Dees2014

If you were Kossie why would you walk? He may not be paid quite as much as some of the lower sides would pay him, but he would be very well paid. You just need to look at Jackson at Fremantle to see how very good players can become rapidly irrelevant if they are also not in very good teams. I’m sure Goodie and the boys would be pointing that out to him. I’d be staggered if he walked….

And we get back Kossie next week. All we need is Max and we have the unbeatable GF side…

I was just thinking the same thing. Nice to have an escape route…

The ground has to be the same size as the “G”. I doubt Prahan fits that criteria.

That’s great to know and very reassuring. since you seem to know a bit about this, what is the strength of the rumours that Dailey is taking a full time job as a coach at Geelong in both the men’s and women’s programs. Doesn’t seem to make any sense to me given her long term commitment to the Dees, in both programs. Surely we could find a spot for her.

How about personal relationship? I don’t know, just taking an educated guess…..

I’m tipping Demon by 20+ points going away in the Grannie with Bannon and Harris both playing blinders. The perfect introduction for the men’s 2023 season where they will be unstoppable with their elite All Australian ruck combination……..

I think the recruitment of Grundy will force a change in game plan for the better. No team will be able to match up on it, especially if we also get Van Rooyan (sp?) firing up forward. Interesting time ahead…

Yes, isn’t it great to see the women’s game developing so fast, and that the D’s are at the forefront of that. It will become the most popular women’s sport overtaking netball and basket ball within a couple of years. Even though the girls play the game a little differently, it is really growing on me - the standard improves so much from year to year, and is now really skilful. Exciting stuff!

I love the way we now take the game on, and have the players now to do it successfully. Putting Haris in the ruck has been an inspiration.

Yes, loved Bannon’s balk around the mark to run in to goal. The crows were dumbstruck…….she’s a talent there is no doubt about that….

Salary off the books l believe…..

I think JVR is a better bet than TMac, and l think this may well happen. We need to be adventurous in this “last chance saloon”, particularly to freshen up our attack. Now is the time….

How about Jackson for Bradshaw - when you think about it it is not as silly as it sounds!!!

A question: 1. Do we really think Luke would go from a premiership team with a realistic chance to win 2 or 3 more over the next 5 years, to a side which probably won’t be in the window for the next 5-7 years. Sure he would be paid maybe 25% more at the Eagles in his home state, but it is a lot to give up, and it is not as though he would be poorly paid at the Dees. I rather suspect that after we win our second flag in two years, and with every prospect of a couple more after that, that he just might stay with us to get the glory that that represents.

They deserve each other. What a pain that man is. His mate Eddie isn’t going too is he?

The AFLPA can make whatever rules they like so long as they get the agreement of their members, and the governance is agreed. I’m sure most players by now would have a pretty good understanding of this incident, and I’d be amazed if 99 percent of them didn’t agree that Zorko should be severely sanctioned. This is a governance issue and therefore should take place behind closed doors and need not involve HP at all if he doesn’t want. It is however of such outrageous behaviour that it requires some penalty, if only to ensure justice is done, and to make all players realise there are consequences for this sort of outrageous antisocial behaviour, especially when directed at innocent fellow players.

Don’t you guys realise the fixture is deliberately weighted against the most successful teams from the previous year, hence our extraordinarily difficult fixture this year as the reigning premiers. Frankly l don’t mind that, it is part of the equalisation process. What l do mind is when unfair fixturing is built in permanently to the system aka Geelong. Their ground is substandard in terms of size, and gives the Cats an advantage like no other in the AFL where their win/loss record is over 80%. It would be far fairer to play these matches against us either at the “G” or at Marvel, or even Alice Springs or Darwin. Then there will be no permanent built in advantage irrespective of where we or they perform on the ladder.

It this is all in the plan. Very similar to Burgess in as much as we have this hardening up period in the third quarter of the season (ie very tough training and conditioning) when we do expect to lose some games, but cherry-ripe for the last weeks of the year. Happened this year (and last). Watch our game go up several notches in two weeks against the Swans…..

Having now pieced together what happened, l agree we should move on as HP requested. It was a horrible thing that happened, and Zorko should be seriously sanctioned by the Lions or preferably dismissed altogether. There should be no place in AFL for such a character. l think it is also time that the players start policing themselves, as David King suggested the other night ie the players association hands out suspensions/bans themselves for just such instances as this: after all, it is in nobody’s interests, least of all the players and the clubs, to allow this sort of behaviour to tarnish what is generally a very well regarded playing group (particularly when compared to NRL). Zorko should be banned indefinitely.

I think we definitely need another tall forward. If TMac doesn’t come up l think we should seriously consider van Rooyen. He can also ruck. He has shown outstanding form at Casey lately and will be an important player for us in the future, and we have shown we are prepared to throw rookies into the deep end in finals very successfully (aka Bowey last year). Worth considering l think….what about you guys?

I seem to remember similar questions being asked after our first final last year, and yet we followed it up by smashing initially Geelong in the Prelim, and then overwhelming the Dogs in the Grannie, each time being more and more dominant. l suspect this has mostly to do with how the team is managed fitness-wise, even though it is a worry for us supporters as we go through this load sharing in the second half of the year which seems to result in inexplicable losses. l now have confidence that our team management knows what they are doing, particularly after the win last weekend. I’m sure BinMan will expand on this further in this evening’s podcast. His insights have been very re-assuring for the “doubting-thomases” like myself.

With this number, we are reaching up to be classed as a “power club”. At this rate of improvement and continued success on the field we could get to 100k within three years. That is huge. I can remember when the figure was less than half our current number. Here are the latest numbers: Club 2022 Membership Tally Record Adelaide 40,000 64,437 (2019) Brisbane 40,973 40,973 Carlton 84,769 84,769 Collingwood 86,641 86,641 Essendon 78,579 84,237 (2019) Fremantle 53,549 55,639 (2018) Geelong 66,048 70,293 (2021) Gold Coast 8,721 19,460 (2021) GWS 30,861 30,861 Hawthorn 70,007 81,211 (2019) Melbourne 62,813 62,813 North Melbourne 48,639 48,639 Port Adelaide 59,146 59,146 Richmond 99,213 105,084 (2021) St Kilda 57,930 57,930 Sydney 51,642 61,912 (2019) West Coast 100,000 106,422 (2021) Western Bulldogs 49,593 49,593 I measure our rating and potential through my “grandkids test”. I have four grand kids under 7. Up until last year they used to be ridiculed when they wore their Dees jumper in the play ground. That all changed around September last year. Now they tell me the majority of footy jumpers in the playground are red and blue. An encouraging sign…

Of course he would….you don’t think any of these clown have any integrity do you. Doubt they even know what it means!

I was hoping Binman’s prognostications about loading and player management would come to pass, and wow have they ever. When you are in the midst of winter and the Dees get their regular form slump you do have your doubts. Re-assurance is provided from the Demonland podcast even though l do have may doubts. But NO MORE, my faith is restored, and l look forward to watching our inevitable march to victory over the next five weeks. Smashing the Cats will be a joy!!