ProperDee

Actually about 24 million or around 1.8% of China's population. The Australian equivalent population ratio of Wollongong. Enough said.

Dees2014 I don't agree that China is a huge opportunity for the AFL. Outside of Shanghai, most people didn't even know about last Sunday's game. Most Chinese lead much too busy lives to give recreational sport much thought. Apart from the occasional summer evening badminton or table tennis generally played by families, the boys tend towards basketball. The run-of-the-mill Chinese female doesn't play or have any interest in sport. Many sporting stadiums are barely used and in various states of disrepair. Chinese winters from the southern central Hunan Province north are very cold and snow and ice dominate. Not conducive to our game. It snows in Shanghai too. There is actually an Aussie Rules league in China but it is dominated by expats and generally only played in the south of the country. The AFL would have got a much better reception I believe by playing the game in Hong Kong but still, it would only have had novelty value. As I said in another thread, it would have been a far better option to target a game to the Chinese that live here in Australia. Maybe involving Melbourne and Sydney, homes to our two largest Chinese communities. Those people come from all over China, not just Shanghai so the millions of photos taken and sent back home via WeChat would have gone to all points of the compass in China not just one east coast city. Still, what would I know, I am just a waiguo shagua!

I too expect North to go tall. Preuss will come in to try and stretch us ala Hawthorn.

Dustin Martin was born to be a Magpie. And they can have him! I reckon he is one social brain fade away from the end of a career.

Provided all of the information released is correct, my son (a surgeon) and my wife (a GP) both believe that he might be right to go sooner rather than later given his strength and physical fitness. He should only need some antibiotic to prevent infection, general pain meds to cope with the discomfort and a few days off his feet. My son admires Jesse's maturity and common sense in seeking out the doctor immediately and said 95% of young men, particularly young athletes, would have said "she'll be right" and waited until things got worse.

That is quite possible a de c. A concussion can apparently occur from any bodily impact that causes the head to move violently.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/sportsdoc/Unequal-HALO-headgear-reduces-the-risk-of-concussions.html

Poor young fella. Even if he plays on (and I hope he does) every time he cops a whack, regardless of whether it is to the head or not, trainers will be around him in a flash. Further, it without doubt will affect his confidence and impact on his natural game which is to go hard at the footy. Like all of us, I would be disappointed if he had to give the game away as he is "best 22" when he's right. However, when all is said and done, it's only a game and having a healthy, happy and full life far outweighs kicking a footy around. (Should he continue, it maybe worth having a look at a US company, Unequal, that manufactures headgear known as a "halo" which helps to reduce the effects of head injuries)

Hit outs mean nothing. Stef Martin had 63 today. Didn't do the Lions any good.

Half time votes....Umpires, 3, 2, 1

Kent is about as useful as a cup full of pizz. And some people reckon Trenners is slow?

There's an intriguing documentary about the sex life of a dung beetle on SBS. Rather see a dung beetle getting screwed than us.

Tom, Oscar, Tyson....FMD.

No worries HB. The first principle of leadership is to lead by example. The 2 highest rated Melbourne players on the AFL Player Ratings - and the two guys who put their bodies on the line for the club every weeek - are Jack Viney and Nathan Jones the co-captains. Hence my view that leadership is not an issue.

Only two reasons why we sit 10th. 1. Skill errors 2. Poor decision making Nothing to do with stats, leadership, coaching, not coming to play etc etc. The first is an indicator of self imposed, psychological pressure and a lack of self-belief. We can work on that. Our guys (mainly) do have the required skill set. It is just a matter of execution. The club also needs a quality key defender, an experienced, elite mid and a ruckman (coming soon). However there is not much we can do about that right at the moment. The second is an indicator of a lack of maturity. How old were you when the penny dropped? I was about 23 from memory. Some of our young guys still have a little ways to go. It's been and still is, very hard being a Demons fan and also extremely difficult not to be disappointed in losses when we see the talent that we have. Maybe we as fans have jumped the gun 12 months early but we can be forgiven for that given our obvious improvement over the past couple of years and our desperation to see our team finally come good. it's slam-your-head-into-the-wall hard to cop being defeated by teams that we know we should beat but I think we will look back on 2017 as our final year of development. The year we ironed out the kinks, learned from our mistakes, grew as a team and a club, sorted the wheat from the chaff and emerged as a real contender for the next decade. So be prepared for that sore forehead to become even more aggravated every couple of weeks for a little while longer but with the knowledge that the head butts to the wall will become fewer real soon.

We'd be no chance for Johannisen. The Bullies will make him an offer he can't refuse. Kyle Hartigan from the Crows might be worth a look as a KP defender. Out of contract at the end of the season. Suburban Melbourne born and bred and almost traded to Carlton last year as part of the Bryce Gibbs saga.

