Whispering_Jack

I agree. Good luck with the function and let's hear from all the Ballarat Demons on Sunday about how the function went and how the Demons played.

I've received the Sandringham Reserves team lists as follows for the Reserves game:- NORTH BALLARAT v SANDRINGHAM Sunday 6th July - Seniors at 2:00 pm AUSTAR Arena SANDRINGHAM Calder, Anthony (Local Interchange) Cannon, Jack Cleeve, Stuart Curcio, Michael Fleming, Andrew Gallagher, David Gilchrist, Rennie Gilder, Brad Gribbin, Daniel Grimes, Jack Hardiman, Maddison Johnston, Marc Johnston, Tomi Kondarovskis, James Lockwood, Scott Lyall, Nicholas Martyn, Guy Monaghan, Sam Plymin, Jarrod Sargent, Daniel Shakaib, Hiwad Spencer, Jake Teasdale, David Torcasio, Christopher (Local Interchange) Vickers, Jack Weetra, Isaac

Jim Stynes made his first official match day address as Melbourne Football Club President at the Club's President's Lunch at the MCG on Sunday. Read about it HERE.

I assume if a player is selected in the 18 set positions then he'll play on Sunday. There are only five MFC players in this category, leaving 11 Demons on the extended bench. Seven will be left after Melbourne finalises its 22 players for the Brisbane game tomorrow evening but only a maximum of four will play in the Sandy seniors (barring unforeseen injuries etc). That means it's possible that Cheney, Newton and one other Demon plays in the Sandy 2's and a few of the Sandy boys who struggled and were easily brushed aside by Port Melbourne play senior football. Doesn't make sense for Sandy and doesn't make sense for Melbourne. I guess there's half a season to go and what was once a very good relationship will be over.

Sandringham team selection doesn't make sense to me these days.

