Dappa Dan

This kid coming back this quick, and missing that little footy is fair dinkum unbelievable. I think of Barlow and Nathan Brown and the fact that Barlow is still iffy after a couple of years, and Brown was never the same. I have to admit, I was one who had him written off completely.

13th. And yes, tough season. A few younguns coming through, but mostly pain.

True Deevout... of the greatest of all demons, many are still with us, Ronald, Robbie, Neitz... Norm Smith was waiting at the pearly gates to thank Jim for keeping his club alive...

You "liked" Kony2012 didn't you....

A simple, symbolic one... to go with a simple and symbolic image of a great man. The number 11? This is awful. And I'm kind of angry if only that he never got to see an MFC flag, and that one of his last games he got to see was 186... But then that reminds me that when he took over as president, we were in real, real trouble... and he must have quit recently safe in the knowledge that he played one of the biggest parts, maybe the single biggest in his club surviving. And that THAT'S an extraordinary triumph in itself. The pain he has endured in the last few years has been turned into inspiration for hundreds of thousands... and as demon lovers, we are the luckiest of those, becuase he belongs to us. If he finally lets go (and part of me hopes he does, for his own sake) within the next 10 days... then look out Lions. Safe travels Jim. And thankyou.

I hope they do both this year.

That tv remote is freaking awesome.

Ho hum. You hear people yak on about Miller the same way. They were tough choices, but had to be made. Miller wasn't getting any better, and wasn't helping anyone else get better. Maric was ok, and will have a few games in which he makes an impression... but will be a liability for many more games... That about sums it up. Good pickup for them, even if only for the kicking skill reason.

Unless he wants his Dad's number, then yeah, 31 it is... please...

At first I was like that. Lieuie hasn't shown enough, Kreuzer is better than him, but Mumford isn't etc etc... Then I considered this: if he plays 22 games, he'd be second on hitouts easily... But that's not that big of a deal. It's just a stat. Around the ground he's not Mummy. He's not Lieuie either, or Kreuzer. I'm confident he'd be in the next 20 players or so after the fifty, but he's not in there based on last season.

Ultimate footy. THAT'S something demonlanders like... BY the way, what the hell is Dee TV?

I'm not. And I don't anticipate being sold until the end of the year, maybe halfway through next.

Commetti is the only commentator. Always has been. The sooner Bruce is done, the better. He's lame, cheesy and past it, as well as hugely irrelevant. Whateley is awesome. And I reckon Schwabb is another who does better than people say. I can do without BT. I reckon he has he theatrics, but is very biased.

Another area where the NFL has it over the AFL. They don't get recruiter til after college.

Finey probably the best there... SO hang on. I haven't listened in in a while... What happened to Francis Leach?

I don't think that's right... You have it right, except that score and percentage are 1 each... Going by my calculations of other "matchups"

You're talking about McGuire... Don't remember what he was like when he was a "reporter?" All these mugs are acolytes of his...

Elite? Only Trengove and Frawley for mine... and if we're being honest... Frawley can be the best defender, and that's still not "elite." Depending on your definition of the word.

It's a shame demonland has descended to JUST this now, the old debate about whether or not the preseason isn't important. SW, you're absolutely dead wrong and dead right. The preseason is as impotant as it has to be for the side in question. And to prove it, the Swans were a dominant team, and even won a flag while not caring whatsoever about the preseason. Likewise, if the pies have a good year, their preseason will be forgotten. The cats won the flag last year and just got humiliated. Do you think ANYONE will be saying their preseason lack of endeavour was the reason they went bad if they do, indeed, miss the finals? Your opinion is ridiculous that it's all or nothing at this stage of the year. there isn't a code of football in the WORLD that takes a preseason as seriously as the real thing... So you're flat out wrong, if you take even a cursory glance at history. Hell, the blues won the thing, then won the spoon. Where you're right is that it's not COMPLETELY unimportant. There are things to be gained... specific form of players, experiements, fitness... all the things we KNOW a preseason is for. The only game they'll care about is the preseason GF because there's a title on the line. And the players admit this. But that's as far as it goes. You're on this site enough to see this, you clearly watch enough football to know there's a difference between the endeavour shown on a NAB game and the endeavour shown in the real thing... They're completely different. And yes, one is more important than the other. What kills me is that if the side goes badly this year, it's because they're not a good team... not because they tried or didn't try in a NAB cup game. Nobody in their right mind would fire a coach based on NAB cup form. That's crazy talk. It's beyond me that ANYONE would still want to argue this.

