DemonDave

Saw Barry Mitchell having a chat with Paul Couch at the Casey game on the weekend..

Condemned 84, that wasnt you I spotted in M15 last week with a Bradford top on at the Dees-Giants game was it? Certainly someone near me had a Rams top on!

I heard this on SEN earlier as well. Given that, its virtually a certainty Black wont play on Sunday, which for us is a plus as he's torn us to shreds the last couple of years. Hanley out through suspension is also handy for us.

Anyone wanting Kent selected this week clearly didnt see the Casey game last week, he was ordinary at best, I'm with BRFE on this one. Based on that game: Ins-Rodan, Blease, Strauss Outs-Clark, Viney, Jetta Spencer would be a deserved callup, but I dont think we can play three ruckmen and Pederson in the one side. Similary all those that say Fitzy isnt good enough also havent been watching his improvement at Casey. Last week was his first game for the year and he was fantastic. Sellar isnt good enough thats been proven, Dunn will need a run in the VFL before a recall, McKenzie unlucky after last weeks efforts. The good teams this year are cutting teams apart with pace (see Geelong with Motlop/Varcoe/Stokes, Hawks with Hill/Smith, Blues last week with Garlett/Yarran). Blease and Rodan offer pace and ball-carry, while McKenzie is the exact opposite. Anyone also notice Stefan Martins dwindling statistical returns in the Home and Away season this year after being hailed as a boom recruit during the NAB Cup? Hes averaging a whopping 4 kicks and 3 handballs a game.

Quite a good read this .... Demons winners, just not yet

Without having seen the updates, are Gillies and Stark mentioned? As they have also been missing through injury of late..

When you read stories about Melbourne possibly trading Sylvia, Frawley and Watts, you shake your head. These are the guys at the pointier end of our experience table, we cant keep doing this every year. All the other ex-players at other clubs makes me shudder. Here's Geelongs top end for games list: Joel Corey 257 Corey Enright 248 Paul Chapman 247 Jimmy Bartel 229 James Kelly 214 Steve Johnson 198 Josh Hunt 186 Andrew Mackie 177 Jared Rivers 152 Joel Selwood 139 Mathew Stokes 135 Harry Taylor 116 Hamish McIntosh 107 Tom J. Hawkins 105 Travis Varcoe 104 Tom Lonergan 101 James Podsiadly 64 Mitch Duncan 55 Trent West 45 Taylor Hunt 45 Allen Christensen 40 Steven Motlop 31 Those 22 player total 2995 games! The 16 youve listed above tally 1675 games..

Well Kent didnt do much at all at Casey on the weekend, so I'd hope we aren't considering giving him a game based on his NAB Cup form rather than his current form.

Cols final quarter was the catalyst, he willed himself to dominate in the middle. I watched him really closely in the first quarter, when the ball wasnt necessarily in his general vicinity, and he was working so hard creating lead after lead and was continually ignored due to players taking the easier sideways option. When it did come his way his ability to use his body strength to get in prime position was a feature.

An insulting post. Were you there today? No Fing idea.

