Little Goffy

Looked much better than the week before, worth persisting with for a few rounds, if he keeps improving he may become a regular

I was lucky enough to only be able to catch last weeks game on the radio, so Frawley for me is only what he showed us against Adelaide.

I like. I like very much. I saw a comparison with the kind of effort and initiative we see from Paul Johnson. Good attitudes from these guys, enough indivuals like that and a whole team culture hits an upward spiral.

Exciting thought that soon the Demon's defense could be their strong suit. Will take time to happen, which is just as well because it'll take a while for anyone to believe their eyes!

Touch wood and all that.

I reckon he'll play nine games this year - so he's still eligible for Rising star next year!

He was at the Auskick Super Clinic this morning and says he will be fine to take on the Pies for Lizzie's birthday.........

It's actually Queen Victoria's birthday. Cos she, like, suppressed the irish, massacred some arabs and africans, civilized/annexed a few 'backward peoples', and kept the Jews out of England, and that's the sort of stuff that gets you commemorated.

Lizzie's a nice old bat, but aside from getting her house bombed by the Germans (she's just like the rest of us, ay) and wearing a few funny hats, she hasn't done enough to get her own 'day'.

So, for next week's game, be sure to sing 'God save the Queen' for Vicky, not Lizzie.

Yeah, I'm sick of that rubbish too.

I'm living in Canberra (so I deserve a break to start with) and somehow I managed to get to three of our first five games this season - that's two trips to Melbourne and a side trip up for the Sydney game. I've managed to use up all the games on my long distance membership every year since I joined (which is a while now) plus getting to our Sydney games each year.

I do everything I can to catch games anyway I can, I can name our list, describe our injuries, remember who used to play for us, whose gone to other clubs, hell, I've even been to Sandingham games.

But what am I saying. All this is basically normal for everyone on this site.

So why the $^#% does this club have to put up with being labelled pissweak?

We're a small club. We don't attract the 'blow-ins' who only skim the surface of AFL and only hear about the big clubs.

With all these fringe supporters swelling clubs like Collingwood, it makes calling Melbourne supporters [censored]-weak seriously ironic, as well as just plain annoying.

Up next, day grand finals will be getting called [censored]-weak because the TV ratings are lower than night grand finals.

I'm proud to be a Demon, even while we're getting the rough end of the stick as AFL goes more and more commercial and cash-driven.

Walls' article is painfully shallow.

Whats he saying 'hey, Melbourne have some valuable players which would be great for anyone but Melbourne'.

Basically it sounds like his advice is to hit the PANIC button.

Stuff him. These players are Melbourne.

And the Hawks got the jackpot by trading overvalued second-raters, not first raters.

And Everitt, which is a 'special' case.

I notice Crawford still plays for Hawthorn. Surely they should've picked up a first round pick for him?

A great first half. He'd be my number one choice for the kick out also.

Yep, Wheatley in good form is a valuable player. That big kick really helps us break out from defense, where we often tie ourselves in knots.

For that matter, a fit and in form Bizzell is pretty handy too! I'd say a solid game worthy of keeping the spot.

In fact, how good was our defense today? Very heartening.

Whelan, Rivers, Bartram all to come back soonish. I'd say it's a VERY strong outfit if Frawley and Petterd continue to develop even moderately well.

Looked to me that Davey did his hammy. still managed to mark and kick it succesfully when he was on his way off

From what I saw and heard, Davey had his knee in a light bandage (no ice) and was walking around alright at the end of the game. Didn't look particularly serious, but you never know with this season.

Didn't hear any issue with Neitz.

I thought there might be a lot of people on here interested in this article from the HeraldSun online.

Especially this quote from Steve Harris,

The Demons are concerned the second-tier VFL, where listed players not playing seniors line up with a VFL "sister club", may be slowing the development of emerging talent.

Melbourne chief executive Steve Harris said the alignments had created a "winning agenda versus a development agenda".

