DubDee

I just hate the word 'Cliche'.

Ban it

Not lucky at all.

We went out and got him and had the balls to trade pick 2 which was widely criticised

DT is quickly becoming my fav player

everyone was calling Petracca "Truck"....you must be a KIwi?...they call him "Trac' or "Tracca", Brayshaw is Gus, Oscar Mc gets 'Osc" and White gets "Whitey", haven't got the others yet

Missing today Fitzpatrick, Vince and JKH (Dave Misson said he was crook)

Asked Dave Misson about training and Maroochydore, training finishes a week on Friday then back on 5th Jan, week here and then 5 sessions in Maroochydore, so a week and a bit, said no specific heat training, just training in the heat and the humidity, footy will be main focus, probably good away from other prying eyes

Rehab group today Watts, McKenzie, Kent (who now has a rather cool full arm tattoo), Stretch, Spencer, Riley and a triking Jack Trengove

For all the Gawndog lovers, he was pumped today, did 5 out of the 6 drills, as he towers over me, was showered in the sweat that was pouring off him whilst he was talking to me

Another Dunny bit, was doing marking and spoiling drills with Miller coaching and on the bag, Miller stressed that they needed to do it like they were in a game, so Dunny proceeded to put his elbow into Miller's ribs, Miller responded by giving Dunn a fearsome whack with the bag

Howie was showing off his one handed skills, managed to get his thumb trapped in a jumper during a drill last Friday, didn't dislocate but has it heavily strapped

Photos will be on Twitter Demonpk

thanks for the report TDI

bit harsh on the Kiwis but, you aussies pronouce Trac and Truck pretty the same I reckon! (assuming youre an aussie)

anyway, just thought id tackle the big issues

thats 2,000 in a week!

might be to do with the flyers that went out last week. "You have picks 2 and 3, but DubDee you are pick one" yada yada. sign up you lazy ba$tard

should get onto it

Wing, high half fwd. he is bloody fit. wasted deep in forward line.

imagine having him on the wing one on one. T Mac has the ball under pressure in def 50. best bail-out kick there is. look for Howey, hack it in his general direction, he'll sit on the blokes head!

then hit up Hogan and BANG! GOAL!

coverage starts at 6:30? does anyone know when the first pick will be announced? I want to avoid the rubbish coverage as much as possible

I especially love when they have panel chat or interviews with parents while first round picks are being announcing!

I think they are going from pick 1 to pick 10 this year and not the opposite which is better

I think the main problem is the lack of people at the game. As some have mentioned, the croud noise is the real atmosphere. The MCG is so big that you can get that good atmosphere unles there are 60,000 plus at games. as we know only one of our games per year is the stadium half full. Thats why Adealide oval is good and Aami park for Football, you only need 15-20 thousand at Aami for it to have a great loud atmosphere.

Etihad just sucks as a stadium, just has no soul. Better planning could have meant, Waverly, Princes park, etc could all be used, giving the real home ground feel to different teams

Anyway, not much we can about it aside from getting bigger crowds and winning some goddamn games

They didn't stand by Knights even when he wasn't a drug cheat!

I would be happy to be corrected, but it was my understanding that the reverse was required ie only drugs approved for human use could be used, if approved, and by default all others were banned.

when the ASADA report came out there was the list of drugs that were confirmed to have been taken or highly likely taken. the only banned one was TB4. from memory most of the others eg AOD, were unapproved for use. AOD was in phase 1 clinical trials for treating obesity. the odds of AOD getting through all trials and being approved would be less than 5%.

I work in the Pharma industry (yeah im a sell out) and can confirm the vial would not be an approved drug by the TGA. There are extremely tight regulations around registering drugs, submitted the package and labelling for approval etc.

