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WJ delving back into his own past? A HIGHWAY OF DEMONS by Whispering Jack CHAPTER TEN - SEMPER FIDELIS They were huddled together inside their winter coats on the Saturday afternoon tram that rattled up St. Kilda Road in the direction of the Junction. The two small children listened attentively as the old man in front of them rehearsed his lines, the words bursting out loudly with graceful eloquence and in a strange tongue. The few passengers in the almost empty carriage looked away sheepishly as if they were in the presence of a madman. Had they been equipped with the knowledge that the old man was a famous actor, renowned worldwide as the doyen of the Yiddish language theatre, it would have made little difference. Nor that he was saved from horrors of the Holocaust by an accident that stranded him in this far away land, half a world away from home when the hostilities of war broke out. The war was now a thing of the past for the travellers as the carriage wended its way through the cold mist of a grim wintery day. The American sitting by the door was reading an edition of that day's Sun News Pictorial bearing the date, Saturday 4th July, 1953. The pain of the smashed shoulder, the migraine headaches and the long sleepless nights were almost gone. He stared, then smiled at the actor who looked back at him to answer the question that was asked only through his dark eyes. The explanation that he was minding his granddaughter and a neighbour's son was followed by a nodding of heads and both of them returned to their roles, the American reflecting on the news of the day and the old man losing himself in a world of ancient folk tales and fire and evil spirits from distant lands. They piled on in their numbers at the Junction. The majority were men, most of them half or fully drunk and some of them angry. They were the football crowd coming from nearby Junction Oval where 12,000 had witnessed a close contest. The old actor rolled his eyes when he heard one of the newcomers cursing and swearing to the effect that the Saints had just beaten the Demons by four points. Apparently, errant kicking for goal, weak coaching and poor umpiring were offered as the causes of the defeat but it would all have been different if "that effing young 'un' Barassi would have kicked truly at the end". "Fair go mate. It was really only his first game and he's going to be a player so bugger off you drongo. Fair dinkum, when they were handing out brains, you must have been outside taking a p ..." They were fighting on a crowded tram, fists flying, bodies heaving and the old man grabbing hold of the two small children to keep them out of harm's way. By the time they made their way out of the carriage, he almost wished he would have listened to his daughter-in-law's suggestion about taking them to the afternoon matinee but he was a dramatic actor of quality and didn't want to be involved with "drek like those old Errol Flynn movies or with people dancing around and Singin' In The Rain." As they stood at the tram stop, the old man saw the American who had also alighted, thumbing through a road map and looking confused. The offer of help to find his destination was accepted and, as fate would have it, he was looking for an address in Carre Street, Elsternwick right next door to where the families of the two children lived together in shared accommodation. They walked home and the old man remembered it was American Independence Day. Congratulations were followed by shared wartime experiences. The American had fought with the Marines at Bougainville and then drifted back to the South Pacific and finally to Australia. He was bemused at the fracas they had witnessed on the tram between two supporters of the same football team. "The motto of the United States Marine Corps is 'Semper Fi' and it means 'Always Faithful' or 'Always Loyal'. We succeeded in the end because we were loyal to each other. Those guys should be on the same side. When they learn that, only then will they win." It was a simple philosophy for a time less complex than today. The last they saw of him was when he turned to salute as he took the path towards the door of number 4 while the old man and the two children moved on to number 6. TO BE CONTINUED For the record, Melbourne did play St. Kilda on Saturday, 4 July, 1953 at the Junction Oval and the Demons did lose by 4 points. St. Kilda 6.2.38 7.4.46 9.6.60 11.7.73 Melbourne 2.2.14 4.10.34 5.14.44 8.21.69 Melbourne Goalkickers: Bob McKenzie 3 Ken Albiston 2 Geoff McGivern Maurie Reeves Peter Schofield Ronald Dale Barassi made his real debut after having sat on the bench for four quarters in his 'first' game earlier in the season and had the chance to make a hero of himself in the last quarter but missed a clutch goal. He went on to become the greatest Demon ever and played in six premierships in a decade culminating in a famous victory in his last game for the club on 19 September, 1964. The hallmark of that successful team was the loyalty instilled into the club by the late Norm Smith but things changed in the following year. All that is a story for another time given that WJ has yet to make it to 1964 ...

AND. BTW I believe it is Biffen and his brothel creeping ways that have been the cause of all this dissention on an otherwise happy Demonland. I will undertake pennance and formerly disassociate myself his evil ways.

