We all know why he's saying this. And it's not because of anything the MFC has done. This is about Steven May. 

Getting sacked from your job because you assaulted a coworker is the textbook definition of fragility, so it's just massive projection on his part.

No one in the media  spoke about our injuries after our semi final loss till the start of next season. Same things happening now. We had no forward line! We will be in the top 4 flag favourites pre season again. They will be talking about how it’s a small fix that will make us unstoppable. The media are short sighted and reactionary and driven by click bait nonsense. Being soft, fragile etc gets more clicks than they did a lot right and got some really bad luck with their forward line through out the year. Our game plan is sustainable. We have A grade talent. We are good to go

Are people expecting a glowing critique of our 2023 finals series?

If yes, then I'd suggest those people ignore the media for the next week or 2.

 

1 hour ago, Half forward flank said:

I did not see any evidence in softness in play. Strangely i saw no joy of playing from the guys either in the warm ups or game. I know its professional sport by thought there was bit of stress showing from the start and evident when  lining up for goals and of course got worse as we kept missing. 
as to kicking the drop punt is vrry accurate with a good exponent of the kick. Sometimes from 30 a ugly old punt kick is easier and more relaxed kick.

You've  hit on something..  i think.

" saw no joy " .. that's it.

I think the closest word i can hijack is anxiety.  There was no real spark out there... it seemed very highly strung on our part. BBOs phrase of the day recently.. "Joie de vivre" ..as it pertains to the game.. the fun, the buoyancy etc... wasnt there. 

Is it that the malaise that seemed to blanket our game for much of the night came from a worry of failing ( yet again ) and this usurped their natural confidence and enthusiasm...... for certain the latter was taking the evening off.

Dunno.. just a bit of left field thinking....cheap seats and all 

40 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Are people expecting a glowing critique of our 2023 finals series?

If yes, then I'd suggest those people ignore the media for the next week or 2.

 

Exactly. Out in straight sets 2 years in a row. This year we had more scoring shots and played the better football than both opposition, yet still managed to lose both games. The truth hurts sometimes, so im interested in seeing how the club responds to the past 2 years.

It'll either make us as a club, or we flounder. If it's the latter, then i would agree we are indeed fragile. After the 21 premiership, all the coaching and playing group were talking about was not becoming complacent. Hasn't worked well for us so far.

what's fragile is the media's reporting

max's set shot doesn't hit the post and the narrative is totally different

they would be forensically viewing the video for a 100 different plays where carlton choked

just ignore the media, they only exist for the clickbait and to mess with your senses

8 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

just ignore the media, they only exist for the clickbait and to mess with your senses

And intelligence. 

23 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

what's fragile is the media's reporting

max's set shot doesn't hit the post and the narrative is totally different

they would be forensically viewing the video for a 100 different plays where carlton choked

just ignore the media, they only exist for the clickbait and to mess with your senses

Ordinarily i might concur...  but there's a further context ...imho. of Max's kick...  he fluffed both relatively easy shots.  That he should have slotted both let alone that one is really the measure ...as it is also fuel for the media.

He was certainly not alone .We couldn't hit a barn... it was like a lurgy that the team was suffering... ( and has for a while )

That wasn't a one off... and that's surely the bigger picture needing addressing ?? 

don't disagree

just making the point that one incident (max was just one) and the whole media narrative changes

but the afl media is just a dog eat dog subculture and it aint gonna change

bloke says nothing for 2 years then does a drive by based on no evidence whatsoever. We've whined have we ? 

Love how people are experts only after the siren is blown for the second final. didnt say anything last week in case he had egg on his face. well done. 

44 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

don't disagree

just making the point that one incident (max was just one) and the whole media narrative changes

but the afl media is just a dog eat dog subculture and it aint gonna change

Part of society’s malaise in general. It’s dumbing down. We’re all at fault too because we play along with it, willing partners in the idiocy of the Campbell Browns of the world. 

Meanwhile, an actual intelligence person - Rohan Connolly - wrote a brilliant piece on our finals failure and future prospects for ESPN.

https://footyology.com.au/where-to-now-for-melbourne-and-port-adelaide/

No-one starts a Demonland thread on it because it’s not ‘outrageous’ or ‘controversial’ enough. 

9 minutes ago, BaliDemon said:

Part of society’s malaise in general. It’s dumbing down. We’re all at fault too because we play along with it, willing partners in the idiocy of the Campbell Browns of the world. 

Meanwhile, an actual intelligence person - Rohan Connolly - wrote a brilliant piece on our finals failure and future prospects for ESPN.

https://footyology.com.au/where-to-now-for-melbourne-and-port-adelaide/

No-one starts a Demonland thread on it because it’s not ‘outrageous’ or ‘controversial’ enough. 

guess that media oversaturation and over hyping happens when you have 1800 accredited afl journos

plenty of other reasons too, i know

Media's just a bunch of muppets who like to kick those that are down, any excuse to poo poo players, coaches or sides.  This week was our turn. As mentioned above we were one or two kicks, or one or two free kicks from beating collingwood and calton. We lost both of those, yes it was poor kicking, but we lost to the top sides in the dying seconds of the game. we had more shots than them and quite frankly collingwood is probably thanking their lucky stars that they are playing the Giants and not melbourne who showed both times we played them this year that we were more than capable of kicking their [censored] if we kicked straight. So, to call us runners up fragile with the injuries to our forward line, players coming back after long injuries while playing sides that close to their best teams is just stupid, they are the ones making up excuses. they just want to belittle us and talk up calton's win of the ages etc..  Aside from bad kicking the thing i think went wrong is we were complacent, well goody was, he was happy we were in front and didnt want to change the line up and put on our sub, he did not want to try to do better but keep the status quo. he needs to want us to do better not just do the same.

