Whispering_Jack

Had we won the game we would be 11th on the ladder with a poor percentage but in good company equal on points with the likes of Collingwood, the Bulldogs, the Swans and the loser of tomorrow's game but that's crying over spilt milk. Although this is still a development year we are in a competition and it would have been handy to have recorded a win. We should face up to Adelaide in that context. We've lost 2, they've lost 2 and we need to maintain the motivation and intensity next week and every week.

Colin Wisbey, the recruiting guru, is a big fan. He had this to say about him on Extreme Black 'n' White -

The official reason was apparently a "hip flexor". I think "hip flexor" means the selectors decided to include an extra medium sized tagger instead of a second ruckman. For those waiting to see whether Brad Miller does well at Casey this weekend, don't hold your breath. The Scorpions played a low key practice match against A Section Amateur team De La Salle on Thursday night. I'm informed that a few of our players took part but Miller wasn't one of them. Stef Martin did well and PJ made his comeback after a foot injury and played about a half. Colin Garland and Jack Watts didn't play either but trained on Friday morning at the Junction Oval. I think for Adelaide this week we should see Colin Sylvia and Stef Martin come into the side. I'm not sure which players will suddenly develop "hip flexor" or "knee" injuries for them to be omitted.

Fifteen points up at quarter time. Looks like we're heading for a 10 goal win! Please don't clap them at this stage. They need to go on with it.

Schwabbie was also interviewed on the ABC and his comments were similar. He stressed that Dean Bailey was here for the next two years and was generally most positive about the club's future.

Late change - Bartram in, Spencer out

You make an interesting point JVM. I'm one of those people who had high hopes for Newton in his early days at the club when he was an immature young bloke from a bush town who apparently had some difficulty acclimatising to the big smoke, I saw him out at Windy Hill when he kicked 9 goals in a reserves game for Sandy and a few weeks later he showed exquisite marking and kicking skills and some great goal sense. It took him a long time to make his debut but he hasn't duplicated the skills at a level above VFL. He suffered injury, loss of confidence or something about two years ago and looked gone at the end of last year when, a large list of injuries didn't help break back into the side and then he was dumped to the rookie list. Surely, this must be his last chance?

Was there any word on Jared Rivers? He wasn't on the official injury list that was published on the AFL website during the week and now he's out with a knee injury. I haven't heard or read any comments as to how serious a knee injury it might be.

Actually, there are millions of contracts entered into in this country on a daily basis and they're all legally binding and relatively very few of them are in writing or signed. When you buy a ticket at the railway station you enter into a contract with Metroline (or whatever they're called) whether or not you sign the ticket. Most contracts don't need to be evidenced in writing for them to be enforceable (the main exception to that rule being contracts for the sale of land) but a written contract is helpful in proving the existence of an agreement and in aiding its interpretation. In this instance, I'm sure there won't be any drama and the parties will put pen to paper. The situation with Dean Bailey and the development of the football team is well known and a loss (albeit a stinker) in round 1 to a team that won a flag 18 months ago shouldn't change things.

Last week Austin Wonaeamirri was left off the injured list despite the hammy so it's possible that they might have forgotten PJ.

I don't believe there's too much wrong with Connolly's article. We were let down badly by our more experienced players as well as many in the middle tier and, although they have to take responsibility for unacceptable performances, it's up to the coach and the selection committee over the next couple of weeks to indicate to all of us exactly what they think and to set some standards for the year to come.

Good questions. I can't accept that the group as a whole is unfit. I think it must have something to do with what they're being taught to do or to the way they're being taught. Whatever it is, some adjustments need to be made because it's irritating to watch constant turnovers because of poorly executed handballs that don't hit their teammates or put them under pressure. Yet when I watch most other clubs it's different - especially the good clubs that make far less skill errors. Is it because it's in their heads?

Michael Barlow's debut is looking pretty good so far. He has had 20 disposals and it's only half time.

