Demon Dynasty

Over the next few weeks I will be working on a new banner for the site.

Nice work on the Trenners switch.

Cheers

A lot of what Demetriou said about the raid on Tom Scully was disingenuous and misleading. Here's an example:-

He is quoted by Grant Baker in this article - Teams made poaching rules: AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou as saying that the movement of high-profile players early in their careers had been happening for a long time.

"It's not new, it's not the first time this has happened," he said. "We've got short memoires. Jeff White was the No.1 draft pick and came back to Melbourne after one year."

In fact, White was at Fremantle for three seasons playing 32 games for 18 goals. White wanted to come home and when he was traded to Melbourne, the Demons competed for his services on a level playing field against other clubs that operated under a similar salary cap.

Moreover, the Dockers received selection # 2 in the national draft (which was uncompromised) as well as an upgrade of an early second round pick. Fremantle traded the second pick to Richmond which used it on Brad Ottens.

In its wisdom the AFL then decided this wasn't enough and awarded the Dockers another early first round draft pick in the following draft - pick #5 in the 1999 AFL national draft.

So Mr. Demetriou - if you think the Scully situation is analagous to that of White, why not come out and compensate Melbourne with like for like if Scully goes?

The article ends:

Demetriou has used Jeff White as the example (even if he was ignorant of the fact that White came home after three years, not one) so that should serve as a benchmark in considering the value of a young player originally selected at # 1. Picks 2 and 5 in the national draft and an upgrade to the second selection in the second round sound reasonable although given that the next draft is already heavily compromised its arguable that he could do even better and make the first selection # 1.

But please do not humour us by offering a mid and a late first round pick!

Lets hope the Fat Controller has been given a history lesson since then. And we make sure we hold the AFL to account when they try to spin this twisted BS into our compensation negotiations.

Still a great post Bean.

Thanks

Get Rid of Scully NOW please! Jack Trengove will fit nicely thanks

You got your wish Daz!

The Demonland crew are Photoshopping Trenners in there to fill in $cully's blank silhouette as we write!

Only for you.

Far from it.

MFC just removed Scully's player profile. Other's, even at the highest level, have interests and feelings here too.

EDIT: Also just noticed, he's been removed from the Demonland banner. You been Photoshoping this morning RR?

Disagree. Why give Scully any significance for his brief and inglorious stint at MFC. We gave his brand value by choosing to take him #1, then Bailey put a valuable 2 years of training & teaching into the young player. He repaid us very little, and I suspect was a very incohesive influence all year by his refusal to announce his intentions. Barassi's jumper was far too good for him.

My point is retire the jumper. It's now linked in infamy with big name players walking out on the club. And no Scully is not a proven player....yet. But he was/is a big name in the game regardless of his youth. My point isn't 'Scully' as such.

IMO it's cursed and should be retired.

It never did.

Extreme hyperbole in the light of the facts.

Just give it to a kid and move on and sweat the serious stuff.

Not until now i agree.

Things have changed as of this morning mate.

Speaking of changes....shouldn't you be out there looking around for a new profile pic?

That is to give Tom Scully an importance at the MFC he doesn't want and doesn't deserve.

He played 31 games FCS.

There's that number again

Well said.

I bet its a relief for our loyal players.

It's big $. As they say, money talks.....[censored] walks. I don't blame Scully. Right place right time.

But there's only one outcome that will make this a positive for the MFC...........

The MFC needs to go f*&@ing hard on the AFL to make sure this happens!!!

No - put the number in mothballs for a season or two. The whole Scully episode (if he does announce his GWS signing that now looms imminent) has placed a shadow over this famous jumper that should not be tolerated and never repeated. Sam Blease is a great footballer but he would feel like the second choice which is unfair so put no. 31 away until someonje has "earnt" it.

The No. 31 jumper is cursed. Personally i would retire it...... permanently. Never to see the light of day again.

1 very famous, and now one infamous player (from our club's point of view), have worn that jumper and turned their back on our great club and walked away.

It no longer holds any great honor IMO and i'd be more than happy if i never see that jumper running around on a MFC player's back ever again.

Nor should any player be burdened with it in future.

Now everyone take three deep breaths and calm down..

