No, no, they come from the school of hate.

If AFL went down this road, then the extreme become 'holigans'. Fights before games, fights after games, segregated viewing areas. All so as to make us one eyed, tribal and internal protectionist. Hate v hate cannot lead to good experiences and behaviours.

Shame that they don't encourage us to support the AFL in general. We have a unique game and I reckon support should be shown for any display of excellence/endeavor/courage even loyalty by any of the players out there. Not necessarily your club, which smells of nepotism and narcissism. 

That is not to say, don't choose allegiance, but that is not the big picture only an emotional one.

If they want more support, stop selling GA tickets in the bleachers. Distribute us around the stadium and bring the public closer to the action. Have the expensive seating cheaper, do more marketing and get us happier about attending. Sell less expensive food. Give families huge discounts every week. Easy to out number the big clubs. Do it by encouragement, PR, price and quality of seats.

Wouldn't it be great if the poorest of us had the same game day experience as the wealthy or the discerning. That would be something to cheer about.

How often do cheers/chants come out of the corporate? 

 The gravy train could lead by example, instead of telling the people how to enjoy the game.

Ever had to put up with abuse from opps because you barrack to loud? Ruins the day, and until we respect all through being in the one AFL camp there will be hate. 

Never be like the Woodens!

Edited March 14, 20241 yr by kev martin

25 minutes ago, demoncat said:

I’m as loud and one eyed at the footy as any Pies fan, and there are certainly some Demons fans who could afford to be louder and more demonstrative when the whips are cracking 

But this narrative from Roffey and Pert that we need to be louder - even if it’s not their intention - is a bit of a kick in the guts to Demons fans who are paying their hard earned to rock up each week 

At the end of the day people can support the club however they choose. Further - without wanting to put down our players - it’s hard to get loud when we’ve kicked 6 straight behinds and then the opposition waltzes down the other end of the field and kicks a goal to knock us out of finals…

Win finals and our membership will grow, play exciting football and fans will cheer louder than ever 

Simples! 

I’ll get louder when we can start executing basic skills. 

49 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Whilst we will always be outnumbered and less vocal than Coll/Carl types of teams I don’t think we’ve matched the same energy at games since 2018.

That year was special with the joy of crucial wins and finals for the first time in forever.

We were robbed of seeing a flag in 2021. And increasingly over the last 2 years our crowds have lacked that joy and intensity as much as noise.

We skipped the fun afterglow of a flag and as the team has struggled to score in many games you can feel the tension in the crowd. 

This is on the money I think. 

It’s evident on here. A large portion of the supporter base has set the bar at winning a flag or at least winning finals. Unless we’re playing at a level somewhere near 2021, that portion of the supporter base sits at a game with flat emotion - “yeah we won/are winning but so what”. And if we’re behind, the anxiety as you describe it kicks in (“another season wasted”, “I’m never going to see a flag in person”) and rather than get louder, that portion of the supporter base stews in their anxiety.

This doesn’t apply to everyone, possibly only a small minority, and for those of us who are there as many weeks as possible screaming our lungs out then hearing comments like Roffey’s may hurt. But I don’t agree with, say, @dazzledavey36 who says she’s out of touch with reality. I think there is some validity to what she’s saying.

Prove her wrong people, prove her wrong.

1 hour ago, von said:

I don’t want to be like them, cheer like them, go near them. I’d rather us be somewhat civil. We are also quite loud for our numbers in my opinion. Roffey and pert need to be careful. We don’t have generations of Centrelink recipients with nothing else to do but go to the football. We have supporters who have lives. 

As much as I dislike the Pies as a traditional enemy (I was around for that golden era into the mid 60’s), I really do not like these generalisations about their supporter base.

Are we all up at the snow during the season? Are we all sitting in the stands with our plate of cold cuts, the best brie/camambert and a glass of cab-sav?  I’ve seen plenty of bogans in the red and blue that would give the worst Collingwood supporters a good run for their money.

I’d love to see our supporters getting more vocal at games, although I think the problem lies in getting the numbers of supporters up… individually our supporters are probably doing their part, but Collingwood supporters sound louder because they are out in force attending the games.

Edited March 14, 20241 yr by hardtack

For the record i don't subscribe to the view that Demons fans aren't loud at games. I've challenged posts on here in the past saying we weren't noisy when i was at the game and we clearly were (at least where i was sitting anyways)

I just don't think that is what Kate Roffey was getting at in her comments here. more members means bigger crowds means more noise at games. fairly logical comments if you ask me.

