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INDIGINE - THE POSTSCRIPT by Whispering Jack The recruitment of young indigenous footballer Dominic Barry as part of the deal that brought seventeen year old future star Jesse Hogan to the Melbourne Football Club might appear to some as a mere postscript to a piece of complex trading but, to me, it comes as a revelation. In many ways, Barry's story echoes that of Hawthorn star Cyril Rioli who left his native Northern Territory as a fourteen year old and came to Victoria to study and to play sport. Barry ended up at St. Pats College Ballarat and developed a reputation as an exciting footballer possessing pace and smooth skills despite his light frame. He represented the Territory in this year's National Under 18s and was also a member of the North Ballarat Rebels who were TAC Cup minor premiers but fell out of the premiership race in the preliminary final. More recently, his stocks soared after some stunning results in the AFL Draft Combine. He speaks well and looks to have a strong, intelligent mind. Dominic Barry's transition from a young Alice Springs teenager to playing member of the country's oldest football club has already been one to marvel about given the circumstances and the age at which he embarked upon his personal journey. The next stage will be even more daunting as he faces a long, hard development period during which he will be prepared to become a senior AFL footballer. Barry will be doing all of this under a shadow that now hangs over the brotherhood of the indigenous players within the environment of the game at the elite level. I recently came across this article in the Northern Territory News - Why NT players don't last in AFL. It discusses the difficulties that many indigenous Territorians have in adapting to life in the big smoke. It also evokes thoughts of the controversies that saw Matt Rendell's sacking from his recruiting job at Adelaide and the unseemly false slurs of racism directed at Melbourne coach Mark Neeld earlier in the year. To be sure, there have been many success stories like Maurice Rioli and his nephew Cyril, Michael Long, Andrew McLeod, our own Matthew Whelan and Aaron Davey but the stories of those who did not succeed got me wondering. This is due to the sad fact that one of the list of "failures" is someone who I always believed had the strength to reach the greatest of heights in our game. So what is it that can explain why the bookmark in my copy of Bruce Hearn Mackinnon's book The Liam Jurrah Story: From Yuendumu to the MCG lies unmoved since early September when the news headline read Jurrah quits Demons? Where did it all go wrong? After all, this was a story that had provided so much inspiration before the book was even conceived. In 2009, l heard it direct from the author's mouth at a small gathering of Demon fans at the Richmond Hotel that was once owned by Demon great Ron Barassi. Liam was already an elder among his people in his early twenties and was set to act as an example to the desert inhabitants from the centre of Australia who suffered poverty and whose youth were exposed to alcohol, drugs, petrol sniffing and rampant crime. The Warlpiri Wizard's journey to Melbourne and his role as an athlete was already creating excitement in AFL circles. The story of that journey from Yuendumu to the MCG was meant to establish a new pathway out of hell for some of these kids but none of us could have predicted the intensity of the raging storm about to envelope the remote desert community of Yuendumu. The feud within Liam's community is well documented hereand here. It lingered and festered and ultimately led to the events at an Alice Springs encampment which resulted in criminal charges being laid against Jurrah and others within his family. The repercussions appear to have rendered shut many of the doors to the pathway out of hell. Even in the likely event (based on what I have read in the media of the evidence from the committal hearing) that Liam is exonerated in the eyes of white man's law at the trial set to take place next March in Darwin, those doors will not reopen without the intervention of a great deal of tribal wisdom that is beyond our reach and understanding. We can only pray that peace return to their homes. Meanwhile, these events were taking place many light years away from the Melbourne Football Club which had its own problems throughout the year in other areas. The reality in the case of Liam Jurrah was that despite the support of the club and its members and fans, it was becoming impossible for him to remain a part of that other world with its own heavy commitments and workload while he and his community occupied such a dark space. There are some who feel animosity because Jurrah left the club and headed towards the sanctuary of his family without a word of thanks or without seeking a way out that would have left his club with compensation for an exciting young player whose career had stalled. Others blame it all on his heritage. Those views are uncharitable and selfish. He gave us enjoyment and he provided us with thrills every time he took the field in his short career. He has fulfilled his obligations to us as ours have been satisfied with him but it’s over now, If we must talk in terms of compensation, then I am grateful with the realisation that the Melbourne Football Club has not shunned the Aboriginal footballer as a result of this year's experiences with Liam Jurrah and to a lesser extent with Kelvin Lawrence and with Austin Wonaeamirri before him. That is our compensation - the fact that we continue to openly embrace the talents of our indigenous players after such a difficult year enriches us as a football club. It is what elevates Dominic Barry's arrival this week from a mere footnote to a revelation.

