Whispering_Jack

Beasts of burden Former Hawk, Tim Boyle who I recall had some shocking injuries during his career, has an acute insight into the game He and Martin Flanagan are head and shoulders above the rest of the pack.

Dempsey had to play on from 55m out at the end of a hard game. It was the only way his team could score to win the game. They lost it because they were wasteful for three quarters before they got their radar working. Surely, 78 inside 50s must be a record for a losing team in the modern game?

I love the Russian but he might want to take back this quote about Brent Moloney in today's Age (Jamar re-signs with Demons). Not his finest moment:-

Rohan Bail has withdrawn from the 25-man Melbourne squad for Monday's match v Collingwood and been replaced by Aaron Davey.

Noted and corrected. JVM is grateful but also adds that he was just testing whether people read his previews.

It's really sad that with each passing year the game loses more and more of the colourful figures who made my enjoyment of the game as a kid so delightful. Condolences to the family and all Footscray people.

Jack Fitzpatrick? Mystery injury of the week?

Round 11 Melbourne team Backs James Sellar Jared Rivers Tom McDonald Half backs Daniel Nicholson Jack Watts James Frawley Centreline Jack Grimes James Magner Joel Macdonald Half forwards Nathan Jones Colin Garland Colin Sylvia Forwards Jack Trengove Mitch Clark Jeremy Howe Followers Mark Jamar Brent Moloney Jordie McKenzie Interchange (from) Rohan Bail Matthew Bate Sam Blease Lynden Dunn Brad Green Cale Morton Luke Tapscott In Rohan Bail Matthew Bate James Frawley Out

Nominee was Shiel of GWS who played quite well in a losing side so I guess that's fair enough. I just hope the club continues to produce one or two players every week who play well in losing sides.

The other 49 idiots are the people like us who have kept this thread going for so long

I hate to say this but it looks like the Kangaroos are between Arocca and a hard place.

There's no doubt that Garland will get more attention and pressure if he remains a forward in the future but with Frawley coming back into the side, it's likely that he'll stay there for a few more weeks. Let's see what happens. Jack Grimes was slotted to go into the midfield last year at the time he was injured. He was always destined to be there and if his body is willing, he'll stay there. In addition, the return of two of our early draft picks in Jordan Gysberts and James Strauss will make things interesting as well. Gysberts would add an extra dimension to the midfield mix and Strauss could fill the void in defence left by Grimes. Jack Watts will most likely stay in defence for the time being but I suspect that he's ultimately destined for a key forward role. Importantly, we're developing a more flexible team.

We haven't had much of a run with the NAB Rising Star award this year but in all of the excitement of the win I'd forgotten that we have the perfect candidate.

It's interesting that Casey did so well with only 11 AFL listed players. After last year's clean out that saw a number of VFL regulars like Fevola, Mohr, Wall and Stockdale leave the club and with yet another injury to co-skipper Matthews, I expected Casey to really struggle because it really didn't go out and recruit replacements. The following MFC listed players were missing at the weekend because of injury - Rohan Bail, Clint Bartram, Michael Evans, James Frawley, Max Gawn, Jordan Gysberts, Neville Jetta, Liam Jurrah, Stef Martin, James Strauss, Rory Taggert and Leigh Williams. Jamie Bennell was the emergency on Saturday night and also missed out.

Thankfully, it didn't make the difference between winning and losing but I'm surprised they didn't go for the video review. This was a closer call than a number of others that have been given the benefit of scrutiny and if they're not going to look at the Nicholson shot then why have the system at all?

In all fairness, we at Demonland would probably have done that to any opposition supporter over the previous nine weeks too!

Just to top off a big day for the Demon family, another good piece of news is that Aussie retirned to the paddock today for NT Thunder reserves. Good luck Aussie!

I'd prefer a quote from David King, Paul Roos, Mike Sheahan, Caroline Wilson or even Tony Shaw.

It might have escaped you but I wasn't trying to be logical just pre-empting the pundits However, I really do think that Scott is now under the pump. His team beat GWS and GCS earlier in the season and had one other winning performance - a big one against Geelong. That's with a close to full side available. He's definitely in trouble.

Rohan Bail a bad out for the Demons and is replaced by Cale Morton who didn't play for Casey today so we should have known something was afoot.

I think you can upgrade one rookie after round 11 without activating someone new on the long term injury list (not 100% sure).

Whatever the case it must be Brad Scott's turn to face the blowtorch this week. After all, it's only a few weeks ago that an insipid Melbourne with about 10 players on its injured list lost to Hawthorn by a mere 66 points. For the Kangaroos, who have almost a full list to choose from, to fall over to the same team by 115 points is a tsunami-like disaster that will no doubt mobilise the media across the nation into dissecting every aspect of the club from top to bottom. I fully expect Caroline Wilson to write a scathing column blaming infighting within the board for the mess they're in. Perched on his couch, Paul Roos will take apart Scott's coaching tactics and strategies by putting together a film montage of three or four instances where his players stuffed up as proof that he can't coach. David King will join the chorus and announce that the game plan's shit and the North Melbourne board blundered by not replacing Scott in the off season with someone like Rodney Eade or even Matthew Knights (after all, both were available) and for the abysmal oversight of failing to make contact with Ross Lyon or elder statesmen like Mick Malthouse or Tom Hafey. Of course, Tony Shaw will pipe in that Scott must give Andrew Swallow the flick as skipper and either reinstate Boomer Harvey or give the gig to Lindsay Thomas to make him happy and help him straighten his kicking for goal. Grant Thomas will blame it on the AFL and Robert Walls will suggest a possible merger with the Gold Coast. This stuff should fill the papers all week as long as Age journos don't continue with their strike action.

Oh well ... time to mosey down to the G and see if we improve on last week's three quarters of reasonably full on effort. It's a long time since we played out a full game and here's hoping!

Great result to have Sheahan, Davis and Cook named in the best players but unfortunate that Rory Taggert is back on the injured list. Sheahan has really been the club's big surprise packet at Casey. The good thing about him is that he's been consistent from the practice matches right through to this stage of the season. He finds the ball and uses it well. At the beginning of the season I saw this as a development year for him but now I reckon it might be worth upgrading him and giving him game time in the second half of the season. Nine disposals in the last quarter looks a good return for the youngster whose rookie selection last year now looks to be a real bargain. The good thing from the club's point of view is that players like Sheahan, Cook, Davis, Fitzpatrick and Tom McDonald give us a good bunch of young KPPs so that we can concentrate a lot of our drafting and trading at the end of the season on getting what we really need the most - some quality mids.

Can this count as revenge for last Sunday afternoon at the G?