Demonland

THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2007: DAY THREE by The Oracle THE EMPTY PASSENGER SEAT Yesterday was one of the toughest days of my working life. For the past week and a half I've been dreading the prospect of facing up to the coming ordeal but I knew that the day would eventually come and when it came, I was going to hurt badly ... The organisation for which I work has two or three regional offices and yesterday was the day when I had to make my monthly trip down Princes Highway to Corio Bay and our branch office in the very heart of Cat country. It was my first visit since the team that the locals call the "greatest team of all" won the AFL Premiership Cup and the Norm Smith Medal and the Brownlow Medal and the VFL Premiership and the JJ Liston Medal and the Nab Rising Star Award and weren't the locals going to be keen to tell me all about it? I was set to travel down with a junior staff member but I received a call from management the evening before advising I would be travelling solo. Something about the company cutting costs and the lad had been given the pink slip. That was fine by me because the kid is a Blues fan and I much preferred having an empty passenger seat to an hour of earbashing about the man with the golden groin as an entree to what was going to hit me at the end of the ride. The blue and white streamers were evident even before the Ford Factory came into sight. The locals carried ear to ear grins and the entire flock of them weren't backward in coming forward about their recent triumph. Once the usual formalities were over, I was on the receiving end of sufficient earfuls about the local football team to last me a lifetime. I stopped them all in their tracks when I mentioned the fact that head office was currently heavily into cost cutting. They understood that part well because as delightful as it might be for their team to win a flag, it was less fun to celebrate it while on the dole! So we rolled up our sleeves and got down to some work. Everyone tried their hardest but such is the extent of the euphoria around the place that eventually our concentration lapsed and it was back to some sort of football related discussion. The thing that I learned was that Geelong's triumphant football season was working wonders for the psyche of Victoria's second city. The average citizen here has undergone an enormous boost in morale and I was happy for them because they've been through some tough times over the years. I found it strange however, that nobody was interested in what was going on in the rest of the country during the trade week. They simply didn't care. Mention the possible trading of Steven King to the Saints and you were met with a yawn. Bring up Henry Playfair or Charlie Gardiner and the subject would turn back to a description of Steve Johnson's miracle goals and Paul Chapman's aerial display in taking that hanger. As for Chris Judd, who in hell was he? The locals were happy with life, with the reappointment of Bomber Thompson as coach and with their football team. It was perfect just as it was thank you. They were content to grab Larry Donohue's boy as a father/son selection and maybe they would pick up another couple of locals in the draft, hopefully from the Geelong Falcons, and that was it. It was as if the rest of the world simply doesn't exist. The only person wanting to discuss anything other than the Cats' premiership victory was a relative newcomer to the organisation, a young lady from New South Wales who said she didn't know much about the game but she did have a football scoop for me. Suddenly, I was all ears. It seems that the son of someone from home has been offered a position on the Eagles' rookie list for 2008. His name is Ryan Davis and apparently he is their NSW scholarship holder. She wanted to know if he might step straight into the team to replace Chris Judd. I'm such a terrible liar so when I eventually stopped laughing, I simply responded in the negative. At least she was right about not knowing much about the game! It dawned upon me that as long as I remained in Sleepy Hollow the exchange week was going be a non-event. I had entered a time warp and had travelled back to last year when, at the half way mark of the same week nothing had happened - not even in the background and certainly not in the corridors of football power. But back in 2007 and in the real world outside, things were stirring. I knocked back the opportunity to take part in a liquid lunch at a fashionable bar near the office, worked through lunchtime and was on my way back in the direction of town by mid afternoon. I tuned into SEN and suddenly found that I was in a different world – a world that was buzzing with rumours as many new names were surfacing in connection with the trades. The trade week was gathering a momentum of its own and, by the end of the day, the key stories were: Judd was just about over the line in precisely the trade that certain Carlton fans in the know were boasting about almost a month ago when the Juddster announced he was walking out of Perth. Draft picks 3 and 20 plus Josh Kennedy. I needed no further convincing that the claims they had made at the time about it being a done deal were true from the start. It was the Carlton of old – "whatever we want we get because we’ve got the money and we’re prepared to splash it around to get what we want." The rest of Juddmania was a mere charade. Ironically, there was also a story about the multi-million dollar out-of-court settlement that had been brokered for Vizy with the ACCC – the group belonging to the Blues' chairman over some alleged collusion over price fixing. I was wondering what the kid might have been saying had he been in occupation of the empty front passenger seat of my vehicle. Port Adelaide was being offered Richmond forward Jay Schulz in a deal that would see Jordan McMahon end up with the Power and Damon White off to Whitten Oval. Adelaide was figuring strongly in a move for the Kangaroos' big man Brad Moran and Port Adelaide half-back Brad Symes while Crows' ruckman Ben Hudson was virtually signed, sealed and delivered by the Western Bulldogs. Sydney midfielders Jude Bolton and Adam Schneider were on the move, the latter bound for St Kilda. There was significant enquiry about Hawthorn forward Tim Boyle. In turn, the Hawks had their eyes on out-of-contract Richmond onballer Danny Meyer. Melbourne was active on a number of fronts but, like most of the other trades, nothing had yet been officially consummated. The big news from Demonland was that Travis Johnstone and his manager were in Brisbane while the Lions were seeking to pull off a trade coup that involved a trade for ruckman Cameron Wood who was to go to Collingwood in return for pick number 14 and Magpie defender Rhyce Shaw. Chris Johnson's name was associated with a possible move to St. Kilda in return for a third round draft pick. The Demons would then have two of those, one of which would surely be sent in the direction of Adelaide for ruckman John Meesen. Ironically, Johnson was due to leave next week on a 10 day trip to China with the Demons as part of a leadership program. I glanced at the empty passenger seat to my left, wondered whether there would be a similar void on Monday's flight and reflected on how much the sport of football had become like any other part of the business world. It could well be that Brad Miller might take Johnson's seat on the flight to the Orient because the Demons seem to be adamant that he will remain at the club as will Brock McLean who has shrugged off the flak from a couple of incidents in Europe and re-signed for another two years. The view from the outside seems to be that the club is heading in the right direction as Dean Bailey continues to imbue it with his own particular down to earth philosophy based on a strong work ethic. The first training session under the new regime at the end of the month promises to be full of interest. The drive home in the direction of the city end of the highway was nearing its end. I couldn't help but feel the hope welling in my heart that perhaps this time next year, I would be like the folk down in Geelong - celebrating an event that hasn't happened for 44 years and not having a care about the trade winds blowing all around me.

THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2007: DAY THREE by The Oracle THE EMPTY PASSENGER SEAT Yesterday was one of the toughest days of my working life. For the past week and a half I've been dreading the prospect of facing up to the coming ordeal but I knew that the day would eventually come and when it came, I was going to hurt badly ... The organisation for which I work has two or three regional offices and yesterday was the day when I had to make my monthly trip down Princes Highway to Corio Bay and our branch office in the very heart of Cat country. It was my first visit since the team that the locals call the "greatest team of all" won the AFL Premiership Cup and the Norm Smith Medal and the Brownlow Medal and the VFL Premiership and the JJ Liston Medal and the Nab Rising Star Award and weren't the locals going to be keen to tell me all about it? I was set to travel down with a junior staff member but I received a call from management the evening before advising I would be travelling solo. Something about the company cutting costs and the lad had been given the pink slip. That was fine by me because the kid is a Blues fan and I much preferred having an empty passenger seat to an hour of earbashing about the man with the golden groin as an entree to what was going to hit me at the end of the ride. The blue and white streamers were evident even before the Ford Factory came into sight. The locals carried ear to ear grins and the entire flock of them weren't backward in coming forward about their recent triumph. Once the usual formalities were over, I was on the receiving end of sufficient earfuls about the local football team to last me a lifetime. I stopped them all in their tracks when I mentioned the fact that head office was currently heavily into cost cutting. They understood that part well because as delightful as it might be for their team to win a flag, it was less fun to celebrate it while on the dole! So we rolled up our sleeves and got down to some work. Everyone tried their hardest but such is the extent of the euphoria around the place that eventually our concentration lapsed and it was back to some sort of football related discussion. The thing that I learned was that Geelong's triumphant football season was working wonders for the psyche of Victoria's second city. The average citizen here has undergone an enormous boost in morale and I was happy for them because they've been through some tough times over the years. I found it strange however, that nobody was interested in what was going on in the rest of the country during the trade week. They simply didn't care. Mention the possible trading of Steven King to the Saints and you were met with a yawn. Bring up Henry Playfair or Charlie Gardiner and the subject would turn back to a description of Steve Johnson's miracle goals and Paul Chapman's aerial display in taking that hanger. As for Chris Judd, who in hell was he? The locals were happy with life, with the reappointment of Bomber Thompson as coach and with their football team. It was perfect just as it was thank you. They were content to grab Larry Donohue's boy as a father/son selection and maybe they would pick up another couple of locals in the draft, hopefully from the Geelong Falcons, and that was it. It was as if the rest of the world simply doesn't exist. The only person wanting to discuss anything other than the Cats' premiership victory was a relative newcomer to the organisation, a young lady from New South Wales who said she didn't know much about the game but she did have a football scoop for me. Suddenly, I was all ears. It seems that the son of someone from home has been offered a position on the Eagles' rookie list for 2008. His name is Ryan Davis and apparently he is their NSW scholarship holder. She wanted to know if he might step straight into the team to replace Chris Judd. I'm such a terrible liar so when I eventually stopped laughing, I simply responded in the negative. At least she was right about not knowing much about the game! It dawned upon me that as long as I remained in Sleepy Hollow the exchange week was going be a non-event. I had entered a time warp and had travelled back to last year when, at the half way mark of the same week nothing had happened - not even in the background and certainly not in the corridors of football power. But back in 2007 and in the real world outside, things were stirring. I knocked back the opportunity to take part in a liquid lunch at a fashionable bar near the office, worked through lunchtime and was on my way back in the direction of town by mid afternoon. I tuned into SEN and suddenly found that I was in a different world – a world that was buzzing with rumours as many new names were surfacing in connection with the trades. The trade week was gathering a momentum of its own and, by the end of the day, the key stories were: Judd was just about over the line in precisely the trade that certain Carlton fans in the know were boasting about almost a month ago when the Juddster announced he was walking out of Perth. Draft picks 3 and 20 plus Josh Kennedy. I needed no further convincing that the claims they had made at the time about it being a done deal were true from the start. It was the Carlton of old – "whatever we want we get because we’ve got the money and we’re prepared to splash it around to get what we want." The rest of Juddmania was a mere charade. Ironically, there was also a story about the multi-million dollar out-of-court settlement that had been brokered for Vizy with the ACCC – the group belonging to the Blues' chairman over some alleged collusion over price fixing. I was wondering what the kid might have been saying had he been in occupation of the empty front passenger seat of my vehicle. Port Adelaide was being offered Richmond forward Jay Schulz in a deal that would see Jordan McMahon end up with the Power and Damon White off to Whitten Oval. Adelaide was figuring strongly in a move for the Kangaroos' big man Brad Moran and Port Adelaide half-back Brad Symes while Crows' ruckman Ben Hudson was virtually signed, sealed and delivered by the Western Bulldogs. Sydney midfielders Jude Bolton and Adam Schneider were on the move, the latter bound for St Kilda. There was significant enquiry about Hawthorn forward Tim Boyle. In turn, the Hawks had their eyes on out-of-contract Richmond onballer Danny Meyer. Melbourne was active on a number of fronts but, like most of the other trades, nothing had yet been officially consummated. The big news from Demonland was that Travis Johnstone and his manager were in Brisbane while the Lions were seeking to pull off a trade coup that involved a trade for ruckman Cameron Wood who was to go to Collingwood in return for pick number 14 and Magpie defender Rhyce Shaw. Chris Johnson's name was associated with a possible move to St. Kilda in return for a third round draft pick. The Demons would then have two of those, one of which would surely be sent in the direction of Adelaide for ruckman John Meesen. Ironically, Johnson was due to leave next week on a 10 day trip to China with the Demons as part of a leadership program. I glanced at the empty passenger seat to my left, wondered whether there would be a similar void on Monday's flight and reflected on how much the sport of football had become like any other part of the business world. It could well be that Brad Miller might take Johnson's seat on the flight to the Orient because the Demons seem to be adamant that he will remain at the club as will Brock McLean who has shrugged off the flak from a couple of incidents in Europe and re-signed for another two years. The view from the outside seems to be that the club is heading in the right direction as Dean Bailey continues to imbue it with his own particular down to earth philosophy based on a strong work ethic. The first training session under the new regime at the end of the month promises to be full of interest. The drive home in the direction of the city end of the highway was nearing its end. I couldn't help but feel the hope welling in my heart that perhaps this time next year, I would be like the folk down in Geelong - celebrating an event that hasn't happened for 44 years and not having a care about the trade winds blowing all around me.

THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2007: DAY TWO by the Oracle A BUTTERFLY FLAPS ITS WINGS The trade week continued to throw up surprises yesterday with Sydney premiership player Jude Bolton joining Travis Johnstone on the growing list of midfield talent whose names have come up for mention by the men who sit at AFL club negotiating tables. The pair will always pale into insignificance however, when compared to the big midfield name of trade week whose status still remains up in the air. The Blues and the Eagles remained deadlocked overnight on Chris Judd although officials of both clubs are optimistic about their negotiations reaching a conclusion some time soon. Richmond is hovering in the background with an offer of draft picks number 2, 18 and 19 for the 24-year-old Brownlow Medallist but the Juddster remains committed to the Blues and it has been suggested that he would bypass the Tigers if he went into the Pre season Draft by putting in a demand for a first year salary of $2million. Will someone please tell me that it's not all about the money and that he's really leaving Perth for "family reasons"? The first official deal was concluded yesterday with the Sydney Swans taking Adelaide running defender Martin Mattner in exchange for their second national draft pick, the 28th overall while the Western Bulldogs are closing in on two deals. Ben Hudson is headed to the Whitten Oval with Adelaide agreeing to accept an unspecified second-round pick for the ruckman. Whilst the Dogs have pick number 22 in the second round they are seeking to acquire a later pick in the round to pass on to the Crows. They are also set to snare Geelong's Tim Callan with their last pick. A plethora of other trade deals were being bandied about yesterday. Among them were: - The Saints, who lead the list of clubs crying out for more ruck strength, were linked with former Geelong captain and premiership ruckman Steven King. The Cats are likely to get pick number 26 in exchange. This would also ensure that Mark Blake remains with Geelong. Meanwhile Collingwood is pursuing Brisbane Lion ruckman Cameron Wood and are prepared to offer their first-round selection, pick number 14. If that deal is done, Travis Johnstone could leave Melbourne for northern climes with the Lions on-trading their newly acquired selection to the Demons. Johnstone is due back from Bangkok today to discuss his future with manager Alex McDonald. It could well be that he will remember his 42 possession game against the Blues in round 22 as his last in the red and blue. Hawthorn is desperate for a key defender and has rekindled its interest in Carlton's Bret Thornton who, at one stage last year, committed himself to join the Hawks. The name of Brisbane Lions' small man, Rhan Hooper emerged on the trade scene after the Tigers showed interest. Amon Buchanan and Adam Schneider joined Jude Bolton on the Harbour City "for sale" list. Kepler Bradley could be headed home with a place at Fremantle on offer. The number of names being named is mind-boggling but we know that many mooted trades will fizzle out and die by the end of the week. The main interest remains on the high profile Judd Saga but there are other trades which have a much lower profile and yet could end up having far reaching consequences going far beyond the apparent importance of the concluded trade. One example of this could be West Coast's possible trading of out-of-contract forward Mitch Morton to Richmond in a deal that could involve the clubs in exchanging their second round draft picks. Morton's brother Cale is a highly rated utility who won the Larke medal as the best and fairest player in Division One in this year's Under 18 National Championships. The 192 cm Morton, who has been likened to retiring Bomber James Hird, is a long kicking, one touch playmaker who would most likely be targeted to join his brother at Tigerland via the second pick overall in the national draft. This would leave the Eagles in a bit of a quandary. Assuming the Blues retain their number one pick and go according to the book by selecting Northern Knights ruckman Matthew Kreuzer, the next best available player would arguably be another Knight in brilliant midfield prospect Trent Cotchin. Cotchin is all class and matches his great skills with pace to burn. Unfortunately, his form at the national carnival was ordinary as he laboured under heavy tagging tactics and, just when things were looking up again, he broke a foot during the Nab Cup Under 18 finals series. Such things would not of themselves normally diminish his status as a desirable early draft selection but if the Eagles snare pick number 3 in the Judd trade, then they face a dilemma. The problem will be whether they should take Cotchin (who may not be all that keen to travel west) as the best player available or should they overlook him in favour of the home grown talented bunch of young Sandgropers who played a major role in WA's brilliant showing in the NAB AFL Under-18 championships this year when it won the division one title in devastating fashion. A total of eight West Australians were rewarded with All Australian representation from the carnival including Morton, Chris Masten, Rhys Palmer, Patrick McGinnity, David Myers, Alex Rance, Daniel Rich and Nicholas Naitanui. The two latter players are ineligible because of their age but the others are all potential first round selections at this year's national draft and any one of Masten, Palmer and Rance could finish in the top five. The Eagles have been sadly disappointed by the defection of their skipper in Judd and they might be reluctant to travel down the same path with a reluctant Cotchin particularly if they take a liking to a Masten or a Palmer. That could see Cotchin falling to pick four in the draft allowing the Demons to reap a very handy bonus because they would surely pick him without much hesitation. That possibility is not a strong one but the situation highlights the fact that there are many facets to the trade week activities and that not all of them are manifested directly in the trades themselves. What was that about butterflies flapping their wings somewhere above the Amazon River?

THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2007: DAY TWO by the Oracle A BUTTERFLY FLAPS ITS WINGS The trade week continued to throw up surprises yesterday with Sydney premiership player Jude Bolton joining Travis Johnstone on the growing list of midfield talent whose names have come up for mention by the men who sit at AFL club negotiating tables. The pair will always pale into insignificance however, when compared to the big midfield name of trade week whose status still remains up in the air. The Blues and the Eagles remained deadlocked overnight on Chris Judd although officials of both clubs are optimistic about their negotiations reaching a conclusion some time soon. Richmond is hovering in the background with an offer of draft picks number 2, 18 and 19 for the 24-year-old Brownlow Medallist but the Juddster remains committed to the Blues and it has been suggested that he would bypass the Tigers if he went into the Pre season Draft by putting in a demand for a first year salary of $2million. Will someone please tell me that it's not all about the money and that he's really leaving Perth for "family reasons"? The first official deal was concluded yesterday with the Sydney Swans taking Adelaide running defender Martin Mattner in exchange for their second national draft pick, the 28th overall while the Western Bulldogs are closing in on two deals. Ben Hudson is headed to the Whitten Oval with Adelaide agreeing to accept an unspecified second-round pick for the ruckman. Whilst the Dogs have pick number 22 in the second round they are seeking to acquire a later pick in the round to pass on to the Crows. They are also set to snare Geelong's Tim Callan with their last pick. A plethora of other trade deals were being bandied about yesterday. Among them were: - The Saints, who lead the list of clubs crying out for more ruck strength, were linked with former Geelong captain and premiership ruckman Steven King. The Cats are likely to get pick number 26 in exchange. This would also ensure that Mark Blake remains with Geelong. Meanwhile Collingwood is pursuing Brisbane Lion ruckman Cameron Wood and are prepared to offer their first-round selection, pick number 14. If that deal is done, Travis Johnstone could leave Melbourne for northern climes with the Lions on-trading their newly acquired selection to the Demons. Johnstone is due back from Bangkok today to discuss his future with manager Alex McDonald. It could well be that he will remember his 42 possession game against the Blues in round 22 as his last in the red and blue. Hawthorn is desperate for a key defender and has rekindled its interest in Carlton's Bret Thornton who, at one stage last year, committed himself to join the Hawks. The name of Brisbane Lions' small man, Rhan Hooper emerged on the trade scene after the Tigers showed interest. Amon Buchanan and Adam Schneider joined Jude Bolton on the Harbour City "for sale" list. Kepler Bradley could be headed home with a place at Fremantle on offer. The number of names being named is mind-boggling but we know that many mooted trades will fizzle out and die by the end of the week. The main interest remains on the high profile Judd Saga but there are other trades which have a much lower profile and yet could end up having far reaching consequences going far beyond the apparent importance of the concluded trade. One example of this could be West Coast's possible trading of out-of-contract forward Mitch Morton to Richmond in a deal that could involve the clubs in exchanging their second round draft picks. Morton's brother Cale is a highly rated utility who won the Larke medal as the best and fairest player in Division One in this year's Under 18 National Championships. The 192 cm Morton, who has been likened to retiring Bomber James Hird, is a long kicking, one touch playmaker who would most likely be targeted to join his brother at Tigerland via the second pick overall in the national draft. This would leave the Eagles in a bit of a quandary. Assuming the Blues retain their number one pick and go according to the book by selecting Northern Knights ruckman Matthew Kreuzer, the next best available player would arguably be another Knight in brilliant midfield prospect Trent Cotchin. Cotchin is all class and matches his great skills with pace to burn. Unfortunately, his form at the national carnival was ordinary as he laboured under heavy tagging tactics and, just when things were looking up again, he broke a foot during the Nab Cup Under 18 finals series. Such things would not of themselves normally diminish his status as a desirable early draft selection but if the Eagles snare pick number 3 in the Judd trade, then they face a dilemma. The problem will be whether they should take Cotchin (who may not be all that keen to travel west) as the best player available or should they overlook him in favour of the home grown talented bunch of young Sandgropers who played a major role in WA's brilliant showing in the NAB AFL Under-18 championships this year when it won the division one title in devastating fashion. A total of eight West Australians were rewarded with All Australian representation from the carnival including Morton, Chris Masten, Rhys Palmer, Patrick McGinnity, David Myers, Alex Rance, Daniel Rich and Nicholas Naitanui. The two latter players are ineligible because of their age but the others are all potential first round selections at this year's national draft and any one of Masten, Palmer and Rance could finish in the top five. The Eagles have been sadly disappointed by the defection of their skipper in Judd and they might be reluctant to travel down the same path with a reluctant Cotchin particularly if they take a liking to a Masten or a Palmer. That could see Cotchin falling to pick four in the draft allowing the Demons to reap a very handy bonus because they would surely pick him without much hesitation. That possibility is not a strong one but the situation highlights the fact that there are many facets to the trade week activities and that not all of them are manifested directly in the trades themselves. What was that about butterflies flapping their wings somewhere above the Amazon River?

THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2007: DAY ONE by the Oracle BEHIND THE SCENES Who said nothing ever happens on the first day of trade week? Well, er … I did. It's true that there were no deals done on the opening day of proceedings and it may well be that the number of trades finalised by the end of the week will fail to reach double figures again but there was certainly a lot going on behind the scenes at Telstra Dome yesterday. Apart from the wheeling and dealing that always transpires when club recruiting officers meet formally for the first time in trade week, you could also get a feel of the direction some of the clubs are about to take in the future. Some will remain constant in their approach while others will change dramatically. The Swans, for instance, are still travelling along the old road that they have comfortably travelled upon throughout the Paul Roos years – the building up of their side through the recruitment of mature players. They offered their third-round draft pick for Crows defender Martin Mattner and naturally, Adelaide wants more for the player they didn't have sufficient faith in to select in their team when the finals came along this year. That's good old fashioned horse trading at its best! But the winds of change are also blowing. Essendon is intent on accumulating draft picks to allow new coach Matthew Knights to concentrate on redeveloping with youth. The Bombers kicked off with the drafting of key position prospect Darcy Daniher under the AFL's new father/son bidding system after they trumped a bid by the Kangaroos. Daniher will go to the Bombers for their third round national draft pick, number 39 overall. We learned a lot about Melbourne and the direction it is intent on taking under new coach Dean Bailey. When he arrived on the scene, we were promised an interesting ride and a new emphasis on youth and on the group of mainly under 23 players upon whose shoulders the new coach hopes to pin the club's future. The mooted change of direction was sharply pushed into focus with the news that contracted players Travis Johnstone and Nathan Carroll have both been put up for trade. Yesterday recruiting manager Craig Cameron said that 27 year old Johnstone, the Demons' 2005 best-and-fairest winner, has not yet attracted much interest from the other clubs but it is reported this morning that at least two clubs have made enquiries. Football manager Chris Connolly said, "There's been a lot of interest. Solid interest." Connolly would not name clubs, but it is understood Sydney is one of them. Key defender Carroll, who turns 27 next week and was in contention for All Australian honours last year, has not yet sparked significant interest but now that his name's out there, the wheels are sure to start turning. Brad Miller is also attracting interest from … who else? Sydney. Meanwhile, it was revealed that Melbourne offered its third round-selection, pick number 37, for Adelaide ruckman John Meesen. The offer was refused by the Crows who want a second-round selection for the player chosen with pick eight in the 2004 national draft. Since then Meesen has played two AFL games. With a record like that, he'll go for a third rounder or something thereabouts or be picked up for nothing in the pre season draft. The influence of Bailey was clearly seen in the vision of his body language and the confident manner in which he strode into the Telstra Dome to herald the start of trade week. He exuded confidence and it's clear that he is taking over the team with a definite purpose and direction. His position on the silky skilled Johnstone is one that suggests he will follow through with his intentions. He has "spoken to him clearly", Connolly indicated. If Johnstone does stay, he will be a different player to the talented footballer who has largely underachieved in the decade since he was selected with the number one draft pick in 1997. If he goes, his new club will have to pay the right price. I couldn't help but contrast Bailey's demeanour with that of Blues coach Brett Ratten who seemed a little out of place and remained very much in the background as his club's chief executive Greg Swann revealed that negotiations with West Coast over Chris Judd would be kept simple and that the trade week's biggest deal would be done with minimal fuss. The Blues last night were asking Josh Kennedy to move back home to Perth along with picks number 3 and 20 for the Eagles to make way for the man with the golden groin. Carlton has also shown an interest in Brisbane's Richard Hadley, who is out of contract. In other news:- In addition to Darcy Daniher going to Essendon, two other players will also be heading to the clubs where their fathers played. Jaxson Barham, son of Ricky, will go to Collingwood and Adam Donohue, son of Larry, is bound for Geelong. Both clubs will get their players in return for their final selections in the national draft as no other clubs bid for them in yesterday's pre trade week auction of father/sons. West Coast is also well down the track on trading out-of-contract forward Mitch Morton to Richmond in a deal involving the Tigers giving the Eagles selection number 18 in return for pick number 30. The Crows want a second round draft pick for out-of-contract ruckman Ben Hudson, who wants to join the Western Bulldogs who are offering Sam Power and Jordan McMahon up for trade - to Brisbane and Port respectively - to get draft picks to appease Adelaide. Hawk key forward Tim Boyle drew the interest of many clubs and could be on his way to Adelaide while Port Adelaide's Damon White also drew the attention of several clubs. The most sought after group of players are the ruckmen with Geelong's Mark Blake and Steven King, Brisbane's Cameron Wood joining Hudson and Meesen as players of interest. There's still a long way to go and club recruiting people were showing no sign of tiredness as the week's activities opened. If you're still not tired of the trade news, you can follow the trade action from Monday of Trade Week with Peter Donegan and Graeme Bond here - AFL TRADE WEEK NEWSDESK - PART ONE That is, if you have another twenty minutes or so to spare!

THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2007: DAY ONE by the Oracle BEHIND THE SCENES Who said nothing ever happens on the first day of trade week? Well, er … I did. It's true that there were no deals done on the opening day of proceedings and it may well be that the number of trades finalised by the end of the week will fail to reach double figures again but there was certainly a lot going on behind the scenes at Telstra Dome yesterday. Apart from the wheeling and dealing that always transpires when club recruiting officers meet formally for the first time in trade week, you could also get a feel of the direction some of the clubs are about to take in the future. Some will remain constant in their approach while others will change dramatically. The Swans, for instance, are still travelling along the old road that they have comfortably travelled upon throughout the Paul Roos years – the building up of their side through the recruitment of mature players. They offered their third-round draft pick for Crows defender Martin Mattner and naturally, Adelaide wants more for the player they didn't have sufficient faith in to select in their team when the finals came along this year. That's good old fashioned horse trading at its best! But the winds of change are also blowing. Essendon is intent on accumulating draft picks to allow new coach Matthew Knights to concentrate on redeveloping with youth. The Bombers kicked off with the drafting of key position prospect Darcy Daniher under the AFL's new father/son bidding system after they trumped a bid by the Kangaroos. Daniher will go to the Bombers for their third round national draft pick, number 39 overall. We learned a lot about Melbourne and the direction it is intent on taking under new coach Dean Bailey. When he arrived on the scene, we were promised an interesting ride and a new emphasis on youth and on the group of mainly under 23 players upon whose shoulders the new coach hopes to pin the club's future. The mooted change of direction was sharply pushed into focus with the news that contracted players Travis Johnstone and Nathan Carroll have both been put up for trade. Yesterday recruiting manager Craig Cameron said that 27 year old Johnstone, the Demons' 2005 best-and-fairest winner, has not yet attracted much interest from the other clubs but it is reported this morning that at least two clubs have made enquiries. Football manager Chris Connolly said, "There's been a lot of interest. Solid interest." Connolly would not name clubs, but it is understood Sydney is one of them. Key defender Carroll, who turns 27 next week and was in contention for All Australian honours last year, has not yet sparked significant interest but now that his name's out there, the wheels are sure to start turning. Brad Miller is also attracting interest from … who else? Sydney. Meanwhile, it was revealed that Melbourne offered its third round-selection, pick number 37, for Adelaide ruckman John Meesen. The offer was refused by the Crows who want a second-round selection for the player chosen with pick eight in the 2004 national draft. Since then Meesen has played two AFL games. With a record like that, he'll go for a third rounder or something thereabouts or be picked up for nothing in the pre season draft. The influence of Bailey was clearly seen in the vision of his body language and the confident manner in which he strode into the Telstra Dome to herald the start of trade week. He exuded confidence and it's clear that he is taking over the team with a definite purpose and direction. His position on the silky skilled Johnstone is one that suggests he will follow through with his intentions. He has "spoken to him clearly", Connolly indicated. If Johnstone does stay, he will be a different player to the talented footballer who has largely underachieved in the decade since he was selected with the number one draft pick in 1997. If he goes, his new club will have to pay the right price. I couldn't help but contrast Bailey's demeanour with that of Blues coach Brett Ratten who seemed a little out of place and remained very much in the background as his club's chief executive Greg Swann revealed that negotiations with West Coast over Chris Judd would be kept simple and that the trade week's biggest deal would be done with minimal fuss. The Blues last night were asking Josh Kennedy to move back home to Perth along with picks number 3 and 20 for the Eagles to make way for the man with the golden groin. Carlton has also shown an interest in Brisbane's Richard Hadley, who is out of contract. In other news:- In addition to Darcy Daniher going to Essendon, two other players will also be heading to the clubs where their fathers played. Jaxson Barham, son of Ricky, will go to Collingwood and Adam Donohue, son of Larry, is bound for Geelong. Both clubs will get their players in return for their final selections in the national draft as no other clubs bid for them in yesterday's pre trade week auction of father/sons. West Coast is also well down the track on trading out-of-contract forward Mitch Morton to Richmond in a deal involving the Tigers giving the Eagles selection number 18 in return for pick number 30. The Crows want a second round draft pick for out-of-contract ruckman Ben Hudson, who wants to join the Western Bulldogs who are offering Sam Power and Jordan McMahon up for trade - to Brisbane and Port respectively - to get draft picks to appease Adelaide. Hawk key forward Tim Boyle drew the interest of many clubs and could be on his way to Adelaide while Port Adelaide's Damon White also drew the attention of several clubs. The most sought after group of players are the ruckmen with Geelong's Mark Blake and Steven King, Brisbane's Cameron Wood joining Hudson and Meesen as players of interest. There's still a long way to go and club recruiting people were showing no sign of tiredness as the week's activities opened. If you're still not tired of the trade news, you can follow the trade action from Monday of Trade Week with Peter Donegan and Graeme Bond here - AFL TRADE WEEK NEWSDESK - PART ONE That is, if you have another twenty minutes or so to spare!

THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2007: ZERO HOUR by the Oracle FATHERS, SONS AND OTHER DISTRACTIONS "Representatives of the 16 AFL clubs will all meet at Telstra Dome on Monday, 8 October 2007 to discuss their options for the Exchange Period, which concludes at 2.00pm on Friday 12 October 2007. The clubs will meet from 10.30am-2.45pm at Telstra Dome" - AFL Exchange Period Rules and Regulations. To observe the opening of trade week is akin to watching grass grow. The usual scenario on this day is that nothing much happens apart from the normal introductory discussions and some huffing and puffing in small doses. Generally, we have to wait until the third day comes along before the first trade is done but most of the action takes place in a whirlwind final half hour on Friday afternoon. The problem is that every year there are usually one or two big trades going down that require intricate arrangements to be completed between a number of clubs. Until the larger dominoes fall, everything else must wait. As a result, the whole process almost grinds to a halt in the early part of the week, boredom sets in among those who watch the events closely and the action only hots up towards the final day. Last year the problem was the closing of two separate big deals that involved Jason Akermanis and Peter Everitt respectively. The latter was finalised in the last few minutes before the Friday 2.00 pm deadline. This year's worry is the possibility that, despite his manager's insistence that it be resolved by tomorrow, the Judd Saga might continue until deep into the week causing everything else to go into lockdown. In the past, player managers have complained that this presents a major barrier to consumating the lesser deals. Some never make it across the line; careers can be made or broken as a result. One of these days the AFL will wake up and do something. One thing the AFL has done is that it has introduced an interesting adaptation to the father/son rule. "Any clubs wishing to nominate eligible players as a father/son selection for this year's 2007 NAB AFL Draft must do so by 2.00pm Friday, 5 October 2007. The bidding meeting for any nominated players will be at 10.00am on Monday, 8 October 2007. Each other club in the competition has the option to bid, in reverse ladder order, for that nominated player. If a bid is made, the club that nominated the father/son player must use its next available selection if it wishes to retain hold on that player. If the club nominating the father/son player declines to match the selection nominated, the club with the successful bid must use that selection at the Draft. Any club that makes a successful bid on a father/son selection is bound to the pick they nominate. If no bid is made by another club, the club that nominated the father/son eligible player will forfeit its last selection in the draft to select the player" - AFL Exchange Period Rules and Regulations. This year the sons of Ricky Barham (Jaxson to Collingwood), Larry Donohue (Adam to Geelong) and Anthony Daniher (Darcy to Essendon) have nominated under the rule. Previously clubs could use a third-round pick on their father/son selections but now, other clubs can bid for the players. The new system is obviously in its embryonic stage and we don't yet know how things will pan out when put into practice. The main interest today will centre on Darcy Daniher, a tall key position player who starred for the Calder Cannons in the recent TAC Cup Under 18 Grand Final victory. Once the father/son issue is out of the way, proceedings will start in earnest. The key rules to note in the trading/drafting process are A club may exchange a player or players on its primary list for a player or players on the primary list of another club; A club may exchange a player or players on its primary list for the draft selection or draft selections of another club; A club may exchange a player or players on its primary list for a combination of a player, players, draft selection or draft selection of another club; A club may exchange a draft selection or draft selections for a draft selection or draft selections of another club; No more than five players shall be exchanged by any one club. No more than three players shall be exchanged by any one club in any one transaction, or series of related or interdependent transactions. A club cannot on-trade a player received in any exchange until the following year. A club may exchange a draft selection it has received from another club, provided that the selection is not traded directly back to that club. Where the exchange of a player(s) and draft selection(s) involves more than two clubs, it is not a requirement that each club involved in the transaction make an exchange between each other. Any draft selection received in an exchange does not need to be exercised. However, any club that passes on a draft selection shall be excluded from exercising any remaining selections at that same meeting. Each of the clubs will have its own priorities for the trade week and the recruiting managers have had their say on the AFL Website. Melbourne's General manager recruiting and list manager Craig Cameron puts his aspirations for the week this way - "We'll probably have a fairly low key approach and we'll look to trade, but we'll think we can build our team around our 23 and under players. We've still got a number of older players that we think can be really good contributors as well. We'd like to get some more draft picks in if we could – second- or third-round picks – and if we could trade in a player who is in that 23 or under age bracket that helps us in a specific area, then we'd like to do that too. Overall we'd like to get some more picks for November." That position reflects the fact that Cameron has been building a list over the past four or five drafts and some of the youngsters selected are now closing in on their prime but have yet to reach their peak. At the same time, new coach Dean Bailey, has promised supporters that the emphasis will swing towards development of the club's youth stocks. The introduction of the right chemistry could see a massive improvement among this group as a whole in 2008. Getting back to the trades and numerous players have already been mentioned in despatches for possible player swaps. Some are named because they happen to be out of contract, others because they may not be wanted by their own clubs or because they are wanted by others. Some are perennials in trade talk while others are speculative at best. Among the names that have come up are - Adelaide - Matthew Bode, John Hinge, Ben Hudson, Luke Jericho, John Meeson, Luke Perrie. Brisbane – Jed Adcock, Robert Copeland, Anthony Corrie, Richard Hadley, Beau McDonald, Troy Selwood, Justin Sherman, Cameron Wood, Carlton – Adam Bentick, Paul Bower, Brendan Fevola, Adam Hartlett, Ryan Jackson, Josh Kennedy, Lance Whitnall. Collingwood – Chris Bryan, Ben Davies, Alan Didak, Chris Egan, Josh Fraser, Guy Richards. Essendon – Kepler Bradley, Ricky Dyson, Courtney Johns, Mark Johnson. Fremantle – Ryley Dunn, Justin Longmuir, Ryan Murphy, Byron Schammer, James Walker, Robert Warnock. Geelong – Mark Blake, Tim Callan, Steven King, Henry Playfair, Brent Prismall, Kane Tenace. Hawthorn – Michael Osborne, Mark Williams. Kangaroos – Leigh Brown, Matt Campbell, Brad Moran, David Trotter, Shannon Watt. Melbourne – Aaron Davey, Ryan Ferguson, Chris Johnson, Travis Johnstone, Brad Miller. Port Adelaide – Brad Symes, Damon White. Richmond – Andrew Krakouer, Richard Tambling. St. Kilda – Andrew McQualter, Steven Milne, Fergus Watts. Sydney – Paul Bevan, Darren Jolly, Luke Vogels. West Coast – Chris Judd, Ben McKinley, Mitch Morton, Mark Nicoski. Western Bulldogs – Farren Ray, Jordan McMahon, Sam Power, Wayde Skipper. You can bet that most of these names will come up for discussion during the week along with many others but only a small percentage will change clubs. That's the way of trade week. Last year, the number of trades done across the board didn't even make double figures. That may have been partly due to the perception that the 2006 draft pool was strong. Conventional wisdom this year is that it's not as deep as last year. Draft picks are the other bargaining chips of trade week. This is how they line up before the exchange period starts – Priority – 1 Carlton Round One: 2 Richmond 3 Carlton 4 Melbourne 5 Western Bulldogs 6 Essendon 7 Fremantle 8 Brisbane 9 St. Kilda 10 Adelaide 11 Sydney 12 Hawthorn 13 West Coast 14 Collingwood 15 Kangaroos 16 Port Adelaide 17 Geelong Priority - 18 Richmond Round Two - 19 Richmond 20 Carlton 21 Melbourne 22 Western Bulldogs 23 Essendon 24 Fremantle 25 Brisbane 26 St. Kilda 27 Adelaide 28 Sydney 29 Hawthorn 30 West Coast 31 Collingwood 32 Kangaroos 33 Port Adelaide 34 Geelong Round Three - 35 Richmond 36 Carlton 37 Melbourne 38 Western Bulldogs 39 Essendon 40 Fremantle 41 Brisbane 42 St. Kilda 43 Adelaide 44 Sydney 45 Hawthorn 46 West Coast 47 Collingwood 48 Kangaroos 49 Port Adelaide 50 Geelong Round Four - 51 Richmond 52 Carlton 53 Melbourne 54 Western Bulldogs 55 Essendon 56 Fremantle 57 Brisbane 58 St. Kilda 59 Adelaide 60 Sydney 61 Hawthorn 62 West Coast 63 Collingwood 64 Kangaroos 65 Port Adelaide 66 Geelong Round Five - 67 Richmond 68 Carlton 69 Melbourne 70 Western Bulldogs 71 Essendon 72 Fremantle 73 Brisbane 74 St. Kilda 75 Adelaide 76 Sydney 77 Hawthorn 78 West Coast 79 Collingwood 80 Kangaroos 81 Port Adelaide 82 Geelong The draft will go to further rounds as required to fulfil each club's quota of players. And so the week begins ...

THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2007: PRELUDE by the Oracle THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GROIN Tomorrow morning it's "game on" for the 16 AFL clubs as they officially return en masse to the bargaining tables to take part in exchange week. The recruiting managers of each club will distribute their lists of tradable and non-tradeable names, haggle over the horse flesh and play the standard game of bluff and bluster in order to acquire and trade players and draft picks. This is all done in the cause of improving your club's playing list as it marches hopefully onwards in its quest for the Holy Grail – an AFL premiership. Somehow, this year feels different and so it should because unofficially, we've already been through a very public form of horse-trading over the past month. It has come to be known as the "Chris Judd Saga". Brisbane coach Leigh Matthews got it right when he described the process by which Judd put his suitor clubs through the hoops as "distasteful." I think it was more than just distasteful; it was obscene, crass and pathetic. It demeaned the clubs involved and more importantly it demeaned the major player – Judd himself. In the beginning, Judd was the blue-eyed wholesome kid who had done the hard yards at his adopted club and wanted to come him to kith and kin. The criteria for his return were laid out in a logical and principled manner. Tick the boxes and he's yours. The boxes included a strong club with excellent values, the best people, good prospects of success, playing on the best grounds and having good facilities going into the future. Of course, we all knew he wouldn't come cheaply but the clubs were prepared to pay the price and besides, who ever mentioned money? Four clubs, Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon and Melbourne were invited to submit to the process and while Demons were early outsiders, the strength of their presentation and the fact that Judd supported the club as a youngster, suddenly had them up there as favourites for his services. The romantic notion that, in this day of commercialism, a player would go back to the club whose jumper he wore as a kid was seductive and compelling. Then reality suddenly hit and the kid dumped two clubs on the same day – Essendon and Melbourne. It was like a game of double eviction on Big Brother and it came across as insulting to the clubs that were being evicted one by one. Collingwood fell the following day and the winner was ... The winner was Carlton, which really ticked none of the boxes when you consider its recent history and the culture it has built up in recent years. The winner was a club that so clearly epitomises failure in its recent past that very few doubt it tanked games in the last half of this season in order to "win" the prize of a priority draft pick which now gives it leverage in the trade battle to win over its new prized possession. The winner was the club that offers the biggest pot of gold and that's what makes the Judd saga so obscene. Don't get me wrong - the fellow is fully entitled to his full whack. However, things would have been different had it been made clear at the outset that the prize would go to the highest bidder. In any event, the fact that it appears that the winner was more or less preordained has made the process and its main players look decidedly shonky in the eyes of much of the football public. In the meantime, the rumour mill worked overtime in the fortnight during which Judd was conducting his "selection" process. Players and draft picks were going here, there and everywhere as clubs were allegedly jostling for better positions to enable them to cobble together deals that might be acceptable to the West Coast Eagles if Judd decided to place his faith with them. The speculation as to Carlton's offer however, was fixed on National Draft pick 3 and Josh Kennedy or another player with possibly pick 20 thrown in as a sweetener. The Eagles say they want pick one thrown in but the Blues won't give that away – they want Northern Knights ruckman Matthew Kreuzer. Various plots are being hatched to break the stalemate and we can expect much more of the above in the coming week. Two years ago, the first trade deal done in exchange week involved Fergus Watt, then a five game player with the Crows, joining the Saints for their first round selection - No.17 overall. At the time I asked the question - "What price Chris Judd?" That question is still being asked today.

THE TRADING CHRONICLES 2007: PRELUDE by the Oracle THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GROIN Tomorrow morning it's "game on" for the 16 AFL clubs as they officially return en masse to the bargaining tables to take part in exchange week. The recruiting managers of each club will distribute their lists of tradable and non-tradeable names, haggle over the horse flesh and play the standard game of bluff and bluster in order to acquire and trade players and draft picks. This is all done in the cause of improving your club's playing list as it marches hopefully onwards in its quest for the Holy Grail – an AFL premiership. Somehow, this year feels different and so it should because unofficially, we've already been through a very public form of horse-trading over the past month. It has come to be known as the "Chris Judd Saga". Brisbane coach Leigh Matthews got it right when he described the process by which Judd put his suitor clubs through the hoops as "distasteful." I think it was more than just distasteful; it was obscene, crass and pathetic. It demeaned the clubs involved and more importantly it demeaned the major player – Judd himself. In the beginning, Judd was the blue-eyed wholesome kid who had done the hard yards at his adopted club and wanted to come him to kith and kin. The criteria for his return were laid out in a logical and principled manner. Tick the boxes and he's yours. The boxes included a strong club with excellent values, the best people, good prospects of success, playing on the best grounds and having good facilities going into the future. Of course, we all knew he wouldn't come cheaply but the clubs were prepared to pay the price and besides, who ever mentioned money? Four clubs, Carlton, Collingwood, Essendon and Melbourne were invited to submit to the process and while Demons were early outsiders, the strength of their presentation and the fact that Judd supported the club as a youngster, suddenly had them up there as favourites for his services. The romantic notion that, in this day of commercialism, a player would go back to the club whose jumper he wore as a kid was seductive and compelling. Then reality suddenly hit and the kid dumped two clubs on the same day – Essendon and Melbourne. It was like a game of double eviction on Big Brother and it came across as insulting to the clubs that were being evicted one by one. Collingwood fell the following day and the winner was ... The winner was Carlton, which really ticked none of the boxes when you consider its recent history and the culture it has built up in recent years. The winner was a club that so clearly epitomises failure in its recent past that very few doubt it tanked games in the last half of this season in order to "win" the prize of a priority draft pick which now gives it leverage in the trade battle to win over its new prized possession. The winner was the club that offers the biggest pot of gold and that's what makes the Judd saga so obscene. Don't get me wrong - the fellow is fully entitled to his full whack. However, things would have been different had it been made clear at the outset that the prize would go to the highest bidder. In any event, the fact that it appears that the winner was more or less preordained has made the process and its main players look decidedly shonky in the eyes of much of the football public. In the meantime, the rumour mill worked overtime in the fortnight during which Judd was conducting his "selection" process. Players and draft picks were going here, there and everywhere as clubs were allegedly jostling for better positions to enable them to cobble together deals that might be acceptable to the West Coast Eagles if Judd decided to place his faith with them. The speculation as to Carlton's offer however, was fixed on National Draft pick 3 and Josh Kennedy or another player with possibly pick 20 thrown in as a sweetener. The Eagles say they want pick one thrown in but the Blues won't give that away – they want Northern Knights ruckman Matthew Kreuzer. Various plots are being hatched to break the stalemate and we can expect much more of the above in the coming week. Two years ago, the first trade deal done in exchange week involved Fergus Watt, then a five game player with the Crows, joining the Saints for their first round selection - No.17 overall. At the time I asked the question - "What price Chris Judd?" That question is still being asked today.

