Demonland

MAKING THE MOST OF A GLOOMY DAY by Whispering Jack There was no sunshine to greet the fans as they arrived at Casey Fields yesterday. It was cloudy and cool but not yet winter cold and the gloomy air was disturbed only by a gentle breeze. The game the fans were about to witness was an important match between the fifth placed Scorpions and the Bendigo Bombers (third). A loss for Casey with a bye coming up next week could have seen them lose touch with the top four. There was another matter of concern for the home side and that was the pall of injuries and suspension affecting its alignment partner, Melbourne, although this was surely an incentive for the 14 AFL listed players in the team to perform at their best? Casey also had some talent missing in the form of small men in Matt Fieldsend, co-captain Kyle Matthews and Danny Nicholls, the last two having yet to appear with the senior team this year. One of the characteristics of most of the Scorpions' games so far this year have been their slow starts and this week proved no exception. The visitors were quick out of the blocks and were winning all over the ground in the early going with the scoreboard ticking over to 4.2.26 while Casey had yet to bother the scorer until young speedster Sam Blease raced into goal. The Bombers held on and their ascendency at quarter time was clear cut. They held a 27 point lead and things were looking grim for the Scorps. After coach Brad Gotch handed out a wakeup call to his players during the break, things turned at the start of the second quarter with both Kelvin Lawrence and Sam Blease using their pace to trouble the Bomber defence. Max Gawn was getting on top in the ruck and the Casey midfield started to win the clearances. The quarter was only halfway through its course when Brendan Fevola got among the goals for his first to get the team to within five points. Then came another twist as the Bendigo midfield, led by former Cat Brent Prismall lifted itself off the canvas and mounted a counterattack that stunned the home team with the Bombers booting the next four goals and going into the sheds at half time chock full of confidence and enjoying a 29 point lead. Casey opened the second half full of purpose and produced a withering burst of seven goals in less than fifteen minutes to completely change the game's momentum in a way that literally shocked the Bombers into submission. The goal feast was initiated in the ruck with Gawn now winning the tap outs and delivering them to the advantage of the likes of Michael Evans, Jordie McKenzie, Cale Morton, Dan Nicholson and Rian McGough and the forwards led by Jeremy Howe and the irrepressible Fevola did the rest. The former AFL bad boy was in superb fettle and the highlight of the day was a goal from a tight angle and a long way out that split the uprights and had the crowd roaring with delight. The Bombers worked hard in an attempt to peg back the margin but they had lost their accuracy and Casey responded with a great running goal from Lawrence for his third. Matthew Bate, who was doing everything right, missed a simple shot after the siren but the Scorpions held a lead of 10 points after an eight goal quarter. The final quarter arm wrestle was won by the Scorpions who continued to score goals through its multipronged attack while the Bombers, although working hard, were repelled by the strong defence from Tim Mohr and Joel Macdonald who both played great defensive games. Michael Stockdale was also coming into his own and the Scorpions coasted at the end to win by 27 points. The game had many pleasing features for the club. Fevola has settled in nicely and is already a firm favourite, not only with the locals but he even opposition supporters applauding his exploits. Howe's aerial work, Gawn in the ruck, McKenzie's tackling, the defensive work of Mohr, the pace of Blease and Lawrence and the leadership of James Wall all helped to lift the gloom and give the local side a fantastic experience on what started out such a gloomy day. The team goes into the bye and can now lick its wounds before resuming hostilities in a fortnight's time while the reserves had the first of their two consecutive byes playing a practice game against an undermanned Cranbourne and proving too strong for their young opposition. HOW THE DEMONS FARED Thanks to contributor Melon 22 for his thoughts on the MFC listed players who took part in the game. Matthew Bate (12 kicks, 8 handballs, 8 marks, 1 goal) – played a true CHF role all day and was one of Casey's most consistent performers giving a strong four quarter effort. He took a number of strong marks and presented all day in a performance that will surely see him pushing for selection next week. Sam Blease (15 kicks, 4 handballs, 2 marks, 2 goals) – kicked a couple of very nice goals with his first being the most spectacular, running in and kicking it from 50m to score Casey’s first after Bendigo had put 4 on the board early. Continues to improve on his skills and decision-making (e.g he is much less prone to kick grubbers which he had a habit of doing earlier in his recovery from that foot injury). Improving every time I see him and he just needs to tidy up a few things to start pushing for senior selection. Lucas Cook (3 kicks, 5 handballs, 5 marks, 1 goal) – it was a quiet game from the young tall, possibly Lucas more of result of a crowded forward line. He looks more natural playing as the lead up CHF than the forward pocket role he is playing in right now. When he did get the ball he looked composed and clean with his disposal and was able to kick a nice goal as well. Michael Evans (18 kicks, 4 handballs, 5 marks) – one of Casey’s best for the day, he got a lot of the ball in close and was a physical presence in the clearances. He kicked three behinds in the only downside to his game; otherwise he would have been close to BOG had he managed to finish off some of his hard work and kicked those goals. Max Gawn (4 kicks, 8 handballs, 7 marks) - dominated the hit outs all day although Casey only sometimes took advantage of these. He played much more game time than on previous occasions but he seemed to run the game out very well. Took a number of good marks and he was involved in a lot of the play around the ground as well. Must be considered for selection for his AFL debut in the next few weeks with so many big men out for Melbourne. Jeremy Howe (10 kicks, 9 handballs, 7 marks, 3 goals) – played at high intensity right from start and was one of the few Casey players who started well. Played as a half forward flanker who pushed up and presented and he was very effective in that role, managing to kick three goals and stay involved in the game for all four quarters. He continues to show a great ability in the marking contests with some spectacular efforts but that shouldn’t overshadow his overall skill level which is very good. Kelvin Lawrence (6 kicks, 5 handballs, 4 marks, 3 goals) - a very exciting player every time he touches the ball. Made the most of his opportunities by kicking three goals and setting a couple of others as well. He has some very special qualities about him and look forward to him developing his game. Joel Macdonald (10 kicks, 9 handballs, 4 marks) – struggled to get into the game early but continued to work hard and was a driving force for Casey in the second half. Always plays at a high intensity and is very aggressive at the ball which is always valued by his team. Tom McDonald (7 kicks, 5 handballs, 5 marks) - played in the ruck due to the injury problems at Melbourne and acquitted himself very well. Was good around the ground and he has a great composure with the ball. He is prone to make one really bad decision per match but is still learning at this level and is showing really some really good signs. Jordie McKenzie (11 kicks, 13 handballs, 1 mark) - started slowly but just kept on getting better and better every quarter and was one of the main reasons behind the turnaround in the second half. Looked too good for this level and as long as he is cleared by the medicos he should go straight into the Melbourne side. Tom McNamara (13 kicks, 2 handballs, 4 marks, 2 goals) - a consistent performer for most of the game and managed snag a couple of goals as well. He is very clean with his disposal and reads the game very well when in defence. Was pleasing to see him play at both ends of the ground and make an impact. Cale Morton (15 kicks, 13 handballs, 9 marks) – had a lot of the ball but seems to be lacking in confidence at the moment. His disposal was very poor for an experienced AFL player but he gave good run. He needs to work on his decision-making and overall skill level which was below the standards we have come to expect from such a talented player and he needs to do more for senior selection in my opinion. Daniel Nicholson (10 kicks, 8 handballs, 4 marks, 1 goal) - more quiet than he has been in the last few games but still managed to show some of his class and brilliant pace. James Strauss (14 kicks, 3 handballs, 6 marks) - like many teammates, he started slowly. His kicking radar was also a bit off but he put in a solid performance for most of the day. His strength over the ball is much improved this year and I can see him getting a chance at AFL very soon if he keeps up his form. Casey Scorpions 2.2.14 7.6.48 15.9.99 19.11.125 Bendigo Bombers 6.5.41 12.5.77 13.11.89 14.14.98 Goals Casey Scorpions Fevola 5 Howe Lawrence 3 Blease McNamara 2 Bate Cook Nicholson Wall Bendigo Bombers Dickson Little Prismall Stewart Williams 2 Duscher Dyson Meli Silverlock Best Casey Scorpions Howe McKenzie Mohr Morton Macdonald Evans Bendigo Bombers Prismall Quinn Dyson Duscher Jenkins

With two of the leaders out injured and another going down during the game, no change to the leaderboard. 67. Brent Moloney 55. Jack Trengove 37. Mark Jamar 35. Rohan Bail 34. Stefan Martin 31. Nathan Jones 28. Jared Rivers 25. Colin Sylvia Luke Tapscott 17. Colin Garland 16. Liam Jurrah Jack Watts 10. Ricky Petterd 8. Aaron Davey Addam Maric 7. James Frawley Neville Jetta 4. Jamie Bennell Jordan Gysberts 3. Michael Newton 2. Jack Grimes 1. Cale Morton Matthew Warnock

KANGAROO COURTS by The Oracle There's not much to write about a game in which , for three of its four quarters, one of the teams was playing at such a disadvantage. Reeling from injuries to key men in Mark Jamar and Jack Grimes and a handful of others who might have been handy replacements and a ridiculous suspension to Jack Trengove that was played out publicly over the course of the week, Melbourne was bound to struggle even without incurring further injuries to players during its game against North Melbourne, without some of its players leaving their brains and their form at home and without the umpires turning the game into a farcical benefit match for the Kangaroos. In the beginning, the Melbourne players started the game at Etihad Stadium as if they were on a mission to show their fans and the football world at large that they would not be distracted by the events of the past week. The team that has been known for some time for its slow starts, began like a house on fire with born again rookie Michael Newton taking some strong marks in the forward line and kicking two goals, Liam Jurrah doing likewise and Jack Watts also proving troublesome in attack. For most of the first term the ball was in the Demon forward half with Stef Martin proving a formidable foil to his taller counterpart in the North Melbourne ruck. The Demons were winning the clearances and, 24 minutes into the opening quarter, they held a 31 point lead having scored six of the first seven majors of the game. North's only goal to that stage had come from a stupid turnover when a misdirected Melbourne pass across the ground was gobbled up and passed to Leigh Adams who sent it through the big sticks. Ominously, the Demons released the pressure valve ever so slightly late in the quarter to concede a couple of goals but they came back with a late goal of their own. It was one of the team's better starts for the year and it dominated most of the game's statistics, the most impressive being the 15 inside-50s. North was the winner in the free kick count, leading by 6 to 5 but, at this stage of proceedings it was too early for Kangaroo fans to rally to the catch cry of Round 8, "Thank you umpire" although that time was coming. There was already another cloud on the horizon for Melbourne after Colin Garland rolled an ankle and hobbled off the ground. He game back for a while but had to be subbed off in the third quarter and was replaced by a smaller player in Jamie Bennell. The injury curse and the lack of a backup ruckman for Martin was to cause Dean Bailey to recast his team over the remainder of the game, and from early in the second quarter, the momentum of the game swung dramatically in North's favour. It didn't help that Brad Green and Brent Moloney were struggling to get into the game or that a number of others had little or no impact. Or for that matter, that the team began to take the same brain dead, mistake-riddled course punctuated by hesitation, loose play and poor execution of basic skills that had we had seen previously against Hawthorn and the West Coast. Or that the umpires were as inept in their adjudication as Melbourne was in the way it played. After all, it only takes a goal gifted here or taken away there to bring a team back into the game. Despite all that, the Demons still led at half time but only by seven points although they were behind in the free kick count by 10 to 14. It was still too early for the North fans to say, "Thank you umpire". The Kangaroos cut loose from the start of the second half with Goldstein now dominating in the ruck, Wells playing a blinder and Edwards dominant up forward. With Garland off the ground and Jared Rivers still on the injured list, the Demon defence was stretched to the limit. It was now also time for North Melbourne to pay homage to the umpiring fraternity. Two of the four goals their team kicked in that blistering opening burst were assisted by the men in green. The confusion in terms of what was a legitimate tackle and what was not was manifest and a Brent Harvey dive was seen while the three blind mice somehow missed some of the more blatant indiscretions that might have changed the course of the game had they been noticed. By the final break, North led the free kick count by 24 to 16. It was bad enough that Melbourne was playing wounded and playing poorly but the icing on the cake was the sling tackle with head high impact that the game's adjudicators were delivering to the team. On the scoreboard where it really counted, North held a 21 point lead and Rohan Bail, who ironically was injured early in his debut game on the same ground and against the same team two years ago, was off with a posterior cruciate knee injury. Liam Jurrah was also hobbling. With limitations on the Demon interchange bench, the game was just about over anyway but it was iced by two early goals to ensure a ninth consecutive win for the Kangaroos over their whipping boys. James Frawley, Nathan Jones, Colin Sylvia and a handful of others continued to try, Addam Maric popped in with three goals and the thank you crowd were consistent adding another 6 frees to North's tally against 4 (three in the space of a minute when the game was well and truly buried) to finish with 30 to 20 making a significant contribution to a week in which Demon fans could well and truly say they were done in by the Kangaroo Courts. Melbourne 7.2.44 8.6.54 10.10.70 12.11.83 North Melbourne 3.2.20 7.5.47 14.7.91 19.10.124 Goals Melbourne Jurrah Maric 3 Newton Petterd 2 Bartram Watts North Melbourne Edwards 6 Harvey Wells 3 Goldstein Hansen 2 Adams Harper Speight Best Melbourne Frawley Martin Jones Sylvia Watts Jurrah North Melbourne Wells Edwards Goldstein Harvey Swallow Ziebell Injuries Melbourne Garland (ankle) Bail (knee) North Melbourne Nil Changes Melbourne Nil North Melbourne Ben Cunnington (illness) replaced by Cruize Garlett Reports Melbourne Lynden Dunn (rough conduct on Daniel Pratt) North Melbourne Nil UmpiresNil Bowen Donlon Wenn Crowd 23,536 at Etihad Stadium

