Whispering_Jack

Just picked up a rumour that serial pest Stephen Milne is very unlikely to play tomorrow night and that Jason Gram will replace him. The source was a Saint fan so the information could have been "leaked" to me in the knowledge that it would probably be passed on to Dean Bailey.

Thanks HT, but hey, let's not dwell on past history .

Shortly off to the MFC FRIDAY NIGHT FUNCTION ON THE GOLD COAST where the guests will be dining with selected MFC coaching and senior football staff. Includes a two course sit down dinner, beverage package (?) and exclusive match preview from Dean Bailey. Dress Code: smart casual (Collar required). I have the wife busily sewing a collar onto my t-shirt and then it's off we go ... If the iphone's up to it I'll post a few messages here if possible but I won't be giving away any match secrets that the coach might give away to the audience.

Let's not get too carried away with Irish recruits. While I applaud the fact that we're getting back into the business of trying to find players from outside the usual sources, we should remember that the percentage of these players who make it to the AFL is still relatively low. Our last aspirant from Ireland was Nick Walsh who was brought out here and went to one of APS schools. Apparently, he once tagged Chris Judd in a school game and gave him some problems. We all got excited about our new Sean Wight but he spent the next two years either injured or playing with Sandy seconds and then went home. Hopefully, we get a better return from this lad.

Hi Deb, I assume training's at Carrara? Cheers

The boys were up early today to watch Barcelona's Champions League final triumph over Manchester United at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. By the time I woke up, the Spanish team was already celebrating its 2-0 victory and once I realised that the winners wore the famous red and blue colours I was celebrating with them. An encouraging omen for tomorrow night perhaps? B)

Welcome Jill. I think all of the topics you've mentioned have been covered on one of our threads somewhere. My pet one is the fixture but you won't get any sympathy from the AFL on the subject. They have no problem at all with giving Collingwood a two game and millions of bucks start with their easy draw, less trips, blockbusters and the like.

The last couple of days have been pretty taxing but they constitute what is considered an absolute necessity when travelling to the Gold Coast with young children in tow. Visits to Seaworld (yesterday) and MovieWorld (today) are enough to wear out a Superman, Batman, Green Lantern and The Flash (the film character, not Aaron Davey) let alone a mere mortal from Melbourne. No time to stop for a even a second as we rush from show to show, ride to ride and game to game. I think either of the 3D Shrek Show or the dodgems caused my whiplash but the real nightmares will come later. Sitting down on a bench next to my son, Marilyn Monroe and Austin Powers, we notice someone walk past attired in one of those alternative Hawthorn guernseys that made the Dockers' jumper look half decent when they played against each other a fortnight ago. This led to reminiscences about a game we used to play on the train on the way to the footy. The idea was that whichever team's colours we saw first would win the game. Despite the randomness of our sightings, the results were incredibly accurate although they weren't really that random when you considered that no self respecting football goer would be seen wearing the old Brisbane Bears or Fremantle jumpers in our home town. Marilyn yawns and walks off arm in arm with Powers. More rides, more shows, a stroll down the main street of Gotham City and it's time to leave. Then, just as we are about to exit through the turnstiles, he comes into view. A tall blond bloke wearing a Saints guernsey, the number 12 sown on his back. The nightmares are beginning ...

A few years ago I wrote an article on Demonland (when it was in Aimoo) about my big win at Keno at Wrest Point in the early 80's. I won $1,703.00 for an investment of $3.00 by picking 7 out of 8 numbers in one of my games. I used the numbers of eight Demons who played well the previous week (typically missing out on #25 Mark Jackson whose number didn't come up thereby costing me another 11 grand). I reckon this bloke read my article and has been using my system. I'm going to sue him for the lot!

