Notwithstanding gun Bomber recruit Brendon Goddard joining the Bombers’ leadership group almost immediately he arrived at Windy Hill, we couldn’t help noticing that free-agency/trade/draft period recruits Chris Dawes and Shannon Byrnes have joined the Demons’ leadership group. Further highlighting the move, we noticed that Mitch Clark, last year’s Demon saviour, also joined that group in his first season with the club.

Forget tanking. Who was the genius who decided to create an expansion club-like list for an established club? How can three blokes who wouldn’t have been automatic inclusions in the leadership groups at their previous clubs be walk-up starts in the Demons’ leadership group?

It doesn’t matter if the Demons tanked because they shot themselves in the foot while thinking they were aiming at the stars.

Does someone carry the can for this? Who chose a Cale Morton at pick 4 five years ago: the same Cale Morton traded away a few months ago in exchange for pick 88? Who invested so much faith in Tom Scully, but failed to read that he’d opt for a fat pay packet? Is there too much hope and not enough hard-headed decision making? Are expectations — say, of Jack Watts — unrealistic? Scully too was touted — not just by the Demons, admittedly — as something pretty special, but his performances thus far haven’t matched the hype.

Longer term, we have to wonder whether Melbourne Football Club ever recovered from the defection of Ron Barassi, the sacking of Norm Smith and the loss of status attendant with sharing their MCG stronghold with Richmond in the 60s?

Aside from the yo-yo years of the Neale Daniher reign, the club that was the powerhouse of the competition through the 50s and early 60s has delivered bugger all and it doesn’t look like improving on that any time soon.

The media preoccupation with Melbourne Football Club’s alleged ‘tanking’ is taking on all the hallmarks of a sadistic child pulling the wings and legs off a captured fly.

Enough!

The AFL is desperate to avoid a full-on confrontation with Melbourne Football Club over the Demons’ late-2009 impersonation of a football team. They’ve gone the tank!

That’s the only logical conclusion to draw from the AFL’s ultimatum that Cameron Schwab, Chris Connolly and Dean Bailey “show reason by the end of the month to interim AFL football operations manager Gillon McLachlan as to why they should not be charged.”

Adding to the impression, the AFL has provided the Melbourne Officials and former Melbourne coach with a hefty 800 pages of evidence.

Think about it. Normally, the policing authority gather evidence, charge the accused person and arraign them before a court where the evidence of their guilt is presented, the accused has right or reply and cross-examination and a judging authority decides their guilt or innocence.

This time though, the policing authority is providing the suspect with the evidence and asking for reasons not to proceed to charge and try them.

Is AussieRulesBlog the only footy fan who can recall a late-season game between Carlton and ???? which was widely regarded at the time as “the Bryce Gibbs Cup” since the losing team would get access to the prized number one draft pick. Finding the Melbourne three guilty would open a Pandora’s Box the AFL would rather remained firmly shut.

It’s not only politicians that indulge in spin. The Melbourne Football Club is spinning so furiously that they’ll be suffering from vertigo for the next ten years.

The Demons have unveiled a ‘cutting edge’ new guernsey (although the Herald-Sun bogans refer to it as a ‘jumper’).Club great David Neitz, never the most assured of media performers, has been corralled into doing a piece to camera and some voiceovers in a web presentation provided to members.

Neitz explains that the new guernsey design features a high collar as a reminder of past champions.  . . .  . . . WTF? Tom Scully is going to play like Ron Barassi because his guernsey now sports a dinky little Mandarin collar? Oh, for goodness sakes.

Darker shades of red and blue also, apparently, evoke memories of the club’s “true” heritage. In the last forty years there can be hardly any hues of red and blue that have not graced the Demons’ playing uniform at some point.

The red yoke now has a deeper V which is “more demonic” apparently, and [spin, spin, spin, spin, spin].

There’s no doubt this stuff goes down well with members.

AussieRulesBlog recently received a link to the Bombers’ “I’m One!” membership advertisement and we confidently expect to feature in it in the not too distant future. No doubt supporters of other clubs will see it as arrogant, crass, and so on. That’s understandable.

We recall a Melbourne Football Club CD released many years ago. The silky-voiced Christine Sullivan sang the club theme song in an extremely slow tempo as a background to all living MFC players (I think) reciting their name and games total. This section of the CD was played on radio at the time and we freely admit to a couple of crocodile tears while listening to it. VERY emotional stuff.

And that’s where the unveiling of the new Demons uniform plunges into spin, because it desperately tries to pull on emotional heartstrings, but it’s only about what the current lot will be wearing. It’s not about doing.