FIND out what’s being said about the club in the major daily newspapers on Thursday, August 4, 2011

Herald Sun

Jim Stynes told to focus on fight for life
By Mike Sheahan and Aaron Langmaid

AILING Demons president Jim Stynes was readmitted to hospital in a wheelchair yesterday as doctors urged him to quit his high-pressure job and focus on his fight for life.  Stynes, 45, faces another round of gruelling tests at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre for a tumour in his stomach. As Stynes cuts back his work at the Demons, former teammate Garry Lyon has responded to his friend's plea to help the ailing club. As more details emerge of ructions within the club, Lyon is today due to be named football director, given the task of rebuilding. Stynes' wife, Sam, called Lyon late yesterday to update him on her husband's health and to reissue an appeal for him to help repair the fractured club. Lyon told Mrs Stynes he would do whatever it took to fulfil his mate's wish. "Jim's like a brother to me," he told her.

Record sponsorship deal for Dees
By Jon Anderson

MELBOURNE Football Club is set to announce a massive sponsorship deal in a week in which its major partners are believed ready to walk. South Korean tyre company Hankook, whose name appears on the front of the Melbourne jumper, and Russian IT company Kaspersky, whose name appears on the back, came to the club's rescue two weeks before the 2009 season to the combined tune of about $1.5 million. Hankook's money comes from its Victorian distributor L.D.Wholesale Tyres, which is owned by Lawrie de la Rue. De la Rue said while he had the utmost respect for Melbourne president Jim Stynes, he definitely wouldn't be renewing his sponsorship under the current administration. De la Rue became joint major sponsor in 2009 with a three-year deal estimated at $2.1 million, or $700,000 a year. Two weeks later Kaspersky Lab came on board with a similar financial arrangement.

The Age

Harvey confused over Bailey axing
By AAP

Fremantle coach Mark Harvey believes there was little sense in Melbourne's sacking of Dean Bailey, claiming the former Demons coach should have been allowed to see out his AFL contract. Bailey was fired on Sunday, effective immediately, following Melbourne's embarrassing 186-point defeat to Geelong last week. Harvey, who played alongside Bailey during their time at Essendon, said the practice of axing a coach mid-season made no sense to him, especially if that team was still in the finals hunt. The Demons currently sit 11th on the table - six points adrift of eighth-placed Fremantle with five rounds remaining. "I'm not sure what that's going to do for the short-term, if you call it a remedy," Harvey said when asked about Bailey's sacking.

The Australian

What’s new at the Melbourne zoo?
By Patrick Smith

THIS week has rattled all of us more than a little. Everybody was uncomfortable seeing Melbourne president Jim Stynes front the media to announce the decision to sack Dean Bailey. Stynes is very ill. No doubt he would have wanted to do that because he felt responsible because of his role and status at the club. It did, though, raise the question whether no one at the club was able to talk him out of such a stressful hour. Leadership at Melbourne appears ankle deep and no more. The reason why no one intervened on Stynes's behalf is just one question that needs answering in a week where standards and ethics of both a football club and the AFL itself demand forensic inspection. We'll start with Melbourne chief executive Cameron Schwab. On Saturday, Schwab, a veteran of club administration and politics, was out of a job. The Melbourne board had listened to the club's senior players and agreed with them that Schwab had far too much to say in running the club's football department.

Carlton coach Brett Ratten braces for Demons backlash
By Courtney Walsh

TODD Viney, reflecting on the carnage that resulted in his debut as Melbourne coach, noted on Tuesday that his head was spinning at the unlikelihood of it all. The man plotting to cruel his opening, Carlton coach Brett Ratten, can attest that Viney's brain will not be the only thing turning when the ball is thumped into the MCG turf at 2.10pm on Saturday. It is a little more than four years since Ratten found himself in a similar caretaker position when a 117-point thrashing from Brisbane led to the sacking of Denis Pagan. Nothing, Ratten warned yesterday, can prepare you for the hastening of time that comes with the senior role. "How are you going to handle it? What are the things you are going to put in place?" he said. "There is no doubt that in that first six weeks -- I always think the quarter-time and half-time breaks go pretty quick anyway, even for a senior coach -- but when I got down there, I just noticed that the first two breaks . . . just sped up a lot quicker for you as a senior coach than as a line coach."