What I find interesting is that there seems to be no consquences for Essendon taking all the other unapproved drugs (regardless of if they are banned). like AOD etc. So ASADA/AFL is basically saying it is cool to inject random drugs that have not been approved for use just because they are not on the banned list? sounds crazy to me, these drugs could do anything or nothing or when combined with other unknown drugs could react adversely. They got punished for governance but this is more than governance issues. This is an unbelievablly reckless act that shows no regard for the players safety

I am staggered that the media has decided to go easy on the bombers (aside from Caro). I would expect nothing less than Hird sacked and banned, Board sacked and all players getting a minimum of 12 months

Out of interest, anyone here still wish we had Frawley instead of pick 3?

yep id prefer Frawley, pretty easily actually. I know he was distracted at times this year but I put that down to the move he was about to make and playing out of position al year. he was still our best forward most weeks

He was a very solid player for 4-5 years and would have looked a lot better if we were a decent team. our best year of his career was 2010 (8.5 wins) and he made AA - as the ball wasnt coming down his end every 2 minutes

pick 3 could be anything, injury prone, not able to handle the pressure etc

Has he nominated Geelong or Hawthorn as his 'club of choice' yet.

I agree with all who say the draft age needs to be raised. It is too young and not only do kids not know what they want out of life but clubs can't reasoanbly predict if a player will make it at AFL level. Bodies havent developed, its a huge step from schoolboy/TAC level footy...i would make it a 21 year old draft age and create a legitimate u21 state league.

I reckon Joel Selwood would disagree with you, he'd prefer his couple of premiership medals I would think!

Everyone is getting carried away with raising the draft age stuff - so a few lads quit to do other stuff or draft picks arent gaurunteed, so what? I'd rather be able to see Selwood, Judd, Wines etc tear it up on the big stage in their first years, and the ones that arent ready can play in the 2s and train in a professional environment

The last couple of years have proved that easy fixtures don't help us, though. Most of our worst recent games have been against interstate sides at the G

So you think a tougher fixture would mean we might win more games??

I agree that they only way to get more favorable treatment is to become winners

But to suggest that the money side is taken care of by the club - actually not. It is taken care of by the members and paying public. And the fixturing hinders this. Sponsors look at not only wins but crowd size and attendances to get their message across which will be also hindered by this fixturing.

From a pure footballing sense it is not a bad draw but I just can't see how posters can just disconnect from the financial aspect of the draw and suggest "the club will take of it".

So when we struggle to make money without handouts don't be scratching your head and wonder why - the club can "handle" lots of things but this fixturing just makes it harder.

I take your point. I wasn't trying to downplay the role we play in raising money for the club.

In essence I just much prefer to talk about footy and potential wins rather than making money. I think it's sad when the fixture comes out and most posts are about sponsors and gates

Where's the excitement!?

Man so much whinging in this thread! You'd swear we supported the Dees on the stock exchange not on the footy field

I, for one want to see footy and want to see wins. The money side is taken care of by the club. 13 games at the G, less twilight rubbish and double shots at poor teams - good draw.

would people prefer playing hawks twice instead of St kilda if it meant more money? I prefer wins. the money will follow

Assume you mean senior assistant in waiting?

this is a depressing thread. it'll be interesting to see what people are predicting in March when we have wiped 2014 from our memory, finals anyone?

remember we were ahead in the last Q of 10 games this year (I think?), no reason to think we wont improve with another pre-season of Roosey and the young guys getting fitter. I predict 8-10 wins

Carn the Dees! only 6 months til round 1. woo hoo!! :-)

I agree that we don't want the AFL becoming the EPL. But the fans will hardly leave in droves... The EPL is the most popular league in the world.

Overrated at this point in time. He and Jimmy Toumpas have just about the same career stats and some on here want to get rid of JT. I know stats can be deceiving, but I wouldn't be trading a top pick for MB, even if we did get their first rounder back.

speaking of over-rated. I hate how overrated stats and disposals are. looking at their careers, MB will be a star and who knows with JT but he has shown little in 2 years, this is regardless of how many times they touch the ball per game

I cant really see them using McCrae/Bont but other players are unders.

