CHANGES 2009: PART THREE

by the Oracle

You'll find lots of red sand in the centre of our continent. Desert sand and a few isolated communities, mainly consisting of Indigenous Australians - people who have lived there since the Dreamtime.

Yuendumu, in the desert county is situated 291 kilometres to the north west of Alice Springs and is one such community - it's a place where the entire population of 600 is proud of its football team (the Yuendumu Magpies) and the hero of that team is Liam Jurrah who was drafted last week by Melbourne at number 1 in the Pre Season Draft. So proud, that it's been reported that the whole town has converted from being staunch Magpies into Demons.

There's a sort of symmetry between the Melbourne's first and last draft selections for senior list players. Like Jack Watts who was picked first in last month's national draft, Jurrah is also an exciting, tallish player at 193cm (a few centimetres shorter than Watts) who plays up forward. Their stories of course, are very different. Watts comes from a suburban bayside suburb in one of Australia's busiest cities while Jurrah is a man of the outback.

According to the Age's Martin Flanagan in his excellent 2007 article Magpies spread their wings, Jurrah has a strong desire to play AFL which comes as somewhat of a surprise because of the difficulties which men of the desert have in acclimatising to the bustle and the cold of city life in the south:

"The desert men find Melbourne hard to cope with. Too cold, too many buildings, can't see the sky."

The Collingwood Magpies invited Jurrah to join their VFL team for 2008 and he arrived in time for round three. He was one of their stars on the day, booting three goals and was named their best. Three more exciting games followed but he had to return home for family reasons and played out the season with his local club starring in the grand final with six goals, a performance he repeated soon after with Nightcliff in the NTFL. As a result of a mix up, his draft papers weren't lodged in time and he was ineligible for last month's national draft but the AFL granted him special consideration and last Sunday, in front of Melbourne's head of recruiting Barry Prendergast and scouts from North Melbourne (which had invited him to Melbourne to train) and Richmond he kicked five for Nightcliff in an electrifying performance. Two days later, he became the fortieth player on Melbourne's senior list joining Jamie Bunnell and Neville Jetta as the club's new indigenous players on its new look and exciting young playing list.

Unless you happen to be one of those unfortunate people who have been locked away at Guantanamo Bay or some other like institution, you would probably have heard more than enough by now about the Melbourne Football Club's number one draft pick Jack Watts. I therefore won't dwell on him here as he's already received good coverage in this series but before moving on to remaining nine young faces added to the club's list in this year of change I thought it must be said that I can see this young man thriving on the work that has to be done at Melbourne and that he will enjoy being the spearhead for a resurgence of the Demons.

Prendergast used the first two national draft selections to draft two young 17 year olds as the club's main investment for the slightly longer term. Both Watts and Sam Blease, picked at 17 with the club's priority draft pick for winning less than four and a half games in 2008 will be completing their schooling next year. As young bodied footballers they will be looked after, nurtured and played sparingly with an eye to their development into regular AFL players in 2010 and beyond.

Red headed Sam Blease, an outside midfielder from the Easter Ranges carries a slight 182 cm and 70kg frame. Like Watts and fellow early draftee James Strauss, he's fast, agile and delivers the ball with perfect efficiency. He is a player who can do freakish things on the football field as he showed in the final of the U18 championships at Telstra Dome in July. In one piece of play, he used his pace to run down a WA opponent, effect a magnificent tackle, recover to follow the ball up forward, receive a handball and zig zag around two opponents to kick a goal from 45 metres out. The commentators gushed with praise about him ticking every box in the one piece of action and it certainly wasn't his only highlight that day.

Blease's story is not as joyful as that of his new team mate Jack Watts. He was watching Friday night football at home one evening with his father, who was his coach, when he suffered a heart attack and died. His dad was his coach and to this day he before a game, he will read the notes written by his dad on how to play the game. Blease is young and small physically so we shouldn't expect too much too soon but when he fills out and gets some game time in his legs, watch out for something special.

James Strauss was used mainly as a small defender for Vic Metro during the national championships and was a good ball winner who showed that he had all of the necessary attributes to play midfield. The Scotch College First XVIII Vice Captain has good ball control and is a penetrating right foot kick who spots up his targets well and invariably hits them with centimetre perfection. His combination with Watts was a highlight of the under 18 national championships.

Barry Prendergast pulled off his first surprise of the draft by calling out Jamie Bennell at selection 35. It certainly surprised West Coast who were getting ready to call out Bennell's number at pick 36. The Swan Districts midfielder who hails originally from Bunbury is small at 178cm and 68kg but has silky skills and has been compared with the Eagles' David Wirrapanda. He moves smoothly across the field, has good speed, is balanced and creative and uses the ball well. He tested impressively in the speed and agility tests at the WA NAB AFL state screening where he recorded 2.99sec for 20m and 8.34sec in the agility.

