Demon Dynasty

HELLO DEMONOIDS!

An absolute crackerjack here. I would rank him alongside Viney in the top 5 picks in the draft. I'm going out on a limb here. I feel we've got ourselves 2 ready made A graders (with a few pre seasons of course) and a potential top 4 finals quality duo here in Kent and Viney (subject to major injury issues....touch wood).

With Toumpas as a running outside link with class delivery inside to the mids (off half back) and delivering decent i50s (a la Burgoyne) when pushing forward, i think we'll be playing bottom 8 finals by 2014. Top 4 Finals birth by 2015 and a shot at the flag....on 2 conditions......

1. Neild can actually teach a base line minimum standard of decent AFL standard disposal skills

2. We find a class small forward who can feed off the tall forwards hard work and who can kick multiple goals and pressure/tackle well going the other way.

I think we still people that can play the role of outside midfielders, Blease, Sylvia,Watts,Bail,Barry,Howe,Morton,Bennell,but I would love another experienced 100 game plus outside mid.

Our backs are fine with Frawley,McDonald,Garland,Sellar,Grimes etc.

Forwards now looking great with Clark,Dawes,Byrnes,Hogan

Inside mids very healthy now with Jones Viney Mckenzie Trengove and possibly Wines.

Rucks also strong with Jamar,Gawny, Fitzpatrick and Spencer.

So the final piece for mine is that experienced runner, who can deliver a pass on the chest of our forwards.

Like the optimism DZ.

Just a couple of points and not directed at you...just saying in general...

Byrnes:: An unknown quantity in terms of impact on the game and the team at this point as he hasn't been a regular contributor to Geelong's team for some time.

Hogan: A nice potential clunker but we have no idea till we see him in action and that's at least 2014

Jones/McKenzie/Trengove (and i would add Magner/Grimes as occasional mids): are all reasonable ball getters/contest cloggers but not necessarily great at distributing the ball around to our advantage very effectively and often enough at this point. Viney is the unknown here but looks exciting at least. So for me the mid field is still looking very shakey.

Jamar,Gawny, Fitzpatrick and Spencer: I'm not sure any of these, in particular Fitzpatrick, are capable of impacting a game in our favour at this point. Possibly Jamar when on song. I would happily trade/delist Fitzy (if required) in order to hold/develop Martin for one more year just to see what he has to offer (on ball ruckwork/following only) prior to making a decision to hold or trade next year. Adding Clark, Dawes and eventually even Hogan into the mix and our list is starting to look much too top heavy in the tall dept i think.

I agree we need a quality outside runner with delivery skills a la Burgoyne or Jetta to run the lines and offer some quality delivery to our twin tower forward line. This might be Barry once he's settled in and built himself up a litte over the next pre season or 2, but until then Blease and Nicho (to a lesser degree) look like the main quality line breakers at this point (from HB and Mid, occasionaly drifting forward), so we have to hope they all have solid pre seasons and that they can step up.

By the way, if i had anything to do with the FD (and i don't i realise) i wouldn't have Barry anywhere near Davey at this point given the mind set Davey had during this season, which IMO was far from professional and certainly not acceptable at this level.

Old dee will come around I am sure of it. He will come around and embrace the MFC Blasers and recognise the relevance of our steep tradition. In fact, I reckon old dee himself would look great in one.

I suggest we get a replica made and present it to old dee as a sign of everything unity. Old dee can be a symbol of a unified club; a representative of old and new.

And like Sydney's famous supporter who gets to kick off their song after games in the circle of trust (winning culture). We can have old dee in the middle kicking off MFC songs after our wins among the players each and every week with his new blaser on. As proud as punch he will be.

Well thanks for the offer H_T

However it will be a black day in hell when I wear one of those god awful Blazers.

I doubt there are many more loyal than yours truly

But I don't see that loyalty means you cannot criticize some thing you see as wrong.

You know my reasons for disliking the blazers.

I will be there till the end of me or the club.

Any how thanks for the thought but don't waste your money then again as RN suggests it could useful for a ceremonial burner at some future point.

Actually i reckon HT is being a little tongue in cheek here OD so you're pretty safe lol.

I just had a thought.... if we hold that ceremonial "Burning of the Blazers", we'll then have some ashes left over yeh!!??

We can then bottle em in an urn just as they did 130 years ago for the English tourists. We then hand over a copy of the urn (ashes), to one of the players each year. May i suggest to the MVP (or even the Demonland POTY!!! Handed over by the Demonland Admin/Mods!! What say you HT??), as voted by players themselves! I reckon they'd love the irony! Along with never having to see, let alone wear, those blazers again!

Well RN were would you like me to start.

