Unleashing the Demon within: The inside story of Melbourne’s revival

 

 

An outstanding article on how we changed over the preseason.  Players went to Stafford's farm on the Mornington Penisula with no other coaches.   The rest flowed from there with some big changes and little changes.  It has been an all club effort.

Far too many positive descriptions in the article to list.  Special mentions were for Gawn, Viney, Petracca, Goodwin, Williams, Yze and the Board (for quietly changing the president).

My take is that everyone has bought in and the whole club is now on the same page.   Have we ever had that 'luxury'?

This may not be the year of The Demons but I am confident we will be in contention for a lot of years to come.  Premierships are incredibly difficult to win.  If we there abouts for the next 5 years, playing prelim and grand finals I will be fairly happy.  Get a flag or two and I will be ecstatic!

Edited May 27, 20213 yr by Lucifer's Hero

Great article. Thank you for posting it. In particular, I love this...

 

Agree, great article.  Has been a glut of this kind of article about us of late, so I didn't have high hopes of learning anything new, but this is loaded with intimate insights.  The author must have had some great inside access and trust within those individuals, which had been repaid by the author with the absence of any real mud slinging, except perhaps with respects to Bartlett which is pretty inconsequential to the current context and I'm not really sure even he would have an issue with what is stated.

I've had a good feeling about the sort leadership qualities refered to about Trac for a while now.

Contrast this article to the one shown on the same page by Carroline Willson titled "AFL big boys club" (Or something like that).  I've got no issues with Wilson not writing about the match day stuff, given it isn't her expertise and no doubt the exclusive male dominated aspects if the AFL is something which should be written about (by someone) but why she has to always be the one to focus on slinging mud 90% of the time as opposed to using her connections and journalistic tallents to write a ballance of interesting and insightful articles like this one is beyond me.

I also find some irony in the trajectory of our team this season, compared to that of St Kilda.  At the end of last year and start of the season so many 'experts' , both in the media and here on Demonland raved about how much further advanced St Kilda were as a team compared to us.  It's quite possible St Kilda arn't as bad as there season is playing out right now either, but I've sensed a growing capability within our team over a number of years and it's amazing how many were prepared to write that long term growth/capability trend off on the basis of a few games against Sydney and Freo in a compressed fixture period.  I still recall the wise words of Peter Jackson when he stepped down from his position, that sometimes growth isn't linear and that we should expect a few speed bumps along the way.

Edited May 27, 20213 yr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

That's one of the best articles i've read about the Dees in a long time. It totally resonates with what we've seen on the field. I'm feeling much more confident about tonight's game after reading this. No way we don't turn up. The Dogs will have to play very well to beat us.

they sat around a fire in december? really? i know the mornington peninsula is a bit cooler than the city, but that sounds like a tall tale brought to us by our new sponsor, furphy

Can someone PM article.

Paywall

15 minutes ago, Better days ahead said:

That's one of the best articles i've read about the Dees in a long time. It totally resonates with what we've seen on the field. I'm feeling much more confident about tonight's game after reading this. No way we don't turn up. The Dogs will have to play very well to beat us.

Totally agree. The last few weeks -- since Richmond -- we've been learning to cope with being the hunted. Prior to that we were the ones who had to be "up" each week. Now it's our opponents psyching themselves up for a big effort against the ladder leaders. We'll learn to cope with that in time. But no way will we be coasting tonight.

Outstanding article ...... fantastic insights into the new ‘Melbourne Way’.  If this attitude is permanently ingrained into the psyche of every player who pulls on a red an blue, and reflected in all decisions made within our Football Department, we are in a good place indeed. Go Dees!

It's a great article and in its own way explains why Melksham keeps getting a game. It isn't specific about Melksham, but makes reference to players doing the team thing rather than worrying about their individual performances. Viney is actually named as the example of this selflessness, but the hint is there for everyone to see: the team will be picked based on players doing what the coaches want, not on individual statistics. So, working backwards, if a player is selected, he's doing what is asked of him, even if we don't know what it is and can't see it play out on the field. 

Edited May 28, 20213 yr by La Dee-vina Comedia
typo

31 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Can someone PM article.

