deejammin'

Tempted to get a Demonolgy account to ask Nick about the training. Is it possible that guys like Watts and Blease have improved in their fitness but that those who were already ahead of them have remained there? Was the training looking easier because they are getting better at it?

Hi HFF. Its great that Fitzy is running well and will hopefully have a full and productive pre-season. I think that having Pedersen will actually help Fitzy as he will have to compete hard for his spot with someone, that at this point in his career, has performed better at AFL and VFL level. If Pedersen is to keep him out he will have to train and play well, as Fitzy is coming on, and if Fitzy breaks into the AFL team he will have earned it, unlike previous years where he has been competing against backmen.

Thanks JTR for a great report! Can we assume these three (+ Clark) are a rehab group as Jonesy said he also wasn't doing the time trial due to some niggles. If so its a little annoying as I would love to see Tappy get a free run at pre-season for a change. Go dees!!!!!!

Hopefully he will have to...

Casting a wide net there...

Rodan at his average to best is superior to Bail, who played many games this year, that's who I think he will replace, I think there is room for him if he plays well.

Dawes will suprise a lot of people. Davey is my smoky from biggest improver, he's coming from far enough back whilst his best is so good, that there is scope for one of the biggest improvements of all time.

I'm hoping so

EQ on SEN this morning implied that GWS would take Whitfield, Toumpas and Menzel at 1, 2, 3, with Grundy to slip as far as 7. She stated that Menzel had the potential to be the best player in this draft as he can break a game and that a team like GWS with so many high picks would probably see him as worth the risk.

Can you explain to me how Jacobs nominating North means that we can't pick him if we have a pick before them?

Whoops sorry Jack, absolutely Maldonboy is brilliant, this has been my favourite time of year the last 5 years, a little sad, but hey, at least its come around again.

I can't wait for the training reports! i particularly love Bhima and Freak's although all contributions are great. Hoping to get down to a few myself this year. Go Dees

This is going to be interesting in how it affects Sando and the mob onfield at Adeaide. Compared to the off-field incidents our club put up with this year it is nothing, but still, losing a valuable player and then having a whole bunch of off-field issues to deal with will test the crows.

We are lacking a Half Back Flank with good disposal who is quick and breaks lines in the mould of the Shaw brothers, Malcevski etc, thats what we wanted Ray for, in theory Davey, Blease or Strauss could do this, but they would have to seriously step it up. We also need at least three quality mids. Apart from that we just need improvement from our spine and some of our younger guys to step up and we will be a lot better. Long term we will need to see how the new inclusions do and how some of our young guns come on to know where we are deficient. Structually we look at lot better this year though.

If you are referring to Dawes, Rodan and Byrnes yeah, because no team has made it to finals with those 3............... I mean its not like Collingwood did this year, or Geelong won a premiership with one 3 times, or Port made a grand final with Rodan or anything, also its not like their finals experience is one of the reasons they are at our club..........

Looking at the stats from last years goal kickers I can only find 1 Second KPF who kicked over 40 goals, which was Roughhead for the Hawks, and I think we can safely say he was getting a lot better delivery than Dawes will next year. I think 25-35 goals would be a good return, anything over that is a bonus. His role is to crash packs, make a contest, provide a chop out for Clark by taking a defender and to kick goals. Saying unless he kicks 40 goals he has failed is ridiculous!

If Aaron can get back to some good footy off the half bank flank it would be awesome!

We will have Watts pick 1, Trengove Pick 2, Viney 3-8, Wines Pick 4, Clark Pick 9, Frawley Pick 12, Jones Pick 12, Grimes Pick 14, Blease Pick 17, Tapscott 18 and Strauss Pick 19 all playing in our 22 next year. Thats half our team as top 20 picks under 25 years old! The idea we needed to stock up on 6 kids is laughable! What that list of players doesn't have is a long history of success, premierships or Grand Final performances, being part of a club that is consistantly in the top 8 or a large number of games experience. This is why we need Byrnes, Dawes and Rodan. I am happy with what we have done, we have picked up quality players, clubmen and trainers that fill roles we are defiencient in. Rodan and Byrnes will play small forward rotating to the midfield, last year we had no-one play this role effienciently, Blease started to do it in the second half of the year, but ideally you want his run in the middle. Dawes plays second power forward, this was done this year by Rivers, Garland and Watts not to any great success, certainly not as well as you would think a Premiership CHF would do. Pedersen will play 3rd lead up forward/pinch hit in ruck, he just has to do better than Sellar and Martin, which I am backing him to do. As for our trades for Martin, Gys and Morton, clearly these were just contracted de-listings, money saving trades, we were luck to get anything for Morton at all. Gys and Martin may well play well at their new clubs, but I'm betting they won't. All the other de-listings were flagged months ago, all the players knew from the start of the year they had 1 year to get to the standard Neeld wanted or they were out, guess what, these guys didn't make the grade. I am always sad to say goodbye to players as like all supporters I am emotionally invested in them and always want them to be the best, however all coaches should be able to have a team that fits their standards and ideals and Neeld certainly hasn't been half-assed in making that happen for him this year.

That would still be tripling our output on this year. I just want us to play better this year also. And I think our changes will aid us in doing that. Sad to see Gys and Martin go, but I really don't think they were in our future.

I miss the days where I would have said "yeah but what about the fans, don't demons fans deserve the atmosphere of a Friday night match as much as any other club?", but now I know the AFL is just a commercial brand that doesn't care about the fans so..... whatever

The main point of this post is contradicted in the first line. If we beat "3 established sides" then would have tripled our output!!!! If we beat Essendon, Carlton and St Kilda (hypothetically) along with GC, GWS, Port and the Bulldogs that would be an enormous improvement particularly with such a large turnover.

I am always sad to see MFC players go, as I support them 100% and always want them to be the best. But I am not suprised or upset with the delistings. It is dissappointing that Morton, Petterd, Gys and even Martin couldn't get there, but they may have luck at other clubs (my bet would be Morton won't, Martin and Gys might). The only things I wish I could change about the trade period is that we had kept Rivers and managed to somehow get Ray.

Edited the OP to reflect our current list. It looks a bit more balanced in terms of age, also I think it is more balanced in terms of the experienced players being in the best 22. Interesting to see who we add via the draft and rookie draft.

I don't think this is going away, I think draft tampering and salary cap rorting are serious issues and Adelaide could be in a world of trouble. http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/150261/default.aspx

This is where you are wrong, Sydney is unable to trump its competitors, it has lower picks, but Adelaide has to accept them as it agreed to this draft tampering arrangement. The very reason Mitch Clark came to Melbourne was that Freo was unable to satisfy Brisbane with the picks they had, Mitch was happy with both contracts, but the fact Melbourne could trump them in the trade period meant he came to us. This is the very process which has been rorted by Tippett's deal