The Beast Departs

He was dubbed "The Beast" at Arden Street, but North Melbourne let go American rookie Eric Wallace after three  seasons  at the club. Wallace was coming from a long way back, behind the likes of Todd Goldstein, Daniel Currie and Majak Daw in the ruck pecking order. Well Wallace, 27, has decided not to stick around and try to make it in Australia. He left the country this week, bound for Miami to catch up with some friends, before heading to Europe to resume his basketball career. Wallace stands to make considerably more than his AFL rookie wage.

Wake-up call

The Socceroos were in action against Kyrgyzstan on Thursday night in Canberra, and Melbourne City midfielder Jacob Melling was asked at a press conference the day before the game whether he would be watching Australia's match, which fell the night before City's clash with Western Sydney. Melling's answer was relatively straightforward. "We'll probably just go down to a local cafe and have a coffee and watch the game. There's not much we [can do] apart from that, just maybe play a bit of cards while we wait, that's about it," Melling said. That's all well and good, but there was a clear follow-up question that had to be asked. Does Melling usually drink coffee that late? "Sometimes. I actually fall asleep pretty easily, it doesn't matter if I have a coffee at midnight," Melling quipped after some laughter from other reporters.

Winning tatts

Melbourne made a splash on Thursday when they unveiled their new logo via a series of activities around the city, including handing out free coffee cups and water bottles, and a kick-to-kick session in Yarra Park featuring young stars Jesse Hogan and Jack Viney. The highlight though was the mural of captain Nathan Jones, painted in Hosier Lane by Richmond-based artist Simon Moody. The connection between Jones and Moody is more than skin deep. Literally. Moody is the tattoo artist responsible for covering much of Jones' body in ink. "Years and years ago I started tattooing Nathan," Moody told Pssst. "He vouched for me to come and paint for the club. He knew that I did this sort of stuff [street art] as well." Moody has also worked on Demons defender Lynden Dunn, former Melbourne players Mitch Clark and Ricky Petterd, and Jones' brother – Sydney youngster Zak. But the Melbourne skipper would seem to be Moody's favourite. "He's a legend. He's a really good, stand-up bloke. He's a good leader obviously. I don't follow the footy as closely as some people do, but I pay attention because of Nathan these days. It's really nice to have a mate who plays it. I hope the team pulls it together before he retires. He's always got time for me." Melbourne say that the re-branding operation was the culmination of two years of planning, and necessary due to the stigma attached to their previous logo, which coincided with a on-field nadir. One club insider hoped that this logo would "last for 100 years!"

Dock the Dees

Speaking of which, how peculiar that Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle should vent his distaste for Etihad Stadium on the same day that Melbourne Football Club launched a new logo? The Demons won only once at the ground during the time of their most recent former motif – that victory coming in the final round of 2015 against Greater Western Sydney.

10 years on

This Monday will mark 10 years since the Socceroos famously ended their 32-year World Cup drought, qualifying for the 2006 tournament in Germany after beating Uruguay in a penalty shoot-out. To commemorate the landmark occasion, journalist Richard Bayliss and filmmaker Ben Coonan have teamed up to create a documentary reliving that night at Sydney's Olympic Stadium. John Aloisi, the man who put the ball into the back of the net and sent the Socceroos to the game's promised land, recalls the moment he knew he would have a chance to put Australia through. "As soon as [Socceroos goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer] saved his, I just felt a sense of relief, because I just knew that we were going to go to the World Cup," Aloisi says in the movie. The film premiered last week in Melbourne, and will air this week on Fox Sports at 9pm on Monday, and SBS at 11pm on Wednesday.

Write stuff

Some of Australia's leading sportswriters will convene in Melbourne later this week for the inaugural Sports Writers Festival, which organisers hope will become a mainstay on the city's journalistic and sporting calendars for years to come. ABC soccer broadcaster Francis Leach is behind the concept. Speakers include Australian fast-bowling great Glenn McGrath, who will talk about his new book Test of Will, and LaTrobe university lecturer David Lowden. McGrath will take the new ball next Saturday night at Federation Square.

Local hero

Melbourne chief executive Peter Jackson has been in football for a long time, but it still takes a special effort to take the Demons to a position of relative financial stability.

​Numbers up

1997 - The year prodigious ice hockey player Connor McDavid was born.

1 - The spot in this year's draft that the Edmonton Oilers picked up the wunderkind, who is out for "months" with a collarbone injury.

134,000 - ​McDavid's Twitter followers.

The watchman

One minute to midnight for anti-UFC campaigners. 70,000 fans at Etihad Stadium on Sunday means the ship has probably sailed on this one.

They said what?

"This problem does not exist only in Russia, but if our foreign colleagues have questions, we must answer them." – Russian president Vladimir Putin following the extraordinary WADA report into his country's systematic doping regime.