http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/rfnews/de...0684339084.html

Yes, Melboure Passion, I actually thought the crowd was as loud as they could be on Sunday. Nevertheless, we need many more people at these games. The "boos" for Bock weren't nearly as loud as they are described in this article.

  iv said:

3 things affected the attendance and in no particular order:

1. The appalling weather.

2. The time of the game, given it was the last of big weekend of footy in Melbourne.

3. An overriding expectation that we would lose. And we certainly did not let anybody down there.

Those 3 things combined led to a crowd which was so low. Even the Hawks 25,000 cats and dogs members would not have turned up in those circumstnaces

Not sure about the dogs. Thats because the hawks and cats have more hardcore fans. We need to gain some more hardcore fans from the cranbourne region so we can actually get in decent crowds, even when we are struggling. But I agree, why don`t you just turn up, If you can get there. GET THERE and support your team and make some noise. But if your just being soft then not good enough.

How many hardcore fans do you recken we have?

"We tried to focus on getting a couple of quick goals and getting the crowd behind us and it worked in a way, but we just needed to finish off a few more."

This is a quote from dunn for those who don't think the crowd can have an effect on a game. It is always in the back of their minds.

Well i was slightly amused by around 20 Dees fans in the last quarter having a go at the Adelaide runner for being on the ground too long. PLEASE!!!!

How about worrying about your own team and their dismal effort for 3 quarters, rather than a runner that wasn't quite good enough to get a gig and just wants to be part of the action.

Meanwhile, down at the Cattery yesterday, 15,580 turn up to see the premiership faves play a team that has a traditional Victorian base, and nary a comment about the low crowd. Yes, smaller venue, and there may be a lot of booked seats - but the bums still didn't go to sit on them for whatever reason.

Also note in Age article that Hawthorn "drew" about 11,000 in 2004 against Port, and recall Carlton having about 15,000 a couple of times 2005ish against Port and Freo at the G - again without much comment. And I don't think any of these games were twilight. And it doesn't seem to have stopped these teams from rising and attracting the fair weather followers.

So - lay off the wringing of hands, the media has already adopted us as a soft target in this regard compared to the way they treat others.

  Jaded said:

I'm sick of going to games and feeling like I'm at the G' by myself.

i love the room i had at the ground yesterday, was just a little too close to a 'you werent there' argument about bock. freedom of speech and all; but if the patroling police do nothing to quell such stupid arguments as they escalate toward violence, id rather be alone. A lot more people used to bring kids to footy and i can see why they dont as much now. (dropping beer alcohol percentages was not the answer.)

on a side note: where there more seagulls then people there? can we could sort that out or has it just become geographical?

Look at the bright side, you can sit where you like, the que's to get stuff are short, no waiting in the dunnies, all we need to do is recruit the seagulls and paint'em red and blue.

  Tim said:

Meanwhile, down at the Cattery, 15,580 turn up to see the premiership faves play a team that has a traditional Victorian base, and nary a comment about the low crowd. Yes, smaller venue, and there may be a lot of booked seats - but the bums still didn't go to sit on them for whatever reason.

Also note in Age article that Hawthorn "drew" about 11,000 in 2004 against Port, and recall Carlton having about 15,000 a couple of times 2005ish against Port and Freo at the G - again without much comment. And I don't think any of these games were twilight. And it doesn't seem to have stopped these teams from rising and attracting the fair weather followers.

So - lay off the wringing of hands, the media has already adopted us as a soft target in this regard compared to the way they treat others.

Yeah. North had 14,000 once to at the dome in 2006. We cop it so much. Does anyone know if Hawthorn copped anything for the 11,000 crowd? Is 11,000 that the smallest crowd ever at the MCG. Does anyone know what was the smallest crowd at the MCG ever?

  Jaded said:

I can see development in the team. But in 10 years of being a Melbourne member I am yet to witness development in the attitude of supporters, and their willingness to attend games despite circumstance.

Let's get some things straight.

First, whatever attendances other AFL teams have managed to games, or we've had in the past, 14,000+ people is not 'no one'.

Second, Geelong had similar crowd numbers yesterday (~15,000). I don't think they were playing a Sunday night game, nor are they a poorly-performed side with a fair expectation that they'll lose - they've been the dominant side over the past two seasons!