Left field: what about Winson? Ive heard he is unsettled and we need a senior ruck. not sure Russians body will hold up

otherwise maybe a 3rd party gets involved. eg. WB send a player to GWS and GWS send us a player

If we trade them pick 2, we are at no risk of losing Petracca (considering he doesn't go pick one) or Brayshaw, as Bulldogs are going to pick either Mccartin or Wright.

This deal could be hugely beneficial for us, if we can get our hands on a Dalhaus, Stringer, Hrovat/Wallis type.

you dont think GWS might want a Mid? more than like Petracca will be pick 1. then brayshaw will either go to us at 3 or GWS at 4 youd think

The Weapon got $1mil settlement.

Robinson and Essendon reach settlement of close to $1m

"Say that again" (use Luke Darcy voice)

Ablett compromised because of Father/Son. Would've gone high. Obviously there are great players from a range of picks.

Looking at the Player Ratings on the AFL website.

Ablett Compromised

Pendlebury Pick 5

Selwood Pick 7

Dangerfield Pick 10

Griffin Pick 3

Harvey Pick 46 (about 1000 years ago)

Sloane Pick 44

Franklin Pick 5

Fyfe Pick 20

Boak Pick 5

Top 10 players in the comp rating-wise and 7 of them are top 10 picks.

So out of the 10 best players in the league, only 1 of them was a top 4 pick.

what are we even worried about with trading both pick 2 and 3?! get rid of 'em!

if people missed the article on MFC.com hers comes the BS reasons we didnt get a PP. Guess what? we've improved so dramatically we dont need a PP! haha I guess joint wooden spooner is as good as it gets for us. As for the significant injuries, I thought we had a good run with injuries. So we get a well done for recruiting well last year - and get no PP. and we recruit terribly for 8 years and get no PP. Clearly the PP will never be given out ever again

for the record I dont really mind not getting a PP, I just hate how the AFL runs. making up their minds on the spot and never being held accountable

The AFL formally notified Melbourne of its decision today, detailing a number of reasons, including:

While Melbourne had a poor year in 2014, it was an improvement on 2013 (four wins v two wins, a percentage of 68.4% v 54.1%).

- After Round 15 in 2014, Melbourne was 15th on the ladder with four wins and a percentage of 78.1%, before a poor ending to the season.

- Melbourne’s wins included wins against two finalists (Essendon and Richmond) and it lost three games by less than nine points and a further four games by less than four goals.

- Melbourne suffered significant injuries and lost playing time to a number of key personnel.

- Melbourne has a high level of young talent including Jesse Hogan, Jimmy Toumpas, Jack Viney (father/son selection at 2012 draft), Jay Kennedy-Harris, Christian Salem and Dom Tyson.

- Melbourne was able to attract a number of experienced players during the 2013 Exchange period including Dom Tyson (2nd best and fairest), Bernie Vince (3rd best and fairest), Daniel Cross (5th best and fairest), Viv Michie (from Fremantle) and Aidan Riley (from Adelaide);

- Melbourne may be able to trade Mitch Clark for another player or a draft pick and will receive a compensation pick if they lose any players to free agency

The AFL said it had noted in Melbourne’s application, “the Club has made significant improvement in 2014 in many aspects of its business. We have put in place a capable management team and board, and the governance and decision making processes have improved markedly. We have also employed a renowned senior coach in Paul Roos and put around him a coaching panel and resources in the Football Department that should have enabled improved on-field performance in 2014”.

- "The appointment of Simon Goodwin was also noted as bringing a potential for further improvement along with the potential benefits of the introduction of the AFL Football Department Soft Cap and Luxury Tax.

- The AFL concluded that while Melbourne has a poor on field record in recent times, this does not of itself constitute “exceptional circumstances” or a justification for awarding priority draft selections.

If he comes to Melbourne, 'Danger' will officially be my middle name.

I'll change it by Dee-pol

It's not about Judd & Kennedy, it's about where it got Carlton. Next to nowhere is my opinion.

Getting one big fish is not necessarily the answer.

where carlton are is down to hundreds of decisions - mostly bad ones. not just this one, albeit big trade.

meanwhile, i'm loving them being cr-ap :-)