Akum

Great account of the match. Sounds like for "Trengove" we should read "Tyson". Sounds like there was one end being favoured by the wind - white had the best of the first qtr, blue the 2nd, and white again the 3rd. And was the wind a factor in the sloppy disposal?

Agree with CBF - living in the west I have a huge soft spot for the Doggies. They may not have hordes of supporters compared to the big clubs, but when they do well, the whole region seems to lift. They are extremely plugged into the community and have been for decades, guys like Steve MacPherson & Phil Krakouer were getting into schools & doing great work with difficult kids years before anyone else even thought of it. And they try to play a "go-for-it" style of footy which is good to watch.

I'm the chairman of the bored!

Now hold on ... that's just going too far!

Jetta hasn't been rookied just to see out the time and then go. They wouldn't have rookied him if they didn't want to use him. He was "rookied with intent". Jetta's big problem has been that he's rarely been able to put together enough consecutive games without getting injured. He gets better when he can string games together, it just hasn't been often enough. He's therefore in the same boat as Strauss, Blease & Tapscott. All four of them have shown promise (but no more) at times, after a number of years on the list. They have all lost great slabs of games due to LT injuries (plural). They all went backwards in the toxic environment under Neeld, and when they have played, they have invariably been under great pressure in a team that's been thrashed. But if they're unable to lift their output and impress the coach, they're all on their last chance this season, and if any of them do happen to get injured and lose many games again, it will be just too bad. I like the look of Georgiou, if he comes off he could be a very valuable contributor. But I think they'll want to see how he measures up against the best forwards in the VFL for several games first, with a view to the mid-season upgrade if he does well. So I think Jetta will be upgraded.

Well, no, not really. Do the other 5 leaders "know" how this year is going to pan out? Roos, who should have the best idea of anybody, is being extremely cautious & trying to stop our expectations getting too high. If "knowing what direction it's going" was a criterion of leadership, who would have put their hands up?

Would you feel better if, having been offered a leadership position (by Roos, presumably), he then turned it down?? Or should he have declared himself unavailable for any leadership position beforehand?? I get your point, but I think you're making waaaaaaay too much of it.

Your life must be fascinating!!!

Would have thought that "g*ay" & "queen" sort of belong together in the same sentence!!

Unprovoked cowardly act behind the play. Bail's first & probably most severe concussion.

You should either be prepared to be very annoyed, or lower your expectations a little. In your post just before this one, you said, "when it happens it will happen quickly. I dont expect a top 4 finish this year and I am sure there will be bad losses but once everything gels I think it wil be a steep curve of improvement from there." I agree that when everything gels, "it will happen quickly", but it might take most of the season for it to happen. On the other hand, it's surprising how much difference a relatively minor change can make. How much of our improvement in 2010 was due to Jamar's steep improvement in form and his ability to stay on the park? Plus the almost accidental tactic of rucking the likes of Dunn & Sylvia for 5 mins a quarter, so we could play an extra runner, so that the added pace & mobility at least partly covered for all our other deficiencies at the time?

This is one of the great things about the Demonland "community" - the same event, but everyone who posts has a different take on it. Long may it be so. Thanks for all the reports people.

Seems to me that the emphasis is on quick transition. Getting the contested ball as quickly and accurately as possible into the open, preferably to someone who can do something positive with it. And then maintaining possession by the speed and accuracy of movement. This will involve the heavy use of transition players such as Tyson, Vince, Watts, hopefully Toumpas and Strauss and perhaps Blease, and eventually Salem, who could be the best of all of them. And it also means rapid transition the other way, defensively, to stop opponents getting an easy break from a stoppage, or limiting the damage from a turnover by everybody knowing what to do in the event of a turnover.

Was Jordie McKenzie in the LG in 2013? And does the new LG mean an imminent change in the banner?

Didn't realise he was so short!!

Welcome aboard! Though strangely we feel that we know you already.

I thought it was just appreciating the amount of effort that Roger puts into lurking on big footy!!!

So why not Brad Miller????

Cue negative post from Hannibal

I know what you mean, but IMO he's become quite good in tight spaces. He often restricts his opponent to a handful of possessions, even if we get thrashed, although playing negatively he doesn't get a lot of it himself. I can't recall anybody who's really got away from him. My point is that we drafted him to be a running rebounding defender with very good ball use. But our substandard midfield means the defence is under so much pressure the whole time, so we've never had a chance to see how he goes in that role. We'll never get full value out of Strauss until he can get it in the open as much as Malceski et al. That's partly up to him and partly up to his teammates. The part that's up to him is being able to add his rebounding skills to his defensive game, knowing when, how and where to run off his man; his teammates need to look for him, find him and cover for him when he does. He's got both sides of the game, he's got all the tools, he just needs to put them together. On the other hand, it's entirely possible it's just beyond him. Why can't the coach who developed Malceski do just as well with Strauss? We'll have a very valuable player on our hands if he can.

It seems that hey're being coached at team play, at using their skills to win and keep possession under pressure, and especially at working their way out of specific difficult situations using teamwork. And they're being coached to do this under as close as they can get to match conditions, with other players doing their darndest to stop them. ISure, the big question is whether they can bring this to actual match conditions. But it seems to me that if they're being coached in this way, they're more likely to get there. Even if it might take them most of the season to get there.

I'd prefer to modify that slightly and say that Strauss needs to learn how to find space, and his teammates around him need to learn how to put him into space with the ball. In other words, we need to work out how to play Strauss like Sydney play Malceski, or Hawks play Suckling. I think he's acquitted himself reasonably well as a lock-down small defender, but that's not what we drafted him for.

In the footy sense, or the spiritual sense? Or both?????

So is it OK if I choose the bandwagon that says that race is in no way a determinant of a person's worth, nor the dignity and respect with which they are entitled to be treated? Which is turning out to be a much smaller bandwagon than I thought it was.

Wow! You really should give this post a try out in the Adam Goodes thread. On second thought, better you don't.