Salems Lot

My mum took me to my first game in 1969 v the toiges ("make them shoosh mum,its too noisy") I was 5 at the time and had just experienced my first Demon flogging. Through all of those appalling years of low returns, the thing that kept me interested and passionate about the Dees was my own Mother's passion. I learnt about loving the team in spite of victory or loss from her. How often she would say to me and my 2 brothers "oh well boys, there is always next week" It is a conditioning that has lasted through life for me. The closure for us was being with her at the Western Oval in 87 and leaping about like lunatics after the siren when we had made the finals. She even managed to break her ankle in the excitement!! What I am trying to say is that your 6 year old will pickup on your passion and pride in your club just by being there with you. I started taking my son in 2006 when he was 18 months old so at least he saw us play a bit of reasonable footy (LOL), in fact he didn't see us lose for the first 6 games, amazing when you think of it now. Funnily enough, my 2 nephews started following the Dees about 15 years ago when they regularly were experiencing highs. Now we have dropped off the pace, so has their interest...maybe it pays to do the hard yard early so that you really enjoy and appreciate the good times all the more. You keep your faith and she will follow. Go DEES

I love Greeny but I think that with the wealth of young talent coming through, Junior will be replaced as captain by a much younger player rather than a 30 year (as Brad will be by then).

OK deep breath everyone and calm down.

Totally gutted as everyone has said, but the boy Scully really showed what we can expect from him in years to come. I have so many doubts about what the team is doing at the moment but I have no doubt that Numbers 31 and 9 will play some great football for the red and blue in years to come.

I nominate this for the most bizarre thread of the week!! and it is only Monday!!!

But of course that is the point; I was living in London in '89 and I remember the newspapers talking up the series as the battle for the worst team in the world. At the time, no one rated any of the Aussies, they proved themselves just as the MFC must do. Let's hope that the likes of Blease, Gawn, Scully, Watts and Trengove become our equivalent of AB, Boonie et al.

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/451958.html Being the off season and all, i was reading Cricinfo when I came across this article. It made me think that this is how our boys need to start thinking to achieve the level of success that we all crave. It's not important which sport one follows, belief seems to be 90% of the battle. Happy reading.

Hey leave the female magpie supporters out of it!

Hmmm I picked him as our X factor last year, maybe this year??

Can I point out that Juice was recruited for just that but sadly his potential has not been realised. If he had done what was expected of him, i.e. big strong power forward, we would not be in this position. You win some and you lose some and clearly up until 12/3/2010 we have lost out on Juice. Having said that you can hardly accuse the Fd of not making plans for the forward line, they just didn't work out.

Hmmm, maybe this guy could do the trick in the meantime

I'm with you H, I reckon this kid is going to be pretty special. On a different tack and a little off topic could a number 11 draft pick debut with any less pressure than Gysberts? No one talks about him and with a bit of luck he may just sail under the radar.

Hey thats my boy in the JW photo, cool!! We both had a great time today, the game was really entertaining and the whole day was well organised. I had some great chats with several of the injured players; Sammy Blease says that Luke Tapscott is in Adelaide because his Gran died during the week, other than that he is fit and ready to go. Sam is not bothered by his ankle now and he doesn't give it any thought at all, reckons that he will be back and playing in a week or two. The Big Unit was lovely with my boy and had a good chat with him about school as well as footy. Very impressive over all. Like many of you, I was very impressed with the time on the ball that Trengove displayed on the ball, all class and an early tip for rising star. I was also pleased to see Strauss doing what he does;i.e. accurate clearing kicks from defence. All in all, a great day out and bring on the season.

As I have mentioned in a previous thread, I live next door to one of the Toiges recruiting officers. Up until last year he was our South Australian recruiting officer and around draft time I asked him if he had the choice between Scully or Watts as number one pick who would he take. Without missing a beat he said Watts. We have seen the potential that Scully has so I take that as high praise for young Jack.

Um we have finished 16th the last 2 years

The great thing is mixing this video with some of the youtube highlight tapes of our young recruits. It is great to see Scully, Watts, Gysberts, Blease and Strauss all playing in the one team. Hopefully it won't be too long before they are all playing together again. B)

Just talking to my new next door neighbour. Turns out he was Melbourne's Adelaide recruiting officer for the passed 12 years. He has just crossed over to the Toigs. Any how, we were talking about this last draft and when we came to discussing the 1st and 2nd selection I asked him who he would have picked first if hypothetically Watts had been in this draft rather than last year's. Without hesitation he said Watts over Scully. Reckons he is something pretty special. Went on to say that we are in great shape and should look forward to 2011 with great anticipation. I found his comments about Jack very reassuring. He went on to say that each draft produces a couple of great mid fielders but it is rare for it to produce a guy like Watts. Nice feedback. By the way, huge raps for Tapscott, reckons he and Tregove will play round 1, Scully maybe a bit later.

Something to bear in mind with all of this is that we have become too used to early and abundant blooding of new players over the past few years. This should not be the norm in a successful team as a settled team is what every club is striving for. Without doubt we have assembled a terrific bunch of talent over recent times but I would rather see the newbies forcing their way into a competitive set up made up of more mature bodies. Paul Roos put it well when he said that although Rohan is a fantastic prospect, he is nowhere near the likes of Kirk et al fitness wise, he described him as a long term project. Rather than what has happened lately which has seen us having to play the young kids due to shocking levels of injuries and a lack of class I hope that recruits of the previous couple of years will start to play consistently and injury free. Maric, Grimes, Jones and Garland and even Dunn are the ones who I am excited about this year. If they can make the move up in gear that Chip did last year we will see great improvement in the team. Similarly, I look forward to some of last years crop starting to play a game or two as well. Blease, Strauss and McNamara are next in line. Having said that, I am sure that Scully and Trengove will feature early on.

Tapscott - "Vanity" - They've "got taps!!" - sorry, its the plumber in me

He will be able to teach Frosty Miller how to kick a goal from outside 50m

1 Trengove 2 Scully 11 Black 18 Ball 34 Gawn 50 Thorpe Nothing outrageous here, just the way it will be!

Shelly Craft

Barassi to Carltank!!!!

Just a question here? Does the number 1 pick get a higher sign on contract than the other draftees?

Agreed. He's not good enough to worry about.