Whispering_Jack

Well, the feeling is that our defence is looking settled and that this is the most advanced of the departments that make up out team. The midfield, with some very good young talent like Grimes, Scully, Trengove and McKenzie coming into the mix is going to learn a lot today against the seasoned campaigners from Adelaide so in that respect this is an important game. It's all about learning and this quartet have the opportunity today to test themselves against some elite midfield talent. That's a bonus. It's odd to think that, apart from Junior (who might play in defence), Nathan Jones is going to be just about our most experienced midfielder today! I was impressed with the Russian last week, particularly the way he combined with Grimes. He didn't play many games last year but, when he did, he seemed to come of age now that he was no longer in Jeff White's shadow. It was interesting that Essendon was at it's most damaging when Jamar was off the ground and what I'm looking for today are signs that he's capable of taking further steps forward. The word is that he spent much of his down time last year while injured observing how some of the better ruckmen in the competition go about their work. Today, he has Jake Spencer in support so that should be of assistance. That leaves us with our forward line which, apart from Ricky Petterd, has been a shambles in the NAB Cup and NAB Challenge so far. Obviously, I'd like to see Ricky continuing in the goalkicking vein but it's also important for us to find more avenues to goal. If not, we're facing a bit of a slaughter today and we'll cop a lot of stick this season. Things won't be any easier for Liam Jurrah who will get another top line opponent so we need more from Brad Miller and Stef Martin if he's going to be persevered with up there. Given that Matthew Bate and Jack Watts are due to return soon, the pressure will be on these blokes (and Juice!). Disappointing that Aussie didn't make the flight but it opens up further opportunities for Adam Maric to score goals. We need to see the midfielders drifting down occassionally to kick goals as they do in most of the good teams. The other aspect of the forward set up that will be of interest to me will be to see where Lynden Dunn is played. He knows where the goals are and this is a practice match. It's probably going to be a make or break year for him and I'd like to see him back as a forward because that's where he's played best for us in the past. Chris Connolly was quoted in the paper today as saying that Jack Fitzpatrick has been the surprise packet of the season so I'd like to see him pull off some surprises and score some goals, get kicks and get involved. Finally, although it's not important in the scheme of things today and, as unlikely is the prospect, I would really like to see us win the game. Winning is better than losing and while it's important to get games into young players' legs, a positive scoreboard result will help complement a good feeling around the club and help maintain the enthusiasm of our young squad. Also, if we win (and even if we lose) the media will no doubt focus on one thing and one thing alone - the number of Crows players not available for this match. So for the record, based on the list of players in today's squad, here's the list of our players missing today (and you can now add Aussie to the list):- 4. Jack Watts 6. Matthew Bate 10. Cale Morton 11. Paul Johnson 12. Colin Sylvia 20. Colin Garland 22. Brent Moloney 26. John Meesen 32. Cameron Bruce 35. Luke Tapscott 36. Aaron Davey 37. Max Gawn 38. Daniel Hughes 39. Neville Jetta 43. Jamie Bennell 46. Sam Blease 50. Rhys Healey

Just some notes on a few of the injured players from last night's Mates of Melbourne function was held at the Kooyong Tennis Club with some of our injured players in attendance. They were all briefly interviewed by Dean Bailey and here's the gist of what was said: Jack Watts – no longer worried by his back strain and is gradually overcoming the problem with his quad. Hopes to be back in a week or two. (He should be more worried by his haircut - it's a shocker!) Colin Garland – has been in pretty much full training for a month and expects to start playing the weekend after next in a Casey practice match. John Meesen - the foot injury is taking a while to heal and he has had some setbacks. Recently, he underwent an operation on his ankle and some "gunk" was removed. His surgeon is very confident that the op was successful but there’s no specific time frame for his return. Max Gawn – had a knee reconstruction after damaging his ACL in round 5 of the TAC Cup but still won the Dragons’ goal kicking. He’s back running but it will still be a while before he’s back. Sam Blease – had a broken ankle as a result of a schoolyard accident, has resumed training and is a couple of weeks away from playing.

Alas, poor Redleg has done his back and says he's not up to it. It's also his birthday tomorrow at midnight (born 29 Feb!) and he's having brunch with the missus. Appreciate a couple of assistants.

The timing is beautiful folks. I'm taking my daughter to one of those arty movies later in the afternoon so hopefully I'll get my fix of some real culture in the morning. Meanwhile I'm heading off to Visy Park shortly and I promise to keep a close eye on Dean Bailey and his coaching tactics and strategies to use as pointers for tomorrow. The word is that he left the playbook at home last weekend and things will be different this arvo (we hope)

Good to see Ricky Petterd on the ground after being taken off the substitute bench.

