TIME IS A TRAVELLER

[Demonland 73,140]

by Whispering Jack

A bronze statue of Ron Barassi stands on the concourse outside the MCG. I walk past and close my eyes in order to better capture the memories and the life-like image of my boyhood hero. There he is in full flight crashing through a pack of men in black and white striped guernseys who part obligingly in the wake of his muscled body. There's a cold, steely stare of determination etched on the leader's ferocious face; one that evokes a feeling of comfort that tells me this Demon is a winner. His team is supreme.

The moment vanishes. I open my eyes and suddenly, I realise that I've travelled through time to a new space. My four year old grandson clutches my hand in excitement on the way to his first game at the G. It's Queens Birthday and he wants his face painted red and blue because it's also Jack's game and, like his new hero, he's wearing the number four today for the first time.

But Jack Watts' big day ends in the wet and the final result is a humiliation for his team. Collingwood is merciless booting seven goals to nil in the opening term and, despite a brief comeback in the second, the Demons succumb by 11 goals.

The Magpies win all over the ground with a single exception. One Demon has faced his own demons and is starting to overcome them. Colin Sylvia collects 17 kicks, 15 handballs, 11 marks and kicks three booming goals. Mark Jamar wins more than his share of hit outs in the ruck duels but many are stolen by the Magpie midfield. Cameron Bruce, Brent Moloney and Nathan Jones try hard but the team is crushed. If not beaten by the opposition, then beaten by its own insipid performance wracked with poor disposal skills and senseless decision making.

Dean Bailey's team is putting in what is by far its poorest effort for the season. The fall away in intensity, the lack of tackling and pessure on opposition players is alarming. They are so much on the nose that even the football refuses to bounce their way. There are no targets up forward (and even if they were there, they would have struggled to claim many marks given the shoddy delivery), no crumbers, no initiative and no leadership.

It was revealed at the weekend that some time ago the leadership group took Sylvia to task for not putting in the hard yards to enable him to live up to the expectations we all had of the club's number 1 draft pick in the year that he was recruited. Today the same people must look him in the eye and assure him that they are up to much the same task.

So now the team sits last on the ladder and is placed to win nothing from the season, except perhaps a priority draft pick. Overall, the Demons give the appearance of having done some time travel of their own - all the way back to round 1, 2008. Not a good day to be on football's main stage unveiling this year's number 1 draft pick amid the hype that suggests he may be the club's next hero.

Sport thrives on its heroes. We had them once but that was somewhere deep in the past and our searching in recent times has failed to bear fruit to date. But heroes don't just grow on trees and before the golden era of the mid 50s and early 60s, we had to experience the lows. In 1953, the year of Ron Barassi's debut, Melbourne finished second last. Two years later, the club had a wealth of new heroes and the Demons were premiers.

The youth at the club, including Watts, are showing brief glimpses of what might be but they are still light years away from being the heroes of old and there's much work to be done to get there. For them, the bronze statues must wait for us to travel much further in time.

Melbourne 0.4.4 5.6.36 6.9.45 8.12.60

Collingwood 7.4.46 10.7.67 16.11.107 19.12.126

Goals

Melbourne Sylvia 3 Bate 2 Bruce Jones Robertson

Collingwood Dick 5 Anthony Lockyer 3 Didak 2 Clarke Cloke Davis Pendlebury Sidebottom Swan

Best

Melbourne Sylvia Jamar Moloney Davey Grimes

Collingwood Pendlebury Swan Didak Davis Dick Lockyer Fraser Shaw O'Brien Anthony

Injuries

Melbourne - Nil.

Collingwood - Nathan Brown (jarred knee)

Changes

Nil

Reports

Nil

Umpires

Stevic H Ryan S Ryan

Crowd 61,287 at MCG