Hellaintabadplacetobe

Sylvia was good today. Very strong hands. I still feel he has a lot more to give and agree with others that he just refuses to be consistent. You can see that he could be a gamebreaker if he truly wanted to be, but that is just the problem, the ``IF``

Agree with just about all your sentiments here Fuzz. Must admit as a few others have said, I really enjoy the suburban footy feel at Princes Park(I cant keep up with all its name changes) Reminded me of Jacko`s handstand and Lethal`s swinging coathanger on Bruns!) The result was irrelevant but there were some very promising signs today. I have mentioned this several times even late last year. We are building the best backline in the comp within 2 or 3 years. Garland looks like the general that we wanted Rivers to be. He will rarely be beaten this year. Warnock gave Bazza a bath in the 1st half and I think DB wanted to give Frawley a feel of what it is like on a gorilla. He did a resonable job. Barry was off for most if not all of the last 1/4 possibly dragged because he was doing all the usual nigglling things he does when he is getting a towelling (no king hits though!) Stef Martin is going to be a super player! Grimes, clearly uninjured thanks very much! He is ready for a big year. Get on him for Rising Star! Newton, whilst he had another average day at the office there were some positives. He actually chased and harrassed when the ball was being run out of our forwardline and made 1 very good, hard tackle in the 1st quarter. He just needs to learn where to lead to. Still, having been one of his biggest critics, I enjoyed seeing him have a dip albeit just sticking his toes in! Jetta, Move over Flash, we will have a new cult figure very soon. He did some very impressive things today and looks capable of playing a lot of footy this year. Bennell looked very good in the 1st quarter and seemed to get in the right places to get the pill. Bail had a very good last quarter IMO and I heard a few people around me asking who he was! Bell was having a pretty good game. he is possibly the best tackler in the team after Wheels. Shame he got injured, he limped off badly but did shake off the trainer as he approached the boundary although this may have been in sheer frustration as opposed to giving a sign that he was OK. Sylvia can hold his head up after today. He has excellent hands in front of his face at times! I saw him go down when standing next to Mattner but missed the impact by a split second. I am guessing it was a sly corky to the thigh as he hobbled around for 5 mins but seemed to shake it off! As others have mentioned, our forwardline will be our thorn in our side all year. There seems no set plays and no idea at times. I actually think some of our mids fear kicking it in there sometimes cos we would chip it across wing and HFF far too often today. None of our senior players stood out today which I am still unsure if this is a good or bad thing! Good because a lot of the kids are standing up . bad, because who is going to lead them in tight and tense matches. We tackled pretty well today and I would say we were harder at the footy than the Swans today. 2 last things that may interest you. I saw Rivers walking around today and I thought he looked very sore! I hope that is just his walking style but it didnt look right to me! I also had a quick chat to Bucks and asked him whats up? He said he had just been a little sore recently(I didnt ask him to elaborate as he probably is not allowed anyway!). He also said that he will be on the plane to Cairns and will play next weekend for sure!

I think RR just about nailed it on the head. They are a serious chance of making the 8 this year and if they don`t they will be in search of a new coach. We will be bottom 2 or 3 again IMO but certainly a far better outfit than what we were last year. We will still lose a lot of games but I doubt we will cop as many embarrassing pastings as last year. However the Tiges are well advanced in their rebuild compared to us

Please someone say it is`nt true! Is this confirmed?? He is the biggest drawcard for me this year and I will be gutted if he is gone!

Well done RR and MO .Complete domination of this thread! Are we done???

Sorry Paddo, I just do not see any talent in Newton. Media built him up because he took a speccy. He has done nothing else in his ordinary career. Sylvia on the other hand has talent but rarely uses it, however saying that, he is far more likely to give us something than Newton.

Colin Graham

You were beaten to it yesterday SD!!

Great write up! I thought the majority of the responses on this site yesterday were bordering on hysteria. You`d have thought we had just lost a grand final or a round 22 match to get us in finals! Alas, it was the first hit out of the year in a NAB Cup match against the reigning premiers albeit with a few key players out! Its likely that the players will gain more out of this loss by losing a game at the death that they surely should have won, rather than just falling across the line in a crumbled heap with a lucky win. Be grateful for the fact that we were far more competitive yesterday than we were for the majority of the past 2 seasons and rest assured there is some exciting times in the coming years. If any supporter thinks we are going to turn the corner this year and be a threat to make finals footy you are sadly mistaken. Just sit back and watch things unfold throughout the year without too much expectations and you just might enjoy yourselves as I guarantee we will begin to show signs later this year that perhaps even in 2010 we will not be far off from knocking on the finals door. Our backline is starting to take shape and we will have one of the best going around within 2 years and as Kevin Sheedy has written in his recent book ``stand your ground``, that is where premierships are won! Bring on 2009!