by The Oracle When the final siren sounds on grand final day, many footy supporters turn their attention in other directions and their thoughts return only fleetingly over the summer before the hurly burly starts again around the month of March. For others though, the post finals period is full of interest and anticipation – it's the time when changes start happening to their club's playing lists and for those whose teams missed out on the glory of the season past, it's a time to reflect on what's needed to bring their lists up to scratch and how to go about achieving an improved playing list. The starting point is always your existing group and in the case of the Melbourne Football Club, we've already witnessed some changes. Here's the list that represented the Demons in 2007 (with 40 of the 44 taking their places on the AFL stage if you count rookie Daniel Hughes' Nab Cup appearance): - MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB - PLAYING LIST SEASON 2007: SENIOR LIST: Clint Bartram, Matthew Bate, Daniel Bell, Clint Bizzell, Nathan Brown, Cameron Bruce, Simon Buckley, Nathan Carroll, Aaron Davey, Lynden Dunn, Ryan Ferguson, James Frawley, Colin Garland, Simon Godfrey, Brad Green, Ben Holland, Mark Jamar, Chris Johnson, Paul Johnson, Travis Johnstone, Nathan Jones, James McDonald, Brock McLean, Brad Miller, Brent Moloney, Heath Neville, Michael Newton, Ricky Petterd, Byron Pickett, Jared Rivers, Russell Robertson, Colin Sylvia, Daniel Ward, Matthew Warnock, Isaac Weetra, Paul Wheatley, Matthew Whelan, Jeff White. VETERAN LIST: David Neitz, Adem Yze. ROOKIE LIST: Jace Bode*, Daniel Hayes, Daniel Hughes, Shane Neaves. * uplifted rookie The retirements of Bizzell, Brown and Pickett and the delisting of Godfrey, Neville, Ward and rookies Hayes and Neaves have already reduced the list to 36 and more changes are on the way under the AFL Draft process that started earlier this week with the NAB AFL Draft Camp which concluded yesterday. The process continues next week with the exchange period and culminates with two drafts over the coming months. The first of these sees the National Draft take place on Saturday 24 November followed by the Pre Season and Rookie Drafts on 11 December by which dates the lists will have been done and dusted in readiness for the 2008 season. THE DRAFT PROCESS The full list of key dates that form the 2007 NAB AFL Draft Process are: - Tuesday 2 October to Friday 5 October - NAB AFL Draft Camp Saturday 6 October Victorian State Screening Session Monday 8 October to Friday 12 October 2.00 pm Exchange Period Saturday 13 October South Australian State Screening Session Sunday 14 October Western Australian State Screening Session Wednesday 31 October 2.00 pm List Lodgement One, including rookie promotions, retained second year rookies and father / son selections Wednesday 14 November 2.00 pm Draft Nominations Close Friday 16 November 2.00 pm List Lodgement Two Wednesday 21 November 2.00 pm Delisted Player Nominations Close Saturday 24 November 10.00 am NAB AFL Draft Selection Meeting Tuesday 27 November 27 2.00 pm Uncontracted Listed Player Nominations Close Friday 30 November 2.00 pm List Lodgement Three and TPP Estimates Friday 7 December 7 2.00 pm Delisted Player Nominations Close Tuesday 11 December 10.00 am NAB AFL Pre-Season Draft Selection Meeting Tuesday 11 December 10.15 am Nomination of Brisbane Lions and Sydney eligible rookie list players Tuesday 11 December 10.30am NAB AFL Rookie Draft Selection Meeting NAB AFL DRAFT CAMP The cream of the nation's young footballers was on show at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. Seventy-two youngsters were measured up and assessed by the AFL club recruiting people and they went through a series of tests and interviews. Club recruiting officers will review all aspects of the player’s make up including his history, academic record and personal aspirations. The players who impress during the Camp will often be prominent when the first names are called out at the AFL National Draft on 24 November. Provision has also been made to test more than a hundred others at half-day screening camps held in the capital cities. The following players attended the 2007 NAB AFL Draft Camp - Victoria (42): Ashley Arrowsmith, Darcy Daniher, Mitchell Farmer, Jeremy Laidler, Adam Maric, James Polkinghorne (Calder Cannons), Scott Selwood, Robbie Tarrant (Bendigo Pioneers), Steven Gaertner, Jarrod Grant, John McCarthy, Scott Simpson (Dandenong Stingrays), Michael Dell'Aquila, Matthew Lobbe (Eastern Rangers), Ed Curnow, Patrick Dangerfield, Lachie Henderson, Chris Kangars, Guy O’Keefe (Geelong Falcons), Brent Connelly, Jackson Hall, Haelan Kay, Dan McKenna (Gippsland Power), Ashley Hockey, Ben McEvoy, Ryan Normington, Dawson Simpson (Murray Bushrangers), Matt Austin, Clayton Hinkley (North Ballarat Rebels), Trent Cotchin, Jack Grimes, Matthew Kreuzer, Brett Meredith, Patrick Veszpremi, David Zaharakis Northern Knights), Harry Croft, Lachie Hill, Andrew Ottens, Hugh Sandilands (Oakleigh Chargers), Myke Cook (Sandringham Dragons), Will Sullivan, Callan Ward (Western Jets). Western Australia (17) Matthew DeBoer, Patrick McGinnity, Cale Morton, Simon Starling (Claremont), Chris Masten, Rhys Palmer (East Fremantle), Tayte Pears, Luke Sampey (East Perth), Cruize Garlett, Chris Mayne, David Myers (Perth), David Gourdis, Jarrhan Jacky (Subiaco), Peter Bonney, Tony Notte, Alex Rance (Swan Districts), Steven Browne (West Perth). Queensland (7) Joel Smouha (Mt. Gravatt), James Mulligan (Southport), John Williams (University of Qld), Joey Daye, David Hill, Sam Reid, Brendan Whitecross (Zillmere). South Australia (5) Brad Ebert, Levi Greenwood (Port Adelaide), Tom McNamara, Nick Murphy (South Adelaide), Jared Petrenko (WWT Eagles). Tasmania (4) Jay Bowden, Aaron Joseph (Glenorchy), Tom Collier (Lauderdale), Tom Bellchambers (Northern Bombers). Northern Territory (2) Cyril Rioli (St. Marys), Marlon Motlop (Wanderers). New South Wales (1) Tony Armstrong (Calder Cannons) The results of the draft camp tests are filtering through and these are posted here. You can be sure however, that the cream will rise to the top with this sort of testing - Kreuzer still the one by a mile "It took just three days at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra this week for Matthew Kreuzer to reinforce what every AFL club recruiter already knew - he is the best young talent in Australia." EXCHANGE PERIOD The fun and games really start next week with the exchange period. Judging on the last few seasons there might not be too many shock waves although much will depend on what happens with the Chris Judd situation which, like most other things to do with the trades, is still up in the air. Coming: The Trading Chronicles

CHANGES 2007: TRADING AND DRAFTING - PART ONE by The Oracle When the final siren sounds on grand final day, many footy supporters turn their attention in other directions and their thoughts return only fleetingly over the summer before the hurly burly starts again around the month of March. For others though, the post finals period is full of interest and anticipation – it's the time when changes start happening to their club's playing lists and for those whose teams missed out on the glory of the season past, it's a time to reflect on what's needed to bring their lists up to scratch and how to go about achieving an improved playing list. The starting point is always your existing group and in the case of the Melbourne Football Club, we've already witnessed some changes. Here's the list that represented the Demons in 2007 (with 40 of the 44 taking their places on the AFL stage if you count rookie Daniel Hughes' Nab Cup appearance): - MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB - PLAYING LIST SEASON 2007: SENIOR LIST: Clint Bartram, Matthew Bate, Daniel Bell, Clint Bizzell, Nathan Brown, Cameron Bruce, Simon Buckley, Nathan Carroll, Aaron Davey, Lynden Dunn, Ryan Ferguson, James Frawley, Colin Garland, Simon Godfrey, Brad Green, Ben Holland, Mark Jamar, Chris Johnson, Paul Johnson, Travis Johnstone, Nathan Jones, James McDonald, Brock McLean, Brad Miller, Brent Moloney, Heath Neville, Michael Newton, Ricky Petterd, Byron Pickett, Jared Rivers, Russell Robertson, Colin Sylvia, Daniel Ward, Matthew Warnock, Isaac Weetra, Paul Wheatley, Matthew Whelan, Jeff White. VETERAN LIST: David Neitz, Adem Yze. ROOKIE LIST: Jace Bode*, Daniel Hayes, Daniel Hughes, Shane Neaves. * uplifted rookie The retirements of Bizzell, Brown and Pickett and the delisting of Godfrey, Neville, Ward and rookies Hayes and Neaves have already reduced the list to 36 and more changes are on the way under the AFL Draft process that started earlier this week with the NAB AFL Draft Camp which concluded yesterday. The process continues next week with the exchange period and culminates with two drafts over the coming months. The first of these sees the National Draft take place on Saturday 24 November followed by the Pre Season and Rookie Drafts on 11 December by which dates the lists will have been done and dusted in readiness for the 2008 season. THE DRAFT PROCESS The full list of key dates that form the 2007 NAB AFL Draft Process are: - Tuesday 2 October to Friday 5 October - NAB AFL Draft Camp Saturday 6 October Victorian State Screening Session Monday 8 October to Friday 12 October 2.00 pm Exchange Period Saturday 13 October South Australian State Screening Session Sunday 14 October Western Australian State Screening Session Wednesday 31 October 2.00 pm List Lodgement One, including rookie promotions, retained second year rookies and father / son selections Wednesday 14 November 2.00 pm Draft Nominations Close Friday 16 November 2.00 pm List Lodgement Two Wednesday 21 November 2.00 pm Delisted Player Nominations Close Saturday 24 November 10.00 am NAB AFL Draft Selection Meeting Tuesday 27 November 27 2.00 pm Uncontracted Listed Player Nominations Close Friday 30 November 2.00 pm List Lodgement Three and TPP Estimates Friday 7 December 7 2.00 pm Delisted Player Nominations Close Tuesday 11 December 10.00 am NAB AFL Pre-Season Draft Selection Meeting Tuesday 11 December 10.15 am Nomination of Brisbane Lions and Sydney eligible rookie list players Tuesday 11 December 10.30am NAB AFL Rookie Draft Selection Meeting NAB AFL DRAFT CAMP The cream of the nation's young footballers was on show at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra. Seventy-two youngsters were measured up and assessed by the AFL club recruiting people and they went through a series of tests and interviews. Club recruiting officers will review all aspects of the player’s make up including his history, academic record and personal aspirations. The players who impress during the Camp will often be prominent when the first names are called out at the AFL National Draft on 24 November. Provision has also been made to test more than a hundred others at half-day screening camps held in the capital cities. The following players attended the 2007 NAB AFL Draft Camp - Victoria (42): Ashley Arrowsmith, Darcy Daniher, Mitchell Farmer, Jeremy Laidler, Adam Maric, James Polkinghorne (Calder Cannons), Scott Selwood, Robbie Tarrant (Bendigo Pioneers), Steven Gaertner, Jarrod Grant, John McCarthy, Scott Simpson (Dandenong Stingrays), Michael Dell'Aquila, Matthew Lobbe (Eastern Rangers), Ed Curnow, Patrick Dangerfield, Lachie Henderson, Chris Kangars, Guy O’Keefe (Geelong Falcons), Brent Connelly, Jackson Hall, Haelan Kay, Dan McKenna (Gippsland Power), Ashley Hockey, Ben McEvoy, Ryan Normington, Dawson Simpson (Murray Bushrangers), Matt Austin, Clayton Hinkley (North Ballarat Rebels), Trent Cotchin, Jack Grimes, Matthew Kreuzer, Brett Meredith, Patrick Veszpremi, David Zaharakis Northern Knights), Harry Croft, Lachie Hill, Andrew Ottens, Hugh Sandilands (Oakleigh Chargers), Myke Cook (Sandringham Dragons), Will Sullivan, Callan Ward (Western Jets). Western Australia (17) Matthew DeBoer, Patrick McGinnity, Cale Morton, Simon Starling (Claremont), Chris Masten, Rhys Palmer (East Fremantle), Tayte Pears, Luke Sampey (East Perth), Cruize Garlett, Chris Mayne, David Myers (Perth), David Gourdis, Jarrhan Jacky (Subiaco), Peter Bonney, Tony Notte, Alex Rance (Swan Districts), Steven Browne (West Perth). Queensland (7) Joel Smouha (Mt. Gravatt), James Mulligan (Southport), John Williams (University of Qld), Joey Daye, David Hill, Sam Reid, Brendan Whitecross (Zillmere). South Australia (5) Brad Ebert, Levi Greenwood (Port Adelaide), Tom McNamara, Nick Murphy (South Adelaide), Jared Petrenko (WWT Eagles). Tasmania (4) Jay Bowden, Aaron Joseph (Glenorchy), Tom Collier (Lauderdale), Tom Bellchambers (Northern Bombers). Northern Territory (2) Cyril Rioli (St. Marys), Marlon Motlop (Wanderers). New South Wales (1) Tony Armstrong (Calder Cannons) The results of the draft camp tests are filtering through and these are posted here. You can be sure however, that the cream will rise to the top with this sort of testing - Kreuzer still the one by a mile "It took just three days at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra this week for Matthew Kreuzer to reinforce what every AFL club recruiter already knew - he is the best young talent in Australia." EXCHANGE PERIOD The fun and games really start next week with the exchange period. Judging on the last few seasons there might not be too many shock waves although much will depend on what happens with the Chris Judd situation which, like most other things to do with the trades, is still up in the air. Coming: The Trading Chronicles

Please people. Let's not have any personal attacks. If you have a point to make or want to refute someone's argument, do so but please be mindful of our rules and respectful of other people's rights to say what they think (even if you think they're stup id) Cheers

