Its Time for Another

I've got a rental car. I'm flying back to Sydney straight after the game. Ridiculously the only direct flight leaves at 4.30pm and the game finishes at around 3.50pm. So I'm likely to have to miss part of the last quarter. It's beyond bloody belief. Public transport is therefore out of the question. So I really need to park very close to the ground and bolt right on the end or very close to. So any suggestions on parking would be greatly appreciated. Also wondering if any other Demonlanders are interested in getting together on Saturday night in Hobart for a jar or two and a nosh and a chat. I'd need to leave it to a few of the locals to make suggestions on venues etc.

I'd take beating them by 1 point from a goal after the siren, preferably in a GF, than a 100 point win any time. In fact this would pretty much be my ultimate footy fantasy.

There's no greater pleasure than being proven wrong on players you want to get rid of as duds that prove you wrong. I was screaming at the end of last year to get rid of Jones. Couldn't believe he'd been given the contract extension and we were stuck with him. So far this year, I've been very happily proven very wrong. May that continue for the rest of the season. He's always had a big ready made body, height and run. Just shocking decision making and disposals. Some how or other over the NAB and first couple of rounds he's showing that the coaches have gone a long way to improving his decision making and disposal. In his case probably the same thing. Agree with you on Terlich. Papley was apparently the last player taken on their list and for very little money as they had minimal left in their cap. Oh well. Given he was one of the last players drafted by any club in all drafts, 17 others got this one wrong.

Just 1,020 away from the all time record. So looks like we'll end up around 39,000. Inching closer. Saturday won't have helped. But a few surprise wins starting on Sunday will make a big difference.

26/3/16 - 35,117 26/3/15 - 31,035 28/3/14 - 32,324 4,000 ahead of this time last year. If we maintain that difference to the end we'll be on or just a few hundred off cracking 40,000. As I understand it that was the total before we won. Bring it on.

Interesting question. It raises a more general one. What positions on our list do we most need to recruit to fill. I think we have 3 difficiencies left. 1. A second key forwad. However, it looks like we've got one on the list, the Weid, who will take another 3 years to fill out. Hurley's not a key forward anyway. I watched the praci game on Friday, he was delivering what I'd seen in his highlights package. Is a master at marking the ball at its highest point, out in front, arms fully extended. Impossible to defend when all of that happens together. He's supposedly already heavier than Wattsy but you wouldn't know it if you stand next to them. I don't think we need to go recruiting someone to fill this role, we're just going to have to be patient. One or more of Dawes, Frost or Pedersen will have to fill the role till he's ready. 2. Speed. It was pretty evident from the GWS game that they have a lot more faster players than we do. If the weekends round was the way footy is heading we may have an issue with lack of speed. Teams are burst sprinting now on transition from defence. We couldn't keep up with GWS. The list build under Roos has been based around footy slowing down and becoming more contested which requires big bodies and speed is secondary. Hope he's right. If not speed better become a priority going forward. 3. Skill. We are a lot better than we used to be but I went to the Cats v Hawks game and the level of skill in that game was on another level to us. We're bringing it in but we still need more.

So Clint maybe we should set up a Demonland catch up somewhere in Hobart. I'll be there with my cousin also a lifelong Dees supporter. Both of us just before the last Premiership. The Club are doing a Cocktail party at $150 a head at Gary Baker's Bar/Restaurant. That's over our budget. But interested in catching up for a beer and a feed if others aren't going to that.

Good news Clint.... I might PM you closer to the time and catch up for a drink at the ground or before. Good to meet other Demonlanders in the flesh.

Your excitement should depend on who she would be replaced with. If it was another Slobbo, I'd take her any day of the week. Slim pickings at the moment. Who would be your preference for chief football writer to replace her?

I'm going down from Sydney. Really looking forward to seeing Hobart after a long time away. This sucks. Club should have let people know tickets were going fast. I rang up a few weeks ago and booked and they were going fast then. As you know very few seats available with only 4 rows at the ground on the Hill. This year will be worth going to. Although I'm not expecting a win at this game.

Are you a Tassy member?

Sound familiar. You'd think everyone would have learnt from our experience. Started with Bailey who apparently was too friendly and soft with the players. Reacted by appointing Neeld who came in with the big stick and we know how that ended.

16/3/16 - 32,623 16/3/15 - 29,510 15/3/14 - 30,421 14/3/13 - 26,751 14/3/12 - 26,791

OMG! I was so excited about this trading and drafting list, I don't want to use the term "premature" posting on the back of your reference to "wet himself" but how I could have left out the rookies Vanders and M White is hard to otherwise explain.

