Whispering_Jack

A double dose of Ned $cully in the second half of the season if that knee's right by then. Hope our home fixture against them's at the G and not Darwin.

Like everyone involved, I too have yet to recover but I'd like to thank the players, Sam our drinks person and the indefatigable Rollo for fulfilling the main aim as stated in what passed for my pre match address and that was to honour our trainer Jo who passed away tragically from cancer at a very young age a few months ago. As a result, this was a very important day for all of us given that that our club chairman Jim Stynes is fighting a magnificent battle against the disease and that we lost a director in Peter Szental last year and a former champion in Sean Wight this year. On top of that, today is Pink Ribbon Day so even though we feel the pain of the bumps, bruises and the heat these are put in perspective against what those who suffer from cancer feel. Anyhow, the team overcame slow starts to every game to take home the trophy again. When I think of some of the very good players from the past who couldn't make it yesterday, I'm even more impressed with their efforts and it was even better knowing that my input as coach was minimal. As I said to the players I snuck into Dean Bailey's office on the day of his farewell press conference in the hope of finding his game plan book but all I got was an exercise book full of blank pages. In the end, we settled for the Neale Daniher "run and carry" tactics which was enough to get us over Bomber Blitz (using the Matthew Knights playbook), Saintsational (Grant Thomas) and Nick's Collingwood Bulletin Board (Phonse Kyne). The games were played in great spirit and the umpires were phenomenal working their butts of for the best part of five hours and making less bloopers than their AFL counterparts. The teams were generally good in co-operating on players and other measures to allow us to cope with the heat. One umpiring decision I'll never quite be able to work out is the championship defining decision to award a free to Supermercado in front of the big sticks. Up to that point I think Super was going to emulate his hero Emo Maric and seek a clearance elsewhere but he somehow managed to sink the kick and win the day for the Dees. Thanks to all players - it was a great even team performance and a pleasure to coach. Thanks to Wise for his great captaincy. No thanks to my assistant coaches who went AWOL but fortunately, my 6 year old grandson Maor was on hand to competently fill the void. To the injured players, I wish you a speedy recovery. One of our lads Jack (who I suspect might be Colin Sylvia's chauffeur) turned up hung over, spilled his guts out in the first game, recovered to kick a goal in the second and did his knee late in the third. Hope you and the rest of the boys are OK today. Thanks to all - you've done Jo proud! Tomorrow, I'll try to have my iPhone video of the Grand Old Flag sung with gusto at the end of proceedings loaded onto the site.

The excitement you seem to be referring to is the excitement of the newbies after they've been selected in the draft and there's no doubt that this can sometimes be exciting. However, I'm looking at it from the point of view of the anticipation and the excitement in the month or so leading up to the draft and the discussions on who you might get with your first pick. When your first pick is 36, you don't get much of a kick out of following the Herald Sun series of the 30 top draft prospects "Pick Me" because you know that the chances are that you won't get near to the better ones anyway even if one comes down to your pick. Same goes for most of the phantom drafts but you'd like to think that something good might find its way to your team's first selection. Anyway, can't complain after getting picks 4, 1 and then 1 & 2 in consecutive drafts.

Ah yes ... and of course, the Hawthorn players all behaved like choir boys during Kennett's time at the club.

I, coached the Demonland/Demonology team to three massive victories today but I have a dilemma. Half of my players were still partying at 6.45 am and about eight of them turned up hung over. What disciplinary measures should I have adopted if any?

Cameron Schwab's twitter: This was @NeeldMFC first recruiting trip as MFC coach. We keep it tight at @melbournefc. A feed at the sushi train cost more than the room

There are other ways to improve our midfield in addition to recruiting. Our players can improve naturally and through the benefit of coaching which will prepare them to their optimum both physically and mentally. The midfield unit(s) will also improve with the development of coaching strategies. Over the past two seasons we have often had a winning ruck which hasn't often been able to translate into winning at stoppages. A different coach and a new approach can change things substantially. It's up to Mark Neeld and his midfield coaches to get the best out of a division that has been functioning poorly for some time.

Fair go. He is getting his life back on track having overcome clinical depression. His former VFL coach has recommended him to the club after he played a season at his club. I think he deserves to be trusted for a try out in the same way as any other prospective draftee who comes down for those three or four weeks.

