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Trading Jordie Gysberts to North in exchange for Cam Pedersen was very much a win for us.

This was the one that I liked more than any other - Cam was all heart.

Good news for Jesse.

Is it just me? I swear I read this the first time as if it had been said by Yoda.

That's right, Norm grew up in the inner (at those times farmland!) suburbs of Northcote and Westgarth. Norm and Checker, two from outside the usual ranks of the Melbourne Establishment, were the heart and soul of the club for almost 4 decades during which we dominated the competition and won 10 flags. They put the Demon fire into the Melbourne CC/FC belly. We need to embrace the Demon, it is barely existent these days.

Yes, that is correct. None of the existing committee would stand aside, to simply let Norm join, so it went to an election. 4 of the committee ran tickets that placed Norm last on their how-to-vote cards to protect their own positions!! Norm finished 9th in a contest for the 8 roles, nearly 100 votes behind no. 8. That was the final insult. Peter Smith, his son, who was playing for the Demons at the time, left to go to Carlton as he also wanted nothing to do with the club any more. In " The Red Fox" he recalled"....But I suspect those blokes were thinking more about their own positions than what was good for the club. They were also thinking that Dad would shake them up a bit too much....Maybe some of them felt it would have been a bit too much for them to handle"

Having been following the MFC for a long, long time and wishing to make all the arguments raised so far into something concise...what I have seen for myself and have read about in the various histories of the Club, is that the common factor which has caused our demise is: Lack of Resources, and/or the willingness to apply resources to winning football matches. In "The Red Fox" there are multiple stories of the arguments that Smith had with the committee, long before his sacking in 1965. All of them were about resources. Other clubs were recruiting players and paying them good money, like Polly Farmer, Darryl Baldock etc, but the MCC committee refused to participate in this. Even before this we had the stories of Fanning and others who left at the height of their careers, simply because they could earn a living playing football in country leagues. In 1964 the days of the amateur player were as good as over. Even Barassi was offered 3,000 pounds and a 10,000 pound loan to join Carlton, which he said was something he would not have got at Melbourne. But the MCC committee still continued to stick its head in the sand, about what was happening. Until Barassi returned and made an ultimately futile attempt to turn the club into a professional operation, by removing it from the MCC, the Club was simply bled dry of talent or watched that talent disappear to other clubs. Zones that we had were not developed. Recruiting and more importantly, development was not done in those zones. They were just left to their own devices, while the MCC concentrated on what it was formed for...cricket. Contrast that with the work that Hawthorn and Richmond were doing in their zones. A friend of mine who worked as a teacher in the Eastern suburbs in the 80's said that any school that asked for a Hawthorn player to turn up to meet with the kids, kick a footy, were always obliged. Small wonder their supporter base grew over the subsequent periods. The MFC was banned from training at the MCG from 1985, so off to the Junction oval we were sent....to stay for the next 25 years! How much was spent by the MCC on facilities there....so little that the MFC Coterie group had to chip in to get a portable for the coaches to have a room to work in. Then the footballers were tossed out during cricket season in any case as it was still used to play games. It was a miracle that we had any success during this period! Other clubs were establishing proper facilities, were buying players from interstate, making offers to any talented players to join while Melbourne watched the likes of Healy, Spalding, Thompson and other disappear or players like Jarman not come. Why would they not?! It was not until the Stynes team convinced the MCC to kick in $1M per year that the club got any revenue from them for nearly 25 years. Even today 25,000 MCC members identify with the MFC, but as was pointed out at last years AGM, 4-5,000 of them come to more than 5 matches and don't take out a MCC/MFC membership. The MCC gets all the loot from football, yet gives little back. Same as in Norm Smith's day. It first really struck me about 30 years ago at at MFC AGM. The total assets of the club which had then been operating for nearly 150 years was less than the average house value in Melbourne! That was fine when you were running an amateur organisation, but this was supposed to be a professional operation. I can't remember who said it, but it was claimed that the MFC were "the most professional in the amateur era, and the most amateur in the professional era. Small wonder there has been so little success".

So good to see that photo of Hibberd. He's had a terrible couple of months - hopefully being able to get out there and just play footy might help a bit with what he's had to deal with (and most likely still dealing with).

Earl Spalding

So far Watts for pick 31 (taking Fritta with it) is looking a positive trade.

