THE END OF THE LINE

by The Oracle

We are barely into the second week of spring but have already said farewell to eight out of the forty-four players who comprised the Melbourne Football Club senior and rookie lists in season 2007.

On the second day of the month the Demons saw September action although it was anything but a finals game; rather it was the very antithesis of what good clubs aspire to in our sport. That final MCG match against Carlton will be remembered for many things, most of them unsavoury, but the club did win the four points (however meaningless a result that happened to be) and it also put on a magnificent farewell to three of its warriors who went into retirement from the game. As was noted in the media, all three managed to leave the game on their own terms rather than being forced out through injury - a stark contrast to some of the other AFL retirements this season.

The most emotional of the three farewells from a Demon perspective was that of Nathan "Doggy" Brown who leaves the club after ten fine seasons, 146 games and 35 goals, all of which make him eligible for life membership.

Melbourne was entering a new era when Nathan Brown was plucked out of the AFL National Draft in late October 1997 at selection number 66. Neale Daniher was about to take up the coaching reins, the club had secured Jeff White in a trade with Fremantle, a teenage prodigy in Travis Johnstone was the number 1 draft selection and Jamie Shanahan was soon to cross over from St. Kilda as the first pick in the pre season draft. The winds of change lifted the team all the way to a preliminary final in 1998 but Brown, from West Adelaide, was barely noticed that year despite a promising debut at Princes Park against the Blues. This was mainly because the dogged hard running defender spent the early part of his career fighting off several soft tissue injuries and it took a few years to establish himself with the club.

Brown played only three games in his debut season and he didn't play senior football again until 2000. He finally became a regular the following season but it wasn't until 2004 that Doggy took his game to another level. That was the year that he missed out by one vote to Jeff White on becoming the Keith "Bluey" Truscott club champion. It was a good year for the club and Brown was in the thick of things averaging more than 20 possessions a game and playing in a variety of roles where he was able to use his hard running and ferocious attack on the ball to his team's advantage. The following year he played his 100th game but in 2006 injuries struck again and his form dropped off. His disposal of the ball was never at the top end of the scale in terms of quality and this stood out particularly early in 2007 when the team was under siege with injuries to many key players. But even with his career coming to a close, Doggy never dropped his intensity at the ball and his last month or so was simply outstanding. Who could ever forget how long and hard he celebrated that last goal in his final against the Blues. He leaves the game a true Demon and his life membership is a well-earned reward for a decade of loyalty and sterling service to the club.

Fittingly, Doggy will receive that award later in the year together with Daniher, his coach of all but the last half season of his career and another departing Demon in Daniel Ward.

Clint Bizzell played 75 games for Geelong before he was traded to the Demons at the end of 2001. The player who was once described at the Cattery as the "next Gary Ablett" had to settle for a lesser career than that of the Geelong legend but for a couple of seasons he held together the Demon defence and deservedly earned the title of the "General" of his team's back line. He often took on bigger and taller forwards and did a great job marshalling the troops in defence. An Achilles injury and a fractured cheekbone incurred in 2004 curtailed his effectiveness and he suffered a further setback on the eve of the 2006 season when he fractured his foot. He missed the whole season but managed to play with Sandringham's VFL premiership side. The Biz struggled his way through 2007 before announcing his retirement on 163 games in total (10 in 2007).

Byron Pickett will go down in history as one of the nation's greatest indigenous footballers. His career spanned eleven years, featured premierships with both the Kangaroos and Port Adelaide (where he won the Norm Smith Medal for his best on ground performance in the 2004) and a finals series with Melbourne in 2006, the year he crossed to the club in a speculative trade deal with the Power. The Demons were banking on his explosive strength, speed and aggressiveness to lift the team and the plan worked well for the first 15 rounds until he broke down with a hamstring injury. From that time onward, Pickett endured injury and personal woes and, having lost the fire in the belly, he retired from the game at the end of the current season.

This week, the number of players off the club's senior list doubled with the announcement of the first delistings for 2007 and we now bid farewell to Simon Godfrey, Heath Neville and Daniel Ward along with rookies Daniel Hayes and Shane Neaves.

Simon Godfrey is the type of player you would want to take with you to the trenches. He is all about courage, dedication and hard work and, in spite of the fact that his career has been curtailed by this week's delisting, it would not come as a surprise if he polled very well in this year's "Bluey" polling.

Recruited from Box Hill as a number 14 pick in the pre season draft of 2000, he was generally used as a midfielder but was never known for having great disposal skills. He was used primarily as a tagger who focuses on shutting down his opponent. He was fifth in the best and fairest for 2003 despite his errant kicking.

Godders notched up his 100th game for the club this year and he picked up some big scalps with his tagging roles earlier in the season. However, a knee injury put him out of the business of being a serial pest to the likes of Adam Goodes and Scott West and he leaves the club with 105 senior games and 23 goals under his belt. He is said to be the "greatest player to have ever worn the number 30 in the AFL whilst wearing a glove at the same time" but that's probably an unkind epithet to the career of a player got the very most out of himself – something that cannot be said for some of the more talented and skilful players in the game.

Tasmanian Heath Neville spent two years at Melbourne after being selected at 68 in the 2005 AFL National Draft but his career never really got off the ground. He was injured for much of his first season and spent all but a handful of games this year with the reserves at Sandringham.

Although Daniel Ward, never played senior football with the Fitzroy Football Club he started out as a supplementary list player with the Lions' reserves in the mid nineties and, as such, is technically the last of the "Roy Boys" to play an AFL game – Brisbane's Chris Johnson having finished up the night before the Melbourne v Carlton game.

Wardy was also one of the first of the AFL rookies. He came to the club after Fitzroy's demise and was elevated to the senior list in 1998. In many ways, his career echoed that of retiring team mate Nathan Brown. He established himself in the team in 2001 as a fast running, long kicking half back with some stints one a wing and in the midfield and he played his 100th game in 2005. After a flat period, he has re-established his place in the side over the last two seasons but, at 30 years of age and with 136 games and 31 goals under his belt, it was felt he had to give way to the club's policy of developing its youth.

The delisting of Shane Neaves as a rookie-listed player probably took some by surprise. He appeared to be developing well at Sandringham where he was a ruckman in its 2006 premiership side but there were some question marks about whether he had sufficient pace and athleticism to step up from VFL level to the modern demands of the AFL. Perhaps the writing was on the wall when he was dropped for one week late in the season to the Zebra reserves.

Daniel Hayes is a player whose rookie season was beset by personal problems and he made a late start as a result. Without a pre season behind him, he struggled and looked all at sea when he received a late call to make his debut in the Zebra seniors as an injury replacement. There were also some question marks down at Sandy about his attitude and such things do not bode well when it comes to determining whether an individual has a future in the game.

So two weeks after the appointment of Dean Bailey as coach and a little less than that since the last ball of 2007 was kicked in anger, more than 18% of the list has gone. With the exchange period coming up early next month, it is highly likely that we will bid farewell to some more familiar faces for that is the nature of the game these days. When you finish a disappointing fourteenth and fail to make it to the real September action then it is in the club's interests that changes take place. When that happens, something has to give and the day will come for those who reach the end of the line.