by Whispering Jack (with statistics and notes from Sam the Stats Man) There was a time when I seriously thought about abandoning the annual Demonland Melbourne Football Club player rankings for the end of the 2007 altogether. I was finding it difficult to seriously rank the entire playing list from 1 to 44 in light of the club's season from hell with injuries. In the end, I settled on a top ten but, even then, I wasn't altogether happy with that. When I finally decided on the make up of my top ten the spectre of old age and injury loomed large. The list which includes two thirty year olds and another nudging 29 years of age is far too heavy in terms of the veterans of the club for my liking. Another 30 year old in Nathan Brown, one of three retirees, came very close to making the top group. Over at Essendon over 30's in James Hird and Dustin Fletcher quinellad Essendon's best and fairest award and another oldie in Scott Lucas came fourth and was their top goalkicker and I know that experience is necessary on every list, but the Demons still have one of the AFL's oldest lists and, even allowing for the fact that we've had a few retirements and delistings from among the "oldies", it doesn't bode well for the future when you consider that Melbourne was out of contention early on and finished in the bottom four. To compound the situation, there were players who made the top ten notwithstanding that they missed games with injury or played hurt. You didn't achieve such a high ranking in 2006 unless you were free of injury for most of the season - if you were incapacitated for more than a few games, you generally found yourself in the bottom quartile of my rankings. This year, it was different with a few of my top ten having injury interrupted seasons and with so many others missing the odd games here and there as well. Jeff White was the only player to take the field for every one of the club's 22 matches. So instead of ranking players from 1 to 44, I'm accompanying my top ten with a few other groupings to encompass some information and notes on the entire list for 2007. There's a small group of rising stars, a couple of players getting special mentions, the list of the battle scarred from the infirmary and the rest. As you will see, some of the club's best players can be found in the latter two categories. The list was done and dusted before the outcome of Monday night's Keith "Bluey" Truscott medal winner was announced. It came as no surprise that James McDonald won the club's best and fairest. He also topped my rankings. However, one of the big surprises of the night was Matthew Bate's strong polling and his third place finish. He limped onto my list with a ninth placing but will be a regular at both the Blueys and on my list for years to come. He's also one of my rising stars along with best and fairest runner up Nathan Jones who I ranked fourth. I also want to make mention of two players who disappointed in 2007, the club's top draftees from 2003 in Colin Sylvia and Brock McLean. Yes, they have had their injury problems but on the evidence of this year, their performances both on and off the field haven't measured up to their high draft positions. That might be a harsh conclusion but new coach Dean Bailey will no doubt be letting them both know that they are now reaching the prime of their sporting lives and that they need to knuckle down over the off season to produce the form that the football world expects from them. Not that this fact will keep the critics at bay (I have no doubt that there will be debate about the rankings so is my usual word of warning about them) but please note my rankings are the personal opinion of one individual. It is not a best and fairest award but an assessment of where the players were at by the end of the season with major emphasis on how they performed in 2007. It will all change by the start of 2008 and I don't expect everybody to agree with me. THE TOP TEN 1. James McDonald MFC 21 games 3 goals – while he struggled to uphold the high standard he set in 2006, Junior was a consistent performer who led the club in kicks, handballs, clearances and tackles. The statistical evidence of his worth to the team is overwhelming and the football department recognised his efforts by voting him as the club champion for the second year in a row. Not bad for a kid who came off the rookie list! 2. Brad Green MFC 18 games 13 goals – after a slow start and a setback with a hamstring injury Green was a valuable contributor in the midfield with his game against the Crows one of the highlights. He also did well on the rare occasions when he was moved into the forward line and probably isn't used there enough. 3. Cameron Bruce 16 games 9 goals - whilst by no means a world beater this season, Bruce was a versatile member of the team who displayed a great work rate. His kicking however, has been awful of late and he will have to work on that area over summer. Also missed games with hamstring and other injuries. 4. Nathan Jones 21 games 10 goals - the rising star among the Demon young guns taking out third place in the NAB Rising Star Award and second in the "Bluey". He added great bite to the Demon midfield with his in and under efforts which were often a highlight of some otherwise dull games for the Demons. Makes up for a lack of pace with his huge engine, skills and endeavour. 5. Jeff White MFC 22 games 7 goals – still the club's number 1 ruckman and capable of some good football despite finding things tougher against the bigger opponents these days. The only Demon to play every game this season, he often battled in the ruck with little support despite giving away centimetres to his opponents on most weeks. 6. Travis Johnstone MFC 15 games 7 goals SFC Seniors 1 game 0 goals - was strongly tagged early, worked his way back into form but was then dogged by Achilles heel problems. A silky smooth performer who was to the fore in the final round with a season's high 42 disposals of the football. 7. Russell RobertsonMFC 15 games 42 goals SFC Seniors 1 game 4 goals – despite missing several weeks after hurting a knee late in the Round 2 game against Hawthorn, he was easily the club's leading goal kicker and played a significant role in the team's handful of victories for the year He was at his best against the likes of Carlton and Collingwood. Under the new coaching regime will be reminded that he can't do it all on his own. Has a new two year contract with the club. 8. Daniel Bell MFC 17 games 1 goal – has started to fulfil his early promise with some excellent games in defence where he combined strength, pace and endurance to advantage despite having to work under extreme pressure on a weekly basis. Injured a hamstring early in the Essendon game and was out of action for a month before coming back and displaying good form until Ben Johnson careered into him with an illegal head high hit to end his season a fortnight early. 9. Matthew Bate MFC 19 games 19 goals – an exciting prospect whose confidence and belief in himself grew. Played a number of roles and showed great maturity when moved to the centre half forward post. 10. Aaron Davey MFC 18 games 24 goals - not a sensational year from Davey. When he was good, he was very good and when he was bad, he wasn't much good. Was outed with suspension after a retaliatory strike cost him two matches through suspension. Needs to control his temper - especially against taggers. RISING STARS Matthew Bate – see TOP TEN. Lynden Dunn MFC 12 games 9 goals SFC Seniors 9 games 14 goals SFC Reserves 1 game 0 goals – suffered a setback early with a serious facial injury which kept him out of the first couple of rounds and was then hot and cold on his return to the AFL. Lifted a notch when moved into the midfield in a run with role, at the same time showing he has great capacity to improve. Nathan Jones – see TOP TEN. Ricky Petterd MFC 9 games 6 goals SFC Seniors 3 games 1 goal - a breath of fresh air, this young recruit showed that he is a quality player with enormous poise and ability in his nine games before suffering a punctured lung during the club's first Carlton walkover. SPECIAL MENTIONS - NUMBERS 30 & 31 Simon Godfrey MFC 17 games 7 goals – although delisted, one cannot help but admire the work ethic and dedication of this 100 gamer. Short a little on the skills of the game but his hard work as a tagger did not go unnoticed (especially by the likes of Adam Goodes and Scott West) and others with more talent could well take note of his determination to play the game at the highest level. Paul Wheatley MFC 14 games 4 goals SFC Seniors 1 game 0 goals – after an injury riddled 2006, he again had his share of injuries and appeared to be playing on with a problem shoulder, but excelled with some solid performances under fire in defence. THE BATTLE SCARRED Clint Bartram MFC 1 game 0 goals - had a limited pre-season after suffering an ankle injury in Round 22, 2006 against Adelaide, Bartram was recalled for the opening game of the season and was used sparingly. He injured a knee at training before Round 2 and then complications set in ultimately bringing his season to a premature end. Cameron Bruce – see TOP TEN. Travis Johnstone – see TOP TEN. Brock McLean MFC 14 games 4 goals - another early season casualty, McLean fractured a foot in the opening round. His return game in round 9 yielded 22 disposals but he had a flat patch for a few weeks and he disappointed when picked to lead the team in Neitz’ absence against the Tigers. He returned to form in a losing side against the Brisbane Lions but having lost two months conditioning, he was unable to produce the consistency expected from him. Brent Moloney MFC 10 games 5 goals SFC Seniors 2 games 0 goals SFC Reserves 1 game 0 goals - was close to Melbourne's best early in the season before a recurrence of groin problems took its toll. Slowly come back through the VFL and returned for a few games but failed to see out the season. David Neitz MFC 15 games 26 goals - missed early games with a knee injury and then a combination of knee, hamstring and broken finger kept him out after the Daniher farewell. Another who struggled to see out the season when he injured his knee against Fremantle in the penultimate round. His average of less than two goals a game was a poor return and it remains to see whether he will retain the captaincy next year. Ricky Petterd – see RISING STARS. Jared Rivers MFC 3 games 0 goals - a succession of injuries kept the club's most talented defender out of the team for all bar three games. A persistent groin problem put him out for the season well before it even reached the half way mark. Russell Robertson – see TOP TEN. Paul Wheatley – see SPECIAL MENTION Matthew Whelan MFC 5 games 0 goals SFC Seniors 3 games 0 goals – in the wars from the very start when he clashed heads with Luke Ball in round 1. Later, it was a foot injury and he missed the rest of the season with an ankle problem. His absence in defence really hurt the team. Adem Yze MFC 8 games 4 goals SFC Seniors 1 game 2 goals - his remarkable run of 226 consecutive matches dating back a decade ended when dropped to the VFL in round 2. Was slowly returning to form when injury struck again and a hernia operation after round 12 put him out for the rest of the year. THE REST Clint Bizzell MFC 10 games 0 goals SFC Seniors 9 games 3 goals - after missing all of last year with injury the veteran defender returned to form in the twilight of his career but lost favour and spent most of the latter part of the season at Sandy. Has now retired. Jace Bode ® MFC 4 games 3 goal SFC Seniors 12 games 3 goals SFC Reserves 4 games 1 goal – injury held him back in his first rookie year but he established himself with the Sandy seniors mainly as a defender or in a run with role and broke into the Demons team late in the season as long term injury replacement. Simon Buckley MFC 6 games 1 goal SFC Seniors 13 games 3 goals – faces a long learning curve as he works his way up through the ranks. Was finally given his chance against Carlton and showed some promise in his six AFL games. Nathan Brown 19 games 3 goals SFC Seniors 2 games 0 goals - the hard running defender was out of form early in the season and was dropped to the VFL a couple of times. In the latter part of the season he played like a man possessed and managed to finish on a high note with some good form in the last month or so of his career. Nathan Carroll MFC 21 games 0 goals SFC Seniors 1 game 1 goal - felt the pressure in a weakened defence but did some good things and led the defence by example and with plenty of courage. Ryan Ferguson MFC 8 games 2 goals SFC Seniors 8 games 8 goals SFC Reserves 2 games 8 goals - the injury prone defender couldn't take a trick during the season. When he finally gained a place in the Demons’ side against West Coast he broke a thumb and missed a month. Had to come back through the Zebra reserves and played well with the seniors before gaining an AFL recall late in the season. Might struggle to hold his place on the list. James Frawley MFC 9 games 0 goals SFC Seniors 1 game 0 goals SFC Reserves 1 game 0 goals - was on course for a Round 1 debut until stress fractures in the foot put him out for almost two months. Came back through the Sandy reserves was hospitalised after being concussed early and then impressed in the seniors at Sandringham. Showed some promising signs and looks capable of filling a key defender’s role when he fills out physically. Colin Garland MFC 2 games 0 goals SFC Seniors 17 games 5 goals - struggled in his two games at AFL level but looked good at times with Sandringham where he showed form at both ends of the ground. Daniel Hayes ® SFC Seniors 1 game 0 goals SFC Reserves 10 games 6 goals – missed much of the pre season due to personal family reasons and was under suspension until mid season as a result of his unavailability for training. Showed up at times in the Zebra reserves but struggled in his only game at VFL senior level and was delisted at the end of the season. Ben Holland MFC 10 games 11 goals SFC Seniors 6 games 9 goals – had a great game when he nullified Collingwood’s Anthony Rocca on Queens Birthday, but struggled at AFL level until late in the season when he rediscovered some form before badly dislocating his shoulder also against the Pies. Daniel Hughes ® SFC Seniors 8 games 7 goals SFC Reserves 4 games 7 goals – his career went into limbo after showing some early form at Sandringham before missing several weeks with a groin problem. Was restrained on return to the Zebra team late in the season. Mark Jamar MFC 10 games 4 goals SFC Seniors 6 game 5 goals SFC Reserves 1 game 0 goals – form as the second ruckman for the Demons was just average before he was dropped to Sandringham where he suffered a hamstring injury. Spent some time at Sandringham before pushing his way back into the Melbourne team but struggled and had a foot operation at the end of the season. Has been offered a two year contract. Chris Johnson MFC 8 games 0 goals SFC Seniors 13 games 5 goals – had a stellar pre season but failed to impress in his early games and was dropped to the VFL. After that he struggled to get a regular game with the Demons despite showing flashes of ability. His career is at the crossroads. Paul Johnson MFC 16 games 2 goals SFC Seniors 4 games 2 goals - grabbed the opportunity in the absence of Mark Jamar and was seemingly the main choice as second ruckman for most of the season. Brad Miller MFC 16 games 10 goals SFC Seniors 4 games 11 goals – another player who struggled early at both ends of the ground. A wrist injury saw him out of the team and he had to work hard for a few weeks at Sandringham before getting his call up as a defender against Carlton. Showed patches of form but not on a regular basis. Shane Neaves ® SFC Seniors 19 games 3 goals SFC Reserves 1 game 1 goal - a developing ruckman at Sandringham but was delisted from the rookie list at the end of the year. Heath NevilleSFC Seniors 5 games 0 goals SFC Reserves 13 games 3 goals – never really cut it at Sandringham and was delisted at the end of the season. Michael Newton MFC 10 games 14 goals SFC Seniors 11 games 31 goals – high flying forward who finally got his chance at the tail end of the Daniher reign as coach and showed that he has some ability winning mark of the year and also the club's most improved award. Byron Pickett MFC 9 games 7 goals SFC Seniors 9 games 9 goals SFC Reserves 1 game 1 goal - came into the season unfit, overweight and with family problems. Was suspended, confined to Sandringham for several weeks and failed to impress on his return against the Tigers. A shoulder injury kept him out for a while before he returned for his last harrah late in the season. SYLVIA, Colin MFC 16 games 12 goals SFC Seniors 1 game 3 goals – is starting to show the form that made him a high draft pick in 2003 as he shrugs off the effects of groin problems that plagued his early years at the club. Still needs to step up a few notches to justify his selection in third palce in the 2003 National Draft. WARD, Daniel MFC 18 games 3 goals SFC Seniors 3 games 0 goals - seized his opportunities with vacancies caused in defence due to injuries and loss of form and while his delivery and decision making is sometimes a problem, he was a valuable contributor. Delisted at the end of the year. WARNOCK, Matthew MFC 2 games 1 goal SFC Seniors 14 games 0 goals - had few opportunities at AFL level but performed consistently in the tight Sandringham defence. WEETRA, Isaac SFC Seniors 1 game 0 goals SFC Reserves 11 games 11 goals - injured hamstring during the preseason and was due to return when it went again. Then, when he recovered from that, he broke his wrist first up in the Zebra twos. He managed on senior VFL game late in the season but had no impact. THE KEITH “BLUEY” TRUSCOTT MEDAL 1: James McDonald 256 2: Nathan Jones 190 3: Matthew Bate 179 4: Brad Green 170 5: Aaron Davey 168 6: Cameron Bruce 167 7: Jeff White 157 8: Brock McLean 131 Equal 9: Nathan Brown 130 Equal 9: Russell Robertson 130 Norm Smith trophy for best team player: Brad Green Jim Hannan Memorial Trophy for best clubman: Lynden Dunn Ron Barassi Jr trophy for most improved: Michael Newton Ian Ridley trophy for Most Consistent: James McDonald Harold Ball Trophy for Best First Year player: Ricky Petterd Troy Broadbridge memorial trophy for most votes in Sandringham’s best and fairest by a Melbourne player: Ryan Ferguson.