Your votes please

KANGAROO COURTS by The Oracle There's not much to write about a game in which , for three of its four quarters, one of the teams was playing at such a disadvantage. Reeling from injuries to key men in Mark Jamar and Jack Grimes and a handful of others who might have been handy replacements and a ridiculous suspension to Jack Trengove that was played out publicly over the course of the week, Melbourne was bound to struggle even without incurring further injuries to players during its game against North Melbourne, without some of its players leaving their brains and their form at home and without the umpires turning the game into a farcical benefit match for the Kangaroos. In the beginning, the Melbourne players started the game at Etihad Stadium as if they were on a mission to show their fans and the football world at large that they would not be distracted by the events of the past week. The team that has been known for some time for its slow starts, began like a house on fire with born again rookie Michael Newton taking some strong marks in the forward line and kicking two goals, Liam Jurrah doing likewise and Jack Watts also proving troublesome in attack. For most of the first term the ball was in the Demon forward half with Stef Martin proving a formidable foil to his taller counterpart in the North Melbourne ruck. The Demons were winning the clearances and, 24 minutes into the opening quarter, they held a 31 point lead having scored six of the first seven majors of the game. North's only goal to that stage had come from a stupid turnover when a misdirected Melbourne pass across the ground was gobbled up and passed to Leigh Adams who sent it through the big sticks. Ominously, the Demons released the pressure valve ever so slightly late in the quarter to concede a couple of goals but they came back with a late goal of their own. It was one of the team's better starts for the year and it dominated most of the game's statistics, the most impressive being the 15 inside-50s. North was the winner in the free kick count, leading by 6 to 5 but, at this stage of proceedings it was too early for Kangaroo fans to rally to the catch cry of Round 8, "Thank you umpire" although that time was coming. There was already another cloud on the horizon for Melbourne after Colin Garland rolled an ankle and hobbled off the ground. He game back for a while but had to be subbed off in the third quarter and was replaced by a smaller player in Jamie Bennell. The injury curse and the lack of a backup ruckman for Martin was to cause Dean Bailey to recast his team over the remainder of the game, and from early in the second quarter, the momentum of the game swung dramatically in North's favour. It didn't help that Brad Green and Brent Moloney were struggling to get into the game or that a number of others had little or no impact. Or for that matter, that the team began to take the same brain dead, mistake-riddled course punctuated by hesitation, loose play and poor execution of basic skills that had we had seen previously against Hawthorn and the West Coast. Or that the umpires were as inept in their adjudication as Melbourne was in the way it played. After all, it only takes a goal gifted here or taken away there to bring a team back into the game. Despite all that, the Demons still led at half time but only by seven points although they were behind in the free kick count by 10 to 14. It was still too early for the North fans to say, "Thank you umpire". The Kangaroos cut loose from the start of the second half with Goldstein now dominating in the ruck, Wells playing a blinder and Edwards dominant up forward. With Garland off the ground and Jared Rivers still on the injured list, the Demon defence was stretched to the limit. It was now also time for North Melbourne to pay homage to the umpiring fraternity. Two of the four goals their team kicked in that blistering opening burst were assisted by the men in green. The confusion in terms of what was a legitimate tackle and what was not was manifest and a Brent Harvey dive was seen while the three blind mice somehow missed some of the more blatant indiscretions that might have changed the course of the game had they been noticed. By the final break, North led the free kick count by 24 to 16. It was bad enough that Melbourne was playing wounded and playing poorly but the icing on the cake was the sling tackle with head high impact that the game's adjudicators were delivering to the team. On the scoreboard where it really counted, North held a 21 point lead and Rohan Bail, who ironically was injured early in his debut game on the same ground and against the same team two years ago, was off with a posterior cruciate knee injury. Liam Jurrah was also hobbling. With limitations on the Demon interchange bench, the game was just about over anyway but it was iced by two early goals to ensure a ninth consecutive win for the Kangaroos over their whipping boys. James Frawley, Nathan Jones, Colin Sylvia and a handful of others continued to try, Addam Maric popped in with three goals and the thank you crowd were consistent adding another 6 frees to North's tally against 4 (three in the space of a minute when the game was well and truly buried) to finish with 30 to 20 making a significant contribution to a week in which Demon fans could well and truly say they were done in by the Kangaroo Courts. Melbourne 7.2.44 8.6.54 10.10.70 12.11.83 North Melbourne 3.2.20 7.5.47 14.7.91 19.10.124 Goals Melbourne Jurrah Maric 3 Newton Petterd 2 Bartram Watts North Melbourne Edwards 6 Harvey Wells 3 Goldstein Hansen 2 Adams Harper Speight Best Melbourne Frawley Martin Jones Sylvia Watts Jurrah North Melbourne Wells Edwards Goldstein Harvey Swallow Ziebell Injuries Melbourne Garland (ankle) Bail (knee) North Melbourne Nil Changes Melbourne Nil North Melbourne Ben Cunnington (illness) replaced by Cruize Garlett Reports Melbourne Lynden Dunn (rough conduct on Daniel Pratt) North Melbourne Nil UmpiresNil Bowen Donlon Wenn Crowd 23,536 at Etihad Stadium

ADVERSITY BLUES by Whispering Jack "Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." - Napoleon Hill. The quote is from one of the leading lights of the American philosophy-of-success school that was an inspiration for generations of Americans who built their fortunes on the back of that nation's economic development in the early part of the last century. Today, the message might sound a trifle tacky to some but it seems to fit perfectly to the situation in which the Melbourne Football Club finds itself as the season rolls into the AFL's eighth round of matches. Less than a week ago, the club was reeling off the back of a poor performance in Perth against the West Coast Eagles but at least the playing list was looking reasonable healthy with only four on an injured list of which Tom Scully was the only major worry and even he was expected back on the field in three or four weeks. The list of available players was still at its deepest in years and this enabled alterations to be made to the makeup of the team so as to effect some structural change by way of response to the previous week's disaster although, the moving about of personnel was just one of a number of measures applied to turn things around for the club after its review of the Eagles game. Following a great deal of soul searching and much hard work on the track, the end result was about as dramatic as you can get - a 96 point win against the Crows representing a turnaround of 25 goals in the space of 10 days. However, the thing that made the game so impressive to me was the relentless way the team went about things after a week of criticism and abuse. They simply did not let up until the end of the game as they did last year by taking the foot off the pedal late in the games against Essendon and Sydney. Then came further adversity as fate conspired to aim some low body blows at the club. It had actually begun early in the Adelaide game when Jack Grimes came off the ground with a season- ending foot injury. Meanwhile, some ten kilometres away to the north at Preston, two of the club's reserve big men succumbed in the second quarter of their VFL game. Jake Spencer's season is over (ACL) and Jack Fitzpatrick will miss at least eight weeks after ankle surgery. We also learned during the week that another tall in Stef Martin copped a knee to the ribs in the same game and was in doubt to play this week. Spencer and Fitzpatrick are over 200cm tall and Martin is a centimetre or two short of that mark but the significance of their injuries was further highlighted when we discovered that All Australian ruckman Mark Jamar came out of the Crows game with a sore knee that was subsequently diagnosed as a strained posterior cruciate ligament strain curtailing his season by four weeks. Then came the man-made blow in the form of the match review panel's sanction over Jack Trengove's "perfect tackle" on Patrick Dangerfield which was endorsed by the tribunal on Tuesday night and has resulted in a three week suspension for the young Demon utility. That decision was upheld again on Thursday evening and, as a result, the game as we know it will never be the same. The solution for the team is to focus on the job ahead which is to overcome the adversity caused by the tribunal decision and the injuries that afflicted the club during and after the win against the Crows. The game against the Kangaroos becomes a real test of this club's mettle and an extension of the challenge it faced before it took on Adelaide. This time, the task is to not only overcome adversity but to bury two hoodoos - the one against the Kangaroos that has lasted over eight contests since Melbourne last tasted victory over it in Round 20, 2006 and the one at Etihad Stadium that goes back almost as far as that. Ironically, the last victory at that ground against the Bulldogs in 2007 was totally unexpected and proved costly to the club in terms of the extra draft picks that would have come its way but for the result of that game. The door that closes on the players going out of the team brings new opportunities for others. Careers can be made by those who rise to the challenge and the benefit to the club of fighting the adversity of this week will be inestimable if Saturday's campaign proves successful. THE GAME North Melbourne v Melbourne on Saturday 14 May 2011 at Etihad Stadium at 2.10 pm HEAD TO HEAD Overall North Melbourne 67 wins Melbourne 83 wins 1 draw At Etihad Stadium North Melbourne 4 wins Melbourne 0 wins Since 2000 North Melbourne 11 wins Melbourne 7 wins The Coaches Scott 2 wins Bailey 0 wins MEDIA Channel 10 - on delay from 3.00pm RADIO - 3AW TripleM THE BETTING North Melbourne to win $2.00 Melbourne to win $1.82 LAST TIME THEY MET North Melbourne 17.11.113 defeated Melbourne 15.13.103 at the MCG in Round 22 2011 This was James McDonald's farewell game and it was a see saw battle for most of the afternoon/evening (it was a twilight game). Liam Jurrah starred with five goals and Lynden Dunn kicked an absolute ripper of a goal but the Demons gave away a two pint lead at the final break to lose narrowly by ten points. THE TEAMS NORTH MELBOURNE Backs Jamie MacMillan Nathan Grima Scott Thompson Half backs Daniel Pratt Michael Firrito Brady Rawlings Centreline Ben Speight Shaun Atley Brent Harvey Half forwards Scott McMahon Aaron Edwards LThomas Forwards Sam Wright Drew Petrie Jack Ziebell Followers Todd Goldstein Andrew Swallow Daniel Wells Interchange Leigh Adams Ben Cunnington Lachlan Hansen Kieren Harper Emergencies Cruise Garlett Cam Pedersen Cam Richardson In Aaron Edwards Lachlan Hansen Out Liam Anthony Cam Pedersen MELBOURNE Backs James Frawley Matthew Warnock Clint Bartram Half backs Nathan Jones Colin Garland Luke Tapscott Centreline Ricky Petterd Lynden Dunn Brad Green Half forwards Colin Sylvia Liam Jurrah Addam Maric Forwards Jordan Gysberts Jack Watts Michael Newton Followers Stefan Martin Brent Moloney Aaron Davey Interchange Rohan Bail Jamie Bennell Neville Jetta Austin Wonaeamirri Emergencies Matthew Bate Max Gawn Joel Macdonald In Jamie Bennell Neville Jetta Stefan Martin Michael Newton Out Matthew Bate Jack Grimes (foot) Mark Jamar (knee) Jack Trengove (stabbed in the back by the MRP and AFL Tribunals) TODAY WE ARE ALL JACK TRENGOVE The forecast for tomorrow is for a few showers and a maximum temperature of 15 degrees. The sun will come up in the morning and everything will be as it was yesterday. Same thing the day after tomorrow and the next. There's no time to concern ourselves with the injustices meted out by the gods to Jack Trengove (although one could argue that the real injustice has been done to the game itself) or to injured pair Mark Jamar and Jack Grimes; there's absolutely no reason to feel down or sorry for themselves. The team is coming off a staggering 96 point win over the Crows in a game where several players starred, there's an important game ahead for the club and, as long as the team is determined to concentrate fully its task and continues in the same vein as last week, then it will achieve some justice for its missing teammates by winning against the struggling Kangaroos. But wait ... FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH It's a lucky thing this game isn't being played on Friday the Thirteenth because heaven knows what might have happened. But there are no excuses: not for the loss of players through injury and suspension because the Roos have been hit hard in this area than the Demons this year. And North Melbourne is not as bad as that 1-5 record might suggest. Games against Collingwood and Geelong (at Skilled) and two in Western Australia have ensured that wins were going to be difficult to accumulate early in the season. The Kangaroos were stiff to lose to Richmond where poor kicking for goal and an umpiring clanger surely robbed them of the points. They've been sitting back quietly during the week, training hard and having one goal in mind - Saturday's game v Melbourne. The situation is a coach's dream for Brad Scott who ever so gently stoked the flames by suggesting that the Tribunal got it right over Jack Trengove. He wants Melbourne to continue to live the week in the very unreal dream world of tribunals, legal argument, anger and frustration that made us all Jack Trengove. Thankfully, Dean Bailey has the extra day to prepare his team, to ensure its leaders are aware of the added responsibility that the situation has put on their shoulders and that the group is fully focussed on ensuring that a greater benefit is the result of a remarkable and tough week for the Melbourne Football Club. Demons by 38 points.

