Dees2014

Yes he was an A grader, much more so than his "mate" Scully. He is also a leader and a top bloke , and we don't have a surplus of leaders at the club

Hate to disillusion all you Mitch Clark haters out there, but it is my understanding that we chose not to have Clark back as we perceived it to be too big a risk. We chose to trade him instead. Clark always protested when he was with us how much he loved the Dees and how immensely grateful he was to us for supporting him, and I think it is significant that he was seen at the "G" last Saturday at our game. We can hardly now turn round and blame him because he pursued his career elsewhere.

Must say I don't agree. This has arisen because two young Collingwood players were tested positive for a masking agent for a performance enhancing drug, but they almost certainly took it because their recreational drug (probably cocaine) was laced with it to give it more "punch", which is not at all uncommon apparently. This has opened up the whole debate about drugs Ian general. At the same time, there has developed an increasing awareness in AFL circles that a number of players (particularly at Collingwood) have been "playing" the system via self reporting use after they get to two strikes, rendering the intention of the three strike policy useless. Clearly something had to be done. I'm inclined to Paul Roos view that all drugs should be described as "illegal" drugs and treated accordingly ie punishment follows one strike. Personally I am in favour of legalising recreactional drugs (particularly heroin and cannabis) to take away the market for criminals by putting it in the hands of the medical profession (this would take an extensive paper to describe the arguments which I have written but not here), but for elite footballers I think it is quite legitimate to ban their use completely. Many other occupations do it (miners, tuck drivers, teachers, some doctors, some areas of the public service, airline pilots, train drivers, tram drivers etc etc etc,) none of them with the wealth and public profile of AFL footballers, particularly when it comes to being role models for the young. AFL clubs monitor to the nth degree the physical fitness of their players. I would have thought their drug taking would have been front and centre of that, but at the moment the clubs (apart from club doctors) simply are not told of their drug use until their players have tested positive three times. It is inconsistent, and frankly a bit dumb.

Yes and fitzy has more speed than any of them including i suggest Frost, particularly in the first 20 meters.And like a lot of large forwards, they seem to get a great education for better forward plays by spending time in defence following A grade forwards around. Think David Neitz. He learnt so quickly that "Duck" Carey said he was the best tall defender he ever played on, then went back to the forward line and smashed them. Yes, the more i think about it the more i think Fitz down back might well be another one of those Roosy smart moves.

He is not on a million a year though. All I am saying is there are no magic bullets which we have tried in the past. I very much agree with the path we are on now. When we get to what some call "the window" , if we need to pay that to get to the ultimate prize then so be it. I just do not that is the way to go now, or even next year.

Yes we have been here before, long before others, and it never really worked. Think Tilbrook, Peter Moore, Kelvin Templeton, even Mitch Clark - all guns for hire with no real commitment to the club. The ones I can think that worked well: Guy Rigoni, Brian Wilson, Clinton Bizzel were more in the mode of modern day trades, and not the mega-buck deals. We should learn our lesson and we seem to be under Roos. We are using our draft picks sensibly to fill weakness and keeping the young gun high draft picks to grow into A graders. Where we trade free agency eg Rivers, Frawly, Clark, Sylvia ( by the way I think all of those examples we could afford to lose because they were either past their prime, we had adequate replacements, or we were going to be so well compensated that we were better off anyway),we use the compensation to fill gaps or make further trades. Over time this will build into a very strong team.

Me too. Sat next to my extremely one eyed demon father as a 12 year old sitting in the old Olympic stand at the 1964 ganny. Remember very clearly Hassa Mann's magnificent mark 20m out and missed goal 5 minutes to go , then Neil Compton's speccy from 50 m out which sailed through post high. Those were the demons' days. Hopefully we are building something similar. In Roos I trust. Very confident we are on the right path, and success will come, maybe earlier than we think!

Yes, you can't help drawing the comparison with David Neitz. His interview on Open Mike I watched recently (from July 2014) and he talked briefly about when he started. I think Hogan will be the closest thing we will see to Neitz, and I for one can think of no greater praise. Now all we need to do is to turn Chris Dawes into the footballer David Schwartz....mmm - don't think so somehow!

Yes having someone as experienced and smart as Chris Dawes around him will be a huge boost for Hogan. IMHO I think the "three towers" of Dawes, Hogan and Watts will be so much more effective together than seperately. Dawes will mean he will have the number 1 tall defender, and each of a Hogan and Watts opponent will go down one notch in seniority and skill. In addition, we now have Garlett, and a rejuvenated JKH at their feet. Should be exciting to watch.

With considerable help from Dunn and Dawes. Dunn was very vocal on Saturday and continually coached particularly our younger players on the field during play. I have not seen that to that extent before. I suspect JonesyJonesy is more the lead by example type, and extremely good at it.

It is significant that John Coates is chairman of the CAS review panel. He is vehemently anti drugs in sport and has been very critical of the seemingly privileged position that Essendon has been given. I have not doubt that the WADA challenge will happen. They will just need to find their way through the politics, but they have some political heavy weights on their side. John Fahey anyone? Even amazingly Tony Abbott has supported his Sports Minister in the face of Alan Jones self interested attack on her, although given Abbott's past performances, i wouldn't bank on it continuing. WADA will do what WADA does ie be the ultimate judge on the fairness of drugs in sport. They can have no other judgement but find EFC guilty

I couldn't resist the Essendon nonsense when it all came down. Read the other drugs thread - i have posted a number of times on there in the last week or so trying to calm the ASADA/WADA alarmists. You might be stuck with me a little while longer yet!

