We’re missing it - a place to vent

[Dr. Gonzo 24,273]

It absolutely sucks. I know others won't mind so much but I (along with many others here I'm sure) have been going to the footy week in, week out to support the Demons for 33 years. I've been a member since 1989 without a miss. I was there for all the drubbings and I was there in 2018 for the first two finals when we packed the G in red and blue and the "MELBOURNE" chant rang around the ground.

Now we have had our most dominant season in my life and our most dominant finals series in my life and have made the Grand Final and are going in as favourites for the first time in my life and we have been stuck watching on TV most of the season. I've dreamed of being at the G to witness the Demons raise the cup my whole life and cheer the team while they run a lap of honour. And now we face the possibility of seeing it happen while stuck to our couches and we can't even share the moment because we are stuck in lockdown with a 9pm curfew!!

Of course I just want to see them win, but it won't be the same.

Edited September 18, 2021 by Dr. Gonzo

[Fork 'em 6,990]

21 minutes ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Afghan isn’t all that bad. The upsides there were that I slept in a hole during the day that I dug myself and carried my poo around in my pack. 

I do feel for all the Melbourne supporters back home who missed out on the finals and the GF and apologise for my excited post I made after getting tickets, all Demonlander’s definitely deserve to be there. I have no doubt that we’re going to be up the top for a while though so fingers crossed for next year. 

Firstly .... Thank-you for your service.
Hope ya poo wasn't too heavy.

Secondly .... If you didn't get a ticket I would have been disappointed.

 

Edited September 18, 2021 by Fork 'em

[At Least I Saw a Flag 5,272]

Of course it wouldn't be the same.

Unable to go to the final training session before the GF, the parade, the excitement of going to the G for the match, the aftermath, the celebration the following day ... 

Despite that I'll be thrilled to get the monkey of the back.

 

[Ethan Tremblay 30,962]

3 minutes ago, Fork 'em said:

Firstly .... Thank-you for your service.

Secondly .... If you didn't get a ticket I would have been disappointed.

I got amazing tickets on the wing thanks to some very generous Demonlander’s. It restored my faith in people with how willing people were to help out. I wouldn’t have been going if it weren’t for this site. Cheers to all.

Edited September 18, 2021 by Ethan Tremblay

[spirit of norm smith 16,578]

After 57 years and a premiership drought, I’d be disappointed that we are not at the G and enjoy the moment amongst our fellow fanatics.  But it is exciting and scary to see the mighty Dees in the GF.  I’ll gladly take it. Just remember to shout as loud as we can… “Give em hell . Go Dees”. 

[Stevienic23 1,183]

I was at the 2017 GF with my old man. Both as neutrals (via MCC ballot). My old man got up and left 5 mins into the last qtr and said to me "I can't sit here and watch these bastards win one before us"...I lasted until full time. The last 15 minutes when everyone in the ground knew the game was over was absolutely party time in the stands and there was outpour of emotion. As I was walking back to Richmond station I was walking head on into 30k people going from Punt Rd oval back to the MCG.

As I sat on the train going home I thought 'I can't wait for this to be us'...fast forward nearly 12 months as I walked out of the MCG after we had just beaten Hawthorn in the Semi. I was daring to dream. Alas it wasn't meant to be.

Fast forward 3 years and the world has been flipped on its head. Regardless of your position & fall out of covid, the last 18 months have been totally awful. Personally, if I didn't have footy to watch I don't know where I'd be. 

Would I love to be at the MCG this Saturday? 100%...would I settle with watching us win a flag for the first time in 57 years on TV? 100%.

A bit like how Andrew Gaze said (when Australia were going for gold in the basketball) "I think of those that have been along for the journey have their DNA on this". If we win, the Premiership Cup it will have my DNA on it, my old man's, Nathan Jones, Neale Daniher, Jim Stynes - it will have all of our DNA all over it!

I'll look forward to the unfurling of the flag in front of our 70,000 members. 

Go Dees!

Edited September 18, 2021 by Stevienic23

[deebug 1,754]

Yer it hurts like hell, not being able to cheer the boys in person, hopping Covid is over next year,and maybe we can get back to the G? 💖

I will say one thing I'm so thankful for the WA people, the support has been amazing for the Dee's🥰

You guys have one more thing to do, and that's cheer your lungs to get the boys home😁

Thank you😀

[Supermercado 2,802]

For me it's not so much about me seeing it (if we win. IF IF IF) but not seeing other people enjoying it. Will be an all time great moment in my life when we win a flag no matter where it happens but there will be some regret that I watched it in the same way I would a pre-season practice match. 

