Apart from the bleeding obvious, EVERYONE in the media has written us off.

It’d be so cathartic to smear egg on their faces

Nah.

Its actually not that big of a deal of we dont achieve success. This year should be seen as starting point of a quick rebuild. There will be teething issues this year with completely new structure in coaching and game plan.

And honestly, who actually cares what the media think. They dont define how club success should look like.

One of the main reasons I hope we have success other than the last two seasons being absolutely horrible to watch, is that if we have a decent or even good season, we are more likely to attract some talent.

Couldn’t care less about the media’s opinion.

Longer we are at the bottom, longer players don’t want to come to us and we become St Kilda.

I think it's fair that the media has written us off.

We've lost 26 of our last 38 games which is a success rate of 31%. On what planet are we entitled to some respect and high hopes from the media going into a season after two back to back failures? Add into the fact that we traded 3 clear best 23 players from last year and we're already down Bowey and Viney for likely half the season or more. Can Steele, Mihochek and CJ go some way towards offsetting the loss? Time will tell.

We're a rebuilding club IMO and behind closed doors I don't believe King has any expectations on making the top 10. I could be wrong, but if he was aiming for finals then he would've dug his heels in by keeping Trac at the expense of a tremendous draft package that is designed to pay off in the future, not 2026. He also would've given Oliver one more chance by gambling on that bounce back year that's been due since 2024.

I hope like any other that we surprise the world with a 12 win season, and play a final in late August at the G, but my mindset is on the future as that was the message I interpreted during trade week. King's building us for a crack at the future, not 2026.

I don't expect to win anywhere near 12 games this year.

15 minutes ago, GawnOfTheDead said:

One of the main reasons I hope we have success other than the last two seasons being absolutely horrible to watch, is that if we have a decent or even good season, we are more likely to attract some talent.

Couldn’t care less about the media’s opinion.

Longer we are at the bottom, longer players don’t want to come to us and we become St Kilda.

Plenty of losses inside of 20 points speak of an encouraging year but preserves our low level on the ladder and hence a high draft pick, which we make be able to turn into 2 picks

It’s the fast food generation…we want everything yesterday!

The media's opinion doesn't worry me, either. And as @Bring-Back-Powell said, even if I did think there was a plethora of careful, rational analysts out there, what evidence would they have to suggest we were going to be finalists this season?

The reason I think we need to show more than just the odd glimpse here and there in 2026 is because I get the sense the era of the AFL being broadly supportive of 10 Victorian teams, which began some time after 1996, may be slowly coming to an end.

For a long time, I'd always thought we were a middle-sized club simply lacking the sustained success to cement that position. Straight after 2021, I thought my gut had been proved right. We suddenly had 70,000 members, were getting strong crowds (that's one area where I do worry about the media and think their continuation of a "fairweather" narrative that is rarely supported by simple numbers is dangerous), and seemed to be going OK financially. The crowds have remained OKish, but the rest has fallen away dramatically. The membership drop has been extraordinary, and the recent discussion on here about the club being of very little interest to potential sponsors is worrying.

As St Kilda and North have shown, you could afford to be a Victorian club and go through really rough patches in the Demetriou and McLachlan years, probably in part because it would have been gross hypocrisy to say "North Melbourne, you haven't made a final in eight years and only 20,000 are turning up to games - you need to merge" and at the same time say "Gold Coast, you haven't made the finals ever in your 15-year history, and you only get 10,000 people to your games - here, have some more money". Can you still afford to be down in several areas - performance (and list management), membership, sponsorship, attendance - for a long period of time today? Maybe. I hope so, but I'm no longer sure.

We need to go better than some expect to give the non-rusted-ons hope and, eventually, to give the AFL a reason to put us back in "prime time", which leads to more sponsor interest and more financial security.

If we dip into a sustained period of below average performance, I don't just worry about losing, I worry about our existence.

Some success is really important from a confidence point of view with the younger players coming through. Get some wins and they’ll gel into a tight supportive unit.

2 hours ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

If we dip into a sustained period of below average performance, I don't just worry about losing, I worry about our existence.

North will fold first unless it does a deal to sell a few more home games.

Their balance sheet is papered over by leasehold improvements which have little value in the real world.

My fear is that the big clubs are just salting away their dollars each year and incrementally they will pull ahead. The money goes somewhere if it can't go into players...marketing, media, exec salaries etc

Of course we could be saved by their stupidity ie. West Coast

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Diamond_Jim

We are definitely at the start of a 3-4 year rebuild. The older guys we've got in are foils for the kids to develop.

These are the guys who will still be here in 2029, based on age. Thats a talented group from Tommy sparrow down imho

3 hours ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

The media's opinion doesn't worry me, either. And as @Bring-Back-Powell said, even if I did think there was a plethora of careful, rational analysts out there, what evidence would they have to suggest we were going to be finalists this season?

The reason I think we need to show more than just the odd glimpse here and there in 2026 is because I get the sense the era of the AFL being broadly supportive of 10 Victorian teams, which began some time after 1996, may be slowly coming to an end.

For a long time, I'd always thought we were a middle-sized club simply lacking the sustained success to cement that position. Straight after 2021, I thought my gut had been proved right. We suddenly had 70,000 members, were getting strong crowds (that's one area where I do worry about the media and think their continuation of a "fairweather" narrative that is rarely supported by simple numbers is dangerous), and seemed to be going OK financially. The crowds have remained OKish, but the rest has fallen away dramatically. The membership drop has been extraordinary, and the recent discussion on here about the club being of very little interest to potential sponsors is worrying.

As St Kilda and North have shown, you could afford to be a Victorian club and go through really rough patches in the Demetriou and McLachlan years, probably in part because it would have been gross hypocrisy to say "North Melbourne, you haven't made a final in eight years and only 20,000 are turning up to games - you need to merge" and at the same time say "Gold Coast, you haven't made the finals ever in your 15-year history, and you only get 10,000 people to your games - here, have some more money". Can you still afford to be down in several areas - performance (and list management), membership, sponsorship, attendance - for a long period of time today? Maybe. I hope so, but I'm no longer sure.

We need to go better than some expect to give the non-rusted-ons hope and, eventually, to give the AFL a reason to put us back in "prime time", which leads to more sponsor interest and more financial security.

If we dip into a sustained period of below average performance, I don't just worry about losing, I worry about our existence.

4 hours ago, joeboy said:

Apart from the bleeding obvious, EVERYONE in the media has written us off.

It’d be so cathartic to smear egg on their faces

3 words: we’re no good.

Hopium and copium are not going to help us. We need talent and games into talent.