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Western Oval 87

My father, a fanatical Melbourne supporter, passed away a couple of weeks prior to the Freo match in 2008. He had already organised a couple of tables in the dining room for that day so a whole group of family and his footy mates went along and kept a seat free for him. We were lucky enough to get tables in front of the windows but we were playing 'typical' Melbourne footy and were 50 points down by half time. Biggest Melbourne comeback of all time. A fantastic last couple of quarters where, at the time, the team just seemed to do it for him. There were some tears during the song My sister and brother and I then spread some of his ashes at CHF scoreboard end after the game

I wasn't going due to the disgraceful seating on offer to MFC interstate members. Now I've been offered two WCE members seats in a prime location that will cost me a carton of froffies and which I've accepted. So, if we beat West Coast this weekend, I will probably get ejected from the stadium 5 minutes before full time for 'causing a scene'.

Whelan flattening Hird and Travis Johnstone running onto the ball and banging it through on the boundary line from outside 50m in a final. The single greatest passage of play I have seen as a Melbourne supporter.

I get a bit sick of this waiting to see how the team is traveling - we heard it from Chip and now Jesse and Tom Mac. They need to show some leadership and drive the improvement, as Jack Viney is doing. I wish they were invested like he is.

Standing in the outer at the Whitten Oval round 22, 1987 waiting with thousands post the final siren listening to the transistor to the Geelong v Hawthorn game. Only a flag will surpass it..

I just wanted to keep a few demonlanders away from the Westgate #manoftheppl

Anybody under the age of 25 want to admit what they thought Deeoldfart was talking about here?

Aside from the '87 and '94 finals series already mentioned, I'd have to say our comeback win against Essendon at Windy Hill in 1990. We were 34 points down midway through the final quarter and booted 7 goals in 15 minutes to win by 8 points. Swooper moved Garry Lyon into the centre, Darren Bennett booted four last-quarter goals including a couple from about 60 metres out, and Todd Viney nearly killed Alan Ezard with a bone-jarring tackle that was the best I've ever seen (until Jack's dumping of Mav Weller last year).

Sitting in the members at the G and witnessing the comeback to win against Carlton in the Qualifying final in 2000 when Cam Bruce banged home the final nail from the top of the goal square in the dying minutes. looking at the faces of the Carlton supporters on the siren was absolute gold. Witnessing the best game of football I've ever seen , the 1996 merger game though we lost by a point. I stiil loved that game.

1. Being in Brisbane to see us beat Brisbane in 2002 when Lions were in their prime. Brisbane kick the first 7 goals to 1, Brisbane lady sitting next to us "you didnt come all the way from Melbourne to see this?" we come back and win by 21 points on the back of 7 goals to Neita.. 2. 2006 Elimination final vs St.Kilda 3. 2005 Vs Bulldogs round 21 ? 20 points down with 5 minutes to go. Jeff White kicks the winner with seconds to go. Neahle Daniher storming down through the crowd fist pumping (almost tear up thinking about it). 4. 2000 qualifying final vs Carlton 5. Round 17 2010 vs Sydney Thinking of these times just wants us to have success so much more

1994 season.

If he nominates us he will play for us. If he doesn't he won't. We will have to wait and see. Sorry for the simplistic post but it really is that simple.

Unless we beat another team of note this year I'd say our improvement overall hasn't been huge. Sadly we're on a slow burn with our improvement, not the rapid rise the dogs managed. It's frustrating because I felt like the stars had aligned for such a year but it hasn't turn out that way. But progress is progress, and we do have some genuinely good young players coming through, but it's the transition from the old Melbourne to the new Melbourne that is one of the biggest challenges. The Ox is right to be frustrated when talking about losing to the Saints 14 matches in a row, until we shed that stigma we won't have turned the corner.