I just watched the video of all this HERE and I can't what all the fuss is about;

I don't know if he has signed and I am waiting I see him sitting down in front of a MFC or a GWS sponsors signs saying I have signed with [insert Club Here] before I start running him down...

It beggars belief that a top end business and/or professional club at the highest level takes a player PLUS his family on a guided fully paid tour of their interstate facilities, not having signed the deal (at least in principle).

If it was just him (and say his manager or a mentor).....maybe.

Get the pressers over and let the compensation negotiations begin!

PROF's score of 4/10 for 1976 is ridiculous ! That year, Dee supporters outnumbered the "faithful" in the Vic Park outer for the last game as the Pies collected their one and only Wooden Spoon. We won, of course, and only needed top team Carlton to defeat our only rival for the 5th spot in the then Final Five, Footscray. It was a draw and we missed by 2 points in what would have been our first finals appearance since our last premiership year !

Spot on.

One of the rare moments i can recall that we also out chanted them at their home ground! It was a hollow feeling in the end though as we'd missed out on finals.

I seem to recall the Pies supporters chanting something about the dogs towards the end of the game knowing that we would miss if the Bulldogs won.

Didn't the Pies also collect the spoon in 1999?

Thread deserves circus music

Yep. Or something completely different......

FFS: FFS this abbreviation annoys me Any other alternatives much appreciated.

FWIW: Is there a live market out there that puts a value on our comments/views?

Go get yourself a tea/Go lie down/Take a breather: Hang on, doesn't tea have caffeine in it which will keep me awake wanting to write more drivel which will annoy you even more? Lying down will probably ensure a nice rest, enabling me to think up more drivel and then i'll have more energy to write more stuff that you can't stand! Taking a breather should help to re-energise me and re charge my batteries .... allowing me to do same as previous Go Lie Down comment.

Cuts me to the 'flag' core: Haven't seen it used yet but i'm probably going to!

We should have seen this coming: Now that we can read the tea leaves....can someone with this amazing gift pleeeease use it to select our next premiership coach! Seriously, we need your help....things are pretty grim atm!

We butcher the ball: Probably damning and somewhat true of our team this year but i'm just sick of hearing it lol.

Get John Butcher: Ummm....yeh....well i'm pretty sure it ain't happening.

Get Fev: That ain't happening either.

Ain't: I use this way too often and the grammar police on here probably hate me for it. Actually they probably hate most of what i'm writing haha.

+1: Something i'm guilty of using a little too often...

This ^^ : Something Belze uses a little too often! Sorry Belze lol. And now i'm starting to as well. Thanks alot Belze!

Not sure about the Hun article, and with the Hun, my advice is to stick to the pictures.

Having said that, Cam Schwab and others at the club have made the point for a long time that, for conversion of supporters to members, we fare amongst the very best.

Our challenge is to grow our supporter base. That is why Casey is an important endeavour, as is China (at least in principle!).

Be better off targeting support from countries that have similar values to us and have English as there main or secondary language.

Countries who also play games of interest that we have an interest in.

Such as India and Sri Lanka who are into Cricket big time, like us, and already have many of the cricket (ie., potential footy) ovals available that are the perfect shape to put on demonstration games and even get embryonic local teams starting to play during the cricket off season.

China is a complete waste of time IMO as we have nothing in common from a cultural/language point of view other than them wanting our mining resources and using them to build hundreds of thousands of buildings/infrastructure projects etc.

Just a thought gang. Was wondering about our midfield situation and how we lack depth and some bigger bodies etc in there.

He's had an interrupted year and it's only his first. But mostly he's been played down back this year with the exception of his last game where he spent a bit of time up forward i think.

He has the body already and it's only going to get stronger as we put pre-seasons into him. He's a reasonable kick and strong through the body. Not sure about his 'short' game/skill side at this point so this might go against him a little until he develops this side further.

How about developing Tappy as a mid-fielder as a core part of our rotations through there? Worth trying you think?

I can see the logic, but why would Bomber change clubs as a director of coaching after one year with his orignial club which he captained ect to be a director of coaching at a club he has never been associated with, this doesnt run with me.

