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I just don’t understand why a Melbourne supporter would go so far out of their way to attempt to rain on our own parade with this first level rubbish.

What a fantastic win against West Coast - the club showed tremendous mental strength after a week of solid bashing in the media to beat the team 2nd on ladder and at their hostile home ground. I recommend a close listen to Simon Goodwin's press conference. He always makes a lot of sense if you listen carefully. http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/2018-08-19/rd-22-simon-goodwin-media-conference "[Our supporters] have got a team they can really support" There is a whole new generation at the club and they are only responsible for what happens on their watch, not what happened 10, 20 or 50 years ago. This new generation has been unfairly carrying the burden of lack of success over the ages. They are only responsible for their own creation - and yes there have been failures e.g. 2017 R23, but there's been progress too - a lot more progress than failure. We're a young team learning the hard lessons the hard way. Losing culture is just in supporters minds - nowhere else. The club name is the same, the colours are the same, the supporters are the same - but the team is new. The biggest risk is supporters who have experienced disappointment over many years putting their own burden of poisonous negativity onto this group - you don't have to look far to find that here. We supporters need to show some mental strength and not jump off at the first sign of a speed bump. I want to appeal to all Melbourne supporters to really get behind this team through thick and thin. I'm very confident we're coming into a golden era for the club.

While we’re all rejoicing about the prospect of Nathan Jones’ return to finals football in the coming week and some are feeling good about Jack Watts missing out, it’s worth sparing a thought for former Demon work horse Lynden Dunn. He was nudged out of the club a couple of years ago and went to Collingwood where he worked his way into the position of their senior key position defender destined to play in his first ever finals series before rupturing his ACL. As much as I dislike the club he’s at now, I have to feel for the bloke who came to the club a year before Jonesy, made his debut in 2006 but didn’t play finals that year. He played 165 games in the red and blue and is stuck on 196. I hope he gets to 200.

54 Brayshaw 20 Fritsch 65 Frost 95 Gawn 32 Hannan 65 Harmes 119 Hibberd 137 Jetta 260 Jones 62 Kent 303 Lewis 142 McDonald 152 Melksham 55 Neal-Bullen 56 Oliver 58 Omac 59 Petracca 66 Salem 14 Spargo 103 Tyson 31 VB 16 Weideman 1964 It’s an omen people ?

Weid took 4 contested marks on the weekend. That was the most of anyone on the ground, and more than Hogan has taken in any match this year (his best is 3). No wonder the club are so bullish about him being a dominant aerial threat in the future. He's still got a ton of development ahead of him and he's already able to clunk them! Great to see Weid show some of his talent on the weekend. Hopefully he keeps up that form and doesn't tire. He could be vital for our structure in finals.

Just saw Jack so I’ve got a bit of an update. I was driving and he was walking so I didn’t get a chance to speak to him. But in the split second that I drove past him, he didn’t seem to be in any discomfort. He wasn’t even looking at his feet. Will try to write more later.

Oh [censored] off this guy is one of the biggest flogs going around. The AFL are off their heads.

Tyson 'joeboy'- prolific but wasteful

I guess the umpire who gifted the free against Vanders for competing for the ball forgot which team he was meant to be rigging the game for... The final free kick count was 18-14 to the Eagles btw. Many bitter Eagles fans would agree with you OP. At least you’ve got that going for you.

The players don't care about that. They'll say that they do, but they play for each other. They share the experience with each other and they'll share the results with each other. Think Clayton Oliver cares about the 1964 flag? It's not his and he had no experience of it. He might hear some old codger day that he reminds him of some player from back then and he'll humour them .... but he couldn't care less. Nathan Jones sees the last 13 years. Clarry see the last 3. Spargo only sees 2018.

Really thought this was gonna be about Christian Salem being the hard unit half back general that Hodge is

So typical of the virtue signalling AFL Seriously, What the absolute f does this fl.og have to do with football? A politician criticises the ideology of islam, and the league thinks it should leap to the defence of its 2 islamic players. Good god they make me sick.

