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Part 3: Happier Days by Whispering Jack It would be fair to say that when the Melbourne Football Club entered the free agency and trade period earlier this month, its reputation was flagging, if not in tatters. The club was taking a battering in the media and social media over a number of issues, some real and others imaginary and even fabricated, relating to the running of the club, team performance and its culture, a build up that’s been taking place for more than twelve months. By the end of September, President Kate Roffey was gone after a controversial few months and a tough radio interview over reports that Christian Petracca and other leading players wanted out for various reasons. A review was called of the club’s operations (the result of which is expected to be announced shortly) but various lines of attack on the club from the media and elsewhere remained consistent and repetitive. Well, October is proving a better month for the Demons. The panic is by no means entirely over and we’re not quite singing “Happy Days Are Here Again”, but there’s a discernible difference in the steps of many Demon fans. The only key player to leave the club after the flurry of trading is ten year, premiership player Alex Neal-Bullen, whose departure to his home town Adelaide was for personal reasons and had nothing to do with the turmoil surrounding the club. The rest of the news has predominantly been favourable. The month started with an uptick in form from our struggling AFLW team which has been burdened by a massive injury list and a tough fixture. Starting on October 3, they won three games in ten days to put themselves in with an outside chance of making the finals. This welcome improvement from our women has even been overshadowed by the positive performance of List Manager Tim Lamb and his team over the past fortnight. After dealing with the recruitment of a back up second ruck to Max Gawn in the form of Tom Campbell and the trade of Neal-Bullen, they went to work on moving up the draft order in a complex trade that succeeded in the Demons acquiring another top ten draft pick (#9) on Monday. They then secured Brisbane’s Harry Sharp, who has played 16 games in four seasons and was an emergency for the Lions’ 2024 grand final team. Sharp is a superb athlete who holds the record for the 2km time-trial at the draft combine by a massive 20 seconds and the club is confident of his ability to help cover for the departures of Lachie Hunter or Neal-Bullen by filling a place either on a wing or as a high half-forward. Nobody really wins the trade period, not even Richmond, who have a dominant draft hand because it gave away a generous amount of quality. For their part, the Demons handled themselves professionally and finished with two very handy top ten picks for top recruiter Justin Taylor to work his magic in a draft that’s even at the pointy end. The way they did it, exemplifies what culture’s all about. True, they did not secure any big names and certainly not Dan Houston who was on their radar early at a time when they looked like having a pick in the teens and Port was seeking a big bounty that the club could not provide. However, the list of players available in the period was unspectacular and the need for more top end youngsters to add to the club’s list is appealing. Melbourne fans have for the most part, been happy with their clubs’ performance in the Taylor years and, as always, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. There would have to be a fair bit of egg on the faces of some members of the football media who have a penchant for publishing first, thinking next and not necessarily fact checking at all. They know who they are but the likes of the Herald Sun’s Mark Robinson are really looking silly today with their backtracking headlines like, “Dees shopped Oliver, but so what? It's a business after all.” Really? Robinson’s newspaper still couldn’t help itself with a parting shot at the club when it introduced its end of trade summary thus: “On the PR scale, the Demons had a shocker with all the noise surrounding Clayton Oliver,“ but there was no mention of blow up dolls in the GWS summary. And cultural issues don’t exist at the other end of the highway, so no eyebrows are raised when someone like Bailey Smith changes clubs. Special kudos to the club’s stand in chairman for this well aimed barb on 3AW. It was uplifting to see a Melbourne person return fire at a media miscreant for once. It bears repeating that only one key player has been traded off the list and he will be 29 years old at the start of 2025. A strong stance has been maintained in keeping superstars Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver and Kozzy Pickett in the fold for 2025 and it is now in the hands of both club and players to rekindle the magic they and many of their teammates produced in 2021 and to an extent in 2022 and 2023. With all the trials forced on them in 2024, they were not that far off the mark this year when the club did manage to give more opportunity to its emerging young blood. Hopefully, the trajectory can continue to move forward and upward to the return of happier days. THE 2024 TRADES Monday 7 October Melbourne trade Alex Neal-Bullen to Adelaide for pick 28 West Coast Eagles trade Jack Darling to North Melbourne for pick 67 Friday 11 October Brisbane trades pick 20 to Richmond for picks 32, 42, 43, 45 Carlton trades picks 34 and 66 to Brisbane for picks 73 and 2025 R2 Carlton trades 2025 R1 and 2025 R2 to Hawthorn for pick 14 Monday 14 October Melbourne trades pick 46 to Adelaide for 2025 R3 Essendon trades pick 9 and 2025 R3 to Melbourne for picks 28, 40, 46, 54, 65 and 2025 R1 Tuesday 15 October Carlton trades picks 12, 14, 73 and Matt Owies and receive picks 3, 63 and 68; West Coast Eagles trade pick 3 and receive Liam Baker, Matt Owies, pick 12 and 73; Richmond trades Liam Baker and receives pick 14 St Kilda trades pick 27 to Brisbane for picks 32 and 45 Port Adelaide trades Dan Houston, picks 39, 58 and 2025 R1 and receives Jack Lukosius, Joe Richards, Rory Atkins and picks 13, 29, 36 and 50; Collingwood trades Joe Richards, John Noble, pick 36 and 2025 R1 and receives Dan Houston and pick 58; Gold Coast trades Jack Lukosius, Rory Atkins, picks 13, 29 and 50 and receives John Noble, 2025, pick 39 and two 2025 R1 picks Brisbane trades Harry Sharp and 2025 R3 to Melbourne for pick 49 and 2025 R3 Wednesday 16 October Richmond trades Shai Bolton, pick 14 and 2025 F3 to Fremantle for picks 10, 11 and 18. Richmond trades Daniel Rioli and picks 51, 61, 70 and 76 Daniel Rioli to Gold Coast Suns for picks 6 and 23. GWS Giants trade James Peatling and 2025 R3 and RD4 for 2025 R2 Western Bulldogs trade Caleb Daniel to North Melbourne for pick 25 West Coast Eagles trade Tom Barrass and 2025 F4 to Hawthorn for 2025 F1, 2025 F2 and 2025 F3 Sydney Swans trade Luke Parker and Jacob Konstanty to North Melbourne for pick 44 Western Bulldogs trade Jack Macrae to St Kilda for pick 45 Carlton trades Matt Kennedy to Western Bulldogs for pick 38 Western Bulldogs trade Bailey Smith and pick 45 to Geelong for pick 17 and 38 Essendon trades Jake Stringer to GWS Giants for pick 45 THE 2024 FREE AGENT SIGNINGS Josh Battle (St Kilda) to Hawthorn Elliott Himmelberg (Adelaide) to Gold Coast Harry Perryman (GWS Giants) to Collingwood Tom Campbell (St Kilda) to Melbourne Nick Haynes (GWS Giants) to Carlton Isaac Cumming (GWS Giants) to Adelaide Jack Graham (Richmond) to West Coast