Tying it all up

Various odds and ends so you don't think we've pulled the pin, or merged with another blog...

The injury list currently sits at two. With Phil Read out for at least one more week with a hamstring injury, and Daniel Ward out with a shoulder injury for another two months minimum. Alastair Nicholson is free to play on Saturday if required.

Speaking of Saturday, as we weer, Neale Daniher (almost) says the Bulldogs can jam the flood up their collective Bulldog backsides,

Melbourne coach Neale Daniher is not concerned with the growing trend of clubs using the flooding tactics, ahead of Saturday's clash with the Western Bulldogs.

With Rodney Eade's team repeat offenders of the infamous method, Daniher appears to be unfazed and believes that flooding is not something exclusive to the Dogs.

"There is a lot of flooding in all games. All clubs flood, so it's not unique to the Western Bulldogs," Daniher said.

"Carlton were probably the biggest flooders of all teams in the Wizard Cup, so I guess it sort of hangs around with Rodney because of his Sydney Swans days, but all teams flood at different degrees of flooding, so it's been around for seven or eight years."

What does concern Daniher is the threat of spectators becoming frustrated at teams constantly applying the flood, and consequently, the game losing part of its appeal.

Neale Daniher is never concerned. The man has ice in his veins. Even after that infamous Geelong game in 2003 when half the crowd were displaying homicidal tendencies and some yobbo leant over the race to give him a spray he didn't flinch. I applauded the yobbo at the time, and I still do now. As long as it's not a literal spray, Richmond style, I'm all for it. They know we secretly love them...

Around The Grounds

Post-Essendon match reaction,

The Age

Inefficient Dons

Kevin Sheedy said after Essendon's 46-point loss to Melbourne on Saturday night that the result could be put down to some silly errors and a lack of goalkicking ability up front.

If only that were true. Sure, there were a couple of howlers committed by Dustin Fletcher late in the second quarter, particularly one in which he did the hard work in the pocket and outmuscled David Neitz before kicking across goal to Adam Ramanauskas. Adem Yze made a great spoil running backwards and the ball spilled to Aaron Davey, who goaled.

But a limited number of errors do not explain a scoreline blowout of Saturday's magnitude. A look at the statistics shows that the Demons actually made 44 clangers for the game, as opposed to the Bombers' 42.

Dees' tribute to Troy

Melbourne coach Neale Daniher believes his grieving club can now move forward after the players fulfilled their wish to pay tribute to fallen teammate Troy Broadbridge by emphatically demolishing long-time nemesis Essendon by 46 points at the MCG last night.

The match, coming exactly three months after Broadbridge was swept away in the devastating Boxing Day tsunami, brought out "mixed emotions" of sadness and celebration about Broadbridge, said teammate Paul Wheatley, while Cameron Bruce, who dealt with Essendon champion James Hird, said the qualities Broadbridge had brought to the club would remain with them always.

"The memories of Troy are going to be with us forever," Bruce said. "The whole of this season's about having a little bit of Troy Broadbridge in all of us." Said Wheatley: "It's good to win for Broady, it's good for the club to get off to a good start."

Daniher said the emotion-charged victory - which was Melbourne's third victory against Essendon in their past 16 encounters - was "a terrific result" and there was now a sense of relief, given the players had fulfilled their pledge to win the match for Broadbridge, his widow Trisha, and his family.

A minute's silence marks the great loves of Troy

Trisha Broadbridge knew it would be hard to go to the footy last night, when she should have been sitting with the other wives and girlfriends in the stands and following the No.20 guernsey around the MCG.

Instead she was speaking at the Melbourne president's dinner, talking with remarkable control about her husband, Troy, and their time in Thailand together before the tsunami swept him away.

Then she was standing on the MCG, arm in arm with Demons captain David Neitz, as the Melbourne and Essendon players stood for a minute's silence in memory of Troy after the two teams, in a moving show of solidarity and empathy, walked onto the ground together and stood solemnly before their banners.

