Deemania since 56

Very good reason to pick our strongest side - no sheltering of our 'remediating', pre-season injured/recovering players. Go the Dees.

Salem's transition from backman to a spot on the wing is a good thought; it could be very productive and perhaps, just perhaps, producing more value from his kicking accuracy and 'read of the play'. We suffer in games from reduced accuracy and deliberate hits into the forward line - Salem may well be one series of teeth in the cog for improved forward penetration and delivery. Whilst not often a wingman, this need reminds me of Rodney Grinter, feeding with accuracy (albeit a far longer and more forceful kick with an ability to self-pr0tect) into those spots and players on the forward line who could convert. The re-signing of Salem adds stuff to our future success.

Ken Oath! Big difference these days and it has been so important. Another playmaker stowed away.

With all of the justified concern over player fitness and team depth this coming season, ain't it just going to be amazing and inspiring when they all hit the ground together for the first time, and line up on match day as a totally unbeatable team of great footballers with immense team pride and interactivity.

Addressing these issues (with surgery at various levels of depth) and more gentle and time-consuming training/readiness agendas in place, it is better for the whole team to have dealt with these requirements prior to the start of the season or, for example, midway through the season, or by largely overlooking or even ignoring latent problems in/with players where these could well fester, leaving a severely handicapped depth listing nearing the end of season - when we should be knocking off other finals aspirants without mercy or concern. Notice - ameliorate - fix - prepare - test - win responsibly. A good footy mantra.

Three strikes is like a horse on the horizon, disappearing into a neo-Gothic mist and strongly running free and confused now that it has bolted. It's going to take a helluva effort to get him back into the paddock.

That was a good season for him when having the opportunity. He did show some potential at the end of the training and adjusting rainbow. He hit hard, went in hard and ran well with the ball. His finishing skills were the suspect areas but, he was improving. He has deceptive pace and some height that I hope he has been able to develop. Thoroughly worth watching.

Saw him (Jake) play a couple of times at Essendrug. Hardly got a feed from his teammates as he was a bypass player. In the doldrums, he decided to do something about it and very cleverly, at that. When recruited to the Dees, I was very happy; knew it was all in him and perhaps more. His physical attributes were noticeably very sound. His reading of the play had something akin to ball glue about it. He's now producing even more - and the Dees are very lucky to have him. Ditto, for Hibberd, whose attack on the ball and his great kicking really impressed.

He is the bloke to play on Cox, but there are many others in the whole comp on whom Preuss could be completely effective. His strength and physical presence are just two components that provide (other than that provided by Gawny, to the death so far) great options for our team as a swing ruck-forward-backman, depending on the team we are playing. This, at least, provides that relief we must have for a longitudinal Max Gawn and due to Braydon's age, he may well be the longitudinal heir apparent to Gawn. Whatever the case - and no-one will know until this season is underweigh - our acquired 2-ruck combination is highly formidable. Given the talls in TMac, Weideman, OMac, Joel Smith and even Bradtke (once matured), we really are poised for some positive action it would seem.

Golly, a tough call ... both are different players and indeed, in the final act of kicking the ball at the sticks, both are again different. If the Weed develops his attributes, he may well be a prolific forward but I would expect him to more naturally win more ball on the ground than in the air - as a marque of the present game. Hoges was phenomenal at times, yet had to endure the ball sailing over his head so often, or as a result of the said 'bombing', change direction and move into congestion - and yet he still took a few each week despite this handicap. It is correct to think that the 'team' approach can be improved, particularly in the final delivery of the ball to a moving forward. A few big monoliths in the deep forward areas would assist each of them to block, screen cleverly and rally each other into desirable 'receiving' positions thus offsetting/unsettling tall opposition defenders not fully knowing as a consequence 'where and whom' to counter and how. We have the smalls and runners down there already, highly capable 'on game' to crumb, create havoc and speed the ball if loose for a second or two in this chaos, some highly reliable to score rather simple and the miraculous goals in the opportunity. I guess I really mean to articulate that my preferences would lead to the presentation of more 'organised chaos' for other teams in our mid- to deep forward zones. It could be enigmatic......

