3 hours ago, praha said:

The club is in lockdown. I suspect there's a stringent PR plan being put in place. The club has to be pretty careful with its brand management. Damned if they do, damned if they don't atm.

I just emailed them noting that rule one of crisis management is you can't say nothing!!   I'm really surprised they didn't have a contingency plan in place for this eventuality and that they didn't convene yesterday evening to work out when to launch it.  It's a bit embarrassing to be honest.

I rather silly looked at how the finals might pan out.  Had we hung on to 8th we would have been in the non-Sydney side of the draw.

We probably would not have got to the GF to play them but can't help wistfully thinking what might have been for us in September had we made 8th and had a bit of luck with injuries.

45 minutes ago, Redleg said:

BTW you are not the god of judging footballers either, so you don't need to call people's opinions rubbish just because you disagree. 

 

Nah, just angry 'Red'.

Was also angry last week as I could see this happening, and also thought Frost would be brought up.

Whether it's the Macs or one of the Macs & Frost...we have a problem there.

We only have Jetta and Hibberd that can be relied upon and Hibberd was starting to look a bit tired in the last few games. Interesting that his mate Hurley (the 2 that didn't train during the suspension) is struggling with injury now.

It's one of the things I agree with 'stevetheman' on...with our backline it's shuffling the deck chairs. We need to add some class there and of course in the midfield.

I'm more worried now that we have missed out, that our opportunity to pick up someone like Lever has diminished.

1 minute ago, GCDee said:

Doubt it will be retirement... 

Has to be an apology. Or he is requesting a trade...

still not even an update to the official website

50 years I've supported this club. Apart from that Grand Final spanking. That was the most disappointing thing I've seen from this club.

Just f#$/^ng soft. There is something in the culture of our club that stops us from being ruthless in smashing teams when should and standing up on big occaisions. 

Start by trading those that are soft

4 minutes ago, DemonAndrew said:

still not even an update to the official website

Usually by now we would have a coaches report, or even all the goals video which mind you should be replaced by an all the tackles video, would be a lot shorter.

it's very poor

at the very least they should have removed the 'wait and see' article

the club will not live down that 'finals are coming!' email for some time

9 minutes ago, GCDee said:

Doubt it will be retirement... 

Has to be an apology. Or he is requesting a trade...

Stepping down as captain is my guess.

Jones will announce that he has discovered he is a dual citizen and will leave parliament.

20 minutes ago, rjay said:

Nah, just angry 'Red'.

Was also angry last week as I could see this happening, and also thought Frost would be brought up.

Whether it's the Macs or one of the Macs & Frost...we have a problem there.

We only have Jetta and Hibberd that can be relied upon and Hibberd was starting to look a bit tired in the last few games. Interesting that his mate Hurley (the 2 that didn't train during the suspension) is struggling with injury now.

It's one of the things I agree with 'stevetheman' on...with our backline it's shuffling the deck chairs. We need to add some class there and of course in the midfield.

I'm more worried now that we have missed out, that our opportunity to pick up someone like Lever has diminished.

No worries rjay, I am hurting and angry as well.

Also saw this happening during the Lions game, as we were playing poorly and then squandered 3 goals in the last few minutes. Could smell a percentage miss out on the finals.

Agree with the rest of your post that we need another class key back who can deliver the ball forward accurately and then we need to add two pacy, skilled, outside mids and probably a back up ruckman, assuming Jake goes and Mitch isn't quite ready.

I am assuming Weed will make it and that Tim Smith, Pedo, Watts can help out Jesse, who needs to learn to play in front, lead and apply pressure to the opposition.

Anyway it's going to be a long off season for me. I don't want to even watch any finals I am so p-ssed off.

30 minutes ago, ding said:

Stepping down as captain is my guess.

?

Probably going to announce that he's put a bounty on Tex Walkers head. That's my guess. 

1 hour ago, Colin B. Flaubert said:

I have been calm since Sunday. 

