Whispering_Jack

Dowsing, Vearing and Catlin were all rovers who had brief careers in the 60s. None of them would have been considered "boom" recruits but Catlin was what I would call a "kaboom recruit". He came from McKinnon High School and started 1966 playing with the Melbourne Fourths in the now defunct Melbourne Boys League. He had a meteoric rise through the thirds and reserves and by Round 14 he was in the firsts against Richmond (it was the game immediately after Ed Burston's 6 goal haul v Hawthorn). He was just 16 years of age and did well enough to retain his spot and start as a rover in his second game. He injured his knee and missed all of 1967, played 1 game in 1968 and then crossed over to South Melbourne. In those days, I used to live in Ormond which is close to McKinnon and somebody once stopped me in the street and asked me if I was Sid Catlin. Years later I met him when he was involved in junior football and he didn't look anything like me. However, if you've likened him to Scully in any way then it's gratifying for me to know that I'm only two degrees of separation off earning $2m from playing professional football which makes Kevin Sheedy an absolute genius and me overrated. As for Ricky Gervais, no I don't think he was a boom footballer but he's an overrated comedian. The skit the Scullys did for Hutchy at Tullamarine was so much funnier than anything he can do.

The lack of a smile has nothing to do with us tanking to get him. It's more a part of who Scully is - it's inherent in his makeup. He's a serious kind of guy.

If he was a "boom" recruit he went bust very quickly. He was a farmer and was chased by a few clubs. We finally got our man but he suffered a bad injury before the start of the 1964 season and didn't make his debut till the following year. He showed a bit of promise in his 13 games but when he came back in 1966 he was struck down by glandular fever and disappeared from the scene, probably ending up back on the farm. Definitely no Scully.

Kelvin Templeton was past his best and injury prone when he joined Melbourne. We paid him far too much and my impression was that he played in his comfort zone at the club. John Tilbrook had experienced multiple premierships at Sturt in SA and might be called a "boom recruit" but, like Templeton was overpaid and failed to produce. So BD some of your boom recruits brought hope with them like Scully and left us deflated but there's really not much comparison.

George Lakes was a "boom recruit" signed by legendary MFC secretary Jim Cardwell. He hailed from Broken Hill and when he joined the club in 1968, he was considered one of the best young footballers in the country. He was slightly built and played mainly on a wing or a flank and was around the club for three or four seasons but for various reasons (including injuries), couldn't cut it in the big time and was cleared to the Swans. He was no Scully but there were no true professionals in the game in those days. What he did have was some personality and that's something money can't buy.

Ed Burston was no boom recruit but like Scully, he was a different kind of cat. In fact, very much a different kind of cat to Tom Scully. If the legend is accurate, unlike Scully, he was no teetotaller but then again I base this on hearsay. Burston was also a bit of a reluctant recruit and, unlike Scully, he played for the love of the game when he was Scully's age because in those days he played for one of the University teams in the ammos. He was probably around 22 years of age when he was finally persuaded to join the Demons in 1966. Burston didn't do much of a preseason. He spent the summer before his debut season in Hawaii and flew in for the last practice match to play an intraclub game on the MCG. He was a ruckman and caused a bit of a sensation with his tanned good looks. The Demons were light on for ruckmen and Ed's form in that praccy match was enough to get a game in round 1 when we were thrashed by eventual premiers St. Kilda. I remember he kicked a goal that day (in a total of four). He was in and out of the side mainly with injuries but he was a source of frustration for coach Norm Smith. I fondly remember the day he kicked six goals v Hawthorn. He was played in the forward pocket while regular full back Bob "Tassie" Johnson was being tried in the ruck. We won by 92 points - a surprise margin since we finished second last. The Hawks were the bottom side. The thing was that Burston played only two more games. The reason? I can't say but the story was that Smith wasn't too happy with his attitude. Perhaps if he was the consummate professional non drinker hard trainer like Scully, he might have made it in the sport. Still, I'll never forget the excitement he brought to the club that year and, in his one big six goal game, he promised a great deal. Perhaps, if he was playing today Sheedy might have offered him double or triple what he was worth too.

I think it would be much better if Demon fans simply didn't turn up in Sydney for GWS home games. After all, the AFL wants us to watch games on the telly. On top of that every $ we pump into that club will go towards paying you know who's wages. I'll be staying away.

