The Oracle

Freak goal to Marusic playing on Matthew Watson. Calder leads 3.1.19 to 2.0.12.

Early daws with a goal each. Shaun Marusic goaled first for Gippy followed by Calder's grand final specialist Luke Mitchell. Now a goal to Dion Prestia of Cannons puts them a goal in front.

It's on this morning ... Calder Cannons vs. Gippsland Power Sunday 19th September Etihad Stadium at 10:30AM Calder Cannons Backs No. 3 Brandon Ellis DOB 3.8.93 180 cm 77 kg 12 Michael Talia 11.2.93 191 83 9 Luke Madden 27.1.92 180 82 Half backs 10 Tom Sheridan 28.10.93 185 73 23 Brandyn Grenfell 5.9.92 197 80 19 Hal Hunter 15.7.93 184 84 Centreline 11 Alex McLeod 28.1.92 182 72 5 Tom Liberatore 16.5.92 182 77 20 Jason Williams 18.8.93 188 74 Half forwards 6 Jordan Schroder 5.12.92 183 81 34 Luke Mitchell 28.2.92 196 96 15 Cameron Guthrie 19.8.92 186 79 Forwards 48 David Meli 10.9.92 178 79 21 Matthew Watson 16.7.92 194 99 42 Tom Sullivan 15.3.92 168 63 Followers 36 Ned Daniher 29.8.91 201 84 2 Dion Prestia 12.10.92 175 81 7 Mitch Wallis 24.10.92 185 79 Interchange (from) 18 Tom O'Loughlin 15.10.93 179 74 45 Dylan Murphy 30.10.92 167 68 33 Todd Coran 21.3.93 186 77 17 Fraser Dale 10.11.93 187 72 40 Ozgur Uysal 5.8.92 179 72 32 Alistair Kefford 31.5.92 192 93 29 Tallan Wright 15.7.92 182 87 26 Jack Solomon 11.11.93 188 84 41 Osman Allouch 21.9.93 198 99 24 Jordan Angus 27.4.93 201 97 1 Jordan Iudica 6.7.93 184 73 28 Ben Drummond 17.5.93 181 72 Gippsland Power Backs No. 1 Tomas Bugg DOB 5.4.93 184cm 71kg 36 Patrick Jones 29.1.92 189 80 15 Tom Corry 11.4.92 175 70 Half backs 29 Michael Ross 16.9.91 183 75 40 Lachlan Todd 7.9.92 187 82 30 S. Wyatt 180 73 Centreline 32 Clay Smith 11.5.93 178 76 2 Dyson Heppell 14.5.92 187 79 3 Danny Butcher 22.1.93 182 70 Half forwards 4 Tim Northe 24.3.92 175 70 38 Shaun Marusic 24.3.92 193 94 9 Dean MacDonald 6.7.92 186 84 Forwards 20 Jed Lamb 19.10.92 181 77 5 Simon Deery 18.9.93 191 84 42 Haydn Hector 8.3.93 179 79 Followers 33 Jordan Staley 14.7.93 193 85 12 Dale Hoghton 14.10.91 184 74 21 Aiden Lindsay 22.5.92 181 75 Interchange (from) 8 Damien Hector 8.3.93 181 82 22 Darcy Thorpe 28.2.92 177 76 31 Brayden Salton 19.8.92 194 87 25. Anthony Tipungwuti 22.4.93 174 72 37 Josh Tynan 6.11.93 183 72 11 Blake Carew 15.6.92 177 70 26. Ryan Pendlebury 2.8.92 189 79

Alwyn Davey's bio from the Essendon Website: He will be closing in on 27 years at the start of next year and is averaging a little under 14 games a season with injury problems in each year which suggests some brittleness in the body. Worth considering but not at a particularly high price to the club.

I know what it feels like!

Thanks for the reminder High Tower. However, I'm taking things one week at a time so 9½ weeks will have to be dealt with next week.

Dean Bailey believes me - Bailey warns Dees against September dreaming

I was right about the 22 point margin in my preview but I forgot to say halfway through the first quarter.

Let's just hope that if we bring in some imported players they don't come from those struggling Euro economies.

