27 minutes ago, Hellfire Dub said:

Did you say similar optimistic things after 22 and 23?  

As a betting man, what odds would you give on this outcome eventuating?  

Hey if it helps us sleep at night.. why can't we dream?

5 hours ago, deelusions from afar said:

I'm relieved that Petracca has released a statement - if nothing else than it gets the club out of the bad media spotlight for a bit.
However, I did find the statement both interesting and disappointing by what it didn't say.  It has been very carefully crafted.  For example:

• He says he loves his footy... but nowhere does he express his love for the club - where he has won a premierships and north smith with many of his closest mates.  Usually this type of statement would have something like "I love my footy, I love this club - the players, the staff, the fans..."
• On his future he "remains committed to the red and blue" but it doesn't say for life or for his contract etc
• He also says "I voiced my concerns as a leader, wanting better for our club, playing group, and fans."  Maybe this is accurate - maybe he was doing the hard thing and trying to generate the change needed.  But from the snippets in the media, this seems more revisionist history being written and (until there's reason to think otherwise) the reference to wanting better for the fans seems disingenuous.  

i guess we'll have to wait to hear what he actually says when he's interviewed about it all.

All good points.

But personally I could care less what he says in a media statement- now or in the future.

I didn't, and don't, expect him to come out and pledge undying loyalty to the dees or talk about how much he loves the club and fans.

And I'm not particularly annoyed with him either - merde happens.

Im just glad hes staying.

Rehab, train hard over the preseason and play great footy.

That will do me just fine.

9 hours ago, binman said:

afl.com had an article in the lead up to our game tiltled:

Don't dream it's over: what pies need to make finals

the final paragraph:

'It technically isn't over yet, but surely not even McRae's miracle workers could pull this off.'

McRae's miracle workers?

How many times in VFL/AFL history has the premier failed to make the finals the following year?

Some miracle workers.

Instead we get articles like this from the AFL media, well these guys are AFL media adjacent, instead of focusing on the Pies missing finals.

 

1 hour ago, DEE fence said:

As a peninsula kid, Ringwood was the end of the earth and traffic hell to get there, nothing against the place but boy o boy geographically inconvenient 

Grew up in Ringwood. Land of John Farnham, Pat Cash and more recently Kevin Sheedy (according to my mother who still resides). Made even more famous by the school I attended which has recently displayed a prowess in the use of spreadsheets… Not their finest moment. 
 

In better news I watched the 2021 Grand Final this arvo… Great way to put this nonsense behind.

13 hours ago, Hellfire Dub said:

Did you say similar optimistic things after 22 and 23?  

As a betting man, what odds would you give on this outcome eventuating?  

I did indeed.

Is there something wrong with being optimistic?

As a betting man, I'd give us better than even money of the things I noted occurring (well, not the flag, neom smith double - the rest)

And why not?

The club is not in crisis, whatever the media would like people to believe. 

Mutiple key players have resigned, including our four best young guns (jvr, winsdsor, mcvee and kolt) our best player is suiting up next year and we don't have players like melk with long term injuries.

West Coast Eagles- the wealthiest club in the AFL with a 20k wait list to be a member - is in crisis.

They just sacked their coach and can't find another one. Have been down the bottom for 6 years and a flag looks minimum 5 years away.

It will come down to luck as much as anything.

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong this year.

We're due some good luck and if it comes in the next 12 months we'll be back playing finals this time next year.

Edited September 1, 2024Sep 1 by binman

2 hours ago, Beetle said:

Probably crossed paths with you in Juice and Daisys back in the day.

Sounds like a certainty!

Until Juice got shut down for not having any safety exits. 😂

Then turned into a Clark Rubber

1 hour ago, binman said:

I did indeed.

Is there something wrong with being optimistic?

As a betting man, I'd give us better than even money of the things I noted occurring.

And why not?

The club is not in crisis, whatever the media would like people to believe. 

Mutiple key players have resigned, including our four best young guns (jvr, winsdsor, mcvee and kolt) our best player is suiting up next year and we don't have players like melk with long term injuries.

West Coast Eagles- the wealthiest club in the AFL with a 20k wait list to be a member - is in crisis.

They just sacked their coach and can't find another one. Have been down the bottom for 6 years and a flag looks minimum 5 years away.

It will come down to luck as much as anything.

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong this year.

We're due some good luck and if it comes in the next 12 months we'll be back playing finals this time next year.

Nothing wrong with being optimistic.  I love your optimism despite everything and I really hope you're right.  I'd really love you too be right, but I fear we might be headed for another 2019 style rough year.

Would you be confident enough to say if you're right, I'll pay for your grand final ticket and if it doesn't happen then you'd pay my Redlegs membership 2026?  