Yes I know you don't have 4 hours.

It is a relic from 100 years ago

And represents every thing about the MFC that is anchored in a long gone era.

To everyone outside the MFC it represents our lack of relevance in 2012.

Hows that for a three line starter.

As you have no doubt guessed I hate the thing with a vengeance.

Ok. As per your usual great form, you've said it all right there very concisely lol.

May i suggest something? Maybe we could get a fund raiser going. We gather enough $, probably not much needed lol, and purchase all blazers off the MFC at an agreet to amount.

We then get together and conduct a ceremonial "Burning of the Blazers" at a place and time to be determined!!?? Maybe outside the G somewhere. I'm sure the MCC would approve!

What say you OD?

As long as it is not that bloody blazer Rusty

Heyy.... What's wrong with the blazer!? .... Actually....just ignore that. Could be a mighty long response!

The pre-match bugler?

Yep! Maybe we could get also make all players wear a similar green/red/blue combo corduroy jacket in the warm up! That's the spirit chaps! Tally ho & all that!

I went to the VFL on the weekend & the umpiring (or perhaps more aptly the way the umpires were allowed to officiate) was a much better standard. It was almost like watching a different sport.....

incorrect disposal was paid & there were no horrible rolling mauls.

.

2 great points Jimmi that are changing the face of this once great game. Throwing and the penalisation of throwing has always been a part of our game. However, i've never seen such a blatant change to one of the core aspects of our game, the hand ball, as i've seen this year.

Top players, and others in many of the top line teams are dileberately abusing the hand ball, effectively cheating, by continuing to throw, scoop and flick (2 handed with a trailing hand following in the direction of the throw to give the impression the ball has been fisted somehow.....in some circumstances it has but too few) the ball around when in tight congested contests and when under either real or perceived pressure, mostly in the rugby style rolling scrums you mention. However, when most players are in the clear, most of their hand balls, and i emphasise most not all, are legal as it's just too obvious to throw in the open and often the player would find it more effective to hand ball anyway in order to get the speed/accuracy/distance required to initiate an effective disposal.

Frees for throwing are up substantially this year but personaly the umpires are missing/overlooking (under instruction to allow the fast flowing game style the AFL cronies wish for!!??) way too many and too many players/teams are getting away with it far too often and in my opinion this is the difference in tight clashes between the teams/players that are perfecting it and those that aren't even aware of it or aren't presently abusing it (cheating). And from what i've seen the MFC is one of those clubs who aren't even attempting it at this point.

The experts, IMO..... Hawthorn, Collingwood and West Coast. Next on the rung but to a lessor extent, The Cats and The Bombres. I haven't seen enough of either Adelaide, Sydney or North Melbourne to say where they're at here.

I would go so far as to say the top teams/players are being trained in the art as they're becoming so adept at it! Whether under instruction from within their FD or not, i have no idea.

I realise skill levels are also comparatively and generally better in some of the top clubs versus the lessor ranked clubs but there's no doubt the game of AFL is changing before our very eyes into a flick/throwing style game with the hand ball slowly but surely becoming extinct at this rate.

I've been watching the game for decades now. But i've never looked at it in such poor light as i have this year. Slowly buit surely it's becoming unwatchable and the throw/scoop/flick as well as the rolling scrums are both playing a large part in this for me.

The hand ball is one instance where i would argue the regulators are either deliberitaly failing to regulate, inept at regulating or incapable or regulating effectively due to the nature/scramble of the rolling scrums.

Hope your happy today Rusty

GO DEES

Yeh. I was stoked mate.When i saw the ugly writing on the wall earlier in the year, all i asked was for Neeld & the Boys to either find a way to win before the half way mark of the season OR at the very least give us a never-say-die hard nosed contest for a full four quarters.

We got that plus some in the end eh. The boys were finally set loose and the mind set changed in a 50/50 situation so that WE were the ones hunting the ball instinctively for a change, instead of the defenisve mind set we saw for most of the previous 9 rounds where we were way too concsious of our opponent and what they were doing even when they didn't have the ball.

I managed to watch the first half again from last week. Tappy, Blease, Jones Boy, Moloney, McKenzie, Nicholson and even J McDonald (and others in cameos) showed amazing desparation (smothers/2nd efforts/blocks/shepards etc), hardness at the contest (lower in the contest in many cases....read Tappy!) and great tackling (even gang tackling at times) that ruffled the usual Bombres' arrogance and effectiveness in this area and upset their usual first posession/high effective first clearance % game.style. I'm also a realist. The rain and the Bombres poor disposal efficiency % / poor conversion around goals early helped us stay with them in that first half. But the second half was no fluke. Four quarters of desparate instinctive hard footy doesn't come by accident.