A TEST FOR THE MEMORY BANK by Scoop Junior On a great day for footy in the nation's capital, the Melbourne Football Club went down to top four fancy the Sydney Swans. It was a game that probably won't last too long in the memory bank. As good sides do against lowly opposition, the Swans killed off the contest early with a barnstorming start. They kicked the first five goals of the match and, in doing so, put paid to Melbourne's hopes of an upset victory. During that opening period, the Demons struggled to get their hands on the ball, taking until the fifth minute of the opening term to register their first possession. While it is symptomatic of a young side to go missing at times, this trait is one that the Dees have possessed for far too long and one that has punishing effects as opposition teams pile on the goals with ease dutring such periods. Richmond did it in the second quarter last week with an eight-goal burst; this time it was the Swans. To its credit, Melbourne did fight back in the second term to make it a more even contest. A few goals to each side kept the margin at five goals, with the Demons' improved tackling and pressure making it more difficult for the Swans to score. After half time, Melbourne lifted another gear and for the first time in the match started to produce fluent attacking football. So efficient were the Demons during this quarter that nearly every forward 50 entry resulted in a score. The Dees closed to within 11 points but a late goal to Sydney extended the margin to three goals at the final change. While Melbourne was in the game at three-quarter time, catch-up footy takes it toll. The energy expended in reeling in the deficit was too much for the young team and a lift in application from the Swans resulted in a dominant term for the Sydneysiders. Melbourne could hardly generate any offensive pressure and the Swans' high-pressure high-intensity style wore them out as they fell away to a 40-point defeat. For the Dees, Matthew Bate performed exceptionally well from limited opportunities to boot four goals. With the team limited to a paltry 30 forward entries, Bate did well to make the most of his opportunities in kicking the biggest bag of his career thus far. Brad Miller worked hard at centre half forward and Paul Johnson was particularly influential in the third term, leading up and showing a clean pair of heels to his opponents. Like Bate, Austin Wonaeamirri made the most of his opportunities to boot three majors. It was a great effort in the circumstances, given that Melbourne's lack of forward entries and dearth of big marking targets provided few crumbing opportunities for the little blokes. The midfield was well beaten by a more experienced, hardened outfit. With the likes of Kirk, Jude Bolton, Buchanan and Goodes, the Swans have a multitude of seasoned premiership midfielders who more often than not overcome what opposition clubs throw at them. The young Melbourne midfield was no match, coming up desperately short in the clearances. Brock McLean was nullified by Kirk, Bruce didn't see a lot of it and Jones lacked his usual output. Aaron Davey was quiet for most of the game but played a ripping third quarter, which was one of the main reasons for the Dees’ resurgence during this term. Melbourne looks a different team when the ball is in Flash’s hands, as he not only breaks the lines but delivers with pinpoint accuracy. On a brighter note for the Demons was the performance of Lynden Dunn, who restricted the dangerous Goodes to 12 disposals. It was a fine performance from Dunn, who has now had the better of Goodes, Foley and Swan in the past three weeks. What I like about this list of scalps is that these three players all possess pace, an attribute seriously lacking in Melbourne’s midfield. Dunn's ability to match them adds another dimension to the midfield. However, he now needs to learn how to find more of the footy himself and to provide an attacking influence if he wants to establish a permanent spot in the midfield. Brad Green and Paul Wheatley played well sweeping out of defence, with the formers' sure hands and crisp disposal helping to set up the play, while Chris Johnson played one of his better games for the club, nullifying the hard-working O'Keefe and using his sound kicking skills to initiate attack off half back. Colin Garland was effective without dominating, playing a decent game on O'Loughlin, while fellow young key back James Frawley did some nice things although he is still a number of games and many kilograms away from holding down a key position. Matthew Warnock, who has been somewhat of a revelation in recent weeks, was comprehensively beaten by Barry Hall. The Swans' spearhead had far too much strength and know-how and had he kicked more accurately would have booted 8 goals. In the end, it was a decent effort to limit the margin to 40 points, given Sydney's fast start, their dominance at the stoppages and the limited forward 50 entries from the Demons. While still nowhere near the elite teams, Melbourne's skill level has improved drastically since the early rounds (admittedly it couldn’t get much worse!) and this was highlighted by their efficiency in scoring, particularly in the third quarter. However, Sydney was well below its best for periods of the game and the match did indicate a number of key areas where the Demons need to improve if they are to move up the ladder in the coming years. Nevertheless, this honourable loss will not harm Melbourne's prospects of securing the number 1 pick in the National Draft, a draft which the Dees must extract some top-grade talent if they are to improve their list for the future. Despite the improvement since the early rounds, Melbourne lacks the talent of the top clubs and the best way to address this is with early draft choices and astute drafting and trading. With games against the impressive Lions, the second-placed Bulldogs, Fremantle away and the Kangaroos in the next for weeks, a win looks a fair way away, which is not all bad news given the draft prize of finishing near the bottom of the ladder. Despite only one win for the season thus far, it does promise to be an interesting final nine weeks! Melbourne 2.2.14 5.3.33 10.5.65 11.8.74 Sydney Swans 7.2.44 10.5.65 12.10.82 17.12.114 Goals Melbourne Bate 4 Wonaeamirri 3 Bruce P Johnson McLean Miller Sydney Swans Hall 5 Buchanan Mattner O'Loughlin 2 Goodes Jolly Malceski R O'Keefe Playfair Roberts-Thomson Best Melbourne Green Bate Dunn P Johnson C Johnson Wheatley Sydney Swans Hall Kirk Mattner Jolly C Bolton O'Loughlin For another view of the game from our man in the nation's capital see - IT'S A HORROR MOVIE

Votes have been collected and update of polling will be published tomorrow with our official match report from Scoop Junior. Thanks Graz. Your votes are included in the chosen group of three. This week's weighting = .6491.

Did I say that such an offer had been made?

If the MFC board was salivating over Warnock like some of the posters around here, we'd end up having to give up our top two draft picks and pay him an annual salary upwards of $500k . I prefer LL's approach of keeping the lid on him. At this stage he's potential only although the upside could be substantial if he matures like his brother has this year at age 24.