THE 2007 PLAYER RANKINGS by Whispering Jack (with statistics and notes from Sam the Stats Man) There was a time when I seriously thought about abandoning the annual Demonland Melbourne Football Club player rankings for the end of the 2007 altogether. I was finding it difficult to seriously rank the entire playing list from 1 to 44 in light of the club's season from hell with injuries. In the end, I settled on a top ten but, even then, I wasn't altogether happy with that. When I finally decided on the make up of my top ten the spectre of old age and injury loomed large. The list which includes two thirty year olds and another nudging 29 years of age is far too heavy in terms of the veterans of the club for my liking. Another 30 year old in Nathan Brown, one of three retirees, came very close to making the top group. Over at Essendon over 30's in James Hird and Dustin Fletcher quinellad Essendon's best and fairest award and another oldie in Scott Lucas came fourth and was their top goalkicker and I know that experience is necessary on every list, but the Demons still have one of the AFL's oldest lists and, even allowing for the fact that we've had a few retirements and delistings from among the "oldies", it doesn't bode well for the future when you consider that Melbourne was out of contention early on and finished in the bottom four. To compound the situation, there were players who made the top ten notwithstanding that they missed games with injury or played hurt. You didn't achieve such a high ranking in 2006 unless you were free of injury for most of the season - if you were incapacitated for more than a few games, you generally found yourself in the bottom quartile of my rankings. This year, it was different with a few of my top ten having injury interrupted seasons and with so many others missing the odd games here and there as well. Jeff White was the only player to take the field for every one of the club's 22 matches. So instead of ranking players from 1 to 44, I'm accompanying my top ten with a few other groupings to encompass some information and notes on the entire list for 2007. There's a small group of rising stars, a couple of players getting special mentions, the list of the battle scarred from the infirmary and the rest. As you will see, some of the club's best players can be found in the latter two categories. The list was done and dusted before the outcome of Monday night's Keith "Bluey" Truscott medal winner was announced. It came as no surprise that James McDonald won the club's best and fairest. He also topped my rankings. However, one of the big surprises of the night was Matthew Bate's strong polling and his third place finish. He limped onto my list with a ninth placing but will be a regular at both the Blueys and on my list for years to come. He's also one of my rising stars along with best and fairest runner up Nathan Jones who I ranked fourth. I also want to make mention of two players who disappointed in 2007, the club's top draftees from 2003 in Colin Sylvia and Brock McLean. Yes, they have had their injury problems but on the evidence of this year, their performances both on and off the field haven't measured up to their high draft positions. That might be a harsh conclusion but new coach Dean Bailey will no doubt be letting them both know that they are now reaching the prime of their sporting lives and that they need to knuckle down over the off season to produce the form that the football world expects from them. Not that this fact will keep the critics at bay (I have no doubt that there will be debate about the rankings so is my usual word of warning about them) but please note my rankings are the personal opinion of one individual. It is not a best and fairest award but an assessment of where the players were at by the end of the season with major emphasis on how they performed in 2007. It will all change by the start of 2008 and I don't expect everybody to agree with me. THE TOP TEN 1. James McDonald MFC 21 games 3 goals – while he struggled to uphold the high standard he set in 2006, Junior was a consistent performer who led the club in kicks, handballs, clearances and tackles. The statistical evidence of his worth to the team is overwhelming and the football department recognised his efforts by voting him as the club champion for the second year in a row. Not bad for a kid who came off the rookie list! 2. Brad Green MFC 18 games 13 goals – after a slow start and a setback with a hamstring injury Green was a valuable contributor in the midfield with his game against the Crows one of the highlights. He also did well on the rare occasions when he was moved into the forward line and probably isn't used there enough. 3. Cameron Bruce 16 games 9 goals - whilst by no means a world beater this season, Bruce was a versatile member of the team who displayed a great work rate. His kicking however, has been awful of late and he will have to work on that area over summer. Also missed games with hamstring and other injuries. 4. Nathan Jones 21 games 10 goals - the rising star among the Demon young guns taking out third place in the NAB Rising Star Award and second in the "Bluey". He added great bite to the Demon midfield with his in and under efforts which were often a highlight of some otherwise dull games for the Demons. Makes up for a lack of pace with his huge engine, skills and endeavour. 5. Jeff White MFC 22 games 7 goals – still the club's number 1 ruckman and capable of some good football despite finding things tougher against the bigger opponents these days. The only Demon to play every game this season, he often battled in the ruck with little support despite giving away centimetres to his opponents on most weeks. 6. Travis Johnstone MFC 15 games 7 goals SFC Seniors 1 game 0 goals - was strongly tagged early, worked his way back into form but was then dogged by Achilles heel problems. A silky smooth performer who was to the fore in the final round with a season's high 42 disposals of the football. 7. Russell RobertsonMFC 15 games 42 goals SFC Seniors 1 game 4 goals – despite missing several weeks after hurting a knee late in the Round 2 game against Hawthorn, he was easily the club's leading goal kicker and played a significant role in the team's handful of victories for the year He was at his best against the likes of Carlton and Collingwood. Under the new coaching regime will be reminded that he can't do it all on his own. Has a new two year contract with the club. 8. Daniel Bell MFC 17 games 1 goal – has started to fulfil his early promise with some excellent games in defence where he combined strength, pace and endurance to advantage despite having to work under extreme pressure on a weekly basis. Injured a hamstring early in the Essendon game and was out of action for a month before coming back and displaying good form until Ben Johnson careered into him with an illegal head high hit to end his season a fortnight early. 9. Matthew Bate MFC 19 games 19 goals – an exciting prospect whose confidence and belief in himself grew. Played a number of roles and showed great maturity when moved to the centre half forward post. 10. Aaron Davey MFC 18 games 24 goals - not a sensational year from Davey. When he was good, he was very good and when he was bad, he wasn't much good. Was outed with suspension after a retaliatory strike cost him two matches through suspension. Needs to control his temper - especially against taggers. RISING STARS Matthew Bate – see TOP TEN. Lynden Dunn MFC 12 games 9 goals SFC Seniors 9 games 14 goals SFC Reserves 1 game 0 goals – suffered a setback early with a serious facial injury which kept him out of the first couple of rounds and was then hot and cold on his return to the AFL. Lifted a notch when moved into the midfield in a run with role, at the same time showing he has great capacity to improve. Nathan Jones – see TOP TEN. Ricky Petterd MFC 9 games 6 goals SFC Seniors 3 games 1 goal - a breath of fresh air, this young recruit showed that he is a quality player with enormous poise and ability in his nine games before suffering a punctured lung during the club's first Carlton walkover. SPECIAL MENTIONS - NUMBERS 30 & 31 Simon Godfrey MFC 17 games 7 goals – although delisted, one cannot help but admire the work ethic and dedication of this 100 gamer. Short a little on the skills of the game but his hard work as a tagger did not go unnoticed (especially by the likes of Adam Goodes and Scott West) and others with more talent could well take note of his determination to play the game at the highest level. Paul Wheatley MFC 14 games 4 goals SFC Seniors 1 game 0 goals – after an injury riddled 2006, he again had his share of injuries and appeared to be playing on with a problem shoulder, but excelled with some solid performances under fire in defence. THE BATTLE SCARRED Clint Bartram MFC 1 game 0 goals - had a limited pre-season after suffering an ankle injury in Round 22, 2006 against Adelaide, Bartram was recalled for the opening game of the season and was used sparingly. He injured a knee at training before Round 2 and then complications set in ultimately bringing his season to a premature end. Cameron Bruce – see TOP TEN. Travis Johnstone – see TOP TEN. Brock McLean MFC 14 games 4 goals - another early season casualty, McLean fractured a foot in the opening round. His return game in round 9 yielded 22 disposals but he had a flat patch for a few weeks and he disappointed when picked to lead the team in Neitz’ absence against the Tigers. He returned to form in a losing side against the Brisbane Lions but having lost two months conditioning, he was unable to produce the consistency expected from him. Brent Moloney MFC 10 games 5 goals SFC Seniors 2 games 0 goals SFC Reserves 1 game 0 goals - was close to Melbourne's best early in the season before a recurrence of groin problems took its toll. Slowly come back through the VFL and returned for a few games but failed to see out the season. David Neitz MFC 15 games 26 goals - missed early games with a knee injury and then a combination of knee, hamstring and broken finger kept him out after the Daniher farewell. Another who struggled to see out the season when he injured his knee against Fremantle in the penultimate round. His average of less than two goals a game was a poor return and it remains to see whether he will retain the captaincy next year. Ricky Petterd – see RISING STARS. Jared Rivers MFC 3 games 0 goals - a succession of injuries kept the club's most talented defender out of the team for all bar three games. A persistent groin problem put him out for the season well before it even reached the half way mark. Russell Robertson – see TOP TEN. Paul Wheatley – see SPECIAL MENTION Matthew Whelan MFC 5 games 0 goals SFC Seniors 3 games 0 goals – in the wars from the very start when he clashed heads with Luke Ball in round 1. Later, it was a foot injury and he missed the rest of the season with an ankle problem. His absence in defence really hurt the team. Adem Yze MFC 8 games 4 goals SFC Seniors 1 game 2 goals - his remarkable run of 226 consecutive matches dating back a decade ended when dropped to the VFL in round 2. Was slowly returning to form when injury struck again and a hernia operation after round 12 put him out for the rest of the year. THE REST Clint Bizzell MFC 10 games 0 goals SFC Seniors 9 games 3 goals - after missing all of last year with injury the veteran defender returned to form in the twilight of his career but lost favour and spent most of the latter part of the season at Sandy. Has now retired. Jace Bode ® MFC 4 games 3 goal SFC Seniors 12 games 3 goals SFC Reserves 4 games 1 goal – injury held him back in his first rookie year but he established himself with the Sandy seniors mainly as a defender or in a run with role and broke into the Demons team late in the season as long term injury replacement. Simon Buckley MFC 6 games 1 goal SFC Seniors 13 games 3 goals – faces a long learning curve as he works his way up through the ranks. Was finally given his chance against Carlton and showed some promise in his six AFL games. Nathan Brown 19 games 3 goals SFC Seniors 2 games 0 goals - the hard running defender was out of form early in the season and was dropped to the VFL a couple of times. In the latter part of the season he played like a man possessed and managed to finish on a high note with some good form in the last month or so of his career. Nathan Carroll MFC 21 games 0 goals SFC Seniors 1 game 1 goal - felt the pressure in a weakened defence but did some good things and led the defence by example and with plenty of courage. Ryan Ferguson MFC 8 games 2 goals SFC Seniors 8 games 8 goals SFC Reserves 2 games 8 goals - the injury prone defender couldn't take a trick during the season. When he finally gained a place in the Demons’ side against West Coast he broke a thumb and missed a month. Had to come back through the Zebra reserves and played well with the seniors before gaining an AFL recall late in the season. Might struggle to hold his place on the list. James Frawley MFC 9 games 0 goals SFC Seniors 1 game 0 goals SFC Reserves 1 game 0 goals - was on course for a Round 1 debut until stress fractures in the foot put him out for almost two months. Came back through the Sandy reserves was hospitalised after being concussed early and then impressed in the seniors at Sandringham. Showed some promising signs and looks capable of filling a key defender’s role when he fills out physically. Colin Garland MFC 2 games 0 goals SFC Seniors 17 games 5 goals - struggled in his two games at AFL level but looked good at times with Sandringham where he showed form at both ends of the ground. Daniel Hayes ® SFC Seniors 1 game 0 goals SFC Reserves 10 games 6 goals – missed much of the pre season due to personal family reasons and was under suspension until mid season as a result of his unavailability for training. Showed up at times in the Zebra reserves but struggled in his only game at VFL senior level and was delisted at the end of the season. Ben Holland MFC 10 games 11 goals SFC Seniors 6 games 9 goals – had a great game when he nullified Collingwood’s Anthony Rocca on Queens Birthday, but struggled at AFL level until late in the season when he rediscovered some form before badly dislocating his shoulder also against the Pies. Daniel Hughes ® SFC Seniors 8 games 7 goals SFC Reserves 4 games 7 goals – his career went into limbo after showing some early form at Sandringham before missing several weeks with a groin problem. Was restrained on return to the Zebra team late in the season. Mark Jamar MFC 10 games 4 goals SFC Seniors 6 game 5 goals SFC Reserves 1 game 0 goals – form as the second ruckman for the Demons was just average before he was dropped to Sandringham where he suffered a hamstring injury. Spent some time at Sandringham before pushing his way back into the Melbourne team but struggled and had a foot operation at the end of the season. Has been offered a two year contract. Chris Johnson MFC 8 games 0 goals SFC Seniors 13 games 5 goals – had a stellar pre season but failed to impress in his early games and was dropped to the VFL. After that he struggled to get a regular game with the Demons despite showing flashes of ability. His career is at the crossroads. Paul Johnson MFC 16 games 2 goals SFC Seniors 4 games 2 goals - grabbed the opportunity in the absence of Mark Jamar and was seemingly the main choice as second ruckman for most of the season. Brad Miller MFC 16 games 10 goals SFC Seniors 4 games 11 goals – another player who struggled early at both ends of the ground. A wrist injury saw him out of the team and he had to work hard for a few weeks at Sandringham before getting his call up as a defender against Carlton. Showed patches of form but not on a regular basis. Shane Neaves ® SFC Seniors 19 games 3 goals SFC Reserves 1 game 1 goal - a developing ruckman at Sandringham but was delisted from the rookie list at the end of the year. Heath NevilleSFC Seniors 5 games 0 goals SFC Reserves 13 games 3 goals – never really cut it at Sandringham and was delisted at the end of the season. Michael Newton MFC 10 games 14 goals SFC Seniors 11 games 31 goals – high flying forward who finally got his chance at the tail end of the Daniher reign as coach and showed that he has some ability winning mark of the year and also the club's most improved award. Byron Pickett MFC 9 games 7 goals SFC Seniors 9 games 9 goals SFC Reserves 1 game 1 goal - came into the season unfit, overweight and with family problems. Was suspended, confined to Sandringham for several weeks and failed to impress on his return against the Tigers. A shoulder injury kept him out for a while before he returned for his last harrah late in the season. SYLVIA, Colin MFC 16 games 12 goals SFC Seniors 1 game 3 goals – is starting to show the form that made him a high draft pick in 2003 as he shrugs off the effects of groin problems that plagued his early years at the club. Still needs to step up a few notches to justify his selection in third palce in the 2003 National Draft. WARD, Daniel MFC 18 games 3 goals SFC Seniors 3 games 0 goals - seized his opportunities with vacancies caused in defence due to injuries and loss of form and while his delivery and decision making is sometimes a problem, he was a valuable contributor. Delisted at the end of the year. WARNOCK, Matthew MFC 2 games 1 goal SFC Seniors 14 games 0 goals - had few opportunities at AFL level but performed consistently in the tight Sandringham defence. WEETRA, Isaac SFC Seniors 1 game 0 goals SFC Reserves 11 games 11 goals - injured hamstring during the preseason and was due to return when it went again. Then, when he recovered from that, he broke his wrist first up in the Zebra twos. He managed on senior VFL game late in the season but had no impact. THE KEITH “BLUEY” TRUSCOTT MEDAL 1: James McDonald 256 2: Nathan Jones 190 3: Matthew Bate 179 4: Brad Green 170 5: Aaron Davey 168 6: Cameron Bruce 167 7: Jeff White 157 8: Brock McLean 131 Equal 9: Nathan Brown 130 Equal 9: Russell Robertson 130 Norm Smith trophy for best team player: Brad Green Jim Hannan Memorial Trophy for best clubman: Lynden Dunn Ron Barassi Jr trophy for most improved: Michael Newton Ian Ridley trophy for Most Consistent: James McDonald Harold Ball Trophy for Best First Year player: Ricky Petterd Troy Broadbridge memorial trophy for most votes in Sandringham’s best and fairest by a Melbourne player: Ryan Ferguson.

From my point of view the final evictee is Mr. Judd himself. As you can see Juddmania has been given the flick and won't be reappearing on this site.

