Forest Demon

He was listed as a commentator for Thursday night's game, but Granland was calling it instead. And then Granland was calling again today, so can only assume Dwayne is sick or maybe full time on the NBL finals. I wouldn't wish ill on the the bloke, but it was a pleasure not having to listen to him. As for the others, Sandy is good, but definitely getting a bit past his used by date. Brad Johnson annoys me, but was generally ok today. Tony Shaw on the other hand is as thick as two planks.

On the commentators, I think Matt Granland must be replacing everybody's favourite Dwayne Russell, as he replaced him on Thursday night as well. If so, that was definitely the biggest positive to come out of the day.

If we want to take the positives from last week, we have to recognise how ordinary we have been today. Hopefully VDB hasn't done anything serious, as he is an important player for us. Tom McDonald...wow...I don't think I've seen a player with a greater discrepancy between his best and worst. On his day, he looks All Australian, on days like today, he is an absolute liability.

If we turn up and play with the sort of intensity we are hoping to see week in, week out, we will pummel them. And it will be lovely.

I too don't mind the Doggies, and didn't mind Luke Beveridge. But I have lost all respect for the bloke after his comments about the drug saga. It was one of the biggest bits of drivel I have heard surrounding the issue, and that is saying something when you have peanuts like Hird and Slobbo giving us their thoughts.

Interesting that Grimes and Watts are restricted free agents, meaning they are among the highest paid players. While I hope they are both retained, I think you can guarantee they will be looking at reduced contract offers for 2017 from the club.

Poor guy is only relatively young. Hopefully he can make a recovery. Best of luck. A few wins for the dees throughout the year will put a smile on his face during recovery and rehab.

Himself and Hunt neither overly impressed or disappointed me. Both spent little time on the field, so would like to see them get more time in the next couple of weeks if they are a genuine chance of claiming the seemingly up for grabs spot on a half back flank.

Like many, I am not sold on the Sam Frost as a forward experiment, and haven't been at any stage. My preference is Pedersen as the second tall, with Watts playing that third tall role who works up the ground i.e. the role they tried to recruit Lynch to do. I would play all of TMac, Frost, Garland and Dunn down back (with one starting on the bench), with the key being almost all 4 of them are very flexible in that they can play on smaller opponents if required. And we could then swing Frost into the ruck for 5 minutes here or there, and we can also swing TMac forward for a while if required. I don't think OMac will be up to it for 2016. Dawes and Hulett compete with Pedersen for the second tall forward role.

The AFL can't be too disgusted by it if they put the still shot up on their website.

Interesting comments so far. He definitely seems to be one of those players who divides opinion. I must admit, I find it a little hard to warm to him, but it shouldn't be too hard if he keeps playing like he did the first half of last year.

Immense pressure and intensity in the 3rd quarter, for a pre season game anyway. Gawn was huge and gave the likes of Viney and Tyson first use consistently.

There are actually players who have "put contract talks on hold" in the last year of their contract and eventually re-signed. Cloke springs to mind, but I am certain there are another couple as well. The fact he has 2 seasons on his contract is a big factor, so we are 12 months away from having to really worry about this. And to others who are getting their knickers in a knot, everything I read from the media actually seems to hint that they think he will eventually re-sign with us.

But it does make it even more important that we see some genuine improvement this year. Need 9 or 10 wins minimum.

I am pretty confident he will stay. This is different to the usual "contract talks are off" as he still has 2 years on his contract, and it actually makes little sense to extend it now. If we read the same lines this time next year it will be time to start worrying.

I am confident that Jack Viney will take a big leap this year, and I am tipping him to make the AA squad of 40 odd this year. So I am excited to watch him play to see if that happens or not.

Interested why you would call it a farce? The AFL aren't trying to paint it as anymore than a practice match. There are a couple of changes I would make, but hardly farcical.

I'm not fussed by the result. As you mentioned Port have one game under their belt, and will be fielding a very strong side. In saying that, I would just like to see a good competitive effort, and then amongst that, some standout individual performances from some players who might not necessarily be in our top 10 players, like Kent, Frost, Kennedy, VDB, Grimes etc. I would love to get through the NAB Challenge with 3 competitive efforts, with a couple of those potentially being wins. We seem to cop a morale bashing loss once a year in the NAB Challenge. I remember getting absolutely walloped by St Kilda a couple of years back, and of course losing to the top up Bombers last year, so we need to avoid anything like that happening IMO.

Maybe one of Demonland's resident pessimists will take your bet

The main thing I don't like about the NAB Challenge is the length of it. I mean, we have 4 weeks of it, and then a week off, before Round 1. Why are they doing split rounds for the first 3 weeks, when they get a week off before round 1 anyway, it makes little sense to me. Just give everyone 2 games in 2 weeks, have a week off, and then get into the real stuff.

They did mention Port will be playing their best side against us next week.

The media are too thick to even realise how the mini draft worked. They wouldn't even realise GC had access to Hogan if they wanted him instead of Martin.

I like Grimes, and he would be in my 22. I have noticed his clangers are almost exclusively on his left, which he needs to improve without doubt, but I think his right is actually reliable.

Jack Viney is in the top 3 most important players on our list, and the quotes in that article illustrate part of the reason why. ‘‘Jack Viney has probably been the one I’ve admired the most,’’ Oliver said. ‘‘Just how hard he is at training, and how competitive he is in everything he does. ‘‘He just hates losing so that’s someone who’s been a bit of a role model for me.’’

Imo, it is a perfect place to trial a couple of new rules that might be introduced in the near future, but there is no point adding gimmicks like super goals.