It's about guys making beer snakes in bay 7 or 11 or 13.Nobody really knows which bay. Anyway ,Jeremy Howe drank 300 beers by himself and then a fight started and the security broke it up and kicked the Demons out . And it's become very important to the future of civilisation as we know it .

The topic of this thread is Booze. Drink up everyone and relax..

They were exciting times back then. Six games a week in Melbourne (including Geelong) and you could recruit players from wherever you wanted except that you had an exclusive local zone. No Vlad and the rules stayed the same from year to year and you knew who you were playing every week just by their colours which were constant. Sometimes, I wish ...

Bananas are ripening very quickly at present. Must be the warmer weather.

Nothing in it, just spoketo some one who was with them, one of James Frawleys mates from Ballarat. They left as a precautionary measure because of a few baiters around them. Howe did nothing wrong as he was only responding to a baiter. Security just got him out of there in case. Storm in a plastic cup.

take it easy stuie, theres no MFC news, its the off seasson. I've actually got a few smiles & laughs from these boys. Its good to see some levity. Happy new year stue, & Bbo & Biff, & others with a sense of humour.

I don't see how they can possibly sustain a charge of "bringing the game into disrepute". "Bottoming out" was normal behaviour consistent with the AFL's own incentives. Nothing remotely disreputable about moving players around - even if you are motivated by a desire to expose your weaknesses. The fans see an exciting game decided by a kick after the siren. Where is the "disrepute"? The AFL's best chance of pinging us may for breaching Regulation 19 .For this purpose it is beside the point whether you win or lose. The key question may revolve around Connolly's job description.On the face of it , his reported comments in the "vault" fall outside Reg 19 - because he was not a coach. However if his role included "mentoring or guiding coaches" - or lending "coaching assistance from time to time" - the AFL may try to argue that Reg 19 applies..... enter our lawyers! As noted above, I'm not sure that the word "tanking" is relevant to any of the AFL's options If the AFL's image has suffered through all this - then it has only been because of the ham-fisted way it has handled the situation.

There are lots of threads about tanking and all taking a serious look at a very serious issue. But I think we should also have a thread which allows a humorous take on the issues. if I'm wrong, feel free to delete this post. The idea of this thread is not to debate the serious issues but just look at it with a wry smile. In other words, don't use this thread to argue whether the tanking existed or it didn't. Or whether Caroline Wilson has a grudge or she doesn't. There are plenty of other places to post those views. So, to get things started, I've got a proposal which the MFC could put to the AFL as an appropriate punishment. Let's accept a similar punishment as handed out to Melbourne Storm for their salary cap breaches and have all our premiership points for 2009 and 2010 taken away. And why not go one step further and offer up all our premiership points for 2011 and 2012 as well. Then we can ask the AFL for a priority pick in this year's draft on the basis that we haven't won a game for four years and need the help that the priority pick was first designed for.

Hi Folks, The Sri Lankans and the crowds have moved on and I think this thread has run its course. Time to close it down. Cheers

can someone remind what football topic this thread was about?

This thread was always headed for destruction, too much of a divisive topic to be left alone by the usuals.

So fickle. Just to correct any misrepresentations I'm more of a gutter crawler than a brothel creeper .

Mate, I have no problem with you guys at all. I just think maybe you should post all the off topic stuff in an off topic thread rather than hijack threads that actually have a relevant discussion point. It just seems like an attention thing like you fellas need other posters to have to read it all.

I took particular notice of Neeld's comment about the list. "We're not going to shy away and pretend that we don't have a lot of work to do. We certainly do and we are really confident that the group we have got will, over time, deliver sustained success for the club." – coach Mark Neeld. He's obviously happy with the core of the playing group and assured the recent recruiting has been sound. It's a big statement to make after only his first season as coach. He has had two draft/trading periods though and now appears confident the boys can start to deliver.

Here is "rooting" for AP to somehow get those 200 odd yards against GB.

never did that...Too much back splash DC. Did take a slash out the window of the school bus once though when the tightass driver refused to pull over....

Hahaha! Donald Trumps rug, good one DL as funny as his views on Obama's election victory. Look them up for an interesting read....

Great stuff Jack You must do a whole book one day. Put me down for a dozen !! Look fwd to next instalment.

Not that anything you say is on topic but really the bold part says it all about you.That would make you an intractable fundamentalist zealot. Really ?? Would you refute it if he said the world was round?

