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You mean the one with so many conflicts, like the fact that he was captain of the worst tanking team which garnered 3 number 1 draft picks and that the AFL is not investigating his team despite admissions from players and coaches that they tanked, or the conflict of his financial involvement in grounds used by the AFL in preference to others, which he makes money out of.

Yeah right, let's get him down there with Hogan, Barry, Kent and Stark and have him teach them his party tricks. It's pretty simple - DO NOT TOUCH.

Maybe a lot to do with the cleaning up of the AFL's, & Vlads "list management mess",,, hoping to give the footy public & the AFL,, closure at our expence. The Silence on this matter from the tough clubs, is well,,, deafening. Just as the superficiality of the Press, & electro' media in Not calling to broaden the inquisition, is just gutless... they don't deserve being sports reporters.

Then subtract 30 years...

LOLI just noticed your avatar. What a pisser. Well done.

The long period allocated for AFL clubs in which to recruit players has brought 14 new players to the club but it has also unearthed some old names and since I'm a great believer that any co-incidence might bring better times for the Demons, what could be better than to link new with old in the search for a bigger and better club? In its entire history, the Melbourne Football Club has had only one player whose surname is Hogan and that player managed only one game for club. He was Joe Hogan and his sole game in the red and blue came against Carlton in Round 6, 1932 at a ground that no longer exists - the Motordrome which was situated in what is now known as the Olympic Park precinct. Very little is known of Joe Hogan who was born on 27 March, 1909, wore the number 13 and came to the club from Ballarat Imperial. He played under legendary captain-coach Ivor Warne Smith. The Demons had a poor season in 1932 finishing ninth with only four wins and they were no match for the Blues who were premiership favourites and ultimately finished minor premiers only to be knocked off their perch by the Tigers in the grand final. The game was played at the Motordome because the MCG had undergone resurfacing works and the fertiliser used on the ground was a hazard to players. A crowd of 12,500 turned up to witness the game and the Fuchsias made a good fist of things in the first half to hold a five-point lead against the inaccurate Blues at the main break. The visitors overpowered them to win by four goals and I know absolutely nothing of how Hogan went other than that he never played again. The team finally broke through for a win in Round 9 against St. Kilda and made it three in a row with wins over Fitzroy and Essendon. The only other win came against wooden spooner Hawthorn. Although we heard no more of Joe, the club's next J. Hogan is due to pull on the boots next year. I'm betting that big 17 year old key position player Jesse, has a much longer and more celebrated career than the last. A number of players who carry the more common name of Jones, including current club champion Nathan, have represented Melbourne over the years so recruit Matt Jones should feel quite at home at the club. I could write a book about all of the Jones' but, at the time of writing the end of the world was about to arrive and I was restricted for time and space, so I will simply list their names and records in brief form:- ■ Alfred E Jones 24 games, 18 goals (1908-9) from Port Rovers; ■ Brent Jones 45 games, 5 goals (1966-71) from MFC reserves. At 191cm, 85.5kg, Jones played in the ruck and as a key defender in an unsuccessful era for the club; ■ Carlyle T Jones 11 games, 14 goals (1925-6, 1929). Played one game for St. Kilda in 1931; ■ Dennis Jones 62 games, 4 goals (1956-60, 1962). The strongly built 183cm, 90kg defender who could take a mark, played in the club's 1959 premiership team and later came back for a brief and unsuccessful stint as coach in 1978; ■ Gordon A Jones 61 games, 2 goals (1935-40). A dashing defender from Maryborough, Jones represented the state and played at centre half back in Melbourne's 1939 and 1940 premiership team despite the fact he was only 179cm tall; ■ Les Jones 121 games, 88 goals (1933-41). A dasher who played at half forward and kicked three goals in the 1939 premiership team; ■ Nathan Jones 135 games, 68 goals (2006 -) from Mount Eliza. The nuggety midfielder is one of the club favourites and is current best and fairest; ■ Raymond Jones 1 game (1949) from Collingwood. Now we extend the welcome mat to the latest Jones - Matt, who is already creating an impression in early training sessions. The other old/new name to grace the Melbourne playing list is "Viney" but, in this case, it's no co-incidence. Jack Viney is the son of Demon great Todd and the nephew of lesser known Jay who represented the club in the 80s and 90s. I've always considered Round 1, 1987 as one of the turning points in the club's history. The Demons beat Fitzroy comfortably in that game but things weren't shaping all that spectacularly until a late run at the end of the season saw the Demons in the finals for the first time since 1964. Much of the credit for that goes to the development work commenced under Ron Barassi's coaching earlier in the decade and to the recruiting of interstate talent at the end of John Northey's first season as coach in 1986. Three newcomers, Warren Dean and Earl Spalding (WA) and Todd Viney (Sturt) all made their debuts in the opening round of 1987. They were recruited by a young Cameron Schwab and their infusion into the team brought new life to the Melbourne Football Club. Todd was a tough as nails midfielder who didn't take long to make an impression. In just his second season, he was elevated to the vice captaincy (at age 21) and was a member of the club's losing grand final team in the same year. He remained an important cog in the Demon line up for several years, winning best and fairest honours in 1993 and 1998, the latter being his first year as captain when he led the team to a preliminary final. He retired at the end of the following season still at the height of his ability but succumbing to a sciatic nerve problem. Viney was a regular member of the SA State of Origin team through the 90s including his last season, achieved All Australian honours in 1998 and played 233 games (the most by a Demon wearing the number 12) and kicked 92 goals. In mid career, he had a brief stint to join the coaching staff for tennis player Mark Phillipousis but that didn't quite work out and he was soon back playing football for the Demons. Todd Viney is also a member of Melbourne's team of the 20th century. After his retirement, he coached in the country, worked with the Hawks during their 2008 Premiership season, moving to Adelaide in 2009. He returned to the Demons in 2010 as General Manager of Player Development, filled in as coach after the sacking of Dean Bailey and is currently National Recruiting Manager. Todd's brother, Jay made his debut late in the 1988 season wearing number 26 against West Coast at Subiaco and finished up at the club at the end of 1991 after 23 games (4 goals). Like Todd, he was recruited from Sturt. He was reserves best and fairest in 1990 and despite having his best season in 1991, he was lured home and captained the Two Blues in 1993 and 1994 before moving to North Adelaide where he was skipper in 1997 and 1998. A younger Viney brother, Ryan, trained with the Demons after the 2000 season but was not drafted. That may not auger well for Jack's younger brother Max but in true AFL fashion, I've decided for the time being to take things one Viney at a time!

