DemonDave

Im surprised I didnt enunciate my feelings about Bennell better. I think he's nowehere near our best 22, he has barely improved at all since his first game. We cannot continually carry a passenger who gets so few posessions. But the reason I was surprised is because he seems to continually be somehow in favor at match committee meetings. Id rather see Tynan, Taggert and their ilk get games this year ahead of him. Borderline 22 for mine. Besides being 'big' and 'solid' with a booming kick, he is not yet in our best 22 for mine as he's still learning where he fits in at the top level. Is he a forward? A Backman? Or a midfielder? At this stage I just dont know. Size alone doesnt equate to a good footballer automatically. Brad Miller showed that. Our best 22 on Saturday is really only short Sylvia, Jurrah and Petterd maybe for mine, who would probably replace Tynan, Blease and Bate. Still, thats only my view.

No real surprises apart from maybe bennell missing out, given he posted most pre season games. I guess gysberts & tapscott will need another week or two at casey which I'm not that concerned about as they are borderline best 22 at the moment anyway. Roll on saturday!

A beautiful service for a beautiful man. Found it hard to keep it together when his brother Brian spoke. Also spotted Nathan Carroll, Wheatley in the crowd amongst us. A few of us went across to Young & Jacksons to have a pint of Guinness in his honor, whaddya know the other half of the pub is full of old teammates: Febey, Febey, White, Strawbs, Cuthbertson, B Lovett, Lovell, Kowall, Grinter, Viney, Lamprill, Hopgood, Seecamp, O'Donnell, Eishold, Beveridge,Tingay etc etc... It was very surreal having a beer in the company of these past MFC players.

So what would some people rather have seen last year, 18 games from Junior or 15 from Gysberts or similar?

The Swans have been more willing than most over the last ten years to swap away their first and/or second round picks to grab ready made players theyve identified that are struggling to find a niche at other clubs. The Swans have done this to remain in or thereabouts the 8, as hey know their market will quickly lose interest in attending Swans games if they are not winning. Over the last couple of years the bigger clubs on the cusp of success have followed this method, think Hawthorn with Gunston, Hale & Gibson, Pies with Jolly and Ball, Cats with Ottens etc.

Gee the Broncos didnt really get much in the trade for Tebow either did they? Considering how big "Tebowmania" was during their playoff run this year, youd think he would have a bit more currency. I guess he preferred to be in a 'big' market, it will be interesting how big Rex handles the two QBs, I cant imagine Sanchez, hardly a popular figure with the Jets fans and media at the best of times, wouldve been to happy with the newfound competition. Im with Macca on this one, Sanchez gets the incumbency, and then after one game will be sitting it out by the big cooling fans on the sidelines while Tebow does his usual of offering nothing in the first half before running his team to victory almost singlehandedly. Noo Yoik now has the two biggest pro sport sensations of the past couple of years in the one city! A photo of the two together is surely an inevitability.. The Broncos have taken a big calculated risk shipping Tebow out and bringing in a 36 year old coming off a very serious neck injury. And signing for five years? Hmm. The Dolphins,Texans and Jags are the big losers out of all this. All were in the hunt for his services, as were the 49ers, they still crave and do not have their 'marquee' quarterback. The Niners risked disenfranchising Alex Smith when they courted Manning, but thankfully Smith re-signed after holding talks with Miami. He is no 'star' but he fits Harbaughs system, and with Mario Manningham and Randy Moss as upgrades at WR this year should at least have a viable target long this year that isnt a tight end. Roll on the draft, and Luck and RG3 getting into the pro systems, cant wait to see these two start for the Colts and Skins next year!

Interestingly Mark Jamar has a younger brother who is playing for North Adelaide in the SANFL http://www.nafc.com.au/seniorfootball/players/default.aspx He is 24 according to his bio.

RIP Big Jim. You were truly an inspiration to so many. Not just this club but the whole community are poorer from your passing.

Yes, fathead Ed did mention this in his 'news' segment at the start of the show. It was mentioned on the show that Jurrah would be at training tomorrow to continue his rehab, so thats a good sign.. I fast forwarded through the segment with the two GWS clowns, they're not worthy of my time. There were plenty of puff pieces on this show, although the story on Brad Sewells offseason trips to Sri Lanka etc was a bit different and interesting. Clearly Ed will be using his industry clout to get some big names on this show. lets hope its not to the detriment of some of the more interesting shows on Foxfooty.

Really? Sure looks like it was to me: http://www.ntnews.com.au/uploads/front-pages/ntnewsfrontlge.jpg

I'm guilty of this as well! It was on again last night around 9PM. So yeah, I watched it again. It gives you a chance to watch for little things you may have missed the third time around. Like how well Nathan Jones played, some of the things he did that werent on the stats sheet (that we see in the paper anyway), pressure acts, chases to force errors, shepherds, bumps, he really worked hard whenever he was near the contest Saturday night. Oh, and how Ricky P could easily have had 5 goals too, all the ones he missed were eminently gettable chances. There are so, so many channels on Fox I've never watched for more than 5 minutes over the years that I've had pay. Such a waste of money to be paying for all those channels I dont need. If you could just choose which ones you wanted pro-rata I'd choose all the sports ones,a handful of music and news channels and could happily turf the rest...