I think that the better option would have been to initially properly promote the game to the approximate 900,000 Chinese who live here in Australia. Advertise on the AFL website in Chinese. Maybe a pre-game talk in Mandarin with Cantonese subtitles explaining the rules then broadcast of the game with Chinese commentary. Generate some local interest first. Perhaps a Melbourne -v- Sydney game given the large Chinese communities in both cities. Gotta be a cheaper at least. (Plus the air in Shanghai is terrible. Descending into the city a few months ago some of the layers of cloud were khaki green.) Ni mingbai wo ma.

B: Hibberd T. MacDonald Jetta HB: Salem Frost Vince C: Hunt Petracca Stretch HF: Oliver Pedersen Watts FF: Garlett Hogan Jones R: M. King Lewis Viney IC: Tyson, Wagner, Hannan, Neale-Bullen It is time to bite the bullet and give young King a chance at what he is paid to do - be a ruckman. Yeah, he will find it very tough but we simply cannot continue to allow opposition ruckmen uncontested possession around the ground. Tracs in the guts, Jonesy to take a break from the midfield and use his strength and physicality down forward. Pedersen always competes so is a target at CHF. Lewis/Tracs/Hunt/Ollie/Jack/Tyson/ANB to rotate. Several players there can provide a chop out in the ruck. A few left field options but maybe worth a shot?

It's very difficult to try and be positive after again snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. I'd reckon that with a true ruckman, either Big Maxy or Jake Spencer, we would more than likely have won. Yes, JKH isn't up to it but now the FD doesn't have to wonder. Goody placed the ball fairly and squarely in his court and he fluffed it. Now it's time for a line to go through his name. He cannot blame lack of opportunity. It's a slow process giving opportunities to fringe players but it's really the only way to assess their value. Somebody brought up the issue of small forwards. My view is that It's time for Nate Jones to fill a FP alongside Jesse with Jeffy in the other pocket. His strength and attack on the footy would place a lot of pressure on opposition defenders and help keep the ball inside our forward 50. Having said all that, it's time for Petracca to take up Jonesy's job in the middle. He looked very good in there today. Rotating Ollie, Tracs, Jack, Don, Lewy and even Jayden Hunt through the middle would add to our clearances. Salem is not a mid yet though and is better suited to a HBF. I am not unhappy with our progress. When we take into account our first season coach, young players and run of injuries we are doing OK. With a little bit of luck we could be 6 & 1 or at least 5 & 2. I would love to see how we look playing 4 quarters of our best footy though. Finally, we are in desperate need of a quality FB. We will never be truly competitive whilst we need to rely on Tom and Oscar.

Dean Waugh....

I don't think anybody is writing Jesse off and I hope he stays a Demon for life and kicks a million goals. However, as a student of human behaviour, I too sense that something is not quite right and my gut tells me he won't be in the red and blue after 2018. I pray to God that I am wrong.

G'day Rafiki. I'm an older guy and have suffered from PTSD for many years and spent periods of time hospitalised as a result. The most diappointing thing for me was being shunned by people I thought to be friends. What that ultimately did however was to identify those who are true friends. It transpired that some people I regarded as acquaintances put their hands up whilst a couple of "best mates" turned their backs on me. My life is better for that. From your perspective, the absolute best thing that you have done is to identify that a problem exists. That is the very first step to wellness and the hardest part. Great achievement! Don't be afraid to seek professional help and guidance either. There are some great people out there who truly care. Further, if you have found a lady that chooses to be with you regardless of your health issues, she is a definite keeper and a huge positive. As others have said, please PM me if you'd like to chat. I am more than happy to support you. After all, our love of the MFC makes us all mates and mates help each other out. On a lighter note, it wouldn't do us any harm if the Dees played 4 quarters and got over the line this weekend! Cheers PD

Hibberd, to come in for his first game in a couple of years and play like that, absolutely highlights how bad our defence truly is. To those wearing a MFC jumper, THAT is how a genuine defender plays in today's game (Apologies to Jayden Hunt). Tom McDonald, you are not a FB's rear end. Footy is not a difficult game. When the opposition is streaming forward with the ball you man up on your opponent and try to stop him getting the ball. That is hard to do from 10 metres away. One could be forgiven for thinking that Tom should have learned that by now. Dom Tyson is probably (alongside the aforementioned TMac) the most overrated footballer on our list. I read somewhere that he was described as "an elite midfielder". Perhaps it was his mum? Can't mark overhead, poor kick, lacks some intestinal fortitude and slow. Its sad to see the criticism of Nate Jones. The poor bastard has carried the whole team on his shoulders for about 5 years and is a legend. Bernie Vince seems like a kid playing in a scratch game at the local park and James Harmes - never been sold on him and still not - has tickets on himself that he has not earned. On a final note, has anybody else noticed that Jesse Hogan's body language is still "off"? That worries me.