I don't always write to Demonland, but was having a cup of coffee today at my local cafe and happened to read Greg Denhams article in the Australian. I nearly choked........

The article is basically a total denegration of Melbourne, its players and how things have been managed over the past few years.

As a loyal supporter of this club for over 40 years I do get sick of football journo's waking up one day with nothing to write about and decide it must be time to 'kick' the Dees again.

Let's face it, the team is not in the place that we would like it to be, but I am getting a good feeling about the future. I think Mark is 'building the house', laying a solid foundation, selecting players who are prepared to dig in and give their best every week. Sylvia, Jurrah, Green will add strength, depth and flair. It looks like we have found a couple of good players in Tom Mac and Mitsubishi and I for one am prepared to give 2012 to building onto the foundation. Mark has drawn the line in the sand and we will see who can hack it, follow our new structures and develop the consistent effort we all crave.

This week at Geelong I hope to see everything thrown at the opposition, courage under fire and a desire to win the hard ball. You just never know what we are capable of.

I think we will build respect over the coming weeks, if not victories.

Some commentators, including this idiot from the Australian believe we have gone backwards, I think we have restarted, with a desire to be good not just for a week or two, but for the decade ahead.

Could be proven wrong and even if we were 0-11, still think we can win 8 or more games this year. Of course it would be sensational to win any of the games over the next 6 weeks.

Just love to shove some stuff to these Journos who know nothing of what Melbourne is trying to do, know nothing about what is going on behind the scenes and just want a headline.Greg Denham could well read some of Matt Burgan's stuff to find out that you can actually write a good story based on real information and facts.

Premiers 13

Just love to shove some stuff to these Journos who know nothing of what Melbourne is trying to do, know nothing about what is going on behind the scenes and just want a headline.Greg Denham could well read some of Matt Burgan's stuff to find out that you can actually write a good story based on real information and facts. Premiers 13

Burgan works for the club...

I agree with what you say but Burgan is employed by the MFC - he isn't a journalistic example...

There aren't many of those around anyway.

What annoys me most about all these negative articles is that they are mostly right.

Greg Denham is a troll with an anti-MFC agenda, but he is not wrong in his assessment of where we are at.

The thing I never understand is when people say ‘they don’t stand for anything’. We are a football club, not a political party or a religious group.

Edited May 2, 201213 yr by Fat Tony

Greg Denham is a troll with an anti-MFC agenda, but he is not wrong in his assessment of where we are at.

The thing I never understand is when people say ‘they don’t stand for anything’. We are a football club, not a political party or a religious group.

Sadly some around here have a political agenda - such is life.

Burgan? He gets paid by us to produce some exclusive content.

As much as it's nice to read something positive, I wouldn't hold up someone employed to write puff pieces as an example for all journos.

In case Burgan's Mum is reading, this is not meant in any way as a criticism of the guy; he's performing the job he's employed to do.

What annoys me most about all these negative articles is that they are mostly right.

Hah.

The easy solution is dont read Murdoch press. You only have yourself to blame for getting distracted by Derham.

What annoys me most about all these negative articles is that they are mostly right.

Aint that often true.

Nothing better than opening up the morning paper after a big win.

But let's be honest, the overall quality of sports journalism is pretty poor. When we're good, bad articles will be written about how great we are. When we're bad, bad articles will be written about how bad we are.

We're pretty bad...It's just so much more fun to read poorly written articles praising the team.

Even when the Club was going well, Denham was sticking the boots in.

Another fine example of a newspaper from Murdoch industries.

Is the Australian Sports section relevant? I would have thought Greg Genham and Patrick Smith were the two most irrelevant sports journo's in Australia.

Patrick Smith is another one who constantly trolls the club - heard him the other day on SEN apparently Richmond deserve praise for having a red hot go but Melbourne don't because that's expected every week and the club is in dire straits if theyre getting praised for that. He also made comment about Milne being booed of the ground and said the Melbourne supporters were used to booing because they've booing their own team for years. I sent an SMS in having a crack at him of course it was ignored and KB just did his stupid little laugh. Smith & Denham are two that definitely have some kind of agenda against us much like Caro with North.

Edited May 2, 201213 yr by Dr. Gonzo

Greg Denham is a troll with an anti-MFC agenda, but he is not wrong in his assessment of where we are at.

The thing I never understand is when people say ‘they don’t stand for anything’. We are a football club, not a political party or a religious group.

He has Brethren at the Hun...seems someone at the MFC has p!ssed of Murdoch.. ( that in itself is commendable..lol )

The News-family have become quite vitriolic of late ....poor sooki-la-las

Denham definately has a gripe with the club. I get the feeling the club (or Schwabb) have dismissed him in some way. He has denied it, but last year something went down and he has been on the war path ever since.

I go back to my first point. No-one buys the Aust to read sport. Its not a paper known for its sports journalism. Effectively both Denham and Smith are irrelavent and they resort to sensationalist tactics to gain interest.

Its sad really

Denham is no sports guru. He fancies himself and a commmentator-at-large. His only real claim to fame is he uses oxygen !!

No one respects losers.

He has Brethren at the Hun...seems someone at the MFC has p!ssed of Murdoch.. ( that in itself is commendable..lol )

The News-family have become quite vitriolic of late ....poor sooki-la-las

Murdoch doesn't have exclusive rights to poor journalists, they populate every newspaper in every corner of the globe. Denham and Smith are both jerks who drink their own bathwater but they're not alone; which of the commentators aren't full of their own self importance.