[Cassiew 1,903]

Being a GA member, I’m not guaranteed a ticket even if we make it. It doesn’t feel right not being at the MCG, but I’d take a premiership anyway I can

[DubDee 26,117]

8 hours ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Afghan isn’t all that bad. The upsides there were that I slept in a hole during the day that I dug myself and carried my poo around in my pack. 

I do feel for all the Melbourne supporters back home who missed out on the finals and the GF and apologise for my excited post I made after getting tickets, all Demonlander’s definitely deserve to be there. I have no doubt that we’re going to be up the top for a while though so fingers crossed for next year. 

No need to apologise mate. I enjoy seeing the excitement from Perth folks and I’m glad you all get to see it

[DubDee 26,117]

9 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

It absolutely sucks. I know others won't mind so much but I (along with many others here I'm sure) have been going to the footy week in, week out to support the Demons for 33 years. I've been a member since 1989 without a miss. I was there for all the drubbings and I was there in 2018 for the first two finals when we packed the G in red and blue and the "MELBOURNE" chant rang around the ground.

Now we have had our most dominant season in my life and our most dominant finals series in my life and have made the Grand Final and are going in as favourites for the first time in my life and we have been stuck watching on TV most of the season. I've dreamed of being at the G to witness the Demons raise the cup my whole life and cheer the team while they run a lap of honour. And now we face the possibility of seeing it happen while stuck to our couches and we can't even share the moment because we are stuck in lockdown with a 9pm curfew!!

Of course I just want to see them win, but it won't be the same.

Summed up exactly how I feel Doc. I actually never thought we’d win one in my lifetime and now here we are. 

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,871]

After the time I've had on a personal front this year, I'm absolutely Fffing ropable with some of our politicians for what's happened and how this is panning out.  Have been a mad supporter since 87 and a member of some form for most of that time while living in Melbourne.  Was there in 88 and 2000 and the pain of those loosing GFs.  Got myself an interstate membership back in 2011ish after we'd just been belted by the Eagles, because while I loathed being beaten, with everyone laying into the Demons I thought that it was time to stick fat, not run like rats from a sinking ship.  I've had a GF garentree since early 2018, because I thought we were on the verge of something special then.  My old man also bought one, so that if we made it, we'd definitely be there (and not get beaten to tickets by all those corporate bankers, neutral MCC and AFL members that didn't deserve to be there) and enjoy the moment of the Demons wining a premership together.   Early this season around Rd 3 or 4, I bought a second GF guarantee ticket for my youngest son after he showed enough passion for the mighty Demons that I thought it would be worth while him attending.

Before this latest COVID f-up, everything was looking perfect.  I'd come down to Melbourne for school holidays, see family, kids could spend some time with their cousins, could go to the pre-lim and then the GF if we made it.  Enter that gold standard wench Gladys Berejiklian egged on by that smirky S [censored] C [censored] Scomo who thought they were too good for the rest of us and didn't need to lock down.  And they can't plead ignorant either, only their extreme arrogance is what's got us into this mess.  Back before Easter up here in Brisbane, we had a snap week long lockdown, because there were a couple of cases of delta detected in the comunity and the health authorities had a sniff of intelligence that delta was more contagious.  The smaller states outside of Vic and NSW have shown how to control COVID.  You keep the stuff out and if it breaks in, you snuff it out quickly before a spot fire becomes a raging inferno - it ain't rocket science.  Scomo's refusal to build fit for purpose quarenteen facilities once it became obvious they were needed has certainly also been a major reason. The Chinese can build a 5000 bed hospital in a week, but Scomo can't even put up a small donga camp to do quarenteen in over 12 months, even with his major general in charge (God help us if we ever go to war).

