Whispering_Jack

It’s 29degrees and humid. The team flew up this morning. As the game goes on they’ll feel it. Dejavu?

Strong mark in front to Perkins puts the Suns up by 7 points at the first break.

Goals to Hore and Cunningham (from a 50m penalty) level things up. Suns get a point to take a point lead.

GCS much cleaner with the footy early in the game. They have the first two goals.

Football, cricket and journalism - Percy Beames was part of the Melbourne landscape for several decades - Percy Beames: a man for all seasons

Quite right. He has two NAB Cup games under his belt as an underager in 2019.He's barely out of football kindergarten and some people think he's dux of the senior school.

Beg to differ ... If I was giving Brownlow votes on the game the 3 votes would go to Deespicable for a fantastic four quarter effort in the conditions.

Am up here on the Gold Coast and what a wonderful surprise - the Demons are playing their first game of the season virtually on the doorstep. Despite the attraction of the beach on what’s looming as a better day weatherwise than Melbourne yesterday, I will be on hand to watch the game and if she who must be obeyed permits, put together a match report afterwards. I could be a bit rusty because the last game I attended before this was a men’s practice match at Arden Street back in February 2020.

Krstel Petrevski has come from one of the more remote parts of the country to play AFLW for the Demons. Indigenous AFLW players pave the way

More information on the three Stingray players training with Casey Demons - Clayton Gay Will Bravo Bryce Milford

Discussion on Ben Brown and the “new-look” MFC forward line:- New Demons spearhead Ben Brown will lead a new-look forward line in 2021

Very sorry to read this news. In the early days of Demonland, he came to my place to borrow some VCR’s of Melbourne games (and returned them in good time). We had a couple of good chats and he was a real dedicated Demon. Condolences to Mark’s family and friends.

Smuggled him in disguised as an Australian Open tennis player.

We could always try to draft in Will Pucovski who plays for the Demons in Premier District Cricket!

It seems that the team returns to full training on Wednesday, presumably at Casey Fields. Reports from any correspondents who own drones or who are capable of climbing the trees around the oval would be appreciated.

He should have learned that from his grandfather Murray who was a real mongrel in his day.

Troy Broadbridge passed away on this day in 2004, on the Phi Phi Islands, Thailand, one of 227,898 victims of the Boxing Day Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami. Never forgotten.

This is the first time in years that I can’t come up with a criticism of the draw. Win 3 out of the first 6 and we’ll be in good nick for the season. Any better and we’ll be contenders. It’s up to us!

The Kobe Farmer story has been shrouded in a bit of mystery from my perspective. A few months ago, the word was that he was likely to go to Freo as a father/son or NGA ahead of Melbourne. Then he suddenly appears here in early December, nominates for the draft and misses out entirely. Our romantic side tells us it would make a great story. The return of the prodigal son of one of our legends is here to mesmerize us with the same magical exploits of his father. I hope it happens but a couple of things do bother me — why have the Dockers fallen off Kobe and by the way, did I miss something else like his measurements? It took a bit of searching but I eventually found these statistics from the Peel Thunder site. They appear to be recent and, if correct, put him at 2cm shorter than Kozzie. The stats suggest he has an uphill battle to make the grade. Caleb Daniel at 168cm is the only player in the AFL shorter than him and even Brent Daniels is taller at 170cm but they are both extremely accomplished players. Anyway, good luck to him!

Well, we’re just about done for the year. The next changes ... SSP and MD will be part of 2021 - let’s home we can keep away from COVID-19.

The deadline for the SSP was supposed to be yesterday so the fact that Smith isn’t on the list provided above would suggest that he’s not going to be training with Melbourne. This doesn’t rule out Casey and he might get his chances in the 2021 midseason draft if he can prove himself. AFL 2021: The train-on players and clubs which have list spots available

Here’s the Herald Sun’s compilation of top prospects for 2021:- The top AFL draft prospects to watch in 2021

The 21 best prospects have been selected in an elite academy squad ~ 2021 AFL Academy Squad announced Father-son pair among 21 players in elite AFL Academy squad

He’s lived with it all his life and hopefully, has learned to cope with the mostly unreal expectations placed on his shoulders. No doubt the club is well aware of this and will ensure that he’s well mentored over the coming months. I would expect that Nev Jetta would be fantastic in the role.

The article doesn’t mention whether the club has issued an invitation to anyone else. Is Smith a definite starter as well?