Whispering_Jack

What is it with Cameron Bruce, umpires and Essendon? I'm certain he was legged in the dying moments of last year's game at the Telstra Dome and the call was "play on" leading to a Scott Lucas goal in a game where we lost by a couple of points. Or do the umpires support us and are really helping us get the first draft pick?

Good to see the Poms losing to SA despite the great innings of Mr. Collingwood. He and Mick Malthouse have a lot in common.

One other consideration might be Ricky Petterd. As far as I'm aware, there's been no reason given for him not being selected in today's Sandringham team. I'm speculating but perhaps if he isn't injured then the thinking might be to play him on Friday night rather than play today and make his return on a 5 day break.

Your thoughts are much appreciated Demon85. Can we suggest that during the club's debt demolition month, that instead of donating to us, all donations be made to the club's efforts to remove its $5m debt. After all, if the club's no longer around in a few year's time, then neither are we! DEBT DEMOLITION

I've been a great wrap for the club's youth policy and it will clearly reap great dividends for the club's future. However, I noticed Dean Bailey, when asked about the club's veterans who were playing at Sandringham, said that the club would be discussing their future with them this week. Jeff White and Adem Yze have been among the greats of the Melbourne Football Club and it would come as no surprise that they are not part of the club's plans for 2009 and beyond. They deserve a send off game and what better occassion than against one of the top clubs on Friday night live television in the lead up to the Olympic Games ceremony? Hopefully, their selection will attract thousands of additional fans to the game to show their appreciation. The only problem here might be that they would be coming off a 5 day break but then so too would anyone else playing for the Zebras today (e.g. Nathan Jones). Obviously, I wouldn't be suggesting something like this if we were in the running for a place in the finals but the only prize we can win this year is made of wood and you cook things with it. In: Carroll, White, Yze Out: the 2 injured players and Aussie for a bit of confidence building at Sandy.

Probably discussing the separation of the football and cricket clubs in the early 1980's - Demons mend fences with MCC

FWIW Official Injuries

Bartram - (almost) kept Jetta kickless

Agree with you that if rattling tin cans is all there is to it then we're in trouble. However, I've had discussions with Jimmy and one other director and they assure me that the debt demolition plan is only the first phase or the first quarter. An outline of the plan has been placed on the club's website and further details will be made public in due course. It's up to the club's members and supporters to support the board's efforts and to also keep the board on its toes if they're not doing their job.

I think you might find that's illegal dazzledavey36. I do agree however, that it's time for the AFL to adopt uniform laws for the game i.e. they should apply to both teams.

He keeps improving every week and on today's performance, must be one of the contenders for a nomination ... surely?

Come on Demon fans. The site says on $11,276.00 collected to date. When you take into account the ten grand put in by the Richmond supporter, that's almost nothing from the true faithful! As the man says -

The day his voice broke!

GC17 enters the AFL the year after his contract expires. If he kicks on as many of us think he will, Petterd will be a prime target for the new club. Let's hope we look after him and he appreciates us for it all.

The composition of the Bullants team which includes 18 Blues players, clearly demonstrates one of the main reasons why Carlton is travelling so well at the moment. They have 40 out of 44 senior and rookie list players available and, of the players missing, only two would be considered selection chances for the AFL side - Richard Hadley and Setanta O’hAilpin - and they would be on the fringes of selection at best. And that's been more or less the situation with Carlton all year. If you gave them an injury plagued season or two like those experienced by Melbourne recently, they'd be back on the tankwagon very quickly.

This really sounds like paper talk to me. Designed to strengthen the AFL's hand in its negotiations on behalf of the clubs for a better deal from the stadium managers. Still, it wouldn't be a bad idea for the AFL to kick some additional funding into Casey Fields to ensure the ground has sufficient capacity to hold a crowd of 15 - 20k for home games for clubs like Melbourne, Western Bulldogs, North Melbourne and hawthorn against the lesser interstate draws like Fremantle, Port Adelaide, GC17 and WS18.

So does Ben Johnson (by at least the three or four days needed to get the drugs out of his system).

I don't see why the need for the white in the jumper at all. I agree with the others who are saying that an all red number with the navy blue monogram would be sufficient to cover any possible clash with existing clubs.

Probably. A few gold medals in the swimming, equestrian maybe and we'd have to be a chance in the men's pole vault.

Include me in for the time being.

Just announced that the Round 19 Geelong vs Melbourne game on Friday August 8 has had a change of time. Thought everybody would be eager to know about this world shattering piece of news from the AFL. Apparently has something to do with some other sporting event going on in another part of the world on the same day.

