Leaderboard

THE KID - A TRIBUTE TO COLIN by Whispering Jack There are some truly endearing memories that I have of the Kid, one or two of them off the ground and others on the field of play. It seemed to me that at every club function I attended, one of the constants was the sight of the much-loved Colin Sylvia, face smiling and friendly, surrounded by admirers, young and old, male and female. There was the promotional clip (Foxtel, I think) with Colin in the locker room beside skipper David Neitz draped in towels and joking. It was as if, from the very beginning, the new boy on the block was being typecast as a larrikin, albeit a lovable one who, in our hopes, would one day become a hero. And that was the problem for the recruit from Merbein which, during my childhood produced another star Demon in Hassa Mann, a shy country lad who went on to captain the club, played in a few premierships and was a solid citizen off the field. The new kid from Merbein simply kept getting into trouble. There were problems with a girlfriend, he broke team curfews, missed the odd recovery session, left the scene of a car accident (it’s unclear if he was the driver). He was often in the wrong place and the wrong condition at the wrong time but we all still loved him. After all, he was going to be our hero. On the field, he was something else. The first time I saw him was in a practice match for Melbourne’s then affiliate Sandringham, at the Beach Road Oval, ironically named after another blond larrikan Trevor Barker who also passed at far too young and age but from cancer. There was one brief moment that defined Sylvia’s potential as a contender when he gathered the ball near the centre, swiveled past an opponent and barreled the ball from 70 metres out. Years later when I recalled that piece of play with him at a club best and fairest night, he laughed and said he remembered it but thought the kick was “from closer to 80 metres out”. It took a year or so to get his career going and it built slowly but surely within a few years during which time he grew in stature to the point that it wasn’t necessary to call him by his surname. He was Colin and we loved him. The tough break for Colin was that Melbourne went into decline just as he was approaching his prime. Most supporters would agree that his best game came on Sunday, 24 May, 2009 on the MCG in front of almost 40,000 fans against Hawthorn when he amassed 24 kicks, 13 handballs, 9 marks and 4 goals that were just not enough to get the Demons across the line. He continued to play good football for the year despite the fact that the club was regularly accused of tanking its matches and again into 2010 but at around that time, the injuries in the form of groin and shoulder problems came, the team was performing miserably as the veterans left while other young saviours who were replacing them struggled. The contender was also struggling to live up to his potential status as a hero; he was failing and the fun had gone. After 157 games and 129 goals, the Kid departed for Fremantle at the end of 2013. Things didn’t work out in the West and, amid ongoing controversy about his attitude and behaviour under Ross Lyon, Colin managed six more games that were mostly unremarkable. Career over before his 29th birthday with life after football bringing further challenges for a young man who found retirement from the game at its top level a tough gig. Colin was working to get his life on track when his car collided with another vehicle last Sunday afternoon at the intersection of Nineteenth Street and Benetook Avenue in the Mildura suburb of Irymple. He died on the scene and will be buried today. We loved him to death - our deepest sympathies go to his family. “I'm the kid who has this habit of dreaming Sometimes gets me in trouble too But the truth is I could no more stop dreaming Than I could make them all come true” - Buddy Mondlock

You’ve missed the point. You’re referring to players we’ve traded for. This discussion is about the draft.

We've been here before.... You don't draft for needs. It's a recipe for disaster. Best available every day of the week. You can think of picking for needs but then make sure you extinguish that thought and pick best available. ...and that best available must be a competitive ball winner, tall, mid or small. If they're not then they're not best available.

@Demonland I'd love it if you could spend some time on questions regarding the structure of the club, his role. We have an executive (CEO), then we have a series of departments such as Coaching, Football Operations, List Management, Fitness and Conditioning (all of which would be considered the "football department" by some but are apparently independently managed groups which interact) as well as Marketing, Finance etc. (which I'm less interested in). There are a lot of names on our staff list, many of whom we never hear about, but I'm sure they play important and valuable roles. It would be great to know more about how they interact to achieve success and how or by who particular decisions (inc. decisions to trade, recruit, draft etc.) are made. http://m.melbournefc.com.au/club/people/staff-members Within the public football supporting community (such as us on demonland) this often isn't clear, and the media don't really help as they often just pick the public face and heap praise. Edit: I figure the "why did we trade Hogan", "are you happy working with Pert" and "are we interested in Kelly" type questions will get a lot of straight bat / standard public answers, but questions on the above areas will allow Josh to elaborate in an insider way for the benefit of the listeners.

Might be another WA furphy... I'm sure we all remember Jack Darling.

That's a different story. You trade in needs but draft best available. We just traded in needs both skilled players who have pace and can kick...which is as it should be. We might yet pick up another before going to draft.... Guarantee Josh will say "best available". You invariably come unstuck when you try to draft needs.

