deejammin'

Classic!!!!!!

Pretty damning to note that we have only won two (against a depleted adelaide and a poor brisbane) games after losing the first quarter, especially seeing as we lose them so often! I was a big believer in this rebuild and maintain optimism in the face of rationality that somehow we will turn it around this year, but I really don't know about Bailey as a coach and the culture at our footy club. I think the idea of a bottom up no.1 draft pick rebuild taking a looong time to build up a list of boys whilst getting flogged approach is yet to be proven, the saints and the closest in recent years and they have only really pushed for premierships after they instituted a well-drilled thoroughly thought out game plan, before then they struggled when they should have done better... Carlton also tried the complete rebuild approach and found themselves out of contention for a very long time, really the only thing that turned it around was Judd and that was more trading and finding money than some kind of rebuild strategy. The Blues still don't perform consistantly if Judd doesn't play. I think it is interesting to note that the most recent power teams didn't bottom out in the way we have, the cats sat around the middle and Collingwood was 14th in one season... Both these clubs have had an uncompromising culture and strong leadership with clear gameplans. I think that too much belief was been placed in the we build it and they(premierships) will come approach, the reality is we have to go out and get them! We need to make big changes to our approach to football and develop a hard at the ball/ball-carrier uncompromising never say die attitude regardless of where our "window" is at. That is what both Essendon and West Coast have done without any no.1 draft picks or tanking and it seems to be working...

Unbelievably its only 4 goals... feels a bit like the Hawks tho, should be much further behind than we are... I hope a new team comes out in the 2nd half.

This is far too reminiscent of those 2008 games where we played from behind all the time... sigh...

Development year... Young Kids.... Stop being negative... Not in the window... Just a preview of this week on demonland

Neither at this stage

How can we still lack intensity at the start of a game? Surely when you know what the problem is, state it, and then fail to rectify it time and time again its a bit worrying!

Great start yet again...

Damn thats a good team for VFL!!!!!

I really hate this aspect of the GWS and GC formation. I think it is sad that clubs fans, even those of Carlton who lets face it, we aren't too fond of, have to deal with a year of speculation and underhanded dealings only to find one of their stars is gone. While Carlton have gotten more service from Murphy than we have from Scully so far I would really feel for Carlton if they lost him as he was one of their first draft picks earnt during one of the darkest periods for their club. I will be siding with any club that is poached by GWS as I think the formation of a new club is fine only if we aren't hindering the original clubs to ensure their success and that the way concessions have been implemented causes pain for the clubs, players and fans involved...

One thing that was nice about the bye this week was not going through the agonising decision of whether to tip the dees out of loyalty or whether to pick based on who I honestly think will win. I know that every time I tip I have this horrible decision to make so to have a week off was nice. I almost always end up going with my heart, as I tend to think that supporting my team is a bit more important than winning a small amount of dosh. However I have no problem with those who do, as they probably do far better in tipping competitions than I, especially the last couple of years. Although the worst thing that can happen is to tip against the dees and have them get up, did it once and never again.... So what of my fellow demonlanders? In our week off I thought maybe you all could shed some light on the age old heart or head tipping dilemma...

Of course it is rubbish, that was exactly what I was implying. My statement was that I don't think we can draw anything out of the port GC game any more than we can draw anything about Melbourne out of any game played between two other clubs. The reality is that the games Melbourne play are the only indicators for us to draw conclusions on our team. Of course we shouldn't discount other teams endeavour in these games, and sometimes we will simply be outplayed, however the reality is that there were many flaws to Melbourne's game during our win over GC and that most of us here will be hoping to see them corrected in the upcoming weeks, or we may have to start seriously assessing our progress... Regardless of how GC play against other teams. I don't think the suns winning removes any of the worries about our ability at set plays, ability to stop quick transferance of the ball out of our forward line, or our ability to hit targets and work through a zone which we did poorly at many stages in the suns game. I have no intention to 'stick the boots' into any club, especially my own, also for the record I thought GC would win a game this season, as there are some bad teams out there and I am hugely relieved it wasn't us. However I did not have any assumption in mind going in to the suns game that we would [censored] them like Carlton did or anything of the sort, rather I was hoping to see us execute a lot of things better, some of which we did, some of which we didn't, win lose or draw. Ultimately I want to see us win, or at least play to our ability, which means not rolling over at any stage in the gmae. This does not mean that the GC Port game gives any indications for how our games will be played or how our season will pan out.. for better or worse. /edit spelling

