Melbourne v Collingwood – a view from abroad
Well things didn’t exactly start out as planned. Recently arrived in Jakarta I headed to a pub that I knew showed AFL without fail. Strolling in I confidently went up to the owner and asked him to please put on the footy. The conversation went sorta like this…
“sorry Sir it is a Monday – no AFL on a Monday only Friday and weekends”
“No it is the Queens birthday…public holiday big football game”
“Queens birthday?”
“Yeah Queen of England…in Australia we get a public holiday to celebrate her birthday”
“It is the Queens’ birthday today?”
“No actually it is in April but….”
“But today is June?….” (now I really had no answer for this and my patience was now running thin!)
“LOOK CAN YOU JUST CHECK TO SEE IF IT IS ON!!
Success!!!….he found the game and just as soon as I finally got a smile on my face it was quickly evaporated as to my horror we were 6 goals down. As I said….things didn’t start out exactly as planned. I hate watching games where the result is pretty much decided early in the match but things did get better the longer the game went on. Clearly Neeld would not have been happy with the end result however he would have been pleased the way the boys played after quarter time. 6 of the next 7 goals is as good as any club has done against the Pies and the fact the boys fought on is enough to continue to offer hope for the club – albeit we didn’t come away with the win.
On a day where the Demons left without the points we did have some solid contributors:
- I have been ‘hounding’ Howe for over a year now and he rarely lets me down. 5 contested marks in the first half, 7 for the match, our first goal and 2 for the game was a fantastic effort.
- Absolutely NO bonus points for who had our most possessions on the day! Yes again it was Nathan Jones! 31 disposals was again a fantastic effort. Perhaps the club can save some money and just give him the ‘Bluey’ now…he is winning it by a street.
- Again no bonus points for our leading goal kicker on the day……once again Mitch Clark…he finished with 4 and once again he can hold his head up high.
- Jack Grimes (with 25 touches), Cale Morton and Jack Watts all deserve a mention on a day the club would wish they could play the first quarter again.
This week
After the bye last week, we are back at the ‘G’ and this time against the newbies GWS. For probably the first time this year we will start favourites and I clearly don’t need to spell out why this game will take on extra significance. I clearly don’t but I clearly will….
Rumour has it that it wasn’t an earthquake in Melbourne this week but actually Tom Scully and his fat wallet landing at Tullarmarine. $cully had the audacity this week to claim that he ‘left a while a go now and that people would have gotten over his defection”…..YEAH RIGHT……He will get booed and rightly so!. Not one normally to endulge in schadenfreude I actually hope we fail to hear 1 solitary boo on Sunday….this means he doesn’t get a single touch. I am disappointed Tappy got himself suspended as a few hard, tough ‘legal’ tackles on him would clearly make my day.
I say all this but actually, perhaps paradoxically, I am glad he took the money and ran for more than 1 reason. Most importantly if we had Scully today the facts are we wouldn’t have Mitch Clark and I certainly know who I would rather have in our team! Also we have graciously accepted 2 first round draft picks for his loss and with a so called ‘super draft’ this year, coupled with the coming of Jack Viney we are going to be in a great position to further lay the platform of a great side.
So good riddance Scully and go Dees!
Darren Spence
His palms are sweaty…
There was another celebration going on over the course of the weekend and this was the Queens Diamond Jubilee. A fantastic effort by Her Majesty and across Great Britain they celebrated in style. Amongst the events included:
- a 1000 boat flotilla on the River Thames
- a star studded concert outside Buckingham Palace
- fireworks displays and gun salutes everywhere.
Now I did mention it was a fine achievement by HRH but surely the Demon win is up there with it and deserved a similar celebration? I contacted the AFL on Monday with a recommendation that this week see the following events staged in commemoration of beating the equal top side on the ladder:
- a re-enactment of RDB walking on water across the Yarra
- Mark Neeld in a tinny waving to fans as he goes underneath Flinders St bridge
- a pig shooting display by Rodney ‘Balls’ Grinter
- Steve ‘Strawbs’ O’Dwyer letting off fireworks as the players run onto train at AAMI Park
- and finally Russell Robertson singing ‘It’s A Grand Old Flag’ outside Windy Hill whilst the Bombers train.
But back to Saturday night. In what can only be described as a tough and dour contest, we saw our beloved Demons get over the line by 6 points and lift us off the bottom of the ladder. There are many players (if not all!) that deserve a special mention this week but my first goes to our coach Mark Neeld. This poor bloke has been treated worse than Anders Breivik by some corners of the media in recent weeks and I am perhaps most happy for him that we won on the weekend. He has stuck to his guns when it comes to his game plan yet been flexible enough to play players out of their ‘normal’ positions where team match ups suit – Jack Watts and Colin Garland are 2 obvious examples of this.