Demons outgun Bombers

Given the circumstances surrounding last night's game, many neutrals would have liked Melbourne to come out against Essendon and turn on the style. They might have been a little disappointed with what was, despite the 46-point margin, an at-times workman-like win.

The point was, though, that the Demons showed steel. Despite topping the table late last season, they never really convinced when the chips were down.

Last night, they outmuscled and outran the Bombers, turning the screw when they sensed weakness and giving nothing up for lost.

Essendon finished the first quarter two points up, Aaron Henneman kicking two goals to suggest he might be ready to silence his many doubters. James Hird was giving Cameron Bruce the run-around and recruit Angus Monfries was doing enough to suggest he might be a player of the future.

Moloney the Demon set to haunt Cats

It is perhaps unfair to suggest that Mark Thompson sold a perfectly good milking cow for a handful of beans at the end of last season when he traded Brent Moloney for Tigers big man Brad Ottens, but it is likely the Geelong coach will be hoping a little harder that he has found his goalkicking giant after last night's events at the MCG.

It was all cream from Moloney for his new coach, Neale Daniher, in his first match as a Demon, and his midfield power made no small contribution to the whipping Melbourne handed the Bombers. It gave further substance to the disappointment - it was not far from sorrow - that Thompson endured in letting the boy from Warrnambool go. Moreover, it intensified the spotlight that will track Ottens when he plays his first match as a Cat today - enticingly against his old club - and will continue to track his every move for the long-suffering folk of Geelong.

Melbournefc.com.au
Demons do it for Broadbridge

It was a performance which would have made Troy Broadbridge proud.

On the night Melbourne paid its last respects to its fallen teammate, the defence which Broadbridge was part of last year completely shut down a disappointing Essendon as the Demons avenged last year's elimination final loss with a comfortable 15.13.(103) to 8.9 (57) victory at the MCG.

But while it was a great start to the 2005 home-and-away season for Melbourne as they bid to make successive finals series for the first time since 1991, the Bombers played just as they did during the pre-season when they were one of just three clubs that failed to register a victory.

Herald Sun
Grooming pays off

MELBOURNE, a convincing 46-point winner over Essendon, looks set to reap the rewards of a strategy instituted in 2003 to develop key-position players.

Coach Neale Daniher said it was no surprise that Jared Rivers (centre half-back) and Brad Miller (centre half-forward) were now established in those key roles.

And Ryan Ferguson, back in the team at full-back after missing last season because of a shoulder reconstruction, was also part of the equation, Daniher said.

Q: Are we not men? A: We are Demons!

Until 6.15pm tonight I was still generally unconcerned with the 2005 AFL Premiership season. At that exact moment my stomach dropped, my heart rate went up at least 25% and I legitimately started to sweat. The bug had finally hit me again. Suddenly the prospect of hearing other supporters sing their club song in my general presence went from an uncomfortable prospect to a complete phobia.

The general mood of paranoia and suspicion didn't lighten when I arrived at the MCG to find queues a mile long, even for those of us with memberships and it took me a good 10 minutes of standing in line to even get in the door. Then I discovered that the bottom deck of the Southern Stand has suddenly become reserved tickets only, and for tonight the top deck was packed solid. I arrived at the top just in time for the second half of the Troy Broadbridge tribute. Now I may be the most cynical and bitter person alive but I can quite honestly say that even I had a tear in my eye by the time David Neitz appeared on the screen.



By the time they actually did the minutes silence (running the standard AFL length of 35 seconds - idiots), I had already gone back down the stairs, got a passout and moved all the way to the bottom deck of the Ponsford Stand. And given the amount of time between the tribute and the silence it turned out to be one of the more poorly observed ones I've ever seen. That's not to say it was deliberate, but I think at first when they announced for people to stand for a minutes silence and the national anthem people expected the anthem to come first and treated it with contempt accordingly. Then 20 seconds in everyone realised what was happening and shut up. I heard one peanut yell out "Go Demons" in the distance but the people around me were nothing more than respectful. Good for them.

