TWO OUT OF THREE AIN'T BAD

TWO OUT OF THREE AIN'T BAD by Whispering Jack

I like the first week in February because it's a time when the transition from the summer sports to the footy starts in earnest. We wave goodbye to the tennis players, their grunts and squeals and their funny accents and we prepare to bid adieu to the Pommy cricketers as the cricket season meanders to a close with a few meaningless one day hit and giggle fests … well meaningless apart from the fact that the Aussie public and corporate sector demonstrated their continuing generosity by kicking in six million bucks to aid the flood victims. That's despite the fact that Julia will be slugging some of us for more later on but that's another story.

The thing is that despite the taxes and the dubious quality of governance on both sides of the political fence this is a bloody great country to live in when you consider what's going on elsewhere. The world has its WikiLeaks, rioting and looting in cities and even assassination attempts in the U.S. of A. and all we got here over the long hot summer was flooding, cyclones and DikiLeaks.

I was ecstatic therefore, when the calendar showed we were in the month of February and I had three big footy dates circled in red. Two of these dates were actually on the same day – Thursday with Melbourne's first intraclub hit out in the morning and the AGM in the evening and then yesterday, with the Richmond v All-Stars game slotted to take place in Alice Springs and televised on the ABC.

The latter game was supposed to feature the inimitable talents of Demon trio Jamie Bennell, Aaron Davey and Liam Jurrah with the added attraction of watching Brad Miller's debut in Tiger strip but the remnants of Cyclone Yasi put paid to that. There used to be a time when players would walk barefooted on hot coals to play a game of footy. Nowadays, 100km/h winds and heavy rain are enough to cause a game to be cancelled. All I can say is Andy Demetriou and the AFL are soft as butter but I managed to fit in the other events so I guess two out of three ain't bad.

Meanwhile, the first lowlight of the month of February came with the sport losing a legend by way of the sad passing during the week of Darrel Baldock. The "Doc" was not only a freak as a footballer; he was a Labor member in Tasmania's State Parliament, a successful racehorse owner-trainer and a more than handy cricketer who once made 55 on a green top against a touring West Indies side facing the express speed bowling of Wes Hall. Long before he became a Saint, he signed a form committing himself to Melbourne in 1958 but he stayed at home until 1962 by which time the Demons' hold on him (and a subsequent one by the Swans) had lapsed. A magical footballer at 179 cm, he captained St. Kilda's only premiership side in 1966 playing at centre half forward. Yes, he was that good!

Baldock would have been appalled at the goings on at his old club. The Saints held their AGM on Thursday night - the same night as Melbourne but the contrast was enormous. I thought skipper Nick Riewoldt's efforts to play the victim card was a cringeworthy exhibition of paranoia. "They" might be out to get the Saints but "they" weren't responsible for the Lovett rape charges, the nude-photo Facebook scandal and the ham-fisted way the club treated the 17 year old girl at its centre or the shenanigans at the club's training camp in New Zealand. The Saints managed to complete 2010 with a fantastic on field achievement of making it to the grand finals but they risk implosion if they don't grow up and pull their heads in. Blaming others is not the answer.

Across town, the Melbourne AGM went off with few hitches. One of our own legendary figures, Jim Stynes, opened the night in true presidential style calling for 40,000 members in 2011. "We know where were going", he told the faithful at the MCC Members Dining Room. Crowds are growing, players are getting bigger, the team has more depth and the group of people we have at the club is stable. He welcomed the new people on staff including Todd Viney and Brian Royal, good people who are very reflective of our culture. "We are about people".

The club is now debt free and made a profit in 2010 thanks to the efforts of CEO Cameron Schwab and his team. The Players are expected to improve and the same is expected with the supporters as we aim for 40,000 members. "The more members you have the stronger the club will be." Later, it was revealed that an extra 5,000 members meant at least an extra $500,000 to the club's bottom line. That's why we need to set high goals.

The President set a positive tone for the night and it continued when his trusted lieutenant Don McLardy announced special awards to Gary Marchant (the volunteers award and what an emotion charged acceptance) and to Arthur Wilkinson, the club's long serving doorman. The Age's Martin Flanagan wrote a terrific piece on Arthur that was read out to the meeting. The piece brought to mind the idea of continuity in the oldest football club; Arthur, who used to ride horses in the bush, was introduced to Melbourne by former coach "Checker" Hughes in 1960. Hughes was first involved back in the 30s. I still see the daughter of the late Percy Beames, another great Demon stalwart of the past walking around the park near where I live.

Board member Guy Jelland presented the financial report revealing good numbers. A net profit of $3.5m is a bloody good number considering the club's recent history and even when taking out the "one offs" like debt demolition and 2009 input from stadium returns, the profit was in the order of $700,000 and the big thing is that the club is debt free.

Of course, the raw numbers produced by accountants doesn't tell us about our true riches. These assets were described later in the members' information part of the evening but it's clear that they stem from having good people among the players, staff and administration and the supporters.

Cameron Schwab spoke of the emblem, the call of club and the sense of belief we have developed in the new Stynes era. Players are fostering community spirit by being involved in various programmes e.g. Cale Morton (literacy), Jack Watts (bullying in schools), Nathan Jones (road safety) and the club's promotion of breast cancer awareness. He also spoke of the concept Jimmy raised at last year's debt demolition of now being at base camp. We are now at a point where we have facilities that are at least the equal of those we play against.

"Watching team develop is like watching your child grow. You'll enjoy watching your team win."

Dean Bailey mentioned how important the end of season trip to China was as a stepping stone in developing mateship. He also stressed that the challenges the club has this year are those within our control - there are more players on the track and with more players training, there is more internal pressure as 37 vie for 21 spots plus the substitute role in the team.

