RIP Melbourne Football Club

[Biffen 12,947]

I think if Neitz ,Yze or Bruce came looking for a job we would have to check their references .

What makes you think you're qualified to work at the MFC (again)??

 

Edited August 7, 2016 by Biffen

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Biffen said:

I think if Neitz ,Yze or Bruce came looking for a job we would have to check their references .

What makes you think you're qualified to work at the MFC (again)??

 

I believe we have moved past the days of the athletic, clean cut go getter.  We are focusing more on Max Gawn style hipsters I hear.

[Sir Why You Little 37,195]

Wow. I just read through 5 pages of this thread. That was really hard work. 

A lot of posters are not around from then. 

The club was dead. 

PJ. Thanks for taking on a job that many wouldn't, and doing it right. 

The journey even now has only just begun. I still want to see some presence in The CBD. The heart of our city. 

Let yesterday not be a spike, but a standard we all expect and respect...

we must beat Port next week.  Feel the momentum shift...

Edited August 7, 2016 by Sir Why You Little

[xarronn 384]

3 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

We've come a long way... to think 3 years ago all we could ever discuss on here is if we would survive.

 

What a great bump DD. This thread was obviously created after we were thrashed by Essendon. That was indeed a dark time for dedicated supporters, (and of course not the first time we had that experience even if we started with the game against Geelong in 2011).

It's a real memory jolt to look at the team which played in round 1 that year - dee-luded included it in a post in this thread. (Trengove and Dawes were injured and aremissing from it), but only 4 players in that team played yesterday.

On ‎9‎/‎04‎/‎2013 at 3:48 PM, dee-luded said:

Round 1 Melbourne team

B: Lynden Dunn, Tom Gillies, Daniel Nicholson

HB: Jack Watts, James Frawley, Colin Garland

C: Jack Viney, Jack Grimes, Jimmy Toumpas

HF: Jeremy Howe, James Sellar, Colin Sylvia

F: Shannon Byrnes, Mitch Clark, David Rodan

FOLL: Mark Jamar, Jordie McKenzie, Nathan Jones

I/C: Sam Blease, Cam Pedersen, Luke Tapscott, Matt Jones

EMG: Aaron Davey, Jake Spencer, Dean Terlich

 

I guess disappointments  often don't allow us to view things clearly. If you really love the club sometimes it feels like it's cheated on you, (even if that feeling does pass within a day or so). I didn't read every post in the thread but the originator, (Benson), had a change of heart within about a day of posting. I can remember exactly the same return of optimism after a couple of days.

Great opportunity to put things in perspective - thanks DD.

[What 18,810]

That loss to the Essendon drug cheats...  terrible night.  And now that we know they were pumped full of PED's, it really is disgraceful. That club should have been booted from the AFL.

[Jaded No More 68,974]

It makes me cry thinking about where we were 3 years ago, and genuinely not seeing this club surviving. The thought of not having Melbourne to support is unimaginable. 

When we finally experience real success, nobody, and I mean nobody, will enjoy it more than us long suffering supporters. It will be the sweetest taste and I will always think back to Roos and PJ (who will hopefully still be there), and thank our lucky stars that they came to our rescue. 

I can't wait to stop being Jaded on here, and changing my name to "[censored] yes we just won a flag". I think it's quite catchy! 

[Guest]

148 was the night when we realized how much trouble the club was in and how detached our administration was from the reality of it all.

After a bloody abysmal period of off season trading, Mark Neeld came out and told supporters at a pre season event that the club was quite bullish internally and that we would move forward as a club.

I remember walking out of the Power vs. Demons match in round 1 of 2013 quite shellshocked. A passing Collingwood supporter (not being a smart ass) saw my sense of disbelief and asked me what happened at the G. When I told him we got thumped by 80pts, the look of shock/concern on his face was as palpable as mine.Up until that point, I felt Neeld had needed to burn down the city to save it. I realized at that point he had just merely burnt down the city.

The next week, with the same girlfriend/wife champing at the bit to finally see a game of footy, I realized that I needed to stay the hell away from our game against Essendon. Something truly ugly was brewing so I opted to take her to see the Saints vs. Tigers at the G. Sadly for me, she semi adopted Richmond that night though (she doesn't really retain that loyalty due to us now living in Japan for the time being). That being said, I don't regret that decision as she enjoyed the game (Richmond outlasted a gritty Saints outfit by 3 goals) and she didn't get to see what happened against Essendon.

The thing that finally proved that the emperor wasn't wearing any clothes wasn't just the nature of the loss against Essendon. A lot of people tried to defend it at the time (it wasn't the rev up given before they run out they wailed), but seeing Mark deliver that speech to the players showed me how disinterested they were and disconnected they were from him. They didn't want to be there (barely anyone looked him in the eyes) and you could tell that Neeld was still trying hard but his efforts were in vain. It surely must have been taking months off his life.

I said at that very moment it was time for him to move on. I had GENUINE concern for his long term mental well being if he were to stay on. Having worked in education for a long time, I have seen the toll it can take when a group you are in charge of has switched off and are rebelling. The coach I saw at the presser after the game was genuinely gutted and had had all his self belief thrown back in his face. I felt the utmost sympathy for him as it would have been horrible to have gone through all that. (Thank goodness when he was finally sacked, the club had the decency to not completely humiliate him as had happened with Bails).

The other image that stayed with me that night was candid locker room footage of CS, Don and Neeld huddled together, dissecting the match. CS looked filthy but I wondered 'what are you upset for?'. All of this was the consequence of most of his hare brained schemes. He was the one who won the political battle of 2011 fully and absolutely. He was the one who had wholeheartedly pushed one of the most destructive recruiting policies this club has ever witnessed. He and his mates selected the kind of coach they said Bails wasn't. Yet the image I saw then and there was of someone who wouldn't take responsibility for what he had done. It wasn't until he was sacked/made to resign that he was FORCED to take some measure of responsibility though he said he was 'still up for the fight' at his last presser. If he were an honest broker, he would have jumped before he was pushed.

The facts are that we are still a middling team with a high ceiling should a lot go right in the next few years. By no means is yesterday's win 'Mission Accomplished'. However, when you think back to that night, you can't make a comparison to the kind of club we were then to the one we are now. It shows how much of an accomplishment it really was to drag us to the mid table when you consider how, as David Schwarz said at the time, we were a 'bee's digit away from being in the Fitzroy position'.

That we have any sort of future is something to marvel at.

 

 

Edited August 7, 2016 by Colin B. Flaubert
One proper incorrect usage of be verb tense.