I suspect that there's an element of self-preservation in his knocking of Melbourne's proposed move to Casey Fields. The City of Casey lies down the freeway from where the Hawks are establishing themselves at the old VFL Park in Waverley. So right down the line from where the Hawks have a new base there's going to be an AFL club presence in the fastest growing population wedge in the state and one of the three red hot residential growth areas in the country i.e. that part of the world from the City of Greater Dandenong, to the City of Casey across Cardinia Shire and into Gippsland. If we set up there we will be well placed to pinch a lot of potential Hawks supporters because this would otherwise be closest to their territory. Kennett might look like a dropkick but he's not being dumb here. He's trying to protect his club's territory. By the way, the two other major growth areas in the country will also soon have an AFL presence by way of the next two clubs - GC17 and WS18. The move to Casey will hopefully reestablish us as M1 so up yours Jeff!

Of course no individual is ever going to be a team's saviour. This is a team game and the saving of the Melbourne Football Club is dependent on several on field and off field factors. Our on field team is in its development phase and there are a number of players around in the 23 and under age group who we will be looking to improve rapidly over the next 2 - 3 years. A couple of good trades and some good draft selections will help but one kid, no matter how good, is not going to make a significant difference, particularly in the short term. Whoever we select with our first pick (whatever number that might be) is going to be made aware of this the minute his name is called out.

Most of you seem to have forgotten what Carlton supporters were like before their team fell on hard times. The interesting sidelight to the Carlton resurgence under Pratt (and there's no doubt that it is a resurgence and that it was indeed, based in part, on ill gotten gains*) is the renewed arrogance of the Carlton supporter. FCS, they've won two games in a row (thanks to tanking and the excellence of a player who was bought for 30 pieces of packaging material) and you'd think the bastards struck the El Dorado carboard box mine or something. On Thursday evening I went out to a function and had the misfortune of being stuck between two Blues supporters who were convinced that Pratt was the messiah and their team was on its way to at least a 3peat of the Brisbane variety of 2001, 2002 and 2003. After about 15 minutes of listening to them crapping on ad nauseum I asked whether the Blues had enough player depth to sustain a long winning run and they looked at me as if I'd just arrived on earth in an alien spacehip. They finally came up with the name of one player from outside the current team who might add to it if he came back from injury and that was Andrew Walker. Their good young players are all in their A team which is effectively the team they're running ATM. I said that if they had at least half a dozen of their A team injured constantly for the past 2 years (which is a conservative assessment of where Melbourne has been since late 2006) the conversation would be centring on whether they should be drafting Naitanui or Rich or both at the end of the year. The following morning the news about Pratt broke. Today, I'll be supporting the Bombers and I'm looking for a 1 point last gasp win thanks to a Scott Lucas snap that goes through with the final siren blaring. Please make it happen! * there is a precedent to this in the days of John Wren and Carringbush but that's another story.

Sandringham desperatley needs to win tomorrow's game against Port, as a loss will severely diminish its chances of making the top four. The Zebs are entitled to play a maximum of 12 MFC listed players under the VFL's stand alone rule. There are twelve Demons left in the current squad of 26:- Daniel Bell, Simon Buckley, Kyle Cheney, Addam Maric, Stefan Martin, Tom McNamara, John Meesen, Cale Morton, Jake Spencer, Shane Valenti, Adem Yze and Trent Zomer Will they all play? I think they will with the possible exception of an additional emergency to go to Canberra (Valenti?) and Zomer who showed last week that he was fringe senior VFL at best at this stage. I think it would be pathetic if McNamara went back to the ressies after being named in a set position in the firsts for his first senior VFL game. That leaves the door ajar for Newton to come in if fit but, if that happens, it would leave a mystery about his non selection in the first place. I personally would like to see him playing because his presence in a game at this level always adds to the game's interest and excitement.

Bob, very few of us have seen much of Rich and therefore are relying on third party accounts about his ability. There's no doubt that he must be good and that his disposal is excellent because that's what everybody from recruiting scouts to the so-called observers" on bigfooty are saying about him. However, we haven't heard very much about what type of midfielder he is and in particular about whether he has genuine pace (which our midfield mix is desperate for IMO). If Rich as a junior was in the same mould as Brock McLean and Nathan Jones and turned out to be one paced, would it make any difference to how you rate his importance as a draft proposition for Melbourne?

