The Thirteenth Star

Tom Scully was selected as the Number 1 draft pick in the 2008 AFL Draft by the Melbourne Football Club. Tom clearly was and is one of the best youngsters running around. In the recent years it hasn’t been just the next opponent that AFL clubs have had to worry about, it’s been the AFL’s new 17th and 18th clubs, the Gold Coast Suns and the Greater Western Sydney Giants. Last year we saw Geelong champions Gary Ablett Jnr take the big $1 million and left for Sunshine coast. It left many Geelong fans disappointed. How could their champion had left for the money? This time in 2011 it’s Tom Scully who’s under the pump.

The way the AFL have set up the 2 new teams has given them a giant cheque book, to go on an endless shopping spree in the AFL market, giving them the power to tear apart teams, like Melbourne who are on the rise. Unlike fellow first round pick Jack Trengove, Tom has kept his cards close to chest. Earlier in the year Jack Trengove fronted the media announcing that he wished to be a ‘one club player’, which at least gives the Demons the re-assurance that he will stay at Melbourne.

“The problem with the new teams entering the competition, is that they’re forcing the younger players to lie to their friends, family and team-mates. Making them be dishonest if they’re staying or leaving” as quoted by Jim Stynes

If the rumours are true Tom could earn up to $1 million a year on a 5 year contract. Going to GWS would put Toms Finals and Grand Finals dream back about 10 or so years. Melbourne will and should do absolutely everything possible to keep Tom at the club. Imagine what the Melbourne outfit would look without him. They would loss a key midfielder who could possibly be future captain of the club, it would be a devastating result. The Demons should just put the paper in-front of Tom and ask for his signature, as they have many times before. But as usual it’s “I and my management have decided put negotiations off untill the end of the year”.

The Melbourne Footy Club have done absolutely everything for you Tom. They’re putting so much time and effort into you to build you up to the player you are and will continue to do so. Why should the club waste their time and money on you if your going to be gone at the end of the year?

As we lead up to the Thirteenth Star…………

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Pulled from The SportingJournal – SportingJournal.wordpress.com

On a night where everyone was expecting the Demons to challenge the Eagles at Subiaco, We have seen the biggest let down in the last 3 years. I hate to say it, but Melbourne just plain sucked! I’m sick of the excuse “They’ll be better soon” or “It’s all a learning experience”. These boys need to get a whack across the head and need to wake up to themselves! They’re not going to make the finals if they keep offering up a horrible game of football that loyal Demon supporters have been served up. The boys had no intensity, no hunger, no nothing.

“Dean Bailey is not the man to lead the Melbourne Football Club into its next premiership.”

Last year a friend said to me that he didn’t like the Dean Bailey’s style of coaching; now I know why. Dean cannot coach these young players to a Premiership. His ‘Zone’ stinks. It is not giving the players options to kick to up-field, so when they do get the ball and look up. There is not major option for the Dees to kick to. This forces the boys to send the ball backward back into the Defensive 50 which means a switch which puts us back into the same situation and forcing the boys to kick to high to packs. The zone puts the boys under lots of pressure forcing them to handball to players who have opponents hot on their tail. He either needs to rethink the Zone now and we need to see a big change or else he will go. I am predicting he will be gone before the start of 2012. Who should replace him? Malthouse? Roos? Lyon? If it doesn’t happen now it will sure happen soon. Dean Bailey is not the man to lead the Melbourne Football Club into its next premiership. Today in the Herald Sun, There was an article on Aaron Davey’s performance in today’s Herald Sun. Ever since 2009 when Dean Bailey took over the as coach of Melbourne Aarons Average Meters gained has gone from 463m to 339m. Remember when we used to see flash run up the centre of the field bouncing the ball taking on the play? Well, that’s on the decrease too. His running bounces total in 2009 was 50 and has decreased with so far in season 2011 with only 2 this year. Aaron owned the ball back then, but again. I don’t know what changed, but if I was Dean Bailey I would undo whatever I did to get Flash back to his great form. It also looks like Dean has another carrier lined up for him, talking to Channel 10/ONE HD during the starting seconds of the 2^nd half, leaving a runner to huddle up the boys and attempt to fire them up in the rooms. Why should a runner have to fire up the boys when they are getting smashed out on a foreign field? At the MCG or the GABBA or Patterson’s Stadium, The coach that all Melbourne Supporters are trusting to bring up out young players and develop them into great competitive players to play for our club and fight for a Premiership.

