A review of last year and the off season
The time has almost come!!….The time is almost here!!….Not that I am counting or anything but by the time the ball is first bounced in anger it will be 302,190 minutes (or 18,131,410 seconds to be precise) since we have last seen our beloved Demons run around for premiership points. I don’t know about you but I feel like the children of Jeanne Calment (who had the longest confirmed lifespan in history, living to the age of 122 years, 164 days (44724 days total)) – waiting for their inheritance to come through. The debacle that was the Ashes series is now just another page in the Wisden analogues and the 2011 AFL series is upon us!
Not that the off season hasn’t failed to provide us diehard fans with some respite over the past few months. Let’s look at some of the highlights….
- The first AFL team to win in China on the back of LJs brilliance
- Our first win(s) in Adelaide since Jesus Christ told his followers that he was going to visit Dad and would be back in a few days
- No doubt The Clash’s hit ‘Should I stay or should I go’ is one of Tom Scully’s favourite IPod’s song as he weighs up the merits of become a billionaire before his 25th birthday or playing in a premiership with the Demons.
- Brad Green nominated as our new Captain.
- News that big Jimma is feeling better than ever as he continues his courageous fight with cancer
- The return of one of our prodigal sons in Todd Viney to MFC ranks (and the added bonus that his son has also declared his allegiances to our Club)
- Two All Australian in James Frawley and Mark Jamar with Brad Green desperately unlucky not to also get a nod
- Jack Watts, Neville Jetta, Addam Maric and Jack Grimes amongst the players to impress in the NAB cup and pre- season games.
Now we look ahead to the 2011 season with much anticipation. Our young developing players have another pre season under their belt and with some shrewd picks in the AFL Draft we have every reason to enter this season with much optimism.
Two areas of focus during the off season by the club would be our ability to ‘press’ and deal with an opposition ‘press’. Just look at these stats below from last season:
- Melbourne was the 2nd worst team in the league last year at converting turnovers to score. We set up our defense a long way from goal, gaining 38.9% of our turnovers in the defensive 50 and 73.2% in the defensive half – clearly the most of any team
- The Dees gave the opposition 25.0 forward turnovers per game – the most of any club. However just 36.1% of these were punished with opposition scores – ranked 5th.
- For the 4th consecutive year, Melbourne finished the season with the worst differential in the competition for time spent in the forward half. Last year it was -:7:29mins, nearly a minute and a half worse than the next lowest team.
So, not only did we not “press” when they have the ball (instead we sag back a long way behind the ball) but we were unable to deal with the opposition ‘press’ when we had the ball!
If we are planning to play finals this year (there I said the ‘F’ word!) these stats need to improve and I am confident that this year we have the game plan, the caliber of players and right people in our brains trust to accomplish this ambition.
Darren Spence
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Welcome to the NSW Demons in 2011
This year’s highlights include:
• Watching the game on the Big Screen with other MFC supporters each weekend at the Camelia Grove Hotel
• A weekly preview and review of the Dees match
• MFC coaches Mark Williams and Brian Royal talk to the NSW Demons in Sydney
• Sponsorship of Jamie Bennell and Jack Grimes
• Presidents Club special deal
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Cheer and gloating in BrisVegas…
Reporter Darren Spence
Cheer and gloating in BrisVegas……Ahhh….. Brisbane the land of sun and theme parks. I must admit I was as nervous as a pubescent virgin teenager about to go past first base about this game. After all our interstate record has been as useful as financial advice from Bernard Madoff and supporting Melbourne after all these years and going into games with high expectations is ……well you know…….at times fraught with danger.
The Lions have some seriously good players and any team with Brown, Fevola, Black et al should be taken lightly at your peril. But once again we came out of the blocks like Usain Bolt and kicked away to an early lead. The only down side to the game was that we came down the home stretch like Mick Nolan! But we held the Lions at bay and came away with the valuable 4 points and kept our hopes alive that the Red and Blue may grace the field in September.
Let’s look at some highlights:
• Colin Sylvia is on fire!!……Is it just me or does he remind you of Dr. Bruce Banner now he is injury free? Yes he is the Incredible Hulk and a top shelf player to boot.
• Chip Frawley gets better and better each week…..Last week he chased down the pint sized Lewis Jetta and this week he minded Atlas!!…..Brown had as much chance of getting a kick on the big man as Paris Hilton has of being nominated for a Nobel Prize.
• What about Davey’s full on Superman imitation by flying through the square and denying the Lions’ a goal??……Is there anything this man cannot do?
• Cam Bruce took the dangerous Luke Power out of the game and picked up many possessions himself.
And there are quite a few players at the club who at the moment are without a doubt in the best form of their career.
• The Big Russian (now surely he is going to get an AA gig???…..If he doesn’t it might be me that gets an AA gig (and no my AA gig would be slightly different as my membership is not decided by the select few associated with the AFL)).
• Clint Bartram – once on the periphery of our best 22, has now made it almost impossible to be dropped.
• Brad Green – The manlove for this man grows every week.
• James Frawley and Colin Sylvia (I know I mentioned them earlier but I just wanted to write their names again).
• The young guys continue to blossom…….the two number 1 draft picks are showing why there were taken at Number 1 in the draft. Trying to choose the better player going forward seems much harder than picking who to drop this week……both enviable problems to have.
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Chris Connolly in Sydney
Chris Connolly, General Manager MFC Football Operations – Sydney Event – Thursday 29 July 2010
The NSW Demons held a Player Sponsor event with Chris Connolly, General Manager Melbourne Football Club Football Operations and Guy Jalland, MFC Vice President in Sydney on Thursday 29 July.
Chris journeyed to Sydney to talk to the NSW Demons about all aspects of the Melbourne Football Club, both on and off the field. Chris spoke passionately of the work undertaken to build the club’s organization, playing list and community connections.
Guy Jalland, spoke eloquently about the club, the future and the fund raising commitment of the MFC Board including the Foundation Heroes.
It was a thoroughly informative and most enjoyable evening.
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Round 18: Melbourne v Brisbane
The pivotal question is can our own Andrew Lloyd Webber in Dean Bailey produce another hit musical this week up north at the Gabba? History says no but form is definitely on our side. A loss this week will create our own version of ‘Les Mis’ but I am confident our boys will be switched on and create another Broadway hit musical for us long suffering Dees fanatics.
Only one change this week with the Captain returning after a number of weeks out with injury. The unfortunate player to miss out this week is Addam Maric who performed well last week on his return to the AFL after a long stint at Casey.
The team
Melbourne team
B: Colin Garland, Jared Rivers, Clint Bartram
HB: Cameron Bruce, James Frawley, Joel Macdonald
C: Rohan Bail, James McDonald, Brad Green
HF: Lynden Dunn, Jack Watts, Tom Scully
F: Jamie Bennell, Paul Johnson, Austin Wonaeamirri
FOLL: Mark Jamar, Colin Sylvia Aaron Davey
I/C: Jordie McKenzie, Cale Morton, Nathan Jones, Liam Jurrah
Emg: Jack Trengove, Addam Maric, Matthew Warnock
In: McDonald
Out: Maric
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