sylvinator

id give up Mclean and the no1 draft pick for Judd...would be silly not to and WestCoast would accept no less.

and robertson out for 8

just a quick point. paul roos has done a great job the last couple of years to fool the footballing world telling us that they are a workmanlike team with no star players. hall and goodes are both top 15 players in the afl and are both stars. a dare say that jude bolten, kirk, okeefe are also top 40 players.

i know Mike sheehan is not to be taken seriously, but i am always interested to note that the demons never have more than 2-3 players in the top 50 players in the afl and do not have 1 in the top 30. every team except the demons has a champion who's in the top 30 players in the afl. why is it that every team can develop that type of a player. i know alot of this can be luck (i.e. we pick up sylvia pick 3 in the draft one year, another year we couldve gotten Judd pick 3...unlucky) but its very frustrating. i believe that our inability to produce a champion player is holding us back to win a premiership. every premiership team in the last decade has had them, we cannot expect to win a premiership without atleast a couple of players in the top 30 in the afl. Why the hell is melbourne the only team unable to produce a champion player. this is an important question that needs to be solved if we are to become contenders in future years. is it recruiting or development? (out of our current team, Mclean is the only player i can realistically say will one day possibly be in the top 30 players in the afl)

Whelan , Carrol, Wheatley C. Johnson, Rivers, Bell Jonstone, Moloney, Green Yze, Miller, Pickett Davey, Neitz, Robertson foll: White, Mcdonald, Bruce i/c Jones, Jamar, Batram, Bate Emergency: Bizzel, Sylvia, Ward In: Rivers, Pickett, Wheatley Out: Holland, Mclean , Ward Daniher should drop Holland, not because he didnt play well enough friday night to earn selection, but because he promised he would play holland 'hoarses for courses' this year. He does not have a match up this week. Rivers is a nible, more agile defender to replace him (as is Wheatley) Ward gets dropped. i dropped him from a group of ward, bell, c Johnson, Whelan. with wheatley and river coming in one of this need to be dropped. i chose Ward as the worst of this group of players. this could be a bad decision as Ward was the only one of this group of players willing to take on the opposition and played the run and carry plan out correctly. however his disposal is [censored] and i prefer him out of the side. IMO, Daniher should reward VFL's best on ground should there be a suitable match-up or position for that player. This week it was P Wheatley, and his versatility will definitely place him in good stead to be picked this week against an agile hawthorn forward line. Pickett and rivers are definite in our best 22. Pickett wouldv been picked last week were it not for his sick mother. regains their place in the team. Sylvia to come back into the side the next good game he plays for Sandy. hopefully thatl be next week. Hawthorn forward line: Roughead -Carrol Williams - Whelan Franklin -Rivers Boyle - Wheatley Bell, C Johnson and last resort Miller are others to go through the defence depending on match-ups or if one of those players are being beaten

one thing has to be handed to daniher. He knows Melbourne needs to win a premiership in the next 2 years. He saw a West Coast style (running-handballing out of defence) as the way to do and implemented this strategy over the pre-season. that takes guts because if it backfires, he loses his job. problem with this strategy: A few years ago Melbourne's over use of the ball was there main weakness. Daniher designed a new gameplan which involved owning the corridor and kicking in long. This new game-plan simply plays into Melbourne's main weakness as a team a few years back. In 5 weeks time Melbourne could start playing this game-plan to perfection. If this is the case, we will start winning and Daniher will be the genius. However if this is not the case, and Melbourne comes 5-8th and loses first final, or even worse, doesnt make the finals, he should surely be fired. i think our new game-plan sux but wev now invested in it by spending the whole preseason basing gameplans around it. do people think its possible for melbourne to win a premiership playing that game-style. food for thought: we played best in the first and last quarters when we started playing more direct. It was in the second and third quarters, when we got killed, that we actually were implementing our game-plan...hmmmm

Whelan Carroll Holland CJ Rivers Bell TJ Bruce Moloney Green Miller Davey Robbo Neitz Yze White McLean McDonald int: Jamar, Jones, Pickett, Bate emerg: bizzel, ward, bartram injury list: Frawley (very close to best 22) dunn (in my 22 when fully fit)

The question- why should yze play round 1 The answer- Because despite being a frustrating player, he still plays atleast 8 top quality games a year where he drastically influences the result. he probably plays 6-7 games which he contributes below par, which is NOT good enough, however this does not mean he deserves to be dropped he still can kick 40 goals a year, and people forget how great he was in the games where he's kicking goals and giving assists. he is certainly an extremely talented player who has the ability to be in our best 10 players. His so called 'poor' performances over the past 2-3 years are so grossly overrated its rediculous. i have followed demonland for a long time now. i know that it is part of the culture that 50% of posts involved bagging a) yze B) miller and a year ago it was holland. last year yze had his poorest season for about 8 years. YET, - - He kicked 3 goals or more in 5 games - had more than 13 possies in every game - had more than 20 possies in 14 out of 22 home and away games - kicked more than 30 goals for the year In fact if you look at his stats for 2006 on melbourne's official website the figures arent that bad at all. Not one stage last year i think he desereved to be dropped and wasn't. consider that his statistics are affected by the fact he spends alot of time stuck in the forward pocket away the play. i know he has under performed in recent times My only point is that imo he is treated too harshly by demonland posters. At the end of the day, i'd rather have yze in best 22. i could not name a best 22 without him in it.

awesome post demon within, i completely agree, sydney and westcoast have proven that it is the midfield where premierships are won nowadays. Lets not turn this discussion into whether it really is the midfiedl that is most important to win a premiership (sydney and westcoast both had deficiencies outside this area and have proven that the engine room is bloody important)...but does our midfield stack up and hold its own! When i first read your post...west coasts midfield is incredible... i think our major deficiency is not in the classy game breaker- mclean, trav and bruce are matchwinners... but do we have a) the defensive players to hold there own and contribute when playing on judd, kerr, cousins etc (this is where we rely on green, mcdonald, batram) B) the physical bodies (this is where pickett, moloney and eventually jones and sylvia become crucial) Some of my best match ups include: West Coast: (West Coast wins) Moloney vs. Braun Mclean vs. Stenglein Johnstone vs. Embley Mcdonald vs. Kerr Bruce vs. Judd Green vs. Fletcher Bartram vs. Cousins Sydney: (Melbourne wins) Moloney vs. Ablett Mclean vs. Mathews Johnstone vs. Kirk Mcdonald vs. Goodes Bruce vs. Crouch Green vs. Buchanan Bartram vs. Bolton Freo: (Freo wins...just...and no, i havent forgotten about last years SF where they thrashed us) Moloney vs. Schammer Mclean vs. J. Carr Johnstone vs. M. Carr Mcdonald vs. Hasleby Bruce vs. H. Black Green vs. Headland Bartram vs. Bell

Without a doubt David Neitz is the most overrated player in the afl. if i were a non-demons fan he would be my number 1 and for good reason... i believe Neitz is a goodplayer and good captain when not injured. however the fact that he attracts the best defender of the opposition, even when injured, is proof that he is way too overrated by afl players and coaches. this ractic by oppositions seems to often work in our advantage and proves a big mistake by the opposition. Best example i can think of (though it happens every week), is when is in Rnd20 (or wtvr it was) against Geelong, when Matthew Scarlett played on a hopelessly injured Neitz for the entire match...this allowed Robbo to kick 7 goals