7 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

this whole 'our fans don't cheer loudly enough' narrative needs to stop

But it's true 🤷

6 hours ago, Clintosaurus said:

More noise wins more frees

And helps the players ride the momentum. I reckon a big part of the 3rd quarter run in the GF (bang bang bang) was the raucous WA crowd getting behind the Demons.

6 hours ago, von said:

We are loud, but what can you do if it 2-1. 

It's not 2-1 when we play Freo, Sydney, Brisbane etc at the G

4 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

It's not 2-1 when we play Freo, Sydney, Brisbane etc at the G

The Freo game was especially embarrassing.

13 minutes ago, BoBo said:

Ok so I don’t know what other peoples are experiences are at the footy but for what it’s worth… I’ve been to a lot of neutral games over the last decade (jobs giving away free tickets) and my experience is this is absolutely accurate?
 

Dees supporters go quiet when things are going badly unlike any other team. We’re meek and go into our shells in a heartbeat.
 

Yes you can say, oh game ‘x’ was very loud. But I sit in Melbourne members and have for many years now and I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb from how loud I am.

 

From my experience and mine alone, we definitely go quiet when that game goes against us. 
 

It’s just my personal experience so yes it isn’t reliable, but geez, I’ve experienced this so many times for a very long time.
 

 

Totes agree. The club and supporters are followers in too many areas and wait for something to happen. We are too PC and wanting to be liked rather than respected. 
 

Being asked to be louder in 2022 is seen as offensive. Maybe we were not creating an energy fitting of lifting our players to be better in a finals series. Maybe we were mirroring what the players were projecting in field. It was not good enough either way. the MCG was flat lining that night, no doubt. 
 

The club stood back with Gus and his health. We allowed a narrative for the Filth to be seen as victims as Maynard may miss finals. Eddie showed his passion. I hated it, but it has to be respected.
 

The club stood back in his retirement when Gus mentioned the Maynard incident being a big factor to him retiring early. Have not heard the club going hard for a club history making Premiership player losing his passion and job. Is the club too worried about aligning itself with the AFL and the concussion legal issues? If so, in the process, Gus gets light weight backing from the club. Not a way to treat of club champions. 
 

I don’t wanna be so disrespectful as Eddie and the filth, but I want more from the club in making a point of view other than backing our coach being subject to gambling and drug taking rumours. 
 

1 hour ago, BDA said:

She wasn’t talking about culture.

Did you read the article?

I don’t understand why everyone is so triggered by these comments.

A president of a sporting club has come out in public and said they'd like more supporters to attend games and express their support vocally. Can you not see the problem here? 

Edited March 14, 20241 yr by Skuit

1 hour ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

… and you’re right: that’s NOT what she was getting at.

This is being skewed to suit Kate-bashers’ narrative. At least two posters have called her comments a kick in the guts to loyal supporters, comments she didn’t even make! How is that fair?

That's not correct, the article clearly states she is talking about the noise level of the supporters as well as the number of supporters. It is a fair comment, I don't know why anyone would feel offended. Obviously it's not all Melbourne supporters, many of us are lunatics that go berserk (after having too many coffees/ red bulls 😄 ) but a large portion are very quiet and sit on their hands, the loudest they get is when they are making negative comments about the team. I've seen it week in, week out for 35 years. I remember sitting in the old red seats in the 80s/90s and one guy in particular walking up and down the aisle pleading with the supporters to get up and make noise. It definitely has an impact on the team, I've seen players (notably Petracca) gesture to the supporters to make more noise and get loud. It's not just when we kick a goal or react to another act on the field, supporters should be proactively cheering to encourage the team and lift their momentum.

6 minutes ago, Skuit said:

A president of a sporting club has come out in public and said they'd like more supporters to attend games and express their support vocally. Can you not see the problem here? 

What's the problem?

7 hours ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

I sat on an aisle next to two bays of them at our final last year and I couldn’t be happier that we’re nothing like them. 

Likewise. After having those ferals scream, yell obscenities, spill beer over me and cheer when Gus got injured I got up and left and sat downstairs and watched the rest of the game on the screen. I will never ever go to another Collingwood game. I haven’t watched a minute of the GF and every time I think of that thug Maynard, Cox and Howe with a premiership medal around their necks I feel like 🤮

8 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

That's not correct, the article clearly states she is talking about the noise level of the supporters as well as the number of supporters. It is a fair comment, I don't know why anyone would feel offended. Obviously it's not all Melbourne supporters, many of us are lunatics that go berserk (after having too many coffees/ red bulls 😄 ) but a large portion are very quiet and sit on their hands, the loudest they get is when they are making negative comments about the team. I've seen it week in, week out for 35 years. I remember sitting in the old red seats in the 80s/90s and one guy in particular walking up and down the aisle pleading with the supporters to get up and make noise. It definitely has an impact on the team, I've seen players (notably Petracca) gesture to the supporters to make more noise and get loud. It's not just when we kick a goal or react to another act on the field, supporters should be proactively cheering to encourage the team and lift their momentum.

I’d be surprised if 10% of demonlanders apply to what Kate is saying to be honest. An it isn’t about individual people, it’s a general supporter base issue. 
 

I’m not saying everyone that disagrees with her are wrong at all, but genuinely, her comments accurately reflect my experience of going to the footy as a Dees supporter vs seeing how other fan basis going about it. 
 

We’re allergic to aggression? Arrogance? I don’t know what the right word is. But we can be underwhelming on the WHOLE, from my experience.

