Dappa Dan

We will, will we? If he plays in the season proper against us at the 'G...

Last year Chopper did this every second week. I got used to it happening so much that I don't even worry anymore when he takes a hit. Hope I'm right. The bloke is tough as old boots.

As it happens I only went down for the second half. So together we'll make one match report. Sandy won by just under 5 goals, pretty much having the game in their controll the whole second half. The bombers would take solace with the form of one or two guys who played pretty well, but the Zebs were pretty much just too big and too experienced. Byron's shape shows no signs of altering, but when he got on the end of it, he showed why he's above VFL standard. His kicking was sensational even into that horrible head-wind. He managed to drill it 50 metres down the throat of Summers on the lead. No-one kicked it like that all day. In the last quarter we finally saw signs that Davey has rubbed off on him with a sensational chase-down that unfortunately resulted in a free against for in the back. As soon as play resumed the bombers stuffed around with it, and he did exactly the same thing and got the free he deserved. It was pleasing to see him run that hard so late in the game, as it was also pleasing to see him play the full half, to go with what I assume was a full first half. Players had trouble getting a hold of him, despite the love handles. Perhaps they were worried he'd knock them unconscious. Even Trav Cloke and his Dad commented on how good he was (they were there watching Jason). I will say this though... As solid as he was, I'm not convinced he's the player he was at this time last year. I can't help but think the dash he showed early last year is a fair way off being there. His experience will always show out against kids in a game like this, but IMO he'll be exposed if he plays AFL. When he was on he was ON, but when he drifted out of the game I was worried. He's certainly weeks, maybe months from being the player I saw in round 4 last year. Fortunately round 4 is weeks, maybe months away. Holland didn't look too bad. Was a bit clumsy at times, but was on the end of it very often, playing loose some of the time drilling accurate passes. He's still the same old Dutchy, but at this level, he seemed a cut above. Newton had a dog of a second-half, but I was thrilled to see him going in pretty hard. He flew for a big pack mark at one stage that he missed, and that was among the more spectacular (but low percentage) things I saw all day. He was also putting his body on the line, and blowing pretty hard. He got crunched in an attempted tackle at one stage, and when I saw him on the deck twitching, I thought he was done for the day,. But he returned and still got touches. Not an overwhelming performance, but the effort was certainly there. Once again I was reminded that there's no lack of talent here, but he's certainly a ways off. PJ is a HUGE man, but was somehow smaller than his opponent McKinnon, who I thought was Gumby for the longest time. While I was confused about his identity, I rated his performance. May be a player. PJ looked ok, but is simply NO ruckman. He slammed a tiny little Bomber at one stage who was taken off holding his shoulder. At least in one respect things are improving with Paul. He seems to look more comfortable with being such a big bloke, but I'd love to see him throw his weight around a bit more, and not against pip-squeaks. It was an entertaining tussle, but I'm looking for him to dominate at this level, as he has in the past (Liston). If I had to guess, I'd say he's still not completely fit. I have a feeling his pre-season was interrupted early on, perhaps more than we realise. Godfrey just went. Didn't even look AFL standard, at least when I was there. Garland pretty much only got in the way. Looked fairly overwhelmed, but that's ok. Gee he looks young up close. Neaves didn't do much, but he didn't get much game time either. Didn't get a good look at Petterd, Neville or Wheatley. Of the Sandy players... they were, as WJ says, hot and cold. But Poyas is a gun at this level. Kicked 3 in the third to add to his other 2, one of them a ripper. Was a cut above with his kicking.

Droll WJ. Very Droll. Good question. It had better be the last (and second). Don't think it will be though.

Don't see too much of this, people going back and admitting fault. Kudos.

I'd like to second that. Occo, you are NOT a fan of MFC if you can criticise DN in the way you have. You've been at it for months now, take your snide little comments, and indulgent teenage opinions, leave, and never come back. You are not contributing to this site. Run along... As for Ooze, I've been a vocal supporter of his for a long time, and it's been getting harder and harder. Unless he's BOG next week, ND is going to look a fool if he selects him. It would most likely [censored] off Adem, but it will send a good message to players like Buckley, CJ and other who would most likely be denied a spot if Ooze got a game. That is, we're more serious about trying to win a flag than a player's conecutive games record. I've a feeling a similar thing is happening with Byron. If they give him the first few rounds of the season in the reserves to get fit, then we won't have to carry him during the season proper. Media will have a field day if he misses matches, but again it'll send the right message to the playing group. Train and work hard, and you'll get selected. Rest on your laurels as a consequence of having a good reputation and see you later. It's pretty simple really, the upside to dropping Yze for round 1 far outweighs the downside. It'll be interesting to see if Neale has the guts to do what is necessary, assuming AY plays similarly next week.

