Number 2

Been a while since I have posted but has anyone heard anything about the Demons being linked to Ash Johnson from Collingwood? Shane McAdam connection allegedly has Johnson interested in joining the Demons. I assumed he was contracted but can't find details.

A friendly troll ?

Magpies cap squeeze casualties apparently. First round pick goes to Collingwood. Two Tom’s and a 4th comes back to us was the hot tip. If Mahoney can pull that off he deserves a statue at the G.

2 Collingwood Tom’s might be available. Tom Langdon & Tom Phillips No offical source on this one. It is something like my uncles, best friends brother told me. Might be an interesting 24hrs.

Flower into Tingay into Jones??? Number 2 rules :-)

Good Call WJ - I know I haven't posted for a while but I can guarantee we will be all over Pat McKenna If you do your digging you will notice that one of the Melbourne recruiting staff is an ex premiership player at Gisborne FNC (where McKenna has played his junior and senior football). Where there is smoke there is fire - the kid should have been playing TAC footy this year but he elected to play senior football for Gisborne. He played at both ends of the ground and managed to kick bags of goals when played forward. We could do worse with a rookie selection. I'm not sure we would use one of the 4 ND picks we have though.

Never too early for list management DemonWA – I think I am wishing we were already in the off-season.

It’s the bye weekend and I have started thinking about the end of the season (join me, it is a colourful and happy place). Lets face it the remainder of 2013 will only bring more bad news and the sooner the off-season gets here, the sooner hope returns. Personally, I think the upcoming off-season will be bigger than last years, and I also think it is vital for the future of our club. Here are my views: Potential List changes for the 2014 season: (10 or more changes) In: Hogan (added) Magner (upgrade) Couch (upgrade) AFL Draft Round 1 AFL priority pick (???) – one can only hope AFL Draft Round 2 AFL Draft Round 3 AFL Draft Round 4 Player traded in Free Agent acquisition Outs ?? We will need to make upward of 10 changes to facilitate recruitment of quality players via draft, free agency, upgrading and trades. My question is; who are the 10 players that will come off the list to facilitate these changes? Sylvia, Davey, Watts, Gawn, Sellar & Jetta are all out of contract (& I am sure there are more) – how many do we re-sign? I expect the club will move to sign young talent like Watts & Gawn, the others may not get the same attention. You would think we would be active players at trade time (like what happened at the end of last season) to facilitate the list overhaul – who gets traded & who is added? & finally who is in control of all of these decisions? I know we are all hurting about the performance of this current team, but the 2014 team could be a vastly different looking Demons outfit. From a list management perspective this off-season is our most important off-season in years. If we fail to get it right in Oct-Dec we are going to be in a world of hurt for 3-4 more years. Your thoughts Demonlanders? Reference: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2013-05-17/future-not-all-hell-for-the-demons http://www.melbournefc.com.au/the-team/players/senior

Yesterday I watched my first live game for 3 years. I am a paid member (and have been for 15 years) but with ongoing weekend commitments I can not attend games. Safe to say I won’t be going out of my way to go again for another 3 years. I am hurting bad after seeing what I saw. I never thought we could be worse than we were in 1997, I was wrong. There is no way we can get worse than we are now. Here are my observations of what is wrong. Lack of work rate Poor tackle technique and effectiveness Lack of kicking skills No commitment or desire Reflection on the game: Our best: Jack Viney (an 18 year old was our best – that says it all), Matt Jones (he had a real dip), Max Gawn (desperation and determination but he can’t be fit, didn’t ruck much he needs ruck coaching IMO) Pass marks: Nathan Jones (he tries), Jordie McKenzie (killed Harbrow – why wasn’t he on Ablett from the start?), Colin Garland (as a 3rd tall defender in a good side he’d be sensational), Chris Dawes*(see my comments below), Jeremy Howe (kicked most of our score), Dean Terlich (not bad) & James Strauss (I can see something there, good foot skills and was ok defensively) That represents just 10 of our 22 that performed at a passable level. *Couldn’t people at the ground see the work that Chris Dawes put in? He was one of very few forwards that put on defensive pressure, he lead up hard (but was not rewarded) and despite the fact that he had limited output he showed he will be a good recruit. Yes he dropped some marks due to poor technique (attempting chest marks rather than overhead) but he did not deserve Bronx cheers from some of the 13,000 in attendance. Our worst: Colin Sylvia – cheap kicks and a cheap shot out of frustration (time to go) Jake Spencer – rucked most of the day and got killed – did people see the defensive 50 stoppage where he hit the ball 20m toward their attacking goal square??? (why did we resign him?) James Frawley – will never ever be an All Australian again, he can not kick and has zero impact on a game of football now. Nichollson & Evans can’t kick and Davey has about one effort in him per game (after his shot that missed toward the 20min mark of Q3 he demanded to come off the ground – even when there was a 5min stretcher break just before the effort). How to get out of this: Positive and supportive leadership from the coach/coaching staff (find it if this group can’t do that) and the executive Use our top pick to bring in a talented mid (and hope he & Hogan are instant superstars) Get a walk up top 22 talent via the preseason draft (see Stephen Powell in 1999 off-season) – encourage a player to not resign and then swoop with a high PSD pick. Add talent via free agency (one mid and one defender) Get rid of the dead wood Section 5 examined further – Here is a list of 20 players that I consider worthy of being on the list at seasons end: We need to take a list like this into the draft, preseason and trade period… If players are not on that list, they have been delisted or traded. Remember to get something we need to trade something. Assets like Jamar, Frawley & Watts may need to be moved for us to go forward as a club. Jesse Hogan Nathan Jones Jimmy Toumpas Chris Dawes Jack Viney Jack Trengove Mitch Clark Jordie McKenzie James Strauss Colin Garland Tom McDonald Jack Grimes Dom Barry Dean Kent Luke Tapscott Max Gawn Jeremy Howe Matt Jones Dean Terlich Jack Fitzpatrick C’mon Demons we need to get this right. I apologise if this is similar to other posts – I felt the need to vent after what I witnessed yesterday.

Trengove looks to have added upper body mass - positive sign.

I don't reckon it'll get done today Dazzle. Dawes needs to make public a desire to be traded to MelbourneFC before this can go down. There is a bit of buzz on twitter atm suggesting that an announcement could come from Dawes soon. I don't want to go against Nudge, coz he seems to be more on the money than I am. But I think it'll happen over the weekend, if it is going to happen.

Pederson for a 2nd round pick. We don't have an available 2nd round pick unless the above deal goes through. (our 2nd rounder is committed to JV) Does this mean that Nudge is right and the deal I heard about at 9am this morning is close to complete? Go Dees!

believe this or not... you choose. Dawes, Farren Ray & pick 39 to Melbourne Pick 20 & Pick 43 to Collingwood Stef Martin & Pick 45 to St.Kilda Melbourne lose – pick 20, pick 45 and Stef Martin Melbourne add – Pick 39, Chris Dawes & Farren Ray Colingwood lose – Chris Dawes & Pick 39 Collingwood gain – Pick 20 (melb) & pick 43 (St.K) St.Kilda lose – Farren Ray& Pick 43 St.Kilda gain – Stef Martin & Pick 45 Gysberts to Essendon for pick 48 was at the bottom of the other sauce bottle.

trade radio says pick 4 could still be up for grabs... what would we want if we do decide to trade? it'd want to be a jet midfielder wouldn't it? suggestion was that Grundy (ruck prospect) will still be available at pick 4 (because GWS are keen to stick to their plans of taking midfielders). Clubs looking for a tall prospect might want to deal with the MFC to get pick 4. what is the right deal?