STATE OF THE LIST I

by The Oracle

I'm sick and tired of having to live up to my name by making predictions about the Melbourne Football Club. The Demons are simply unpredictable - even for someone of my status.

Who knows which Melbourne is going to turn up at the SCG this week?

Your guess is probably as good as mine so rather than bore you with all kinds of yadda yadda about how Melbourne might perform against the reigning premiers on Sunday I thought I would go through the club's entire list to see where each individual is standing at the present moment. Perhaps that might provide an insight into what's what at Demonland.

So here goes: -

BARTRAM, Clint – AFL 3 games, 1 goal - started his career well as a tagger

BATE, Matthew – VFL 2 games, 2 goals – two totally dominant games with Sandringham are surely enough to ensure that this youngster makes his debut on Sunday at the SCG

BELL, Daniel – missed out with groin injury that doesn't want to go away

BIZZELL, Clint - out with a calf injury and keeps failing the test

BODE, Jace ® - VFL Reserves 1 game, 0 goals – came back from last week with an injured knee and impressed

BROWN, Nathan - AFL 2 games, 2 goals, VFL 1 game 2 goals – punished with demotion after an ordinary opening but did his penance with Sandy and came back strongly last week at Carrara

BRUCE, Cameron – AFL 3 games, 5 goals – stellar start to the season and easily Melbourne's best so far

BUCKLEY, Simon – VFL 2 games, 1 goal – missed much of the pre season but has impressed in the VFL with his pace and skills

CARROLL, Nathan – AFL 3 games, 1 goal – has had some tough assignments to date and just going at full back

DAVEY, Aaron – AFL 3 games, 5 goals – started the season like a house on fire with the first two goals of the game against Carlton but has only shown flashes since then

DUNN, Lynden – VFL 2 games, 4 goals – showing a great deal of promise alongside the KPP's at Sandy

FERGUSON, Ryan – AFL 2 games, 0 goals – will miss most of the first half of the season with that ribs and lung injury sustained in round 2 at the Telstra Dome

GIANFAGNA, Andre ® - VFL Reserves 2 game, 1 goal – very much an outside player with great pace and pressing for senior selection at Sandringham

GODFREY, Simon - VFL 2 games, 2 goals – a shock call up to the AFL this week after some uninspiring form with the Zebras. It's a mystery how has made it but the coach has something in mind - no doubt!

GREEN, Brad – AFL 3 games, 1 goal – worked hard in every game and in the best players each week

HOLLAND, Ben - VFL 1 game 0 goals, VFL Reserves 1 game 2 goals – in line for his second promotion in consecutive weeks after starting the season kicking off the dew at TBO on comeback from injury. Did well last week at CHB

HUGHES, Daniel ® - VFL 1 game 1 goal, VFL Reserves 1 game 3 goals – a jumping jack whose strong marking is creating an impression in his first rookie season

JAMAR, Mark – AFL 3 games, 1 goal – has been kept in the background as Jeff White’s understudy in the ruck. Out his week with a plantar fascia strain in his foot

JOHNSON, Chris – AFL 1 game 0 goals – played against the Bulldogs and was taken to Carrara as an emergency last week. Now back with the Zebras for some game time.

JOHNSON, Paul – AFL 1 game 0 goals, VFL 2 games 0 goals – unimpressive in the opening round loss to Carlton but has fought his way back with some good form at Zebraland

JOHNSTONE, Travis – AFL 3 games, 1 goal – not anywhere his best of last year

JONES, Nathan - VFL 2 games, 1 goal – looks a good prospect as a hard at it inside midfielder still getting a grounding in the game at VFL level

MCDONALD, James – AFL 3 games, 0 goals – hardworking but unspectacular

MCLEAN, Brock - AFL 2 games, 0 goals – retuning after an injury plagued pre season, he was quite impressive against the Crows. Could be the one to reinvigorate the midfield

MILLER, Brad – AFL 3 games, 1 goal - moving from CHF to CHB without showing any of the attributes that had many talking of him as a future captain in the last couple of years

MOLONEY, Brent – AFL 2 games, 1 goal – injury problems persisted through the pre season and a question mark over his fitness remains

MOTLOP, Shannon – AFL 1 game, 0 gaols – promising pre season but seems to have lost form

NEAVES, Shane ® - VFL RESERVES 2 games, 0 goals – gets his call up to VFL senior ranks to cover P Johnson’s promotion to the AFL

