bush demon

A good, old fashioned spray will spruce us up for the GWS:

I was disappointed by Roos' 'dossier' line, and think it is out of whack with his earlier homilies to the media. Don't forget it is a grossly uneven competition. We are effectively playing in The Sunday League, have little chance of cherry-picking players like Hawthorn, Collingwood, Carlton and Essendon, and only average chance of hanging onto the players we gain through the draft or in-house development. The drop-off of good players to strong or better clubs is quite startling when you list them: Moloney, Bennell, Sylvia, McLean, Petterd, Rivers.

Sssshh!!!

The jury is in, out and gone home on this one. (CTE). The evolution of the code is forcing more collisions, so something has to be done about the rules to make it (once again) a more open game, not requiring so much crash and bash.

Everton were visiting that year and he took me to see them play at Olympic Park: Everton 8, Australia 2. (Ed.) Sorry to hijack the thread, but as a postscript I looked up the dates and Melbourne were flogged by StKilda and wunderkind, Carl Ditterich on the Saturday, a fact I had been unaware of. I guess when you are eight you don't know much. Crowd for the soccer match was 32,000, whilst Melbourne v STKilda at the G was 35,000.

Toumpas, very clever. After being penalised for the push he cleverly used his hip and won possession. just lacking forwards to finish.

Well, it is a bit tongue-in-cheek.

IN the valley. We had our new black and white telly with a huge aerial. On GF day I was sitting in front of the box, with Channel Two running constant updates with some kind of scrolling sheet. the score kept changing, until "Final Scores" with Melbourne victorious. can't ever remember watching the replay on telly, our father was a fervent soccer man who had no time for aussie rules. I do remember some tv highlights of the second semi where melbourne slaughtering collingwood with strings of handballs and fast passing. Probably our last great September performance.

In addition to limiting the number of consecutive handballs to two/three, I would also bring back the drop kick. That is, to stop chipping around (and thereby bypassing the handball curfew) I would mandate that the third kick had to be a drop kick or stab kick. Again, I tender as evidence the 1945 final (embedded above). That way, players would have to re-learn their foot skills and the sheer beauty of FOOTball would be returned. Aussie rules needs to see a return to open-space football, not to mention the massive speccies which result. I would make it mandatory for the full-back's kick out to be a to drop kick, a la Phil Roden. That would stop the pathetic defensive mindsets which clog up our backlines. Finally, a word on chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The penny will drop when administrators of our game become aware that they will be liable to massive class actions in this area. Players like Daniel Bell, Brett Kirk, Diesel Williams, Rohan Bail and Jimmy Bartel have been smashed playing the 'honour code' of our game and it won't be a comfortable feeling if they develop reported symptoms later in life (as some apparently have). This close-, head over the ball ethic is nothing more than a blood sport, where supporters pay good money to see their villains get smashed. American football is the worst culprit in this area - as soon as this game is severely modified as well, the better!

The game has become bogged down. There is too much emphasis on chasing the ball from one end of the stadium to the other, too many useless handballs, too much 'system', in fact. I always look back on the chaos of old matches with some degree of nostalgia. Why not mandate that there can only be one or two handballs before the ball has to be kicked? There is too much precision in handballing, kicking allows pure football to prevail, and it also allows an element of chance of an unforced turnover. This is to be applauded, and we should get back to it. The rolling mauls and sheer boredom of modern Aussie Rules needs to be addressed. I am also coming from this from an occupational health and safety angle. The amount of head collisions caused by close contact is creating medical and legal issues which are being overlooked by the profiteers of our game. Freeing the game up and opening the game up should be a priority, so let's get back to the past. PS note it is Aussie rules, it is not AFL. there is no such thing as afl:

J Hird: "I am Essendon at this stage..."

Not sure that I have seen it mentioned that Cameron Bruce was coaching the Hawks against us yesterday, and was pleased with the processes put into place during the game.

I remember one year always waiting for Parke, Aitken and Dillon to get on the park together...

My car horn is going off in the middle of the night. I have to jump up out of bed and disconnect the battery. Any auto-electricians around here?

