Whispering_Jack
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Everything posted by Whispering_Jack
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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
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The young master interviewer with the future young master key position player ~
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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?
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This is the story of two losses suffered by the Melbourne Football Club that were separated in time by a full decade. The first was a defeat that hung heavily over the club for years and saw careers and friendships ended, harsh words uttered, tears shed and the unfolding of tragedy. The coach was sacked and not long after, he died. A player became enmeshed in tribal affairs that led to violence and his imprisonment. Another’s life later ended in a devastating car crash. The wreckage from the club’s Round 19, 2011 trip to take on Geelong at Corio Bay became known simply as “186” in recognition of the magnitude of the loss in points. But it was far more extensive in terms of the scars it left on the club. Only a very few involved in that game managed to keep their careers intact after the train wreck. A number found refuge elsewhere but in most instances, the remainders of their careers were short-lived. Only a few managed to revive their careers. James Frawley played in a premiership at Hawthorn and after a brief retirement reappeared even more briefly at St Kilda, the club where his troubled uncle Danny made his name as one of football’s all-time great defenders. Two others played in grand finals and are still on AFL club lists. High flying Jeremy Howe who took flight for a better life at Collingwood was a matter of minutes away from the holy grail in 2018 and is still today the Magpies’ vice-captain. Stefan Martin was traded in 2012 to the Lions before moving to the Western Bulldogs at the end of last year. Ironically, he was the only 186 participant who took part in this year’s Grand Final at Optus Stadium in Perth. His ruck opponent that evening, Max Gawn, and Demons forward Tom McDonald were both youngsters in 2011 and missed out on making the senior team for Round 19 that year. Gawn and McDonald made it to the Big Dance of 2021 but time ran out for two other members of the 2011 side who remained at the club through the lean years and the slow rise to glory that followed. So strong was the Demon team on the day/night that club legends in Nathan Jones and Neville Jetta who were instrumental in holding the team together over the years were denied the opportunity to cross over to the Promised Land. Both retired at the end of the season. It’s ten years after 186 and now on to Round 19, 2021. There’s a game on at the MCG against the Western Bulldogs but it wasn’t originally supposed to happen that way - the pandemic caused a late change to the fixture and there was no long trip away from home as there had been in 2011. The years in between saw rebuilding, development and renewal under new leadership. Peter Jackson, Paul Roos, Simon Goodwin and more lately Gary Pert and Kate Roffey led a revival built upon a change in the club’s culture and values. Vast empty stands and the evening’s drizzly skies awaited them that night. They weren’t quite in the right space yet and they kicked poorly to succumb to the Bulldogs and their skipper Marcus Bontempelli but there were lessons learned and the team never lost a game from that time on. In the following week, they traveled north but the game against the Gold Coast Suns was moved back to Melbourne. They flew back and forth across the country, avenged 186 on Corio Bay and eventually landed in Perth where they crushed the Cats again for good measure before fulfilling their quest for the Holy Grail.
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Has to be an error but, as already pointed out, the NGA program (for the non northern clubs) is now only there for clubs to pick up the players on the fringe who they might hope to develop over time.
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2022 AFL Pre-Season Scratch Match North Melbourne v Melbourne TBC 2022 AFL Pre-Season Game Carlton v Melbourne Venue: Marvel Stadium Date: Thursday 3 March Time: 7:20pm
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He was in fact consistently good but because he was so good, we expected more of him than others. If he were in a better team, I think he might have polled better in those days. There were too many games in which we weren't competitive and, as a result, the 3, 2, 1 all went to the opposition.
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The ones to watch: Future bright for multicultural stars Victoria’s most promising young talent was on display late last month as around 45 multicultural and Indigenous footballers turned out at AFL Victoria’s ‘All Nations and Kickstart Development Day’ at LaTrobe University in Bundoora. Included among them was Andrew Samawi from Beaconsfield Junior Football Club who is “tied” to the Melbourne NGA program (yes … we have another NGA called “Andrew”!). He is described as a “tall midfielder with clean hands who can also play in defence”. I use the word “tied” very loosely because, as from next year, other than in the case of the northern states clubs’ NGAs, clubs will not be able to match draft bids for their own NGA players inside the top 40 picks.
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Please keep your comments respectful.
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Would have been a typical windy shocker out there at Casey. I would take it the game finished before the change came and turned the wind into a cooler southerly which happened where I am at just after noon.
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Why change something that’s proved a success?
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Earlier this week, the Essendon Football Club unveiled their five-year blueprint to deliver a breakthrough premiership and boost membership to 125,000. They outlined their five strategic pillars starting with premierships and then focusing their attention on such concepts as “people, heartland, national footprint and commercial strength”. But had the framers of this plan — and there’s nothing novel about it because we’ve heard it all before from a number of clubs including our own — attended last night’s Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Memorial Trophy presentation, they might have realised that premierships don’t simply materialize out of thin air or merely through the introduction into a club of bells and whistles. The common thread of nearly everything that was said throughout the evening, from President Kate Roffey, to Hall of Fame inductee Neale Daniher, to retiring heroes Neville Jetta and Nathan Jones, to coach Simon Goodwin, skipper Max Gawn and the award winning players and all of it was spontaneous, not contrived, was that it’s not just about winning premierships or acquiring 125,000 members. It’s about bringing the right people together to the club through a lot of hard effort and once you do that, then the final by product might bring you a premiership. It’s all about developing a culture first.
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