We're back

[Arrow 1,257]

No, not quite yet. We all know actions on the footy field speak far louder than the actions off- field however for the first team since arguably late 80's early 90's I'm sensing something from the outside that hasn't been smelt for years.

Fear.

Tell me the last time you had a friend say Wow Melbourne are having a dip.

Tell me the last time we've been this aggressive and unrelenting in the trade period.

Neeld and co. are bringing change to the MFC and boy is it refreshing!

After 2 and a half weeks of the trade period, and really 22 weeks of the AFL season Melbourne were knocked pillar to post by the media, and rather than other years were the spotlight was taken off us due to other clubs equal ineptitude, we forced them to back up.

Denham, Bartlett & Barrett all look like absolute fools because we have shown players we do have a light at the end of the tunnel, and we are an attractive proposition; finally.

The most important thing for the club is to get supporters and members on side. I'd argue we have done too much in the 5-10 years in bringing this club off it's knees to a self-sufficient unit. Now was the MFC's time to deliver back to us. I'm so impressed to see we're not going to die trying.

I made the thread earlier in the off-season saying the 8 next year is not out of realms of probability. It's still highly unlikely, but the pulse is beating again at AAMI Park. The moves the Football Department have made will set up Melbourne Football Club to have a crack with the big guys in a 3-7 year period, it's now the responsibility of the players and the coaches to develop and grow together and bring the Red and the Blue what we so desperately yearn for.

Can anyone else feel the quivering?

[Little Richard 6,216]

Honestly no. What I hear is people scoffing that we have spent pick 20 on Dawes and lured a 'hack' in Shannon Byrnes to the club.

But when I hear them laugh at these sorts of things I think 'Just you wait until next year, because we won't be a joke anymore, we might just beat your team', and I feel better and I have more faith.

For the record I think everything Neeld and co have done so far is fantastic and I can't wait for next season just to prove some of these smug pr**ks wrong.

[Waltham33 475]

Fear.

Not feeling the fear form the opposition just yet, but without question the club is making it clear we are relevant and the opposition will find that out next season. Good to see.

[Face Your Demons 175]

These's hacks we have picked up will bring the younger guys into the game, show them what is all about and turn this club around faster.

For the record I don,t believe we have picked badly in the past the club has just not shown player how to grow. All that has changed.

[beelzebub 23,200]

Funny... I live amongst filth, that and two very good mates are filthy too. Neither is particularly laughing. A comment from one is actually interesting : " seems clearer what you guys are doing than what Bucks is !!"

Funny one can actually see what many here cant. The exchange of picks is not a cop out to us, it wont matter. It was a nothing pick to us. We get Dawes, and still have a pick if we want. Its all lucky dip down there anyways.

"you guys are going to be hard to man up on now!!"

thats the thing 2+2 = 5 ; some dont get it

[Red N Blue Society 165]

No, not quite yet. We all know actions on the footy field speak far louder than the actions off- field however for the first team since arguably late 80's early 90's I'm sensing something from the outside that hasn't been smelt for years.

Fear.

Tell me the last time you had a friend say Wow Melbourne are having a dip.

Tell me the last time we've been this aggressive and unrelenting in the trade period.

Neeld and co. are bringing change to the MFC and boy is it refreshing!

After 2 and a half weeks of the trade period, and really 22 weeks of the AFL season Melbourne were knocked pillar to post by the media, and rather than other years were the spotlight was taken off us due to other clubs equal ineptitude, we forced them to back up.

Denham, Bartlett & Barrett all look like absolute fools because we have shown players we do have a light at the end of the tunnel, and we are an attractive proposition; finally.

The most important thing for the club is to get supporters and members on side. I'd argue we have done too much in the 5-10 years in bringing this club off it's knees to a self-sufficient unit. Now was the MFC's time to deliver back to us. I'm so impressed to see we're not going to die trying.

I made the thread earlier in the off-season saying the 8 next year is not out of realms of probability. It's still highly unlikely, but the pulse is beating again at AAMI Park. The moves the Football Department have made will set up Melbourne Football Club to have a crack with the big guys in a 3-7 year period, it's now the responsibility of the players and the coaches to develop and grow together and bring the Red and the Blue what we so desperately yearn for.

