Good Times Grimes

It looks like that's Jimma in the background of this photo: http://yfrog.com/ocm1pbwj Great to see that he's still able to get out to these sorts of events. Definitely the most dedicated person to the MFC that I have seen.

Burgo is incredibly awkward and I think he should stick to writing. He is a great person to have at the club, but I think it's great that we've now got someone on board (Ms. McKenzie) who is a natural in front of the camera. Wasn't Robbo supposed to become the face of DeeTV? Is this still happening? If it is when can we expect to see him?

I'm hoping and looking forward to seeing us win more of the contested ball, and I think that Magner will be a key part of this. That being said, many of our other players need to change their attitudes towards putting their heads over the ball if we want to play finals footy.

I wonder how much young Cale Morton's guernsey will go for. I also couldn't help but notice there was no Nathan Jones guernsey to bid on.

I was sold on Daniher as soon as we stepped out of the blocks in 1998 after such a dismal '97. I think Neeld will do well, but I'll wait to see a few more games before I'm 'sold'.

I wonder what the chances are that we'll see Tynan in round 1. I love the look of him and think we'll see him at some point in 2012...perhaps not early on though. What are people's thoughts? Watts needs a chance to lift his confidence and I think he'll be able to do that at Casey. Good decision by Neeld.

The Jays are great to see live, but in my time following them the city's interest has usually dwindled around July when they're too far outside a playoff spot. There are too many games in the season, in my opinion, to expect fans to maintain a keen level of interest throughout. That's why I love footy...each week you're looking forward to a game and the lead-up is always an event in itself. I'm hoping this year is different for the Jays as there are lots of young prospects starting to come around. Hockey is great to see live--if you can get a ticket. In Toronto the tickets will be sold out for the entire season within an hour of them going on sale. I've only managed to get to 2 of 41 home games this year (although that's not necessarily a bad thing considering the Maple Leafs' abysmal record). Vancouver would be a much better team to follow I think, although they are notorious for choking. That might be even worse than following a team that you expect to lose.

Definitely not. While I'm sure that Melbourne is doing all it can to rectify its reputation with the potential sponsor (if there IS one), the huge loss against Hawthorn coupled with the Yuendemu incident would be a cue for me to end talks and search for greener pastures.

As each day goes by I am becoming surer that we will not have a sponsor for Round 1. That would be a major setback after all the work that has been put into the club over the offseason, and I really hope I'm wrong, but at this point I have not seen anything to convince me otherwise.

You can't forget the likes of Troy Davis and Tom McDonald, who also look like they could be the goods.

I'm aware of that, and I'm a Howe fan through and through. It still doesn't justify Cook as a #12 pick.

Glad to see he's back at training. Hopefully he can regain his focus and recover from his injury as quickly as possible. It would be fantastic to see him in a Demons jumper in 2012.

I'm reserving judgment on him, but I continue to be baffled as to why we went for him so early in the draft. One has to wonder if he would have been around with our second selection.

Would you agree that you can only recruit conservatively up to a point, and after this point every pick turns out to be a risk? There is no saying that if you recruit conservatively every player that you recruit will make it. Sure, they may have more chance of making it, but sometimes you need to recruit players with 'flair' or players that lack certain attributes but have other areas of their game that stand out.

Spring training for the 2012 season is underway with the best performed teams so far being the Detroit Tigers, LA Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox. Does anybody have any early season picks as to who's going to be the World Series Champion this year? The recent addition of 2 extra playoff spots will make things more interesting and hopefully make the playoffs more attainable for teams with payrolls of under $100 milion.

I've been going through a 90s phase over the last couple of weeks. These are a couple of my favourites:

I'm O/S and use Skype to video-chat to family and friends back in Australia. Have never spent a cent on it and it is always very clear. I think Apple computers offer a similar service called iChat, but I think it is only good for Mac to Mac calls.

Disappointed in the way that this was handled by Liam and Eddie. Liam should know that he needs to go to the club before doing these sorts of things. If I were him I would be VERY nervous about seeing Neeld & co for the first time since being back.

Seemed like a pretty good analysis to me. Nothing there that I disagree with, and I enjoyed seeing that their 'highlights' or $cully as a Demon were all pretty ordinary.

It was his first appearance as captain and against arguably the favourites for the premiership. Wait a few games at least before you case judgment. Neeld would have made him co-captain so that there isn't as much pressure on him as if he were the sole captain of the team, and knowing that it will take him time to develop into the role. I have confidence that he will be a very good captain for the MFC.

I think he's very accurate in his analysis, but also seems to be obsessed with JW. I think his obsession shows that he thinks JW could really be something, and is just trying to light some fire under him. Here's to hoping that Neeld can toughen him up and make him elite.

Thanks for the report. Always good to hear about Melbourne's fringe/recovering players. Hopefully Blease and Strauss can get a game with the Dees early on this year.

If Grimes and Tapscott can remain relatively injury free, then I would say they would be right up there. Maybe not elite, but they have the abilities to become very very good. Before the events of the last few days I would have thrown Jurrah in there, but at the moment there is clearly a big question mark over his head as to whether he'll even play again. Trengove and Watts I think (and hope!) will become consistent AA players within 5 years, and I think Frawley is already the best at his position in the league. I'm looking forward to watching Jones and hoping that he improves, but I don't think he will become 'elite'. I think he will be a very good player and will always be an important part of our team, but never our most valuable player. No comment on the likes of Viney or Clark yet, since JV still hasn't played an AFL game, and Clark hasn't been seen at FF in a Dees jumper yet.

Wow. I'm in complete shock. I'm still holding out hope that he is innocent, but it definitely doesn't look good at all.

It's pretty hard to look past Jumpin' Jeremy Howe!