pitmaster

It was hard NOT to know in 2021. All through the finals series - and way beyond - the joint was decked out in red and blue. One of Christian's brothers also has a cafe in Church Street Brighton towards the Nepean Highway end. The premiership cup turned up there one time. The family resemblance is unmistakeable.

Sorry, but you're mistaken. Yes "there's" is a contraction but as there are "questions" the verb form must be plural. Not as in "there has been questions'" but as in "there have been questions". Ditto for "chops and changes". Plural once again since the reference is to changes, so the contraction should be "there've been chops and changes". Now don't go defending bomber supporters again.

Not does grammar. "There's been questions..."/"There's been a few chops and changes.." Once, it's an innocent mistake. Twice, as a writer she does not know her stuff. Agree, missing Koz makes two deadly sins in one preview. BTW at the cricket yesterday I saw the Hun had a big Dees article but as I don't read the trash rag (and couldn't pilfer it from its owner) can someone post it here please?

Every Melbourne player was highly aware when they returned to pre-season training that deafening “noise” – a term AFL clubs prefer to controversy – had dominated and defined the Demons’ off-season. A litany of incidents, ranging from Steven May’s post-season claim at the club’s best and fairest that they were “a better team” than premiers Collingwood and they “should have smoked them”, to lawsuits involving the board, to Joel Smith’s positive drug test, to confusion about what the Demons were trying to achieve with star Clayton Oliver during the trade period, had fans and the public asking, “What is happening at Melbourne?” “We addressed it. We wanted to make sure that we are united as a club,” Melbourne midfielder Tom Sparrow told The Age this week. “Then it was, how do we focus on ourselves now to make sure that, you know, it doesn’t happen again.” For Sparrow, 23, a premiership player who has played 67 of the past 73 games to become a key, if understated part of Melbourne’s engine room, “it” encompasses everything on and off the field, the places where reputations are won and lost. “It’s not just saying it,” Sparrow said. “[It’s] how we act on and off the field as people, how we respect the game, the opposition and the discipline stuff. That’s how we act … that will give us a true measure of how we’re going based on being accountable to what we say we’re going to do.” Seeing that in action is part of the reason that selected media were invited into Melbourne’s inner sanctum on the final day of their pre-season camp in Lorne, sitting in a team meeting, listening to what was said on the track, and having lunch with the group, minus Oliver, who had returned home, and Smith, who is provisionally suspended, at the Mantra Lorne, where they were staying. Confident in their culture, they understand their reputation has taken a hit. With the dust having cleared after the trade period, and a bit of space from the club’s shattering straight-sets exit from the finals, the Demons now concede that amid the complexities that made some issues harder to handle than others, there have been many instances where they did not hit the mark in 2023. And it wasn’t just their entries inside 50 during those fateful finals losses to Collingwood and Carlton that missed the target. Clayton Oliver has been forced to leave Melbourne's pre-season camp early due to a fresh health scare Sparrow puts his hand up as one of the players who lost discipline during the tense finals when everything was on the line, and they could hardly hear themselves think as successive crowds exceeding 90,000 people roared in the MCG cauldron. He can still recall the moment he gave away an unnecessary free kick to Carlton’s Sam Walsh with Melbourne holding a three-point lead in the semi-final, with less than five minutes remaining. There were pressure-relieving 50-metre penalties conceded, too, at inopportune times. “That’s probably not how we want to be as a club in terms of our character. We want to be disciplined and play the right way, so there’s definitely elements in that game where we could have been better,” Sparrow said. “We’ve already started working on that this pre-season. It’s about controlling the controllables, making sure you stay disciplined under pressure, under fatigue, when you can’t hear anything out of the ground.” Coach Simon Goodwin also understands how post-match comments he made at times were interpreted as not respecting the opposition. He did not intend that to be the case, with his intent always about protecting his players, but he also accepts perception is reality in his caper. Sparrow admits the leadership group have become more frustrated than younger players such as himself at the talk surrounding the club’s culture because they feel it reflects on them, but he says they also understand that complaining won’t achieve much. His faith in the direction that skipper Max Gawn, former captain Jack Viney, Alex Neal-Bullen, Christian Petracca and Jake Lever, among others, drive the emerging group is total. The club’s faith in Sparrow was also evident when he was awarded the James McDonald Trophy at year’s end for best living the club’s values on and off the field. “Deep down for me, it’s like, I know how we operate,” Sparrow said. He says the club has been open with the players about the situations Smith and Oliver are managing, and their increased awareness helps guide their responses. “It means the playing group is across it, and it’s now ‘OK, we know it’s going on, let’s just get around him.’ We love him as a teammate,” Sparrow said. “Not only are they your teammates, but they are your friends away from the club as well. We have such great support. We wrap our arms around each other. “Obviously, you have to address things that might not be going the way everyone wants them to go, but it’s about ‘How we do help them? How do we move forward? What’s the best way to go about it?’” Sparrow trusts the leadership but knows every player plays a part in supporting their teammates regardless of what is happening. “What else can we do other than say, ‘We are here for you mate, and we will get you through and be better’,” Sparrow said. Being better is all Sparrow wants to do in 2024. He hopes to have greater impact on games, aware his team-focused approach is beneficial, but that he has more to give. “[I want to be] a bit of a pain for the opposition as well, right. Instead of just being a good teammate, a bit of both,” Sparrow said. It’s not dissimilar to the team who believe their defensive foundations are rock solid, but their method of attack needs to shift slightly as they attempt to build a premiership forward line. The young talent keeps arriving with Blake Howes and Bailey Laurie chasing a place in the seniors after a few years of VFL, talented youngsters Caleb Windsor and Koltyn Tholstrup pushing for first-round selection and veterans Ben Brown – who is running well – and Adam Tomlinson adding depth. Shane McAdam will also provide forward smarts and Harrison Petty did not attract a huge offer from Adelaide without merit. The question Sparrow posed is, how do we maintain the strong foundations but also add a couple of elements? And the question the club has asked itself is how do we restore the reputation that has taken a hammering since the siren sounded on their 2023 campaign with a two-point loss to Carlton on September 15? “It’s got to be addressed. It is all people are talking about,” Sparrow said. “For us now it’s about 2024, and how do we perform? There is a lot of pressure on us as a club. We know that, and I mean, what an opportunity. I am so excited. Steven May described the Dees’ list as ‘unbelievable’. But is it? “We’re doing it right. Let’s just go out there and show them how hard we work.” The unrelenting clangour surrounding the club this spring, and the desolation experienced when the semi-final siren sounded has not diminished Sparrow’s love for the sport and anticipation for what lies ahead. “Playing footy, it is the best thing ever. Far out, we have the best job. I feel super lucky to be in this position,” Sparrow said.

