Tarax Club

M_9 fyeo! check topic thread!

This has been gnawing away for a little while! Thanks to our research a correction is in order! According to Denzil Howson's online archive The Tarax Show 1957-1964 http://tdgq.com.au/tarax-show/tarax_home.html Happy Hammond initially compered the Happy Tarax Show from its first show live at Myer's Lonsdale Street window on Monday 21st January 1957 until 1960 when he left GTV9 to go to HSV7 to host The Happy Show. Geoff Corke aka Corky King of the Kids was drafted in as Happy Hammond's replacement in the role as the show's compere. Happy a keen Geelong supporter, was accorded the honour of running through the banner with the Geelong players on VFL Grand Final day in 1963. On a sadder note Ron Blaskett recently passed away April 2018 at the grand old age of 96.

Terrific reports cheers Dazzle and Kev! To allay concerns about untidy skills and missing practice shots at goal post-Darwin, these were occurring during training last Friday 6th July. During the game a number of the goal kicks sailed through either side of goal posts at one metre or less from being 6 pointers. Whilst the game as a spectacle was a little underwhelming. On reflection the team performance in other phases of the game was cause for optimism. As the competition for finals places ’heats up’ in the later rounds of this season. Territory proud on both Demons’ performances here!?

All this appreciation and encouragement! We shall be soon drinking our own ? water! Ron of course is the “ghost writer” Gerry naturally is the ideas man. Happy Hammond is just happy where he is. The question is who really was Mr Football?

Cheers Kev, As the attendance at training was for the dedicated few and faithful, your top end correspond team did get the opportunity to interact with a few of the key personnel who will represent the MFC in tomorrow night's game. Some splendid fellows there, interestingly some guys are more relaxed, open and friendly in person but on field their demeanour is at poles opposite to that. Where others appear to be more introspective in person and perhaps more extroverted and expressive over the white line. Christian trained with forwards but don't read too much into that, the training session was all over in 45 minutes. Frosty may get his opportunity in defense, he appears to be mindful of last year's team performance. Wish him well he has some excellent attributes.

Good Evening fellow demonlanders, as posts from Darwin seem rather thin we shall attempt to fill the void. Team arrived at midnight last night, according to our source the flight was delayed. Consequently the training session was delayed somewhat, commencing just after 11:30 am this morning rather than the advertised 10:30 am start. Which was just fine, the Marrara ground is a picture, its surface is well grassed and some additional 'outdoor' new seating has been built on the outer side of the ground adjacent to the Michael Long Centre. The grandstand now honours the late Maurice Rioli no doubt Junior Boy will be in attendance come Saturday night. Being the nominated 'home' team Demons really get the pick of the facilities using the more modern change rooms and gym facilities of the Michael Long Centre. Fremantle get the more antiquated visitors dungeon deep in the bowels of the stadium we assume. Perhaps a swap of change rooms would be in order after Captain Viney's call for the team to get back to the 'basics'! Goal kicking practice for a few of the forwards was the first appearance of players on to the ground. Led by a Tom McDonald mini-clinic, he has a rock-solid goal kicking technique, head and ball position is maintained prior to a faultless ball drop and an efficient and linear kicking action, a bio-mechanics masterpiece. Even Bayley Fritsch struggled for accuracy deep in the forward pocket but Tom split the middle consistently. Goody appeared and purposely strode up to the coaches box to take in the view, which was decidedly smoky after recent scrub fires close to the oval. Sunset will indubitably be enhanced, hopefully it will not affect athletic performance game time. Meanwhile the small advance party were called back inside for what appears to be another meeting. The bane of the modern workplace it seems, although contemporary orthodoxy suggests footy as well as being a "game of inches" is won or lost between the players ears. Hope they were listening. Whilst this was going on one of the factotums was placing colourful plastic position discs around the forward fifty arcs both ends of the ground. The full team session was about to begin! Max Gawn demonstrated his ability to kick the high degree of difficulty checkside goal with ease from the tightest forward pocket position as the team positively bounded out of the team meeting on to the ground. The team approached training in a spirited and positive frame of mind. The mostly brief drills initially focused on sharp ball handling skills, hand-balling, short-passing by foot and some contested drills gaining possession in packs without much contact. After the the first series of ball-handling drills the team divided into forwards, mid-fielders and defenders. For what appeared to be succinct on field tutorials with the line coaches. Sam Frost joined the defenders, as did Bernie Vince who seemed to be the only emergency traveling up. But surprisingly, given Goody's mantra about total team defense, much of the later part of the training session was dedicated to ball movement into the forward fifty. The colourful plastic position discs came into play, with a complex drill which almost seemed to mimic marching girl precision with speed, with variations on a big "W" pattern. Anyway lowering the eyes, delivering a well weighted and directed pass either by foot or by hand was the theme. Post-training those fans in attendance including your top-end correspondents got to meet the players. After last year's disappointment here against a resurgent crows outfit, the guys seemed to be enjoying the territory warmth and hopefully can re-discover the spark to re-launch our assault for a finals berth. Go you Mighty Demons !

