Whispering_Jack

Poor timing Bazza!

His wife bought him a pair of slippers, they had a fire place installed and he now sits on the sofa on cold winter Sunday arvos sipping hot cocoa and staring at the flames. Same goes for a young lad known as Finks. The TBO canteen is is a financially parlous state because it overbudgeted on its hot dog supplies. Coincidentally, the local hospital is reporting a dramatic downturn in food poisoning cases this year. [Only joking guys - the canteen does a great job and we highly recommend it around here]

The Age is having a shocking day with editorial stuff ups and this one's an absolute ripper - http://realfooty.com.au/news/news/round-20...6857671776.html Melbourne Backs: Holland Carroll Brown Half-backs: Bell Ferguson Wheatley Centres: Bate McDonald Johnstone Half-forwards: Green Newton Sylvia Forwards: Pickett Neitz Robertson Followers: White Dunn Rover: Jones Interchange: McLean Jamar Davey Bode Emergencies: Ward Miller Buckley In: McLean Bate Out: Frawley (ankle) Moloney (abductor) I wonder who he's abducted? [suggest you get in quick before they wake up]

I was at the game and you can take it from me that irrespective of the official best players, Simon Buckley was easily the best player on the ground. So when the publicity starts about the possibility of a Buckley playing in Friday night's game, the Buckley could be Simon, not Nathan.

The plot might change dramatically however, if Melbourne wins another game before it plays Carlton. In that case, If Melbourne win: Carlton PP 1, Richmond 2, Carlton 3, Melbourne 4 ... Richmond PP 18, Richmond 19, Carlton 20, Melbourne 21 (next Melbourne pick 37) If Carlton win: Richmond 1, Melbourne 2, Carlton 3 ... Richmond PP 17, Melbourne PP 18, Richmond 19, Melbourne 20, Carlton 21 And then of course Carlton could also win before the final round and Richmond might overtake Melbourne before Round 22 ...

Watching the Richmond demolition of Collingwood yesterday I couldn't help but be impressed by Nathan Foley. Here's a guy picked up by the Tigers in the 2004 Rookie Draft (at #4 immediately after Aaron Davey) who has worked his butt off to get to where he is today. He's just improved and improved ... This has got me wondering about our crop of young players. There's a lot of promise there but when are we going to see some dramatic improvement from them? Right at the moment it seems as if most of them reach a plateau and there's little advancement beyond that. Will the advent of a new coach bring some more out of these players? Will Jace Bod be the next Nathan Foley?

The Age's Laurence Money has produced a great article in the Melbourne Age - GAFFE, WHAT GAFFE? ONLY TO THE SLAVISHLY POLITICALLY CORRECT in defence of Mark Riley who was given a bit of a pasting in the Sydney media after the stand in coach's off the cuff comments about Byron Pickett's decision to kick against the wind in Canberra. Riley's explanation was that he didn't know whyhe did that: "it might have been an indigenous feeling." It's a great read and exposes some very muddled thinking among some in the media who felt Riley offended the proper standards of political correctness when it came to discussing the first Australians. For the record, I understand Riley has mentored a number of indigenous players both here and in WA and he has worked at their school in WA - Clontarf College which has produced some handy AFL footballers in the past.

Rhino, can you tell me how many times the so called "mediocre" has finished in the top 10 of the Bluey Truscott Trophy? I hope the Ooze comes back in 2008 fully rested and fully fit under the new coach and makes you eat your words.

Good luck on your travels Hards and a job well done. As you know, we've always been 100% behind you in all of your coaching endeavours . Meanwhile, has anyone framed a market for the new coaching gig and could Sheeds handle both the MFC and the Demonland jobs?

It's interesting how the Age has framed the market for the Melbourne job - $2.50 - any other person $4.00 - Guy McKenna $4.50 - Chris Bond $6.00 - Chris Connolly $6.00 - Damien Hardwick Sheedy seems to have been included in the any other person category. Why?

I can beat that. I am an MFC member, go to all MFC games in Melbourne and I stay till the end.

Pardon the crudity but IMO we need someone who can coach men, who has with rat cunning and who can instil some mongrel into the side. Now, I wonder who fits the bill the best of all the prospective candidates.

If David Hicks deserves to be treated with the respect that the rule of law affords to all citizens then surely Michael Braun deserves to be treated with the same respect. For him to be named and charged because one opponent suspects him for the reasons given is absolutely appalling. By all means, let's find the drug cheats and get them out of the game but let's not have these witch hunts whereby people's names and character can be blackened on the flimsiest of evidence.