Nice work, Andy. The Kolt sounds like a great kid. Good to hear how the other WA boys embraced him too.

Perhaps a double of what Steve Silvagni copped many years ago (ruptured [censored]) would serve your purpose.

He's no dog. Dogs are great. Friendly, funny and good company. Smart too. Maynard is none of those things. Maynard is a maggot. Can we agree?

Or that drops from winning a flag to no finals appearance the following year.

Millane stood on him while Ted was sprawled on the boundary line with the ball out of play. I recall a Collingwood type claiming a king hit, as they were known at the time, which ii sort of was although supposed to have been provoked. We'll never know if it caused any long term damage to Millane. Very sorry to learn about Fidge's troubles. He and his brother were an entertaining pair although we bundled them off to the Brisbane Bears when the opportunity was forced on us as it was all clubs.

Interesting. I figured Pert's comment about 3000 was intended to buy a laugh - it didn't - but 50 is pretty poor. Could not make it myself due to other commitments.

How's the turn out?

That would do it for me.

Perhaps I sold myself short in my earlier post, dpositive, since I did attempt a reasoned argument in my email to that fellow. It's just that earlier I offered the punch line. In the email to the biomechanic, and in response to his evidence that having jumped in the air Maynard was "essentially a projectile", I remarked: "What you are saying is that an athlete who jumps in the air is a missile with no ability to shape what happens next. Good luck with that line talking to a room of gymnasts." I pointed out: "as a professional athlete of many years' standing Maynard has spent half his lifetime in gymnasiums and has a strong core formed by weight training and pilates sessions. He was able to guide himself in mid-air. Your projectile comment would be laughable had it not helped create a precedent for future concussion events." See? It wasn't all slagging off. Just some of it, and I would say, deservedly so. I stopped short of calling him bogus, so there was some restraint.

Word from a journo who observed the hearing was that the AFL ran a very weak prosecution...going through the motions.

I challenged it. Tracked the clown down on google (not difficult) and wrote to him the morning after the hearing at his Catholic University email. Told him I was no bio-mechanic but I could recognise tripe when I see it. Still waiting for a reply.

You've just identified the fundamental problem with the game at all levels at the moment. The AFL's push to keep the ball moving means free kicks that would have been obvious in earlier eras are now just ignored. The could start by banning the "overhead backwards handpass" which is almost invariably a half throw. But if the rules were played as written the game would eventually become cleaner and better to watch as played adapted to the new interpretations. sorry that should read "rulings". "Interpretations" is the AFL's word and it's messing up the game.

Exactly. North bring heaps of pressure but bugger-all skill. It was true against us and again today. The women's game is almost unwatchable atm and will remain so until that skill so evident in other years can survive the pressure of battlers like North.

You do realise all those red brick primary schools built in the 19th and 20th centuries we all attended were built with (gulp) debt? The point being all the generations that benefit from such assets bear a share of the cost. There's probably, somewhere deep in the government's books, a smidgeon of the cost of the school I attended back in the 1960s. That's how public debt works. No need to freak out.

...an exercise in self-delusion.

Carlton surely is the most Liberal (in politics terms) of clubs with big money going back all the way to Sir Robert Menzies via Sir Maurice Nathan, John (Liberal Party bagman) Elliott and numerous others. But Hawthorn is one of the most strongly Liberal voting areas in classically loyal Liberal localities until the Teals came along. Geelong is a different matter. Lots of votes and multiple electorates. Labor and Liberal governments (think Bracks-Baillieu- Andrews) have thrown money down there.

So was Fritter, from memory.

Unfortunately this headline writes itself. Going to be some unfortunate comparisons to the men's exits last two years.

Opportunities to attack have been squandered repeatedly by weak, half bandpasses failing to find targets or not carrying to the targeted player. looking reactive and lost.

Interview in The Age today identifies North, Hawks, GWS and Gold Coast as the clubs that have interviewed him. Interesting that we apparently have not shown interest, at least so far.

The advantage was a shocker but also bad were the penalties for high tackles awarded to N Daicos who dropped his knees every bloody time. He should be called on it.