Jack Watts picked up 24 possessions, 7 marks and laid 4 tackles roaming across the half back line and is now showing the football world that he can indeed play this game! Much conjecture has been made over the fact that we should have chosen Michael Hurley over ‘Killer’ – now Hurley will be a good player but I certainly know who I would rather have had on Saturday night in my team!
Colin Garland took a game high 11 marks, kicked 2 crucial goals and accumulated 20 touches in a rare game up forward. He probably was the difference between the sides in the end with goals in the game coming at a high premium. A master stroke by Mark Neeld and I am sure we will see more of Colin up forward to provide us more flexibility and perhaps more experience to Tom McDonald playing on opposition A grade forwards.
Nathan Jones – now I might just cut and paste from every other report this year! Our highest possession getter and he kicked a goal. To top it off he laid 9 tackles on Saturday night and boy I love watching him play.
Jack Grimes also had 26 touches and he is now stringing some great games together.
Jeremy Howe had another solid game with 24 disposals, whilst Brent Moloney, Daniel Nicholson and Jack Trengove also impressed me on the night. Once again Jordie McKenzieclaimed another high quality scalp restricting Brent Stanton to only 23 possessions and a final mention to James Sellar who played his best game for the red and blue on Saturday night picking up 18 touches and taking 6 marks.
I could go on and probably mention another dozen or so players who are stiff to get a mention but oh what the heck…….Jared Rivers, Cale Morton, Mitch Clark, Tom McDonald, Luke Tapscott, Brad Green, Lynden Dunn, Joel McDonald, James Magner, Mark Jamar, Colin Sylvia and Sam Blease – you all get a mention this week! I am so happy!
This week it is the QB clash with long-time rivals Collingwood. Our win on the weekend will throw more fuel onto what is always a fiery clash with the Pies. Let’s hope we can make it 2 in a row!
Go Dees
Darren’s Review of the Blues
So Saturday was Carlton and sadly it was the Dees fans that had the Blues as once again we left the ground stone motherless on the table.
The game had some promising signs – a stark contrast to the last couple of weeks – we had our most inside 50s for the year, we at last showed some real toughness at the ball – Brad Green, Jordie Mac and Jack Grimes all showing acts that I am sure would make Mark Neeld proud and hopefully sets the tone for the rest of the year. We led at quarter time and were still in the game at 3 quarter time, all pleasing, however 1 goal in the 2nd half is not going to win you too many games (unless it is U/8s footy I guess).
I have to admit that I lost focus in the last quarter, honestly I would rather eat bulls testicles in Seville than watch Brock McLean and Mitch Robinson pick up possessions at will, but I will have a go at my honourable mentions for the game.
First off it is Nathan Jones. For what appears to be the 436th time in a row he led our possession count on the weekend with 27. Not only that but he continued his rich reign of goal kicking form with another goal. If he isn’t winning the ‘Bluey’ at present then I have been watching the wrong games!
Jack Grimes was certainly amongst our best and Mitch Clark continues to be a head ache for opposition defenders and finished with 3.4 on the day.
I loved Jordie McKenzie’s game. He has had quite a few big scalps this year and added Chris Judd to his list on the weekend. On top of that he amassed 10 tackles, the most by far of anyone from either team.
Sam Blease continues to impress. His speed and disposal has been a god send this year and he is now ready to make his mark on the game and become a regular in this side.
Talking about becoming a regular – we saw another great game also by Tom McDonald. People are starting to get excited about this guy and I can see why.
Jack Watts and Jared Rivers both played well as did Rohan Bail. Finally a mention to Daniel Nicholson – 22 possessions in his return game should see him hold his spot this week.
This week
Talking about this week and it is the Bombers on Saturday night. I don’t like Essendon and I don’t like their supporters. How can you like any teams’ supporters who complain about their recent lack of success? Hello! – I still have nightmares about the 2000 grand final and still haven’t forgiven Michael Long for cleaning up Troy Simmonds! Not only that but have you noticed how many Essendon supporters seem to have taken their cue from that recent irritating Commonwealth Bank ad with Toni Collette about dropping the ‘T’? Well many Essendon supporters drop the ‘N’…..IT IS NOT ESSEDON!….. At least if you are going to follow a side learn how to pronounce their stupid name.
We beat ‘Essedon’ last year and if the Ukranians are going to roll out Fred the Ferret as their chosen psychic animal to predict the winner of the upcoming Euro’s then I am going out on a limb and say we are going to give the Bombers a real fright on Saturday night and don’t be surprised if I am writing next week about our first win!
