Whispering_Jack

My fondest memory of a suburban football ground is that of the old Brunswick Street Oval, a picturesque ground with ancient grandstands and a brick fence. It was the scene of one of my first games which, despite being in the midst of a golden era for the Demons, turned out to be a narrow loss to the Lions which had previously been called the “Gorillas”. That was in 1957 when my cousin and I walked to the ground from Brunswick where we lived across the Merri Creek. Times were different then - we were just short of our 10th and 8th birthdays respectively. As the reigning premiers, it was a shock to lose to Fitzroy who had finished well down the ladder in 1956 but we always had trouble with them, particularly at their ground. Soon after, a rivalry began between the clubs because we were coached by Norm Smith, they by his brother Len. The ground was small and by the late 60s was no longer fit for purpose as a VFL ground and the Lions became nomads, moving to Princes Park (twice), the Junction Oval, Victoria Park, the Whitten Oval and eventually when they were forced to merge with the Brisbane Bears, to the Gabba where they tasted success but not as Fitzroy. The real Fitzroy lives and still plays at the Brunswick Street Oval in the Amateurs. They play in the same Division as my club and it’s always a thrill to head out there for a game against the Roy Boys. There’s only the old grandstand left, part of the brick wall, lots of trees around the perimeter, one of the best canteens in the Ammos and a friendly atmosphere. Perhaps the ghosts of some of their greats like Haydn Bunton Sr., “Butch” Gale, “Chicken” Smallhorn and Bill Stephen still lurk around the old grand stand happy in the knowledge that they couldn’t kill off the old Fitzroy.

2022 Melbourne numbers — 
1. Steven May 3. Christian Salem 4. James Harms 5. Christian Petracca 6. Luke Jackson 7. Jack Viney 8. Jake Lever 9. Charlie Spargo 10. Angus Brayshaw 11 Max Gawn 12. Toby Bedford 13. Clayton Oliver 14. Michael Hibbert 15. Ed Langdon 16. Bailey Laurie 17. Jake Bowey 18. Jake Melksham 19. Fraser Rosman 20. Adam Tomlinson 21. Jacob Van Rooyen 22. Blake Howes 23. James Jordon 24. Trent Rivers 25. Tom McDonald 26. Sam Weideman 27. Luke Dunstan 28. Majak Daw 29. Jayden Hunt 30. Alex Neal-Bullen 31. Bayley Fritsch 32. Tom Sparrow 33. Oskar Baker 34. Deakyn Smith 35. Harry Petty 36. Kysaiah Pickett 37. Kade Chandler 38. Mitch Brown 40. Taj Woewodin 41. Judd McVee 42. Daniel Turner 44. Joel Smith 45. Andy Moniz-Wakefield 50. Ben Brown

He was a truly wonderful gentleman. Friendly and always willing to get into a conversation about footy. I remember him once at Trevor Barker Oval Beach Road Sandringham when Melbourne was still affiliated with the Zebras. I got there early and we were watching this gangly young ruckman, Stefan Martin who had come down to play VFL after a year with Old Haileybury. Scotty was fascinated by the fact that Martin had scored a 99.75 in his VCE and we discussed why someone with those qualifications would want to play in the VFL ressies. He was great company for a while before wandering off into the rooms to get a scoop that would enable him to come up with another one of his punchlines. A real character. Condolences to his family.

MELBOURNE 1.0.6 6.3.39 7.6.48 8.6.54 RICHMOND 2.1.13 2.1.13 4.1.25 6.2.38 GOALS MELBOURNE Bannan Harris Hore 2 Paxman D Pearce RICHMOND Brennan Lavey 2 Conti Dargan BEST MELBOURNE Zanker Paxman Birch Hanks West RICHMOND Lavey Brennan Conti Seymour INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil RICHMOND NIl REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil RICHMOND Nil CROWD 1,517 at the Swinburne Centre

Dees going bang, bang, bang.

Yeah, nah. The one handed mark was nice and deserved some kudos but the thing about him that’s impressed me is his record over a few seasons and his performances that we were able to witness over a few WAFL Colts and WA representative games. We all acknowledge that he has a fair way to go. The beauty is that at Melbourne in 2022, his chances of getting a well rounded football grounding are so much better than the chances Jack Watts had 12 or 13 years ago.

Bigfooty’s Knightmare believes that JVR is a long term project ~ “With Melbourne's player development and all things firing though - from coach/veteran leadership/buy-in from the playing group, JVR can be a good piece in a few years if developed in defence.” “He's not going to play in 2022, and maybe not 2023 either.” I responded by agreeing that there’s no hurry to push him into an AFL debut given that he’s at the premiership club but pointed out that he’s physically ready to play against men. Which is what he has already done at WAFL level early in 2021 when he played 5 senior games with Claremont before succumbing to glandular fever. He also kicked plenty of goals for their Colts and the WA Under 19 championships later in the season. This didn’t dissuade Knightmare who answered:- “JVR was great during the U19 Champs in defence and was capable v Colts opposition but struggled in the WAFL at League level and showed he isn't ready to play against AFL opposition. There is a difference between playing at a level and playing well. I fully expect Melbourne's at the moment superior player development and everything that factors into it will help fast-track JVR in his development comparative to if he landed with another club, but he's not going to have an Aaron Naughton kind of first season as a point of comparison.” It’s an interesting debate. I see JVR as a future KPF and a likely replacement for the current key forward incumbents. He should be a fixture at Casey this year but the way things are going with Omnicron, I wouldn’t discount the possibility of seeing him at AFL level in 2022. From all reports, JVR’s efforts at WAFL Senior level were reasonable. He was impressive on debut with two goals and was affected by tonsillitis and glandular fever in his next couple of games but still contributed. He came back after missing several weeks and kicked just one goal but wasn’t 100% in his fifth and final senior game. He then went on to kick a bag of goals in the WAFL Colts and the WA Under 19s and also showed in one or two games that he can be handy in a key defensive position. We have a handy, versatile prospect on our hands.