So would it be more beneficial for some of these players that have been in rehab the last two months to play one and a half quarters in the nab cup saturday night, or three quarters at a lesser intensity at a casey practice game this weekend? I'd go with the casey option

So by this rationale the Swans shouldve docked Jarrad McVeighs pay last year every time he skipped training to be beside with his terminally ill newborn? Absolutely unbelievably callous post! I hope everything settles down up in the yuendumu community and we see Liam back here soon with a clear head and recuperated wrist kicking goals on the G.

Sylvia is a Rolls Royce. When hes on song, things happen for us. And I think Jones is improving every year, he really led well from the front tonight. Cant wait for Troy Davis to get a few more games like that under his belt, he looks a very good prospect. The half dozen games I saw him play last year for Casey he was largely anonymous, after tonights effort I can now see why they drafted him. Think there are a few players that might have expected to have a spot in Round 1 now having to play catchup to reclaim their guernsey Rivers (Sellar) McKenzie/Nicholson (Magner) Bail (Bate) Dunn/Watts (Petterd/Howe) If we can get back from injury/rest the likes of Trengove,Grimes,Moloney, Clark, Rivers, Bartram, Jurrah etc then we may start to have a bit of depth. The likes of Jamie Bennell, who continues to underwhelm, are also in danger of facing extended spells out at windswept Cranbourne.

Shh! The afl don't want you taking about this rule. They've already dismissed the views of senior players such as darren jolly et al who have derided it as rubbish. But you just know it will come in next year. Ps. Also don't tell mr demetriou this, but I sent this message via my optus mobile.

Nope, try this item from the MFC site which states Gawn out for the season and Spencer at least 8, hence he's also been put on LTI http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/7415/newsid/129219/default.aspx Add the fact we've only got one veteran in Green and we have three spots...

He shares the place with two others, who's to say it doesnt belong to them? Seems a bit premature to hang,dry and quarter the guy already!

Oh, youre doing the squad for game 1 this week, not round 1. Ahem, whoops on my part. Anyhow, heres my side from that squad: B: Bartram Frawley Garland HB: Grimes Rivers Bail C: Green Moloney Couch HF: Howe Watts Bate F: Davey Clark Petterd Foll: Jamar, Sylvia, Jones IC: Martin, Gysberts, Sub:McDonald Sub:Magner Best possible, with a couple of kids. Set the standard for the season with wins rather than giving kids a game. Let them have a crack in the Challenge games in a few weeks. The club obviously think a lot more of Clint Bartram than most fans, as has been said countless times before by others on here. I am most looking forward to seeing the continued improvement in Tom McDonald.

Wow you dont even have Jared Rivers or Clint Bartram in that side, you have three players who are still on our rookie list and three debutantes, thank goodness you're not a selector! Also ignoring Matthew Bate who was one of the best three in the intra-club last week and has been training the house down.

"To that end Viney will sit in match-committee, selection and coaching-review meetings throughout the year, as well as continuing the search for talent." Anyone else think that he may be stretching himself a bit thin with all of these commitments? Barry P was a full time recruiting chief not someone who had his fingers in 3 other pies during the week. This is concerning. Why would the club allow 10 months to get a new recruiting chief?

So when do we think it will be obvious what our 'game plan' is? Ive been watching the Wizard Cup games tonight, and they're high pressure affairs that otherwise dont really seem to have any clearly definable newly structured game plans. The talk has been of mimicking the Pies gameplan of the last two years, but really is that a bit too introspective? The game changes quickly nowadays, and once coaches have enough time to analyse and successfully negate certain tactics, such as 'Clarkos Cluster', they quickly become redundant. See also the Brisbane Roars game style in the A-League that saw them win 30 odd games on the trot, only for opposition coaches to work on adaptable counter measures. I just dont know if some of our boys have the footskills under pressure to execute some of the short, accurate passing to pull off the wide game. This season certainly shapes up for mine as one of the most intriguing and anticipated for some years...

flashdance, you have the wrong co-captain Jack in this para: The Demons were missing several star players including co-captain Jack Grimes, Colin Sylvia, Jared Rivers, Luke Tapscott and Liam Jurrah. Otherwise a great read! Thanks everyone for their observations for those of us that couldnt get down there...

He got the memo that it was Heritage Round I think! Havent sighted his brotherAddam yet, he was listed in the squad in the paper.

Can anyone off the top of their head roll off the last four results of NAB cup Grand Finals? Unlikely, its just a mickey mouse excuse of a cup to get runs into the legs of rookies and depth players. I for one expect us to win up in Brisbane, and then come down to earth the next week despite fielding a stronger side than Collingwood, then go into the challenge games (what happened to them just being called practice matches, and they were played at places like Seymour?) and go 50/50 in wins/losses.

Who is this Maloney everyone speaks of?