The return to the Ponsford was nice. Back of the bottom deck is looking like the place to be this season, with a good view of the field and a nice television screen in front of you switched to the Channel 9/10/whoever coverage rather than the MCG scoreboard channel and their farcical advertisements, promotions, contests and Vodafone Fan Cams.

"What about the game?" I hear you scream. Well, I suppose we could mention that. It started nicely with Brent Moloney opening his account for the club with the first goal, but after that things started to turn a bit nasty as James Hird ripped us to shreds down the members side wing for the first 15 minutes.

Heffernan and Brown came and went but the Essendon captain was treating us like his personal bitch - until Cameron Bruce stepped in and laid the smack down in emphatic fashion. With Hird out of the game the Essendon dream started to unfurl rapidly as their Lloyd-less forward line struggled to do anything right. As I said before the game when I saw Damien Cupido lining up at full-forward "If we can't beat a team with him as their major goalkicking option we may as well pull the pin on the season now" and that's the way it turned out. He's still shite.

Scott Lucas bobbed up every now and then but the rest of them were handily subdued by a revitalised backline led, unpredictably, by Ryan Ferguson who mocked the fact that he hadn't played a league game for 18 months and marshalled the defence superbly. Ably assisted by the once more impressive Jared Rivers, and Matthew Whelan we looked better in that department than we have since the Ingerson/Seecamp/Shanahan dream team of 1998.

At this point I'd like to direct a colossal whinge towards two groups of people. One are the idiots who boo loudly when an opposition player rushes a behind yet applaud their own side doing it as if it's the greatest tactical manouever ever invented. I'm aware that being a one sided prick is what sports is all about but let's not go completely wild about it eh? The other are the female supporters who just let rip with blood curdling, high pitched, top of the voice screams whenever their team kicks a goal. I'm 100% for women in football, don't worry about that, but have some consideration for the rest of us. Football matches are tense enough on their own without the prospect of receiving a migraine headache because Aaron Henneman kicks a goal. Ladies, they're bringing your whole side down - I plead with you to indulge in heart to heart conversations with your fellow supporters and convince them to scream obscenities instead like the rest of us. Thank christ the one sitting next to us went to spread the love somewhere else in the second half.

After going into the first quarter two points behind the forward/midfield combination started to feed off the backline and added six goals to three to give us a 20pt lead at the long break. Another whinge about the 'new' MCG is that you can't hear the siren in the Ponsford. For the first three quarters it was only when the players voluntarily walked that you knew it was over. I was dreading the prospect of a close game where the final siren went without us knowing it, and having to gauge the reaction of the crowd and players to see what the hell had happened. Thankfully by the time we'd increased the margin by 19 points at 3/4 time it was clearly not to be.

Some of you may remember a game in 1991 when we led the Bombers by 41 at the last change, kicked the first goal of the last quarter and then somehow managed to lose by a point to a Gavin Wanganeen goal after the siren. I certainly do. Ever since that day I have been unable to relax until we are at least four goals in front at the 20 minute mark of the last quarter. It wasn't until Adem Yze kicked his 4th with 12 minutes left and the margin blew out to 40 that I relaxed.

With the result wrapped up long before the final siren all that was left was to let rip with the "Unbridled Passion" remix of the Melbourne theme song, complete with jumping up and down and fist pumping. Not one other person in my section was making any effort to sing it so everyone started looking at me instead. Legitimately embarrassing - this particular piece of performance art is meant to complement the more standard versions of the tune rather than eclipse them. Next game I'm putting the balaclava on, and we'll see what they think then.

In the end it turns out there was only 45,000 people there, which shocked the hell out of me because the place looked absolutely packed everywhere but the top of the Ponsford. I'd hate to think what it'll look like on Queens Birthday against Collingwood. We may even have to, gasp, sit next to one of their toothless fans.

