DirtyDees DDC

If The Russian can keep on the park our ruck issues are solved for the next 2-3 seasons, and probably beyond.

His tap work today and play around the ground was imposing enough for the brains trust to rest him for most of the second half. Terrific attack at the bounces.

I was rapped to see him play 2 quarters. He is the key to our season , if fit. I worry that he only has a one year contract. Hate to see him go to GC or GWS.

Thanks for clearing that up Deeman, however I could have sworn Col played as No 26 for the White team as I overhead Rivers say "lets go Col" as he ran on. Must be my eyes because #26 bore an uncanny resemblance for Col.

Let's assume Col didn't play today. I'd be very surprised if he did. He's at the same stage of recovery as Blease. Throw in Bate, Bruce, Wonna, Watts, and Tapscott, plus the 3 guys with long term injuries (Meeson, Johnson and Gawn) and even the guys who get selected next week will have some serious competition for their places this year.

i forgot to mention Benny and the Jet. Both players had good pre-seasons and it showed.

I had to leave at 3/4 time but was very impressed with Grimes, Sylvia, Green and Trengove.

Martin did one terrific piece of play in the 3rd quarter. He made a lead running from midfield to the flank, took the mark at full pace and kept running, turned towards the goals and passed to a teammate in the goalsquare who goaled. Great work from a guy who rucked for most of the day.

Spencer was the surprise. He was ill recently and missed a bit of training and a lost a lot of weight, but he was impressive and competitive. Jamar played the first half which is great news after an interrupted pre-season.

Scully started on the wing for each centre bounce. I know he is slight and they are trying to protect him from the physical pressure in the centre square, but he looked out of place on the wing. He has played all his footy in midfield. He thrives on the pressure. Just put him in the middle where he does his best work. He may cop a bit but he'll learn, and it's a better option than playing him out of position.

The crowd. Great. It was my first intra club match but i was thrilled at the number of people there at Casey. Sorry i'm not good at numbers but is b/w 2500 and 5000 a fair estimate? They had less than 1000 at Moorabbin last night.

On SEN this morning Llyod was on talking about the most important players in each side that the club could ill afford to not be playing.

For Melbourne he said Scully & Trengove.

If Scully and Trengove are so important to the club THIS YEAR that we can ill afford not to play them, then they'll get picked to play all 22 games each - and that will not happen. Either Bails or one of the staff has stated that Scully and Trengove will definitely not play in all 22 games. They won't be overloaded and haven't had the training to build their bodies up to play every game.

Their claim to fame is selection at picks 1 & 2 in the draft. That doesn't automatically mean they will be the best two recruits this year.

They are 2 18yo kids who are held in high regard by recuiting managers looking for great players to play at least 10 years for the club.

BP and team were looking for players who would reach their peak in 3-5 years, but not in 2010.

This year we need score at least 80 points per game and hold the opposition to less than 100 per game.

So our most important players are someone who can lead the defence (Frawley or Rivers); someone who can make goals happen up forward (Jurrah can score and set them up with this terrific passing skills) and someone to can give us first use of the ball. I was thinking of Moloney or Sylvia but maybe Jamar (if fit) could be our most important player this year. We have few other options in the ruck and Jamar showed enough last year to indicate he could create a real physical presence at the centre square. We could stuggle if Jamar battles to play every game.

Maric should be a much better and fitter footballer this year. He starting running with the main group in October. He was the designated target for the kickouts in December and he was completing all the drills in January. I haven't seen him in rehab and he looks much stronger than last year.

The other big difference this year is the competition for the forward pocket position from Wonna, Jetta and even Pettard. Maric must either take his chances and score goals or make himself useful in midfield. I'm looking forward to watching him this weekend at the intraclub match.

Bails didn't indicate how many games he wanted to win this year, but he did highlight two areas where he expects big improvement.

1. The number of quarters won for the season. In 2009 we won 32 quarters. In 2008 we only won 23.

2. Points for and points against. In 2009 we averaged 77 points for and 103 against. In 2008 we scored 73 points for and allowed 115 points per game. So there has been an improvement each year and Bails wants this to continue, but he didn't nominate specific targets.

Chris Connolly was on SEN this evening. He was very enthusiastic about Jamie Bennell. Mentioned him twice and highlighted his speed and kicking skills. Chris reckoned he could be a big plus on the backline.

He discussed the new recruits and mentioned that scully and trengove would not play in all 22 games this season. They would be rested from AFL at various stages as part of their long term development (similar to Bennell and Jetta last year).

He also gave a big slap to Jack Grimes and added that Sylvia and Rivers both had excellent pre-seasons.

Chris talked about the rucks and the first name he mentioned was Spencer. Apparently the club has long term plans for him. He indicated that Jamar and Johnson had to prove themselves this year.

