Spirit of the Demon

Watts and Jurrah playing together in the same team at AFL level. Great to see!

The Dockers' fixture looks a bit shabby. Reckon they might struggle to win 5.

Running hotter now with three goals in a row. One of our major problems is our rucks. We're hopeless there and need the Russian back asap.

The apology will go something like this:- Sorry GoodOilBoy but you're a complete [censored]. Goodbye!

Agree with that. If every player in the team played with Sylvia's intensity today we would be right in this game.

There are some things a club can do to limit the number of injuries and their duration. The right personnel and technology definitely help. Apart from that, it's the luck of the draw. I think Hawthorn and Collingwood have both had a good couple of years with injury but these have now come to an end. With Melbourne, it's been a long and sustained run of injury for almost three years. Hopefully, things will turn just as we start our run to the top.

Enjoyable read. Like the conclusion but reckon we'll struggle to win more than 4 anyway. Tigers will finish last.

At the start of 2008 Melbourne and Essendon had new coaches. Both had old lists and began culling their older players. The football world expected both clubs to be down for a few years while they rebuilt their lists. This year we've seen both sides heading in different directions to each other. The Bombers are rising, their young players kicking on, their middle aged players showing more maturity and consistency while their older players are still being phased out. They are displaying a system and attractive running game, are winning games and last night took another step up defying the odds and beating the reigning premiers. By contrast, Melbourne remains at the bottom of the ladder with just one win. We're playing an ugly brand of football and, while our defence is improving, our mid age players are showing minimal improvement at best and we seem to be going nowhere. Already, after only six games, supporters are talking about and dreaming about the end of the year draft and priority picks. The coach talks of being "competitive". Why aren't we even looking as if we're developing a winning culture like the Bombers are?

Harvey has a contract till the end of 2010. They won't dump him. Terry is the one most likely to go first.

That's what you call "damage control".

Should be back for the Adelaide game but will probably have to go through Casey because he hasn't really played a game since mid February.

Shhhh ... don't tell anyone but he copped a corkie. Hopefully, it won't keep him out next week.

Don’t' forget to put your tips in ... and it's not too late to join (you'll just start a bit behind the eight ball like me) Current leader board ... Rank Total Tipster 1 12.77 carn dees 2 10.45 barpen 2 10.45 Demonland 2 10.45 Loopy Lou 2 10.45 pandemonium 2 10.45 Thundercloud 7 9.68 DEE32 8 9.37 Footy Tipper 9 9.10 achirnside 9 9.10 Clyde_Cabbie 9 9.10 deanox 9 9.10 dees_fan22 9 9.10 great_gatsby 9 9.10 Simon Sylvia Strauss 15 8.60 deeluded 15 8.60 Its A Nightmare 17 8.39 Alpha33 17 8.39 Andees_0 17 8.39 BigKev Demon 17 8.39 BVI Demon 17 8.39 deemonkey 17 8.39 petejh2000 17 8.39 slamevil 17 8.39 Tim Go Dees! 17 8.39 Whispering_Jack 26 7.60 BenderBendingRodriguez 27 7.25 aronbrandon 27 7.25 butsdemon 27 7.25 herbsademon 27 7.25 mrawesome 31 7.17 H!GH TOWER 32 5.82 ucanchoose 33 5.19 Jackieboy_0 33 5.19 rpfc 33 5.19 steveheals 36 4.58 AzzKikA79 37 3.93 Pinball_Wizard

Don’t' forget to put your tips in ... and it's not too late to join (you'll just start a bit behind the eight ball ) Current leader board ... Rank Total Tipster 1 12.77 carn dees 2 10.45 barpen 2 10.45 Demonland 2 10.45 Loopy Lou 2 10.45 pandemonium 2 10.45 Thundercloud 7 9.68 DEE32 8 9.37 Footy Tipper 9 9.10 achirnside 9 9.10 Clyde_Cabbie 9 9.10 deanox 9 9.10 dees_fan22 9 9.10 great_gatsby 9 9.10 Simon Sylvia Strauss 15 8.60 deeluded 15 8.60 Its A Nightmare 17 8.39 Alpha33 17 8.39 Andees_0 17 8.39 BigKev Demon 17 8.39 BVI Demon 17 8.39 deemonkey 17 8.39 petejh2000 17 8.39 slamevil 17 8.39 Tim Go Dees! 17 8.39 Whispering_Jack 26 7.60 BenderBendingRodriguez 27 7.25 aronbrandon 27 7.25 butsdemon 27 7.25 herbsademon 27 7.25 mrawesome 31 7.17 H!GH TOWER 32 5.82 ucanchoose 33 5.19 Jackieboy_0 33 5.19 rpfc 33 5.19 steveheals 36 4.58 AzzKikA79 37 3.93 Pinball_Wizard

Melbourne also struggles to combat the zone and doesn't appear to be particularly good at setting one up and exploiting it. Maybe we'll see a bit of man on man football tomorrow?

I wonder if Tom McNamara was in Kelly's group. He seems to be Melbourne's forgotten man ATM. Never playing anywhere and never appearing on our injured list.

When my brother played suburban footy in the '90s the coaches would often put the better players under pressure to play on when they were injured. I saw players go back on the ground after suffering concussion or having niggles and I put it down now to a lack of professionalism on the part of coaches and medical staff. I was really surprised however, at what happened with Ben Cousins on Thursday night. The prize recruit with a history of hamstring problems is getting treatment at three quarter time (Peter Larkins says that RFC staff were working on his hamstrings), the game was lost and yet a decision was made to put him back on the ground. Sheer stupidity on the part of all concerned. Wallace and his staff should have taken notice of the type of player that Benny is - a perfectionist with his football and the type who plays through the pain barrier to perform for his team. This was an accident waiting to happen. It was a shocking call from Richmond. I certainly hope our people wouldn't succumb to putting a player at risk in circumstances!

Surprised that there's no Casey Scorpions practice game next Saturday as a curtain raiser to the NAB Challenge match - even an intraclub game. Apart from the benefit of match practice for the VFL contingent it would also provide an opportunity for fans to see some of our younger players and rookies who haven't had a run yet.

Based on the weather report conditions should be hot and stormy - Weather Bureau. That circular thing over Cairns is called Tropical Cyclone Hamish and is probably named after a prominent Demon supporter.

No Buckley and no Moloney of the players we might have expected to play.

Unfortunately, the uncertainty is unlikely to end soon. Greg Denham, who seems to always have some inside knowledge on what's happening at the MFC, told Kevin Bartlett this morning that he believed that the club was still a way off announcing any sponsor.

* Warnock was priced out by Carlton's money. From all reports Jake Spencer is impressing all with the way he's been training. No regrets from me. * Prismall struggled to become a regular at Geelong, has had a knee reco and isn't the type of midfielder we need. No problem with him going elsewhere. * CJ got a terrific deal from Carlton after a long period of insecurity and underperforming. Carlton offered an extremely late round draft pick which was of no use to us. We've made alternative choices in his absence more commensurate with where we are at as a club. Nuff said. * Hislop - his reputation preceded him. * Nik Nat - it was our choice. I'm comfortable with where we are at - no high priced problem players and a good and varied lot of selections added to the mix.

Heard on 3AW that Richmond is making a special application to have Graham Polak taken off the senior list and made a rookie to give them an extra PSD pick. Could then take Cousins. Not sure if they would have to give up first pick in the rookie draft but it all seems a bit too late for me.

That's the very point I'm making!

No joke. Our drafting was obviously directed more to a long term plan rather than a quick fix. There's no obvious attempt to cover deficiencies in the short term so we won't show much next year.