Oh, and just as a matter of interest to Charlie Happell, Chris Connolly played his last game for Melbourne in 1989 i.e. 5 years before Irving arrived at Melbourne. In 1994, Connolly was into his third year as coach of the Eastern Ranges TAC Cup Under 18 team. Ironically, four years later Barry Prendergast, our recruiting guru, was coach of the Ranges. Another mate? More bad news for Chuck is the fact that Greg Healy retired at the end of 1993 and, from what I understand, he spent more of his time in 1994 surfing around Bells Beach. Whatever the case, I somehow doubt that Happell's so-called villains and members of this dastardly cabal, Connolly and Healy were snubbing Dean Irving at any team meetings during the 1994. Most of Dean's team meetings would have been reserves team meetings and I don't think Chris or Greg would have spent much time there anyway even when they were at the club. Anyone want to second my nomination of this story for a Pulitzer Prize in the science fiction section?

I think you're dreamin man and I don't give a rat's tossbag about what Happell's been in a former life although it's interesting that he may have been close to a former CEO of this club who was terminated not that long ago. The article is a sloppy piece of journalism. It takes a scattergun approach attacking everything about the Melbourne Football Club, past and present without substantiating claims made with anything that remotely resembles evidence. It's a really bitter attack and to colour the article by spending 50% of the space allocated to him on the Dean Irving beat up is proof that the whole thing is a waste of that space. We have a board that has taken on the enormous task of rebuilding our club. Clearly, they have to achieve that in an arena where there is no shortage of snipers willing to attack them on the flimsiest of grounds. If you check out the club's website, you'll find a list of the current board members and their cv's. Have a look at their names, what they have achieved and what they do in their business lives and tell me how many of them are really "yes men" who would allow themselves to be subservient to this so-called Hollywood Boulevard that may or may not have existed some dozen years ago in totally different circumstances to those of today.

True but people like Happell were no doubt booing loudly when Stynes dismissed Paul McNamee after such a short period at the helm, yet he has no compunction about sticking the boots into Jimmy's administration after just over a month. Even if you accept this notion of a Hollywood cabal existing in the mid 1990's, isn't it possible that the people involved have matured with age and that they accept the very serious responsibility they've undertaken in precisely that vein?

Laughed my head off reading this article which I thought at first was a satirical piece aimed at Comedy Channel audiences. Happell must think that the football public and the majority of Melbourne supporters all have memories like a sieve and are prepared to swallow any drivel that's served up to them. Happell is so off the mark that it's not funny but if he's up to it, I'll debate the merits of the alleged factual parts of his article any day of the week at any venue provided all proceeds go to the Melbourne Football Club Debt Demolition. Just for starters Charlie boy, Dean Irving would be the first to admit that when he came to Melbourne in 1994 he was no champion - just a good ordinary footballer who (with all due respect to him) wouldn't be fit to polish Brownlow Medallist Jimmy's boots if we're talking in terms of quality AFL ruckmen. The adage in those days was that West Coast never gave good players away and that applied in Irving's case (he appeared once for the Eagles in 1993 before they let him go). Contrary to what Happell says, the club was not "the most shambolic excuse for an AFL club imaginable". If he would bothered to check his facts (which is what one expects from any journalist worth his salt), he would have discovered that Melbourne was travelling quite well in 1994 - in fact, the Demons made the preliminary final that year (which they lost aginst the ultimate premiers in Perth) and their finals victories over Carlton and Footscray were magnificent and very far from shambolic. Can I suggest that Happell picks up a videotape of the games in question and studies them carefully because the team played exquisitely in those games? Jimmy polled 7 votes in the Brownlow that year; how did big Dean go? So let's look at the respective records of the players concerned during the time in which Happell infers that Jimmy got a free ride as far as being selected over the hapless Irving whose main claim to fame at the club was that he was hospitalised in 1997 after he was bitten by a spider. Irving played 8 games in 1994, 6 again in 1995 and had a big year in 1996 with 9 games in a year when the club was badly hit by injury. In 1997, he had two games before he was given the flick. With a record like that most AFL footballers would be expecting the bullet and Irving got it - as Happell mentioned, he was replaced on the senior list by a rookie in Russell Robertson. Anyone familiar with Robbo's record after that would have to agree that the decision to do so was more than vindicated. Meanwhile, Jimmy Stynes won the Bluey Truscott Medal in 1995, 1996 and 1997 (to go with the one he won in 1990. Yet Happell's twisted scenario suggests that an injury striken Jimmy Stynes wasn't carrying his weight and some mysterious cabal (not to mention the spider) was working to keep Irving out of the team. Absolute baloney! The article is an insult to one of the club's greatest - a man who will be remembered at the Melbourne Football Club long after names like Irving and Happell will be forgotten. It's also an insult to a respected football person in Neil Balme who coached the side during this time as well as the other well respected club icons whose reputations this lowly hack who has no credibility on the subject tries to besmirch. Interestingly, Connolly was at the club long before Jimmy became President and it was the old admin of "non-mates" that enquired about the availability of Schwab when Schwab got the chop. His article isn't worth a pinch of drek.