Neeld is building a team around Clark, Trengove, Grimes, Jones and Howe. Mitch must not ruck at all in 2013.

I see Gysberts' great talent, but his fitness to date is deplorable. My greatest worry is that he is limited physically like Josh Toy or Jack Ziebell and will be never be capable of building a big enough engine. VO2 max testing and the like should be able to tell us this. If it's just a desire issue, I think that will come with maturity and being surround by other competitive beasts. Much better to roll the dice on this than move him on for a low return. In a nutshell, IMO: physical limitations = trade/delist mental/heart issues = keep

And Lynch was dropped late last year and decided to leave West Coast because he felt he was being squeezed out, so West Coast can't have been too impressed with his performance. Yet the Pies were very keen to get Lynch to come to them for a specific role that they thought he was better suited to than Dawes. And that role is pinch hitting in the ruck. Dawes doesn't do it well and won't have to at Melbourne. Neeld coached him and Brown played with him, so let's accept that they're in the best position to judge how beneficial he'll be to our structure. Prior to his fractured knuckle in 2011 he was having a stellar season and it would have required two first rounders to prize a gun young CHF out of Collingwood. Last year he wasn't allowed to play just as a key forward and some players need continuity to reach the required levels of confidence. His stocks having dropped is presently Melbourne's gain. Who knows what he'll be worth again 12 months from now. My biggest issue is that I was expecting us to draft 3 (hopefully) gun mids in the first round and now at best that looks like being two. But if Trengove steps up to be the player we all expected then that will go a long way to solving our midfield woes. Neeld was right about Clark, and while I was far more excited about Clark at the time than I am now about Dawes, I'll give Neeld's judgment the benefit of doubt and start getting mildly excited about how he's transforming this playing list.

Dawes' value would be beyond his on field contribution. Neeld is very strong on developing a culture, but I am 100% supportive of. On top of that, Dawes is a hard running and strong key forward who still has 6 years of good footy in him. We are very lucky because we don't need Dawes to be the pea (like the Dogs do) because we were fortunate enough to get Clark last year (which was an amazing move that I still pinch myself over), so we just need to provide a structure that helps support Clark. With Dawes and Pederson, we have a structure that could really work. Then we have a nice age spread with Hogan coming in next year as an atheltic, hard working gorilla forward. If we have the structure in place next year then we are able t just concentrate on improving the talent of those that make up the structure. For example, bringing in Viney plus pick 4 in the midfield, plus an earlyish pick next year,

Could be. Could also be that he had a broken ankle and then a broken jaw which kept him out for most of the year and ruined his fitness base.

Chris Dawes is worth pick 20 to our side IMO and I'd take it if we could get it done.

We must consider that part of what Neeld is planning to do is replace some of the lost balance of experience in the list. This brings hardened bodies and a change in the leadership culture. We have lost Moloney, Junior, Bruce, Green, Rivers? over the last couple of years. We now have Clarke, Byrnes, Dawes, Ray? coming in to set the example and provide real experience and leadership. Dawes has a lot to offer our club more than just the onfield stuff. It amazes me how some people are acting like we should have got Buddy or someone.... We have maximised our position to the fullest and should be really pleased with giving ourselves some chance of being more competitive next year.

Jake Viney has a Grizzly Bear carpet in his room, the Bear isn't dead his just afraid to move.