Go Dees
Darren
Demons 101
Well Saturday started off on a perfect note.
A beautiful autumn day in Sydney preceded what turned out to be a wonderful NSW Demons function. A large contingent descended on the Bavarian Cafe in Fox Studios to listen to an amazing array of guest speakers from the inner sanctum of the MFC. These people gave up their collective valuable time to support the NSW Demons fraternity and the speeches were all extremely enlightening.
Chris Connolly was our MC for the event and gave us a great insight into some of the inequities that currently exist in ground receipts and the hard work the administration of the club has been doing behind the scenes to rectify this and even up the playing field. Max Gawn spoke of how they were’ smashed’ during pre-season, life adjusting to the new game plan, how the new leadership group is starting to gel together and how his rehabilitation is coming along. Don McLardy spoke about our new sponsors and how important it is for supporters to stick with the team and how the whole board has utmost faith in Mark Neeld and the new coaching group.
Finally we had Josh Mahoney and Neil Craig talk about a myriad of topics, from how the players are keeping themselves motivated through goal setting, that morale is surprisingly high and a more thorough insight into our new style of play. All guest speakers were highly accommodating, answered all questions asked and goes to show that the club does value us up here in the harbour city. Overall the function was an almighty success and most of this was down to the diligent hard work put in by Sally and I personally would like to say thank you to her. So thanks Sal.
However this is where the ‘great’ part of the day ended as sadly we were smashed by the Swans in what can only be described as a disappointing effort (insert more vivid adjective here of your own choosing)!. The game was truly over before the Dees even got out of the blocks. So much so that whilst my good mate Ted and I were lucky enough to be holding up the banner pre-game during the players warm up, a stray ball came my way. I picked it up and passed it to Jack Trengove – if you look at our stats at quarter time I am pretty sure I was one of few in Demons gear that had an effective kick against my name at this time!
There were few highlights to come out of the game from our perspective though Jack Watts and Sam Blease both arguably played their best game in Melbourne colours on what really was a dark night for the Melbourne Football Club. It would be remiss of me not to mention Jeremy Howe who surely took mark of the year with his fantastic leap. I am not sure (but I think I read it somewhere on the internet so it must be true) that Howe’s hang time was so long that some supporters arrived back at Tullamarine before he landed on the SCG turf.
I mentioned earlier that Don McLardy made a plea to supporters to stick by the club during these tough times and to pay homage to our 101 point loss I thought I would help our President out and give you all 101 reasons why you should stick with and support the Melbourne Football Club. So here is my Demons 101:
- What else are you going to talk about on Monday around the proverbial water cooler?
- So you have to keep watching sport – it’s in your blood – so are you going to change sports? Don’t believe all the rhetoric about Rugby being the game they play in heaven! Somehow I just can’t see St. Peter being tagged a hooker.
- Rugby League – PLEASE!…..You are kidding!
- So you have to follow AFL – now you can’t possibly support the same side that Joffa follows!
- How can you possibly sing a theme song that starts – da da da da………..that makes me want to throw up!
- Don’t think you can sell all your Demon gear on E-Bay either – the way we are going at the moment you probably couldn’t give the stuff away!
- How could you sleep at night leaving big Jimma with all his hard work on increasing membership being stripped away?
Well it isn’t quite 101 reasons but you get my point. Stick with us – the ride may be bumpy but it will be so worth it in the end – I promise you.
This leads me on to this week’s game and it is the Blues on Sunday. The Blues have some injury concerns and I certainly hope for a good showing and I so desperately want us to win – for no other reason so that I just don’t have to listen to da da da da ANYMORE!
Go Dees
Darren Spence
Meet Don McLardy in Sydney at the NSW Demons Lunch
Join us to meet and talk footy with MFC President Don McLardy at the NSW Demons Match Day Lunch this Saturday. Neil Craig, Chris Connolly, Josh Mahoney and Max Gawn are also coming along to talk with us about the Dees and to answer all your burning questions. We have signed MFC Guernseys for auction, great raffle prizes to be won and we will start the afternoon with the Grand Old MFC Trivia Quiz!
Bookings are essential and can be made at http://www.trybooking.com/BJOJ
WHERE: Bavarian Bier Café, Entertainment Quarter, Moore Park
TIME: 12.00 noon
COST: $60 for adults (includes a 2 course meal), $30 for children under 12
For more information contact Sally Trevena on 0409 783 318 or sally@nswdemons.com or go to Events on our website www.nswdemons.com
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