The Backyard Charizard

Mate, I only travel to Melbourne to watch us play our fellow Victorian teams....

There is nothing better than staying here in Adelaide and going down to the pub in Alberton and drinking amongst the Port Adelaide filth! There is a certain adrenaline rush one gets when sitting amongst a bunch of dole-bludging, West End drinking Power supporters whilst wearing my beloved Red 'n Blue and enjoying an ice cold VB!!!

You can tell me I'm not a real suporter for not travelling, but I know the truth!! I pay my premium membership each and every year and travel to Melbourne when I'm not working but I can assure you that I will enjoy the match on Sunday regardless of whether we win or lose and I won't have to be at a silent MCG full of 25 Port supporters and a bunch of Melbourne fans with their hands under their bums to keep warm

I have read the posts about how good his game was for Sandy on the weekend and I think the kid deserves his shot....

Especially if it is a choice between risking a 75% fit Skipper or Green....

My main reason for asking the question is that I am contemplating putting Newton in my dreamteam for this week.... Gonna trade out Nathan Ablett....

If Newton doesn't get a gig against Port do you think it will be likely he gets a run at all this season??? I only ask this because we will start to get forwards back in the next few weeks....

Level at the top....

Nice result, but hate the fact that I had to tip against the Dees!!! Makes me feel sick!!

No 86 in the 2006 draft.....

Any ideas who it was???

A young bloke by the name of David Rodan!!!

Now before you say it, yes I realise he had a knee reconstruction a few years back and apparently lost a bit of his pace.... But in all seriousness, he is rippin' it up for Port in 2007!!!

Is gathering an avg of 18 posessions a game and is adding hardness to their midfield.... He is a tackling machine and is also kicking goals, both as a crumber and a running midfielder....

Am I wrong in thinking that we could not have used him on our list??

I know we have a number of hard-nut midfielders (injured ones at that) and we have been told we are looking to the future.... But Rodan is only 23 and by the looks of it he is relishing a second chance at footy after Richmond gave him the arse....

At number 86 he was a massive get! Please tell me we at least investigated and looked at him prior to our selections!?!?!?!

Gibbs, Shaw, Sewell, Raines and Montagna???? Are you for real? They're nowhere near the players YM listed.

You have no idea.

I think what has happened is a few of us have changed this post to reflect the best players so far this season for their respective clubs....

A list of the top 10 best in the AFL is too difficult... A list of the top performing player at each club after 4 or 5 rounds is a bit more realistic

Sewell is having a ripper year so far.... Massive surprise packet to most of us

Thanks for the kind words

I am always spot on with my predictions, so just sit back and enjoy what will be a great night for all Demon supporters

Ha Ha! Now I know you are full of it

Matt Kreuzer

Pat Veszpremi

Hayden Czwarno

It would be interesting to see how the commentators go with these names!!! I for one like the fact that I can pronounce the surnames of our list!

Pretty exciting weekend coming up for the MFC

According to 99% of football supporters, the media etc... we are GONE

I dont blame them for saying this. After all, we have been crippled by injury. We have been hit harder than any team I can think of in my time watching footy. it has been frustrating to say the least

That is why this weekends game will be seen as the most important win in the last 40 years of the Melbourne Football Club

Totally agree with you on this point... Season defining and career defining for some

Make no mistake. We will win this week

Nothing is surer

There will be some wildcards. The Swans wont know how to handle Petterd and Garland. I can see them both having an impact in their first ever games. Rivers is back to dominate the backline, and Travis will fire. Davey hit form last week. Paul Johnson returns toi the ground that ended his 2006 campaign and will be keen to atone.

Tough ask for Rivers to dominate, but he will surely try his guts out and reduce his opponent to only a couple of goals... TJ needs a good game! He has been nothing short of dissappointing so far this season... Loved Davey's game last week and he will only get better (probably getting [censored] that everyone is rating his brother ahead of the original) Big PJ and his courage last year at the SCG was fantastic.... The big fella needs to get games and a big string of 'em to prove he has got what it takes!

What will happen?

The Demons will win by 36

Carroll to smash Hall

Rivers to smash O'Keefe

Bell to smash O'Loughlin

Travis and Davey to run riot

Demons to booot 21 goals

Garland will kick 5, Davey 4, Dunn 3

This win, against all odds, wil kickstart our season whoch will end up with a Preliminary final berth, at the least

Mate, if you are even half right with your prediction then I will be stoked! Love the fact that you even posted this, let alone whether or not you believe your own hype

Someone shed some light on this please!!!!

And what is with Sylvia's knee??

Ill do mine for the last 4 rounds (best of 5)

5. Daniel Kerr

4. Chad Cornes - love this guy

3. Heath Shaw

2. Adam Goods

1. Barry Hall

Agree totally!!!

Kerr is ripping it up and sticking it to his detractors!

Cornes is an absolute gun and would be a walk-up start in any one of the other 15 clubs!

Heath Shaw is one of the surprise packets in my view! Having a stellar start to the season!

Goodes is a great player who has not been at his best so far this season, but is ticking along nicely!

Barry Hall is unreal.... For a bloke who injured his knee early on this year, he is not showing any sign of it!

Another 5 I would add....

Andrew McLeod - Well on the way to a stellar year and maybe another Charlie?!?!?

Chris Judd - No need to even comment!

Scott Lucas - Wish we had this sort of option up forward!