by Whispering Jack For three years from 2004 to 2006, Melbourne travelled along comfortably at just below the elite level of the AFL competition. The Demons finished among the top sides, winning the right to play off in finals and appeared to be moving forward on a path that was slowly but surely drawing them closer to the game's hot spots – the places where you go when your team's really on fire. They made the semi finals in 2006 and were considered by most of football's pundits to be on the right track for a top four finish or better in 2007. Then things went terribly awry and a train wreck happened. As in 2006, the team lost its early games to be sitting on a 0-3 record after defeats at the hands of St. Kilda, Hawthorn and Geelong. This time however, there was no stirring recovery as there had been last year. There was no cohesiveness in the way the Demons played their early games; they struggled at home and were worse away from home. By season's end, there had been too many dispirited efforts for supporters to look back on the season with so much as a glimmer of satisfaction. There were a few close calls but it took until the onset of winter and the tenth round of the season for the club to break the ice with a win over Adelaide at the MCG. That was closely followed by a rousing victory over the old enemy in the Queens Birthday match and suddenly there was renewed optimism evident at the club. The excitement didn't last too long however and the wheels fell off on a cold Friday night at the MCG when the team was thrashed by bottom side Richmond in a match that sealed Neale Daniher's fate. The mid season appointment of a caretaker coach in Mark Reilly consigned the club to a long period of aimless drifting without any discernable direction as the season meandered to a sad end. How does one explain such a disaster? Daniher was in his tenth year as coach, time was running out and he took what must now be regarded as a calculated risk. Melbourne had finished the previous year in fifth place but was ranked first among the Victorians. The problem was how to break into that top four grouping of West Coast, Sydney, Adelaide and Fremantle? The first premise was reasonably straightforward - in order to do so you had to beat them during the home and away season and you had to have a team capable of beating them on their own home turf. The Eagles had succeeded in breaking down the Crows’ early dominance of 2006 with what was described as the "run and carry" style and that was a direction that Melbourne took with its pre season training. The idea was to mould a team that was physically capable of carrying out this running style of game. Train them to be fit, sleek and capable of enduring a long season of run, run and more run. The problem was that you had to be capable of doing that as well as to use a football with a measure of skill. In this aspect, the football department not only miscalculated the team's capacity to adapt to the new style but also failed the flexibility test of changing course when it was clear that things weren't working out as planned. The pre season trial games (including the Nab Cup game against Hawthorn) demonstrated that the Demon side were not quite adept at carrying out the plan. When the season opened on a Thursday night in March, they stumbled, fumbled and bungled: they simply couldn't get it right. Players were hesitant, made errors and were brushed aside by stronger bodied opponents. Something was wrong! And if that wasn't enough, the injuries started to come and, when they came, they cut deeply and they never went away! According to the AFL Grand Final Record, "Melbourne's poor year was not helped by a horror run with injuries, with Jeff White the only player to play all 22 matches." Injuries are often a poor excuse for failure but in Melbourne's case, 2007 was a season so devastated by them that you don't have to look much further to find reasons for the club's dramatic demise. The extent of the injury plague comes into clear focus when you sit down and start looking at standout players for the season. So many of them were afflicted by some form of injury or other during the season that any ranking list of players is virtually meaningless in terms of looking at the future on field course of the club. Melbourne used 39 players in 2007 – a record since the clubs went to reduced senior lists after the introduction of the salary cap and national draft and, as mentioned above, White was the only team member to play in all games. Compare that with Port Adelaide which had nine such players in its grand final team and the Kangaroos which had 10 in their preliminary final team. Last weekend, Geelong had forty players in their combined AFL and VFL sides and only three players (one a rookie) were unavailable at the end of a long, hard season. The Demons had more than that missing for the opening round of 2007 and things reached epidemic proportions by the end of the year when the number of players unavailable was 15! There was very little encouragement or cheering on the score of individual players. For years, Melbourne fans have been lamenting the club's lack of champion players and more recently another concern has been that too many of its better players were closing in on veteran status. When the season began, the club's best chances for future stardom were Brock McLean and Jared Rivers. Unfortunately for the Demons both fell to the injury curse. McLean recovered from a foot injury sustained in round 1 to play in the second half of the year but he was unable to revisit his form of earlier seasons on a regular basis. Rivers wore the jumper on only three occasions during the year and was one of five men whose seasons were completely finished by the time the season's half way mark had ticked over. This left very few "rising stars" apart Matthew Bate who I describe as a "slow riser", Lynden Dunn who made a late charge in that area and of course, Nathan Jones who made his debut late last year and gained a Nab AFL Rising Star nomination in his short stint of seven games. This year, he notched up another 21 games and he was often among the Demons' best for the season. Jones was rewarded with recognition from the judges of the NAB AFL Rising Star award again this year and they ultimately placed him third for 2007 behind Joel Selwood and Scott Pendlebury. Ricky Petterd was the best of the debutants but his season was curtailed by a life threatening collapsed lung during the round 14 game against Carlton. Michael Newton's debut was much anticipated by many Demon fans and he was virtually the club's only prize winner in 2007 – taking out the mark of the year for his hanger against the Kangaroos in round 16. A year earlier I had witnessed him taking three such marks in the course of one afternoon in a VFL game at Casey Fields. His elevation to the team for Daniher's farewell highlighted the difference between Melbourne's then development philosophy and that of Mick Malthouse at Collingwood. The buzz phrase at the Pies is the fast tracking of players but in Newton's case, he was slow tracked. The jury remains out however, as to where his freakish talents will take him but he could become a very special player. The age factor remains a major area of concern for new coach Dean Bailey who is embarking on a youth policy. We have already seen player retirements and early delistings. There are sure to be more changes to the list. Bailey was a major factor behind Port Adelaide's return as a power in 2007 (notwithstanding its massive defeat in the grand final). He is strong on player development and that is encouraging because he has scope in a number of areas to move the club forward and out of the train wreck of 2007. Apart from introducing his own innovative coaching style and bringing a new broom to sweep the club clean, these include - Firstly, there are a dozen players on the list whose output in 2007 was curtailed or severely limited by injuries. Things will be different if and when the following can come back as regulars in the senior team with fit bodies and a full pre season behind them – names such as Clint Bartram, Cameron Bruce, Travis Johnstone, Brock McLean, Brent Moloney, David Neitz, Ricky Petterd, Jared Rivers, Russell Robertson (if he stays at the club), Paul Wheatley, Matthew Whelan and Adem Yze. These are effectively the club's first and best recruits for 2008. Secondly, there are a large number of players on the list who I consider as "undeveloped" footballers i.e. players who have yet to attain anything near their full potential. Players like Brock McLean and Colin Sylvia were top 5 draft picks four years ago but have not attained the high levels of consistent high performance of Collingwood pair Thomas and Pendlebury who gave them two year's start. If Bailey can fast track the development of this group then the club could be well on its way to a new era of success (there's some repetition of names from the first list here): - Clint Bartram, Matthew Bate, Daniel Bell, Jace Bode, Simon Buckley, Lynden Dunn, James Frawley, Colin Garland, Chris Johnson, Paul Johnson, Nathan Jones, Brock McLean, Brent Moloney, Michael Newton, Ricky Petterd, Jared Rivers, Colin Sylvia, Matthew Warnock and Isaac Weetra. There are nineteen players on this list although I'm not suggesting that all of them will make it or be star players at the club or that all of them are going to be around the place in twelve month's time (or even a month's time for that matter) but the club needs to work on this list to ensure that a significant number develop to their full potential in the next couple of seasons by which time at least half of them should form part of the backbone of the club. Thirdly and finally, there is the area of trading and drafting where the club appears to have adopted a far more aggressive tack than in the past year or so and that is an area that could lead the club to more exciting places in 2008 and beyond.

OUT OF THE TRAIN WRECK – THE 2007 SEASON by Whispering Jack For three years from 2004 to 2006, Melbourne travelled along comfortably at just below the elite level of the AFL competition. The Demons finished among the top sides, winning the right to play off in finals and appeared to be moving forward on a path that was slowly but surely drawing them closer to the game's hot spots – the places where you go when your team's really on fire. They made the semi finals in 2006 and were considered by most of football's pundits to be on the right track for a top four finish or better in 2007. Then things went terribly awry and a train wreck happened. As in 2006, the team lost its early games to be sitting on a 0-3 record after defeats at the hands of St. Kilda, Hawthorn and Geelong. This time however, there was no stirring recovery as there had been last year. There was no cohesiveness in the way the Demons played their early games; they struggled at home and were worse away from home. By season's end, there had been too many dispirited efforts for supporters to look back on the season with so much as a glimmer of satisfaction. There were a few close calls but it took until the onset of winter and the tenth round of the season for the club to break the ice with a win over Adelaide at the MCG. That was closely followed by a rousing victory over the old enemy in the Queens Birthday match and suddenly there was renewed optimism evident at the club. The excitement didn't last too long however and the wheels fell off on a cold Friday night at the MCG when the team was thrashed by bottom side Richmond in a match that sealed Neale Daniher's fate. The mid season appointment of a caretaker coach in Mark Reilly consigned the club to a long period of aimless drifting without any discernable direction as the season meandered to a sad end. How does one explain such a disaster? Daniher was in his tenth year as coach, time was running out and he took what must now be regarded as a calculated risk. Melbourne had finished the previous year in fifth place but was ranked first among the Victorians. The problem was how to break into that top four grouping of West Coast, Sydney, Adelaide and Fremantle? The first premise was reasonably straightforward - in order to do so you had to beat them during the home and away season and you had to have a team capable of beating them on their own home turf. The Eagles had succeeded in breaking down the Crows’ early dominance of 2006 with what was described as the "run and carry" style and that was a direction that Melbourne took with its pre season training. The idea was to mould a team that was physically capable of carrying out this running style of game. Train them to be fit, sleek and capable of enduring a long season of run, run and more run. The problem was that you had to be capable of doing that as well as to use a football with a measure of skill. In this aspect, the football department not only miscalculated the team's capacity to adapt to the new style but also failed the flexibility test of changing course when it was clear that things weren't working out as planned. The pre season trial games (including the Nab Cup game against Hawthorn) demonstrated that the Demon side were not quite adept at carrying out the plan. When the season opened on a Thursday night in March, they stumbled, fumbled and bungled: they simply couldn't get it right. Players were hesitant, made errors and were brushed aside by stronger bodied opponents. Something was wrong! And if that wasn't enough, the injuries started to come and, when they came, they cut deeply and they never went away! According to the AFL Grand Final Record, "Melbourne's poor year was not helped by a horror run with injuries, with Jeff White the only player to play all 22 matches." Injuries are often a poor excuse for failure but in Melbourne's case, 2007 was a season so devastated by them that you don't have to look much further to find reasons for the club's dramatic demise. The extent of the injury plague comes into clear focus when you sit down and start looking at standout players for the season. So many of them were afflicted by some form of injury or other during the season that any ranking list of players is virtually meaningless in terms of looking at the future on field course of the club. Melbourne used 39 players in 2007 – a record since the clubs went to reduced senior lists after the introduction of the salary cap and national draft and, as mentioned above, White was the only team member to play in all games. Compare that with Port Adelaide which had nine such players in its grand final team and the Kangaroos which had 10 in their preliminary final team. Last weekend, Geelong had forty players in their combined AFL and VFL sides and only three players (one a rookie) were unavailable at the end of a long, hard season. The Demons had more than that missing for the opening round of 2007 and things reached epidemic proportions by the end of the year when the number of players unavailable was 15! There was very little encouragement or cheering on the score of individual players. For years, Melbourne fans have been lamenting the club's lack of champion players and more recently another concern has been that too many of its better players were closing in on veteran status. When the season began, the club's best chances for future stardom were Brock McLean and Jared Rivers. Unfortunately for the Demons both fell to the injury curse. McLean recovered from a foot injury sustained in round 1 to play in the second half of the year but he was unable to revisit his form of earlier seasons on a regular basis. Rivers wore the jumper on only three occasions during the year and was one of five men whose seasons were completely finished by the time the season's half way mark had ticked over. This left very few "rising stars" apart Matthew Bate who I describe as a "slow riser", Lynden Dunn who made a late charge in that area and of course, Nathan Jones who made his debut late last year and gained a Nab AFL Rising Star nomination in his short stint of seven games. This year, he notched up another 21 games and he was often among the Demons' best for the season. Jones was rewarded with recognition from the judges of the NAB AFL Rising Star award again this year and they ultimately placed him third for 2007 behind Joel Selwood and Scott Pendlebury. Ricky Petterd was the best of the debutants but his season was curtailed by a life threatening collapsed lung during the round 14 game against Carlton. Michael Newton's debut was much anticipated by many Demon fans and he was virtually the club's only prize winner in 2007 – taking out the mark of the year for his hanger against the Kangaroos in round 16. A year earlier I had witnessed him taking three such marks in the course of one afternoon in a VFL game at Casey Fields. His elevation to the team for Daniher's farewell highlighted the difference between Melbourne's then development philosophy and that of Mick Malthouse at Collingwood. The buzz phrase at the Pies is the fast tracking of players but in Newton's case, he was slow tracked. The jury remains out however, as to where his freakish talents will take him but he could become a very special player. The age factor remains a major area of concern for new coach Dean Bailey who is embarking on a youth policy. We have already seen player retirements and early delistings. There are sure to be more changes to the list. Bailey was a major factor behind Port Adelaide's return as a power in 2007 (notwithstanding its massive defeat in the grand final). He is strong on player development and that is encouraging because he has scope in a number of areas to move the club forward and out of the train wreck of 2007. Apart from introducing his own innovative coaching style and bringing a new broom to sweep the club clean, these include - Firstly, there are a dozen players on the list whose output in 2007 was curtailed or severely limited by injuries. Things will be different if and when the following can come back as regulars in the senior team with fit bodies and a full pre season behind them – names such as Clint Bartram, Cameron Bruce, Travis Johnstone, Brock McLean, Brent Moloney, David Neitz, Ricky Petterd, Jared Rivers, Russell Robertson (if he stays at the club), Paul Wheatley, Matthew Whelan and Adem Yze. These are effectively the club's first and best recruits for 2008. Secondly, there are a large number of players on the list who I consider as "undeveloped" footballers i.e. players who have yet to attain anything near their full potential. Players like Brock McLean and Colin Sylvia were top 5 draft picks four years ago but have not attained the high levels of consistent high performance of Collingwood pair Thomas and Pendlebury who gave them two year's start. If Bailey can fast track the development of this group then the club could be well on its way to a new era of success (there's some repetition of names from the first list here): - Clint Bartram, Matthew Bate, Daniel Bell, Jace Bode, Simon Buckley, Lynden Dunn, James Frawley, Colin Garland, Chris Johnson, Paul Johnson, Nathan Jones, Brock McLean, Brent Moloney, Michael Newton, Ricky Petterd, Jared Rivers, Colin Sylvia, Matthew Warnock and Isaac Weetra. There are nineteen players on this list although I'm not suggesting that all of them will make it or be star players at the club or that all of them are going to be around the place in twelve month's time (or even a month's time for that matter) but the club needs to work on this list to ensure that a significant number develop to their full potential in the next couple of seasons by which time at least half of them should form part of the backbone of the club. Thirdly and finally, there is the area of trading and drafting where the club appears to have adopted a far more aggressive tack than in the past year or so and that is an area that could lead the club to more exciting places in 2008 and beyond. Coming soon: WJ's TOP TEN for 2007 ...

It's a pretty sloppily written article going from a statement that Carlton are still confident of snaring Judd to a Carlton lunch at which nothing happened and then back to Greg Swann's declaration of his confidence with nothing more concrete than that. A waste of space for mine although my Carlton friends still insist they are in with a chance. Personally, I'll be glad when the thing has been resolved one way or another and we can all get back to normal.

Right, there's no need for any of this. As I said above Demonology people are welcome here at any time. Last time I looked Demonland and Demonology both supported the same footy club.

His father and uncle both fought at the Battle of Hastings.

