Jumping Jack Clennett

What about Bartram's 30m penalty, where their guys got the usual 60m.!!!??? I found it excruciating to watch Brad Miller get frees for in the back, which he NEVER got playing for us. The reason???? 30,000 whingeing Richmond fans screaming from the stands. It was like playing interstate. The umps were influenced by a crowd containing supporters of only one side. Once again we were off to a 3 goal handicap. 2 were from highly dubious frees and a soft 50m.. This consigned us to "catch-up" footy for the rest of the day. How anyone can say the umps had no effect on the game leaves me flabbergasted.

This positive post was a much-needed breath of fresh air,Jack. It would have been a pity if it was lost at the bottom of some long forgotten,vaguely related thread.

I agree, Maco! I remember '87, too, when we'd won 6 and lost 10. We won a couple, and our confidence soared. In the end we were a genuine premiership contender. The next year we beat the reigning premiers three times, including in the finals. Richmond will be hard for us, but if we can go flat out, and get a few breaks, it could be the turning point! Here's hoping!!

What did other Demonlanders think about the incident where, I think it was Sylvia, did a long , well weighted pass from CHB up the centre for Tom to run on to with the flight. There was a (fairly distant) Eagle player coming from the opposite direction. A small hesitation, and the opportunity was lost. Some may say that self-preservation was sensible. But Brad Green, Jared Rivers,Clint Bartram etc, would have marked that ball. It made me wonder about our big money offer......and hope it's not accepted.

This morning when I saw the headline in the Herald Sun "Demons sign young Gun", I thought they meant Scully. I felt disappointed!(though I've hoped we'd retain him all along). Now I know, that deep down, I think it would be disruptive in the playing group to have one player so grossly overpaid. We'd be better off if we can get the two first round draft picks, and have all our players on sensible wages.(the Geelong debacle might help swing the AFL admin.in our favour that way, too). He's going to be a top player, if his body stands up, but he's not worth keeping if it causes unrest in our playing group.

Hey, Joeboy.... come back!!!!~ Don't let the views of one oversensitive pedant deprive the rest of us of your entertaining and thought-provoking thread. I've always admired your preparedness to put your opinions out on a limb, to be shot down. I had a go myself on paper last night(after a few wines!), to see how they compared to yours,....but there was nothing to compare it to. Here goes my amateurish attempt from last night! Jones ....... never gave up Bartram....couldn't stop onslaught Watts .... our best player Gysberts ....tried very hard Bate... opportunity not taken Frawley ..... born back flanker Trengove .... four quarter effort MacKenzie ... Judd too good Dunn.... good first quarter Petterd..... no good today Green .... much on mind Garland ..... effective against odds Moloney ...... ineffective without supply Rivers ..... beaten too often MacDonald ....a courageous trier Scully .... ? worth 600 grand Martin ..... Warnock too tall Tapscott ..... Physical till pole-axed. Howe....flashes of promise Davey....needed the run Gawn....showed some promise Strauss...wish you well I know I'm not critical enough.....but I still admire our boys! Gulp!!!

I yelled the same thing, Wayne. He ran 21 steps at sprinting pace. At my "Funrun pace", of 5min k's, each step is 1.2 metres. So even if he'd been running at my plodding pace, he'd have covered 25 metres. But at a sprint pace, it'd be at least 1.5 times that, i.e. 37metres!!! And that's conservative!!! I thought it was a bit of ignorant, gutless umpiring. It's non-decisions like that that lower people's opinion of the umpiring fraternity. There was no excuse for this blunder. No "shades of interpretation", or ambiguity of the law. Just gutless ignorance. As you point out, it was crucial in the context of the match.

Remember mid-season 1998. On the MCG v. Geelong: It was 15 goals to zilch just before halftime, then Lyon got our first goal. We ended uposing by 120-odd points. The next week the Saints killed us, again on the MCG, by 85. We ended up 4th on the ladder, and beat the eventual premiers, Adelaide by 48 pts in our first final. Remember the huge thrashing by Fitzroy late in '79. The next week we came out and beat the Bombers by 5 goals. What I'm saying,(and desperately clinging to), is that things can turn around. Don't give up hope, Demon supporters. It's the rotten days that make the good days better. And they WILL come.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I reckon this is the point. With negative tactics like playing Jurrah and Watts in defence, there are no targets when players break away from defence. Of course they're undecided as to what to do. If they just blast it forwards to a nest of defenders, it looks just as bad as being caught with the ball. We must never use this demoralising tactic.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A little knowledge is a dangerous thing...... A bit mischievous too! You conveniently left out the first paragraph about carrots being the best source of carotene, which the body converts to Vit A. ps......why don't you get stuck into the thread about "who do you see in civvies" , if you want to criticise "unthreadworthy " topics!?

"if you could observe that Rivers laces weren't flapping around from the Punt Rd end backline, you must eat 48 carrots a day under the sun (high levels of Vitamin D). I was at the Punt Rd end on this occassion with my best mate (hawks fan) in the pocket (closer mind you) and I couldn't tell." Trivial at best.

As for Rivers bootlaces being thread worthy, are you serious ? Just out of interest. Where were you sitting JJC ?

Were other Demonlanders as disappointed as I was in Jared Rivers when he naively spent half a minute tightening his laces when awarded 50 metres? By the time he'd fiddled with his boots, then jogged casually up to the new mark, Hawthorn had its defensive zone perfectly organised. Predictably, the ball rebounded swiftly from our half-forward line to become a vital goal to them. He should have either ignored the laces(they didn't appear to be flapping around from where I sat) or kicked off his boot, and run like hell to the new mark. I've mentioned before in a post about "one percenters", that players should ALWAYS run FLAT OUT to the new mark when they get 50metres(except of course when they are going to be in range of the goals), to try to catch opposing defenders out of position. In fact I'd call it a "two percenter!" The incident on Sunday illustrated my point succinctly.

