DemonDave

Players like Godfrey and Holland, both in our best on Friday night, continually give 100% each and every week. To drop both or indeed either of them this week would be madness. Why not drop blokes that dont seem to be giving a stuff or look disinterested out there some days (I wont name names but we all know who our terribly inconsistent players are, don't we Cameron, Brad, Russell and Aaron).

Dukes was on fire for Port last week, marking everything in sight, had 5 upto half time. He then had Chris Grant shifted onto him and barely gave a whimper after that, when his team was running riot. Expect Lamb or Biddlecombe to start on him.

I dont think Whelan has yet grasped a Sandy game by the throat as a player of his experience and ability should, and I think the club has done the right thing by not automatically putting him back in the Melbourne side. Everyone should have to earn their recall (as Yze has already discovered this year).

Good luck to the Dutchess in the reserves too in his comeback from a broken thumb. Fergs really needs a slice of luck in his career, every time he breaks into the Melbourne seniors, he breaks down, whether it be from friendly fire (Sylvia in '06) or bad luck (At Subiaco in '07).

So we could see the oddity of Adem Yze being a last minute replacement for a player who was never going to play, whereas the week before

he was replaced at the last minute and was never going to play.

Warnock did not play in the midfield. He played across half back all day, and yes he was very good. I'd be taking more notice of Beach Road Barrys observations than a couple of neutrals from a community radio station, as much as we appreciate their inputs.

Here is the MFC Team of the Century, from the MFC site,selected on 24 June 2000.

The Team

Full Back - Robert 'Tassie' Johnson

Back Pocket (Rover) - John Beckwith

Back Pocket (Ruck) - Donald Cordner

Half Back Flank - Noel McMahen

Centre Half Back - Gary Hardeman

Half Back Flank - Don Williams

Wing - Brian Dixon

Centre - Allan La Fontaine

Wing - Robert Flower

Half Forward Flank - Hassa Mann

Centre Half Forward - Ivor Warne-Smith

Half Forward Flank - Garry Lyon

Forward Pocket (Ruck) - Jack Mueller

Full Forward - Norm Smith

Forward Pocket (Rover) - Percy Beames

Ruck - Denis Cordner

Ruck Rover - Ron Barassi

Rover - Stuart Spencer

Coach - Norm Smith

Captain - Ron Barassi

Vice-Captain - Robert Flower

Interchange - Frank Adams, Albert Chadwick, Wally Lock, Laurie Mithen, Jim Stynes, Todd Viney

Emergencies - Stan Alves, Bob Johnson Jnr, Ian Ridley, Greg Wells

Your man Wally Lock is on the interchange...

The Australian on the weekend said RIvers, Moloney and Bartram are all unlikely to play again this year:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story...5012432,00.html

Its not a bad article though, dissecting our run-in for the rest of the year, mentioning we dont play any of the Top 4 sides again, and only 1 potential finalist in our next 4 games...

Brown was rested from Sandy on Sunday, he had a cracking game against Adelaide, and he was also the chosen one to deliver an impassioned speech to the playing group before the Collingwood game about what it means to play in a blockbuster. Everyone can point out all they like about the deficiencies of the little fella, but he is the heart and soul of the footy club. I would think he'd come straight back into the side. Petterd to me did look to tire badly in the last quarter, but he's had plenty of rest time and will be fine. It may be prudent to rest him maybe once or twice in the remaining games to not burn the kid out.

This game was a terrible result for the Zebras, they were blown out of the water by the spirit of the Hawks in the first stanza, which was

helped greatly by some atrocious officiating. It cost the home team 4 or 5 goals in the first quarter, and by then the game was effectively

over, even though the Hawks kicked with the very strong wind to the social club end. The last quarter was dominated by Sandy, but they

continually kicked points, really they could've won this game in the end.

Juice Newton-started the game on the bench, looked lively once he came on, tackling and chasing was superb. Still, his continual

frivolous attempts at hangars, especially in the conditions today, were disappointing

Chris Johnson - Did what appeared to be a left hamstring late in the first quarter, had started OK before that on a HBF. Played no

further part.