But then we can’t blame it all on the Coach. The effort and intensity put in by the players was absolutely pathetic, unacceptable. It was almost like the boys thought that they had won before they even stepped foot on the ground. All this fuss about the Demons this year has gone to their heads and the last couple of matches there has been no intensity! It’s almost like the boys couldn’t care less. Again this also can be because of the game plan that Dean Bailey has thought up. The Zone is awful! It is giving the boys when the ball is marked going up to the forward line, there were no options to enter into the attacking 50. It’s probably because most of our scores come from us handballing and running the ball out of our backline. It is a high risk plan that all the skills need to be perfect for it to work. Just decision making that comes with this plan was awful! Handballs were being given to teammates who have opponents right on their tail. All skills need to be looked at this week, from kicking to handballing and tackling which was pathetic. The hard tackling has basically left the game with players ‘zoning’ off players 2, 3 meters away from an opponent.

A lot needs to happen and change this week for a tough game against Adelaide. Get out there on Sunday and support your boys even when it is tough.

As we lead up to the Thirteenth Star…………

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Once again the fans were waiting all week for the Demons to pull appart a struggling Brisbane side. But when the boys get a booing off from there own supporters at quarter time, there had to be something wrong. At the end of the first quarter we had only kicked 1.1 (Both scores to Liam Jurrah) 7, To a massive 5.2 – 32. Why? The lions ran harder, were accurate with there skills, Running harder, basically overall better. The boys would get the first goal, looking good then they would just drop off. We’d have constant players putting in 100% Beamer (Who’s now in a bit of trouble), Gysberts, Bail, Frawley and possibly others, but 4 or 5 players putting in 100% isn’t enough, thats why it’s called a team sport. I hate to point the finger, but that was the worst game I have seen Brad Green play. His skills were very shakey, he wasn’t running he almost looked a bit tired, but knowing Greeny he will take it and bounce back and lead the boys up to the Gold Coast to play the Suns. After chatting to Cam Schwab, I found out that Brad Green HAS to lead on angles because he is not fast enough, which in this match we needed people running fast leading towards the ball. In the future I think he should be put deep into the Goal square and move Jurrah up into a running, directly leading forward. Aussie was good on return, at the start he looked a bit shakey and uncertin. Did fairly well kicked 1.3 and will need to work this week to improve.  The umpiring was the worst I have seen. Just so inconsistent all over the board, It makes the footy painful to watch in any game.

There was one champion, One who lead the win. The freakish Liam Jurrah. 5 goals, just what we needed to lift the boys to get the win. Why we love Jurrah…. In the end, we got the 4 points and we expect a much better performance against Gold Coast next week.

Then we wake up this morning to hearing that one of our gun Vice Captains has been caught Intoxicated with alcohol at 2.30 AM in a St. Kilda nightclub and allegedly urinated on the bar. Un-acceptable behavior from a Vice- Captain who’s supposed to be a leader of a young group. He had a great game with 36 Disposals and arguably Best-on-Ground. If his version of celebrating  a win is getting drunk and staying up to 3.30am, Something needs to change and change NOW! It’s not a great culture to have in any footy club AFL or Local. For the punishment he will be given and the likely suspension, he will be sorely missed. Brent needs to improve his off field behavior imidiently because that behaviuor is not acceptable anywhere, anytime.

As we lead up to the Thirteenth Star……

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It was a game that all supporters were egarly looking forward to, high expectations for the boys to preform against a Hawthorn side that was coming off a embarrassing loss. Up Intill Quarter time the boys did fairly well, Our defence was tested but the likes of Jack Grimes, James Frawley, Colin Carland and Luke Tapscott kept it a solid defence. The second qauter the boys unloaded, 6 goals. 6 great, well set up goals that the boys run their buts off, tackled hard and the skills were perfect. The boys were looking like they had buried the Hawks. Then came the 3rd Term……

