Changes 2009: Trading and Drafting by The Oracle

by The Oracle

Nothing ever stands still.

In football, this applies to every aspect of the game and, in particular, to every team's playing list. The best of clubs needs to turn over players every year if they are to keep pace with an ever- changing game. Legendary coach David Parkin used to maintain that even after a premiership year, his aim was to introduce five good new players into his team for the first game of the following season.

For a lowly club like Melbourne which has languished at or near the bottom for the past three seasons, the need for change has been self- evident. In fact, one could well say that the team's very mindset and its performances in 2009 were coloured by the need to secure a lion's share of the best young talent in the country.

So the end result of a difficult year has been the arrival of many new players at the club, all of them going directly onto the senior list.

The club had added seven fresh faces to its playing list with six of these coming via the National Draft where it was well placed to nab some of the country's most talented youngsters. The new arrivals are (in order of draft selection):-

Tom Scully - Date of Birth: 15.05.91 Height: 182 cm Weight: 74 kg (Dandenong Stingrays, Vic)

Left-footer and magnificent gut runner with lightning hands and a brilliant talent who led Vic Metro at the last Under 18 Championships.

Twice All Australian at that level.

2 Jack Trengove - DOB: 02.09.91 Ht: 185 cm Wt: 82 kg (Sturt, SA)

SA Under 18 captain who is superbly fit and has sublime skills.

Matched it with the men in the SANFL finals and also made All Australian.

11 Jordan Gysberts - DOB: 11.06.91 Ht: 189 cm Wt: 83 kg (Eastern Ranges, Vic)

AIS/AFL academy graduate who is a versatile and clever footballer.

Represented Vic Metro at under 18 level in 2008 and 2009.

18 Luke Tapscott - DOB: 28.06.91 Ht: 180 cm Wt: 86 kg (North Adelaide, SA)

Powerfully built on baller who can play back and forward and is a prodigious kick. Made All Australian this year and represented SA under 18s in 2008 and 2009.

34 Max Gawn - DOB 28.11.1991 Ht: 208 cm 104 kg (Sandringham Dragons,

Vic)

Ruck prospect whose 2009 season was interrupted by knee surgery. Still growing.

50 Jack Fitzpatrick - DOB 26.06.1991 Ht: 201 cm 85 kg (Western

Jets, Vic)

An agile tall forward/ruckman who is a good lead and strong mark. Also represented his state at under 18 level over the past two seasons.

Chronic fatigue syndrome has held back his development but he now has it under control.

And the club's Pre Season Draft Selection:-

Joel Macdonald - DOB: 10.10.84 Ht: 188 cm Wt: 88 kg (Brisbane Lions, AFL)

Defender who played almost a full season with the Lions in 2009 and looks ready to fit straight into the Melbourne line up.

The incoming seven replace a number of delisted and retired players as well as one who asked to be traded elsewhere. These were the departures:

Senior List - Simon Buckley (delisted) Brock McLean (traded to Carlton for National Draft selection #11) Russell Robertson (retired) Matthew Whelan (retired) Paul Wheatley (retired)

Rookie List - Shane Valenti (delisted) Trent Zomer (delisted)

A few famous names at the club have gone and while some will leave holes at the club, for one reason or another (mainly injury) none were significant contributors to the cause in 2009. Their experience will be missed but for the most part, it was time to move on.

There was a bit of internal shuffling within the list. Cameron Bruce became a veteran (replacing Robertson on that list) and John Meesen and Michael Newton lost their places on the senior list but were redrafted as rookies. Rookies Jake Spencer and Jordie McKenzie should have been uplifted from the rookie list but showed great loyalty by remaining on as rookies to leave room on the club's primary list and to enable the drafting of additional young talent at the National Draft.

Some of the manoevring of positions came as a result of changes in AFL draft rules such as the introduction of mature age rookies and the third year rookie rule. This brings me to the exception to the rule about nothing ever standing still.

Almost thirty years ago, in the first incarnation of a draft at the then VFL, Melbourne selected a young full back named Danny Hughes from SANFL club Port Adelaide. He came over and had a solid career with the Demons and his namesake is still at the club and on its rookie list.

Daniel Hughes, from the Sandringham Dragons and Sandringham VFL was first rookied at the end of 2005. He played a senior pre season game against the Bulldogs up in Darwin the following year but has yet to make a regular season appearance with the Demons thanks mainly to injuries. He was delisted at the end of 2007 but was back on the list a year later and is still there.

The complete MFC list for 2010 reads as follows:

MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB - PLAYING LIST (SEASON

2010)

SENIOR LIST:

Rohan Bail Clint Bartram Matthew Bate Daniel Bell Jamie Bennell Sam Blease Kyle Cheney Aaron Davey Lynden Dunn Jack Fitzpatrick James Frawley Colin Garland Max Gawn Brad Green Jack Grimes Jordan Gysberts Mark Jamar Neville Jetta Paul Johnson Nathan Jones Liam Jurrah Joel Macdonald Tom McNamara Addam Maric Stefan Martin Brad Miller Brent Moloney Cale Morton Ricky Petterd Jared Rivers Tom Scully James Strauss Colin Sylvia Luke Tapscott Jack Trengove Matthew Warnock Jack Watts Austin Wonaeamirri

VETERAN LIST Cameron Bruce James McDonald

ROOKIE LIST:

Rhys Healey Daniel Hughes John Meesen Jordie McKenzie Michael Newton Jake Spencer

The Melbourne Football Club last made the AFL finals series in 2006 when it eliminated St. Kilda before bowing out to Fremantle in a Semi Final at Subiaco. Since then, the club has been through a horror stretch of three barren seasons wracked by injuries and poor form that have produced an average of four victories per year. Below is the club's list at the beginning of that three year period. It serves to demonstrate how an AFL's team list can change over a short period of

time:

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

It's still a while before we get the opportunity to sight any Melbourne players in action on a footy field. I'm not sure whether there will be a Darwin Indigenous All Stars game this year (if there is, then rest assured, you'll see some Demons on the field that night). Otherwise, the AFL action will take off soon after in February in the NAB Cup pre season series. One hopes that this year we'll see more of boys in the red and the blue in action and performing at a higher level than in recent times. Perhaps a change of luck and an appearance in September?

Then who knows what other changes might take place over the ensuing two or three years? We might even end up witnessing the sight in this photograph allegedly taken by this time traveller who recently returned to earth:

(courtesy of MFCnow)

Now that certainly would mark a change!