Geez.....I hope the footy starts soon...before we rip each others throats out........Difference of opinon deserves to be at least respected.....

climate Change. Have you seen how much ice now covers the Northern Ice Cap? Atlantic City says hello. I will refute anything Bolt says. He is paid to stir the pot. If you believe otherwise then you are a lot closer to our early primates than i. The absolute Bottom Line here Mr. Hur is that YOU have absolutely NO Sense of Humour. And that is sad. I pity you.

Seriously guys - chill out. Diversity of views is important to this site, and we're all supporting the same team - so let's regain some perspective here. Back to the topic - I read a story years ago that Ryan Giggs and Lee Sharpe, as very young Manchester United players, were partying too much and Alex Ferguson was not happy. There was a house party in Manchester just before Christmas - cold, wet night. Ferguson heard that Sharpe and Giggs were at the party. Ferguson didn't know anyone else at the party. At about midnight, Ferguson turns up to the house in a heavy overcoat, walks into the party with absolute contempt and grabs Sharpe and Giggs by the collar and marches them out. He later traded Sharpe, and Giggs turned his partying ways around. The rest is history. I think this episode seems harmless enough - but I strongly suspect Mark Neeld will not look too favourably on it. He's trying to build an elite, disciplined culture - and the outward perception of this is important to what he's seeking to achieve at the club. Getting ejected at the G for necking too many beers and abusing other supporters at the Boxing Day Test is not really in keeping with this.

Now thats says almost all of it. You can't even talk in aussie language. You look down on everything with disdain. You are indeed a sad case.

Biffen & BBO should take over from Bill & Tony I have enjoyed the laughs whilst pouring another G & T. It's that week in between madness people. Chill out.

I reckon its simple. Someone has spoken to Caro (my bet is one of the disgruntled ex-medical staff from the Richmond game where we had 3 'injured' players) and said 'this is what went on'. Caro has presented this to AA after the McLean 'revelation' and said 'what are you going to do about this' leaving the AFL with no option but to investigate it (as it would appear to be new 'evidence'). The AFL do not want this investigation but have to be seen to be doing something about it. Once our club responds I think the AFL will kill the whole thing. Nothing to see here. Some dodgy comments but no 'hard' evidence. No one will be able to say the AFL weren't thorough or serious.

Which decision? They were Not in Bay 13, as told by our eye witness! The beer train, not theyre's, so please, is there a Law against innocent fun? Did they look 'blind drunk',,, no! Were they asked to leave, "yes", & did they? Yes..... move on,,,, they didn't do anything wrong except respond to baiting....

These are old views and its hardly news. Do you have no insight into the farcical nature of footy obsessed computer coaching? The opinions expressed on here are allowed to vary. Maybe we need a brain damaged thread for those who like to repeat the same side of an argument ten times in the same demonstratively boring way.

No. This is a footy board, not a chat room for you two. Take it elsewhere, we're all sick of it. Start up your own thread if you like, just stop ruining other threads that are meant to be about news and views relating to MFC.

I don't need rocket scientists Forest Demon just young men who can play the game at a high level and get us into the top six of the competition over the next 3 -4 years. Beyond that I don't care what they do at the cricket on boxing day.

for those of you who were wondering why the MFC website is not always up-to-date maybe it has something to do with the AFL not returning all the club's computers they confiscated ?

Sue, it does matter that other clubs "may have infringed".There were allegations of tanking afoot for a decade before 2009 and the AFL always gave tanking a narrow interpretation. If your season was shot they gave carte blanche to the clubs to list manage and experiment to their hearts content and the short term aim of winning matches was deemed less important to clubs in that situation to the longer term objective of developing your team for the future. Andrew Demetriou came out publicly approving Melbourne's tactics in the Jordan McMahon game. And as long as clubs kept their policies private and in house there was no damage to the reputation of the game. By 2007 it was patently and plainly obvious to all and sundry what Carlton was trying to achieve and the AFL turned a blind eye. Moreover, you can bet in it that if there were any incriminating documents or emails around at Blues HQ they would now have been well and truly disposed of and yet not a single person from the AFL has deigned to explain why they have not been looked at thoroughly as we have over the past six months. As mentioned elsewhere, several others also went through the motions of not playing to win between 1999 and 2009. That this sort of discrimination is occurring in what is supposedly a billion dollar industry is nothing short of scandalous and bodes poorly for the AFL and the administrators responsible for allowing this to happen

Can you guys just PM each other please. You're hijacking far too many threads with all this BS. Ta.

