Find out what’s being said about the club in the major daily newspapers on Friday, July 1, 2011

Herald Sun

Sean Wight dies
By Staff writers

SEAN Wight, who starred for the Demons alongside fellow Irishman Jim Stynes in the '80s and '90s, has died of lung cancer. Wight, 47, died this morning at the Freemasons Hospital with family and friends by his side. AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou said Wight was one of the pioneers for Irish players in Australian football. “Even though he was Scottish-born, Sean was part of the 'Irish experiment’ initiated by Ron Barassi and Barry Richardson who brought a number of Gaelic footballers out from Ireland in the 1980s," Mr Demetriou said. "He quickly adapted to our game with his tremendous athleticism and leap making him a favorite among Melbourne fans. “On behalf of the AFL, I want to pass on my condolences to Sean’s family and all his friends and former teammates at the Melbourne Football Club during this difficult time."

Watts starting to shrug off No.1 burden
By Matt Windley

JACK Watts admits he is burdened by critics questioning his worthiness as No.1 draft pick. Ever since being taken by Melbourne with the No.1 pick in the 2008 draft Watts has been the subject of near-constant debate as to whether Melbourne would have been better served selecting someone else. Asked if the criticism had taken its toll, Watts said, "Definitely". He explained: "When people are having shots at you all the time it weighs on you, but as I've always said it's going to be there for my whole career and I can't do anything about it. "I've just got to deal with it as best as I can and probably the way to do that is get out there and play good footy and win games. "Obviously I didn't have the impact that a lot of high draft picks have had in their early days. "I was 17. Given that I was drafted when I was still at school, I think the guys within the club understood that it was going to take me a bit of time."

McKenzie is a mighty weapon
By Mike Sheahan

WHEN outsiders looked for reasons why Melbourne was performing so poorly in the first six rounds, the same names kept coming up. James Frawley, Tom Scully and Cale Morton were the prime candidates. Frawley went into the season seriously underdone after surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle, Scully was missing with a long-term knee problem and Morton was recovering from finger surgery. Insiders, though, knew there was a fourth significant absentee early on, the pit bull terrier with the permanent smile, Jordie McKenzie. He is a delightful young man, McKenzie, but not when he's playing footy and the ball is in dispute. He led Melbourne's tackle count last year with 128 at an average of 6.7, fifth in the competition. It's more of the same in his six games back this year, averaging six a week.

Dees debutant has done it the hard way
By Sam Edmund

HE has endured more than his share of bad luck, but Melbourne midfielder Sam Blease finally will make his AFL debut tonight. Blease was drafted by the Demons with pick No.17 in the 2008 draft, but only five months into his AFL career disaster struck. "I was just at school mucking around at lunchtime as you do as a Year 12 kid and we were having a kick of the footy. A mate of mine tackled me and my leg just got jammed and snapped unfortunately," Blease said. Ten days in hospital and three operations followed to repair an injury Blease thought may have stopped him before he had started. "I think there was probably a point where I thought it (an AFL debut) might not happen. But I found a bit of form this year and it may have happened a bit sooner than I would have thought," he said.

Poach fear comes true
By Jon Ralph

MELBOURNE midfielder Tom Scully would be off limits to Greater Western Sydney if a proposal from clubs had been approved. The committee of AFL club chiefs that rubber-stamped the list allowances for expansion clubs was worried second-year players had no protection from new clubs. But while clubs were keen to sign at least one new contract after the initial two-year deal with their draftees, the AFL instead allowed GWS and Gold Coast total access. A key member of that list management committee was Melbourne chief executive Cameron Schwab, now in a battle to keep 20-year-old Scully. Clubs were worried they had no way to rival huge offers for their young stars, but the rights of the expansion sides won the day. Scully signed the mandatory fixed two-year deal, like all AFL draftees, then, like Richmond's Dustin Martin before him, was being thrown huge cash in his first year of football.

Punters throw cash at Melbourne
By Nick Quinn

FOLLOWING an incredible form reversal, punters can't get enough of Melbourne. "They have won three of their past four games and their only loss was to Collingwood, so punters are now getting behind them in a big way," TAB Sportsbet's Gary Davies said. The Dees have been the best-backed team of the round, to beat the Western Bulldogs tonight, with bets of $15,000 and $10,000 trimming their price from $1.85 in to $1.80 with the Bulldogs friendless and drifting to $1.95 from $1.90. "A win will really boost their top-eight chances. They are $1.45 to play finals footy but were $3 after a Round 6 thumping to West Coast," Davies said.

Dees need more inside players
By Matt Windley

MELBOURNE forward Jack Watts admits the Demons must adapt their style of play if they are to break a 10-match losing streak at Etihad Stadium tomorrow night. The Dees have not won at the ground since 2007, but face the Western Bulldogs there tomorrow night searching for their third win in three weeks. Watts said this morning the team's style of play was probably more suited to the MCG. "It's a pretty dangerous kick kicking it inside (the corridor), which is how we sort of want to play a lot of the time and teams are right on to us at Etihad Stadium,'' Watts said.

