Macca

He has come a long way ... been in the system for at least 4 years and is now starting to blossom as a 22yo Another tick for our development system and patience Half the battle for these youngsters is believing that they can belong at the highest level. The base skills are there What is absolutely crucial is having a number of experienced, talented players to show them the way I had a look at North, Tigers & Eagles today and I don't envy their position and where they sit. It must be so hard for their new young players to shine Disco still has a fair way to go but there is indeed, cause for optimism

Kolt has shown enough and once he picks up the pace of the game, the sky's the limit He's only just turned 19, as has Windsor. We sometimes don't take into account how young these draftees are (suddenly playing against men who are vastly more experienced, bigger and stronger) For both players, the next 2 years are also development years as very few become the finished product after just a year or 2 in the system

Pleasing to see a style of play with a far more attacking mindset. Slick, quick, precise & daring And a better balance of corridor football whilst still using teammates who have created space away from the corridor

SEN are covering most of the EPL games again this season Download the app to access the games and SEN Fanatic looks to be the go-to audio outlet (via the app)

That's a bit like finding out that Creedence Clearwater Revival emanated from San Francisco *Spoiler Alert*

EPL kicks off in just under 5 hours Man Utd vs Fulham (5.00am) Match of the week is probably Chelsea vs Man City (1.30am Monday) Not sure whether SEN are covering the EPL games this season but if you've got access to TalkSport radio, you should be able to get hold of the games

Smacka Fitzgibbon, the one and only 'Smacka' ... what a great nickname!

How many days since they won a final? Have the peptides cracked 7000 days yet? *Target 20,000*

The players & coaches need to get together and sort out their differences What the actual issues are is anyone's guess but it might be game plan related, personality clashes or whatever But I can't see any of Viney, Petracca or Oliver leaving anyway Viney is just too much of a Demon and the big money contracts may well scare off most clubs for Petracca & Oliver (and I highly doubt whether we'd be interested in paying any part salaries elsewhere) Damaged goods doesn't attract top dollar And that's without factoring in a fair trade coming back our way In effect, the long term deals tie both Petracca & Oliver to the club as any trade would probably see the club come off 2nd best Hopefully both players act like pro's and get on with it

Wrong Thread

On the net, a reasonably small amount of people can look like a lot ... especially when they repeat themselves 100+ times! The Neeld Poll was weird After his first year, 97% of people wanted him to stay on and see out his contract In fact, the anti Neeld brigade was very small and the 2 posters that stood out were tonotopia & hardnut. And both of them copped it left, right and centre I often wonder what happened to those two!

My feelings about the whole sorry episode have slowly disapated as the year has gone on. I'm still angry and disillusioned but less so It will never reach total forgiveness but at some stage I'll move on. But I'm a great believer that [censored] things happen to [censored] people (eventually) so the thug will get his right whack one day One of the first decisions that Dillon & Kane had to make and they failed miserably (not appealing) Normally I'll give anyone a second chance but such is my disdain for how the league gets run in a general sense, both of them I look upon as complete failures (ongoing) I'm a Demon supporter who doesn't support the AFL (if that makes sense) So I only watch Demon games with the odd cursory glance at the other games (I might watch the finals but without much real interest)

That was certainly true (here) at the end of 2020. We had a poll going and at one stage 85% wanted Goodwin out (timeline 20th Sept) But now? I'd say the figure would be less than 20% (if the poll was transparent) but maybe 35% if the poll was anonymous

Yes, the fill-in players we've recruited over the last 3 or so years just hasn't worked ... we might have been better off taking 1 or 2 chances in the draft in each of the last 3 years with some speculation picks Yet, we did recruit Kentfield (18yo) in the mid season draft so maybe we've changed tack and gone down the project player path. Kentfield needs time Raw talent and a good dose of development can unearth a gem or 2 with those spec picks. The strike rate may not be high but recruiting older, NQR types may not deliver any gems However, trading for proven talent using draft picks is fine ... May, Lever, Brown, Melksham, Hibberd, Langdon etc etc have all been fruitful Recruiting is not an easy task and there's a fair bit of luck involved but if we're looking to pick up experienced players, those players really should be best 15 at the club that they play for (best 22 is a bit too vague for my liking)

That's right, he was #9 Maybe it was something else that had me link the 2 together Henry Coles wore #3 (before that #13) in 1979/80 and I mainly remember Henry as I would often run into his old man in the standing room area in the old Southern Stand Henry could really roost a torpie on occasions and he didn't mind a scrap!

