DemonWheels

I'm a massive Grimes fan and hope he can get a few more games under his belt before the end of the season - but I reckon his style of play doesn't align with the rest of the team. If he gets caught in traffic he'll hold onto the ball and lock it in. Every other demon player now tries to move the ball forward - no matter how scrappy. If the ball comes to him and he's almost out of the scrimmage he tends to then handball back in and often so quickly it's a complete waste of a posession as no opposition players have moved towards him to then create space for the person he handballs back to. Flat out can't kick to a team mates advantage - which is a particular concern when he's often kicking to a contest: He's often kicking to a contest because once he gets a mark he doesn't move the ball on quickly. Love his effort and would love for him to be part of the team going forward but until he can get a bit more urgent and forget the teachings of previous coaches I'm not sure he stays in the best 22.

Typical Roos style game - get in front and then lock it down OR that could have possibly come from Lyon - get behind and then limit the damage. Either way when the game was open we were much cleaner and won a lot more of the ball. Watching on TV: - Loved Tyson's game, he seemed to adjust to what we all wanted him to do - be the extractor and handball when under pressure but kick when he had space - didn't get caught today that I remembered. - Backline was very good, loved White's work - reminds me a lot of Anthony Ingerson (might just be the glove?) - The run off the half back line is where it all starts - the linking handballs and run towards a moving forward line create huge problems for the defense. - Great to get the W in Darwin and against the Dockers - now let's kill next weeks challenge Go Dees

Never seen so many players from the one team kick as blindly as Adelaide have tonight - every time they get the ball it's on their boot without even lifting their head to see where they're kicking. And of course Cats are there to mark it and send it down the other end. Cats should be way more in front.

Last week was horribly frustrating to watch at the game - felt very similar to the loss last year against the Doggies at Etihad - like we just didn't know what to do once the opposition had the ball so we stopped and let them run right past us, with free opposition players everywhere overlapping and running in waves, creating the illusion that we have fewer players on the ground. This can't happen again today - we need to be switched on and play to our strengths - contested and tight footy. We need to lock them in with manic pressure and force every possession of theirs to be under considerable heat and create turnovers. If they get on the outside and start overlapping were done as we don't have the leg speed to keep up. I've made the trip up and it's a stunning day - very warm in the sun but that will be gone by the time of the first bounce. My first interstate game and hoping we can put 4 quarters of good footy together as I think thats all it will take. We've travelled pretty well this year so far (NAB games and Vs North) and this should bring the team some confidence. Go Dees

Port came with a bit of heat and fight at the very start of the game which I think actually sparked Geelong even more at quarter time - it's backfired big time as the Cats have stepped up and closed them down while creating run and overlap themselves. Take note MFC - hit em hard and they crumble.

Toumpas is having an absolute Mare tonight unfortunately - Brian Taylor is all over him on the commentary and Geelong have caught him out a few times. Just doesn't seemed to have clicked for him.

Listening to SEN this morning with KB (I think it was this morning?) and they were chatting about the decline in true commentators, i.e. Dennis C, Bruce Mc etc. and were suggesting that given these older statesmen were due to exit the game soon with no real strategy behind their replacements the idea would be that the visual / TVchannels didn't require 'specialist' or professional commentators or wordsmiths anymore. They would simply groom current 'commentators' to take their posts once they leave - hence the experiment with Luke Darcy and of course everyone's favourite footy caller BT or Dwayne Wussel. A recipe for disaster in my eyes (ears) as we all know of their flaws - and unfortunately they have very obvious allegiances that appear through every game they appear on. What a joke.

Pretty sure this is because of the broadcast rights. If you want to listen to SEN via internet you need to do it through the AFL app. Which is an issue because there is a delay when you listen live at the game of about 1 minute - best option is to take a pocket radio (got one at Kmart for $12).

Hope our forwards setup and play in front of their opponents from the center bounce so our quick kick forwards and center clearances don't go straight to the opposition - it happens week in week out and it's infuriating. We can win today IF we show up with the correct mindset, no doubt about it. Go Dees!

Big day for our footy club - as much as Essendon will make this all about them and their past / future we need to take the next big step in our own rebuild and win 2 games in a row AND win well against a depleted opposition with all of our players contributing evenly with a stack of goals and highlights so I can watch the replay 4 times in the next week like I did with the Rd 1 win. Go Dees.

