DemonDave

He played in the intra-club game the week before, but didnt do anything to really catch the eye like he did in that VFL game against Box Hill last year. So unless he got injured between then and Friday I would think he is fit and ready to play. I'd assume he will be playing this week in Renmark as they have said they are going to take a young squad across..

Sadly I threw away my dictionary in the middle of last year when City Hall announced we were being investigated for tanking. When I looked it up, the word wasnt even in the there! Useless waste of trees!

It was interesting that the ad in todays Sun for the game(s) had a photo of one player from each team , two established stars from North and Tigers, and Jack Viney for us. Is it too early in his career for him to be a 'face', a marketable commodity? Cant wait till Friday!

Yeah but it was the same old suspects. Sorry for reporting what I saw. How was your view of the match?

The overall standard today I'd say was good, but hardly crisp, never hitting the deck football. Plenty of the usual suspects kicks went astray at times (McKenzie, Nicholson, Spencer). Some of the players who were unusually quite for their relative experience were Grimes, Tapscott and Davey. As the game wore on, some players seemed to get more involved. Strauss and Couch in particular got better as the game wore on. I loved the look of Jetta running off a half back flank, he didnt get a lot of the footy but when he did he really stood out with his pace, class and decision making.u Jamar had the better of Spencer in the ruck duels, but around the ground they were fairly evenly matched although Jamar has far more presence at marking contests. There werent a lot of centre square bounces, as this was a game that could be stopped by Neelds whistle at a whim (he patrolled on the ground the whole game) and could then be moved 100 metres down the ground to try a different setup just outside of goal. Also quite often goals resulted in point kickouts etc etc. Pederson was fairly quiet throughout. Gillies after a fantastic first half went a bit quieter but showed good signs. Toumpas didnt get that much of it but looked slick when he did. Viney was Viney, if you saw him play U18s or VFL last year you know what to expect, the stepup in intensity didnt faze him in the slightest. Rodan was very busy, in the first quarter alone he and Byrnes combined passes about 5 or 6 times. Byrnes clearly BOG, his goals werent as a result of crumbing but of working hard to offer himself to teammates all over the ground.Hogan definitely shows he has 'it', attacks the ball well I think he will acquit himself very well at VFL this year.

lyden dunn has been great in the blue defense as has watts, very composed. Not playing today dawes, macdonald, gawn, howe, trengove, bail, clark, sellar

To make it harder some guys changed teams/numbers at qtr time. toumpas went from Blue 5 to white 2. Sylvia and Davey also swapped. Sylvia has been impressive Davey I don't think has had a touch. Kent has done quite a few nice things to fwd for Blue. gillies in white was very lively. reads the play very well.

THink of all that IP and 'winning culture' they bring from us to the Dawks....

Nineteen - this is the only one I have:

These are all of the Melbourne Mobil Cards, from my collection: http://s640.photobucket.com/albums/uu129/dave74_photos/Mobil/ The oldest known Melbourne cards depicted are from 1904: Feel free to browse around all of the other Melbourne cards, plenty of great history in there! Some of my other favorite looking series http--,,--//s640.photobucket.com/albums/uu129/dave74_photos/Coles/ http--,,--//s640.photobucket.com/albums/uu129/dave74_photos/Kornies/1959/

Blind Freddy could see he was in the wrong place at the wrong time...maybe looking for the ghost of Brownlow Fevolas past..

No real surprise in the Award winners, or Hall of Fame Inductions announced, all well worthy winners. AP seems to be taking the celebrations in good stride... Less than 24 hours till the big game, nerves are kicking in here, got the couch primed and a mate coming over to watch it. While its been fun, almost 2 weeks on ESPN nightly shows of talking about the one game, even with my team involved, has become somewhat groundhog-day-esque. At least this time every year the sadness of the NFL season ending is knowing that AFL is just about to fire up again!

Also some great portrait shots from on the MCG on that afl photos site too: http://www.aflphotos.com.au/galleries/results/?q=collection:AFL%202013%20Portraits%20-%20Melbourne&image_id=274554 Is it just me, or does Dom Barry have really big hands compared to his skinny arms?

http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/melbourne_demons_signs_opel_as_joint_major_sponsor/ Although financial details of the agreement were not released, EnergyWatch's sole major sponsorship of Melbourne was worth US$2 million annually. As such, Opel's commitment to Demons as a joint major sponsor is estimated to be worth US$1 million annually http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/demons_extend_partnership_with_webjet/ The Australian rules football club signed the original agreement in April, estimated to be worth in the region of US$1 million annually, The way I read reports after Opel had signed was that we had more than matched the money that EnergyWatch would have provided us. These articles seem to articulate the same thing...