I went up with a group of 5 last year, and had a fantastic time, though I've never been so hot at the footy. It was a great atmosphere there, and Demon colours everywhere! We stayed at the same place as the Demon players,and I remember seeing Brad Miller heading back to his room(no Pia) at about 2am. I congratulated him on his 5 goals, and he looked pretty pleased with himself! One point worth remembering, is that it would be very hard to get a cab back to Darwin straight after the game. We went by taxi, and offered the driver $50(extra, between all of us), if he'd meet us at a particular pickup point. After the game we saw lots of people desperately trying to hail cabs(including ours!)

It'll be that bogan Brogan's last game. I hope that doesn't lift them. We may need to win that game to get a home final! Anywhere would be better than AAMI stadium.

I agree, Sydney Dee. We must remember he's missed the last 2 pre-seasons due to injury(one due to a "sacrificial act" of supreme courage v. Ess at Princes Park in a practice match) He ran back into a big pack with the flight of the ball on Sat. v. Richmond, too. His form's slowly improving. When he's at his top, he's hard to match up on. He can tag a mobile tall, too. I really hope we do all we can to keep him. Sorry , "Angry Dee", just read your post. Don't be too angry at me for plagiary!

If I'm not mistaken, he's Ricky Ponting's cousin. But then again, I guess all Taswegians are cousins! (uh-oh.....is that vilification?!)

I likd Simon Buckley at Melbourne, and think he'd be an important contributor to our current side had injury not crippled his footy career. It looks like injuries are limiting at Collingwood too, but I hope he continues to do well. Don't forget, he was a Demon supporter like us, till injury curtailed what I thought was a promising career. I hope Co;;ingwood don't win the 2011 Flag. But if they do, I hope Simon's in the 22.

Does anyone know why it took so long for him to break into the firsts? You'd think he'd absolutely kill 'em in the VFL. Was he injured for a while? Might Lucas Cook step up as easily? How'd he go for Casey today?

I hate saying this, and hope like hell I'm made to look stupid next Sunday, but I reckon we're over-estimating Liam Jurrah. Sure, he usually does 2 or 3 miraculous things per game, but is that enough? He's not learning to be at the fall of the ball. Too often the ball comes into the forward line , and he's nowhere to be seen. Too often he's not in a position to compete. Perhaps he needs a couple of confidence-building weeks next to Brendan. A few times, just before half-time, I've sincerely asked my mates...."is Jurrah out there?". I'm most impressed with him when he plays midfield(Ess.practice NAB preseason game 2010, for example, when he was kickless, then went midfield, and had a big impact). But he's too skinny for midfield, and too light and short for KPF. I reckon we're playing a man short with Liam at Full Forward. I have a theory as to why star opposition players somehow manage to be on their own, 40m. from an opponent(surely this should NEVER happen). I reckon it's because of the coaches'(all coaches, not just DB), feeling that they must rack up the 120-130 interchanges, to prove they're up to date with current fatigue management. It must be so hard to know who's on who, when you're on and off every 5 minutes. I was watching from well above the interchange bench, and it was obvious Jordan Gys. was getting exhausted by the repeated sprints on and off the field. How he knew who to man up on, I can't imagine. If you're well on top, like Collingwood were, frequent interchanges may help, because it's obvious the opposition will have to try to second guess your changes. But in our position on Monday,it would be wiser for taggers(eg Jordie M, who I think actually did this), to only interchange when his opponent goes to the bench.

You're correct that we're happy when we go "coast-to-coast".It's a fairly rare event even in good sides. Unfortunately, the norm for us is the enormous pressure that develops on the backline when we have a kick-in. The kicker perseverates until the ump. calls play-on, then normally panics, and tries a desperate kick which rarely sets up an attack, but usually starts another pressured situation. Slip-ups at this time result in demoralising goals. Good teams regard a behind to the opposition as an opportunity to gain possession and set up an attack(eg Hawthorn in '08 GF). I certainly have never called for a review or replacement of the FD, and you are the first person I've seen refer to them as "neanderthals". I do think the FD underestimates the importance of kick-ins. I do not think they emphasise the importance of kicking in quickly, taking the first option. One example of a recurring error is the way one of our players leisurely collects the ball after a behind, then casually hands it over to the kicker-in. The kicker should run to collect it as fast as possible. The other guy should be out there offering an option. If we're one short in defence(with one player collecting the ball), the defensive zone is 10 to 20% easier to set up.

Don't mention the kick-ins!!! It's considered to be a trivial point on this forum, and not worthy of consideration, suggestion , or debate. The footy dept. has used the same lack of tactics since Steve Febey retired, and By God, we're NOT going to alter it!!!

As I remember it, most Queens Birthday holidays in the last ten years have either been wet, threatening to rain, or rain was predicted by the bureau, but never came. This was even true during the drought. Rain or a bleak outlook diminishes the potential crowd by about 20%, I reckon. I hope this cold snap is over by then. With a clear sunny day,and no rain forecast , we could get 75000, I reckon.

Good one, Daisy!!! How exciting to watch 2 debutants in a game that otherwise is unlikely to be fun for us Demon fans. Wouldn't it be great if big Max had a debut like Carl Ditterich in '63!

Does anyone think my suggestion that the multiple interchange tactic is disorganising the team? I don't think it's surprising that the opposition have loose players so often, when there's no time to set up any system. It seems to me that coaching staff almost feel they will be judged by how many rotations they make, so they rotate as much as possible, and in my opinion, more than necessary. I know that nowadays it's perceived that mid-fielders perform better with bursts of energy after a rest, but I don't understand why someone like Jurrah should be taken off after a goal early in a game.