Lets hope the boys can bring that same intensity and desparation (and footy smarts in their decision making/choices) this week. Add the hard edge at the contest, numbers around the ball and a rock solid defense, i reckon we beat the pies today as well.

Cheers DP

P.S. We also saw great contributions/desparation and footy smarts from players we wouldn't have expected to see this from earlier in the year such as Sellar, Joel Mac and Morton. Things are turning and the hard work's finally starting to show some fruits. The injection of speed in Blease and Nicholson (speed/run & carry/ take opposition on/moving the ball quickly through b4 press can set up effectively and breaking lines) has made a huge difference as well (obviously). Oh, Rivers & Watts were also super down back. And i'm wrapped to see Garland finally out of defense. Hopefully he stays further up the field as he has a naturally attacking mindset not suited to playing a lock down roll down back IMO (maybe the odd week if needed yes....but not week in and out).

The only highlights for me this year (seriously) have been......

> The Banner the Cheer Squad put up on the Jim Stynes memorial day which was absolutely fab and made me proud.

> The smiles on some of the young faces of the "Reach" youth that were there on memorial day and the fun/laughter they were having.

> Mitch Clark

> The odd Howe screamer

> Going to the Casey game last week and enjoying a game of footy for the first time since the Bombers match at the G last year (where we won!) where we actually smacked the Box Hill Hawks at their home ground.

With a few exceptions (and i won't name names either negatively or positively as it won't matter....we just keep playing them), the bulk of our players at senior level are devoid of heart, spirit, fight, half decent talent, pace and disposal skills (easily the worst in the AFL). Basically everything you would expect from an 'average' AFL club. It's the same old same old every week (no pace. no pressure, in some cases half a dozen touches for a whole match for 2 to 3 players or more, no stars, shocking disposal skills, can't finish in front of goals etc), for almost 6 years now. There's a few odd highlights like Mitch taking a clunker, Howe the odd screamer and Jones never say die attitude. But apart from that we don't play anything like an AFL club/team, let alone one that plays for one another or for their jumper.

I'll be going to support Casey from here (whenever i can anyway) who play attacking/pretty hard contested footy and who give it their all every week. The atmosphere is fun too and reminds me of the old suburban footy i grew up watching at pie park/windy hill/princess park/the cattery etc. A little scrappy, wild and wooly ....but fun nonetheless.

The light's fading from this club very quickly gang. And unless Neeld can fire a beacon up its arse in the next 12 months it's hard to see us recovering even to the point of being an average AFL club, let alone one that's able to play finals football.

If the plan's not working week after week after week, you need to change it. And i can't see Neeld changing it this side of next year or maybe ever. Too stubborn and dour. We would need a HUGE personnel change over the next 3 years or so to become an average AFL club (not playing finals football) with this game style and mind set IMO.

Time to focus on other aspects of life now and let those who're getting paid (very well in most cases) to worry about it and try and fix the rot.

The only thing worth seeing was Howes mark of the year, and that happened on the opposite side of the ground, so we didn't even get to enjoy that!

I spent the second and third quarters mentally piecing together an email I would like to send to the club... if it is still in my head come tomorrow, I may write it.

I recall that happening at Shitihed Stadium a few years back. The only highlight for me and war office was a big mark over the pack to Newton. HOWE times haven't changed...

I spent all of 2 minutes thinking of what i would write the club after the first half...2 words.... [censored] and WEAK!

Herald Sun Back Page Tomorrow........

"Eddie denies rumor that Neeld is a secret agent!"

The progress is that Misson will get us up to AFL fitness standards and Neeld will demand his players become hard smart AFL Footballers.

Could you please wake me when that happens.....my number.... 666 666 666 666

Don't worry fellas.....we've got this!!

I don't agree. We know Kennedy is their best. McKenzie is doing an OK job of stopping him, so let that work. We need to find another way to stop Jack. McKenzie can't do it all himself. It's not a solution to just move McKenzie onto whoever is playing well at the time

Fair enough, but surely we could beam Macca up and get Spock to clone us another 1 or 2 pronto ???

Quick Neeldy.....Ring the changes! (Like sticking a finger or 2 in a major leak of the dyke me thinks haha)

Rubbish. Kennedy is far and away their best mid. He's in Brownlow winning form this year. Putting McKenzie on him makes perfect sense.

Jack is an average player at best. Kennedy is A-grade.

No i meant at the moment. He's tearing us one. So swap and put Magner on Kennedy maybe as a change up

Seems we're back to a "Bailey" type start....progress?

nope, McKenzie on Kennedy

Ok....well their best is obviously Jack, so put your best shut down man on him surely... not on Kennedy

Someone remind me why the [censored] I bother.

