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I've had a gutful of people getting stuck into their fellow dees fans on this site. Some people are quiet. So what? I carry on like a pork chop at the footy but that's my personality. Other people are quieter than me. That doesn't make them less passionate. I go every week but some people can't make games for a million different reasons. That doesn't make me a "better fan". We've all gone through decades in the wilderness. We have our highest membership ever, our attendances are amongst the highest in the comp, we're top of the ladder and we're bloody premiers. And you know what? I reckon we're going to win the bloody flag again. Is there any danger people take a second to smell the roses? These are great days for our club. Let's enjoy the ride.

Too late, I’ve let them in already. I know I should grow a thicker skin and I am, but it takes time. I’m more upset about these comments in relation to my fellow squad members. They are insanely devoted to our Club. They’re fiercely loyal and proud Demons diehards. It makes me sick to think of any of this nastiness ever reaching any of these beautiful people. Thanks for your support, FD💕

Dont let them get to you WCW you all do a great job supporting the Dees, often thankless ,a lot more than some of the winging nellies on this forum

I wonder how many of the people who have spent the last three years potting Tom McDonald are prepared to put their hand up and admit they got it badly wrong. He is the one player in our forward line who blocks and creates space for his teammates, and leads to different parts of the ground. It doesn't show up in his stats very often, but I can guarantee that B.Brown and Fritsch would notice when he is not there.

I ran it with four good friends during the back half of the 80's and start of the 90's. We came up with the idea to have stencils for the letters and made to measure scarlet coloured sheets of paper to ensure each and every one was uniform as well as spaced and balanced evenly on the run through (nobody called them banners). I got an engineer that I used to work with to design the 30ft aluminium poles with slot in steel inserts and lugs at the top to attach ropes to. Something that nobody else had done at that time. Two of us would design the caricatures we sometimes made, I used to draw them on large squares sketched out on butcher paper whilst the other person could draw freehand. We'd then either paint in the colours or use different colours of crepe paper. Today I think they stick a large photocopied picture onto a crepe backing. We had in excess of 20 floggers made from navy and scarlet coloured plastic which made them waterproof. Even back then Coke gave us $10k in sponsorship annually, again unheard of at that time. We played cheer squad football games wearing the players training gear, slept overnight in the changing rooms at the Junction Oval on Friday run through nights then would help pack all of our gear into the property stewards truck to go to the game early on Saturday morning, usually arriving at the ground by 9am. I had Jim Stynes calling me at work and at home at one point trying to get a blown up picture of his 100th game run through. We started making the crepe paper backings (30ft x 60ft) a month before the season to get a head start. This would buy us time late in the season to start work on finals run throughs as they were usually a bit more intricate. We organised interstate travel and hotel accommodation for other supporters and followed the side to all corners of the country. We wrote what we wanted on the run throughs and ended up in the Sunday papers on many an occasion, usually ending with the club asking for an explanation on the Monday morning. It was probably the halcyon days of the cheer squad looking back and many of the kids I knew then are still good friends today. I acknowledge that things are different now and the age demographic is probably a lot higher but the amount of work and time these people give up to represent the club and it's supporters in general would easily outstrip anyone writing posts on a football forum. The one thing that I think would make for a better game day experience would have been to keep the cheer squad seats in our members area next to where our race used to be when they were offered them instead of choosing to sit behind the goals at the Punt Road end. This would have placed them front and centre with all our members and prevented them being heckled by idiots looking to cause trouble from the opposition team.

Nah THBT, not gonna explode over a crock of ill-informed rubbish spewed forth by an armchair expert. The OP says if someone from the DA doesn’t agree they can PM him/her. I SO cbf responding publicly, let alone humouring this clown in private. I can counter each and every point made in this nonsense post. From the vs. Richmond match where 22 DA members where struck down with covid at the same time and had to isolate, right through to the little Sudanese boy who idolises Majak (at least he bothers to show up to Casey/Dees games) and who wears NOT a Richmond beanie, rather a beanie of some local club for whom he’d like to play. So yeah, no explosion at this point. TBH, kinda sick of wasting my time defending the DA to a bunch of insensitive ingrates.

First off, I just want to say I give a lot of respect to those who give their time willingly and support the team from state to state. For some background I'm a General Admission Member in 2022 and generally sit in a pocket, I've been on this site for a long time as different users but rarely post, for those who want to shoot me down for that reason. I've been to all the home games this year and I bought tickets through the Demon Army Website for the Anzac Eve game which was a complete disaster. Initially my tickets didn't work and it was incredibly difficult to find people to help, when I did they were very kind people but sadly couldn't offer much help, past that my seats were double or not triple booked with other fans who were all great about the confusion, but that's not even what I'm here to complain about. All that being said, we have the weakest cheer squad in the league. It's been this way for years but it has been so very noticeable over the last two weeks against interstate sides where they get their chants going against us at home games, it kills momentum and you can tell the players feel it. Opposition fans know it, they put us into our shells and we let them get a ride on us. Everyone knows the polite Melbourne supporter, I'm not saying we should all go feral but we've got to show more spirit than what we have put up. There was a fair few neutral last night and they loved getting stuck into us. I've blown out my throat going hard last night and had a few people tell me that my brother and I were louder than the cheer squad. What also kills me is there seems to be a bloke with a Richmond beanie in our cheer squad I mean come on! My Big Points to rebuild the cheers in the cheer squad: Volume, we need the biggest decibel blokes we can find, we can't be drowned out against the opposite from out of state, unacceptable. Timing, our timing is terrible we go for chants at the point when the team is flying, not when they need us to rally them. Chants, Get some creative people to workshop something... for years we've rocked the standard "Melbourne! clap, clap, clap" its boring, our crowd doesn't get the timing and it doesn't inspire a mouse. If anyone is part of the Demon Army and doesn't like what I've written please reach out to me in the Private Messages I'm more than happy to do my part. Surely I'm not the only one with this feeling? Come up with some ideas and don't shoot people down, keyboard warriors.

