Whispering_Jack

AFL Under 18 Championships 2019: Noah Anderson and Matt Rowell star in Vic Metro loss to Vic Country

The club is moving the concept of “mystery injury of the week” to a new all time high level.

Are the Demons capable of coming out and displaying some shinboner spirit?

At least he’s not a midget.

Anyone have his 20 metre sprint time?

This is the last chance saloon if we want to be a significant player in 2019. Round 9 West Coast v Melbourne Friday 17 May, 6.10pm AWST Optus Stadium 3.55pm: All gates open As an away game, Melbourne Members cannot gain access to the match without a valid ticket. Tickets to the match can be purchased via Ticketmaster. Public transport Optus Stadium is located in proximity to the Perth Stadium train station. The precinct is also serviced by multiple bus routes. Plan your trip to the match using Transperth's Journey Planner. Car parking There is no public parking available at Optus Stadium without a permit. A limited number of spaces are available for mobility-impaired attendees. Find out more HERE. View a map of Optus Stadium HERE. TV times All broadcast info in local times. Melbourne: Seven + Fox Footy – 8.00pm Sydney: 7mate + Fox Footy – 8.00pm Brisbane: 7mate + Fox Footy – 8.00pm Adelaide: 7mate + Fox Footy – 7.30pm Perth: 7mate + Fox Footy – 6.00pm Tasmania: Seven + Fox Footy – 8.00pm Canberra: 7mate + Fox Footy – 8.00pm Darwin: Seven + Fox Footy – 7.30pm For all other regions and radio info, refer to the AFL Broadcast Guide. Mobile app Live scores, stats and match highlights are available at the tap of a finger in the club's mobile app. Download it for iOS or Android. Social media Match hashtag: #AFLDeesEagles Follow the club on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for live match coverage and a behind-the-scenes insight into match day. VFL and VFLW double-header VFLW Round 2 Casey v Carlton Saturday May 18, 12.00pm Casey Fields VFL Round 7 Casey v Port Melbourne Saturday May 18, 2.00pm Casey Fields Admission prices Melbourne/Casey Demons Members: FREE when you present your card on entry Adult General Admission: $10 Concession/Pensioner General Admission: $5 Children Under 15: Free Broadcast Live stream: Both matches will be live streamed via YouTube. SCREAM by Whispering Jack The Norwegian Expressionist artist Edvard Munch painted a number of versions of his famous work “Scream” and, every time my mind goes back to last year’s Preliminary Final at Optus Stadium between Melbourne and the West Coast Eagles, each and every one of them reverberates through my mind as if my head is being pummeled by a sledgehammer. When I think of that half time scoreboard from that match showing West Coast at 10.9.69 to Melbourne 0.6.6, I feel like the man standing by the railing, hands cupping his ears in horror at the disaster unfolding at the place where, only a matter of weeks earlier, the Demons had sealed a place in their first finals series for a dozen seasons against the very same opposition. After the game, I thought time would heal the wounds and the Demons would take the result both as a character-building lesson and a stepping stone to bigger and brighter things. They were, after all, the competition’s highest-scoring team for the season with plenty of attacking targets fed by a potent midfield and underpinned by an adequate and improving defence that had recruited a top notch key defender in Steven May and was expecting the early return from injury of another in Jake Lever? What could possibly go wrong? Well, you could fill the pages of the Encyclopedia Brittanica with the answer to that question and the various solutions that have been posited by all and sundry to restore the confidence of the Demon faithful and to end the nightmares endured since the 2019 season began. Not even the last two matches with their come-from-behind, get out of gaol free, nail biting wins against Hawthorn and the Gold Coast Suns have put an end to the screaming fits. The most common attempt to explain the reversal from last season to now, has been centred on the team’s decline in attacking strength from one that averaged almost 105 points a game in the home and away season to this year’s output of less than 70 - a startling statistic, especially in light of the fact that week after week, they are still getting the ball inside the 50 metre arc many more times than their opponents. So far nobody, least of all, Simon Goodwin has been able to explain the club’s impotence in attack. Perhaps there is a light on the horizon after last week with Tom McDonald getting his biggest return for the season (3 goals) or perhaps they can take heart from the fact that in the space of 40 seconds at the end of last week’s game, they scored more than 10% of their entire score? But even that will need to be augmented by a lot more work on the defensive side. For much of the season, the Demons have been leaking goals too easily and the following statistic shows up the fact that they have been unable to impose sufficient pressure on opposition forwards. Since the opening round against Port Adelaide when they fell victim to sheer fatigue, the Demons have conceded 31 goals and only 9 behinds. In three of their last four games, the opposition have been deadly straight in these final quarters – St Kilda managed three straight and Hawthorn and the Gold Coast Suns kicked four. In between, Richmond kicked 5.4, while earlier the Cats scored 7.3 (after 6.0 in the third), Essendon 6.1 and Sydney 2.1. In other words, the pattern shows Melbourne struggling to kick goals while, at the other end, its opponents rarely miss. If Goodwin can overcome this phenomenon, made all the more difficult by the fact that the club is ravaged by injury at the moment, he will be entitled to the tag of “genius”. The fact that the club has been hit by those injuries might in fact help because he has no option but to make changes to his line up this week. Hopefully, he will find a way to ensure that, we the fans, will be screaming with delight on Friday night. However and unfortunately, I can’t see that happening this week. West Coast by 27 points.  THE GAME West Coast v Melbourne at Optus Stadium Friday 17 May 2019 at 8.10pm. HEAD TO HEAD Overall West Coast 34 wins Melbourne 17 wins At Optus Stadium West Coast 1 win Melbourne 1 win Past five meetings West Coast 3 wins Melbourne 2 wins The Coaches Simpson 1 win Goodwin 2 wins MEDIA TV - Channel 7 Fox Footy Channel Live at 8.00pm RADIO - 3AW Triple M ABC SEN THE LAST TIME THEY MET West Coast 18.13.121 defeated Melbourne 7.13.55 defeated Melbourne in the Preliminary Final, 2018 at Optus Stadium In a sad end to their 2018 campaign, the Demons were humiliated in this game, failing to score a goal for the entire first half. Angus Brayshaw and Clayton Oliver never gave up. Injury List: Round 9 Jake Lever (knee) – test Jordan Lewis (ankle) – test Corey Maynard (hip) – test Charlie Spargo (foot) – test Sam Weideman (hip) – test Mitch Hannan (knee) – 1 week Jay Kennedy Harris (knee) – 1 week Michael Hibberd (collarbone) – 2 weeks Steven May (groin) – 2-3 weeks Jake Melksham (foot) – 4-5 weeks Joel Smith (groin) – 4-6 weeks Kade Kolodjashnij (concussion) – TBA Aaron vandenBerg (foot) – TBA Neville Jetta (knee) – 8-10 weeks Guy Walker (shoulder) – Indefinite Aaron Nietschke (knee) – Season THE TEAMS