TEN MILES BEHIND ME (AND TEN THOUSAND MORE TO GO) by Whispering Jack I read somewhere that dreams are "often simple fulfilments of wishes" that rarely work out that way in the real world. You can spend the summer months dreaming, wishing and hoping that a new season will bring improvement to your footy team, that your wishes will be fulfilled and that it will happen instantly but that means nothing when the action starts and the team is neither prepared nor able to fire any more than a few opening shots. The task wasn't a total impossibility but it was only going to happen if all of the stars were aligned in all of the right places. Such occurrences are rare and more often than not, there will be no spontaneous attainment of success. Rather, it's a slow and tedious process and that's the way it has to be with the train wreck that has been the Melbourne Football Club of 2007 to 2009. The dream might fulfilled one day well into the future but in the meantime, the going will be tough for the Demons in 2010 as the pieces are reassembled and put together. The good news is that there will be some rays of light in among the darkness and we saw that clearly in the opening game of the season when a hopeful Melbourne took on Hawthorn at the MCG but more of that later. The Demons took on the Hawks in a game between the AFL's walking wounded. The hope was that they could take advantage of their opponents' injury predicament and give them a run for their money. Well, they did that but unfortunately, it lasted all of four lousy minutes before the wheels fell off. In that frenetic opening the Demons ran hard, tackled with gusto, generally had the better of the Hawks and had the opening two scoring shots of the game - both of them behinds. Then the wheels fell off and the 2008 premiers went into attack for the first time and goaled. Then they goaled again ... and again. While this was happening, Melbourne reverted to type and reprised everything that has been horrible during the reign of coach Dean Bailey since he took the helm two years ago in the same place and against the same opposition. Same result too! The overuse of handball, the hesitancy, the poor decision-making, the errors (often unforced and self-inflicted) and the sheer stupidity soon took on farcical proportions and by quarter time, the game was effectively over as the Hawks had kept Melbourne goalless while ramming on six of their own to take a 36-point lead. This was extended to 56 points at half time with Mark Jamar the solitary goal kicker after the first hour's play for the season. By then the fans had been exposed to every single component of a football supporter's nightmare. In the first quarter, Brad Miller went for a mark and took out Matthew Bate who left the field dazed and possibly bleeding (couldn't tell exactly because his hair colour makes it difficult to discern).Then Brad Green was stretchered off with what appeared to be a bad neck injury (fortunately, he came back later to kick a couple of goals). Later on, Jared Rivers left the field in pain clutching his ribs. The season was less than two hours old but already, it was becoming the season from hell. The pain did not stop at the main break and the deficit was increased further before Alistair Clarkson's men applied their own version of the mercy rule and collectively put their feet on the brake pedal with the result being that the teams broke exactly even in the second half. By the end of the game, thousands of Melbourne supporters had taken the easy option of departing the MCG early and many of those who remained to witness the excruciatingly painful proceedings were baying for Bailey's blood (as you do when your young and inexperienced side hit by injury suffers a humiliating defeat in the opening round of the season). This is the coach's trial year but surely you can't judge on one game alone. I guess that most of us simply chose to ignore Bailey's constant warnings about not expecting instant success. As late as the morning of the game, he was quoted in the Herald Sun as saying of his young team that "(you) can see they are going to get better, but it all comes with a degree of patience." What Bailey has been telling us is that when you dream of team success then you should expect some fitful sleeping because your dreams are bound to be littered with some nightmares along the way. If you hadn't got the message about the extent of the required "degree of patience" before, then it surely must have come home during the first half of the game? Bailey was by no means let down in the main by his youthful players. If you want to point the finger at anyone then it has to come from the more experienced members of the group. The skipper worked hard and Green was courageous but Cameron Bruce (underdone after an interrupted pre season), Aaron Davey (ditto) and Brad Miller were not up to scratch and most of the 50 to 100 game players failed to step up and some were plain aweful. Of this category, I exclude Jamar, Rivers and Matthew Warnock who all contributed with the latter doing well to keep Roughhead, the Hawks' main go to man, down to only three goals in the face of a four quarter onslaught brought about by the dominance of his team's midfield. The problem with many of the players who let their team down is that in the heat of action these blokes cannot or will not run to save themselves. The game these days is mainly about athleticism and running. It's said that we recruit players for their athleticism as much as for their football skills and yet, when Melbourne has the ball, you can look at the ground and all you can see is stagnation. There's little or no movement at the station. And that's where Melbourne's younger brigade comes into the picture. Firstly, they are the only ones who fulfilled some of their dreams during the course of the game. Tom Scully, Jack Trengove and James Strauss did it by making their AFL debuts on the MCG. Rookies Jordie McKenzie and Jake Spencer played a few games late last year and Jack Grimes and Jamie Bennell have had a handful of matches. These are the players who are living their dreams and are at the point in their careers where each of them will tell you, "I have ten miles behind me and ten thousand more to go". This is not to say that all of these youngsters played games you can write home about. Spencer was rarely sighted, Strauss had some good, bad and ugly moments and Bennell was patchy. Grimes started slowly but worked his way into the game as did Trengove and Scully. For my money, the top two draft picks of 2009 were the best two Melbourne players in their debut games simply because they showed the rest of the team that they were prepared to run into the right spaces to make the play and to get the footy and, in that respect, they showed up their more experienced team mates and put them to shame. When two debutants can inspire the making of such a statement, then despite the frustrations of days like these, the fulfilment of the dream of those next ten thousand miles will be well worth the wait. Melbourne 0.3.3 1.6.12 4.9.34 8.13.61 Hawthorn 6.3.39 10.8.68 15.14.104 17.15.117 Goals Melbourne Green Miller Petterd 2 Jamar McKenzie Hawthorn Brown Roughhead 3 Hooper Moss Osborne 2 Hodge Ladson Morton Mitchell Peterson Best Melbourne Trengove Scully Jamar Green Warnock Frawley Grimes Hawthorn Hodge Lewis Birchall Ladson Mitchell Gibson Roughea Injuries Melbourne Green (neck) Rivers (ribs) Hawthorn Renouf (groin) Reports Nil Umpires McLaren, Stewart, Kamolins Official crowd 45,615 at the MCG Postscript: I would like to dedicate this to Carole King and James Taylor whose brilliant performance I attended last night at the Rod Laver Arena. After enduring a game like Road 1, 2010 Melbourne v Hawthorn it was a pleasure to see the creative energy that has seen them retain legendary status in their craft for over four decades. CK and JT keep racking up the miles in their thousands and Sweet Baby James was the source and the inspiration for the title. I hope to see the dream fulfilled. Discuss Here: http://demonland.com...showtopic=19782

