Allen Jakovich

Promising signs. If he stays fit and gets firing he could be a huge factor in our climb back up the ladder.

Whilst respecting your right to disagree Satyricone, I am 100% confident it was Joel MacDonald. He kicked 1 out on the full to where the tents were set up, kicked another 5 metres wide on the other side. Landed one 5 metres short of Jack Viney so that he was tackled to the ground by two fluro greens as soon as he picked the ball up, and fluffed another where Rodan was the intended target. With regards to the "consecutive" I apologise for the ambiguous description, I meant to say consecutive kicks from him, not necessarily that there wasn't others who had kicks in between his.

Joel MacDonald is not a good kick, in a simulated match environment, or a real game, I think we've all seen enough to know that.

Tom McDonald - AA.

And watching Jimmy Toumpas start his career with a BANG.

All Australian half back flanker in 2014.

Lock it in.

It's a pretty simple correction, you can either take it on board and apply it in the future, or get all defensive about and continue to post like an uneducated dunce.

Do you spell 'he's' correctly in private but not in public? Somehow I don't think so.

Are you serious? Man you if really care that much about how the guy spells "he's" you must have one charmed life, lol.

On the subject of the early stages of pre season training, this is a fairly significant article - Dees back in better shape this year: Rawlings

When Mark Neeld and Tim Harrington spoke recently about the club's tactics and strategies for the free agency/trading/drafting period, Mark Neeld stressed that he and the football department had been disappointed at the way some of the players presented for pre season in November 2011. Reading between the lines, the disappointment reflected the fact that some players had not applied themselves to the programmes set out for them during their break in September/October. Neeld vowed that there would be "no surprises" this time around. It seems that all those who have remained at the club have got the message.

Can't remember the exact percentage, but Neeld told me approx half the players didn't bother to complete their pre-pre-season programs last year. Obviously a lot of those guys have now been moved on.

We are lacking a lot of things, but the most important, I believe, is fitness.

If you analyse our games this year, we were often in the contests early in games only to fade towards the end, as we tired and couldn't cover the ground. We also got smashed a lot towards the end of quarters, when players were in need of a rest.

If you can't cover the ground against the seasoned teams in the comp, filled with players with a number of pre-seasons under their belt, you don't stand a chance.

Well said.

I'm sure not all of these moves will turn out for the best but it's definitely been a trade period focused on change, no doubt about that.

We are building our list the way it should have been under Bailey/Daniher etc but never was. If you look at Gold Coast and GWS they have fallen for the same trap as we did and have recruited mainly kids who, whilst being good players, don't have the maturity to get you in to and win finals.

I'm happy that we didn't just go out and pick another 6 or so 18yo kids who would probably turn out to be ok but not great because they wouldn't have any one to lead them. I've never been a fan of Joel Mac but I'll give him one thing, when he came to Melbourne he was probably the hardest "at the ball player" we had and he was just an ordinary player at Brisbane. It just showed me that our team was made up of kids and some soft Senior players, we were going nowhere but hopefully now we will.

Neeld is righting the ship, adding experience and toughness in to a side that has lacked it for years.

This.

Best post I've read on Demonland.

Dawes is very handy but what we really need is fitter players. This pre-season is so important.

Do we really expect much development of Gysberts (or any other mid) with Royal as midfield coach?

Nail on head.

Stef Martin will do pretty bloody well too.

"Give the bloke a break ffs."

I give no-one a break. I leave that for supporters like you.

Yeah, I've sat next to blokes like you at the footy, taking out their frustration with their world on the players they purport to support.

Support, funny word that.

I would make Sylvia watch Ryan O'Keefe's grand final 3 times a week for the next 4 months. I would say that there's no reason you can't have O'Keefe's 2012 if you get fitter, more dedicated, and give 100% to every contest in every minute of every game. Don't do it for a quarter, or a half, but 120 minutes. Don't coast from contest to contest as you often do; and try and match O'Keefe's tackle count from 2102. O'Keefe averaged 6.5 tackles per game to Sylvia's 3.8. His desperation and physicality around stoppages and contested ball was significant.

Jones did a great job of having the type of year that Brad Sewell produces and there's no reason that Sylvia can't emulate O'Keefe.

When Colin Sylvia returned to the side in Round 5, he was coming back from a broken back. Do you think you could forgive him for not tackling with the same intensity?

From Rounds 14-23, he averaged 4.9 tackles a game, and 6 tackles a game from Rounds 14-19. I don't consider that coasting from contest to contest. That's not far off O'Keefe, and given his pre-season was ruined, that's a fantastic effort.

Give the bloke a break ffs.

Yes, yes, yes. If we are a chance to get this bloke we should go for it.

I'll tell you one thing... Sylvia will dominate if he's copping the fourth or fifth defender...

So Barry can play in 2013?

I do not deny that Ray and Dawes will fill holes in our list. However, you don't turn around an average list by bringing in more average players. I see no point in hunting for solid C-graders. We need to bring in the B and A grade players to make a real difference to our team.

But not all of the players we bring in can be B and A graders.

Josh Kennedy, Ted Richards, Martin Mattner, Ben McGlynn etc were considered solid C-graders once...

Awesome!

So who's likely to be available at Pick 4 then? Hope we don't trade it...

You beauty. Interested to know what it cost though.

Sweet, he will add sorely needed experience and make a big difference to our side in the short term.

Martin sucks and is already 27

you gotta be kidding me that he would be preferable to Dawes

He's 25 actually, turning 26 next month...

GWS and Gold Coast won't bid; GWS wouldn't risk missing Whitfield/Grundy and GC will need to hold on to pick 2 for a possible Tippett deal - stress less.

This.

It's all just smoke and mirrors.

We'll get in him the second round.