They are different types of players. Jetta is more nuggety (great tackle on Sandilands last year) but needs to work on his kicking.

Bennell did some interesting things last year. In the first game against Geelong he was one-on-one against Stokes in the goal square.

Stokes simply bumped him out the way, took the mark and goaled.

In the return match at Geelong they were paired up again. Stokes bumped him out. Bennell came back, jumped in front of stokes to mark overhead, then played on and delivered the ball to a target downfield. I hope he gets a regular gig this year, perhaps back flank.

Hey boys,

Do any of you know when the club plans to have an interclub. I can't really get down to training but may take the morning off to watch the boys go through their paces

Regards

Wolfmother

at this stage it's on from 10am on saturday 13 feb at Casey Field.

Thanks BD for the report on Jack and Kelly O'donnell. On one hand you could criticise Jack for showing dissent. However he may just be standing up for himself - showing everyone he has some self confidence. Remember the spray given by James Hird to Sheedy's coaches bench one time during a game?

There's a good program on Ch One friday nights 10.30 called 'America's game'. Last week they interviewed star quarterback Payton Manning - perhaps the best current player. They miked him up during their winning super bowl year in 2005. He gives it to his fellow team mates and staff 'ALL THE TIME' And he copps it too. He said it's ok as long as the purpose is to make you the best athlete you can possibly be.

At some stage each year all sections of the club will come up for review - the medical staff will be no exception. If we have a number of players suffering similar injuries then that should be part of the review. It may just be a coincidence that we have 5 players with foot injuries and they could all be different types of injuries (eg; muscle vs bone).

Jamar is an interesting case. I'm certain I saw his frame in those early photos of last October when a number of players were running around the tan. I wonder if he developed further soreness after he resumed training. The lack of a full pre-season is a worry for a number of players, but at least guys like Rivers, Sylvia and Maric have been on the track for the summer. We'll get a better idea in 2 weeks with the first intra club match at 10am 13 Feb at Casey. I have a feeling they'll rest some of the senior players (maybe Davey and McDonald).

It looks like none of our designated ruckmen are fit. The report fills in a few gaps and explains why Jamar was training away from the rest of the group. Jamar had similar problems last year. I wonder if this is a reason why he was only given a one-year contract?

Bate mentions that Max Gawn might be given a chance but this is unlikely. A previous report had Max as a non starter till mid year due to his knee operation from last year. No mention was made of Fitzpatrick but he's another who hasn't been training with the main group.

This may be a terrific opportunity for Martin to step up. He's been played everywhere from defence to attack to the ruck, so now he can push for a permanent position in the side as the first or second ruckman.

What happens if Martin Breaks down? The next tallest player is Watts so possibly the only other option as a ruckman is Miller. That would be ironic considering the criticism we received for playing Miller in the ruck against Richmond last year.

Overheard a couple of players saying Green would play full forward this year.

Interesting. He's 184cms and 83 kgs so he could play the fast leading forward type, while the resting ruckman stays in the goal square. Brad Johnson is only 182cms and has a key forward role at the dogs.

Bailey has hinted he wants the resting rucks to stay on the field. This can leave 4 interchange spots free for rotations.

If they want a smaller fast leading type at FF, then Jurrah would be an excellent alternative. He could relieve Green as part of rotations on the forward line, and also spend some time on the flanks.

St Kilda, Brisbane Lions and Geelong are good examples of clubs that have have set players in key forward positions. I don't see the Dees having having a conventional forward line structure for at least the next 2 seasons.

I recall seeing Dunn take a couple of marks up forward last week during the matchplay. Our two key forward positions are still undecided, so they may rotate various players through these spots. For example, while Jurrah is still developing, he may play part of a game in the square, then move out to a flank. Be interesting to see what they do this morning.

Training is on tomorrow at Casey Field from 8AM, according to the website. If anyone is going, can they check if Lynden Dunn is based on the forward line during the matchplay. I recall he was operating as a forward last week. At this stage he may be be the preferred key forward option to Bate (more of a flanker), Martin (playing on backline) and Watts (still developing).

Maybe if they called it the 'I left my heart with Melbourne Demons' football club. I could live with that. We could get tony or darren bennett to sing it as their theme song.

I was about to launch a tirade at someone after reading that headline.

Are you happy with the term 'Melbourne Hearts Football Club'? We already have 'Melbourne Victory Football club'. Is this getting too close to 'Melbourne Football Club?

I'm not sure if we can prevent another code using the words 'Melbourne' and 'Football', but i don't like the idea. "Melbourne Football Club' has a big marketing advantage and I'd hate to lose it or see it compromised.