Nathan Ablett at Broadbeach in the QAFL is a long, long way away from being the AFL premiership player he was with his brother in 2007 but they're a complex family, the Abletts! Nathan's father was one of the greats and Gary Junior is on his way there with a first Brownlow Medal beckoning. I just hope that people leave Nathan to just be himself, to do what he wants and to live his own life. Still, there is sure to be inevitably be conjecture as to whether he will join GC 17. I'm just not so sure that he will want to return to the life of travel and being in the limelight. I have two Ablett stories relating to the Gold Coast. A few years ago I read Garry Linnell's unauthorised biography of Ablett Senior [Playing God: The Rise & Fall of Gary Ablett] and I rate it high on the list of football books, possibly just behind Richard Stremski's "Kill for Collingwood". It brought home clearly the tragedy of a champion footballer, a lost, conflicted country boy thrust into a life of fame for which he simply wasn't ready. Once you read it, you can understand why one of his sons might want to shun the life of fame, fortune and adulation as an AFL footballer. Today, Ablett the father is doing his best to redeem himself and the news in yesterday's paper was that he was doing some good work visiting prisons to inspire the inmates. About 20 years ago, Ablett Senior's marriage fell apart. My recollection of the events which were pretty much constantly in the public domain is a bit hazy, especially the order of events. The story went that one of the locals, a pizza delivery man, was fond of the estranged Mrs. Ablett and there ensued an altercation between him and Gary Senior. Local tongues were wagging and it proved to much for the Cats' star player who promptly announced his retirement and took off for the wild blue yonder. The media had a field day speculating on his whereabouts constantly asking "Where's Gary?" and writing about reported sightings from all over the country. Our paths crossed at an Italian restaurant in Surfers Paradise. I was picking up some take away food for the family and in walked the great man himself. I think I was the only one there who recognised him (the Brisbane Bears already existed but they were still virtually anonymous in a predominantly rugby state) and I immediately searched for something on which he could scribble his autograph for proof that I'd seen him in the flesh while he was "hiding out". Just then the man behind the counter announced, "Order for Jack, Margharita Pizza, Aussie Pizza, Spag Bol and Ravioli!". I looked at the pizza box and for a split second was going to ask Gary to put his autograph on top of the box. Only then did I remember the story about Garry and his fight with the pizza delivery man and I thought for my own safety I should leave well enough alone. I paid for the food and left without even acknowledging the country's finest footballer. I've often wondered since then how valuable an item that pizza box might have been had the great Gary Ablett signed it for me. I reckon I could get a fortune for it on eBay. What I do know is that if I happen to bump into Nathan up here at Nicolonis Pizza on the Gold Coast Highway, despite what I wrote earlier about leaving Nathan lone, I would have no hesitation ...

He's definitely putting himself out there and handling himself well. I only noticed one very minor gaffe and that was when the panel was asked to name the best Indigenous player they'd ever seen and he named Phil Matera. IMO Phil was a bit of a pest as a forward pocket crumber but not in Peter Matera's league and I'm certain Brock meant to say Peter, not Phil. All in all however, he's definitely maturing and looks a good show to take over the captaincy mantle next year.

It's an interesting discussion and highlights again that it's possible for people to interpret the performances of players and teams differently. That's fair enough. Often, what matters is in the eye of the beholder. Having not been to Ballarat I can't really say definitively whether or not Watts had an influence on the game but I wonder, given that he had 23 disposals, how the claim can be made that he had no influence. It's possible that sometimes a player does pick up a lot of possessions unobtrusively and in the end has had little influence but such occassions are rare. I hope Peter German files his usual report for the Melbournefc.com.au site because that should throw some important light on the games of Watts, Newton and a few of the others. I look forward to his verdict because the coach is usually in the best position to determine the role of his players and whether they had an influence on a game.

I thought his comments about Colin Sylvia were quite astute. He had dinner with Col before the show and mentioned that he had been urged by the leadership group to work on being consistent from week to week and not get wrapped up in the odd single good performance from time to time. Brock said that Colin was now better equipped to handle himself because he had started some meaningful involvements outside of football during the week that allowed him to be more focussed.

