hardtack

Any word on Chip and/or Hodge?

No, nothing yet... but I doubt they would be giving anything away on that score almost until they take the field.

DemonsHQ just tweeted:

"Addam Maric is the sub for @DemonsHQ today. Jordan Lewis is the Hawthorn sub."

Tweeted just a couple of hours ago by DemonsHQ:

"We're less than 500 members away from the 2010 record!Get your 2011 membership at the G today to help us smash the record and create history"

Looking good!!

I think the truth is that you love the game you're raised with. I've lived in Sydney for a few years and outside of the odd state of origin match have found it really hard to appreciate rugby league. What I find curious is that AFL is the sport everyone follows in my office -- Sydneysider or outsider -- and the game they want their kids to play. So there may be some truth to the AFL being superior argument.

As to tomorrow, our team is a year older and a year stronger. I really want to see our big-bodied blokes impose themselves -- Moloney, Sylvia and Tapscott (love that man-child) -- and end this notion that Melbourne can just be pushed aside. We owe the Hawks some pain and it's time to start inflicting it.

Same for me Ned. I live in Canterbury's heartland and I find I have to admire their passion, although I do think they have some of the worst supporters in the competition (somewhat like Pies and Dons supporters if we want to generalise). I think you will find that the reason you now find many people here now following the AFL is due to the fact it is perceived as being more family oriented... thanks to the likes of Canterbury supporters, the live games have become a bit of a no go area for many families.

As for the comments above regarding the origins of the game (AFL being a game that is Australian)... yes, it was developed here, but I think you find there are many influences that went into the making of the game that came here with the immigrants to this country.

I'm loathe to make a prediction on the possible outcome of this game as over the past two years we have all confidently predicted easy victories over the Dorks due to their injury lists etc, and each time we have been comfortably dealt with.

Has it ever Happened before? Draws in consecutive weeks?

I think they said the last time was approx 100 years ago.

Had the former boss Paul Gardiner on my flight 3 days ago. He said Frawley was at least 2 weeks away, as they were playing it safe!

Go Dees!

Well as I posted in another thread, according to Brad Green on Twitter, Frawley trained well and is therefore back in the side:

"Good session today... Boys ready for Sunday... We welcome back @chipa__8 into the team..."

Nutbean I have to admit that after reaching my adavnced years I have never seen one "flaming"

I guess you learn something new every day!

Yes, usually it was the brown paper bag containing the turd that was flaming.

i would really like to see beamer run through bruce...that would be funny...i'm sure some of the hawks players would do the same to campbell brown.

An accidental collision between Bruce and Guera would be nicely ironic :-)

They were training today... at Casey. And it looks like Frawley must have come through it well if Brad Greens latest tweet is anything to go by: "Good session today... Boys ready for Sunday... We welcome back @chipa__8 into the team..."

I remember the word "Stress" being used, but no mention of fracture. That's why I made my silly comment!

My turn to apologise... it was actually somewhere in between what we were saying "The scans detected bone stress in Tom’s left knee cap." - anyway, whatever it is, it was detectable from scans obviously :-)

Maybe it was GWS that said to Tom to go down with knee "soreness", and milk it for as long as you can.

A soreness issue is like a soft tissue issue, it's almost impossible to detect on scans, xrays, etc. Classic Work Cover injuries are soft tissue injuries. They can take as long as they want to heel, because it's hard for a doctor to disagree without evidence.

First and last time I'm commenting on the Scully issue.

Never mind the fact the "soreness" is the result of a stress fracture which I think you will find is detectable on scans, xrays, etc.

It was supposedly reported on the radio about 3 days ago (?) that Scully would be out for 10 weeks, but I have not seen anything about this anywhere else at all since. I thought maybe they had got him confused with Staker who was given an estimated out time of 3 months (12 weeks).

Warnock named in case Frawley doesn't pass the test I assume.

Any chance he could be the Sub as insurance against Frawley fading out around the 3rd quarter?

looks like Chunks tweeting backfired on him today...

at around 12:40pm he tweeted:

"She's a marathon today! Weights, touch & speed this morning! Jumping on the massage table for a little down time! A bit peckish..."

then at about 2:40pm he tweets:

"Geez got some reactions for saying she's a marathon today! Take a breath people! I'm not complaining I got the best job in the world!"

Dees supporters can be an unforgiving lot :-)

I'll raise you a Phoenix.