ADVERSITY BLUES by Whispering Jack "Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." - Napoleon Hill. The quote is from one of the leading lights of the American philosophy-of-success school that was an inspiration for generations of Americans who built their fortunes on the back of that nation's economic development in the early part of the last century. Today, the message might sound a trifle tacky to some but it seems to fit perfectly to the situation in which the Melbourne Football Club finds itself as the season rolls into the AFL's eighth round of matches. Less than a week ago, the club was reeling off the back of a poor performance in Perth against the West Coast Eagles but at least the playing list was looking reasonable healthy with only four on an injured list of which Tom Scully was the only major worry and even he was expected back on the field in three or four weeks. The list of available players was still at its deepest in years and this enabled alterations to be made to the makeup of the team so as to effect some structural change by way of response to the previous week's disaster although, the moving about of personnel was just one of a number of measures applied to turn things around for the club after its review of the Eagles game. Following a great deal of soul searching and much hard work on the track, the end result was about as dramatic as you can get - a 96 point win against the Crows representing a turnaround of 25 goals in the space of 10 days. However, the thing that made the game so impressive to me was the relentless way the team went about things after a week of criticism and abuse. They simply did not let up until the end of the game as they did last year by taking the foot off the pedal late in the games against Essendon and Sydney. Then came further adversity as fate conspired to aim some low body blows at the club. It had actually begun early in the Adelaide game when Jack Grimes came off the ground with a season- ending foot injury. Meanwhile, some ten kilometres away to the north at Preston, two of the club's reserve big men succumbed in the second quarter of their VFL game. Jake Spencer's season is over (ACL) and Jack Fitzpatrick will miss at least eight weeks after ankle surgery. We also learned during the week that another tall in Stef Martin copped a knee to the ribs in the same game and was in doubt to play this week. Spencer and Fitzpatrick are over 200cm tall and Martin is a centimetre or two short of that mark but the significance of their injuries was further highlighted when we discovered that All Australian ruckman Mark Jamar came out of the Crows game with a sore knee that was subsequently diagnosed as a strained posterior cruciate ligament strain curtailing his season by four weeks. Then came the man-made blow in the form of the match review panel's sanction over Jack Trengove's "perfect tackle" on Patrick Dangerfield which was endorsed by the tribunal on Tuesday night and has resulted in a three week suspension for the young Demon utility. That decision was upheld again on Thursday evening and, as a result, the game as we know it will never be the same. The solution for the team is to focus on the job ahead which is to overcome the adversity caused by the tribunal decision and the injuries that afflicted the club during and after the win against the Crows. The game against the Kangaroos becomes a real test of this club's mettle and an extension of the challenge it faced before it took on Adelaide. This time, the task is to not only overcome adversity but to bury two hoodoos - the one against the Kangaroos that has lasted over eight contests since Melbourne last tasted victory over it in Round 20, 2006 and the one at Etihad Stadium that goes back almost as far as that. Ironically, the last victory at that ground against the Bulldogs in 2007 was totally unexpected and proved costly to the club in terms of the extra draft picks that would have come its way but for the result of that game. The door that closes on the players going out of the team brings new opportunities for others. Careers can be made by those who rise to the challenge and the benefit to the club of fighting the adversity of this week will be inestimable if Saturday's campaign proves successful. THE GAME North Melbourne v Melbourne on Saturday 14 May 2011 at Etihad Stadium at 2.10 pm HEAD TO HEAD Overall North Melbourne 67 wins Melbourne 83 wins 1 draw At Etihad Stadium North Melbourne 4 wins Melbourne 0 wins Since 2000 North Melbourne 11 wins Melbourne 7 wins The Coaches Scott 2 wins Bailey 0 wins MEDIA Channel 10 - on delay from 3.00pm RADIO - 3AW TripleM THE BETTING North Melbourne to win $2.00 Melbourne to win $1.82 LAST TIME THEY MET North Melbourne 17.11.113 defeated Melbourne 15.13.103 at the MCG in Round 22 2011 This was James McDonald's farewell game and it was a see saw battle for most of the afternoon/evening (it was a twilight game). Liam Jurrah starred with five goals and Lynden Dunn kicked an absolute ripper of a goal but the Demons gave away a two pint lead at the final break to lose narrowly by ten points. THE TEAMS NORTH MELBOURNE Backs Jamie MacMillan Nathan Grima Scott Thompson Half backs Daniel Pratt Michael Firrito Brady Rawlings Centreline Ben Speight Shaun Atley Brent Harvey Half forwards Scott McMahon Aaron Edwards LThomas Forwards Sam Wright Drew Petrie Jack Ziebell Followers Todd Goldstein Andrew Swallow Daniel Wells Interchange Leigh Adams Ben Cunnington Lachlan Hansen Kieren Harper Emergencies Cruise Garlett Cam Pedersen Cam Richardson In Aaron Edwards Lachlan Hansen Out Liam Anthony Cam Pedersen MELBOURNE Backs James Frawley Matthew Warnock Clint Bartram Half backs Nathan Jones Colin Garland Luke Tapscott Centreline Ricky Petterd Lynden Dunn Brad Green Half forwards Colin Sylvia Liam Jurrah Addam Maric Forwards Jordan Gysberts Jack Watts Michael Newton Followers Stefan Martin Brent Moloney Aaron Davey Interchange Rohan Bail Jamie Bennell Neville Jetta Austin Wonaeamirri Emergencies Matthew Bate Max Gawn Joel Macdonald In Jamie Bennell Neville Jetta Stefan Martin Michael Newton Out Matthew Bate Jack Grimes (foot) Mark Jamar (knee) Jack Trengove (stabbed in the back by the MRP and AFL Tribunals) TODAY WE ARE ALL JACK TRENGOVE The forecast for tomorrow is for a few showers and a maximum temperature of 15 degrees. The sun will come up in the morning and everything will be as it was yesterday. Same thing the day after tomorrow and the next. There's no time to concern ourselves with the injustices meted out by the gods to Jack Trengove (although one could argue that the real injustice has been done to the game itself) or to injured pair Mark Jamar and Jack Grimes; there's absolutely no reason to feel down or sorry for themselves. The team is coming off a staggering 96 point win over the Crows in a game where several players starred, there's an important game ahead for the club and, as long as the team is determined to concentrate fully its task and continues in the same vein as last week, then it will achieve some justice for its missing teammates by winning against the struggling Kangaroos. But wait ... FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH It's a lucky thing this game isn't being played on Friday the Thirteenth because heaven knows what might have happened. But there are no excuses: not for the loss of players through injury and suspension because the Roos have been hit hard in this area than the Demons this year. And North Melbourne is not as bad as that 1-5 record might suggest. Games against Collingwood and Geelong (at Skilled) and two in Western Australia have ensured that wins were going to be difficult to accumulate early in the season. The Kangaroos were stiff to lose to Richmond where poor kicking for goal and an umpiring clanger surely robbed them of the points. They've been sitting back quietly during the week, training hard and having one goal in mind - Saturday's game v Melbourne. The situation is a coach's dream for Brad Scott who ever so gently stoked the flames by suggesting that the Tribunal got it right over Jack Trengove. He wants Melbourne to continue to live the week in the very unreal dream world of tribunals, legal argument, anger and frustration that made us all Jack Trengove. Thankfully, Dean Bailey has the extra day to prepare his team, to ensure its leaders are aware of the added responsibility that the situation has put on their shoulders and that the group is fully focussed on ensuring that a greater benefit is the result of a remarkable and tough week for the Melbourne Football Club. Demons by 38 points.

The last game of season 2010 played at the G. We were on par with them for most of the game but they snuck away in the finish. MELBOURNE Backs Clint Bartram Jared Rivers Colin Garland Half backs Tom Scully James Frawley Cale Morton Centreline Cameron Bruce Nathan Jones Liam Jurrah Half forwards Colin Sylvia Matthew Bate Lynden Dunn Forwards Austin Wonaeamirri Brad Green Jack Watts Followers Mark Jamar James McDonald Brent Moloney Interchange (from) Rohan Bail Paul Johnson Joel Macdonald Jordie McKenzie Michael Newton Jack Trengove Matthew Warnock In Matthew Bate Paul Johnson Joel Macdonald Colin Sylvia Out Jamie Bennell NORTH MELBOURNE Backs Michael Firrito Scott Thompson Brady Rawlings Half backs Daniel Pratt Nathan Grima Scott McMahon Centreline Cruize Garlett Brent Harvey Sam Wright Half forwards Ryan Bastinac Corey Jones Daniel Wells Forwards Ben Cunnington Aaron Edwards Ben Warren Followers Hamish McIntosh Andrew Swallow Levi Greenwood Interchange (from) Matt Campbell Todd Goldstein David Hale Leigh Harding Jamie Macmillan Robbie Tarrant Marcus White In Matt Campbell Todd Goldstein Corey Jones Jamie Macmillan Robbie Tarrant Out Leigh Adams (concussion) Lachlan Hansen (hamstring)

