Dee Dee

6: Oliver 5: Langdon 4: Bowey 3: Gawn 2: Sparrow 1: Petty

6: Gawn 5: Petracca 4: May 3: Oliver 2: Spargo 1: Petty It was such an all round good performance that I feel bad leaving out just about the rest of the team.

Over at the cricket ground they use rolls of turf sourced from a nursery in (I think) central Victoria. This allows the ground staff to fix/repair sections of the ground quickly. Rather more expensive I imagine than broadcasting a few handfuls of seed around and waiting for it to grow. What they do at Gosch’s I suppose depends on time, money and flocks of hungry pigeons.

Gee I almost forgot! While not as influential as Lewis or Cross we also benefited from the services of two time Geelong premiership player Shannon Byrnes. He’s sort of flown under the radar I believe having gone back to Geelong this year after nearly ten years at the Dees as both player and coach (of some sort)!

Martin Flanagan wrote a beautiful piece on R. Flower many years ago in I think The Age: does anyone have the skills to find it and post it - a very poetic essay indeed!

I’m not sure that the comparison to Caleb Daniel is warranted: Daniel is 165/166 cm tall and Jake is 177 cm tall (stats on both players do vary depending where you look). However that’s a good 4” difference in height and not much shorter than Jack Viney but quite a bit taller than Charlie Spargo* or Kossy Pickett. Jake seems to play a different game to Daniel as well, being more inside the action than standing back and mopping up. I saw Jake live for the first time on Friday night and was very impressed. He fits in beautifully - what a find! *173cm, a very sensible height 😀

6: Langdon 5: Oliver 4: Brayshaw 3: Bowey 2: Harmes 1: Weideman

I’d put Daniel Cross in the same category: not a premiership player but came to the club with a very professional attitude and IMHO greatly helped revive our fortunes.

Quite true: but the king, the undisputed emperor of insufferability is surely Dermott Brereton! By god does he waffle and over complicate every play. An enjoyment killer in every way!

6: Petracca 5: Bowey 4: Jackson 3: ANB 2: Oliver 1: Brayshaw

Lever and ANB both strike me as the sort of players who could forge a career in coaching post playing career. Many successful coaches were like Neal-Bullen, not overly gifted but got the very most out of themselves and by example, out of others. Jake Lever on the other hand is a leader and gifted!

1994 Ashes test at the MCG: off I go with a packed lunch of sandwiches and tetra pack of soft drink. Get into the ground, get nice seat on level 2 almost behind bowlers arm. And what damn well happens? Shane Warne gets a hat trick: DeFreitas, then Gough then - and thanks to a diving catch from David Boon - Devon Malcolm! Gee I remember it like it was yesterday. Soon after, Craig McDermott got Tufnell and it was all over before lunch. A nice day at the cricket ruined by Shane Warne and his spectacular bowling Damn! If only he wasn’t so bloody good I’d have had a pleasant day at the cricket. I went home, sat down in my kitchen and ate my sandwiches.

Including Neal-Bullen

Found mine and I feel pretty damned chuffed. Interesting to see a few current player family names there as well and greats like Barassi and Schwarz. Wow: we’re all part of history.

Can we say [censored] on this site? It’s a far better and more down to earth word than butt, and it was spoken by non other than Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady so it must be OK! woops, I’ve just been censored!

We do not play AFL (Australian Football League), we play Australian Football or if you wish Australian Rules Football. I know it has become popular to call the game AFL, but they are just the administrators, not the game.

A somewhat meandering affair I’m afraid! A bit of gossip, a bit of news: a bit too unstructured for my taste.

St Kilda is offering 37 different membership packages including a $20.00 pet package! Melbourne offers 21 packages (no pets) and no gimmicky ones.

Apparently he was an excellent tennis player during his school days. Like many top sports people his hand/eye coordination is better than most!

What does it cost to join a golf club like Royal Melbourne? As a lad I used to play at the Brighton Municipal golf course but was never enthusiastic enough to join a club.

Bowey will leave Melbourne at age 30 having played 220 games and join St Kilda for two years to honour his dad.

Maybe we do it differently to other clubs! According to George’s chart at the beginning of this thread we’re at just on 41,000 members. Last year we didn’t reach that number until the end of March, beginning of April. So, currently we’ll ahead of last year where the final total was over 54,000! Keep smiling😁.

And they’re about to appoint a woman president, Dr Sonja Hood.👩‍🦰.

Any word on our new old recruit Luke Dunstan please? How’s he fitting in?

And of course Stan Alves and Crackers Keenan went the other way😁, As did R.D. Barassi !