It’s quite simple, we need 80-90,000 loud and passionate supporters (at least) to compete with the other large clubs 

We are Melbourne, but we can be as big and loud as The Filth, without becoming anything like them. 
 

We have to intensely despise (hate) all of the opposition clubs, fight for just The Demons. 
During The Norm Smith years we were the Biggest, most feared & The most hated club in the land. 
 

We can return to that place again…

14 minutes ago, hardtack said:

As much as I dislike the Pies as a traditional enemy (I was around for that golden era into the mid 60’s), I really do not like these generalisations about their supporter base.

Are we all up at the snow during the season? Are we all sitting in the stands with our plate of cold cuts, the best brie/camambert and a glass of cab-sav?  I’ve seen plenty of bogans in the red and blue that would give the worst Collingwood supporters a good run for their money.

I’d love to see our supporters getting more vocal at games, although I think the problem lies in getting the numbers of supporters up… individually our supporters are probably doing their part, but Collingwood supporters sound louder because they are out in force attending the games.

These generalisations not only make the world and the football world go round but also have some element of truth to them and can be fun when not taken too seriously. I’m not wealthy. I’m closer to a Collingwood supporter in economic status. But I’m infinitely classier than they are. In my line of work I see many Collingwood supporters who are the cliche I just spoke of. It doesn’t come from nowhere. They also have no problem dishing the cliche back. I like it. 

Edited March 14, 20241 yr by von

She's out of touch with the supporter base.
Read the room Kate!
Don't praise Collingwood....ever!
I'm sure Angus would agree with me.
 

Hate the headline “we want to be more like Collingwood”

Disagree, we have our own history, culture, players and supporters. Taken in proper context, Kates comments are probably fair enough but I hate the reference to Collingwood. 

The things that Kate refers to such as membership growth and noisy support etc comes pure and simple from having a team that consistently wins games over the journey. Winning and playing a brand of footy that fans love to watch. So Dees fans feel proud and in love with their team and club. 

Never in a million years would I want our supporters to become like Collingwood supporters. Bloke sitting in front of me at the final last year was possibly the most vile human I've ever encountered, and I've been robbed at knife point in Africa. When Gus was knocked out he was shouting to get up and hurry up, weak [censored], gy cnt, [censored], [censored]. Anything the censor filter on this site will block, he said with vitriol. I'm not sure I'll ever attend another game against Collingwood now. Horrible experience surrounded by the absolute dregs of society.

I'd rather complete silence than become like those pathetic scumbag losers. 

As far as I'm concerned, there was no premier in 2023. I refuse to acknowledge that clubs existence. They will never hold respect, get endless advantages, never win on merit, and should be "cancelled".

Edited March 14, 20241 yr by Lord Travis

2 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

She’s right in saying that a loud crowd in our favour impacts how we play. And she’s right that Collingwood do it best. 

I’d argue that our crowds are louder than most give us credit for, but we can always do more. 

Of course they do it best... they're 30k bigger supporter base then us and as expected, louder then us. We cannot compete and her expectations of thinking that we can do so in this current climate is ridiculous from her end. It take years to build this kind of supporter base.

Both you and Kate are also missing the point in that Collingwood game style and ours is stark different to why they probably get loud as well during games.

Collingwood play a high offensive game style that is exciting to watch where as we play such a defensive and in football terms, 'boring' style this is hard to cheer loudly especially when you're kicking 2.8 in a half of footy as we did last week. We had numerous of games that were on display last year and some were certainly hard to watch.

She needs to temper her expectations and appreciate that supporters are being as loud as they can be.

And seriously, out of all clubs she was to heap praise on then I couldn't think of a worst organisation going around especially as they are also the same club that forced a demon legend to retirement.  

Edited March 14, 20241 yr by dazzledavey36

I don't get why people are offended by this.

But at the same time simply asking is unlikely to achieve anything.

Step 1 is playing with more dare, dash and confidence and hoping the crowd notice that shift and get behind it. But there's more to be done to fire up the fans so they feed in positive energy too.

They took away Howies/Hogans Hangers because someone concussed themselves. Soft if you ask me but fair enough I guess. Replaced it with an impossible kick to a paint tin.

They've experimented with a former AFLW player screeching at us. Thankfully that's done.

As much as we shouldn't need them the 'get loud' signals on the tv screens seem to work. Why not put a camera on the head of the cheer squad after goals and have the crowd do 'Mel-bourne clap clap clap'.