Simon Black - Leading by example to a great group of young cubs!

Matthew Pavlich - A hard running, strong leading, mark taking leader!

Steven Quartermain on Ch.10 news just previewed the sport, and I quote:

"More bad injury news for the Demons"...

Woo, can't wait to hear who's injured now! <_<

Can you please let us know as soon as you hear it....

Thanks....

Looks like I get to keep my left [censored] after all.... *Phew*

Was a risky bet that payed off!

From the AFL website

http://afl.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArti...px?newsId=41837

Melbourne

Daniel Bell (concussion) - test

Nathan Brown (calf) - test

Travis Johnstone (hamstring) - test

Brent Moloney (groin) - test

David Neitz (knee) - test

Jared Rivers (hamstring) - test

Paul Wheatley (shoulder) - test

James Frawley (foot) - 2 weeks

Nathan Jones (ankle) - 2-3 weeks

Brock McLean (foot) - 2-3 weeks

Matthew Whelan (hamstring) - 2-3 weeks

Russell Robertson (knee) - 5 weeks

Clint Bartram (knee) - 5-7 weeks

So, looking at this list we could be nearing full strength by Round 7.... Of course Robbo and Barts will be a little later....

If we can somehow manage a win in the next 2 weeks we are some chance to shake things up come the latter part of the season!

For some strange reason I think we may have a real chance against the Swans this week.... I know it sounds ridiculous, but we have a decent record at the SCG and maybe the smaller ground will reduce the chance of a blowout! They will play a tight, contested game and I am willing to bet that we lose by no more than 3 goals...

Call me stupid but I have a strange feeling in my guts! Could we possibly open our 2007 account against the Swans?!?!?!

MagpieFan3 wrote "I also agree as well. Im so happy atm to see Melbourne right at the bottom. I could not agree more. I would like to know when we play them as i reckon it will be 50,000 all collingwood supporters. Also ive got two words for Melbourne "Season Over"

HaHa! Not only is he bagging us for our attendance, but he has never even heard of the Queen's Birthday game!! Collingwood fans are not only filthy, but ridiculously retarded!!

I am willing to bet my left [censored] that Petterd will play against the Swans!

PJ is worth persisting with. He has better ground skills than Holland and is a better kick.

I think saying he is a better kick than Holland is like saying that Beer tastes better than petrol

If we didn't have the injury list from hell, I would say it is just the calm before the storm....

But with the cattle we have on the sidelines, it would be a brave man to ponder finals in 2007!!

I can see us making a belated run for a finals berth in the latter part of the season but to come back from a winless first 8 rounds it would be a bloody miracle!!

Enjoy the snow!

Anyhow, Bell would be one guy I'd pretty much play all season.

Without a doubt!!

His attack on the opponent and the pill cannot be questioned.... As has been spoken before, he lacks a touch of awareness when around the middle, but hey? He is wearing Red 'n Blue! We are not exactly the awareness capital of the AFL...

Great work Bell and keep it up!

No one as bad as Grgic =)

No comment

Miller seems reluctant to kick for goal sometimes!!

He would much rather give it off to another player until the game is either out of our reach or we are in junk time.... I know he pushes up the ground (which is great) but even when he takes a grab around the F50 he just doesn't seem to trust his boot?!?!

He might well become a good player, but I don't think it will be as a ruckman.

That just leaves us with White and Jamar

I think PJ will be a player along the lines of Ben Holland.... Filling the tall forward role and at times playing as a loose man down back.... A man that big has to be of use somewhere! Just hope he gets given enough game time to show us what he's got... ND has been reluctant to play him in a string of matches and it is about time he tried it!

Great game by Yze.... He deserves to finish his career with a few good seasons of consistent form.....

Todays game will be long remembered by Melbourne suporters as....

"The day Yze showed some heart - And delivered a piece of art!"

TBH I haven't really seen much of Neaves but had heard he had done some good things at Sandy - although I guess Jamar & Johnson rip it up in the VFL and have been found wanting so far in the big leagues.

I guess the wider issue is how poorly our rucks seem to be performing and the lack of depth we have in this critical area.

Jamar and PJ have been really dissapointing in my opinion.... Especially Jamar! I still have faith in PJ evolving into a good player but Jamar has just about done his dash in my eyes! Skills at ground level are shocking, pace is non-existent and his ruck work leaves a lot to be desired.... Why the hell we let Jolly go and kept Jamar will bug me for years to come!

For me, the biggest thing I've noticed when watching Sylvia has been his lack of awareness - he seems to have trouble finding the right spots to wait for a ball outside a pack etc, where other guys seem like footy naturals in terms of positioning, reading of the play, etc. If you don't have the best footy smarts it's going to make you look even slower.

I think we have a lot of blokes with a lack of awareness.....

It is a major concern! You can teach a bloke to kick, handball, mark and tackle but the art of awareness is a harder thing to teach a player.... With our lack of awareness I find it sad that there is not a lot more screaming and yelling between the boys during a game.... Without talk and letting one 'n other know if "they're hot" we will continue to be put under immense pressure and a high rate of turnovers!

Neaves is even further away from being a AFL ruckman than PJ at this stage. From what I've seen it wouldn't solve too much.

Agree....

I think we would be better off giving some younger boys already on the senior list a run! Petterd, Buckley, Warnock, Garland and Frawley all deserve a run in the next month or so! Now is the perfect time to see how they go....