Fowler wore the number 9 and Flower was #2 and even though they were very different players, I'd often think one was the other and vice-versa He didn't mind the rough stuff either and wasn't to be trifled with I was at Vic Park in the last round of 1976 when Wearmouth knocked Laurie out in the first minute of the game ... we won the game but just missed the finals (half a game) But the Filth won their first spoon that year after we inflicted that loss on them

You are right ANB's role is not easy to replace either. High half-forward with enormous stamina and an ability to get to contest after contest Gus' role as in defensive midfield role with a physical presence along with decent aerial skills, the same Those who follow the league closely (I don't) could probably put forward a few names that we could possibly trade for Draftees? Identifying 2 similar types is difficult when considering how under 18 footy is played Or we change our style of play to accommodate players with different skillsets? Although I wonder if Windsor could play that high half-forward role? Looks a likely type

I believe you are right They came down hard on the use of the elbow back then though But with Balme's 3 round arm king hits, he wasn't reported on the day and there was no reports via video Think I'm right in saying that Matthews king hit 4 Demons but never got reported and never got weeks for those 4 thug acts

I don't believe Laurie was reported either Nor Neil Balme who put McKay, Waite & Southby into tomorrow land I've got Carlton mates who to this day, have never forgiven those Richmond thugs for what they did that day A different game back then The Blues took a while to get going again but they when they did, they won 3 flags in 4 years ('79, '81 & '82) Also of note is that Carlton went out in straight sets in 1975 & 1976 (including 3 narrow losses) So there's hope for us yet!!

You may be too young to remember but we once had a top line midfielder in Laurie Fowler* who played his role (ruck rover) in a very similar way to Gus He was hard at it, tackled hard, had very good defensive skills and got heaps of the ball. Our coach at the time (Bobby Skilton) put Fowler into the middle as our centreman, Greg Wells, wasn't renowned for his defensive skills (although Wells was a dynamic attacking midfielder) Laurie won 3 Bluey's and was a coaches dream I can imagine that the person who misses Gus the most is Goodwin *Laurie also played as a back pocket and will also be remembered as the player who shirt-fronted John Nicholls in the 1973 GF (playing for Richmond)

Goodwin's mantra when appointed head coach was 'Fearless Football' and for the most part, that's how we've gone about it. Most games in fact Hard at the contest, win contested ball, solid defence, 2nd & 3rd efforts, excellent zone defence, pressure acts etc etc So against Port we did all that and the lazy Port turned up What we lacked was a decisive attacking mindset with speed, when we were on the attack. Do that and we blow Port out of the water Our use of the corridor when on offense was minimal yet at the same time we denied Port the corridor So a few tweaks on our offense with a fully fit list to choose from and we'll be a force next season We should have beaten Port but it was all academic as our poor percentage and W/L record would have denied us a finals spot anyway

Gus was the glue that bound the team together both with his onfield leadership and experience But his role as a holding/defensive midfielder gave us a real advantage as playing that role is quite unique His vigour and physical presence at the back of the midfield was another factor When he is ready, he'll be ideally suited to some sort of coaching role A line coach as a minimum but he'd be nigh on perfect as a midfield coach Sadly missed as a Demon player

Losing Gus made me change my mind from top 8 and maybe top 4 pushed back to top 8 only. We would have needed a lot to go right to be top 4 without such a valuable player like Brayshaw (worth another 2 wins at least) Gus in the midfield would have given the MC an opportunity to use Petracca forward (along with Kozzie) With JVR, Fritsch Petty and company, suddenly our forward line might have been quite functional But we would have needed a fit & firing Clarrie, an impactful Petty as well as a productive Melksham (later in the year) as well, to push for the top 8. But the above didn't really happen so maybe top 8 only until ... Petracca went down Then, we would have been lucky to make the 8 and that's how it panned out Not having a proper ruckman as back up to Gawn also hurt us. Many of us thought that the recruitment of Fullarton would help but no call-up at all So, once we lost Petracca it was always going to be tough Hindsight tells us that losing to the Eagles and then getting thumped by Freo in the Alice were the 2 big pointers Also think that whilst our grinding, work for stoppages style often keeps us in the game, a more attacking mindset could have seen us win games against the Lions, Giants & Port But that subject matter (a more attacking mindset) is a debate for another day

It's like a John le Carrè novel