Now we know why Aaron and Junior missed training last friday!! There was a rumour that Davey had done a hammy. Also rumoured that Cam Bruce came off early with one. Maybe he was just rushing to the hospital. Congrats to all.

Might just have seen the bad parts, but I wasn't impressed.

and just looked at photos, and the person I thought was Rhys Healey, I realised I have no clue who it is. Anyone know who the guy with a giant mop of blond hair is? might have been the AIS kid.

The blond haired kid was Luke from the AIS (not luke hodge or Luke ball . sorry). He's training with the Dees for a week. He's not a scholarship player or anything like that.

They started a lot of drills from that last line of defence - either a trainer kicking the ball out or having a player such as Frawley starting possession from defence. The emphasis in some of the drills was in manning up and stopping the ball from coming out of defence too quickly. Someone was shouting 'they should all be covered'. I was pleased they ran thru these drills without the presence of Davey. I thought we were too reliant on Davey's kicking skills in defence last year. Good to have some different options.

Green Strauss and Bail all trained hard throughout the 3 hours.

Jamar looks very fit and HUGE. For some reason he seems to have a separate training program to the rest of the group. Maybe they are afraid of him! He was running solo and had specific hand drills. At this stage it looks like Jamar and Martin will share the ruck duties. Meesen, Gawn and Johnson are all on restricted training. Spencer looked to be hampered by a 'flu and was limited to jogging.

It was great to see Garland, Blease and Wonna running flat out. They are all in the rehab group but still did some short kicking between themselves. Bate was also in the rehab group for some reason (any ideas?) but he was running hard. Blease has an interesting running style and holds his left forearm a little high. The running coach pointed this out during the session. Overall it looked like we had 34 guys at close to full training and about 10 in short term rehab or retricted training. There was also a kid from the AIS who trained for the whole session which lasted for 3 hours.

I didn't see Davey but someone told me that Davey's wife is expecting so he may have good news soon. Grimes nearly knocked himself out in a head collision but seemed to be Ok. He trains so well.

I will be very surprised if JoelMac, Maric and Trengove don't play a lot of senior football this year. JoelMac fits into the backline with his running and kicking game. Maric has had a full pre season and is too good a kick to leave out of the side. Trengove looked good in the matchplay and can cause some damage going forward. I'd pick him ahead of Scully becuase he got a bigger body, and he gets the ball more often than Tapscott. Scully missed a couple of targets but also impressed on his non preferred foot. Gysberts may have to practise this part of the game but he and Scully did a lot of work in midfield and completed all the sessions.

Watts and Jurrah took part in all the training up to the last matchplay, then left early. Not sure why but they didn't seem injured.

The best news of the day was seeing Jimmy at training. He did a meet and greet with the fans who numbered about 50 or more.

The highlight of the day - two banana goals in a row from Matt Warnock during goalkicking practice. Amazing. Are we playing this guy out of position?!!

Training tomorrow 8am 22 Jan 2010 at Casey - open to the public and confirmed by MFC this afternoon. The next open session is friday 29 Jan 2010.

Open training is planned for tomorrow at Casey Fields. The website says it starts at 8am and is confirmed by the MFC at 4.55pm. It makes sense to start early tomorrow with an expected top temp of 36 degrees. I'll try and write up a few observations tomorrow afternoon.

Coaching can be broken down into three components:

winning games;

developing players; and

managing teams.

So far Bailey has only had a chance to tackle the first two, because of the poor player list he inherited in 2008 and the injury and list management problems of 2009. I'd also argue that he is only half way through the job of developing players. We have 19 footballers who have played 20 games or less. I'd like to see them play 40-60 games together under a consistent game plan, so it makes sense to extend his contract to the end of 2011.

IMO he's done a fair job managing the team. A good example of bad management is the Chris Newman-Jake King saga at Richmond last year.

Bailey made an interesting comment at the draft night in November last year. He pleaded for patience with the new recruits, saying they would all take time to develop. Perhaps he was also talking about himself.

Joel MacDonald could step up a gear this year. He's 25 with 6 pre-seasons under his belt; he brings a good combination of experience and skills; he'll play an important role in defence for us by getting a lot of possessions, and he has a point to prove to Brisbane.

Sylvia looks in terrific condition. A good mix of skills, toughness, and fitness. He can also kick the footy a mile.

I would also say Jamar, but I'm not sure if he's done a full pre-season.

In today's Fairfax Press - TIME FOR DEMONS TO FIRE UP

Exactly what we want to hear. Now if they can only translate that into performance on field ...

Has 'the sunday age' got the wrong date on the caption? It says 'melbourne players return to the rooms after a rare win....in Dean Bailey's second season as coach'.

That would make it 2009. However I reckon it's colin Garland in the centre of the photo. Col only played one game in 2009, and that was the first of the season against north, which we lost.