binman

I know you do. That's ok. Each to their own. On Oliver, when 16 of the best 22 players have surgery pre season the best and fairest becomes a little easier to do well in.

May well be. The ox would be close too.

Close to my best football memory. I posted the following not long after i first started posting on Demonland way back in 2011 (by the by it was in response to a fantastic post from Whispering Jack about the wiz - well worth a re read): I will never forget the game Farmer mentioned by WJ where he kicked 9.1 (so close to perfection) in the second half against the maggies. One of my all time favourite footy watching moments, perhaps even my fav I was sitting at the top of the Ponsford Stand (city end) and there was a magpie fan in front of me who in the first half was absolutely giving it to Farmer. All half he was bagging him whenever he went near it. His vitriol tipped over into mindless racist drivel. I think he must have thought himself quite witty as his insults were along the lines of "typical, always looking for a handout", "hoping for easy welfare" and other such rubbish. The fella was absolutely relentless and as Farmer barely got a kick in that first half he had plenty of opportunities to have a go at him. What made it worse was he was with his son, who was probably no older than about 9 or so. It was for this reason that i elected not to say anything (and a sense that it would have been pointless and perhaps he was trying to provoke something), as there would have been some sort of confrontation and more than likely violence. That said i really i struggled throughout the first half not to say anything to him and with the tension of thinking i should. Well Farmer answered such rubbish in the best possible way. 9 goals in a half of footy and it could have easily have been 10. Awesome. With each goal i was able to go wild for the Wiz and was able to "respond" to the dill without ever having to do so directly. I yelled out stuff like "that's it Jeff, do it all yourself, go hard", "you don't need any easy frees or handouts from the umps" etc etc. As the Whiz lined up for his 9th at about the 15 min mark of the last this fella (having barely said a word, little lone an insult, since about half way through the 3rd quarter) slinked off, leaving his son with a mate of his (who funnily enough had not at any stage yelled out any abuse). He was a beaten man. The Whiz had seen to that. There had been no violence and perhaps his son had learnt a lesson. A great day and a great talent.

It has been noted before but poita - and therefore you also - are taking Goodwin's 'We just weren't prepared for what the game was going to demand' comment completely out of context. He was talking about the number of players rehabbing and the resultant impact on players fitness level, preparation and practicing set ups and tactics. I'm not sure if you are deliberately trolling or you are being sincere in the comments quoted above (and for that mater most of your posts). If the former then hashtag what ever floats your boat. If the latter then i'd suggest you follow things a bit more closely. The coaching staff did in fact make significant changes to the way we played. Anyone actually watching us play could see the change during the season to a much more defensive, chip and hold, tempo model and we set up much deeper than we would normally do. In fact to be honest i wonder if that was a mistake and they might have been better off just sticking to the preferred game plan - the plan they will play with next year ie attacking, contest out, move it forward at all costs, attack on the player with the ball, forward half pressure, front half football (you know a very similar style that has won 2 of the last 3 flags). I suspect they did not do so because, one we didn't have the cattle and two we were simply not fit enough to execute that hectic game style. But i also think they looked to minimise the scale of the losses as we simply did not have enough defensive run and cover, particularly late in quarters and games and our preferred game style requires that sort of running as it exposes us to sling shot rebounds and the ball out the back..

Agree on all counts. Jackson could (i stress could) be a generational player. Young is very unlikely to be (but also could). But either way as you note we could cover young in the draft - and we might well have with rivers - but we were not going to land someone with Jackson's size, skill set and potential. Not sure how long he might have to wait for a senior gig given he is a skinny bugger, but by all accounts he has something I know you value very highly pd - want, desire and competiveness - so I'd back him to force his way in.

He is pretty solid young fell too so i suspect he will play seniors next year.

Love these highlights. Because: They are all from one game - i presume a seconds game, but against men (i think, could be under 19s I guess) The last bit of the clip is an absolute screamer - not sure if he kicked the resulting shot but if so that would have been his seventh He had kicked 3 of the first 4 goals for his team (you can see the scoreboard just before he kicks his 4th - so 4 of the first 5 goals) - a spark plug His third is a set shot that shows a nice neat action off one or two steps (i'm amazed so many players have such long run ups) He is a complete natural small forward who reads the ball beautifully, gets to the right spots and plays on instinct Loves a goal and does not hesitate to pull the trigger Can kick right and left foot But most of all i love what he does just before he kicks his sixth and last goal in the clip - after reading the ball super well and completely losing his defender he roves and after a nice shepard from his team mate accelerates towards an open goal. However just before kicking he turns his head to see what is happening to his teammate as i presume he could see out of the corner of his eye that he was being scragged. Or maybe he was looking at his defender to see how much space he had, but i don't think so. Either way most players have blinkers on at that point and eyes only for the goal. Not Kozzy. He has time to either check on his team mate or the space on his man (or both) and then kick. Only the best players have that time. And if we was checking on his team mate that is evidence of a team first player who looks out for his mates. Love this decision to draft him.

