bush demon

you mean a 'once-in-a-generation' footballer... (Ed: Sorry, clicked the wrong quote).

hoping it's not another one of those games where the opposition continually gets the ball 'out the back' then slingshots it home for repeat goals. we are well capable of winning if we bring our best to the table.

It is the secrecy around this 'advice' and career move of Barassi's which galls so many old time melbourne supporters. footballers supporters on the other hand are unlikely to make a private pacts at half-time to start supporting the other side for the rest of the game. As Martin Flanagan says, we are all just chasing laundry.

Yup. And taking a winter sports (football) clinic tomorrow with four small country schools. Second week so we do 30 minutes of activities and then a lightning cup, five a side, four teams. Totally outside my normal work activities.

If the players genuinely think they can make the 8 a sense of momentum takes hold. Once we are in the eight 'possession is 9/10's of the law' takes over. In previous runs at the 8 we had huge winning streaks and tended to run over the top of teams in the second half of the year. I am hoping this will happen in 2016.

Sadly, it won't be until there is a serious injury at the highest level with a Phil Hughes, common law reform come about. There is an ongoing emphasis on creating collisions to win the 50/50 contests and the head is inevitably going to be hit. In American grid-iron it is documented that a significant percentage of their players end their careers with brain injuries. If parents see such stats emerging in our code then sports like soccer (which also have brain impact issues) will increasingly be favoured.

in my childhood one of the single best things was kick to kick with my brother, and demon buddy, Ray. there was no biffo, just lairising and plenty of practise perfecting drop kicks and torps. I played fantasy football with a soccer ball from the age of about 7 before progressing to Springvale under 12's and under 14's. All the kids grew into gorillas over summer that year and i decided i would play soccer for a few seasons. i used to love juniors football at springvale but was always an outside receiver. the main playmakers seem to wax together so the best i could do was pick up the crumbs. i remember peter bundy standing on my hand at the bottom of a pack one day and my hand instantly puffing up. i also dabbled with a season of fantasy marble football in 1970. at the end of that season i threw all the marbles away cos i had become addicted. i think that season my brother became addicted to fantasy balloon footballer, which was basically an indoor sport. I then played a couple of seasons for Dingley and Parkdale in the firsts and seconds in the federal league in my early 20's. i remember one game i kicked a beautiful torp. goal from the half-forward flank and got promoted to the ones the next week. it was a brief appearance and i was soon back in the twos. One game i got king hit in a game at parkdale and spent the second half chasing the guy around for payback. a couple of years ago i had a run around with the gippsland vets team, it was a lot of fun and great doing drills again with all the true believers. last friday i took a group of kids for winter sports and lamented that most of the kids can't kick any more. good to see some girls participating though.

I am hearing you, but I am saying that football would have been re-constitued. You can't legislate against people kicking a pig-skin.

the debt has been transferred and magnified many times over. we are now beholden to the gambling industry, otherwise many clubs reliant on head office to stay afloat. the cream of victorian talent is running around in fluoro, power shirts at spotless stadium and cararra coliseum. the s.a and w.a local competitions have been decimated and their best players have to fly across the country every second week meaning it is hard for those states to win premierships. so what if the vfl curled up in 1986. At least it was real football on real football grounds. despite these prophesies, the game would have re-emerged and the government would have come to the party, no matter what is said in this article. oh, and fitzroy would still be with us. so would south.

1965 is an interesting parallel. We were the top team and had been winning a very high percentage of games up to mid-season, when we started losing a high percentage of games. The drop-off was probably unprecedented in league history.

If you are THE Barrie Vagg then you are one of my pop idols of the 60's. I remember speaking to you at a Fed Square gathering of legendary demons a couple of years ago. I do notice from old stats that you missed a few 'snaps' in the '64 grand final though!

Like Vardy, he is a finisher. Farmer and Davey more spectacular, but Garlett doesn't seem to miss when the ball's in motion.

How would you compare Garlett with other small forwards of the past: Vardy, Farmer, Davey, not to mention Barry Vagg?

Saviours 2.0: Jimmy Stynes That mining guy Tiddles Ridley Dennis Jones Bobby Skilton probably could all be added to the list of mighty saviours.

Patrick Dangerfield Lance Frankenfield Jeremy Cameron Gaddy Ablett Todd Goldstein As Cher would say, the list goes on.

The saviours: Ed Burston John Tilbrook Kelvin Templeton Carl Ditterich Glenn Swann David Cordner Brent Crosswell others?

I'm so over this flimsy 'rating' + critiquing of players like they are tradeable swapcards. Either you support the guys on the ground or you don't. The defenders aren't sitting in a bar in front of a flat-screen; they make instant decisions for better or worse to break the lines or improve the team position. they don't have the luxury of being internet scribes assessing options from a distance. Lynden Dunn has been a warrior and a true demon for many years now. I get sick of this whittling-down that is so prevalent here. As if the players could ever come to the standards of the footballer/typists who lord over them.

Ha ha. Loved the ref. To the UFO's in Clayton. That was near Westall Primary school, adjacent to our Whiteside Primary school. Witnesses to the UFO included several teachers including I think the principal.

Love these kind of discussions. The Saints had opened us up before, in the closing phase of Smith's reign, exposing weaknesses that had been papered over by our crafty coach. Once was mid-season 1964, and the other was Ditterich's first game could have been a final in very early 60's. I remember in the primary school playground kids used to scream 'Cooper!' When going for a mark. Ian Cooper was another of the high flyers we had no answer to in this period.

The blessing? Since when is any coach entitled to secretly encourage an all-time club champion to leave the club. Smith must surely have known what this would/could do to the club. If Smith had such knowledge then the MFC and club supporters also had a right to know. Given the coach's bitterness towards the board over the Russell Blew matter he did not act in the club's best interests.

He has excellent hands, just didn't get it enough in the past. Smart footballer, and improving in this team.

+ $5 so Rance could replace his shat-in jocks.

Andrew Wu, low-rent commentator like the coward in the crowd cheering on a bully. Watts, seen to be easily picked on, too good for Richmond. Hang your heads in shame Fairfax for hiring this writer.

Rance = Rancid. Sniping reminiscent of Jimmy O'Dea on John Greening.

Would have tarnished his brand staying at Melbourne. You've just got to read Red Fox where Norm Smith resented Crompton playing out of position in GF, even though it won us the premiership. I think the club had become a weird place by mid-60's with too much success.