Its Time for Another

Good pick up. But just shows how stats and figures can be manipulated. By the start of last season before the true state of the team was known and therefore off the back of the previous year's success memberships were up by 6,000 on the previous year. They only increased on the previous year by another 2000 from 1 April to end of membership year. That 2000 is probably a tick to the membership dept for getting anyone at all on board. It wouldn't be over stating it to think that the rate of increased memberships would have increased significantly if the team had performed as it was expected to.

They explain it. Good small forwards are a very rare commodity and Pickett was a standout. Robertson is another inside mid. Think he will be the steal of this draft. We weren’t the only ones rating him as high as top 5 but didn’t go till 2nd round. Unbelievable gift to Lions.

By far the best thing the Club's every produced. I'm really loving getting to see this genuine behind the scenes footage we've never been shown before. Really interesting to see Bennell down at the new players induction session when there had been discussion from me and others about him being excluded from it. Great to see he was there given he's on the list now. I really hope this inspires people to leave behind 2019 and get back on board as members. We're about 3300 down on last season. Hope to see them back. Great proactive move by the powers to be to be so proactive at getting supporters engaged.

Do you guys know about the NSW Demons. They have organised watching every Demons game at the Cammie in Redfern and other venues before that going back to the pre Foxtel days. You should contact them and offer some incentives for Dees supporters to go there. Getting Hardtrack’s band to play the song pre game could be a clincher. I intend to get to one of his gigs so put him in some time. I’ll be there.

I'm going to go over for the game. Perhaps we could organise a Demonlander get together at some stage.

Did you get that as a WA member?

Lions were his 4th team. I saw an interview with him where he said he thought his career was over and then Matthews gave him a last chance. He said he had to play there for almost nothing the whole time he was there through 4 GF’s and 3 Premierships.

Good observation. I hadn't thought about the team photo being taken before the leaders have been announced.

Oh come on. It was tongue firmly in cheek

Bragger

I spoke to Mitch Tuesday last week and he said he was 1 1/2 weeks away from joining the main group. I would say that means this Friday or at the latest next Monday.

I loved getting to see something we've virtually never been shown before. The coach's first address to the players to set up the pre season and the next season. Followed by the new head of conditioning setting out the plan. It wasn't what they said it was the fact that we got to see them saying it. Personally I"ve never seen that before. I love it. Best thing I've seen the Club do. For those of you who don't want to hear anything from the Club until there's results from games why are you even commenting about this. You're in the wrong place. Go back into hiding till round 1.

Give credit where credit is due. Not to take away anything from Swooper but Barassi assembled that list and mostly did it the hard way. Came in 1981 on the condition Ray Jordan came across to coach U19’s & Reserves. The core of that team came through that system or were recruited by Barass.

Unfortunately that round 22 win is still the highlight of my lifelong Dees support. I was too young to remember ‘64.

I've never worked in PR. I think it's the opposite to patronising and tone deaf. I'd find it highly patronising if they ignored last year and that over the past 12+ years we have been to hell and back. Frankly I love it. It acknowledges what we've been through. Face it head on and look to the future. I'm expecting to see the acknowledgement of last year and how hard they are working to have a great 2020 so get on board. Nothing wrong with that approach as far as I"m concerned. Looks like the most proactive thing I've seen the Club do in a very difficult situation where memberships are haemorrhaging. MFCSS is alive and kickin on here at the moment. Try lifting the veil of negativity. The Club can’t do a thing right apparently.

I literally come to DL to find things out. It's way more informed and way more accurate than 90% of journos. I have no doubt Cornes doesn't believe most of what he says. He just knows his job depends on ratings so the more ill informed and antagonistic he is the better. He has no idea what he's talking about most of the time and doesn't care. He's absolute rubbish. There's a lot of people on here still angry about last season who don't seem to care why it happened. I understand and accept that the overwhelming number of injuries derailed 2019. I don't need or want to rehash it any further. There's been about 25 changes in the FD from Burgess to Richo to Dr's Physio etc We've got Lever May Langdon Tomlinson and maybe some others who make our list better than 2020. That's good enough for me to be optimistic about 2020. Cornes wouldn't have a clue about any of this. Memberships are running close to 10% below last season. I applaud the Club for being proactive both in the media and in doing Hell & Back to get the members back on board. I find Cornes comments which for the 2nd time recently are directed at the Club trying to drive memberships so utterly out of touch with the reality of AFL Clubs that he is ludicrous. Memberships are oxygen. Come on people. Move on from 2019 lets get behind the Club for 2020. Agreeing with Cornes! Are you kidding.

