I've always been a Dyed in the Wool supporter, always a Demon.

But now with footy's congestion, & the mockery it creates I'm been slowly losing Interest in the Game itself, & the professional game without any characters & personality.

We are one of the worst with no personality, since the days of Farmer, Jakovitch, Schwartz, etc have gone by the wayside.

Many years ago I would read every bit of Newspaper footy news, the game columns, the all the reports, the Stats & study them on sort of collate them.

I had a pretty good run down of virtually every player in the AFL/VFL. Who was hot & who was an up & comer.

Now I can't be bothered, I can't even watch our games anymore.

I now never sit in fromt of the telly Unless with visitors to watch a game, & would rather talk because the game is boring.

The Intensity in some games is very good, some games, But the Highlights are poor.

The goalkicking, I'd rather see Buddy kicking it high & through the middle around his body, than trickling along the ground.

I miss the regular high marks, And the dashing runs down the field when the games opened up.

I miss the positional matchups we used to get. Our star player verses they're star player.

And when going to the ground we get "Looked" up & down by visitors to our Country. The security are all immigrants or temps.

Unbelievable.

You can't move around the ground readily as we could to sit we we feel.

Greed & money has hijacked the game from the FUN thing it was, with Hard Hits & Humour.

i think some of your comments are jaded, reflected by our ladder position. Having said that, I often feel the same, watching the game in a somewhat antiseptic environment. If Melbourne was winning the comforts of the ground would be an aphrodisiac, not a cause for melancholy. Going to the G in the 70's was like entering a postwar dungeon, with acres of dirty concrete not to mention the smelly dunnies. On the other hand, there was definitely more atmosphere in those times, esp win Melbourne got on a roll the southern stand started firing up and raising a din you wouldn't hear today. On the high marking issue, we are blessed with Jeremy Howe who has taken speccies Collcott Yeo Dillon Parke Swann, Cuthbertson Jakovich could only dream of. If he can get his kicking boot on and he starts to win us games, things might turn for us.

and to think they wanted to blame me !!!! its YOU !!!! lol hehehe

No, I'm entirely the one to blame. As a greedy teenager, I grabbed all those premierships leaving none for later on and you guys. Once a Demon always a Demon. I shifted over to live in Perth in 1976 and a few of my old mates in Melbourne ask me if I've adopted the Eagles or Dockers. I laugh and answer, " Mate, I put the Weagles on the same level of hate as I have for Collingwood. My weekend is made when they lose. Go Dees!!!!!

i think some of your comments are jaded, reflected by our ladder position. Having said that, I often feel the same, watching the game in a somewhat antiseptic environment. If Melbourne was winning the comforts of the ground would be an aphrodisiac, not a cause for melancholy. Going to the G in the 70's was like entering a postwar dungeon, with acres of dirty concrete not to mention the smelly dunnies. On the other hand, there was definitely more atmosphere in those times, esp win Melbourne got on a roll the southern stand started firing up and raising a din you wouldn't hear today. On the high marking issue, we are blessed with Jeremy Howe who has taken speccies Collcott Yeo Dillon Parke Swann, Cuthbertson Jakovich could only dream of. If he can get his kicking boot on and he starts to win us games, things might turn for us.

Cant say I miss the smelly dunnies.

It's the one area where sanitisation of the game has taken place for the better.

Otherwise it is now a corporate game full of absolute b*llsh!t from all angles.

As far as characters go-I think we may have a few coming throught that are a bit shy of showing themselves till we start winning .

I hope we get to see Max Gawn strutting his stuff-he seems like a good character as he had the sense to vomit in Scullys bed when he was wasted.

Ohterwise-it's robot like out there.

No doubt a premiership would avail me of my apathy, but I just can't see how likely that is.

I don't rate our list and I remain sceptical about our coaches.

Essentially, I desperately want to be proven wrong about our Demons.

Absolutely unconditional . There's always a flicker of a bright light . We will come good (we can't get any worse can we? Tell me we can't get any worse!)