Must say I am a bit bewildered that Pies are not seeking Martin in the trade. They are reportedly about to delist Wood and Jolly has at best one year left with all his injuries. The early talk was that they wanted Martin and now he is not even being mentioned in the deal. I would offer him and a swap of later picks to see if we could get the deal done. Even Martin and Petterd would be worth a try as Petterd played some great games against the Pies and I would have thought they would have some interest in him.

The acquisition of Dawes has to to be looked at in context and not isolation. If all we were to take out of this draft was say someone at 4 and 20 then you would look at that but we aren't and haven't. We HAVE Viney, we HAVE Hogan, we will get another great kid at 4 ( wines likely ) we have picked up experience in Byrnes, we are likely to bolster our utility fwd/bk stocks in Pedersen and still likely to add to the mid experience with Ray. What we need is some serious help up the sharp end in he form of a ready to go kpp who'll play a 2ndup role and dissect the pack off of Clark. They're simply aren't that many to select from. Pick 20 is what it is....the price. Markets determine prices invariably and it will this time also. It's hardly the end of the world!!!

Unless your favourite player was Matty Whelan and you were able to honestly say that he had 2142 impeccable disposals.

Richo played his career best footy post this injury. Not doubting the severity or the impact of this injury, just saying I wouldn't throw myself off a cliff over it just yet.

I think it is a bit of yes and no. Even if he makes a complete and very speedy recovery extra talls will take the pressure off him: and also a bit of insurance in case he doesn't, or heaven forbid, gets another injury of some sort which happens in the Hurley burley of AFL. What I sincerely hope does NOT happen, and I have posted this elsewhere, is that Mitch is asked to do a lot more ruck work. IMVHO that robs Peter to pay Paul, and exposes him to a different range of injury that true rucks get and learn to live with. He is far too valuable as a KPF forward to 'waste' in this way. IF Dumbitriou, in his (lack of) wisdom decides to defy the clubs and introduce the 2+2 bench then it could be a whole different story, but lets hope, just this once, he extracts his head from the deep dark unsavory place it usually resides, and does listen.

No point in dwelling on this. We shanked the pick, and those responsible have long since fled. The only thing I get from reflecting on it is a bad mood.

Don't rate him at AFL level. At all.

The only thing between Gysberts and top level midfielder is his running ability. Unfortunately it's a pretty damn important part. He is exceptional in close and has an innate 6th sense around the packs, but he is very poor on the spread and running defensively. Neeld obviously rates running ability very highly because this directly relates to the team's abiltiy to defend all over the field. As it stands, he's offensively talented but defensively limited. If he was able to improve his running ability then he'd be a really good player. But they're looking to trade him, so I'm not confident that this can be easily improved.

It would literally end me if Clark was never the same because of his injury, which he only sustained because he keeps having to contest against 9 defenders on his own. This is why we need to overpay average players like Dawes, because Mitch Clark is a diamond worth protecting with other big bodies.

think you have been watching too many die hard movies

You could argue for Morton as an outside runner, but Gysberts is an inside mid with no speed or endurance.

Give the kid a chance ffs. If someone offers us a fair trade based on his potential, then we must conside,ie first round pick. Otherwise, let him have a decent crack at a season injury free.

For a change, I have faith that Melb will get a deal done for whatever is reasonable. Suddenly this club seems to know what it's doing and how to get it done. Might take a few days though.

I was on footy trip in Echuca and I met the good old dc, who enlightened me on his whole story, I asked him about the meds and his answer was "yes they were prescription meds, and they were meant to last me a couple weeks, I took all 10 at once" no wonder he didn't wake. He was also pretty confident he would play afl next year in the brief conversation i had with him, and he shouted me a beer, 30 minutes later he was rolling under the Rojo nightclub pool table. So it's a big yes for me, as he did purchase me a beer so he passed the good bloke test

In his third game against the pies he was hit by Ben Johnson whilst he was trying to get the ball and injured his back, it was a cowardly hit and he didn't play again that year. The following year he played 15 games and was ranked 4th amongst the Rising Stars for effective disposals behind Heppell, Hibberd and Shuey so his disposal can't be as bad as some on here believe. See who was behind him. http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_player_rankings?year=2011&rt=RA&st=ED Here are some more interesting statistics. http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/pc-melbourne-demons--jordan-gysberts My understanding is that they are concerned that after 4 years in the system he still hasn't put on any weight.

