Little Goffy

An away win in the Nab cup over Fremantle, followed by an exciting, open game against Geelong where we drop away in the last qtr against the sustained class of the Premiers, has the fans thinking there is genuine appeal to the coming season. This is followed by an embarrassing shellacking... handed out by us this time, down at Casey Fields in front of a good local crowd whipped up by effective pre-season visits and marketing. Rnd 1. Memebership ticks over 20,000 before the season starts, then bumps up a few more thousand after a ferocious, hard-fought first round where the ruthless hawks brutally target debut guns Trengove and Scully, and Campbell Brown gets himself rubbed out for five weeks for an absurd and offensive high bump on James McDonald. Brent Moloney slams on the 'fair bumps' for the rest of the quarter, stepping up to lead until McDonald comes back after the half time break. The kids acquit themselves well under the hammering, understandably without starring, but doing a few 'special' things which stamp that they will not be intimidated. There are four guys in the middle of the circle celebrating their first win, Watts, Scully, Trengove and Strauss, appropriately for the Demons new 'youth game'. Rnd 2. The game stays in the media all week courtesy of the controversy, leading to a sensational build-up to the round 2 game against Collingwood. A big crowd turns up and is treated to a thrilling encounter, punctuated by the Liam Jurrah show. Collingwood win by just a couple of goals and everyone goes home looking forward to Queens Birthday. Rnd 3. After an uncertain start in the first couple of rounds, Adelaide go back to basics and strangle the game, as they do so well. The Demons hold close for most of the match but a couple of quick goals put Adelaide four goals in front going into the last change. The final quarter opens up the scoring and both sides kick almost as many in the last as they did for the rest of the game, but the Crows hold on with only a slight reduction in their 3/4 time margin. Rnd 4. Richmond. After humiliations in the first two rounds Hardwick managed to rally the troops for a surprise win up in Sydney, partly thanks to another Richo special. They are brought thudding back to earth by the Demons, who have played much better football despite accompanying the Tigers on one win for the season. Solidly ahead at half time, the third quarter sees a withering burst from multiple young guns that tears the game open and leaves only the question of who, of several, should be taking home that week's rising star award. A couple of junk time goals in the final quarter fail to bring respectability back to the margin for Richmond. Rnd 5. Saturday night at the 'G and the Demons faithful have turned up in the best numbers against an interstate side for some years. Plenty of stragglers and 'footy lovers' have come along to see the Fevola-Brown show in Victoria for the first time that season, and they are treated to a special day at both ends. Voss backs his older midfield and power forwards to win more contests and kick more goals, choosing to open the game right up for all out attack. The continuing Jurrah spectacular and at last the breakout game from Watts turns the game into a spectator's party, with more than 20 goals kicked by just four players. Frawley gets a handle on Fevola in the second half and in the end only an extraordinary effort from Jonathan Brown gets the Lions over the line. Sitting at 2-3 after five rounds, with good percentage, nobody is tipping the Demons for the spoon. Memberships creep past 30,000 during the week and look sure to break the club record again. The lively and unpredictable games and determined efforts have gone a long way to establishing a new respect for the Demons and have the turnstiles ticking over merrily. You may wonder how I know so much detail in my 'flashforward', but seriously, if all this happened, would there me anything else on your mind?

That is all that's left to say - it's over, and that is only troubling if you were particular keen on Ball coming to us. It's as much a testament to our impending midfield strength as it is to any concerns Ball had about waiting for the next premiership window.

Hmmm... well, lets start with the obvious. Mitch Thorp - how are his injuries, how is his attitude, how is he getting along with others at training? Are there any more delistings being considered? Is the club now confident enough in it's overall talent base to start taking risks on injured kids (such as Ben Griffiths, Callum Bartlett) Is there a longer term plan for managing the GC/WS drafts - is the depth back again next year? How's the father-son (Jack Viney) situation looking? Can he put in a good word for me with the ridiculously pretty redhead girl from corporate? Obviously not all of these questions are obligatory

Well, a potential gun CHF on the cheap is always a nice thought. And he's definately still young. I think a pick 6 is one of the few first-round selections we don't have in our collection, too. As much as being 'variety pack' of pricks didn't do Hawthorn too much harm in 2008, I'm not sure it's the way I want the Demons to go. Of course it comes down to the triple - is he injury free, has he held onto his talent, and will he fit in with what we want the club to be. I think I match the general mood of the board with an 'interested but wary' feeling about this.

For what it's worth, the Demons did interview big Max at draft camp. Having never actually seen him play and knowing almost nothing about him, all I can say is that he didn't seem like a beanpole tall kid. Could easily develop into the same kind of overall build as Sandilands. My only reason against grabbing him at 34 would be the emotional pull of bringing in Dylan Grimes. Unless Callum Bartlett or Troy Taylor slip that far by some miracle, or perhaps Fitzpatrick.