Bring it on! ? Not the dummy spit of course. When’s the fixture actually released?

No.27 2018 Round 10 v Adelaide at Alice Springs In 2017, the Crows had embarrassed the Dees in Darwin winning by 7-8 goals. They were runners up in 2017 after being flag favourites. Whilst having a mixed start to 2018, they were a strong side. The Dees had the Alice Springs Footy in the Red Centre game and were desperate for a win in the NT. We’d just beaten the lowly Blues by 109 points in round 9 (6 wins 3 losses) with 4 straight wins so confidence was up. The game also was Jake Levers first game against his former club. This game would see if we were pretenders or contenders. The family sat down to watch the game on the electronic flat screen 55cm device with anticipation. The Dees were on fire early as we scored 4 goals but the Crows answered with two quick replies. It was to be 7 goals to 3 goals at quarter time. Our attack on the footy, pace and multiple scoring options was too much for the Crows. Our midfield dominated. Whilst sometimes still overpossessing the footy (we had 468 possessions) the Dees dominated the rest of the game. We outscored the Crows by 5 goals to 1 (2nd qtr), 6 goals to 1, then 5 goals to 3 in the last. It was a smashing and a complete four quarter effort. A late goal to the Crows may have caused some frustration as I was pushing for the 100 point win. The final margin was 91 points. Unbelievable. Gawn has dominated Jacobs. Viney, Jones and Oliver has dominated in the contest with 30+ possessions each albeit mostly handballs. Jetta had beaten Eddie Betts again. Lever had controlled the backline. The goals were shared around. Hogan (5 goals) and Tommy McDonald were the key forwards. Melksham, Neal-Bullen, Tim Smith and Petracca were other forwards who chimed in with multiple goals each. But the star was Angus Brayshaw. He had 37 possessions (22 kicks 15 handballs) 14 marks and 3 goals. It was hard to fathom why the Crows didn’t shut him down. Perhaps they tried and simply failed. Brayshaw was clearly BOG, with his kicking - by right or left foot - propelling countless Demon attacks. Strangely, he only got 2 Brownlow votes (Neal-Bullen got 3 votes) for the game which highlighted the bizarre system of the umps votes. The Dees had shown their ability, their contested footy superpowers and their attacking power. We were on a high, with the finals a real chance and we couldn’t wait to see what the rest of 2018 brought us. Melbourne 23.8.146 defeated Adelaide 8.7.55

Let's be positive and assume that he meant there is a new Melbourne way but we slipped into old habits and din't play the Melb way.

I find it all pretty shameful and sad. Brock is a walking contradiction though, says he hates when Dean Bailey's name gets dragged through teh mud and gets brought up all teh time and feels sorry for his family, yet goes and does another tell all? Also lambasts Melbourne for tanking and rightly so, but then gets on his high moral horse and goes to Carlton.. the only difference is we got caught, Cartlon are one of the most morally corrupt clubs in the league, have been for 40 years. All of it is just a mess, hope Brock finds some happiness and everyone can move on from a dark time in this clubs history.

Too soon to call this one. It’s Hogan out and May & Kolodjashnij in. I really hope that both Hogan and May can workout their injury and other issues and have a really good next few years. Jesse is a good kid that needs support and a good run.

very much so. Pederson strarted slowly, his first match for us marred by the panic mark whilst ducking his head. then went onto become a handy forward and what I thought was a very handy running ruckman when Maxy went down.

Without any hesitation, what a beautiful outcome for the Dees; Brad was all class.

I thought the Ingerson trade was a steal back in the day. The player we lost was a draftee in Paul Rouvray who didn't play a game. the following best explains it. Ingerson's trade in exchange for National Draft selection #27 was part of the complicated deal that sent Paul Salmon to Hawthorn and Darren Jarman to the Crows. Adelaide player - and former Melbourne draftee Paul Rouvray - was on his way to Sydney as part of the deal before deciding he wanted to play for the Demons. The Ingerson trade convinced Melbourne to pull out of the running for Rouvray, who went to the Swans and never played a game. Essendon believed they had an in-principle agreement with Adelaide to trade for Ingerson, but he thought he'd get more opportunity at Melbourne.