I have heard that Roos rates O Mac very highly as do the other coaches. They believe he will be our best key defender

A lot of great men have died "on the job" or as they say.... "He came and went at the same time"

Round 16, 1990. My sadistic Filth-supporting father took an 8 year old me to Windy Hill and let me sit with the MFC cheer squad as he spent the first 3/4s at the bar. I used to run around with other kids and collect empty tinnies for Cash-a-Can. We got smashed all day and were down by 27 points at 3/4 time. We came back, kicking towards our end and won by 8 points. Darren Bennett kicked a bag (8?), Ricky Jackson got a few and Gary Lyon kicked a torp from 60-70 m out to give us the lead late in the game. Goosebumps!

Getting to see Robbie Flower play in a final.

either that or he requests a trade at the end of this season. optimists see: hogan is re-signing within the next 6 months! yay!! pessimists see: hogan will request a trade at the end of this season! tears!!

I'm old enough and lucky enough to have been around for our Flags through the the 'golden era' of the 1950s and 1960s, and for me its hard to go past Froggy's goal in 1964 as my second favourite Demon moment. All seemed lost after Gabbo's run and goal, and moments later we had our noses back in front. The tension was unbelievable, and when the siren sounded a 'valve' was released and the Demon crowd erupted. Premierships never tasted sweeter. We had stolen a Flag from the 'filth' and it went some way towards dulling the darkest memories of 1958. The joy and satisfaction were enormous, but back then, finals and premierships seemed to come easy for the mighty Demons. I had to wait 23 years before my most cherished Demon moment of all, and I see from the posts above that I share it with quite a few Demonlanders. Western Oval, final round of 1987, shouting my lungs out for the Dees while trying to pick up a score from the Cats / Hawks game from 'trannies' in the crowd. When we finally made it, in Robbie's last year, the euphoria was palpable ..... there wasn't a dry Demon eye in the crowd around me. Just keying these few words is giving me goose bumps. I wanna experience moments like these again please, and I don't have another 23 years to spare!

1987 Elimination final v North. The roar of the crowd when we ran onto the field was spine-chilling. Seemed like 90% of the crowd were supporting us. And a one-sided massacre was icing on the cake.

Alan Jackovich destroying Nth Melbourne with 11 goals 8. That scissor kick!!

I was gutted on Sunday especially after the start we made and having weathered a heavy storm with the run from midway through the second to late in the 3rd. I thought we are in this but sure the Hogan free kick and 2 mins later we are 3 goals down. Not sure who said it on here but surely at some stage in the game these players start getting tired of losing to the Saints and at Etihad and the leaders just carry the team. Viney tried to do it, Vince didn't look right, Gawny was beaten but he was still trying to impose himself. We lack plenty of leaders across the ground. The boys would want to turn up this week, Meth Coast have copped it this week in Perth for their poor performance on Sunday and they have pretty much been written off as causing any problems in September. The Ox is just like the rest of us passionate and every time we think we have turned the corner this club continues to kick you in the guts. Most of us remember the false dawns of the past and those scars run deep.

1998 season and especially the finals, if only we didn't cop nth melb in prelim, how Adelaide won the flag after we pumped them in 1st final still has me stuffed, I remember last round of season we smashed tigers farmer took a massive mark over Lyon, bit of luck and we could have won flag as we were flying, same with 1994 injuries stopped a flag

He is a excellent outside player and goal kicker. You can never have too many good players

Go back and have a look at us 3 years ago. If you don't think he has turned it around you are kidding yourself. So you think the fact he is paid 4.5m that we should have won a flag or something. We were a disgrace and a basket case 3 years ago

I doubt he's actually waiting to see how we go. He's just got to say something. He can't really say, "I'm definitely staying, just playing hard ball to get a bit more cash out of the club" or "staying? U joking?".

crompton kicking for goal 1964

Honestly mate, there's about 400 threads where you can whinge about how terrible you think we are. Can we at least have one thread that puts a smile on our faces?