Bomber for the Senior Coaching role is another story, however still a long shot imo, Gary's comments are interesting but could just as easily mean Ross Lyon as much as Bomber, wouldnt be disappointed with either obviously.

Or nothing at all

Atleast the next week will be interesting with the club not playing finals and all haha, will fill the gap between us being crap and not playing finals and the mega event on the board which is the National draft

I think all our 'preferred' options are long shots at this stage.

I agree. Doesn't make sense that Bomber would change from one club to the other in a the same role (actually it's as Senior Assistant at the Bombres not Footy Director so apologies on that part), especially given as he's gone back home to his Bombres. I'm more thinking if we did snaffle him it's more likely to be as coach. There might be the attraction of a longer contract with a few more $$ on offer to come across too if we assume he's only signed for say this year and next at the Bombres.

I'm also thinking Gazza and the committee might be looking at Viney as coach with maybe Eade as senior assistant/mentor. And i'm not saying that's something i prefer. Just another option. Although Gazza's not that keen on Eade generally so this might go against Eade being appointed in any capacity.

I guess there's so many options that could occur depending on who's willing and who's available at the right price for all parties.

The only thing I found interesting with Gaz's comments was when he was discussing The Bombers improvement.

He seemed to go out of his way to highlight the great job Bomber Thompson had done

as part of Sir Jame's coaching staff.

I just found that intruiging.

Could Bomber be our Man?

Might be something to this (and might not be either lol).....

Gazza gave me the impression he was waiting on a result from this weekend. To me that leads to The Bombres, who he may expect (or hope) will be outed this weekend, opening the window for the deal to be finalised and the announcement to be made in Garry's words "sooner rather than later".

My gut feel is Bomber T as coach or Viney as coach with Bomber as assistant or at least in a mentor role (Footy Director etc).

B)

Just heard on the radio Kevin Sheedy has called a press conference for 11.00 today for a big anouncement!

Amazing what putting 'Sheedy' in your headline will do for a topic! I might try this myself sometime haha. Nice work there Old Dee

Very rarely I comment on here but that comment is fantastic!! I can't believe some of the lack of love for Ross Lyon who in my opinion has done an exceptional job at challenging for the ultimate with squads that had half the talent of Geelong and Collingwood.

The Aints have about 5 A Graders in the class department, Roo, Dal, Fish, Goddard and Montagna, a half a dozen of B's and the rest are genuine C Graders at best (Dean Polo anyone??? eew). They are simply an amazingly drilled outfit who dont accept mediocrity other than that of some of the natural talent on there list. The way they gut run back to zone in defence is amazing when you watch from up high in the stands.

Imagine if our potential (such a dirty word) was realised with him at the helm, we could be unbeatable!

Just for some quick gossip, a customer of mine at work who knows I am a mad dees man has told he has seen Gazza having a breakfast with Malthouse twice last week at seperate places. Now I cant confirm it and my source might not be just pumping up my tyres but I did enjoy the yarn when he told me!

Very rarely does anyone comment on my comments lol.

But yes, i think Lyon's also done an amazing job obviously. Although some would argue he should have gotten at least one premiership from the 3 attempts so far and in a way has under achieved. I think Malcolm Blight had a similar outcome with Geelong from 89 through to the 92 and 94 finals. Before moving on to finally break through with Adelaide. Maybe this is an omen should Lyon end up coming across to us. 'Almost' with the Saints.....then success with the Demons.

By the way, you don't happen to work or own a cafe' or something....by the sounds of it you might. Was just wondering if you see Mick with Gazza at your place sometime, maybe you can slip a little happy juice in Mick's coffee pls!?? Might help get him over the line!

1. St Kilda are 12-9-1 for the year

2. "Boring and winning" has amounted to zero premierships

I will swap our year for theirs.

I can handle a fair bit of "boring and winning" for "thrashed and depressed"

Oh i dunno Mr Dee.

I find it boring how the tip rat kicks all those 'boring' goals and gets so fired up, inspiring his team mates and often turning matches on their heads.

How Clint Jones has grown an extra gut running leg this year, running off his direct opponents and spreading into space to provide multiple options around the ground. Hec, i hated it how he shut Daisy down to the point of frustrating him so much Daisy ended up smacking him in the head. It cost Daisy a week off damn it! Sean Dempster.....he better stop this sort of thing too! I saw someone he was on getting upset with the attention recently too! I truly wish our players don't pressure to this level and upset anyone. It would leave a bad taste in my mouth.