One. Just one. Really, really, good one.

PISCATEA ROSEA

As I understand it, the primary Bailey 'gameplan' is a chain of handballs running out of defence (or from a contest) designed to keep the ball moving forward at the same time as eventually getting a player enough space to deliver a -good- long kick into the forward line. Obviously there are shifts and variations but that's the main path to goal. Right now, the hard ball isn't won often enough, the handballs don't connect quite enough, the players aren't working free quite enough, the understanding of how to support eachother and give options isn't quite enough, and the forward targets aren't quite potent enough. Between all these things, it quickly looks like a shambles. It takes years for a team working on this style together to get it right, but when it works it's a winner. And fun to watch. Just so long as they never forget to run hard defensively as well.

The roller-coaster of 2001,02,03, and the subsequent surge and drops within the 2004,05,06 seasons, tell a story of multiple teams sliding in and out, not one team. In any given year some players came through well, some were ordinary and some fell away. Woewodin, Johnstone, Yze, Vardy, Pickett, Rigoni, Bruce, Neitz, Robertson, White, Rivers, Yze, Davey, Mclean, Whelan, Wheatley, Moloney, all these guys and more were up and down from injury or form over this period (2001-2006). We never managed consecutive seasons without major disruption to the list. Godfrey and Heffernen were regulars in the midfield and our tall defence was held together by Alistair Nicholson almost alone. We never really had a Centre-half-forward, either. With all these deficiencies, Daniher did a fine job to keep us competitive on a regular basis. And there were flashes, runs of wins where we looked like the real thing, but they always cracked and faltered, and we were always staggering by the time finals came around. On talent and positional balance, the team we have assmebled (or will have finished assembling in about three weeks) has much more going for it than the Daniher era teams. Already when you look at the team sheet for round 1 next year, you find yourself wondering which highly talented young players will miss out, not 'how do we cover this and that'. combine that with the determination to give the kids time to play games together, not just accumulate games but play them as a stable team, and we have ourselves the magic beans.

Yep. With a modest profit this year and all sorts of changes successfully made, we might just be alright. One more big heave and we're there. Then we can start working forward, getting ready to maximise the exposure and commercial value of the rise up the ladder, and we'll be established, strong and looking forward to our 200th birthday and onwards.

Hmm... I've had a change of heart on our need for KPP. I don;t think it is that urgent, we have a wealth of defenders and a couple of future star talls up forward. I've been very hot and cold on Vardy, much to my embarrassment. Griffiths I've stayed in love with all the way though, even if I'm considering seeing Carlisle on the side My thinking has been shaped a little by looking at other clubs and their situations and the realisation of the obvious - true tall forwards take time to develop, even if they turn out to be great, and you can't load up on them because there are limited spots available for their type. Meanwhile, if you can find goal-kicking midfielders/medium forwards you don't have to worry so much about finding a way for them to slot in, you always need plenty of rotation options, and they can provide a bit of forward firepower while you wait to find a truly potent key forward. That's the other thing - those few tall forwards need to be exceptional, there's no space for being the seventh on a roster or a tagger, you've got to be a winner in your position. I also think that from here on in we should be happy to take risks with selections, in terms of total hit-or-miss types rather than 'likely to be ok'. We now have so many players who may well be with us for then next ten years or more that there simply wont be opportunities for new guys to find a spot unless they really stand out. 1. Scully. The man in the middle. 2. Trengove. Attacking Mid and Medium Forward. 11. Andrew Moore. Attacking Mid and Medium Forward. 18 . Ben Griffiths. Risk on injury, but would be a top-ten without them. If we manage it and clear it up successfully, he will be gold. 34. Well, actually I still like Dylan Grimes for this pick, just because And the obligatory Majak Daw side note - if he's there for our first rookie pick, we get him. No doubts.

The initial thrill has faded. I like Luke Ball but don't think he's what we're after, and the apparent disinterest to date from him just seals that. I wish him the best renewing his career with St Kilda.

Hmm. Is it possible that Ball looks at our list and sees the prospect of ... Grimes, Morton, Moloney, Jones, Strauss, Blease, Scully, Bate, Sylvia, Maric, Davey, Trengove, Bennell, Jetta, Wonaeamirri, Petterd, Green and Bruce ... between them squeezing him out of a regular game in a couple of years time, whether midfield, forward or back? Further to that, given the Demon's impending midfield transformation, is it possible that in a sense we have been excited at the prospect of getting him because in our minds we were recruiting to save last season, not build the next? edit: I accidently had Morton in there twice (he was leaning on a lamp post and I got confused)

I tried to load the 'Dees eye Bradshaw' article, but I don't think it worked properly. All I got was a page covered in FAIL.