Now for the first installment of the "Demonblog.com Player of the Year" - where I hand out the votes on a whim. You may disagree - but it doesn't matter.

5 - Brent Moloney
4 - Ryan Ferguson
3 - Cameron Bruce
2 - Adem Yze
1 - Jared Rivers

Credit to Brad Miller for marking anything that went near him. Russell Robertson was handy as well, doing some decent work in the field of harassing, blocking and scragging even when he wasn't picking up possessions. Guy Rigoni wasn't bad either for somebody who we've all written off on seven different occasions.

On the other hand Colin Sylvia was on the ground for ages and showed very little until the game was blown out in the last quarter, and Travis Johnstone did nothing until he gave it to the mutants in the Essendon cheersquad after kicking his goal. David Neitz continued his recent trend of going missing - which worries me greatly.

The final humiliation for Essendon fans came outside the ground as a harmless kick-to-kick ended with a chip pass going horribly astray and bouncing right underneath a Route 129 tram. There was a seconds silence as the entire stop turned around to see if we were about to witness a potential derailment scenario - then a giant CRUNCH echoed across the night sky as the ball was assimilated underneath with extreme prejudice. The tram stayed on the rails but the ball was never seen again - we presume it finally fell out somewhere around Exhibition Street. The poor Essendon bogan children were suitably sad. We just laughed.

Footy is back. For this week at least I am overjoyed. More news, views and reactions throughout the week. Next week - Melbourne vs Footscray, Saturday at Docklands. I like our chances...

Official PLF Communication

Greetings from the Premiership Liberation Front. We will give our lives to see a Melbourne Premiership in 2005. Expect further communications as the season continues.

END TRANSMISSION

Last minute analysis

First bounce in t-minus 8 hours. Are you feeling ill yet? I'm not. Wait until I get in the ground though and then it's shake, shake, shake, puke, puke, puke time. Anyway I've been obscenely distracted in the past few days and didn't take any time to have a close look at our lineup until now.

(Pinched lock, stock and barrel from AFL.com.au. Come and get me Demetriou!)

MELBOURNE
B: N.Brown, Ferguson, Bizzell
HB: Yze, Rivers, Wheatley
C: Johnstone, Bruce, Heffernan
HF: Robertson, Miller, McLean
F: Sylvia, Neitz, Green
FOLL: White, Moloney, Whelan
I/C: McDonald, Jamar, Davey, Rigoni
EMG: Bell, Godfrey, Nicholson
NEW: Brent Moloney (Geelong)

Gone from the team that lost the final against Essendon last year are Ben Holland (underdone, and half useless), Nicholson (unfit), Read (hamstrung). In come Sylvia (promising), Moloney (talented) and Ryan Ferguson (resurrected!)

In the same way that I completely forgot that Steven Armstrong was even on our list, I don't recall Mark Jamar or Guy Rigoni having been present on that fateful day in September.

I'm feeling confident about this match. That's a bad sign. Back Essendon.

The Sunday verdict: Melbourne by 26pts. Full report later tonight after I am released from police custody return home.

It's time

Three days and counting until our opening game of 2005. If previous experience has taught us anything you can pretty much write off the significance of Saturday night, because if we lose we'll have a bumper year and if we win we'll finish 14th and score more priority picks. Maybe it's the product of coming off a good season but if we lose by under 6 goals I won't be turning blue in the face and leaning over the race to try and slap the entire backline around the head.

But what will happen? When it comes to the Melbourne Football Club I'd be lying if I said I had any idea. Sure the signs are there - but you heard that before 2001 and 2003 as well didn't you? Well this time I believe it. This year we will back up for the first time in god knows how long and crack the Top 8 again. It's a suicidal call to stake your reputation on, but luckily I never had one to begin with.

Having said this I'm not going to go completely wild and declare that we're going to pick up where we left off last year (pre-collapse) and win the AFL Premiership. On this note I present the official Every Day Is Like Sunday 2005 season preview.

