Little Goffy

Heh heh, fair point Heartbeatstrue. But in a final twist - thanks to Geelong caving in on friday night, it's now even first versus last today. Yes. Here I am at home on my computer - listening to the radio via internet because not only can't you get the game live on TV in Canberra (not free to air, not foxtel) but you also can't even get it live on radio up here. But that's a whole different fixture issue, isn't it.

Hmm... One natural progression would seem to be if we picked up Hurley in the draft - ignoring Naitanuia and Rich, the hype about them means that Freo and West Coast will grab them with picks 1 and 2 : ) Hurley has played very well at CHB and is now being played as a forward option. From what I can gather his build, style and potential stardom all fit well with Neita's number 9. I think it's worth saying to a player who obviously would be under no doubts that they are good - here's a champions number, wear it, be it. Might also help Cale Morton deal with the pressures like this week being announced by various pundits as a '250 game multiple best and fairest winner'. Kudos to us on Demonland for keeping a lid on it and just saying 'great game'.

GOLD!

I still hate Matthew Lloyd for that ridiculous double-goal dive in the elimination final, was it 2004. Even now it gives me a little seething bit of anger. Of all the ways to turn a game... I don't like it, but on the other hand, umpires don't wait for a player to get up and say "excuse me, sir, but I do believe that man there had his finger two knuckles deep in my arse, don't you think that's a little against the spirit of the game". It's kind of like some of the pushing and shoving - it's another level of communication, when you have been scragged in some way. But it can be a fine line between 'communicating' and well, lying. Not so fine in Matthew Lloyd's case. Now that Hird's left, thanks to Lloyd the Bombers are one team I can comfortably have absolutely no respect for or interest in. Well, except of course Carlton. So two. Collingwood are a whole other thing...

After next week's game against Hawthorn, the Demons will have played seven of their nine games against the top eight, including five games against the top 4. I dunno what to make of that. If Carlton (vs Freo) slip into the eight this week at the expense of Collingwood (vs Geelong) then we'll actually have won every game we've played against other bottom 8 teams. I haven't seen much of the other weaker teams this year, I mean, obviously we haven't played them. But how do we stack up compared to WC, Freo, Essendon or Richmond? Are they in more or less strife than us in the long run - this season and the future?

This is pissweak. There are rules designed to prevent the contact sport from collapsing into a pathetic brawl. There is an honour code to the same effect. Yes, they turn up in legit play in a contest, and yes it's great to see people going in hard. But a bump intended to do nothing but take out the opponent is a dog act. Some people in this thread are celebrating exactly those dog acts. I have a problem with that, and if anyone thinks that's being unfair then they need to pause and take a good hard look at themselves.

I keep feeling, more than seeing, that there's a resemblence to Daniel Ward. Lots of initiative, but makes mistakes with it. Will be interesting to watch.

If Yze works himself into really good form, then of course he gets a run. But for sentiment? Maybe a round 22 game, if we're well clear of the spoon and have nothing further to gain. But really even that feels wrong just to write it. He's getting a lot of money playing for Sandringham, and will never have to worry about the costs of looking after his kids or anything, as well as having a decade of often excellent football to look back on. I don't think he'd be bitter over something as ultimately minor as a last game.

No. New stadium is too small and only rectangular. I don't think they'd be willing to cut corners (guffaw) And the MCG won't be too big for us when we make our glorious resurgence.

In Canberra there's used to be a semi-regular group that watched games at Eastlake FC (the Eastlake Demons, duh) but that's a bit far away so I head down to the Ainslie Football Club, home club of James Hird and our very own flying forward SHAUN SMITH! (Yaaaay - crowd erupts) Ainslie is also where the Demons based their pre-season camp up here. A couple of their under-18's guys very subtly started having a kick on the field when the Demon's players went in to the rooms, and all the trainers etc. were still around. One of them did look clean, even to my unpracticed eye, it was really noticable how good he was kicking off both feet, at least - you couldn't bloody tell!

Fingers crossed that Rivers is alright, or at the least that it's not a serious problem. At least we can be moderately sure it's not his OP/groin problems, given that they've just come from a week off surely the training wouldn't have been overdone enough to cause a flare up? Surely? Carroll might come back in as the reserve 'Rivers'. I think he'd enjoy the different responsibilities. He does allright at reading the play at least.

OH! OH!! Just a 13 goal final quarter to round things off after an eight goal third quarter. Damn, that is quite a scoreline. I imagine that will be a confidence booster for a few players, can't wait for the details if anyone got down there to watch, and the official match report should be a pleasant read.