I admit that I was one of those who initially had a good feel about Voss as a potential coach. However, the way in which he has come across in the past month has left me with my doubts. On TV yesterday he said he made his decision after consultation with his wife who apparently had the final say. Thankfully, we didn't appoint him as coach of the MFC. I can visualise the scene in the coaches box during the game. He lifts the phone, dials a number and says. "Sweetie, it's me. Do I move Travis on the ball or does he stay on a flank?"

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that Juice was contracted till the end of 2008.

Not happy about the way the Board failed to win enough games this year? Maybe they're responsible for the injuries and the lousy umpiring in the four close ones we lost? I want a proactive board as much as the next person but let's see the results of their quest for a coaching appointment first. We don't need board instability when we're in the process of appointing a new coach. It might scare off some potentially good prospects.

DARK IN MY EYES by Whispering Jack There is an old Yiddish saying that is used to describe the exact moment when a person discovers that a tragedy is about to occur - "everything is getting dark in my eyes!" The literal translation does not do enough justice to the expression but if you require a clear understanding of what it truly means then consider the scenario at AAMI Stadium some three or so minutes into yesterday's game between Port Adelaide and Melbourne. It started when Brett Ebert took advantage of a James McDonald fumble from the opening bounce and slotted through the first goal just 13 seconds into the game. Then David Rodan bustled through the second at the one minute 50 second mark and a minute and a half later, Daniel Motlop scored his first. In that time, only three players wearing red and blue had touched the ball; one of them was Jeff White (a hit out) and another was Junior (the fumble). At that point, everything went dark in my eyes. The AAMI Stadium management actually turned on the lights about half an hour later but the damage had already been done and besides, they did that not for my benefit but for the Power supporters who were revelling in their team's electric performance against a Melbourne that was not only well and truly torched but burnt to a crisp. Not surprisingly, their side scored a club record of 8 goals three behinds for a quarter against the Demons but said record lasted only an hour because they broke it by a point in the third. In between, the visiting team put in a half hour's resistance when it outscored the Power by a goal. At the end of the game however, they limped away badly battered and bruised, outrun and outplayed to the tune of an 89 point humiliation. There's not much more to say about the game other than that some of the younger players, especially Nathan Jones, James Frawley and Matthew Newton showed a bit of spunk and Messrs. Green, McDonald, Wheatley and perhaps Brown can, at least, look themselves in the mirror and the rest who still have their physical faculties unimpaired after the game can please themselves. The game itself was lost where it usually lost - in the middle and then almost everywhere else on the ground. Such things happen when you go into a game with a lion hearted ruckman of three score years who measures only 195 cm and expect him to take on a couple of All Australian ruckmen much taller assisted only by a part timer who is slow and also touching thirty. As a wise man once said, "football sucks sometimes." (I could add that the umpires suck sometimes too and that Robbo's back spasms might have been related to some diving on that part of his anatomy by a Port player which the umpires ignored but what the hell?). The fact of the matter is that Melbourne has used all but two members of its 40 player senior list in 2007 (the two who haven't played are youngsters developing in the Sandringham Reserves). The club is currently