Apparently, Manson kicked 8.5 on debut last weekend for NTFL team Waratahs, the team that Fev's playing with this week - http://m.youtube.com/#/profile?desktop_uri=%2Fuser%2FAFLNorthernTerritory&sort=p&channel_id=0&livestreaming_tutorial=False&ytsession=%7B%7D&start=0&user=AFLNorthernTerritory&use_new_videos_tab=False&page=1&autoplay=True&gl=AU Tahs prevail in modern classic I understand today's game is being streamed live on afl.com.au from 5.30 pm.

And it's another win to the Melbourne boys who win the round robin again. Dees 8.5.53 defeated Pies 5.3.33. Thanks all who played and helped. Rollo to bring all the goalkickers and best players shortly.

Dees 7.5.47 beat the Saints 4.5.29

It's hot here and our next game doesn't start till 1.30 so if anyone can get to Vic Park in gear they can still get a run.

Dees 6.7.43 to Bombers 5.2.32 Best: Steve Wise Heater

I suppose the irony is that during the preseason Tuck was battling with Paul Johnson for the last spot on Hawthorn's rookie list and missed out to PJ. I was surprised because of the Tuck/Ablett family's connection to the area that he didn't come to Casey this year. It will be interesting to see how he trials at the club and I wouldn't mind them trying Sewell out as well.

For Demon fans, the excitement was taken out of next month's AFL National Draft when Melbourne traded pick 12 to the Brisbane Lions for Mitch Clark leaving us to contemplate picks 36, 52 and 54. Beyond that, if we delist another player or two we're looking at a pick in the 70s or the Pre Season Draft. But where do you go to even find out who's available at these levels? I finally got a brainwave. Go to the experts at bigfooty. I agree there's a lot of BS going on over there but I do like the cut of draft watcher Knightmare's jib so I checked out his latest phantom draft and below are the players in the range of his predictions:- Knightmare's Phantom Draft I like the sound of pick 35 Shane Kersten right down to his playing style equivalent. I have no doubt that those Demonlanders clamoring for us to get Fev will like him too! Then we go down to the range of our second and third selections and discover that Fletcher Roberts is down as far as 50. Perhaps the draft is a bit deeper than I thought. I reckon I deserve a phone call of gratitude from the Demon recruiters for bringing these players to their attention.

There surely must be a reason why every AFL club has baulked at listing him over three years when he's done so well at North Ballarat? I really haven't seen the bloke put in a bad game and, like a few others, it has me stumped. I don't think you could go wrong using a rookie pick to get him.

Club movements and draft order now updated.

Let's not forget that Juice has been part of the scene at Melbourne for seven years now and he came to the club as a 17 year old. From what I can gather, he has a lot of good mates at the club and given that the Scorpions are losing some players it wouldn't surprise me if, assuming he does get delisted by us, he ends up a Casey player.

Craig Lees was the Football Manager with the Casey Scorpions before he joined Melbourne in his current role. I think he was instrumental in a lot of the off season recruiting in his time at the club. His brother is Wade Lees who was a regular with the Seniors in the latter part of the season holding down some major tagging roles.

Great movie from that era was Blow-up starring David Hemmings and Vanessa Redgrave. Also featured a rare performance of The Yardbirds with both Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. The latter left the band a few months after the movie was made.

The Big Carl is in the back seat of my car. Ready to show them - they can look but not touch.

Like a few others I'm a huge 49ers fan. I visited the place in the late 80s when they were going through their golden era and it cost huge $'s to go to Candlestick Park. I believe they're traveling well for the first time in ages with a new coach who has problems with his opposition counterparts shaking hands after games.

I wish you a speedy recovery.

The announcement by the AFL that the Dogs have been handed a third-round compensation selection for GWS-bound Sam Reid seems to have thrown that club into orgasmic raptures of excitement if you believe this beat up from the HUN's Jon Ralph - Western Bulldogs set to pounce on super draft. The Doggies are going to activate their compensatory picks in anticipation of plundering the 2012 superdraft with two first round selections and ... wait for it ... two third round picks. It surely has to be the quiet season for news when such hype is made of the Bulldogs' possible selections 13 months in advance over them being awarded a selection likely to be somewhere in the 40s! No wonder their football manager goes by the name "Fantasia".

I wonder about a journo who finds it necessary to raise the old furphy about the MFC not standing for anything these days. It was a throw away line that Andrew Demetriou used to bully the previous administration when the club was in debt and performing poorly. There's an outside chance that it might have meant something back then but I disagree that it has any relevance today. If Denham brought it up in the context of the club today then he was either showing his ignorance, being churlish or both.