5 hours ago, Hellaintabadplacetobe said:

Absolutely if they give us all I mentioned. It's not about wins n losses for me this year.

You're a brave man.

I know a lot here are getting on board the rebuild/transition bandwagon. But I know what the Gameday threads are like, and it's not a pretty sight.

Selfishly, for the sake of my sanity and mental health.

Watching Tottenham this season has bled eyes dry. Inability to string together passes, lack of forward threat, favortism, if it weren't for injuries, the usual sub players like Odobert wouldn’t see much game time… in a sense, very similar to Melbourne post the flag. Simultaneously watching Melbourne and Tottenham over the last few years is seriously tough viewing.

I’m just hoping King brings back a sense of identity and confidence back to the club. I’m personally also expecting a rise back into finals contention, but all I want to see is a succinct method again. Win or lose, just want to see progress week to week, match to match.

4 minutes ago, VNightCityLegend said:

Selfishly, for the sake of my sanity and mental health.

Watching Tottenham this season has bled eyes dry. Inability to string together passes, lack of forward threat, favortism, if it weren't for injuries, the usual sub players like Odobert wouldn’t see much game time… in a sense, very similar to Melbourne post the flag. Simultaneously watching Melbourne and Tottenham over the last few years is seriously tough viewing.

I’m just hoping King brings back a sense of identity and confidence back to the club. I’m personally also expecting a rise back into finals contention, but all I want to see is a succinct method again. Win or lose, just want to see progress week to week, match to match.

you and me both. watching spurs at the moment is like watching my car crash in slow motion

30 minutes ago, VNightCityLegend said:

Selfishly, for the sake of my sanity and mental health.

Watching Tottenham this season has bled eyes dry. Inability to string together passes, lack of forward threat, favortism, if it weren't for injuries, the usual sub players like Odobert wouldn’t see much game time… in a sense, very similar to Melbourne post the flag. Simultaneously watching Melbourne and Tottenham over the last few years is seriously tough viewing.

I’m just hoping King brings back a sense of identity and confidence back to the club. I’m personally also expecting a rise back into finals contention, but all I want to see is a succinct method again. Win or lose, just want to see progress week to week, match to match.

I feel your pain

My expectations are not that high but I really hope we play with more flair and freedom.

Our last two seasons have disappointing no doubt, but luck, injury and arguably an overly defensive mindset has left us losing games by narrow margins.

The competition is very even imho and most teams can win.

My main concern atm is the fact we still have some potential first picked players looking injured or under done for the season ahead - we know how that plays out

5 minutes ago, Demon_spurs said:

I feel your pain

we gotta sack frank. like, literally right now. we may genuinely go down.

53 minutes ago, VNightCityLegend said:

Selfishly, for the sake of my sanity and mental health.

Watching Tottenham this season has bled eyes dry. Inability to string together passes, lack of forward threat, favortism, if it weren't for injuries, the usual sub players like Odobert wouldn’t see much game time… in a sense, very similar to Melbourne post the flag. Simultaneously watching Melbourne and Tottenham over the last few years is seriously tough viewing.

I’m just hoping King brings back a sense of identity and confidence back to the club. I’m personally also expecting a rise back into finals contention, but all I want to see is a succinct method again. Win or lose, just want to see progress week to week, match to match.

We’re doing well at Spurs lol, jump on the Spurs fan site. A lot of similarities to Demonland. Classic reading.

1 hour ago, VNightCityLegend said:

I’m just hoping King brings back a sense of identity and confidence back to the club.

confidence is such a key. Early last year our confidence went from high in round in 1 to completely shot by round 5/6. The gold coast game at the G we got spooked and couldnt pass 15 metres with no pressure. It was a team looking all over the place, like they'd never even trained together. Lets hope we dont hit those levels again.

If we have a rebuilding year and just want to see 'improved cohesion' and 'getting games into kids' etc, we will be going backwards.

Last two seasons have amounted to that essentially.

Plus, given that we weren't really that far off the pace last season any improvements should see us actually winning those close games. There were only a small handful of games last season I felt were truly gone at half or 3/4 time.

Trac and Clarry were almost a handycap last season. Trac in particular looked disinterested, poor body language, didn't put effort into chasing, before we talk about him munting kicks into the forward line.

We have a number of seriously capable and talented guys in the likes of Rivers, Kossie etc that are ready to step up and fill their shoes and some solid foot soldiers and experienced players behind them. And we still have the best ruckman in the league, who is a match winner on many days.