Niall: "Yes, Northey did well at the Dees, you're right (and Balme had them fourth in 1994), but I reckon the club was - relative to the competition - in better shape than when ND took over, when it was on the bottom and had major issues with finances, resources, facilities and disunity. The CEO job was a revolving door - he had several. Implicitly, the point is that they haven't fared so well since ND, who did more than enough to get another job (eg Essendon). ND seemed to help hold the Dees together." Jake didn't really acknowledge my complaint, that he casting Melbourne as "dismal" going back to the 90's, which just isn't the case. I thanked him for his response.

Just thought I'd mention that I got a reply from Jake. I have asked him if he minds me printing his reply here.

I get sick of journalists dumping on the Dees. In Jake Niall's article Damaged Goods, he makes the point that Neil Daniher 'even managed to lift the dismal dees' into the finals in the 90's. I emailed him, pointing out that Melbourne, far from being dismal, had featured in six of the preceding ten final series, including three prelims and a grand final. Our club had quite a successful record in the AFL until the Daniher demise in the mid 2000s and Daniher was a good coach although he did fail to renew the list towards the end of his tenure.

Without reading all the posts, with respect we were c**p during much of the journey '65 - 14, which is the train i have been stuck on. perhaps the worst moment being our choke in the '87 prelim: the very moment we could have reclaimed our mantle of somethingness. as for neeldy, why can him for saying he wanted to make our team the most feared to play against? i was certainly scared. we should be wary of pre-season bravado, we have been there before. round one is when it matters. the heightened expectations will collapse quicker than a stack of cards if we get flattened against the Saints. Wattsy shouldn't be offering these opinions: loose lips sink ships.

I was totting up the ex-Dees running around in other colours: Moloney, McLean, Scully, Sylvia, Rivers, Pettard and Scott Thompson, and wondering how this compared with other clubs, and how many of these players would get a game in our starting 18 now.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/top-melbourne-draft-picks-christan-salem-jay-kennedyharris-firm-for-round-1-after-intraclub-practice-match/story-fndv8pdq-1226832513877

Supposed to have pulled up with tightness in the calf, acc. to the Herald-Sun.

Undercuts the AFL expansion into rugby states. Why gift so many players to gold coast if triple premiers brisbane are going to fall away like this. gold coast, this is your fate in a few years too.

Don't talk dirty.

Adelaide - An authentic club with good colours, with a genuine tribal following. Having said that, they got through in '98 on false pretences. PS Hope they don't win a flag whilst go-home-factor Scott Thompson is still playing with them. Brisbane - Have some feeling for them with the merging of Fitzroy. Admire their three-peat. Carlton - Old Guard, money buys premiership model, no flag for a long-time now perhaps the Barassi miracle finally wearing off. Collingwood - Admire their back-to-the-walls attitude and their win-interstate mentality. Essendon - Another money club whose 'all-it-takes' mentality sees them flat-lining. Dislike their penchant for on-field violence in September: 1990, 2000. Fremantle - Glad to see them miss out with Lyons shopping around for a September squad. Geelong - Always admired their play, as far back as the days of Farmer, Goggin, Sharrock, Wade etc, great exponents of our code. Should have won a flag in late 80's/90's. Gold Coast - No interest. AFL gifts them an elite team. See how they run when the sand runs out a la Brisbane. GWS - This team should be bought up by McDonalds or Hungry Jacks and become a hamburger outlet. Hawthorn - Dirty deeds done dirt cheap: Matthews, Dippa, Campbell Brown, the guy who took out Bruce .... Guerra... North Melbourne - Admire their no-pokies stance. Hovering on the precipice with a good squad. Coach is a bit smug regarding us, so they can just sit in the middle as far as i am concerned. Port Adelaide - Dudded by the AFL, a proud club with 30 plus SANFL flags, asset-stripped and heritage stripped. Richmond - A trad. dirty team, happy to see them keep missing out. St Kilda - Poor Saints, could have had two flags in recent years. Sydney - Used to hate them in the Gerard Healey era, now I absolutely love them, esp the way they stole the flag off Hawks a couple of years ago. West Coast - Should be taken over by a mining company and re-located to the pilbara. take their jumper colours and song with them. Western Bulldogs - Some compassion, really admire supporters who can stick with a club that has only one one flag, and with no silverware since 1954.

That would be Jake the Peg, with no Larry or Shemp.