With any luck might have lost an idiot or two as result. A thank you to tireless workers

Keep it coming DeeGirl I am interested in what you have to say,

I thought I would start a thread to express my well wishes. Firstly to Andy and Jack for putting up with all the crap and bickering etc that we all serve up from time to time. But more to the point, for keeping d'land enjoyable, well run, and their input to making this site what it is today. To all the Mods, that try to keep us honest and 'try' keep everyone on the straight and narrow. A special mention also to KC, for his updates, hard work in keeping us informed with whats happening at Casey FC. Knowing the scores during the season, as well as the information on how the MFC boys are performing is always welcome. He does a great job, Thank you! To everyone else as well, have a Merry Xmas, and great New Year. Lets hope we see our team make a big move up the ladder. Also I should make mention, thanking the MFC, without them we wouldnt have a team. Some snoop around here, perhaps under an alias, so good luck and thank you for the contributions during this year and beyond. Its been a tough year, as we all know. We whine and gripe, but some have had a tougher year than us. While we celebrate our Xmas, and see the joy on the faces on kids opening their presents, take a moment to think of those that will be missing loved ones that have passed during this year. We know who they are, we won't forget them.

Given the revelations and explosive allegations against the Carlton Football club in that article WJ, surely the Chairman of the AFL, the former captain of Carlton, will have to resign, if the inquisition against the MFC continues, while there is no similar inquisition commenced against his old club.

Would probably have a fair amount to do with why they're avoiding what we're being dragged through. Hope he sleeps well at night. Hypocrite.

One thing that really p--d me off was seeing Gerry Healy (hope he hates being called Gerry) at the B&F. I just feel like this bloke has never given anything to this club. In fact just the opposite. The other thing that rarely rates a mention is the navy blue elephant in the AFL boardroom.

All the in fighting and bitter battling between X board members and current board members, is a joke! It's why we are the joke of the AFL..... We are so easily divided.... It's embarrassing...... We have elite supporters of our club that would prefer we went down for tanking, than win a premiership..... All because of ego's and bitterness........ Attitudes like these are the reason we will probably never win another premiership...... It's the reason Norm Smith got the sack and its the reason this club will eventually die or be relocated......

Davey worked extremely hard and is no longer at the rear in the long run... he will be better in 2013

Demonland, the football 'lifeline' for all Melbourne supporters who have the misfortune to live too far from the 'G' to be as actively involved as we would like to be. To all those mentioned in Deevoted's op, sincere thanks, enjoy yourselves during the break and keep well. 2013 will be the start of one hell of a journey for the faithful .... I can't wait for it to begin!

If there is breaking news on a topic that inhabits an existing long thread I think there is value in it being posted in a new thread. Some readers may have given up following the often repetitive posts in the original thread and may miss the new development. The trick is to avoid the 'breaking news' thread from becoming a new place to post on the topic (or even to stop it becoming a place to post opinions about thread management...)

