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DRAFTING FOR THE NEW, NEW AGE by Whispering Jack The AFL's decision to revert to the practice of announcing the top ten draft picks in their proper order at the national draft has prompted me to make a decision of my own. This preview which looks at the draft from Melbourne's perspective at the beginning of the club's "new, new age" will be done in true contrarian fashion. Despite the AFL's stance, I'll be announcing my fancies in reverse order. Well ... not exactly in reverse order but I'll meander my way around the club's recruiting selections and end with its first pick which, subject to the whims of the AFL's version of the KGB, should still be number 4 overall. The draft itself will be held at the Gold Coast on 22 November which in itself, is an ominous date for Demon fans now living in a state of paranoia over the tanking inquiry. Surely, it's no coincidence that this was scheduled to take place on the anniversary of JFK's assassination, an event foremost in the minds of conspiracy theorists the world over? Matters have not been helped by rumours of listening devices in the players' locker room at AAMI Park, the sighting of an Age reporter walking her rottweiler near the club's training facilities rummaging through nearby bins searching for scraps of evidence for her next big exposé and the pronouncement by the club's defiant bootstudder that despite four sets of interrogations during which he was subjected to waterboarding and bamboo under the fingernails torture, "they" would never force him to confess that the players ran out in that fateful game against Richmond in 2009 wearing boots that were several sizes too small. The fact is they're breeding everybody tough at the Melbourne Football Club these days. This applies to all of us in the club's new, new age, be it the fans (who were this week described as "ferals" for the first time in history) as well as the board, officials and the players.If you hadn't noticed, we're on a war footing. We're ready to face and conquer the enemy and that's reflected in everything, including the club's new recruiting policy. The new, new age is not about peace, flowers, harmony and understanding. That's the old, new age of puny little underweight nancy boys running around the wide open spaces of the MCG that was adopted immediately after the demise of the great Norm Smith. That was a completely different "new age" back in the late 1960's which coincided with the end of the club's golden era, a new age that we were seduced into embracing with near fatal results: [media=] But that's over now. Done and dusted. The new, new age Demons will be pushovers no more. To understand this, let's now look a little closer at the forthcoming draft. For the sake of everyone's sanity I will proceed as if there's no investigation, nothing will happen in the next 1½ weeks and the draft will proceed more or less as planned give or take a pick or two that Adelaide might lose given its admission of wrongdoing over Kurt Tippett's contract. Actually, the reason why I'm using the reverse order is because some of Melbourne's drafting has already been done via the events of October's exchange period when the Demons managed to pick up some rare gems a month early. As always, I rely for assistance on the judgement of our resident draft expert Stevo and the pen pictures of players from that magnificent publication Inside Football. The club started off its 2012 trade activities with a major coup when it snared Jack Viney under the father son rule with a second round pick (#27 overall) after the Giants and the Suns opted not to nominate the son of Todd at the risk of losing their early picks (1 and 2 respectively). Here's his pen pic: Enough's been said of Jack but I will add that I've been of the view since watching him devour the opposition in last year's TAC Cup Grand Final when a bottom ager that he's the best thing going around since sliced bread. He's tough and he's driven and looks the type who can help introduce the hard edge that's been missing around the place for a couple of decades. He could well become Melbourne's symbol of the new, new age. The Demons followed that up with a trade that saw them collect a youngster who shone in the draft combine testing and another considered the best young key position prospect in the country. The rules mandate that we must wait until 2014 for Jesse Hogan but the wraps on him are great and suggest the wait will be worthwhile. In keeping with the new, new age policy of recruiting, he's tall, he's tough and he's mean. This is what Brisbane Lions national talent manager Rob Kerr said about him in Lion's Share The club then went through its busiest trading period in years, picking up Shannon Byrnes (a free agent), Chris Dawes, Cameron Pedersen and David Rodan and, as we speak, is still working on a possible delisted free agent selection but it won't be Brisbane's Cheynee Stiller who was given permission to train with the club but has announced his retirement from the game. The jury is still out on Melbourne's trading but the club has to be given an A for effort in its quest to get itself out of the mire. It jettisoned a number of players who didn't suit Mark Neeld's blueprint for the