Life is all about perseverance and following your sporting team is no different . You just never give up .

However , it pays to have other sporting interests and other sporting teams . Be wise and pick the good ones

Edit : 99.9% unconditional . Would have to be an extraordinary circumstance . Like if the club turned out to be a 'Sleeper cell' for some terrorist group This 'Clandestine' type operation would surely test my allegiance .

Edited September 15, 201212 yr by Macca

To those that say their support is 'not unconditional' - would you envision coming back to the club if whatever hypothetical occurrence you left it for was rectified?

I haven't left the club - still a member, still seen games, still get the kids toys, clothing, etc.

But I just don't have faith that we can be lifted out of our current malaise for a long, long time.

To those that say their support is 'not unconditional' - would you envision coming back to the club if whatever hypothetical occurrence you left it for was rectified?

Once a club is merged it doesn't come back.

MFC to me is much more than a footy club. I went to the footy with my old man, I learned the game watching it with him. Now I continue the same rites with my boys.

The club is now intertwined with relationships that are as valuable as anything I have. For that reason I am in the unconditional group.

Edited September 15, 201212 yr by dandeeman

I haven't left the club - still a member, still seen games, still get the kids toys, clothing, etc.

But I just don't have faith that we can be lifted out of our current malaise for a long, long time.

Fair enough. We'll just have to hope that the premiership somehow materialises. I bet that Lions and Swans fans had similar phases prior to recent premierships. And we have the added bonus that our team is still at home.

Surely this is a no brainer.

Surely this is a no brainer.

Is it? What's your answer?

Saw my first Melb game in 1963......We had just come to Vic from Newcastle....and my Mum was a Dees supporter and would take the family to every game...including Geelong and Footscray during the year....We used to have hot dogs for lunch and then set off to the footy......My sisters and I would cut up crape paper on the Friday night and attach it to a stick and we would have our floggers for the game.

We used to line up outside the MCG overnight to get finals tickets and I was privilaged to be at the last flag win....

I then started to play the game at junior level and had to miss Melb games but it never curbed my enthusiasm.

I even got a letter from Jim Caldwell inviting me to train with the under 19's...which I did but after 3 weeks missed playing and training with my mates so went back and played suburban footy.....

After playing and coaching until I was 38, I again started to go to Melb games.....We had some good years and made grand finals and we had some shite years such as now

I have never douted that we would come good again....and I remain a very loyal and committed member of the Melb footy club....My kids (now in their late 20's) are fully paid up members(the tradition continues)

Edited September 15, 201212 yr by Bossdog

Surely if it was conditional you would have bailed by now. Even those who say it is, are probably kidding themselves and would keep turning up or tuning in to watch the dees. At least when you are rubbish, each win is a big high...I was floating for a week after beating essendon...how sad.

Outside of my immediate family, the Melbourne Football Club is the thing that I've loved the longest. Unless it ceases to exist (merger/folding/relocation/etc.), I'll still love it.

At this point, it's not a choice any more.

Once a club is merged it doesn't come back.

What are you talking about?

I want to know if people who see themselves leaving the fold, can envision themselves coming back.

Edited September 15, 201212 yr by rpfc

But now with footy's congestion, & the mockery it creates I'm been slowly losing Interest in the Game itself, & the professional game without any characters & personality.

I agree with this, no doubt Melbourne winning would help but I can happily not watch a game if it is on.

Too many teams, the quality of talent has been diluted and the football media annoy me to no end.

What are you talking about?

I want to know if people who see themselves leaving the fold, can envision themselves coming back.

And i am saying that if the club merged, there would be nothing to come back to.

My mates think im a glutton for punishment. Out of about nine people that I know that support the demons Im one of two of that group that is still a member. More than half stopped membership when they delisted James Junior. That was their tipping point and it was hard to argue against their logic because since then nothing has happened to bring them back into the fold. If we started performing in the next few years we will easily get 40K - there are lots of slumbering or estranged supporters out there.