Magner. To Jack. Right now. Seriously.

McKenzie

Having both Bennell and Blease will maximise foot speed but they will have to win the ball.

Agree re foot speed for Blease & Bennell. Blease might win a bit of the ball. I doubt Bennell will get very far on getting it himself though. Hasn't shown he has that in him so far and no pressure going the other way that i've seen. Haven't seen enough of Blease to say whether he'll bring it. TIme will tell i guess.

Martin for Garland is crazy. Garland has been very good this year in a warzone. Martin cant play back or forward and cant hold marks.

We'll agree to disagree. All i can say is look a little closer. Garland's form/confidence/decision making/finish (when to go 3rd man up/when not to go etc) is well down atm. He might find something, not saying he's finished. Took a good look close up at Martin last week. Seemed to be running alot harder, more power through the legs and hips? Much cleaner than i've seen in a while. Good run, good evasive skills, nice finish. Something i haven't seen in Garland consistently other than when downhill skiing when the team's been winning in a canter. And i'm not suggesting Martin to replace him here as a permanent CHB for Garland. Just for the time being until we uncover someone who can or Garland is given time to find his form downstairs for a while . My personal view is that Martin is worth persevering with as a ruckman (2nd to Jamar) for now. Don't see him as remaining as a backman or forward at this point and he might not make it at all, even in the ruck. He did do a reasonable job last year as a temporary replacement for Jamar and IMO probably not much worse in terms of tapping to advantage, albeit Jamar may have him well covered in total number of hit outs. To be expected at this point given where they're at in their development/experience i would have thought though.

And although Dunn had 20+ possessions in the VFL he did not get selected. Given he has been in and out of the side this year, it would seem his candle of hope for his AFL career is flickering out. 8th season and he should be delisted at y/e. Dunn for Watts is backward step. And as you have claimed Watts has it and should be selected.

Agree that Dunn might not make it. Lets hope he can find something during the year to step up a level or so. However, at this point, he adds as much value at the contest as Watts IMO. So what i'm saying is....use Dunn as it's a neutral outcome for us return wise for this week or a few weeks at least until Watts has demonstrated he's got some mongrel for the contest/is willing to be accountable for his man (not leave him run amok when we don't have the ball). This is WATT bugs me about Watts. A seemingly scant disregard to do the hard work when he doesn't have the ball. Give Watts a little more taste of the VFL...might sound crazy but i reckon he needs to fully understand that he needs to step up in this regards in a big way before he just waltzes back in as if he's an auto return, it was just a matter of spending a little time down there. No biggy (attempt at younger generation's view of things lol). IMO this might be the difference and go SOME way towards helping to turn him from a solid developing attacking player only, to an all round solid player. Tackling, pressuring, blocking defensive work (etc) as well as all the classy offensive spread, run and lead up work (etc).

Not many more weeks. Maybe 2. Then up into the seniors to play defensive role on the game's best FFs for 6 to 8 weeks. A view i've expressed many times at length in the past.

But arrogant?? Watts is more crash and bash than arrogant. He isnt crash and bash

Arrogant, cocky, call it what you will. We'll agree to disagree. Watch very carefully. He has that sort of strut about him that suggests (in my mind) the old line someone bandied out on here infamously "Don't worry, i've got this....get outta my way boys". Hope he always has this attitude. Unfortunately he doesn't have the big frame/power thru the bod (yet) and all out attack (defensively/offensively) that say a Clark brings at this point to go with the attitude. Hopefully he'll take that side to a much higher level in the next 12 months or so. Fingers crossed and looking forward to seeing him come on and prove all the critics wrong.

I must be looking at a different game to you Rusty but.....

Jurrah in the middle does not address the midfield problems. He lacks fitness, contested ball winning skills and accountability. Jurrah's class is in finishing and one on one contests not contested scraps.

Although I recognise that our midfield lacks class at times, and we also need one player with super pace, our problem is not in the players on the park. Look at Sydney's 22 and man-by-man we match them. It is the team football we play. Our forward spread and teamwork around stoppages is sub-par. If and when we start to get this right we will beat sides like Sydney, Richmond, Bulldogs etc...

RR you're looking at the response i made to Maldon boy without looking at what i highlighted in red with regard to me selecting particular aspects of comments Maldon was making when responding to him. Please see Maldon Boy's comments that i was referring to in red highlighted above which relate to HIS mention of us needing pace, run and spread. That's what i was pointing to in terms of Jurrah being added to the mid as an outside mid. Not an inside mid that you're claiming is the role i'm claiming he should be playing. Definitely wasn't saying he should be going in and under for scraps. Some contested stuff sure as you would expect when it's any player's turn to go hopefully he'll go and that he seems to be built a little stronger than i recall at the contest. Doesn't mean i'd want him under the packs all day.

