Whispering_Jack

Actually BD, the article does mention Daniher's record of six finals appearances and a grand final and I don't think he's dumping on either Daniher or Melbourne in the article. He's making the point about some coaches coming out of fashion and being unfairly thrown on the scrapheap.

This is the word from out West - Give Sylvia a chance. What puzzles me is why try him out in a game played in 34 degree heat if he's so underdone? The Dockers actually tried a number of things during the game against the Eagles that didn't make much sense and their defensive run for a Ross Lyon team was virtually non-existent. It seems to me that Lyon had virtually no interest in showing his hand so early and not in the least bit cared about winning that game. Hence, nothing would be lost in playing an unfit, unready Sylvia which goes to show how much times have changed for the kid.

According to Wikipedia Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG is a German global discount supermarket chain that operates over 10,000 stores across Europe. It belongs to the holding company Schwarz (named after its founder) Gruppe and is the chief competitor of the similar German discount chain Aldi. The company's colours are red, blue and yellow and a move into the Australian market is definitely on the drawing board. There's plenty of synergy there for the MFC if it's that Company.

It is everywhere but the data came from the WA because Williams was found guilty in the District Court in his home town of Albany which is in WA.

What more proof that we're better than Collingwood do you need than the unofficial NAB Challenge ladder*?Hawthorn 2 - - 272 76 357.9 8 West Coast 1 - - 148 64 231.3 4 Adelaide 1 - - 119 59 201.7 4 Sydney 1 - - 115 75 153.3 4 Western Bulldogs 1 - - 67 56 119.6 4 Richmond 1 1 208 174 119.5 4 Melbourne 1 - - 98 84 116.7 4 Carlton 1 - - 100 93 107.5 4 Geelong 1 - - 104 102 102.0 4 Gold Coast 1 - - 90 89 101.1 4 Essendon - 1 - 89 90 98.9 0 St. Kilda - 1 - 56 67 83.6 0 Collingwood - 2 -178 228 78.1 0 North Melbourne - 2 - 146 218 67.0 0 GWS Giants - 1 - 75 115 65.2 0 Port Adelaide - 1 - 59 119 49.6 0 Fremantle - 1 - 64 148 43.2 0 Brisbane - 1 - 23 154 14.9 0 * exclusive to Demonland Jake King didn't help his cause one bit today. After the game he was seen associating with a few Collingwood players and I believe Demetriou's office issued a warning that he should cease the practice forthwith.

Fair enough.

The Docklands ... isn't that where we best Richmond only a week ago?

There are nine months to go to the 2014 AFL National Draft but I thought it would be worthwhile starting a thread on it after I picked up this year's AFL Prospectus produced by Champion Data. The Prospectus has a section on the upcoming draft and (with the exception of those who played bottom aged in last year's national under 18s) it's often the first place where you will find the names of those who will dominate football talk when the season's over. The Prospectus features the top 25 prospects at this point in time and the draft section starts with an analysis of how its 2013 predictions went in last year's draft. Of last year's batch 8 players were picked in the top 10, 14 in the top 25 and altogether 18 were drafted with another 3 rookied. Christian Salem was one of the top ten selections. The two who made top ten from outside the Prospectus Potential Top-25 were Tasmania's Kade Kolodajshnij who was taken by Gold Coast and Nathan Freeman who went to Collingwood at pick 10. I will cover the 2014 Potential Top-25 here from time to time but I thought I would kick things off with one of the 25 who has already created some interest at the club. Another familiar name on the list is midfielder Angus Brayshaw (nephew of the North Melbourne President) who did a week's work experience with the Demons in January along with Stretch.

A couple of years ago the Bluey Truscott night coincided with an AFL Preliminary Final also involving Collingwood.Fortunately, in this day of AFL iPhone apps it's possible to attend the commencement dinner, keep up with the evenings AFL activities and watch the game AND be rude and unsociable to the others at your table - all at the same time!

I checked the club site for the official injury list and it hasn't been updated so I'll take a stab that the three on last week's list are one week closer and I'll also add Luke Tapscott:- Unofficial Injury list: Mitch Clark (hamstring) – 2-3 weeks Colin Garland (ankle) 3-5 weeks Aidan Riley (leg) – 7 weeks Luke Tapscott (medial ligament) - 2-3 weeks Incidentally, the club hasn't updated the training times either so it looks like there will be no open training sessions in the near future.

This is a list from the WA of convictions in appeals on GBH cases and, whilst these are not necessarily identical to the one under discussion, it's noteworthy that only one got away without a prison sentence - GBH. It's a serious crime and sentences are tough.

Only Einstein or my old maths teacher could explain the unusual phenomenon that occurred tonight. No, it wasn't a lunar eclipse - it was that Hawthorn thrashed North but both sides percentages tumbled. The Hawks dropped by more than 300% but they still hold top spot. North tumbled down the unofficial NAB Challenge ladder*: Hawthorn 2 - - 272 76 357.9 8 West Coast 1 - - 148 64 231.3 4 Adelaide 1 - - 119 59 201.7 4 Sydney 1 - - 115 75 153.3 4 Western Bulldogs 1 - - 67 56 119.6 4 Melbourne 1 - - 98 84 116.7 4 Carlton 1 - - 100 93 107.5 4 Geelong 1 - - 104 102 102.0 4 Gold Coast 1 - - 90 89 101.1 4 Essendon - 1 - 89 90 98.9 0 Collingwood - 1 -102 104 98.1 0 Richmond - 1 - 84 98 85.7 0 St. Kilda - 1 - 56 67 83.6 0 North Melbourne - 2 - 146 218 67.0 0 GWS Giants - 1 - 75 115 65.2 0 Port Adelaide - 1 - 59 119 49.6 0 Fremantle - 1 - 64 148 43.2 0 Brisbane - 1 - 23 154 14.9 0 * exclusive to Demonland

The South Africans are so frightened of Mitch that they prepared a pitch designed to blunt his pace. Wonder how Steyn, Philander and Morkel feel about thay?