Edited September 15, 201212 yr by Norm Smith's Curse

If we merged i have no idea what id do. I hate all the other teams. it would a matter of considering which one i hate the least i guess,.

And i am saying that if the club merged, there would be nothing to come back to.

Right, and if the entire club and its members were eating by a dragon there would be no club to come back to...

I want to know whether those that say they are 'not unconditional' in their support would turn back to the club if whatever they left for was rectified.

Is your 'leaving the club' unconditional?

My mates think im a glutton for punishment. Out of about nine people that I know that support the demons Im one of two of that group that is still a member. More than half stopped membership when they delisted James Junior. That was their tipping point and it was hard to argue against their logic because since then nothing has happened to bring them back into the fold. If we started performing in the next few years we will easily get 40K - there are lots of slumbering or estranged supporters out there.

Sticking it out through all of the rubbish we have endured will make that one premiership worth all of the Collingwood, Carlton and Essendon premierships combined. It wouldn't be the same if you pulled out for a while and waited until things get better.

I said at the top of this thread that i would cease to support this club if it could not support itself. If that happened, the MFC would be merged.

Thus our club would be gone. You cannot come back from that.

To quote a great man, "I'm Melbourne, and I'm Melbourne through and through."

The Melbourne Football Club has given me, and many others, far more than I have given it. There's a sense from some that they support Australian Football (really the AFL) and that their loyalty is to the Melbourne Football Club, but that this loyalty is ultimately secondary to a love of highly played footy. I do not mean to disparage those that hold such a position or one close to it. However, in my own case, I would sooner lose interest than follow a top level league absent of the Demons. (The footy fix would be fulfilled by loyalties at the VAFA level).

It's about the jumper and the shared feeling of success and failure that ties one to the club. We play at the greatest sporting ground in the world, and watch the oldest football club in existence. There is plenty to be proud about.

Extended periods of mediocrity hurt. Even as an adult it is embarrassing the way in which friends or colleagues jibes at the MFC actually illicit barely withheld pain! However, it's easy to forget the good times, and there have been some (even for supporters born post 1960s) [it would be worse following the toiges!].

Highlights from the last 20ish years:

1994 team, 1998 team, 2000 team

Jim, Gary, Todd, Stinga, Lovett's, Neita, Ox, Jackovich, Wiz (with the exception of no.8 season), Ingo, Grigic, Woey, Yze, Green, Bruce, White, Robbo, Junior, potentials in Jones, Grimes, Chippa, Howe ....[Pick the odd one out] - doubtless I've missed someone important.

"still woewodin"

2000 Qualifying Final

2006 Carroll tackle on Gehrig

The Wonna game

Neitz vs. McCabe

[just a few]

I wouldn't trade the good times or the bad times to support any one of 17 other filthy, despicable, substandard clubs better conceptualised as 'football vermin'!

Life might be happier, but it's in the veins ---- will always give full support to the club, I can't help it. Will not put up with those who repeatedly put Melbourne in a worse position - we will get good, and it will be sweet..

[media=]

Edited September 15, 201212 yr by pitchfork

Sticking it out through all of the rubbish we have endured will make that one premiership worth all of the Collingwood, Carlton and Essendon premierships combined. It wouldn't be the same if you pulled out for a while and waited until things get better.

Well said mate. Well said. Couldnt agree more. After what we've been to, pulling the pin now would be madness. Im in this for the long haul and it has been a very long haul!

No ,my support is conditional.

Every year I lay out my conditions to the club in a written document for the season entitled:

Biffs Conditions for season 20--.

The club usually responds by written letter agreeing to every one of my demands .

The playing group then ignore the club and do whatever they want so every two years I put in a "sack the coach"

automatic condition as well as a "sack the skip" clause every third year.

Every fourth year I have a "sack the board" clause in my conditions for my continued personal support .

In this way I manage to destroy any continuity or longevity of plans for the club and keep it a laughing stock so my friends

can give me a stupid condescending smile/ look every time we talk footy or the Demons .

Hey Biff - your conditions mean you sack every one every 12th year! What 'Biff year' are we in now!