FarNorthernD

I had not thought of that. You would have to imagine that there would be a fair degree of disillusionment amongst the remaining Essendon players. It would not be unreasonable to want a fresh start and difficult for their Club to stand in the way of players wanting to. In the past I would have had no faith in Melbourne being able to bring in one of the quality players but these days perhaps we can sell the dream.

Yes, I'm with you there DEmon Jack. White is an aggressive, strong 188cm back with a raking left foot. I mean this in the nicest possible way but he reminds me of Simon Godfrey but with skills. I'm look forward with interest to see if he can continue his development this year.

I think Mitch White will make it. He is another one of those competitors that Roos bangs on about. Comments from his last season read for a lesson in football development. Started in the VFL 2nds, promoted to the VFL senior team and got progressively better through the year finally making an AFL debut in the last round. 2015 Season 1 - 2 - 3 VFL Kicked a goal in development league. Went OK. - 4 Didn’t play for Casey. 5 VFL Did some nice things but wasn’t a big factor. - 6 VFL Did some nice things down back but is still learning. - 7 VFL Better than last week in defence. 21 possessions. - 8 VFL Used ball well and looks a likely type down back. - 9 VFL Bye. - 10 VFL Solid enough down back and used ball fairly well. - 11 VFL Good two-way performance in the back half. - 12 VFL Continues to learn craft in defence. Making good strides. - 13 VFL Bye. - 14 VFL Rested. - 15 VFL Rebounded well from defence in win over Port. - 16 VFL Used ball well coming out of defence and is a good size. - 17 VFL OK down back and bobbed up for two goals at other end. - 18 VFL Rebounded well at stages in tricky wind. Going OK. - 19 VFL Five rebounds among 14 touches in defence. Fair. - 20 VFL Casey’s best in defence. Coming along well as rebounder. - 21 VFL Continues to make strides as a rebounding defender. - 22 VFL Tried hard down back but had little support in end. - 23 GWS Impressive debut from the ex-Stingray in back half. One to watch in 2016. 6

I sort of see Frost as Ben Holland's shorter, more athletic younger brother. As such I'm not as sold on him as some here are. He is too short to play 2nd ruck aside from the odd cameo and hands up if you would be confident having him lining up for goal in a final. Really he can only end up as a defender where he can use his pace and gadget arms

I hope I'm in Melbourne the day Jack T runs out onto the G again. From the Age. Trengove's return will be 'special', says Watts

Yes we have heard this all before in various forms and disguises. However at least this time we have; A stable and competent administration An highly professional coaching group who seem to be all on the same page A seconds side with a Melbourne coach providing continuity of coaching (I think not enough has been made of the significance of this) Greater depth and competition for spots. And whatever your opinion of our recruiting over the past trade and draft periods there is no arguing that we have gone out and got blokes who don't take backward steps. Competitors as Roos calls them Perhaps it is the same old song but just maybe this time it is different

Hiccups seem to be contagious. Along with Frost and the hiccup with his foot Chris Dawes; "Dawesy started training really well before he had a little bit of a hiccup with his calf" Angus Brayshaw; "He had a slight hiccup with his hip just before christmas" Someone needs to send their mum to training to show them the cure for hiccups before it goes through the whole team.

I hope you are right Ron. I was dead against getting him before the trade period but that was based on not much more than the team he played for. He is one of us now so a "bloody good season" from Jake would be great.

Fairly harsh comparison there Maximus. Hercules, Schwarzenegger and your brother, Brutus, could all feel in need of a few gym sessions standing next to Petracca. The kid has a freakish build doesn't he Hopefully it will be a lot of fun watching them both develop as explosive midfield/forwards over next decade