playing a hefty proportion of the bottom half of that list - some of them aging, others unworthy and a few who are still learning the caper. A number of the top tier players are out for the year or playing at less than full capacity because they're unfit. Their spirits are low and there's little to play for in the dying month or two of what everyone acknowledges is a wasted season. From all this, you can deduce one thing - as long as that part of the list which you put on show includes more of the bottom half than the top half then you can't win games. The results of games played therefore have become of little consequence. We're all going through the motions, groping around in the darkness and waiting for what will happen next. There are five more weeks of darkness to go before the club starts picking up the pieces of a disastrous and tumultuous year. Things are not as dark as they appear though because if the right choice of coach can be made, spirits are lifted and the injured and broken bodies heal, there is enough material with which to work to achieve the dramatic improvement shown by this year's improvers. After all, this time last year teams like the Kangaroos, Port Adelaide, Hawthorn and Essendon were all struggling and even Geelong was guilty of committing some similar monumental capitulations. Did not the Cats bend over and play dead against the Tigers in the twilight of season 2006? Mike Sheahan says in today's Herald Sun that there are few hearts beating true at the club in its disgraceful season. He cites injuries but compares Melbourne's situation with that of the Kangaroos who are sitting in second spot and suggests that injuries are no excuse because they lost Nathan Thompson on the eve of the season and one or two others have missed some weeks. The mere fact that he attempts to make this comparison indicates how clueless Sheahan is about the depth of Melbourne's injury malaise. Yesterday, the Kangaroos fielded a team that contained thirteen players who have been there all season. Against Port Adelaide, Melbourne had only two - Jeff White and James McDonald. To suggest that there is any comparison between the injuries the Demons are suffering this year and the Kangaroos situation, is grossly misleading. Sheahan is closer to the point however, when he suggests that of the four clubs chasing a new coach the Demons will probably get the fourth-best result. That might be true but if the current coaching situation applied twelve months ago and Bomber Thompson or Dean Laidley threw their hats into the ring they would not even have made it close to the fourth-best result and look where their teams are sitting now! And what is the best result anyway? The word on the street is that Carlton will appoint Michael Voss as soon as the home and away season ends. Is he the best going around or is Kevin Sheedy? Brett Ratten? Chris Connolly? It's a case of horses for courses and there is no best or fourth-best result in this "race" (if you can really call it such) to appoint new coaches. The only thing we punters can do for the time being is hope they get it right. If not, things will continue to get dark in our eyes for a long time to come. Melbourne 2.3.15 6.6.42 7.7.49 11.8.74 Port Adelaide 8.3.51 11.6.72 19.10.124 25.13.163 Goals Melbourne Bate Green Newton Robertson 2 Bruce Holland Neitz Port Adelaide C Cornes Ebert 6 S Burgoyne 4 Rodan 3 Motlop 2 Chaplin K Cornes Lade Westhoff Best Melbourne Green McDonald Wheatley Brown Jones Port Adelaide C Cornes P Burgoyne Cassisi Lade Brogan S Burgoyne K Cornes Wilson Team changes Port Adelaide Tredrea (knee soreness) replaced in selected side by Thomson Injuries Melbourne R Robertson (back spasms) Reports T Thurstans (Port Adelaide) reported by field umpire H Kennedy for allegedly striking J McDonald (Melbourne) in third quarter M Newton (Melbourne) reported by field umpire H Kennedy for allegedly striking P Burgoyne (Port Adelaide) in last quarter. Umpires H Kennedy D Sully G Fila Crowd 23,485 at AAMI Stadium

