bush demon

From The Age, Monday 21 September.

My friend's sister in Warragul has a ripping round by round scrapbook of 1964 culled from the papers. I am more than happy to help you out. She went to training one night and got the players' autographs as well.

This is spot on. We have had good enough teams since our last flag and if this team got photoshopped into other club colours our fade outs and underachievement would vanish. So are our AFL players just journeymen on fat contracts? Look at the players after the games, they are all best mates. If Clarkson had coached Melbourne the last ten years he would no doubt have been consigned to the scrapheap, so it's not just about the coach. We just seem to rise to a certain level of achievement and then blancmange back into our previous state of mediocrity. Get sick of it after a few decades because the cycle of failure is so routine.

Keep your eye on the red and the blue.

How many A grade footballers did Melbourne recruit between their 1960 flag and their collapse in 1965? Bourke and Townsend? Now compare with the champions the other clubs were accumulating during that period.

Cliff from Clematis.

Heroic efforts by Barassi, see his courage spoiling a mark, and marking under pressure.

Errrm, thrice.

this: "they call me will-A ("Tommy") Stay so cool, I'm chilli I done made that milli On my way to that valet Used to have a piggy bank, but now I got that bigger bank Who who cares what the haters think They hate on me 'cause we doing what they can't I stay on that hustle, I flex that little muscle Hate to bust your bubble I'm on that other level I'ma take it higher and high and high and higher I stay and buy attire (ie Melbourne/ gws / Hawks jumpers) Keeping burning like that fire..." etc

That's a bit personal. To quote Justin Bieber, "Who cares who the haters hate".

There are a select few clubs who can get to the big dance these days. Stupendous amount of funds redirected to no-supporter clubs in rugby states, pole position TV slots monopolized for the Hawthorns and Richmonds to push their branding/recruitment, Orwellian lies told about how AFL is better than the widely loved state competitions, and once in a millenium get- lucky flags, cos the feeder teams just know they can win Powerball if they keep buying tickets.

That's a tough story to read.

Field kicking is a function of having marking forwards (Riewoldt, Tom Lynch). If we could get Weidemann/McDonald/Tomlinson functioning delivery would improve as well. Just do it Melbourne, you know it's right.

Hi Picket fence. I only could only fit Parke on the extended bench due to his poor set shots. FWIW His first game is/was on YouTube, he dominated.

Someone to clunk marks, it's as simple as that. If Bob Johnstone, Ross Dillon, Jako or Darren Bennett not available, then try something, try anything. We tried to climb the ladder with incrementalism, Barassi 'five year plan' - Roos, 'the handover', Goodwin, ((who got us to a prelim by the way) and now we are week by week stuck with manufacturing goals under pressure. Disposals will always disappoint in this environment. I'm old school, and I can remember Biffen going forward, Sean Wight in the '88 Elim. saved us. When forwards are clunking that's when opposition's get fearful and our mids come into play, not to mention our Picketts and Bennells. Step forward May, Weidemann. If you can't Mark it bring it down to our runners.

Jack Watts would endlessly lead into space and endlessly be ignored, bombing high into a contested situation being the preferred option.

Just watching a bit of the '66 SANFL grand final when our game was called Aussie rules. How sad the pale imitation AFL is in this era. Behold the passion of the SA crowd, the intensity of the opening exchanges and the magnificent hulk, John Tilbrook. If only we had preserved the state codes in that form with perhaps a championship of Australia to be played at the end of state GF week. The drop kick would be returned with 9 pointers on offer for goals outside the 50 metre arc. State teams could be composed of 9 players from each GF team. Week 1 would be a qualifier betw. SA and WA states and the final played the following week on the MCG versus The Big V. The Australian cricket captain could toss the coin. The rugby states could play the two curtain raisers. Wait, it's Saturday morning in June 2020 and football is on again this afternoon.

Was it around this time that both Carlton and Richmond were secretly courting Norm Smith/Barassi?

With Northey we would drop 5-6 games on the trot before we got our intensity/ white line fever back. This cost us high finishes in several years meaning we had to play interstate finals.

I just wanted to say that Australia have Yorkshire in trouble at Sheffield, with Yorkshire sitting at 5/85 on the second day after Aus. had declared at 8/295. Garth McKenzie has picked up two.

This must be the worst wrist-slashing after a win I've ever heard. A 30-40 pt lead is nothing these days, we did shut them down when it counted. Once we get someone to clunk marks in the forward half we won't be so vulnerable on the rebound.

You obviously don't listen to the Coodabeens champions in QB weekends.

I remember Crosswell and Carmen taking some big speccies in the red and blue, they were absolute dominators for their clubs. I think Carmen played a few blinders for us. Seemed to be able to take big pack marks at will when he was on.

I think Kelvin Templeton was the triple A excitement factor, until it was realised he could no longer kick further than 35M.