DemonDave

Thought Gysberts was quite good today, still rake thin but put his body into the packs, seems to read the ball really well. Stef Martin was also good in the conditions, although the inconsistency of his disposal is frustrating. Presented well up forward playing in front, and was capable giving Spencer a chopout in the ruck. Not much to write home about for most of the others. Bennell while he didnt get much of it was very constructive with his disposals. Couch apart from the winning goal was tagged extremely effectively. Davis was solid but ultimately beaten in the air too many times by Wilkes. Petterd very ordinary game someone of his experience needs to do more, seemed more intent on the niggle. Tynan- how many times did his brother kick it to him today? Just OK. Spencer tried hard ultimately beaten but was not terrible. Strauss - Great to see him get a game under his belt. A few of his kicks were sublime. Sheahan - fairly anonymous, moved forward to little effect later on. Williams - Didnt get much of it in first game at senior level I've seen from him but looks like a capable forward. Of the Scorps listed players Panozza, Riseley, Tynan and Collins the standouts. A great win in the end in trying conditions...

Sky news Australia, based in Sydney of course, having a whale of a time butcher our suburb names that they've never heard of before. Gotta love our centralised news services... Only a minor shimmy in our household, but 5.5 is a big deal.

Definitely it was "Finals Over", my memories are with RGRS on this one. Good to see my mates who made the "Ooh thats gonna bruise" get another run on the websites last week too..

For Range Rover and whoever else plans to have fun on Sunday, here are the million dollar memories I whipped up in 15 mins yesterday for the traitor. (posted them in the wrong thread before). Print them out and have fun! Two choices for the flipside.

Zing! Such was the criteria when were looking at a coach and assistants, the all important 'winning culture' and 'successful club IP' traits were all the rage. Bring him into the club ASAP. We probably havent had a flag winner since Peter Vardy have we?

Going to be hard now for OKC, Miami have shifted the momentum their way massively, and are now at home for the next two(?). Cant see them getting beaten from here, unless Durant and Westbrook put on some stupendous shooting performances. Spoke to one of my friends who is now on the Heat bandwagon, giving me crap about Spurs missing out on the big dance again, and I asked him "Can you name any of their other players other than the Big 3?" "How awesome is LeBron" was his response.....

And here is his Demonwiki stub: http://demonwiki.org/Robert+B+Johnson

Great to see another star from our golden era recognised: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/138468/default.aspx

Good luck to Jack, this guy cant take a trick, chronic Fatigue in his junior days and now type 1 Diabetes. From MFC site article, he and the club have contacted past and present players from other clubs to see how they managed the condition, great to hear them leaving no stone unturned in aiding him. Here is the MFC article: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/7415/newsid/138234/default.aspx

Amazing the impatience of supporters and the media. The whole Jack Watts criticising that has been a national sport over the last two years has been hysterical. And yet over the past week I've heard Dermott Brereton respond to criticism of Ryan Schoenmakers by saying "Hes just a kid let him develop" on SEN, and then this morning Robert Walls defend Lachlan Henderson by saying 'Hes only a very young kid" in defence of his lack of output. These two are 22 and 23 respectively. Watts is 21. Its great to hear the Cook is starting to show some of the ability that meant we used pick 12 on him..Lets keep nurturing him, let him develop at a natural rate and when he's ready reward him with a senior game...

So every time a journo gets it wrong based on the perception of others, they should resign? Wow the newsrooms of Australia would be barren. We'd have to rely on the twitterverse for our 'news'

Too similar to Aaron Davey for mine. That particular niche on our list is already filled...

Both series locked at 2-2, heading back to the higher seeds home court. These two series have so many possibilities from here. Wow! I think given the Celts have been only managing it in OT means the Heat have more upside, whereas I think OKC have more potential room for upside in their series as well. Time will tell, Im so so busy at work but still trying to find time to sneak a look at the live updates!

Been watching most of these games on delay later at night on ESPN, which has been great. Even though knowing the result, its still good watching the machinations of the game. It certainly seems all but a formality it will be Heat-Spurs now. If ever Boston were gonna sneak a win in Miami it was yesterday, a herculean effort from Rondo but still they couldnt get it done down South Beach way. The third cog in the big three wheel in Miami in Bosh is still not back, but they still keep rolling along. Spurs were similarly convincing in their game 2 at home, in fact even more so. They were 20 odd points up at one stage, until a belated third Q comeback led predictably by Durant. The sheer depth of the Spurs roster after the pickups of Diaw and Jackson has meant they can easily cover if one of their stars has a bad night. They certainly run deeper than any of the other 3 teams right now. The tables turned for the first home games for Boston and OKC today and tomorrow, the home fans will be rowdy and hungry for an opening win. I expect these two games to be very close. As for the draft, after the season from hell the Bobcats had, they only end up with pick 2. Devastating that they wont get Davis, who has been the standout in the NCAA this year. His monobrow does scare me somewhat though.

