Wednesday 21 September 2005

Bye!

With Carlton and Collingwood having the first few picks of the Pre-Season Draft we're not going to get anything for him, but is the Yze era over? More afterwards,

TALKS on a new contract for Melbourne's Adem Yze have broken down with the vice-captain likely to be searching for a new club for next year.

If negotiations can't be resolved on a new three-year deal to stay at Melbourne it is likely the out-of-contract Demon could be traded to another club, or even nominate for the pre-season draft and be lost to Melbourne for nothing.

Talks faltered after the club withdrew a mid-season agreement of a new three-year deal worth more than a million dollars and made a post-season offer on vastly reduced terms.

It is understood Yze's management had a new three-year agreement on the table but, when Melbourne fell into its seven-game losing streak, the club's board intervened and froze all contract negotiations until the end of season. At season's end, when contract talks resumed, the terms of the offer had changed, infuriating Yze and his management.

The midfielder, who turns 28 today, would be 30 in the third year of a new contract.


I know he's been playing crippled, I know he turned it on and wrecked a couple of rubbish sides during the year, and I know he's got a couple of years left in him but I don't find myself particuarly devestated upon reading this news. If we got a top 10 pick in the draft for him I'd be overjoyed - it's about time we made a statement to our playing list that we're not going to pay ridiculous amounts of money for players to run around, get cheap kicks and do a grand total of 0 hard things for the game. If somebody else is willing to pay him a fortune then good for them.

And thankfully the fact that he's out of contract should stop any of this idiotic membership burning, rioting against Daniher, whinging like little girls that went on after the Woewodin trade. Despite what everyone had to say, and the river of tears that flowed from people who had never had any more involvement in football than scratching their balls in the Southern Stand for 22 weeks a year, the football department were proved right on that one. I trust them to know when a player is on the way out.

If he wants to stay then good for him. I would have questioned this move six months ago, but if my final memory of him in a Melbourne jumper is going to be turning the ball over against Essendon and then just turning around and jogging off while it's bouncing around the turf five metres away from him then so be it. The least players can do is wait until we've won something to start demanding a huge wedge of cash. I'd rather flog off all our "superstars" and rebuild then pay the top 5 an absolute fortune for doing fuck all.

Wednesday 14 September 2005

Wild Speculation Corner

We're still alive! Even if the season is over and nobody is reading this site anymore. When you log back on in November tell me whether this happened or not,

Carlton is believed to have sounded out Melbourne regarding its interest in Fevola, but the Blues received a lukewarm response.

However, the Demons have declared they would love the prized signature of Fevola's teammate Lance Whitnall.

The 26-year-old is unhappy with a new contract offer on the table at Optus Oval worth about $300,000 a season.

Whitnall's manager Ricky Nixon said yesterday the offer wasn't satisfactory and that West Coast, Melbourne and one other club involved in the finals had shown serious interest.

Demons recruiting manager Craig Cameron said last night the club was ready to pounce if Whitnall walked out on the Blues.

"We are certainly very interested and we'd be a better team with him in it," Cameron said.

"He has a great football brain and if he falls out with Carlton we are here."


Good thing they didn't persist with the Fevola angle. That would be the only thing worse than throwing a fortune at the poor man's Russell Robertson that is Chris Tarrant. I know we need a replacement for Neitz in the next couple of years but an overpayed clown with pineapple hair and a bad attitude is not the person.

The Big Fat Ugly Kid - on the other hand - I will take with open arms. Again provided he's not being paid too much.

Monday 5 September 2005

Thank god for that

Well we lost, a little more viciously than predicted but when shaky (at best) form comes together with a black death style plague of injuries on the day you're rooted. You'll have to go somewhere else for wild analysis, I was huddled next to a radio listening to the season collapse while Sam Newman made a dick of himself and reminded me exactly why I hate listening to football. There was at least one world class "call the lawyers" exchange between Newman and Brian Taylor after a controversial umpiring call,

Newman: THIS IS THE MOST CORRUPT BODY IN WORLD SPORTS!
Taylor: Erm, of course he's talking about Triple M football!

Then he just walked off during quarter time and didn't come back. Wouldn't you love to get paid for doing that? Most overrated media "personality" in Australia bar none. No idea if he came back, when we were getting smacked at 1/2 time I pulled the pin, concentrated on work and switched to watching us go rapidly backwards via the AFL.com.au coverage.

Votes
I just shamelessly pinched votes from all over the place, put them together and came up with the following,

5 - Brent Moloney
4 - Russell Robertson
3 - Nathan Carroll
2 - Nathan Brown
1 - Ryan Ferguson

Demonblog.com Player of the Year FINAL VOTES

38 - Travis Johnstone
37 - Russell Robertson
26 - Brent Moloney
23 - Brad Green
18 - Adem Yze
17 - Cameron Bruce
12 - Jeff White
10 - Colin Sylvia, Nathan Carroll, Nathan Brown, Ryan Ferguson
9 - Brock McLean, Aaron Davey
6 - Clint Bizzell, Shannon Motlop
5 - Jared Rivers, David Neitz, Daniel Bell
4 - Alistair Nicholson, Daniel Ward, Phil Read
3 - James McDonald, Brad Miller, Paul Wheatley
2 - Matthew Whelan, Guy Rigoni
1 - Ben Holland

Congratulations Travis on winning the most prestigious prize in football journalism - The Demonblog.com Allen Jakovich Medal. Sadly the AFL nicked our medal and rebranded it the "Brownlow" and are going to give it to Ben Cousins instead so there's no prize. A big hand also to Russell Robertson for winning the "Judges Award" for the person we thought should win but couldn't quite rig the votes enough to get up, and Colin Sylvia for taking home the "Craig Smoker Rising Star" for 2005.

In the "tying up loose ends corner" congratulations to Mel who won our inaugural competition by sending in pictures of her posing with Duncan O'Toole (!) and BOTH Cockatoo-Collins brothers. Your prize is on the way.

Never fear, Demonblog is not finished for this year yet! It will comprehensively die in the arse at the start of next month as I skip the country to follow the third sexiest sporting team in the world, but until then we'll be firing out season in review features, great moments in history and wild trade speculation. Judd for Luke Williams? YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST. If you've anything to say on anything football related send it in and (as long as it conforms to our strict anti-defamation laws) we'll print it.

Friday 2 September 2005

Slop Saturday

I think the Kardinia Park scoreboard said it best a couple of weeks back,

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

We hardly deserve to be considered amongst the best sides in the nation, but what about a round of applause for whoever decided on putting half the league into the finals. We regain Bruce and Miller - who will apparently both play after passing fitness tests, and Neitz is almost certain to start and get his now customary ten minutes of game time before his body explodes.

And now the bombshell. I'm not going. As far as I'm concerned the season ended for me when we had to fall over the line against the slop Essendon outfit last week - that was final proof (as if the seven losses in a row wasn't enough) that we don't deserve to be there. If I had the day off work then I'd be there, despite my misgivings, but a rubbish final between two rubbish teams is not worth giving up a fat wad of money for. I've spent enough dollars on the side this season, including taking the worst holiday EVER to Queensland, so I've done enough. Maybe if we win and end up having to go to Sydney I'll pull the wallet out once again and make the trip but until then I will remain firmly unconvinced. Let's get started on '06 already and get it right this time.

For those of you who are going - i.e everyone but me - write a review and hand out the votes and I'll post them all.

The Demonblog.com "AWOL" verdict: Cats by 8

P.S - Any "oh but it's the finals! What sort of supporter are you! comments will be printed out and flushed down the toilet.