Adzman

To be fair, I think the backline being a tad underdone is going to be a relevant talking point regardless of the Essendon result. May and Lever would be in our top 10 paid players and are most certainly best 22. We are really struggling down back, and having those two fit and firing would certainly have made a difference in the early stages of the season. As far as Goody goes, It's a bold approach and I think it shows that he thinks the list is capable of executing his game plan effectively right now. He knows more about where the list is at than I do, so I'm expecting the team to come out swinging on Friday night.

It's just so easy to stick the boots in when a team is down. For all if the excuses we could use, we don't. Richmond lose Rance and the nedia have an excuse for Richmond dropping a game. We play without lever and May down back and are expected to get the win.

I don't think Petracca is the problem. The problem runs deeper than a top pick who hasn't turned out to be a world beater. Our forward entry is dirtier than Donald Trump's black book. I don't know how to fix it, but our entry to our forward line is dirtier than "two girls, one cup".

Check round 22, we were 5th with a record of 14-8. I would take that in a heartbeat right now.

In: 2018 Demons Out: 2019 Demons Honestly, how could we have fallen away this far this quickly! Surely last year's demons are there somewhere.

Harris Andrews at pick 61 looks to be the steal if that draft. ANB and Oscar late suggests we faired ok in that draft.

May's inclusion makes us more aggressive as a team. He is a bull, and will make us harder to play against.

Poor bloke. That's probably curtains on his career.

We have some good players that are down on form, and some good players still to come back into the side. Yesterday was rubbish, but it's a bit too early to can 2019 as a failure. Let's see what happens in the next few weeks.

Joel Smith and KK finished first and second in the 2km time trial for us in the off-season. Neither of these players played yesterday. Both of those players have some knocks on their game, but pace isn't one of them. Baker is also quick and will be an upgrade if he can put the other parts of his game together. I'm not saying we don't need pace, I'm just saying we have options waiting in the wings that would quicken up our best 22. Jake's Jordon was also an outside mid for SA. He doesn't have pace to burn but is an outside running player. We need to get quicker, but there are some small upgrades we can make this season which may have an impact for coming seasons.

Honestly Demonland has a good thing going. I read for more than I post, but can honestly say the mods and contributors to this site do a wonderful job creating this online community. Generally I wish I had more to contribute, and was able to connect with more of you, but I enjoy being relatively passive reading what you all have to contribute.

I liked Fitzy. He was a relaxed easy going fellow whenever I spoke to him at training/events. Nice read, the toenail thing is a tad odd though. I suppose it's more palatable than my mates sending me pics of their excrement.

My family and I are stuck at Sydney airport due to a scheduling snafoo from our travel agent. I won't get there, but would expect something around the 31k mark. Hope those going make it feel like we have 90k there! Carn the Dees!

This is a bigger out than many are suggesting. Lewis might run like he has concrete boots on, but he is a good user by foot and is a handy general down back. I would be lying if I said I knew anything about Tom Sparrow. I wish him the best of luck on debut and hope he can get the job done for us.

Glad for Dunn. He was a loyal servent during some dark days at our club, he deserves something positive towards the end of his career.

Interesting, with Chris Hemsworth being a big doggies fan I do wonder if he had a hand in this decision somewhere along the line. Still not as bad as that Golden Logies Hawks jumper, that takes the cake for garbage jumpers.

Handy to have a player like Smith who can play forward and back. Given our depth down back, Smith should be played as a permanent forward. Still a few kinks to be ironed out in his game which have already been mentioned, but you can work with him and he can make an impact for us forward. He might end up being a poster boy for category b rookies. He has certainly proven that there is some real value in the category b rookie list.

I was pleased to see the coaching staff tried something different with Hunt. Pace is something we lack and if he can nail a role in the front half he could cause some headaches for opposition defenders. Weeds is also not a complete waste as a second ruck, his ruck work isn't world beating but he is improving and looking like an option for us if we decide not to play gawn and preuss in the same side. Don't panic yet, our list is better than most lists in the comp.

I watched the game from the comfort of my home courtesy of fox footy. Have to say we looked red hot in parts of the game, and ice cold in others. Gus and Fritta look in good form for preseason. Forward line looks like it's going to take some time to settle, and we will benefit if we can get Melky back into the side. Honestly I'm not sure what our forward 6 looks like going into the season, Spargs was off the boil and Jeffy is in trouble with his injury by the looks of it. Getting a functioning forward 6 will be Goodwin's biggest challenge for round 1. I'm keen to see what transpires there.

Collingwoods midfield is very much at it's peak. Sidebottom, Pendles, Wells, Varcoe, Beams are more likely to decline than get better at this stage of their careers. Wouldn't be surprised if some of those players really didn't have the impact they should in 2019.

This could have been so much worse. Poor bloke needs some serious support to overcome whatever caused him to do what he did. I really hope he finds his way back to good mental health soon.

1. Vandenberg: He came into the club as a big body when we really needed to be more competitive. Now that we are more competitive, he us a real ace up our sleeve. Provides us with an enforcer type with good decision making and solid all round skills. 2. Fritta: He didn't really suprise anyone on here given we knew his game after an impressive year at Casey the year before. That being said, his first AFL season was terrific. He is a ripper, and has the highest ceiling of the players listed. He is a beautiful kick and is a great mark. He makes good decisions and already displays a good defensive side of his game.

I hope we bend Freo over for any Victorians in the upcoming years. Especially if it means uniting the Brayshaw brothers. Hated them since the Jeff White and Jeff Farmer sagas. There is some historic hatred there.