John Dee

A late report from someone who also attended the game; I was on the scoreboard wing; soaking up the sun. I thought that, particularly in the first half, Bartram struggled to get into the game. He got a run in the midfield in the third quarter and did a lot better. I was looking forward to a big last quarter from him, but, he took his boots off at three-quarter-time. Sylvia moved well and was a class above his opponents. He put the cue in the rack at half-time. I thought that Sandy were going to get overun in the last quarter owing to many players missing and general lackadaisicalness. However, after Willy got to within a point, Sandy, without any Melbourne players, piled on six unanswered goals to lead by thirty-five points, before a late Willy goal. I say that no Melbourne players played the last quarter although I thought I saw Warnock at full-forward; obviously that was a mirage.

I slipped down to watch the game today. I missed the first 5 minutes, but, now I know what happened to Dunn. I was on the wing next to the main scoreboard sitting with a couple of Port supporters. Newton impressed me greatly; It was the first time I have seen him live. He should have got 6 or 7. What impessed me most was his judgement; He seemed to judge the flight of the ball far better than the players around him and knew when to work to the front and take the mark and, also, showed that he could drop to the back and take a basically uncontested mark. Early days, but, showed plenty. Godders was Godders; Yze was Yze. Godders was head down bum up, in the packs, forcing the ball forward more by will than skill. Yze was on the outside, showing ridiculous skill. A mark that Yze dropped near me typifies his game; Yze came out on a lead and the ball was kicked to him. The kick was not perfect, but, a little extra effort would have got Yze an easy mark, The effort was not there, the mark was dropped, but, Yze gathered the ball on the ground and it was no contest for him to get around the onrushing Port defender. Yze has far too much skill to play at VFL level. Yze does not have class, class is skill and committment combined.

The squad was up on afl.com.au early this afternoon. It has Geen and Macca out with Buckley and Garland named.

I am well aware that Whitey has never kicked 20 goals a season. I think that someone of his ablility should kick 25-30 a year whether from the ruck or from the occasional foray forward; He has the talent.

OK, my two cents worth. I was at the game with my son, in the Legends Stand, just beyond the shadow line, at about the 35 metre mark Some bloke named Laurie Kerr seems to have sposored just about every seat. Richmond is coached by Terry Wallace, so we had a flood of biblical proportions. It was nothing to see 18 Richmond players in out forward 50 whenever we had the ball. Numerous times during the game our last line consisting of Bell/Ferguson, Caroll and Bizzel was forward of the centre. We showed commendable discipline to reject the long bomb into the defencive mass and thus frustrated Wallace's plan. I would hate to be a Tiger supporter looking at this game plan week after week. It depends on frustrating your opponent into error, but, a good team will not succumb easily and your side will be spent early on a hot day. Bowden on Neitz, you're kidding me. I thought Neita was taken off to prevent Richmond's embarrasment. If he could hold his marks, he would have had 6 by half time. If we complain about Yze not putting his body in in August and September, then, surely, we do not think it is going to happen in a meaningless practice match in mid March. Miller polarises opinion. He is a paradox. The style of play that he is most effective and successful at depends on an open forward line for him to lead out of. Wallace type teams flood mercilessly and completely negate Miller. The paradox is that Miller will play much better against the better teams that will maintain their structural integrity and allow him the space to lead into. We are a completely different team with the addition of Davey and Whelan. CJ is a beauty. Dunn, Bate, Junior, Moloney solid. Bizzel is back! Whitey is a talent, long live the resting ruckman in the forward pocket, 1950's football. Seriously, Whitey is a real talent; he should kick 25-30 goals a year. The Delidio goal; I just looked at my son and said that we were obviously on a bad angle. Father/Sons, did RB Jr, John??, play any games. The sponsorship group here used to sponsor Michael Clark who played 1 game.

The final score is an interesting one. If you were watching, they took a point off our score at half time, but, not of our total score. They also added two points to Richmond, both on their points tally and total score. Or score is variously refered to as 15:12:102 or 15:13:103 in today's media.

The reason that Newton spends a lot of time playing for Sandy seconds has nothing to do with ability; it has ro do with application. If Newton shows form and dedication, they will find a spot for him in the firsts. If he can't show enough to play regularly in the firsts, I expect that this year will be his last.