I'm sure that he meant the required ones which means that there would be a few nervous chaps in Melbourne town at the moment.

When I heard that Kevin Sheedy was considering giving Tom Scully the co-captaincy at GWS I laughed. The kid might be captaincy material in the future (I doubt it) but at 20 years of age in a new franchise and with all of the difficulties he's going to face next year, I thought it was a sign of complete and utter bankruptcy on a number of levels from GWS. Money can buy a lot of things but it can't make a 20 year old kid an AFL captain. Same applies to Jack Trengove. Two or three years down the track and with some experience in the leadership group and I wouldn't have any problems. Let's not put too much pressure on a player who has other things to learn. We don't even have a coach for next year yet anyway so the thought is out of the question.

Congratulations on your post JJC but I wonder if today was the right day to bring up the subject?

Rhino's right here. It's not what they say at the presser that's relevant, it's how they go about dealing with issues such as compensation going forward. From what I heard, it was line and lenght stuff that we would expect in the ordinary course. Yes, they believed Tom and worked with him through the issues blah, blah. You would have to be naieve in the extreme if you believed that no lies were told during the course of the Scully saga. Perhaps not by Tom if he was suitably quarantined away from all discussions concerning his contract but anyone who believes that GWS only reached an agreement in principle for his services between the arrival yesterday of Tom's flight from Tullamarine and Mike Sheahan breaking the news this morning can PM me. I have a beautiful bridge to sell you cheap that spans Sydney Harbour. But all that means Jack Squat now. What is relevant is how the club rebounds from this morning and the first task behind the scenes is exactly what Cameron Schwab told the media - to get the best compensation possible for losing what is now the highest paid 20 year old in the country and then ensuring that the club moves forward in every direction.

Captain, you miss my point. Drummond's story about money, temptation and being self-righteous is told from different angles. On a similar level, so many stories have been told from so many different angles about Scully that the saga has taken on a shoddy life of its own that was originally good for us voyeurs and nothing else. Now it even makes the Scullys look bad as a family - an object of laughter. I'm sick of it and I wish Essendon supporters good luck and for their sake hope that Hurley and his management understand from our experience what they would be turning themselves and the Essendon Football Club into if they allowed things to get out of hand the way this story has over the past six months.

And on that note permit me to introduce Pat Drummond, one of my favourite Aussie singer/songwriters with this clever song The Road to Damascus which just about fully sums up what I think of the farcical scenes today at Tullamarine Airport. I hope that Hutchy and the Scullys have the necessary sense of humour to appreciate Drummond's brilliant story telling. Come to think of it, this could apply to most of the players including the journalists, the managers and just about anyone else who's played a part in this seemingly never ending saga which thankfully is drawing near an end:- Check out this video on YouTube: Enjoy!

What's the appropriate thread these days?

I think it's my duty to expose Redleg for what he is. A double agent working undercover for the other side. Proof? He arrived home yesterday from the Gold Coast and invited me to view his horse running in today's Race 4 from Bendigo. Then I saw the horse and the jockey was wearing these dark colours and an orange cap. Anyone who lets his horse run around in the GWS orange colours could not be anything other than a traitor and a spy. Arrest him!

2011 TAC Cup Gippsland Power 1.0 2.0 3.0 7.2 (44) Oakleigh Chargers 3.3 9.4 13.8 17.10 (112) GOALS: Gippsland Power: Butcher Willcocks Wyatt Marusic Fusinato Lange Williams Oakleigh Chargers: Hammond 4 Jong 3 VINEY 2 Mascitti 2 Tyson 2 Orval Wooffindin Gotch Murphy BEST: Gippsland Power: Butcher Scott Hector Tynan Staley Wyatt Oakleigh Chargers: Mascitti Tomlinson VINEY Tyson Jong Hammond Dom Tyson of Oakleigh Chargers who is widely regarded as a possible top ten pick in this year's national draft was reported on a tripping charge.

Speaking of farces, I suppose nobody thought to ask how it transpired that Hutchy and Channel 9 camera crew just happened to be on the spot at Tullamarine Airport for the exclusive interviews.