For KC and some of the others here that recall our 2009 VFL season. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-08-21/silvagni-calls-it-quits-at-carlton Silvagni showed then that he had the goods to be an AFL player, and he was able to go on to forge a 60 game career. Even back then, Casey showed an ability to blood quality players. Silvagni, Kyle Matthews, Tim Mohr, James Wall, Stockdale. I enjoyed watching Silvagni play for Casey back then and was glad to see him make an AFL career. Wish him all the best for the future.

I seriously considered starting a thread of "Should we pick up Goddard as a delisted free agent" just to watch people spit out their lunch.

Mate, if I answer those questions, Jack won’t trust me to drive past him in the future. I just can’t risk the relationship we have. Sorry.

Just thought I'd mention Salem - his calmness and superb disposal is a huge plus for us. Kicked a beautiful right footer into the middle at a crucial moment, too.

As has been discussed, the only way to get consistency is to apply a total ban on ANY punches. You hit with a clenched fist, no matter the force, you get rubbed out. This 'fines' methodology is puerile from the AFL particularly for players who earn hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'd hate to be Michael Christian trying to make some sense of it. The poor bugger is on a hiding to nowhere. The failure should be clearly placed on Hocking.

Only Waleed can save this country.Only Waleed knows what is really going on lounge rooms across the nation.It's colonialism,it's racism, it's pure evil plotted and perpetuated by people of no colour.Waleed needs to step up and help us become more accepting ,decent, intelligent,caring,loving and inclusive.If you disagree with this you are racist, evil,and narrow minded.Help us Waleed.We are nothing without you.

From an overall perspective, we've never actually been disadvantaged by umpires anyway. Most would disagree but most have been brainwashed into believing that the umpires have got a set against us. Ditto for every other club and their supporters. The sport can't be umpired correctly and it is daylight to the next hardest sport in terms of the adjudication. So it stands to reason that the umpires are going to make a stack of errors and an equal proportion of those incorrect decisions are going to be awarded against all the teams. Over time. So comes to terms with it all, lose the persecution complex and stop playing victim. That attitude is all based on a mistruth anyway.

Get [censored] Judd you Carlton [censored]! Focus on getting your club getting an ACTUAL win you gronk.

Disagree. It means a lot. It isn't a substitute for winning a final, or making a GF, or winning a flag. No one who has enjoyed the last 48 hours would suggest otherwise. But for those of us who have supported the club for the past 12 years, where we "enjoyed" winning 2 games per year, to make the finals and to cast aside the past 12 years of being laughed at means a whole lot.

Roosy On the Couch highlighted the below Jones’ effort in the last quarter as a critical contest for us regaining the lead. The ‘ Toe Poke’! Getting pushed by Yeo, Jones shows his determination by winning the ball any way possible. Controls the ball with his foot, picks it up, handballs to Gawn and the rest is history.

Occam’s razor says our game is hard to umpire, our umpires are non-pro and of low quality, and this game was no different to any others where poor decisions got made (none worse than the one paid against vanders to gift Cripps a goal, I might add). But by all means, go the conspiracy route instead and take all the credit away from our gutsy win and say it was the AFL’s doing.

What about the two legged frees we didn’t get? so many not paid either way.

Yes, definitely rigged. The umpires were told to act fairly and not give a free to WC at every contest as they usually do. Confused the Eagles players and supporters no end.

Yes was a great day I was at the other end with the cheer squad. My son went down to the fence to hopefully get a footy but missed out. When he came back up to me I happily showed him one I marked which big Maxy threw in. The train journey home was interesting played it's a Grand old flag on my phone only for a couple of Meth Coast supporters to tell me to thank the umps to which I replied yes of course I forgot every you lose its down to the umpires never anything to do with your side. To which a woman late 50s/early 60s said that's nasty and I just politely said really is it that difficult to just say we were beaten by the better team on the day. I had 4 kids with me 3 of whom were Meth Coast supporters with their colours on and I think the woman was quite embarrased with my reply and the fact I didn't react in appropriate manner to her comment

Well he can go F himself the arrogant turd.

His wife secretly filmed it without knowing.. So bloody good!