I disagree with every example you mention and especially with the bolded part. That is flat out wrong. I've heard many club recruiters interviewed in the last year who state almost to a man that it's "best available" every time. A club drafting for need is doomed to fail at selection. For example, we knew exactly how much potential and talent Viney had, regardless of our list, and he was a steal at the pick we got him.

We’ve had the Demon flag at half mast since we heard. He and J Watts visited our critically ill son at RCH, had respect and admiration for them both since then. Rest easily Col.

Indeed. Commentators can't even tell Jetta and Garlett apart, let alone Demons half-back Christian Salem and the downhill Winter Olympic sporting event slalom.

Shannon Byrnes and Matty Whelan fulfil this role at the club I put in the other thread that apart from being a natural footballer Col was a top bloke who was always up for a chat and a laugh whenever you met him offfield

Could argue that you rookie the likes of Campbell - dominant at VFL level - so that the Casey mids develop a system around a ruckman who regularly wins taps (or at least breaks even).

Here is a snapshot of Demonland in 2002

I think 18 clubs mantra is to take the next best available following the previous picked. However this is a perception in the eye of the pick-beholder. so when you can throw an A4 sheet of paper over the next 10 players you go for what you want/need. No-one enters into drafting, saying I want "Plugger Lockett", and won't settle for anything else. That is a just fool hardy attitude. This constant bickering of best over needs, is mostly irrelevant... because anyone with any sence of proportion, would see the difference in quality.

Bears, chiefs, Texans and I'll finally be on the scoreboard this week!

Sam Day is no where near A grade type at all. Even when he has ma aged to get on the park, he's shown nothing to suggest he was worth z top 2 pick. Average player.

I reckon the challenge is how do you develop another ruck without interfering with the development of your existing rucks? If Preuss ends up in the VFL a bit, if Bradtke is also in the side, another ruckman is only going to get slim pickings as far as actual ruck time goes. Whether we take another ruckman depends on our view about whether Preuss will mainly play for Melbourne or Casey, which is highly speculative at this point. If Preuss plays VFL but we take another ruck, we end up crowding Casey with developing rucks. If Preuss plays AFL and we didn’t take another ruck, Casey only has one ruck and it’s a development opportunity lost. Tricky call.

I've been involved in digital publishing for 13 years now, and have been involved in countless website rebuilds and reboots. The feedback is generally harsh and overwhelmingly negative, because people hate change. It can be very demanding mentally because you put so much time and effort into building something, and people hate you for it.

No we don't we have Weideman and McDonald. Don't need another project ruckman like King and Filipovic, Bradtke is enough.

All those picks were best available. The classic recent needs picks were the Saints with McCartin over Trac ...and us taking Toumpas. When you get to the later picks it's pure hope...hope we can land one. You trade in needs. Have a look at our recruiting under Prenders and you will see that WE Have been there before. Only a fool drafts needs.

i agree, i think we need another forward and another good midfielder..but the moment you get caught uo going for needs then its a big risk. I don't want to pick up a farren ray or a kane tenace for outside speed just because we already have some good inside mids.

The club gave away thousands and thousands of free tickets to that game against GWS. We probably broke even but this sort of talk for mine is completely naive. Some Demonlanders keep banging on about extracting ourselves from the NT deal, but you're commenting without any inside knowledge and little awareness of how to run a football club as a business. I also wouldn't expect transparency from the club because it's not in the best interests of the club. If the real figures were to come out, I suspect you'd be rather more hesitant to extricate us from the NT deal. If we can draw consistent crowds of between 35-40,000 against small interstate sides like GWS, Freo, GCS etc, we could then begin to look at other alternatives to the NT revenue stream. But without at least some consistent success, we won't and shouldn't be removing the NT deal. Reality check needed for some. We've been a basketcase for years and have had one good season. During this season our crowds were up, but the only meaningful crowd rise was seen throughout the finals series. Our supporters certainly turned out on their own accord and out numbered the opposition. Let's see how this translates into season 2019 before we go off half-cocked and begin removing important revenue streams.

I still rate him as one of a handful of MFC players I have seen in 50 years, who had every skill. I actually put him in the Dusty Martin class. Power footballer, amazing skills, awareness, competitive. Could grab a game and tear it apart in a 10 minute burst. Unfortunately, he rarely put it all together. His mind wandered during games, and off the field. Very, very sad ending. And Cranky, we did tank, and for more than one game. There was a conversation at Board level initiated by Chris Connolly about "the benefits of losing". May you rest now Col, more than you did during your 20's.

Rest in peace Col.