Colin Sylvia

No.28 1987 Round 10 v Bombers at Windy Hill We all remember Brett Bailey as the bloke who kicked the winning goal to win the 1987 Night Grand Final, to deliver the first silverware that many of us remember. It was the catalyst in our 87 rebirth. But we should also remember a game in 87 out at Windy Hill that I attended about a month later and one in which Brett Bailey was the star. After 9 rounds, the Dees were 4 wins 5 losses and struggling to again rise up the ladder beyond 8th. The Bombers were very strong having the core of the 84 & 85 premiership teams still on board and in the five. A loss here would make finals very hard to achieve and at Windy Hill, this assignment was very difficult. Daniher, Merrett, Madden, Salmon, Hawker, Foulds, Duckworth. Many red and black stars. We’d beaten them in the night GF (perhaps catching them off guard and through sheer grit) but to win at Windy Hill would be a massive hurdle. I hadn’t seen us win there so it was unfathomable to see a win. Plus we had most of our top 5-6 top players out again. So how did we win it? Simply I remember two things. The first was the wind. It was a distinct advantage to the end. Yes we had to be smart but I actually thought the windy day would suit the Dons. The second was the tenacious fight from all the blokes in red and blue. They were seriously outgunned for talent but not heart. We used the breeze first to setup the game with a 3-goal advantage. We were down by a goal about at half time so it was game on. But the umps were crucifying the Demons with the home crowd getting the noise to create frees. But in the third with the wind, we kicked 9 goals to 2 goals. We kicked the last 6 goals of the 3rd quarter and now led by 6 goals. Northey leapt our at 3/4 quarter time. Sheedy ripped into his troops. This 3rd quarter avalanche was brought about by the skill of a young 20 year old Gary Lyon (I remember he was a lean, smart and agile young forward) and a pure footballer in Brett Bailey. Bailey was not quick or highly skilled, but used his engine, his smarts and his desire to win the footy. Two different styles of players. Lyon kicked 3 goals in the 3rd. I also remember a great goal to Russell ‘Rhino’ Richards. The Rhino was such an energetic footballer with a burst of pace. In the last, our desparation and fight held out the Bombers. Spalding, Wight and Giles holding out the talls. Koop, White, Yeats kept the smalls shutout. Our contested footy held firm and they only scored 3 goals in the last. The siren gave us a 22 point win. Brett Bailey kicked 5 goals and Lyon 4 goals. Bailey was clearly BOG with over 30 possessions and probably 20 contested. The Bombers were despondent. The arrogant Sheedy was beaten. A team of mostly battlers and youngsters had caused a huge boilover (again). We had a sense that with some stars returning from injury, we could make a run for the finals. This upset win would ultimately prove pivotal to our run to 1987 September action. Melbourne 15.12.102 defeated Essendon 11.14.80.

Hell hath no fury like a missus scorned.

I voted "no" but it's a moot point as I always watch with the sound muted so I don't have to suffer the egotistical boofhead callers.

Why are there photos of homeless people on here?

C'mon it's mid May and we've only dropped one game. ?

Whilst there’s been the list of Regrettable Trades OUT, in a recent post, I was thinking of what players traded out have actually yielded a positive return. I can only recall the trade out of Troy Longmuir some 20 years ago. Longmuir played for a few years and got about another 40 games across Freo and also Carlton. We got pick 19 which was an early round 2 pick in 1999. We picked Brad Green who went in to play for 13 years, 254 games, one B&F and captained the club.

Nice little article on the AFL site https://www.afl.com.au/news/435046/round-two-bolter-injury-ravaged-dee-coming-good-at-right-time Gee I hope this punt pays off for us. About time the chips started to fall our way. ... and I love Harmesy, but he isn't exactly the brightest spark sometimes - he is quoted in the article as not knowing that Bennell is a really good kick and that he didn't know that. You'd think most mids in the comp would know what kind of silky skills Harley has.

Yes. I'm aware of the Todd Viney thing; which helped, i'm sure... but those things only last for a short time, before wearing off... you know 'changing spots', and those things. But in St Pedo's case, he maintained his effort, and workload, and really became a true Dee... highly respected. Which was hard-earned. Just as it should be.

Freo have a habit for ridiculous trades, kings of the brain fade as they are known in 94 traded the rights for Andrew Mcleod for Chris Groom, who had played 12 games in 2 years. Who in there right mind would do such a trade, Mcleod who was highly regarded had just blitzed in the 94 season and won a SANFL flag with Port.