I don't read the australian and I've black banned SEN so I'm spared the agony of listening to Bartlett/Smith/Denham and boy do I feel better for it.

I don't read the HUN either but that's more to do with having to pay to read something I was not all that keen on reading in the first place, even when it was free.

A lame article which reveals nothing new and barely gathers up the usual suspects.

Denham is a try-hard controversialist. Strictly second tier.

There's a newspaper called the Australian?

The death of club legend Jim Stynes, the ongoing Liam Jurrah controversy, the "Festivus for the Restofus" Seinfeld moment between Aaron Davey and coach Mark Neeld, and the embarrassing loss of a big-spending major sponsor have been emotionally draining and damaging.

I found this quote very interesting. I challenge any club to have handle all of these issues better.

The passing of Jim was sad and difficult, but in every way (off field at least) we have honoured him in a way that is tasteful and not over the top. Liam Jurrah threw us a massive curve ball as the culture barriers once again came to the fore, but unlike many clubs who would've dumped him and made a big thing about it we have chosen to let it stay in the background and let the law run it's course. The Davey issue, while likely originating from Davey himself, was caused by Mifsud over stepping his bounds and confiding in a journalist.

And as for the "loss" of EW being embarrassing, I couldn't disagree more. We stuck to our guns and showed we are a club of integrity. We DUMPED them, and rightly so. Since then we have got our replacement in Opel, and covered the FOJ with Webjet who came to us.

Has the team gone backwards, yes. But I firmly believe in Neeled and what he's bringing to the table, it's not a 2 minute instant noodle fix, it's a long term plan to get us playing well against all sides not just the bad ones. He's more deluded than us supporters if he thinks Neeled can turn around a culture that has been at the club since I've been alive over one tough pre-season.

Clearly he had absolutely nothing to write about, because none of what he wrote is new. Just rehashing old crap to keep his paycheck rolling in.

(Oh and for some reason I'm reminded of the South Park episode where they go to San Francisco and the people there are so smug they love the smell of their own farts!)

Edited May 2, 201213 yr by Pates

I agree with Pates, I think the club has handled the issues thrown up particularly well. Denham seems to be a bit late with the story and had nothing really to add but just a few cheap shots.

That said, he does seem to have issues with CS judging by the odd comment he makes from time to time on SEN so the challenge is for him to either put up or shut up. I'm not happy where we sit after another 4 or 5 year re build which seems to have been a waste of time but the crap he rolled out in the article adds nothing.

So...if you really have something worthwhile to say Greg Denham come out and say it, let us know what the problems are and who you believe is responsible. Bring something new to the debate not just a rehash of the Walls and Roos line.

Patrick Smith is a waste of space. I never read his articles. Sensationalist drivel.

Mind you David King is the current title holder for most inane criticism of the club/coach. King never has anything positive to say about Melbourne but he outdid himself when he criticised Neeld for his "phone manner" in the box, in reference to vision shown of him barking instructions during the Saints game. At first I thought he was kidding but no, dead serious. He was criticising a coach for getting emotionally involved. The man can do no right at the moment in the eyes of some idiots in the media, King being one of the biggest going around.

Did anyone else notice how Denham completely failed to understand McLardy's statement comparing the Demons current situation to that of Geelongs in 2006?? Denham then went on to compare the teams performances since 2006 in about 100 words of garbage. McLardy's point was that in 2006 other people around the league were doubting the talent on the Geelong team and then, after that they improved to the point where the won a premiership.

Just lazy, uninformed, out of their depth journalism.

I am pretty sure that Greg Denham still thinks that Mitch Clark is stuck at Brisbane airport trying to get a flight to Perth to join the Dockers.

A mediocre journalist with a strange set against the Melbourne Football Club. Consistently refuses to acknowledge the giant strides this club has made over the past 4 years and will always twist the facts to suit his own biased perspective as has been outlined above.

At least he writes for the OZ which few people read but his SEN appearances give him a wider audience.

Did anyone else notice how Denham completely failed to understand McLardy's statement comparing the Demons current situation to that of Geelongs in 2006?? Denham then went on to compare the teams performances since 2006 in about 100 words of garbage. McLardy's point was that in 2006 other people around the league were doubting the talent on the Geelong team and then, after that they improved to the point where the won a premiership.

Just lazy, uninformed, out of their depth journalism.

I decided to read Denham's article and was amazed at this. How something like this got through says alot about the value placed on the Sports/AFL section at the Oz. The man is clearly an imbecile to have made such a flawed analogy.

Did anyone else notice how Denham completely failed to understand McLardy's statement comparing the Demons current situation to that of Geelongs in 2006?? Denham then went on to compare the teams performances since 2006 in about 100 words of garbage. McLardy's point was that in 2006 other people around the league were doubting the talent on the Geelong team and then, after that they improved to the point where the won a premiership.

Just lazy, uninformed, out of their depth journalism.

McLardy's statement is nothing more than hopeful spin for soothing the nerves of the faithful in comparing us to Geelong in 2006. What happened to them was fairly unlikey in the modern game. Anyone thinking we will end up like them is dreaming at this stage. Even if we currently had a better team team the odds would be remote that we could ever replicate their success. We have now regressed behind other similar down and out clubs who haven't achieved real success for a long time. I will maintain my cynicism until I see real points on the board.

Edited May 3, 201213 yr by Jackie