Last year, the Demons still allowed the opposition to go inside 50 more often but the gap is narrowing. The team is getting better and needs to create more pressure to create opportunity.

Bailey is a down to earth bloke but you do get the feeling that he is becoming more upbeat about his team's prospects. He wants us to be THE team of the decade (and why not, if that isn't your aim you shouldn't be in this game). He described how the last three drafts have given him the nucleus of a team that can create the club's own history. On top of that, it's developing in maturity. There are five players at the club who could play their 100th games in 2011, Aaron Davey will reach 150 and skipper Brad Green will make the lofty heights around 240 games which, at the age of 30 by the end of the year will put him up with the club legends.

Club recruiting guru Barry Prendergast introduced the new boys (with the exception of Kelvin Lawrence who left for Perth earlier in the day to attend a former team mate's funeral). The draftees from the main draft are all talls and all very athletic. Jeremy Howe can play key forward but started on a wing in the intraclub game earlier in the day. Prendergast explained that after the last two drafts where he had poll position with the early picks last year's draft provided the opportunity to fill out the list and add depth. He said that while those first two drafts were exciting, this one was "none less exciting". A little more on those players later.

Chris Connolly interviewed the leaders and Brad Green was impressive facing the members for the first time as skipper. We might have lost a true leader in James McDonald but one gets the feeling that the transition was necessary to move the club to its next phase and that includes the introduction of young leadership potential and, in that regard, Nathan Jones and Jack Grimes were more than impressive.

Question time gave supporters the opportunity to speak their minds. The predictable Tom Scully question was second cab off the rank and was met with Cameron Schwab's dead bat. The club doesn't conduct its negotiations over player contracts publicly. That won't change. Further, the expectation is that the group of players will stay together because of the environment we've put together.

We also learned that Ricky Petterd had sustained a grade 1 hamstring which is fairly minor in the scheme of things and he should be back running in a week.

There was a question about Cameron Bruce's departure and whether that would affect team morale particularly in view of his close friendship with Brad Green. Bails flicked that one straight to the square leg boundary. Bruce made his decision and it won't affect the playing group who are all professionals. Green remains a good mate of Cam and we all move on.

The most interesting question to my mind was the one about how do we go about competing with Collingwood's style of play. I liked Bailey's response that all clubs would be looking to this and they way was by matching Collingwood's attack on the football and their defensive pressure. The Magpies worked hard to better the Saints and the Cats in this department. Every club needs to strive to match or better them and the rest in 2011. And that's a good note with which to segue back to the proceedings earlier in the day over at Gosch's Paddock.

Thursday morning's intraclub game has been well covered and I won't go into too great deal of detail. It was said by some that the game was scrappy and certainly it opened up in that vein with swirly winds and nerves playing a part early but in the second half the tempo lifted and there were some good patches of play. What we saw was pretty much what you would expect in a first hit out when fourteen players are injured and unavailable. They were:

Jamie Bennell (All Star Game), Robert Campbell (Achilles), Aaron Davey (All Star Game), Troy Davis (rested as part of management of training loads), Jack Fitzpatrick (on crutches with foot in a moon boot), James Frawley (pectoral muscle tear), Brad Green (gastro), Jordan Gysberts (rested as part of management of training loads), Nathan Jones (back spasms), Liam Jurrah (All Star Game), Michael Newton (broken wrist), Luke Tapscott (rested as part of management of training loads), Matthew Warnock (ankle) and Austin Wonaeamirri (held back as his pre season training has been interrupted by bereavement).

Sam Blease and Max Gawn, recovering from ankle and knee injuries respectively) were limited to half a game each and Rick Petterd tweaked his hamstring and was off by half time. This left 29 fit Demons after the main break and this gave the Casey top up players plenty of work which was great for these young blokes (and a few of them performed brilliantly) although it was obvious that sometimes it became difficult to get the systems working. Still, players put their bodies on the line from the first bounce and there was little doubt about the endeavour of every player on the field.

I was most impressed by the work of a few players who seem to have grown their games over the summer months. I have always considered Neville Jetta as lacking somewhat in pace but this was not evident on Thursday. He seems to have found an extra yard or two and used it to advantage both when attacking and when applying defensive pressure. He was a bit of a revelation and he did it the hard way playing in the White team which was the considerably weaker side in the second half. James Strauss appears stronger and his kicking was superlative while Rohan Bail ran hard and showed some good pace and skills even when opposed to Tom Scully who was in dominant form. Stef Martin's body is well chiselled and he really looks a footballer now. His ruck work was of a high standard and I think he might have his nose in front of Jake Spencer in the contest to play second fiddle to Mark Jamar who is far and away the club's best ruckman.

Players to shine were Colin Sylvia (best on ground for both teams after switching jumpers at half time), Scully, Brent Moloney, Jack Grimes, Jack Trengove and Jack Watts while Clint Bartram ran the ball well out of defence and had lots of possession. Joel Macdonald was impressive across half back.

It was pretty hard for the new boys to impress but I really liked Jeremy Howe, who will add excitement to the forward line and Lucas Cook and Tom McDonald both showed they are great medium to long term prospects. Rookies Michael Evans, Cameron Johnston and Dan Nicholson, all likely midfield types flashed in and out of the play and really look to be impressive prospects – any one of them could well eventually follow in Jordie McKenzie's footsteps.

The day demonstrated that there are many footsteps to follow including those of Brian Dixon who was recently inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame. It was fitting therefore that "Dicko" finished the night off with a roaring rendition of the club song complete with the second verse – the one in which the team played fine in the year of 39 ... with spirit of 26. We need to find words that rhyme with eleven or twelve.