Whispering_Jack

Bennelong. I don't know what it is or what they sell or do but given the exposure we usually get, it will be value for money. We were on the back page of the Hun and the Age more times in the past year than Collingwood, I reckon.

I think you're talking about the Queens Birthday massacre of 14 June 1965 which put an end to our winning run of eight in a row. I rank Cooper's as the greatest mark I've ever seen. He was standing on peoples' heads - it was the quintessential screamer. I wrote about that day once as part of a momentous period in the history of mankind. On the following day, Bob Dylan went electric at the Newport Folk Festival. The world has never been the same ever since. Chapman made his debut in the round 1 match in the following year. He wore the number 17 and if you're reading this Jeff ... this thread should be enough to prompt you to tip in a few mill. I'll match you a dollar for every million. (I'm not proud).

That's quite true and in terms of quality right now, he's definitely not in my top five ... but he's one of the reasons why I think we should fight tooth and nail for draft assistance. If somehow we end up with a second pick in the top ten (either by way of priority pick or mini draft pick) I would like to use such a pick on a player like Sheed because we need his type as well as the classy, skilful midfield type like Aish. That sort of combination plus a mature established mid or two picked up by way of trades or free agency and some good further selections later in the draft could help our midfield improve dramatically even in the space of one season, particularly if we get the right coaches in place to develop them properly.

Jeez, I just hope Neeldy hasn't taken up coaching golfers these days ...

If Melbourne lose to GWS I will ... risk the ire of the Environmental Protection Authority and cause a thick haze of smoke to envelope my entire suburb by burning an effigy of Phil Scully.

Disappointing team selection and a lack of innovative coaching spells doom and disaster. The sooner the season's over and we have new blood leading the club and directing the team's fortunes, the better.

From the very first time I read about the Wade Lees case, this is what stood out in my mind. As a VFL player, Lees simply didn't have access to the information that AFL players get on the issue of drugs, nor do they have the infrastructure behind them that should, in the normal course, provide them with safety from exposure to banned substances. Yet Lees was suspended for the better part of two years and with that, went his chances of carving out an AFL career. It was reported that he couldn't afford the cost of mounting an appeal against the ruling that led to his banning.Compare that to the might and power of Essendon and the AFL. The parties are gathering together a strong array of legal fire power. Hird's team includes expensive human rights QC Julian Burnside and the legal maneuvering threatens to be massive one way or another. And despite what seems to me to be the obvious, it's still not cut and dried whether an adverse finding against the players will be handed down. I would have thought that the Bombers are cooked unless they can produce what we have yet to see - a document from ASADA suggesting that it was permissible for the players to be injected with AOD-9604. It seems to me that Danks and co were well aware from the very outset that they needed this in place to validate that part of their programme - Dank urged to check on drug legality. The emails previously leaked to the media don't seem to do that and mysteriously, the Bombers don't seem to have the required documentation among their records.

So on the bad DRS results scoreboard Australia trails a conservative 0 - 5 at this point in the series.

Ken Jungwirth was another prospective key forward we had up our sleeves. He booted three goals on debut v Essendon in Melbourne's shock round 7 win but failed to fire after that game and transferred to Carlton the following year. The others on that list were small men. Catlin rose from the fourths to the firsts in one year to debut as a 16 year old but his career was also short lived.

That Geelong team is going to be hard to beat!

I think Jeff Chapman would have a fair understanding of Melbourne's plight from his brief taste of league football in the two opening rounds of season 1966. I remember the time well. I was in the final year of high school and, as a Demon fan, I had to that stage never experienced the feeling of my team hanging around the bottom of the ladder. For over a decade, we had been perennial finalists (that meant top 4 in those days) and my first experience of missing out on the finals came a year earlier in 1965 when, after winning the first eight games, the bottom fell out and we lost 8 out of the last ten games to finish seventh. On the face of it we recruited well over the summer of 1965-6. Our #1 recruit was Ross Dillon a young key forward from Kyabram. In fact, it became apparent during the early practice matches (they were usually intraclub in those days) that we were well served by prospective tall forwards (an area where we had been lacking in recent years). We had "stolen" Carey Grammar forward Jeff Chapman from out of Hawthorn's clutches (imagine that happening these days?), had Mortlake's Bob Russell, Kerry Ryan from Prahran and Rod Meldrum (Sale). Another young player who had a few VFL games experience under his belt was Maurie Bartlett. We also had a couple of promising ruckmen in Brendan Behan and Robert Stewart and another, Ed Burston who the Demons were trying to lure from University Blacks was also about to make a start to his short VFL career (he flew in from Hawaii for his first practice game a week before the start of the season). Terry Leahy, brother of players Brian and John was a handy utility who would win the Truscott Medal in his first season. Neville Stone was another who had played in an end of season night game in 1965. I remember going to the practice match at Old Scotch oval to watch the strongly built Chapman kick 7 goals 6 (after he kicked 5 the week before). At the other end of the ground Ryan kicked 6.5. Suddenly, the vibe at the club looked very, very good. The expectation was that we were about to improve dramatically with such an abundance of up and coming forward line and ruck talent but then ... nothing happened. Chapman got the nod at FF for the first game but it didn't work. He kicked just one of four goals in a team that lost to St. Kilda by 76 points. Other first gamers were Burston, Dillon, Leahy, Russell, Stewart and Stone. A week later the Demons were thrashed again at Glenferrie Oval kicking a measly three goals (Chapman scored one). It was to be Jeff Chapman's last game in a season that started every bit as badly as this year. If he gets the job as Club Chairman it is to be hoped that he presides over more success in his off-field role than he had as a player. [FOOTNOTE: Burston kicked six goals in a game against Hawthorn later that season but was soon dropped and never played again. Dillon injured a knee after 6 games and missed a year before returning for a moderately successful season. Leahy had issues with the club after winning the Bluey and left to play elsewhere. Most of the others never made it, we finished second last and it took the club another two decades before it made the finals again.]