I've been up here on the Coast for a few days now and whoever tried to pull the stunt about Queensland being beautiful one day, perfect the next should be committed to a psychiatric ward. It rained heavily last week and that combined with the high winds has played havoc with the beaches and many sporting grounds. They cancelled two NAB Cup under 18 national championship games at Carara and many local sporting fixtures were either caancelled or relocated to different venues. After a brilliant day on Friday, the weather turned again on Saturday and we had more strong winds, torrential rain, high tides and the odd case of flooding from the afternoon and into the evening. This made it possible for me to survey the conditions that prevail for your average couch potato and they're pretty flash I must say if your room has Foxtel and HDTV. Friday nights game between the Cats and the Dogs was available through Prime HD (Northern NSW affiliate of the 7 Network), the rest of the games were available live through a combination of One and Foxtel although I didn't bother on Saturday night because I just knew I would be upset by the Richmond and the West Coast results. Sunday evening at 4.40pm was compulsory viewing on Fox Sports 1. Pity about the result. There are very few signs (none in fact) of the impending arrival of the Melbourne Football Club, very little enthusiasm apparent for GC17 and I can see why the AFL is throwing money at this initiative along with a year's supply of first round draft picks, advantageous trading conditions and salary cap concessions. I fear a monumental flop coming on with the creation of another artificial football club that will serve to further dilute supporter passions for the game. I mean if you try to engage a local here on important topics like how they think GC17's clash jumper is going to look when they come into the competition, they look at you as if you are a nutter. Anyway, can't wait for the Dees to arrive. I was hoping it would be a Melbourne team triumphant after beating the Hawks down in Melbourne. Now all I can do is hope that Carara manages to dry out in time. If they cancel Saturday night's Carara game and move it elsewhere, I'm taking legal action!

I have to confess that I'm disappointed with today's showing and while a 22 point loss to last year's premiers sounds honourable, let's face it, the Hawks took the foot off the pedal in the final quarter. I really expected us to do better and thought we might be an outside chance to win given the players out of Hawthorn's defence, the loss of Dew and their poor form overall this year. I suppose it was a bit of a reality check. The good things were the play of Colin Sylvia - we've been waiting 6 years for a game like that and what we need to see is consistency of that high level of performance. Although we lost, it would not surprise me if Colin gets the 3 Brownlow votes for today's game. Frawley, Petterd, Morton, Grimes, Maric, Martin and Bennell continue to get games under their belts and Martin showed he might be handy up forward. While Johnson did well around the ground, we are still being badly beaten in the ruck and losing out of the stoppages. It was interesting to see Mark Jamar named as best for Casey. We need someone to contest in this department which is where we're being killed week in, week out. I don't know how Jake Spencer is going fitness wise but I would almost have been tempted to elevate him on the strength of his NAB Cup game again the Hawks earlier in the year. I still have faith that our second half of the season will see even more improvement and I hope that the club remains firmy focussed on winning 6 games in the run home. I accept that the game against the Saints on Sunday is going to be a tough ask but I'm already up here on the Gold Coast and will keep everyone up to date with the goings on in the lead up to Saturday night's game.

How's that? We lose by 7 points and drop 4 players. That hasn't happened at Melbourne for some time. Not even under a certain coach when we were being ruthless! Cheney is unlucky to miss but will probably be this week's emergency.