I’m traveling around the place that Jack Dyer used to call the “French Riverina” and there are omens everywhere pointing to a Demon victory tomorrow night.

That last point to Melk could be the winning point.

Fixed - it was Quigley who kicked the last goal.

Where’s Drunkn?

Everybody - I’m in Athens and didn’t see the game but just got the score.

Just treading water with only 10 AFL listed players.

Seeing that everyone wants somebody sacked, how about the idiots who run the railways in this State? We’ve been waiting 15 minutes for a train on the Frankston line and it’s still 3 minutes away.

A mark inside 50 My kingdom for a mark inside 50 (or a free)

A few years ago, I went through the Straits of Dardanelles and sailed past Gallipoli. The morning was calm and serene and the place where fierce battles were fought was silent. It felt surreal to think of what had transpired there. Sport and war are two entirely different things but I have to admit that I have that same surreal feeling today.

Injury List: Round 6 Braydon Preuss (shoulder) – 1 week Steven May (groin) – 4 weeks Mitch Hannan (knee) – 4-5 weeks Jake Lever (knee) – 4-5 weeks Jay Kennedy Harris (knee) – 4-6 weeks Joel Smith (groin) – 4-6 weeks Aaron vandenBerg (foot) – 4-6 weeks Neville Jetta (knee) – 10-12 Kade Kolodjashnij (concussion) – TBA Guy Walker (shoulder) – indefinite Aaron Nietschke (knee) – season

Pay McKenna in the goals in the bush. Pat McKenna bags eight goals as Gisborne thrashes Kyneton to snap eight-game losing streak

Scouting notes: Under 18 Australian side

Matthew Rowell pushes pick 1 credentials in Australia under 18s win over Casey

An Australian Under 18 squad played the Casey Demons at the MCG in an exhibition game. Casey went full bore in the first half and led by four goals at the main break with 10 AFL listed players but took most of them off for the second half and the Aussie team took over and won by about four goals. Best for the Australian team we’re Oakleigh Chargers pair Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson. AUSTRALIA UNDER 18 SQUAD Lachlan Ash (Murray Bushrangers) Noah Anderson (Oakleigh Chargers) Trent Bianco (Oakleigh Chargers) Connor Budarick (Gold Coast Academy) Nick Bryan (Oakleigh Chargers) Liam Delahunty (GWS Giants Academy) Sam Flanders (Gippsland Power) Will Gould (Glenelg) Thomas Green (GWS Giants Academy) Luke Jackson (East Fremantle) Emerson Jeka (Western Jets) Brodie Kemp (Bendigo Pioneers) Fischer McAsey (Sandringham Dragons) Jack Mahony (Sandringham Dragons) Will Martyn (Brisbane Lions Academy) Jackson Mead (Woodville-West Torrens) Mitch O’Neill (Tasmania Devils) Kysaiah Pickett (Woodville-West Torrens) Malcolm Rosas jnr (Northern Territory) Matthew Rowell (Oakleigh Chargers) Caleb Serong (Gippsland Power) Jeremy Sharp (East Fremantle) Cooper Stephens (Geelong Falcons) * Dylan Williams (Oakleigh Chargers) Joshua Worrell (Sandringham Dragons) Hayden Young (Dandenong Stingrays) * injured and did not play

The Supreme Court.

And, of course, Dean Kent who could barely get on the park for us in his last 2 or 3 years is fit and saddling up against us this afternoon.

Who would have thought that when Round 5 came around, St Kilda would be riding high in April and Melbourne would be down there with the also rans? Time to shoot down the Saints before it’s May.

It seems that they’ve given a few of the younger brigade in Sparrow, Bedford and Chandler some time off. Jay Lockhart, the resting emergency. No Maynard. A few others can expect limited game time in case they’re required on Anzac Eve.