Backline
Jared Rivers. It's all about Jared Rivers. Decent support may come from Nicholson - who is still suspect against quick players - and Ryan Ferguson and Daniel Bell are getting better all the time but for us to have any chance of surviving matches against sides with profilic key forwards we must, MUST, have Rivers in the side and playing well. The one advantage of having a backman win the Rising Star competition is that he won't instantly end up in every opposition teams pre-match plans as somebody to stop like a midfielder or forward would.

Then there's Nathan Carroll. He's got a lot of mileage out of wrecking Barry Hall in the last game of 2003 because he's done sweet FA since. Will probably score a couple of games throughout the year, must do something this time or will end up as the new Chris Lamb - without the overwhelming public support.

I am, however, supremely confident in the contributions of Matthew Whelan, Clint Bizzell and Nathan Brown. If the ball hits the deck inside defensive 50 I'm alright, but when it's bombed in that the blood pressure starts to rise ever so much. I'd like to think that we could pull one of those outrageous attacking tactics where no matter how much they score we try to score more. But we can't.

Midfield
Sure it'll take an injury crisis of black death proportions to put a dent in this department but the importance of our centre players can't be stressed enough. Replace Yze and Bruce, watch McLean suffer second year syndrome, see the much hyped Sylvia and Moloney not show their full potential and look at Phil Read/Simon Godfrey lose the plot completely and it's all over for us. We may as well withdraw halfway through the year and join the Diamond Valley League.

However it would take the biggest black magic voodoo conspiracy theory in the history of AFL/VFL football for all that to happen, and with able support from the likes of Brown and Bizzell running out of the backline, and with Brad Green and Aaron Davey playing more important midfield roles it looks as if we'll have one of the better group of running players in the competition. I suppose you may as well fit Travis Johnstone in there somewhere. I'm resigned to him breaking out a few cameo best on ground performances, going missing for the other 18 weeks and ending up getting traded to Carlton amongst gnashing of teeth and furious protests from the people who have been telling us that "this is his year" since 1999.

My opinion of James McDonald is delayed pending the performance of his brother in the edition of Fox Footy's "Lovematch" where he is playing to win me a $1000 Harvey Norman gift voucher. If he loses expect to hear loud boos everytime #23 touches the ball, but if I wins expect a post calling on JM to be the next captain.

Forwards
Controversially I'm putting a giant question mark on this section. David Neitz is always good for goals but he's getting on, and as was proved during his form slump and subsequent injury at the end of last year there is no ready made replacement for him at full-forward if something happens. It's a good thing that goals come out of our midfield in decent numbers because for all the good things they do during the four quarters Robertson, Green and Davey are all capable of going missing and ending up with 0 goals.

Brad Miller was a revelation at CHF last year but he needs to kick more goals this year. Ben Holland was decidedly average, and despite his hefty paycheck may find himself squeezed out if Paul Johnson or Nick Smith kill it in the reserves.

In my uneducated opinion, if Neitz fails to kick 50 goals for the season and we don't locate another goalkicking source then we are in trouble. And what about when he retires? Ick, I don't want to think about it.

Rucks
If Jeff White survives his traditional injury scare and the new ruck rules he will be vital. But as every article about Melbourne in the last four years has pointed out - if he has a shocker of a year so do the club. All I will say is thank god we cheated the salary cap to get him. Given that we lost a couple of draft picks where we would have probably picked more Cockatoo-Collins brother style duds I'm prepared to go back in history and do it all over again. Mark Jamar is a more than capable back up, but nothing compares to the original.

Others
Brief commentary on the rest of our list,

Steven Armstrong - Forgot he was still on the list. Not a bad player but could see a lot of the Trevor Barker Oval in Sandringham this year.

Lynden Dunn - How the hell should I know? If human sacrifice could guarantee high draft picks would be superstars I'd have already done it.