Another snippet which may be of interest. Players will be appearing at Intersport at Gateway shopping centre Palmerston on Friday evening apparently, best check with store for times.

Coach, Only pre-game event I'm aware of (from the club's website) is the team will be training at Marrara oval tomorrow morning at 10:30 am until 11:30 am followed by players signing autographs and doing photos with fans. Cheers TC

Somebody give Frosty Tony Campbell's super sticky footy mitts! He may be frosty but he is no lover of the pre-frost precursor dew.

Jeffy when on song is a terrific small forward. He has surely done his penance and is at his best on the big AFL stage not at some VFL sideshow.

Agree Ernest, among the best performed from last Saturday's Casey Demons televised game.

More power to positive innovative ideas! Yes school holidays commenced Monday 2nd of July through until Friday 19th of July. According to Goody's press conference team are scheduled to arrive today, Thursday and train at Marrara stadium 10:30 am tomorrow morning. Weather has been warm and windy daytime early Gurrulwa perhaps, today winds are more moderate though. Evenings swing back to more like Dinidjanggama with heavy dew forming. Awaiting selection news hopefully skilled footballers like Billy Stretch will get a call up and be on the flight up here. Your top-end correspondent team are both basking in the most pleasant dry season climes awaiting Saturday nights game with anticipation.

Cheers timbo! Seeing this is to be apparently to be your top-end correspondents' ultimate, penultimate, antepenultimate or preantepenultimate gig? We shall do our best. Can discount the theory about being more humid than the interior Boonie's box at New Delhi come Saturday eve. Although not a qualified meteorologist exists between us and more inclined to go with BOM direct rather than Weatherzone.

An almost absolute majority of posters on this thread appear to be against the ?️ Darwin fixture. A brief scan reveals some fair and rationale analysis and a couple of humorous 'gems' amongst the usual backwash. Win lose or draw since the the Demons first appearance at Marrara ?️ for a pre-season game V doggies in the wet ?️ season. Where the heat and humidity actually was a factor, way back in the dreamtime when Robbo was still taking speccies ? and a tropical ?️ cooled off proceedings. Jack Watts and Brad Miller forming a dynamic duo up forward to provide impetus for a convincing victory against port power, game one of the triplepeat. Jack Trengrove's footy smarts won the game V port for the game 2 return bout. Liam Jurrah's cameo magical Marrara goal of the decade. Neville Jetta gracing the grandstand wing pre-rookie revival, Nathan Jones's set shot goal outside fifty metre arc, leading the way pre-captaincy, followed by Jaydyn Hunt's spectacular spiraling torp over the ginger crow ? ruckman last year. Yeah survived the karma bus episodes wandering about in the footy universe outer limits. Reality is Northern Territory $$$ have helped keep the good ship ?? afloat. Your top-end correspondent has been seriously entertained, enjoyed and at times, if necessary endured all the Mighty Demons matches here in Darwin. If the game this Saturday is to be the last... well as George Harrison crooned "All things must past". Go !!!

Cheers ‘Big’ Kev top trackside coverage! Your top end correspondent intends to be in attendance at training in Darwin prior to the Dockers clash so will try reciprocate with some local colour next week. Are Harrison Petty’s ball handling skills up to par? Frostie had a shocker here last year couldn’t handle the dew.

Jones - flew the flag Viney - best game back T. McDonald - took a hit Hannah - needed more support Melksham - creative catalyst stymied Salem - contributed positively overall Harmes - blooper turnovers hurt O.McDonald - had a go Jetta - full of courage Hogan - mojo majorly missing Lewis - brave dynamo waning Fritsch - star is ascendant Petracca - start stop finish Oliver - combative inside contributor Tyson - better for run Vince - jury is out Smiths - not quite there Gawn - influential in play Brayshaw - radar off beam Neal-Bullen - lacked meaningful impact Hibberd - bring back 2017 Umpires - three blind mice

Max now has a weekly column for the competition to the Fairfax rag? That may explain his omission. His 2016 form from a limited sample from afar at the 'G' v woods and tigers Anzac Eve in succeeding weeks. Gawn absolutely monstered the opposing rucks and dominated the midfieldbattle like a colossus. Best individual ruck performance I can recall from an AFL ruckman. May his star status be re-ascendant 2018.

