Lord Travis

Disappointing we won't be able to get him across in the near future. he's the exact kind of player we need. Young, hard, quick player who will play midfield and is currently developing at a successful club. Would've been a good get. Oh well, he'll do well at the Swans.

Old post of mine, but just some info about him for those interesting. As I said below, I think he'd be a good get and would be happy to trade any pick outside the top 10 for him. Getting a kid with 2 years developing at Sydney in a completive and successful environment is better than a fresh 18 year old. Get it done Dees.

The same thing we've needed for years, quality midfielders! Any of Dangerfield, Shiel, Treloar, Coniglio could be on the move and we must land one. I don't care if we have to pay overs, we need quality midfielders and it's not like our current list would demand much of a salary. I'd throw $1,000,000 a year at Shiel. He's got line breaking pace, strong ball winning ability and kicks goals. He's also still young. He'd be the perfect target.

Happy to see Toumpas break back into the time. Surprised to see Grimes dropped. he may not be a superstar, but he did a decent job on Ballantyne and was probably one of our best. It's sad how his career is panning out as he is such an enthusiastic Melbourne man and he was very good earlier in his career. Surprised also to see Jamar dropped. While he hasn't been great he has still battled alone in the ruck this year and hasn't been our worst. VERY happy to see Stretch debut. I've written on here multiple times that I think he's going to be a great player for us. He's got good pace, good endurance, good kicking skills, is a decent mark for his small size, and most importantly finds the ball. I think he's going to own a wing of the MCG for the next 10-12 years and be our Isaac Smith/Brad Hill type. Best of luck to the kid!!

He's been pretty good so far. He needs to find more ball, only averaging 16-17 disposals a match for a midfielder isn't great, but he's definitely shown he goes when it's his turn and hits the scoreboard as well. Hopefully we se him in the centre a bit more this year as the season goes on, he hasn't spent a lot of time there yet and has been floating around the flanks. He's got the ability to be a ball winner and should develop that over the next few years. Overall he's been a good pickup for us and will likely be part of our midfield rotation for years to come. A step up on the M. Jones, Mckenzies and Bails IMO.

Bad luck and hope he has a speedy recovery. To play devils advocate, the people saying he has been providing great defensive pressure in the forward line... you're wrong. He's laid 1 tackle per game this year, that is far from good. He was told by the coaching staff he needed to step it up or he'd get the axe and it looked like he was responding well, laying 3 tackles in the first quarter before getting injured. It's prt of his game he needs to work on and the coaching staff have started this thankfully. What we will really miss is his pace and ability to break lines. Multiple times a game he will take the ball down the field on a run and being involved in scoring chains. We don't have many quick players who can do this. JKH has potential for this, Jeffy has been good this year, but we need Toumpas and Stretch and the like to step it up in this area. We're going well winning contested ball but still lack quality outside run. Hopefully Kent is able to come back strong and have an impact later this year. He certainly has the talent, he just needs to become more rounded as a player and become more consistent.

Didn't see it but he will be a big loss. He is a reliable little player who goes about it the right way. Hope he is ok.

6. Jones 5. Vandenberg 4. Hogan 3. Salem 2. Vince 1. Michie

Enjoy the win everyone! Solid win in wet conditions on the big stage! We've got Fremantle, Sydney and Hawthorn the next 3 weeks so gonna be rough. Let's see how the boys handle a really tough run of matches. I don't expect to win any, but I would like to see us put up a good fight and not lose momentum we're building.

At least I censored it

Brayshaw showed true toughness a few times. Really pleased with him. Hogan ragdolling Rance is great to see. Dustin Martin is the f*cking softest c*nt I've ever seen. He jumps on guys and grabs their throats, it's disgusting how the umps never pay frees against him for it. The second he gets tackled, throws his arms out like he's been shot by a sniper. He is absolutely gutless on top of being a filthy piece of sh*t of a human being.

Vanders going well. Tyson needs to go back to basics and just handball it off as first option instead of trying to take on multiple tacklers. If we tidy up our disposal we are well in this even though they're smacking us around the ground!

I agree with most of what you're saying. The only difference is the players you mentioned who had clangers made up for their mistakes. Tyson sprayed a few kicks, but was involved in multiple chains that lead to goal, and kicked a good team lifting goal himself. Watts uncharacteristically shanked a few, but worked his ass off to set up other goals and kicked some himself. Jetta laid a few solid tackles down back, McDonald was pretty much BOG etc. Toumpas did not do anything effective for the team yesterday and that is why he deserves to be dropped. But I do take your point. I can see upside in him too. He generally finds a decent amount of ball, more than the likes of Salem, Kent, Kennedy-Harris and a few other highly touted youngsters on here. I remember he played a really good game against Geelong in the wet. IMO he was BOG for us that day, picked up 20+ disposals and laid 7-8 tackles. He also backed into packs to take intercepting marks and just generally read it well. Games like that show he has the talent and work ethic, he just needs it to click consistently at AFL level. The Toumpas bashing on this site needs to stop.

Draft for talent. We need depth everywhere. Would be nice to add more well rounded midfielders to the list and take a ruckman.

It's a pain in the ass that's for sure. Here's hoping we go down there and beat them for once. Would love to see Dunny line up on Mitch and just niggle him all day until he is forced to listen to Grand Old Flag the sook!

We should make minimal changes to what was a winning team. The players should be rewarding and taught if you play your role and win then you keep your spot. Vince could come in for Toumpas. Dawes can play in the VFL this week, unless Garland is injured in which case he can replace Garland. No other changes, so two at most.