Chris Heffernan - I'm sure he'll be there or there abouts. Risks becoming a massive heel to the MFC fanbase if he doesn't start dominating soon.

Cameron Hunter - Has apparently bulked up - which was not difficult given that in his debut season he had the physique of a cancer patient with AIDS and a heroin habit. Despite the ever dubious 'project player' tag, this could be his last year. Feed him some Quarter Pounders I say.

Chris Johnson - People who know about this sort of thing say that he's getting better all the time. Good. Let's keep it low-key then.

Shannon Motlop - Set to be part of either a September fairytale or a Sandringham VFL Premiership. Clearly the best choice of the discarded players available to join us, but time will tell whether or not he's still got what it takes to play league football.

Michael Newton - No relation to Bert, and no senior games this year.

Guy Rigoni - Lucky to avoid getting the arse at the end of the last two seasons. I've got nothing against the idea of him rocking up for a few cameo roles throughout the year, but his long-term future is cloudy. Let's just say I wouldn't be buying a new house if I was him.

Brendan Van Schaik - Who? Top name though - I'll support him just because of that. According to the OS he's a ruckman. See you in 2006!

Daniel Ward - Rapidly sliding out of favor. I'd be surprised if they didn't try and flog him during the last trade period. I've always quite liked him but I don't see him as anything more than fringe this season.

Matthew Warnock - Quick defender. The two sweetest words I have ever heard.

Luke Williams - What are you still doing here? Sorry Luke but trains to Sandringham depart from Platforms 9 and 10. I'd like to say he will not appear in the senior side unless we hit rock bottom and will play anyone (see, closing rounds of 2003) but when I looked up and saw him waltzing down the wing in the Wizard Cup game against Carlton I got a shudder right through my body. Expect a picketline outside the MCG by round 6.

The Vibe
The Broadbridge factor is questionable. I don't buy this line about them "playing for him". No matter how emotional the situation is, and how much well all want them to do well to honor his memory, you can't paper over cracks for 22 weeks with good intentions alone. Make no mistake the cracks are there.

If you take into account the three grafted wins against the worst of sides in the competition in the weeks leading to our dramatic 2004 collapse we haven't beaten a decent team for the last 8 competitive matches. This season we knocked over the Llane Spaandermann-tastic Brisbane Lions reserves in the Wizard Cup and were then lucky to get within four goals of a rejuvenated but still dubious Carlton side. The signs are there, but whether they develop into full blown footballing hysteria is to be seen.

On the other hand, membership is rising and there's some danger that we may achieve financial stability within the next few years. Things are looking good, we just need to make sure that everything doesn't go down the toilet with a rotten season. Cross your fingers, CROSS THEM HARD. Let's do this thing...

Tribute

From The Age,

The last time Melbourne played Essendon, Troy Broadbridge delivered a performance that epitomised the qualities of the quiet, emerging defender and his place within the Melbourne Football Club.

He had been given a great task - to try to hold back Essendon champion James Hird - and the dedicated worker rose to the occasion of the elimination final and delivered what many consider to be the finest performance of his 40-game career, which began and ended in matches against the Bombers.

On Saturday night, exactly three months after Broadbridge was swept away in the Boxing Day tsunami that devastated countries and hundreds of thousands of lives, Melbourne again confronts Essendon, this time in its 2005 season opener.

It will do so in a swirl of emotions as the players run out on the MCG without Broadbridge. While former Kangaroo Shannon Motlop came on to the list last week, all at Melbourne know that Broadbridge cannot be replaced.
[...]

On Saturday, tributes will be paid to him with the wearing of black armbands and a minute's silence. To mark the new season, 2005 red balloons will be released plus another 20 in honour of the red-headed Broadbridge's guernsey number

Dear Essendon fans. If you are planning to ruin the minute's silence by yelling out something 'hillarious' then I advise you to pre-book your dental appointment for Monday morning. It's over if one prick yells out...