Little Goffy

I was interested in the suggestion of using him as a tagger. I don't know if he has the running power yet though. And there's the warning offered by Dunn's move to midfield tagger after a stint as a forward. But in genral, I like Petterd and certailny wouldn't consider move him on until he's had at least another pre-season and season into him.

Just for persective, here's a sample of what turns up at picks one and two, going a fair way back. Interesting to that only Headland, Ottens, Hodge and Roughead have played in premierships from this list, and that three teams make up 50% of the last decade's top 1 and 2 selections. (Saints, Tigers, Blues) 2007 1- Matthew Kruzer 2 - Trent Cotchin 2006 1- Bryce Gibbs 2- Scott Gumbleton 2005 1- Marc Murphy 2- Dale Thomas 2004 1- Brett Deledio 2- Jarryd Roughead 2003 1- Adam Cooney 2- Andrew Walker 2002 1- Brendon Goddard 2- Daniel Wells 2001 1- Luke Hodge 2- Luke Ball 2000 1- Nick Riewoldt 2- Justin Koschitzke 1999 1- Josh Fraser 2- Paul Haselby 1998 1- Des Headland 2 - Justin Longmuir 1997 1- Travis Johnstone 2- Brad Ottens Since we already have 'our Riewoldt' - My question is, how big a deal do you think such a pair might be, and what would be, for example, you 'BEST CASE' and 'WORST CASE' scenario's out of these 1+2 selections. Best Case - For mine, I'd go with Hodge/Ball or Deledio/Roughead if choosing a set. Worst Case - Oh dear god the 1998 draft sucked all the way. If the 'Gold Coast' draft is like that, they'll never recover! Mix and match, let's see what you think will help us the most.

Viney well ahead of Buckley for my thoughts, if we do make a change for 2011. By then Viney Jr might be playing for us though, would that make it more likely or less likely? But as for Bailey, what standards should we measure him to? 3 wins in first season? (Checker Hughes) Or perhaps, going backwards from nine wins and a draw in his first, to three and a draw in his second? (Norm Smith) Seeing out the three year contract is the absolute bare minimum of time Bailey deserves, no matter how painful in the meantime. We shouldn't really even be speculating about his future until at least half way through next year.

Yeah, I put Buckley and Voss in the same ball park, except Voss captained premierships and Buckley captained Collingwood. But seriously, neither of these guys have ever dealt with crap facilities, shattered lists, total absence of established champion players, continuous financial tension, minimum possible salary caps, and limited coaching support staff. The guys came from the lands of intravenous drips, hypoxicators and high-altitute training junkets. Not to mention bonus salary cap concessions. This time next year we'll have all the facility essentials up to a very good standard, but none of the la-de-da those two have only ever known. Right now our facilities are a lower relative standard than even our current on-field performance. Coaching Melbourne is a tough, tough job. Particularly at the times that both Bailey and Daniher before him came in. Can we refrain from sticking in the boot just a little bit longer? And for what it's worth, it was four weeks ago that all sorts of people were openly talking about the strength of spirit, courage and effort to support teammates that we were displaying. It was the turnovers and inexperience which let us down, and not by big margins. We're slumped at the moment, we're obviously sapped of mental strength. But seriously, why not take a moment to enjoy comparisons with Carlton getting thrashed just as badly despite all their super-picks and star trade-ins being three or more pre-seasons developed than ours?

Paid. Bumped it up to $50, too. Seems to be a pattern that everyone gets so excited when it works that they want to do it some more!

Do you want to be Hawthorn or the Kangaroos? With pick 1 and 2 this draft, we can complete our midfield puzzle for the next ten years. And captains of their respective state sides, for what it's worth. And as for 'buying in' leadership, how did Carlton look in the leadership stakes on friday night? But what do you expect from a guy who, last place he was captain, bailed out as soon as things got tough?

