alpha33

Well, did we get to 30k?

Quiet day for young Tom today. Not in the goalkickers or bests and the Stingrays lost.

No.

The folllowing players are officially on the MFC injury list:- Daniel Bell (thumb) 1 week Simon Buckley (groin) 1 week Colin Garland (foot) indefinite Jack Grimes (back) test Mark Jamar (foot) 4 weeks James McDonald (hamstring) 1 week Paul Wheatley (quad) 5 weeks Austin Wonaeamirri (hamstring) 1 week

Yeah right. Sorry, 'rithmetic not my strong point so early in the morning.

The good news is that there were no new injuries as a result of last Sunday's game. This is the official ist of injured players: MELBOURNE Daniel Bell (thumb) 3 weeks Jack Grimes (back) 3 weeks Mark Jamar (foot) 6 weeks Russell Robertson (achilles) test James Strauss (ankle) 1 week Paul Wheatley (calf) test Matthew Whelan (calf) 1-2 weeks Austin Wonaeamirri (hamstring) 3 weeks The list does not include the elusive Tom McNamara who didn't play in a pre season game and was reported to have a groin injury, or rookies Rhy Healey and Daniel Hughes who are injured. Add also Sam Blease and Jack Watts and we have an even dozen of our list out of action ATM. By contrast, our opponents this week: COLLINGWOOD Heath Shaw (hamstring) available Sean Rusling (shoulder) 1-2 weeks Kevin Dyas (hamstring) 2-3 weeks

Here's the full "permission to play list" of AFL senior listed players who were given special dispensation to play with their VFL or other affiliate teams this weekend (rookie listed players don't require permission and are automatically entitled to play): Adelaide - Tony Armstrong, Patrick Dangerfield, Phil Davis, Richard Douglas, Nick Gill, Jonathan Griffin, Aaron Kite, Tom Lee, Shaun McKernan, Brad Moran, Jason Porplyzia, James Sellar, Rory Sloane, Brad Symes, William Young. Brisbane Lions - Jamie Charman, Daniel Merrett. Carlton - Jordan Bannister, Adam Bentick, Steven Browne, Brad Fisher, Adam Hartlett, Setanta O'hAilpin, Rhys O'Keeffe, Mitch Robinson, Heath Scotland, Caleb Tiller, Andrew Walker, Chris Yarran. Collingwood - Anthony Corrie, Brad Dick, John McCarthy, Paul Medhurst, Anthony Rocca. Essendon - Tayte Pears, John Williams. Fremantle - Andrew Brown, Chris Hall, Garrick Ibbotson, Scott Thornton. Geelong - nil. Hawthorn - Jordan Lisle, Ryan Schoenmakers, Liam Shiels, Cameron Stokes. North Melbourne - Leigh Adams, Conor Meredith, Robert Tarrant. Melbourne - Paul Johnson, Liam Jurrah, Addam Maric, Jared Rivers, Austin Wonaeamirri. Port Adelaide - Matthew Broadbent, Jason Davenport, Glenn Dawson, Mitchell Farmer, Jonathan Giles, Matthew Lobbe, Tom Logan, Marlon Motlop, Jarrad Redden, Nick Salter, Matt Thomas, Matthew Westhoff. Richmond - nil. St Kilda - Steven Baker, Raphael Clarke, Xavier Clarke, Robert Eddy, Tom Lynch, Matt Maguire, Nick Riewoldt, Adam Schneider. Sydney Swans - Ryan Brabazon, Daniel Currie, Taylor Gilchrist, Lewis Johnston, Matthew Laidlaw, Brett Meredith, Matthew O'Dwyer, Daniel O'Keefe, Jake Orreal, Michael Pyke, Nick Smith, Kristin Thornton. West Coast - Brad Ebert, Tim Houlihan, Adam Hunter, Jordan Jones, Jamie McNamara, Tony Notte, Matt Rosa, Will Schofield, Tom Swift. Western Bulldogs - Jarrad Boumann, Ayce Cordy, Liam Jones, Malcolm Lynch, Robert Murphy, Guy O'Keffe, Sam Reid, Jordon Roughead, Wayde Skipper, Scott Welsh, Cameron Wight, Tom Williams.

I think in the context of the article "went missing" meant that he had no further influence on the game rather than that he was last seen drowning in the bog of the carpark at Casey Fields.