I hear this. I saw plenty of 70's footy, including our own insipid efforts. Today's footy is just so much better - constant pressure, meaning that tremendous defensive skills are applied to opponents whose skills are light years ahead of the old days. Thugs and cheap shot merchants have been eliminated. I sat near the fence in the Granny, and was gob-smacked at the physicality of it, and the ability of the players to execute under extreme physical pressure. And what is it you don't like about Jeremy Howe's repertoire?

Part of the recruitment this off season has been to pick players to help our culture and work ethic, he is not one of those players.

One thing about poor disposal and decision-making is that there is often an element of confidence in one's teammates involved as part of the reason. In a poor team, mistakes happen more often and even the best of players make them. Not saying that his disposal is perfect, but I'd like to think that as the team gets stronger overall, Nicho will improve in this area.

i'm going with O'rourke, simply because we need outside players. I think we already have good inside players (Jones, Viney, sylvia, Mckenzie) but we don't have very many outside midfielders for these guys to give it to. O'rourke adds a fair bit of class too which we definitely need. That being said i would still be very happy to have wines in our side

For all those saying pick 20 is "overs", they may be technically correct, but the problem is we don't have a pick 26 or 27 (which is what the market may dictate his value to be). It is rare that a player is traded for exact value, especially when he nominates a club.

Maybe it's because you don't understand what a personal attack is. There's nothing wrong if someone says that they don't think he has any idea what he's talking about because they think his posts are worthless rubbish that are clearly designed to push an agenda that is insulting to the intelligence of Demonland. It would, however, be against the Code of Conduct to say that he's a complete dick that most of the site hopes soon dies of a quick, but unspeakably painful, venerial disease. I hope that I have helped you to understand the Demonland Code of Conduct.

Wow I cant believe the negativity on here about Dawes. Was anyone else at the same games I was at during the season when Clark was playing and he would have 3 opponents going with him because we just kept bombing it into him. The when he went down we had to play Rivers and GArland in the foward line. Dawes would be a great replacemnt. he is experienced, young, can play and has strength. he and Clark would be great in the foward line together. How hard is it to get tall fowards that are ready to go. Yeah Dawes had a crap year but so did most of the pies players. But the year the pies won the flag he had a great year. Seriously he will be fantastic and would free Mitch up more. Also its great to see melbourne out there and having the guts to get these players. During the bailey era we didnt draft so well lets face it. How many of you bagged the club when we got Clark and he proved people wrong. Couldnt are less if we have to give up pick 20. We could pick up a dud who will hardly play any games or we could pick up a handy player. But DAwes is ready made. Remember this is the same club that oicked morton at 4 and luke molan at 9. Congrats to Mark Neeld for getting off his backside and targeting these players and getting them to our club. For putting a plan into place. For the negative people they can join the likes of Greg Denham in a room together. I am appluading the club especilly neeld and backing them in on there agressive recruitng and cannot wait for 2013.

It went on BIG TIME with Brock Mclean. But I don't think this is gonna realistically throw anyone off their game or training. After all, Jack Viney wasn't born, he hatched. From a rock.

Maybe, maybe not. I doubt that Cook would/will ever make it he simply doesn't have the requirements for AFL football. The other two have plenty of ability but need to work on aspects of their game and it's up to them if they want to go on or disappear from the scene. We all have to understand that not all players drafted are good enough to make the transition and some simply just don't have it, development or not. Even good clubs that have great development programs pick duds that's the nature of the business.

It's pretty hard to remember trades that didn't happen.... I can't even remember last years trades that didn't happen.....

Some people need to lighten up. It was rumoured Jack Viney told Tom $cully that "I'll be here in 2 years and I'm taking your spot, so you better FARK OFF now and grab the cash before I come down there and systematically dismantle you".