Third, we're not the only poor side to experience poor crowds when travelling poorly - the 'soft Melbourne' tag is a myth. Take a look at the attendances for Hawthorn a few years ago as a great example - they now have over 50,000 members so why aren't you suggesting they're the fairweather team?

Fourth, despite out terrible showing in the past two years (what is it, five wins in 27 games?) we have more members than sides like St. Kilda, North and WB.

Fifth, for such a 'soft' supporter base, more of those are members than any other Victorian side (source: Ray Morgan). I think that indicates a level of passion for the Club.

  MelbournePassion said:

Does anyone know what was the smallest crowd at the MCG ever?

The worst crowd ever at the MCG was in 1931. Melbourne V Hawthorn, the crowd was 3,614.

  steveheals said:

The worst crowd ever at the MCG was in 1931. Melbourne V Hawthorn, the crowd was 3,614.

ok what about in between 1990-2009

  MelbournePassion said:

ok what about in between 1990-2009

North Melbourne V Brisbane Bears in 1992 got 6,392.

I'm looking it up on AFL Tables

http://stats.rleague.com/afl/crowds/vn_mcg.html

  MelbournePassion said:

Not sure about the dogs. Thats because the hawks and cats have more hardcore fans. We need to gain some more hardcore fans from the cranbourne region so we can actually get in decent crowds, even when we are struggling. But I agree, why don`t you just turn up, If you can get there. GET THERE and support your team and make some noise. But if your just being soft then not good enough.

How many hardcore fans do you recken we have?

Ah, my comments were a tongue in cheek reference to the Hawks members who were actually family pets (not the Bulldog and Geelong Cats).

I went yesterday, but given the circumstances as I outlined above, I can understand why others would have stayed away in their droves. The combined circumstances yesterday were exceptional.

However, R&B has also hit the nail on the head.

Ah, there was still some humour in the small crowd yesterday ...

Deep in the second quarter when we were 0.2.2, after being 0.1.1 at quarter time, someone suggested we may still get the four points.

When we were 0.6.6 deep into the third, a bloke walked up the aisle and home with one of those "GOAL!" signs in his hand.

After a string of handballs in our forward 50 for no effect, someone yelled out "you can't handball a goal!".

  Maurie Lithen said:

Ah, there was still some humour in the small crowd yesterday ...

Deep in the second quarter when we were 0.2.2, after being 0.1.1 at quarter time, someone suggested we may still get the four points.

When we were 0.6.6 deep into the third, a bloke walked up the aisle and home with one of those "GOAL!" signs in his hand.

After a string of handballs in our forward 50 for no effect, someone yelled out "you can't handball a goal!".

I heard that also.

There was a supporter yelling out during the chain of handballs and turnovers......."just give me something, anything.....give me something.......FCS I need a Beer!"......which drew quite a few laughs.

That's what I'm talkin about!!!!!

This happens before you rise like a Pheonix

  Clint Bizkit said:

This says a lot about Melbourne supporters.

The team puts up one of the most pathetic displays of football in recent years, managing just four goals for an entire game and still use defensive tactics and yet the supporters are more worried about the crowd numbers on a freezing cold Sunday afternoon/evening.

FFS.

So did you want a more offensive style of footy? Who was going to kick the goals? The scoreboard showed the forwards we had struggled to get it between the big sticks as it was.

If you aren't concerned the club lost a lot of dollars last night then don't worry about the game style. We wont be around long much longer.

  Clint Bizkit said:

This says a lot about Melbourne supporters.

The team puts up one of the most pathetic displays of football in recent years, managing just four goals for an entire game and still use defensive tactics and yet the supporters are more worried about the crowd numbers on a freezing cold Sunday afternoon/evening.

I think you missed something. The awful defensive nature of the Adelaide game plan. The Herald Sun put it "The Crows bored Melbourne into submission last night with its ultra-defensive game and lack of finish". A really good team like Geelong will take Adelaide apart. An average to poor team will have the life sapped from them and Adelaide's style of play will always ensure a pathetic low-scoring debacle.

I saw enough from most of our team (leaving aside the obvious exceptions who hopefully won't be there next week) to be fairly positive. The improvement from last year is one obvious plus.