Bartram will not be ready until about round 5; he is therefore not in anybody's team for round 1. If I was to pick a best 22 from our list, he is definately in it.

Bazza, CAC mentioned at the last sponsorship function that Stefan Martin was being invited to play for Sandy after missing out on our Rookie spot. He was, apparently, the best of the training invitees. Do you know what happened?

For all of the reasons mentioned above, this is a great initiative. The main benefit will, I believe, be financial. If there are 3000 MCC/MFC members, then many of them will drop back to the $40 option rather than the $150. How many this will be is open to debate. Many will continue to ante up the full amount (and get our enormous gratitude). In broad terms - 3000 MCC/MFC members at $150 is $450,000. If we can get 20,000 MCC members to ante up $40, this equates to $800,000. The rewards are there, but, how many of the 20,000 can we get? How many of the 3000 can we get to remain as full members? Is the 3000 already included in the 21,000 MCC Melbourne supporters? These things are never quite as rosy as promised; I can still see at least $200,000 in it for MFC and every little bit helps.

What we have all got to understand is that for out-of-season drug tests to proceed the AFL needed the compliance of the AFL Players Association. In-season tests are conducted under the WADA controls and result in harsh penalties for even first offences. The AFLPA only agreed to out-of-season tests with the understanding that the detection of non-performance enhancing drugs would not have public penalties until the third offence. The argument being that, if rehabilitation is your prime objective, this was the best course. This argument has since been tested in court and the AFL/AFLPA were successful in keeping the names of the three players who have two offences somewhat secret. The AFLPA made some veiled threats that the publication of the names would void the agreement with the AFL and then all out-of-season tests would cease. It is a moot point as to how much weight this had in the successful injunction against Fairfax??. Thus, the AFL cannot be blamed for the drug policy; lots of other things though. With the gambling issue, they have full and utter control. They are coming down hard, as they should. Credit where it is due.

Warnock is a very serviceable player. He has very little star quality, but, what would you expect from someone who wasn't drafted and worked his way up from the VFL. He cops criticism because it is obvious that his upside is limited and he will never be a superstar. Any league side, even the premiership ones, have at least half their side in this category, but, supporters always seem to assume that everybody who plays for them, particularly the new ones have to be world beaters.

When you are a defender playing on a one-sided forward, you should play on his non-dominant side as that is the side he is going to swing onto to use his dominant foot. Warnock, and Carroll, should therefore played Franklin on his right hand side. Not rocket scientist stuff; They should be able to work it out, you'd think.

I just got back from the game. I am not that upset that we lost, but, I didn't particularly like the way that we did it. I thought that Chris Johnston was our best player. Cam Bruce would have been if his disposals, particularly early, had been more effective. Green was good, too. Bell was Bell. If you are on his bandwagon, he plays well; if you are not, he doesn't. I am on Miller's bandwagon. I wasn't impressed, enough said. Frawley looked a bit lost, but, what else could you expect. Buckley looked the goods, but, ran out of puff, again understandable. We missed Mclean, Johnstone and White in particular. We really lost our run through the midfield in the last quarter. There was no point in playing a forward line in the last quarter, we couldn't get it down there!

I see that Ferg has had plastic surgery over the summer. Very impressive job too.

How about fixing the error that crops up on just about every page load since the weekend!

This is a big year for Danny. Bode, Neaves and he are all second year rookies and will need to be promoted onto the senior list to be retained. Neaves is a monty to be retained, and as AFL socialism requires at least three draftees, Danny will need MFC to delist five players, at least, for him to be retained. As this means six for Bode and from what little I know of him, this means he is on very shaky ground. Danny needs to kick on this year; It is now or never.

Aaron Davey is a prime example of how an unstable administration with poor financial nous can directly effect onfield results. He was picked up by North Melboure's football department and was touted as a player of no little promise. The administration then told the football department that they could not have any rookies the following year. Davey was squeezed out and became a Melbourne player. I am really worried about North Melbourne; Carlton will be OK. If there is a club that should be associated with the F word, for a great many reasons, it is North Melbourne.

