Bring-Back-Powell

To those who think we'll win more than we lose this year, have a look at the fixture. We play Geelong and Freo (top 6 teams) with Neitz, Robbo and McLean out, Head up to Sydney (tough ask), Play the Dogs at the Dome where we never win And play the Eagles at Subiaco where nobody wins. So a realist would say we're looking at 3-5 after round 8 - at the extreme best. And then we play most of our interstate games in the second half of the year. I honestly can't see us winning more than 9 game this year. I like to be realistic so I don't set myself up for disappointment.

Who cares. Half of Hawthorn's goals resulted in free kicks. Sure most of the frees were there, but it would be interesting to see how many goals Hawks kicked without free kicks.

We were also roundly castigated as well after our 'woeful' performance against St.kilda, but we didn't have a 100% crack - Hawthorn clearly did. Thats why we're so angry at the club at the moment. I along with many other Demonlanders will start being positive when some of our higher profile players play games as if their football lives depend on it, and when we actually show up for 4 quarters. If we have a good solid 4 quarter performance and come up short by a couple of goals against Geelong, then I'll start to be more positive....considering our injury list. Thats all we can ask for at this stage.

INS Holland, Yze, Bizzell, Sylvia OUTS - Robbo (Inj) Neitz (Inj) Wheatley (inj/omit) C Johnson, Brown and Godfrey should remain in the team- at least they bleed for the jumper. However if they were to drop one it would be Brown (I'm surprised he got 26 touches) Pickett won't play- he's too fat. Although I don't mind the idea of Byron playing in the goal square for most of the game. Won't happen though. Sylvia's an obvious in. Be nice to have at least one of our top 5 picks playing. Yze must come back. With all our injuries up forward, we need some goal kicking experience. Showed a couple of promosing signs against St.Kilda and would have played on Monday had it not been for Adem himself volunteering to be dropped. I'm sure most Demonlanders will forgive Yze if he makes a solid contribution (ie-4 goals) when the chips are down. Bizzel must come back into the team to face his old boys. Can offer versatility up forward or down back and I thought his pre-season from warranted a round 1 gig. Chris Johnson should be dropped. After being blown away by his scintillating pre-season performances against Hawthorn and Richmond (@ Princes Park) the kid has shown nothing in two weeks. Only averaging 10 possessions. Time to find some form at Sandy and then have another crack at AFL in a month or so. Ben Holland should come in to counter Geelong's potent and tall forward line of Mooney, Ottens, N Ablett and Hawkins. Matthew Bate to remain in the side. Still averaging 19 touches a game and he's done just as much positive as negative (including a 55 metre goal V Hawthorn) and some chizzling inside 50 entries. Must address a couple of issues, but I'd rather he do this in the seniors as he has an X factor about him. Colin Garland - An absolute left-field smokey to be selected, but I doubt it.

Beauty. So we can pencil in the West Coast game in round 8 for a win

He's got a lot of friends in that department Good summary.

Mark Harvey please. I don't think he'd stand for this current garbage. Although Freo might be handing the baton over to Harvey if Connolly flops this year.

Me too Jaded! That thought going on at the back of my head keeps on telling me that we will recover, and be just fine (like last year after round 3) but I'm not so sure this year.

I've been reading the site after the loss against Hawthorn and came across the notion from some scribes that we could be 0-8 after round 8. At first I thought 'thats crazy', the Dees will be good enough to win at least half of those games. However after coming to the realisation that we've got the injury list the size of Mount Hotham (pardon the pun), a midfield lacking some serious grunt and missing our best player, a defence that has conceded 11 stupid free kick goals in the last 2 weeks and a forward line that can't crumb a goal to save themselves, we're in trouble. I saw the warning signs in the NAB Cup/Regional Series when they refused to take the thing seriously and expected it all to click in round 1. For anyone that saw the saw the Geelong game at Skilled (Mar 17th) will know what I'm talking about. So lets look at the next 6 weeks. ( I had us pencilled in for 4 wins after round 4 because they were all at the G...not anymore) Round 3 V Geelong (MCG) - The Cats' foward line was absolutely on fire last weekend and should be too much to handle for our defence. Perhaps the unpredictability of Geelong may save us. 25/75 Round 4 V Freo (MCG) - Dockers may be 0-3 (WCE this week) heading into this one. Will be absoluetley pumped for this one and it will be hard to fathom a top 4 fancy will continue to lose games. Play the MCG better than the Dome. 25/75 Round 5 V Sydney (SCG) - How many years in a row can we keep pulling off upsets up there. Have won the last 3 games in Sydney, but it would be hard to see them doing it again. Perhaps a change of scenary might do the Dees the world of good. 40/60. Rouind 6 V Port Adelaide (MCG) - I firmly believe this will be the Dees first win for the season. Port have never knocked us off at the MCG. Hopefully Neitz, Robbo and Pickett will be fit for this one. 75/25. Round 7 V Western Bulldogs (Dome) - Considering how well the Doggies play at the Dome, and how awful we are there, I can't see us getting close in this one. 20/80 Round 8 V West Coast (Subiaco) - No comment required. I think 1-7 or 2-6 is most realistic. I believe we will start winning constantly from round 11, however many factors have conspired against us so far. Thoughts...

