Whispering_Jack

Watch out for the mascot who runs out with the team today.

I must say that I came very close to having a bit of a look at the training session after attending the Melbourne Business Community breakfast yesterday but I resisted the temptation because I had a big day at work ahead of me and even a ½ hour look around would have been a bit much for me. Neil Craig got my enthusiasm up at the breakfast with his words about how the team has been traveling over the pre season and, although he was very measured in his expectations, it's clear the only way for us is to go forward after the horrors of 2012. The guest speaker, Mick Colliss who represented Australia at the 2008 World Sudoku Championships, was hilarious with his description of how he and a few mates conned their way into representing their country in an international competition and achieved their dream of wearing the green blazer with the national crest on it - proving that if you're determined, you can achieve anything. I was thinking of that as I drove past Gosch's Paddock and saw the boys training.

One or two swallows don't make a summer or even an autumn for that matter and while, I remain unconvinced, perhaps there might just be something to this Sellar bloke after all. He came out of the 2006 AFL National Draft which contained a good crop of players, many of who have had disappointing careers and failed to live up to the pre draft hype of the time. The number one pick, Bryce Gibbs has taken a long time to establish himself as a top line player with the Blues but, for one reason or another, many of the KPP's (and there were quite a few around that year) have struggled. Selected in the first round of the draft were:- ■Scott Gumbleton (Essendon) - pick 2 ■ Lachlan Hansen (North Melbourne) - 3 ■ Mitchell Thorp (Hawthorn) - 6 ■ Ben Reid (Collingwood) - 8 ■ Nathan Brown (Collingwood) - 10 ■ James Frawley (Melbourne) - 12 ■ Jack Riewoldt (Richmond) - 13 ■ James Sellar (Adelaide) - 14 ■ Mitchell Brown (West Coast) - 16 Ruckman Matthew Leuenberger was another tall taken early by Brisbane at 4. The Crows also picked up Kirt Tippett at 32 while Geelong did OK by getting Tom Hawkins as a father/son for pick 41. These days, most of the early picks are mids. In 2006, Travis Boak went at 5 and Joel Selwood at 7! The selection of Sellar at 14 was something of a surprise at the time because his junior sporting career was outstanding. According to Wikipedia, he "represented Australia in the International Rules Youth Test between Australia and Ireland, and has also represented Australia in volleyball, in the Under-19 Internationals in Taiwan. He was named best player at the national Under 16 Championships in 2005 and also played in the Under 18 national championships in 2006." Whatever went wrong from the time he was the best under 16 to the time he was delisted by Adelaide at the end of the 2011, he must have had something that impressed his former coach Neil Craig to convince the club to draft him at 54 in the 2011 AFL Draft. He would need to consistently produce the sort of form he displayed at Renmark and do it against better opposition to convince most of us. I'm sure we'll be watching him closely today.

Kent from Clackline sounds a bit like the name of one of our Demonland reporters but it's actually one of our more promising recruits. Mobile Users: Clackline Kent becomes Demon Dean Desktop Users: Clackline Kent becomes Demon Dean Personally, I'm a bit disappointed that neither he nor Jack Viney are going to be out there playing at Casey Fields today but I suppose we can wait a few weeks.

I also watched the final quarter of the opening game of 2003 in the Fox 30 Minute Thriller series and it really brought home how the wasted opportunity of that era. The team we had assembled at that time was of a reasonable level of strength that could have achieved so much more if only our recruiting from that time would have produced a few star players. Unfortunately, it didn't and the team imploded well before the end of the decade. The player I would nominate from that game would be a youngish Matthew Whelan because he would have fitted perfectly into the style that Mark Neeld is trying to instil - a player who goes hard at the ball, won't shirk an issue and gives everything for the team. You can never have enough of that type of player. Needless to say, if I had to go outside the parameters of the OP, Ron Barassi would be my choice. If I'm looking at the 90's I would be inclined to go for Stephen Tingay. I remember him in his first game as a skinny kid from Shepparton but he worked hard and built up that body to a point where he looked a bit like Rambo. Some of our kids today need to do the same so he would provide a great example.