Byron Pickett - His best display during his suspension, kicked a mammoth goal on the run in the 2nd quarter, occasionally his

disposal let him down, but the weather meant everyone on the ground was in the same boat. If he doesnt come straight back into

the demons side I'd be surprised

Matthew Whelan-Started slowly, but got better and was pushing further and further up the ground the more the game went on, will

be considered for a return to the Dees.

Brad Miller-Probably had 2 posessions in the first half, it was only in the last 2 quarters that he started to hit up his long leads and

began giving off his trademark slow dish handpasses to teammates, tryed his guts out in the last quarter but conditions made him

look slow and awkward.

Matthew Warnock - The pick of the tall defenders for his assured handling of the pill, his balance and composure stood out amongst

an afternoon of dropped marks and fumbles. Sandringhams best melbourne listed player easily.

Colin Garland-This kid will be an AFL player, he's beautifully balanced and looks to have all the skills and size to make it. its just a matter

of where his best position is, will probably play out the year at Sandy but look for him to play 16 games next year in the red and blue.

Lynden Dunne-Another who was affected by the conditions, the Zebras forward line was just too top heavy today. Spent a fair bit on the

pine and made plenty of skill errors by foot, showing a repeated lack of good judgement.

Simon Buckley- Didnt have heaps of the ball, he is and only ever will be an outside player, but does look to have good decision making.

Tends to go missing for too long in games, but looks good when he has the ball nonetheless.

and well known knuckle shuffler like brodie holland

Haha! Havent seen him in too many carparks in his car of late!

On another note, did anyone else see the incident in the Third Quarter with Didak and Wheatley? Wheaters was left prone on the ground, and his teammates came over and remonstrated with the serial tribunal visitor but I havent heard anything else about this incident. Was it just Wheatley acting to get a free, or did Didak whack him? It happened at the time the Pies had been awarded a relay free kick, it was a very chaotic 20 seconds there was so much going on it seems to have been missed...

This function is held each and every year after the Pies game, surely fans are aware it is on? If you're a member, its free to get into, and if not its $5. Me and my mates certainly look forward to it each and every year, I dont care what beer they're serving (yes that Tooheys stuff is putrid) if we win, everything tastes sweet!

Neale Daniher spoke briefly, then he discreetly made his way off the side of the stage as the players made their way up their to the strains of A Grand Old Flag.

Its going a bit blurry for me as a few of the aforementioned ales were consumed, but David Neitz spoke, then MC Nick McCallum hand-picked who he wanted to speak to, in no particular order Robbo, Matty Bate, Brad Green, Brock McLean and Simon Godfrey. Godfreys goal was a topic of much mirth amongst the playing group, and Superboot himself gave a blow-by-blow account of his decision making process that eventually led to his memorable right footed goal on the run. He also mentioned about some of the hard tags that he'd had this year, and the amount of times he'd been whacked behind the play (Goodes, West etc). I yelled out that he was a human punching bag, a quip he heard and repeated himself, which made me feel chuffed.

Afterwards the players stayed and mingled for quite a while. Spoke to James Frawley who said he was very nervous before the game, he seemed a pleasant and confident young bloke, while Petterd who was with him most of the night seemed a quiet and shy type.

We also added another chapter to our Brock McLean stalking history, he knows who me and all my mates are now, as soon as we started the Mini-Ox chant he knew we were coming. Full credit to Brock he always takes it in his stride, laughing at our hijinks ("you guys again!" he smirked).

Also spoke to Chris Fagan who said that Jared Rivers was iffy for the rest of the year with his OP, whereas Brent Moloney encouragingly he said may well be right to present himself this week. Told him Brad Miller had kicked 6 which he didnt know at the time and brought a smile to his face.

It was a great night yet again, we got the whole tram singing the song on the way back into the city as the night (or the official part) wound up. And took great delight in singing it again in Young and Jacksons to stir up the feral pies supporters there as well. Happy Days!

From what I know, they updgraded their backend of the website to run Microsoft SQL Server 2005, and this new version of SQL is quite frankly a pig. You can see some of the underlying code when they're having issues or applets aren't loading. Many people and businesses are rolling back this product to the old reliable one, and I'm almost certain this is what the AFL has now done to stop all these issues...

