Jaded No More

For every unsuccessful mid-table pick that we've had, we've also had absolute gems with late and rookie picks... Davey, Martin, Garland, Warnock, Jamar, some dud by the name of Liam Jurrah The key for us since 2007 has been drafting best-available early on, thus minimizing greatly the risk of wasted picks (hello Luke Molan) and then taking risks on later picks and choosing players based on X factor and potential. In the space of 3 drafts we have virtually built a future premiership side, so it really doesn't surprise me we came out top in that analysis. Of course all this means nothing if we can't convert the talent that is there on paper into something tangible on the field, and this is I think where other clubs have excelled while we've struggled in previous years.

If I am back on my feet by then, I might take my little cousins. It's time to start the brain washing in a much more serious way, now that they're 2 and 5, and the Luna Park idea might just be the perfect bribery

Not soft tissue, but a fractured patella like Scully. I have sympathy injuries! Had a look at my car today, and stickers are still looking brand new, despite my car sitting in the sun with them for over a month. I must have gotten a good batch.

I haven't been in or near my car in over a month, due to injury, so I haven't noticed if mine have faded, but the stickers on our other car appear fine. Still, you'd think the bloody factory which has made that same mistake over and over, would learn to check the quality of their products, instead of spending unnecessary money reprinting stickers every year. Good to see the club being proactive and sending out replacements and notifying members.

And today's 2km time trial results....

An interesting hypothetical... would Mooney outperform Miller if he played for Melbourne? Would Miller be a better player if he played for Geelong? It seems like these days you don't need more than one star forward in your team, as long as the rest of your forwardline is of good to average quality. Miller doesn't need to be a star to play a vital role in the side, if Watts and Jurrah develop as we expect them to.

Our injury list at the moment is not at all woeful, and people need to stop pressing the panic button already. For starters, Aussie and Davey won't miss a huge amount of training as a result of soft tissue injuries and it won't hurt their availability come Round 1. We know Aussie did a hammy, but was burning up the track beforehand, and Davey suffering those types of injuries after a big training load is hardly shocking or unusual. It also sounds like Bate and Jamar will be right to go in the season proper, which is the only thing that matters. Of the others, Garland's news are very positive. He is running and back on track and if it takes another 3 months or 6 months for him to shake off this horrible injury forever, than so be it. Short term pain and all that. It took Grimes over a year to fix his stress fractures, and I expect Garland to be much the same. If he plays 16+ games this year without any soreness or complications it will be a huge win and great progress. Meesen and PJ do not play a vital role in our side and are the only long term injuries at the moment, which means our list is in pretty good shape. And besides, I welcome the chance to give other players the chance to take over the ruck duties, given Meesen is a rookie who has shown little and PJ has plenty of deficiencies. Oh and Spencer has been ill, he isn't injured, which is unfortunate but unavoidable.. The proper season gets underway in 2 months. That's a whole 8 weeks, which is a huge amount of healing time for various soft tissues, viral and structural injuries. Lets re-assess post NAB Cup and see where we stand.

On the bottom right hand corner of each post, next to the reply button, there appears to be a Multiquote Button, which turns green when pressed. If you press this to 'activate' each of the responses you want to reply to, then press the Add Replay at the bottom of the page, all the posts will then appear as quotes in your post screen, and you can then reply to multiple people in the same post.

I ALWAYS suck at these, so I made a few bold predictions... 2010 Ladder position and record: 13th (7 wins, 15 losses) B & F Winner: Colin Sylvia Most Brownlow Votes: Aaron Davey Most Rising Star Votes: Jack Trengove Most Improved: Jack Grimes Our 5 most important players at the end of the season will be: Garland, Grimes, Jurrah, Davey, Sylvia 2010 Premier: St Kilda *shudder* Wooden Spoon: Port Adelaide Brownlow: Joel Selwood Coleman: Fevola

I was told it would take me about 6 months before I have 100% mobility in my knee. Of course I'm no footballer and nobody is paying me to have 3 physio sessions a day

I had no idea Scully had a fractured patella. I notice a few people were commenting on his kicking at training, but given I'm in the midst of recovering from the same injury, it will definitely take him some time to get back into the swing of things. After just 2 weeks I have lost a huge amount of muscle mass and can't lift or bend my leg at all. It's a painfully slow recovery process.

Thanks all for the updates. From those photos, we finally look like a team of men, as opposed to a team of kindergarten children. Obviously a lot of the boys have been working hard on their bodies, which is great to see, and not an ounce of puppy fat on any of the new kids either. In fact, someone has to help Tapscott find his neck. Dear god he's enormous!

Great news. The last thing we need going into 2010, is a coach under contract pressure and speculations. Stability aids success.

Fluff piece to read with your morning coffee. To say it's our time to fire up is ludicrous. More like time to start slowly climbing up the ladder.

Took the words right out of my mouth. Very heartening to read about his dedication and the way he persevered to overcome a debilitating injury (wish he'd lend me some patience!). As some would say around here, we've been kissed on the dick with this kid!

Agreed. He looks less like a pre-pubescent girl with a buzz cut. The long hair just makes him that much prettier. He should watch out for Lovett when we play St Kilda

yeah he totally looks 17 now!

I actually love tennis, so I'm happy about that. I'll probably end up going back into the office or working from home in a couple of weeks, but certainly if the pain is keeping me up at night I'll do some reviews while high on drugs. Should make for some entertaining reading

Yeah I'm feeling very very sorry for myself, don't you worry about that. This is by far the worst pain I have ever experienced, and I've had some pretty nasty broken bones before. On the other hand I have lots and lots of old Melbourne games, which I'll watch from the discomfort of my bed. I wonder if morphine makes our players look better or worse...

I was meant to go to Thailand today, and stupidly fell on my knee last night (it was just a silly trip, nothing unusual) and broke the knee cap in half. 2 weeks of complete bed rest, plus another 4 weeks in the brace. Hoping it heals well or else I may need to get some pins or something inserted. Needless to say my beach-side cocktails have been replaced by bed-side morphine. F'ing awesome! :angry: Thankfully I have great friends who will come keep me company and my dad is on holidays so he's my nurse on call.

While I'm no fan of cricket, I am going to be bed bound for the next 2-6 weeks with a broken knee cap, so thank goodness for cricket!!!

Happy New Year to all Demonlanders! It's taken me this long to recover, so apologies for the delay.

Demonland needs a 'like' button!

Cheers. We're not staying at that resort, but no doubt we're not too far away. Hopefully I'll find it, and if I do I might take a few photos and post them up on Demonland as a permanent reminder of the good that has come from the tragic passing of Troy.

Saw Jack tonight and am happy to report that he seemed happy and healthy from where I was sitting. Fear not, he is alright! :D