We were blessed not to suffer the injuries the Bulldogs had, both going into and during the game. In fact, it looked like a bit of a disaster scenario throughout the competition with the number of injuries (including serious ones) across the games. I don’t know if there are any theories concerning the injuries but I wonder if it’s due to the fact that the game is still not the natural game of players from early childhood as it is with many boys. I see a lot of the women not attacking the ball directly or instinctively and therefore being caught wrong footed and swiveling around. Obviously, things will improve as we get the benefit of the large growth in junior footy for girls from the grass roots levels. Anyone else have any views?

Thanks to Dees In October there’s a comprehensive report on the round one victory here.

For those not watching the game ~ MELBOURNE 3.0.18 4.6.30 5.8.38 6.10.46 WESTERN BULLDOGS 0.1.1 1.1.7 3.4.22 3.4.22 GOALS MELBOURNE Hore 2 Gay Harris Sherriff Zanker WESTERN BULLDOGS Blackburn Huntington Toogood BEST MELBOURNE Zanker Hore Hanks Gay Mithen WESTERN BULLDOGS Blackburn Bennetts Fitzgerald Lamb Lochland INJURIES MELBOURNE Nil WESTERN BULLDOGS Cranston (lower leg) Huntington (knee) Snell (ribs) REPORTS MELBOURNE Nil WESTERN BULLDOGS Nil CROWD 2,571 at VU Whitten Oval

Judd McVee, Jacob Van Rooyen and Taj Woewodin on an Instagram photograph that appears to have been taken at an airport. It looks like they’re taking their first flight into Demonland. Good luck lads!

In other words, the Harry Potter series had sold millions of books as well as numerous other sources of finance including a number of movies and you think this thread was more popular?

And a number of Bolands have played for Parkdale Vultures in the VAFA.

Mystery solved …

With the start to the season less than a fortnight away, here’s a preview for the Melbourne Demons AFLW team from the folk at Rookie Me:- 2022 AFLW Season Preview: Melbourne

Well, as much as we want to respect his privacy (and we will), I reckon there might be a few dozen blokes ready to claim they’re related after today’s effort. Wow!

Back in the early 80s Melbourne recruited a player from Parkdale by the name of Glenn Boland who played 16 games from 1982 to 1984. He was dropped from the list at the end of 1984 and transferred to St Kilda for three games in 1985. Does anyone know whether he’s related to Australia’s new pace bowler Scott Boland who took his maiden test wicket on debut today? Boland the cricketer also comes from Parkdale.

* Admittedly, that stage was before JK Rowling released the first of the Harry Potter series.

This is going to be a year in which I’ll be fully invested in the draft. It’s the age group of my oldest grandson who was a teammate of leading draft prospect Harry Sheezel - they played over 100 games of junior footy together plus school games over almost ten years. He has also played directly against one of the hot tips to go #1 in George Wardlaw who could become a superstar of the competition. Harry is a clever, elusive player with all of the skills including the ability to kick those special goals. This year, he played as a forward for the Sandringham Dragons Under 19s and the Vic Metro Under 17s but he’s also good enough to play in the midfield. If he goes there this season, he’ll team up at the Dragons with another potential #1 in Will Ashcroft who has been playing for Brighton Grammar. Ben Hempel from Mordialloc-Braeside is another promising player from their competition who will feature in draft discussion. He was also a 2021 bottom ager who played for the Dragons Under 19s.

This is certainly good news. From the Big Banana to the Big Oyster, Australia's 'big things' are still striving to put small towns on the map

We have a tradition on Demonland on this day in every year to celebrate a young Demon, Troy Broadbridge, who passed away on this day in 2004, on the Phi Phi Islands, Thailand. He was one of 227,898 victims of the Boxing Day Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami, one of humanity’s largest natural disasters. Troy was an up and coming young defender for the club who had just played in his first final for the club and even more recently, had married Trisha Silvers. This is the first time we remember the anniversary of his passing with a premiership under the club’s belt. Along with the likes of Jimmy Stynes, Robbie Flower, Dean Bailey, Sean Wight, Colin Sylvia and others on the highway of Demons who passed on before their time, I’d like to think that somewhere in the universe they’re celebrating that feat in the final days of 2021 with us.

Whoever he is, he’s well groomed.

There’s worse to come. We made it into Queensland (which means we queued last week for 1½ hours before we flew out 3 days later). Yesterday, we had to go through the same process in a long line outside a pathology lab on the Gold Coast with hundreds of others, mostly masked but minimal social distancing. The State’s resources are so stretched that the police minister said they would struggle to enforce the testing requirement and that it was virtually an honour system. There’s not only an enormous strain on resources but it places every one who goes at risk of catching it anyway and people who should be tested are missing out. It’s a bloody mess.

The young master interviewer with the future young master key position player ~

A full three months have passed since that fateful evening on the other side of the continent when the Demons broke the long premiership drought in emphatic fashion. That night was the culmination of a period of many years of wondering about what things would be like if our team won the flag. What changes would it make to your life? I’d like to think it’s made me more humble but perhaps I’m wrong - when I’m in conversation with opposition fans these days, I must make unbearable company. How has winning the Premiership changed your life?