Thanks for posting this, good read! Most of it is pretty spot on, our midfield has been our biggest weakness the last 5 years. Not sure how or what the scoring measurements for the Elite to Unknown categories entails, but surprising to see Joel MacDonald rated in Above Average.

Superbowl here we come, yeah! Not a great start in todays game, Ryan was hitting White, Jones and Fernandez with ease, our secondary wasnt coping at all well despite the fact their offense revolves around these 3 almost 90% of the time. Great comeback, we didnt see much running from the QB today, but Gore and James made some good rushing plays. Ahmad Brooks the standout on defence, two bat downs and the big hit to Ryan that hurt his left shoulder near the end. Now for the second game, will we see a Harbaugh-Bowl on Feb 4?

I was about to say "Too Many Chiefs" but Lost Highway beat me to it... So 1/3 of our leadership group have represented the club in a grand total of 11 games for the club combined...

Has anyone else seen this video thats done the rounds the last couple of days? Bad lipreading interpretations of some NFL highlights, its hilarious....

Seems a lot of people claim to have read the Andrews Report and making comment on it here, did the club release it via PDF and I not get it? Or are people making things up? As for the historical emphasis of our club of late I love it! We are the oldest club, have 12 premierships and were the power club there for a while. Why not celebrate it? Should we just write it all off and prance around like the newest hooker on the block a-la GWS and Gold Coast saying how wondeful we are going to be in 5 years time? Hawthorn still refer to themselves via their glory era in the Eighties, the Swans ethos is driven by 'the Bloods'. Plenty of clubs have been casting a retrospective rather than introspective eye back into their history of late, Richmond having their captains wear Jack Dyers number etc etc.

Superb game of football that one between Falcons and Hawks. Wow I thought that Seattle were about to pull off a miracle. A good onside kick saved the day for the Falcs. so its decided: AFC Baltimore at New England NFC San Fran at Atlanta 3 out of the 4 that were there at the same stage last year with Falcons taking the place of the Giants. Cant wait!

Crabtree has also had a breakout year, hes our go-to guy on third down conversions this year. I didnt make any predictions about this game beforehand as honestly I didnt think we would win. Losing our #2 and #4 receivers (Mario Manningham and Kyle Williams) and #2 running back (Kendall Hunter) to season ending injuries, and a questionably fit Justin Smith along with our indifferent form over the past month left me quietly fearing the worst. I'm torn with a preferred opponent next week, Seattle cut us to pieces a few weeks ago, but that was on the road and they werent that convincing last week given RG3 was a non-factor so early. Hawks are an unknown quantity to me, have barely seen them play all year. Matt Ryan needs to get the monkey off his back of never having had a playoff victory, if he does they secure home ground advantage and that game would be a real interesting one. I'd take Atlanta right now.. I cant see the Patriots losing tomorrow, and I really feel that was Baltimores 'grand final' today. so I think the Pats will be in the Super Bowl yet again.

Well that certainly was a 'career' game by Kap, and the Niners as a team beat all sorts of post-season records. 263 yards in the air and 183 on the ground for the QB (Most by any QB ever in a playoff!) are incredible numbers. Good game in the first half, but was all one way in the second. A few of the Packers receivers (Jordy Nelson, Driver never really seemed to be a factor in this game). Good day for the Harbaugh family too!

I hope not! My nerves are already shredded here!

What an amazing game in Denver that was! Full credit to the Ravens, I didnt expect that win today, especially travelling to Mile High. That bomb by Flacco in the last quarter was a gem! The only thing I didnt like about the finish was that I was forced to jump onto ESPN to watch a play by play tracker of the first 6 or so minutes of the Niners-Packers game while OT played out...

the always informative ussportsdownunder have released details of their superbowl venues for watching the game locally today, Ive never been to one of these but think I will this year: http://ussportsdownunder.com/nfl/attend/events/places-to-watch-super-bowl-xlvii-in-australia-2013