Lucifers Hero

BB, here is Toumpas MFC history: Year 1: Development year played 14 games - not bad for 1st year. BTW MFC forgot the development part. Year 2. Development year Played 4 games, then went to Casey then missed half the season injured (appendix I think) Year 3. Worked bl..dy hard on his weaknesses, has played 6 games. Has earnt his spot!! Looks a decent track record in really difficult circumstances!

Terlich Neal-Bullen Newton Stretch Grimes Spencer Michie All named in the Dees squad for i/c options but also in starting 22 for Casey who play on Saturday so we will know early who will get a run on Sunday.

Hip hip hooray!

The whole squad is: Melbourne team: round 11 B: Daniel Cross, Tom McDonald, Jack Fitzpatrick HB: Jeremy Howe, Lynden Dunn, Neville Jetta C: Jimmy Toumpas, Dom Tyson, Heritier Lumumba HF: Jack Watts, Cam Pedersen, Jack Viney F: Jeff Garlett, Jesse Hogan, Angus Brayshaw FOLL: Max Gawn, Nathan Jones, Bernie Vince I/C (from): Billy Stretch, Viv Michie, Aidan Riley, Alex Neal-Bullen, Jack Grimes, Jake Spencer, Dean Terlich IN: Jack Grimes, Dean Terlich, Jake Spencer, Viv Michie, Dom Tyson, Alex Neal-Bullen, Billy Stretch OUT: Colin Garland (hand), Aaron vandenBerg (hamstring), Ben Newton, Matt Jones Surprised to see Terlich. Guess he deserves the right to show what he can do to keep his place on the list. If he plays hope he has a good game Spencer must be a backup for an injury otherwise far too tall. Hope either ANB or Stretch get a run

Pretty much agree. Grimes, Terlich and Spencer are contracted till 2017. Grimes has probably done enough to stay as depth. He may request a trade to play more seniors. Tigers, Ess, Bulldogs might be interested. Spencer has trade currency as a few clubs looking for ruckman eg Ess and Bulldogs Howe may opt to go. Garland may be gone as UFA. Would add Dawes for a trade (admit to my bias here). Riley (and maybe Mitchie) is OOC this year so they are vulnerable. That is 10-12 changes before any serious trading.

Unfortunately for us other teams would have noticed his courage and the resilience he has shown over the years. The sooner he/we sign a contract the better.

Thats a good pick up Akum. We are getting close to the 10-12 on-ballers that top teams have. Add to those 5 named: Salem, Brayshaw, Petracca, Vandenberg. All are B graders, some to become B+/A/elite. Add ANB, Stretch and a B+ trade in this year. That is 12 and an outstanding list! Then there are the smokies/depth in Harmes, Hunt, Newton and include Jetta and JKH as on-ballers. So while delighted with the development of our on-ballers we need a ruckman of equal/better quality who can ruck against all comers week in week out while King develops. Re the survey, I would keep Gawn as back-up/depth but trade-in the 'first choice ruckman'. As another poster noted the Freo WAFL ruckman not getting a game could be a happy hunting ground! Also, Freo have stockpiled on their list, on-ballers (some Vics) who can't get a seniors game who might be tempted across the nullabor! Edit: forgot Kent!

He won't get away with it. He has already lost the players...they know who really dropped them in this cesspool. It is only a matter of time before Hird loses his supporters. Their signs won't say 'Stand by Hird'. It will be: 'Bye, Bye, Hird'!!

Misson: Surprise from the game: Garland broke his hand in first qtr an dplayed whole game with broken hand. Had surgery yesterday Huge effort. Team player extraordinaire!!

Jolly asked to be traded because he couldn't get a game with White in the team Martin was traded for non-football reasons. Max lacks a tank, in part because he smokes (or has recently given up). If Max's about to expire contract isn't renewed soon it would suggest he doesn't feature highly in clubs plans. The next month or two will tell.

We need a ruckman to match the class of our budding midfield ala GWS. So, we need to trade in a 'first choice' ruckman. Then keep one of Gawn, Spencer, (or Fitzy ?) as depth while King develops. Our ruckman have good currency: someone said WB interested in Fitzy, Ess only have a C grade. So can't vote for any of the 3 options.