Must you. Don't agree with thinking any of those years were going to create dynasties. 2009 I'll get to but I'd argue 2008 looked more like a dynasty maker and we know how that worked out. 2008 Draft Watts, Blease Strauss Jamie Bennell Nev Jetta Rohan Bail Pre Season Liam Jurrah Chris Johnson Rookie (Interestingly there were 74 rookies picked that year) Jordie McKenzie Rhys Healey (Anyone ever heard of him) Daniel Hughes 2009 (Except for the first two I wouldn't say any expectations of a dynasty from this bunch) Scully = Jesse Hogan (In the Club's words at the time. "A player you can build a team around." Trengove = who knows, but signs are very promising that he could come back to his best. Hey, why not be optimistic until proved otherwise. Gysberts never understood this pick at the time and since. Not going to go into who we could have had instead. Tapscott also didn't understand this pick at the time. Max Gawn. Say no more now but speculative at the time. Jack Fitzpatrick (Highly speculative bust) Joel McDonald (Pre season draft-No expectations at the time) John Meesen (Rookie draft - very low expectaions

True but few of them are starting from such a low base as we have been trawling in over the past few years. We don't have to do a real lot to make a quantum improvement. Things like know our basic game plan. Have the fitness to run both ways. Have big enough bodies to compete to get the ball. Basic understanding of where to position yourself on the field. Basic understanding of the game to be able to anticipate where the opposition are likely to kick the ball rather than waiting for it to be kicked and then chase after it and hope to hit the contest. Have a basic structure of competitive players in every position rather than having gaping holes with no competitive players. Like our forward line over the pre Jesse era. We have already seen plenty of these things appear over the preseason. It's not overnight. They've been building since Roosy arrived but now the full package to whatever standard that is at present, is ready. Who knows what it'll translate to in wins. But it is clearly better footy. And there's a lot more depth of talented, knowledgeable, adequately conditioned, skilled players.

Totally agree with you on Varcoe but it was never on. We were bent over on this one by Clarke and lucky to get something when it looked like it was going to be nothing. Let's see by the end of this year whether it was a bust or not. Not like Cats did too well out of it either. ANB demonstrated all the traits that were described as a junior. Good contested player who can get his own ball, elite running capacity, excellent reader of the play. He continually bobbed up in the forward line to create options that we never used to have. He did that by reading the play a hell of a lot better than a lot of the outside runners we have had around the place for a long time. Knew when to gut run into the forward line and create options and kick goals. Eg the Geelong game. I really don't understand the lack of love based on what he did last year.

Apologies. It was just the Scully like feelings towards Goddard hit a cord.

Cats Tigers Suns Saints Blues Potentially Cats, less likely but possibly Toigs, could be fighting for a place in the top 4. Hawks, Weagles, Swans, Dockers might be very effected by this. Teams fighting for home final at 5th & 6th perhaps Kangas, GWS, could have to deal with Toigs or even Suns. Saints and Blues won't effect anything but all games should be against bottom 5. The AFL should really decide this after all teams have played each other once. The only way of guaranteeing it would be irrelevant.

Spoken like a true Saints supporter

Strange combination of statements. ANB who played some great games last year especially against the Cats is going to be a FAQ. For some reason you think Stretch offered more. Newton overcame injuries and played some great games in the last weeks of last season and showed he may well make it but according to you he's a bust. Lumumba was injured so you write him off for having a bad season. You write off a whole lot of first year players as not best 22 without giving them a chance. Excuse my ignorance what's the LM?

You're getting caught up in end results of Premierships. I'm not even going there. I'm looking at the quality of the players recruited in this one period. They alone won't make a dynasty. Obviously you need 22 players on the ground. Plus another group of equally competitive players to cover injuries. Plus everything else needs to be right. Development, coaching etc. However, for what it's worth I think this group has the makings of a group that are virtually all going to be around for a long time and will form the nucleus of the team for the next 10 years. That's what I call a dynasty. I use the Cats of 2000 as an example because they had a group come in the one year who formed a nucleus for the next 10 or so years.

According to Essendon the players weren't given anything illegal. The only reason they can't prove this is Danks failure to have kept records that I would assume would have been the minimum requirement of his contract with the Club. If I had contracted someone and they were this negligent you bet I'd be suing them. They should have insurance to cover this sort of negligence. So the question then arises. Why aren't Essendon suing him? Hmmm, maybe just maybe, it wasn't him that lost them. Maybe just maybe it was someone else in the Club. Why would that be so. Only one reason I can think of.

I can see that.

Not sure why you've taken this topic to be a discussion about how well Jason Taylor does his job. It's about the players. I agree there's lots of luck involved, always is. It's irrelevant to whether this group are all going to be the makings of a solid team for the next ten years. I'm sure you don't have to lecture people on here about luck in drafting. 2003 we have picks 3 &5 and picked the best available, who to this day look like they were about right. Who were they? Sylvia and McLean. The next year the Hawks have basically the same draft picks and who are best available? Roughead and Buddy. If they'd been available a year earlier who knows where we would be now. Although knowing the recruiters at the time they probably wouldn't have picked either. It was luck Petracca and Brayshaw were available in this draft. I agree it was luck the Saints went McCartin but that's the way it happened. If we'd had those picks this year the result wouldn't have been as good. Who cares. You can go mad thinking about all the reasons why. I'm happy just to accept they've arrived and what they have to offer not who should or shouldn't take credit.