A Call for Unity

[Deemon 47]

I write this as a lifelong supporter and member of the MFC. My heart beats true, I bleed red and blue etc etc etc

I have always believed that our time would come, that every poor season was bringing us closer to the ultimate success and that one day the wheel would turn and it would be us on top. Needless to say, the past few years have been a very bitter pill to swallow, as I’m sure everyone on here knows.

What has really ruffled my feathers this morning are the comments from David Schwarz. The Ox is someone I have always admired, I used to go around with 5 on my back. But to claim that he is hoping for us to be walloped on Monday so that the coach gets the sack leaves me speechless. For shame David.

So I put this post up here, as someone who loves the Dees and who so desperately wants us to be successful again, but who would really right now just want to see some unity!! Melbourne supporters are tearing each other apart, everyone disagrees with everyone and I have never seen people so angry. While I understand that anger – and I share plenty of it – I would prefer it was directed at other supporters, not my fellow Dees!! This is our club and its bigger and more important than any individual. If you walk away now you may well find that there is nothing to come back to.

Our backs are against the wall, we face the longest, hardest slog of our lives to get back anywhere near the place where we have success. Now is the time to show the AFL community that WE ARE THE DEMONS!! Let’s stop bickering (I said bickering not disagreeing) and stand together to back our club. Come hell or high water I will be there on Monday, the same way I am every week and there will be a cold day in hell before I hope that our team is “walloped by Collingwood”.

The club is bigger than any individual, and I support the club. Now is the time we need to stand together!!

[cowboy_from_hell 2,390]

It's not that I disagree with you as I love your passion but this club has relied on us members showing heart and sticking with the club through disastrous times. We did through the debt demolition, j Mac gone, a rebuild, tanking, jurrah, energy watch, 186, bailey sacked Schwabb stayed, another rebuild, B & F winner leaving, scully gone, found guilty of tanking, Schwabb sacked, a disfunctional board and now a hopeless team. When will this club show the heart and spirit we have shown? When will the club give us something like we have given them? Unity works both ways in my eyes. Right now I feel like a fly who is loyal to a carcass. I hope this changes.

[Bedraggled Dee 336]

Agree with everything.

The last thing this club needs now is instability. We dont know if Neeld can coach but he at least deserves the opportunty to get some clear air and be given the chance. The club picked him to do the job that they knew was tough at the time and they should back him in for at least this year and hopefully into next year.

He has taken on the worst list and worst prepared team in the AFL and made some fundamental changes for the better that need time to work. Heaps of people of this sight have spent years calling for a change to the clubs culture and attitude and that exactly what Neeld is attempting. If you have ever managed a large group of people you will know how hard that is even without the added problem of the engrained culture of an AFL Club.

Bottom line is we have more pain to come but maybe that is what is needed and we need to stick fat.

Every Demons supporter should turn up and support the boys through the pain and misery because the club needs us.

I will be there with my family and this will make the success when it comes all the sweeter

Carn the Dees

[Hannibal 5,814]

I'll please myself. The current coach has been nothing short of diabolical and I'll call it as I see it. The Board and CEO have also overseen monumental errors.

I will not stand behind and support those that are clearly out of their depth. I'll look forward to having a beer with a few supporters to celebrate when changes in the football department are made, including getting rid of the Nutjob. Until the Nutjob goes there will be no unity, or widespread support.

[dee-luded 2,959]

I write this as a lifelong supporter and member of the MFC. My heart beats true, I bleed red and blue etc etc etc

I have always believed that our time would come, that every poor season was bringing us closer to the ultimate success and that one day the wheel would turn and it would be us on top. Needless to say, the past few years have been a very bitter pill to swallow, as I’m sure everyone on here knows.

What has really ruffled my feathers this morning are the comments from David Schwarz. The Ox is someone I have always admired, I used to go around with 5 on my back. But to claim that he is hoping for us to be walloped on Monday so that the coach gets the sack leaves me speechless. For shame David.

So I put this post up here, as someone who loves the Dees and who so desperately wants us to be successful again, but who would really right now just want to see some unity!! Melbourne supporters are tearing each other apart, everyone disagrees with everyone and I have never seen people so angry. While I understand that anger – and I share plenty of it – I would prefer it was directed at other supporters, not my fellow Dees!! This is our club and its bigger and more important than any individual. If you walk away now you may well find that there is nothing to come back to.

Our backs are against the wall, we face the longest, hardest slog of our lives to get back anywhere near the place where we have success. Now is the time to show the AFL community that WE ARE THE DEMONS!! Let’s stop bickering (I said bickering not disagreeing) and stand together to back our club. Come hell or high water I will be there on Monday, the same way I am every week and there will be a cold day in hell before I hope that our team is “walloped by Collingwood”.

