On 21/03/2022 at 22:51, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

If we can arise from the depths of despair in 2013 to Premiers in 2021, anyone can do it in 9 years. We were worse in 2013 than Hawthorn today. In fact, I think our 2013 was probably the worst VFL/AFL team I've seen. And, yet, we still managed to climb out of the abyss to the summit in 9 "short" years.

In any other year, we would have won the spoon. GWS' presence saved us from that ignominious honor.

  On 21/03/2022 at 22:51, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

If we can arise from the depths of despair in 2013 to Premiers in 2021, anyone can do it in 9 years. We were worse in 2013 than Hawthorn today. In fact, I think our 2013 was probably the worst VFL/AFL team I've seen. And, yet, we still managed to climb out of the abyss to the summit in 9 "short" years.

Yeah it's possible, but unlikely when there are 17 other teams trying to climb that same summit.  There have also been 5 different premiers since 2013, so statistically a little over a quarter of teams in the comp won a flag in that same period.  It's not like the Hawks have totally bottomed out and got access to a bunch of good draft picks which would give them a better than average chance of reaching the summit again - another Clarko parting gift from the late season winning streak they went on in 2021.

Asides from St Kilda, several other well resourced teams with one 'sucessful cultures' are currently without a premership in over 20 years (Adelaide, Carlton, Essendon) and Freo with a natural advantage for WA tallent retention/attraction haven't conjured a flag in nearly 30 years. Hawthorn could similarly be at the start of such a long drought.  20 years is a whole generation of kids growing up without the ultimate sucess and many of us know how that feels, we've lived it!

Edited March 22, 20223 yr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

  On 22/03/2022 at 09:24, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Yeah it's possible, but unlikely when there are 17 other teams trying to climb that same summit.  There have also been 5 different premiers since 2013, so statistically a little over a quarter of teams in the comp won a flag in that same period.  It's not like the Hawks have totally bottomed out and got access to a bunch of good draft picks which would give them a better than average chance of reaching the summit again - another Clarko parting gift from the late season winning streak they went on in 2021.

Asides from St Kilda, several other well resourced teams with one 'sucessful cultures' are currently without a premership in over 20 years (Adelaide, Carlton, Essendon) and Freo with a natural advantage for WA tallent retention/attraction haven't conjured a flag in nearly 30 years. Hawthorn could similarly be at the start of such a long drought.  20 years is a whole generation of kids growing up without the ultimate sucess and many of us know how that feels, we've lived it!

There's an Essendon supporter I work with who's somewhere in his mid to late 20's.
He remembers vaguely a flag while at primary school but as far as he's concerned they've been no good for most of his life.
This is their young generation of supporters.
Love his pessimism.
Long may it continue.

As for Hawthorn they were bottom dwellers for a fair while before Clarkeson took over.
Remember Shane Crawford hanging on till his last game before he got his flag (That's what I'm talking about!).
They were 'lucky' enough to hit the drafting jackpot with some strategic tanking landing Hodge, Lewis, Franklin, Roughy, Mitchell and Rioli in consecutive years.
Hawthorn (and Geelongs) time at the top was also aided by the introduction of GC and GWS which hobbled the rest of the competition while they got their priority picks.
Meanwhile they filled holes in their lists by cherry picking players from struggling clubs looking for success.
Can they turn it around that quickly again .... I doubt it.





 

Edited March 22, 20223 yr by Fork 'em

  On 22/03/2022 at 13:23, Fork 'em said:

There's an Essendon supporter I work with who's somewhere in his mid to late 20's.
He remembers vaguely a flag while at primary school but as far as he's concerned they've been no good for most of his life.
This is their young generation of supporters.
Love his pessimism.
Long may it continue.