I didn't watch the entire programme but didn't it seem that there was an attempt to sweep AOD-9604 under the carpet? WADA has banned AOD-9604 under its S0 category, which covers substances not approved for human use. Didn't Jobe Watson admit to having been injected by AOD-9604 and hasn't Essendon been suggesting that ASADA told the club it was OK to use it? That and the possible injection of other banned substances seems to be the crux of the matter to me. I understand that this was about the Weapon's personal story about the toll his standing down from the club was having on him and his family but I would have thought that the use of AOD-9604 merited a lot more coverage than it got in the programme. Dons told drug was not legal

Alan Stockdale's programme suggests he wants to "unite the club". I agree that this is of utmost importance but if he wants to convince me that he's our man then he'll need to explain how he plans to do this given that in his previous involvement with the club, he was instrumental in the overthrow of Joe Gutnick which led to a long period of instability and disunity that resulted in the installation of the Szondy regime and we know what happened under him. It also worries me that his platform talks of working with the CEO despite mention in this morning's Herald Sun Former state treasurer Alan Stockdale has revealed his plan to save Melbourne of "at least one combative meeting between the pair in recent weeks." Although, I would prefer it if my club was independent of the AFL, I don't think we're in a position to risk its assistance package or potential priority pick or other forms of draft assistance by defying the AFL. Forgive me but ATM, I'm a sceptic about Stockers. I need a lot of convincing.

The pitiful capitulation to North on Saturday at Etihad seems to have restored the PP to a higher place on the agenda - Melbourne could snatch wonderkid Tom Boyd from GWS if handed a priority draft pick by the AFL.

Unpaid political announcement for the Stockdale ticket - Former state treasurer Alan Stockdale has revealed his plan to save Melbourne I know one of the members of his ticket, Adam Jacoby - a bright young man - and I used to sit with his father at the footy when Melbourne was a successful club. A long, long time ago. Small world.

Black operation

"Why not Lyon?" Well for starters, he didn't stop coaching at any time and moved straight from St. Kilda to Freo so he remained a career coach. Money was a factor in him moving but he didn't need to be motivated in any way to continue his coaching career.

Can we have some more contributions like the one above please? A few paragraphs about an aspect of the game would do nicely.

I'll be there but only because I promised myself that if Melbourne gets to see some September action this year, nothing would keep me away.

What about two of last week's unexplained "outs" in Dean Terlich and Tom Gillies (I know Gillies isn't strongly fancied by some around here but he's on our list so it would be interesting to know why he missed last week)? Also would be good to see Nathan Stark getting a run after such an injury affected season.

Here's an interesting take on how the media can and do affect the way the issues are presented to their reading public. Reporters angles make it very hard to get a line on the truth I think that much the same applied to our circumstances during the tanking saga in the way that certain aspects of the tanking debate were suppressed and why we were constantly under attack while Carlton which was the paradigm for tanking remained quarantined from harm.

Immediately after last night's On The Couch, the Fox Footy Channel aired the Open Mike interview with Mark McLure. One of his jobs in life after his playing career was as an assistant to Malcolm Blight during his short-lived and ill-fated coaching stint at St. Kilda. He said he initially took the position at Blight's invitation. McLure made it clear in no uncertain terms that Blight's tenure was a failure for all the wrong reasons - that he had taken on the job for the money. I want a coach who takes us on because he wants us to succeed where his predecessors failed, who wants to lift the club up by the bootstraps and who has the means, the enthusiasm, the courage and the commitment to do the job. I'm not sure Roos is that person.

It's what a report on ABC alleged he was prescribed. I don't know where that's gone but it's something that might have to be dealt with if and when it's investigated by ASADA.

I have this nagging feeling that there's been a massive attempt to muddy the waters about the substances administered to the players at Essendon. Take this story: Essendon players not part of 'clinical trial': pharmaceutical company So in the case of this group of players none of them was injected but rather they were given AOD9604 as "a topical cream". But what then were the players who were getting injected receiving and what were those waivers the players signed all about? It gets curiouser and curiouser ... really.

It wouldn't surprise me if the new chairman posted on Demonland. I believe that it should be a prerequisite for any candidate to post here a minimum of 3 months before being considered for office. That and a ravenous desire to devour bananas.