This is what Knightmare said of Oliver on his draft board on bigfooty a couple of weeks before the draft. Whatever you think of him it makes for good reading “Others noticed Oliver before I did, but I may have been one of the few to move him up high earlier and move him up as extremely high as I have. And next update I'll even have Oliver ahead of Schache and my second rated non-academy player after only Weitering. Just such an exceptional contested ball winner and stoppage player. Moves well. Ball use good by hand and foot. Can go forward and take a mark and offer scoreboard impact. He can be one of the very best in this draft. I'll be interested to see at the end of the day where AFL clubs rate Oliver and whether anyone rates him nearly as highly as I do”. And then the day before the draft he released a combined top 10 of the last two drafts. Given a number of players in this list have already played good AFL footy Knightmare has a fair opinion of our new mid. “Clayton Oliver (VIC – MID) Jacob Hopper (NSW - GWS ACADEMY - MID) Jacob Weitering (VIC – KPD) Christian Petracca (VIC – Mid/Fwd) Angus Brayshaw (VIC – Mid) Isaac Heeney (Syd – Academy - NSW – Mid) Callum Mills (NSW - SYDNEY ACADEMY – MID) Darcy Moore (Coll - F/S – VIC – KPF/KPD) Patrick McCartin (VIC - KPF) Joshua Schache (VIC – KPF)” Pro Dee passed on from his brother. You have to love this description from training on the 11th Dec “Oliver was pitted against ANB, and Jones and Petracca went head to head. Petracca and Jones pretty much squared the ledger. Oliver beat ANB at least 9 times out of 10. He was adamant it was that lopsided, such was Oliver's effectiveness.” Surely it has to be time that the footy gods smile on us. Our 2014 drafting is shaping to be possibly our best ever. If this years crop, particularly Clayton, can match it we will be well on the way to playing finals consistently in the near future.

I was born in '64 so it makes me sad to find out I'm in my 60's already. Happily the woman I married looks like she is only just 50

I really want to believe that KDA, but Im guessing Port has a properly structured pay scale and have set aside enough cash to fully reward someone of Wines playing ability. I do prefer your theory to mine though

Absolutely agree. The MFC has had a few players over the past decade who can string together a coherent sentence but have not been so good at footy. Daisy is the best women's player, an eloquent speaker and a brilliant role model. She is an asset for this club

Hmm, Pro Dee's post a few above this one pretty much nails it. Flower was on a different level to the other players during a normal VFL (AFL) match. When you stuck him in State of Origin format he was still on a different level. As PD mentioned when the best played the best he was invariably BOG or close to it. Flower was a superstar

Not sure where to put this but the AFL site has 7 mins of highlights from the Geelong victory http://www.afl.com.au/video/2015-12-19/geelongs-best-win-classic-at-the-cattery Love it. Very much

Good question. i may be wrong but I think Yze's 200+ consecutive games, one sided glove and precision kicking can be explained due to Adem being part robot Robbo was born in a small country town but had a love for the big stage, wore his heart on his sleeve and was, I believe, part Peter Allen Hope this helps

Scully?

Wife. "So there's an email from Demonland thanking you for our $100 contribution. What was that for? Me. "Err, um, well it was sort of for a lifetime membership, good value really" Wife. "But you did that a few years ago." Me. "I decided to join again" Wife. "So you've got two Demonland lifetime memberships? What one for now and one for the afterlife? Well I hope your team is better on the other side than this one"

So it is very, very early days but if Oliver is doing a job, during his first few training sessions, on ANB who has got a year of AFL footy up his sleeve then this does bode well for the future. Also bonus points for those who were unsure about how wise it was to sell our first round pick from next year.

Yep, I'm in. Except I will donate $100 worth all at once for ease of accounting and not because my wife is less likely to notice a once off Demonland payment than 20 seperate ones.

And Nathan did do the job. He came 5th in the Bluey and, without looking the stats up, would have been top 3 at the Club for possessions, contested possessions and clearances. He was better than most in our team just not up to his consistently high standard

Thirty years ago in my late teens, early twenties I used to frequent the Top Bar located in the heavens of the members. Aside from having the planets most durry/beer/bourbon proof carpet I remember it for being 90% Melbourne supporters. Your friends supporting other teams were very much in the minority. The Long room and Dining room were possibly even more Demon. Now if I'm ensconced in the Bull Ring and there is a big roar during a game I'm still surprised to see that it was an opposition goal. Perhaps a sustained period of success with this team will tip the balance back to where it belongs

Thank you Roger, much appreciated interesting Garland with the forwards, although I'm not sure where everyone will fit - back and forward. Nice problem to have

About time someone knocked Fred Fanning off his 18 goal game pedestal. May as well be Jesse

Yes, comes across as a nice guy who was a bit lost. After all the poo that has been all things Essendon for the past few years it is easy to forget that they are just young blokes wanting to enjoy their footy. Can't blame any of them for wanting a fresh start