LOOKING FOR A DIFFERENT CAT by Whispering Jack

Will Ralston's cruel Tom Scully parody based on the song by Adele, "Someone Like You" has become a You Tube anthem for Demon fans in the post Scully era. There is karma; deep, hurtful bruising followed by healing and closure to a distasteful piece of the club's history. Tanking is dead, the different cat whose arrival promised salvation but delivered nothing is gone, taking the poisoned chalice and his thirty pieces of silver to Blacktown with him and leaving us with two highly inadequate compensation picks given what they cost us.

But catharsis has come. We live, we breath, the air is clean again and we can look for the next different cat without the burdens of the moral dilemmas which we imposed upon ourselves in those dark times as children bawled "their eyes out when Jordan McMahon kicked Richmond's winning goal after the siren while their fathers wore grins from ear to ear." 

Suddenly, less than a week after we waved farewell to young Tom, there is a breath of fresh air rushing through the Melbourne Football Club. The newly appointed coach, Mark Neeld warns that his Demons will be hard to play against and promises to assign his recruiters with the mission of plugging the gaps in the team's requirements.

The club will, of necessity, become more involved in the trades than in previous years, a change mandated by the perceived weakness in the draft pool, the compromised nature of the draft, the selections currently available, the situation of the list and the fact that Scully's departure has left the club with spending money for new players. All of the elements are there for the Demons to become more involved in the trades than they have for years.

The targets are likely to include one of the under 17 mini draft players, a mature, quality midfielder with the ability to win the ball at stoppages and some leadership capability and a tall marking forward.

To achieve this you need both a positive approach and good intelligence. There are some clubs that might need to free up salary cap space, others might have needs where Melbourne has a surplus. Some sacrifices might have to be made because fairytale trades don't just happen. They have to be win/win deals for both sides and this might mean some pain and some angst among supporters.

Neeld comes from Collingwood which has been one of the more daring clubs at trade time. The Demons are not at the same point the Pies were at two years ago but they did well getting Jolly and Ball in the 2009 trades leaving themselves with a first pick in that year's national draft in the 60s. Given that the AFL has given a free rein of this year's draft to Greater Western Sydney and the lack of depth of the pool, a strategy of filling the gaps through trading would appear to be the most productive way to go about things at the present time.

With less than a month left before the trade period which incorporates the mini draft for 17 year olds, it's worth looking at the prime candidates among this young group. There are two of them and the main one is 182cm 75 kg Jaegar O'Meara from Perth who recently booted four goals on debut for his WAFL club.

The AFL national talent manager Kevin Sheehan said of him on the AFL site:

"He is a gifted medium midfielder with breakaway pace and elite endurance. He has averaged 20.6 possessions at 71 per cent efficiency in the NAB AFL Under-18 Championships, winning All Australian honours. He was part of the 14th intake in the AIS-AFL Academy."

 

O'Meara is all the rage and he seems to be everyone's favourite but my mail is that, if the main target is a quality player to win the ball out of  the midfield, then the club would do well to focus on a youngster from closer to home in  Brad Crouch who hails from North Ballarat which has become a fertile recruiting ground in recent times. The 184cm, 83kg on baller would feel right at home joining Tom McDonald and Lucas Cook who were drafted from that part of the world last year.

Sheehan says: "He had an outstanding year in the TAC Cup and NAB AFL Under-18 Championships, winning All Australian Honours. Excels with his ball-winning across half back or midfield and makes good decisions with the footy. He was selected in the AIS-AFL Academy 15th intake which comes together this month."

 

Melbourne already has a leading 17 year old prospect in father/son nominee Jack Viney coming on board in 2013. Viney is known for his tough uncompromising style very much in the image of his old man. If the Demons can also snare a 17 year old through the GWS mini draft, they will have two very likely looking young additions to the playing list who fit the bill in the quest to find that Someone Like You. Knowing that they have at least one and possibly two young and different cats in the bag, it will also be easier for them to spurn the draft pool to an extent and to enter the exchange period in a very aggressive frame of mind.

The focus this weekend might be on the AFL's two great preliminary finals but there is also another game in town on Sunday - the TAC Cup Grand Final between the Sandringham Dragons and the Oakleigh Chargers. The Chargers team will have a definite Melbourne flavour with the sons of two football department members on display. Whispering Jack will be there to report on the game.

I don't care as long as we get someone tough. These tough kids we get should be ready to go at 18, with muscles and tattoos, perhaps a few assault charges. The new generation are a bunch of lightweights.

Some call it ultra professional to refuse a beer with team mates. I call it big-girls-blouse-and-Sydney-is-the-perfect-place-for-a-wet-gusset like you syndrome.

Dustin Martin is about the only kid playing that I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.

Good Family/nice school/good VCE results? Good for you-go play mixed netball on Wednesday nights.

Time for us to get some kids who don't smile all the time-you know?

These tough kids we get should be ready to go at 18, with muscles and tattoos, perhaps a few assault charges.

Good Family/nice school/good VCE results? Good for you-go play mixed netball on Wednesday nights.

Way to go! Imagine how good Juddy, Luke Ball and Mike Fitzpatrick could have been if they hadn't spent so much time developing some of their wuss-like characteristics.