future, brought in some solid citizens and some of the best young talent in the land. Of course, that wasn't enough for some media nuff nuff who tried to write it all off without any justification other than that it was a "scattergun approach". So what of the big event on the Gold Coast? I'm assuming that the Demons will leave a pick for the Pre Season Draft in December which could see them with only two or three "live" picks on draft night - picks 49 (and maybe 53) and 4 - which won't make it such a big event after all. Stevo wouldn't even hazard a guess at who might still be available at 49 or 53 if we decide to activate the pick. My hunch is a more mature aged late starter from one of the State Leagues on account of the fact that Mark Neeld emphasised the specific role of Kelly O'Donnell as a spotter of talent from these competitions. This fits in well with picks in the 40's and 50's which are good spots to strike from if you have a smokey or two hidden away in your kit bag. And that gets us front and centre with pick 4. Much depends of course on who the Giants go for with their picks at 1, 2 and 3 but Stevo believes the Dees will go for a midfielder and he reckons it will be one of these three: All three are quality midfielders, albeit each with his own qualities. It's good to know that there's a strong chance that one will be a Demon within the next fortnight. The jungle drums are beating loudly that it will be Wines and what a wonderful fairy story that would be for our club after the shellacking it's been getting in the media lately? Viney on Wines:- ''I don't know anyone more competitive than Ollie, or anyone that hates losing as much as he does. That's when he cracks the shits, when he loses. He goes nuts and would do anything to turn things around." The two have been mates since their pre pubescent days on the Murray River close to where Ned Kelly and his bushranger mates used to ply their trade. Even in those times, they were plotting the downfall of the AFL's big guns and, with blokes of the calibre of these two in the side, we know that the new, new age Demons will no longer be an easy target both on and off the field. FOOTNOTE Historically, the Melbourne Football Club made a dreadful error when it embraced the new Age of Aquarius back in the late 1960s. In doing so, the club ceased to be "shocking and awful"; it lost its hard edge and it's heritage of toughness. Now, as the new, new age sweeps into the club, it's back to following the lead of the subject of this interview who it forsook those many years ago: http://youtu.be/WKAWCVXw01U

The AFL's decision to revert to the practice of announcing the top ten draft picks in their proper order at the national draft has prompted me to make a decision of my own. This preview which looks at the draft from Melbourne's perspective at the beginning of the club's "new, new age" will be done in true contrarian fashion. Despite the AFL's stance, I'll be announcing my fancies in reverse order. Well ... not exactly in reverse order but I'll meander my way around the club's recruiting selections and end with its first pick which, subject to the whims of the AFL's version of the KGB, should still be number 4 overall. The draft itself will be held at the Gold Coast on 22 November which in itself, is an ominous date for Demon fans now living in a state of paranoia over the tanking inquiry. Surely, it's no coincidence that this was scheduled to take place on the anniversary of JFK's assassination, an event foremost in the minds of conspiracy theorists the world over? Matters have not been helped by rumours of listening devices in the players' locker room at AAMI Park, the sighting of an Age reporter walking her rottweiler near the club's training facilities rummaging through nearby bins searching for scraps of evidence for her next big exposé and the pronouncement by the club's defiant bootstudder that despite four sets of interrogations during which he was subjected to waterboarding and bamboo under the fingernails torture, "they" would never force him to confess that the players ran out in that fateful game against Richmond in 2009 wearing boots that were several sizes too small. The fact is they're breeding everybody tough at the Melbourne Football Club these days. This applies to all of us in the club's new, new age, be it the fans (who were this week described as "ferals" for the first time in history) as well as the board, officials and the players.If you hadn't noticed, we're on a war footing. We're ready to face and conquer the enemy and that's reflected in everything, including the club's new recruiting policy. The new, new age is not about peace, flowers, harmony and understanding. That's the old, new age of puny little underweight nancy boys running around the wide open spaces of the MCG that was adopted immediately after the demise of the great Norm Smith. That was a completely different "new age" back in the late 1960's which coincided with the end of the club's golden era, a new age that we were seduced into embracing with near fatal results: [media=] http://youtu.be/w3I1y3jHgxA But that's over now. Done and dusted. The new, new age Demons will be pushovers no more. To understand this, let's now look a little closer at the forthcoming