It's going to be good time when as a Demons supporter we can genuinely look forward to winning maybe 50% of matches we play. It's been so long now and it seems so far away. Pretty pathetic really.

Sorry if I jinxed us guys. As soon as I got to that sh*thole of a stadium there were just bad vibes in the air. I was surrounded by drunken Essendon supporters singing and whinging and it just seemed like we would lose. The boys were missing basic shots in the warm ups, Hogan missing from about 20 out, Dawes missing the lot from 40, and Matt Jones dropped a basic mark and then slipped over. That pretty much set the tone. After the first 15 minutes there was no intensity from our boys. Even Nathan Jones didn't look like he wanted to be there. Positives - Vandenberg looks the goods. He's hard at it, has decent skills and reads the play well. Pity he missed that goal, but good performance all round. From a distance he looks like a young David Schwarz. It's the floppy hair, big build and throwing the body around. He's already ahead of a few on the senior list IMO. - Garlett and Lumumba look the goods as well. Though both missed a few gettable kicks, they are both involved and gave run. Jeffy is an exciting player to watch! Few great grabs and runs. Love him! Shudder to think where we'd be with Terlich off half back instead of Lumumba. - Watts looked comfortable for the most part. Dawes finally clunked a few marks and provided a presence. Good to see them both take a few grabs a kick a few goals. Hopefully they get confidence from that. - ​Dunn was better today after a few off matches. Apart from one shanked kick out he was back to being general of the backline and helping control play. Negatives - Hogan fumbled and got out-wrestled by someone 10kgs lighter than him. He's a kid so it doesn't matter at this stage, but it wouldn't be good for his confidence. I don't want him to get Melbourne-a-fied and lose that aura he has, the swagger and attitude. - My boy Dom Tyson again has untidy disposal tonight. He's been poor all NAB series, hopefully he's just rusty and tidies it up for the season proper. - Frost in the ruck, and mostly up forward. He really struggled in the ruck and gets frustrated easily. He's given away a few frees and a 50 this NAB series from shoving guys around needlessly. From what I've seen at GWS and this NAB series he is a natural defender. He's got good closing speed and is better at shutting down a contest than clunking a mark. He's got a lot of pace which would could use to move the ball out of defence. Up forward he can't use his pace, he doesn't clunk many marks, and his shots for goal are poor. End the experiment and let him settle down back. If he is playing ruck and key forward in the season proper then we are in trouble. - Jack Viney had a shocker. Poor decision making, poor disposal, poor game sense. He needs to forget that game ever happened and move on. I love his attitude and hard work, but he needs to tidy up his game to keep his place and become a leader going forward. - Bail did a whole lot of nothing. All he is good for is providing run and covering lots of ground. If he doesn't give us run and his opponent gives them run instead, what good is he?! - Matt Jones. Just Matt Jones in general. He is a negative. Having him on the ground is playing with a man down, that's how detrimental he is. I didn't think he was that bad in the past, sometimes he gives a bit of run, but after paying more attention to him it's easy to see why he has been getting such a hard wrap on here. In the second half my Essendon supporting mate made a game of following him, and sure enough he made mistake after mistake and was involved in a number of Essendon scoring chains. I don't care if he has a mature body, until he is gone from our team we will remain anchored to the bottom of the ladder. Get rid of him. We lost to a sub-standard VFL team. They weren't even a VFL team that plays together, it was a bunch of guys selected from different teams shoved together so a match could be held. We lost to them. That is downright embarrassing, even if it is NAB cup. Guys like Nathan Jones should be absolutely gutted tonight for what just happened. I still can't believe it myself. What a sh*t weekend.

At the ground now and have a feeling we'll lose. I think it's years of conditioning losing the unloseable :/

Will become a key to our defence for the next 10 years. He's an athletic freak and loves a contest. He'll play both shut down roles and rebounding roles. Another great recent piece of trading!

Good to hear he's extended his contract, but I'd like to just see him out there first!

Toumpas was alright against Freo. He didn't win as much ball as he should've, but it wasn't from lack of trying. He was constantly banging into the packs and laying tackles. As silly as it sounds, I think his contested work is actually decent and he's very underrated in this regard. Anyone who says he doesn't go when it's his turn is either blind or a liar. His uncontested work is where he needs to improve, which is odd as it was supposed to be his strength. Before he was drafted he was a running skilful goal kicking machine, and was the best performed midfielder at the level. At AFL level he seems to run to the wrong places to link up and just doesn't get enough of the ball due to this. If he can learn our systems better and know where to run he'll become dangerous as we know his skills are usually very good. For what it's worth, he was better than Salem yet again the other day, yet gets crucified on here as usual.

Steven is a great guy and a family friend. As a kid he used to get me into the rooms at the MCG after games to meet the team. He also got my a footy signed by the entire 1994 team. He really loves the Dees and to this day attends every match and keeps in contact with those inside the club. His appointment can only be a good thing for us. Good luck to him with the new position! Go Dees!

Like other interstate players on our list, he will leave when his contract is up if we don't start playing good football and winning. It would be devastating to lose him and Hogan in a few years time if we are still cellar dwellers, but it's a real possibility. WE NEED TO START WINNING GAMES.

It won't happen, but finals is a pass mark. I'm expecting 8-10 wins and finishing anywhere from 9th-14th. If we are bottom 4 again I'll be disappointed. Finals in 2016 is a non negotiable. Next year it will be 10 years since we made finals. It should never take a team that long in between making finals, let alone being a realistic chance to win a flag in finals. if we don't make finals next year then I'll have nothing left to give.