I have and always will regard Ron Barassi Jr. as the # 1 Melbourne player of my lifetime. He personified strength, courage, determination and leadership. He won games for us and with him in the side, we won premierships - lots of them. Forget Essendon (2000), Brisbane (2001-3) and Geelong (2007-), we were the best side in the history of the game, our reign lasted for a decade and RDB was the best of the best. Robbie Flower was the most skillful player to wear the red and blue (I might be ancient but Ivor Warne-Smith was before my time). Slight of build, Robbie was graceful and time stopped when he was near the ball. He was a magnificent mark, would run, bounce and mesmerise the opposition and one of his runs from coast to coast via pockets, flanks and wings to score a goal at Windy Hill one day was the most sublime pieces of action this game has ever produced. It wasn't his fault that we only made the finals once in his entire career but it would have been unbearable going to the footy between 1972 and 1987 but for him. My memories of Laurie Mithen are fading but I can't recall the dynamic centreman ever being beaten. He taught some of my friends who were students at Melbourne High School in the 60s and they used to call him a "bastard". That's how he played his football - like a real bastard and that's why Melbourne was so successful when he played in the middle. Stan Alves played on the opposite wing to Robbie Flower and arrived at Melbourne at the wrong time - 1965, when the Melbourne show was closing down. He was a champion, a beautiful mover and a clever thinking footballer. Sadly, he left to achieve premiership success elsewhere. It always amazed me that Melbourne couldn't do better with Alves and Flower on the wings and Greg Wells in the middle. Shows how bad we were everywhere else on the field in those days. Brian Dixon used to count his kicks in the days before statisticians took over the game. He was quite brilliant and although his kicking style wasn't the greatest, he was remarkably effective and contributed enormously to his team's successful era. Strangely, I have picked three wingmen in my top five. They were always important on the wide, open spaces of the MCG. I couldn't fit in anybody from the modern era but the others would be Jimmy, Garry Lyon, Alan Johnson, Shane Woewodin (I'm assuming I can mention him now), Neita and Brian Wilson for a short period of time. Gerard Healy might have made it had he stuck around long enough instead of making a run for the money and The Ox would probably have rivalled Laurie Mithen for my third spot if not for the tragedy of his knees. Of the current crop of players (and I don't want to put any pressure on prematurely but ...) I reckon our first three picks in the 2007 draft, Morton, Grimes and Maric all have the capacity to go places in this game. It's just a question of whether they have the will and the application to put in the enormous amount of work necessary.

To make it a quadrella (am I right?) my office is in Glenhuntly Road which isn't that far from the scene of the crime and to make it a quinella I once served on a committee with Travis' father, David Cloke. Now that I seem to be somehow implicated in three crimes, all of them problematic and separated by a span of 8 decades, I'd better not add a sixth degree of separation if I value my liberty and the freedom available I'm this great land of ours.

The shooting attack on Travis Cloke's home reminded me of a similar attack on a Collingwood player almost 50 years ago when someone took a shot at Murray Weideman's milk bar. My folks had a shop nearby and it was a pretty tough neighbourhood. Of course, times are a little different then but Collingwood supporters were as fanatical then as they are today. When we beat them in the 1960 grand final I made the mistake of proudly wearing my Demons jumper in the shop and a more than slightly tired and emotional Magpie fan walked in and flew into a rage. He finally left the store ranting on about "never coming to this bloody joint again" but not before he stole a couple of chocolate marshmallow snowballs. I suspect it was possibly an offspring of this blole who recently had an acrimonious meeting with Nathan Jones' father. Still, it's not very nice when gunmen take pot shots at anyone, even Collingwood and I'm sure the whole football world would join me in condemning this senseless act of violence.

Sam has apologised and corrected his article. He puts it down to writer's block which he says comes around only once on average every 2.537 years.

Not quite correct Big Kev. Snow is selected to play alongside Liam at CHF and I seem to recall him seeing Snow during last week's game so it won't be the first time!

Good to see Paul Wheatley back - even if it is at reserves level. It gets mighty cold up there at this time of year and Wheats is sure to enjoy the experience!

We all know the importance to the club of securing the priority pick and IMO the tanking issue is an indictment on the game and the integrity of the competition. I think its a sickening aspect of the sport that we as supporters of a club are placed in a position where we're virtually indifferent to the success of the team on a weekly basis. Hopefully, this sort of rubbish will come to an end soon and we won't be affected by it beyond this year. On what I've seen of the team this year I believe we have the capability to finish the season off well barring a continuing run of injuries to key players. Six or seven wins would not be an unreasonable expectation and would set us up well as a springboard for continuing improvement. If we win less than that it would be a disappointment but I would begrudgingly accept the priority pick if we happened to win four games or less.

My condolences to the entire Cordner clan on the loss of a great man and a prominent member of Melbourne's foremost footballing family. I also had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Don Cordner while I was walking around the block with fellow poster Redleg who recognised him and we introduced ourselves. He was waiting outside Melbourne Grammar's junior campus in Caulfield and we spent 10 minutes chatting about the Demons. Ten minutes that I will always treasure with great fondness. Vale Dr. Don.

... except that it's a formality the club has to go through if Jamar is reactivated as a senior player. Spencer will have to be re-rookied and then replace one of the others who is on the LTI.