Garland has had confidence issues sometimes with his attack on the ball, but looks a decent player generally. I'm a little sad for Carroll, honestly. He's definately not a dud and he worked his way into the team the hard way. Garland(20), Warnock(24), Frawley(19), Bell(23), Bartram(20), Rivers(23). Definately the youngest defense in the AFL right now. Frankly it's probably the youngest defence I've ever seen. It's odd that Warnock is oldest when he's got just six games to his name. Rivers is still only 23. Every once in a while that really blows me away.

At this stage I'd think Carroll was on thinner ice than Jamar. Garland has been named at full back, with Carroll on the bench, and as mentioned we have a lot of talls in our defence. I still think the three ruckmen set up can work, with White and PJ both operating almost as utilities. Moloney named at HFF is also interesting, as far as you can take these positionings seriously. I think it's got some credibility as an experiment, at the very least Moloney will quickly learn not to just bomb it long to nowehere because there won't be enough space ahead of him. Could also add an interesting dimesnion to forward pressure, Byron Pickett style.

Valenti named on the extended bench, according to the official members email I just got. But I'll take further discussion of the team across to the Adelaide Rd 8 Ins and Outs thread.

Hmmm... I think Bartram is genuinely struggling to get back in the rythm. Remember that he has basically never player at Sandy - just been injured or in the 22. Some time to readjust, understand where he is at and start to build again would seem like a good idea. There are a lot of tall defenders in the side at the moment, however none stands out as being the one to drop. I think there is an argument for keeping the lot, given that most of them are quite mobile as well as tall. If Wheately is injured it makes more sense. There's a case for making sure we can really hammer in with fresh bodies in the ruck contest, given Adelaide's total of about 15 games experience in the ruck. This is a game for White to play with maximum mobility around the ground, to wear out and confuse his ruckman opponent. Given PJ's versatility as well, I think there's a shot at overwhelming the Adelaide ruck without sacrificing too much of the mobile contribution. Brace yourselves for the next comment - I think Jamar should be our primary ruckman at the ball-ups. so, tentatively, I've got Bartram and Wheatley (inj) out. PJ in. Whelan, Buckley and Sylvia are the next options to come in, where available.

Ok, the setup is making more sense to me now. Casey Fields - we are coming on board as a 'major user' of the field, ensuring the viability of the new development which Casey area needs. For our part, we get a soft deal on the land involved (since our use of it boosts the AFL investment and gives it a steady primary tenent) and a reasonable quality, and stable, training facility. This field is ultimately to be used as a summer training camp, away from our main facilities to be built at Olympic Park. This will particularly suit the locals, who get one, big stable tenant but also get good access to the field/facilities during their own footy season. That sounds pretty win-win to me, we'll see how the details pan out. Olympic Park - Big-arse, state of the art facilities in the heart of Melbourne, right near the 'G. Yes please. A rectangular field and stadium is being built for use by Soccer & Rugby League Co-tenants. Facilities such as weight rooms, plunge pools, offices and meeting space will all be on site together, dedicated to our use. An existing oval wll be upgraded to be used as our practice field. The athletics facilities are getting shunted to a new location outside the precinct to make space for all this. Collingwood will still have it's existing facilities in the precinct, but will not have ownership/control of the practice field. They will in fact be physically further away from the field than our setup and have to walk past our offices to get there! If Collingwood don't like it they can [censored] right off because plenty of other clubs (eg Richmond, St. Kilda) would be delighted to take a share of the precinct to replace the filth. In all, this sounds a lot like it's Paul Gardner's 'legacy project', and if it goes to plan then it will indeed be a huge achievement. My tip is that he'll stand down from the presidency as soon as the ink dries on all the leases and commitments.

Well, I know that your 'Gluteous Maximus' is your main butt muscle... because I know someone who referred to it as often as possible. Compared to last year, where we averaged seven of our notional best 22 missing per round, that's a ridiculous injury list. We've had a few guys start the year late to ensure a proper return, but this is great, all things considered. At the end of last year I counted up the games played by the half dozen retired/delisted players, to get a picture of how many opportunities had opened up. If our injury rate is half that of last year, then there's about the same number of games free for kids to come in. As it is, there have been FEWER opportunities for new players this year than last. Bizarre.

Hi all. Can people help me get a clearer picture of the details about the recycled players we have recruited or traded for over the "Daniher Era" I'm just curious about - Who. When. What we gave up (pick used or traded etc..) Value in your opinion. The below list is being edited as info comes to hand, thanks everyone. Let me know of any corrections needed. Ben Holland. Brent Moloney. Clint Bizzell. Shannon Motlop. Compensatory selection. Paul Johnson. Traded from West Coast for pick 29 (Matt Rosa), 2004. Byron Pickett. Phil Read. Pre-season draft selection, 2004. Chris Heffernen. John Meesen. Traded from Adelaide for pick 37 (Scott Thompson - not the other one, the 2007 draftee) Peter Vardy. Traded from Adelaide for pick 56? (Robert Shirley?) in 2001? Gary Moorcroft. National Draft 2002, pick 39. Craig Ellis. Edit: I'd like to make clear I'm not passing judgement here, I'm just looking to get all the information.

