Jumping Jack Clennett

Hey Fan, can you email them to me? JJC

Congratulations, Josh!!! I'm a bit disappointed it took you 2 days to sign him up, though!! My little girl has just turned 5, but has her 7th MFC ticket! ASHO

Please tell me Sautner's torn his hamstring off the bone! I want Juice at full-forward.

I'll be hoarse on Sunday night!

The great times of '87 were in September(minus the injured Lyon), but it all started in March when we won the pre-season Cup(GO BAILS!!!), beating Essendon against the odds. A lot of our confidence in the big games came from thsat Pre-season GF win. We had team spirit that we haven't been able to replicate to that degree. We'd have won the premiership if Jimmy hadn't given away the 15m.penalty. In 1988 we beat Carlton THREE times, including in a cut-throat final. Do not extrapolate from this that I think we should go flat out in the NAB Cup, unless, as Danners said, we sort of..."accidently" find ourselves in the late rounds, then the extra million starts to smell good. I don't think this is impossible , given our depth.

Like you, Pinball, I liked Scottie Chisholm. On more than one occasion I confidently predicted a great future for him at Melbourne. I was wrong. His pace off the mark was unbelievable. His ball skills were mercurial. Perhaps he was a non-compliant trainer. Does anyone know?

Let's hope for another "typical, boring" nil-all draw on Sunday evening, so Victory's chances of living up to their name are reduced. How dare these so-called Demon supporters contributing to this forum suggest that these newchums( who performed so poorly last year, and have regained that form just in time for the finals) are ahead of our historic club in this city. Don't forget you're comparing a STATE side to a local team. To be a fair comparison Victory should be compared to our Victorian State of Origin team's attendances.(or perhaps to the total attendances of all the Melb based clubs).

Last night ,on the SEN "World Sport Overnight", after midnight, a caller named "Ben" ( I suspect a Demonland contributor), rang in. He is a contributor to the"Inside Football"magazine. He says he's been to training at a lot of the Vic clubs recently, and Melbourne's has been by far the most impressive. He's particularly impressed with Brock, and reckons we're a premiership chance this year! He reckons`Robbo will be tried down the backline this season. I remember that it was a trial down the backline in a preseason Cup match about 6 or seven years ago that helped Robbo to "arrive". He really sounded like he knew what he was talking about, so I hope he's not just another unrealistically optimistic supporter like myself!

[quote name='Franky_31' date='Jan 20 2007, Don't forget.....Wheatley is one of the best in the AFL at point kick-ins, a facet of our game often underestimated for its importance.

Oh NO!!!! Not Royal Blue!!!! You know we go better in Navy Blue!

It's a pity Sautner's still there from Melbourne (and Newton's)point of view.

[uote'Fan' "Thanks for the report DD". Yeah, thanks for the excellent summary. Wish I'd gone, now, knowing that three players I admire so much spoke. But it's great I didn't feel compelled to go, as, I have on occasions in the past, for a close-up inspection of what the board are achieving. My absence is a vote of satisfaction and encouragement to keep going as they are....but I hope, for heavens' sake ,they don't get complacent! If I was a Carlton supporter, there's no way I'd miss their AGM.!

QUOTE "Paul Gardner Squad" "Steve O'Dwyer had just clocked a Carlton player with a forearm to the head - bit of a fight on the flank - and we all remember what happened at the tribunal." That was a crucial incident, "Paul". Da Rui had just king-hit Greg Healy(I think it was him),without any censure from the Umps. Strawbs dashed in to remonstrate, and swung a haymaker, which basically missed, apart from a brush to the face with his forearm. Strawbs was suspended and missed the GF. The selectors took Danny Hughes out of the backline to fill the hole in the ruck. So we allowed O'Dwyer's absence to disrupt the backline, as well as the ruck. Hawthorn killed us, and the loss of our best and fairest (yep, Strawbs "fairest!!!")winner that year for the GF didn't help. An average tall forward(Abbott) kicked a poultice. He would have struggled with Danny down there.

Everyone's lost interest (since I got the answer wrong myself!!!) The guy I met was Rob Dowsing, son of Roy, grandson of Stan.

I saw Tony Campbell take a fantastic mark at Footscray in the late 80's. He was running back with the flight of the ball to the opposition goal line where a Footscray player was waiting to mark or shepherd it through. With his head turned back, eyes on the ball, Campbell put his knee on the guy's shoulder, flew, and marked it cleanly. Unaccountably, the Ump didn't pay the mark. Perhaps he didn't believe such a mark was possible!

A fanatical guru zealot ("Discworld D") has just informed me that the player I met was wrong!! Matthews pre-dated him!!!! However an interesting parallel exists, since in both cases the grandfather played for South and the grandson played for both Melb AND South! Who was this third generation VFL player I met?!! (sorry for getting the facts wrong, but I thought the guy would be correct when he volunteered the information.)