Yeah, I thought it started beautifully, then got better, then he had the obligatory and honest explanation of how he feels about creeping towards the record for longest coaching career without having won a flag. I like how he meets the issue head on whenever asked about it. At least he doesn't beat around the bush, or deflect like Sheeds...

Thanks Alpha. Got a nice giggle from that. Certainly the last thing I expected given the info...

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...5-11088,00.html Seems pretty pumped.

Yeah, a fairly bogus list, but I kind of feel for the people who have to write these things for the Dees. It's not like it's easy. The demons best players varied from week to week last year (except for one or two), and there's probably any one of ten that have legitimate claim to being the most important on their day on the right ground. White's not the correct pick for mine, but he's not all that far off. In a sense I worry more about losing him because I just don't reckon we have a proper backup. Even if in that scenario MJ can play well, HIS backup would be a problem. In other cases, for example Neita, Trav, Brock there are experienced or talented players who can step in and at least pick up SOME of the slack. As far as Jeff's selection here is concerned, you couldn't blame an outsider for thinking his form will govern the team's form moreso than any other player. PS Bate WAAAAY higher, Bell higher too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah Rhino. He was THEIR BOG. And as far as I'm concerned was as well performed on the day as Trapper, Ooze, Pickett, Brock, Davey or Green. It was a sensational day for the dees, as a TEAM, but he was the most dominant tall, IMO. Yes Farmer has hurt us in the past, but I am pleased with the WAY Bell plays him on match day. At worst I'd predict that a fit Jeff against a fit Bell would kick 2 goals, and I'm comfortable with that, especially if it frees up Wrecker to take someone else, or play looser and gather more possessions, as he showed a propensity for in 2006. Over those 2 H&A matches Johnson was clearly their best performed. That's more than enough for me to worry more about his match-up than Jeff's, particularly when we have our KPD problems, Johnson can play both ends equally well and they have so many talls to call upon (Tarrant, Pavlich, McPharlin etc etc). Yep. I would be more worried about MJ on the day than JF, assuming both were to play. Boil it all down and I'd still pick us at the G in any scenario, but it would advantage us GREATLY if both guys didn't play.

I prefer Eade on match-day to ND. Simple. I don't know about Rocket as an orator, inspirer or recruiter, but his tactics are as sharp as anyone's in the AFL currently, at least IMO. In that field he has Neale's measure. That said, time will only tell if he can bring it all together. It should also be noted that once Rodney took over at the dogs we had intakes of players that included, among them, players like Jones and Bartram. There's no telling what direction CAC or whatever recruiter we would have hired might have taken were they hired at ND's detriment. Also, I'm enormously pleased ND is trying new things in the Nabby. As time has gone on he's shown a propensity to look outside the box. I'm certainly willing to see where he's headed with this newfound lateral thinking. And RR, on the subject of ND, I am well and truly behind him for 2007, and I only need to see some progress within reason for me to be on his bandwagon for 2008. Don't let my hypothetical coach hiring scenario fool you into believing that I don't think he's the man for the job. One thing that I would suggest applies to him as much as every player and coach since Ronald Dale is that loyalty is portable. I love that he talks up MFC, and I love that he considers himself, at least publicly, to be our man. But I don't believe for a second that he wouldn't be equally as loyal to ANY of the other 15 clubs should he one day find himself there. I'd suggest that the chances are slim that he would stay with the demons until his retirement. He's relatively young as far as coaches go, and unless he wins a flag SOON, thereby locking in a long-term contract a la Williams, you'd think his future may include at least 1, maybe as many as 3 other clubs. So with all that in mind, I'm relatively resigned to the fact that there will come a day where the demons will meet ND as an opposition coach on match day. One other thing plagues my mind, as indirectly touched upon by Paul Gardiner in today's Hun. He suggested something about "long term success" which got me thinking. One thing I worry about is that when Neita and co retire, and assuming ND leaves, we may find ourselves in a rut. Can the club afford that? If Neale stays on with a weakened (but not weak) list, perhaps you could assume that we have the potential to hover around the middle of the ladder for a few years before relaunching. Neale's record of reaching finals is pretty good, and I'm not sure the club could handle 3-5 years worth of bottoming out like the Hawks/Saints/Bombers/Blues. If Neale stays long term will we have a chance to win a flag in that time? Can we afford a sharp membership drop-off? I worry.

