Demon Dynasty

The Weagles were flat track bullies on home turf last season. Horrible away. Hopefully we can become very good at one of those!!

He has flown under the radar doing that for years now.

The Spencil!

Will Tom ever improve his short passing skills i wonder. He is better off handing off or bombing it long IMO. He is not alone tonight but he just doesn't seem to improve in this basic, but much needed, skill set required in today's game.

Pedders is also ahead of Garland and can play at both ends of the ground. A no brainer for mine. Garland must have shares with sum big knobs in Collins St

I fear the last 2 might happen regardless BBP

They're nice looking comparisons Lucifer but i feel we are at least 1 QUICK silky player short, both on the outside and inside. We are tough and solid on the extraction side no doubt about it and should win our fair share of games by winning the clearance count substantially. And will. But silky and quick on the inside/outside by foot is what we still lack a little IMO ...subject to some of the youngsters stepping up who 'might' fill these roles. Need more accuracy by foot hitting targets on lead and kicking a few extra goals on the run (or from marks i50). Forcing the opposition to use valuable resources covering these players in their match ups instead of us covering their's. The exisiting seniors, maybe Lewis excluded as i haven't watched his finish closely enough over the years, still tend to bomb the ball a little too often coming i50. I felt last year we were knocking on the door of the top 6 mid fields but we'll need to see a big step up by Trac (very likely but he will also be used a fair amount up forward), Clarry (silky by hand....maybe not so with feet...yet), Gus (??) and Salem (more likely than Gus but no g'tee) if we're to solidify this progress or improve on it. We know what we're going to get from the likes of the Jones boy, Iron Mike, Lewis, Viney and occasionaly Mr Vince when he gets a run there. What will be interesting will be the degree of development of the youngsters. To see how far they've come or might go as the year progresses. It's these youngsters and the addition of Lewis that will probably determine the fortunes of our mid field and our likelihood of playing finals and possible success in them, this year and beyond. P.S. I nearly forgot JW. He might also be asked to play a significant and important role through here this year. Could this be what Goody is hoping to groom from him as a bonus addition to our mid field stocks i wonder? The Silk on the outside coming i50 on a more regular basis than last year? The missing ingredient! With Trac and Salem also playing decent roles in this area on rotation.

Very little Saty as the media (and some others) expectations of those 3 aren't nearly as high. Hopefully Jack will let his footy do the talking. On a good day he is top 10 material (at least last season he was anyway). Maybe the FD want him to step up a little further again and think he has something more to give. He might be meeting some really solid KPIs that are the equivalent of many in the team. Maybe he is demanding more of himself and asking the FD to enforce it? All speculation of course.

Stop talking so much sense SWY. I hope this is the case as I don't think Weids is quite ready for the big league just yet either. Probably just super priming Watts to have a big impact early. Would also like to see Tim Smith get a run as soon as we can get him in there if he has the tank. Too good to be on a rookie list. A better prospect than Joel Smith IMO (albeit they play a completely diff role I realise but both rookies) and well ahead of Weids at present. Would bolster our goal scoring options. Super accurate, very hard to match up on and a good mark on the lead.

A good dose of reality never hurt anyone ? ????

Thanks for the link Trisul ????

Stop reading my diary SWY

Is he our potential Burgoyne?

Where was that SWY?

I will make a deal with you OD. If we beat the Aints at Shitihad first up i will literally find a decent sized dark lid and lob it somewhere down the street here and join you in casting away that nasty pall of our recent past. Mind you i will probably wait till night time or someone might just fling it straight back at me! Most likely that bloody Hawthorn neighbour of mine. After that i will also need to head to the Box Hill RSL for a few pints of Stone & Wood to assist in my gradual rehabilitation

I must be taking longer to thaw out OD. The period of horror i think you are referring to felt more like an ice age from where i was sitting!

Can we close this thread quickly and delete please mods! I would hate for an AFL rep to trip over this and see that we're pretty pleased with a clash strip for the first time and that common sense has finally prevailed!

Demonised, returning OD's lid would seem to be the neighbourly thing to do yes? It might also assist in returning D'land to some kind of normality!

Saty?

I hear you OD. As long as we don't end up 9th with those 13 wins i'll be pretty pleased with that result P.S. ...but by no means satisfied

I would be happy if i see just one Watts up there in the final JLT hit out Skuit!

That's a rediculous statement Macca. There's no need for an email. Goody would be all over this site On the look out for some finer points within all the amazing posts. Never underestimate the power of a solid D'land thread sir!

I didn't see yesterday's match but I do recall a few examples of this last year Steve. One in particular where he played on unnecessarily from HB southern side of the G, then suddenly decided to switch for no apparent advantage that I could see (almost like he was on Auto 'must switch no matter what' pilot), missed a relatively easy target who was leading into space to try and provide the option (after he saw him switch!). His mis kick was easily intercepted and the opposition ran into an easy goal and the crowd went nutso. I have a feeling we were holding our own (in general play / confidence) to that point. When it happened I seem to recall it gave the opposition a massive boost and kick started their confidence a little and deflated ours somewhat. Was pretty early in the match also. Bombers maybe? A great athlete and solid spoiler/defender but running off your defender isn't going to help much and will leave you very exposed the other way if you struggle to hit targets often enough or choose the wrong time to do so putting yourself and team mates around you under uneccesary pressure as you say. If he hasn't started to reduce these type of brain fades and poor skill executions by now I would be getting pretty concerned if I was on the coaching side. Hopefully he has improved in this area on last year. If so then he may even snag an All Australian guernsey. Massive potential upside if he gets it right more often here.

I hope I don't have to throw that lid back over your fence this year OD .... I can say I am finally a bit optimistic and looking forward to a season for the first time in probably 10 years though. That's probably as good as it gets for me. If we get anywhere near your prediction then I reckon you might be right and I certainly won't complain if I need to make a few extra visits to Dan's. I just hope there's nothing ugly under the lid when I fully open it. You never know when a deadly floater might surprise as a Demon die hard

Hello Mr D. I thought it was worth enquiring! Even 5 JWs last night didn't get me as optimistic as Punt ? Paying a small price this morning however ?