I can't wait for full training to start and see which groups specific players are training with. It gives a good indication although I recognise that things can change quickly in season e,g, Salem mid to back; and Fritsch fwd to mid to back last year and Melksham back to fwd in 2017. Anyway hers's a stab at it starting with whom I consider to be the locks (you're free to disagree): Backs: May, Lever, Jetta, Hibberd, Salem, OMac, Lewis, Frost, Petty, Wagner Mids: Gawn, Preuss, Viney, Oliver, Brayshaw, Harmes, Jones, Stretch, JKH, Maynard, Baker Forwards: TMac, Weed, Melksham, Petracca, ANB, Spargo, Hannan, T.Smith, Garlett Of particular interest: KK: back or mid - I'm tipping wing role as a mid. VDB: probably mid? Hunt: has been a back but I think there could be a role change - possibly forward Fritsch: the most versatile - forward, mid or back? He played back at the end of this year for coverage and I have FD intel that this is the preferred role for him J.Smith: was a back but I've posted elsewhere that I like the idea of him forward, has the height to spoil intercept markers and the pace and tackling to lock the ball in. The FD tried him there at the end of this year twice. Keilty: plays back at Casey but they use him as a swingman and goes fwd to create an effective target, With our plethora of tall backs and shortage of tall fwd depth I'd like to see Dec training with the forwards.

‘landers it’s with a real heavy heart that I deliver this news, but I have it on very good authority that Col Sylvia has passed away in a car accident over the weekend. Please keep his family in your prayers. It has not hit the media yet, and if the mods wanna pull the thread, then I understand. Col was a great contributor to our club through some dark days and we should remember him this way. rip Col

Fantastic performance by 'Enable' again DZ. In fact, all the winners from Churchill Downs were impressive as we witnessed the very best of the best. The Creme de la Creme. 9 Group 1's were decided in all and they raced for a total of over $30Million. So we have our time-honoured Derby Day whilst in the States they have a similar day. On the same day! I had a few bets, got a couple of winners and ended up all square! ? I at least got the winner in the Classic which was pleasing. Here are all the decided races in order ... the links will take you to youtube and the videos are from the Breeders Cup Organisation themselves. Fillies & Mares Sprint Dirt Mile Fillies & Mares Turf Breeders Cup Sprint Breeders Cup Mile Turf Sprint Breeders Cup Distaff Breeders Cup Turf Breeders Cup Classic

Enable became the first Arc winner to salute in the Breeders’ Cup overnight. One serious racehorse, would love to see her race here.

I slept through it all and then scrolled through the games and with just the PSV result to come I felt reasonably sure that we'd won. Close but no cigar. Good get on the Leicester & Man Utd wins DZ although United left it to the very last moment.

A bit stiff on that one Macca, Vitesse had a man sent off in the 14th minute and managed to concede only the one goal. One of those games I guess.

PSV let us down although they did win DZ ... their games have averaged 4 match goals so the form was there. Back to the drawing board!

The other one.

Why?

The article isn’t advocating that you necessarily have to draft for needs but rather, it sets out what each club needs. At any given time when making a decision on who to pick, the recruiters are usually presented with more than one choice of roughly equal quality and, at that point, your needs are a factor in the decision-making. In many cases it’s a subjective view of which one is the best player available anyway. That’s why those phantom drafts are never all exactly the same.

The positive of waking up early this morning to come into work for a few hours is seeing the first two legs get through Macca.

I think it's a bit more than hope. We have picked up some pretty good players with late picks and I think they would have been pretty purposefully selected. Their is a certain amount of hit and miss at all stages of the draft.

Agreed Roos and most good recruiters mantra is more or less pick best available at the draft and trade to fill in the gaps based on needs.

If I do lose you probably won't hear from me! I got lucky today with the last minute inclusion of Le Romain and the 'Extra Brut' factor. But both horses should have always been included if we are wanting to include class & raw ability. That's for the exotic & quaddie punters of course The Melbourne Cup guide in the post above has been edited so it reads better. Ciao

Stunning return to form there Macca. You had a bit of a mid season slump, much like our Illustrious Dees, but you came home with a wet sail to blow us out of the water. The BB strike rate went up a click and now we turn to the great race on tuesday.

No one censors me!

I reckon we've just about written him off, and who's the next cab off the rank? Similar problem with lack of depth up the other end, I think - who replaces Jetta?

According to the new 'Mumford Rule' any one of the AFL's pet expansion teams that has a list need, may create a new rule to enable them to aquire that player through whatever means possible. Will really get on my nerve if this transpires. I was really hoping GWS were going to struggle to put up a credible ruck option. As an asides he does play pretty angry Mumford - he has taken white line fever to a whole new level.

omg just beautiful so so young

I just assumed Lyons to the Lions was somehow organised by the media to give them more opportunities to write the simple puns they seem to love.