First game I've been to this year, and was very impressed with the overall team play of Casey. Welsh mentioned "DI's" at the final change, that we needed to have 600 for the game and we were right on track. I assume this stands for "defensive involvements" or something similar, and right across the board the pressure acts, smothers, sheperds, chase and bumps applied universally across the ground was evident that this is a well drilled team playing for each other. Best for mine easily was Jake Spencer, and he epitomised this ethos, not only winning hitouts with monotonous regularity with a mix of timing his jumps against his opponent, but also good body work and tremendous understanding with where his midfielders either were standing or about to run to. His pressure acts around the ground, chasing, tackling, harassing opponents, for a guy of his size was fantastic. He offered an option when resting up forward too with his leading. Its a shame that he may struggle to get a game now that Gawn has been rewarded, he certainly deserves a crack at it again. What odds he coming in for Jamar anytime soon? His partner in crime, Fitzpatrick had a very good game also. He is certainly progressing along nicely as a forward/relief ruckman. Hes now becoming very hard to beat one on one due to his size and speed. Just needs to work on busting packs a bit more. Three goals for him was just reward for effort. Rodan was very busy, however he tried to do far too much at times. This undid a lot of his good work. It was reminiscent of early Nathan Jones, just trying to do too much and getting pinged on the third option rather than taking the first or second. Still, his workrate was first class and he will come under consideration again. Blease had a similar game to Rodan, very flashy and a couple of times while surrounded by opponents simply accelerated out of imminent danger. A mix of clever and wasteful use of the ball was his only markdown, I think they will give him a go before Rodan due to his greater upside. Its probably a bit unfair to group them, but McKenzie/Couch/Magner not only are all very similar players, but all had equally impressive games today. Couch kicked a beautiful goal from one of the difficult pockets where he knew he was going to get run down, took the time to size up the kick dribbling around the corner and just got it off before being dumped. He has a very good football brain just lacks that yard of pace. The trio combined to completely dominate stoppages and centre clearances. Hogan was immense. Despite his young years, he has a presence out on the field that is hard to ignore. Smart higher leading early in the game got his fellow forwards involved, and as the game wore on he became more and more dominant deeper. Even when he had a breather in the last quarter, he grabbed a footy from the bench and was handballing and bouncing it to himself, you can tell he loves the contest and wants to be involved the whole game. One thing to note is his odd run up to goal, he takes off, takes a sharp veerto the left for a step or two then straightens up. Its very odd but effective. Strauss was good today, his use of the ball is well documented and came to the fore today. He's obviously fighting for the same spot as Jetta, who offers a better option in the chasing and tackling department, but his foot skills may give him the nod going forward if he keeps this form up. Taggert, given that he was only a late call up, was also very impressive. He is very big across the chest area now, and his ability to swing from half back to half forward was a feature, as was his kicking both for goal and in general field play. I really like the look of him. Lets hope he can string together a few more like this. Tynan was solid without being spectacular, but was part of a very stoic half back line that was almost impossible to pass after quarter time. Clisby was also OK on the half back line as well, still not sure what his standout attributes are as this is the first time Ive seen him play. Davis similarly had a fairly serviceable day. He was matched up against Daniher most of the time and managed to get a few timely punches in against a significantly taller opponent, but a feature today was he was the instigator in a lot of our rebounding chains. Kent disappointed me. Of all the listed players, he and Clisby probably had the least impact. He kicked a goal, but just didnt look to be working hard enough up forward, where the ball spent a lot of the day. Of the Casey players, Panozza was rock solid off half back as was Riseley as usual. A couple of the newer players caught the eye, Nathan Page while small in stature was very busy and involved off half forward, and Jake Best also showed a bit of dash. Under Age player Ben Kearns, while very skinny also threw himself into the action admirably and was rewarded on the scoreboard. It was a pleasure to watch Hogan up one end, and Daniher up the other go about it, these two will be features up forward for their two clubs for many years to come, and it was certainly refreshing to enjoy watching a game of football again!

Bate played and had no more than 6 out so touches for the poster that asked. He looks to have dropped 6 or 7kgs since last year, very fined down

spencer and fitz have been dominant in the ruck, and around the ground their 1 percent and pressure acts have been superb. Spencer easily bog at half time for mine I taggert has done some very nice things is a very good size now. blease,rodan both been busy. hogan has taken some nice grabs on long leads. daniher shaded him so far, reminds me of Paul salmon.

Being a Spurs fan I was fully expecting us to be matching up against the Rockets, how on earth did Lakers get up into 7th? I havent been keeping track of the other teams this week. Good to see Patty Mills get a nice points haul against Golden State yesterday, and also from an Aussie persepective I hope Bogut and the Warriors get thru to the second round as well. I guess its up to Howard to really step up for LAL now, I watched the game against Spurs the other day, was a great contest v Tim Duncan. I'm not so sure Steve Blake can carry you that far in the playoffs though. Go Spurs Go!

Jamar had donuts in the kicks column last night. Zero kicks. Its time to make a statement give Spencer and/or Gawn a run (get rid of Sellar and play 2 ruckmen against Cox). Bit disappointing that our top 3 posession getters are all rookie listed so cant play next week. Thanks for the updates as always KC!

He has to go! Case in point- James Frawley. Used to be a good player...terrible now. Aaron Davey...often brilliant previously, now pathetic. Colin Sylvia...mercurial but had regular outstanding games and patches. At what should be the peak of his career he is demoralised and useless. Could go on but won't. Neeld doesn't have the ability to do what he claims he is doing- changing the Demons culture. He is just sucking the lifeblood out of the players. Is Roos available?

no tim smith in either of the sides this week, can you tell us KC if he's injured at the moment?