A bit late to see these posts but here goes. The biggest weakness last year for the Niners was their receiving corps. Crabtree is not and i dont think will ever be more than a slot receiver, certainly not the #1 target we were after. Josh Morgan took off to the Redskins after showing a bit, and Kyle Williams and ted Ginn Jnr..well..lets not relive the Giants game again..A team cant be relying, as good as they are, on two tight ends in Davis & Walker to make all of their big pass plays. SO they picked up Mario Manningham from the Giants who had a very good year. We were always going to use our #1 pick on a receiver, but had no hope without trading up of getting Blackmon or Floyd. Jenkins was a surprise to many draft pundits, he has speed but his separation after catch isnt great. Time will tell. They also took a gamble on 36 year old Randy Moss, who is apparently in as good as shape as he's been after a year on the sidelines. Who knows if he will make the final squad or not, it didnt cost us anything to do though. We lost our starting nose tackle Snyder, so used our third round pick on a replacement for him which was also understandable. Not sure about our 2nd round pick, another running back, given we have AllPro Frank Gore, soph Kendall Hunter who showed quite a bit in his rookie year as a third down back, and picked up Brandon Jacobs from the Giants also. I guess like any draft it will take a while to determine if it was a 'good' draft for teams or not. Really looking forward to seeing RG3 in particular, he and Cam Newton may well become the prototype upon which future QBs are based. Luck will be more of a traditional pocket passer, and at the same time this type of QB has also flourished the last couple of years with yard records for passing regularly being broken by teams starters.

Positives - Some of our kickouts from fullback were able to find targets out wide, and fully utilise the leg speed of Bail, Nicholson and Blease. We desperately lacked this pace in the first part of the season Defence still holding up relatively well. Even though Betts kicked a handful, Garland beat him numerous times in the 1 on 1's. A lot of his opponents goals were not his fault. Frawley found a bit of form with rebounding, and Rivers was again good.How Hampson got in the best baffles me. McDonald improving with confidence each week. The improvement of Watts, Blease and McDonald. Calls for Watts to be dropped are narrow minded and sensationalist. Plenty of players made mistakes in the heat of battle yesterday. McKenzie on Judd. Did a great job on him, only letting his guard slip, as all the rest did, in the last quarter. Negatives- The continual anonymity of Moloney and Trengove. These are the guys that won our B&F last year and our captain. Robinson. Always plays well against us, and always sucks our players in with his antagonising. Jamars continual decline in influence, 2 kicks for the day, this guy was all Australian 2 years ago. His kicking for goal seems to lack the penetration and accuracy he once had also The last quarter. for obvious reasons. The continued slavish obedience to kicking it backwards across defensive 50 to try and free up the man to run the ball down the wing, when players are flapping their arms on their own in the middle of the ground. A bit of discretion and common sense to deviate from the gameplan is required at times. Jones, Watts, Frawley the chief offenders here. Howe. Only had three touches after quarter time. Simply not good enough. Wasnt helped by dumb play by Tapscott who leapt backwards to spoil what wouldve been a great mark. Aaron Davey. Barely noticed him today, was he even out there? I blame him entirely for this loss. The lack of crowd. Doesnt matter if it was an away game, 28K for two Melbourne teams is awful.

Game 1 is underway in the AT&T Centre, at work so only watching the live scores on the box score. What say we for predictions on here? I'm going 4-2 for my Spurs, their win streak is growing but every time we got to 11 or 12 in the regular season we seemed to have a letdown game. Chalk up two at home before dropping one. All we need is Manu Ginobili to fully find his rhythm. In the East, I'm tipping Miami over Boston 4-1. Its a credit to the creaky Celtics that they've got this far, but James & Wade will be hard to beat for youth and athleticism. They will need Bosh back in a hurry though.