Jesse Hogan says he hopes to make decision on his Melbourne future ‘sooner rather than later’ choice quote: “There’ll be a time where I’ll want to sign, or whatever the case may be, and that will hopefully be sooner rather than later,” Hogan told Fox Sports News’ AFL Tonight. “Hopefully over the next six months, or whenever it happens to come about, I can get it done.”

Frankly, whether Ox's criticism and his rant were justified or not, for me it is a refreshing change that someone in the media, who actually supports the club, is having a red hot go. From where I stand, I am getting very tired of excuses and whether we are beaten or not, a consistency in effort and intensity is all I am looking for at least in the short term. Is that too much to ask?

Hard to go past the 94 and 98 Finals series'. Schwarta lit up the 94 series and the wizard lit up 98. The last couple of weeks of the home and away in 98 and then the finals series was probably my favourite period as a Dees fan. I don't reckon there'd be many times in Demon history where we played in front of more than 50k 5 weeks in a row. For some reason, the 2000 finals series never captured my imagination like 94 and 98. Probably because we all knew in our hearts that we were going to get done by Essendon anyway. Apart from that, my uncle took me to our last game at Victoria Park when I was 6 or 7. Collingwood were on top and we were about 12th or something and we won by about 7 points with Jacko kicking 7 or 8 and giving the crowd the bird after every goal it seemed like. I couldn't see half the ground for the entire game but I didn't care. To be honest, standing on a frozen terrace down at Kardinia Park last year with 6 or 7 demon supporting mates all three sheets to the wind behind the goals as the dees stormed home in the last quarter was pretty special - made up for a lot of forgettable days at the footy in the last decade. I'd bloody love us to play in another final. You remember finals forever. That's why I was so shattered with how we played on Sun cos I thought we were still a sneaky chance this year. Don't know what I'd do if we ever won a flag - would probably just spontaneously self-combust. Not a bad way to go really.

I have often thought someone should write a book of personal experiences at the G. So many more things have occurred there than just football, cricket and the occasional concert.

Excellent summation, Wing. The dearth of our midfield talent (and I use the word loosely) over the last 40 years has been extraordinary. Outside of Flower, the best midfielder I've seen at Melbourne is Greg Wells (it's a travesty Todd Viney made TOC ahead of him - political reasons imo). I have to be honest and say that I don't overly rate Jones as a player. I have tremendous respect for him and he's as honest as the day is long, but for me it's certainly not a stretch to think that Brayshaw, Oliver and Viney will be better. Our dearth of talent these past 40 years can skew this view, because it seems unlikely that 3 starting off at virtually the same time will be better than one of our best, but it's such a shallow pool we have to use as a comparison that it's far from pie in the sky from my vantage point. Scott Thompson has been A-grade and better than Jones, it's just a pity we couldn't retain him. I've seen enough of this young triumvirate to confidently predict they'll be a rung or two higher than our current skipper. I wouldn't heatedly debate anyone who disagreed, it's just a considered opinion.

I usually find myself nodding along in agreement with the majority of your posts PD but this one got me thinking. My earliest memories of watching the Dees are the early 90's and in that time Jones is probably the equal best midfielder I've seen, along with Todd Viney. Both had their weaknesses, both B+ players, but for consistency of performance they're my best two. Johnstone had them covered by a mile for talent but mixed the sublime with the totally ineffectual, Woewodin, McDonald and Moloney had one standout season but were largely solid and capable foot soldiers, and Leoncelli and Tingay I loved and were honest as the day is long, but never quite made the step up to elite that might have led to us winning a flag in that exciting mid-late 90's era. In more recent years we've pinned our hopes on Trengove, Sylvia, McLean, Morton, Scully and even Gysberts who all showed plenty early doors but none of whom, for various reasons, came even close to fulfilling their potential at the club. I'm just wary of declaring that those three you mentioned, after 25, 64 and 10 games respectively will all be better players than our best (arguably) midfielder of the past 25 years. Of course the fact that Jones, despite being a heart and soul player who gives his all every week, holds this title is an indictment on the recruiting, development and culture of the club, and that the wheel is slowly turning in this regard. No argument there. But they've all got a hell of a lot of hard work to do to get the most out of themselves like Jones has done and to play for a decade at the level he has. One thing they will have is quality midfield help, which Jones hasn't for the vast majority of his career. They've all shown terrific potential, really exciting potential, but I'm not quite as bullish as you just yet. There have been too many cautionary tales!