Would Nathan Brown be asked to play another defensive forward role that he played I thought rather well this week on either Swan or Heath Shaw? Just a thought. I haven't seen much of the Pies this year but would assume these two setup most of their creative thrusts from the half backline as loose, attacking defenders.

On game impact you'd say Lockyer has been there best midfielder this year, and thus I'd say Godfrey would get first crack at him.

Daniel Bell would be the logical matchup on Didak, given his cracking game on Welsh this week....

figures to back up this statement?

though seeing as we have probably conceded the most amount of goals in the comp, it sounds likely, but cant be blamed soley on carrol when the opposition gets the ball into the 50 twice as many times as us.

About 2 weeks ago, if that, in the Herald Sun, there was a big article on full-backs showing how many goals they'd conceeded for the year to date. Ben Rutten was the most miserly, whereas at the other end of the table was Nathan Carroll. Certainly a lot of the goals he's conceeded he could do much about, such is the unenviable task of being in a side on a massive losing streak...

I was at the aftermatch function when Brad Green was up on the podium and said that. There were kids all around us who obviously had no idea what he had just said,

but me and my mates (who had had a few sherberts by then) were rolling around with laughter after the initial 'Did he just say what I thought he did?' pause...

I thought Ricky Petterd and Nathan Jones both came across fairly well at this function too, more of them please, Melbourne!

LOL, running out games well? That 'sign of fitness' could have something to do with the fact that we didn't even play footy for the 7 previous quarters before the last against the roos.

We have won almost all of our last quarters this year, if that isnt your definition of running out games well, then I dont know what is. That fitness is what has almost single handedly got us to within a goal of victory 3 times in the last month. I know this year, that if we're within 3-4 goals of our opposition at the last break, then we're a good chance to snatch a victory.

>> I/C: P.Johnson, Dunn, Bizzell, Miller

That looks like a very top heavy bench to me! Where are the midfield rotations?

Bizzell has been going very well at Sandy for a number of weeks now, dont base it on the papers reports, he deserves a call up.

CJ has had one good game in a row, last week.

I might have to get out the tape of that Final against Carlton in the 94 finals series again now, stirring stuff!

Team that was just on Ten News:

INS: Frawley, Holland, Bizzell, McLean, Robertson, C Johnson

OUTS: Ferguson, Sylvia, Whelan (all inj)

So no Rivers or Moloney still.....

while it is good the club are doing this, i'd personally rather the money be spent somewhere else, like the football department... unless the replacement stickers were free from the supplier of course...

It was noted in the attached letter that the supplier replaced the stickers at their own cost. One of my mates is a Richmond supporter(!), and their stickers were also faded when I saw himtwo weeks ago, so its not a phenomenon exclusive to us. On another note with that letter, how good a deal was the Age subscription! I signed up the next day. The Age becoming our shorts sponsor, replacing Red Energy, kinda snuck up on us all, I only noticed it about two weeks ago when reading the papers match report the next day and saw a picture of one of our players.

Gerard Healy was snapped up in the great Dr Edelston buyup of any name players to try and boost his struggling Swans side, he simply offered anyone of note enormous wads of cash to play up in Sin City. Who could blame any of them for refusing? Greg Williams, Bernard Toohey, Merv Neagle, Healy and a host of other players all headed up there in the one offseason, which of course simply can't happen nowadays. Oh for the times when your status was rated on how pink your helicopter and Lamborghini were, and how vacuous the bottle blonde on your arm was.

sautner is a joke, selfish and soft. he goes into a marking contest ducking and looking for a free kick!

Yep, thats why he's won the VFL goalkicking 6 times, and again this year leads the leagues goalkicking.

I suppose you're also going to blame him for Michael Newtons stunted development too...

Well I was at TBO yesterday, and took my radio along to listen in at the same time. I appreciate that it's great you're getting VFL footy out to the masses that can't get to a game, i was disappointed to find the call in my headphones was about 6-8 seconds delayed. It made it impossible to listen play by play to the call, but if you did miss something, you could tune in to see what you missed (such as Chris Lambs report). I did chuckle to myself when you referred to newton as "Roth". Quality guys.