You must be on "that" drug

'Riv'

I'll call your "Riv" and see you a "Joan"

I suppose Chip is too good to bring back through the reserves but i have some concerns about his lack of match conditioning coming straight up against Buddy.

We have to cover two or three dangerous forwards - I would rather have Garland on Roughhead and a non-match fit Frawley on Buddy, than Rivers or MacDonald on either of them.

They are full of youthful enthusiasm right now... I reckon that by about round 8 or 9 they will be feeling the effects and their performances will start to go into rapid decline... they will finish outside the 8.

I see what you are saying, but just because he promotes his love for the club via twitter & his website, doesn't mean he loves it more than a player who doesn't promote themselves.

I suppose I was saying that in his case it is more than just a perception... it is there for all to see. But I do agree that it doesn't mean his love for the club is any greater than that of others who are less "vocal".

I dont believe that's true at all.

His "love for the club" and "willingness to go the extra mile" compared to others, is merely perception, and an incorrect one at that.

I agree and disagree with this. Some players are more about the "team" than others who seem to play for themselves (eg. Fev and Hall). Jones definitely falls into the "team oriented" camp to the point where he involves himself in promotion of the team via Twitter, blog etc and on the field with his selfless courage.

He seems to be quite content to take on the lower profile tagger role and takes on an incredible workload which tends to go unnoticed by many... hence all of the constant calling for him to be dropped. Go to his website or read his tweets and his love for the club and his team mates becomes very apparent... one read of the Tiwi Times item on his website will allay any doubts about that.

I seriously think that without Jones there doing the grunt work that he does week in and week out, he would be sorely missed. Everyone seems to forget how much he improved over the 2010 season and I believe once season 2011 is up and running properly (pre-season and first round games are never a good indicator), that improvement will continue.

Akum you are hitting a very raw nerve with me.

There is no such thing as "an honourable Loss"

It is just a loss pure and simple we did not win!

You said it 4 times in four lines.

Get it out of your head. you never hear the coaching staff say those words.

Have you ever heard Leigh Matthews, Mick Malthouse say those words.

Did Ross Lyon say that after the 2009 GF loss.

You are expecting an "honourable Loss" on sunday!

Please as Dees fans we have to get over it do not accept anything less than a win.

You didn't notice the quotation marks used by Akum to enclose the words "honourable loss" OD? To paraphrase Wiki, these are commonly used to indicate or call attention to ironic or apologetic words - also used when citing commonly used expressions. So I suggest you maybe stop being so trigger happy.

And as Dees fans, what should we do if we do happen to suffer a loss on Sunday? You were totally unaccepting of a draw last weekend, so what do you suggest if they lose this weekend? Should we be calling for the coaches head? Should we be demanding certain players be stood down until the end of the season when they can be delisted? Should we be gathering somewhere and burning our membership cards? Should we boycott all future games until they start winning? Or should we just all vent and rage and fume on forums like this so that we can add that extra little bit of stress to our lives? Suggestions?

I think you will find that none of us enjoy it when the team loses, but what is to be gained by coming on here and venting? Reminds me of the eunuch in the harem: he's seen it done, he knows how it's done, but he just can't do it himself.

So who actually reported the blow-out to 10 weeks for Scully's recovery? I have checked on the AFL site, Real Footy site, MFC site and all injury lists I could find, and I'm coming up with nothing. Sure they didn't mean Staker instead of Scully? - after all, the LARS treatment has apparently reduced his recovery period from 12 months to 3 months which is a tad over 10 weeks

I was at the game on Sunday and have since watched the replay so I've seen him play at the top level as many times as everyone else on this site perhaps even more since i watched the replay.

Hey, I think you know very well that I was referring to your comments prior to the game.

His bag of tricks is so much bigger than you gave him credit for (one-trick I believe you said?) as was evidenced in his very first outing at the top level. Is it really so hard to admit you got it wrong?

It's not criticism it's my observation of him as a footballer. The modern footballer is tall and agile or short, agile and very quick. Tapscott doesn't fit into either category. Time will tell whether he gets exposed because of it. And yes he was terrific yesterday.

But didn't you admit at some point in this thread, that you had never actually see him play? Judging someone by what you have read about their physical stature is hardly an observation... it is conjecture at best.

I think this week against the Hawks will give us a much better idea of where we are at as a team... it will be interesting to see what we have learnt from the pre-season game in Tassie.