Can anyone else feel the quivering?

Totally agree with what you have said!

We have recruited for once exactly what our needs are.

Because we have the coin & the people & a home base which is second to none really.

Possibly more plaers to arrive yet.

And...with improvement from our younger blokes on field I think winning results are about to arrive.

All Demons members must back the club in this time to continue the clubs strategy for a flag.

[old dee 23,506]

Funny... I live amongst filth, that and two very good mates are filthy too. Neither is particularly laughing. A comment from one is actually interesting : " seems clearer what you guys are doing than what Bucks is !!"

Funny one can actually see what many here cant. The exchange of picks is not a cop out to us, it wont matter. It was a nothing pick to us. We get Dawes, and still have a pick if we want. Its all lucky dip down there anyways.

"you guys are going to be hard to man up on now!!"

thats the thing 2+2 = 5 ; some dont get it

Over the last decade bb we have had more luck with the higher numbers than the low ones.

However I would sound a note of caution.

Every year at this time of the year we as Dees find reasons to support our desire to move up the ladder.

More often than not we are all bought back to earth by the end of April.

I will admit I feel a little better this year because we are changing the cattle.

But lets just be quietly confident that improvement is on the way.

I will be happy with 6 genuine wins in 2013 and no 10+ goal losses.

Our rise is going to take a few years 2013 is year one for me.

However a win on QB is a given. ( well I can dream can't I?)

[beelzebub 23,200]

The thing about that lower pick is i feel confident the fd Will find a viable foot soldier (at worst ) and thats fair enough .

Weve still some talent waiting to come through, some forgotten in the current excitement lol

Qb Will be fun (again )

[beelzebub 23,200]

The thing about that lower pick is i feel confident the fd Will find a viable foot soldier (at worst ) and thats fair enough .

Weve still some talent waiting to come through, some forgotten in the current excitement lol

Qb Will be fun (again )

[Longsufferingnomore 1,622]

Had forgotten about QB. I can just see it now - a reinvigorated Dawes and Clarke smashing the filth and Howee climbing all over the top of them. Leave early cause it wont be pretty in the outer.

[P-man 13,366]

Absolutely nobody fears us at this point in time, let's get real. But I agree with the overall sentiment regarding how refreshing it is to see the club being aggressive in the trade period and I think the club is preparing well for its climb back up the ladder.

I'm just excited to finally see us playing with a forward line. A real, bona fide forward line, with athletic talls, crumbing smalls, who woulda thunk it? I'll however be keeping a lid on cries of "we're gonna make the 8!!" until actually watching how the new team gels.

Bring on 2013.

[Allen Jakovich 516]

Dawes is very handy but what we really need is fitter players. This pre-season is so important.

[beelzebub 23,200]

Everything's important and thats plainly something we just didnt get for many years as we p!ssfarted around playing with this part of a setup, or that part. We added supposedly class and 'eliteness' here and there. There was just no holistic understanding that a team is organic in nature , all interconnected and only as good as its weakest point. we had a few weaknesses and that undermined anything we tried as it would all come crashing back the minute some vestige of finely tuned aspirant fell over.

I do agree that this preseason will add something

[Little Richard 6,216]

I really can't wait for next season. I copped it all year this year from my mates and there is really so much you can put up with. I'm sure there are other people on here who know the feeling but it just got too hard to go and watch and end up depressed again for another week, while your mates take the [censored] out of your team.

I know we are going to see a much different team next season and I'm pumped just to know we won't be the pathetic pushovers we were this year. Carn the Dees.

[beelzebub 23,200]

Absolutely nobody fears us at this point in time.......

Not yet and thats a good opportunity to catch a few by surprise

This time next year will be quite a different situation

[Supermercado 2,784]

Would like to win some games of football first, but we certainly haven't gone backwards.

[Pennant St Dee 12,711]

I'm cautious, there will be improvement there is no doubt we will be older and fitter and have bigger bodies. Neeld and the new FD have turned the club upside down and it will take time just hope we can all see the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer but still a bit off.