Agree on the fact we filled needs well. To your list I'd add: An elite kick - in my opinion our greatest need, so thrilled to read how highly River's kick is. Some x factor - every club needs a spark plug and x factor player. Creates excitement pumps up fans and teammates alike and most important of all such players (e.g. Wonnna, jeffy, the wiz, jurrah, davey - remarkably all Aboriginal) can win games wirh flashes of brilliance. In kozzy we have that player and if benell gets fit we have anorher. A sense we might have one our of the box - there is nothing more exciting than the thought of drafting an out and out future champion. Hogan footed that bill for me and oliver too, but you have to go back to watts (who didn't make it to that level), neita (ditto) and the ox. It is clear they think jackson can get to the rarefied level of champion.

I was on the fence a bit with petty but he convinced me once he moved forward. Not because he was a natural forward or anything (though he is certainly did not look out of place), but because his competiveness and great hands really became apparent. Agree that he is going to become a very good player Goody is talking about using petty up forward but obviously he can play back if and when required. Which is a really useful attribute in terms of flexibility and options for goody, particularly as tmac can also be be a swing man (and perhaps Smith as well).

I agree on Smith. Curious decision if that is how they go. Potentially makes it harder for him to cement a spot in the team. On a related note in the Sen interview goody made it clear they have petty pencilled in as a forward. Curious also given I think he played all his junior footy and first year with us as defender. But as goody notes he has great hands and can really clunk them, which is a pretty important attribute for a kpf.

Don't want to pick a fight. I apologise for my unnessary rudeness. I don't feel the same way about the 2019 season. Not even close. Yes of course I was terribly disappointed with the results BUT NOT the coach, players admin etc. I think calling them amateur is really unfair and I think calling their response to the end of 2019 sickening is insulting and Ill informed. And way over the top. And to be honest all this does not seem like unqualified support.

The club must be so pleased you are prepared to let the last 12 months go and decide to throw your 'full support behind the club'. Insert saracasam font Sheesh. Seriously talk about hyperbole in tbat first paragraph. Rather sickening. You sound more like a shareholder than a supporter. Supporters give unqualified, unconditional support. At least tgat's how i see it. If I quit supporting the dees after a poor season we would have parted ways 40 years ago.

False logic. With pick 3 you take the best available. Simples. You don't get cute and try to fill holes or weaknesses. If needs and best available coincide, great. That seemed to be the case for a while with young. And he might still prove to be the best of those available at 3. But it would appear the club has decided jackson is the best available. So should pick him.

Maybe not. But they risked not getting him. They were very fortunate the tigere took tambling and the dogs took Griffin.

The buddy Franklin draft is a great touchstone for the jackson decision. He went at 5. Tigers took Delidio at one and famously rambling at 4. Lidw was a good but safe call. Hawks took roughly at 2 and digs took Griffin at 3. Buddy's talent was obvious but there were question marks. So much so they took roughly first. But do that draft now and everyone would take buddy in a heartbeat. Is jackson our buddy?

Whose voice is shot unfortunately - but unsurprisingly. Arguably Australia's greatest rock band. Respect.

That and rehabbing

I wasn't suggesting our loss was only down to being cooked. Of course there were other reasons. Not least the fact we were playing a better team, coming off a weeks break, at their home ground accross the other side of the country. But at the ground it was really hot and you could see early that players were blowing up. Most were running up and down on the spot by half way through the second q - maxy being one.

Who knows, but no doubt we were totally cooked.

I agree. What Macca was describing sounds to me like tempo footy, which is super important when you want to arrest the momentum an opposition team might have. Slow things down, deny the opposition the ball and stop going all out attack. Funnily enough i think we will need to do that more often during the regular season as doing so takes the heat from the game and would help us get to the finals still fresh.

Thanks for the slide pics dom The highest number of games missed in AFL history. Combine that fact with the pre season from hell and you get one woeful season. And still some compare our situation to the pies and tigers.

That is a very good question.

Respectfully, thats not true Damo. They advised he had hip surgery before the season and again when he had a mid season break to build his strength. On the surgery he was often left of lists on here and in the media of players who had surgery - perhaps reflecting his standing. And I certainly reminded dl posters of those surgeries often enough.

All very valid questions. The club has a big call. Two other factors are relevant I reckon. The most important of those is that really, really good bigs are very hard to find. The draft is stacked with good flankers (could be rhyming slang?) and mids. So perhaps we get ash instead of young. But we won't get another jackson. The second factor is more speculation on my part. I wonder, given his athletisim, whether jackson might actually be played as a mid (ie with gawn still rucking). Say rotating wirh petracca. Would be formidable I would have thought.

I am sure we will see plenty of omac this year. And barring injury to him expect him to play most games. He is important to our structure. Will take an opposition big freeing up may and lever to be more aggressive and play ood their men. And his reliable kicking will be important. Would not be surprised to see him take a fair share of kick outs. Had to laugh when I read who made the omac comments - an 'Ian' apparently. Funny because my name is Ian. I promise it wasn't me. Unless I've gone rogue. On a serious note it is great that people at the forum and on here rightfully derided Ian's borish comments made in a public forum. Id love it if posters on dl considered this site a public forum and applied the same expectations of respectful criticism and comment. On the number of games omac plays happy to take bets, with choice of avatar the stake. Which if I win will be a picture of omac. I'm 2 for 2 on such bets (Hi prodee and Dr d) so betting with the bank's money. So to speak. Maybe Ian can put his money where his mouth is.