by Whispering Jack There is an old Yiddish saying that is used to describe the exact moment when a person discovers that a tragedy is about to occur - "everything is getting dark in my eyes!" The literal translation does not do enough justice to the expression but if you require a clear understanding of what it truly means then consider the scenario at AAMI Stadium some three or so minutes into yesterday's game between Port Adelaide and Melbourne. It started when Brett Ebert took advantage of a James McDonald fumble from the opening bounce and slotted through the first goal just 13 seconds into the game. Then David Rodan bustled through the second at the one minute 50 second mark and a minute and a half later, Daniel Motlop scored his first. In that time, only three players wearing red and blue had touched the ball; one of them was Jeff White (a hit out) and another was Junior (the fumble). At that point, everything went dark in my eyes. The AAMI Stadium management actually turned on the lights about half an hour later but the damage had already been done and besides, they did that not for my benefit but for the Power supporters who were revelling in their team's electric performance against a Melbourne that was not only well and truly torched but burnt to a crisp. Not surprisingly, their side scored a club record of 8 goals three behinds for a quarter against the Demons but said record lasted only an hour because they broke it by a point in the third. In between, the visiting team put in a half hour's resistance when it outscored the Power by a goal. At the end of the game however, they limped away badly battered and bruised, outrun and outplayed to the tune of an 89 point humiliation. There's not much more to say about the game other than that some of the younger players, especially Nathan Jones, James Frawley and Matthew Newton showed a bit of spunk and Messrs. Green, McDonald, Wheatley and perhaps Brown can, at least, look themselves in the mirror and the rest who still have their physical faculties unimpaired after the game can please themselves. The game itself was lost where it usually lost - in the middle and then almost everywhere else on the ground. Such things happen when you go into a game with a lion hearted ruckman of three score years who measures only 195 cm and expect him to take on a couple of All Australian ruckmen much taller assisted only by a part timer who is slow and also touching thirty. As a wise man once said, "football sucks sometimes." (I could add that the umpires suck sometimes too and that Robbo's back spasms might have been related to some diving on that part of his anatomy by a Port player which the umpires ignored but what the hell?). The fact of the matter is that Melbourne has used all but two members of its 40 player senior list in 2007 (the two who haven't played are youngsters developing in the Sandringham Reserves). The club is currently playing a hefty proportion of the bottom half of that list - some of them aging, others unworthy and a few who are still learning the caper. A number of the top tier players are out for the year or playing at less than full capacity because they're unfit. Their spirits are low and there's little to play for in the dying month or two of what everyone acknowledges is a wasted season. From all this, you can deduce one thing - as long as that part of the list which you put on show includes more of the bottom half than the top half then you can't win games. The results of games played therefore have become of little consequence. We're all going through the motions, groping around in the darkness and waiting for what will happen next. There are five more weeks of darkness to go before the club starts picking up the pieces of a disastrous and tumultuous year. Things are not as dark as they appear though because if the right choice of coach can be made, spirits are lifted and the injured and broken bodies heal, there is enough material with which to work to achieve the dramatic improvement shown by this year's improvers. After all, this time last year teams like the Kangaroos, Port Adelaide, Hawthorn and Essendon were all struggling and even Geelong was guilty of committing some similar monumental capitulations. Did not the Cats bend over and play dead against the Tigers in the twilight of season 2006? Mike Sheahan says in today's Herald Sun that there are few hearts beating true at the club in its disgraceful season. He cites injuries but compares Melbourne's situation with that of the Kangaroos who are sitting in second spot and suggests that injuries are no excuse because they lost Nathan Thompson on the eve of the season and one or two others have missed some weeks. The mere fact that he attempts to make this comparison indicates how clueless Sheahan is about the depth of Melbourne's injury malaise. Yesterday, the Kangaroos fielded a team that contained thirteen players who have been there all season. Against Port Adelaide, Melbourne had only two - Jeff White and James McDonald. To suggest that there is any comparison between the injuries the Demons are suffering this year and the Kangaroos situation, is grossly misleading. Sheahan is closer to the point however, when he suggests that of the four clubs chasing a new coach the Demons will probably get the fourth-best result. That might be true but if the current coaching situation applied twelve months ago and Bomber Thompson or Dean Laidley threw their hats into the ring they would not even have made it close to the fourth-best result and look where their teams are sitting now! And what is the best result anyway? The word on the street is that Carlton will appoint Michael Voss as soon as the home and away season ends. Is he the best going around or is Kevin Sheedy? Brett Ratten? Chris Connolly? It's a case of horses for courses and there is no best or fourth-best result in this "race" (if you can really call it such) to appoint new coaches. The only thing we punters can do for the time being is hope they get it right. If not, things will continue to get dark in our eyes for a long time to come. Melbourne 2.3.15 6.6.42 7.7.49 11.8.74 Port Adelaide 8.3.51 11.6.72 19.10.124 25.13.163 Goals Melbourne Bate Green Newton Robertson 2 Bruce Holland Neitz Port Adelaide C Cornes Ebert 6 S Burgoyne 4 Rodan 3 Motlop 2 Chaplin K Cornes Lade Westhoff Best Melbourne Green McDonald Wheatley Brown Jones Port Adelaide C Cornes P Burgoyne Cassisi Lade Brogan S Burgoyne K Cornes Wilson Team changes Port Adelaide Tredrea (knee soreness) replaced in selected side by Thomson Injuries Melbourne R Robertson (back spasms) Reports T Thurstans (Port Adelaide) reported by field umpire H Kennedy for allegedly striking J McDonald (Melbourne) in third quarter M Newton (Melbourne) reported by field umpire H Kennedy for allegedly striking P Burgoyne (Port Adelaide) in last quarter. Umpires H Kennedy D Sully G Fila Crowd 23,485 at AAMI Stadium

