Apocalypse XXXI

What's wrong with settling the side down? One change needed - Bruce for Patterd.

Akermanis says NO = Voss MICHAEL, DON'T LEAP IN

Don't bet on it being an absolute flogging. Sandringham won't have too many MFC listed players to choose from this week given our injury list.

I don't understand why Nathan Buckley and John Longmire aren't at least on the list of choices!

There are a few recruiting scouts around who might disagree - see Tonight's loser may find white Knight I think I might fancy a 199 cm ruckman who can play any key position and is described as follows: "He has the speed of a wingman and agility of a ruck-rover and also showed a lot of grit on a wet day."

Seems to me that the # 3 is a bit of a mixed bag for the MFC. Gerard Healy left us before he was in his prime (he would have helped us no end in the late '80's when we were getting close), Garry Lyon's last four or five seasons were riddled with injury and Clint Bizzell has had his fair share of injuries. On the other hand, if Healy would have stayed, he would most likely have kept the jumper # 3 and Lyon would have worn another number?

I think Richmond is putting on a fair degree of spin when they suggest they are resting their NB so that he'll be right for Friday night. Apparently he had a little over 50% of game time in his first run with the Coburg seniors last week and now he's having a one week break. If he plays for Richmond this week, I reckon he'll be very much restricted to a few short bursts. That might be a negative for Richmond in the circumstances.

As much as we will miss Rivers, Moloney and Bartram, every club has its injuries and as long as we don't have any more major injuries we can at least put on a strong showing and save someface from a shyzenhaus year so far. Also, other players like Petterd, Frawley and dare I say Newton will get opportunitiesey might not have otherwise had this year which will hold them in good stead in 2008.

That's depressing reading for a Sunday morning. We can't even go out and kick butt about it because of the bye!

Well summed up. I know it would have been highway robbery had we won but we can't take a trick at the moment. Agreed that we should have done better in the first three error filled quarters and we probably would've won it easily.

So exactly how many dollars does it make a fistful?

Ferg must really be in the dog house a la Chris Lamb for whatever he did last Sunday.

Very entertaining and I back you all the way on the issue of the umpires who have been shocking so far this year.

The coach - shy zen hausen

If anyone knows the whereabouts of Melbourne's forward line could they please contact the MFC football department ASAP. Last night our forward line was at one of those long thin grounds like Subiaco or AAMI. It certainly wasn't at the G!

Attempted trip means jack squat. He'll play against us.

Some nice work there but aren't we being a bit premature with Brock McLean aren't we? He's only 21!

One hopes that the rests are real rests and don't become rests of the 4 to 6 week variety that we see sometimes around the club.

Actually, Connolly is quite good normally. He has a wry sense of humour and the comment's harmless as far as I'm concerned. Nevertheless, when we win the flag in late September, we can all line up to let him know what we thing of this smart arse!

No.

DEMONS TURN AROUND HORROR CYCLE OF DEBT MELBOURNE, the AFL's basket case club just three years ago, will be debt-free this year and thriving, according to its chairman Paul Gardner. Three years ago the Demons carried an accumulated debt of $5.4 million after three consecutive years of combined losses of $5.275 million. In the three years immediately following the departure of chairman Joseph Gutnick, Melbourne lost $1.6m in 2002, $2.2m in 2003 and $1.475m the following season. Under Gardner, who has been club president since the end of 2003, and chief executive Steve Harris, who was appointed towards the end of the 2004 season, the Demons have recorded profits of $1.04m and $791,000, and are predicting another positive result this season, up to $1m.

I just saw an ad on Foxtel that they will be covering a Nab Cup game live on Friday night. I checked the guide on www.foxtel.com and there doesn't seem to be any confirmation of this fact. Does anyone know what the programme is for next weekend?

If the pre-season is rated at 100% then surely everybody's been flying through the pre-season.

Has anyone mentioned Aaron Davey signing on for another three years? That's really the type of news I want to read about the club and not another puff piece about how one of our players is training the house down, having the best preseason yet and looking like an Adonis.

I think all at the club including the coach need to focus on making a better start to this year than we did in 2006 (which I'm sure they're doing!). Everyone's suggesting that our problems last year stemmed from a bit of a fade out and some injuries late in the year but a 0-3 start didn't help. They can talk about coaching contracts later in the season or when it's over.