There's a difference between criticism/discussion around selection or performance and the Henny Penny sky is falling wallowing in misery that goes on. I think you're smart enough to figure out the difference between the two Jaded. I also give people some leeway after a gut wrenching loss (for example), people get emotional and this is a good place for venting - but when people are still going on and on about how the club has wronged them etc the Thursday after a game it's just sad.

Look, can you just TRY to support Melbourne, even for a while?

The past negativity. As a supporter I am approaching the finals series with a hugely positive outlook. Even if we don't get past the first week. Then I'll be positive for 2019. I'm not interested in what happened in 1965, 1975 or 1985, to Norm Smith, or Neeld, or Watts. I don't need to be reminded of our past every minute of the day, every day of the week. I know it and I choose now to ignore it.

You can either become eternally depressed by the past or get over it. I can't see the point of continually harping on it. Fifty-5's point was that this is a new team, without that baggage, with a great chance of success in the future, and they don't care about what happened 30 years ago (like you obviously still do), only what happens on the road ahead. We should support them.

You have to be kidding. People jump off on a weekly basis, that’s why there’s a “is Goodwin the right man for the job” thread still on the front page of this forum. That is a classic example of lightning a bunsen burner under the coach’s arse for absolutely no good reason.

People may take the piss but I totally agree and took the same message away. Jones, Goodwin, Lewis and Melksham have all referred to the weight off their shoulders imposed on them by the club’s history that they ultimately have barely contributed to. The other Melbourne supporter in my office and I had a conversation with a non-footy colleague. The non-footy fan commented how it’s weird how footy fans refer to their clubs as “we” when they’re not involved in the actual playing. My other colleague pointed out that the supporters invest in their emotions in the club long before the current players arrived and will do so long after they’ve gone. It is actually *our* club. It’s sobering to me to realise that the players feel that weight of expectation and past disappointment we supporters projecting. Hopefully they can feel unshackled from it for now.

Rigged! Really, what a load of rubbish. Do you really think that the AFL are well enough organised to rig anything?

My three word rating of the opening post. joeboy: complete absolute nonsense.

I think it's fairly clear that Olivers falling over ploy was a plan to get the ball to Harmes via 3 Melbourne players because he knew Harmes would kick the goal. Talk about forward planning!!!! Whose mind works like that?? I'll tell you. No otherAFL player at all.

Gawn will play his 100th this season. Guess which game?

Wasn't the Blood Rule brought in during that Grin Reaper era ? We can probably move on now. Good question DC

Thread closed

Who tags Oliver? Who minds Brayshaw ? Who shuts Salem 's run from half back? Who stands on Melky? And our big bodied players? AND ON AND ON. Let them stew on it. We have Gawn and they will have to put someone on their shoulders to match him.

I guess I'll stick around now.... (I just pushed out a meeting with my biggest customer so I can be on the computer at 9am next Tuesday to buy finals tickets, because priorities!)

Gil has to go. NFI.

You have got to be kidding me. Why is this happening anyway? If they want to fix the game then get rid of GWS and GC and go back to 16 teams. We don't have enough talent to cover 18 teams.

Yep, and that’s why I’ve submitted my 3 word analyses every week for 5 years?

No he's not. We run things in this town now. Get [censored] Judd!

Layzie they are pathetic been top dog pampered supporters in this town for so long with local media who up until recently never dared to really challenge their club.

I mean if you listen to him he’s paying them a back handed compliment. Too good a team to be satisfied with finals and thinks they can go all the way etc. Judd has actually been a big advocate for Melbourne this year. Called Hogan the best player in the league based on form at one stage of the season. i still think it’s a silly comment as the celebrations are totally justified and doesn’t mean the players are satisfied with anything, but his heart is in the right place ?

Don't blame MFC at all. They were carrying the weight of history; the weight of the veil of negativity; the weight of getting another interstate scalp; the weight of the 24-hour media cycle suggesting that they are 'a default 8 team' who are front-running bullies who play well only against weak opposition. The lid was off for a minute. Get over it. The bulldogs celebrated the prelim final win against the GWS very very very hard. Seriously.