THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2007: DAY FOUR

THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2007: DAY FOUR by The Oracle

ON SOLID GROUND

The first thing I remember about footy is the peanut seller who used to ply his trade at Princes Park carrying a large Hessian bag full of shelled peanuts but there's nothing else about my debut appearance at a VFL ground that rebounds from the memory banks.

I remember things from my teenage days like the rough and tumble gasometer wing at Arden Street, the foul stench of the toilets in the outer at Windy Hill, the tasteless, colourless hot dogs at Victoria Park, the engine drivers sounding their sirens as the trains whizzed past the sardine can shaped Glenferrie Oval and the creaky wooden stands at Albert Park where South Melbourne used to play. Later still, there was the perpetually boggy Moorabbin Oval and the rain swept VFL Park at Waverley while nowadays you have the toffy bars at the Dome but there's absolutely nothing like the M.C.G.

The place is the very pinnacle not only of football grounds but also of international cricket and other sports. I reflect on the ground at this time because it's only a matter of weeks since it held crowds of close to a hundred thousand on successive weekends of the AFL finals series.

However, the one ingredient that was sadly missed at the MCG was the presence of the club that was founded there and that has called the ground its home for almost 150 years. Are we ever going to relive the glory days of the Melbourne Football Club when the team was a power of the competition playing at the best ground in the country, the best in the world?

Yesterday, on the fourth day of trade week, the new Demon regime headed by coach Dean Bailey sent a message to its players, supporters and the football world at large. The players who represent the club will be part of a brave new world of football – a changed landscape where the team will be expected to play the game with passion. The game of football will no longer be simply a ritual at Melbourne – the new management means business. The kind of business you do in the month of September at the M.C.G.

On the day when Carlton and the Eagles finally put the Judd Saga to rest, the Demons completed two deals of their own.

In the first, they gave away their most talented footballer, a man with silken skills and unbridled ability to play the game at the highest level. Travis Johnstone put in ten years at the club but for all of his ability, he never really reached the dizzy heights one expects these days from a number one draft pick. Recently Paul Roos was talking up Jude Bolton and he mentioned that his player would not be traded cheaply because he had finished in the top ten of the club best and fairest for three years in succession. Despite his undoubted talents, Johnstone had done that on only three occasions in his decade at the club, albeit that in 2005 he actually took home the "Bluey". However, given that when the 2008 season starts he will be nudging 28 years of age -well past the club's under 23 benchmark for the concentration of its football talent - Trapper was let go to Brisbane after representing the club 160 times for a first round draft selection at number 14. That's life in modern day football.

On the same day that it shed itself of a player recruited in the first round of a national draft, Melbourne also gained a first rounder in 21 year old 201 cm tall ruckman John Meesen who has had an altogether different history to that of Johnstone. Originally from the Geelong Falcons, Meesen was a first round selection for Adelaide at pick number 8 in the 2004 National Draft but he managed to feature in only two AFL games for the Crows and neither of them was anything to write home about.

He played most of his football in the City of Churches playing for the SANFL's Redlegs – Norwood Football Club where he must have come under Bailey's notice when the new Demon coach was an assistant at Port Adelaide. Hopefully, he can bring out the best in what he saw at that level and manage to develop his player into a leading ruckman in the AFL competition because Melbourne's ruck stocks badly need a boost with Jeff White entering the twilight of his career.

Given that big men take a while to develop, the Demons are banking on him coming of age and blossoming as an AFL ruckman in the next couple of seasons. Meesen is ready, willing and keen and displayed that by telling the club’s website Melbournefc.com.au, "I am really thrilled to be joining the Melbourne Football Club and can't wait to get stuck into pre-season training on October 31."

General Manager of Recruiting and List Management Craig Cameron said, "[w]e are very pleased that we were able to strike a deal to get John to join the Club. John is an outstanding runner and at only 21 years of age, has plenty of potential to become a long term player with the Melbourne Football Club."

A nice welcome but the trading away of a talented footballer and introduction of a relatively untried young ruckman are not of themselves enough to inspire the possibility of a return to the finals. Surely, there's more?

Speaking on SEN however, Cameron indicated that that there was nothing on the table for tomorrow's final four hours of trading before the week's activities draw to a close at 2.00pm. Naturally, he couldn't entirely rule out the possibility of more exchanges because there's always a chance of a last minute deal on the final day of trade week.

Whether or not there is more to come as a result of the final day's trading really begs the question where Melbourne is concerned. Since Bailey was appointed coach, he has signalled a change in (I hate using this word but I will here) "culture" at the Melbourne Football Club with his delistings and his fearless approach to trading. The main problem with the club on the field in recent years has been the inconsistency of its performance. There are moves afoot to ensure that the problem is overcome and that the team will finally find itself on more solid ground.