Hi all, We had a bit of an oopsie with a routine software upgrade and had to restore the site from a backup, which was about 15 hours old. All posts, private messages, new registrations and so forth that happened between then and now have been lost. Apologies for the inconvience.

I'd say that was tongue in cheek and in no way a threat. It seemed to me he was having a go at others not you.

Win , lose or draw I hope all these names surface in the end. I want to be sure I am despising all the right people.

Are you sure about all 14 being friends?

I know it is a barren desert at present WJ But I cannot believe you have started this thread or that I am reading it or that I am commenting We must all have seriously shallow lives!

Vlad would have to go too because he endorsed everything we did during that period of time. Anderson's gone. Hamish is too vanilla. It looks like you and me Redleg. I know we can run the AFL and not only that I have a fantastic plan that will ensure that nobody tanks ever again. Wherever Melbourne finishes, it will automatically get first pick in the draft no matter how many games it wins. Problem solved.

The point is that whatever Melbourne might have done in the game against Freo is irrelevant to the investigation because Melbourne won comfortably so it can't support the case that we tanked that year.The three games we're under suspicion for are our best performance against the Swans at Manuka when we kicked badly, the Tigers game when we led at the siren and the round 22 game when the Saints beat us by 47 points, a game we were expected to lose by 80. Eyebrows were raised after we took off Liam Jurrah who is well known for not having a tank (and yet we tanked by taking him off ?) Go figure this all out?

Thanks McQueen!

Like your work Shadow & I live on the Gold Coast Strange lot these Q'landers.

You guys weren't in charge of the back up system for the FC by chance. We can only hope if that was the case then the off site back discs / tapes went missing as well

Not quite right. McLean's comments would have gone nowhere if Adrian "Gotcha" Anderson hadn't seen the chance to take points off his boss while Demetriou was on leave. With Caro there to stir the pot - Anderson was going in anyway. I am afraid your inference that the investigation was our fault because our termination procedures were less professional than other clubs doesn't wash. You can try to buy the goodwill of a sacked coach with a massive terminate payment - but he's never going to thank you for the public humiliation of a sacking mid- contract. As for McLean , his dissatisfaction stemmed directly from the fact that -correctly- Bailey took him out of our first choice midfield and let him know that - with Scully and Trengove in the pipeline -he couldn't count on getting a regular game. You certainly can't say that we left a stronger trail to tanking than other clubs. For all we know Kernahan, Ratten and Co sent dozens of pro-tanking emails to each other in the lead up to the Kreuzer Cup. Clothier and Haddad ( and their racks , thumb screws etc) haven't even been asked to knock on the door. Back on topic Bailey is now very much an ally. He and the MFC are fighting a common enemy - the AFL. It can only help us if he swears that he didn't tell the players to tank - and , more importantly - accuses the interrogators of unfair tactics.

The A League game last night was a cracker. Would have been hot work running for 90+ minutes. Great to see the Heart lose in extra time. They shoul relocate to Geelong.

My Christmas message to the slimy little punk after who this thread was named:- Seasons greetings and a Happy New Year to everyone else.

A big thanks to poster monocular who noticed that the feature story THE NAME GAME had been put up twice and reported it to Andy. As a result, the story was saved for posterity because it would otherwise have been lost (I deleted my notes after the article was posted).

An omen for a great year was placed in front of me last night at a dinner with friends. The hostess brought out bowls of lollies and guess what was put right in front of me, a bowl of banana lollies. I think now that that has happened the tanking inquisition will go away and we will win the NAB cup and the Flag as well in a clean sweep. Have a merry xmas and a happy new year all, especially the readers of this great thread.

Thanks for agreeing but that's not quite what I meant. I like the idea of a new thread to draw our attention to breaking news, but I'd prefer that thread to be closed or merged as soon as it starts to duplicate the original one on the topic. Alternatively I'm happy if the new thread takes over and people stop posting to the original one. That probably won't happen and the former suggestion is probably too much work for the mods. But I'd prefer not to follow the same theme in 2 threads.

My lifes work ruined....All gone into the cyber garbage. My god its Hot.

Disappointed not to see Neitz on there however. Holds a lot of records at this great club.

Forgot an important "g"

I'd be fine with any of those outcomes as long as the club wasn't punished. I have no issue with cheats being run out of the game.

Yes great thread. Thanks to all who have a hand in keeping this forum on the straight and narrow (kind of). Thanks to all those posters that make me laugh especially Biff. Thanks to WYL, Redleg and WJ for keeping me sane to a point. Merry Xmas and a happy and prosperous 2013 to all. "Go Dees" make us proud.