The match against Port represents the nadir of my Demons supporting life. What a pathetic team. They are incapable of improvement irrespective of changes in the coaching panel or player list. Till this point i have accepted and rationalised one false dawn after another. no more. Here are a few of my grievances: 1. I couldn't understand why we would recruit Pedersen, Byrnes, Gillies and Rodan. Dawes is still an unknown quantity. Why would we pick up players that are incapable of making a superior team's playing list, particularly Rodan & Byrnes who are past their prime? I have been vindicated in my belief they were all mistakes by their abysmal performances. 2. Like many I have been giving Neeld time to create a new culture but the evidence seems to be he is incapable of doing so. His grim demeanour and platitudinous statistical utterings have proven to be hollow and meaningless. There is no evidence of any gameplan and has been none since he arrived. The players play with no flair or verve under his regime. I never thought I would look back fondly to the excesses of the Dean Bailey era but I am! Yes they lost routinely by ten goals but occasionally they would win by a similar amount playing with run and energy. Not under Neeld! His dour world of statistical analysis yields heavy losses without redeeming wins and with joyless and boring football. He is not the saviour! 3. I know it has been regularly commented upon but how can we have transformed a decade of high draft picks into such a mediocre and pedestrian playing list? Where is MFC's Cyril Rioli or Marc Murphy or Patrick Dangerfield or Dustin Martin or Tex Walker? I could have continued for an hour listing young players with leadership, excitement, the X-factor, physicality, speed. Apart from possibly Jack Viney which Demons recruit exhibits any of these qualities? Jack Watts seems to be a terrific guy but growing a bushranger beard does not make you tough. He never looks like imposing himself on a contest and gets brushed aside by 70kg mosquitoes. All the others have similar failings. They are slow, poor decision makers, timid and introverted. What the ***k were our recruiters looking for? The only line breaker in the entire squad is Blease and his delivery and decision making are generally atrocious. I could continue but my point is made. 4. These qualities or lack thereof are endemic through the majority of our list. We are too slow, too timid, too lazy, not tall enough, not physical enough, not tough enough, mentally weak, too introverted, not creative enough, have no X-factor, can't win contested possessions, can't win stoppages, can't kick accurately or long, have no game-plan, not skilled enough, never look like taking a contested mark apart from Clarke and Howe, never go for a mark in the back line, never spread forward of the ball to provide options...I could go on for a month. I have never felt so negative about the MFC. I have supported them painfully now since early childhood for over 45 years and to be honest the investment of passion has not returned any profit whatsoever. I would normally disapprove of supporters boo-ing their players at half time but I understood it completely yesterday. I wished I was there to join in andd register my disgust as well. We have all had enough!

I can't understand how tapscott was selected in the first place. He hardly earned his spot based on his pre-season form -this simply doesn't happen in the good sides, if you're borderline best 22 you have to show some kind of form to warrant inclusion. Can anyone tell me what his optimal position is? His 7 possessions today tells me he isn't a half forward flanker. Other than being solidly built he hasn't shown anything in his career so far, other than laying a few bumps.

toumpas struggled with the pace and intensity for the first three quarters today undoubtedly, but it is ridiculously early to be making drafting assessments. We didn't draft wines as he would have been too similar to viney, our needs were outside mids with pace and skills not more grunts.

so should we have sat there and applauded the players as they came off at the end? Today was disgusting blight on our football club, that kind of performance cannot and should not be tolerated under any circumstances. By not voicing our displeasure at the players, coaches and match committee would only seemingly serve to endorse these ongoing failings.

Will Jnr end up a forward towards the end of his career? He is so balanced and so like his dad was when he did that spin and goal. A true master class tonight to single handedly pull them up to beat the Saints...

Wow, You're saying that the circumstances for our captain, having played about half a VFL game after a 3 month injury layoff last week playing in the VFL come Round 1, are the same as Gysberts who played every game in the NAB Cup/Challenge but did so poorly in the preseason that he wasnt selected for senior consideration? Very astute observation.

Did anyone else hear on tonights commentary, halfway through the second quarter I think it was, Taylor mentioned the Tigers had kicked the last 8 goals of the game. Darcy the dimwit then proclaimed 'the Blues havent kicked a goal this quarter yet!'. Err no Luke, they hadn't.

I didnt think there was such a thing as a 2PM fixture anymore? Theyve shuffled those games to an hour earlier to squeeze in another game before the 730 one