I agree he probably isn't match fit to last a whole AFL game atm. So we're in agreement on that (See bolded section from my earlier post below). So not sure why the contrary nature of your thread on that. I also agree he's a much needed finisher. Both when bringing the ball into our forward line, and using it when i50.

....."Jurrah into the middle goes some way towards solving this once he's fully (AFL) match fit and may help solve it this week for say half a match or a little longer at least. Stronger at the contest and bigger than when i last saw him but still has the sublime skills and pace. Occasionaly pushing up forward for the odd assist and crumb."

Cheers

Although I recognise that our midfield lacks class at times, and we also need one player with super pace, our problem is not in the players on the park. Look at Sydney's 22 and man-by-man we match them. It is the team football we play. Our forward spread and teamwork around stoppages is sub-par. If and when we start to get this right we will beat sides like Sydney, Richmond, Bulldogs etc...

Jurrah into the middle goes some way towards solving this once he's fully (AFL) match fit and may help solve it this week for say half a match or a little longer at least. Stronger at the contest and bigger than when i last saw him but still has the sublime skills and pace. Occasionaly pushing up forward for the odd assist and crumb.

I am a bit surprised to Bennell holding his place but maybe the coach saw something I didn't, or was looking for different things.

No he didn't see anything you didn't. He's still dazed from the under performance and not thinking straight. Tappy in for Bennell solves the "no contested possessions/no intensity/pressure at the ball and carrier issue" that Bennell fails to bring.

My other Changes.

Garland out for Martin. Martin had run, some intensity, composure and even some decent finishing skills that i saw last week. Seems stronger through the bod on his return too. Garland was deplorable in the 2nd quarter (that quarter being the critical turning point for us) of last week. Totally out of form and confidence atm. Needs a break downstairs IMO.

Dunn in before Watts. Dunn added some strong run off HB, got to many contests and i saw some reasonable heavy work in the packs as well as strong contested stuff too including tackles. Something that Watts is yet to deliver on. Dunn also on the outside last week and his long kicking to advantage helped in the win. Deserved a place ahead of Watts and would have allowed Watts to continue to find his mojo/mongrel/intensity at the contest at VFL level, although i guess Neeld is thinking of the time out in coming weeks given no VFL available. Fair enough.

I think I've finally worked out what that "something" is about Watts that e'ones been on about too. Laconical, lethargical, Casual are some of the descriptions i've seen bandied about (maybe by me lol). It's not till you see him close up and i've seen it before but not too often at the MFC. It's arrogance IMO. And i haven't seen that down at the Demon den since Garry/Jakovich were strutting their stuff. So we got a potential Garry in our midst, or hopefully a Dermie if he finds his grunt (Watts has the strutt). Just give him time to find the mojo and build a bigger bod and we're in for something special i reckon! Hopefully he finds a little of it this week. Still a pre-season away from making a big impact though i think.

Strong ties might see Cloke heading to the Demons for reasons other than just $$.....

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/dogs-demons-in-hunt-for-cloke-20120516-1yrl8.html

Mods.... If this has already been posted please delete

That could be what we're doing. Inflate Clokes contract as much as possible and see who gets squeezed out

If Cloke isn't a serious play for us in a $ sense, i can only hope you're right here Stuie.

I've been waiting for decades to see this club get bloody ruthless both on and off the field in all areas.

We ran all over them with our light frames in the last quarter and they just moved aside .WTF is Dave Misson doing? We need weights and food and repeat .

I'm with ya Biff. But I'm willing to give him one more pre-season. I reckon many of the boys have come off such a low base. And some may not wanna go or just aren't capable of going where Neeld/Misson are asking from them on the strength/power side. Pure speculation but i'm sure there'll be some fall out at the end of season. This is a huge sorting year for Neeld and Co. before moving on with a core group of real goers from next season on, with trades/purchases to fill the gaping holes thereafter.

I'm sticking with my view that we'll start being very competitive with ladder positions 6 and below (ie., beating them about 50% of the time or more depending on ladder position) from about half way through next season.

However, this view is subject to the Misson factor kicking in from early next season, a solid trade/draft outcome as well as a massive improvement in skill/disposal/intelligence (read footy smarts) levels across the board from the 'AFL's worst practice' that we're witnessing from too many atm. On the latter (skill levels etc), i'll have to see it before i'll believe it as it's just so poor atm.