Let me tell you a story.  Bear with me.  There will be a segue… In what seems like a lifetime ago now I was lucky enough to get a professional cricket contract to play in Lancashire.  The club I played for had members who (besides cricket) had a strong penchant for snooker.

The club had a full size snooker table and members kept their prized snooker cues locked up in the rooms.  One night a guy borrowed another mans’ cue and in a fit of anger after missing a shot he slammed the cue into the side of the snooker table instantly breaking it into pieces.  The owner of the cue saw this happen and in what can only be described as a fit of rage he leapt upon him and commenced beating the life out of the unfortunate fellow. As members tried to ply the two apart they tried to reason with the enraged man with some saying ‘hey it is only a snooker cue!  Settle down’.  The man retorted – ‘ONLY A SNOOKER CUE!!….  I LOVE THAT SNOOKER CUE MORE THAN I LOVE MY WIFE!!!’

Now as misguided as this bloke’s devotion may seem – I can relate to him. He has an unwavering passion, a passion for something, an item, an object, a being that only gives – it never takes – and this is exactly how I feel about the Melbourne Football Club and to see the object of my obsession win by 78 points on Sunday was enough to drive me into my own fit of elation and buy the whole pub a round of drinks!

Some may say it was ‘only’ against GWS but their form of late has been sound and the demolition job our boys imposed upon the newbies I am certain will be the precursor of our return to our rightful place of ‘Masters of the MCG’.  In a win of this magnitude it isn’t difficult to find players whose performances warrant mention but as it has been all year some Demons continue to stand up week in week out.

To save myself time I have written an algorithm whenever I begin by mentioning our highest disposal winner {INSERT NATHAN JONES HERE}.  Jonesey finished with a game high 33 touches and once again was arguably our best player on the day.

No more knockers for Jack Watts!  He is having an amazing year and 27 possessions and 7 marks across the half back line was another great game.  It isn’t just the amount of touches he gets its the way he uses it that has many Dee fanatics salivating at the mouth.

Matthew Bate had his best game for the year with 28 touches, Jack Grimes continues his rich vein of form getting his hands on the ball 26 times and Colin Sylviawould be pleased with his return to form with 23 disposals and 2 goals.

Mark Neeld continues to show just how good a coach he is and his move to play Jared Rivers up forward to further help out Mitch Clark paid off in spades with ‘Old Man’ kicking a career high 4 goals.  Col Garland kicked 3 and not to be out done, Mitch Clark also kicked 4 all in the first quarter!  Sadly we will miss Mitch for the rest of the year but Neeld’s masterstroke at least gives us confidence that we have some capable options for what is an almost impossible player to replace.

Moving two of our key defenders up forward has also had another huge benefit.  It has given Tom McDonald the opportunity to show the football world just what he is all about.  And show them he has!  26 touches on Sunday has seen him rewarded with the Rising Star nomination for the week.  A fitting reward for a rising star for the mighty Demons.  Talking about rising stars, a final mention to Jeremy Howe who had another outstanding game and who Neeld has mentioned has the ability to be an elite midfielder.

This week it is the Lions. Brisbane are coming off a great win and the boys are sure to be smarting after losing to them in Round 1 this year so this game will be a cracker! Can we make it two in a row???  Of course we can!!!

Go Dees

Darren Spence

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