As I stated in my article "Hawthorn is reconstructing its defence and has recruited Josh Gibson from North Melbourne to fill the gap left by the retirement of Trent Croad." Obviously, they think Gibson is twice the player Croad was or they've given Gibson a licence to cover a great deal of the Hawk defence to compensate for the fact that the cops took away his driver's licence .

I sense that Brock McLean was no longer as loved at Melbourne as a player of his time and standing at the club should have been and he took what I would describe as the easy way out for him. The player who should have been the standout today for the captain's mantle sought refuge elsewhere. Perhaps it was too hard to look at the face of the emerging Jack Grimes and know that in a year or two he would be overtaken? Perhaps he just looked at Tom Scully and Jack Trengove? Then again, it could have been his old mate Colin, finally growing up after all these years and telling the world why he was pick #3 and Brock was # 5. I suspect Brock needed to go elsewhere. Comparisons with Gysberts will be inevitable but they're unnecessary. This is just about player and club falling out of love. What had to happen, had to happen for the benefit of both.

Incredibly, at this point in time it's 50:50 for taking him with pick 34. That's probably a good measure of supporters' expectations on the Ball saga ATM. BTW Dean Bailey's gone o/s until a day or two before the draft. The possibility of that short conversation they might have had to sort out the situation is nil. Melbourne has it's answer and that answer is clearly "no". The thing is who knows what might happen in the future? Ball might be looking for another club one day, or a coaching opportunity or a business connection and he might suddenly find a door slammed in his face because lots of people in this town have long memories. All for the cost of half an hour and a cup of coffee.

I think it's a good marketing tool. It has people talking about the club and that's the aim of the campaign. I think we should aim to produce a similarly tacky slogan to attract attention and boost membership. Something like for example, "Demons rise again in O Ten". There should be a few smutty, schoolboy jokes in that one and Sammy can come up with a few snide remarks in TFS that will have the boguns in the audience rolling in the aisles.

Greetings all, Wow, what an interesting week in the life of the MFC. And to think I almost missed it all! Firstly, Greg Denham is one journo who almost always has his finger on the pulse where the Demons are concerned. The delays in finalising Aaron's contract were understandably over length of time - one of the important sticking points in contractual dealings at this level these days along with the money. Secondly, it's inconceivable that the Flash would walk on this club where he has such an investment of his own in terms of his heritage and his people. Remember the Aaron Davey Scholarship which was instituted at his own suggestion? I think that all would be far too important for someone like Aaron to walk away from and to suggest otherwise would be an insult to what he has been doing at the club. Finally, I commend the club on the way it handled the Brock McLean situation. I'm sure Brock will be a good servant of the Carlton Football Club and will fit in nicely in that environment while Melbourne received exactly what it wanted. In today's trade and draft climate it's not easy to snare an extra first round draft pick. At this point in time, the club has now done that twice in three years. Nobody else has done that even once. Let's have a little less hysteria and some more thought and understanding at this time of year!

Are KB and Maher laughing at the Dockers and accusing them of tanking?

My article is not about whether Dean Bailey was or was not trying to win the game. He has stated publicly that his approach is to develop the players on his list and to develop a winning culture. The point is that the commentators were focussing on what Melbourne was doing and doing quite legitimately within the rules of the game and making an issue out of it. I regard this as hypocritical when it comes from certain quarters that have been maintaining that clubs don't tank or manage their lists in ways that might give them advantages in future recruiting. For the record, I believe the rules should be changed and the priority pick scrapped.

I don't want to get carried away by one half of football but there was some fantastic play there by the Demons who have definitely shaken the Doggies...and Cale Morton is a budding superstar. Pity we can't get more supporters down to see them play.

Sad thing is that for financial reasons apparently, the MFC isn't involved in recruiting young talent from Ireland. When you think about the impact Jimmy and Sean Wight made in the 80's and '90's.

Photos were very good and I wouldn't worry about Eddie - his sponsors have been given great exposure.