Yes it also highlighted the considerable football nous that JKH has. He is quite a talent for such a young man. He will be a beauty in 1 or 2 years time. Another recruiting steal at 40 i think it was.

Roos has already ruled it out. Clearly he is not tsking any risked with this potential A-grader

And there was Abblett - you are not goinjg to keep him down for 100 minutes, even injured. there is no one other like ablett in the AFL. Not even Scully (just kidding!)

Yes what is it about Tyson's kicking. He is great on the run at full pace but around the ground he so often stuffs it up, not so much in accuracy simply in power. Is he injured??

This has appeal, as I think Gawn in form and holding his marks particularly up forward would stretch them. GWS are tall even without Patton. in the end it is about assembling the team to match them and beat them. In spite of my last post, I'm now inclined to go: In: Gawn, Dawes, Vince Out: Toumpas, Cross, Kent Sub: JKH This means the team would be: FB: Jetta Dunn Garland HB: Lumumba McDonald Howe CC: Newton Jones Vince HF: Salem Dawes Watts FF: Garlett Hogan Gawn Foll: Jamar Tyson Viney Inter: Brayshaw Vandenberg Frost Sub: JKH Reserves: Grimes Kent Stretch Cross If it is wet i would go with Kent for Gawn. Awesome forward line, especially if it is dry and Max starts holding his marks (cant wait to see Geoffy Garlet at his feet!) like he did in the twos at the weekend, and we will not go off the boil when Jamar rests as we did to some extent at the weekend. Also given Frost's pace i'd be inclined to give him a go on the wing when on. Would be extraordinarily difficult to match up on. He is also at this stage only an average kick for goal. Might also give Vanders a run on the ball given his strength and marking ability. It is a big fast side....

I agree. And I would make JKH Sub. It is certainly a considerably stronger, better balance side, but if it is wet like this weekend in Sydney, I would leave out Dawes and keep Kent. It would not surprise me though if Roos made the one change of Vince for Toumpas. Roos has a tendency of not changing winning sides, and he may wish to make an additional point to CD about on-field discipline.

RN, I certainly agree that he needs time to develop and get his confidence back, which means he may need to spend much of 2015 at Casey, with significant mentoring. Once Vince comes back there are 2 or 3 others I would put in before Toumpas. I'm sure he will be an asset in the future, we just need to put these kids on the right development path.

Macca, good points all.One of the pleasing points of today was that Casey also had a significant win with a number of players putting their hand up. I'm thinking particularly of Vince, Gawn, Spence, McKenzie, Grimes, White and Stretch. Then there is Dawes. I think there will also be several more mid fielders coming back from injury in the next month. Our depth is certainly better than any time since Daniher. Our recruiting over the off season has been outstanding. I think we will be ok in that department.

Yes, it shouldn't be underestimated how much Hogan's intimidating play frees up Watts to use his sublime skills. For a start it means Watts got the second best defender and next week when Dawes comes in he will get the third. The way Hogan crashed the pack in the last quarter which directly led to a goal was inspirational. With Dawes, hogan, Watts and possibilty in the future Max Gawn, plus Garlett, JKH, Kent and Vandenberg it will be a handful for most defences.

I was there too at both the Casey game and the main event. You can see substantial improvement throughtout the organisation. It is very encouraging. I might say in passing, I stopped off at the bottle shop and supermarket in Albert Park on the way home and didn't realise I still had my demon scarf on. I had three seperate people come up to me to say how much they enjoyed watching the game and how awesome they thought the Roos coached Demons were, and how much they were barracking for us in the last quarter when Abblett kicked those two goals. When I asked them whether they were rusted on Demons, two were Collingwood and one was a Swanny. Maybe we are achieving what PJ and PR have been asking for ie respect and fear from our peers. All I can say is hooray to that!

Yes Roos has said publicly that he rates Toumpas as having elite skills but what worries him about him is that he is too hard on himself. Obviously some people constantly remind him of the comparison to Ollie Wines since we drafted him above Ollie. In Roos view, this has put far to much pressure on him and he has been unable to play his natural game. I rememvber when he was first drafted and played his first NAB Cup game at Ethiad, he did some sublimely skilful things (incidentally the first game we saw the wonderful skill of Jesse Hogan) and I thought wow we have a star here. He has never lived up to it, presumably as PR says because. "He puts too much pressure on himself" Maybe it is time us supporters backed off a bit on Jimmy. I think we have done a similar job on Jack Watts over the years and maybe it is just now that Jack has developed the maturity to handle it. Maybe we could do ourselves all a big favour and let these players develop their natural games. I'm sure that is what the new coaching staff are on about when they say they are not going to rush young players to be the saviours of the club. All power to them. At last we might be maturing as an organisation. It is very very rare when you see the maturity of the Angus Brayshaw we saw today.

My understanding is that the MFC chose not to re-recruit him in view of the risks. Understandable after two unproductive years. If true, his attendance today is all the moe admirable. He always professed a great love for the MFC - maybe it was true after all.

In: Vince, Dawes, Gawn Out: Toumpas, Frost, ?? We got beaten in the ruck today at crucial periods, and big Max absolutely starred in the twos. It will be a hard selection table.