Herbie Matthews was NOT the guy I met at the MCC dinner. WJ the guy is not on the board, but the grandfather , and grandson DID play for South.

'Whispering_Jack' Not a Cordner. Try again. Remember 2 clubs. The grandfather played for someone other than the Demons. You're right about "three roads", Discworld. In Roman times, news spread by word of mouth. Junctions of three roads were likely meeting places for exchange of news, both important and "trivial". My mate told me this when I suggested we meet (to exchange trivia)at our local Pizza`joint("Bivio's") at Kew junction. Interestigly, Kew junction is the meeting place of THREE roads, but in Italian , apparently, bivio means"junction."

I met an ex-Demon at the MCC Annual Dinner, who told me that he was the first third generation VFL/AFL player . Who was it? Note.....it involves 2 clubs. Origin of the word "TRIVIA". Do any Demonlanders know the interesting derivation of this word? A Latin teaching mate of mine informed me, and I'm interested to know how common this knowledge is.

Sounds a bit like Kent Kingsley with his drop-punts. Good point about the boots, Rhino.

Probably, but he used the drop occasionally in the fifties and very early sixties. He wasn't a great kick, but an effective one.

AlphaDee,I don't remember Terry Waters being a great exponent of the drop kick on the run, but he did do it, as did nearly all players.(as evidenced in footage of the '64GF). Brian Dixon was a short kick, but a prolific kick-winner. He did drops in good conditions. So did Ron Barassi. If you didn't kick drops, you weren't regarded as a good kick! John Ronaldson of Richmond won the '67 GF with two long drop kick goals from the Members boundary line.Paul Vinar of Geelong could kick a drop 70yds from full-back, but did the odd "grubber". Polly Farmer did drops in general play, as well as from marks and frees. Clyde Laidlaw and Stewie Spencer did beautiful drop kicks. Garry Hardeman could kick 65metre torps with either foot.....unique skills. Bobby Skilton could kick drops with his right foot as well as his preferred left foot. As Rhino pointed out, Peter Hudson was amazingly accurate with the flat, non-swinging , punt.The best kick for goal I've seen, including Peter McKenna. Tony Ongarello had the yips so much kicking for goal, he resorted to a place-kick from 15yds. out in the early 60's. Barrie Vagg slotted long angle goals with torps, as did Daicos........if only he'd been around in the drop and stab days! It was rare for players to be unable to use their non-preferred foot in those days, though wrong-hand handballing was a poorly developed skill.

Come on older Demonlanders.....jog my memory of the great kicking exponents of yesteryear! Do you agree with the conventional wisdom that the only kicks worth practising and using are drop-punts and "check-sides"?

I was full of admiration for the foot skills displayed by Paul Wheatley in the VFL GF. In exceptionally windy conditions he kicked long and accurately throughout the game. The AFL side missed his point kick-in skills this year. There are few better kicks in the AFL. BUT, most Demonlanders are too young to remember back to the 50's and 60's. Barry Davis, Hugh Mitchell, Tassie Johnson,Dennis Marshall, Billy Goggin, Barry Price, Fred Swift, Jack Clarke, Wayne Richardson, John Lord, Geoff Southby, Colin Tully.......and many , many others, were absolutely BRILLIANT kicks. There was more emphasis on kicking long, or stab passing it fast than nowadays. I was immensely proud, as an Australian football fan, of the incredible foot skills of our players. I watched the rugby players, and soccer goalies with disdain! Now THEY do drop kicks, and our guys don't. I can't help but feel, with the talent pool we've got now, plus the time they've got to practise,ourAust. footy players would be able to do amazing things, if drop-kicks, stabs and torps were still part of the game. I know that the conventional wisdom is that these kicks are not effective "percentage"play. But who's to know? Our guys are forbidden to do torps, but look how Collingwood lifts when Rocca gets on to one! Perhaps stab kicks are a potential answer to the zone on point kick-ins. They cover ground much faster than drop punts, so that "zoning" to within 5metres may not be close enough. Perhaps our great big talented muscly players of today could kick a drop 75metres....a good drop always went further than a punt. That's why full-backs used them. A75m. drop would put the "flood" into a frenzy! It 'd get there quicker, too. Can older Demonlanders prompt my memory of some other great kicks. Apparently Fred Fanning had shots for goal from the centre line with torps!

Weren't they shocking on Saturday!!. I felt sick when Johnno had to walk back and concede the (ultimately)winning point, because their zones left us with no options. Admittedly the long thin ground makes it hard, but Geelong seemed to have no trouble pinpointing a target at 50m-plus and launching attacks.(especially after Jamar's disallowed mark). We'd have killed them if our kick-in tactics(in attack and defence) had been half as good as theirs. We should study other sides' tactics and attempt to emulate them, since it's a glaring deficiency of our game.I'd prefer us to be innovative, and be trend-setters in this vital part of the game, but I've been harping on this for years and it falls on deaf ears.