WINNERS AND LOSERS by Whispering Jack

[Demonland 71,868]

This has already been one of the most remarkable weeks in the history of our code of football.

We've seen headlines like this one - Essendon players given banned drugs which follows on the footsteps of this one from one and a half months ago - I took banned drug: Watson .

Despite evidence that players took prohibited substances and the admission on television of the Bomber captain, we are being told of the likelihood that no player will be served with infraction notices over the club's supplements regime.

And despite the fact that when news of the scandal broke on 5 February, Essendon coach James Hird declared he would take full responsibility for the clubs supplements program, he continues to hang on as coach with the full support of his club.

The evidence of the use of banned substances is said to be only "circumstantial". As long as the sports science man at the centre of the drug scandal, Stephen Dank, avoids interrogation by ASADA, we may never find out exactly what was injected into the Essendon players inside that club's "vault" opposite Windy Hill last year. Even then, we may never know.

The Bombers are one of the AFL's strongest clubs. They are wealthy, have a strong supporter base and in Hird, have a coach with an impressive record of 35½ wins from 63 matches. That, and the adulation of his fans and his club are keeping him from being the second coach to depart the AFL scene in 2013 although some are predicting that this will change soon.

The first coach to go was our own Mark Neeld about who I wrote on the eve of Melbourne's first encounter with the Gold Coast Suns earlier in the year:-

As a young coach Neeld has had to contend with far more than most would on entering this most demanding profession and although his toughest assignment has always been the need to turn around what for want of a better description has become a dysfunctional culture at the club after years of incompetence in the areas of recruiting, player development and coaching, he faces the prospect of being eaten up by the very same culture if his team is unable to match it with a team of equally experienced counterparts.

Mark Neeld never had much in common with James Hird. The latter was adored by all and sundry at his club and had the full support of its board, staff and players from the very start. He was a winner.

Neeld has had his detractors from day one, he suffered from an atmosphere of bitterness and instability and inherited a poor and ill-disciplined list with which he struggled and which ultimately brought him down. The damage was in part self-inflicted; he showed very little on match days to inspire any confidence in his capacity to bring success to the club and he lasted exactly 1½ seasons. He was a loser.

However, in the face of the supplements scandal one has to wonder whether Hird can remain a winner for much longer. Will the legacy of his time at his club become even more destructive than that left by Neeld at Melbourne?

And for all of his failings, Neeld could never be accused of failing to look after his players as the Bombers have with theirs. With Neeld now gone and, in his absence, another humiliating loss at the hands of the AFL's other new franchise team fresh in their minds, the onus is on the players to produce something better this week. They have been losers for far too long.

THE GAME

Gold Coast v Melbourne at Metricon Stadium on Saturday 10 August 2013 at 7.40pm.

HEAD TO HEAD

Overall Gold Coast 1 win Melbourne 3 wins

Metricon Stadium Gold Coast 0 wins Melbourne 0 wins

Since 2000 Gold Coast 1 win Melbourne 3 wins

The Coaches McKenna 0 wins Craig 0 wins

MEDIA

TV Fox Footy Channel live at 7.30pm

Radio SEN ABC

THE BETTING

Gold Coast $1.12 to win Melbourne $6.25 to win

THE LAST TIME THEY MET

Gold Coast Suns 16.18.114 defeated Melbourne 7.12.54 in round 7, 2013 at the MCG.

The fitter, faster and more enthusiastic Suns jumped the Demons at the start and destroyed them utterly. Coach Mark Neeld was to last a further four weeks but this was really the end for him.

THE TEAMS

GOLD COAST SUNS

Backs Trent McKenzie Sam May Seb Tape

Half forwards Greg Broughton Rory Thompson Luke Russell

Centreline Harley Bennell Gary Ablett Jarrod Harbrow

Half forwards Jaeger O'Meara Sam Day Aaron Hall

Forwards Campbell Brown Charlie Dixon Nathan Bock

Followers Daniel Gorringe Danny Stanley David Swallow

Interchange Dion Prestia Andrew Sexton Matt Shaw Tim Sumner

Emergencies Jackson Allen Andrew Boston Thomas Murphy

No change

MELBOURNE

Backs Lynden Dunn Colin Garland Dean Terlich

Half backs James Strauss Tom McDonald Mitch Clisby

Centreline Jack Grimes Jack Viney Jordie McKenzie

Half forwards Matt Jones Jack Watts Jack Trengove

Forwards Dean Kent Jack Fitzpatrick Luke Tapscott

Followers Jake Spencer Colin Sylvia Nathan Jones

Interchange Shannon Byrnes Aaron Davey Troy Davis Dan Nicholson

Emergencies Sam Blease

In Troy Davis Jordie McKenzie Dan Nicholson James Strauss

Out Max Gawn Jeremy Howe (calf) Cam Pedersen Jimmy Toumpas

DEPRESS CONFERENCE

After 12 months of dominating the media for mostly all the wrong reasons the Melbourne Football Club hit the wall as far as the media goes when Neil Craig's press conference could only muster three journalists this week - Melbourne coach Neil Craig says players have opportunity to make club relevant in last four games of season.

Yes, you do tend to become irrelevant when you lose a game by 37 points to a bunch of pimply faced young kids, many of them barely out of their teens but the humiliation sets in when you realise that of the trio, one's your own club historian and another was only there at gunpoint.

Anyway, the club is working on ways to attract a bigger crowd to the next presser. Aside from offering free grog, one of the suggestions made by the MFC media working party was to have Neil Craig turn up wearing a Paul Roos mask. This would also serve the purpose of causing the confidence of the playing group to soar, Demon supporter forums would go into a frenzy and the number of assorted media people attending would not only go through the roof but most of them would, in all likelihood manage to stay awake and ask some decent questions for once.

Anyway, that's not the club's most pressing problem at the moment. It's main task, and a mountainous one at that is to overcome the Gold Coast Suns on their home turf at Metricon Stadium and avoid becoming the first club in AFL history to lose in consecutive weeks to the franchise newbies.

The bookies are convinced as they've installed the home team as the strongest favourite to win in its brief history. The Demons are deservedly listed at $6.25 and desperate to see the end of the season come in a little over three week's time.

If the Suns could toy with this mob at the MCG in May, then surely a hot August night on the Gold Coast with Gary Ablett Junior in Brownlow winning form should see them winning by a big margin particularly given the lifeless efforts the Demons have produced in the last fortnight.

Unless the playing group makes an effort and demonstrates some pride in itself, then the team will continue to generate more depressing scenes such as those at this week's presser when they were even short of attracting the proverbial three men and a dog.

Gold Coast by 78 points.