The way Montagna, Clint and others run back so hard to affect the zone or cover their opponent when they lose possession. Makes me sick! How boring is that!

The way Adam Schneider always seems to get into the play at some point in the game, no matter what sort of form he's in, and kick the odd 2 - 3 goals or at least split/spread in space where the tip rat and Reiwoldt aren't to take his opponent away from their lead up zone. Gee i hate that.

So boring the way the Saints are able to close down the opposition when it looks like the games getting away from them. They often seem capable of changing the momentum of their matches, and slowly edge their way back into the game. This often results in them coming away with a win in close games as well.

Boring old Lyon! What are you thinking Dee? Sheez

I dare say most other clubs would not give a sh** about the incessant whinging of bored and stupid supporters over the jumper colour being a slightly different tinge to what they are accustomed, and instead focus on winning matches and running the club.

You're right. How could such a simple task as getting the colour of the jumpers/scarfs right have been stuffed up?

If it were just a slightly different tinge as you claim, supporters wouldn't have noticed it and it never would have become an issue.

Professional clubs are capable of getting both the on and off field right. That's what professional clubs do.

If the colour on the scarfs that were sent out is the same as that on the player's jumper (or similar).....it's a very poor choice, harking back to the days of Fitzroy's old maroon colour when they were named such, circa 1883 - 1938. And we all know where they ended up. It may hail from a bygone era of ours, but that's best left to a heritage weekend of footy. Regardless, at least make sure it doesn't appear to have a pink tinge on tv etc. No supporter (well almost none....maybe with the exception of Gareth and CS) wants a pinkish colour in a footy guernsey.

And you'd be surprised what putting a jumper on and how it looks, makes a player feel like. If it has a fair dose of whimpyness/cringe worthiness to it..... believe me...the players will feel likewise towards it, and wont enjoy playing in it.

I dare say most other clubs would not give a sh** about the incessant whinging of bored and stupid supporters......

Hope this isn't reflective of the general attitude towards supporters within the club's administration. If so then we're truly just fodder to suck the life from and it's all just a big game to the MFC. No heart or soul in there if this is the case. I doubt that's the case. Hopefully this is just your view mate.

I know it's boring to harp on about umpires but 28 home town frees to 13 for the visitors?

In a game with almost equal possession stats?

And then the bullet headed barrel Justin Schmitt redefines the speccy by disallowing a goal square mark to Jeremy Howe in the third quarter which quickly became a 12 point turnaround.

The Upside? the SHEER INCOMPETENCE of Schmitt and his less experienced accomplices cost us the game - I know we did likewsie with appalling disposal near goal, change either factor and you change the result - boosted us from pick 17 in the national draft to pick 12.

Hope we use it well.

How about the one handed 'hand throw' from Westoff at one point! He was being tackled and no one else directly involved other than these two.....all eyes must have surely been on him (or at least 1 of the 3 umps) yet.....miraculously it wasn't seen....and somehow Blease is throwing (twice) while apparently at least connecting with his fist. Laughable if these were the only crazy decisions which went against us on the day, but they were just 3 out of so many.

Umpires weren't alone in deciding the result as some of our goal kicking and decision making (Morton/Fitzpatrick etc) was absolute rubbish. But they definitely influenced the outcome and made sure the history books would show that Port were the first winners at the soon to be new home of footy in Adelaide. A small but nonetheless very important outcome for the AFL and their festering/bleeding Adelaide franchisees (and potential sponsors etc). The minor Vic clubs again on the receiving end of the AFL's grand plan.

Anyone who didn't see this (or refuses to) must have been watching the game looking through their rose coloured beer glass through the other dodgy eye.....

This will continue for as long as the minor Vic clubs continue to lay down and accept this crap as just part of the game.