Yeah, but did you consider that maybe he KNEW it was early? Maybe he's not really that worried about wins/losses this season. Maybe what he wants to do is let Jack evolve as a player AND captain simultaneously... so that in 3-4 years the captaincy duties, and on-field leadership are something he has years of experience with, rather than something he need to ADD to his game in the way Green had to add it during his tenure. I reckon he knows there'll be rough days as you mention, where the pressure seems to mount and mount... but in BOTH Jacks' cases, they seem to thrive under pressure... Even if what you say happens this year, it might be a masterstroke. We won't know by the end of 2012... we'll know by the end of 2015-16.

Strauss' comeback is fair dinkum unbelievable.

Possession count worries me. The effort thing will still wax and wane as they grow... But this kick it long stuff is Daniheresque. They had all their players in, all going at a fair clip... What did we expect? I just hate that when it all goes horribly wrong, they all turn it up so quick. Still no leadership, no desire... but I'm not too concerned. I think if you're this new leadership group, you don't put the blowtorch on now. There's only so many times you can go to the well when it comes to that fire and brimstone stuff... (Please excuse the multiple mixed metaphors) And if you get pissy at your teammates for this garbage, what do you leave yoruself when it REALLY counts. Individually, players still worry me. Watts is killing me right now, and we have a number of younguns that just aren't footballers. Jack Fitzpatrick has never once showed me a moment that's proven he's a premiership player of the future. Stef Martin reminds me of a much more athletic Ben Holland. I like him, but I don't know that he'll ever reach tremendous heights. Mitch Clark will be good, but again, not Buddy. And many of the really good players under Bailey's system seem to fall away under this system. Bail being one. Bennell being another. I like Davey's hustle, I actually even like Nicho's hustle this pre-season even if he had a bad day. Howe is going to be top 10 in the bluey. This year is potentially going to be worse on wins-losses than last year. A step back to take two steps forward. I'm ok with that if it means we get to see some sort of meaningful development. It's only the NAB cup, so we've seen next to nothing concrete... but if we play like we have over the pre-season throughout this year, then what we will have here is another good coach. But only good like Daniher. Reactionary... taking the newest fad of the league on, 2-3 years after it won flags... instead of innovating to negate tha influence.

Awwww.... Wanna hug? But seriously folks... It wasn't score percentage... JA has a bad habit of not returning even his brothers messages, so I'm going to assume score and score percentage are both worth one point each... effectively making score +score percanetage worth the same as any other one category. Not sure I like it as it doesn't solve the "drawing" problem... but it might work out well in the end, as score and score percentage don't often go hand in hand. And if they do, it's because Buddy kicked 8-1 or something.... in which case... you DESERVE 2 points.

It could be recent events involving a certain MFC player in Alice Springs... but I know the truth. He's been looking at his UF side all morning...

Agreed. Although... it's not like saying nothing is a true test. The next few weeks will show us the mettle of the new (sort of) prez and board etc etc... rpfc has it right on at least this much... we're all entitled as members of the club to monitor and judge how the club deals with Liam the footballer. Anything more than that, we start getting messy and misinformed garbage... So with that in mind, I hope Liam cops a hefty ban from training with the main squad, as most other teams have done in recent times with players involved in alcohol. If the last few years dealing with Liam is any indication, he'll cop that penalyty sweet, and if we're lucky, put his head down and work his way back into the side and we'll see him before the halfway point this season (probably about when we thought we'd see him anyway)... That's about all anyone on here can say about FOOTBALL... which is what this forum is for.