Whispering_Jack

And a very topical subject at the moment in the light not only of the issue of who will lead the club into the future under Mark Neeld but also in view of that remarkable day of cricket yesterday when Michael Clarke scored only the sixth test triple century by an Australian and declared the innings closed at the mid point of the match and in sight of some more personal records. Clarke was clearly being selfless and courageous in a way. The chances of India fighting it's way back into the game are remote but Clarke has given them a sliver of an opportunity to do so in the manner of that Eden Gardens fightback a decade or so ago. Unlikely, but a safer option would have been to bat on until a couple of overs before tea or even after tea to give them no chance whatsoever . Or having been in Sydney once at this time of year when the heavens opened up for three days, he might have had some good intelligence from the weather bureau. Still, it was definitely a selfless act and his play and the decision he made especially after earlier making no secret of publicly saying that the win was more important than the individual achievement should do a lot as far as melding together this young team (notwithstanding the efforts of elder statesmen Ponting and Hussey) for future success. Still on cricket, another type of captain who was successful in his own way was England's Mike Brearley. A late starter who was not selected for England until the age of 34 in 1976, his test record as a batsman was mediocre (he averaged 22.88 in 39 Test innings, without a Test century), but he was an outstanding captain. He took over as skipper in 1977 when his country was being regularly flogged and he got the best out of his team with some excellent man-management skills and they stopped being the perpetual losers that they had been for much of the decade. So the on and off ground "people management" factor is important but in AFL you also need to perform so Brearley wouldn't make it in our code. The best captain of the club by far in my lifetime has been Ron Barassi and the single word I have to describe his captaincy is "presence". That is his presence and leading by example on the field in the way he played which was simply fearless and inspirational. Presence in the way he used his voice or even in the way he would look at people - always in the eye and in the way his eyes spoke. And it was always about the team and, most of the time, the team was successful.

Good thing you're a schoolteacher and you at least know what mephitis means. I just hope that it's not contagious and none of our blokes get it badly enough to affect their season! Anyway, I might head off to St. Kilda's training which is just down the road at Seaford to see if their players are recovering from the bout of mephitis they got last year after the 17 year-old schoolgirl incident.

Come on you Queenslanders (and non Queenslanders) James Frawley is an All Australian. It's a privilege to be part of this sponsorship.

The constraint is that you can't be critical of players on your own club's website but there are still some interesting insights and tit bits of information if you read closely enough.

This tweet from melbournefc.com.au:- Sadly for me, when I'm holidaying on the beach at Frankston, a mere 20-25 minutes away from Casey Fields, they train in town. I hope there's a little more consideration at the club for the community at Cranbourne and all places nearby (including the bayside suburbs) next week! In the meantime, hopefully the regulars will be out in force and reporting on the session.

Take that Foster you imposter!

I watched a bit of today's game involving the Melbourne Stars and the Perth team and I'm starting to think of it as being a bit like basketball - the last few overs of each innings are interesting but the rest is a bit Mickey Mouse. I was interested in Faulkner who showed something and continues to impress me as an all rounder of the future who will hopefully one day supplement the bowling attack led by Pattinson, Cummins and possibly Heazlewood, Starc, Copeland et al. There are a few other youngsters coming through which suggests that as long as Nathan Lyon comes along, we'll have a fantastic bowling line up. Faulkner was good before his fourth and last over but it was great to see a young bloke get the ball thrown to him for the final over and keep an even keel with all that stuff going on with every ball. That said, the BBL will always pale against test cricket IMO.

And let's hope that he goes on and beats the all comers record for tests at the SCG. I'm sick and tired of these touring cricketers having the gall to score test records on our grounds. By the way, surely someone around here can remember Reginald Foster's record of 287 runs at the ground. Old Dee? Very Old Dee? I'm just a youngster but I can remember Bobby Cowper's 307 at the MCG!

Had to let you go first Bobby. I never saw him play as he retired at the end of my first year as a supporter of the MFC and I never went to the footy while he was playing. But I knew him by reputation and from the radio broadcasts of the time as a clever forward whose career interestingly, spanned the end of the Checker Hughes era and the beginning of the Norm Smith era so he played together with the Red Fox in the '48 premiership and under him in '55. Like many Demon stars of the era he retired at far too young an age (26) and he could have played on till the end of the decade but it was not to be. Ironically, we picked up another sensational forward flanker at the beginning of 1957 in Geoff Tunbridge who was 25 on debut. Imagine the brilliance of those two on opposite flanks! Bobby McKenzie's reputation never diminished and I remember the excitement around the club when his son Robert McKenzie Junior made his debut for the club in 1969 under the father/son rule (just missing the end of the Norm Smith era but he would probably have played against him as coach of South Melbourne). Wore number 50 in his first game, changed to 10 and finished with #2. He showed a bit of promise but lasted only 42 games and, after he left the club, the number 2 went to another bloke who made his mark on the club in much the same vein as his father as a skillful winger/flanker. We mourn Bobby McKenzie, a link between the club's two great eras. Condolences to the family.