Good interview, but i put that down to the fact that Jake is such a good media performer. The stand out part for me is from 9:20 mins in where he said we didnt play the Melbourne way in round 1. You couldnt possibly be less accurate. The problem was we played EXACTLY the "Melbourne way". Win from the bounce and bomb it long . The whole league knows that is what we do. With the incredible quality of West Cokes backline that was never going to work. In fact it failed practically every match last year as well. The "Melbourne way" he talks about is not the way we play. Change or keep losing matches we shouldn't.

Agree with most of this. At the start of 2010 I went to the club intra-match at Casey and saw Gysberts towelling up our established mids and even overshadowing Scully and Trengove. Was in and under all day, extracting and playing well above his size and experience. I thought we had a star on our hands when I left that day and 26 on debut against Geelong in Geelong and 27 the following week against Carlton (who played finals that year) cemented this belief. 2 rising star nominations over 2 years and a couple of Brownlow votes in a 30 possession performance against Essendon, he had the makings of an inspired draft choice. Then... fell of the face of the earth after 2011. Whether it was Bailey leaving, Neeld arriving, or just a lack of passion or will to play at the top level? I don't know. But the kid definitely had the talent to play.

Two names here that I thought were going to be stars for us for a long time. Both of these players I was against trading at the time and when so I deep down hoped they'd go on to have decent careers somewhere else.... I don't recall either of them ever firing a shot. Living in the bush I don't get to go to many games but I was at the G early on in Sam's career where he put on a clinic on the wing. He would have had close to 30 touches and I'm pretty sure polled some Brownlow votes. I was there the next year when he kicked a few against the Saints.... must have been his good luck charm. Jordy also started positively I believe winning a lot of the pill early on in his career. It seems both of these players got worse the longer they played for us. I hated Cam after his first year, thought he was the biggest flop of all time... especially after he ducked his head early. By the end of his time however I had a massive man crush on him. The way he kept using his body as a battering ram and played with passion made him one of my favourites and was happy to see a bloke finally get all he could out of his body - although I think it took a few rockets for him to click. I thought out best trade out was Watts. I was personally sick of defending him and had heard stories that he was a little bit naughty away from the club. Obviously a talented boy but I think everyone agrees he lacks the dedication to be great. Very happy with your Fritter - when he plays forward!!

it's funny when you look at how it played out for the three major players in two trades over the course of three years brock mclean - 63 games with the blues gysberts - 19 games with the dees gysberts - 0 games with the kangas pedersen - 64 games with the dees

Could he be persuaded to keep if if say demonland asks (the site, not you).

But he went to Carltank... he can go F himself

This is a great post and goes to the heart of the matter. Without wanting to sound like a robo-coach you need the structures and support in place to be able to foster a successful environment. We don't have a suburban heartland to draw inspiration from like the Doggies or Tigers so we need to market ourselves like a Collingwood or Hawthorn - that is ultra-professional with the best available facilities etc leaving no stone unturned to achieve success. It is the only way. Training on a park next to a freeway has to have an impact on the players even if only subconsciously. It's like, if the club isn't going to invest in us then how hard can we really be pushing ourselves? We need to lean on our connections with both MCC, the top end of town and in political circles. That is not to say the ordinary supporters should be disenfranchised or forgotten but to create the successful environment we need the resources and influence of those who can assist.

I’ve had a look online at the data on AFL Tables for this time, and it’s intriguing. It’s like a Gothic Horror. After round 8 we were top of the ladder, undefeated and the reigning premier. Apart from giving lowly Fitzroy a touch up the wins were pretty much unconvincing and narrow. Round 8 was one exception, and that match was the first against Barassi; we won by 37 in front of over 41,000 at Princes Park (Carlton kicked badly: 6.22). Rover John Townsend was emblematic of the day, taking a towering mark over John Nicholls as we asserted ourselves around the ground. The following 2 weeks were the ones mentioned by Bushie, and that’s the car crash that augured decades of mediocrity. Bottled hubris must have been consumed by the crate load in the post-match at Carlton in round 8 that Saturday evening as the juggernaut of the Demon Master crushed the Pupil at their first outing as opposing coaches. In fact it was the last gasp of our greatness. Biblical! I was a youngster at that time and I can still remember how distressing the collapse of the club as a power was, and how rapidly it happened. Feared as we had been, it was not to be any more. Interestingly, the following year (1966) was one in which we sat near the bottom; we had a massive recruiting effort bringing in a large number of new players but sadly uncovered little of top quality. The vibe was that Jim Cardwell and Norm would weave their magic again, but in retrospect it was trying to put an old template on a new and different era, as mentioned elsewhere here. I don’t know what the answer is, and there is a lot of self-laceration over the way things have gone and as to how we could have done it better. I just thought the circumstances were unusual and interesting to relate.