"The current second-tier set-up . . . has competing agendas for AFL and VFL clubs and is a competitive imbalance and not sustainable," he said.

I can practically hear people popping champagne corks around this place - Especially all the Newton, Neaves and CJ fans!

Jaded, I agree that Brock is a good talker and would make an excellent captain one day. But he has only played 50 games. Neitz is captain(not Yze, Bruce or Robbo) and is a good speaker. The way a captain should speak!

Come to think of it, I haven't heard much from Neitz in the media lately...

Anyway, how would people react if Daniher came out and said

'Yeah, we've been trying to add some extra elements to our game, it's a good idea but there's been some problems implementing it. We have real issues with turnover in our assistant coaching staff and I've been having some trouble trying to manage everything from the top. Stuff it, I'm going to West Coast to get the same kind of salary working as an assistant coach, while eight other guys give minute detailed attention to every aspect of training, teamwork and skills development.'

Bah. If we wanted the cash we would've merged with Hawthorn. I'd rather take a crack at it and maybe one day win as Melbourne, rather than have a good shot every year as the Demawks.

You must be kidding? 2 more years in bottom four?

Honestly, I'm still not convinced we'll finish THIS season bottom four.

I think it's fair to say that there will be a bit of a clean out at the end of this year, but consider who that clean out might include, anyone from -

Ward, Brown, Holland, Wheatley, Ferguson, Bizzell, Godfrey, even Jamar.

Some delistings, some trades maybe, there might be a reitrement or two as well, from other players.

But we could lose all eight of them without making a dramatic change to our performance. (harsh)

And then we'd have a Craig Cameron party in the draft, with at least fairly early picks to boost things along.

(and then of course we'll be getting Judd, on a charity-case salary, with a preseason draft pick)

But before you even look at that, consider what we can put out there as a 'youth' team already -

FB: Bell

HB: Bartram Rivers Petterd

C: Moloney Bate

HF: Sylvia Miller Davey

F: Dunn

OnB: Mclean Jones

That list obviously doesn't include the players who aren't quite proven yet but seem credible -

P. Johnson, C. Johnson, Newton, Frawley.

Given Miller's inconsistent form, you'd have to say our main issues with the youth squad are key positions and ruck. So come on PJ, Newton and Frawley!

I don't think a long term slump is on the cards. But damn, I had really hoped that the odd-year even-year thing was over...

I can't remember which Port Adelaide player it was that paddled the ball over the line in the last quarter but the TV coverage picked up the umpire's explanation as to why it wasn't deliberate.

He said words to the effect of 'he was under intense pressure ... etc.' Don't the umpires realise that that is the exact situation when players deliberately put the ball out of bounds?!

The state of umpiring is a disgrace, and these blokes explanations for their decisions is an even bigger disgrace.

Andrew Demetriou recieved a bonus recently based on financial achievements, his salary should be based on supporter satisfaction because the actual 'game' is in a bad state of affairs.

Yep, I heard the umpire comments too - 'under pressure (blah blah)', then, the gem... 'he was paddling it to himself, he was paddling it to himself'.

If that was paddling to yourself, then I reckon Byron Pickett was trying to bounce the ball, not tackling the Cornes boy at all.

NNNaaaRRgggh.

My first instinct is to go for past players...

Top of list would be Viney, given he has coaching experience for a few years with Hawthorn's (lets face it, overachieving!) midfield.

Hmm... Jimmy Stynes, the media would love him - the accent alone would be worth a thousand memberships. Maybe as a youth/ruck coach, rather than top job. I imagine he'd want to carry on with his youth support activities, though.

Then Gary Lyon. Lots of people seem to find him very annoying. Minimal coaching experience, may not actually be interested, given he's raking in the dough and keeping his ego nice and safe commentating from the sidelines.

Connolly just about IS Daniher, as far as strengths and weaknesses go.

Be nice if Sting came back for some more fitness and prep work.

But really, the cupboard seems a little bare as far as past players go.