Gawn to Rodan at the bounce, who receives a sensational shepherd from Viney, over to Toumpas, who kicks to Dawes, who handballs to Byrnes, who bombs to the goal square where Howe takes the mark of the year and coolly goals from a few metres. The Dees are on fire. Gee, Neeld has turned this team around say the media. Go Dees say the fans.

For punishment they should all be made to read this thread from start to finish.

That might be acceptable to some but a sanction against the MFC or any of its officials in the absence of similarly prolonged and through investigations of other clubs also suspected of tanking but not investigated would leave the AFL's integrity in tatters and the commission and its senior officials carrying the smell of corruption.Redleg's solution is the cleanest and the best for all concerned.

The point that I struggle to understand is if in the scenario that none of our coaches or players are found guilty but Connolly is then how did we actually tank? Let's say that the comment he made was the evidence used to charge him, Connolly told everyone to tank, but if no one listened to him and the coaches just did what they had been doing all year then how did we physically tank? I firmly believe that to get us they have to prove that Bailey was involved in the process for them to get us.

Good luck and thanks to Mrs Jones for supporting the lad it worked.

Further proof you don't actually know what you're on about, Rhino. The "beer train" or "beer snake" inherently is made from indiscriminate empty cups handed in from any single person nearby in the crowd and does not stay in the hands of a select few, but travels through the crowd from person to person, held by many at once, but always changing hands, as more cups are added & it continues to grow. It just so happens that photos were taken & published when the players were holding it, as they are "somebody". Anybody with any idea of what was going on doesn't need a link, an inference, or a suggestion.

Bing I am so tired of this attitude that a football team has to be a team of guys who are beyond reproach. Quite a few of the teams that have won flags over the last ten years have had some ordinary human members. I do not care what they do on Boxing day. Just win bloody games.

I could not give a toss what they did on boxing day. Just win games in 2013 guys. The choir boys have been shuffled off a few weeks back. Sounds like good news to me.

From the Melbourne Port game in Darwin in 2010 where Trengove's quick decision to rush a point won us the game, also look at his stats, not bad from a first year player. I think last year has clouded many posters opinions on this forum and don't forget the effect of being rubbed out for 3 matches by a ridiculous AFL decision and what that did to stop his 2nd season in it's tracks. Anyone that has any idea on football would know that he was carrying more than the weight of leadership last year so how about getting off his back, he will be a champion of the club at a minimum and hopefully of the game. "Demon Aaron Davey was at his creative best in collecting 26 possessions, ably supported by the midfield grunt of Jack Trengove (24 disposals) and veteran James McDonald. The Demons, playing a nominal home game in Darwin, kicked five goals to Port's one in the third term to seemingly seal the result. But Port's fighting qualities were evident in a tense last quarter - the Power hit the front twice, only for Green to level the scores with less than four minutes remaining. Those final minutes were hectic, with Demon ruckman Mark Jamar taking a mark five metres from goal only for an umpire to declare the ball touched and call for a ball-up - from which Jamar and a leaping Trengove rushed the game defining point."

I'm with Belzebub on this one. It is not the same as letting off steam with your mates whilst on Hols; it is positioning yourself in a very public place (our home ground) in an area (Bay 13) where most cameras are focussed on the biggest day of the cricket calendar and then not holding your alcohol very well. I suggest that it displays pretty poor judgement from a member of the leadership team (Frawley), a popular senior player (Dunn) and a high profile (mark of the year) player. Blind Freddy could see that they were setting themselves up!

None of this actually goes to the point. These 'blokes' are AFL footballers . This is a high profile sport in Melb. They are educated in the means and hows ( sic) of avoiding unecessary trouble as part of their AFL players personal development.. its part of their work -code. This was the G the most recognisable stadium in the country on one of the most publicised days of the year at an event reknown for actings-up. They were located in a vacinity also of repute for just such shenanigans. You dont go to 13 for a quiet arvo. So this displays either intent or dumb-[censored] intelligence. There are NO real days off during your AFL career, not if you want to play at the elite level, not any more. What other people do or did is irrelevant, are they Melbourne players also ? wow sh!t stinks...theres news

Especially for those glass and a half full type of people.

sweet deal

*insert tanking reference here*

TIPS for Tuesday and every other day. Be kind to your mum. I don't care about the Sun rising tomorrow. I won't buy it or the Age.

They can strip us of our wooden spoons!