The Age

Demons mourn a favourite adopted son
By Linda Pearce

SEAN Wight was sitting with his old teammate David Schwarz at the Melbourne AGM, discussing the unfairness of their friend Jim Stynes's life-threatening illness. Within weeks, Wight - a non-smoker - would be diagnosed with lung cancer. Yesterday, less than five months later, the Scottish-born pioneer of Melbourne's ''Irish experiment'' died. He was 47. ''It's unbelievable. It's just happened so quickly'' said Schwarz. ''It's a shock for everybody, considering Jim's been crook for a long time and Jim's still here to talk to us about Sean.'' Stynes was one of those eulogising on a day that was particularly poignant for a Demon president whose own mortality remains gravely threatened. Two years younger than Wight, the dashing athlete and former club director who was limited by injury to 150 games from 1985 to 1995, Stynes remembered an outrageously talented all-rounder who could have played any number of sports professionally but ended up blazing a VFL/AFL path for others to follow. ''For anyone that's had cancer, he's done it the hard way, there's no doubt about it,'' Stynes said. ''It's like some of the jobs he had to do on the football field. He never got the easy ones, he always got the toughest, and he took 'em all on with huge courage and bravery and with a smile and he never complained. He absolutely gave everything, and I would say without a doubt he was the most courageous player I played with, and gifted.'' Wight struggled with the heat (especially during pre-seasons) and the cold (perversely, considering his Glaswegian origins). He constantly fought his injury-prone body, and weak knees. In an era of champion forwards like Lockett, Dunstall, Ablett, he often conceded height and weight, but never determination. ''He was an extraordinary footy player,'' says Garry Lyon, who likes to describe the 1987 All-Australian as ''one of the few that could go with Ablett''.

Demons Watts just wants to play good footy
By Matt Murnane

IN the space of three weeks, Melbourne forward Jack Watts has gone from being one of the AFL's most criticised players to, by his own estimation, one of the most over-praised. Such is the life of a No. 1 draft pick trying to establish himself in the fickle AFL landscape, saddled with the enormous expectation that tag brings. After a quiet start, Watts's season has built towards a two-week purple patch that produced six goals, 43 disposals and 10 marks in the Demons' wins against Fremantle and Richmond. That, in addition to a solid performance in the Queen's Birthday game against Collingwood, has given his supporters anxious to say ''I told you so'' the first real chance to comfortably do so. Watts said he felt the praise his recent form spike had received was over the top. ''I probably do think that and that's where I've got to keep a level head,'' he said.

How do you break a hoodoo? Use pressure
By Jon Pierik, Peter Hanlon

AS finals emerge as a legitimate aspiration, Melbourne believes it finally has solved the riddle of Etihad Stadium and can snap a 10-game losing streak at the venue tonight when it faces the Western Bulldogs. The Demons have realised their determination to regularly play through the centre corridor has become an issue because, if the ball is turned over, opponents can swoop and score quickly. They now understand how important a frontal zone is and the need to lock the ball inside their attacking 50. The Demons know they must apply the same pressure as they did at the MCG against Richmond last weekend when they laid a record 35 forward-50 tackles. That beat the previous record of 34, set by Geelong against Brisbane Lions in round 12, 2007 - the year the Cats went on to win the flag. The Magpies completed 33 tackles inside their attacking 50 in round 12, 2010. They too would emerge as premiers. Demons forward Colin Sylvia said forward pressure would be particularly crucial at Etihad Stadium as it was a smaller ground than the MCG. Etihad has almost the same length as the MCG but is 12.2 metres skinnier. ''I think the style we played [against Richmond] will suit us,'' Sylvia said.

Bolter from the Blues
By Martin Blake

THE season 2010 was the year of the late bloomer, starring Fremantle's Michael Barlow and Geelong's James Podsiadly, mature-aged players who had been overlooked by 'the system', yet who thrived upon finally winning an opportunity. Enter 2011 and Melbourne's Dan Nicholson, who to be fair, has not yet reached the levels of output Podsiadly and Barlow found. But Nicholson, who has played the past four games off half-back, certainly was plucked from outside the usual system. More than once, as it turns out. In 2009 and 2010, Nicholson, 20, was playing with University Blues, having been overlooked at the draft when he was at St Patrick's College, the Ballarat footballing factory. He showed himself to be quick, yet something was missing in the recruiters' eyes. It's not clear precisely what. But what is not widely known is Uni Blues found him almost by accident. It was orientation week, 2009, and Nicholson was about to start his degree having moved to the city from his home town Derrinallum, in the western district, a farming community that also produced the former Richmond premiership half-forward and longtime coach John Northey, and Gerard FitzGerald, multiple VFL premiership coach. University's two main teams, the Blacks and Blues, were sharing the ground for pre-season training. As it happened, one of the Blues' senior players, David Brady, knew Nicholson and saw him watching the session from a park bench. The Blues' coach, John Kanis, recalled the moment. ''He [Brady] said: 'What are you doing?' Nico smiled and said: 'Just lookin' '. David said: 'Come with me'. He [Nicholson] trained that night.''