Demon_spurs

After watching the first three quarters of Sundays game again. listening to the commentary and reading this weeks papers, I understand the most vital problem the Dees have. Clean Hands......The amount of times I watched players fumble the ball was horrendous. This resulted in at least 2 or 3 goals to Footscray, it even resulted in 3 or 4 contentious umpiring decisions, whereas if we had handled the ball cleanly in the first place we would have been away and running. Secondly due to the lack of CLEAN HANDS at the moment the ball is not being delivered on cue to the runners, therefore resulting in less possessions, how do you develop a game plan when we are not handling the ball properly, players can't time their "receives" to allow for a fumble. Get the ball handling right and the game plan can be developed, So how do we get over this, The more pressure to deliver under pressure the less sure the handling will be. My solution would be to take the pressure off them....allow them a bit of freedom, tell them to play on at all costs with little consequence. Practice practice practice. Once we get the ball handling right the rest will fall into place. We don't desire the ball any less than other clubs..contrary to some commentators and journos, we're just at the wrong place at the wrong time due to fumbles..

The loss of show day

Can anybody remember back to the 'Defining Game" against the Eagles in the mid 90's ???? We went over there after much soul searching and won the game and turned our whole season around.....Seems to have some parallels with this week. Thats what i want to see on sat arvo !!!!

MY 2009 Scarf now adorns the bar inThe George iii hotel in Nth London !

I don't know why some people get so hung up about the bank cup, they are just practice matches, if we didn't have them then clubs would lobby to play practice matches against other AFL clubs like in the past. However........................... that said, I remember (starting to sound like Grandpa Simpson here) when the Dees won the 87 Night final (preseason comp) and I was over the moon. Cam Mooney said on radio that in 04 the cats wanted to win the Pre season comp sooo bad. So winning is good, experimenting is good as long as you give a yelp, people smile and put their hand in their pocket when a team wins. Good culture, get used to it in the next few years. Win the damn cup, beat Collingwood and send those over achieving morons back into their hole See I've blown my own argument Think I'll go for a lie down and a Bex now

I'm not happy there's no FOB sponsorship

Strangely enough it was his dropped mark and then fight to regain the ball against 2 opponents that set up the winning goal against Brisbane, I think he gets a rough deal on here, I think his biggest issue is consistency. He has an upside though cause I think he hates to be beaten.

Now I' m confused, either someones got into theage footy website similar to the fantastic "Magpies sucks" comment on AFL.com as they have Melb are playing on both Saturday and Sunday http://www.theage.com.au/afl It gets better they also have us playing at 5.30 am

Maybe they're waiting for PHil Scully to be avalable?

$50 bucks with my mate Melbourne to finish higher than Essendon, tis the silly season, I wanted to bet him $50 that Girly Hurley would be at GWS next year but he wouldn't be in it.

Lets just wait till the season begins...then maybe we might see who stands up and who falls over

I agree with your comments re Slug Jordan, in 1984 0r 5 (its a bit hazy now) I had the pleasure to meet him and his wife, over numerous cups of tea, he told me story after story. One of the things that impressed me the most was Mrs Jordan said she had to go as she was off to watch Bailey, Lovett and co in the reserves, such was the feeling among that group, that she would go to see them play, I don't think she even followed Melbourne, but she told me they were "her boys" and something special.

Looking back to 87 I can't remember having the same feeling of expectation that I having this year, in fact for the majority of the season we were just treading water, then we got a run on and hit September, confident and full of running. I believe there was 2 parts to this rise from the ashes. 1. Northey had installed an Us against Them mentality, he went on to do a similar thing at Richmond and got them to the finals too, 2. A group of players came through and grew up together, a lot has been said about Robbie playing but really he was almost a permanent forward and as history tells us it was his last season (although he had a brilliant finals series, the jury is out whether he would have got up for the Grand Final if we had made it), but it was a group of young blokes, Bailey, Yeats, Lovett, Rugolo , Eishold,O'Dwyer, along with Stynes & Wight, none of these guys were household names....It feels very similar this year I just feel it in "me bones"

It's interesting that the 25th Anniversary of Season 1987 comes up in 2012. After finishing 2nd bottom in 1986 John Swooper Northey took the Dees to their best season in 23 years. All those that are old enough would remember the euphoria of the final round when we snuck into the final five, after beating Footscray, and Hawthorn beating Geelong by 3pts. I salvaged two posters from the front of a newsagency in Hawthorn after the first final when Melbourne destroyed North by 118pts (not sure but I think this is still a record). The news agent guy thought I was crazy, but I'm rapt to recently found them and have just finished framing them, they bring back great memories I thought it might be a good time to share, The poster displayed is from "The Sun", I also have The Age one from the same day. This is the only time I have ever collected this type memorabilia, I don't think they have them in the wire frames like they used to. Lets hope in 2012 we can go just that one better.

I was at training earlier this week and Neeld and Choco continually directed the ball to be delivered via JB, I think Neeld has big plans for him, could be that he will prosper with a clearly defined role, contrary to the past where he has floated forward and back. I think he will continue to improve as a lot of players do between 50 -100 games.

I was listening to SEN this morning they had an interview with Luke Power, when asked about T$ he slipped with , "if he can get his body right" and then changed the subject really quickly, I reckon he's was overlooked for the captain due to dodgy knee etc etc.

I also dropped in today. This was the first time I have actually been to training so it was all new to me. I'll see if I can add to trenners report without repeating what has already been written. The full ground drill as stated seemed to be focused on bringing the ball out of the backline, with quick transistion around the boundary, not much up the middle except a kick-out from CM which went straight to the opposing team (boy is he struggling ATM). Garlo seemed to be the main focus in delivering the first or second disposal up the field, with Choco shouting for the play to start with him on most occasions. Bennell constantly played the link man and did little wrong in swirly conditions. The midfield stayed up the field and constantly Jones beat several players and delivered well by foot. After the initial drill the play was stopped and players were called in given instructions and sent out again, this happened about 5 times in about an hour. (I like this as the drill seemed to get better and better and produced several end to end plays). Jordie and JV ran 300m sprints as suggested, but I was amazed at the speed and recovery of Jordie, Jack wasn't far behind but seemed to be blowing a bit harder (this is to be expected). No sign of Aaron Davey (not sure whats going on there)

C -trengove - grimes vc moloney lg rivers clark jones frawley

Because the other bloke (T$) left, gotta have someone to bag otherwise we won't be happy (see Tall Poppy)

Ah Mrs Bannister, didn't I see you on the stairs

He left the club with his head held high and his feet held higher.....Neddy Seagoon

Pets Paradise stores, publicly state on their premises that they don't support Puppy farms, I don't know how much credence we can give a sign in the window, but I have not seen any evidence to the contrary!

I worked with Rod for about a year, one of life's true gentlemen, went on to be a recruiter for the dees, tells a great story of sitting with Jimmy in the stands of the MCG when Jim first came to MFC and explaining that we didn't actually own the ground but got to play there every second week.

Point 1. the Demon shop on Brunton ave misses the majority of fans that stream in to the MCG from gates 6 to 1. I get off the train at Richmond and walk to Gate 5, there's no exposure of our merchandise except for the tent selling a small range of stuff, I think the club is missing a great opportunity to sell. Point 2. Had a look at the merchandise on sale and its very disappointing, retro sweats with that crumby Demon, with round eyes, and the new polo that Mitch Clark is modelling I thought it was the MCC not the MFC . Needs some savvy marketing people to put both these things right. Otherwise we are accepting mediocrity again.

My selection Darren Cuthbertson, kicked 20 odd goals in 3 weeks, never saw him again.