That's correct. I saw a lot of him as a junior and he played in multiple positions (half forward, half back, wing... anywhere he would be most dangerous). I never saw him as a key forward and I was surprised that he was described as such around draft time. He certainly can play as a forward, and did so on more than a few occasions as a junior, but I thought that he would be most effective on the wing. He has a beautiful kick, his repeated sprinting ability is fantastic, he has good hands and he reads the play well. Isn't that a wing? I'm quite happy with him rotating through these roles over the next couple of years.

No no, nothing that ridiculous, it'll be our Voss Black....

[media=] What a spud.

Love it how channel 9 reported that they have it on good authority that Melbourne and Collingwood will meet on Monday to discuss the Dawes trade. No Sh!t channel 9 ya knobs.

Who are these accumulators that you speak of? We never have hardly any players with over 30 touches, and generally jones was the only one you could count on to get more than 20!

I am amazed at the way some of our supporters are so willing to talk trash about a Premiership KPF who is 24, has played more finals than almost every player on our list, has a professional attitude, a great training reigimen and tremendous upside. Dawes would be an excellent pickup for Melbourne. I think that Neeld sees tremendous upside in our young mids. If Trengove, Grimes, Sylvia, Mckensie, Jones, Viney, Pick 4, Taggert, Ray?, Blease all play throughout the season we may well have a better midfield than many expect. Also Davey, Byrnes, Tapscott, Bail, Magner and Couch could play in there also if their form warrants it. Our midfield is bad compared to top teams, but not as dire as it was last year. Also the Draft is a lottery, its a risk, even though pick 20 has value a lot of it depends what the 19 picks before us end up being. Even then we have to develop the player, trust that they will have good luck with injuries and be able to handle a first year training load well enough to make the AFL team. In our current situation a proven player like Dawes is a solid preposition and we will still gain at least 3, possibly 4 with Ray, quality mids in this draft, before even talking about later picks and rookies (where we have done our best work the last few years). Edit: Forgot Barry

There'a a lot of potential there, but only one player listed has ever had one A grade year in the midfield. It's clearly our greatest area of concern. That said, 2 or 3 'A' grade mids completely change the fabric of a side. I watched Hawthorn a lot this year and the significance of Mitchell and Sewell was extraordinary. With those two dominating, plus help from Lewis when he wasn't forward they were clearly a top 2 team. Without those two they don't make top 4. Carlton were flying until Murphy and Carrazzo got injured. With those two playing all year they make top 4 and without them for a chunk of the season they don't play finals. Two more A grade mids with Jones continuing to improve (making 3) and we play finals, imo. That's the significance of quality midfielders. We had Jones having an A grade year and our next best mid in my opinion had a C grade year. Some will say Grimes had a B grade year in the midfield, but on the whole I'd rate his year as C grade, but there was enough promise to show he can significantly improve. He trained with the back-line all preseason, which wasn't ideal for a midfield role. But as you point out we should start developing an array of young midfield talent from next year. How quickly we can develop some A graders is the key.

If he can do it from an accident early on a Sunday morning............

It's too easy to criticise the approach the club is taking. Ithink we're doing very well with our list management. Clark last year. The Viney management, the Hogan selection and now pursuing Dawes whose market value is currently low. How about giving us your recipe for success. Trade pick 13 for Pendlebury and pick up Buddy in the PSD?

I'll tell you one thing... Sylvia will dominate if he's copping the fourth or fifth defender...

Dawes, Clark and Hogan mean we don't have to worry about getting a tall forward for the better part of a decade or longer. Pick 20 will deliver whoever has it a very good prospect. But that need for that pick is assuaged by us having Pick 4, Viney, an improved Trengove, and more involvement from Howe and Blease.

I agree completely and Stefan Martin on the other wing both quick and clever at ball play

Or possibly because they picked up so many bad habits during their time with us that they are damaged beyond repair. I think we've both picked crap and ruined potential good ones in our last decade. In any event I wouldn't take anything less than an established A grader from a team like Port.

Statue of Norm Smith gets put up, curse ends.

role player.