BIG MEN DOWN IN NARROW CASEY LOSS by KC from Casey The Preston City Oval is a daunting place for visiting teams at the best of times but with early showers making for a slippery surface and tricky winds blowing across the ground it can all become a bit of a nightmare. And so it was for the Casey Scorpions who ran out onto that ground for coach Brad Gotch’s 250th game on Sunday in conditions made for a dour game of tough, hard football that was never going to be pretty. It was the home side that adapted better to the conditions and they made the most of their early opportunities by scoring the first three goals of the match. Casey fought back to narrow the gap to eleven points at quarter time despite some poor field kicking and a couple of missed goal opportunities. The poor start in the greasy conditions meant that it would remain a case of playing catch up football for the rest of the game. As fate would have it, things got worse in the second stanza when the team's tallest players - Jake Spencer (knee) and Jack Fitzpatrick (foot) - succumbed to injuries. Both players will require surgery and will be out for some time with Spencer requiring a knee reconstruction. With the Scorpions down two men, they were forced to resort to the use of makeshift ruckmen against some quality tall timber of the Bullants led by Shaun Hampson and Nick Meese and, to their credit, they rallied after half time to claw their way back into the game. Tim Mohr battled manfully in the circumstances in the ruck and Brendan Fevola cut loose with a couple of goals to set the scene for a thrilling last quarter with just two points in the game at the final break. The Scorpions worked hard to get to within a point on two occasions during the final term, the first when Jeremy Howe booted his second and then after Fevola showed some of the class that made him a reputation as a dangerous forward in the AFL with a goal from the boundary line. However, the task of coming back from behind in a hard slog proved a tough ask and the Scorps eventually fell short by nine points. It was the club's second away defeat by fewer than two goals this season. Co-captain James Wall (24 disposals) was steady and effective in leading the side while Michael Stockdale played his best game since returning from the knee injury that cut short his 2010 season. Michael Evans (25 touches and six marks) continues to shine in the middle and Jamie Bennell added some poise and run to the side. Joel Macdonald (22 possessions) continues to be an effective defender with the ability to link up with players further afield and Dave Collins (21 disposals) got a lot of the ball in his second game for the season. The loss leaves the Scorpions outside the top four making this week's match against the much improved Bendigo Bombers at Casey Fields an important and vital clash for the team ahead of the bye in the week following. HOW THE DEMONS FARED Jamie Bennell (8 kicks 12 handballs 5 marks) – showed a lot of creativity and dash and it was not his fault that the team went down. Lucas Cook (5 kicks 12 handballs 2 marks) – had a good day and 17 disposals was a good return for a tall man in the greasy conditions. Michael Evans (14 kicks 11 handballs 6 marks) – another solid performance from the young speedster who is more than living up to expectations. Jack Fitzpatrick (4 kicks 2 handballs 2 marks 1 goal) – sustained an ankle injury in the second quarter and looks set for an eight week layoff following surgery. Jeremy Howe (8 kicks 4 handballs 3 marks 2 goals) – flashed in and out of the game Neville Jetta (6 kicks 11 handballs) – provided drive all day without being as prolific as he was last week. Kelvin Lawrence (3 kicks 1 handball 1 mark) – a quiet day at the office. Joel Macdonald (9 kicks 13 handballs 4 marks) – creative link man whose experience was invaluable on the day. Tom McDonald (2 kicks 9 handballs 2 marks) – conditions not great for the youngster but he kept plugging away. Stefan Martin (5 kicks 2 handballs 2 marks) – not the best of days for Martin who had several positions around the ground and ended up at full forward. Cale Morton (7 kicks 10 handballs 2 marks) - was in the play and did some nice things but his field kicking and general disposal could have been better. Michael Newton (6 kicks 2 handballs 2 marks) – played around the ground and worked hard with his tackling and pressure. Dan Nicholson (6 kicks 5 handballs) – a subdued performance after his great form over the past month. Was patchy at times but has the skills to go forward, especially now that some space may be opening up for the rookies. Jake Spencer (1 handball 2 marks) – the big man injured his knee in the second quarter and will miss the rest of the season with an ACL. Casey Scorpions 1.3.9 3.5.23 5.8.38 7.10.52 Northern Bullants 3.2.20 5.7.37 5.10.40 8.13.61 Goals Casey Scorpions Fevola 3 Howe 2 Fitzpatrick McGough Northern Bullants Hampson 2 Bray Carter McCorkell Meese Saad Thomas Best Casey Scorpions Wall Bennell Stockdale Mohr Macdonald Evans Northern Bullants Cachia McLean O'Keefe Iacobucci Meese Tuohy The reserves had their second big win in a row with a 94 point thumping of the Bullants overturning the result of their opening game of the season. Demon rookie Tom McNamara was the catalyst for the victory and Max Gawn put in a dominant display in the ruck while Dean Cleven and Aaron Purves kicked four goals each in the goal fest. Casey Scorpions 9.5.59 14.7.91 19.12.126 23.12.150 Northern Bullants 1.4.10 3.8.26 5.11.41 7.14.56 Goals Casey Scorpions Cleven Purves 4 McNamara Riseley 3 Weekes 2 Bell Campbell Clay Dowse Gawn Lindsay McKenzie Northern Bullants Dorman Way 2 Jenkins McLellan Ogilvie Best Casey Scorpions McNamara Gawn Allen Weekes Cleven Hill Northern Bullants Bransgrove Wills Smith Jenkins Carroll Soncin

BIG MEN DOWN IN NARROW CASEY LOSS by KC from Casey The Preston City Oval is a daunting place for visiting teams at the best of times but with early showers making for a slippery surface and tricky winds blowing across the ground it can all become a bit of a nightmare. And so it was for the Casey Scorpions who ran out onto that ground for coach Brad Gotch's 250th game on Sunday in conditions made for a dour game of tough, hard football that was never going to be pretty. It was the home side that adapted better to the conditions and they made the most of their early opportunities by scoring the first three goals of the match. Casey fought back to narrow the gap to eleven points at quarter time despite some poor field kicking and a couple of missed goal opportunities. The poor start in the greasy conditions meant that it would remain a case of playing catch up football for the rest of the game. As fate would have it, things got worse in the second stanza when the team's tallest players - Jake Spencer (knee) and Jack Fitzpatrick (foot) - succumbed to injuries. Both players will require surgery and will be out for some time with Spencer requiring a knee reconstruction. With the Scorpions down two men, they were forced to resort to the use of makeshift ruckmen against some quality tall timber of the Bullants led by Shaun Hampson and Nick Meese and, to their credit, they rallied after half time to claw their way back into the game. Tim Mohr battled manfully in the circumstances in the ruck and Brendan Fevola cut loose with a couple of goals to set the scene for a thrilling last quarter with just two points in the game at the final break. The Scorpions worked hard to get to within a point on two occasions during the final term, the first when Jeremy Howe booted his second and then after Fevola showed some of the class that made him a reputation as a dangerous forward in the AFL with a goal from the boundary line. However, the task of coming back from behind in a hard slog proved a tough ask and the Scorps eventually fell short by nine points. It was the club's second away defeat by fewer than two goals this season. Co-captain James Wall (24 disposals) was steady and effective in leading the side while Michael Stockdale played his best game since returning from the knee injury that cut short his 2010 season. Michael Evans (25 touches and six marks) continues to shine in the middle and Jamie Bennell added some poise and run to the side. Joel Macdonald (22 possessions) continues to be an effective defender with the ability to link up with players further afield and Dave Collins (21 disposals) got a lot of the ball in his second game for the season. The loss leaves the Scorpions outside the top four making this week's match against the much improved Bendigo Bombers at Casey Fields an important and vital clash for the team ahead of the bye in the week following. HOW THE DEMONS FARED Jamie Bennell (8 kicks 12 handballs 5 marks) – showed a lot of creativity and dash and it was not his fault that the team went down. Lucas Cook (5 kicks 12 handballs 2 marks) – had a good day and 17 disposals was a good return for a tall man in the greasy conditions. Michael Evans (14 kicks 11 handballs 6 marks) – another solid performance from the young speedster who is more than living up to expectations. Jack Fitzpatrick (4 kicks 2 handballs 2 marks 1 goal) – sustained an ankle injury in the second quarter and looks set for an eight week layoff following surgery. Jeremy Howe (8 kicks 4 handballs 3 marks 2 goals) – flashed in and out of the game Neville Jetta (6 kicks 11 handballs) – provided drive all day without being as prolific as he was last week. Kelvin Lawrence (3 kicks 1 handball 1 mark) – a quiet day at the office. Joel Macdonald (9 kicks 13 handballs 4 marks) – creative link man whose experience was invaluable on the day. Tom McDonald (2 kicks 9 handballs 2 marks) – conditions not great for the youngster but he kept plugging away. Stefan Martin (5 kicks 2 handballs 2 marks) – not the best of days for Martin who had several positions around the ground and ended up at full forward. Cale Morton (7 kicks 10 handballs 2 marks) - was in the play and did some nice things but his field kicking and general disposal could have been better. Michael Newton (6 kicks 2 handballs 2 marks) – played around the ground and worked hard with his tackling and pressure. Dan Nicholson (6 kicks 5 handballs) – a subdued performance after his great form over the past month. Was patchy at times but has the skills to go forward, especially now that some space may be opening up for the rookies. Jake Spencer (1 handball 2 marks) – the big man injured his knee in the second quarter and will miss the rest of the season with an ACL. Casey Scorpions 1.3.9 3.5.23 5.8.38 7.10.52 Northern Bullants 3.2.20 5.7.37 5.10.40 8.13.61 Goals Casey Scorpions Fevola 3 Howe 2 Fitzpatrick McGough Northern Bullants Hampson 2 Bray Carter McCorkell Meese Saad Thomas Best Casey Scorpions Wall Bennell Stockdale Mohr Macdonald Evans Northern Bullants Cachia McLean O'Keefe Iacobucci Meese Tuohy The reserves had their second big win in a row with a 94 point thumping of the Bullants overturning the result of their opening game of the season. Demon rookie Tom McNamara was the catalyst for the victory and Max Gawn put in a dominant display in the ruck while Dean Cleven and Aaron Purves kicked four goals each in the goal fest. Casey Scorpions 9.5.59 14.7.91 19.12.126 23.12.150 Northern Bullants 1.4.10 3.8.26 5.11.41 7.14.56 Goals Casey Scorpions Cleven Purves 4 McNamara Riseley 3 Weekes 2 Bell Campbell Clay Dowse Gawn Lindsay McKenzie Northern Bullants Dorman Way 2 Jenkins McLellan Ogilvie Best Casey Scorpions McNamara Gawn Allen Weekes Cleven Hill Northern Bullants Bransgrove Wills Smith Jenkins Carroll Soncin

Beamer extends his lead and, if Jack T accepts the two weeks , it's likely to extend further in the coming weeks. 67. Brent Moloney 55. Jack Trengove 37. Mark Jamar 35. Rohan Bail 28 Jared Rivers 25. Luke Tapscott 21. Colin Sylvia 19. Nathan Jones 18. Stefan Martin 17. Colin Garland 14.Liam Jurrah Jack Watts 10. Ricky Petterd 5. Addam Maric 4. Jamie Bennell 3. Jordan Gysberts 2. James Frawley Jack Grimes 1. Aaron Davey Cale Morton

KC flew north after the game on Sunday to meet up with his family. His report should be up some time during the day today.

I thought it was a fantastic tackle.

THE UGLY, THE BAD AND THE GOOD by The Oracle Quote from the coach at the end of the match: "In this game, you have to learn how to handle failure and adversity if you're going to be any good. And we've got something to handle just at the moment. "It will be our next challenge as a group, to regroup after that sort of performance. It was as bad as we've put on display for a long time." He's talking about his team's ugly performance at the MCG but thankfully the speaker is Adelaide coach Neil Craig whose head is likely to be one of three or four on the media chopping block this week instead of Melbourne coach Dean Bailey who went through the wringer last week. The Demons are sitting in seventh position on the AFL ladder with 3½ wins from six matches, a healthy percentage closing in on 120 after a thumping 96-point win over the Crows. However, in this caper, unless you have put the score on the board consistently over a long period, a record of three wins from your past four matches (two of them by 15 goals or more) all amounts to naught. Put in another inspid performance against North Melbourne next week and Caroline Wilson, every other panellist and half the supporter group will turn ugly and be after the coach's blood. The bad, apart from the early injury to Jack Grimes, the handful of dropped marks in front of goal, the poor kicking for goal, the ordinary umpiring (I can say this after a 16 goal win without it sounding like sour grapes) was the dismal Adelaide side and the fact that many of the pundits are excusing the Crows because of their youth and inexperience as if the Demons aren't the most youthful and inexperienced side in the competition next to the Gold Coast Suns. The bad was pointing out the Adelaide coaches failed to exploit all of the aspects of Melbourne's game that Alistair Clarkson and John Worsfold have done to perfection earlier in the season. Which brings us to the good and you have to start with how the coach, the football department (including new football el supremo, guru and saviour Jimmy) and the players responded to last week's humiliation. You have to hand it to the way Brad Green, Aaron Davey, Nathan Jones and ... yes Brent Moloney (with an amazing 19 clearances) came back to show leadership and add inspiration to the group. Beamer must be up there with Judd and Watson for early Brownlow favouritism! And what about the way important players in James Frawley and Colin Sylvia overcame criticism over their recent poor form and how youngsters Jack Watts, Jack Trengove, Jordan Gysberts, Luke Tapscott, Rohan Bail and especially Addam Maric responded to the challenge and how Ricky Petterd came back from a stint at Casey with four goals? The good was also the fact that Mark Jamar rucked all day and beat his counterparts hands down and, although not at the top of his game and inaccurate in front of goal, Liam Jurrah was always dangerous up forward and the fact that he kicked a miracle goal near the end after stealing the ball from an Adelaide defender. Bailey's use of Clint Bartram who came to the club as a midfielder showed he could be flexible and that was good too! The move of Matthew Bate into defence for a while was also smart and creative. And how good after last week was the record of 73 inside 50s? However, as we know full well, the good can turn bad and ugly in a very short space of time. The team needs to earn the trust of its supporters. I suspect that it wasn't just Mothers Day and the rain that kept the attendance down to under 20,000 when memberships number 35,000. Melbourne has a big challenge next week against North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium against a team that thinks it owns us. A win in that sort of game can provide some legitimacy and respect to the team. Some of this was restored in the effort against Adelaide but greater consistency will remove the ugly stigma of the curse of Pattersons Stadium. Melbourne 2.7.19 6.11.47 14.16.100 22.17.149 Adelaide 2.0.12 5.3.33 6.4.40 8.5.53 Goals Melbourne Petterd Sylvia 4 Jurrah 3 Green Watts Wonaeamirri 2 Bartram Bate Dunn Jones Tapscott Adelaide Tippett 3 Reilly 2 McKernan Thompson van Berlo Best Melbourne Moloney Sylvia Green Jones Petterd Frawley Maric Jamar Adelaide Van Berlo Reilly Jaensch iSloane. Injuries Melbourne Grimes (ankle) Adelaide Dangerfield (concussion) Thompson (calf) Wright (ankle) Injuries Melbourne Nil Adelaide Nil Reports Melbourne Nil Adelaide Nil Umpires Stevic Jeffery Keating Crowd 19,987 at the MCG