I'll admit to being a little surprised by OMacs inclusion over Dunn but reading Roos comments it's pretty clear that we're going for a team that's 100% fit and also has some considerable game time under their belts. It was virtually exactly a year ago that we played against the Suns and Ablett played a game he shouldn't have. Without the sub as security I think you have to play a fully fit team, no 5-10% off players. Particularly against a fast running/spreading GWS side - this game SHOULD go down to the wire if we don't already have it wrapped up by 3qtr time. Go Dees!

Well done Scorps! Sounds like some Dees players contributed nicely as well

Pretty sure the Hawthorn boys have been using this exact song over the past few years after successful games / wins / finals - fairly well publicized as well. All seems a bit too 'try hard' for my liking and in no way relates to their cause - except where mentioned above for advertising links. Why not have a freakin song about a tiger/s?

Some terrible kicking in our defensive 50 gifting goals. Saints streaming forward with spare numbers and Billings has 3 goals wtf

Some terrible kicking in our defensive 50 gifting goals. Saints streaming forward with spare numbers and Billings has 3 goals wtf

I'll be there - been waiting too long for footy to come back to miss this one. There was a decent crowd last time we played the Saints in a NAB challenge game but not sure what to expect given the time slot of 4.10 and how that works for everyone today. Looking forward to seeing the new recruits in the red and blue and seeing Oliver in the flesh.

This has to be seen as an awesome opportunity for 'US' - not them. That's the way we need to look at it - it's all about perspective. They'll put in all the money and effort to create the fanfare about this match - which I'm sure will get some decent media coverage post match with regards to how it pans out and what the reception was. We need to take the opportunity to make sure the story ends with 'proceedings didn't go to plan for Essendon with Melbourne 'injecting' further pain with a 80+ point thrashing...'

Gawn and Viney working well together

There's an update available as there was a glitch with the video - I updated this morning on iPad and iPhone so hoping all bases are covered!

Interesting to see Sportsbet has Port Adelaide to Win @ $1.19 compared with Melbourne to Win @ $5.25. That's a pretty big discrepancy considering it's a NAB challenge game featuring 2 teams who didn't play finals. Looks like good value to me!

If he's going to have his hands on the footy I'd much prefer Grimesy be forward of centre than behind it - I always feel like he puts himself under so much pressure because of where he has the ball on the ground. If he's on the half back flank you can see he wants to 'go' and almost does a number of times before he pulls up and decides not to risk it - those moments of indecision then sometimes create turnovers/clangers as he gets a bit flustered PLUS the opposition have more players in front of him as a result of stalling, making it even harder to progress the ball forward, hence the 15m kick sideways which we all know him for. So I'm thinking it's a nice move to see if we can 'release' him from being in that position, hopefully he can feel a bit of freedom with not having to watch his opposition number as closely and get forward of centre and start creating instinctively.

Sheehan is a massive Dees supporter and considered Robbie Flower his idol (and friend) - I've seen him at a few games since he finished up at the Herald Sun with his scarf on - I understand he kept his allegiances private while still head writer.

Without doubt I absolutely want us to smash them and blow them away with a 100+ point win – I hate Essendon more than any other club and would love to see us destroy them – a real possibility given it is Rd 2 and if we break them early in the game then it could go belly up from there. I certainly believe we could do that and have the team to do it. Unfortunately I still have the horribly sour taste of the frustrating Blues match (10 goals to 2 first half), sickening effort against the Dogs (14 goals to 2 first half, 10 goals to 1 final quarter), the Essendon loss and the St Kilda loss (x2) very fresh in the back of my mind (all games which I attended and sat through). I think the sense of pessimism coming into this game is understandable given these performances all exist within our last 12 games of footy and it will still be the same leaders in our team that need to ensure these run ons don't happen ever again. As much as I'm excited by the opportunity to win and make a statement it's out of my/our hands and unfortunately thats where the negativity comes from. "Once bitten, twice shy" probably sums it up. For 2016 I'm looking forward to attending each week without the fear of embarrassing losses due to insipid effort and hope our team can compete consistently, bash and crash and make us all proud. Go Dees.

Love reading all these training reports, thank you to all who made it out to Casey fields on a pretty wet day and reported back here. There is a lot to be excited about over this pre season and it feels a bit more justified this year compared to the last few but only time will tell! Go Dees, bring on Round 1.