The club is bigger than any individual, and I support the club. Now is the time we need to stand together!!

don't fear Deemon,,, this is a healthy cleansing we need to have. It is painful but we have not done this since the wheels fell off in the 60's... the club & the supporters are stronger than they know.

we have always just gone about in 3rd gear nice an' easy... not pushing ourselves too hard. the team has been a reflection of us,,, the culture of easy going. the players mimic this. this is possibly the biggest reason we are where we have been over the decades.

that glass ceiling, you know glass flexes under stress before it breaks. Once we break through, we can all come back together inline.

... this culture of easy going has to be broken. this is why we have never been a tough hard side of generations & we got pummeled by the likes of the fiercer Hawks & other clubs.

we have to break thru this glass politically correct wall, & become a hardened Club with a take on All comers attitude.

its warm, dry & cosy under here, but it's not very successful playing this way. Virtually anything, realistically nothing...

Edited June 6, 2013 by dee-luded

[robbiefrom13 892]

Unity is so important, but it can also be over-rated. There are times when unity is out of its depth.

When the reality fractures, you have to get a bigger umbrella, a bigger unity to get it all back on the same page...

The enormity of our losses, week after week, is a fact that invalidates any unity we strive for, in that it separates methods from purpose. We cannot agree to method when it so fails to deliver our agreed purpose. Or, alternatively, we cannot continue to be agreed about our purpose when the agreed method fails to delivers an assumed purpose... So we fracture, in both directions.

Neeld apologists stand firm on method, Neeld despairers won't budge on the scoreboard (our purpose is winning). We are fractured, because we are getting slaughtered. There is no rational unity at the moment - both sides are legitimate, and until Neeld unites method with purpose we must inevitably remain fractured. If not Neeld, then someone else under whom unity of method and purpose can be achieved. That may be a bigger umbrella than Neeld.

Arguing for time is to argue for Neeld, and the price is monumental disunity on the grounds of monumental failure to align method with purpose. The ongoing fracturing will almost certainly result in more and more bits of the club breaking off. Already, the level of intolerance arising out of strong allegiance to either method or purpose, and out of differing views of what our method or our purpose should be, and out of sheer confusion because of the sundering of method from purpose, is impacting supporters and attendance figures; what it is doing to players is anybody's guess (though their performance must be some kind of a clue).

As an aside, we were divided on the issue of tanking, at the time. Some could not swallow strategic losing. This was the same divide we now face. The culture of the club is still poisoned by the theory that losing can be good for us. Both sides of the Neeld debate actually have put this cancerous thought forward. We really do need a bigger narrative.

Edited June 6, 2013 by robbiefrom13

[MadAsHell 4,215]

I'll please myself. The current coach has been nothing short of diabolical and I'll call it as I see it. The Board and CEO have also overseen monumental errors.

I will not stand behind and support those that are clearly out of their depth. I'll look forward to having a beer with a few supporters to celebrate when changes in the football department are made, including getting rid of the Nutjob. Until the Nutjob goes there will be no unity, or widespread support.

I hope you see the Irony in this post of yours BH in a thread calling for unity......

[thevil1 421]

Is the board not backing the coach inspiring unity? We are a mess, David's just calling it how he sees it & has actually bled for the red & blue for real.

[Hannibal 5,814]

I hope you see the Irony in this post of yours BH in a thread calling for unity......

What irony ?

Clearly I disagree. I'll support who I like and I certainly don't support the incumbents, which is very different to supporting the players - who have my support.

[jumbo returns 6,741]

I'll please myself. The current coach has been nothing short of diabolical and I'll call it as I see it. The Board and CEO have also overseen monumental errors.

I will not stand behind and support those that are clearly out of their depth. I'll look forward to having a beer with a few supporters to celebrate when changes in the football department are made, including getting rid of the Nutjob. Until the Nutjob goes there will be no unity, or widespread support.

Can't deny it - it's your club.

[thevil1 421]

Yea, close your eyes, hold hands & sing coombaya fellas, that'll work to right the ship surely! Lets blindly follow this incompetence and if we just believe it will all turn out rosy?!?

Hey, maybe that's what the players are trying to do out there!! 'We are behind the coach, we believe it will just work eventually, so no need to kill myself going at the contest!!' Lol

They say change is as good as a holiday.....

[Cheap Seats 3,310]

I am of the belief we shouldn't unnecessarily fracture the club

I think we should fix the club 1 step at a time - the first step was getting a competent CEO

Number 2 is fixing the board

The rest will fall in to place when we fix the very top

If it's done properly (no takeovers or board spills) I support change

[Pates 9,660]

I respect the Ox but for him to hope that we get walloped just so the coach can get the flick is poor. If your a true loyal red and blue always us to win, and whether you like Neeld or not you should hope for a win on Monday and success following. It reminds me of Lyons comment of "what happens if they start to win?" Well isn't that the good damn point!