I'm more worried about johnson playing than farmer. I'd back in Bell on Farmer. But Johnson was just about BOG for both H&A games last year, and in the final was only beaten on the day by Miller from memory (I could have that wrong). If Freo are relieved of his services in round four that would make things a bit tricker for them, especially in defence, and particularly at the G.

I reckon it's as much to do with ND, and the relationship between ND and CAC. Or even CAC on his own. I'm not too sure about the dynamic between the two of them, but I would assume that if ND were, hypothetically, to leave to the Dons or elsewhere there would be a gravitational pull for CAC to follow him, as their union has been a fruitful one. This, if my assumptions are correct, would be one of my greater concerns. One thing's for sure. If Neale leaves he won't be long without a job. He would either stroll into a gig with Essendon or do a Wallet/Eade and just have some fun in the media (he's certainly been practicing) until a plum job comes available. He's earned a solid reputation. The problem is we have recruited a "good" coach that's not sensational. We could do better, but we could do a LOT worse. IMO, if MFC's administrators were more ruthles they could possibly have pushed MUCH harder for Eade. As it stands Sheedy, Connelly, Thompson, Pagan, Williams x 2 and Viney are the only likely candidates for a job in the near future and I'm not fond of any of them for various reasons. Harvey, Longmire and Bond appear to have futures, along with Lyon who's the mega-coach from fantasy land. In all honesty I don't know whether I'd chase any of those besides, perhaps, Harvey. So in a nutshell if we can't/don't want to go for an established premiership winning coach we're starting at square one again with an AC with no senior experience. But I digress... a lot. If there is no vastly better coach coming available, then I hope the club doesn't let him go, at least for '07 and '08. After that, the list could look attractive to a new coach who wanted to come in post-Neitz.

And five pages of it, no less. For my part I'm satisfied that this is the embryonic stages of a different game-plan that Neale can implement when the time is right. People on this site have bemoaned ND's one or two dimensional game-plan for a long time. At least the coaching panel are trying to bring about change, and while I expect them to be criticised for it in the way they have been, it would be HEAPS worse if we did it during a home and away match. There's no way they would have allowed us to butcher the ball by hand for 3 quarters without ringing in SOME changes. Personally I'm stunned we kicked any goals at all with the amount of players we had out. And for those saying that without Judd, Cousins and Kerr we can't implement this game, I would remind you that guys like Brock, Trav, Byron (when/if fit) and Bartram all have cool heads and would perhaps be more effective at this game. For my part I saw no problem with being one of the better kicking sides in the comp. Last year we relied on far fewer possessions and we would punish teams with accuracy and penetration. I fully expect us to fall back on this when the time comes (round 1), and only to resort to over-use when the time calls for it. When we played against sides who knew how to deal with us, we looked second rate when going forward. I'm with Jaded, at least we get this garbage out of the way now, when no-one who understands footy could give a stuff what the result is.

And no Pickett... Not good signs. The guy needs time on ground to get his body right like last year.

Andy maher reported this? Tool of the highest order. Sensationalises a broken toe as career ending. I'll be stunned if he gets 12. As gsmith12 (I think) said on 'ology, give him a SUSPENDED 12 weeks sentence, or a smaller ban. 12 matches is over-doing it by a long LONG way.

I had to read that twice. Good stuff.

Does anyone know, or remember, whether or not these challenge hit-outs are covered by radio? I realise TV coverage is out, but is it possible that we could recieve a radio signal from the game?

Wow. Is that right? I vaguely remember having a discussion with someone once about the geography in Tassie playing a part iin the rainfall, or lack thereof. Interestingly, I was told by a resident of Cheltenham not so long ago that it's the rainiest part of Victoria, and I live only a couple of suburbs from there.