Back in June, we ran this article by the Professor on the Number Three at Melbourne. In the public interest, could somebody please supply an extra paragraph or two to the story ... THE BOOK OF NUMBERS - THE NUMBER THREE by The Professor Garry Lyon wore the number three throughout his entire career that stretched from 1986, when he emerged as a skinny young 18 year old from the Melbourne Football Club Under 19's via Kyabram to 1999 when a chronic back problem forced his retirement in the middle of that year. His was a highly decorated career with the Demons. He won the Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Medal awarded to the Melbourne Football Club player judged best and fairest for the season on two occasions (1990 and 1994), led the club’s goal kicking in 1994 and 1995 and gained interstate selection for eight consecutive seasons from 1988 to 1995. He was named in the All-Australian team in 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994 and 1995. Lyon's emergence as a player with the Demons coincided with the new respect the club gained in the late 1980's after more than two decades of struggle as a perpetual cellar dweller in VFL ranks. As a youngster he was an important player in his team's surge towards the final series of 1987- its first in 23 years but tragically, he missed out on the team's finals run due to a broken leg sustained in the final home and away game of the season at Footscray. There are many judges who would argue that had he been available during that finals series, the club might have been able to go all the way to a flag. Returning for the following year, the 193 cm 96kg forward displayed his match winning abilities and was a vital cog in the team's run to the 1988 grand final although that game resulted in a massive defeat for the club and is one best forgotten by all. Lyon’s agility, strength, speed, skill and football brain made him a formidable opponent for the opposition whether at centre half back or in a key forward position. He was appointed captain replacing Greg Healy at the beginning of 1991 and was an inspiring leader for seven seasons despite the latter part of his career from 1993 onwards being hampered by his chronic back problems. His ten goals against Footscray in a semi final in 1994 will long be remembered as one of the greatest individual performances at the club. The injury problems persisted however and he eventually lost the captaincy in 1998 when it was clear that his senior team appearances would be restricted due to a bulging disc in his back. He struggled to play only two matches in 1999 and retired in mid-season. Lyon was awarded Life Membership of the Club in 1995, and in 2000 he was named on a half forward flank in Melbourne’s Team of the Century. He was an inaugural inductee into the Club’s Hall of Fame in 2001 and he continues his association with the game as a star compere of television’s The Footy Show. Lyon is one of twenty-three players who have worn the number three at senior level with the Melbourne Football Club since 1912 when player numbers were introduced. The number has appeared in five premierships beginning with Edward Thomas in 1926 and ending with Peter Marquis in 1957. It has boasted three club best and fairests (Gerard Healy wore the number when he won the Truscott Medal in 1984 followed by Lyon in 1990 and 1994) and the leading goal kicker on seven occasions, three state team representatives, All Australian representation five times and of course, a representative in both Melbourne's Team of the Century and Hall of Fame. It all began with the burly Alf George, who was skipper in 1912 and 1913. The 183 cm 87 kg George was a half back who came to the club from Essendon via Numurkah and played 55 games (12 gaols) for Melbourne between 1911 and 1915. He wore the number three in 1912 and also wore the numbers 14, 29 and 31 at the club. In 1913, the number was taken by Jack D. Robertson, a brilliant but showy centreman/winger from Port Melbourne Railway United. Who played 60 games (16) goals between 1909 and 1913. Like George, he changed his number on a regular basis while at the club. The number went to Jack Huntington who only played one game in his debut season of 1914 and resumed after WW1 wearing No.19 in 25 games (21 goals) during 1919 and 1920. Jack "Dookie" McKenzie’s career began at Essendon in 1901 and he was rated by many as one of the greatest players of the early days of football. He played in the ruck in the Bombers’ premiership in his debut season and was associated with a number of different clubs in the VFA and elsewhere before taking on the captain coaching role at Melbourne where, despite having lost his pace and being in his veteran years, he led the club to its first finals series in fifteen seasons. He was a natural all-round sportsman who also played cricket for Victoria. Melbourne went into recess for the remainder of the war and in 1919, Percy Love appeared in the number three on 11 occasions (6 goals) that year. He was followed by Leo Little, who switched from 31 to 3 in 1920 during which time he played 6 of his 12 games with the club. Edward Thomas from Oakleigh was the first "long-term" custodian of the number three making his debut in 1921 and wearing that number as a solid half back flanker in Melbourne's 1926 premiership team. Thomas played 101 games before returning to his side which was now in the VFA in 1929 but he returned to add a further three games (wearing 12) in 1932. George Margitich arrived from South Adelaide in 1930 and wore number three for 5 years. Although he was not a robust player being neither tall nor solidly built, he was a smooth clever footballer who could get goals and successfully held down the full forward position. He led the club’s goal kicking in his first 3 years, setting the then club record of 73 for a season in 1930, a tally that was bettered a few season’s later by club great Norm Smith. Margitich played 75 games for the club and kicked a total of 267 goals. The jumper was rested in 1935 and was then awarded to former North Melbourne stalwart John Lewis who played his first game for Melbourne in 1936 at the age of 34 after a 150 game 142 goal career at Arden Street as well as stints at Hawthorn and Footscray. Lewis had been captain and coach at North and surprised the football world by taking on Melbourne’s offer to play at such a late stage in his career. Lewis was solid in his three seasons at the club, playing 46 games and kicking 18 goals. Melbourne recruited William Baxter from Werribee in 1939 and the brother of three time Carlton premiership player Ken, managed 20 games in three years as wearer of the number three Guernsey. He was replaced by a former Bulldog Robert Spargo who wore the number twice in 1942. Ken Molloy wore the number in four senior games in 1943 but didn’t make a senior appearance in 1944 before changing numbers and then played a further 8 games in 1945. Full back Ron Irwin also played a game in the number in late 1943 season and added a further 50 games as number three through to 1947. The number three been bypassed by Melbourne's triple premiership glory of 1939-41 but was worn in two grand finals in 1948 by its next owner Geoff Collins. The son of 1926 premiership wingman Jack Collins, Geoff was a tough courageous half-back who arrived from Yallourn as a 21 year old. He played on the half back flank in the drawn grand final against Essendon and then emulated his father’s achievement and became a premiership player for the club when the Demons won the replay. He won state selection in 1952 but missed the 1953 season serving as a pilot in the Korean War during which time he was cited for bravery. He was made captain when he returned for his final season in 1954 and wore the number eight in the team’s losing grand final of that year. The 178 cm 76 kg Collins played 88 games (8 goals) for the club. Tasmanian Peter "Trunky" Marquis was given the number three jumper when Collins went to Korea and he wore it for 99 games from 1953 to 1958 (7) goals. Marquis was a strong, solidly built full back who ran at the ball in a straight line, played in the 1955, 1956 and 1957 premiership teams and retired from league football after the club’s 1958 grand final defeat at the hands of Collingwood. He represented Victoria in 1957 but found himself starting on Melbourne’s bench for the following game due to the good form shown by his replacement in his absence. Then followed some lean years for the number three at Melbourne. None of the three players assigned to the number in the five years after Marquis' departure played a senior game while Maurie Bartlett, a strongly built ruckman/forward from Bentleigh managed only seven games and six goals as its wearer between 1964 and 1966, Young Sid Catlin from the club’s fourths had a meteoric rise to senior football and wore the jumper three times in 1966 and once more in 1968 before crossing to South Melbourne. Melbourne recruited Trevor Rollinson from country zone club Shepparton in 1969. The180 cm 74 kg wingman wore the jumper for a total of 49 games (1 goal) and his replacement number three was another player recruited from Shepparton in rover Barry Tippett who wore it in 18 senior games during the years 1976-78. Former Collingwood rover Henry Coles had crossed over to Melbourne in 1975 and wore numbers 45 and 13 before settling on the number three between 1978 and 1980. In 1978 he won the club’s goal kicking and he played 32 games for 50 goals in the jumper for a total of 77 games and 106 goals with the club. Since Coles relinquished the number three jumper it has been worn by only three players over a period spanning almost three decades and strangely two of them now have very public careers outside of football while the current holder seeks to have one in the future. Gerard Healy came to the club in 1979 from Edithvale-Aspendale as a 17 year old and played 130 games (189 goals) in seven seasons at the club before Dr. Geoffrey Edelstein lured him across to Sydney where he won the Brownlow Medal in 1988. The 184 cm 81 kg Healy was a composed, balanced and skilful footballer who was equally capable as a midfielder or a forward. He led the club goal kicking in 1982 with 77, made the Victorian State team in 1982, 1984 and 1985 and won the Club’s Best and Fairest in 1984. He is now carving out a career as a high profile TV and radio commentator. Had he stayed at the club, Healy would surely have become a team leader and a valuable member of the finals sides of the late 190’s and early 1990’s. As it was, his brother Greg gained captaincy honours immediately before the next wearer of the number three Guernsey - Gary Lyon. After Lyon's retirement, the number three was put into mothballs for a couple of years until it was claimed by its current holder and a Hollywood acting aspirant in Clint Bizzell. The talented Queenslander from Kedron Grange was recruited by Geelong in the 1995 National Draft, and he crossed over from the Cats after 75 games and 72 goals. The 187 cm 90 kg Bizzell has found his niche in defence with the Demons but his career was hampered by a broken bone his foot which kept him out of AFL contention for all of 2006. In the latter stages of his career, Bizzell is only now coming back to his best. At the Demons, he has played 81 games (7 goals) as the latest in the long and proud tradition of Melbourne Football Club number three jumper holders. [With thanks to the Melbourne Past Players and Officials Newsletter from which some of the information contained in this article was adapted]

Taken from a previous post put up by Whispering Jack to describe the MFC style of play from the Neil Balme era - And Umpire Robinson bounces the air conveyance. It hits the rubber knob and Jimmy Stynes palms the ball beautifully to his left where Todd Viney runs onto the ball, grabs it and handballs back to Dyson who goes to his right and finds Brett Lovett who chips it out to Glenn Lovett who handballs backwards and into the hands of the running Neitz who comes out of the centre half back position and spots Steven Febey on a wing. Febey accepts the lead and kicks the ball to the half-forward flank and finds Garry Lyon on his own. The captain marks and plays on kicking to the space between centre and centre half forward which Jimmy Stynes has run into. The Irishman's by himself and turns around to find Todd Viney who runs onto the ball, grabs it and handballs back to Dyson who goes to his left and finds Brett Lovett. Lovett chips it out to the other Lovett - Brett. He handballs left to the running Prymke who's come out of the centre half back position and he goes to the opposite wing where he spots Matthew Febey. The Mouse turns around and shoots the ball across to half forward where Shaun Smith takes an absolute speccy. He plays on and spots Jimmy Stynes by himself in the space between centre and centre half forward...

The TAC Cup Under 18 Grand Final will be played as an early curtain raiser to the Grand Final at 10:05 am (AEST) on Saturday. The game will be telecaset live on Fox Sports 1 with John Casey, Liam Pickering and Kevin Sheehan.

by Whispering Jack It was the springtime. I was young. I followed the Demons and life was good. It also happened to be a long, long time ago and I have come to learn that if life's about anything then it's about learning and changing ... nothing ever stays the same or, as the Greek philosopher Heraclitus put it, "everything flows, nothing stands still." The events of recent weeks have served to remind us all of how we underestimate this fact. The season ended, we chose a new coach and immediately the winds of change started sweeping across our football world. New appointments, retirements, delistings, talk of who we were going to trade, who would be recruited, the return of injured players, the anticipated improvement of our youngsters and new hopes and aspirations. Whatever would happen in the coming months we knew that with a new coaching regime our club was no longer fixed to a particular perspective and that the new broom was reviving our belief in the ability of the club to realise its untapped potential. That was before the earthquake named Chris Judd. The adulation and the speculation that football's best player might choose our club as his new home and that he could prove the catalyst to a revival of the club to its former glory has been so overbearing and powerful that all else has faded into virtual oblivion. The problem as I see it is that many of us regard his coming to the club he supported as a kid as being some sort of overall panacea to cure everything that is imperfect in a club that has failed to achieve its former glory and has wandered aimlessly through the football wilderness for more than forty years. That sort of thing won't just happen with the arrival of Judd – if he comes to Melbourne at all. There are those who point to the fact that when Ron Barassi crossed to Carlton it was the making of the Blues and the death of the Demons and that a similar thing would happen if Judd decided to throw his lot in with the club. However, the Carlton revival of the late sixties did not come about just because Barassi walked into Princes Park one day in late 1964. Their success occurred because of the men of strong will who led a hard working visionary committee and adopted new standards of professionalism that left the likes of the staid and conservative Demons in their wake. Similarly, if success comes to Melbourne in the near future, it won't be simply because of Chris Judd, or Brock McLean, or Nathan Jones or James Frawley for that matter. Other things have happened in the past week that should have shaken us back to reality. On Wednesday, 19 September we celebrated the forty-third anniversary of our last premiership flag. That date always brings back happy memories, the abiding one being of the goal kicked by back pocket player, the late Neil "Froggy" Crompton (wearing the number 5) that gave us back the lead in the dying moments of the game. Seeing Collingwood lose a final by the narrow margin of less than a goal always gladdens my heart and the fact that it happened again last night was a nice sweetener for the coming week. The memory of '64 also reminded me of how we celebrated premierships back in those days. I can recall watching an ABC screenplay of Alan Hopgood’s play "And the Big Men Fly". Long before the national competition and the Adelaide Football Club was even thought of, Hopgood wrote a play about an Australian Rules Football team called the Crows. They didn't have much of a team but they were determined to win a premiership so they set out to find their great white hope and they found him in Achilles Jones, one of "the great kickers". They discover however, that even with their new champion, life isn't so simple and things don't always go as planned. The play leaves unresolved the question of whether the Crows win the flag and much the same thing applies to us with the getting of Judd. There are questions that need to be answered; what will be the cost to the club, how will his groin stand up and will his coming be different to the false messiahs of the past – people like Jim Tilbrook, Kelvin Templeton and Peter Moore? This week also saw the passing of Collingwood's greatest ever ruckman Len Thompson, who died of a heart attack, aged 60. He played 268 games for the Magpies and won the Brownlow Medal in 1972. He was the game's first mobile tall man and he set the trend that we now see in players like the game's current champion tall in Dean Cox. My personal view is that a champion tall like Thompson or Cox might be just as important to our hopes of revival than a Judd but that's an aside that I should be keeping for myself. The game mourns the passing of its greats but Thompson's death brought home to me the reality of how desolate the Melbourne Football Club has become and how desperate we are to recruit a player like Judd to steer us on a new course and pehaps change our destiny (if it's possible to do such a thing). You see, Thompson made his debut as a fresh faced kid almost twelve months to the day after Melbourne last won a premiership. He played out his career in the days when the big men used to fly, he lived his life and he has now passed on. Everything has continued to flow. Nothing has stood still.

AND THE BIG MEN USED TO FLY by Whispering Jack It was the springtime. I was young. I followed the Demons and life was good. It also happened to be a long, long time ago and I have come to learn that if life's about anything then it's about learning and changing ... nothing ever stays the same or, as the Greek philosopher Heraclitus put it, "everything flows, nothing stands still." The events of recent weeks have served to remind us all of how we underestimate this fact. The season ended, we chose a new coach and immediately the winds of change started sweeping across our football world. New appointments, retirements, delistings, talk of who we were going to trade, who would be recruited, the return of injured players, the anticipated improvement of our youngsters and new hopes and aspirations. Whatever would happen in the coming months we knew that with a new coaching regime our club was no longer fixed to a particular perspective and that the new broom was reviving our belief in the ability of the club to realise its untapped potential. That was before the earthquake named Chris Judd. The adulation and the speculation that football's best player might choose our club as his new home and that he could prove the catalyst to a revival of the club to its former glory has been so overbearing and powerful that all else has faded into virtual oblivion. The problem as I see it is that many of us regard his coming to the club he supported as a kid as being some sort of overall panacea to cure everything that is imperfect in a club that has failed to achieve its former glory and has wandered aimlessly through the football wilderness for more than forty years. That sort of thing won't just happen with the arrival of Judd – if he comes to Melbourne at all. There are those who point to the fact that when Ron Barassi crossed to Carlton it was the making of the Blues and the death of the Demons and that a similar thing would happen if Judd decided to throw his lot in with the club. However, the Carlton revival of the late sixties did not come about just because Barassi walked into Princes Park one day in late 1964. Their success occurred because of the men of strong will who led a hard working visionary committee and adopted new standards of professionalism that left the likes of the staid and conservative Demons in their wake. Similarly, if success comes to Melbourne in the near future, it won't be simply because of Chris Judd, or Brock McLean, or Nathan Jones or James Frawley for that matter. Other things have happened in the past week that should have shaken us back to reality. On Wednesday, 19 September we celebrated the forty-third anniversary of our last premiership flag. That date always brings back happy memories, the abiding one being of the goal kicked by back pocket player, the late Neil "Froggy" Crompton (wearing the number 5) that gave us back the lead in the dying moments of the game. Seeing Collingwood lose a final by the narrow margin of less than a goal always gladdens my heart and the fact that it happened again last night was a nice sweetener for the coming week. The memory of '64 also reminded me of how we celebrated premierships back in those days. I can recall watching an ABC screenplay of Alan Hopgood’s play "And the Big Men Fly". Long before the national competition and the Adelaide Football Club was even thought of, Hopgood wrote a play about an Australian Rules Football team called the Crows. They didn't have much of a team but they were determined to win a premiership so they set out to find their great white hope and they found him in Achilles Jones, one of "the great kickers". They discover however, that even with their new champion, life isn't so simple and things don't always go as planned. The play leaves unresolved the question of whether the Crows win the flag and much the same thing applies to us with the getting of Judd. There are questions that need to be answered; what will be the cost to the club, how will his groin stand up and will his coming be different to the false messiahs of the past – people like Jim Tilbrook, Kelvin Templeton and Peter Moore? This week also saw the passing of Collingwood's greatest ever ruckman Len Thompson, who died of a heart attack, aged 60. He played 268 games for the Magpies and won the Brownlow Medal in 1972. He was the game's first mobile tall man and he set the trend that we now see in players like the game's current champion tall in Dean Cox. My personal view is that a champion tall like Thompson or Cox might be just as important to our hopes of revival than a Judd but that's an aside that I should be keeping for myself. The game mourns the passing of its greats but Thompson's death brought home to me the reality of how desolate the Melbourne Football Club has become and how desperate we are to recruit a player like Judd to steer us on a new course and pehaps change our destiny (if it's possible to do such a thing). You see, Thompson made his debut as a fresh faced kid almost twelve months to the day after Melbourne last won a premiership. He played out his career in the days when the big men used to fly, he lived his life and he has now passed on. Everything has continued to flow. Nothing has stood still.