Onto the game, the main thing that came out for mine was the ability of James Frawley. This guy can seriously play. He was everywhere in the first half, it was as impressive a half for a first gamer at Sandy seniors you're likely to see. Sadly he tired in the second half noticeably and that prevented him getting into the best. I think the Melbourne match committee have stamped his papers as a priority to get into the side, don't be surprised if he's given a run next week on that performance.

The other guy that impressed me was Neaves. This guy rucked all day, without a rest and had a good impact around the ground as well as winning his fair share of centre bounce hitouts against an AFL experienced ruckman in Guy Richards. I'm sure he'll come under contention to be listed by the Dees at the end of the year.

Chris Johnson was good, but I don't know if he was best on ground. He rebounded a lot from the half back line, but his skills sometimes let him down when kicking with the wind, frequently kicking it over his targets head. The guy has all the skillsets to make it, but appears unable to take the next step.

I liked the coaches 3/4 time address, when the game was seriously in the balance. We only had a 15 point lead at the break, and were kicking into the wind, after Willi had seemingly swung the balance of the game with goals to Brett Johnson in that 3rd stanza. He implored them to keep their heads, and concentrate on kicking well into the forward line, as they were kicking it to the best forward line in the League. He wasnt wrong, and the boys responded perfectly to his call. (Pity we couldnt kick straight early in that last quarter though!).

And that forward line certainly was loaded. It also has to be remembered that we lost out VFL rep center half forward in Rod Crowe early in the first quarter, as well as Chris Lamb to injury I believe in the first half also,so to play so much of the game with only 2 fit changeable blokes was very commendable. I thought Sauntner at least broke even with Wakelin, Robbo was damaging and wont play another game at Sandy for the rest of his career, and it was the best game from Newton I've personally witnessed (given i've missed a lot of his big haul games), although he still needs to work at doing the little things better (the 2 points he got from playing on hastily points in case).

Paul Wheatley played a great game, but twice got a hit on his heavily strapped problem shoulder and looked in all sorts of pain, so its clearly not right still, thus I dont think he'll be considered next week. Dutchy was a rock today, virtually nothing got passed him. He's as honest as they come, and will again be considered, matchups pending, next week.

We had Billy Picken standing behind us for two quarters today, he has the loudest voice I've ever heard, as he coached his son playing out there for Willi, yelling at him every step the poor kid took.

Former hawks premiership player Russell Greene was also there to watch his offspring go around, looking a million dollars still in his designer leather jacket as he paraded along the scoreboard wing.

Also saw Stephen Tingay walk around the boundary line at one stage, i wonder what stinger is up to nowadays after his ill-fated appointment as a Melbourne fitness staffer?

This Sandy team is really flying now, still undefeated and able to handle anything thrown at them. It will be great to see the likes of Valenti running around with the big V on, in these dark days of seeing the Demons lose every weekend, at least we still get our enjoyment of seeing Sandy win on a weekly basis in the quest for the FourScore. Go Zebs, you Beauty!

And Ben Holland still has dressing on the wound he got from when Brad Johnson (*cough*allegedly*cough*) head-butted him....

Heard earlier on the radio that Rusell Robertson has been selected to play for Sandringham this week. Can anyone shed some light on this or bring us the team?

I'd be assuming that Wheatley passed his fitness test and will be named for the Zebras as well this week.

This scenario, is not too dissimilar in a lot of ways to the Steven Johnson of Geelong dilemma the cats had.

Here is a guy with tonnes of natural ability, and yet mentally he’s streets behind the rest of the list. Johnson

had one too many off-field discretions, and the Cats hand was forced, slapping him with a 6 week ban and

denying him the privilege of training with the senior squad. Johnson worked his guts out, got his body right

fitness wise, produced a string of best on grounds in the VFL and has come back as strong as ever at AFL level.

I can’t see why Byron can’t do the same. Here's hoping anyway!