Will be going to the Aus Open January 2010…

Thanks for reading!

- Lesley

A bitter night at ‘the Graveyard’, Storm needed to prove they can be quick out of the blocks and tough to beat.

At half time the score was 4-0, not a big start on paper…however the Storm boys were doing the grind of wearing the Sharks out. The final score was a big change, 30-10!!

5 tries for the Storm in the second half turned the game from a close game to an easy win.

The refs were both newbies in the 2009 season and made some stupid disappointing decisions all throughout the game and went to the video ref for most tries.

A big performance by Sika Manu didn’t go un-noticed, getting best on ground from me, and Billy Slater could probably do with a week’s rest.

New favourite Dane Nielsen also continued to impress.

Port Power were on the back foot for most of the afternoon until the last quarter where they got within 7 points of the Dees, a scare that had all of us fans worrying that their 3rd season win was going to be snatched away.

The Jurrahcane (Liam Jurrah) was on fire taking two amazing high flying grabs, & kicked a bag of goals, proving he’s the new excitement machine of the Demons.

Ricky Pettard had a dominant performance again, kicking 4 goals and having a hand in many other scoring plays.

I don’t have much to say about the Power, they didn’t do much that impressed me during the game.

The umpiring was shocking at times, notably 2 obvious ball calls were missed, which was so frustrating and the entire crowd booed the poor decisions. When will the umpires learn the rules correctly!

Aaron Davey was tagged heavily throughout the game, but still had an impact.

At the end of the game, the Dees boys came to the fans to thank us and I even scored a high five from Cameron Bruce!

It’s going to be a MASSIVE day. At 2pm the Melbourne Demons kick off against the West Coast Eagles at the MCG. The Melbourne Storm are playing at Olympic Park at 7pm. I’m doing the double.

In between the two big games, I’m getting out of Melbourne’s Sporting precinct for an hour to go Celebrate Independence Day at TGI Friday’s in South Yarra! Burgers, Fries, Soda…typical American stuff. Can’t wait!

As for the Demons, I think they will snatch their 2nd win of the season from the Eagles. They have said they will come fighting since the news broke today that the great El Presidente of the club will be backing off from his busy schedule to focus on battling and beating his cancer.Jim Stynes will be in everyone’s hearts and minds during the game - and I think the boys will knuckle down and kick some ass.

The Storm need a win to remain a threat to the top three teams in the NRL. Last week’s messy performance saw them play not even a full half of football the way they normally would, and almost beat the Canberra Raiders.

This week, at home, Storm will put on their usual show and annihilate the Newcastle Knights who are sitting pretty in 5th position on the ladder. Storm are placed 4th, so it should be a tight-tussle for the three point [from a win result].

My bet is that both my teams, on the double trouble day, can come through for me!

Go Dees and Storm!!

Me and Brad Miller

The Queens Birthday Clash with the Pies is a huge tradition, and a game all Melbourne fans look forward to each year. We know that on the day, no matter which team is doing better in the football season that year, it is any teams’ game.

However, the 2009 Queen’s Birthday was Collingwood’s from about 15 minutes into the first half.

The first 15 minutes of the game saw a competitive brand of football, with both teams looking fairly even, and just one goal to the Pies. But with 15 minutes down, the Pies ran over the Demons and scored 6 goals to nil, leaving the score at the end of the quarter at Pies 46pts to the Demons’ 4pts.

Jack Watts, the young 18 year old recruit, was able to get out onto the ‘G’ for his first game during the first half. As he ran on, there was an almighty cheer, and the ball went directly over to him. He was pounced on by three Pies’ players and won a free kick for in the back. Later in the quarter Watts’ had a shot on goal, and missed.

The Demons seemed revived after the first break, scoring 5 goals in the 2nd quarter to the Pies’ 3 goals. I was hopeful that the Demons could continue working at that rate, to catch the Pies and win the big game.

The last half of the game saw Collingwood boot a further 9 goals to their tally, whilst the Demons mustered a further 3 goals. Demons 0.4, 5.6, 6.9, 8.12 (60) to Pies 7.4, 10.7, 16.11, 19.12 (126). The Pies won by 66 points, which gave them a big boost to their percentage, whilst the Demons went home with more than a few problems to look at, the top of the list could be a number of things from intensity at the ball,  to trust in team mates, or perhaps poor decision making.

The last half was played in a down poor that didn’t stop. We sat in our ponchos and froze, with no goals to cheer it made for a very bitter end to the game.