THE UGLY, THE BAD AND THE GOOD by The Oracle Quote from the coach at the end of the match: "In this game, you have to learn how to handle failure and adversity if you're going to be any good. And we've got something to handle just at the moment. "It will be our next challenge as a group, to regroup after that sort of performance. It was as bad as we've put on display for a long time." He's talking about his team's ugly performance at the MCG but thankfully the speaker is Adelaide coach Neil Craig whose head is likely to be one of three or four on the media chopping block this week instead of Melbourne coach Dean Bailey who went through the wringer last week. The Demons are sitting in seventh position on the AFL ladder with 3½ wins from six matches, a healthy percentage closing in on 120 after a thumping 96-point win over the Crows. However, in this caper, unless you have put the score on the board consistently over a long period, a record of three wins from your past four matches (two of them by 15 goals or more) all amounts to naught. Put in another inspid performance against North Melbourne next week and Caroline Wilson, every other panellist and half the supporter group will turn ugly and be after the coach's blood. The bad, apart from the early injury to Jack Grimes, the handful of dropped marks in front of goal, the poor kicking for goal, the ordinary umpiring (I can say this after a 16 goal win without it sounding like sour grapes) was the dismal Adelaide side and the fact that many of the pundits are excusing the Crows because of their youth and inexperience as if the Demons aren't the most youthful and inexperienced side in the competition next to the Gold Coast Suns. The bad was pointing out the Adelaide coaches failed to exploit all of the aspects of Melbourne's game that Alistair Clarkson and John Worsfold have done to perfection earlier in the season. Which brings us to the good and you have to start with how the coach, the football department (including new football el supremo, guru and saviour Jimmy) and the players responded to last week's humiliation. You have to hand it to the way Brad Green, Aaron Davey, Nathan Jones and ... yes Brent Moloney (with an amazing 19 clearances) came back to show leadership and add inspiration to the group. Beamer must be up there with Judd and Watson for early Brownlow favouritism! And what about the way important players in James Frawley and Colin Sylvia overcame criticism over their recent poor form and how youngsters Jack Watts, Jack Trengove, Jordan Gysberts, Luke Tapscott, Rohan Bail and especially Addam Maric responded to the challenge and how Ricky Petterd came back from a stint at Casey with four goals? The good was also the fact that Mark Jamar rucked all day and beat his counterparts hands down and, although not at the top of his game and inaccurate in front of goal, Liam Jurrah was always dangerous up forward and the fact that he kicked a miracle goal near the end after stealing the ball from an Adelaide defender. Bailey's use of Clint Bartram who came to the club as a midfielder showed he could be flexible and that was good too! The move of Matthew Bate into defence for a while was also smart and creative. And how good after last week was the record of 73 inside 50s? However, as we know full well, the good can turn bad and ugly in a very short space of time. The team needs to earn the trust of its supporters. I suspect that it wasn't just Mothers Day and the rain that kept the attendance down to under 20,000 when memberships number 35,000. Melbourne has a big challenge next week against North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium against a team that thinks it owns us. A win in that sort of game can provide some legitimacy and respect to the team. Some of this was restored in the effort against Adelaide but greater consistency will remove the ugly stigma of the curse of Pattersons Stadium. Melbourne 2.7.19 6.11.47 14.16.100 22.17.149 Adelaide 2.0.12 5.3.33 6.4.40 8.5.53 Goals Melbourne Petterd Sylvia 4 Jurrah 3 Green Watts Wonaeamirri 2 Bartram Bate Dunn Jones Tapscott Adelaide Tippett 3 Reilly 2 McKernan Thompson van Berlo Best Melbourne Moloney Sylvia Green Jones Petterd Frawley Maric Jamar Adelaide Van Berlo Reilly Jaensch iSloane. Injuries Melbourne Grimes (ankle) Adelaide Dangerfield (concussion) Thompson (calf) Wright (ankle) Injuries Melbourne Nil Adelaide Nil Reports Melbourne Nil Adelaide Nil Umpires Stevic Jeffery Keating Crowd 19,987 at the MCG

Votes please ... 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Beamer retains his lead after six rounds (including the bye) 49. Brent Moloney 41 . Jack Trengove 37 . Mark Jamar 35 . Rohan Bail 28 . Jared Rivers 25 . Luke Tapscott 18 . Stefan Martin 17 . Colin Garland 16 . Colin Sylvia 14. . Liam Jurrah 12 . Nathan Jones Jack Watts 4 . Jamie Bennell 3 . Jordan Gysberts 2 . Jack Grimes 1 . Aaron Davey Cale Morton

A DEVIL OF A TIME by Whispering Jack MFC supporter group, the Devils Advocates held a dinner for Demon supporters connected with the legal fraternity on Tuesday night and I attended as usual. No lawyer jokes please, but putting on such a function after the events of last week at least proves that the profession doesn't have a particularly good sense of timing. The mood was sombre as we shuffled into the Essoign Club, a club for barristers and judges that has a rule that anyone caught answering their mobile phone in the restaurant must buy each adjoining table a bottle of wine. It was five days after the Patersons Stadium massacre and the rule was not in danger of being applied. Nobody was ringing Melbourne supporting members of the legal profession. Like the footy team we follow, we're friendless at the moment. They should try our counterparts from the team that beat is last week. I presume they're called the "Legal Eagles". Demon legend David Neitz was compere for the evening and the guest interviewee was Todd Viney, the club's General Manager for player development. The text below is taken from the question and answer session with both David and members of the audience and I hope my notes faithfully follow the way in which the issues for discussion were dealt. Todd's current role at the club is to ensure that every player at the club has his own individual development plan. Like Neita, he is a former Melbourne star who skippered the club and a member of its Team of the Century as well as the Hall of Fame. Two old teammates who were clearly unhappy with the circumstance of their club being in the limelight for all the wrong reasons. There was no hiding from that game in Perth. The night before, the football panel shows were in overdrive trying to work out the source of Melbourne's current ills. This rarely happens when the team in question is currently in the top eight but Monday's experts were more concerned with statistics like: Tackles 17th Contested Possessions 15th Hard Ball Gets 16th Clearances 15th Loose Ball Gets 17th Inside 50's 15th Those are the club's figures for the year but the focus is on the game in Perth. The other stat that everyone was talking about was the first quarter inside 50's of 3 to 22 which compared unfavourably with the numbers of the newbies from the Gold Coast against Essendon which lost their first quarter by 93 points. There's no single explanation for a performance as dismal as that which the Demons produces in Perth. You can choose to name any number of factors from the coach to the leadership to the playing group to the unfamiliar surroundings to the weather to the umpires to inexperience to the food, training and mindset of the players and lots more. These things need to be analysed in a review of the team's performance and Viney explained that the review process started immediately after the game. On the plane home, the line coaches were working on their laptops with Dean Bailey looking at overall picture view of key performance indicators for each line. Viney said that this process applies every week, win or lose. The coaches then meet the players in their lines after the weekend to discuss how they can go forward. Looking back at the game v the Eagles, it was necessary to bear in mind that young teams often struggle when travelling interstate and Melbourne is the second least experienced club after the Suns. Obviously, this doesn't answer everything but Viney recalled Hawthorn making a shorter trip to Adelaide a year before it won the flag in 2008 and the result was an absolute shocker of a 100 point loss on the road. Even the current day Saints who are an experienced group looked poor in the first quarter against the Crows in Adelaide. They were able to fight their way back because of their experienced players but didn't win the game. This time round we left Melbourne on the Tuesday and, as part of its preparation, trained in Perth the day before the game. The club will take that back with it and evaluate how best to travel for interstate games. The key to performing well interstate is also to be prepared mentally for these games and experience plays a big part in this regard. At Melbourne we have very few players with 100 games plus experience. Statistically, a younger side will lack size and body strength. As a club we're aware of the need to get better in these areas but the game in Perth was not typical. Against the Swans in the first round, our young group beat them in the hard ball gets. We've had some very good quarters of some of our games but it's time to put it together for four quarters. With the heat turned up on the club, Dean Bailey and his assistants called for harder training this week in the wake of Perth. Ultimately, the way you perform depends on how you train. You have to have the right mindset; there are no excuses. If you get your preparation right then you'll be ready to perform. Neitz joked with Viney about players having to take their mouthguards to training this week but I suspect that was no joke for the players who were taken through some tough contested footy and solid tackling sessions. Viney also spoke of the evolving game and how it is adopted differently by the teams. Developing the forward press which is currently in vogue takes time and is obviously a more difficult task with younger sides that are still to reach the optimum in the strength and body size needed to make it all work. Although the club is reasonably well off injury wise, the midfield which is so important in this day and age is missing the skills of a young Tom Scully and the tackling of Jordie McKenzie. Perhaps the mix of players needs to be looked at and Viney hinted about possible changes at team selection this week but not wholesale changes. If you're going to include someone, then who do you leave out? The answer to that can be seen in the team below. This week's team to take on the team that Viney left to rejoin the Demons has a more experienced and a stronger look and we have the benefit of a wise head in the coaching group who has an intimate knowledge of how the opposition works. We can expect a different group to come out onto the MCG this Sunday and I'm betting they'll go inside 50 more often and be a lot harder at it than they were 10 days ago in Perth. THE GAME Melbourne v. Adelaide at the MCG 8 May 2010 at 2.10pm (AEST) HEAD TO HEAD Overall Melbourne 10 wins Adelaide 19 wins At MCG Melbourne 6 wins Adelaide 5 wins Since 2000 Melbourne 5 wins Adelaide 11 wins The coaches Bailey 1 win Craig 3 wins MEDIA TV Channel 7 (delayed at 3.00pm AEST) RADIO Triple M 3AW THE BETTING Melbourne to win $1.72 Adelaide to win $2.13 LAST TIME THEY MET Adelaide 16.21.117 d Melbourne 11.7.73 Round 13, 2010 at AAMI Stadium This was one of Melbourne's worst performances of the season and a major reversal for coach Dean Bailey and his players. The team started sluggishly as it often tends to do on interstate jaunts and the game was over by the main break. There were minor signs of resistance in the third and last quarters but the only thing that prevented the game from turning into a complete massacre was Adelaide's poor kicking for goal. The result was almost as pathetic as that of last week's Perth trip. THE TEAMS MELBOURNE Backs James Frawley Matthew Warnock Clint Bartram Half backs Nathan Jones Colin Garland Luke Tapscott Centreline Ricky Petterd Jack Grimes Colin Sylvia Half forwards Jack Watts Liam Jurrah Addam Maric Forwards Brad Green Matthew Bate Aaron Davey Followers Mark Jamar Brent Moloney Jack Trengove Interchange Jordan Gysberts Lynden Dunn Austin Wonaeamirri Rohan Bail Emergencies Joel Macdonald Michael Newton Neville Jetta In Ricky Petterd Matthew Bate Matthew Warnock Addam Maric Out Jared Rivers (ankle) Cale Morton Stef Martin Jamie Bennell ADELAIDE Backs Graham Johncock Ben Rutten Michael Doughty Half backs Matthew Jaensch Luke Thompson Nathan van Berlo Centreline Brodie Smith Brent Reilly Ricky Henderson Half forwards Chris Knights Shaun McKernan Richard Douglas Forwards Taylor Walker Kurt Tippett Matthew Wright Followers Sam Jacobs Scott Thompson Patrick Dangerfield Interchange Jared Petrenko Christopher Schmidt Rory Sloane Brad Symes Emergencies Jack Gunston Ivan Maric James Sellar In Jared Petrenko Rory Sloane Christopher Schmidt Out, Phil Davis (Shoulder) Brodie Martin Richard Tambling (Suspension) IN THE DETAIL Todd Viney has been involved in the coaching system at two clubs, Hawthorn and Adelaide and was asked to compare where the club was situated at the present time. He pointed out that the club can and will improve but noted that it has just gotten out of debt and there's a lot that has to be done. An example is the computer ware at the club, one of only two that don't have the latest in camera technology (costing $500k) for use at training show players what has to be done. There was the inevitable question about Jack Viney who recently signed on to the club under the father/son rule. Jack recently turned 17 years of age and is in year 11 at Carey Grammar but, although committed to the club, can't play until 2013. Prior to committing to the Demons, there was some pressure on him as other clubs tried to lure him away under AFL rules relating to the entry of Greater Western Sydney. Jack and the family spent time at the club with Dean Bailey and Chris Connolly and when he returned Jack didn't want to go anywhere else and felt comfortable that he was coming to a well run and well resourced club. He has had some minor injury problems but just returned from the AIS-AFL Under 17 tour of London, Milan where exhibition games were played and Turkey where the lads took part in the Anzac Day dawn service at Gallipoli and is hoping to play for his school, the Oakleigh Chargers and the Under 18 Vic Metro team. Neita briefly interviewed some of the players on hand at the function. Jack Trengove spoke of the club's very thorough post match review after the Eagles game and of how the coach had worked them hard during the week. He is convinced better things are around the corner. Rookie Michael Evans is studying law part time and has been playing well at Casey. "Pickles", as he is called, sustained a broken leg and a hip injury in 2010 but was happy to be drafted to the Demons and hasn't looked back since. My mail is that Evans, a pacy midfielder, would almost certainly have been drafted very high but for those injuries that kept him off the radar for many clubs. Jack Grimes was impressive as usual in speaking of the pressure from last weekend. "The playing group didn't play the way he (Bailey) teaches us to play." Grimes said the players took full responsibility for last week and said the team will definitely perform much better this week. He also spoke about Brent Moloney and the difficult decision the leadership group made about the vice captaincy after his night club incident before the Gold Coast game. He said that Beamer Is an inspirational leader and has responded well. The team needs him as a leader and Grimes believes that he will fight his way back into the leadership group. Grimes also said he has done a bit of work with the midfield line at training and is looking forward to getting an opportunity there at some time in the near future. Stefan Martin, another law student, is one of the club's big improvers (despite his omission for this week) and he spoke of how his improved fitness had helped him and how he is learning more about what it takes to play in the ruck. All of the players were impressive and confident of the club's future and there was no suggestion that they were affected by the week's hype and media scrutiny in any other way than to be positive about putting in some bright performances in the coming weeks. The evening ended with a successful auction conducted by Phil Kingston of Gary Peer & Associates who successfully sold some items for the club and showed his selling skills when he knocked down a pre match session with the coach above the reserve. Considering the hammering that Dean Bailey's gotten over the past week that was a devil of an effort. As far as the game is concerned, I think it's a tipster's nightmare. Both clubs are enigmatic. Adelaide has beaten both Hawthorn and St. Kilda – both clubs touted as top four contenders in the early betting. In between, the Crows lost to Port Adelaide which lost the following week to the Suns. Melbourne's situation has been well documented and you only need to read the above to realise that anything could happen on Sunday at the MCG. I have no idea why I'm doing this but I'm tipping the Demons to win by 10 points. I suppose it's because I have enough faith in Brad Green and Aaron Davey to turn things around and that the club's inclusions give it some in form players and, in the end, the home ground advantage means a lot to this team. The comfort of the trumpeter, the raising of the flag and the odds set by the bookies have swayed me.

