Lord Travis

I agree, not to mention we have more than enough inside mids. He showed a bit in the ruck with his huge leap and good followup, but as a mid he was clueless and ineffective. Didn't get much of a look as a forward as delivery was directed elsewhere when he was down there. IMO he should play s 2nd ruck to Gawn. He can play forward and then rotate into the ruck to allow Gawn to rest forward. It's a waste playing him inside mid, though I'm not opposed to trying him in the wing role that Richo and Goodes excelled in as tall marking targets.

Haven’t heard anything about this yet but god I hope this gets done soon before his price increases. He’s definitely going to improve his output this year and drive his price up further. There’s multiple other clubs, including the Pies, hounding his manager. If we’ve got open communication to get it done then we better not stuff it up. At worst he’s a good forward option, which we need. At best he’s a potential midfielder/forward weapon in the Dusty/Dangerfield mould.

Trac has had a f*cking huge game. 38 disposals, 3 goals, 185 fantasy points. That must be the biggest game by a Demon in many years. Lets hope increased fitness and midfield time sees him become the great player we all know he can be. Very exciting!

Safe. Again! He's missed two easy set shots today.

Good kicking is good football. Good passage there Dees!

He's been poor and has been in the rehab group most of summer for various leg and foot related issues. He's probably our most important player at this stage, as he's our only big proven goal kicker now. Another goal to Jones. That's 3!

Jones having a good third quarter and has been one of our best today. Used his experience at the stoppage there to push off his opponent and get enough space for the quick shot.

Until we improve our kicking skills, we won't challenge. "Chaos-ball" can only beat disorganised sides. Well coached and organised teams like West Coast, Collingwood and Richmond gobble up the long bombs. If we improve our kicking efficiency, we'll immediately become a top 4 team again. We win more than enough ball and give ourselves abundance of opportunity. Loving Trac permanently in the midfield!

Healy and Dunstall are actually quite positive about the Dees. Both usually talk us up. Both have picked us to play finals and said we should be disappointed if we don't play finals. They're both right. Assessment of Jackson so far is valid. He played midfield for nearly two full quarters and had 3 touches, 2 ineffective. It's been a poor debut thus far, but reality is he's a tall kid playing his first AFL practice game. Even though he was a high draft pick, he's tall and will take time to come on. Kozzie looked lively at stages. His problem has always been consistency, he flashes in and out of games and never wins much ball. If he can keep applying pressure up forward and kick a goal or two, then his more than filling the role we need and will quickly prove a valuable pickup. Langdon and Tomlinson have both looked ok. Langdon has showed great run, but mis-kicked. Tomlinson has showed poise, but not been as involved. Brown has looked decent up forward. He's crafty and will kick anywhere from 20-35 goals for us this year. For a freebie, he'll be pick-up of the year.

Looks like a headless chook at the moment to be honest. Not sure the super tall midfielder is the role he should be playing. I know he's undersized for a ruck, but given it's a practice match and Gawn is out, we should give him more of a taste in the ruck. He showed great leap in the few minutes he had there. Either that, or play him goal square as a target.

Trac dominant today. Hopefully he's fit enough to play proper midfield all year and become a real bull.

Kozzie showing how dangerous he can be with a few flashes of brilliance in a minute. Just needs to build consistency s he's got the attributes we need up forward.

Pickett banana for his first goal! Brilliant!

Goal to goal. We had the advantage in the first quarter, but characteristically kicked inaccurately for goal. Crows are now making the most of the wind advantage, and our kicking has been atrocious. Only preseason, but there doesn't appear to be much change in game style visible yet. Was hoping for more accurate short kicking before pulling the trigger inside 50. I guess without a strong target up there it makes it hard. TMac has been unsighted and is our only proven big goal kicker. We need him to stay fit and stand up this year.

Seems tactic unfortunately. Hopefully we see a change in game style this year to hit more short kicks leading into 50.

Loving Trac in the midfield. He's got a bit of c*nt about him today too. This year is surely the year where he puts it together for full games and takes the next step from good to great.

Great run by Langdon. We've lacked that hard running running wingman for years, and he'll be that for years to come.

We'll need to improve against teams that nail the short kicks. That entry was cakewalk for them, and then finding another player inside 50 again somehow?!

Great goal by Brown! He'll be a good pick-up as a freebie and could win our goal kicking.

Tomlinson and Langdon both looking decent. Kozzie providing good pressure. Jackson unsighted, but delivery going in has been poor. Trac looking god around the ball, so hard to take down in a tackle! Lever flying is good to see, just needs to stay fit! We look better than them, but unless we start converting forward dominance on the scoreboard, we'll wind up losing all year again.

If Lever can stay on the park, he should wind up captain in the future. He’s the most natural leader we have out there and acts as the general directing traffic. We don’t have many vocal leaders and onfield coach types unfortunately.

Agreed we are nothing like those sides. They strayed off course slightly as a one off before returning to finals and becoming powerhouses. We have been off course for the better part of decades and haven’t shown consistent form like those sides did. BTW we have played finals in an odd year since 91 - we played finals in 2005 and got smashed by Geelong in elimination final at the G.

Tom McDonald with ongoing knee management. Hopefully he comes good this year. He's possibly the most important player on our list at the moment, as he's our only proven big goal kicker. https://www.afl.com.au/news/374096/big-demons-forward-joins-all-australian-ruckman-in-rehab-group

It’s not impossible, but going by data this century it’s a 1.6% chance of finals if we are 0-2. It’s a 0.5% chance of finals if we’re 0-3. Tough start to the season for us, but we just have to win.

We've been poor at developing talent. We've had more high draft picks than nearly all other clubs, yet have butchered the development of the top young talent coming in. Some say we drafted poorly, I don't (for the most part). I believe the talent was fine, the development was poor. If we weren't a basket case off-field and our development focus was stronger, young talent drafted like Watts, Scully, Trengove, Grimes, Morton, Blease would all still be in red and blue and would now be the core carrying this club to consistent finals now. Talents like Petracca would be superstars too. We've definitely gotten better, but guys like Petracca, Brayshaw, Weideman all show that there's decent improvement still to be had with our development of young talent. We've been poor at retaining talent too obviously, but I think if development was better, culture would be better, less players leave - it's all connected.