We then have a crop of talent comming through like JVR and Winsor, whom should be capable of making a step up. I don't want to put too much pressure on the kid, but I do think The Bison is one that is capable of being that mature, consistent contribtor, much in the way the Ashcrofts have been as young players at Brisbane. When we rate opposition, as MFC supporters, I think we're often quick to point out their jets comming through, but also often don't count our own against that ledger.

Asides from Brisbane, the so called 'good teams' of last season weren't anything super special IMHO. Every season, there are a bunch of teams that make finals with either average talent and/or ahead of their development curve, but that are well coached and committed as a team. I don't see why that can't be us.

If we go into the season with low expectations and put winning as a secondary objective, then we could come out with Bailey/Neeld type outcomes. Winning and how to win is a mentality and something we need to embed in it's self and I'm personally not turning up to the footy every week with the expectation we'll probably loose and/or maybe might win.

Edited 16 hours ago16 hr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

On 09/02/2026 at 14:30, Harrisonrules said:

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

We'll lose heavily on occasion this year because we're going to play an attacking style. Twenty point defeats went with Goodwin's defence first approach.

I'd be uninterested if we were going into 2026 with the same-old - vive la difference and accept the consequences.

On 10/02/2026 at 09:37, Little Goffy said:

All we 'need' for 2026 is to be respectable enough to have the multiple valuable free agents give us consideration as a team already coming back up, rather than on the way further down.

We're likely to have one very brief but very real opportunity to cash in on having a cluster of young stars coming through before our current veteran crop retires. Just like the gypsy woman said 2028 premiership.

I would liken it to the unexpectedly early premiership win by Hawthorn in 2008. They absolutely had planned a longer rebuild but a couple of young guns developed incredibly well incredibly quickly, and they snagged a surprise trophy while the likes of Crawford were still giving the team some steadying.

Consider that in 2006, aside from Franklin with 31 goals from 14 games, their other top-5 scorers were Mark Williams (the undersized marking forward, not the beloved though definitely insane coach), Ben Dixon, Trent Croad and Shane Crawford.

Also worth noting that there were a lot of players in that team who were not stars, just effective, good quality role players who committed the to the system, which allowed the individually gifted players to have their best chances to break games apart.

Picture Tom Sparrow grinding out a handball from a pack and then making the second effort laying a block so Harvey Langford can break free and roost it from 50 out.

If we see that kind of thing a lot in 2026, then it is a successful year, and a wild tilt at '28 is something even reasonable people might believe in.

Anyway, here's a curious reference point - how would people feel if our 2026 report card resembled Hawthorn's 2006?

afl.com.au

2006 Report Card: Hawthorn

Are the building blocks in place for the re-birth of the mighty Hawks? <b>Matt Burgan</b> writes that they might well be, in his assessment of Hawthorn's 2006 s

We're not getting access to FAs - on top of the competition from the "big clubs" we're up against Tasmania and their sign-on bonuses.

What I hope for is that we can retain our young talent from pillaging by Tassie - one OOC player from each club can go there as a FA with access to big sign on bonuses. Langford, Windsor etc ...

We need to continue to build through the draft next year with our 2 first rounders or trade for Bailey Humphrey who we've already established a relationship with.

Edited 13 hours ago13 hr by old55

If it clicks it clicks. It’s just more likely to be clunky at times. I just want to win the 5-7 games we “should” win and then win 3-5 against the better opposition. The other 12 or so I want to see 100% effort from start to finish, an evolving game plan, no serious injuries, a midfield starting to take shape and a forward half that works hard and kicks straight. All that and excavators at Caulfield with our logos on them.

I'm looking forward to watching us play a more attacking game after the last two years of slogs, arm-wrestles, blown chances and inevitable losses.

North play an attacking game and they have a decent list. It's not a panacea.

Going to be a tough year is my guess.

Even tougher for Casey given the injury levels and delistings.

11 hours ago, bing181 said:

You're a brave man.

I know a lot here are getting on board the rebuild/transition bandwagon. But I know what the Gameday threads are like, and it's not a pretty sight.

Nah not brave just realistic and wiser as I get older. Would love to be proven wrong but just can't see it. There are too many teams well ahead of us. Bullish for 2027.

The brave are those that join the game day thread.....and the delusional. It's comical at times.