A DEVIL OF A TIME by Whispering Jack MFC supporter group, the Devils Advocates held a dinner for Demon supporters connected with the legal fraternity on Tuesday night and I attended as usual. No lawyer jokes please, but putting on such a function after the events of last week at least proves that the profession doesn't have a particularly good sense of timing. The mood was sombre as we shuffled into the Essoign Club, a club for barristers and judges that has a rule that anyone caught answering their mobile phone in the restaurant must buy each adjoining table a bottle of wine. It was five days after the Patersons Stadium massacre and the rule was not in danger of being applied. Nobody was ringing Melbourne supporting members of the legal profession. Like the footy team we follow, we're friendless at the moment. They should try our counterparts from the team that beat is last week. I presume they're called the "Legal Eagles". Demon legend David Neitz was compere for the evening and the guest interviewee was Todd Viney, the club's General Manager for player development. The text below is taken from the question and answer session with both David and members of the audience and I hope my notes faithfully follow the way in which the issues for discussion were dealt. Todd's current role at the club is to ensure that every player at the club has his own individual development plan. Like Neita, he is a former Melbourne star who skippered the club and a member of its Team of the Century as well as the Hall of Fame. Two old teammates who were clearly unhappy with the circumstance of their club being in the limelight for all the wrong reasons. There was no hiding from that game in Perth. The night before, the football panel shows were in overdrive trying to work out the source of Melbourne's current ills. This rarely happens when the team in question is currently in the top eight but Monday's experts were more concerned with statistics like: Tackles 17th Contested Possessions 15th Hard Ball Gets 16th Clearances 15th Loose Ball Gets 17th Inside 50's 15th Those are the club's figures for the year but the focus is on the game in Perth. The other stat that everyone was talking about was the first quarter inside 50's of 3 to 22 which compared unfavourably with the numbers of the newbies from the Gold Coast against Essendon which lost their first quarter by 93 points. There's no single explanation for a performance as dismal as that which the Demons produces in Perth. You can choose to name any number of factors from the coach to the leadership to the playing group to the unfamiliar surroundings to the weather to the umpires to inexperience to the food, training and mindset of the players and lots more. These things need to be analysed in a review of the team's performance and Viney explained that the review process started immediately after the game. On the plane home, the line coaches were working on their laptops with Dean Bailey looking at overall picture view of key performance indicators for each line. Viney said that this process applies every week, win or lose. The coaches then meet the players in their lines after the weekend to discuss how they can go forward. Looking back at the game v the Eagles, it was necessary to bear in mind that young teams often struggle when travelling interstate and Melbourne is the second least experienced club after the Suns. Obviously, this doesn't answer everything but Viney recalled Hawthorn making a shorter trip to Adelaide a year before it won the flag in 2008 and the result was an absolute shocker of a 100 point loss on the road. Even the current day Saints who are an experienced group looked poor in the first quarter against the Crows in Adelaide. They were able to fight their way back because of their experienced players but didn't win the game. This time round we left Melbourne on the Tuesday and, as part of its preparation, trained in Perth the day before the game. The club will take that back with it and evaluate how best to travel for interstate games. The key to performing well interstate is also to be prepared mentally for these games and experience plays a big part in this regard. At Melbourne we have very few players with 100 games plus experience. Statistically, a younger side will lack size and body strength. As a club we're aware of the need to get better in these areas but the game in Perth was not typical. Against the Swans in the first round, our young group beat them in the hard ball gets. We've had some very good quarters of some of our games but it's time to put it together for four quarters. With the heat turned up on the club, Dean Bailey and his assistants called for harder training this week in the wake of Perth. Ultimately, the way you perform depends on how you train. You have to have the right mindset; there are no excuses. If you get your preparation right then you'll be ready to perform. Neitz joked with Viney about players having to take their mouthguards to training this week but I suspect that was no joke for the players who were taken through some tough contested footy and solid tackling sessions. Viney also spoke of the evolving game and how it is adopted differently by the teams. Developing the forward press which is currently in vogue takes time and is obviously a more difficult task with younger sides that are still to reach the optimum in the strength and body size needed to make it all work. Although the club is reasonably well off injury wise, the midfield which is so important in this day and age is missing the skills of a young Tom Scully and the tackling of Jordie McKenzie. Perhaps the mix of players needs to be looked at and Viney hinted about possible changes at team selection this week but not wholesale changes. If you're going to include someone, then who do you leave out? The answer to that can be seen in the team below. This week's team to take on the team that Viney left to rejoin the Demons has a more experienced and a stronger look and we have the benefit of a wise head in the coaching group who has an intimate knowledge of how the opposition works. We can expect a different group to come out onto the MCG this Sunday and I'm betting they'll go inside 50 more often and be a lot harder at it than they were 10 days ago in Perth. THE GAME Melbourne v. Adelaide at the MCG 8 May 2010 at 2.10pm (AEST) HEAD TO HEAD Overall Melbourne 10 wins Adelaide 19 wins At MCG Melbourne 6 wins Adelaide 5 wins Since 2000 Melbourne 5 wins Adelaide 11 wins The coaches Bailey 1 win Craig 3 wins MEDIA TV Channel 7 (delayed at 3.00pm AEST) RADIO Triple M 3AW THE BETTING Melbourne to win $1.72 Adelaide to win $2.13 LAST TIME THEY MET Adelaide 16.21.117 d Melbourne 11.7.73 Round 13, 2010 at AAMI Stadium This was one of Melbourne's worst performances of the season and a major reversal for coach Dean Bailey and his players. The team started sluggishly as it often tends to do on interstate jaunts and the game was over by the main break. There were minor signs of resistance in the third and last quarters but the only thing that prevented the game from turning into a complete massacre was Adelaide's poor kicking for goal. The result was almost as pathetic as that of last week's Perth trip. THE TEAMS MELBOURNE Backs James Frawley Matthew Warnock Clint Bartram Half backs Nathan Jones Colin Garland Luke Tapscott Centreline Ricky Petterd Jack Grimes Colin Sylvia Half forwards Jack Watts Liam Jurrah Addam Maric Forwards Brad Green Matthew Bate Aaron Davey Followers Mark Jamar Brent Moloney Jack Trengove Interchange Jordan Gysberts Lynden Dunn Austin Wonaeamirri Rohan Bail Emergencies Joel Macdonald Michael Newton Neville Jetta In Ricky Petterd Matthew Bate Matthew Warnock Addam Maric Out Jared Rivers (ankle) Cale Morton Stef Martin Jamie Bennell ADELAIDE Backs Graham Johncock Ben Rutten Michael Doughty Half backs Matthew Jaensch Luke Thompson Nathan van Berlo Centreline Brodie Smith Brent Reilly Ricky Henderson Half forwards Chris Knights Shaun McKernan Richard Douglas Forwards Taylor Walker Kurt Tippett Matthew Wright Followers Sam Jacobs Scott Thompson Patrick Dangerfield Interchange Jared Petrenko Christopher Schmidt Rory Sloane Brad Symes Emergencies Jack Gunston Ivan Maric James Sellar In Jared Petrenko Rory Sloane Christopher Schmidt Out, Phil Davis (Shoulder) Brodie Martin Richard Tambling (Suspension) IN THE DETAIL Todd Viney has been involved in the coaching system at two clubs, Hawthorn and Adelaide and was asked to compare where the club was situated at the present time. He pointed out that the club can and will improve but noted that it has just gotten out of debt and there's a lot that has to be done. An example is the computer ware at the club, one of only two that don't have the latest in camera technology (costing $500k) for use at training show players what has to be done. There was the inevitable question about Jack Viney who recently signed on to the club under the father/son rule. Jack recently turned 17 years of age and is in year 11 at Carey Grammar but, although committed to the club, can't play until 2013. Prior to committing to the Demons, there was some pressure on him as other clubs tried to lure him away under AFL rules relating to the entry of Greater Western Sydney. Jack and the family spent time at the club with Dean Bailey and Chris Connolly and when he returned Jack didn't want to go anywhere else and felt comfortable that he was coming to a well run and well resourced club. He has had some minor injury problems but just returned from the AIS-AFL Under 17 tour of London, Milan where exhibition games were played and Turkey where the lads took part in the Anzac Day dawn service at Gallipoli and is hoping to play for his schools, the Oakleigh Chargers and the Under 18 Vic Metro team. Neita briefly interviewed some of the players on hand at the function. Jack Trengove spoke of the club's very thorough post match review after the Eagles game and of how the coach had worked them hard during the week. He is convinced better things are around the corner. Rookie Michael Evans is studying law part time and has been playing well at Casey. "Pickles", as he is called, sustained a broken leg and a hip injury in 2010 but was happy to be drafted to the Demons and hasn't looked back since. My mail is that Evans, a pacy midfielder, would almost certainly have been drafted very high but for those injuries that kept him off the radar for many clubs. Jack Grimes was impressive as usual in speaking of the pressure from last weekend. "The playing group didn't play the way he (Bailey) teaches us to play." Grimes said the players took full responsibility for last week and said the team will definitely perform much better this week. He also spoke about Brent Moloney and the difficult decision the leadership group made about the vice captaincy after his night club incident before the Gold Coast game. He said that Beamer Is an inspirational leader and has responded well. The team needs him as a leader and Grimes believes that he will fight his way back into the leadership group. Grimes also said he has done a bit of work with the midfield line at training and is looking forward to getting an opportunity there at some time in the near future. Stefan Martin, another law student, is one of the club's big improvers (despite his omission for this week) and he spoke of how his improved fitness had helped him and how he is learning more about what it takes to play in the ruck. All of the players were impressive and confident of the club's future and there was no suggestion that they were affected by the week's hype and media scrutiny in any other way than to be positive about putting in some bright performances in the coming weeks. The evening ended with a successful auction conducted by Phil Kingston of Gary Peer & Associates who successfully sold some items for the club and showed his selling skills when he knocked down a pre match session with the coach above the reserve. Considering the hammering that Dean Bailey's gotten over the past week that was a devil of an effort. As far as the game is concerned, I think it's a tipster's nightmare. Both clubs are enigmatic. Adelaide has beaten both Hawthorn and St. Kilda – both clubs touted as top four contenders in the early betting. In between, the Crows lost to Port Adelaide which lost the following week to the Suns. Melbourne's situation has been well documented and you only need to read the above to realise that anything could happen on Sunday at the MCG. I have no idea why I'm doing this but I'm tipping the Demons to win by 10 points. I suppose it's because I have enough faith in Brad Green and Aaron Davey to turn things around and that the club's inclusions give it some in form players and, in the end, the home ground advantage means a lot to this team. The comfort of the trumpeter, the raising of the flag and the odds set by the bookies have swayed me.