All I can say is that Garry's comment was very prescient. When people think of Judd, what do they think of?The answer is a football pay packet of in excess of $1 million annually and that is precisely what young Tom Scully is taking home for producing those third rate efforts for Kevin Sheedy. It makes me feel good every time I think about it. And one of these days, I hope and dream that the $½ million compensation we recently had to pay back to the AFL for going after him a little too hard for their liking (and that of the barracudas in the media) will pay us handsome dividends. At last count, we were able to secure Mitch Clark (who we couldn't have afforded if we had to fork out the 20 pieces and more of silver necessary to have kept Voldemort) and the compo allowed us to get our hands on Chris Dawes, Jesse Hogan and Dom Barry as well as putting us in a position to collect both Jimmy Toumpas and Jack Viney whereas we might otherwise have secured only one of them. All that for a player who plays so outside that he might as well have been sitting watching the game with me in my living room last night.

It's just after 7AM on game day and it's already 22 degrees C. I think they're taking a couple of minutes off each quarter and extending the breaks and that's just for the comfort of the spectators. Demon fans should get there early and take part in the Casey community day. At yesterday's Melbourne Business Breakfast it was stressed how the club was seeking to bolster its relatively low supporter and membership numbers by initiatives such as the one in the Casey community. Get there early and get behind your club - MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB COMMUNITY FUN DAY Join the Melbourne Football Club at their 2013 Community Fun Day. Saturday 9th March, Casey Fields 12pm to 2pm. Free Family and children’s rides face painting and activities. Free giveaways Webjet signing station with MFC players MFC merchandise and membership available

On ABC's Media Watch this week Jonathan Holmes informed us that the two Fairfax flagships are suffering a "remorseless slide in sales". According to the latest sales figures weekday sales have dropped by a frightening 14.5% in 12 months. The compacted size introduced this week isn't going to change things for the better IMO. Apparently, later in the year it's going to start charging for its apps and access to its website. Imagine paying to read Caro?

They're back again in 2013 and we have a double header for ... drum roll ... Mystery injuries of the week: "Chris Dawes (hamstring tightness) and father/sonJack Viney (neck) will miss this week. The duo is expected to be available for Melbourne’s season opener against Port Adelaide at the MCG on March 31."

This is an area about which the majority of us know very little because it touches on areas of physical fitness that require specialised knowledge. The only thing I can comment on is the aesthetics of the game - how it looks and feels to me as a spectacle. When I go to Etihad, I usually sit on the eastern (city) end of the ground but for the NAB Cup triple header, I sat on the western end near to the players' interchange area. I was amazed to see players running on and off the interchange within minutes of the start of the game. They were coming off three and four at a time and mainly, they were sprinting up to 50 to 75 metres to get off as quickly as possible. I sometimes wonder if these blokes aren't fatigued just in the act of completing the interchange let alone playing the game. I used to subscribe to the theory that you don't flirt with form and if a player's hot then you shouldn't move him or take him off. That's gone out of the window these days and because you have physical beasts like Dane Swan who seem to defy nature and continue to perform at top gear despite (or because of) constantly being rotated. Today's game has developed into a far different spectacle to the one which we grew to love. I want to see the better players lasting longer and doing their stuff but I have no idea whether capping rotations is going to do that or make the game watchable. I sense however, that we're going to get a cap on rotations to a number between 80 and 160 and we're just going to have to live with it and hope that our list matures a bit more and our football department comes up with the right plans to stay ahead of the game when that happens.

I haven't managed to get to more than one club pre season session this year but I wandered over to the local park late yesterday afternoon where my grandson's under 9 team was having its first session for 2013. It's probably light years away from a senior AFL team training but one thing that struck me was the fact that the ground was rock hard. Now if you imagine adult footballers recovering from a Lisfranc injury, a navicular stress fracture or an ACL/hamstring then you really wouldn't want them running themselves to the ground on hard tracks too early. No doubt, Mitch, Jack and Max have spent a goodly part of their rehab doing work away from hard grounds and the fact that they're out on the track now provides room for some optimism. I'm sure that the club's medical and fitness staff have their recoveries under control and let's keep fingers crossed for their early return. I remember the last time we had close to a full list - it was 2006 and we made the finals. Not saying that we're capable of that this year but I'm certain that one of the factors that helped North finish ahead of St. Kilda, Carlton, Essendon and Richmond in the battle for that last place in the top eight was it's very small injury list for most of the season.