A great tribute Jack.

I'll re-post here. THE KID - A TRIBUTE TO COLIN by Whispering Jack There are some truly endearing memories that I have of the Kid, one or two of them off the ground and others on the field of play. It seemed to me that at every club function I attended, one of the constants was the sight of the much-loved Colin Sylvia, face smiling and friendly, surrounded by admirers, young and old, male and female. There was the promotional clip (Foxtel, I think) with Colin in the locker room beside skipper David Neitz draped in towels and joking. It was as if, from the very beginning, the new boy on the block was being typecast as a larrikin, albeit a lovable one who, in our hopes, would one day become a hero. And that was the problem for the recruit from Merbein which, during my childhood produced another star Demon in Hassa Mann, a shy country lad who went on to captain the club, played in a few premierships and was a solid citizen off the field. The new kid from Merbein simply kept getting into trouble. There were problems with a girlfriend, he broke team curfews, missed the odd recovery session, left the scene of a car accident (it’s unclear if he was the driver). He was often in the wrong place and the wrong condition at the wrong time but we all still loved him. After all, he was going to be our hero. On the field, he was something else. The first time I saw him was in a practice match for Melbourne’s then affiliate Sandringham, at the Beach Road Oval, ironically named after another blond larrikan Trevor Barker who also passed at far too young and age but from cancer. There was one brief moment that defined Sylvia’s potential as a contender when he gathered the ball near the centre, swiveled past an opponent and barreled the ball from 70 metres out. Years later when I recalled that piece of play with him at a club best and fairest night, he laughed and said he remembered it but thought the kick was “from closer to 80 metres out”. It took a year or so to get his career going and it built slowly but surely within a few years during which time he grew in stature to the point that it wasn’t necessary to call him by his surname. He was Colin and we loved him. The tough break for Colin was that Melbourne went into decline just as he was approaching his prime. Most supporters would agree that his best game came on Sunday, 24 May, 2009 on the MCG in front of almost 40,000 fans against Hawthorn when he amassed 24 kicks, 13 handballs, 9 marks and 4 goals that were just not enough to get the Demons across the line. He continued to play good football for the year despite the fact that the club was regularly accused of tanking its matches and again into 2010 but at around that time, the injuries in the form of groin and shoulder problems came, the team was performing miserably as the veterans left while other young saviours who were replacing them struggled. The contender was also struggling to live up to his potential status as a hero; he was failing and the fun had gone. After 157 games and 129 goals, the Kid departed for Fremantle at the end of 2013. Things didn’t work out in the West and, amid ongoing controversy about his attitude and behaviour under Ross Lyon, Colin managed six more games that were mostly unremarkable. Career over before his 29th birthday with life after football bringing further challenges for a young man who found retirement from the game at its top level a tough gig. Colin was working to get his life on track when his car collided with another vehicle last Sunday afternoon at the intersection of Nineteenth Street and Benetook Avenue in the Mildura suburb of Irymple. He died on the scene and will be buried today. We loved him to death - our deepest sympathies go to his family.

The players hold too much power. Only free agents should be able to nominate a club of choice. Contracted players should be forced to play their contract or be traded somewhere else of the clubs choosing. Free agency changed the landscape for the worse, and now the balance is just spiralling further out of control. You've now got clubs delisting contracted players and other clubs picking them up for free post-trade period. Lyons should only have moved in a trade scenario. Not only is the trade period too long as it is, now you've got players moving outside of it anyway. It's rubbish.

In an ideal world, Col would have just been coming to the end of an illustrious footy career. Life's a [censored] sometimes.

I think this article is interesting in the present context. AFL fixture 2019: How weighted fixture helped Collingwood, North Melbourne in 2018 and who it will impact most in 2019 https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-fixture-2019-how-weighted-fixture-helped-collingwood-north-melbourne-in-2018-and-who-it-will-impact-most-in-2019/news-story/d61d171a77108a94459b7f31d3efb9f8 Honestly though, I think the draw is only important to the weaker teams. If we are a good side, then we should relish the opportunity to play top teams, because we give our selves a better than even chance of beating them. I think it is also a double edge sword in that respect, in so far as playing other top sides gives you an opportunity to deny them a win and push them down the ladder. I don't think a tough draw did Richmond any disservice this season. Biggest thing to be gained with an easy draw is having a bit more tolerance in the case of form slumps and injuries etc.

There would be few players that have had a s big a turn around in fan opinion than Cam Pedersen. His first match was a shocker and he spent his first two years on our list with people counting the days until his contact was up. He retires a much liked and admired player for his contribution during the rebuild.

Nephew