Wrecker45

Having watched and passionately supported Melbourne for over 20 years I’ve had lots of disappointment. The 2000 grand final sticks out in my mind as one of the most disappointing. We were made to look like school girls and it was embarrassing. In the 2003 draft we picked a kid called Colin Sylvia, the next season I watched Sandringham play in the grandfinal against Port Melbourne. Sylvia was in a forward pocket pitted against Steve Lawrence a sniper, thug and all round bad bloke. Lawrence wrestled then punched Sylvia behind the play on the flank directly in front of me, Sylvia punched Lawrence back twice, right on the nose. I was that bloody happy I can’t explain, not because we had a boxer or fighter on our list, but we had a kid who’d stick up for himself and show a bit of pride in our jumper, something we have lacked in my 20 odd years of watching. Yesterday I went to Geelong to watch the practice match. During the game Travis Johnstone went for a contested mark and ran through Geelong’s David Johnson, both going for the footy. After the collision Trav lay there waiting for Johnson to get up, both players had showed plenty of courage and had eyes only for the ball. Trav was motioning for Johnson to get up off his leg and gave him a friendly of a pat on the back. Chapman came charging in and gave Trav a bit of a whack for his fair and legitimate action. Daniel Bell ran faster that Cathy Freeman to remonstrate with Chapman, Moloney ran in, Jones came from nowhere and grabbed Chapman by the throat. There was a sea of red and blue coming in to stick up for their teammate. Chapman was swamped by an aggressive pack of young Demons. There is a new breed of demon running around on the paddock at the moment. We are rough, tough and proud. If Dean Wallis punched Brad Green in the throat or Michael Long ran through anybody wearing red and blue it would be a different story in 2007. We’ve always had players with plenty of skill but IMHO we finally have the toughness to go with it. Beware the Demon in 2007.

Positives: Brent Moloney was outstanding Miller showed plenty today, lead, marked and kicked long. He'll never be Wayne Carey but there is hope. Will definately be CHF come round 1 (I was doubtful about his spot in the side up until today) Nathan Jones is a machine Beer is at cheaper at Kradinia than at the MCG Whelan played like Whelan Negatives: Trav was only kicking on his left boot Brock just went today Pickett didn't get a run Aaron Davey was quiet. IMHO he is best suited to the forward line. In the midfield when he is continually running, his pace drops to lightning fast. In the forward line when his chases are slightly less regular he is explosive and catches the oponent or puts more pressure on them. He's not a bad crumber either. In the first half if we were trying to play 'run and carry' it looked more like 'duck and cover' When Rivers went off injured Mooney kicked 4 goals Rivers went off inured Bate was quiet

Brock

I was a little bit young so my memory may not be spot on, but I remember The Ox kicking a long goal very early in the game against Collingwood in his come-back game from his first knee reconstruction. The roar was deafening

I was a little bit young so my memory may not be spot on, but I remember The Ox kicking a long goal very early in the game against Collingwood in his come-back game from his first knee reconstruction. The roar was deafening

I saw Newton play on Saturday for the first time. I reckon he's got a bigger leap on him than Robbo. I know he is only in the Sandy reserves but he will play for Melbourne and he is an excitement machine.