Agree he was very good but what we need to advance is consistency from players like Nev. if we can achieve that we can make strides forward but if players only produce one in every four weeks as many have in the past, then we're going nowhere.He's by no means a shoe in just yet but a couple more of those performances and he'll secure a spot.

Let's face it, the last 48 years have been punctuated by divisiveness and bad blood within the club. We had some limited success in the short periods during which we had stability at the top. We have a board in place that served us well over the past 12 difficult months (and I believe the bad times started almost 12 months ago to the day with the Jurrah arrest in Alice Springs). The football department is also starting to show their worth. I would like to see them get 12 stable months to show us what they can do and lift the club without the distractions we had in 2012.

Max is a big lad and has been out of action for a long time. In addition, he will eventually be called upon to fill the demanding role of a ruckman so he needs to get the right conditioning before he gets thrown into the fray. If it takes an extra couple of weeks before we see him in action then so be it. Players who are 208cm tall don't grow on trees and I reckon he's going to be important for us in the future. Full credit to the club for the way it's handling our injured players and our youngsters.

The danger for Essendon is that, based on a recent AFL precedent,they might just get pinched for once being the employer of Stephen Dank.ASADA probes Cronulla Sharks over Stephen Dank link. Dank was at Cronulla in 2011 and a year later was at Essendon. The Bombers are going to need some help to avoid the spectre of guilt by association.

I think we can scare the Saints to death with that face.

For Redleg

Demetriou also blasted Caroline Wilson on the same programme.Of course, he was silent when she was getting stuck into us suggesting we should be punished for match fixing and that Cam Schwab should lose his job.

The other thing you used to get from petrol stations was the club transfer I used to put on the window of the family car. I always thought the one with the Demon was the finest and most fierce and ... you know what? Back in those days, we were like that as a team. The Demon transfer was a source of pride back in those days. These days, I cop a few sniggers when people see the logo on my car.

I endorse that although it's regrettable that the issue had to be played out in the media and also, to be fair to Paul Gardner, we don't know whether the media sought him out for comment or vice versa. My information was that the person who went to the investigators was put up to it by someone else previously involved with the club, not necessarily a former board member. What gives credibility to the information was that the person named was not even on the radar in late October when Wilson was giving her opinion about the club as a result of her "vault" information. My informant is dealing with the information she got in her way and, as I have previously mentioned there are some aspects of confidentiality that I need to abide by. The bottom line is that there's been much damage done to the club over the past 12 - 18 months by people with axes to grind and hopefully, it will now cease and we can concentrate on supporting our coach and our players improve its core business - the on field stuff.

He's been named on the injury list as follows: To my way of thinking that means "rest" irrespective of the result of the "test".Same goes for Tom McDonald who has been put in the same category as Colin but there are those who think Tom's injury might keep him out for a few weeks.

Melbourne Football Club tweet:

MATCH PREVIEW: MELBOURNE v ST. KILDA

Selection is going to be interesting. Only four players - Colin Sylvia, James Magner, Cam Pedersen and the unlisted Jesse Hogan. Pedersen only played a cameo role coming on late in the game at Renmark. On that basis, I think Sylvia and Magner will be rested but the remaining selections will be interesting as we move closer to determining the team for the opening game.

Some random observations: Seems to me that Hogan and Barry will both have a development year at Casey. Likewise, the two new rookies Clisby and Stark. After just two weeks of NAB Cup, every able bodied player on the list has already had a crack at showing his wares. This has been generally pleasing but a couple aren't coming up to expectations. I don't see why we were in such a lather to get Pedersen. I have a really good feeling about Nev Jetta and James Strauss. Would it be asking too much for these two players whose careers have been marred so much by injury to have break out years? Our injury list might not be deep but it's hitting us in the worst areas. Needless to say, we need Clark, Trengove, Blease and Bail back on deck asap and, given the less than pleasing efforts of our ruckmen to date, Max Gawn's fortunes now that he is returning to full training will be watched closely. I hope he gets a run of some sort in the next couple of weeks, even if its at VFL level. I just can't see Spencer, Fitzpatrick or Pedersen filling in that vital back up role in the ruck. Perhaps, Sellar will find his niche there?