Fairly pleased under the circumstances. I have a sneaking suspicion that ND coached this to lose. In a H&A match would he have left Warnock on Frankin? Would he even have played him? ditto Biz? From what we've heard he wanted to see a few things happen and see a few young guys show what they're worth, and we saw that in a much bigger way than I expected. But also we saw a number of ok individual performances, but very little in the way of real team-work, of the kind we saw after round 4 last year. Oh, and our tackling was not up to 2006 standards. Not by a long shot. - CJ looked more like a player today than at any time so far. The first time I've seen him really comfortable in a senior match, albeit only NAB. - Buckley looked fantastic. Seems to have all the tools, and hardness. More meat for the demons midfield grinder. - Bell was sensational at times. In a backline where he didn't have all that much support, he was a standout. - I thought Bate went ok. Not scintillating, but ok. - Brown worked tirelessly. - Dunn looked good, then vanished. Overcrowded perhaps? Midfiled struggling? - Frawley seems ok, but I'd be concerned if he played more than 10 matches. Still has a bit more to learn. - Green's boot is back with avengeance. - MJ, PJ were pretty useless. Mark got his hand to the ball, but too often was sharked. PJ got heaps of frees, but didn't seem to want to kick. - Jones good, but lonely. - JMac blew the cobwebs out, and needed that one match to get it out of the way. - Yze and Miller. On VERY shaky ground. - Robbo's back. - Warnock. Drop him. - Ward did just enough. I'm stunned at this sentiment. He was fantastic today. Was VERY busy in the backline for the whole match. He and wrecker will be sensational. Twit. That was the only part that hurt. I wanted to get a clearer idea of how we are going, and if we play up woop woop, then we'll have fewer chances to find out. If we play at, say, Princes Park, I'm there. Posters (for the most part) have neglected to mention that we had McLean, Bartram, Davey, Holland, Trav, Moloney, Pickett, Sylvia, Whelan and White out, all of whom you could argue are in the starting 22. They had Croad, Smith and Jacobs out. With that in mind, I wanted us to show that we could go with these guys, and if possible show that we have what it takes to win the game. We did that easily. Also, when we play them again in round 2, we'll know just about ALL their tricks as they played a lot of their first 22 today, we'll have a vastly different side, and having lost today they won't have seen the way we win, giving them less background on us. You could argue that as long as Croad and Franklin are stopped, we have these guys beat. If you assume all of Brock, Davey, Trav, Pickett, Whelan and White have to come back in, then you have to drop at least 8 players (by round 1). So if you got rid of Miller, Yze, Warnock, PJ, Hughes, Frawley, Godfrey and Ward the side would be unbelievable. How we're going to find room for the 2-4 newish guys who played well today, I'll never know.

Yeah, I'm happy about that too. Crownies if you can afford them, but I'll take Carlton Draught. Because some of the people here spend a LOT of time on these boards. You can't skim through a members post as quickly if you're deciphering what they're trying to say. If there's the odd typo (teh instead of the) or spelling error on a huge word, or even a bit of poetic license (Toigs, Caaaahlton, Terry Wallet) then most can cope, but there are some who don't have the respect for fellow posters to do the right thing and go over what they've written and quickly correct it. One of the problems is that the posters making the really glaring errors aren't the ones who have to read those posts. Example, which one would you prefer to read - Mlebourne had a realy good year this seeson i thought neeta was really good and arron was awesome,, brad greens kicking has ben pretty bad too i think brock is is a champ and hes going to be their when the borwnlow is read out in big numbers go deesy ou rock I h8 essendon or Melbourne had a really good year this season. I thought Neitz was really good and Aaron was AWESOME. However, Brad Green's kicking has been pretty bad. I think Brock is a champion, and he's going to be there when the Brownlow is read out. And in big numbers too. Go demons, you guys ROCK! P.S. I HATE Essendon. Like you say, it's not the end of the world, but then people aren't ABUSING you by pointing out a spelling error. They're just being cheeky and having a bit of fun. If they were being insulting, then you'd probably be entitled to be a bit miffed, but the way this board is run, the offending post would hardly see the light of day. Incidentally, half the time I type it ends up like the first example above before I go through it and make it easier to read. Just from my point of view, I reckon Whispering Jack, Rhino, Jaded and the long lost Hannabal know how to type a thoughtful, entertaining post, among others. You only need to compare some of the worse posters on here with some of the abovementioneds' larger posts to see which ones are easier to read, and understand. Just my 2 cents worth.

Foxtel handling the Pies/Roos clash was better. Frightening huh?

Just watched him play against the Crows. His blistering second quarter reminded me of how he went against us last year, and how he played for the 22 rounds. Extraordinary player. I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts, even if it's only a few words. At one point he gathered after a ruck contest just on the defensive flank, ran up just past that big ugly fat line down the centre of the ground and booted a nine pointer from pretty much the wing position. Although he was clearly looking for a player it was still pretty amazing. When he gathered he had about 4 Crows within a few metres and after running at about 90-100% only McLeod was in picture. A few moments later he received a handball just on the fifty under the pump, and looped a 15 metre handball to 3 team-mates who had enough time to fumble, retrieve steady and kick a goal. He only had 17 possessions, but my goodness, he's just in a class of his own. One of my favourite players going around at the moment.

He didn't look too shabby in round 4 when playing a bit in defense. If he can't make it as a forward, why not give him a crack in Holland's role? When the time is right.