Kevin Dyson

Yes both non trades were killers. The Ferguson one made sense for both clubs at the time but he wanted to stay. Sewell would have been a gun pickup for us.

Ones that didnt happen. Melb wanted to trade Darren Kowell to Freo for a compensation pick, which at the time it was said they wanted to use on a young kid from Healsville named David Wirrapanda. Kowell refused to move and the trade never happened. Melb had agreed on a trade with Haw of Ryan Fergerson for Brad Seweell in 2005. Fergerson refused the moved and wanted to stay at Melb. Sewell had only played 2 season at the time.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

My memory is that we asked for Bartel but Geelong wisely wouldn't let him go. Moloney wasn't our first choice.

426 ?

No.29 1994 Round 17 v Hawthorn at Princes Park 1994 what a year. It was a roller coaster ride. We’d won the first 5 games and were on top. The team was flying. Then a slump and by round 17, had 7 wins and 8 losses. We were outside the 8 (finals eligibility had extended from the final 6) and staring down some tough matches. Geelong has beaten us the prior round and confidence was down. As it happened, we had to play Hawthorn at their home ground as a Melbourne home game. Ouch! The Hawks were in 4th place and had started to dismantle teams. We got the tram up Royal parade and arrived as the “home ground” members. It was bizarre to be seated in the shade at Princes Park. !!! Allen Jakovich has returned for the clash and we were desperate. But Sean Charles was a late withdrawal. The game started well with accurate kicking getting us in front. It was a willing start and do recall enjoying the game from about row 5 or 6 from the fence. 8 goals to 4 goals gave us a 23 point half time lead. A young Neitz at CHB got reported early but had showed our intention. Jako had 3 goals to half time whilst Wight was beating Dunstall and getting the applause from the MFC members. This was a handy start. The Hawks had a very good midfield in Ratten, Pritchard, Allan and Shane Crawford. But on this day, Todd Viney, Kevin Dyson, Tingay and Glenn Lovett got on top and fed the forwards. The 3rd quarter starting with Jakovich adding 3 goals and we’d marched out to a 8 goal lead. But the umpiring was disgraceful and finally Jakovich let them know. The crowd roared in approval as the fired up Demon gave the ump his opinion. Schwarz was proving a handful for the Hawks as they shifted defenders between him and Jako. Maginness, Graham and Taylor all tried and failed. Finally Jakovich added goal 7 and then goal 8 (8.1) as the sealer and saluted to the crowd and gave his opinions to the Hawks defenders. Game over. We had taken a fabulous “away - home” victory and kept our season alive. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was the last time we would see Jakovich for the Demons as a back injury ended his year and ultimately his career (his rehabilitation didn’t go well). Jakovich was a sensation and brought many a smile and excitement to all Demons fans. My late father always jumped and cheered when Jakovich excited the crowd. We certainly did on this day. Good times and memories. We especially always enjoyed beating the Hawks after the pain they’d inflicted in 87 and 88. And in 1994 this game propelled us back into the finals race and kept our slim premiership dreams alive. Melbourne 17. 10.112 defeated Hawthorn 11.8.74.

Shane Woewodin.

That's a strange thing to say 'Nelo'... Drugs can be the cause of the mental issues and no doubt staying off them would be an enormous help. ...but quite often it is people with pre existing mental issues self medicating that go down this rabbit hole. Once in the cycle it's a difficult one to break, it's not as simple as just walking away.

It’s a worry that it is likely the AFL will cut player welfare staff to cut costs. I hope not.

It still staggers me how these people with supposed mental health issues are continually into the drinking, drugs or hang around with the wrong crowds. Get rid of those 3 things to start with and I’d say it has to help your well being.

If one of those 70+ games happens to be in a winning GF, i'll happily join you DD!