The reason being that I had reconciled myself to not making finals after the Collingwood loss.

I can now look at things clinically.

Was this year a statistical improvement? Sure was.

However, hard numbers and teams on paper do not make a champion team. There are intangibles we need to work on. The biggest intangible we need to work on is the following.

How can a team that beat the ladder leaders at home, the team who replaced them in the eight (at home), two other finalists, plus humiliating last year's premiers can lose to the second last team twice, plus 3 other bottom tier teams? How can the same team also lose to a bottom tier team (with most of their stars out) when there is so much to play for? (This may seem to be contradictory with what I will say next but I am looking at things here from a purely analytical point of view).

The answer, put sadly, is unwarranted hubris. It has infested the club for years (with the possible exception of the Swooper years).

I sometimes cringe at the arrogance of the Melbourne Demons footballing ecosystem. Sports is the great leveler where social background, ethnicity and class amount to nothing. However, we thumb our noses at the Collingwood's, Richmond's and North's of the AFL as plebs. While Richmond has been very ordinary for a long time now (though could break through this year), North and Collingwood have achieved much, much more than we have in the AFL era. 2 premierships each compared to our big fat zero. 

When we come out to play against teams that are temporarily struggling, we never seem to 'get' that the result will also depend on what the opposition bring to the table, as well as what we bring. Many of the Melbourne clubs have deeply ingrained cultures and pride built on neighborhood spirit. When they are down, they will often fight for their pride. When have we ever done that? (North is a good point in case if you look at JB's recent comments).

What is our arrogance based on? Victories from 50 years ago? The fact that we were set up by the social elite of Melbourne (nearly 150 years ago)? I'm not sure if the club still tries to sell that prattle to young players when they get in but if they do, it needs to stop. Goody tried to hammer it into the heads of so many when he constantly reiterated 'We haven't achieved anything yet.' However, that seems to have gone through the ears of so many supporters and players. 

We now need to realize that we are what Hawthorn was nearly 70 years ago. We are the league embarrassment and we need to fight to get respect. Youngsters coming to the club shouldn't be getting told about how they are coming to a club steeped in tradition and success (from 60 years ago). They need to hear that they are vital cogs from lifting Melbourne from the bottom to the top. They need to be made to feel that they are part of something bigger rather than a club that lives in denial that they are 'a great club'.

The longer this 'take us back up to the top where we belong' attitude pervades the club, the more you will see repeats of performances like that on Saturday. 

 

 

 

best post ive read in a long time.

 

Exactly. we need to ditch this tradition and focus on the fact we should be the hungriest club in the AFL, to lead us to success.

I for the life of me don't know why we don't scrap and 'die on the pitch' like some sides do to get a result. We should have been smashing bodies on Saturday but didn't.

 

its lamentable and sickening to accept.

It's actually to hand out tickets and itineraries for the end of season trip to Disneyland. Club got confused and invited the press.

31 minutes ago, GCDee said:

Doubt it will be retirement... 

Has to be an apology. Or he is requesting a trade...

Stepping down as captain more likely.

censored, censored, censored, censored 

 

ahhhhhh

 

good to get it out 

If it's an apology, and Viney isn't there with him, then Viney's the one who should step down as captain.

26 minutes ago, DemonAndrew said:

 

the club will not live down that 'finals are coming!' email for some time

No they won't. Hawthorn supporters on my Facebook page are having a day out

it is just such bad PR

2 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

If it's an apology, and Viney isn't there with him, then Viney's the one who should step down as captain.

Viney wasnt there on Saturday. IMO Jonesy feels it's time to handover.

46 minutes ago, GCDee said:

Mentioned on another thread, looks like someone is taking the pizz.

I'd like to make everyone of those pea hearts sit in the front row of every finals game and watch how other teams compete.

Jones speaking to media shortly....

The words will have no meaning whatever is said. Only our ladder position after rnd 23 next year will matter