Those who received their club yearbook in the mail yesterday might have noticed that your Casey Scorpions membership ticket was duly included in the packaging. Be careful because mine was stuck to one of the address pages which nearly went into the trash.

If I write at length about a subject there's a good chance that I enjoy it. BTW did you enjoy what you saw in the first quarter of last year's Queens Birthday game?

There's no doubt in my mind that we can win today but we have to show a lot more than we have over the NAB/practice match series. I think that the selected team for today's game is of better quality and better prepared than the 26 man squads we put out on the ground during the pre season games - and in saying that, I'm taking into account our well documented injury problems. Meanwhile, the Hawks have also been hit hard by injuries and, according to yesterday's Herald Sun, they're worse off on the injury front than we are. Melbourne does have to face a number of barriers to victory, one of which is the need to establish some self-belief after three years of consistently substandard, poor performance. The patterns established in our preseason have been mirrored in what's taken place in the two completed games so far. In three of our games, we've gotten off to bright starts in the opening 10 - 15 minutes but have failed to convert on the scoreboard. When the opposition gained the ascendency, such as Essendon in the game at Visy Park, it took full advantage of our wayward kicking for goal and kicked accurately to set up a good lead and leaving us to chase tail. In Thursday night's game, Carlton showed the value of clean, accurate kicking for goal by blitzing the Tigers and forcing them to play catch up football that ultimately finished badly for them. The other practice match pattern that we displayed was the fade out, generally believed to be a result of younger, lighter and less experienced bodies. This happened in three out of four preseason games (the exception being Adelaide). Similarly, Richmond and Essendon both faded out badly in their respective games against bigger bodied and more mature opposition. Geelong looked almost down and out when their battle hardened brigade took over and G Ablett Jnr added a little extra to the price tag in the event that a GC17 deal remains unconsummated. So if we can produce a good start and convert early, will our younger and lighter bodied side succumb in the end thus spoiling our chances of a victory? Well, there's an interesting thread on 'ology which is based on a statistic from the Herald Sun which gives Melbourne a slight edge in both age and games played but such statistics can be damn lies. They still don't take into account the make up of the respective teams, the quality of the players or the quality of the games in their legs. How many Demons have played in big finals recently? Three of our four newcomers are young kids while none of Hawthorn's newbies are spring chickens. Gibson and Hooper are recycled players with lots of previous AFL experience while Peterson and Kayler-Thomson are into their 20s and have been around the traps for a while. The worry clearly remains that we'll be overrun when those chips are down as we often have been in our recent past but if that's our only worry for the day then I would (reluctantly) be prepared to cop it because it's somehting we can easily overcome in the medium term. Even then there's no guarantee that this Hawthorn side has what it takes to destroy an opposition. I'm hoping we grab our chances and cause what most in the football world would call an "upset". Despite pronouncements to the effect that it's a long road and we must be patient, all of which is true, such a result would really make a difference to the club in terms how the players perceive of themselves and how we, as supporters, perceive of our club which gets me back to the importance to our development of establishing self-belief.