As for Hawthorn they were bottom dwellers for a fair while before Clarkeson took over.
Remember Shane Crawford hanging on till his last game before he got his flag (That's what I'm talking about!).
They were 'lucky' enough to hit the drafting jackpot with some strategic tanking landing Hodge, Lewis, Franklin, Roughy, Mitchell and Rioli in consecutive years.
Hawthorn (and Geelongs) time at the top was also aided by the introduction of GC and GWS which hobbled the rest of the competition while they got their priority picks.
Meanwhile they filled holes in their lists by cherry picking players from struggling clubs looking for success.
Can they turn it around that quickly again .... I doubt it.





 

Geelong were also significantly advantaged by some incredibly good father-son picks (G and N Ablett, Scarlett, Hawkins, Blake) with some (all?) acquired when they didn't have to pay full price in the drafting process.

  On 22/03/2022 at 22:25, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Geelong were also significantly advantaged by some incredibly good father-son picks (G and N Ablett, Scarlett, Hawkins, Blake) with some (all?) acquired when they didn't have to pay full price in the drafting process.

Forgot about that.
Dank was also there with his famous supplements program.



 

  On 22/03/2022 at 22:45, Fork 'em said:

Forgot about that.
Dank was also there with his famous supplements program.



 

Not convinced that would have helped them. Irrespective of their illegality (in sport), I remain unconvinced that Dank's project was in any way beneficial. A witch doctor might have been more effective than what he was peddling.

  On 22/03/2022 at 23:17, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Not convinced that would have helped them. Irrespective of their illegality (in sport), I remain unconvinced that Dank's project was in any way beneficial. A witch doctor might have been more effective than what he was peddling.

When Thompson got to Essendon under Hird.
He looked at the list and told Hird his players they need more size.
We had these guys at Geelong.
Enter Dank and "The Weapon".



 

Edited March 22, 20223 yr by Fork 'em

  On 22/03/2022 at 23:17, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Not convinced that would have helped them. Irrespective of their illegality (in sport), I remain unconvinced that Dank's project was in any way beneficial. A witch doctor might have been more effective than what he was peddling.

It helped them massively for the first half of 2012, then they all started to break down 

  On 22/03/2022 at 23:28, Fork 'em said:

When Thompson got to Essendon under Hird.
He looked at the list and told Hird his players they need more size.
We had these guys at Geelong.
Enter Dank and "The Weapon".



 

Mark Neeld was part of a successful Premiership team at Collingwood. Success isn't always transferrable.

  On 23/03/2022 at 00:26, Sir Why You Little said:

It helped them massively for the first half of 2012, then they all started to break down 

Correlation doesn't imply causation. The players' breaking down might have been because of poor training methods in other ways. 

I am yet to see any hard evidence that Dank's treatments (for want of a better word) did anything helpful.

  On 23/03/2022 at 01:00, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Mark Neeld was part of a successful Premiership team at Collingwood. Success isn't always transferrable.

Correlation doesn't imply causation. The players' breaking down might have been because of poor training methods in other ways. 

I am yet to see any hard evidence that Dank's treatments (for want of a better word) did anything helpful.

They were twice the size in the hips. Players actually complained to Coaches about what was going on during Essendrug games. That’s where the first enquiry started. Ratten whilst at Carlton, made calls

  On 23/03/2022 at 01:26, Sir Why You Little said:

They were twice the size in the hips. Players actually complained to Coaches about what was going on during Essendrug games. That’s where the first enquiry started. Ratten whilst at Carlton, made calls

Pretty sure Thompsons comment to Hird was something like. .... They're not big enough through the hips.

  On 23/03/2022 at 01:35, Fork 'em said:

Pretty sure Thompsons comment to Hird was something like. .... They're not big enough through the hips.

Yes I remember reading this at the time. “The Weapon” was lauded by Essendrug supporters in the opening rounds, they were smashing teams, literally. Bones were being broken, which was the main reason Ratten made enquiries. 

  On 23/03/2022 at 01:42, Sir Why You Little said:

Yes I remember reading this at the time. “The Weapon” was lauded by Essendrug supporters in the opening rounds, they were smashing teams, literally. Bones were being broken, which was the main reason Ratten made enquiries. 

