent games in 2013. and ANB/Stetch show potential but can we say both will be 200+ game midfielders for us? no. and with JT and other injuries we need a lot more midfield depth! just look at port, hawks, sydney etc. our midfield needs a lot of quality added to it. even if our young guys develop as we hope