10 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

I don’t agree with any of this.

You only had to look on here to see how many didn’t understand why we traded Oliver, or are upset about him/Trac, or still think it should have been “no Humphrey, no Trac”.

And regardless, it’s absolutely the right thing to do for the club to acknowledge that we’ve just traded two future MFC hall of famers.

The point of the letter wasn’t to tell us something we didn’t already know. It was to acknowledge something meaningful happened, and to put a full stop behind it.

It's not about the acknowledgement of their departures that I'm frustrated with, that was necessary.

It's the constant silver linings and reaching for positives that I and many others I've spoken to are getting a bit tired of. Do we need a spiel on the calibre of new players we attracted as like it's a St Kilda haul? Two guys are in their twilight, one has played 4 games and one is injured all the time.

Do we need to highlight what we received in the Petracca trade when it was a win for both clubs and what you would expect from a club doing their job? Are we really going to play this angle up and then go radio silent on what we received for Oliver?

This is nothing against Paul Guerra and I've been very impressed with his start. However after receiving all kinds of letters and communication for 2+ years now the talk is getting cheap. After a lot of mismanagement I'm not going to give the club a biscuit every time they do something right.

Glad that they addressed it but now let's move forward into a new era where we act like a successful club should and not be focused on individuals. The club trumps all.

10 hours ago, Nietaphart said:

Whilst I appreciate the sentiment and positivity The fact we have lost two players who should have, could have been one club premier players, still hurts.

But I understand Guerra is not responsible for the past. Too early to take on the reality of this and not see this with a grain of salt 😪

This is not incorrect, however these two players also must shoulder a bit of the responsibility too for why we didn't achieve sustained success either.
We get the premiership, they got very lucrative long term deals (deservedly so) but I wouldnt' say that they went on with their careers from that point. Traccs kicking was always iffy, Clayton with his difficulties set his career back 2 years, and had to rebuild again, and both had off field distractions, and I wish them well, they were mighty for our club, but not without flaws either.

Note: Not saying the club handled things fantastically thru that period either.

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by Ouch!

7 hours ago, hardtack said:

The part of the letter that I find a bit dodgy, is the bit I’ve quoted, regarding Clarrie… requested? Really?

Takes me back to the old Bellbird days…Charlie Cousins, did he fall, or was he pushed?

(oh, and Andy, you may want to consider a minor change to the post’s title 😉)

New coach wanted him to be able to play multiple roles, I think Clarrie spat the dummy when he heard that, so lets not kid ourselves that he also has not contributed to this as well.

8 hours ago, BoBo said:

Is every supporter, on here, though? It felt like it was just his official bookend to an era to me 🤷‍♂️

Exactly this.

Yes we're all tragics in here but there's a lot more out there... This was in a fashion a pure meat and 3 veg statement. Nothing earth shatteringly new but for some it might be comforting reading motherhood mutterings from time to time.

He's just crossing and ticking.

And it's done.

Now about that temp training ground idea.....

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by beelzebub
sp

11 hours ago, DutchDemons said:

Fresh start on the field and off the field. I’m excited about 2026. Even if it ends up being a full on rebuild at least we won’t have that banging the head against the wall making the same mistakes over and over again feeling.

I feel exactly the same. 24/25 it was clear 2021 strategy and players declining wasn't going to turn around

Demonland =/= all Melbourne supporters.

CEO letter is a weird thing to nit pick

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by JTR