Cameron Pedersen great foil for Big Max, has a positive track record as a forward against the Hawks and loves a dry, fast track in the sunshine at the 'G' ! Weather forecast for Sunday?

1. Christian Salem decking "Magic Door" after Eddie went apoplectic about his bump on Jordan Lewis. 2. Jeffy Garlett's picking the pocket of North's McDonald and kicking a terrific opportunist goal. 3. The unheralded Josh Wagner's blue collar (red vee) performance in defence.

1. Resilience shown by the team in very trying sub-tropical conditions particularly after half-time. It appears that visits to the top end have ‘toughened’ up the boys! 2. Lions are definitely an improving side on Saturday nights performance and made the game a good contest, but lacked finesse and meaningful firepower up forward. 3. A number of ‘unsung’ players some much maligned here made a positive contribution to the result at different stages of the match.

A few comments, to add to the other reports from Friday’s training session. Considering the trying conditions, strong northerly wind and high temperatures the standard of skills exhibited was quite high, stamina and fitness levels overall were very good. Agree with positive comments made by a number of observers/posters here re: Bernie Vince, Max Gawn, Dom Tyson, Dean Kent, Billy Stretch, Christian Salem, Alex Neil-Bullen,Christian Petracca, Tom MacDonald, Jesse Hogan all were noticeable for a range of attributes from their physical conditioning through to their determination and skills exhibited during the training drills. Impressed that most participants maintained an admirable intensity throughout the session which was intelligently managed by the coaching staff. Observed numerous rotations to allow for recovery and plenty of opportunity provided for maintaining hydration levels. Of the new recruits Bailey Fritsch moved with poise and purpose, looked very neat skills wise, was able precisely pass the footy by foot and appears accurate over an extended distance despite the conditions. He judged the flight of the ball superbly and marked confidently despite the strong gusting wind. Close by he is deceptively strong around the hips and upper thighs. After all the training drills were completed and most players departed for what one assumes was a cool shower. Josh Wagner, Jayden Hunt and Neville Jetta did some extra-curricula work competing in pairs for the high kicked incoming ball. Their positioning/bodywork to spoil or mark the ball was terrific. Jettta despite giving up “inches” was the obvious master. Observations on the possible ‘game plan’ for the coming season. Competewith strength around the packs, gain possession and clear congestion by handball and reminiscent of Hawthorn maintain possession by short passing allowing forwards time to lead into space to receive an accurate footpass. Well at least that appears to be plan A. Final thought as a visitor to the centre of the footy universe from the top end, conditions were much tougher for footy than ever experienced in the ‘cooler’dry season evenings in Darwin. Ok will acknowledge pre-season training is not a fixtured AFL game. But training intensity and duration appear to mimic something of game conditions. In anticipation of a continued positive trend on Goody’s team performance graph for season 2018. Adios from your northern correspondent.?Go Demons!

Some may say supporting MFC is like bearing a cross may the karma bus collide and the curse of old 65 cease to exist. When many of us would honestly wish for the team to bloody well consistently lift the whole season through. Auld Lang Syne cherish the best trash the rest! Bring on 2018?

To quote Binman 06/12/2017 on an earlier preseason training thread ... "Surprise, surprise stmj is worried tmac's younger brother won't make it. Quelle horreur! Well i'm not. I can see what the fd can. Like he has been since first selected he is a lock for our starting 22 (yes, yes, i know he was dropped. Once). I have argued the fact he is picked week in week out is proof of his standing. Some - well one - have argued his selection is down to luck and fortituous timing (there are no other options!). The latter argument is moot this year with lever coming in. There are options for the fd if they think he is not ready. So when he starts in the side round one and remains in all year, injuries notwithstanding, it will be crystal clear, even to his most trenchant of critics, how highly he is rated by his coach and the fd. By the happy to bet the above scenario will come to pass." Objective evidence of a player's performance independent of an observer's emotions or imagination reflects the pre-eminent role modern sport science has at the pinnacle. Objective aces Subjective every time. Odds on for Oscar to replace Jack as the Demonland whipping boy next season

As an amphibian and prone to desiccation demonfrog you must have moisture to survive ideally water not swan lager! After the deluge spring showers seem best ‘September The Grand Finale’ is strongly suggested☔️

As a loyal paid up member of the Dee's Diaspora based at Darwin. I'm perfectly at ease with the round 16 fixture (must be the territory life style). Shall be in attendance at the match v the shockers basking in the 'Dry' season climes again for a 9th consecutive time god willing! Encourage some of the more financial melbournecentric followers to support the club by putting their money where their mouth is by purchasing fly in package. You never never know? Its a great footy experience here in the top end.