Paywall

It works if you open in a private tab

 

23 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

It's a great article and in its own way explains why Melksham keeps getting a game. It isn't specific about Melksham, but makes reference to players doing the team thing rather than worrying about their individual perfromances. Viney is actually named as the example of this selflessness, but the hint is there for everyone to see: the team will be picked based on players doing what the coaches want, not on individual statistics. So, working backwards, if a player is selected, he's doing what is asked of him, even if we don't know what it is and can't see it play out on the field. 

So true, as supporters we see half arsed efforts from Melk as the ball goes out. But possibly his job is to be looking for space for the Next attacking chain when our defence intercept. He is one of our best deliveries inside 50. Long kick (especially when he plays on, runs 10 kicks 60 which stops teams pushing the defence up) can keep it low and usually puts it to the advantage of the forward.

4 minutes ago, Marty said:

 

So true, as supporters we see half arsed efforts from Melk as the ball goes out. But possibly his job is to be looking for space for the Next attacking chain when our defence intercept. He is one of our best deliveries inside 50. Long kick (especially when he plays on, runs 10 kicks 60 which stops teams pushing the defence up) can keep it low and usually puts it to the advantage of the forward.

Nuf of that!  You will drive all the naysayers here into frenzy 

We've all been riding the 10-zip wave and framing its parallels as a hopeful conclusion to a five-decade long saga dating back to Norm's dumping. But the true narrative starts almost exactly one decade ago, in 2011 - and the parallels, and almost spiritual redemption, are both uncanny and monumental.

Whereas as the sacking in 2011 of a young and tactical coach, who lacked the faith of the president but had a united and still maturing playing group, led us to the darkest era of possibly any club in history, this time the board saw fit to remove the critical president and back a coach in a highly similar situation.*

Curiously, there's one figure who is central to both events - one who may be the real redemption figure here;**

“I reckon it was one of Melbourne’s biggest mistakes getting rid of Dean Bailey.”

"“Any business or organisation when you’re doing those things you’ve got to stick to your guns."

“I’m still ashamed of the game today. We, and I, definitely took full responsibility for Dean getting sacked and the way the club went down was something that still doesn’t sit right with me to this day. I feel sick about it really. It cut deep.”

...................................................................................

*If Gleeson's account is accurate in its portrayal.  

**Which may also shed some further light on Caro's board article last year. 

If that's the case, I hope Fritsch got the bake of a life  time from the leadership group after the Crows game after he burnt Petracca as badly as he did with that half arsed dribble kick.

Great article about the boys buying in. As stated, it was never really a talent issue (although recent recruits in Jackson, Kossie Rivers and Langdon etc. have certainly helped), but one of mindset. Given how long we've been in the wilderness, and associated with poor culture/mindset, it will take some time. We're only really seeing the beginning, which is really exciting! This is the birth of a new club, or at least a renewed club. Part of me was worried that the Crows loss might see us fall into bad habits, but I've seen so many positives this year that I am comfortable that we will come out swinging against the Doggies - they'll have to earn the W.

34 minutes ago, Colin B. Flaubert said:

If that's the case, I hope Fritsch got the bake of a life  time from the leadership group after the Crows game after he burnt Petracca as badly as he did with that half arsed dribble kick.

I hate when players do what he did.

Its a great read for a Melbourne supporter but I take these article's with a grain of salt.

The fact is, everything you do when you are winning is seen as "courageous, outstanding, honest, leadership" blah blah

While if you're down the bottom every action is "disresepctful, weak, delusional, selfish".

The reporters just jump on the bandwagon, and make the story fit their narrative.

Edited May 28, 20213 yr by tincan

1 minute ago, cantstandyasam said:

I hate when players do what he did.

I didn’t mind him taking the shot as 1 more handball and a fumble...same result. But the dribble ??? nearly smashed the TV

I loved reading this article 

Thought it was well written and highlighted Max’s (and others) determination and drive to make our club brilliant!  
There is plenty to love about our club at the moment ❤️?

Great article. Really interesting and a very important point about the change at board level having been handled so well when in previous years it would have imploded us. 

5 hours ago, tincan said:

Its a great read for a Melbourne supporter but I take these article's with a grain of salt.

The fact is, everything you do when you are winning is seen as "courageous, outstanding, honest, leadership" blah blah

While if you're down the bottom every action is "disresepctful, weak, delusional, selfish".

The reporters just jump on the bandwagon, and make the story fit their narrative.

Spot on.