So top four is out of the question?

He spent a lot of time on my side of the ground, that's why. Mark my words, #10 is worth keeping an eye on.

Watts is in the process of being reinvented as a midfielder under Roos and we got the first glimpse of that process yesterday. Most people were impressed but it was only ground zero for Jack and he has a way to go. However, in this day and age where a club like Freo progressed off the back of some tall mids, I like the idea of a 194-5cm midfielder like Watts who has footy smarts and can deliver the football. As Bob said elsewhere he moves smoothly like Travis.

Well ... he did a few nice things, like when he sidestepped around a Casey player who was wrong footed at the time. I'm sure Roos noticed it.

Shannon Byrnes looked very good too yesterday. His experience should be invaluable against the Saints in Round 1.

Wonderful news about one of our true men of courage. We should all be proud.

Incorrect. He was training indoors yesterday at AAMI as part of his rehab and it's expected that he will be back in full training next week. Hopefully, he'll be available for the practice match v Hawthorn at Casey two weeks before the start of the season and if not, the Scorpions have a practice match the following week in which he would be eligible to play by virtue of his limited game time in the NAB Challenge and practice match period.

In case anybody's wondering, a number of posts have been removed from this thread due to the removal of an earlier post by its author. Without that post, everything else didn't really make sense so it's best left out unless we can start again with what the author believes can appropriately be said.

Please keep your comments to general comments and not specific concerning any player whose case might be currently pending or incomplete including where a sentence hasn't been handed down. You could get yourself into trouble.

Of course it was the recruitment team but we know that Neeld was directly involved in the decisions to get Clark and Dawes and since he seems to cop all of the stick for recruiting errors (like Gillies who cost next to nothing) then he deserves at least to get some of the kudos for what he got right like his role in improving team fitness and discipline levels and our recruiting.

I was there yesterday but work commitments left me with little time to comment and most of what transpired has already been well covered above. The whole session, including the real first "quarter" which was the pre game training session looked well structured. It was interesting that a group of about 10 or 11 players (mentioned on page 3 of this thread) left immediately afterwards and did not take part in the intraclub game. Instead, they did a lot of work starting with sprints on the adjoining oval. With the exception of Aidan Riley who's coming back from injury, the rest were all reasonably significant contributors last Friday night and I'm wondering if some or all of them are going to be rested for next week's game? We should also thank the contingent from Casey who helped make up the numbers. This sort of warm up will benefit the Scorpions in 2014 as well. We also seem to be receiving a fair amount of publicity these days with most of the articles reasonably factual and, refreshingly, very little of them agenda based. Top Melbourne draft picks Christan Salem, Jay Kennedy-Harris firm for Round 1 after intra-club practice match Melbourne Power Rankings: Every Demons player rated ahead of the 2014 AFL season Demon Luke Tapscott injures knee

Those who have watched the nightly Foxtel telecasts of the NAB Challenge might have picked up on the fact that the "competition" is running for 18 consecutive evenings which puts us right in the middle of the series at this point in time. But what have we learned from all of this and is all of the euphoria and optimism about Melbourne's outing against Richmond last Friday night justified? I think it's unwise to draw too much from the nine results to date. We've seen a number of clubs whose lists are at different stages and levels of fitness and coaches with different agendas, many not keen to show their hands this early in the season. Players are being kept in cotton wool, many have come out underdone and different teams have different motivations as to game outcomes in early to mid February. It's been like that for many years with some clubs indifferent to winning while others are for various reasons desperate to impress their memberships and the public. Melbourne was clearly more motivated for a win than a Richmond last week and I doubt that many of the week's losers will be too worried at this stage, not even Freo and Brisbane who were thrashed but can point to the number of key players missing from their lineups (although there would be a concern with the Lions' lack of endeavour on the night). As we look to the next round, this is how the first nine games have panned out (unofficial) ladder wise: Hawthorn 1 - - 154 23 669.6 4 West Coast 1 - - 148 64 231.3 4 Adelaide 1 - - 119 59 201.7 4 Sydney 1 - - 115 75 153.3 4 Western Bulldogs 1 - - 67 56 119.6 4 Melbourne 1 - - 98 84 116.7 4 Carlton 1 - - 100 93 107.5 4 Geelong 1 - - 104 102 102.0 4 Gold Coast 1 - - 90 89 101.1 4 Essendon - 1 - 89 90 98.9 0 Collingwood - 1 -102 104 98.1 0 North Melbourne - 1 - 93 100 93.0 0 Richmond - 1 - 84 98 85.7 0 St. Kilda - 1 - 56 67 83.6 0 GWS Giants - 1 - 75 115 65.2 0 Port Adelaide - 1 - 59 119 49.6 0 Fremantle - 1 - 64 148 43.2 0 Brisbane - 1 - 23 154 14.9 0