His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy.  There’s vomit on his sweater already, mom’s spaghetti.  He’s nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready…..some may recognise these as lyrics to an EMINEM song but they perfectly illustrate how I was feeling late in the game on Saturday night that FINALLY saw the mighty demons overcome the Bombers and register our first win for the season!  (I must confess however I didn’t vomit spaghetti on my sweater…….I haven’t eaten spaghetti in months!)

Someone once wrote (in the context of most rank and file supporters) that ‘the reason why sport matters so much is that it doesn’t matter’.  He is right – yes we lost 9 games in a row, yes we haven’t won a flag since 1964 yet life has gone on but to see the joy amongst long suffering Demon fanatics on Saturday (let alone the jubilant reaction to the win amongst the players and coaching staff) just shows how much the club does mean to supporters and I am sure all Demon fans – like me – have been walking around with a smile all week purely as a result of beating ‘essedon’!

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.

Sadly neither Adrian Anderson nor Andrew Demetriou have returned my calls so I wouldn’t get your hopes up that these events will go ahead but heh you never know!

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 Spence

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