Some of our more experienced players like Davey, Green, Miller and Rivers are letting us down. We need a lot more out of them.

Like many around here, I also have a distaste for all things Carlton and, while I enjoy a bit of a joke at that club's expense (and of its players including Brock) when they're down, I think we're being a tad uncharitable to a bloke who was a terrific club man when he was at Melbourne. This time twelve months ago, I still held high hopes that he might become an elite player and a leader at the club. I was wrong due to a combination of factors including some of which were beyond the player's control. A couple of points to make: 1. Gysberts might not be the fastest conveyance in the world but he's adequate for today's game style in that area and well superior to the pedestrian level that McLean has unfortunately and sadly reached - if last night is any indication, he's even slower than he was last year. For his sake, let's put it down to a bad night or the fact that he was destroyed by a superior opponent. After all, when he was recruited to the Blues, the popular view was that he would relish not having to wear a tag because other clubs would concentrate on others in their midfield like Judd and Murphy. It didn't work out that way last night but I'm sure there will be other days when he will have more freedom and other times that won't demand such a long and arduous drive as the one from Sydney Central to Blacktown (I'm assuming they passed on the opportunity to make the journey up the picturesque Paramatta River on a cruise boat); and 2. According to my spies out Carlton way, it was the Blues who initiated talks with McLean's management in the first place and this happened sooner rather than late in the season or after it was over. Given the way the game is played these days, McLean's on and off field form, the mix of players in Melbourne's midfield, the rapid advent of Jack Grimes and the imminent arrival of Scullgrove, it's not hard to work out that McLean's departure was always going to be a mutual thing.

Perhaps the AFL has assumed that we're still tanking?

It's now official. According to today's Herald Sun, a "Melbourne official" has confirmed that Luke has undergone hip surgery and will be out for 3 - 4 months. The club hopes to have him back in mid-season. In a separate article, it seems that Adelaide made a play during the off season to get Jordie McKenzie across the border but the young Demon decided to repay the club's faith in him and stayed put as a rookie. With Tapscott out for a while Jordie can get a place on the senior list with some good pre season performances starting with tonight's game against the Dockers as there is a long term injury vacancy now open.

I know it's early days and everything but there were some worrying signs for both sides whose skills were quite sloppy. The only redeeming feature is that, apart from last night's game where the skills of both teams were passable and Hawthorn's performance, we really haven't seen much quality footy so far this year. Brocky hasn't picked up any pace. His opponent Brett Kirk is usually no speedster but he looked like Usain Bolt relative to Chook tonight. I don't think Robert Warnock showed that he will justify his $400k price tag on tonight's performance. The players I liked the most tonight were the young Sydney pair Jetta and Rohan which indicates that clubs should think twice before giving up first round draft picks.

That's probably Part Two!

A lot has changed on both sides of the fence. I remember back in the 90s almost getting into a fist fight with a St. Kilda supporter at a pre season night game at VFL Park over some nasty racial abuse he was directing against Jeff Farmer. The sad thing was that most of the Saints fans in the crowd around us were backing him and egging him on! That's not to say that there are no instances of racism in society today or that we still don't have a way to go but it's a lot harder for fools like that bloke to get away with it today.

I was surprised that Fitzpatrick was selected for this game as I fully expected that Mark Jamar would be used as a substitute for half a game. I hope this doesn't mean that Jamar hasn't had further injury issues and that the club is merely taking precautions with his fitness and giving him the extra time. Fitzpatrick looked very raw last week and like all big men will take time developing. If he is going to make the final cut of 26 then I don't expect him to have too much game time or that he would have a big impact anyway. However, given the injuries to so many of our big men, we have to have him ready to step up early if required.

Actually, I was thinking yesterday as I was watching that fantastic game between the Saints and the Pies about the irony of Luke Tapscott being injured. Luke was the player whose name was called out at # 18 in the National Draft slowly and dramatically by Barry Prendergast when some were anticipating that he might call out "Luke...Ball." The worry at the time was with Ball's fitness (we weren't going to take him anyway) and yet, he played very well last night while our young and apparently fit Luke looks likely to be sitting on the sidelines for a while. Of course, this is all short term stuff and the fitness queries on Ball were about his ability to see out the rigours of a whole season. Luke Tapscott was hardly going to be a regular in the first half of his first season in the AFL so this surgery will hopefully be nothing more than a minor setback at the start of a long career. Another thing I noticed last night was that, at one stage, a Simon Buckley pass hit its target. I wish him well at his new club!