Edited September 1, 2024Sep 1 by Hellfire Dub

1 hour ago, binman said:

We're due some good luck

Actually, luck doesn't work like that. We could just as easily have more bad luck next year as each year's luck is independent.

Sorry.

Against that, having a full off-season with no finals so players can have a proper break and recharge will definitely help our "luck".

Edited September 1, 2024Sep 1 by bing181

18 minutes ago, Hellfire Dub said:

Nothing wrong with being optimistic.  I love your optimism despite everything and I really hope you're right.  I'd really love you too be right, but I fear we might be headed for another 2019 style rough year.

Would you be confident enough to say if you're right, I'll pay for your grand final ticket and if it doesn't happen then you'd pay my Redlegs membership 2026?  

Define me being right.

My self imposed exile has concluded. 

Can someone please share with me the timeframe for Petracca's recovery?  ie. Do we know when he is available to resume playing footy? Is he gonna be right for round 1? 

 

 

26 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Actually, luck doesn't work like that. We could just as easily have more bad luck next year as each year's luck is independent.

Sorry.

Against that, having a full off-season with no finals so players can have a proper break and recharge will definitely help our "luck".

Well, you clearly don't believe in the footy gods.

Or Lady luck. 

I've had a word with both and they agree we're due some luck.

39 minutes ago, binman said:

Define me being right.

The story writes itself:

Dees have a cracking preseason.

The Max, Jack, tracc and clarry band gets back together.

The young Turks (JVR, mcvee, Windsor, Kolt, disco and pick 5) make their own music.

The dees win the flag.

Tracc wins the Norm Smith.

Redemption reigns.

Traccs 'reach' goes nuclear.

 

This stuff becoming fact.  

I don't bet, but my understanding is the odds accumulate for each event, making the outcome less likely?  

I know the post is fanciful and I appreciate your enthusiasm and all your hard work.  Like you I'm celebrating that Trac remains for now and hope we go really well next year, even all the way to a glorious Flag with real fans there to celebrate. 

As for this potential wager, unfortunately for all of us I think it's unfair and I'd just be taking your money.  

I was asking yesterday, what safeguards are there for the team if any player takes the proverbial and gives a half @55ed effort or exaggerates some real or concocted injury that forces them to sit on the sidelines for most of the year?  Especially one on $1.7m or thereabouts?  

I'm glad he's back but I'm genuinely concerned about his physical and mental readiness to play AFL in a few months time.  

36 minutes ago, binman said:

Well, you clearly don't believe in the footy gods.

Or Lady luck. 

I've had a word with both and they agree we're due some luck.

Binman another issue that has risen during the 2024 season is that we have a few more bogey sides, ie sides that are now beating us regularly and consistently. This is a 2024 issue. Previous years we had tough opponents, and we would share the spoils but a few of those sides definitely now have the wood on us. I'm not saying we can't turn that around in 2025 but if we are to rise again we actually need to. Brisbane, Collingwood and Fremantle would consider they have the better of us now. Others will be keen to join that group. We may rise back up but we certainly won't just float back up as a matter of course. We will have to learn to fight every inch of our way back up that ladder. Not an easy task.

Does the AFL need to introduce new rules to limit contracts to be no greater than 3 years? it's hurting clubs in the long run firstly with Gundry and Treloar who the Pies are still paying significant money too and now Melbourne has to pay out the second last and final year of Brayshaw's contract around $1 million over those two years, which means we won't be able to attract a good player for a year or two while trying to manage our salary cap. Then we have Trac doing all he can to break his contract allegedly with 5 years to go. I just don't see how these long contracts benefit the club other than smoothing out the salary cap a little bit.

2 hours ago, Strawberry Fields said:

Grew up in Ringwood. Land of John Farnham, Pat Cash and more recently Kevin Sheedy (according to my mother who still resides). Made even more famous by the school I attended which has recently displayed a prowess in the use of spreadsheets… Not their finest moment. 
 

In better news I watched the 2021 Grand Final this arvo… Great way to put this nonsense behind.

Both Park Orchards residents.

9 hours ago, Gorgoroth said:

Too prestigious, I live in a tiny country town.

It's, like so many other places, over populated and I don't like neighbours 😂

I lived in Mooroolbark for a year and half.

That was enough.

I do occasionally miss Hull Rd Fish and Chips though.

19 hours ago, Mel Bourne said:

I look forward to reading some book in twenty years that actually tells me what’s been happening at the club for the last three. 

I’ve had some extra time on my hands since being canned from my night-job, so wrote up a synopsis for the latest volume. I drew my inspiration from having been in relationships before, but think this would be best targeted at the Young Adult market.