Melbourne's Clint Bartram can accept a reprimand and 93.75 points towards his future record for making front-on contact with Bulldog Daniel Giansiracusa in the NAB Challenge match at Casey Fields on Saturday. The incident drew 125 points after being assessed as negligent conduct (one point), low impact (one point) and high contact (two points). An early plea would reduce the penalty by 25 per cent to 93.75 points and a reprimand. Match review panel

On top of the injuries we also had Clint Bartram reported in the final quarter according to afl.com.au. Melbourne 2.1 (13) 7.3 (45) 10.3 (63) 10.3 (63) Western Bulldogs 2.7 (19) 5.10 (40) 9.11 (65) 14.17 (101) GOALS Melbourne: Green 3, Miller, Jetta, Newton, Davey, McLean, McDonald, Jones Western Bulldogs: Hill 3, Johnson 2, Higgins 2, Griffin 2, Akermanis, Hahn, Harbrow, Cross, Ward. BEST Melbourne: Green, Jones, McDonald, Jetta, Buckley, Garland. Western Bulldogs: Cross, Gilbee, Griffin, Hill, Boyd, Higgins, INJURIES Melbourne: Petterd (corked hip), Bell (suspected broken thumb), Davey (bruised heel) Western Bulldogs: Reports: Clint Bartram for making front on contact with Daniel Giansiracusa in the fourth quarter. Umpires: Kennedy, Mollison, Stewart. Crowd: 2500 (approx) at Casey Fields

Melbourne is quietly establishing a foothold in the Casey region. Not only have we set up a training base at Casey Fields, last month we played our first intraclub game there and, at the weekend, we play our second NAB Cup Challenge game at Casey Fields - the first as a tenant club. More importantly, the Demons have established links with the local community through school visits etc. and through this innovation in which the club hosted over 100 community football coaches from the southern and eastern regions of Melbourne - COMMUNITY EMBRACES DEMON COACHING http://www.aflvic.com.au/index.php?id=14&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=551&tx_ttnews[backPid]=4&cHash=0829aa3d0a "While Melbourne coach Dean Bailey barked instructions to the young Demons players as they worked the ball from one end of Casey Fields to the other, Melbourne Football Manager Chris Connolly and AFL Victoria Development Manager Mark Wheeler were hosting over 100 community football coaches from the southern and eastern regions of Melbourne. This community “Coach the Coaches” session, a joint initiative between the Melbourne Football Club and the Australian Football Coaches Association enabled local coaches to watch at close quarters a mixture of full ground drills and specialist training activities performed by the Demons in preparation for the 2009 season. " The move will pay dividends over time in the form ofmore support and a larger membership base in Victoria's fastest growing residential region. How on earth did St. Kilda allow itself to lose a foothold in a region where the population will double in the next 15 to 20 years?

After being virtually ignored by the media despite an emphatic 37 point win over Brisbane Lions in Cairns, the media has decided to sit up and take some notice although the best it could do was a couple of fluff pieces centred around Brad Green and Jared Rivers:- VETERAN GREEN URGES YOUNG DEMONS TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP RIVERS PUTS INJURY DEMONS BEHIND HIM

News report from the Courier Mail - Jared Brennan injured in practice match

Well, one way to get him to us might be to send him to a good school in NSW and then pick him up via the NSW scholarship scheme but I reckon the authorities might be awake to that. Besides, Melbourne doesn't seem to be interested in recruiting NSW players anyway. Frankly, the player might end up at the Gold Coast as part of their concessional draft picks when they come into the comp if he's that good.

Melbourne v Sydney at Vizy Park Rohan Bail (emergency), Daniel Bell, Jamie Bennell, Cameron Bruce, Kyle Cheney, Aaron Davey, Lynden Dunn, James Frawley, Colin Garland, Brad Green, Jack Grimes, Neville Jetta, Paul Johnson, Nathan Jones, Stefan Martin, James McDonald, Brock McLean, John Meesen, Brad Miller, Brent Moloney, Cale Morton, Michael Newton, Ricky Petterd, Jake Spencer, James Strauss, Colin Sylvia, Matthew Warnock, Shane Valenti (emergency) and Trent Zomer (emergency) Ins from last week highlighted in bold. Source: MOLONEY SET TO MAKE HIS RETURN

According to ANZ chief economist Saul Eslake a "Melbourne-North Melbourne merger is the most likely scenario that would fast-track Tasmania's inclusion into the AFL." AFL merger scenario No wonder Australian banks are stuffed!

Rude Boy, thanks for coming on here and telling us about Liam. Your loyalty and faith in Liam is impressive and I, for one, hope that all of us especially Liam have an enjoyable ride together.

The final squad of 30 was announced today. The good news is that Aussie has been included, the bad news is that Liam's out. Not sure if he's been excluded for fitness reasons or that he was simply dropped. I suspect the former. Flash naturally stays in the squad for Saturday night!

The numbers quoted above are correct according to the AFL Record Season Guide which is now available.