Kyle Cheney looks the goods! A chance of playing Round 1

Prediction: Jack Grimes will be top 5 in the Bluey if he stays injury free and will give the Rising Star a shake! Other positives. I am positive that Newton is a disgrace to the jumper

Luckiest person to be on a list in the AFL. Aside from that, I think a few of you are getting a bit carried away. Its only NAB Cup. OK They had 9 premiership players out but I think many of you are expecting a little too much. Remember, we are the worst team in the AFL by a long way. If anything, I think there were more positives than negatives out of this game (Newton aside). I have no doubt that DB will take them to school on trying to save the game in the last quarter instead of playing the same attacking, hard tackling footy which would have won the game of footy. There are signs that they can play very good footy at times. They will learn to play it more consistently as the season progresses. Only downside for me is missing out on some very handy cash!

Yep, I better go lie down! 5 weeks tomorrow just quietly!

Has anyone seen the wikipedia file on matty whelan? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Whelan Did anyone on here do this?

What concerns me is that we have 32 to 33 fit players. Yes it is more fit players than last year but that still equates to a lot of unfit players! Please dont let injury ruin our year before it begins for a 3rd year. Is it too much to ask to have just a lazy half a dozen injuries please? :angry:

Care to elaborate?

In fact, they have a poor attendance record when the team is flying!

Yep, Id be very interested to hear about Grimes! Any mail out there?? Thanks for the updates guys!

Agree Pringle. I am extremely concerned. Even if we do manage to pick up a major sponsor in the coming weeks I think we will be very fortunate in this economic climate if any company out there will be willing to give up a quarter mill let alone the million a year that will be required to keep our head above the water. I would be stoked even to get a 1 year deal this year. The player group have an enormous amount of presure on them this year for the existence of the Melbourne Demons. If we can start to show some true form toward the end of this year which is possible in my mind then maybe someone will want to come on board and as Jimma says, get themselves a deal with the amount of exposure potentially coming there way when we are a force again in 2 years time. Without a decent sponsor this year and if we continue to perform badly as we have the last 2 years just wait and see the AFL and the media circling like sharks. Too many supporters think ``she`ll be right`` we are Melbourne we will always be in the AFL... Yes, you may be right , but we just might be the Melbourne Kangaroos.

Sorry to those that have asked for a link but I cant figure out how to do it from a personal email address and it is nowhere to be seen on the MFC website (curiously) Just be grateful you cant see it , or if you are really desperate, i suggest you become a member and you will certainly be offered the said exclusive polo! In all seriousness, in reference to what DT just said previously, i think the merchandise team could have done far better by perhaps coming up with a few designs and ask the Melbourne supporters what their preferred designs would be, so we might actually sell more than half a dozen!

I am baffled AD. I would gladly spend $60 bucks on a good quality simple blue polo with our logo on it but do they honestly think this poor excuse for a table cloth is gonna sell?? We desperately need more supporters wearing Dees merchandise and putting more money in the coffers but I doubt we will see too many of these on show at the G this year unless the poor players have to wear them for media gigs and functions.

Now I know there is a bit of negativity out there re our lack of sponsorship, debt etc but my friends we have just hit a new low! Has anyone else received an email flogging these Polo tops yet? You`d have thought that our merchandise department would have done a little more research than pick up a David Jones catalogue from 1975 and decide to go with this! Now I am no fashionado, I love my shorts, thongs and singlet, but this is just awful!

I heard discussions today that cloke and santa have been at each other for some time, not just today. I think the AFL might actually step in here. Not so much for the punch but kicking a bloke while is out for the count is a dog of a low act. That is placing the game into disrepute. I saw a similar thing happen 20 years ago in a Federal league match, Clayton v someone and a player who kicked a bloke when he was on the ground out cold was marched off the ground by an off duty cop! On a side note Carazzo has a broken forearm and will miss 6 to 7 weeks. That will certainly stuff his fitness up til mid year Id reckon Thanks carltank for taking our woes out of the media spotlight for a few days. Couldnt happen to nicer bunch!

That would be a big step for the club. Is he looking forward because it is a done deal or is he looking forward to it possibly happening??

Cheers WJ. This is a good read! We won`t have to worry about reading it in the paper tomorrow now either!