Jumping Jack Clennett

Did anyone else hear the suggestion on SEN this morning that Dawesy is "under a cloud"? (despite being named in the final line-up)

Spot on, Devoted. Roger Dean staged when Barassi tackled him. The Ump fell for it, and Barass missed the finals. There went the '63 Premiership. I know I should move on, but I've never forgiven Dean (or Richmond) for that disgrace.

I am very sorry for jack. He's committed himself to us, and done his best in very tough circumstances. He was a victim of a very poor decision to appoint him co-captain, but tried his heart out. I wonder if this injury has taken a long time to declare itself, or be diagnosed. So many people have potted him for his running ability, and it's possible that this injury has slowed him down over the last year or two. Perhaps it's related to the foot injury that required Danks's controversial cream. Meanwhile it must have been distracting having the possibility of an ASADA interrogation hanging over his head for so long.....though I think he's been exonerated officially. I wish him all the best for a complete recovery. He's a very impressive young man.

Yes.Several times players on both sides dished off a quick hand pass to the wrong guernsey(especially us!)

He took longer than most of our recruits to suffer serious injury....three weeks! Which recruit for Melb HASN'T been badly injured early in his career in recent decades?

With tragic irony, the last time a side went winless was in our Premiership year, 1964.(Fitzroy, I think)I was hoping( a few years ago), that 2014 would be our next Premiership, 50 years on. It looks quite possible that we'll be seeing an abysmal result at the end of 2014.

When he played for us, I always thought he was a good mark for his size, and was reliable with his disposal. More knowledgeable judges gave him away to Hawthorn.

I think I remember an AFL Stat that stated that two thirds of all goals in the AFL result from turnovers.

I particularly hate seeing the courageous player who gets in and under first get penalised for not disposing properly,when his arms are pinned, and the tackler, in fact , is the player who's holding the ball in. The umpire makes the dubious judgment that there was "prior opportunity", and pays the free. The decision usually favours the tackler in this situation if the player with the ball realises he has no chance of disposing since he's completely wrapped up, so he makes no( completely useless) attempt to handball. If the player with the ball makes some useless, but conspicuous movement, like convulsive body pumps, or rapid head-nodding, the umpire usually doesn't penalise. So what I'm saying is, if you're pinned in a tackle, even if there's no hope of disposal, make futile attempts. Also, if one hand is free, but the ball pinned, follow through with the attempted ball-punch into the head of the tackler.(especially if it's someone like Ballantyne, King or Scully!)

Watching the NAB Cup games on TV and the Melb/Haw game live at Casey, I noticed how short the boundary throw ins have become. At first I thought it was at interstate venues in non-football states , where trained boundary umps might be hard to find. But it was the same at Casey in the NAB and again on Sat night at Docklands. One radio commentator during the NAB games suggested it was due to the ruck men waiting back further, but on close observation, there is a large proportion of short throw ins. Could we somehow take advantage of this? eg by anticipating a short throw in, and taking front position by running in early? Or perhaps an on baller could stand in front of the opposing ruck and block his run in? Has anyone else noticed this minor point?

And The Tassie/Waverley Hawks in 2012.

Thanks Old Dee and Crawf32. I feel better now!

I'll own up to being the pessimist who predicted 0-2 wins. I'm very worried about the Saints game. If we don't win that......who will we beat? Perhaps the Doggies or Richmond.Perhaps Essendon will fall apart. I'm pessimistic about our chances v. GWS and GC. It's difficult not to be pessimistic after all the catastrophes that have befallen us over the last 6 years. Can someone please buck me up with some logic suggesting things are better than I think!

,Apparently Dermie leapt headlong from the foot end of the bed on to his little friend, but didn't quite clear the horizontal bar at the end of the bed with his undercarriage. I'm told it's not a unique accident for show pony cassanovas!

Yet you don't think my suggestion that we've had far more than our share of injuries is worthy of comment,or even consideration. I think it has played a part in the disappointing rate of improvement in our young recruits.

Don't forget all the injuries!!!!! It's much harder to try to name recruits who haven't been cruelled by injury in their first 2 seasons than ones who have. Broken legs to Strauss and Blease, a bad back for Watts, diabetes etc for Fitz, ACL for Spencer, Trengoves foot(?ankle), Grimes, Tappy, Tynan, Taggart,...the list goes on. And now it's Hogans back after his PCL,what's wrong with Viney? Do all clubs suffer like this? It's hard for players to develop when they miss pre-seasons. A high injury rate MUST be contributing to our young players' slow, or lack of, improvement.

It's just a broken back! What are we worrying about???!!! By the way, am I paranoid, or do Demon recruits always seem to get serious injuries .? I'm not talking about just this season, but way back to Dean, Prympke , Charles and Jakovich. Carlton, Coll and Essendon seem to get 300 games out of their stars. Not us!(only Neita) Perhaps I think we're unlucky because I only know the injuries at Melbourne. Do any other Demonlanders agree we've been stiff with injuries over recent decades?

I had no work on Thurs am so I stayed up. When I went to bed at 3.15, I couldn't get to sleep because my heart was still pounding!There was huge irony when Phillander was given not out caught at short leg, because his hand was adjudged by the third ump to not be in contact with the bat when the ball hit his thumb. We lost the (?2005 or 2009)Ashes because Kasprowicz was given out caught behind when his hand wasn't on the bat, and we only needed about 2 to win! It looked like we were going to not win this series ,due to the DRS preventing this error from being repeated. However it wasn't clear enough from multiple replays, to overturn the umpire's decision , in my opinion. With 4 overs to go, and two wickets to get, it was hard to be optimistic. The bowlers looked so tired. I was cursing the time wasted the previous day when Doolan couldn't hit it off the square. Also the time lost due to rain early in the Test, which wasn't entirely made up for by the early starts . I also felt Clarke under -bowled Smith.What did it matter if he served up some tripe and got belted? We had so many runs to spare.

After last Friday's game, I can see why "Knightmare" compared Dom to Simon Black. How would it be if he turned out half as good as him!!!

What worries me is that if I remember correctly, we haven't signed Jesse for 2015 yet. (Someone please tell me I'm wrong) If that's the case, and he has a frustrating, injury riddled season this year, it will diminish our chances of securing him. If, however, he plays well in a promising team, he is less likely to get homesick.

Thanks a lot,LC!

Can someone tell me where to find the official stats for the Geelong game.?

No one seems to have commented on that deplorable umpiring decision (inQ2?), when Cross was shoved in the back, and Martin made sure he kneed his head. The decision? Free to Richmond, resulting in a goal. Apparently the ump interpreted it as a deliberate dive to try and draw a free. It didn't look like that to me, with my admittedly biased eyes. By the way , someone should grab Martin's fingers when he does that fend off, and bend them back as far as they'll go(or further). There's something about his skunk-like hairdo that makes it very hard to like him.

I thought his debut on Friday was full of promise. I'm surprised at the lack of comment here on DEMONLAND. A quick mover, but needs to put on 15kg.

I was pretty impressed with Pedersen's guts on Fri night when he ran back with the flight,eyes on the ball, into a huge pack coming the other way.(q1) Does that in any way make up for a misdemeanor in the past? I think so.