Brian Taylor wouldn't shut up about "The Weapon" during scum games.
He was as big as "Neon Leon" and "The Package".

  On 23/03/2022 at 02:15, Fork 'em said:

Brian Taylor wouldn't shut up about "The Weapon" during scum games.
He was as big as "Neon Leon" and "The Package".

Oh yeah it all turned sour very quickly, and that was mainly because the players all broke down at the same time

  On 23/03/2022 at 02:22, Sir Why You Little said:

Oh yeah it all turned sour very quickly, and that was mainly because the players all broke down at the same time

I tend to remember SWYL's version of events.

They started the year looking like Clive James' proverbial 'condoms stuffed with walnuts' and, if I recall correctly, came down with soft tissue injuries from carrying too much weight. 

The year ended with a 100 point belting at the hands of Collingwood (last year's runner up and a premier in any other year) when they ran them to one point on the opposing Anzac Day fixture thus showing how far they had fallen.

Just noticed this thread for a while. 
jarka’s statement about Ridley never once raising his voice and swearing is false. This clips shows him at 0:47 saying bloody (this IS swearing, soft or not) then immediately shouts at his supporters to rise with him.
Merger

Also this Link show that it WAS members, not just fans that weren’t allowed in. 

So, I’m more inclined to believe guest-no-merger than him. Other people did support his claim of being the first to be questioned and jarka seems to blatantly ignore this as it doesn’t suit his own personal opinion/memory of it. I know it’s too late to exonerate him, but this is proof jarka was wrong and he was right. Ridley claimed no members were locked out and it was a lie. 

He paints himself in a far too unrealistically positive light in his book.  What he did ever certainly unethical and most likely illegal.

Sorry to bring this back again, but I noticed it was revived 3 years ago. I just thought I’d posthumously clear member-no-mergers name

Edited March 23Mar 23 by Cassiew

How about we just let this go?

[censored]

  On 23/03/2025 at 02:04, rpfc said:

How about we just let this go?

[censored]

I said what I needed to. I said I was sorry for bringing it back. I just felt someone was unfairly shut down here 

Edited March 23Mar 23 by Cassiew

  On 23/03/2025 at 02:10, Cassiew said:

I said what I needed to. I said I was sorry for bringing it back. I just felt someone was unfairly shut down here 

Does it matter from a thread last on commented 3 years ago,,,,you obviously went looking for it to comment on it.  Let it die...

  On 23/03/2025 at 02:20, darkhorse72 said:

Does it matter from a thread last on commented 3 years ago,,,,you obviously went looking for it to comment on it.  Let it die...

Actually I saw looking up on google and it bought me here. No I think guest-no-merger needed his side said, especially after he was blocked before he could defend himself 

I opened this re-emerged thread with the expectation it was going to be about the now-mouth-watering prospect of a merger with the Kangarooooos!

Some great footage uncovered by Rhett Bartlett a couple of weeks back

 

Some very interesting early observations on Mitchell and the Hawks in this thread. 

Edited March 23Mar 23 by fr_ap

Its good to be remembered, I was banned correctly for 3 months for using multiple tags. I was ,am still  computer dumb, I had just moved home and had an EMAIL change.

I thought my old tag wouldnt register with DEMONLAND so I invented a new one, my mistake. I am old school still as I dont even have a mobile phone and just use cash

All I am saying is I got the tag wrong and I was rightly banned for 3 months.

I still sit in the same seat but just greyer, so on to Saturday for a demon win.

Edited March 24Mar 24 by ex52k2
spelling

I remember as a teenager way back in 1996 how crazy it was during the whole merger period.

It would of totally destroyed the identities and histories of both the Hawks and the Demons.

The atmosphere at that "merger game" between Hawthorn and Melbourne was electric. Thousands of people holding up those "No Merger" signs!

Glad the merger never happened.

May we remain the Melbourne Demons forever! ❤️💙👹