He gave the list a chance for 12 months had a look and now it is his team, getting in the bigger bodies required to play his brand, who knows with the bigger bodies around them and a decent pre season in them some of the skinnier kids may flourish.

I also expect improvement in Trenners, Blease, Grimes & Howe so whilst I think the future is bright , we are not back, we are on the way back. But at least we have made a statement and had a line in the sand moment this pre season. As John Kennedy said "Don't think, Do". And Neeld has done the "Do" so at lease we wont die wondering.

I believe it may take another year but he will deliver on his promise of making us a very hard side to play against and for that reason if he is available Wines is a monty to us at pick 4.

Go Dees

[Deeoldfart 7,996]

We are weird lot us Dees supporters. For most of us, season 2012 couldn't end quickly enough, and now, just a few weeks later, many of us can't wait 'till the start of season 2013. We are wishing our bloody lives away, but just you gotta love our resilience and spirit!

[Chook in Perth 2,092]

Is this Demonland or Punt Road End??

You don't win games in October. Nobody fears us, nor should they. Nor should it matter.

and we most certainly aren't back. we've been dug out of the rubble, taken to the hospital and out of ICU. still on long way to go to full health.

Lets win some games first and all the periphery stuff will fall into place.

[Sir Why You Little 36,675]

We are now on the right road. It will be a long drive, but we are no longer lost.

This is the way we must trade every year from now on.

The MCG will be full again.

Norm is outside waiting.

[Guest]

We aren't back. As stated earlier, we are on the way back. While I support what Neeld is doing now, the proof will be during the season. I view him as our Alistair Clarkson. Remember, Clarko's first year was a shocker as well but the work he was doing behind the scenes wasn't readily apparent. He got his own list in and toughened up a group who mostly enjoyed spending time in the gym looking at their pecs (our blokes barely spent anytime in the gym so Neeldy inherited a worse situation). Once he stamped his authority on the place, results began curving upwards.

[beelzebub 23,200]

Id say we are back actually, back in the game that is. We should be able to compete now.

What has changed not quite overnight but over the course of the last few weeks is the make up of our list and this will afford quite a different team dynamic for season 013 onwards. The weight of the world wont need to be quite the burden of such a young team, some older heads ( and shoulders ) can take up some of the load.

The way we line up and consequently the way others match up on us should/will change. The insertion of Dawes into the front changes the abiilty of opposition teams targeting Clark and nullifying our minimalist attack has gone. This brings our 3rd fwd right back into the game. This is turn lifts opportunities for the crumbers. Momentum shifts.

Dawes apart from being a decent forward target is actually one of the better forwards (acc to stats) in applying fwd defensive pressure. This is a bonus for the mids so often carved up from a very quick rebounding ball.

But even here in the middle our stocks , almost universally appraised as having jumped a level though acquisitions , should contest and win their share of the ball.

All this has knock-on effects The more attacking of the defenders , the likes of Watts and McDonald can impose their ability to push the ball forward more often.

Better players mean you can move from being almost permanently on the back foot playing reactive football to being able to implement a style of game that youre being coached to do.

Like a see-saw it doesnt take much sometimes to change things.

[old dee 23,506]

We are weird lot us Dees supporters. For most of us, season 2012 couldn't end quickly enough, and now, just a few weeks later, many of us can't wait 'till the start of season 2013. We are wishing our bloody lives away, but just you gotta love our resilience and spirit!

And I am not flush with what seemed like an unending supply 20 years ago.

I am in no rush to start the 2013 season Deeoldfart it will mean another 4 months of my life will have flashed by.

I am happy to take our time to get to late March.

I am going to enjoy the preseason and all the positive spin the club puts out between now and then

In the knowledge we will not lose one game over the next three months

Only positives ahead while I wait.

[Sir Why You Little 36,675]

Opposition supporters are noticing what we have done though. I got about 15 messages left for me this morning.

[DemonWA 3,888]

Funny... I live amongst filth, that and two very good mates are filthy too. Neither is particularly laughing. A comment from one is actually interesting : " seems clearer what you guys are doing than what Bucks is !!"

\

I had a chat to a Pies mate of mine about dawes, and he said 'Brad Miller take 2!'