Our crowds in 2018 during the finals were extremely loud. It’s crazy how loud a crowd can get with the momentum of winning a final. The fact is in all 4 of those finals in 2022-23 we barely played any sort of electric footy with 5+goal leads like we did in 21 or even ‘18.

3 minutes ago, BoBo said:

I’d be surprised if 10% of demonlanders apply to what Kate is saying to be honest. An it isn’t about individual people, it’s a general supporter base issue. 
 

I’m not saying everyone that disagrees with her are wrong at all, but genuinely, her comments accurately reflect my experience of going to the footy as a Dees supporter vs seeing how other fan basis going about it. 
 

We’re allergic to aggression? Arrogance? I don’t know what the right word is. But we can be underwhelming on the WHOLE, from my experience.

It's definitely a demographic thing, Geelong supporters are similar to us, probably Hawthorn too.

I went to a Geelong Prelim final in 2011 against West coast and couldn't believe how tame the crowd was. Yeah they'd won 2 flags recently but still!

2 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Our crowds in 2018 during the finals were extremely loud. It’s crazy how loud a crowd can get with the momentum of winning a final. The fact is in all 4 of those finals in 2022-23 we barely played any sort of electric footy with 5+goal leads like we did in 21 or even ‘18.

Yes! When we beat Geelong in 18’ that was insane. That’s the loudest Dees game I’ve been too by far and everyone was loud! I haven’t experienced that many times as Dees supporter at all. It was a one off experience. 

3 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

It's definitely a demographic thing, Geelong supporters are similar to us, probably Hawthorn too.

I went to a Geelong Prelim final in 2011 against West coast and couldn't believe how tame the crowd was. Yeah they'd won 2 flags recently but still!

Yeah that makes sense. I went to a few Hawthorn games in their prime and apart from the arrogance, they’re not the worst. Essendon supporters are always, ALWAYS loud. They don’t seem to care if they’re currently garbage. They have the expectation they’ll be good again. 

 

And you know what? I respect that. We need some of that. 

7 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

I can’t read the article coz paywall but if it’s quoting Kate’s Season Launch speech she absolutely meant growing our membership. She prefaced her mention of Collingwood with something along the lines of I don’t want this taken out of context so before anyone starts tweeting, I’d like our Club to be like Collingwood… She went on to talk about a bigger membership. At no point did she refer to us needing to make more noise. 

It wouldn't be like Sam McClure to get a Melbourne story wrong.

19 minutes ago, BoBo said:

Yes! When we beat Geelong in 18’ that was insane. That’s the loudest Dees game I’ve been too by far and everyone was loud! I haven’t experienced that many times as Dees supporter at all. It was a one off experience. 

The G was literally shaking that night when Jones and Hannan kicked those goals.

46 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

The G was literally shaking that night when Jones and Hannan kicked those goals.

The day I fell in love with the red and blue 🥲

2 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

What's the problem?

That a president is trying to drum up support through the media? Isn't it obvious? 

8 hours ago, Skuit said:

A president of a sporting club has come out in public and said they'd like more supporters to attend games and express their support vocally. Can you not see the problem here? 

Hi Skuit. As I’ve posted a few times in this thread I didn’t interpret her comments as a dig at our supporters. Others disagree as you would expect on a public forum.

Quite contradictory… this year Kate is asking us to be loud like Collingwood, but last year asked us not to boo Baker at the Bulldogs R1 game - that’s the most Collingwood thing I can think of!!

“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 two clubs’ average crowds, including finals, were 43,860 for Melbourne and 64,429 for Collingwood.”

On the above numbers, Melbourne has an average crowd turnout to membership ratio of 61.96% and Collingwood has 60.51%.

We’re actually slightly ahead of Collingwood. So the club wants more if you want more bums on seats then grow your membership base.

Maybe improve your media department, preserve brand image (particularly for families), and - I can’t stress this one enough - stay out of negative media headlines…

“She prefaced the comment by stating that she didn’t “want this ending up in the newspapers”, which usually means it will end up in the newspapers.”

47 minutes ago, BDA said:

Hi Skuit. As I’ve posted a few times in this thread I didn’t interpret her comments as a dig at our supporters. Others disagree as you would expect on a public forum.

Apologies to you and @Dr. Gonzo. I was only trying to highlight how ridiculous the reaction has been. I tend to assume everyone knows my tounge is always firmly planted. 

 

Just now, Skuit said:

Apologies to you and @Dr. Gonzo. I was only trying to highlight how ridiculous the reaction has been. I tend to assume everyone knows my tounge is always firmly planted. 

 

Too subtle for me Mr Skuit. I'll know better in future.

8 hours ago, Skuit said:

That a president is trying to drum up support through the media? Isn't it obvious? 

I don't understand why that's a problem. Isn't that part of her job?

Edit: nevermind saw your post above 😄

Edited March 14, 20241 yr by Dr. Gonzo

18 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I don't understand why that's a problem. Isn't that part of her job?

Edit: nevermind saw your post above 😄

Precisely. She's fulfilling her exact job description. Like it or not, Collingwood is the benchmark. And they in part got that way through an annoying parochial president who continually rallied the troops. 

The club needs to park this make more noise rubbish, play good footy and we’ll make the noise. 

There was plenty of noise vs the Pies in the QF, then we kicked a whole bunch of points and everyone got deflated. Must be my fault cos I didn’t make enough noise, not the blokes paid money to kick it between the big sticks.. those paid to run and play for the club should stop telling the fans we’re letting them down and worry about doing their bits right.

Make a granny at the G and you’ll hear noise.