[thevil1 421]

I am of the belief we shouldn't unnecessarily fracture the club I think we should fix the club 1 step at a time - the first step was getting a competent CEO Number 2 is fixing the board The rest will fall in to place when we fix the very top If it's done properly (no takeovers or board spills) I support change

I agree with this to an extent, but McLardarse doesn't see himself as part of the problem. Neither did schwab. Garry Lyon keeps looking around going 'I was only one of a committee who decided to hire Bailey and then Neeld' despite many reports he was super keen on both and the boards largely listened to him about it. Unfortunately sometimes blood has to spill for a club to purge its demons.

[thevil1 421]

I respect the Ox but for him to hope that we get walloped just so the coach can get the flick is poor. If your a true loyal red and blue always us to win, and whether you like Neeld or not you should hope for a win on Monday and success following. It reminds me of Lyons comment of "what happens if they start to win?" Well isn't that the good damn point!

And Garry said that cause he knows the long term decision has already been made, read between the lines silly!!

Just like that song you quote, you worked out what that is really about didn't you? Lol

[1 red eye 1 blue eye 771]

Hopefully Ox's comments add some extra grit and determination to our boys fielding the MCG Monday. I would love to see this game turn into one really ugly scrap.

[robbiefrom13 892]

I am of the belief we shouldn't unnecessarily fracture the club

I think we should fix the club 1 step at a time - the first step was getting a competent CEO

Number 2 is fixing the board

The rest will fall in to place when we fix the very top

If it's done properly (no takeovers or board spills) I support change

I reckon that's pretty right - except that what I barrack for is not a governance entity, but a footy team that runs out on the weekend to play footy. I think we have to prioritise that during the season. Tidy up/rebuild the club and the list during the off-season - but at the moment, the reality of MFC is pre-eminently its failure to be competitive on the field.

I think that during the last pre-season, the Board were either sitting on their incompetent hands or else misled by Neeld (or the CEO) about how the team would perform. The changes you propose are changes we needed bedded down before the business of palying games began. Fancy the club being such a mess at this stage that Jackson cannot tell what is what, and where the real problem is!

No doubt many supporters are unimpressed by the organisational shambles of the club, and in time getting that right will bring about overall improvements. But surely what is really upsetting right now is what happens week in week out on the field. We don't really have time to work carefully through the slow process of fixing the administrative problems while the team goes on getting slaughtered. What I'm saying is, your diagnosis and proposed treatment is likely great, except that the patient is rapidly losing blood: it's time to hit the code red button, get Emergency in, and administer First Aid. Our on-field crisis demands attention, now. Well, I am calling it a crisis, as I think others are too. If I wasn't, I'd agree entirely with you.

[Little Richard 6,265]

What irony ?

Clearly I disagree. I'll support who I like and I certainly don't support the incumbents, which is very different to supporting the players - who have my support.

Quite a few of those players are incumbents too.

[rjay 25,088]

No, this was the call after the Geelong game. Bailey got the sack but we need unity, well all that gave us was another 18 months or more of rubbish. If we had of done what should have been done then and said goodbye to Schwab for a start then we would probably be at least $1mill better off in salary payouts and fines.

Unity is not the answer, a new very well directed broom is and that's why nothing has happened yet. It will and there will be major changes.

[thevil1 421]

Hopefully Ox's comments add some extra grit and determination to our boys fielding the MCG Monday. I would love to see this game turn into one really ugly scrap.

If it takes this from the Ox to finally see a game like that, then he is even more right!! Make him coach to inspire these blokes! And president! Ha!!

As much as I hope to see a game like that with my club in it for once, it won't happen anyway, they couldn't even play like that for Jimmy's tribute or for the last coach they supposedly all loved and backed.

[DemonFrog 1,356]

There does need to be unity, I absolutely agree and have supported the MFC five years ago when its started a major rebuild. I even joined the Club as a member last year to show my support even though I was very disappointed with the lack of on field success.

I sat back watching events unfold over the years until the 10 goal loss to the Suns, then I had enough of staying quiet and saying nothing.

How does the MFC take five yeas, have access to professional staff and other resources and spend 10's of millions of dollars to be in the position it finds itself today, a train wreck.

It is clear to me that the MFC needs changes to a number of its senior position, not just with the head coach.

I agree with the Ox and support his actions. I would vote for him as President of the MFC tomorrow if I could.

I heard the argument that we need to wait and be patient. Well all I can say in response that that approach is "been there done that". What this approach has achieved so far is a team that is getting thumped each week, ineffectual board and coaches who live in Lar Lar Land.

I personally don't like talking about individual players and their on field performance and leave that to others to comment about.

I am looking to give my support to any group that wants to see proactive change within the MFC. That is where my unity will be going if thing don't change for the better.

[Norm Smith's Curse 2,602]

All I can say is the truth about what has happened at the club will come out and its interesting...

[DemonFrog 1,356]

May I now say I fully support thr Senior Coach, CEO, Board (Whats left of it) the players and Demonland (now a Life Member).

C,mon the Dees give them Hell!

Just don't bring back Whiteboard Wednesdays as you will see a grown man cry.