What do we need? A new coach! At least the team always wins the week after they sack the coach

I voluntereed to vote this week so I may as well provide my 2 cents worth: 6) Miller - One of the best games of his career. 3 important goals 5) Bruce - Was a force when we were up and about. At the moment he is our most quality player...and thats not a great sign considering he shanks every second kick. 4) McDonald - Whoever gets 30 touches and 6 tackles in a game deserves votes. 3) Godfrey - Tried his heart out all game, showed committment and kicked 2 goals. Got better as the game wore on and deserves a game next week. 2) Brown - 26 touches and 9 marks. Deserves a consolation vote or 2. At least shows heart. 1) Moloney - In and out of the game but did play a part in our comeback.

Your mates with Reid aren't you DD? Whats he like as a bloke and footballer?

Pretty weak segment and interviews. Lyon hinted that J Frawley was in line for a round 1 debut had he not got injured. When it came to the last player (Jack Riewoldt), the only thing Lyon asked him was "So do you have a manager" and Riewoldt replied "Yeah Nah, I've got one. Ricky Nixon from Flying Start". Really interesting stuff that

He was far from our worse on Friday Night and therefore must be retained. I'd be sharpening the axe at blokes like Chris Johnson (yes he had a great NAB series but has yet to show anything in H & A) who ran around like a headless chook and Matty Bate who continued his lacklustre pre-season form last week. CJ looks like the sort of player that is an absolute star in the VFL, but isn't quite up to it in the rigours of a helter-skelter home and away game. I've been saying this for 6 months. I hope he proves me wrong. We need a win on Monday, and therefore we must play players who are good enough to get us over the line. I think Yze's moment in the sun may arrive this Monday. If I'm wrong then Sandy for the following weekend.

The last time we played Hawthorn, when both teams tried to rough each other up, the Hawks kicked the first 8 goals of the game (in 2005)....and Hawthorn were on the bottom at that stage! Apart from last year (when we beat them by 76 points) they've been a bogey team for us, and I'm seriously concerned on Monday. Don't get sucked into how badly they played against Brisbane, they'll be just as fired up to atone as Melbourne.

May I volunteer to do the votes for Haw V Melb. What are the current odds on Holland winning this Demonland player of the year Never thought I'd see him high on the leaderboard. Perhaps Mr Bruce, Mr Johnstone and Mr Green should take notice of the current standings!!

Good stat YM. Thanks for the reminder. But it still doesn't make the tripe that was served up last week any easier to swallow.

The last time we tried that tactic against Hawthorn we lost to them by 7 goals when they were bottom of the ladder at the time. (2005). We always come off second best when ever we try to rough the opposition up. We're just not a tough nasty team.

Give Yze one very final chance against Hawthorn due to injuries. Did a few clever things last night, but missed a couple of crucial marks and lost all confidence from then on.

Aaron Davey - Please grow up (in reference to the 2 late stupid bumps and mouthing off at Gehrig when he was killing us. He always gets sucked into St.kilda Even got done for striking in 05.) He's starting to get sucked into his own publicity and for a guy that took the long road to the AFL, he should know better. $20 his brother has a better season then Aaron.

I find it amazing that ND and the players kept saying "Round 1 is the focus, not pre season games". Perhaps if they made a concerted effort to take the pre-season seriously, perhaps they may have been better equiped to handle last nights disaster. After all they are dress rehersals!! I saw the warning signs against Geelong and Hawthorn but I was seduced by everyone's optimism about us being a contender...and therefore ignored the warning signs. Well we are not a contender and we'll seriously struggle to make the 8.

Adem Yze - Proved Demonland wrong

I'm tipping 55 in 18 games this year. Isn't getting any younger and is prone to the odd injury. Should get his 3 goals a game, but hopefully Davey, Robbo and Yze chip in for their 3 or 4 goals to help share the goal-kicking workload.

Good list, but I'd have Davey sneaking around the top 10 mark. He's amazing goal kicking wizardry and run downs (most of the time) are invaluable to the side. He just needs to produce in September. Also, when Davey missed his 2 games last year ( V Sydney and Carlton as well as Hawthorn NAB Cup this year) it just showed how impotent our foward line was. You realise his importance when he's not there. No Yze??

He got reported in the NAB Cup for tripping, and therefore has carry-over points. He could very well lose his streak due to suspension...wouldn't that be ironic! The fact of the matter is if he plays similar to his pre-season form, he'll be playing for Sandringham by round 2 or 3. He's got a hell of a lot of work to do to remain in the side. Having said that, I'll be happy if he breaks the record, but would feel a bit for Jimmy Stynes.