In the NFL the SeaHawks raise a flag before every home game. In the NBA the Philly 76ers ring a bell.

Richmond honour a home coming hero for every home game, it's a great tradition.

There's a lot more that can be done to encourage positivity in our fans, cut the nervous tension and get a better connection between the fans and players.

9 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Of course they do it best... they're 30k bigger supporter base then us and as expected, louder then us. We cannot compete and her expectations of thinking that we can do so in this current climate is ridiculous from her end. It take years to build this kind of supporter base.

Both you and Kate are also missing the point in that Collingwood game style and ours is stark different to why they probably get loud as well during games.

Collingwood play a high offensive game style that is exciting to watch where as we play such a defensive and in football terms, 'boring' style this is hard to cheer loudly especially when you're kicking 2.8 in a half of footy as we did last week. We had numerous of games that were on display last year and some were certainly hard to watch.

She needs to temper her expectations and appreciate that supporters are being as loud as they can be.

And seriously, out of all clubs she was to heap praise on then I couldn't think of a worst organisation going around especially as they are also the same club that forced a demon legend to retirement.  

How did the Collingwood attacking style go in 2 of 3 finals last year? They fell across the line playin defensive footy clinging to leads for most of those games. Against GWS they broke every rule in the book for 10 straight minutes scrumming the ball around.

How did their accuracy go last week? If social media is anything to go by their fans wouldn't mind if they won games by 1-0 for the next 100 years.

Sure, we need to find a more attacking brand. We got close to it in a number of games last year and then rolled out a forward line of nothing and midfield down on zip for the finals.

I don't know where you sit but in the MCC members and the northern stand there's a whole lot of nervous disappointed fans and not a whole lot of noise and that's the bulk of our crowd.

The next step is the club doing something proactive to increase engagement but I don't mind at all that the fans are challenged as well. At least they're half way there by recognising the fans are exactly fired up.

Even if we drop away and miss finals this year it's still the best collection of talent we've had in 50 years. The team isn't complete and has a bad attacking game right now but we have to appreciate the physicality, defensive effort and flashes of attack the guys are putting out there. 

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Considering they have about 30k more supporters then ours then Roffey is completely out of her depths with reality. Of course Collingwood supporters would be loud.

Her comments are a kick in the guts for demon army and loyal supporters who are there weekly cheering all the time.

Kate was NOT referring to the level of noise from fans. She was referring to the number of members.

You really think she’d make comments like that at a function where Demon Army members were present, and noticeably so? We were loud and imposing (well, I was anyways) and our presence was definitely felt. Besides, Kate wouldn’t have made those comments even had we not been there. She’s our biggest fan. 

When I was about 8 I was walking out of the G wearing a Melbourne jumper with my dad. We had beaten Collingwood that afternoon in the mid nineties. A fully grown adult male wearing a Collingwood jumper spat on me as I left the ground that day. It landed right on my chest. They can all go [censored] themselves and I never want the leaders of our club to mention being anything like them in any way ever 

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Considering they have about 30k more supporters then ours then Roffey is completely out of her depths with reality. Of course Collingwood supporters would be loud.

Her comments are a kick in the guts for demon army and loyal supporters who are there weekly cheering all the time.

She is simply asking for us to cheer louder and encourage more. 

The louder we are  the better the team will respond. 

It’s your choice !!

Get louder it’s up to us the fans to encourage more by our voices not silent barracking. 

Ita an opportunity to let your feelings go each week and scream and shout our team to a win. Try it it’s not that hard. 

The rest of the comp probably hate it but I must admit I get a bit jealous when 70,000 Pie fans do that Coooolllllliiiiinnngggggwwwwwoooooodddd chant.  As a player I reckon that would be pretty cool and it helps they have a longish name. Same when the Tiger fans do the Yellow & Black from their song. 

4 hours ago, Roger Mellie said:

It made me throw up in my mouth a little:

The Melbourne president didn’t want this remark ‘ending up in the newspapers’

Paywall...does anyone have the full story?

42 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Kate was NOT referring to the level of noise from fans. She was referring to the number of members.

You really think she’d make comments like that at a function where Demon Army members were present, and noticeably so? We were loud and imposing (well, I was anyways) and our presence was definitely felt. Besides, Kate wouldn’t have made those comments even had we not been there. She’s our biggest fan. 

