binman

Huh? HE WAS MAKING A JOKE.

No. Forward for sure. I think you're a bit rattled dl. Don't stress. We'll win. 23 points

Dazzler's confidence you would work it out was misplaced. He was making a joke about it being a pity preuss wasn't in to run through Scully. Sheesh.

Agree rusty. Hopefully goody has them in a good headspace and they play with a little more freedom and a bit more relaxed. They seem to have been afraid of taking risks and trying too hard if that makes sense. Tight. Also they're almost as slow us so won't hurt us in the spread like the bombers, saints and tigers did.

I second that. In some ways Dec land feels like an honorary Demonland poster and part of the somewhat dysfunctional Demonland family. Kudos to you too Drunkn. I really admire how you've gone about posting about your brother's journey. Always even handed and sanguine about the occasional barb he has received from some posters. I feel for Smith, like his namesake, he can't take a trick with injury. But I actually think Kielty's height and reach makes him a better fit for us. I also suspect he, like another poster has suggested, will take the step up to AFL in his stride and I reckon the level will suit him. Huge opportunity to cement a spot.

One more reason to go to the game

For those who think the dees will get smashed you might want to consider having a punt on the hawks if you are so inclined. They are only 1.72 to win and only have 4.5 point start. That is pretty even. And to be honest the betting markets about the most objective measure of a teams chances of success. Plenty of people obviously think the dees are in with a good chance of winning this game. I'm one

Good call bing. Friiter has to go forward and plat high half forard. We need him kicking inside 50 and kicking a couple himself. Has struggled down back and forward his best postion IMO. And yes TMAc back up forward. I hope the 10 days has meant T'Mac's foot is all good and he finds something close to his best. We need him up and about.

I'm now even more confident with omac back. Relax, we've got this.

I have the same condition - the Pollyanna syndrome

I'm on top of two tipping vcomps one of ewhich is quite big and has been running for 15 odd years. I have won it once, years ago, but struuggled ever since - in part because i always pick the dees. I want to win. Have been mulling over the dees game and have landed on picking us. Go dees. We'll win by 23 points.

Good post Yung Blood. To your list of key players i'd Weed. Clearly struggling with fitness and injury and is critical to our structure. Viney was also struggling before his injury. Completely agree on the confidence front too. They look afraid of making mistake and not playing instinctively. On the last point having reduced pre seasons sessions and multiple players in rehab would make it super hard to build the team synergy and complete knowledge of team structures that supports instinctive football. This synergy is critical for all clubs, particularly in terms of defending, but in some ways even more so for us given we employ an aggressive zone defense and our game plan relies on lots of quick, no look handballs to get the ball to a free player. When Goody talks about connection to a large extent synergy is what he is talking about.

Not yet OD. The back to back saints and tigers losses left my confidence reserves on empty but i'm feeling a tad more positive now. Season not done and dusted yet. I think we will win the next two games and get to 3 and 5. By then we should be close to the necessary fitness levels and will have some players close to returning and Preuss and Viney should be back in. Time to hang tough. We're dees fans - it should be second nature.

I might well have missed it but i don't recall a single post from a poster writing that they plan to put another poster on ignore because they they don't agree with their opinion. Happy to be corrected with any such examples. A pet hate of mine is posters writing factually incorrect comments, either because of comprehension issues (not so bad, after all you can't get too annoyed if someone is not that sharp), deliberately misconstruing other's comments (worse) or plain untruths to push an agenda (even worse). Not suggesting you fall into one of those categories Smokey as as i noted perhaps i missed the multiple posts where posters have talked about putting people 'on ignore because they don't agree with their opinion' (your post say people so i assume you have more than one example).

Don't usually listen to Whately as i'm at work but was driving and caught that. I was really surprised Riewoldt (who i usually don't like but found quite interesting today) didn't mention the fitness and injury issue or for that matter neither did Whately as apparently he said just yesterday that it was THE reason for our form. All the things Riewoldt mentioned - not getting back, structures etc (and factors he didn't mention like skill execution) - are no doubt issues but i see more as symptoms of having a crap pre season. The difficult pre season obviously impact not just fitness levels but also the opportunity to practice skills and at an individual level and systems, strategies, plays etc at the team level. They also discussed the fact that WC and the dees both had full contact, mouth guards in, training sessions this week, which was interesting. Riewoldt noted that such sessions were rare in season (as most sessions in season are about recovery,the game are what build fitness and there is big risk of injury) and that they represent one of the few opportunities coaches have to influence the mind set of the team on the track. A break glass in emergency sort of thing (my words). I hadn't really considered that the games build fitness (which is a bit stupid i know given how taxing games are) and this gives me some hope that, injuries notwithstanding, we might be getting closer to an appropriate level of fitness.

Finaly a footy pundit gets it. He is 100% right. Well 90%. The injuries to Smith, preeuss, kk and may (and now viney) have made things even more difficult. Perfect storm. Footy culture is that you never blame injury and fitness. Soldier out, soldier in, gives a player a chance yada yada yada.Goody's comments about no excuses is yet one more example of this culture. And the media and fans generally buy into this silly narrative. Instead they fixate on furphys such as game plan and stupid rumours of ructions to try and make sense of the poor form. Blind freddy can see we are not fit enough, key players are carrying injuries in games and that a third of our best players are out injured.

Not sure I agree. Needs to stay in the team but his development has stalled - particularly in terms of his leading patterns, timing and game craft. That said he does not look fit and seems a bit proppy. By the by I didn't know he was married to tmac.

Pretty quiet on the magpie rumors front

I reckon Misso must be trolling with this comment about preuss (my bolded bit) Braydon Preuss | Shoulder – 1 week “He’s not quite there yet, so he’ll need another week. It was quite a significant injury and he did really well to get up for the St Kilda game, but playing in the second half under duress probably sent him backwards a little bit. We’re really confident he will be OK next week though.”

I put one poster on ignore and thread has gone from 5 pages to four posts. Brilliant

Again this a really, really big call. You write as if it is fact not supposition. What is your evidence (supposition from Caroline Wilson or another journo, or scuttlebut from inside the club isn't evidence by the way)? Like you i feel terrible about where we are at ATM, as all true fans are. I do wonder how helpful right now it is for dees fans to be debating if we got the right guy and used the right process and repeating rumour an innuendo from journos. Even less helpful to be stating things as inflammatory sa the notion that the AFL controlled pert's appointment not the MFC board as fact not supposition. Hence my cynicism about your motives. But i have been watching Counterpoint so perhaps i'm wired to look for conspiracies.

I can neither confirm or deny. I won't name my source either. Nor will I even confirm if it is a 'reliable' source.

I'm confused. In several of your recent hundreds of posts you have lambasted other posters for resorting to personal insults rather than engaging in 'logical' debate. Any whoo i will take your advice to put you on ignore. If nothing else it will making scrolling through threads much easier.

Big call. Any evidence to back it up? And please not a quote from a journo, unless they cite specific, verifiable evidence not just a 'source'. As I suggested earlier I wonder about your motivation for the op. My source tells me you have an agenda fuelled by a powerful dislike of Gary Pert.

100% agree with this theory. And I have little doubt it is one goody (and roos before him) subscribers to. You only have to hear his talk about building a style that wins finals and the finals being a new season to understand that. I reckon we rolled the dice with all the surgeries. Most were so called clean ups and i wonder if they could have been staggered rather than allat once, allowing more players the chance to build fitness before xmas. Yes that would mean some players not ready at the start of the season, but as it turns out that has happened with injuries, which have compounded our evident lack of of fitness.