bush demon

as a veteran aussie rules fanatic i would say 'nfl' or gridiron in the old money is a dementia-inducing, brain-wasting waste of time. there, i've started a nice little fireside chat now that the demons fell short for my 48th year of supportership. as for cricket, give me two hours of 1 for 45 any day of the week.

urgent update, james strauss reckons he will stay. (from the telly)

i just fed this into the Langley supercomputer, and you have omitted Norm Smith's six premierships.

"whizz kid" and "stunning left-footer", says it all.

well aren't the whole team batching together at their fancy waterside location? why would tom be looking for a separate dwelling it's not part of the gws program. you have to live with gubby and kev.

Isn't there some kind of policy on here that footballers wearing the red and blue don't cop cyber-abuse. i don't think that the supporter base is that strong that we can kick own-goals. i read his recent weblog on club site, sounds like a great bloke and a great family.

Off the source, apparently.

She says nothing new, and makes gratuitous remarks about what mfc 'could have done' not to upset our young Tom. The article is contradictory, trying to have it both ways. according to cw, the deal leads with 'is not done' but finishes with 'likely to happen'. the way it has panned out and what cw doesn't say is that if we win we lose anyway because the expansion philosophy has inflated the player payments and left us wide open to other raids next year.

deep bruising to internal values...

This could all turn around with a change in player personnel and considering this is basically a dead rubber, but tonight can't be good for the woods. Two bob the MM drama has impacted on their psyche and they will go out in straight sets. Post-season fall-out may be spectacular and may see every player heading to GWS. What a team that would make, with TS captain of course.

Looks like we will know on Monday about Tom Scully's playing career with the mighty Demons: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/dees-chase-lyon-as-viney-eyes-job-20110901-1jo92.html

Frank Adams exit stage left (1964), Sam Blease enter stage right (2011).

On a side note, who remembers big Melbourne premiership forward Bob Johnstone regularly tearing the house down for VFA team Oakleigh in the 1960's? We could have sorely used his nous in our pathetic teams of that period.

The technical term for it is a reverse tank.

watching fremantle being murdered by collingwood again demonstrates the problem that lower clubs face: so much less to play for. I believe this is inflating the scorelines of the top teams who see a real purpose in winning ie finals position. There are just too many teams, once you drop off the peloton extra effort brings no reward. So I don't think the Demons are as bad as their scorlines would indicate, and our prospects have not sunk as low as we now tend to think. Our lack of at least one elite mid, and a forward to straighten us up is cruelling our team. bring back steven powell and neita. powell could get it out of the guts and neita could mark it.

at the end of the day it is a surrender of the brand "melbourne", allowing others to move in.

"Melbourne Football Club" --- "The Melbourne Demons" --- "Melbourne United" === "Greater Melbourne United" (inc footscray, north, richmond. home games split between mcg and etibad. jumpers:red, blue, black, yellow and white arranged via photoshop. i think in twenty years time this will be a reality, because the 'melbourne' branding is too valuable for the afl corporates to surrender, andd the residual clubs too poor to resist.

some people quickly forget that as of 2007 geelong hadn't won a premiership for 44 years, and melbourne had competed in a grand final (2000) more recently than them.

wwoops, i forgot to 'show images' in email. he must be staying.

In the 100% melbourne emails to members Jimmy Stynes refers to players who have 'chosen to stand up for melbourne', listing the recently re-signed players. this to me is the strongest statement yet that the club knows the outcome of the tom thing.

Even if this is so, the end result is the same: blucher Inc., which has future free-agent ccandidates knocking on his door.

As the denouement of Scully The Opera fast approaches, I can only think that TS has allowed himself to be mis-used by those who should be representing his interests. The player-manager stands to make a whole lot of money, and the GWS and Melbourne are caught in an unwarranted bidding war. Scully's performances on the field in the light of these shenanigans show that far from not being distracted by off-field matters (in delaying contract negotiations), he is totally distracted. The greatest impact, however has been on the club he plays for and the potential to stuff up signings for those who will commit to the club.

"For such a good kick..." One thing I have observed about TS's football is that he is not a good kick, and doees not have a 'raking left foot'. In fact his obsession with football seems to be about fitness and giving out handballs in traffic, which he is good at. http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/much-ado-about-nothing-20110811-1iovp.html

Coming home from the football and the days afterward have become such a hollow experience. Is there a way back? Which act of courage or game-lifting performance will return the Demons to the path we all hoped for only a season or so ago? Or are 'systems' all-pervasive? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0_7LcWi414&feature=related

I couldn't believe the number of contested possessions the Scullster was listed as having... i think it was 14 or thereaabouts. most of his possessions however result in nippy, short handballs to players also trapped in the vortex and which tend to go nowhere.