Cale Morton gives an insight into the five Demons who are undertaking some fine dining around Melbourne
JACK Watts, Jack Trengove, Max Gawn, Luke Tapscott and I make up a group of five that takes it in turn to organise and host a dinner each week.
Before anyone assumes, none of us cook or prepare the food for the rest of the group. It merely entails booking a restaurant and inviting along a special guest.
We decided that we’d create an order, in terms of who takes turns in hosting the night. The most agreeable way was via jumper numbers. This meant the order is Wattsy, Trenners, me, Tappy and Gawny.
Week one was kicked off by Wattsy.
Being a born and bred bayside boy, he invited us to Sandringham. It always promised to be a culinary experience never to be forgotten.
The only thing was that the initial venue chosen by Wattsy was closed. Under pressure, Wattsy bluffed us into thinking he had the Vietnamese restaurant over the road booked, just in case.
We were joined by Herald Sun and SEN racing guru Nick Quinn for what turned out to be a good night.
Naturally, we made it into a competition, because that’s what we do with everything. We decided that the four other regulars should vote on the night, each out of 10.
The voting works as follows:
0-15 votes: S**thouse
16-20: Average
21-25: Good
26-30: Very good
31-35: Excellent
36-40: Amazing
The voting process can be rather confronting, but following the Leading Teams model, it’s all about honest feedback and getting better.
Due to the promised venue being closed, Wattsy received 24 votes (good).
Having taken into account the level of organisation, which was expected by other members of the group, Trenners, who was the next in line, got on the front foot early and booked a table at the Half Moon in Brighton.
However, the dampener on this occasion was the distinct lack of a special guest.
Trenners had failed to simply invite anyone, showing his inept social skills!
The combination of a great venue and no special guest resulted in a combined total of 23.5 votes (good). It moved him ashamedly into last place.
I was next up, and by the time it came to sorting something out, I knew what needed to be done to get some good scores from the boys.
Unfortunately, the guys knew I was chasing a big score, and punished me for it in the voting.
Board member Russel Howcroft, also of marketing and advertising genius fame, was my guest of choice. I knew he would fit in well with the banter and be involved in our football chat, due to his position within the club.
My choice of venue was La Lucciola on Chapel St. It was two nights before the game, and we needed to carbo-load with an Italian pasta restaurant.
I received 28.5 votes (very good), and moved into first place.
I was marked down for the lack of parking close to the venue.
As we all know, Chapel St isn’t the best for parking, and the guys combined that with not wanting me to win, which cost me dearly.
Tappy was next in line. After a couple of weeks of postponing, he eventually sorted himself out and invited Melbourne recruiter Gary Burleigh along to Harros restaurant on Inkerman St, St Kilda.
Although it was an average eating experience (my meal came out with mushrooms), everyone else thoroughly enjoyed it. This was reflected in the voting.
Tappy received a whopping 30.5 votes (very good) to leapfrog me and slip into first place on the dinner ladder.
Gawny’s dinner has been a big let-down. Since Tappy delivered the goods, two weeks have passed, and big Gawny hasn’t been able to organise his dinner.
This will be taken into account when it comes time to vote - don’t worry about that!
Big things have been promised for the dinner, however, which is exciting. Already, a world renowned musician has been bandied around as the potential guest, and quite frankly, anything less than this may cost him dearly in the voting.
With round one of the dinners drawing to a close, round two is already shaping up to be much bigger and better.
We have all agreed to take it to the next level.
Wattsy sent out a tweet encouraging people to write in and give themselves a chance to be selected, also drawing some attention from big name Tweeters!
I myself have recently been in conversation (via Twitter) with Matt Preston, who would be a huge fish to land!
As for Trenners, c’mon mate, at least bring your little host brother or something!
And Tappy, it would be nice for him to bring someone from outside the club who we don’t see every day!
And Gawny, we are all expecting big things mate, so deliver the goods, please!