In something of an anti-climax, it appears that the world did not end yesterday, life goes on and the lads will be back at training on 7 January, 2013 after all. I'm sure I speak for most Demonlanders who, for whatever reason, simply can't make it down to training and therefore gain so much enjoyment from reading the reports of those who are fortunate enough to get there. Stay safe over the break and see ya in January!

Hope someone knocks him senseless. I intensely dislike players who just march out on their club, yet somehow call the shots and get away with it. It's mental that he was able to walk out on Adelaide, bypass the draft, then put a magical price on his head that apparently only the reigning premiers can match? Mental. Nothing would please me more than to see someone absolute bury this c*nt on field. He's had a few concussions this year, another one seems par for the course!

Personally , I thought that it was ahead of its time . My world is Pre-Napoleonioc France mind you.

Who is us? The real MFC would have been over if this abortion had gone through. The M.Hawks winning anything to me would have been about as exciting as the Big Bash Grand Final.

I popped along, but didn't watch much of the main group. As I wandered across from Punt Road the first group I came to was Toumpas, Viney, the big Kent, M. Jones. Terlich, Tynan and Jamar. This group of 7 were training separately to the main group on the eastern side of the ground in the forward area. I love watching the new talent so thought I'd plonk myself right there, which was away from the main group and nearly all other spectators. They did various drills, which included sidestepping and getting around a front on opponent before hitting up a leading target. They'd then rebound to an initial target in the pocket before kicking to a longer flank/wing option. As a follow on from this drill the last recipient of the long ball, who by now was some way from the makeshift (rugby) goal, was encouraged to run and carry, before kicking for goal from 45 metres on the run from a bit of an angle. The two standouts for me were Viney and Toumpas. Toumpas' short-passing was brilliant and often congratulated by the recipient. Viney's passing was also pinpoint. He really is a very good 30 metre fast, low and accurate kick. The big Kent is a good kick too, although he was slightly hooking his longer kicks for goal. Tynan is moving well and a big unit. Terlich miscalculated the odd kick. Matt Jones is a nice height and a very good kick, but dropped a couple of marks with hands out in front that he should have taken. It was noticeable that they weren't taken on the chest even though they could have been. Boy, I love Viney and Toumpas. One just looks like a born leader that is going to be a driving force at this club and the other reeks of balance and class. I watched a bit more of the main group, plus the joggers, but don't have too much more to add to the reports already given. Grimes ran lap after lap after lap at a quick clip. Dawes and Gawn separately did the same. As did Clisby and Stark together. I got more glimpses of Barry gliding across the turf and using his really nice left foot. I understand the Long comparisons. If he isn't soft we may have a real talent there. You can spot class a mile away. And I reckon Pedersen has lost his holiday weight. I saw him at his first training session and he was carrying more condition than any other player, but he's moving well and is a nice kick. I reckon Pedersen will be considered a fantastic addition by season's end. Finally, I watched a bit of stoppage work with Fitzpatrick, Viney, N. Jones, Rodan, Magner, Sylvia, and one or two others. It was more positioning and reacting rather than competing, although they were manning up one-on-one, so not as intense as other stoppage work I've seen. Having watched us slaughtered in this area over recent years I hope we make some much needed inroads. Viney has great hands and a low centre of gravity. I don't care if other supporters think I'm being unrealistic, or placing too much pressure on a young kid, I'm not, it's simply my belief that he'll rival Jones as our best mid in his first year. By year's end he'll certainly have no-one other than Jones ahead of him. We're getting a ready made quality addition here. Toumpas adds the outside class, and will be a darling of the Melbourne faithful.

I joined in August because until then I'd stuck to posting on Demonology. With regards to negative comments, considering the season we had, making only four negative posts was restrained. I'm not trying to stir up trouble, was merely sharing what I'd heard with my fellow hardcore demons.

Try telling that to Ron Jeremy

Seeing that you tube clip is a great diet plan. I just spewed my lunch up.

I wouldn't want to embarrass myself by entering, but any new version will need to be damn good to be better than what we have now I reckon. I love the past / future theme. It sits perfectly with where we are now as a team.

haha, going on a 4am bender when his future career is clearly already on the rocks before it's even started. The kid doesn't want it. Forget about him and move on.

Indeed. Players cost more than just their draft pick number; getting Garlett would not have been "cheap" even if they'd taken him with their last pick in the rookie draft. We took Liam Jurrah in the PSD, does anyone think that came cheaply? Increasingly we'll see players with obviously poor attitude and/or behavior get overlooked. Personally I wouldn't even bother looking at this guy again until his mid 20s. It wouldn't surprise me if he can get temporarily get himself together for a year and convince everyone he's changed, but I'd want at *least* three years of solid, mature behavior before I even had a look.