ROUND 5 CASEY PLAYER REPORT

It was a really dirty day in Adelaide last year ... ADELAIDE Backs Graham Johncock Ben Rutten Scott Stevens Half backs Michael Doughty Phil Davis Matthew Jaensch Centreline Brad Symes Simon Goodwin David Mackay Half forwards Scott Thompson Kurt Tippett Nathan van Berlo Forwards Richard Douglas Taylor Walker Ricky Henderson Followers Ivan Maric Patrick Dangerfield Brent Reilly Interchange Tony Armstrong Jonathon Griffin Rory Sloane Bernie Vince Emergencies Jared Petrenko Jason Porplyzia James Sellar In Phil Davis Matthew Jaensch Bernie Vince Out Nathan Bock (groin) Jared Petrenko Jason Porplyzia MELBOURNE Backs Clint Bartram Matthew Warnock James Frawley Half backs Colin Garland Jared Rivers Jack Grimes Centreline Brad Green Jack Trengove Cameron Bruce Half forwards Cale Morton Matthew Bate Tom Scully Forwards Neville Jetta Brad Miller Aaron Davey Followers Mark Jamar Brent Moloney Nathan Jones Interchange Lynden Dunn Joel Macdonald Jordie McKenzie Jack Watts Emergencies Jamie Bennell Kyle Cheney Jake Spencer In Joel Macdonald Out Jordan Gysberts

A SUNNY DAY IN CRANBOURNE by KC from Casey The weather was perfect last Saturday for what might well become known as the day of the comeback at Casey Fields. The sun shone brightly for the large crowd that came to watch former AFL star Brendan Fevola make his long awaited return to senior football for what he hopes to be a springboard to a return to the elite in 2012 while, earlier in the day some notable Casey names in Kyle Matthews and Evan Panozza marked their returns to the game from injury layoffs in more muted fashion and before far fewer eyes in the reserves team. There were other careers on line for a comeback as well with several of Casey's AFL listed players seeking to impress the Demons in the hope of forcing their way into their team after that shocker in the West a couple of days earlier. The big winner for the day was the Casey Scorpions Football Club which celebrated its tradition by wearing the Springvale guernsey and won both games, romping home to win the senior game by 21.8.134 to Frankston's 8.10.58 and taking third place on the ladder. A number of players had big games, in particular the bookends at either end of the ground, Matthew Bate up forward and Matthew Warnock at full back. Both players have been out of favour with the Melbourne selectors but were superb for the Scorpions against the Dolphins. Bate kicked six goals but also roamed far and wide to set up goals while Warnock was fantastic stopping them. Small forward Addam Maric booted a couple of goals and was a constant danger for the Dolphin defence and Neville Jetta worked hard all day trying to make things happen in the young midfield which included two impressive rookies in Michael Evans and Dan Nicholson. Ricky Petterd threw a scare into fans during the first term when he came off the ground clutching a knee. He came back as well to pit on a lively performance and is also pressing for AFL selection. Kelvin Lawrence was on target with the three goals. Casey listed players Michael Stockdale, in just his fourth game on the comeback trail after a serious knee injury and Dave Collins, who has worked hard on his return to the club, were important contributors to the team effort. Co-captain James Wall was in everything and then there was Brendan Fevola who had to overcome some difficult times to get to where he was on Saturday. In the Fev's case, several kilograms of weight were lost in a short space of time and there's a lot of hard work to come but, after a tentative start to the game, he was in his element by the final quarter and the promise is there of many more goals than the solitary one he scored in this game. Casey started slowly against the Dolphins who might sit on the bottom of the ladder but lack nothing in the way of enthusiasm. By quarter time, the home side held a lead of 19 points which was extended to 32 points by the half. Superior fitness from a team that contained 16 AFL players ensured that the Casey lead would continue to stretch out but coach Brad Gotch was not entirely happy with the way his charges played out the game. With matches coming up against the highly rated Northern Bullants and the Bendigo Bombers who are sure to exert full pressure for four quarters rather than in short bursts, his team will need to be at the top of its game. HOW THE DEMONS FARED Matthew Bate (15 kicks, 10 handballs, 11 marks, 2 tackles, 6 goals) - has been threatening for a few weeks now and returned to top form with six goals and a number of assists. Ran hard all over the ground and marked strongly in a best on ground performance. Sam Blease (8 kicks, 1 handball, 0 marks, 1 tackle) - hard to assess his game because he took a knock in the first quarter, apparently "hit the wall" later in the game and spent some time being observed in hospital after the game. Endowed with loads of pace, Blease did make some disposal errors and his decision making was slack at times. Can do much better but you can't judge him in these circumstances. Lucas Cook (9 kicks, 3 handballs, 7 marks, 6 tackles, 1 goal) - flashed in and out of the play and kicked one nice goal. Developing both physically and in his football know how from week to week but he still has a way to go. Michael Evans (14 kicks, 12 handballs, 6 marks, 3 tackles, 2 goals) -outstanding in the midfield again this week. Shows a lot of pace and skill and has really impressed in the short time he has been at the club. Max Gawn (2 kicks, 3 handballs, 1 mark, 2 tackles) - showed good pace for a big man. His tap work was solid and will only get better. Jeremy Howe(11 kicks, 3 handballs, 8 marks, 3 tackles, 1 goal) - the first time he has really come under notice. His second quarter was really outstanding and he had the ball on a string for a while. Kicks with either foot and marks strongly with the tendency to take a hanger. Neville Jetta (10 kicks, 14 handballs, 7 marks, 3 tackles) - continues to impress at this level. Set up a number of goals with his clever footwork and had a good day in the middle of the ground. Kelvin Lawrence(4 kicks, 6 handballs, 3 marks, 5 tackles, 3 goals) - is getting more attunded to playing in Victoria and had his moments in this game. Finished the game off well with three goals. Joel Macdonald (14 kicks, 11 handballs, 5 marks, 1 tackle) - showed his football smarts, accumulating possessions and setting up play. An experienced campaigner, he showed he still has a lot to give to the Demons. Tom McDonald (12 kicks, 7 handballs, 4 marks, 2 tackles) - superimpressive player who is coming on in leaps and bounds. Marks well, kicks long and looks to have the confidence to make the grade. Addam Maric (20 kicks, 6 handballs, 4 marks, 3 tackles, 2 goals, 1 behind) - did all the smart things that he has been promising to do for a long time. Now need to take the next step up when he gets an opportunity at AFL level. Michael Newton (10 kicks, 3 handballs, 7 marks, 4 tackles, 2 goals, 1 behind) - has really applied himself to playing the game as a forward with licence to move a bit downfield, a situation that became necessary with both Bate and Fevola working near the goals. Tackles strongly and deserves a chance at the big time again. Dan Nicholson (10 kicks, 10 handballs, 3 marks, 5 tackles, 1 goals) - was outstanding with his run in the first quarter during which he kicked a goal. Was still effective thereafter but not as dangerous as he was early. A definite midfield prospect with an abundance of pace and good skills. Ricky Petterd (14 kicks, 4 handballs, 10 marks, 6 tackles) - a classy performer whose delivery sometimes lets him down. Another who put his hand up for selection in the Melbourne team. Jake Spencer (3 kicks, 10 handballs, 6 marks, 3 tackles, 1 behind) - big, strong and bulky, Spencer's ungainly appearance masks his rapid improvement as a ruckman although his kicking, whilst improving, still needs to get better. Matthew Warnock (11 kicks, 11 handballs, 6 marks, 2 tackles) - another strong performance from the experienced defender who must be close to AFL selection. Casey Scorpions 6.2.38 10.5.65 14.6.90 21.8.134 Frankston 3.1.19 5.3.33 6.6.42 8.10.58 Goals Casey Scorpions Bate 6 Lawrence 3 Evans Maric Newton 2 Cook Fevola Nicholson Gent Howe Stockdale Frankston Clark 4 McCallum 2 Douglas Miller Best Casey Scorpions Bate Maric Jetta Stockdale Evans Collins Frankston Thoolen Potts Baguley Clements Clark Doria The Scorpion reserves relished the opportunity to finally play on their home turf and had no trouble in disposing of the lowly Dolphins who are really struggling at the moment. Jack Fitzpatrick was the star of the day with six goals up forward and Bill Petropoulos was lively throughout the game which marked the welcome return of club skipper Kyle Matthews who kicked two goals and defender Evan Panozza. Casey Scorpions 5.7.37 12.11.83 17.16.118 30.19.199 Frankston 1.1.7 1.3.9 3.5.23 5.6.36 Goals Casey Scorpions Fitzpatrick 6 Dowse 4 Allen 4 Baumgartner 3 Matthews Tynan Weekes 2 Bell Clay Lindsay McNamara Patti Petropoulos Riseley Frankston Haretuku 2 Appleford Cole Uzarevic Best Casey Scorpions Fitzpatrick Petropoulos Allen Pollard Tynan Baumgartner Frankston Cole Uzarevic Rowe Appleford Ongarello Mitchem