On the one hand, we've created a new defination of mid-season slump - going from losing games to losing games badly. On the other hand, we still don't have even one of the top five worst losses from the season, and this round at least two other clubs have copped it just as rough in the same round. We need to move on some loved but declining veteran players, despite the heartache. We will. We need to add some genuine gun midfielders through this draft or thorugh the kids who aren't even playing yet. We will. We need to get some games and pre-seasons into the very young forwards. We will. We need to move into better facilites to do those pre-seasons and for year-round training. We will We need to work and work and work on the kicking, and conditioned response to take the first good option more often. We will. The issues where I'm not yet confident with the 'it'll happen' response are - The way the team is set up is simply too negative and defeatist. - we need to have the courage as a team to leave four guys up field; 2 in the forward 50 and 2 ready to lead and link from half-forward to wing, then either feed to a good running option as the break from half back or spot up a long kick to one of the true forwards in space. This is such an important emergency option if the run-and-carry gets stuck or if there just needs to be a rushed clearance from HB. Even when it's in our defensive 50m, you have to maintain that forward threat. No point getting it out of there if it just comes back in; eventually one gets through and we're down a goal. And in the meantime, our chances of a rebounding goal are minimal, and our chances of turning it over as we try to go forward and much higher if there's aren't good options to look for. Our running at the moment is for athletes running a 10km time trial, rather than footballers bursting and resting over and over again. - as a general rule, our onballers need to get their arses lower to the ground when they run. This means better agility/change of direction, better bursts, and better range of movement plus pushing power slip out of tackels. People talk of it being impossible to tackle Gary Ablett Jr. Take a look at how low he carries his hips when he runs in traffic, and how each stride seems that much shorter than normal. When someone does manage to match his pace and weaving, he can not only push off and shimmy, but also lift his whole body up just a few centimeters, loosening the tackler's grip that tiny bit more, either breaking the tackle or giving that little bit more movement to get a handpass off. - we have too many players running in a middle gear constantly, rather than switching between the Chuck Norris speeds of 'lurk' and 'kill'. Not enough 'kill' in particular. It would be interesting to see one of those charts of distance travelled and time spent standing/walking/jogging/sprinting. I reckon we'd have too much time spent in the 'jogging' frame compared to the current benchmark clubs. Between the things we know are going to happen, and the things I've mentioned here, I think we can make pretty dramatic improvement over the next 18 months. So all up, I'm with the thread message of 'relax'. Try to focus on the things which do need addressing, and let a lot of the futile angst go.

A thread about getting a marquee player suggests trading away Mclean, Jones, Sylvia and Rivers? Dunno what has been wrong with Mclean this year, but his best his 'BOG in finals' stuff. Sylvia has turned it up consdireably this year and if that is his new level then have no doubts that he'll be a marquee player, never mind being part of the 'Derek Zoolander club for ridiculously good-looking people'. Rivers may not be marquee, but if he's out there consistently then gradually people will start noticing the backing into packs again, and start remembering that HE WON THE RISING STAR AWARD. It's not looking like Jones is going to be 'marquee' level, but it is astonishing the way people on here underate his contribution. Required player at the least, and 21 years old. No no, I think we should trade out Davey, Watts, Jurrah, Morton, Wonaeamirri, Blease, and of course Scully and Trengrove! On your way, Mr Macnamee, you approach would be the death of this club.

Bate is a 'keep' for mine - at worst he'll be solid depth and a nice option for the booming long kick goal for at least 100 more games. At best he'll be a goof half-forward/forward. He's better than Miller already. Risk-reward possibilities say 'yes'. Which brings me to your second point... Miller is in the leadership group and has been in the team for some time on the stregth of his 'great work ethic and leadership'. Certailny that's the reason I've put up with second rate actual performance from him over the years. But if he wants to start being selfish and cutting at teamates, Carlton can have him. Though he might last long enough to go to Gold Coast (He's from Mt Gravatt after all)at some foolishly inflated price. After all, he'll still get games next year, probably close to goal, with Robbo to retire (surely?) and the rest of the forwards having hardly more AFL experience than me! I think Petterd deserves a bit more time. At the very least until end of next year (another Queenslander, y'see?). Paul Johnson has been doing so much right but making an abosulte mockery of it with the sheer number of outright screw-ups. He'd be in serious trouble if we had better ruck options, but I think he has to be kept for now, and it may yet work out... Jamar deserves his spot, and I honestly thing he's improving despite the really annoying injuries in what should have been his break-out year as first ruck. I'm seeing a few more contested marks and a bit better running from him in the few games he's played this year. Persevere.

Freak, it's simply not going to happen. Better to wait until he hits his third strike, gets suspended for a year, delisted by Hawthorn, and we can collect him in the PSD.