NEITZ, David - AFL 3 games, 7 goals – a welcome return to the goalkicking list last week but still a fair way from top form

NEVILLE, Heath – VFL Reserves 1 game, 0 goals – first game after missing the entire pre season with OP. Difficult to assess on limited time at this level

NEWTON, Michael – VFL Reserves 2 games, 1 goal – only making slow inroads at this early stage of his career. Kicked 1.5 from CHF last week

NICHOLSON, Alistair – VFL 1 game, 0 goals – missed last week with injury and has failed to impress to date

PICKETT, Byron – AFL 3 games, 0 goals – slowly starting to show some of the form that made him such a feared opponent in the past

READ, Phillip – VFL 2 games, 1 goal – concussed last week at Box Hill

RIVERS, Jared - AFL 1 game, 0 goals, VFL 1 game, 0 goals – stepped back into the breach at CHB last week with an excellent first up display

ROBERTSON, Russell - AFL 3 games, 6 goals – hampered by an injured knee and nowhere near his best of 2005

SMITH, Nicholas - VFL 2 games, 2 goals – not impressing in the VFL but moved to CHB this week

SYLVIA, Colin – AFL 3 games, 2 goals – starting to show glimpses of the form that made him such a highly rated recruit a couple of years back

WARD, Daniel – AFL 3 games, 0 goals – only so so

WARNOCK, Matthew ® – AFL 1 game, 0 goals – surprise selection in defence last week after five weeks out with a thumb injury. Acquitted himself well on Trent Hentschell

WHEATLEY, Paul - AFL 2 games, 0 goal – has been adequate since missing the first round with injury

WHELAN, Matthew - AFL 3 games, 0 goals – our underrated star hasn’t shown his best yet

WHITE, Jeff – AFL 3 games, 1 goal – no longer dominant as a ruckman

YZE, Adem – AFL 3 games, 1 goal – struggling to get back to his best form

I hope that it hasn't escaped anybody that there is a fair number of players on the club's list who have been afflicted either during the pre season or the season proper with some form of injury. There have been a few cases of the dreaded OP, a couple of minor breaks, lots of niggling ailments and nothing major other than Fergs' predicament (that's if you don't call OP "major" – which it clearly is in the case of an important youngster like Belly). Hopefully, these things will settle down, the team will start winning and maybe the situation can become a plus later in the season when players might otherwise become a bit weary after a long hard grind of a year. That's me wearing my rose coloured glasses again.

So on to the game …

SYDNEY v MELBOURNE

THE TEAMS

SYDNEY

B: Barry Richards Schneider

HB: Mathews Roberts-Thomson C Bolton

C: J Bolton Kirk Crouch

HF: O'Keefe Hall Goodes

F: Williams O'Loughlin N Davis

FOLL: Jolly Ablett McVeigh

I/C (from): Buchanan Chambers Dempster Fosdike Kennelly Malceski Moore

IN: Kennelly Dempster Moore

MELBOURNE

B: Wheatley Carroll Whelan

HB: Yze Rivers Brown

C: Green McDonald Sylvia

HF: Robertson Miller Davey

F: Bruce Neitz McLean

FOLL: White Godfrey Johnstone

I/C (from): P Johnson Pickett Bartram Holland Warnock Ward Bate

IN: Godfrey P Johnson Holland Bate

OUT: Jamar (foot - plantar fascia strain)

NEW: Matthew Bate (Eastern Ranges)

Where & When: SCG, 1.15pm, Sunday 23 April.

TV & Radio: Channel 9 (Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane), Fox Footy (WA), 3AW, Triple M (Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide), ABC Radio

Head to Head: Played - 192, Sydney: 101, Melbourne: 90, Drawn: 1

Last Time they met: Sydney 16.8.104 defeated Melbourne 11.12.78 in Round 16, 2005, at Telstra Dome

The betting:

Sydney $1.45, Melbourne $2.55

My Tip

This clash pits two of last year's finalists who have won only one game between them. Sydney's win was last week at the Telstra Dome against Carlton which beat Melbourne at the same venue a fortnight earlier.

That is not necessarily a good guide however, because the Blues had Waite missing last week and Lappin was injured early. Those two were stars against Melbourne while the Demons are starting to also get their act together in terms of form and personnel. Melbourne's form wasn't all that bad last week against one of the premiership favourites.

I expect the Demons to rebound from their poor start to the season with a narrow victory, even on foreign soil of Sydney.

What the heck?

Melbourne by 8 points