A few weeks back, I was still holding out a glimmer of hope that I could fly in fly out of Perth from Brisbane.  We'd had F all cases up here for a month or more, but the odd incursion from interstate truck drivers has been enough to keep the condition of entry into WA as 14 days quarinteen, which I simply cannot afford to do in my personal position.  I'm not really the biggest fan of Eddy McGuire, but Mark McGowan's treatment of him along with his skiting about hoasting the GF has really got on my nerves.  Don't know who the bloke supports, but I hope he never gets to see his team play in another GF.  For all the years bitching and moaning of WA club supporters that they never get the GF, they've never had it this bad, at least a fair portion of them have been able to travel to Vic.

Anyways, rant over for  now.  I'll be barracking my lungs out from my living room in Brisbane (neighbours said they knew ever time Melbourne scored last week) and hoping like F that we win it and there will be tears of utter elation if we do, but it won't be anything like the same as being there at the G with my old man (who was there in 64) and my youngest son.  IF we win, I'll be then hoping that the players have enough hunger and the cards can fall our way to collect another premiership at the G, because no belated, contrived celebration could beat being there at the ground after that final siren goes with the Demons in front in that last day in September.

Edited September 18, 2021 by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

[Rodney (Balls) Grinter 10,871]

This image has taunted me on pretty much a daily basis since our victory over the Lion's.

Footnote, as a consolation, I ended up in a pub in Stones Corner in Brisbane full of Brisbane supporters for that game and was somewhat enjoyable as one of the few Melbourne supporters amongst that hostility celebrating that win when the final siren went.

Really feeling for all you Victorian folk in particular, enduring this second major lockdown in two years.  Do hope like heck that we win next Saturday and that brings some joy to your current predicament.

 

[dazzledavey36 55,315]

When I lived in Melbourne in 2018 I remember those couple of weeks in the finals was an absolute buzz being a Melbourne supporters. People were so proud wear the red and blue jumpers, beanies etc. It was such an unreal feeling that I personally had never felt before being in Melbourne at the time.

Though we missed out in the grand final, I do remember it being such amazing experience just being able to soak it all up especially with Collingwood being in the grand final. The city was buzzing and here I was thinking that I'm living in the best sporting capital of the world. 

Remember thinking to myself at the time how good would this be if Melbourne got into a grand final and being able to just live in that moment leading up to it.

Fast forward 3 years and unfortunately a lot of us aren't going to experience this and it certainly crosses your mind whether it'll happen again in the next few years. But, I am just bloody stoked we are in a grand final!

Whilst it's incredibly disappointing I won't be there to watch it, I am stoked for the people of Perth who are probably experiencing a once in a life time chance and opportunity in their home state. I think Perth will put in a spectacular performance for the grand final and actually can't wait to see how it all unfolds.

If there is one wish I have for the red and blue supporters in Perth and that's just cheer extra loud for is people who are missing out.

Edited September 18, 2021 by dazzledavey36

[KLV 1,768]

5 hours ago, Stevienic23 said:

"I can't sit here and watch these bastards win one before us"..

I feel that way too, but more about Carlton and Essendon, whose arrogance from success permeated my formative years. 
As the Covid damage became clear I consoled myself that it was ok if we didn’t win, because we couldn’t be there. But now we’re so close, I desperately want it (like everyone), they are SO hard to win. 
The cruelest part is that we’re not allowed to be with our demon friends and family. That part really hurts.

[binman 43,719]

 

 

5 hours ago, Stevienic23 said:

I was at the 2017 GF with my old man. Both as neutrals (via MCC ballot). My old man got up and left 5 mins into the last qtr and said to me "I can't sit here and watch these bastards win one before us"...I lasted until full time. The last 15 minutes when everyone in the ground knew the game was over was absolutely party time in the stands and there was outpour of emotion. As I was walking back to Richmond station I was walking head on into 30k people going from Punt Rd oval back to the MCG.

As I sat on the train going home I thought 'I can't wait for this to be us'...fast forward nearly 12 months as I walked out of the MCG after we had just beaten Hawthorn in the Semi. I was daring to dream. Alas it wasn't meant to be.

Fast forward 3 years and the world has been flipped on its head. Regardless of your position & fall out of covid, the last 18 months have been totally awful. Personally, if I didn't have footy to watch I don't know where I'd be. 

Would I love to be at the MCG this Saturday? 100%...would I settle with watching us win a flag for the first time in 57 years on TV? 100%.