A SUNNY DAY IN CRANBOURNE by KC from Casey The weather was perfect last Saturday for what might well become known as the day of the comeback at Casey Fields. The sun shone brightly for the large crowd that came to watch former AFL star Brendan Fevola make his long awaited return to senior football for what he hopes to be a springboard to a return to the elite in 2012 while, earlier in the day some notable Casey names in Kyle Matthews and Evan Panozza marked their returns to the game from injury layoffs in more muted fashion and before far fewer eyes in the reserves team. There were other careers on line for a comeback as well with several of Casey's AFL listed players seeking to impress the Demons in the hope of forcing their way into their team after that shocker in the West a couple of days earlier. The big winner for the day was the Casey Scorpions Football Club which celebrated its tradition by wearing the Springvale guernsey and won both games, romping home to win the senior game by 21.8.134 to Frankston's 8.10.58 and taking third place on the ladder. A number of players had big games, in particular the bookends at either end of the ground, Matthew Bate up forward and Matthew Warnock at full back. Both players have been out of favour with the Melbourne selectors but were superb for the Scorpions against the Dolphins. Bate kicked six goals but also roamed far and wide to set up goals while Warnock was fantastic stopping them. Small forward Addam Maric booted a couple of goals and was a constant danger for the Dolphin defence and Neville Jetta worked hard all day trying to make things happen in the young midfield which included two impressive rookies in Michael Evans and Dan Nicholson. Ricky Petterd threw a scare into fans during the first term when he came off the ground clutching a knee. He came back as well to pit on a lively performance and is also pressing for AFL selection. Kelvin Lawrence was on target with the three goals. Casey listed players Michael Stockdale, in just his fourth game on the comeback trail after a serious knee injury and Dave Collins, who has worked hard on his return to the club, were important contributors to the team effort. Co-captain James Wall was in everything and then there was Brendan Fevola who had to overcome some difficult times to get to where he was on Saturday. In the Fev's case, several kilograms of weight were lost in a short space of time and there's a lot of hard work to come but, after a tentative start to the game, he was in his element by the final quarter and the promise is there of many more goals than the solitary one he scored in this game. Casey started slowly against the Dolphins who might sit on the bottom of the ladder but lack nothing in the way of enthusiasm. By quarter time, the home side held a lead of 19 points which was extended to 32 points by the half. Superior fitness from a team that contained 16 AFL players ensured that the Casey lead would continue to stretch out but coach Brad Gotch was not entirely happy with the way his charges played out the game. With matches coming up against the highly rated Northern Bullants and the Bendigo Bombers who are sure to exert full pressure for four quarters rather than in short bursts, his team will need to be at the top of its game. HOW THE DEMONS FARED Matthew Bate (15 kicks, 10 handballs, 11 marks, 2 tackles, 6 goals) - has been threatening for a few weeks now and returned to top form with six goals and a number of assists. Ran hard all over the ground and marked strongly in a best on ground performance. Sam Blease (8 kicks, 1 handball, 0 marks, 1 tackle) - hard to assess his game because he took a knock in the first quarter, apparently "hit the wall" later in the game and spent some time being observed in hospital after the game. Endowed with loads of pace, Blease did make some disposal errors and his decision making was slack at times. Can do much better but you can't judge him in these circumstances. Lucas Cook (9 kicks, 3 handballs, 7 marks, 6 tackles, 1 goal) - flashed in and out of the play and kicked one nice goal. Developing both physically and in his football know how from week to week but he still has a way to go. Michael Evans (14 kicks, 12 handballs, 6 marks, 3 tackles, 2 goals) -outstanding in the midfield again this week. Shows a lot of pace and skill and has really impressed in the short time he has been at the club. Max Gawn (2 kicks, 3 handballs, 1 mark, 2 tackles) - showed good pace for a big man. His tap work was solid and will only get better. Jeremy Howe(11 kicks, 3 handballs, 8 marks, 3 tackles, 1 goal) - the first time he has really come under notice. His second quarter was really outstanding and he had the ball on a string for a while. Kicks with either foot and marks strongly with the tendency to take a hanger. Neville Jetta (10 kicks, 14 handballs, 7 marks, 3 tackles) - continues to impress at this level. Set up a number of goals with his clever footwork and had a good day in the middle of the ground. Kelvin Lawrence(4 kicks, 6 handballs, 3 marks, 5 tackles, 3 goals) - is getting more attunded to playing in Victoria and had his moments in this game. Finished the game off well with three goals. Joel Macdonald (14 kicks, 11 handballs, 5 marks, 1 tackle) - showed his football smarts, accumulating possessions and setting up play. An experienced campaigner, he showed he still has a lot to give to the Demons. Tom McDonald (12 kicks, 7 handballs, 4 marks, 2 tackles) - superimpressive player who is coming on in leaps and bounds. Marks well, kicks long and looks to have the confidence to make the grade. Addam Maric (20 kicks, 6 handballs, 4 marks, 3 tackles, 2 goals, 1 behind) - did all the smart things that he has been promising to do for a long time. Now need to take the next step up when he gets an opportunity at AFL level. Michael Newton (10 kicks, 3 handballs, 7 marks, 4 tackles, 2 goals, 1 behind) - has really applied himself to playing the game as a forward with licence to move a bit downfield, a situation that became necessary with both Bate and Fevola working near the goals. Tackles strongly and deserves a chance at the big time again. Dan Nicholson (10 kicks, 10 handballs, 3 marks, 5 tackles, 1 goals) - was outstanding with his run in the first quarter during which he kicked a goal. Was still effective thereafter but not as dangerous as he was early. A definite midfield prospect with an abundance of pace and good skills. Ricky Petterd (14 kicks, 4 handballs, 10 marks, 6 tackles) - a classy performer whose delivery sometimes lets him down. Another who put his hand up for selection in the Melbourne team. Jake Spencer (3 kicks, 10 handballs, 6 marks, 3 tackles, 1 behind) - big, strong and bulky, Spencer's ungainly appearance masks his rapid improvement as a ruckman although his kicking, whilst improving, still needs to get better. Matthew Warnock (11 kicks, 11 handballs, 6 marks, 2 tackles) - another strong performance from the experienced defender who must be close to AFL selection. Casey Scorpions 6.2.38 10.5.65 14.6.90 21.8.134 Frankston 3.1.19 5.3.33 6.6.42 8.10.58 Goals Casey Scorpions Bate 6 Lawrence 3 Evans Maric Newton 2 Cook Fevola Nicholson Gent Howe Stockdale Frankston Clark 4 McCallum 2 Douglas Miller Best Casey Scorpions Bate Maric Jetta Stockdale Evans Collins Frankston Thoolen Potts Baguley Clements Clark Doria The Scorpion reserves relished the opportunity to finally play on their home turf and had no trouble in disposing of the lowly Dolphins who are really struggling at the moment. Jack Fitzpatrick was the star of the day with six goals up forward and Bill Petropoulos was lively throughout the game which marked the welcome return of club skipper Kyle Matthews who kicked two goals and defender Evan Panozza. Casey Scorpions 5.7.37 12.11.83 17.16.118 30.19.199 Frankston 1.1.7 1.3.9 3.5.23 5.6.36 Goals Casey Scorpions Fitzpatrick 6 Dowse 4 Allen 4 Baumgartner 3 Matthews Tynan Weekes 2 Bell Clay Lindsay McNamara Patti Petropoulos Riseley Frankston Haretuku 2 Appleford Cole Uzarevic Best Casey Scorpions Fitzpatrick Petropoulos Allen Pollard Tynan Baumgartner Frankston Cole Uzarevic Rowe Appleford Ongarello Mitchem

INTIMIDATION by Dave from Dianella On Anzac Day, I sat down in my lounge room with my young son and we watched a riveting contest between Collingwood and Essendon. The Pies got the jump on the Bombers but Jimmy Hird's boys fought back and the two teams fought it out tooth and nail to produce a sensational spectacle. I dare say there would be very few Essendon supporters who wouldn't have been satisfied with the outcome because their team had a dip against superior quality opposition. Last year's 14th placed team is young and it's going places. Last night, I was able to head down to Patersons Stadium to watch Eagles v Demons and fortunately, I left the young bloke at home. I came with hope and expectation given that West Coast did finish last in 2010 and Melbourne was far more advanced in its rebuild than the local side in my adopted hope city. Little did I know! With a few exceptions, what I saw was seemingly a team of rank amateurs caught in the headlights and mesmerised by the atmospheric conditions at the ground. As far as the first quarter was concerned, I haven't seen anything like it in an elite competition of any sport (although admittedly, I didn't take the trouble to view the Gold Coast Suns' debut at the Gabba a month ago). Most of you have probably seen the game on your television screens and let me say that such a view didn't give the whole, horrible picture that unfolded before our eyes. Nor did the quarter time scores of 5.5.35 to 0.2.2. What you would have seen was the hesitation, the fumbling, the lack of skills or the fear in players to do what should come naturally from a well drilled professional side. They looked intimidated. However, those of us who were present did see the extent of how badly the team's third rate game plan was executed. From up there in the stands we saw the birth of a new style of football which, for want of a better description I will call the "backward press" in opposition to the more common "forward press" adopted by many successful AFL sides these days. In order to pull off a successful "backward press" you have to have skill, ability, a determination to succeed and raw emotion. Even then, it will probably fail because of its flawed nature against the systems that are currently in vogue but Melbourne achieved the extraordinary because it lacked the lot. The result was a scenario that saw the ball move from a contested situation at centre bounces in the ruck (where Mark Jamar at least held his own on his own against two big athletic monsters), the ball would be invariably won by an Eagle (this started in the opening play of the game with Nick Naitanui's run towards goal), and end up deep inside the West Coast forward line where it was permanently positioned until the home side scored. When the ball was won by a Melbourne player, it would be shuffled around deep inside the opposition fifty from player to player until it eventually went either out of bounds on the full or to a team mate under pressure or directly by miskick, bad handball, fumble or all of the above straight to an Eagle for an ultimate score. Lots of West Coast goals were scored by our turnovers and, on the very rare occasion when it did go in the direction of Melbourne's goals, the attack was easily repulsed (however, I defy Buddy Franklin, Peter Hudson or God himself to kick goals when your midfield isn't giving you any service). The inside 50 count at the first break just about said it all - 22 to 3. Now I remember watching a game a few years ago and the commentators were marvelling at how low one of the team's inside 50 numbers was for a game. The figure of around 30 was being discussed as close to a record low. So if multiply the number 3 by 4 quarters to get 12 you can get a feeling of the depths of Melbourne's ineptitude. No skills, no pressure, no leadership and no direction. But ... they're a young side and have a few year's development in them before are set to challenge, you say? Sod that because youth and inexperience is no excuse for rubbish which is what was served up against last night's opposition. Needless to say, things improved after the first break because they had to, and at half time I was beaming like those Gold Coast people who marvelled at winning a quarter off us at the Gabba a fortnight ago. We had just won the second quarter!!! Hallelujah, because we happened to be hopeless in winning that quarter and things only got worse in the third and the last. How we only ended up losing by nine goals is a miracle but I suppose we owe it to Colin Garland and Clint Bartram who battled manfully in defence, Jack Trengove and Jack Watts who can hold their heads up high and the poor old Russian who will at least remember his 100th game if only for all the wrong reasons. If I have to name any others, I'll throw in Nathan Jones and Jack Grimes but for the life of me, I don't know what's happened to coaches who are brave enough to try something different if things aren't working during a game. All we did was take off Jordan Gysberts and replace him with Lynden Dunn but there was nothing fundamentally different in the way we went about things in the second half. We were rancid and in the end, Priddis with his dislocated finger was showing up our pathetic show ponies in the midfield. I heard that Dean Bailey said the team would have to work hard during the week in payment for their poor performance last night. What's wrong with working harder during the game next week against Adelaide? And on that subject. No panic but if there aren't five or six changes in the side for next week then the football department is as soft as they appear to the outside world at the moment. Melbourne 0.2.2 3.6.24 4.8.32 6.16.52 West Coast 5.3.33 7.8.50 10.12.72 15.16.106 Goals Melbourne Davey Dunn Jones Moloney Sylvia Watts West Coast Darling Embley Lynch 3 Kennedy Nicoski 2 LeCras Rosa Best Melbourne Jamar Garland Watts Trengove Jones Bartram West Coast Priddis Ebert Cox Kerr Nicoski S Selwood Injuries Melbourne Nil West Coast Priddis (dislocated finger) Changes Melbourne Nil West Coast Nil Reports Melbourne Nil West Coast Nil Umpires Chris Donlon Shane Stewart Brett Rosebury Crowd 36,298 at Subiaco.

Cast your votes here please 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1