After the game, we went over the the Aftermatch function, as we do every year. Usually we see hundreds and hundreds of loyal Demons fans show up, however only a couple hundred came over to drown their sorrows.

The Demons players came over to the rooms and apologized for their terrible performance, and promised to do better for the fans. We’ll see!

I did get to meet a few players and get my photo with them. Even though my boys are not winning very many games, I love them anyway, and someday soon the Demons will come out of the slump, and be a great team.

My Brownlow votes: Dick, Lockyer, Anthony.

Storm and Broncos were both backing up after the State of Origin, however Broncos were without their leader Lockyer.

Storms leading point scorer in the big victory was young gun Jospeh Tomane, who not only got over for three of his own tries, but was the goal kicker on the night, kicking 5 of his conversions through the posts, giving him a total of 24 points of the 48 scored by the Storm.

Storm led into the break 20-0, and continued the onslaught in the 2nd half, not letting up except for when the Broncos finally put a score on the board in the 67th minute when ex-Storm player Israel Folau crossed over for 4 points.

Storms try scorers were Tomane, Cooper Cronk got two tries, and Greg Inglis, Billy Slater, Will Chambers and Aiden Tolman.

The ground before the Maroons ran out

Storm carried Queensland Maroons, again, to another State Of Origin win over the New South Wales Blues last night at Etihad Stadium in front of one of the biggest crowds ES has seen in recent years!

SOA began with a bang, fireworks and Evermore performed a few of their hits, including ‘Running’.

Just moments into the game, the Blues found themselves given 6 more just 20 metres out from their try line, but opted to go for a penalty kick. This set the game at 2-0 to the Blues.

Blues’ Hayne almost put NSW further in front when it looked like he sprinted down the edge of the field and got past Slater for a try…but after Harrigan’s minutes of watching the video replay, decided Hayne stepped out of play and the try was disallowed - phew!

New South’s lead was short-lived, with Blues players probably kicking themselves for their poor choice earlier, as the Maroons scored three quick tries in around 10  minutes, leading 18-2! Billy Slater scored a superb try diving over the ball and just getting it down in time before the ball rolled out of play.

Shortly after the half-time break, the Maroons scored another try, sending the end result into little doubt. However, it was the 2nd half which saw the Blues come alive.  All of the Blues’ tries looked a bit too easy when they pulled them off. It was a case of bad defending by the Maroons, from what I thought.

Greg Inglis scored a try in each half, his first - pushed past three defenders to the try line, the second - a 70m sprint breaking the line care of a well-placed Thurston kick.

I thought Thurston’s efforts last night weren’t very good. I think he’s over-rated and sometimes looks like he doesn’t know what to do with the ball. Perhaps it was just from not being used to playing with the Maroons boys.

Craig Wing scored for the Blues after the ball bounced off of above mentioned Thurston. Which I was happy about because, which female doesn’t love Ceo’s once Bachelor of the Year Craig Wing?

Captain of the Blues Kurt Gidley made a few critical blunders which weren’t helpful to the Blues’ chances at staging a come-from-behind-win. Darius Boyd finished off the Blues with his corner try with only a few minutes left to seal the deal for Qld.

The finishing score was: 28-18.

Storm scored 3 tries for the night - 12 points.

The next two State of Origin clashes are later this year. Lets hope its a clean sweep for the experienced Queenslanders.

Pies running through the banner

The Pies went into the game as underdogs, as they were missing important players  John Anthony, Alan Didak,  Paul Medhurst, and Leon Davis. And sure enough, those outs were enough to render the Pies useless in front of goal.

The first quarter was reasonably equal in terms of skills and possession time. The end result of the opening 20 minutes was 1.4.10 to 3.3.21, the Saints leading.

However, St Kilda dominated the last 3 quarters to beat the Pies by 88 points. The final score being 20.8.128 to 5.10.40.

St Kilda dominated the play during the remaining 3 quarters, out-classing the Pies easily, with the Pies being made to look like headless chooks! Pies players continued to handball to team mates in worse positions that themselves, resulting in turnovers.

When the Saints would have the ball, it was a quick few kicks or handballs down to their 50, and put away the goals with 5 going to Schneider and 4 going to Stevie Milne, who also scored all three goals for St Kilda in their opening quarter. Nick Riewoldt was powerful on field during the entire game, stamping his leadership with some great possessions and a bag of 5 goals.