Here's a demonstration of how much change happens at AFL clubs. This is the of players Neale Daniher had at his disposal during 2003 - MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB - PLAYING LIST (SEASON 2003): SENIOR LIST Steven Armstrong Daniel Bell Clint Bizzell Daniel Breese Troy Broadbridge Nathan Brown Cameron Bruce Craig Ellis Ryan Ferguson Simon Godfrey Brad Green Chris Heffernan Cameron Hunter Mark Jamar Travis Johnstone Darren Jolly Chris Lamb Andrew Leoncelli James McDonald Brad Miller Luke Molan Gary Moorcroft David Neitz Alistair Nicholson Guy Rigoni Jared Rivers Russell Robertson Aaron Rogers Nick Smith Scott Thompson Peter Vardy Peter Walsh Daniel Ward Paul Wheatley Matthew Whelan Jeff White Luke Williams Adem Yze VETERAN LIST (nil) ROOKIE LIST Nathan Carroll * Dale Carson Michael Clark Adam Fisher Ezra Poyas Nicholas Walsh * upgraded from the rookie list to senior list during the 2003 season At the end of 2003, the following players departed - Daniel Breese (delisted), Craig Ellis (retired), Andrew Leoncelli (retired), Gary Moorcroft (delisted), Aaron Rogers (delisted) and Luke Molan was also delisted by drafted again as a rookie in December. Michael Clark, Ezra Poyas and Nicholas Walsh were the delisted rookies. This was the list that Bailey worked with in his first season at the club - MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB - PLAYING LIST (SEASON 2008): SENIOR LIST Clint Bartram Matthew Bate Daniel Bell Jace Bode Cameron Bruce Simon Buckley Nathan Carroll Kyle Cheney Aaron Davey Lynden Dunn James Frawley Colin Garland Brad Green Jack Grimes Ben Holland Mark Jamar Chris Johnson Paul Johnson Nathan Jones James McDonald Brock McLean Tom McNamara Addam Maric Stefan Martin John Meesen Brad Miller Brent Moloney Cale Morton Michael Newton Ricky Petterd Jared Rivers Russell Robertson Colin Sylvia Matthew Warnock Isaac Weetra Paul Wheatley Matthew Whelan Jeff White VETERAN LIST David Neitz Adem Yze ROOKIE LIST Jake Spencer Shane Valenti* Austin Wonaeamirri* Trent Zomer * upgraded from the rookie list to senior list during the 2008 season By Tuesday at around 10.30am it will have changed some more.

Interesting view from a poster over at Dockerland: The thick plottens!

So Day One is over and I was right about the lack of action but I'm not patting myself on the back over that because that's exactly what happens every year. My feeling is that this is going to be a slow year for trades with mainly fringe players being offered around and nobody wanting to take fringe players. I suspect the Wheatley to Swans for pick # 30 story is untrue and it seems that there's more posturing going on than any real activity. It might take a couple more days for this trade week to show that it has a pulse at all. The one change was the drafting of Ayce Cordy by the Bulldogs at # 14 which effectively, gives them pick # 32 as their first selection on draft day in November unless they trade for an earlier selection. As it stands at the moment Melbourne has the 1st, 16th and 18 real choices in the national draft given that the Bulldogs are now out of the early part of proceedings:- Round One - 1. Melbourne 2. West Coast 3. Fremantle 4. Port Adelaide 5. Essendon 6. Carlton 7. Brisbane 8. Richmond 9. North Melbourne 10. Adelaide 11. Collingwood 12. Sydney 13. St. Kilda 14. Western Bulldogs (Ayce Cordy) 15. Geelong 16. Hawthorn

The Western Bulldogs have used their First Round pick in the draft (# 14) on Ayce Cordy after St.Kilda nominated him under the bidding process with their own first pick at # 13. That's good for Melbourne as it disposes of one pick ahead of our second round selections.

I'm no expert but the sprint is a straight line event and wouldn't be a big test for recovery from an acl. How did he go in the agility test?

Just heard he's kicked 3 goals in the first quarter of the TAC Cup grand final which is taking place this afternoon. That should just about put him out of our reach with picks # 17 and 19! Rockliff is also starring and booting goals so it doesn't look good for the Dandy boys!