Following Melbourne has never felt like a choice to me. It's just something I've always done. I've moved beyond questioning my passion to simply accepting it's part of who I am. I no longer question what the gaps are in my life that the MFC helps paper over. I know it consumes too much of my time and thoughts and emotional energy but the flipside has been an incredibly enjoyable association and unlike a weekly lotto participant or a gambling addict I feel like I have a legitimate chance of seeing my team enjoy the ultimate success. The fact we haven't won a premiership in my lifetime isn't something I look at as a sad cross to bare anymore. I don't see my support of this team as a character flaw. In fact quite the opposite. I refuse to develop a loser mentality. How often in life do you commit to something as much and for as long as we commit to this club? How many supporters can claim our level of unrewarded passion? I've openly considered life after a MFC premiership. Would our lives lose a little meaning? It's ridiculous. I genuinely believe, however, that a John Northey-like 'character' has been forged in each of us by following this football club day in day out - the kind of character you wouldn't see in a Hawthorn or Essendon supporter. Coaching and getting involved at a club, community and school level has also been healthy because I've been able to enjoy the game at a time when enjoying watching the Dees has been close to impossible. It's helped fill a gap in the gap filler until we become competitive again.

I do not have the brains to stop

As a survivor of those bleak years between Smithie and Swooper we at least now have a Draft to give us hope for a competitive side before too long. We could do worse than load up with midfielders (with grunt) at the end of the year .

I do not have the brains to stop

yes you do. You choose not too. None of us can really . Its who we are, its what we are........stubborn bastards !! Lol

Yep, spot on with all the posts, great thread. For me, it has to be the fact that after all the lows, a premiership will be all the sweeter.

I think it would be a pretty weak person who takes the highs of the 80's and 2000 and then can't stick it out when we have some lows. We can all see pretty clearly when it all went wrong, and I think we can all tell that the damage to the club from that decision is going to take time to fix, but it is fixable and we are beginning to see some sign of things turning around. I know many of you can't see anything good from Mark Neeld, but the fact is that he did manage to bring in training structures and practices that will continue to benefit the club regardless of who is coaching. We now have a fitter list and a number of talented young players coming in through an improved system that should (I devoutly hope) allow them to reach their potential as AFL players. We have all the talls we need to challenge for a flag and are only lacking the midfield depth to control the game. To me that says we are closer than many think and if we manage to pull a good quality mid from another club and top up with a couple more talented youngsters we could well challenge for finals next year.

Basically, I may be a deluded optimist, but I will happily continue to support the club and tell the world that we are just around the corner and things are looking up.

I'm not sure what it is but we demon supporters must have something going for us to stick like we do. There is a lot of infighting and bitching on demonland but at heart we all hope for the same thing. We must be total lunatics.

Equal parts Tenacity, stubborness, delusion and alcohol.

You just do it. It's not a choice, it's who we are. Honestly, the thought of jumping off has never occurred to me, which all things considered is a bizarre thing in itself.

If you really love the club then it tests your resolve to its limits, but you keep going because in the back of your mind is that vision of success, and you have to stick through the bad times to truly savour, and indeed lay claim to the good times.

if you're going to have faith in a cause it's important you have it not just when things are going well

i believe we will win premiership 13 in my lifetime and it will feel amazing

My being delusional and almost senile.

The fact that its just football

You just do it. It's not a choice, it's who we are. Honestly, the thought of jumping off has never occurred to me, which all things considered is a bizarre thing in itself.

If you really love the club then it tests your resolve to its limits, but you keep going because in the back of your mind is that vision of success, and you have to stick through the bad times to truly savour, and indeed lay claim to the good times.

That's it. I have no choice. I don't want one either.

I get the occasional idiot say to me:

"But if you supported X you would have seen Y amount of flags"

My answer is:

"I have seen X win Y amount of flags - and it annoyed me"

I don't give a [censored] about who wins what if we didn't win what.

It hurts like hell to be a demon, but it would burn like hell not to be.

Better the Devil...

what DemonOx said

edit: plus i think as another said on here, its kind of part of me and will never change.

Edited July 15, 201311 yr by young dee enthusiast

my absolute love and passion for the Melbourne Football Club and AFL

Habit.

Stupidity.

Hope, I just watch every week hoping to see something or someone to get excited about. I hope Jack Watts finally kicks his bag of 6-8 goals, I hope that Toumpas has a massive break out game 25 touches and a couple of goals, the Hope that one day Col Sylvia can play he best footy week in week out, still to this day his match against Hawthorn a few years ago IMO was the best game I have seen any MFC player play. The hope Trengove becomes a good AFL midfielder, the hope that comes with Jack Viney and Jesse Hogan, the hope that one day this year we see Clark, Dawes, Watts and Howe in the same forward line.

The hope that one year it all clicks.

Four beers before every match, it actually makes us look good and by the time you get to the last qtr (another 3 beers) you can't read the score....

Only joking, I only drink 6 beers a match

The reality is that all this emotional and time investment in a miserable losing team, where there is seldom any joy, only STRENGTHENS our resolve. Otherwise, what is all that investment for? It's brutally ironic that the worse things get as a Dees supporter, the less option there is to stop caring, as the sense of waste would be just too overwhelming. It's NOT an option.

One day, Sisyphus adorned in his Red and Blue scarf will roll that boulder to the top of the hill, stand atop it, shout to the world "all good things come to the Dees who wait" then fall to his knees weeping with joy.

None of my mates support Melbourne. They feel extremely sorry for me and buy me Beers, Coffee and Snot Blocks. Life doesn't get much better than that.

I'm accustomed to living through drought ....... but I want to be swept away when the floodgates open.

The reality is that all this emotional and time investment in a miserable losing team, where there is seldom any joy, only STRENGTHENS our resolve. Otherwise, what is all that investment for? It's brutally ironic that the worse things get as a Dees supporter, the less option there is to stop caring, as the sense of waste would be just too overwhelming. It's NOT an option.

One day, Sisyphus adorned in his Red and Blue scarf will roll that boulder to the top of the hill, stand atop it, shout to the world "all good things come to the Dees who wait" then fall to his knees weeping with joy.

I'm just concerned that we'll find that we've mixed up our mythical characters and instead of being Sisyphus we'll find out we're actually Icarus, get to the top of the mountain and have our wings drop off.

In answer to the question initially posed, I think it's passion. The Demons may not give all the rewards that passion can deliver, but they also don't expect anything in return.

None of my mates support Melbourne. They feel extremely sorry for me and buy me Beers, Coffee and Snot Blocks. Life doesn't get much better than that.

I'm a little scared to ask, but what the heck is a Snot Block?

I'm a little scared to ask, but what the heck is a Snot Block?

Vanilla slice