draft. For the sake of everyone's sanity I will proceed as if there's no investigation, nothing will happen in the next 1½ weeks and the draft will proceed more or less as planned give or take a pick or two that Adelaide might lose given its admission of wrongdoing over Kurt Tippett's contract. Actually, the reason why I'm using the reverse order is because some of Melbourne's drafting has already been done via the events of October's exchange period when the Demons managed to pick up some rare gems a month early. As always, I rely for assistance on the judgement of our resident draft expert Stevo and the pen pictures of players from that magnificent publication Inside Football. The club started off its 2012 trade activities with a major coup when it snared Jack Viney under the father son rule with a second round pick (#27 overall) after the Giants and the Suns opted not to nominate the son of Todd at the risk of losing their early picks (1 and 2 respectively). Here's his pen pic: Enough's been said of Jack but I will add that I've been of the view since watching him devour the opposition in last year's TAC Cup Grand Final when a bottom ager that he's the best thing going around since sliced bread. He's tough and he's driven and looks the type who can help introduce the hard edge that's been missing around the place for a couple of decades. He could well become Melbourne's symbol of the new, new age. The Demons followed that up with a trade that saw them collect a youngster who shone in the draft combine testing and another considered the best young key position prospect in the country. The rules mandate that we must wait until 2014 for Jesse Hogan but the wraps on him are great and suggest the wait will be worthwhile. In keeping with the new, new age policy of recruiting, he's tall, he's tough and he's mean. This is what Brisbane Lions national talent manager Rob Kerr said about him in http://www.afl.com.au/tabid/208/default.aspx?newsid=150840'>Lion's Share The club then went through its busiest trading period in years, picking up Shannon Byrnes (a free agent), Chris Dawes, Cameron Pedersen and David Rodan and, as we speak, is still working on a possible delisted free agent selection but it won't be Brisbane's Cheynee Stiller who was given permission to train with the club but has announced his retirement from the game. The jury is still out on Melbourne's trading but the club has to be given an A for effort in its quest to get itself out of the mire. It jettisoned a number of players who didn't suit Mark Neeld's blueprint for the future, brought in some solid citizens and some of the best young talent in the land. Of course, that wasn't enough for some media nuff nuff who tried to write it all off without any justification other than that it was a "scattergun approach". So what of the big event on the Gold Coast? I'm assuming that the Demons will leave a pick for the Pre Season Draft in December which could see them with only two or three "live" picks on draft night - picks 49 (and maybe 53) and 4 - which won't make it such a big event after all. Stevo wouldn't even hazard a guess at who might still be available at 49 or 53 if we decide to activate the pick. My hunch is a more mature aged late starter from one of the State Leagues on account of the fact that Mark Neeld emphasised the specific role of Kelly O'Donnell as a spotter of talent from these competitions. This fits in well with picks in the 40's and 50's which are good spots to strike from if you have a smokey or two hidden away in your kit bag. And that gets us front and centre with pick 4. Much depends of course on who the Giants go for with their picks at 1, 2 and 3 but Stevo believes the Dees will go for a midfielder and he reckons it will be one of these three: All three are quality midfielders, albeit each with his own qualities. It's good to know that there's a strong chance that one will be a Demon within the next fortnight. The jungle drums are beating loudly that it will be Wines and http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/the-two-of-us-viney-and-wines-20121006-276ao.html'>what a wonderful fairy story that would be for our club after the shellacking it's been getting in the media lately? Viney on Wines:- ''I don't know anyone more competitive than Ollie, or anyone that hates losing as much as he does. That's when he cracks the shits, when he loses. He goes nuts and would do anything to turn things around." The two have been mates since their pre pubescent days on the Murray River close to where Ned Kelly and his bushranger mates used to ply their trade. Even in those times, they were plotting the downfall of the AFL's big guns and, with blokes of the calibre of these two in the side, we know that the new, new age Demons will no longer be an easy target both on and off the field. FOOTNOTE Historically, the Melbourne Football Club made a dreadful error when it embraced the new Age of Aquarius back in the late 1960s. In doing so, the club ceased to be "shocking and awful"; it lost its hard edge and it's heritage of toughness. Now, as the new, new age sweeps into the club, it's back to following the lead of the subject of this interview who it forsook those many years ago: http://youtu.be/WKAWCVXw01U