Its a combination of both she was referring too. As clear as daylight. She is clearly asking for more noise as highlighted below from a quote of her from thr age.

The comments below wasn't actually from the function. She clarified this to the Age journo when they reached out to her this week.

“I think Melbourne can and should be a big club on and off the field. We have seen our membership grow to record numbers over the past few years and we are on track to reach 75-80k members and I want to see that number continue to grow. I always had a great rivalry with Pies on the field. Let’s add the membership challenge to that great off-field rivalry.”

Roffey went on to explain that her remarks should be interpreted as a call to arms for Melbourne supporters. In 2023, the Demons had 70,785 members to Collingwood’s 106,470, while .

“The crowd at a game makes a huge difference – especially a loud crowd that gives their team 100% support. I’m not sure the fans realize how much of a difference it makes to the players on the pitch – but it means a lot to them. When the MCG is full and our members make a lot of noise, it gives the players a massive boost on the field.

“I will continue to encourage every Melbourne supporter to play their part by turning up to games, being louder in the stands – and behind their players, whether the team is five goals up or five goals down – because it matters .

“I think Melbourne can and should be a big club on and off the field. We have seen our membership grow to record numbers over the past few years and we are on track to reach 75-80k members and I want to see that number continue to grow. I always had a great rivalry with Pies on the field. Let’s add the membership challenge to that great off-field rivalry.

“The crowd at a game makes a huge difference – especially a loud crowd that gives their team 100% support. I’m not sure the fans realize how much of a difference it makes to the players on the pitch – but it means a lot to them. When the MCG is full and our members make a lot of noise, it gives the players a massive boost on the field.

“I will continue to encourage every Melbourne supporter to play their part by turning up to games, being louder in the stands – and behind their players, whether the team is five goals up or five goals down – because it matters .

 

We get good numbers to games already in my opinion and I think we do well enough to make noise. She thinks it's as easy as coming to games and making noise at all opportunity.  Sorry Kate, it doesn't work that way especially when you're 5-6 goals down with a game style that is not overly exciting for fans to watch. Still gets the wins but it's boring to watch. 

At the end of the day the wins is all that matters.

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

How did the Collingwood attacking style go in 2 of 3 finals last year? They fell across the line playin defensive footy clinging to leads for most of those games. Against GWS they broke every rule in the book for 10 straight minutes scrumming the ball around.

How did their accuracy go last week? If social media is anything to go by their fans wouldn't mind if they won games by 1-0 for the next 100 years.

Sure, we need to find a more attacking brand. We got close to it in a number of games last year and then rolled out a forward line of nothing and midfield down on zip for the finals.

I don't know where you sit but in the MCC members and the northern stand there's a whole lot of nervous disappointed fans and not a whole lot of noise and that's the bulk of our crowd.

The next step is the club doing something proactive to increase engagement but I don't mind at all that the fans are challenged as well. At least they're half way there by recognising the fans are exactly fired up.

Even if we drop away and miss finals this year it's still the best collection of talent we've had in 50 years. The team isn't complete and has a bad attacking game right now but we have to appreciate the physicality, defensive effort and flashes of attack the guys are putting out there. 

Exactly what kind of fan engagement do you want during games?? Seriously, you're there to watch a game of footy, not a super bowl entertainment. 

Edited March 14, 20241 yr by dazzledavey36

her comments are taken out of context, wish they reported the whole thing. It was asked does she want our supporters to be loud, hence her saying yes we want to be like collingwood.

Nothing more nothing less.

34 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

The rest of the comp probably hate it but I must admit I get a bit jealous when 70,000 Pie fans do that Coooolllllliiiiinnngggggwwwwwoooooodddd chant.  As a player I reckon that would be pretty cool and it helps they have a longish name. Same when the Tiger fans do the Yellow & Black from their song. 

Disagree. I think they're arrogant knobs. They now go completely overboard. Eg. They did it during the last practice match (ridiculous) and in the first quarter against GWS - that ended well for them.

May, now Roffey there seems to be an obsession with Collingwood 😁

Irrespective of her point it's a very strange comparison from Roffey. 

I can't imagine Tiger Woods wishing to be more like John Daly ... (ok maybe a bad example). Would Rory McIlroy wish to be like John Daly?

Would the Yankees ever publicly wish to be like the Mets?

The Celtics like the Lakers? 

Man U like Man City? 

Ricky Steamboat like Ric Flair? 

Edited March 14, 20241 yr by Dee*ceiving