Ok, first things first. LUKE MOLAN WAS NOT A DUD SELECTION - LUKE MOLAN WAS HIDEOUSLY CRUELLED BY INJURIES -AFTER- BEING RECRUITED I don't normally resort to capitalisation, but this fact needs to be drilled into some people. The poor guy had the most appalling injury luck and it's really unfair on him as a person to keep on baggging him like he was a spud. Second thing. It has been widely (almost universally) acknowledged in the media and from the professionals when interviewed that you can 'throw a blanket over' draft selections from about 10 to the mid 20s. I.e. our picks. I've barely heard of a kid being rated as there around 11 who wasn't also a possible to be there at 18. If there ever was a draft it pick for need, this is it. Especially since we already have two gun mids coming in, and even more so if Ball joins the party.

And a little note on him being 'huge' - up close he doesn't look like a gorilla Fraser Gehrig style, it's more like someone took one of those beanpole 200cm kids and gave them a solid but athletic frame.

I like Griffiths, I think he will not only fill a need but also be best available if he's still there at 18. We could be getting an absolute steal here, the kid is definately good. Given that we wont be looking to rush him and can take the time to identify and manage any problems there might be as far as injury, we're well placed to take him, too.

You'd think at the very least the AFL could back the quarter of a million Australians overseas in London, plus the tens of thousands in each of Hong Kong, Singapore, Los Angeles and the North-East USA. A quietly healthy amateur presence of Australian football around the world would also be a good little boost to the tourist attention AFL gets. Frankly, this game of ours should be as high profile as Uluru and hugging Koalas. The only reason it isn't, at the moment, is because so much of Australia's tourism promotion effort is driven by companies and government agencies based in the northern, 'AFL weak' states. (True story)

On the plus side... The 'new era' squad gets to start it's season with a road trip together, have a good shot a coming away with a win, and return the next week to play a nothing-to-lose game against the reigning premiers. It'll be a lesson in recovery and travel discipline, a bonding experience, a confidence builder and an eye-opener all in one. Basically, our kids will have had a look at a couple of the major challenges of AFL (travel and Geelong) right from the start, and will then have a couple more NAB/Practice matches to think about it, work on it and be ready for round one. What else can we ask for from the preseason cup?

Considering that both of these guys have reasonable excuses for being late developers (Morton being tall, and skinny, Grimes managing lower back issues for most of his first year) I think there is a solid basis for judging them favourably at this point. I think it would be fair to say that we have two guys in the smallest top bracket of players from that draft. That's a satisfying enough feeling for me at this point.

The trouble is, what exactly are our needs, and how 'needy' are we? I've been thinking a bit about ruckmen. We're going to need one, one we can count on, in a few years as Jamar gets older and the collection of 'possible/unlikely' ruckmen that we have thins out. In the next two drafts, the best ruckman will be gone, bank on it. Each of Gold Coast and the Westies will look to first secure a ready-to-go ruckman from another club and then pick up a top future prospect and a general back up as well. Even if we come about 12th, we wont have a pick in the top ten for those two years, either. In this draft there is only one really standout ruckman, Nathan Vardy. The AFL website 'Draft Rater' has Vardy at 8-25, Fitzpatrick next is teens to 35. So, Vardy is therabouts in pure 'best available' terms, and fills a critical need that will be all but impossible to fill otherwise. I think we should be making sure that there is a quality ruckman developing alongside the midfield group that he will spend his career working with, rather than throwing one in years into the process. So I guess my question is; Is getting the best ruck that will be available for at least the next three years, worth pick 11? Maybe I'm favouring this because I'm convinced that butcher/lucas.tapscott will be gone at 11 and Griffiths will still be available at 18, and that this combination gives us the best overall value from 11 & 18.

The whole situation is somewhat unsavoury. I guess that means he belongs at Carlton. If he's nominating a 3 year deal on good money, fair enough if nobody else wants to take him. Where I worry about that sort of deal is the possibility of the player then 'renegotiating' the deal once he is at the new club, essentially making the original contract expectation a bluff to get other clubs out of the way. The stipulated contract should be enforced rigorously, or the whole thing is a farce. Also, I agree completely that it would be both a mistake in general and an insult to Wheats, Wheels and Robbo if we picked up a 30+yr old with injury concerns right after delisted those guys. It would have been like picking up Cousins when we had delisted just as many senior players last year.

I've heard the name before, why? Didn't he stand opposed to Jack Watts in a schoolboy game a year ago, when we were all debating Watts/NikNat/Rich? Big age difference but I think I remember someone saying 'this kid Keath kid matched Watts very well'. Suggestion that being held by such a young player was a bad sign and a question mark on Watts?

I hear his nickname around the club is fatty-boom-bah. Ever since he passed 65 kilos he's been writing letters to The Biggest Loser, hoping to get onto the next season. He and Cale Morton are also trying to get onto a 'couples' season as well.

Can't we get one that goes faster?