I knew there would be a thread like this as soon as I saw the game. I think arguments like this hold no weight, by this logic you could argue Adelaide should roll us in a couple of weeks as they beat Hawthorn and Hawthorn beat us, then that GC should beat adelaide, as Adelaide were beaten by port adelaide who GC beat, then you could argue the suns should have beaten us as Hawthorn beat us! The moral of the story is, our victory over GC was as impressive or unimpressive as we thought it was on the day, regardless of other results, anything can happen week in week out as there are 22 highly trained players going out there to do battle. Retrospectively we could conclude some rosy things from the Port Adelaide GC game, but I really think it will all be for nought in terms of our next performance or rest of the season. The only lesson I'll be taking is that anything can happen in footy...

I am not particularly worried whether we win or lose on the weekend in terms of the future, obviously I'm a rabidly passionate fan and will be going nuts during the game, but in the long run I'm more interested in HOW we play. If we show intensity and appetite for the whole contest, and don't make the characteristic dumb looking turnovers too often, I will be satisfied. I'm looking forward to the game and I think the players will be too, its a chance to show what we're made of in a stiff environment against a team around our level in good form. On the present topic, yes we need to get games into our players, but it is also about HOW these games are played, if young players learn bad habits, play a 'soft' brand of football and fade out of games regularly then this won't help development, rather it hurts it. Working in a performance industry I am aware that 'practice makes permanent' and if we continue to put into practice bad habits they will stick rather than becoming 'perfect' and some type of miraculous development occuring. Obviously there is a learning curve, but the players need to set the bar higher in terms of quality of application for us to honestly think we are developing.. This is one of the many cahnces we will have this year, lets hope we show something.

I would just put this up for discussion: Better than us: Collingwood Geelong Hawthorn Fremantle Carlton WB ? ST Kilda? On a Par: Essendon Sydney Adelaide ? West Coast ? Worse than us (should be): North Melbourne ? Brisbane Gold Coast Port Adelaide Richmond In this list Essendon and North have flipped from where I would think they would be preseason, I have put question marks next to teams that I believe could be in other categories (generally lower with the exeption of NM). Going on this list we should be in the hunt for the 8, however our form to date does not leave me particularly confident of beating many of the on a par sides, or the worse sides. This is where the improvement needs to come at the moment, the reality is we have shown that on our day we can match it with top sides, or at least for patches of games, my problem is the intensity and desire against 50/50 or lesser teams seems to be missing, and this should be where we improve this year... What do you reckon?

Moloney Trengrove Jamar Sylvia Jurrah Wonna

This has already been pointed out but it bears remembering that the Bulldogs may well haved jumped us on the ladder if they had not had the bye this week. Also with the Bulldogs, Saints and Crows outside the Eight I wouldn't be too sure of staying there, with all the draws so far this season it may be a pretty tight one around the middle of the ladder. Nice to win by so much yesterday, yet not a totally convincing performance, hopefully it starts to really click against the Weagles.

I concur with Curry and Beer, Eagles game is huge. We have yet to meet a team that has been around our level, Swans game was a close call but I did expect them to be a good team this year, never expected to beat Hawthorn(although I was devastated with the 3rd quarter effort) and if we had lost to Brisbane or GC I would have been shocked and ver upset. Also although I love the way Scully and Mckensie go about it I think the influence they may have on our team is a little overstated. Yes Mckensie may add some grunt around the contests, and Scully some speed through the middle, but I think the main problems we have seen with the team so far are bad set plays, kick outs and kick out defence and fading out of games. Too many times yesterday was a team as ordinary as GC able to take the ball from our backline to our forwardline for an easy goal without any pressure or contest. Not good enough for any side, even a young one, as it is merely an issue of discipline and structure. Secondly the other problem is fading out in games, and I'm not sure that two players would change this overall team ethic. Thoroughly enjoyed the walloping yesterday but I hope to see a lot of improvement over the coming weeks as I think these structural deficiencies shouldn't be fundamentally impossible to improve upon. Go Dees!!!!!