Collingwood’s evening at the dome consisted of just 5 goals, coming from Wellingham, Lockyer, Pendlebury, and Rocca, who was particularly bad, missing many shots on goal.

All in all, the game was a frustrating one. I never thought I’d be cheering for the Magpies (as I generally have a bad taste for them…particularly since the demons’ father bashing), but I was hopeful that they would be able to string a few passes together and get themselves a few more goals. Unfortunately they were unable to see what I could see from my seat and constantly did the wrong thing.

Not only that, but, all of their players would run right next to eachother, resulting in NO space made to get the ball downfield.

I went to this game because my cousin Rachael is in town (from England) and the Demons had an away game this week. Just to clarify this for my readers, as I generally will not be going to any further Saints or Collingwood games for the rest of my life, unless it is ofcourse, when they lose to the Demons at the MCG (c’mon 2014!)

My brownlow votes: Riewoldt, Del Santo, Montagna.

Russell Robertson kicked 3 goals 2 behinds

Geelong outdid the Demons in their clash at the MCG on May 3rd by 43 points, which takes the Cats to six successive wins in the 2009 season; an unbeaten record.

Geelong came into the game as certain favourites, with anything from $1.00 to $1.03 for the win, with the Demons at $13.00. However, Melbourne took it to the Cats in the first quarter, being ahead at one stage, and also won the last quarter of the game.

The Cats has a shoddy start to the match, with careless kicks at goal ending the first quarter 3.3.21 to Melbourne 2.4.16. Had the Demons had better kicking, they could have been leading the Cats into the second quarter.

The visitors set up for a win in the second half, kicking 6 goals to Melbourne’s 2. Melbourne only managed two goals due to their lack of skill refinement which saw them punished by the highly-skilled Geelong team. Geelong almost looked at half-speed for the majority of the match, and got the ball down to their 50 far too easily.

Demons’ Russell Robertson showed good form for his first game back since he injured himself early last season, whilst both Davey and Cale Morton showed strength for Melbourne in the midfield. Some other promise coming out of the loss to the Cats for Melbourne was the performance of other youngsters, Bartram and Frawley.

Russel Robertson kicked 2 of his 3 goals in the 3rd quarter, helping the Demons to diminish the deficit, and more luck for the Demons eventuated as Geelong’s players were missing shots on goal. If these shots had been better kicked, the score line may have been embarrassing for the Demons.

Casualities from the game were Gary Ablett Junior, and Meeson of Melbourne.

My Brownlow votes: Morton, Johnson, Chappy.

There wasn’t much to cheer about at the MCG on Sunday April 26. The Adelaide Crows and the Melbourne Demons played a game with a combined effort of 11 goals for the entire game.

The first quarter saw just 2 goals and 4 points scored by the Crows, however this was a much better effort than the Demons who only mustered 1 behind.

The second quarter was not much better, with the Demons failing to score a goal, again, with missed opportunities through set shots. Going into the big break, it was Melbourne 4 points, to Adelaides 4 goals, 6 behinds.

The second half saw a change in Melbourne, who won both quarters. The Demons began fighting more for the ball, and kicking more. Once they got their first goal on the board, the boys were pumped up and looking for another. Unfortunately they could only seem to get the football through for behinds.

Not to mention, Juice Newton missed a sitter. After a mark right on the goal line, Juice had a chance to kick from a couple metres out to get the Demons another 6 pointer, however, he took a long run up, and kicked the ball on the side of his foot and missed! How do you miss from there?! This shambles dropped the other Demon players spirits and the scoreline going into the final stanza was 1.6.12, to 5.7.37.

The Demons came out firing, scoring 3 goals in no time at all, and the Demons fans were on their feet. Adelaide were looking like they were going to get rolled. With another few missed attempts on goal, the Demons put away their chances of winning, and Adelaide scored a couple of their own quick 6 pointers to shut the game down.

The final score was Adelaide  7.9 (51) to Melbourne 4.10 (34).

Adelaide’s win could be overshadowed by the fact they only won by 17 points. Or the fact that the Demons looked the better side in the last quarter.

The Demons’ handball game was atrocious, and as a member, I was embarrassed at half time. As seen in the last quarter, the Demons can play reasonable, and exciting football. All of the Melbourne fans were excited and really into the game, hoping that maybe their boys would pull off the win.

It wasn’t the case, but it shows that they are not far from putting a full game together.

As for Adelaide, they shouldn’t get too excited about winning the game and have a lot of work to do.