Dappa Dan

My first respone was no no no. But since reading everyone's comments I've realised there is some method to this madness. I was sitting right behind him in the round 4 match vs the Swans where he did his shoulder, and I've gotta say he looked 10 times as comfortable. Perhaps given the chance to react, rather that create the plays helped him along. Then again, he was also looking pretty dangerous up forward too on that day, maybe he was just hitting his straps. What you want to see is the guy taking to a particular position in the way Dutchy did this year. Just to suddenly own a KP on the field and create, at least in the coach's mind, a home for him. Personally I'd prefer him to suddenly own CHF or FF, but since he's had years to do that, perhaps I'm being naive.

When the time comes, I can't wait to raise this again. I'm right behind Belly, while I agree he has his faults, I'm of the opinion his positives far out-weigh his negatives. Perhaps even the eternal optimist doesn't believe he can be a great player, but I certainly think he can play a few really good seasons, if uninjured.

You've gotta love CAC's balls in recruiting bottom age players in recent years. Not only is it perceived as a gamble, but the whole football world is crying out for teams to stop recruiting and playing kids so early in their careers. There's a perception that kids are damaged if they debut too early, as their egos, bodies and temperaments are very fragile at that age. CAC goes the other direction. He has faith that ND, and even Mark Williams won't play kids too early for their own good. Look at Bate and Dunn who were sheltered and given time to settle. Then look at Newton who has been kept off seniors at Sandy, possibly for the same reason. It seems to me CAC is conscious of the fact that it's dangerous to uproot kids from their home states and fling them headlong into the big-smoke. It seems, however, that the support around the club with families, patrons of MFC and even the senior players right down to Ooze are more than happy to take care of the younger demons and make sure they don't party too much and stay serious about their futures. Our success with our 2/3 (and possibly 3/3) bottom age draftees of 2004 is as encouraging a sign as I can think of for our future on-field success. Fingers crossed that it continues.

I'm no fashion expert, but I'd suggest that Byron's... excess, shall we say... will only be axacerbated by this outfit. I'm not sure I'd want our more rotund players looking as though they'd been on a good paddock over the break. Having said that, aside from that one criticism it does look awesome. I'd love to get a few ideas rolling around, I've always thought that, unlike some clubs (Hawthorn, Freo, Adelaide) the red and blue in its traditional form really lends itself to variations such as these. And I reckon the flaming "M" demon is a great symbol for the club. Whoever came up with that one should be recruited to design another away gurnsey, if they haven't already been recruited. PS, I appreciate the touch of making it Moloney's number.

Well done guys. Brought a tear to my eye seeing us dominate so well. Is there any chance of the rematch being played in Feb? I'll be back in Melbourne then, and relatively fit. I can also line up perhaps Before2Long and DreamTeam. All 3 of us would be handy at worst. It hurt to miss the day, I want to at least be there for the next one.

If we whinged to them about the fact that the ball is round, and that they're faster than us they'd come back and call us sooks. We played according to the way AFL players have been groomed to play for 100+ years, and while we were agressive, they did as much of the niggling stuff as us. For such an amazingly talented list in such a top-quality sport, these gaelic guys truly come off as amateurs when their manager has a big sookie sookie la la like he has. While I still think they're certainly a match for us, they've got a lot to learn about professionalism in the world of football, especially when you compare them to Soccer/AFL/League/Union/Gridiron, all of which share similarities with one-another. It's ok to criticise umpiring, but to come out and claim the game is in jeapordy helps no-one. Had they gotten up, he wouldn't be chucking a spakky like he did.

Didn't get a chance to watch the match, but Flash was named among the best for the series winning match. All those who saw the match, let the rest of us know how it went.

HA! Point taken Jaded.

I love these little chestnuts, good on you Elliot. If anyone sees any more players out and about don't be afraid of approaching them and finding stuff out. I always find they're as approachable as you can imagine a person being and willing to talk in detail about the club. After all, this kind of stuff is the only joy we get for the next few months...

Ta for that Hendo, and don't be a stranger. The dees have, for some years now, been a fairly good 4th quarter team. My mates all reckon that our ability to run out games is the one thing they fear from us. That is, even when their sides (Hawks, Blues, Roos etc.) are up against us, they're never sure they're going to get over the line. Even against the ridiculously fit Crows in round 3 we nearlt over-ran them. To be honest, one of the things I'm proudest about at MFC is that we get our fair share, maybe more than our fair share of victories by less than a kick. Over at Geelong (or was it the Roos, I can't remember. A blue and white team anyway) I heard that earlier this year they copped quite a bit of criticism for training their players explosively. Or in other words, high impact training without any endurance involved. I think it may have been around the time they somehow gave up a huge lead to the Eagles that this criticism surfaced. Now I'm not one to string a guy up before he's had a chance to prove what he's worth, but all this information on here certainly makes me nervous...

People didn't. Brock himself did. He went on holiday with Col after his first season, and after partying a little bit too hard, he came back heavier than he thought he would be. When conparing him to Jones all I said was that I heard Jones's team-mates paid him out for being chunky, not the general public.

I heard somewhere that the players pay him out for being a bit chubby, but then Brock got a hard time for the same thing at the start of his second season. I think weight's a factor if you're the wrong side of 28, like Stuart Dew, or Byron. Jones has 10 years before we need to be concerned. On the plus side, the ONLY thing he needs to develop body-wise is his endurance. He's not in the mould of, say, CJ who has needed to bulk up AND improve endurance. If you're going to post things to be worried about when considering the tendencies of individual demon-listed players, Jones's weight would be about the 296th thing I'd be worried about.

Moloney is "Beamer"

In a perfect world, yes. I said at the get go of this thread that I'd have both as a preference, but we may need the midfield rotations, which makes numbers on the bench tight. I'm right on the fence suggesting both, but like you pointed out it's Dunn's talent and scoreboard influence vs Miller's size and marking strength as a link-up man coming out of CHF. I'm surprised people here have picked a definite winner out of these two, as I find the choice to be difficult. Either way a lot of things could go wrong with selecting either of these players, I wouldn't want to be the guy making the decision as you'd probably cop a lot of flack for it one way or the other. When Dunn's 23 I'd suggest he'll be one of the better CHFs in the comp should he gain a bit of size and confidence in contested situations. Time will tell, but for now I suspect he won't gain 10 kilos by week one of the finals.

Both. But if I had to choose between the two I'd say Miller. More mature physically and can be put into the backline. Dunn's a ripper but it's his first season, and while Miller doesn't have a great history in finals football, he does have about 50 games more experience. Having said that I'm not sure I'd be disappointed to see Dunn line up. Great experience for him leading into a big future with the MFC.

I've always been of the understanding that the top 2 are Barassi at 1, Flower at 2. I remember a big debate with all the demonland/demonology bigwigs about the team of the century, and Neitz isn't in it for last century and probably won't be in it at FF for the next century. Had Neita's career come 10 years earlier than it did would he be in our team of last century? I like to think so. Honestly though, I don't know that he'd be in our top 5. The abovementioned and Ivor Warne-Smith, Lyon, Stynes would perhaps round it out. I never saw players play before the eighties but I'm sure Dixon, Beames, Fanning and especially Norm Smith had claims. I love Neita as much or more than the next bloke who's blood runs Red & Blue, but I don't know that he's top 5... yet.

IMO = In My Opinion ATM = At The Moment ND = Neale Daniher DN = David Neitz 426 = Nick Smith There are a few more, but I can't remember them right now. Took me a while to catch up too.