Whispering_Jack

Nice endorsement from Stewie who was a champ and one of his favourites but I've heard from others who were contemporaries of Spencer and others who were not players but ordinary club members and supporters. They were that complimentary of how he treated them. Smith wasn't interested in being Mr. Popularity and while I disagree with his sacking in 1965, he reached that point because he wasn't afraid of stepping on peoples' toes.

That's not been my experience with CS, the current board or the previous board under Paul Gardner or even when Szondy was President although I found Steve Harris a bit aloof during his time.

People tell me that Norm Smith came across as a cold hard bastard who also took a bit of time to get his act together. That's not a barrier to ultimately becoming a successful coach.

Disagree. This kid will be one of the factors that changes the (for want of a better word) "culture" of the club. While all that bilge was going on around him and in front of our eyes, this young man who was the silver lining of the day for me, never stopped boring in for the football. It's probably too soon to say this but he exudes the potential to produce the same sort of quality I saw the night before from another son of a former star playing up at Cararra. And yes, we've seen potential before but not when combined with this kid's grit and determination. How sad that so many of his older and more experienced teammates didn't deserve to grace the same football field.

Folks, I know the game on Sunday was a bitter pill to swallow and its therapeutic for people to get things off their chests but the board is being clogged with thread after thread where similar sentiments are being expressed and we're having a lot of complaints from posters saying the site is getting out of control. Fair's fair, for 2½ days we've had the opportunity to air our grievances, explain what happened, what we should do to fix things, who to sack and whose back to stick the knives into. Unfortunately, after that time, we're not hearing anything new. Please use this thread to discuss your grievances with the club, the board, the administration, the coaches, fitness people, medical staff, bootstudders etc. and leave some space and air for the rest of us to breathe. (and please don't suggest that the rest of us aren't hurt by what's going on either). PS: New threads that come into the category described above will be merged with his one unless they're exceptional. Thanks

Supermercado always makes an interesting read - Cleanup in Aisle 666

If only we were as hard to beat as the Melbourne Cricket Club cricket section Demons win 20th flag

To those who voted for the third option, just a reminder that Sir Winston passed away some time go.

Well ... at least Healy won't be able to wheel in Brock McLean fresh from kicking the winning goal against Richmond this time as a precursor to sticking the boots into his former club.

There's daylight between the pressure of the AFL and the VFL but one of the areas the club needs to look towards in order to start rectifying the mess from yesterday is the players who represented Casey on Saturday. Clearly, we need to find some players to give us a bit of run and more pressure in defence instead of the slow and top heavy set up we had against Port Adelaide. From the sound of it, Tom McDonald, Neville Jetta and Dean Terlich can ready themselves for a call up. I'm not so sure about Jack Trengove but we do need something more in the midfield. The other area of interest will be whether Mitch Clark can come up only six days after rolling an ankle. Based on the Casey game, there's no comfort for us if Mitch misses. Not a single Demon kicked a goal for Casey on Saturday.

It's not an indicator of success or failure. The point is to take a very minuscule matter and to turn it into an example of players making a commitment to do something different. Little things like that can help you change your focus when it's needed and it's worked in my workplace on a number of occasions in different ways to very good effect.

Some posters have already come up with the answer that we lacked "effort" and that sums it up for me. Port Adelaide was primed both physically and emotionally for a big effort. They had a new coach, a new look team and a fallen comrade to honour. They did it with effort and commitment to each other and their coach and, to a man, they did not hold back. At one point when the game was already in its latter stages, the ball was delivered to a Melbourne player who was well in the clear but his Port Adelaide opponent made up 15 - 20 metres to get to the contest. He didn't make it on time but his presence close by ensured that the Melbourne player wasn't able to play on and move the ball quickly. That's what I call effort and it's that which was routinely missing from our team's play yesterday. If the coaching group is unable to rectify this, then there will be more repeats of yesterday's failures.