I would like to have thought that Beamer would have agreed to do the press conference, even volunteered rather than being forced. He was supposed to do one that morning to talk about the game and obviously this would have been difficult with a huge hangover.. Anyway, I don't think anyone loves this club more than Brent Moloney and I reckon he would already have decided taht what he did was bad for the club and be furious at himself. I think this will push him to be more responsible and whether its a large problem or a once off issue, control himself in order to get his VC back.

I understand that patience is a virtue and that it is wise at this stage to remember that our side is still young and developing. However I feel too often on these boards fellow demons supporters are jumped on for what are emotional, passionate responses to bad performances. I find it frustrating that if our team loses and someone gets upset they are told off for being "stupid" or told to go "barrack for Collingwood". As i have already stated I understand the process element of football and I am aware of where we are at.... However, this is not why I have passionately followed footy, more particularly the MFC, my whole life. Last time I checked football is a sport, and I don't watch sport for development of process. If I wanted that I could get involved in mathematics, engineering, computer programming and have a far more enjoyable time watching developing plans come to fruition. Don't get me wrong I love footy stories and watching young players bloom into great footballers. But this is not the main reason I love the game. The main reason I watch football is I believe our sport is unpredictable, when two teams of 22 blokes trained to play this great game go out to do battle I believe anything can happen, for better or worse. So to make the sport enjoyable to me I like to believe MFC can win any time, and I go into every game believing this. Every season I hope against hope we will win a premiership, whether we are in a window or not, and the reality is funny things happen in sport, even at the highest level. Who would have predicted our win against Freo during the dark years, or the two point win over Brisbane? Who thought the Hawks would win in 2008 or the Dees make the GF in 2000? Yes often the favourite wins and pundits theories stand up and the predicted teams do well, but not always... And this is the thrill and joy of sport. In fact I think it is the point of sport. I do love to remain grounded with the theories and strategies we all believe the club is implementing for out future and I love the seemingly sane posts delivered when all seems lost pointing out statistics and experience factors I may not have considered. However, lets not be too quick to jump on those who get a bit overly passionate in the face of dissapointment, yes its awful when people bag the club or lose faith after a terrible loss, however aren't they merely getting burnt doing what all sports fans should do? Hoping against hope their team will win.

Chook, this is a great point, however as of now we have yet to see a direct link between these rules and player speed decreasing. In fact it has increased in spite of most of these rules. As the game has sped up so have players as more athletes capable of high speed running etc have come into the game and become a necessary part of team strategy. Also It seems a logical thing to assume that if we slow blokes down impact injuries will decrease. But I believe it may be the case that impact injuries tend to be unlucky, or the result of players being unable to protect themselves in awkward positions, hence hard (near impossible) to control or prevent. There are so many instances of high speed contact in our game which do not lead to injuries that it tends to be bad luck, or one or many players being out of position, rather than constant high speed that accounts for the worst of these injuries. The sub rule may be the one rule which has resulted in more fatigue and slowed the game down towards the end of quarters. However, I for one am not sure if the sub rule (or the other rules) will stop impact injuries as suggested as I would think that players being more tired would lead to them being more prone to get themselves in awkward positions where they can not fall as safely or protect themselves from negative impact. Finally it is worth mentioning that having one completely fresh player coming on in the final quarter and bashing into blokes is probably equally as likely to cause high speed incidents as having a few more rotations is... if not more so.

If the AFL wants the game to be slower why don't they scrap some of the rules introduced to make the game faster in the last couple of years? Immediate kick ins. No dragging the ball in. Players decide advantage. The advantage rule. Suggested rules against kicking backwards, the rushed behind rule... the list goes on. The idea behind almost all of these rules is to keep play continuous and fast moving, avoiding congestion, stop plays, ball ups.. Yet the AFL says the sub rule needs to slow the game down to prevent injuries. I understand the logic however I think the AFL is reaping the effect of what they sow having made the game faster. Maybe if the AFL ever admitted they were wrong and reviewed most of the changes over the last decade the sub rule wouldn't be nescessary...

Neither Jordie nor Scully would have made nine goals of difference, that was very close to our best 22 out there and they played horribly

take em all out on the track and [censored] them! see who survives...

Not good at all, it was almost a carbon copy of the pre-season game except Hawthorn played even better... We fell away, had no grit or determination and showed some signs that should seriously worry even the most steadfast believers in Bailey's plan, straight kicking made us look better than we were for 2 quarters. No one expects the dees to win every week, but we want it to happen, and no team will ever win with so few scoring shots and inside 50s...