Roos strategy was to keep Cross as our extra back. Crikey, he had to Cloke was tearing us apart! Then our mids and forwards had to work hard to get fwd, man up on Oxley and 'bring the ball to ground'. One might ask why wasn't Cross as effective as Oxley? Answer: Pies mids and fwds worked harder to get fwd, man up on Cross and 'bring the ball to ground'. Sound familiar. They did what our players didn't. They were also smarter on how they moved the ball fwd to nullify Cross. It wasn't poor coaching. Roos strategy was sound. The players didn't execute it. They didn't work hard enough. The 'players didn't listen comment' was possible the kindest thing he could say in public. Everyone learnt some lessons.

Interesting that when Daniher asked Garry Lyon to help with the MND fundraising the goal was $250k. At the start of the game the tally was $1.75m As of last night it was close to $2.2m That is nearly $.5 m from the game and $2.m higher than their target! Unbelievable result. What I really loved was Daniher wearing his Demons scarf all day (and all week). A great advertisement for our team and wonder if memberships go up on the back of it. Symbolically it says: 'Hang in there no matter how tough it gets'. Overall a fabulous day for our club. Edit: Just saw this article. http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/neale-daniher-leads-big-freeze-at-the-g-ahead-of-queens-birthday-clash-20150608-ghisns.html Great pics of Daniher (and the walkers) in red and blue.

Agree with every word Weber! I don't get the DL Toumpas bashing yesterday. He played on Sidebottom, kept him quiet and was eventually subbed off. Toumpas also had a good attacking game. Some people just look for things to criticise.

To me it looked like our forwards were playing up the ground. Then when our ball carrier went forward they would bomb it in long hoping Hogan would mark it I suppose. They didn't give our forwards time to get back with shorter kicks. Hogan was double tagged by Frost and Oxley and when the ball came in high Oxley was able to float away. We were too focused on Hogan. So I agree with Roos comment. What I don't understand is why there wasn't a runner going out every five minutes until the players started doing what they were told. That was up to Roos. Someone should have stayed back. Firstly to stop the double tagging of Hogan and then to make Oxley more accountable. A few times I thought we left Hogan out to dry a bit. No one at all to help him.

It was great to see Watts get angry at Varcoe and having to be lifted off by team mates! Hope that aggression comes out more in future.

Good Watts angry, laying into Varcoe and had to be pulled off by 3 teammates, then kicking a goal. Watts angry, laying into Varcoe and had to be pulled off by 3 teammates, then kicking a goal. Watts angry, laying into Varcoe and had to be pulled off by 3 teammates, then kicking a goal. Bad We lost Injury to Vandenberg Possible injury to Viney Ugly Too many goals gifted by key backs Oxley Letting them get a 6 goal head start

Well done picket fence to acknowledge a player you have often criticised. Your heart beats true.

Yeay!! Brayshaw won this week! Well done Gus!

But no goals. Brayshaw contributed directly to 6 of our 13...that's nearly half the goals! Also, they owe him for last week. Brayshaw has been consistently good. Lang. Thurlow will get thier turn later

Brayshaw: 16 possessions 6 tackles 1.1 goals 5 goal assists equals = RS nominee. 1 week late but as deserved this week as it was last week!

I thought we played quite well last year. We were fairly close near 3/4 time when the umpire for some inexplicable reason denied Bernie's goal after marking and playing on. Then the pies kicked a goal just before the siren so it was a 2 goal swing. We couldn't get our mojo back. We have a better team this year so expecting a much closer result. Could go either way.

I didn't. He just hasn't been the same in the 8 games since. That was his 200th game and he really lifted for it. Just hope playing his old side gives him the extra motivation to lift again and continue for the season, not just a cameo game.

Finally, the players seem to have wisened up to who is truly responsible for their mess. They have stopped playing for their coach. Simple! It is only a matter of time before supporters will be baying for his blood. The irony is that Hird may finally go down not for the supplements saga...but for his inability to coach! His incompetence is playing out on the field for all to see. It will be an even sweeter downfall because at the bottom of the ladder he will have nowhere to hide, no-one to blame. Hardly a fine legacy: -destroy the family name (his grandfather was an inaugural inductee to the Hall of fame and given Legend status), -bring his club to its knees, -ruin the lives of many of his charges. Can't wait for his coaching downfall and have that smug smirk disappear forever.

Would like to think H will play his best game of the year against his old club! Hasn't looked motivated yet so this game might kick-start his season. I hope.