Dee man

Yeh, they all seem to agree with this 'Kevin Hawkins' person. I wonder who he is?

That's a great list, especially considering that Morton, Valenti and Buckley are still yet to be nominated. However, it makes you wonder how meaningful it all is. All that figure suggests is that our young players have promising starts to their career, something which is irrelevant when we are sitting at the bottom of the ladder. I usually have big wraps for the Rising Star (ever since Rivers won it, really) but I'm starting to have second thoughts when I look at the randomness of that list (in terms of team order). We should not only be focusing on the starts of careers of our young players, but of their development when they're 21-24. Hopefully, DB is working on that.

Am happy because they are from Collingwood. Am outraged because I have them both in my dream team!

I hope Morton gets the nomination. I think he'll get the nod over Dalziell simply because Morton has been a contender for a nomination since Round 1 and has probably been trouble the Rising Star selectors most rounds this year. In saying that, Dalziell sounds like he'll be an absolute gun (and he's a dream to have in dream team!). Chris Mayne is another guy who should be getting a nomination sometime soon. Hopefully be seasons end, Morton, Buckley and Valenti could all pick up nominations. Sounds like quite a task, but they all deserve it.

You are kidding, right! PJ is one of the best ruckman I've seen, in terms of hit outs to advantage. Whilst guys like White just jump in and touch it, PJ actually guides the ball to our players. He's ranked no.1 at the Dees this year for effective hitouts % I've read.

Don't forget that he also knocked out Leigh Colbert in the dying seconds of the game. Not many players can boast that on debut. Also, when Sylvia played his second game a few weeks later, he kicked a goal with his first ever kick but this somehow seems to be bypassed by those in charge of record books.

Garland should win, but he has a lot of competition. Warnock - has been equally as impressive as Garland as a key back. P Johnson - he just keeps on improving every match, doesn't he? C Johnson - always had the talent, now he's finally displaying it Miller - gone from cameo appearances to likely top 5 B+F Sylvia - improved on last year (nonetheless still has a long way to go) Buckley - he's hitting targets now Dunn - reinvented himself as one of the best taggers in the league

I'm pleased that Bailey has persisted with him, but I must say that he hasn't shown much in the past 3-4 games. I say give him a spell at Sandy again and if form warrants it, bring him back for say the last 2-3 games fo the season and see if he's worth persisting with. There's no harm in trying. I saw some good signs from him late last year running from half back and on the wing and thought that he could definitely be a player (he was an und-19 all australian i think) but sadly, i think he's gone backwards since then. However, remember it took Daniel Bell a while to find his feet. Ditto Chris Johnson, and they play similar roles to Bode.

C = Green VC = McLean Leadership = Miller, Bate, Jones Rivers if he can get fit, we need a leader in defence Jmac deserves to be in there, but DB must really look towards the future

I looked at the title as a maths equation. (Jeff White) - (Jim Stynes) = (Mark Jamar) Stynes for mine, although both have been extremely valuable and are great servants of the club. We truly are privledged to have this duo.

In my unofficial B+F (based on a similar system to Bluey) the top 5 is something like 1. Green (has been leader all year) 2. Bruce (yeah i was surprised too. as bad as some of his games have been, he's also played some beautys) 3. McLean (will prob overtake Bruce and maybe even Green) 4. Jones 5. Wheatley Bate is sneaking up, while Moloney and Davey would probably be up there if it weren't for injuries. For those of you playing at home, Jamar is currently sitting on 10 votes, double his tally from the last 2 years.

Self promotion bump Thanks to Demonland, the article can now be found at http://demonland.ugbox.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=10653 Thanks to the 66 Demonlandists who visited my blog (I love the stats you can get from Wordpress!)

Threads like this shouldn't be appearing so early in the season, but I can't help but think you might be onto something. Interestingly, Bell's best game of his career was against Adelaide (3 Brownlow votes last year). His best game of this season was probably the game against the Crows. You would think then that Adelaide must rate Bell pretty highly as well.

I know it seems far fetched but what kind of performances will Green have to have in the 2nd half of the season to consider himself a potential All Australian. Atm I can't see him making the team but maybe the squad, however his week in-week out efforts have been reminiscent of McDonald ala 2006. Am hoping he will finally be rewarded with a best and fairest this year.

I'd hate to break off topic guys, but I can't help but tell Cards13 that Jesus was in fact a real person, whether you believe him to be God or not. Gosh, if you're gonna make a controversial comment, at least get your facts right. And back to CJ... I definitely see him as a player that Bailey should persist with. With Bell and Morton out of form, this is his perfect opportunity for him to become a regular component of the team. He won't see the game on fire, but his good running ability will make him a valuable component of Bailey's run and carry game plan. Give him the next 2-3 games and I reckon he could come up with a few 20+ possesion games.

Gday Demonladists, Just finished writing my 2008 Mid-Season review. About 2000 words so make yourself a cup of coffee. It can be viewed at http://hihathawkins.wordpress.com/ Will be uploaded on Demonology in the coming days I think. Hope you guys enjoy it. Please feel free to comment on anything I wrote that you don't agree on. Kevin Hawkins

3. Bode is way out of his depth; way, way out He didn't look great, but he should be persisted with. Asking a young player to perform on Queen's Birthday and not giving them another chance would be poor coaching. 6. Morton is very similar to Bruce, including his kicking style, unfortunately. He had a poor day, but still picked up 16 touches, which is a fair effort for a first year player. He'll get better no doubt. This is probably the biggest crowd he's ever played against. 9. Rivers needs to go onto the long term injured list. Reminds me of Hanson at the eagles - good player, but always injured or about to be injured. His (Rivers) career may be at an end, sadly; great player. Am praying that he can get his body right. Ditto Moloney. He showed real aggression as he always does. Set the mood for the day before the bounce... again

In other news, Judd wants out of Carlton as well. "Melbourne's facilities aren't that bad now that I think about it" Johnathon brown is also highly considering moving to the Dees Buddy Franklin is as well since he used to support us And Gary Ablett Jnr as well Matthew Pavlich maybe You heard it here first.

Frawley can't be just after a dozen of games. He will become a lot better when he gets stronger in the next few years. Dunn and Newton coudl be anything if they DB gave them a game or two. Sylvia and Miller are in career best form. And what has Wheatley ever done wrong? btw Bell was one of our 5 best last year before he got injured - he'll come back.

Green in leading my unofficial B+F at the moment, narrowly ahead of McLean, Bruce and Jones. My tip: 1. Green 2. McLean 3. Davey 4. Jones 5. Sylvia or Moloney

Always rated him - throughout I've been saying hes top 22 material. Hope he gets to 200 games. When he got injured, he apparantly told Ricky Ollerenshaw that he'd be back on the ground no doubt and that he'd kick another goal for Neita. He kicked two more.

He looks and plays a lot like Moloney. When he was on, he was definitely getting in the contests, just wasn't getting the ball. Definitely persist with him IMO. Many dream teamers are getting on him while hes cheap.

I see your point, but I don't think there would be too many Demon players not willing to take the great No.9 if they had the chance, considering how admired Neita is. If not Greeny, then the number should be retired until someone truly deserves it in a couple of years time.

Give it to Brad Green, make him captain and permanent full forward.

Hawks will kill us and the Tigers will as well, but Saints and Magpies are pretty overrated this year. Neither have beat any team of note yet. Nonetheless Saints will beat us, but the Magpies always lose to us on Queen's Brithday. Always.