9 hours ago, Nasher said:

If I didn’t know the score and just judged off the comments from both groups, I’d conclude that both teams lost somehow.

And you would be half correct.

Carlton have been a league power, they have won a lot of flags, and it won't hurt them to spend a couple of farcical decades emulating us.

Edited June 15, 20204 yr by Tony Tea

3 hours ago, MyFavouriteMartian said:

And some of this is fitness at Mfc.  Not this season, but referring to past eras. 

IMV:  "IF the hawks are a happy team".  then  "WE are a comfy team".  that this is our past DNA of past teams.  I think we have been too much like a safe zone were players come to survive and exist without really extracting everything they have to give to the cause.   

To me it  "Feels"  like the same feeling of the Mcc.   That it's a safe and cosy place in there.   And yes,  I have been inside the Mcc,  many,  many times.

        My aim isn't to maim or to changer the Mcc....  my aim is to point out that Our Footy club should not be like that,  should not be so gentle like in there,  should not be so gentlemanly as a footy club.

 

Respectful to people around our day to day lives, yes,   But on match-days,  we should be like SAS soldiers,  and go for the Kill.

 

That aggressiveness is the difference to playing games out...  to beat the opponents,  to win at all costs.

Up against a gentlemanly side who want to play friendly,  play nice,  play by the rules,  fair,  and all the things you would hope people are like,  in day to day life.  But dose off during the course of games.

 

So I think the antidote to switching off during games,  is to be aggressive in mindset,  be mean,  be nasty,  during all times of the match.

You certainly need to be ruthless, if you're 5 goals up, go for 10, if 10 go for 15. We seem to try and coast.

On 6/15/2020 at 5:12 PM, MyFavouriteMartian said:

I haven't pulled it to pieces to dissect it, but I have noticed it time and time again.

The teams under Northey played with much more aggression,  which elevated us to a higher level.  And with that heightened awareness, came more hunger.

 

That was the basic difference between Northey's and Barass's teams;  although the kids had started to come thru from Barass's sides,  into the era of Northey's coached teams;  so there was a unity,  a brotherhood,  that knitted everything together. 

And there where AJohnson and Hughes SWight, BLovett, were in the teams;  and '87 saw Viney,  Spalding  and WDean arrive,  with Koopy,  and others Mumbles Bailey was already there,  so the team/club,  lost its timidity of the physical world of AFL.  And Strawbs and Stynes, Tingay, Yeater, and others,  we had a no-nonsense team with a winning mindset.

 

That team was a bit like,  Aussie Golf & Greg Norman.   Aussie golf rode on Normans coat-tails,  as he forged and slashed a pathway thru world golfs jungles.  And since many have trodden that path with less expended mental energy to get thru. and so they have more to use when they got there and they did indeed, grab success.

 

Now with the Northey teams;  our USA of Golf were the Hawks...  and we got pummeled a few times,  just like Norman did in the US majors.

What Melbourne really needed was to continue developing youth in a healthy cultural environment.  But that environment eroded,  the learning and disciplined environment of growth eroded.  And went sour.

Became more about individuals,  than about the team and club.   This is when the tail grows large,  and wags the dog.  

And the rest is now history.  And that lasted past a few coaches,  until the club and list was stripped right back to bones. 

And Roosy came onboard to rebuild,  onto a few remaining players,  who had hand-me-down attitudes and culture.  And a hangover of sorts,  from 2 decades of ware and tare and generally an undertone of self interest.

This is why talented teams without the right attitude and hunger,  still fail.

With Northey we would drop 5-6 games on the trot before we got our intensity/ white line fever back. This cost us high finishes in several years meaning we had to play interstate finals.

2 minutes ago, bush demon said:

With Northey we would drop 5-6 games on the trot before we got our intensity/ white line fever back. This cost us high finishes in several years meaning we had to play interstate finals.

thats the similar thing, of getting ahead in mindset, IMO.  we start to believe the media saying how good we are.

Winning Melbourne likes to stop and look at the reflection in the glass. To see what everyone in media is talking about.  We do like to admire ourselves, after having got into the winning mood.

8 minutes ago, MyFavouriteMartian said:

 

Winning Melbourne likes to stop and look at the reflection in the glass.

That’s a very good way of putting it - both the supporters and players alike! That first quarter was so good - almost like a kid riding a bike on their own for the first time: it goes so well until they realise they’re by themselves, then crash!

On 6/15/2020 at 6:13 AM, loges said:

Definitely need to be the hunters, this is why we blow so many games we are expected to win.

I think T Mac should go back to the backline and Steven May should have a go at full forward. He’s big bodied, strong and fast and can kick straight. He can clunk a mark too.

30 minutes ago, 3183 Dee said:

That’s a very good way of putting it - both the supporters and players alike! That first quarter was so good - almost like a kid riding a bike on their own for the first time: it goes so well until they realise they’re by themselves, then crash!

Now your gettin it.   And i'm starting to find different ways of trying to describe it, what i noticed. How to put it.

Its like a addicted person... when they are rehabbing yet again,  It's when they start to feel better,  is most likely when they want to go and celebrate again.

 

This is why I posted something similar in the Bennel thread for Harley.

And why little things like the Demonland banner, are really,  big issues.  Particularly for young players who haven't, or have barely fired a shot in anger. 

When we pump them up too soon,  sometimes we deflate their learning ability and development.

54 minutes ago, 3183 Dee said:

That’s a very good way of putting it - both the supporters and players alike! That first quarter was so good - almost like a kid riding a bike on their own for the first time: it goes so well until they realise they’re by themselves, then crash!

Yes.. exactly we as support group like to think of ourselves as the hero on white horse,  do-gooders,  and we sit back really easily, to feel our own inner warmth, having just donated some money to some less fortunate.

Instead of getting up of backsides,  and getting out there and doing something about the real issues out on the streets/environment.   To really help the battling people or animals etc.

 

It takes effort, to even think of the other side of the coin,  of what we do.  OR, what we do not do.  The players alike.

 

Its THE culture of the Melbourne footy club,  in both supporter base and in players.   We learn it, hand me down from one another.  

And its also in the lyrics of our song to a strong degree.  The values of loyalty,  put ahead of values of winning,  giving and sharing,  striving,  fighting;  inclusiveness.

 

We all do a little,  then sit-back,  pat ourselves on our proverbial back,  and feel satisfied with ourselves.

 

It's as infectious as CoVid.

 

This IS what continually upsets the culture after we've just changed it,  for winning ways.  WE are reaping the rewards for what we've done, or haven't done and the hard decisions and disciplines we have to do from time to time.

 

Which coach in the World can do anything with this.   It has to start with us.   Stopping giving big back slaps,  for buggger al.

Edited June 17, 20204 yr by MyFavouriteMartian

I hope that you’re not suggesting red and blue lives matter.

On 6/15/2020 at 6:28 PM, Tony Tea said:

Carlton have been a league power, they have won a lot of flags, and it won't hurt them to spend a couple of farcical decades emulating us.

Especially considering they cheated for the majority of the late 80s and 90s. Never forget those arrogant so and so’s cheated to be a “league power”.