Meanwhile, Stynes is confident the Demons will be able to secure a major sponsor before the start of the season. "We are talking to everybody. Because we know how important it is, we will bend over backwards to ensure the sponsor gets a great deal. "It will certainly be one of the best value sponsorships in the AFL this year because of the circumstances." Stynes puts Dees future in young fans' hands

These numbers are on the melbournefc.com.au site so we can take them as (more or less) official: 1 Buckley, Simon 2 Jones, Nathan 3 Bartram, Clint 4 Watts, Jack 5 McLean, Brock 6 Bate, Matthew 7 Miller, Brad 8 Frawley, James 10 Morton, Cale 11 Johnson, Paul A. 12 Sylvia, Colin 14 Dunn, Lynden 15 Petterd, Ricky 16 Grimes, Jack 18 Green, Brad 19 Maric, Addam 20 Garland, Colin 21 Bell, Daniel 22 Moloney, Brent 23 McDonald, James 24 Robertson, Russell 25 Cheney, Kyle 26 Meesen, John 27 Rivers, Jared 29 Newton, Michael 30 McNamara, Tom 31 Wheatley, Paul 32 Bruce, Cameron 33 Wonaeamirri, Austin 34 Martin, Stefan 35 Zomer, Trent 36 Davey, Aaron 37 Warnock, Matthew 38 Hughes, Daniel 39 Jetta, Neville 40 Jamar, Mark 41 Bail, Rohan 42 Spencer, Jake 43 Bennell, Jamie 43 Blease, Sam 44 Valenti, Shane 45 Whelan, Matthew 47 Strauss, James 48 Jurrah, Liam 49 McKenzie, Jordie 50 Healey, Rhys

B It's starting to look as if Warnock is a bit injury prone and that it might have been fortuitous that Carlton came along and offered him that 4 year contract with the big money As for Nik Nat it's not too bad for something like this to come along at this stage of his career although there could be problems if the injury affects his athleticism which is his main strength ATM.

On the subject of this two year contract offer, I heard Liam Paickering who I think is CJ's manager on radio and I'm sure he said that Melbourne never made a 2 year contract offer. It was only for one year. So did we or didn't we? If we did, was this communicated to the client or was already too late?

Co-incidentally this article appeared in yesterday's HUN showing that Casey is our largest municipality and growing towards Canberra like dimensions - City of Casey will be as big as Canberra in 10 years. If the AFL had the foresight then it would work towards applying the funding to allow a boutique stadium at Casey Fields that would take the strain off Victorian clubs when they play poor drawing interstate clubs like Freo, PA, GC17 and West Sydney (if it ever gets off the ground).

FWIW here's his top 55 from last year - 1 . COTCHIN, Trent (2 RIC) 2 . KREUZER, Matthew (1 CAR) 3 . MYERS, David (6 ESS) 4 . MASTEN, Chris (3 WCE) 5 . RIOLI, Cyril (12 HAW) 6 . VESZPREMI, Patrick (11 SYD) 7 . HENDERSON, Lachlan (8 BRI) 8 . MARIC, Addam (21 MEL) 9 . EBERT, Bradley (13 WCE) 10 . MEREDITH, Brett (26 SYD) 11 . MCCARTHY, John (31 COL) 12 . MOTLOP, Marlon (28 POR) 13 . PEARS, Tayte (23 ESS) 14 . MCNAMARA, Tom (66 MEL) 15 . GARLETT, Cruize (R30 KAN) 16 . MORTON, Cale (4 MEL) 17 . WARD, Callan (19 WBD) 18 . PETRENKO, Jared (R25 ADE) 19 . GREENWOOD, Levi (32 KAN) 20 . JACKY, Jarrhan (30 ADE) 21 . MCEVOY, Ben (9 STK) 22 . TAYLOR, Harry (17 GEE) 24 . GOURDIS, David (P 1 RIC) 25 . GRIMES, Jack (14 MEL) 26 . SELWOOD, Scott (22 WCE) 27 . ELLARD, David (R34 CAR) 28 . WHITECROSS, Brendan (29 HAW) 29 . MCGINNITY, Patrick (P 7 WCE) 30 . RANCE, Alex (18 RIC) 31 . PALMER, Rhys (7 FRE) 32 . O'KEEFE, Guy (63 WBD) 33 . JOSEPH, Aaron (R 2 CAR) 35 . DANGERFIELD, Patrick (10 ADE) 36 . FARMER, Mitchell (49 POR) 37 . DANIHER, Darcy (39 ESS) 38 . ARMFIELD, Dennis (46 CAR) 39 . GRANT, Jarrad (5 WBD) 40 . OTTEN, Andy (27 ADE) 41 . CHENEY, Kyle (53 MEL) 42 . CHIVERS, Glenn (R 8 STK) 43 . BARHAM, Jaxon (61 COL) 45 . TARRANT, Robert (15 KAN) 47 . SANDILANDS, Hugh (R11 HAW) 48 . MCKENNA, Dan (50 GEE) 52 . BIRD, Craig (59 SYD) 53 . REID, Sam (35 WBD) 55 . BROWNE, Steven (36 CAR)