Find out what’s being said about the club in the major daily newspapers on Monday, July 25, 2011

Herald Sun

Demons find cash to keep Scully
By Mark Stevens

MELBOURNE has confirmed it is capable of matching the $1 million-a-season offer being dangled in front of Tom Scully.  Demons chief executive Cameron Schwab yesterday said the club had the salary cap room to go toe-to-toe with the Greater Western Sydney. "If we sought to - given the state of our salary cap, our total player payments - we could pay the same as what Greater Western Sydney have offered, because we've got a young group as well," Schwab said. But Melbourne, which will not be distracted from its list and payment model, is believed to have offered Scully a deal in the region of $500,000 to $600,000 a season. "We assume that this group is going to be the group which is the Melbourne footy club team for the next decade or so," Schwab told radio Triple M. "We've got to make sure we look after all of them."

Dees count cost of turnovers
By Scott Gullan

MELBOURNE'S faint finals chances were extinguished on the back of a slow start and some horrendous turnovers which left coach Dean Bailey again searching for answers. The Demons gave up a five-goal start to Hawthorn inside the opening 16 minutes and never recovered, with the margin blowing out to nine goals at the end of another forgettable afternoon for Bailey's team. Melbourne slipped from ninth to 11th on the ladder and is a game out of the eight with matches against Geelong, Carlton and West Coast in the next three weeks. "You're not going to win many games giving a team a five-goal start," Bailey said. "They got off to a flyer, they went inside 50 six or seven times for five goals. "The inside-50 count at the end of the first quarter and some of the other fundamentals were our way but the scoreboard was the most important telling factor and they just used the ball a lot better than we did. "We coughed up, on four or five occasions in what you would call a low-pressure situation where we have got options to choose from and unfortunately we either kicked it to a Hawthorn player or the Hawthorn player was able to impact and then it was a turnover, an A-grade turnover where they went inside 50."

The Age

Desire and skill win it for Hawks
By Michael Gleeson

IN A week of mourning Allan Jeans and his many legacies to the game, Alastair Clarkson presented the Hawthorn case of understanding the pleasing simplicity of Jeans's distillation of football into its three phases — when we have it, when they have it and when it is there to be won. The Hawks played the game to that philosophy, knowing that with superior skill when they had the ball they would keep it. Which meant that victory would come about only by being better in the other two. They placed great emphasis on winning the ball in dispute and harassing when they did not have it. The superior desire and maturity for that matter was evident from the early moments. The first goal from a clever and courageous tap back from Luke Breust to Cyril Rioli alone in the goal square. Then another a moment later when a Michael Osborne bump/tackle up-ended Jack Trengove, who was trying to clear a ball from the Hawk goals and the ball spilt free for Sam Mitchell to goal. Hawthorn was playing more assertively than Melbourne but not to the extent measured on the scoreboard. The Demons' problems were in the fact they had no forwards — Liam Jurrah was a late withdrawal — and they became tentative when they reached half-forward.

The Australian

We can match Scully bid
By Courtney Walsh

MELBOURNE chief executive Cameron Schwab said yesterday the Demons had the financial ability to match Greater Western Sydney's multi-million-dollar offer to young star Tom Scully. After AFL boss Andrew Demetriou placed the responsibility for recontracting Scully firmly in Melbourne's hands on Friday, Schwab yesterday insisted the Demons could match an offer reportedly worth $1 million a season over five years from GWS. But he said Melbourne's football department had to weigh the benefits of keeping Scully at a vastly inflated price against the responsibilities of managing the club's list in coming years. "If we sought to -- given the state of our salary cap, our total player payments -- we could pay the same as Greater Western Sydney have offered, because we've got a young group as well," he said. "We assume that this group is going to be the group for the next decade or so, so we need to make sure that all (players are looked after financially)." The Demons chief, in a pre-match interview with Melbourne radio before the Demons' loss to Hawthorn, said while Scully might initially be better off if he opted to join the Giants, there would be little difference to his earnings come the end of his career. Schwab's response comes after Demetriou dismissed suggestions on Friday that GWS had a huge advantage when it came to contracting players from other clubs despite having an extra $1m in its salary cap. When assessing the Scully situation, Demetriou said other clubs had found a way to sign promising stars coming out of contract. "It is incumbent (on Melbourne), like a lot of other clubs, to re-sign their players. I hope Tom Scully stays at Melbourne," he said.