Yeah, I was taking the [censored] a little there. Anyway, I don't rate O'hAilpin at all. I gave him my best rose-coloured glasses for some reason, but that wore off and now I just don't see a future for him.

O'hAilpin is a lot like Ben Holland. Only Holland is faster, more skilled and more disciplined.

Yeah, the SUPER AWESOMEST BIGGEST GAME OF ALL TIME HOOPLA HEY THERE game didn't really excite me. Didn't watch, never planned too. didn't really care about the match reports. I've also been looking at the ladder and different teams' prospects. I mostly agree with you but I don't really think Adelaide have been that impressive - all their wins have been against low-end teams or teams which were struggling to get it together at the time. Kangaroos might be the only exception, but they've been up and down a lot. don't get me wrong, they'll probably make the finals, but not in a big way. Daniel Kerr copped a new injury during the HOOPLA game. West Coast take another step down. Who gets the first tagger now for the Eagles? Stenglien? Fletcher? Josh Fraser copped a significant but not reconstruction-level ligament injury. But he's a complete [censored] who only gets a rating because he plays for the Pies, so it won't make a difference to them... Essendon seem to be going backwards so thoroughly that they could actually lose premiership points. Freo and West Coast aren't showing much. Melbourne... has been given a glimmer of hope and now that we've seen that the idea behind all those handballs was actually to release people to make effective long kicks I'm that little bit more positive. We can win a few out of the blue this year, as well as having a go when we encounter other apparent strugglers.

I do. Just a little, but I do. Hmm.... reasons for feeling positive. PJ listed to play for Sandy this week. Ditto Whelan. Cale Morton to get a week to rest his bones. Bailey will understand AAMI and have a better than average familiarity with the Crows, too. And who knows what a two-week break to think about the fact that we really can win games will do to our playing group. They might just be ready to go hard. And unrelated but still positive - people are signing up as members. The club said "sign up, you're needed" and people are bloody well signing up. Demons fans are legends. We sign up even when it's hell. Edit: Here's something else that is interesting. Adelaide wins this season have been - West Coast. (before anyone realised just how much they suck) Port Adelaide. (at the time, they sucked) Fremantle. (ahem) Carlton. (whatever) North Melbourne. (who really seemed inept last week) I'm getting the feeling a little more, now.

Easy on praising North Melbourne's marketing. About 5,000 of those memberships are 'statistically anomolous' children memberships. In other words, not a big growth in adult members, just a whole lot of people signing up their kids as official members (and dogs, and turtles). It could go either way - those kids (and dogs and turtles) could hold on and become a boosted next generation of supporters and members, or the boost could just evaporate once the membership-buying from the "fightback" has subsided. They haven't had anywhere near as much of a boost to attendences. It's a little worrying. Meanwhile, what da farkn ell is going on at the Doggies? If I'm reading that right, WE have just passed them for memberships, with one win for the season (and pre-season) compared to their loss-less run with exciting attacking football and a thrilling draw for spice. All, up, we're doing better than I'd expected, almost matching last year's membership already, and our attendences haven't been too bad (still on 30,000 average after three games, despite two low-drawing opponents, Doggies and Freo). Should look a little healthier after the Hawks game, too. Special Bonus for round 9 - neither Melbourne (playing at AAMI) nor Hawthorn (playing at Aurora) play in Melbourne the previous week, plus theres the gap for the Origin game, so a lot of people will be hungry to get to a game. Should be a good crowd. Let's hope we can put a good fight up over in Adelaide to keep the momentum going.

Neitz and Yze are Veteran Listed, and are also retiring at the end of the year, without doubt. by 2009, the following players will be eligible for veteran status to replace them - White McDonald Robertson and I think it's counted as 'starting their tenth year' so that would include Bruce Green Wheatley Whelan So whoever is still around of that list can be made a veteran status player, and half of their pay is no longer counted towards our salary cap. So... With Neitz, Yze and presumable Holland all retiring, and two of the above players gaining veteran status... And the final $200,000 attached to Travis Johnstone also expiring... (We agreed to cover some of his salary in our salary cap, for the Lions) I reckon all up we could be looking at more than a million dollar opening in our salary cap. And it's my vague understanding that we already had a fair amount of room in our cap as it was. So... Who do you want? Should be looking at Cox and Ball? (sorry, had to say that)