Not at all OD, no better time to be up and about. In all seriousness, we've all had a good vent about the weekend (which everyone is entitled to). But after a loss we end up droning on and on and on about it until there is nothing left to say... and then we invent other things to say to make up for it. Let's look ahead to the Eagles game and the possibility of a win. It's a small, minute possibility, but this year we have always been in the game. What happens if we can get on top in the midfield and cut their supply forward? What if a few things go our way and we put on some scoreboard pressure? There is every chance we get smashed, but I still believe that THIS year, we are in every game we play in. I dunno. Looking at the negatives for days does nothing for me. I have to find the positives in there somewhere.

Think I'd rather hear the Ox vent than read a Matt Burgan puff piece. As most things in life it's not as black and white as Schwartz says. But it's not that rosy either.

1983 State of Origin South Australia 26.16.172 d Victoria 17.14.116 Goals - SA: Lindner 5, Bradley, Kernahan, Motley 3, Naley, Aish, Platten, Schneebichler 2, Thomas, Copping, McAdam. Vic: Flower 4, Daniher, Wilson 3, Madden 2, Smith, Marcou, Cunningham, Ashman, Hawker. Best - SA: Aish, Bradley, Motley, Giles, Craig, Lindner, Thomas, Rendell. Vic: Flower, Daniher, Serafini, Wilson, Rowlings, Madden.

It truly was a Demon Attack

This is a hard one .... There's been so few.

Like they got Treloar?

Even being off the pace, his 23 touches and 7 clearances were both career highs. After a long layoff with concussion issues it was a fine return.

Just on the radio over here in the west, Karl Langdon said he spoke with Glen Bartlett at a function last night who stated Hogan will not be traded under any circumstances. There was a bit more said but mostly stuff we've heard. Hogan is loving Melbourne, his girlfriend is from Melbourne etc.

The knee injuries would have to have sent a scare through the Richmond camps who are said to have put big dollars on the table, massive investment for an injury prone player, not sure they can afford the gamble. Personally i think both Richmond and Carlton should be re-building through the draft, and we're in more of a position to look at bringing in someone like Dion, given our core group is already established.

Everyone wants success in whatever form. We want successful careers, we want happy and successful relationships, and everyone likes to be associated with successful things. We want to feel that our lives are meaningful and worthwhile, and ultimately successful however we measure it. Everyone on this site has a long standing and continuous relationship with our footy club. We have an emotional investment in our Demons. We want them to be a successful team not only for our own satisfaction and enjoyment but we want our team to be respected because of that success. Not everyone can win a gold medal or win all the time. Winning a flag is the holy grail and so much can go wrong or rather you need so much to go right, like winning the Tour De France. I will be happy if my team not only wins footy games but can do so consistently so that others will admire and respect our club. I will be overjoyed if we win a flag but it is not the be all and end all. It is the cherry on top of the cake. But in my mind it is not take it or leave it. Let's enjoy the ride and enjoy the fruits of future success rather than dwelling only on "the flag".

What an odd post

You are the rarest cat going round.

Wet toast are very gettable this year, and gettable this week. Unfortunately though, our team has far too many takers and not enough getters. No chance! Some may not like it but I think Jones needs to be rested. He doesn't look right, and if it has anything to do with his neck stuff from last year, with finals out of play, perhaps he should sit out the remainder and get himself right for next year. Gives someone a chance to play his role and see if we can develop them into greater options next year. Talking ANB, Oliver, Michie, Brayshaw.