A bit like how Andrew Gaze said (when Australia were going for gold in the basketball) "I think of those that have been along for the journey have their DNA on this". If we win, the Premiership Cup it will have my DNA on it, my old man's, Nathan Jones, Neale Daniher, Jim Stynes - it will have all of our DNA all over it!

I'll look forward to the unfurling of the flag in front of our 70,000 members. 

Go Dees!

Perfectly sums up my emotions Steve.

No one in my family followed the dees. In fact none in my family, except my grandfather (who had a budding VFL career short circuited by WW2).

An none of my friends barracked for the dees.

So I spent a good chunk of tbe late 70s and 80s going to tbe footy by myself, or with a mate who barracked for the roos (who I saw quite a lot too).

Windy Hill, Moorabool, vic Park, Western oval. And of course the Top of the Ponsford.

And then in the 90s I had become great friends with four dees fans and going to the footy became a regular celebration of the dees and friendship- complete with effusive post match drowning of sorrows or enthusiastic and long celebrations. 

So of course it hurts not to see us and experience the vibe in Melbourne.

Personally I have come to terms with that. In large because we are incredibly the lucky the game is not happening at at an empty MCG. One case in WA and SA and noone sees it. Imagine that!

Thus team deserve to plsy this game in front of a heaving crowd at a brilliant venue. And they deserve to be part of the buzz that is happening over there.

And given all that has happened this last 18 monts, and all the pain and heartbreak, I feel lucky that next Saturday night I can watch us play a proper GF. 

And I'm going to enjoy with every beat of my red and blue heart.

Can't wait.

 

[Bring-Back-Powell 14,936]

Just another of a long list of punch in the guts for citizens of the most locked down city in the world. 

 

[Straight Sets Simon 23,113]

I hate the fact that the Grand Final is always played at the MCG.

It should be either rotated like the NFL or home/top team gets it.

Therefore, the fact that it’s in Perth doesn’t bother me at all.

The only thing I hate is I had no chance of going, but at the end of the day my team is still playing in a Grand Final at an amazing venue.

[Deestroy All 14,266]

Doesn’t bother me. I learnt a long time ago to enjoy what I do have. Don’t worry about what I can’t have. 
 

But I genuinely feel for those of you that are feeling it and not getting to witness it in person. You’ve done the hard yards and deserve full enjoyment. 
 

Take heart that this team looks like it could give you a couple more chances to enjoy it in person. 

[danielE288 779]

Yeah it sucks, and yeah I never thought I wouldn't be able to witness it myself if we did happen to win won, but people are literally dying from this thing called COVID, and there families have real problems. I've lived through losing a parent it feels like I've won the lottery this year in comparison, little perspective people. The Dees will be in a GF at the G in the near future, I am sure of it.

[Demon trucker 1,800]

16 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

Might not live in Afganistan but it feels like Guantanamo.
Cross the Murray river here to get milk and I need a border pass to get back into Vic.
Tracking devices even got clipped onto us at work yesterday.
Looking forward to a wrist tattoo next.
But hey .... Follow the science.

Yep and if you don't get vaccinated, you won't be able to even go into a supermarket, and that's not conspiracy that is what's going to happen, even to go to a park and have a picnic will get you a $5000 fine if you're not vaccinated, and that's fact.

[Diamond_Jim 12,626]

1 hour ago, Clint Bizkit said:

I hate the fact that the Grand Final is always played at the MCG.

It should be either rotated like the NFL or home/top team gets it.

Have always said that every second or third year it should be played interstate.

In normal times it would make for a fantastic week of fun and celebrations.

Weather in Melbourne is suitably depressing next Saturday.
I'm so mixed over what a win might mean. It will be welcome but hollow I think.

[Demon trucker 1,800]

1 hour ago, Clint Bizkit said:

I hate the fact that the Grand Final is always played at the MCG.

It should be either rotated like the NFL or home/top team gets it.

Therefore, the fact that it’s in Perth doesn’t bother me at all.

The only thing I hate is I had no chance of going, but at the end of the day my team is still playing in a Grand Final at an amazing venue.

We'll talk of the NFL a ground can't have the Superbowl unless it can holds a minimum of 75000 people, the other states would have increase their capacity to have it, the AFL would be the laughing stock of any competition when a grand final at Giants stadium has   23000 people there, the AFL has lost over 20 million dollars in the last 2 years, from the GF, losing 90000  in ticket sales.