I think you'll find that the Blues loss to Essendon was by a greatr margin than any of our losses this year. A small comfort. They're supposed to be some three years ahead of us in development, have had all the facilities and coaching staff they could dream of for just as long, but they still stop their bundle now and again. One thing I do think we'll have that the Blues don't is depth. We're all very conscious of just how many 'good-ordinary' players we've got, and until we've got some stars we will keep tearing our hair out over it. But, if a couple of stars do emerge over the next few years then we'll be looking at those 'good-orindary' players as the hard working realiable core of sustained success. And wasn't it great seeing Judd fluff a few kicks and overrun a few plays... "ONE MILLION DOLLARS!" is just a good, repetitive taunt, too.

I reckon it'll be a bit closer than that. Brisbane by 20. Watts two kick another 2, get twelve possessions and perhaps five marks, and therefore already have better stats than any other key forward in their debut year since Richardson, Lyon and Ablett. Not really a spectacular achievement, but hopefully it'll be enough to close down the snore-fest that is 'hang s$#% on Jack' week.

Ah, but one day there will be a 100-game jumper, a premiership jumper, and so on... It'll be quite the collection! Meanwhile, this whole thing is just brilliant. I just hope there isn't a third party out there also bidding on it with a view to donating to Yuendumu! Actually, scratch that, it would be ideal if someone else won the bid, donated to Yuendumu, we put our money into the community program, and Yuendumu gets to keep theirs too.

I'm in, money is tight though, so just the $20. If we raise more than we need here, can we put the extra into some training gear?

I was a concerned skeptic about West Sydney, with occassional dashes of mocking the idiocy of it all, but I was prepared to believe that there was a worthwhile project under it all, and would have pushed to make it work if it had gone ahead, I mean, those people NEED AFL. But then they tried to suggest that West Sydney and Canberra could be portions of the same team support and culture, with a more general 'West Sydney/NSW character'. It would be perhaps the first time in history supporters of the SAME TEAM would have to be seperated into different sections of a stadium to avoid crowd violence. Definative evidence that the AFL have no idea, no idea, what they are doing.

I still think we need to get pick 7 somehow. That's where you get your gun mids these days. Meanwhile, going on what I've read, which is of course of limited use, there seems to be a pretty strong first round's worth of this draft. I'd be fascinated to see what we get with our pick in the very late teens, or higher if we can bump it up a little in trade week. I'm not completely joking about pick seven though - I'd throw every later pick we had that plus an expendable player or two to get another top ten pick, if I had to. In that scenario, I'd think Scully, Jack Trengove, and then someone who offers a forward threat with 7. I like recruiting from the NT, it seems to go well, so that would mean Troy Taylor, just to ensure our entire forward line is freak-stylish (Watts, Jurrah, Wonaeamirri, Taylor).

Also, be sure to watch this - It's not really relevant, but it doesn't need to be I can try to make it relevant... ummm... Walsh is a red head just like Cheney, and they are kind of similar players. I'm sure Strauss will be just like Green in time... and uhh... Maric looks a like like Yze now his hair is dark, and they're both called a variation on 'Adam'.

We have one or two players who might look like stars if they were dropped into any of the last ten premiership teams. We have a few players who might be stars if they can either sustain their new form, regain some lost touch, or take the next step. We have a horde of kids who have barely played yet and many of these were high draft picks or have already shown real promise, or both. Whatever happens from here this season, I reckon we're in for at least one very high draft pick! Find me five players out of that who might simultaneously be All-Australian, anywhere acros the ground, in 2012, and I'll believe in our future, with a grin, because I think come what may we will at least have good depth given the sheer volume of promising kids we've brought in. And of course, by 2012 we'll be ready to bring Stewart Dew, the superstar, back out of retirement to make a third major contribution to a premiership win.

I think something we're missing is.. Febeys! 2 in the 90s, twins. Both elgible for father son system. Each has one set of twin boys (it is genetic, after all) and they all grow up playing footy together. Those 4 all (of course) go on to play at least the hundred games for the Demons. Each has twins boys (it is genetic, after all) and they all grow up playing footy together. Those 8 all (of course) go on to play at least the hundred games for the Demons. Each has twins boys (it is genetic, after all) and they all grow up playing footy together. Those 16 all all (of course) go on to play at least the hundred games for the Demons. Each has twins boys (it is genetic, after all) and they all grow up playing footy together. I estimate that by 2050 we'll have at least 30 Febeys on our list, and by then be averaging 2 additional Febey father-son picks per year.

