Whispering_Jack

Latest news: "Liam Jurrah makes no comment as he arrives at Alice Springs Supreme Court for his trial over a town camp brawl." "Twelve jurors have empaneled for the trial on the charge of unlawfully causing serious harm to his cousin Basil Jurrah."

Despite not having a coach or four assistants, they won the first game of the season at the weekend. Who needs coaches?

I reckon we might have more of a "team" on our hands when people are more positive than that about them.

Having Jack Viney and Jimmy Toumpas opposed to Gary Ablett Jnr. for even brief parts of the game should prove an interesting experience for them.

I owe you a banana (see the T$ thread for clarification). If you have any more snapshots of the team running out with the mascots, please let me know.

I have to disagree there Redleg. Sheahan was one of the most respected journalists going round for a long time and his full time presence is being sorely missed at the Herald Sun where standards are declining at a rate comparable to that of the Age. The fact that we have nobody in his top 50 is not a surprise in view of how the team went last year. Based on our performances both as a team and individually, Jones is the closest anyone from our 2012 list would get to any ranking in his list. 2013 will, I hope, be an entirely different matter but we have to have blokes earning it.

What sort of team to select for this game and in these circumstances? In the normal course i.e a practice match somewhere in close vicinity to the CBD against top quality opposition, I would have picked the strongest possible team for the final hit out but going over there and in those conditions, I'm not so sure. With one week's break before round 1 to follow, we need to put more games into some of those legs but a hot steamy Southport v GCS?

Mike Sheahan's Top 50 Daniel Wells of North came in at 48 and Lewis Jetta missed out so I'm guessing there was no room for Nathan Jones?

Done Deb and good luck with the game on Saturday. Southport's a great venue and way superior to Casey Fields in many aspects. For instance, you should be driving home from the ground well before midnight

I suppose it's stating the obvious but we'll know we're getting close to winning a premiership if we start talking about players of the calibre of those mentioned and we don't have to use the word "if" any more.It's an indictment on the coaching and football development at this club over the past decade that, by and large, too many players have failed to live up to potential and never managed to step up to the elite levels suggested by their natural talent. At least we're now investing in this area so we have the opportunity to remove the "if" from the equation.

If only that was the explanation for the worst drubbing in the history of the game (I make some allowance for our 1979 debacle v Fitzroy because our team was injury-riddled and awful to start with). If you were right, Geelong would have beaten us by something like the 119 point margin they had over Port Adelaide in the 2007 grand final (and Port have yet to recover from that). 186 was a momentous event for which the entire club needed to accept collective responsibility. We needed to bring in change and remove the worst aspects of the pathetic culture that pervaded the club at that time and which was symbolised by that game. That's what happened and I'm surprised it was achieved so swiftly at this club because we've historically been so conservative and averse to change. New coach, new football department, massive turnover in players and the only thing we can't do overnight is become a power house of the competition because that's a really tough gig. Give it a bit of time but let's not kid ourselves about how bad we were in July 2011.

... and the banana goes to six6six ... Photo thread.

It's not just at the stoppages that we seem to be lacking but I noticed yesterday (and many times before) that when the ball was in tight situations, more often than not, it was a player in a Saints jumper that came out with the footy. I hope that improves with the return of Jack Trengove, Jack Viney and a couple of others but we really need to improve in this department.

Any danger we can go back to talking about spears and heads instead of abusing each other?

It looks like Brad Haddin is going to get a call up to India for the third test as a result of Wade's injury. I would also be flying in Joe Burns and Alex Doolan for some blooding before the Ashes series. This might smack of desperation but it's about time there was some decent succession planning at our national level. Put Clark up the order, Watson down to # 6 and bring in the young blood. Throw them in the deep end, I say.

If anyone has any doubt about the effects of whistle blowers on club investigations, it's worth taking note of what Jake Niall has to say in today's Age BLOOD IN THE WATER Similarly, it's my understanding that Libba was heavily leaned upon when he spilled the beans on Carlton's tanking in 2007 and, of course Brock McLean has far more credibility than Brendan Fevola. That, and the hundreds of poker machines under the Blues' control that someone doesn't want to endanger. If only we had some friends in high places on the AFL commission or in the media. Wouldn't it be great to have a journo with family connections to the club could keep bad news stories out of the limelight? Then again, if some of your friends aren't friends ...

Scott Spits and Rohan Connolly of Fairfax Media present the MELBOURNE 2013: TEAM PREVIEW Reasonably fair?

One of those kids was my grandson and I'm offering a free banana to anyone who locates a clear photograph of him leading the team out with Jack Grimes. I almost convinced him that, as part of his mascot duties, he had to line up for the team in a back pocket on Stephen Milne and, modesty aside, I reckon he might have kept him down to less than three goals on the day.

Let's not forget also that apart from Clark and Dawes being missing, Sam Blease kicked five goals against the Saints when we last played against them.

This from Adam Cooper's report on the game in today's Sunday Age:- ... and this ... Saints' burst makes Demons pay

Thanks Pates - hopefully the club might have a photo gallery on the official site after the weekend. It was the thrill of his life as a Demon supporter (as you can imagine there haven't been too many thrills for 8 year fans of the club to savour).

Pates - great pics but you didn't happen to get one of the team running out today, did you? My grandson was one of the mascots. He wore the number 31 which meant that he made history today being the first mascot to run out with the captain of an MFC team with both wearing that number for almost half a century. And we all know what the Demons did the last time that happened!

On NAB Cup grand final weekend they usually only televise the actual grand final. This will be a true practice match so don't expect too much coverage. The big challenge for us is to do something we've never done before and that is to beat the Suns in a practice game.

Carlton have apparently qualified for the NAB Cup grand final and will play the winner of Collingwood v Brisbane Lions.

Quarter time here at Casey Fields and we're witnessing something we've never seen here before. A scoreboard that works!