I thought tonight's game was an appalling contest between a good ordinary team and a dreadful one. You simply can't judge a player's capabilities on this one game because, after quarter time it was played at pedestrian pace and Carlton was never under much pressure. The game would have suited Brock down to a tee. Twelve months ago I was one of his biggest fans and would have placed him right up there as one of our best players. He wasn't anywhere near 100% fit in 2009 but still, on what he showed us last year, I was quite frankly relieved when he put up his hand to go and Melbourne readily accepted draft pick # 11. He needed a change from us and we needed a change from him. You can call it a falling out of love if you like but I still have no regrets after watching him play tonight.

Welcome pitchfork. It's an interesting subject and I can say from experience that it's not easy compiling lists like Mike's. I've tried my hand at it in the past and I'm convinced that the only way they can be put together is by subjective choice. There is no other way when you're dealing with a competition that incorporates more than 700 players of different shapes and sizes who perform different roles at clubs. Statistics might assist in comparing one apple with another but how do you use stats to compare a medium sized midfielder with a 200cm plus ruckman. You ultimately have to go with your own instincts and feeling about a player's attributes i.e. make a subjective choice. Looking at Sheahan's list this year, I think it's not hard to find agreement with his top 8 - 12 but after that you're always going to have massive disagreements between observers of the game. On Fev's fall from grace in Mike's eyes over the summer it's understandable. His end of 2009 list was based on an assessment looking back on a year where he was injury free and the top banana in a forward line where he played in front of a classy midfield where he was the #1, 2 and 3 target week in week out. The new list out this week looks forward and Fev is now a year older and taking on a different role in a team whose attack is structured differently. He's still going to get good service from a handy midfield but he won't be the # 1 target. He's going to be playing his home games on a different ground which is subject to the elements much more than Etihad and we still don't know what might happen if he succumbs to his well documented weaknesses (a factor compounded by the AFL having him in the gun if he steps out of line). There's plenty of justification to judge him harshly at the start of a new season. I personally doubt that he's going to have the same influence that he had at Carlton but then again, that's my subjective opinion.

Looking at that Hawthorn team, they don't look particularly strong. All Melbourne needs is a bit of self-belief and (as the Oracle says) a good start and I reckon we can roll them!

Yep, according to wikipedia "Chance with captain Sam Mitchell were the only Hawthorn player to play in all games in 2009. He Will miss the first game of 2010 because of a 1 game suspension for striking Matthew Lloyd of Essendon in the last game of 2009 season." Bateman always does a number on us whenever we play the Hawks. To my mind, his absence will harm them almost as much as that of Buddy and their entourage of injured ruckmen. First time in a while I've felt a fondness for Matthew Lloyd.

I don't have a problem with discussion on this but please do keep it constructive.

Was not Chance Bateman under an injury cloud? ... and is not Austin Wonaeamirri also out injured?

Based on recent performances, we're lucky to have one player in the top 50. It's up to our players now to produce the form consistently throughout the season to warrant selection on that sort of a list by the end of the year. Simple as that.

Even better is Jimmy's on the Monday night after we win our first game for 2010!