I would think that each one is equally guilty and that we long suffering demons are certainly in a very good position to judge that.

The Carlton members, at least those who were eligable to vote, and did, certainly appreciate that instability in administration is a cancer that will permiate throughout the club. They saw that retaining Smorgon and Diggins no matter whatever good points they might have, if any, would only prolong the instability. They have taken the only step they could and turfed them out. That is the only way that Carlton was going to go forward. Pagan will be gone at the end of the year.

It makes perfect sense. The paragraph before was speaking about the present. I went into a new paragraph to speak about the past. Grammar and syntax are more important to me than most posters, and I don't hold anything against anybody for that. The fact that this has caused me umbrage is illuminating!

Our ruck situation is near dire. The rules commitee has effectively removed the possibility of anyone of Whiteys height being a ruckman, no matter how talented. With the way things are going even Jamar, PJ and even Neaves are still too short. The centre hit-out is becoming a basketball type tip-off; Height is the major criteria. I heard ND on the morning show on SEN this morning. A real lightweight affair, in keeping with the tone of the morning show; If you want substance, wait until after 9. It was very positive and upbeat; Looking forward to the NAB cup to try out they new players, looking for big seasons from Bate, Dunne, Mclean, Sylvia et all. Miller is completely over the OP that inhibited the pre-season for him last year, Moloney training well and looking for a big year. All good, standard stuff, captain to be named before the NAB cup. They thing that got my attention was the opening gambit where it was stated that he had been very low profile this year after being out and about everywhere stumping up Melbourne in the last few years. He replied, somewhat jokingly, that only the clubs that aren't doing well get on the front foot at this time of year and that you don't hear from clubs that are doing well, and we are. That is all well and good, but, I loved the 'new' ND. I liked seeing him in the papers, hearing him on radio, watching him on TV, pumping up MFC. I know that things were crook and am glad that we are, seemingly, back on track. That doesn't mean that things that worked during those times should be shelved. Something that worked so well and got our profile out into the marketplace will be appreciated as much in the good times as the bad and attract new supporters. ND was also introduced as a former Essendon Best and Fairest. He didn't play for us, and didn't play for long, but, we sometimes forget - The guy could play!

I think that both of you have made your points. Perhaps it is time to walk away. The flak should be directed at the original dump contract. Like back-ended footy contracts they are put into place by previous administrations and come back to bite the poor saps who find themselves in charge. If this sort of ridiculous clause were not allowed in government contracts, we would all be better off. Just have a look at the situation in Sydney when they are just now finding out about the wacky clauses that the city tunnel mob got into their contract courtesy of Bob Carr.

I have never been able to understand the filth's refusal to have an alternate strip arguing that they have never changed their jumper and never will. If they went back to the time when Eddie became president they would not need an alternate strip. The jumper then had a predominamtly white back with a white rectangle containing black player numbers, it would not clash with any other club. Eddie changed the jumper to a black back with white numbers and created the clash with Melbourne, Essendon, St Kilda and probably a few others. As with many things Eddie, a good beatup trumps the truth.

1. Melbourne - contenders or pretenders? contenders 2. Where will the Demons finish after 22 rounds? 3rd After the finals? 3rd 3. What will our season highlight be? Beating the filth twice 4. Will the Demons beat the Eagles at Subiaco? No 5. Who is our best Brownlow chance? Brock 6. After a losss I take it hard 7. Your back page headline prediction. Receiver called in at Carlton 8. Will the Demons re-sign Neale Daniher? Yes 9. Who will be the first AFL coach to be sacked? Sheedy, if sacked is the same as not contiuing with 10. Which Demons will make All Australian? Bruce, McLean 11. Would you be happy if we won the NAB Cup? Yes 12. Our biggest victory and against who? Carlton 13. Will Carlton go the Trifecta? Yes 14. Our win loss ratio? 17/5 15. Will Mark Jamar have a stellar season? No 16. Will Sandringham make it a 4peat? Yes 17. Will Eddie discard the Versace and defect to Peter Jackson? I could care less 18. Who will be the MFC's first debutant for 2007? Michael Newton 19. First MFC player reported and suspended? Danial Ward 20. Goal prediction tally - Neita 81 Robbo 45 Flash 34