Whispering_Jack

Judging from the reaction here to last night's shootout low scoring borefest in Tassie (of which I watched about 5 minutes) the NAB Challenge is, as I predicted, of no interest to anyone other than the supporters of the competing teams.

I can't vouch for this but it could be a secret ploy by the tech heads at Demonland to put opposition club scouts off the scent.

Class of 2016: Defenders

And Mark Jamar's wife Dulcie gave birth to a baby boy this week so the production line of father/son ruckmen continues!

Needs to improve his disposal if he's to play that role. Well ... any role really. Hope he makes it at last.

Son of Michael Moncrieff who was recruited from Edithvale-Aspendale by the Hawks in 1971 and was a prolific goalkicker, topping their goalkicking on five occasions. He was one of a number of players (including Leigh and Kelvin Matthews) who came from that part of the Mornington Peninsula Football League which later became Melbourne's zone. Sadly for us, we missed out on some true champions of the game by a couple of years.

I'm sure there are no nasty connotations with using the word "top up" in this context or the one in which the four clubs affected by the Essendon 34 sanctions applied for "top ups" to the AFL. It was the AFL in that case that decided to reward the transgressor club with the extra players and to ignore the others who had no part in the doping regime at Bomberland. I think it has something to do with what laughingly passes for "integrity" at the AFL these days.

Casey Fields at 9.45am - practice match/game simulation with available players and eight Casey top up players.

And Jimmy Stynes' lad will be available at about that time too!

There are two Stephen Danks?

It was Redleg who noticed last week that the club site was listing the following in the upcoming open training sessions: "Monday 15 February - Gosch's Paddock - 1.45am" So we dutifully turned up to the Paddock at about 1.30am together with a torch in anticipation of a solid post midnight training session. There were half a dozen other like-minded die hards in attendance and we were soon locked in conversation about whether the Truck would be training, how Trenners was shaping up and what Dawsy would be doing over the next four to six weeks. The crowd built up to about a dozen but there was no sign of any of the players. By 2.15am we were pretty certain that it would be a no show and a few of the punters started drifting off. My torch battery died at 2.30am but luckily some Melbourne Victory supporters happened along after a while and very obligingly gave us some of their spare flares to light our way back to our vehicles. It was our lucky night because we'd over parked in a two hour zone and the car hadn't been towed away. Redleg thinks it might have been a mistake and the open session is really at 1.45pm. There's a chance that he might roll up again later in the day but I'd call the club first. Thats all I have to report.

We at Demonland wish Garry a speedy recovery from his illness. We will return to the subject of his health as the circumstances allow but for the time being it's best that discussion be closed.

Titus O'Reily's invaluable Understanding Switzerland and its legal system

Apologies for that but my car radio is locked on SEN, Robbo and the rest notwithstanding because I prefer sports news over jaundiced political discussion, inane babbling, rap music and heavy metal. If I want to listen to music, I have my own collection that I can connect to.

At this time of year there's always speculation about how the various AFL clubs will fare in the season to come. Will they climb the ladder or go into decline? Earlier in the week, I was listening to a discussion on SEN between Mark Robinson (yes ... I know) and Andy Maher on this very topic and, in relation to Melbourne, Robbo said he doubted whether we would see very much improvement in the Demons this year, if at all. Despite the progression of wins in recent seasons from 2 to 4 to 7, Robbo was unconvinced that the club would remain on an upward trajectory - not even if someone like Jesse Hogan or one or more of the many other players recently introduced into the line up had stand out seasons. The reason he gave was that he was unimpressed by the defensive style of play under Paul Roos. I think he might have misunderstood the basis of Roos' thinking and underestimated the recent work, particularly in this preseason of coach-in-waiting Simon Goodwin. I remain always the eternal optimist (at this time of year at least) and I can easily see us with a 50/50 record or better in 2016 which would place us on the cusp of a finals appearance. The Bulldogs went from 7 wins in 2014 to 14 in 2015. Is there any reason why the Demons can't come close to achieving the same?

Which, if it happens would prove to be a momentous boost for the standard of Australian television.

If people have comments about or related to training, please make them here. If you have issues with other posters then make the by PM (and keep it nice) or not at all. Otherwise, be prepared to have your posts blocked (at best) or a for a holiday from posting here for an indeterminate period of time. Thanks.

This sums up pretty well why I question who is advising the Essendon players and what are they hoping to achieve because it won't clear the players' names - Essendon players taking a knife to a gun fight at Swiss Federal Court.

I have a solution to the problem that might just work. I suggest that the Essendon and its insurer pull out of the appeal and instead take their $500k to a roulette table at the Melbourne Casino and plonk the whole lot on either black or red (fittingly, the EFC colours). If they win with the first spin then they should consider themselves $1m ahead and if they're really daring they can repeat the operation. Worse case scenario is that they blow the $500k (which will go down the toilet anyway if they proceed with the appeal) but at least they'll get a bit of a buzz in the process.

Paige Cardona of Footy Prophet has put together an interesting compilation of players in the current draft pool who are related to past or present AFL/VFL players. Class of 2016: AFL Bloodlines There are no father sons in the article although Jake Lovett might still be a chance. The closest to home for me is this player - "Hamish Brayshaw Height: 183cm, Weight: 85kg, DOB: 9/2/1998 Recruited From: Sandringham Dragons Position: Medium Midfielder Almost a spitting image of his older brother, the recently-turned 18 year old already strikes an imposing figure with his filled-out frame. Hamish is the younger brother of Melbournes’ Angus and plays in a similar mould to that of his brother. Brayshaw is an inside-leaning midfielder, who wins the contested footy and stands out at the clearances. His one and only TAC Cup game delivered 13 disposals and a goal, to go with three tackles and three marks against eventual Premiers Oakleigh."

Mick Ellis of Inside Football has his say and he makes some fair points:- This cheesy Swiss appeal plan is so full of holes

I have a feeling that the players had no choice but to appeal given the existence of legal opinion to the effect that the appeal has a reasonable chance of success. How could they make the argument for damages against the EFC if they refused to exhaust all reasonable chances of a successful appeal? It remains an exercise in futility from my point of view except insofar as the lawyers are concerned - they're kicking all of the goals.

If that's how he broke his finger and how he reported it to his new club, then I take back what I wrote about him still being a Demon at heart. He's now Collingwood through and through. Probably, had a few teeth removed since we traded him. ?

For Jeremy Howe to incur a freak injury like this suggests to me that he's still a Demon at heart because it's the type of injury that you would usually expect a MFC player to suffer.

This basketball league is absolutely clean. It caters for Under 12 basketballers and young Petracca scored two points. And note - he wears #5.