Fantastic win for the 76ers today, wow! They were upto 18 behind at times in this game. Certainly lights the spark on this series, will be a fascinating one. We almost saw another big incident between Metta World "Peace" and Westbrook there, I agree with the commentators a double technical in this situation is a bit of a copout. If this game hadve been in Oklahoma the crowd would be absolutely giving it to MWP right now. Spurs are nicely placed in their series against Clippers, the balanced offense really does make it hard to match up on, double team Parker and you open up Ginobli and Neale and the like. Even Boris Diaw is having an impact... D Wades blowup with the coach really didnt look good, in line with his terrible game. On Mike and Mike on ESPN last night they floated the theory that Wade and LeBron are too similar, and that maybe they should try and trade DWade to somehow get Howard. Interesting hypothetical!

Besides the wins against us and Port Adelaide, the Tigers have beaten the Swans at the MCG, which even we managed to do two years ago. They are still lowly to me until they beat a credible side...

The glaring, glaring hole in the Sydney side is their ruck division, and lack of height in general. Really if Jamar cannot dominate this game against a different code convert who struggles to get 5 or 6 disposals a game, and a backup (probably) in LRT, then he can quite happily seek a new free agency home next year. With no Goodes (or Kirk or O Loughlin anymore of course) and a first gamer picked at Centre Half foward, in conjunction with us naming just about our best side on paper, I think we are a real chance. Of course, they have one of the most inform midfielders in the comp in Kennedy. Since losing Goodes theyve lost to Adelaide, and were thumped by the lowly Tigers.

The new examination date is 2 days after our game in Darwin, coincidentally. The new hearing date means he has to appear in person. so one would assume if he is fit enough he will play on the Saturday night and front up on the Monday in court.

Can you guess which corporate spin (aka a media release) is for which team? A) Kaspersky Lab is delighted to secure this partnership with the ? Football Club and we look forward to becoming part of the great community and tradition of the ?. B) We are looking forward to building our relationship with the ? team and its wider corporate networks. “Being Melbourne based, the local Kaspersky team are all strong AFL supporters and are passionate about backing clubs that match our values.”

The AFL in conjuction with the Melbourne Football Club has announced the Jim Stynes Community Leadership Award. To be awarded on Brownlow Night who shows commitment to his community. Full story at MFC http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/7415/newsid/135967/default.aspx Great idea and a suitable way to honour the Great Man.

Press release from the "Melbourne Football Club" The club today would like to acknowledge that senior player Stefan Martin was witnessed to smile and laugh at training yesterday. Chief Executive Cameron Schwab today announced "We take these indiscretions very seriously, and can announce that player Martin has been stood down from the non-leadership group indefinitely, and will be required to undertake 34 hours of community service manning a gate at Parliament Station, considered the bench-mark for people who show no joy in their work". Martin said in a prepared statement "I understand my actions were wrong, and if I had my time again would do things differently. I today humbly apologise to my teammates, coaching staff, family members and most importantly the fans. My attempts to show a glimpse of enjoyment from this season were insensitive and may have offended many people" Schwab added "At the Melbourne Football Club, we are striving for a professional environment at all times, and we are extremely disappointed in Stefans actions. We will not tolerate such actions, and have made our stance on this quite clear in past. Last offseason player Addam Maric, who had previously had an exemplary record of discipline in not showing emotion, suffered a rare lapse, smiled, and we could no longer continue to ignore his disruptive influence. Addam unfortunately as a result is no longer at our football club." In other news, the club also today announced the termination of its dental sponsor, The Smile Clinic, due to a conflict in core values. We thank the company for their previous valued support as a Bronze Sponsor.

Quite possibly one of the greatest nights of sporting theatre, nerves, adrenalin and astonishment I've ever sat through. Like 45HG I was watching the Spurs game, witnessing the roller coaster of emotions of the crowd as West Brom fell behind and then snatched the lead. The rumour going around White Hart Lane that West Brom has scored a third (witness crowd members holding up three fingers in hope) got my heart racing. Alas once the equaliser came there was only ever going to be one winner sadly. The deflation the crowd when the Gunners scored was palpable. After 80 minutes I abandonded our hopes for third and was madly flicking between the two Manc games and the West Brom-Arsenal game. That last five or ten minutes were a blur. I also had the espn twitter feeds going on my PC to see what the other games were doing. Unbelievable scenes when Citys third went in, an even better sight was Ferguson getting the news of it, and ushering his confused players off the pitch. There were so many mad things going on. Tim Cahill red carded after the final whistle as the Toffees smash Newcastle and finish above their Merseyside rivals for the first time in a long time. Joey Bartons red mist moment. This mindless thug deserves 20+ weeks for all his repeated indiscretions. Cisse from QPR hugging one of the Man City players in jubilation after the whistle as the players ran off to avoid the catatonic fans. Truly a memorable night.