Maybe by next year, NEITZ!!

Hey, Roos went just about straight into coaching...

I dunno about best game ever... but damn I'd be laughing!

Actually, my train of thought shortly after I heard that Rivers was out, and Sylvia wouldn't be coming in was along the lines of -

'Well, we're mostly screwed... but... if we win this we'll actually have the same number of wins as supposed new permiership fancies Geelong, and probably ahead of the supposed unstoppable Fremantle...'

If we win, they'll need to call a fleet of ambulances to the 'G as thousands of Demons supporters collapse into laughing fits at Geelong's expense.

It took one win for them to get ahead of themselves. A win against the 2006 spoon team.

We're in with a shot. We match up surprisingly well considering the circumstances.

McDonald and Jones, it's fair to say, kept us going on the ball

Whelan was solid,

Carroll worked hard under pressure

Bell, again, was a solid performance

Brown and Ward were some of our better running-creative players

Green, Moloney, Miller, Robertson, Jamar, Rivers and Godfrey were mostly OK and sometimes good

White & Jamar, Johnson, Wheatley and Bate all struggled

But Johnstone and Davey are where I'm really worried.

Gotta get that magic back, hell, they ARE our magic

But seriously, "Bruce - no longer elite"?

Ho hum.

I'm real impressed by your bagging. No really. I can't wait to see you at training, telling it like it is to the coaching staff, who obviously are in real need of your advice...

Freaky, that ladder is pretty close to my own.

From memory, I went with

WC

Melbourne

Freo

Dogs

Adelaide

Sydney

St. Kilda

Richmond

the rest

I made comments including 'Kangaroos to finish lower than 16th if they lose Nathan Thompson for an extended period' and 'West Coast could drink themselves if not under, then at least down the table.'

I feel guilty about Nathan Thompson, and now I fear I must pity the unfortunate Kangaroos.

Really hoping my dire predicitions for Essendon, Brisbane and Collingwood all come true, though!!

Neitz has stated that he wants to hand over the reins to another player before he finishes his career, and it's fair to say Neitz is in the twilight of his career. It wouldn't be the biggest shock in football if Neitz stepped down.

Surely Neitz will be aiming for 300 games at least.

By my reckoning, if he could see out his career playing as 'just' a reliable 50+ goals a season FF then he'd be pretty happy. And might have a few more years left in him, too.

Maybe then people might start noticing things like the way he was in the top 5 goalkickers almost every year of the 21st century.

But still captain this year - he'll want to grab that premiership before he heads back down to the goalsquare! It's much more fun being the captain that took Melbourne into it's mighty new era than captain for the eight years beforehand.

A side note - Has anyone else noticed how Melbourne captains tend to go in a cycle of 1 long-serving, then a short stint, then another long-serving?

Ok, I was bored...

Just how important is it to come top four?

Well, discounting the value of home-ground advantage, and discounting the possibility of the week of rest...

If each finals game is considered a 50-50 chance (someone has to win!)...

If you do a basic sequence of probability (blah blah), coming top four TRIPLES your chances compared to a mere top-eight finish.

About 18% vs about 6%.

I just thought I'd throw that out there - now you have the stat. If people care enough I'll show the working too.

What a different one measely game can make.

How big a deal do you lot think it is to get home grounds in finals?

Demons lost 1 game at 'g last year, best Home advantage in the comp!

This is an old one, but when I first got down to Melbourne in 2005 (at last! Regular Football!) one of the first games I got to was Demons-Carlton at the dome. (not a good omen, you could say)

Sure we lost, which was annoying, but I got a bit of amusement when a couple of dodgy looking teenagers sat down next to me and started commenting about the game. Fair enough comments, though they seemed to think they knew everthing. It wasn't until Mark Thompson sat down directly behind 'us' that I realised I was pressing for room against Gary Ablett Jr. Dodgy looking teenager, definately!

Nice way to arrive for a year of constant football... I mean, living in Melbourne.