Demon Dynasty

Put your kicking boots on WWS and get a pre season in and you never know!

While the AFL continues to manage and massage its own fixture to give its favoured teams a better chance at success and have in place a free agency system that allows a FA player to choose where he wishes to move to ie, from the lower ranked club ie, bottom 8 to go to a higher ranked team (say top 6 to 8) then expect to see the likes of Hawthorn, Sydney, Freo, West Coast & Geelong continuing to win premership after premiership. The MFC is an extraordinarily poor example of how to manage a club from 2007 to 2013 so shouldn't be used as a sample in any arguments like "hey this fixture/draft discussion does / doesn't apply to us look at how poorly we've recruited" etc. But even our horrible management/recruitment until then has been hamstrung with losses of very experienced players like Rivers and Chip to top 6 clubs that dont need any extra depth/ assistance. Same applies to the lower ranked clubs like the Doggies/Richmond/Saints. Can you imagine the difference a buddy would have made (if healthy) to a Doggies outfit last night!?? Difference between going deep into finals and not. I agree with Jnr, the competition really isnt close to fair and isnt worth watching anymore unless you're happy seeing the same core group of clubs in Prelims & GFs every year with fairly predictable results....boring. Might get an occasional surprise cameo from an interstater once in a wile as they have huge followings (or the Pies/Tiges here for similar reasons) but they will quickly drop back to mediocre as free agency sees the top clubs "top up" every year with players at their peak looking to finish their career with some silverware. Tuning over to more NFL and in particular the 49ers from here. And not just because of Jarryd...but he helps! (if he gets a gig!)

Trouble is WYL for decades this club has often extended contracts on many of these types of players for just being, what would be considered by most top 8 or 10 clubs, a very good below average performer. Most other clubs would also have a number of these if you onioned your way through their lists over the years, the difference being that they probably would've been culled a lot earlier and the list of them wouldn't be as long as a fresh dunny roll like the one at the MFC

Anyone who beat the No.1 ranked player, Pendles, twice in the one season had to go close. Well deserved Mr. Vince

Wot the! O.o

Super stuff thx HH

When we stop losing to them, even as wooden spooners, they probably won't have as much to say LD

I very much doubt that. Why does Watts even get a mention in this thread. Amazing. This might inspire him, and others in the team, to reach greater heights.

I was thinking 2nd year - on the park! Given he hardly played a game in his 1st. Let's hope you are correct LD

That's nice....i remember Woey saying the same thing on a marketing snippet after he won the Brownlow. We then sold him up the river to the Pies a few years later. A lengthy contract extension would be better than any talk.

Simply sensational. Congratulations to him and all at the club who busted their butts to try and improve over the year and get plenty of ball to our Rising Star. We may not be consistently good at delivery i50 compared to the higher ranked clubs...yet. But we must have done something right! Most likely our conversion rate as we ranked a lowly 16th in both i50s and marks i50. Oh hang on....the Hulk! Ranked 6th of all current day players (and 13th vs all players past and present day from 1965 till now!) in goal kicking conversion with a whopping 69.84%! That's just above the greatest FF of all time, plugger, who finished on an amazing 69.74% in 16th place (rankings based on players who had, or have had, a minimum 50 scoring shots at goal throughout their career. Courtesy: afltables.com) Lets hope we can build some momentum out of this positive news and finally start stringing a few wins in a row together next year. Watching the Hulks progress is gonna be interesting. 2nd year is usually the toughest for most new blokes. Fingers crossed.

With the exception of Stevens, Armatige, Reiwoldt, Bruce and Billings I dont really rate the rest. Cant see them getting much higher than 10th or thereabouts and lower once Reiwoldt retires.

Not sure I'm that surprised or outraged TBH as we receive little recognition on anything anymore Picket but I was interested to see Pendles in there. Didnt think he had the greatest year but could be wrong as I dont watch Pies much outside of our matches. Mr. Vince beat him on both occasions.

Hogan is seriously going to leave after our 2nd flag?? Unforgivable !!

Quite possibly JR but the supporters aren't beholden to it (the AFL). If they schedule a similar match up with similar timing next year I doubt they would get anything other than another record low crowd. As long as they are happy to keep subsidising the loss (through further handouts) then you could well be correct. But I suspect a $250,000 loss on this match (as I heard someone claim on media) might get them sitting up and taking a bit more notice than something like 2/5ths of that if we managed our 22k (approx) average. Crowds were down generally there in 2014/15 approx 15% vs the average also, suggesting it's still very much on the nose with other clubs' supporters also.

May have been played as a mid / forward and under instruction to hit the contested ball at HF front and square when the oportunity presented whilst also offering an outside option through the middle on the clearance or turnover. Having said that I could be totally wrong and you both may be right as I didnt particularly watch him closely during the match. Just saying, he may have been playing a role where he was asked to get free and provide these options mid & forward.

I agree Rjay. There might only be a few match ups that suit that also are mostly only capable of leading on a straight line most of time. Maybe Cloke!

Each to their own MW.He is a pre season or so behind them so not expecting instant miracles and not saying he is a champion in the making either. Just saying as a new prospect he looks as exciting to me as Gus & Salem. Emphasis on "propect" might help u calm your excitement a little. Lets see how he's tracking in a few years eh.If I was likening him to a Fyfe I could understand your hysteria

As exciting a prospect as Salem & Gus. Has decent leg speed and reads the play very well for a first year. 2nd efforts at this early stage also. Hogan is the spark that may finally light the fire thats been barely flickering for nearly a decade. We only played a mostly 2nds team on Sunday though so there's much work still to be done. Draft selections will be critical as always.

So both of you would prefer we have a super turn out to encourage the AFL to schedule more games for us at that drop kick of a stadium! Thank goodness the vast majority of our fans voted with their feet and had more sense. We are already losing the battle for the G as our home ground for the bulk of our home games and have the blues chomping at the bit to play more of their home games at the G also. Best result for the long term interests of the club. Hopefully that will put an end to anymore home games at that [censored] hole

im by no means suggesting he is a necessary inclusion OD hence the "if staying on" qualification. Probably should have said if he coninues on and is included in the 22 on match day. If we do the CHB only for mine.

Im not sure we often won after a loss NAA but I agree on the other 2 points. Need to win 2 in a row against teams outside the bottom 4/5 to begin with and then 3 at some point etc. Confidence to be gained/maintained after a few wins in a row which should assist with further wins. Sadly this (confidence after a win) went missing way too easily/often throughout this season.

Not the daughter stuie... possibly the Dr. though. Or someone close to him who is still involved at some official level. Maybe his bro Mark, who as you probably know already, was on the board at one point. Helped get the merger up and seem to recall he and turfy also backed the Szondy ticket that overthrew Diamond Joe. Not saying there's any truth to the FB stuff though. Possibly a red herring but also wouldn't surprise me if a trade was on the table or being mooted.

The fact that he can take a contested mark and kick the odd goal always helps when playing up forward. I would make the swap if he (Dawes) is staying on...Dawes to CHB. Most likely more effective at spoiling from behind and running straight lines off his opponent.