The problem appears to be a hip injury*. There seems to be some consensus that it is not a serious injury, possibly cartilage damage. Luke has been doing limited training (the tennis ball into the net thing) since late January. I think Addam Maric had some sort of hip surgery in the off season between 2008 and 2009 and it certainly curtailed his pre season but we don't know whether it's a similar complaint because, in this case, the club is keeping things close to its chest and Luke is not even on the official injured list. * reported first in time by Destroy All on Demonology and also reported by Deeman on Demonland who is not the Deeman from Demonology. Deeman's source is a friend who claims to have gotten this information from a player. No further argy bargy about who got their info from where will be entered into (but feel free to discuss the injury and its possible impact on the player and the club)

Thanks people. This really isn't taking us anywhere and the discussion is closed. If and when there is something official on Tapscott's injury status a new thread can be opened stating the source of the information.

Was that the one and only time that Daniel Hughes represented Melbourne?

Unfortunately, the club's injury list has always been a bit rubbery starting from the days and months when Nick Smith was routinely listed as being out for 4 to 6 weeks. Now we have Jack Watts' slight quad strain transmogrifying into a back injury and poor Luke Tapscott is not listed as being injured at all but he ain't doing much training either. It's all good because if we the supporters are confused then imagine the opposition clubs. They must be quaking in their boots wondering whether or not Tapscott might bob up from nowhere to singlehandedly destroy them in the NAB Cup.

And we should leave a lot of things there if, for nothing else, legal considerations. Please be very careful when discussing this very sensitive subject folks!

If you think that's hype then check out what they're saying on Dockerland about the Intraclub game - http://www.dockerland.com/latest/on-the-way-to-the-flag.html. They're on their way to the flag with their young brigade so I'd like to know what's going to happen if we beat them.

It would also be interesting to see what effect yesterday's events have had on membership sales. I assume they were selling yesterday but also I wouldn't be surprised if there was a bit of a surge in interest following on from the performances of Trengove and Scully, Frawley and Grimes.

Meh, I'd personally prefer to see Buddy Franklin wearing the guernsey!