Thanks guys. Brilliant. You don't know where training is on Friday by any chance?

Thanks to George on the Outer and Deeman for the foreword:- ORANGE AND CHARCOAL - Recollections and tales of a tragic football club Foreword “The truth is out there”. Who said that? Was it Fox Mulder or his accomplice Dana Something? You too are about to discover the truth in this enthralling inside story of the Greater Western Sydney football team, its history, its foundation and the tragedies that subsequently led to its demise. Whispering Jack takes the reader through the few highlights and many of the lowlights. He traces the defection of three of the club's players before its debut game in Launceston, the unsolved mystery disappearance of the aircraft returning from the match and carrying half the team just two days later and the dramatic final days of the club in the wake of the collapse of the world economy. Were Martians responsible for the loss of that ill-fated aircraft? The coach had certainly made reference to seeing them in the past and Fred Valentich had disappeared under similar circumstances over Bass Strait years before….. But this wasn’t the only disappearance. What happened to the TV footage of those early games? Is there truth in the rumour that the missing flight was a desperate ploy by a number of players who chose to defect to North Korea rather than to face hostile home town fans after a record NAB Cup defeat? And what of the lost millions of AFL money, prawns in batter, banana fritters and doughnuts that simultaneously went missing in Blacktown? Contained within these pages is the truth. It is for you, the reader, to fill in the gaps but, before doing so, consider some previous advice given to my good friend Kim-Jong-Il and his glorious successor son, and former GWS number one ticketholder Kim-Jong-Un. “Search for the truth. I tell you things and I always ask you to verify what I say”. Never before in the annals of Australian literature has there been an historical narrative dealing with sport so stirringly and emotionally recounted than Orange & Charcoal - Recollections and tales of a tragic football club. In it, you will surely discover the truth about the enigma that was the Greater Western Sydney Football Franchise Club. Sir Les Pattinson FMD as told to Mohammed Saeed-al-Sahaf, Iraqi Information Minister.

Melbourne Football Club Twitter I'm based at Frankston ATM so I was hoping to dash cross country to Casey Fields but alas, not to be. Perhaps, on Friday or next week Still there should be a few at GP. Looking forward to the reports.

ORANGE AND CHARCOAL - Recollections and tales of a tragic football club Preface The Second Global Financial Crisis which began in 2013 wiped out six European countries, Venezuela, the Ivory Coast, a handful of Arab oil sheikdoms and most of Russia's oligarchs. It brought an end to the Internet, lifestyle television programming and Zumba. Among its victims in Australia was the national icon Vegemite which went out of production after 91 years, the Big Bash League and nine AFL clubs including two recently formed franchises which were placed into liquidation when the much vaunted television rights deal collapsed. Several members of the AFL hierarchy resigned and went into hiding amid rumoured sightings in various parts of the world of the former league CEO who had been on the run since the infamous "Pendlebury" incident. The surviving AFL clubs - those fortunate enough to be debt free when GFC2 hit - completed the season and thrived in the boom years that were to follow but the Greater Western Sydney Giants sank into oblivion. At the Rooty Hill RSL where a wake was held for the now defunct Giants, ten of the club's staunchest supporters attended to mourn the passing of the competition's least successful team which survived to make only 39 appearances for no wins in a brief history wracked with scandal and controversy. Only one former player was in attendance but this was merely a coincidence on account of the fact that he now found employment as a food waiter at the RSL club. The function's organisers had catered for 200 guests so they were grateful for the attendance of the Giants' former interstate recruiting scout who single-handedly managed to polish off the lavish spread of finger foods, prawns, cold meats and several banana fritters for dessert before attacking the other more substantial foodstuff on offer in the club's lounge area. At one stage during proceedings, Snowy O'Toole, a diehard fan stood up. It was said that Snowy, a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War, was an addict who got high from sniffing avgas but he was much loved by the Giant faithful and he hardly missed a single game, home or away. Now he rose to exclaim at the top of his voice, "Let's sing the club song once more for old time's sake!" The remaining faithful looked at him, heads swaying in a downcast manner. None of them knew the words or the tune, not even Snowy, so they drank a toast to the bloke whose name nobody could recall but who coached the team through seven rounds of the first season before the sackings took place. Then they sat around tearfully exchanging stories of the past including that glorious day in 2012 when their boys outscored Port Adelaide in the third quarter of their round 19 fixture at Skoda Stadium. They were the real supporters of the GWS Giants and the fact that at least four of these loyal and true men and women reside today at the pleasure of the NSW prisons and corrective services department has not deterred me from dedicating this volume to them. Now proceed to Chapter 1 on post # 1512 above.

They did a good job of shooting themselves and their coach in the foot though.