I guarantee you next Sunday's game against the Cats will be anything than the boring affair Adelaide made this one. Of course we'll lose. But I expect there'll be some great scarf-waving moments of Demon magic as we try to match the Cat's offensive style. And we'll learn heaps - players and spectators alike.

I'm predicting 30,000 there, 15,000 Cats' supporters and our staunch 15,000 :D

Mathew Bate, Juice, Umpires and Aaron Davey sqibbing a smother in the pocket, in that order.

  Nugget Jones said:

Belief starts with the fans. We need to rally behind the players and show them our support so they care. Without fans, the team won't be able to reach the heights it deserves.

You've got to be kidding? You're telling me the players wouldn't care about football unless they had a big crowd to play in front of? The players should be able to play decent football regardless of the size of the crowd watching them.

  Nugget Jones said:

Total free kicks Anzac day: 24

Total free kicks Melb v Adelaide: 42

Oh, come on. I'm sure, if I could be bothered, that if I looked up free kick figures for matches involving Adelaide at AAMI stadium (or any other interstate team at home), I'd find plenty of instances where they didn't win the free kick count. I'm also sure I'd find instances where there were a lot of free kicks at matches with big crowds.

  Maurie Lithen said:

Ah, there was still some humour in the small crowd yesterday ...

Deep in the second quarter when we were 0.2.2, after being 0.1.1 at quarter time, someone suggested we may still get the four points.

When we were 0.6.6 deep into the third, a bloke walked up the aisle and home with one of those "GOAL!" signs in his hand.

After a string of handballs in our forward 50 for no effect, someone yelled out "you can't handball a goal!".

After Dunne and McLean goaled within minutes, some wit in the members shouted "avalanche!"

  titan_uranus said:

You've got to be kidding? You're telling me the players wouldn't care about football unless they had a big crowd to play in front of? The players should be able to play decent football regardless of the size of the crowd watching them.

Oh, come on. I'm sure, if I could be bothered, that if I looked up free kick figures for matches involving Adelaide at AAMI stadium (or any other interstate team at home), I'd find plenty of instances where they didn't win the free kick count. I'm also sure I'd find instances where there were a lot of free kicks at matches with big crowds.

haha...so easy to just quote little snippets out of context isnt it mate. Reminds me a bit of one Rhino Richards everynow and then . I even said down the bottom of that free kick stat that of course other variables come into context, and that it was just an interesting stat.

By the way, I was actually comparing the total frees in our match vs the Anzac Day Match, nothing about winning a free kick count you goose. How about you don't just make assumptions before you start to debate something.

Yes, I am telling you that if Melbourne played in front of 14,000 everyweek vs 100,000 everyweek, they would care more infront of the bigger crowds. Why is there such lead up to the so called "blockbusters."

Is no one a bit worried about the massive loss we had last night? We can't survive with these crowds. It is way too bloody conveniant, as someone else said, to think of all the excuses, play the blame game, compare our crowd to the geelong one etc...at the end of the day, WE ARE IN DEBT. At the end of the day, WE MADE A LOSS LAST NIGHT.

But who cares about the future of our club off the field anymore, Jimmy has it all sorted...FFS

parents wont take kids to the footy at 430 on a sunday arvo, its not convenient, now were a section of the MCC again it will be interesting to see next years draw, i for one think it will be a lot healthier than this years.

  Nugget Jones said:

Is no one a bit worried about the massive loss we had last night? We can't survive with these crowds. It is way too bloody conveniant, as someone else said, to think of all the excuses, play the blame game, compare our crowd to the geelong one etc...at the end of the day, WE ARE IN DEBT. At the end of the day, WE MADE A LOSS LAST NIGHT.

But who cares about the future of our club off the field anymore, Jimmy has it all sorted...FFS

I don't think anyone's suggesting we put our heads in the sand. What is being put forward is that there needs to be a balanced assessment of the attendance and the reasons for it.

It's ridiculous to suggest that factors like form, the opposition, weather, timeslot and other factors don't impact on attendance. If you want to deny that these factors impact on attendance then tell me why Melb v Coll pull better crowds on QB. Tell me why the AFL doesn't schedule big-drawing blockbusters on a Sunday evening. Tell me why Hawthorn got 11,000 to a match at the 'G a few years ago.

I believe it's counter-productive to resort to a flawed stereotype which paints our Club and supporters in a negative light.