[At the break of Gawn 4,460]

It’s disappointing, but honestly if they win it, I won’t care all that much. It is one of the biggest monkeys on the back in sport and for us to rid ourselves of it will be a mixture of joy and relief. 
 

I also think this group of players are special and they seem like good people in general. Yes it’s disappointing that we’re not there, but how good would it be if Max Gawn is our first captain since Barass to hold up the cup? Or seeing the likes of Petracca, Oliver, Viney, May, Brayshaw all become premiership players. Aside from the jubilation of long suffering demon supporters like myself, the smile on these players faces will be something special.

[Demon trucker 1,800]

7 hours ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

After the time I've had on a personal front this year, I'm absolutely Fffing ropable with some of our politicians for what's happened and how this is panning out.  Have been a mad supporter since 87 and a member of some form for most of that time while living in Melbourne.  Was there in 88 and 2000 and the pain of those loosing GFs.  Got myself an interstate membership back in 2011ish after we'd just been belted by the Eagles, because while I loathed being beaten, with everyone laying into the Demons I thought that it was time to stick fat, not run like rats from a sinking ship.  I've had a GF garentree since early 2018, because I thought we were on the verge of something special then.  My old man also bought one, so that if we made it, we'd definitely be there (and not get beaten to tickets by all those corporate bankers, neutral MCC and AFL members that didn't deserve to be there) and enjoy the moment of the Demons wining a premership together.   Early this season around Rd 3 or 4, I bought a second GF guarantee ticket for my youngest son after he showed enough passion for the mighty Demons that I thought it would be worth while him attending.

Before this latest COVID f-up, everything was looking perfect.  I'd come down to Melbourne for school holidays, see family, kids could spend some time with their cousins, could go to the pre-lim and then the GF if we made it.  Enter that gold standard wench Gladys Berejiklian egged on by that smirky S [censored] C [censored] Scomo who thought they were too good for the rest of us and didn't need to lock down.  And they can't plead ignorant either, only their extreme arrogance is what's got us into this mess.  Back before Easter up here in Brisbane, we had a snap week long lockdown, because there were a couple of cases of delta detected in the comunity and the health authorities had a sniff of intelligence that delta was more contagious.  The smaller states outside of Vic and NSW have shown how to control COVID.  You keep the stuff out and if it breaks in, you snuff it out quickly before a spot fire becomes a raging inferno - it ain't rocket science.  Scomo's refusal to build fit for purpose quarenteen facilities once it became obvious they were needed has certainly also been a major reason. The Chinese can build a 5000 bed hospital in a week, but Scomo can't even put up a small donga camp to do quarenteen in over 12 months, even with his major general in charge (God help us if we ever go to war).

A few weeks back, I was still holding out a glimmer of hope that I could fly in fly out of Perth from Brisbane.  We'd had F all cases up here for a month or more, but the odd incursion from interstate truck drivers has been enough to keep the condition of entry into WA as 14 days quarinteen, which I simply cannot afford to do in my personal position.  I'm not really the biggest fan of Eddy McGuire, but Mark McGowan's treatment of him along with his skiting about hoasting the GF has really got on my nerves.  Don't know who the bloke supports, but I hope he never gets to see his team play in another GF.  For all the years bitching and moaning of WA club supporters that they never get the GF, they've never had it this bad, at least a fair portion of them have been able to travel to Vic.

Anyways, rant over for  now.  I'll be barracking my lungs out from my living room in Brisbane (neighbours said they knew ever time Melbourne scored last week) and hoping like F that we win it and there will be tears of utter elation if we do, but it won't be anything like the same as being there at the G with my old man (who was there in 64) and my youngest son.  IF we win, I'll be then hoping that the players have enough hunger and the cards can fall our way to collect another premiership at the G, because no belated, contrived celebration could beat being there at the ground after that final siren goes with the Demons in front in that last day in September.

Lockdown are not working anymore, Vic lockdown down hard and early now we have over 350 cases a day, NSW locking down early would only mean they would have 300 cases a day Just like VICTORIA, 99% of  population use to  follow the rules, now only 80% follow the rules. and even now they had 2 leaks from hotel quarantine just the other week, so that would have sent us into lockdown anyway, no don't blame Gladys, blame a failed hotel quarantine system which should have been replaced 6 months ago.