We have a tendency to put a good deal of pressure on the Weed, don't we? He has taken a long time to produce what he did in the last breaths of the 2018 season, but it was most probably a sign of his readiness for greater things - improvements over time is a long-held tradition. He will have a better time across the whole season in 2019, and this is his 'well-earned privilege'. We need him to step up with confidence this year - with a concentration on presenting for the ball, getting the ball and putting his great kicking skills to work more regularly. Onyer, Weed - keep plugging.

Hurrah! This is a very prominent in my mind, too. It shows that something very good is happening.

Nice post and quite revealing. As for the Filth, it is very sad (for them) that age is creeping up on their experience base and with that, a few years (the more the better) in the doldrums could possibly be a consideration and outcome for/of this list. The cynic in me thinks this is going to be a test for their injury management and for their list refreshment in order to be competitive.

Good points of thought and discussion, hemingway. Goody is bringing the packet of biscuits as you say. I still wish that Paul Roos had the energy to be there, too; both working away at the task of a Premiership run/series. Roos' passion for the Club stood out.

That Jaguar diff is still the best ever fabricated... the cornering 'catch-up' is phenomenal.

How bloody typical ... of the AFL.

Practical point of view and it makes good sense, Clint. Overall, I'd like the Club jumper to traditionalise - similar to the earlier days of the 70s and 80s - with advertising if one must to meet the costs associated with footy these days as sponsors do much for our current circumstances. I'd really like to buy a MFC jumper for each of my grandsons to wear (for about 2 years as they will grow out of them so quickly) but as you say, sponsor on, sponser off, new sponsors, old or passed sponsors make this similarly confusing and redundant for such a purpose - and for brand recognition associated with the MFC. Them's the breaks!

Port are in trouble this year...bad start will again be the cause. Loss of confidence in the coach will be another cause. Everyone I talk to about footy considers the Dees to be the team to beat this year - almost all are assured of a Demon GF play-off with a solid win going to the RednBlues.

I reckon that the big Braydon P will handle them all - and if May can play and does - Port are complete history - with Tracc and Clarry and Brayshaw running wild.

Just one of those past memories, on the day. Maybe it was half time but I lean towards pre-game in that haze of the passage of time. I was also transferred to Adelaide for a few years and then on to Queensland for a similar timeframe, so that affected my enthusiasm for Membership renewals.

Yarra Bend Park - Home of the Melbourne FC. Like it... but parking, facilities, direct transport services, locals' approvals, Council buy-ins and even political buy-ins or politicians' profiteering. There is a great deal against this idea - but it might be worth it if the MFC cannot gain sole occupancy of the traditional home of football, the MCG. The co-tenants had been given an opportunity to co-develop their existing facilities as (a considerable amount of) years traversed for co-tenancy of the 'G to exist and set-in like a plague. They became comfortable in this 'squatting' and in relative terms, did nothing to update, acquire or refresh their own (modest) stadium. A 5-year warning plan should be put into operation by the MCC - even if these clubs have to share a facility outside of the MCG - to pack their bags, move out, move on and get independent of the liability that they have created. More games at home for the Dees, I say. Less input from the vested interests of the AFL, I say. I sat, once, at the MCG Members Bar, enjoying a solitary beer before a game glad that eventually, after 24 years of waiting, my MCC membership came through. The irony of that situation was too much to bear - I was the only Demon supporter there! It was flooded with supporters from Richmond, the Filth, Carlscum. Quite at home, they felt. I let my Membership slip as a consequence.

I have wondered if Jesse was approached by Ross Lyon to save his (Lyon's) job at Fremantle on a promise of a contract extension.

I'd think we would all agree on that because of the plethora of skills that Salem has displayed in a mixed team that rarely involves him in all aspects of the game; what he has shown is a superlative consistency in his application (when the team time aspect of his game was involved). Skills? Most definitely 'YES'. More game involvement? I just wonder about his previous injuries, medical conditions, body build for the rough stuff; so far, he has been more than useful and at times, brilliant. Team maturation will bring out his best, I'm sure.

Are we creaming up to the umpiring fraternity so that the terror of the 'white maggot syndrome' does not interrupt our very successful coming season - particularly against the Filth?

E-nuff of this 'nuff talk' as it leads to nuffin. Fairy nuff?