I think where we have a problem is the lack of courage to leave a forward, and a couple of half forwards ACTUALLY FORWARD, even when the ball is hovering in defence. Too many people running back undermines manning up, people get confused. Having those three or four guys upfield ready to receive the clearance, even if it is rushed out of there, at the very least causes a delay before the next time it comes back in. If you've got 18 players in defence, obviously every time it comes out it just goes back in. I like the basic gameplan - running along with a chain of handballs with the goal of keeping it moving forward at the same time as trying to work a player free with enough space to delvier a really good kick into the forward line. In many respects all it needs is better developed skills and fitness. But it just doesn't work if there's nobody there, and it doesn't work if you force the whole team, all the time, to be running back and forward. Those forwards are 'resting' even while they do an important job - being a menace!

Love your work, Hannabal.

Nice work, it's great seeing 'champion' supporters getting organised and helping build up a Demon community. What is the collective term for Demons, anyway? A cabal? Edit: Looked it up - it is "A circle of demons".

Over the last couple of decades there has been a fundamental change in what 'savings' are - the 'Gen Y' version of savings is in a sense intellectual property. Because better qualifications, skill acquisition, a diverse and interesting resume and even 'extra-curricular activities' make such a massive difference to personal income potential in the 'information-driven economy', the best form of saving for the future isn't cash at all! Meanwhile, the disposable income difference between what you can typically earn early in your career and what you can earn when you've developed your skills, added an extra qualification and at some point got your 'break' is so great that what you might have been able to save in five years before the gap is no more than what you could save in two years after the gap. So the summary - younger people appear irresponsible and impatient to older people because the fundamental ways of being responsible have changed. For younger people the most important thing for planning for the future is to do as many things as possible as soon as possible. At the same time, traditional saving for a house deposit appears a futile effort given that house prices have, for fifteen years now, gone up faster than a reasonable person on a moderate income could hope to save. I guess one way to illustrate it is, if a 19 year old said to their parents 'I don't need to study because I'm going to work at the car factory for the next forty-five years, gradually save for a deposit and settle down to raise a family', the parents would be genuinely worried about the kid's future; if that job goes, they and their family are stuffed, possibly for generations to come! I'd like to be clear that this is not something the older generations 'did' to the younger - we all know the unemployment 'scrap heap' that so many people found themselves on as the economy shifted like this, and as so many stable jobs (textiles, manufacturing etc.) evaporated they were left with no transferable skills to take into a new career. As the economy changed, many of the older generation bore the worst possible impact of what the younger generation are now structuring their lives/careers to avoid. This also partly explains the level of workplace conflict between generations - for the older generation there is much more of a cultural emphasis on stability and development within a role, so when a younger colleague is putting pressure on them to 'move on', it is undertansably seen as an attempt to usurp the job and kick the incumbent out. But for the younger worker the goal is almost a kind of rotation - the idea being that they'll get a go at this role, add it to their resume and then target another step - and not necessarily a liner promotion. From their perspective, the older colleague is bordering on being irresponsible themselves, by sticking in a rut and limiting their own 'personal growth opportunities'. They really do mean it when they say indelicate things like 'don't you think it's time you went somewhere else?'. For the record, my age puts me right on the cusp of generations, and I can say without doubt that I don't belong in any of them! But then again, neither do most people. I hope this has helped shed some light on why the different generation's annoy eachother so much.

Hi Lisa, great to see a new supporter group getting underway, wishing you all the best. You might not get a large number of responses to this site because it's heavily populated by people who are either out of Melbourne but dedicated to keeping informed, or people who are in town and keep themselves informed anyway. But I will say to everyone in Melbourne - get along to the opening of the Casey Demons supporter group! Let's make them feel welcome and be there at the start so we can feel good watching it grow!

Davey giving the ball away under pressure? Do you mean turnovers? Because he would be the last person to face criticism for his disposal, certainly at Melbourne and he'd be among the best in the league. Maybe you're thinking someone else - Bennel, Jetta? Wonaeamirri has had a string of injuries, that's why he's out. Wheatley has been out with injury early, and is now at Casey doing 'ok'. Almost certain to be gone end of year as he fails constantly to apply defensive pressure, and turns the ball over routinely because he has very poor decision making. Anyway, I like you're suggestion that we stop saying we're a chance to win games. I think that's something the club and fans should really take on board. And the players, too, especially the young guys. I think it's really important that they worry as much as possible about looking stupid when they try to do something and it doesn't work out.