2 hours ago, BaliDemon said:

Part of society’s malaise in general. It’s dumbing down. We’re all at fault too because we play along with it, willing partners in the idiocy of the Campbell Browns of the world. 

Meanwhile, an actual intelligence person - Rohan Connolly - wrote a brilliant piece on our finals failure and future prospects for ESPN.

https://footyology.com.au/where-to-now-for-melbourne-and-port-adelaide/

No-one starts a Demonland thread on it because it’s not ‘outrageous’ or ‘controversial’ enough. 

A good article. Definitely. 

I'll be disenchanted sufficiently to do a severe edit. As not only does it sum up our position it highlights the perpetrators. 

" they shot themselves in the foot...twice"

Damming.  

6 hours ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

If another club made the top four two seasons in a row and went out in straight sets, I’d say they were fragile. I’m a jerk though. 

agreed. Port have copped it in the past, and rightly so.

21 is a long way away now. rear view stuff. Reality is we choked hard. End of. Be better, get more ruthless and get back to attracting blokes like May and Lever to the club and be aggressive with list

2 hours ago, BaliDemon said:

Part of society’s malaise in general. It’s dumbing down. We’re all at fault too because we play along with it, willing partners in the idiocy of the Campbell Browns of the world. 

Meanwhile, an actual intelligence person - Rohan Connolly - wrote a brilliant piece on our finals failure and future prospects for ESPN.

https://footyology.com.au/where-to-now-for-melbourne-and-port-adelaide/

No-one starts a Demonland thread on it because it’s not ‘outrageous’ or ‘controversial’ enough. 

SEN was way the poorer when Rohan Connolly departed 

11 hours ago, MadAsHell said:

 

Our last 4 finals results does suggest mental fragility IMO. The only way to stop it is by playing better football next September.

 

 
Our mental fragility goes back alot further than our last 4 finals.
Think decades.
 
 

Demonland changed the thread title to "Irrelevant tool calls the Melbourne Football Club fragile"

 As they say,

If the Hat fits ......

Campbell's father was a th%g and Campbell was a th&g. Both went after ball players. Nuff said.

As much as I admire everyone standing up for our club on this thread, my opinion is that we deserve all the criticism coming our way. We choked so badly in both games, it wasn't even funny. If it is true that senior figures at the club are using the Brayshaw/Maynard incident as an excuse for a second straight sets capitulation, that is frankly a major embarrassment for our club and I actually agree with what Campbell Brown had to say about this.

Campbell Brown has always hated and disrespected us. I don’t think he tipped us at all in the 2021 finals series because he couldn’t possibly accept that we’d be successful. The guy is a fringe media commentator these days. He’ll be lucky to be in the industry in a couple of years.

Sadly if we continue to "choke" in finals these types of cretinous buffoons will have oxygen to attack the Melbourne Football Club.

The only way we can shut them up is winning a Premiership on the MCG!

7 hours ago, beelzebub said:

You've  hit on something..  i think.

" saw no joy " .. that's it.

I think the closest word i can hijack is anxiety.  There was no real spark out there... it seemed very highly strung on our part. BBOs phrase of the day recently.. "Joie de vivre" ..as it pertains to the game.. the fun, the buoyancy etc... wasnt there. 

Is it that the malaise that seemed to blanket our game for much of the night came from a worry of failing ( yet again ) and this usurped their natural confidence and enthusiasm...... for certain the latter was taking the evening off.

Dunno.. just a bit of left field thinking....cheap seats and all 

Yes, looking back, they did sometimes seem more intent on not losing than winning this year, and last year's finals.

Compare that to the joyous running games in the 2021 finals series.  

Mental?  No doubt an element.  And even if it cost just a  5% edge (if these things can be measured), that is more than enough to cost us this year's final two games.  

Any who plays golf (I hesitate to say "golfers" as that implies some expertise in that frustrating game) will be aware that just a little too much tension can cause all sorts of woes, especially putting - akin to set shots at goal.

I went on and on about this back in the ND era - do we employ a sports psychologist?  If not, maybe worthy of a try?  We really only lacked a very fine edge in our two finals, and if we had that slight edge we would be up again next weekend. 

2 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

 
Our mental fragility goes back alot further than our last 4 finals.
Think decades.
 
 

Again, is it performance anxiety rather than mental fragility, which implies (at least to me) 'softness' which I don't believe we have?

Relax and enjoy - hate to say but Collingwood under McRae seem to love playing together more than most teams.  

 

Edited September 20, 20231 yr by monoccular

Campbell Brown may be despicable but he is quiet right 

A sad, bitter, straight sets exit .

We need to respond through actions not talk.