Main points that I took from the game

• RUNNING – From the end of the second quarter onwards, the boys looked tired, not wanting to run. Then when they came out for the final half, It was if it wasn’t up to them to run and contest to get the ball to try and bring the lead back in, The work rate had dropped from 99% to 2%, Melbourne are a running team and will penetrate teams by quickly getting rid of the ball and running it up the center.
• Over-using the Handball – In a number of citations the handball was used too many times in an attempt to run the ball out of the congested area. This can only work if the skills are pin-point, directly in front or to there teammate. We can work the handball terrifically sometimes, but that ‘sometimes’ needs to turn into ‘all the time!’
• Liam Jurrah – Ever since Liam took mark of the year he has been trying to take hangers every single games, the young man needs to pace himself, look after his body because if he injures himself (which he nearly did last week), it would be a terrible loss for the Demons. Don’t get me wrong, LJ is a superstar and a very important asset to the club, but he just needs to pace himself!
• Acurate Kicking – In the last half one of the main thing that killed us was the in accurate kicking! Some absolute clangers (53 overall to be exact), Kick outs when we needed to clear the ball out of our 50, the player had no choice but to go to the boundary line and because the kicking wasn’t 100% accurate the ball would sail out-on-the-full.
• Leadership – In all respect to Brad Green and our leadership group, The leadership in the second half was (I’ll be honest), in my point of view pathetic. I am in full praise of the leadership group and think they’re great for the job, but the leadership of the boys when their heads were down and they needed to come out firing didn’t really happen and this is something they will learn over the course of the year and will be fantastic leaders.
• Dean Bailey’s Zone – Again I think Dean Bailey is a fantastic coach, but the zone was easily penetrated especially in our defence, opposition players would mark the ball un-contested in their attacking forward line as 2 Demon players would run into the player 5 seconds after the mark was taken looking at each other trying to figure out what happened. At times it was like just play man on man footy! The boys need to sort that out quick and master it ASAP to have a really strong defence.
• Finaly Chosing the right option to pass the ball of to – just as the boys develop they will get better at this, just making the right decision of who to pass it to i.e. Do I handball to the skipper who has two players near him or to the Rookie with a taller player close-by up ahead.

This is what costed us and the boys should bounce back and give it straight back to the supporters and win the next 3 matches against the Lions, Suns and Egales. On a positive note the boys tightened the wings, not leting the oppisition easily kicking it out on to the wing getting an un-contested mark with the Demon running close by. Luke Tapscott is looking even more good every time you see him play (So if you do Supercoach/Dream Team, get him now while he’s cheap)!

The Demons are a developing team and there will be lots more ups and downs in the future. So stick by the boys, support them in every way and Let your Demon Out. Even when it’s tough and we’re 50 points down with 10 minutes to go, stay at the match! Support the boys, because they need it more than ever! It will make the Thirteenth Star in 2 or 3 years a whole lot more sweeter.

As we lead up to the Thirteenth Star……

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It was a sunny afternoon at the MCG, the home of our great game and of our great club the Melbourne Football Club. Yet did the 33,000 plus fans that were eagerly waiting for the opening bounce of the 2011 Season, that they would face another nail bitting finish. If we go back 6 or so months ago, we find our selves with the young Melbourne team running all over the partially dominate Sydney side. The Demons trampled the Swans with future captain Brad Green kicking 5 goals and overall winning by 61 points. At this point the Demons were in their ‘prime’ of the season continuing on to beat Brisbane and Richmond in the next 2 rounds. But obviously the Swans were hungry, seeking revenge from that embarrassing loss all those months before. With a new coach and style of play, the Swans were going to throw there all at the young Demons.

The moment had arrived when the ball was bounced and footy was back for all Demon fans. From that moment on it was an all in battle for the Dees lead by Brent Moloney picking up 27 disposals (and most importantly 129 Supercoach points). In the first half of the game the boys struggled getting the ball out of the middle after a bounce Mark Jamar would tap it down and it was almost as the swans players knew exactly were the ball was going and when we did get it 90% of the time we were forced out onto the wings of the ‘G. From my point of view the main thing that was killing us, was that we were letting the opposition receive and run the ball out wide of the ground and this is what cost us the most.

The swans lead with intensity whiles the Demon players let the lead off them into these areas all the way down the field even in there forward line. Colin Garland was struggling against a strong experienced player of Adam Goodes with him kicking 2 easy goals. The return of James Frawley in Round 2 will be vital with him most likely playing on ‘Buddy’. It took 3 quarters until Jared Rivers realised he had a fist. But we found a champion, a super

star in the making. Luke Tapscott. Picking up 19 Disposals, 16 Kicks, great running, and strong bumps. This kid is the future of the Dees! Wait 2 or 3 years he is captaincy material along with Grimes, Frawley and Tapscott. The backline will look great. Tapscott, Rivers, Frawley, Grimes, Garland, Bartram. We have a bright future down back. So finally as that great goal came from Brad Green gave us the lead, intensity was up and that painful moment when Ryan O’keefe puts through that dire point it was another Draw.

As we lead up to the Thirteenth Star……

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