Bennell and Neville Jetta, selected at number 51, have a lot in common as both come from Bunbury and both come into AFL football via the strong recruiting system at Swan Districts. A midfielder with goods skills, Jetta is 180 cm and 77kg and he has some aggression in him to match his good skills, creativity and excellent marking strength for one his size. The 18 year old represented WA U18's in 2008 and was brilliant in the Swan Districts Colts premiership win in September where he won the Mel Whinnen Medal for best on ground in the Grand Final . He's a distant cousin of Essendon's Leroy Jetta.

A somewhat more mature aged Rohan Bail was the club's final choice at the national draft. A slightly built medium midfielder, Bail is an endurance athlete who can run all day. He chose not to go with the Gold Coast team but tried his luck in the draft after training with both St Kilda and Melbourne last year.

The club also added three rookies Jordie McKenzie, Rhys Healey and Daniel Hughes who was on the club's rookie list in 2007 but sustained a long term injury and missed all of 2008.

And so in an off season in which the news was dominated by a 30 year old fallen hero who eventually found a home at Tigerland, the Demons have stocked their cupboard with a wide and varied array of exciting young talent that seems well equipped to help their new club to adapt to football's changing landscape. It's a bold policy but even in the short term it seems to be paying off with record membership numbers for this time of the year. Time will tell how effective these changes will be on Melbourne's fortunes in the long run.

POSTSCRIPT - HOW THE CHANGES HAVE TAKEN PLACE

The changes at the club have been enormous since Dean Bailey took over its list from caretaker coach Mark Riley a little over twelve months ago. This is the squad that Neale Daniher and Riley had at their disposal in 2007 -

MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB - PLAYING LIST (SEASON 2007)

SENIOR LIST

Clint Bartram Matthew Bate Daniel Bell Clint Bizzell Nathan Brown Cameron Bruce Simon Buckley Nathan Carroll Aaron Davey Lynden Dunn Ryan Ferguson James Frawley Colin Garland Simon Godfrey Brad Green Ben Holland Mark Jamar Chris Johnson Paul Johnson Travis Johnstone Nathan Jones James McDonald Brock McLean Brad Miller Brent Moloney Heath Neville Michael Newton Ricky Petterd Byron Pickett Jared Rivers Russell Robertson Colin Sylvia Daniel Ward Matthew Warnock Isaac Weetra Paul Wheatley Matthew Whelan Jeff White

VETERAN LIST

David Neitz Adem Yze.

ROOKIE LIST

Jace Bode * Daniel Hayes Daniel Hughes Shane Neaves

* upgraded from the rookie list to senior list during the 2007 season

Bailey took this group into his first season as coach -

MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB - PLAYING LIST (SEASON 2008)

SENIOR LIST

Clint Bartram Matthew Bate Daniel Bell Jace Bode Cameron Bruce Simon Buckley Nathan Carroll Kyle Cheney Aaron Davey Lynden Dunn James Frawley Colin Garland Brad Green Jack Grimes Ben Holland Mark Jamar Chris Johnson Paul Johnson Nathan Jones James McDonald Brock McLean Tom McNamara Addam Maric Stefan Martin John Meesen Brad Miller Brent Moloney Cale Morton Michael Newton Ricky Petterd Jared Rivers Russell Robertson Colin Sylvia Matthew Warnock Isaac Weetra Paul Wheatley Matthew Whelan Jeff White

VETERAN LIST

David Neitz Adem Yze

ROOKIE LIST

Jake Spencer Shane Valenti* Austin Wonaeamirri* Trent Zomer

* upgraded from the rookie list to senior list during the 2008 season

Next year, Bailey will have one of the youngest lists ever assembled at the club -

MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB - PLAYING LIST (SEASON 2009)

SENIOR LIST

Rohan Bail Clint Bartram Matthew Bate Daniel Bell Jamie Bennell Sam Blease Cameron Bruce Simon Buckley Kyle Cheney Aaron Davey Lynden Dunn James Frawley Colin Garland Brad Green Jack Grimes Mark Jamar Neville Jetta Paul Johnson Nathan Jones Liam Jurrah Brock McLean Tom McNamara Addam Maric Stefan Martin John Meesen Brad Miller Brent Moloney Cale Morton Michael Newton Ricky Petterd Jared Rivers James Strauss Colin Sylvia Matthew Warnock Jack Watts Paul Wheatley Matthew Whelan Austin Wonaeamirri

VETERAN LIST

James McDonald Russell Robertson

ROOKIE LIST

Rhys Healey Daniel Hughes Jordie McKenzie Jake Spencer Shane Valenti Trent Zomer