There should be a rule brought in where players (or coaching team or a designated person from within the coaching team) from either side are able to query say 3 decisions per half (just as in tennis matches, NFL and cricket) and have the 4th umpire adjudicate via video replay. If they get it wrong it's 50 meters (or a goal....something severe) to the opponent so it would only be used if the players involved (or coach etc) are almost 100% certain that they felt it was an incorrect decision. If no decision can be adjudicated by the 4th umpire either way from the replay then it's a ball up maybe. Somehow the umpires must be held accountable for these nonsense decisions throughout the match. It's becoming too influential and often changing the course of some of the close matches IMO as we witnessed on Sunday.

In addition the advantage rule needs to be either dumped or changed. The umpires rarely get this right and the 3rd part of the rule, which says that... "the umpire must be certain that play is continuous"... can rarely ever be ticked as a yes because most of the time players hesitate (even for half a second or so) once the whistle is blown before attempting or continuing to play on. Therefore play stops, even if its just for half a second or more, and is rarely ever truly continuous under the rules' own interpretation. If the umpires were being true to this rule, they would rarely, if ever, call advantage. The advantage rule, at least in its present form, needs to be thrown out.

Dear Garry,

We have now not won a flag for 47 years and we showed no real improvement in this year. Regardless of who we select as our new coach, in my opinion we need to think outside the box and make some hard decisions going forward. Here is my 10 point plan for the future:

...........

You put alot into this eh FT.

Points 2, 4 5 6 & 8 are interesting and i'm open to some of what you're saying.

Chip might be worth a roll of the dice through the middle but maybe just in the pre season warm ups to see if it's a 'possible' as an experiment. You never know but i doubt it. Stranger things have happened.

And the Jamar point. I'm in two minds here. If we were to trade him i'd want something pretty special in return. I think ruckman are probably the last part of the jigsaw puzzle in terms of being the key to a premiership. But the big capable bullocking ones, who can play a little, don't grow on trees.

We definitely need to get some mongrel into this side in the short and long term so i'm open to getting some bad boys or unloved ones that no one else wants provided they've proven they can play and we're getting them at a bargain like the Pies did with Krakour.

Within reason though and contracts that allow us to quickly send em out the way they came in if it goes pear shaped lol

In particular i also think we need to get our best team on the park while the season's still alive and make the youngsters work/develop/build in the Magoos until they're ready and have earned their rightful place. Something the Cats have been able to afford to do very nicely. The only problem being we don't have a direct VFL affiliate to control how they develop and where they're played etc like they do.

Cheers mate

He played great against the bottom side, who we lost against.

Give him a 6-year contract!

Lol. Yep. Judging individuals during those last 3 junk time games is dangerous i reckon. Having said that i don't think Matty was given a decent shot at it to try and show or regain any type of 'AFL level' form in the seniors during the year prior to junk time commencing. He was in for a week, out again, in for a week or 2. Out again. Poor management IMO.

Many commentators who've played at both levels say it takes at the very least 2 - 3 weeks in a row to pick up the pace from VFL to AFL level and gain AFL match fitness. The silver fox said the same earlier this year when asked about it. He must have a fair idea.

IMO this leaves us really not knowing what his true value is.....either way. I feel sorry for Matty in this regard.

I think this is one example (there would no doubt be many) of where a mid season draft would have been beneficial for both parties.

I can see the reasons for leaving him out. But at the same time i think he at least deserved a 3 - 4 game run leading into the West Coast game to see if he'd improved or matured a little from his many games with Casey and to match him up on those teams we were up against late in the season with multiple talls. Maybe the recall could have been spasmodic to suit who we were playing, but i think he should have been given this chance IMO just to be sure he hadn't improved in some areas before he parted ways.

I would also be worried if Frawley got a serious injury next year as to who we would try to bring in to cover. Matty had the mature body and enough experience to cover in the short term (ie., not another rookie), without the run, skills needed and poise of course. But I certainly didn't see anyone on Saturday who would be up to it either, with the exception of maybe Mohr, but i don't think he's on our list.

Had a good look at Matty on Saturday and he played a reasonably solid game without standing out, although he wasn't alone there as the Scorps defense was put under immense pressure. Was always going to be a tough day once we started losing the mid field contest.

Seems like a good club man and appears to be in good nick and very fit. Might be a handy pick up for GWS for a few seasons as a part time defender when the young boys are being rested etc. Good luck to him wherever he goes from here.