Still, sometimes you need to make a statement that things are going to change and the players all deciding to shed that facial hair and knuckle down to concentrating on the one goal of winning games might be a symbolic way of doing that and setting an example to the rest of the team.

Burnzo, I hope you realise the AFL frowns on all attempts at humour and that this story could well cost the club another $500k and the possibility of some sort of additional sanction on Connolly.

The fundamental mistake we made at selection was with our back line. It was far too tall and lacked mobility. The only small back in Dan Nicholson looked unfit and lacking in confidence so it was no surprise that we lacked runners down back. It wouldn't surprise to see some changes in that area with Jetta, Terlich and Tom McDonald all coming in. I said this a long time ago but I would like to see Frawley in a key forward position. If he's not up to it in defence then give it a go.

The saddest thing is watching Collingwood and North Melbourne running around and so many players putting in that extra effort to get to the ball to take marks. I didn't see much of that today from Melbourne. I'm getting the impression that the most important aspect of planning the game today by the coaching panel was the rotations and I'm not sure they even got that right.

Game's over and if anyone has anything to say about the game then the post game discussion is here.

6. Jack Grimes 5. Jack Viney 4. Matt Jones 3. Nathan Jones 2. Mark Jamar 1. Sam Blease (First time I've given votes to a sub who was on for less than a full quarter but I think that might say something about the lack of effort we saw out there today]

For Demon fans, April Fools Day came a day early.

Seconded!

After six often turbulent months of off season goings on, the season begins in a few hours time and it comes not a moment too soon. The results of round one have demonstrated that pre season form isn't necessarily an indicator of how teams will perform when the real stuff starts so we wait in anticipation to see what the new look Demon team will bring us ...

Stats: Brent Moloney 13 kicks 10 handballs 23 disposals 5 marks 5 tackles 1 goal 0 behinds Stefan Martin 5 kicks 4 handballs 9 dosposals 2 marks 1 tackle 1 goal 1 behind 9 hit outs

OK ... since everyone's picking on the ex Melbourne players and what they're doing now that they've gone elsewhere, I have some news on master Scully up in Sydney for the Battle of the Bridge where, sadly, I must report that he's been reported for Tom Scully has been reported for tripping Rhyce Shaw. He's not doing well on the field either.

Absurd, insulting and about as ignorant as you can get. How dare you presume to claim to know that those who defend Liam don't care about indigenous issues? I'll say no more about that than that, personally, the day I was most proud to be an Australian was the day in 2008 when Kevin Rudd delivered this speech and I've heard the same sentiment expressed by many others. On the other matter, we might not be impressed by the way justice is dispensed in this country but Liam was entitled to the best possible legal defence and, in his case, he pleaded and was found to be not guilty. The others, I understand, accepted their guilt. I don't see how anyone could have a problem with that but if you do, I feel sorry for you. Perhaps, you might be able to understand if you could walk a mile in the shoes of people who have been oppressed and the victims of genocide. Unfortunately, you don't really care, do you? Glad to hear that. I didn't think Bruce would have let Liam down. It was only that we haven't heard from him here recently and I was unsure whether he was still close with him.

I would expect that most of those who missed out on selection for the Port Adelaide game will be involved for the Casey Scorpions against Box Hill tomorrow. Details: SATURDAY MARCH 30 Casey Scorpions v Box Hill at Casey Fields Development League 11am, VFL 2pm. One player I know who will be keen to get on the park is Max Gawn who tweeted yesterday:- Melbourne also re-instated Max to the senior list yesterday, having been on the long-term injury list since January 25 due to a hamstring injury. This followed more than a year's lay-off following his second ACL operation. I think it's fair to say that all at Demonland wish Max well on his return to the game. I'll be there to cheer him on! No doubt we'll also see James Magner who possibly would have been close to promotion to the senior list and even AFL selection but now would have to wait for a vacancy on the list to open up again.