Possibly explains why he was reported for allegedly striking Peter Burgoyne. At least Burgoyne's a male.

And if you have Foxtel, after you watch the Pies get their flogging you can watch the cricket where India has the Poms on the ropes in the fisrt innings of the Second Test.

All of the above represent part of what I was saying but it's more than that to me. Our new coach has to be creative and not just a follower. He has to primarily focus on developing a winning style and the defensive part of the game (i.e. how to deal with your opponent's strengths) should come next. We always seem to be imitating that which has already been successful rather than being creative e.g. this year we decided to go with the "run and carry" that worked for last year's premiers so we adapted our entire pre-season including the fitness regime to enable us to compete with the teams we couldn't beat last year especially away from the MCG. This was a reaction to the way the game was evolving and we failed at it so badly that, not only can't we beat the teams we couldn't beat last year, we can't beat anybody now - certainly not away from the MCG. Of course you need luck with injury and you need to have the cattle anyway but I still believe that all things being equal, our list is capable of making top four. Certainly if we trade and draft well this year and we don't have a repeat of the injury plague of 2007 we can rise very quickly. We do however need the right coach. On the subject of coaching I think the way Carlton and Essendon handled their coaching positions in the past week was positively appalling. Two coaches with six premierships between them were given the brush off in a very ordinary fashion. I think Pagan has been badly maligned by Carlton both under the new and the old regimes. The Barry Mitchell situation was high farce and the ultimate dismissal was a humiliation for a bloke who was restricted in carrying out his duties by the stupidity and greed of the Elliott regime. Pagan himself was performing as good a job as he possibly could this year given the destabilising that was going on behind his back. It wasn't that long ago that I watched three consecutive Carlton games - Adelaide (a game lost that could easily have been won), Bulldogs (a high scoring shoot out where Pagan out coached Eade) and Port Adelaide (a 10 goal triumph over a team now in the top four). The experts were in raptures over the high scoring and exciting brand of football that Pagan's team was playing. Yes, they went into a slump as will happen when you have a young side and you're missing leaders like Whitnall and Stevens (physically) and your star KPP (mentally). Interestingly, I heard Dwayne Russell on 3AW stating that he expected Carlton, under Ratten to go super defensive and lock down games from now on. He predicted that in this way St. Kilda would beat them by only six goals and not 16 implying that this was a better way to develop the Blues for the future. I don't agree and believe that if we haven't crossed Ratten off our list already, then we will if that's all he can bring to a young team, albeit with nothing to play for other than priority picks. As for Sheedy, he's always been an innovative coach and, despite the way the press is nodding to itself and saying that Essendon did what's best, the Bombers treated him appallingly. They told porky pies about what was going on and didn't afford him the respect a four-time premiership coach deserved after 27 years service and who single-handedly built the Essendon brand to what it is today. If whoever's deciding the Melbourne job considers that he has a couple of years of creativity left in him, I'd grab him as coach of the Demons before Richmond realise what a dud they have and someone forks up his severance pay for them.

A reference no doubt to the relentless pressure football displayed last evening by West Coast in its total dismantlement of the football club formerly known as Footscray. The Bullies are now for all intents and purposes dead in the water and I know some people might regard this as blasphemous but I reckon that we might even beat the bastards at the Dome in a fortnight's time. My thoughts while watching the Eagles going around last night were that I now at least know what our next coach needs to do - he must be able to develop a team that sets its own agenda for a match and then carries it out efficiently and ruthlessly. The key of course is the total control of the midfied which enables you to dictate the terms upon which the game is played. Unfortunately, no Melbourne coach has been able to do that for over four decades. It's time and a matter of who?

Here's an interesting conspiracy theory I've come up with straight out of left field and it concerns the sacking/dismissal or whatever of Kevin Sheedy. The Bombers' next four games are as follows:- Round 17 v Adelaide at TD Round 18 v Hawthorn at MCG Round 19 v Fremantle at Subiaco Round 20 v Carlton at MCG The next three games are all potential defeats so imagine the scenario before Round 20 if Essendon suddenly finds itself in 13th place on the ladder with its season shot to pieces and with Sheedy knowing that a loss to Carlton might secure for the Bombers the fourth pick overall in the National Draft as well as serving to prevent an old foe from securing picks 1 and 3? Far fetched? Probably, but if Grant Thomas is to be believed, the Bombers tanked last year to improve their draft position. Sheedy is a crafty old fox and he would have nothing to lose at that stage of the season. Why not tank again just for the fun of it? They say Sheeds is a genius and something like this would prove it!

To his credit he does highlight the fact that the team is playing with an eye on the future and that things will get better [Good luck on game 200 Robbo!] The same theme is repeated by Paul Wheatley in today's Sunday Sun - "There are seven weeks to go and we want to finish strongly to help our planning into 2008," Wheatley said. "It's a great opportunity for young fellows to gain extra experience, which has to be beneficial for them. "That's been one of the big positives out of the year, the games the young fellas have had. "Ricky Petterd won a Rising Star nomination, Nathan Jones has come on since last year and is now a regular in our starting side, (James) 'Chipper' Frawley is a very good type, nice and athletic, and you can see him improving each week. "Then there are guys like Michael Newton, Simon Buckley and Colin Garland, who have also been getting games. "It has to stand us in good stead for the future."

NORM SMITH AND THE CURSE OF THE DEMONS