Petracca was frustrated with us being a bit [censored] and other distractions prior to his injury. Particularly players who haven’t lived up to professional standards, such that he had to provide cover both in the forward line and middle because others couldn't get the job done.

Nothing to do with the footy department or upper management, except for maybe not enforcing those standards a little more strenuously, although he doesn’t understand or appreciate the delicate juggling act they must perform.

He gets severely injured. In shock, his loved ones at the time maybe lash out a bit at anyone they can blame, with the MFC being the first natural target. Things cool off.

However, he continues to struggle with the emotional trauma of the injury, and frustration of being isolated and in rehab. He requests and is granted an extended interstate break, while others haven’t been afforded such a luxury during their own rehabs. Some players question whether that is fair. They may not have been told of the confidential mental health element. 

Petracca gets wind of such complaints, and possibly some bitchiness over his continued, jovial social media activity while recuperating, and spits the dummy, due to point one. He thinks people have no idea what he’s been through, and starts bringing up old grievances.

His geographic separation from the club and isolation from chatting teammates, which adds to his insecurity, means the spat is allowed to fester. With a protective partner in his ear and a steady bank-roll from paid social media gigs, he thinks [censored] them, I’m out.

Things are said along these lines to people within his circle, which then filters into the media. This creates even more tension, which the club is trying to resolve, but Christian begins emotionally justifying his actions, bringing up anything he can think of to defend himself.

He makes the call to his manager at some stage, who tells him that securing a trade would be highly unlikely, but they can put some feelers out. As pointed out many times, he doesn’t just want a trade to any club out of the MFC, but a better overall deal for himself.

Meanwhile, he comes back to the club, tells all his teammates of the trauma he’s been through, but things are all a bit awkward and forced, and he’s still stuck on the sidelines while others have to concentrate on training and playing. He feels just as isolated.

Things spiral from there, but the club’s leadership, who are bewildered by how everything got so far out of hand without a clear complaint, have their adult pants on and know it will get sorted once he’s had the chance to get everything off his chest, quietly reminding him through outside channels that he is a contracted player.

Possibly, the wave of bad press and media manipulations following the Roffey interview finally pushed the club to put its foot down and tell him to smarten the [censored] up and put an end to this mess. They then host a getaway for the players and coaching staff and everyone is chums again. The end.

 

 

 

7 hours ago, Neitz the Great said:

Not too bad for a “small club” who finished 14th….

"Average attendance" is a rubbish stat when we play other Vic teams half the time and also includes games in Perth and Adelaide etc

Look at our average attendances vs interstate sides compared to other clubs, that is a better reflection of our pulling power.

1 hour ago, Where Demons Dare said:

Does the AFL need to introduce new rules to limit contracts to be no greater than 3 years? it's hurting clubs in the long run firstly with Gundry and Treloar who the Pies are still paying significant money too and now Melbourne has to pay out the second last and final year of Brayshaw's contract around $1 million over those two years, which means we won't be able to attract a good player for a year or two while trying to manage our salary cap. Then we have Trac doing all he can to break his contract allegedly with 5 years to go. I just don't see how these long contracts benefit the club other than smoothing out the salary cap a little bit.

Longer contracts are better for the clubs when you have free agency and clubs unable to trade players against their will. If Petracca was out of contract he would have just left as a free agent and we would get pick 6 and nothing more.

.

Edited September 1, 2024Sep 1 by Macca
wrong thread

17 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Longer contracts are better for the clubs when you have free agency and clubs unable to trade players against their will. If Petracca was out of contract he would have just left as a free agent and we would get pick 6 and nothing more.

That's true but a long contract was once upon a time a huge deterrent for a player to shift clubs

Now, the longer contract can just be taken up by the club a player might want to go to.  2 years or 5 years, is there any difference anymore? 

On 31/08/2024 at 21:08, Queanbeyan Demon said:

Tom relieves himself way too often for my liking.

Rumour is that he is insufficiently gruntled and moving to the Ballarat Courier.

The media labelling the Trac ‘saga’ a farce when the media started it is hilarious 

why not say Tom Morris is an unaccountable [censored]?

c u next tuesday all!

"Petracca’s concerns included his belief that Melbourne people did not check in with him enough in the aftermath of his King’s Birthday injury, the pending departure of teammate Alex Neal-Bullen, and previous culture issues at the club including Clayton Oliver’s troubles and the doping charges faced by teammate who shall not be named here over a positive cocaine test."

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/i-remain-committed-petracca-says-he-is-staying-at-melbourne-20240831-p5k6ua.html

I continue to encourage every supporter to watch “A sit down with Christian Petracca”, an interview posted on the official MFC site three weeks after Tracc got injured. Overlooked by mainstream media because it doesn’t fit their preferred narrative!