This can't happen. Fitzpatrick was so hysterical about Buddy going to Swans when he wanted him to go to his team GWS that he threw the book at the Swans without any justification or authority. Banned them from trading any players in to the Club for 2 or possibly even 3 years. Literally made the Board members each personally sign an agreement acknowledging that if Buddy retired before the end of his contract and walked away all of his remaining salary would stay in the salary cap even if he didn't get paid. He's obviously playing this year, so the most it will be relevant to is the last two years and at this stage he certainly looks likely to play on for at least next season. I read at the time that hiis contract was shaped so that the first 3 years were $750k the middle 3 years were something like $1.4m, $1.6m, $1.5m and the remaining 3 back at $750k. It matched the total amount offered by GWS but over 9 years not 6. They had Goodes and Tippett and a few other expensive players on the list when he started so couldn't offer the $1.5m a year Hawks offered but just for 3 years and GWS for 6.

Thank you Tom Scully. He just keeps giving back to the Dees. The compo pick we got for him for us Hogan. Hogan got us May. May got us Bennell for nothing assuming he works out. Strange circus this AFL business.

Love your work Vagg. Or could be It's Late. Story of my life.

Total coincidence. Just landed in Maroochydore from SYDNEY slap bang into a team of Demons. They couldn’t escape. Asked Brayshaw about the elbow. Said it’s actually pretty sore. Spoke to Preussy and wished him all the best for the season. You think you know how big they are when you go to training. Up close and personal he is a monster. Bennell was with him and told me that’s not Preuss that’s Gawn. Must have thought I was a dumb Queenslander like his Gold Coast supporters. Wished him the best and glad to hear he looks like coming on board. He looked genuinely pleased. Or maybe shocked a dumb Queenslander knew who he was. Of course I’m not from there. Hannan said groins are good now and will be joining main group in a week and a half. Told Richo Saints are my litmus test the last couple of years and I’m depending on his intel to [censored] them. He said no one wants to [censored] them more than him. I’ve seen lots of training photos of Trac looking very cut, in fact it looks like if he knows there’s a camera around, the shirts off so he makes sure people know how cut he is. But man forget how cut he is. The man is a beast. Hasn’t loss too much bulk where it counts. Huge around the arms. He’s going to bust the comp open this year. Jetta said he’s already done twice the km’s he did last season at this time. He said there’s about 10 of them who have done the same compared to last year. Said difference in training under Burgo is its a lot more footy orientated. Train the way you play. Said that’s what you want. Joel Smith said groins are all good now and he’s feeling great and has had a really solid pre season. One other general observation. In the past when I’ve got up close to the players I’ve been surprised that they don’t seem as big as you’d expect. This time they all look substantially bigger in their bodies. So looks like we’re going to see running power and stronger bodies.

So Vagg which one did Maxy in?

This kid really has the full package. You can see why he was recruited even if he output isn't there quite yet. He has one of the most perfect kicking styles I've seen. He's got impeccable judgement marking at the peak of the flight of the ball. Has great speed and athleticism for his size. I'm looking forward to him bringing it to games and cementing his place this year. He's probably the player under the most pressure to perform this year. A lot of list management has been based around him working out. Personally I've got faith it'll happen this year. Not much point thinking otherwise.

I'll take your one Bedford and raise you two Marty Hores. Didn't he break Spargo's footy and then finish KK smacking him in the head in and giving him concussion in the first training session.

Sounds like you have had a very intimate involvement with the Club. My info was only about the chance of YP being approved not anything to do with sources of leaks. I didn't say anything about that. Only fact I know is that it was leaked while PJ was there. Not really interested TBH. More interested in the future than the past. Like most people I was a huge fan of PJ's but he hasn't left the legacy I thought he had. I'd rather give the new bloke a proper run at it than start potting him before he's had a chance to do anything but fix the mess left behind. So far I'm pretty happy with Burgess, Richardson, Bruckner and 23 medical and conditioning staff. Plus admin staff changes. There's some good stuff happening on membership engagement like To Hell and Back. Happy to talk to you on this at the end of the year. We'll have a better gauge of Pert's performance by then.

Think that comment was more likely to inflict lowering the reputation of the person who said it than the person it was said about.