Just a question mark at this stage. The players are supposed to be back on Wednesday 4th January, 2012. Depending on venue and time, I think I might be able to drag myself away from the cricket and the beach to "have a look around", as they say. Anyone have an idea as to whether it's definitely on?

These things happen.

The preface comes before Chapter Two. We also need to beef up the foreword. I thought you were good at that sort of stuff Redleg?

Short holiday?

ORANGE AND CHARCOAL - Recollections and tales of a tragic football club Chapter One Saturday, March 3, 2012 The Virgin Australia airlines jet bound for Launceston was sitting idly on the Sydney tarmac. The afternoon was hot and the acrid scent of avgas pervaded the air causing discomfort to the passengers who waited nervously for the pilot to get them under way. As it was, the plane was already 15 minutes late when the final call was made for the passengers who had failed to check in for the flight. There were three of them; all playing members of the new AFL franchise team on the way to its first fully fledged match, a NAB Cup round game at Aurora Stadium against the Hawthorn Football Club but not one of them would make the flight down south. Two weeks earlier, the Greater Western Sydney Giants were due to make their debut in AFL company at Blacktown International Sportspark in the heartland of the western suburbs of the country's most populous state but the three way half-game competition also involving Collingwood and the Western Bulldogs was abandoned in unusual circumstances due to a bomb scare. The call received at the state's essential services department suggested that an explosive device had been planted in the visitor's room and set to detonate at half time. The Giants were losing their first game by 73 points at that stage. A hastily convened meeting of the AFL Commission declared all three scheduled fixtures as "no games" and awarded maximum points to the clubs involved and so for a brief period, the fledgling Giants were perched on top of the NAB Cup table, albeit equally with two other clubs. There was no bomb and authorities traced the call to an unidentified mobile phone located in the official AFL Commission box at the ground but there was insufficient evidence to make an arrest. Video footage which showed a dark, swarthy individual of heavy build making a call was inconclusive and, in any event, lost before it could be examined by forensic experts. All records of the first part of the game played before proceedings were called off for the evening were erased, the Fox telecast which was mysteriously jammed after Collingwood's fifth goal was never replayed and cannot now be located in either Foxtel or AFL archives. Now, as the GWS team manager waited nervously at the Virgin desk for a sight of his three missing footballers, he recalled an interview conducted for Fox Sports News and aired that morning. One of the three, a high priced recruit from a rival club who had been ruled out of today's game with knee soreness, had been asked what he was planning to do on this trip to Launceston and the answer was somewhat baffling at the time. "Nothing really, just having a look around". The team manager peered down at his copy of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, turned to the sports pages and his face turned to white at the sight of the headline announcing the impending birth, scheduled for the 2013 season, of the AFL's new Launceston franchise, the Lyre Birds. Beads of sweat were pouring down his back by the time he dialed the number of the team's coach who he knew would be reclining at that very moment in business class row two on the window side. "Kevin, we have a problem". "What is it now. We haven't left the marshmallows behind, have we?" "No. Much worse than that. Where's Phil?" To be continued ... I've just realised that I should have done an introduction or a preface so that can come next but in the meantime, if someone could do a foreword, this would be appreciated. Then we can have a crack at workshopping chapter two - the arrival at Launceston Airport.

Well why not? Perhaps something in serialised form? We can call it "Orange & Charcoal". Give me some time to think about it and I'll come up with the opening chapter.

What history? Apart from some Mickey Mouse stuff in the NEAFL last year, they don't have no history to speak of other than the subterfuge involving people we're not allowed to mention around here.

That's an excellent point that Matthews makes. Unfortunately there are some people who think they know a lot about the game who just don't get this.

Yes. I noticed that too but surely, it can't pass as criticism. Barry Prendergast made the point after the drafts that the coaches had an input into the types of players needed to implement the game plan they want to impart and that's how it should be, particularly given that our first national draft pick was at 36 and that was our only selection in the top 50.

I don't know what it is but I have this feeling that our game against the Lions is going to be slightly overshadowed by Hawthorn v Collingwood and the media is going to be all over that one. That said, I notice that we're going to have a big influence on the outcome of that game because we meet them both in the NAB Cup. Surely, the odds are out for that competition?

The significant difference between the NFL and our draft has been the presence of the priority pick which makes tanking so much more attractive a proposition. I was in the States with the family in 1988-9 and we watched Barry Sanders on our hotel tv in San Francisco on New Year's Eve playing for Oklahoma State in the Holiday Bowl. Even with my limited knowledge of the game I marveled at his dominance and the brilliance of his record five touchdowns. The commentators were debating between Troy Aikman of UCLA (a quarterback) as #1. I've never heard of this Mandarich character. I wonder if the word "mandarich" in Serbian translates into "scully"? Seriously, if Demetriou tells me there's no such thing as tanking, then it's good enough for me. Happy New Year to everyone in Demonland.