Off twitter:

If he's crossing the border as we speak then the prediction I made in A HIGHWAY OF DEMONS - Chapter Nine is alas, about to come to pass. I hope I'm wrong but I think the penultimate paragraph sums it up. A bad career move by Tom but at least he'll have the security blanket the money brings (perhaps). RR's right about it being a humiliation for the MFC, particularly because we effectively sat back and condoned the outrageous compensation rules that will set us back a little if we as a club dwell on this for too long. The antidote is to get this club back on track, appoint a strong coach, use the resources that would otherwise have been spent on Tom, trade and draft well and get on with our lives.

The expression "career coach" has come into vogue recently and if that is how Ross Lyon likes to describe himself and he has an "out" clause in his contract, then he should be looking long and hard at a change of scenery for 2012 and beyond. And St. Kilda should be thinking the same way too! I've heard it said that the Saints are the 2011 equivalent of the Hawks from last year but I don't see them coming back next year the way Hawthorn did this year. My view is that the Saints window slammed shut when the ball failed to bounce up into Stevie Milne's hands in the first grand final last year. Having witnessed the decline of Melbourne's great dynasty of the 50s and 60s, I can tell you that when the ending comes, it comes so fast. The problem with St. Kilda has been it's lack of depth. Nothing changed in 2011 and with four retirements announced after last night's game and more changes to come, their outlook is grim. So if Lyon is a "career coach" then a 5 year contract with the MFC sounds a lot better than a one year extension on his current one.

I don't think it's a cliche but the saying, "That should be in the Scully thread" really gets my goat!

So getting down to Casey's inconsistency and the poor performance on the field in the finals, I think in many ways it stems from the same malaise that's been affecting Melbourne in the AFL in recent times and that is it's midfield. Just as the combination of Jamar and Martin would often dominate hit outs and the MFC would fail to take advantage of this at stoppages, the same thing often happened at Casey despite dominant ruckmen in Spencer, then later Gawn and Campbell. I noted before the team's first loss against the Coburg Tigers earlier in the season that Casey was vulnerable in this area. At the start of the season, Casey had some good young midfielders playing well including Michael Evans and others such as Dan Nicholson, Sam Blease, Addam Maric and Neville Jetta all went through the midfield rotations from time to time. When some of those players were promoted to Melbourne, there really weren't any players to fill the void in this important part of the ground. The season ending injury to Evans was a major blow because I'm sure he would have been the team's main on baller had he qualified to play with Casey in the finals. Tom McNamara went there with some success and Matthew Bate was also tried there. The problem in the finals was the lack of quality players available. The team missed those injured medium/small players like Blease, Jetta and Maric who all qualified (you can add Aussie to that list as well) and could have played in midfield roles, on the flanks and wings or performed the roles of crumbers. All of these things were lacking yesterday. The supply to the forwards was appalling and there were no crumbers applying pressure in the forward line when the ball hit the ground. The result was a largely frustrating day for the Casey forwards and Fev, who has in the main been a model citizen was ruffled by the idiots in the crowd and got reported late in the game. Port Melbourne has proven a success as a stand alone club because it can field a settled side each week. If someone stars in the midfield, you can be sure that barring injury, he'll be back the following week. When an MFC listed player stars with Casey, then the chances are that next week he might be out playing in the AFL. Hence, Casey in a year where there has been a large number of injuries at Melbourne, has probably used twice as many players this year as Port. In some games up to 16 MFC players were used and in others, the number was as low as eight. Hence, an unsettled team, especially in the midfield, and a disparity of performance from week to week. My theory about the Geelong game is that it was not aberration that Casey's worst performance came on the same day as 186 - there had to be a relationship between the two. As far as the future for Casey is concerned now that Fev has played his last game is to recruit two VFL quality midfielders instead of investing in a single controversial full forward. AFL clubs would do well to follow the same line of thinking.

Strangely enough, I'm 98% certain that each and every one of those rumours is true

Kicking of the rumour file, here's one from "Deep Throat" on twitter:- NOTE: You can't just do a Chilliboy (a former well loved poster here) and state a rumour or make one up. You have to point to a source, even if it has no credibility whatsoever.

I think it's time we had a specially dedicated rumour file for the duration of the period up to the end of trade week. A tweet from Deep Throat suggesting Melbourne is interested in Mitch Clark sounds more than somewhat improbable but funnier things have happened in the trades period in the past.