Australian Pie by Whispering Jack "A long, long time ago I can still remember..." Well, it must have been a long, long time ago because I can't remember two recruits making such an impact in a Melbourne intraclub practice match as Jack Trengove and Tom Scully did this morning at Casey Fields. Trengove showed enormous poise and skill for an 18 year old and he simply took off from where he left the football world at the end of last season playing in a grand final for Sturt in the SANFL. He was a prolific ball winner on his wing, played with great confidence and demonstrated sublime skills and football smarts. At one stage he had the 2,000 strong crowd gasping as he sidestepped Aaron Davey with all the aplomb of a veteran. Not many people in football could manage that, let alone a kid playing in his first practice match in this sort of company. Trengove also showed an uncanny ability to read the play and was constantly in the action until he was matched against Scully for a brief patch in the final term. The #1 national draft pick from 2009, Scully had to be content to be in Trengove's shadow this time although he still showed flashes of the sheer brilliance that had recruiting scouts salivating last year. The intense youngster has been in full on training mode for less than a month after knee surgery kept him out of last year's TAC Cup grand final and was playing in his first open age game of football. He collected many possessions (often lightning fast handballs that were delivered precision-like to their targets) and he kicked a goal in the final quarter to give the white team the lead after it had, at one stage, trailed by six goals. It took some sublime magic from Liam Jurrah to boot the last two goals of the match to turn the tables. Jurrah had only a reasonable game but a few cameos saw him finish with four goals for the winning red side. The star of the day was 10-year veteran Brad Green at half forward who was in everything and finished with three goals. Skipper James McDonald belied his age and directed proceedings to the praise of coach Dean Bailey who also cited Brent Moloney and Jared Rivers as important cogs in the line up, each having gone through their initial seasons after lengthy lay offs through injury. One typical hard Moloney tackle on Scully was not quite the welcome the youngster would have wanted in this game but it was the type of tough initiation to the big time that was handled manfully by both the tackler and the tackled. Colin Sylvia started slowly but showed enough to suggest that his forward progression of the last season or so will continue to gather momentum while former Brisbane Lion Joel Macdonald showed he will be a welcome addition giving some good run off half back. I also liked Ricky Petterd's game. Mark Jamar who is also coming off an injury lay off was strong in the ruck in his allocated half of football. The Demons need a fit Jamar because a full season from the improving Russian will be of great importance to the club's stocks. The Demons have struggled in the ruck department in recent years. A few of Melbourne's younger brigade showed that they will be stepping up another notch this year. James Frawley in defence is bigger, stronger and faster and played his key defence post with great confidence and flair. Jack Grimes, in the middle, was smooth all day and showed in his step up from defence that he has all the ingredients necessary to mix it with the competition's elite midfielders. It's quite extraordinary when you realise he is a veteran of only 12 games! Jamie Bennell looks stronger and fitter this year and he literally ran rings around some of his opposition forwards. Every time I see him play, he reminds me more and more of a young Andrew McLeod. Rookie Jake Spencer is not renowned for his kicking as the small band of Demon fans that witnessed his fresh air blooper at Etihad Stadium last year. This morning he was right on target kicking the first two goals of the game prompting cries of "who needs Naitanui". The 203cm Spencer has worked on most facets of his game and it showed today. Fellow rookie Jordie McKenzie has also stepped up a notch or two in the off season and looks set to claim a berth in the club's midfield just as soon as he can be uplifted from rookie status. The game itself was a mixture with the standard vacillating from high to low calibre but generally, one would have to say that it was satisfactory for a first up hit in February. Missing from the game were Jack Watts, Matthew Bate, Paul Johnson, Colin Garland, John Meesen, Cameron Bruce, Austin Wonaeamirri, Luke Tapscott, Max Gawn and Sam Blease. Apparently, only the three big men in Johnson, Meesen and Gawn are likely to miss more than a couple of weeks. The two teams were supplemented by some young Casey Scorpions who would have gained an enormous boost playing against a squad of AFL regulars. The best of the loca lads was Glenn Chivers while Chris Wylie kicked a goal for the winning red team and Matt Fieldsend was prominent early for the whites. The atmosphere at the ground was very friendly and it was great to see that the club is settling in well at Casey Fields and is in tune with the local community (although something should be done about ensuring a smooth flow of traffic from the car park after games). The importance of the Casey venture should not be underestimated in terms of developing the club's support base to ensure its long-term survival. Nothing should be taken for granted in football these days. I was reminded of this when thinking back to the days when I was a teenager who used to enjoy going to the MCG to watch intraclub games in the 60's. Back then, you didn't have NAB Cup games and clubs didn't meet until the beginning of the season proper. The first signs of change occurred circa 1970 when games against interstate clubs were permitted and Melbourne took on SANFL powerhouse Port Adelaide, winner of 36 premierships, for a couple of years in pre season games. The SA Pies have struggled on and off the field in recent years. They're now broke and on the brink of extinction with their power base eroded by tough economic times and well ... among other things the Power. I'm more confident today than I have been for some time that the same fate doesn't await Melbourne. Jimmy Stynes, who was at Casey today, has worked hard with the Board to shore up the club's financial situation, and while we are not likely to see an immediate surge back into the finals this year, today's events give reason to believe that we are on our way. As I mentioned in the beginning, I can't remember the advent into the club of two youngsters with the capacity to make a first up impact as Jack and Tom ... and I think there's more to come yet. Reds 6.2.38 9.6.60 11.7.73 14.7.91 Whites 1.2.8 6.3.39 10.7.67 12.10.82 Goals Reds Jurrah 4 Green 3 Spencer 2 Jamar Miller Moloney Petterd Weekes (Casey Scorpions) Whites Jones Maric Newton 2 Dunn Gysberts Hughes Morton Scully Sylvia Best Green Trengove Frawley Grimes DISCUSS HERE - http://demonland.com...showtopic=19142 DISCUSS HERE - http://demonland.com...showtopic=19142

Reds hang on to win 14.7.91 to 12.10.82. Liam Jurrah finished with 4 goals. Tom Scully runs all day and has quick hands. His game was not as outstanding as that of Jack Trengove but considering he only went into full training in mid January after a knee injury at the end of last year, he's up there and our #1 & 2 draft picks are going to have a marked impact on increasing skills at the club. I liked the games of Ricky Petterd and Jamie Bennell while Cale Morton just got better as the game went on and accumulated a lot of the ball although late in the game he was on Jurrah who was weaving some of his magic on the forward line.

Well that was Jack Trengove's quarter. He continued where he left off at half time. Brad Green likewise. Colin Sylva had a good quarter while Jamie Bennell and Jordie McKenzie have been consistently good. Reds lead Whites by a goal - 11.7.73 to 10.7.67.