There was an interesting panel discussion on 3AW yesterday about the forthcoming draft and the concept of "list management" and/or "tanking" by clubs in order for them to finish up high in the draft. One aspect of the discussion revolved around the effect that this might have on the integrity of the competition. If a club sent some of its better players off for early season ending operations, this would not only affect where the club finished but also could have a major influence on the makeup of the finals. In these days where we have a jumbled up AFL schedule, it's possible for e.g. to play the same team twice in the last 7 or 8 rounds. If your team was in the running for a top 4 spot, its course would be made much easier by playing a team that had virtually given up on winning games. One of the commentators even suggested that it's about time the AFL had "the balls" to do something about it although one wonders whether it could do anything or even whether it recognised that such a problem even existed. The other part of the discussion was interesting with the general consensus being that getting the first choice alone was usually not enough and sometimes counterproductive because these players were coming into clubs that didn't have the proper "culture" to develop. On the other hand, there was the view that players like Murphy, Gibbs, Kreuzer etc. would be establishing their own culture at Carlton with the assistance of Chris Judd who was also recruited in part through its lowly placing (read "tanking" last year and add $). I think it was Dennis Cometti who said he had seen some footage from some Under 18 interstate games and considered it would take a while for the three main WA guns - Naitanui, Rich and Yarran to become good AFL players. He didn't seem all that impressed. On the other hand, closet Demon fan Mike Sheahan revealed that he met Paul Williams at last week's Nathan Buckley function and the MFC assistant coach told him he had seen Naitanui and was confident that he'd be the real deal in the AFL. I suspect that if we had first choice today we'd take him with open arms and without much hesitation although I'm not so sure that Axis of Bob would agree with the decision as he favours getting an elite midfielder.

How do we get that Chanderpaul out?

"Interchange (from) Matthew Bate Nathan Carroll Aaron Davey Mark Jamar Cale Morton Matthew Whelan Adem Yze" - MFC v RFC Four of the players selected on the interchange bench for Melbourne aren't named in the Sandringham side. That could suggest that Carroll, Jamar and Whelan will be travelling down to Casey Fields on Saturday?

Clever small forwards are a dime a dozen these days. Dangerous elite midfielders are what make your side in modern football.

That's self-evident. What we want to know ATM is what he's promising.

I must admit that I'm really coming around to rating her very highly as a football journalist. She gets her facts right most of the time and, although I sometimes don't like what she's saying, she usually has solid grounds for reaching her viewpoints. That's a refreshing change from some of the so-called journalists working in her industry.

Looks like a real valuable keepsake and an interesting read despite the inevitable controversy about the selection of the heroes.

Finally, there is some recognition of the fact that Juice is injured: Aaron Davey (hamstring) test James Frawley (shoulder) test Jack Grimes (back) 3-4 weeks Brent Moloney (shoulder) TBA Michael Newton (hamstring) test Jared Rivers (groin) TBA Russell Robertson (Achilles) season

Morton's game was certainly not his best but we have to remember that young players thrive on confidence and unfortunately for Cale he messed up a few of his early kicks and I think that hurt him. He's not going backwards but rather he's going forward at a very slow pace which is what you can expect from a kid in a team that's under the pump. He did enough nice things to show he's on his way and his disposal is usually pretty good. I have no doubt that by the end of next year, he'll already be an influential player at the club.

I don't think it was really a night for announcements but rather to celebrate the heroes of the past and present. I reckon however, that there might be some announcements of importance to come over the next few weeks. Don't ask me what they are, I'm just a snow bunny like most Melbourne fans.

There might have to be some dubbing of expletives here and there to cater for some sensibilities but yes, it was a great night, the speeches were fantastic, especially Garry Lyon, Chris Connolly and Jimmy Stynes. Congratulations to the MFC and all those who took part in the night and in the organisation. It showed that we can get things right! PS: apologies for not wearing the black tie mandated on the invitation which I didn't see until yesterday afternoon. Still, I managed to wear the alternative strip which was a red and blue tie with a touch of silver thrown in!