praha

I just threw up in my mouth a bit.

I've never heard so many compliments from supports of other clubs, especially magpies and bombers supporters, about a possible Melbourne player. My sisters b/f, who would die for the pies, says he despises Melbourne and thinks they don't deserve to be in the AFL (lol)...unless Ball is playing with them. Another friend, who is a Carlton supporter, says Luke Ball is his favourite player in the league. Some family friends, who are the typical arrogant and ignorant essendon supporters, say they'd give up anyone (yes, ANYONE) on their team for Luke. And that is only the start of it. I've heard many others. He WILL be Melbourne's next captain. He WILL be Melbourne's best ever player. He WILL lead us to a premiership. He WILL win a Brownlow. He IS a legend.

I was never really excited over the prospect to begin with. I've only ever been thinking about "Scully-Trengove-Watts-Grimes" and Ball was just someone I kind of had small hopes we would get. No biggy to me.

I was with some friends on the grass right near the finish line, and I saw him but wasn't sure if it was him. I just asked if he played for Melbourne and he said no, and I said it was alright, I'm not some deranged fan that really gave a [censored] that he was there (I actually said that lol). It's not that big a deal that he said he didn't play for us - obviously didn't want the attention. But then Martin rocked up and started speaking to the girls that were there and he was happy to advertise that he played for Melbourne. The funny thing is that when they left, the girl turned around to me and said "god! why didn't you pull me away? they just wouldn't leave!" lol

lol great bump. Nice punch to the groin for me.

Speaking of Newton, I saw him with Martin at Derby Day today. Newton pretended like he didn't play for Melbourne, obviously because he didn't want the attention, but Martin was pretty happy, advertising that he played for a Melbourne to a few nice girls standing near where we were.

Even if we do get him, I won't really mind. We have to spend the money somewhere, and I'd rather use it on Bradshaw than up the contracts of undeserving players.

The real question should be: Is Liam Jurrah better than Robbie Flower in his prime? The answer is of course "yes".

I think it's in the best interest of the AFL and NRL as "sports" first and foremost to take a break and allow the World Cup to come in. Even if the AFL didn't want to stop, they would be ludicrous not to do so. The games would quite obviously get relegated due to World Cup coverage, and the infrastructure in Melb and Syd would be a shambles. It's not possible. If we win, the AFL we lose out, but they have no choice whatsoever. I can assure you that domestic leagues do not worry FIFA at all. They wouldn't even be worrying about it.

lol they'll have a forward line stacked with mid-sized forward players. As much as I don't care if he goes there, Carlton must be desperate to get him. They don't have a future star KPP in the entire squad, which is pretty sad considering how many picks they had over several years.

Damn it! 48 can be an iconic number. He could have been our Dennis Rodman. I'm still waiting for someone to play with a 63 or a 79

I don't expect him to play many games. He'll be "injured" most of the year is my bet. I think he and the club have conceded that he is better off acting as a mentor for the upcoming leaders and future midfielders than actually playing. I don't see why he would be a regular player, when our how mentality over the past 12 months has been to groom the younger players. Playing Mcdonald, although he is our spiritual leader, doesn't really fit in with that, especially considering he probably isn't even in the top 300 players in the league.

Wait... ...we played in round 19?

I actually didn't know that. I thought he was an Adelaide boy.

I just broke a funny bone. I haven't seen that in about 15 years. I still have it on VHS. Absolutely hilarious. I love how there is a random 2 seconds of women jumping around in leotards.

Nice work.

I think Victory have done an amazing job. I'm not worried at all about them taking the Melbourne name from us in essence, because they represent the entire city. Whereas in the AFL, clubs are designated to a specific area. We can all say we are "Melbourne", but we grew out of a stadium, not the city itself. Whereas Victory have really stamped themselves within the city, hence why they've gotten such strong support. One of the A-League's focus was to create teams with no cultural significance so as not to create racial rivalries. So what you have are Melbourne Knights and South Melbourne fans all uniting to support Victory. If anything, we should be proud that the club has done so well for the city. Also, soccer is a non-issue during football season. No one gives a rat about it until the Premier League starts overseas and people need it to cover them until footy starts again. Same with basketball and the NBA. And let's not forget how Melbourne Demons doesn't really have an identity yet. We've got more of an identity then we did 5 years ago, but we went a good 40 years with a poor brand and little to no marketing presence. Things are starting to pick up finally. In saying all of that, I love going to Victory matches and hearing the chants. They're a lot of fun and give each team their own personality. I wish we did more of that in the AFL instead of the dull "Melbourne *clap clap clap*".

98 was our year. We were the best side going in to the finals series. Only 2 games separated 4th and 1st. North weren't a 5-goal better team than us. At least they weren't playing like one leading in. Retarded finals system screwed us. And it took Carlton making the GF in 99 after getting thrashed in the first week of the finals for the AFL to realise. We could have played North first up, and considering our form going in to the first week of the finals, could have beaten them, booking ourselves a Prelim home final. Oh well.

I just threw up in my mouth a bit.

Yeah, this article is stupid. As if I give a flying crap when they start pre-season. I love how they speak on behalf of Demons fans. Or at least think they are. They're making out that starting pre-season before the Spring Racing Carnival is suicide. I thought it was a natural occurrence for teams that didn't play finals to slowly start up training around mid-late October?

This.

I remember that Carlton game like it was yesterday. Such a good win.

Ask Allen Jackovich. After Paul was inducted into Melbourne's best players ahead of him, Jacko collected every piece of Hopgood footage to see why he wasn't as good a footballer as Paul.

Good stuff.

My head just exploded.