After these final four comments, I'm tapping out of the loading discussion, because i'm probably coming across as some crazy loading proselyting zealot. I'm happy to stick with my theory, and happy for others to have theirs of course. The first comment is to reinforce that i am not looking to make excuses for the poor performance of the team, rather looking to identify the reason for the drop off. We all know the symptoms (fumbles, poor decision making, hard to score, easy to score against etc etc) and i think my theory is the most logical explanation to help explain those symptoms. The second comment relates to the first - loading is not the only reason for our poor performance. LH listed a number of excellent factors that contributed to our poor performance in the last two weeks. I would say that fatigue related to additional training loads would exacerbate all of them. My final comment is a thought experiment. Lets imagine Australia's best 800 metre runner, Peter Bol was preparing to run in the Olympic 800 metre final on the last day of September, so of course wants to be at his absolute cherry ripe best on that date. And then lets imagine he has the first race of his European running season in late March. As someone who makes his living from professional running, Peter is desperate to win that race and earn the ranking points and the cash prizes. So of course, he has done a huge block of preseason training to be cherry ripe for the first race of the season to maximize his chance of winning that race. It is not feasible, however, for him to remain at that level for six months. To be cherry ripe for the 800 metre final on the last day of September, Peter is going to have stop racing at some point and do another heavy block of training, and then taper so he is both fresh and at the optimal fitness level, come grand final day. All that is accepted wisdom. It is uncontested the AFL is one of the most aerobically challenging football codes. The average player runs anywhere between 12 to 20 kilometers per game, which is incredible really. The training and athleticism required to achieve those sort of distances for 6 months in competition is comparable, i would have thought, to that of elite, world class runners. Given, that, and the fact that AFL football teams have performance management programs and experts the equal of any in the world (if not in resources certainly in output) why would AFL clubs NOT replicate what is accepted practice (based on decades of research and experience) in analogous sports (eg running, swimming) requiring equivalent fitness levels and the need to peak at the start of the season and again for their grand final? My last comment is that these exact same discussions were being had on DL at this point last season. We looked fatigued then and played sub optimally until round 18 (1 August 2021) when we got going and pulverized the Suns with our swarm. We maintained that level until the very last minute of the GF. My expectation is that, injuries notwithstanding, our 2022 season will follow a similar trajectory.

We do a “show” where we raise the banner, hold it for a couple of minutes, lay it back down, move everything 180 degrees and raise it again, ensuring both sides are seen. On days like Saturday (wet grass) we can’t do a show since crepe paper and water are NOT friends. They’re enemies, and water ALWAYS wins. Especially when water and crepe’s other arch nemesis, WIND, team up, crepe doesn’t have a snowball’s. On rainy, or even just dewy days/nights the less time the banner is at the mercy of the elements, the better. The “advertising on the back” isn’t random. Our major sponsors pay for that and without them we’d be up [censored] creek without a paddle, right? The “message” side of the banner always faces the race. After all, it’s entirely for the players that we do this. And in case anyone wonders… the players notice. And they appreciate it. You see @DemonSam??? You ask a question in a decent manner, and you’ll be afforded a decent response.

Rubbish post

Under the circumstances, and with May returning to solidify the defense, we know what we’ll get from Harrison, and placing him at centre half forward seems the only viable solution at the moment to our underperforming forward line.

Given he's been our mr fix it, i see the only logical option as playing Angus Brayshaw as our towering key forward.

you are a gem ,keep doing what you do,wish i was able to help in some way

Keep up the good work, Civ You and your team are doing a great job

If a small section of unrulies are drowning the cheersquad out this only further proves the OP's contention. I don't believe anyone is blaming the cheersquad for the loss or not appreciating the time and effort they put in. They are there every week through thick and thin. They volunteer their time and put in a lot off effort at home and interstate. That being said, they are pretty tame and have been shown up 2 weeks in a row by a smaller away crowd. It's not just the cheersquad that is tame it is the rest of the Dees fans in the stadium. Two interstate teams have been much louder that us. We all should be ashamed of ourselves. Again none of this is the reason we lost.

no you don't rob peter to pay paul

The most ridiculous thing I've ever read on demonland is armchair experts blaming our losses and other teams losses on loading. Spare me!

I’m not sure I understand the issue. If you want the cheer squad to be bigger and louder, then join the cheer squad. They’re not there to provide us with a service, they’re there to enjoy the football and support the team in their own way. Not sure where anyone gets off telling them how to cheer.

I miss the old rebel cheer squad who sat in the ‘red seats’, led by Angelo, the man with Mohawk. Anyone know what happened to that group?

Heard him on Mix FM this morning, said it is hard to play without fans, when other teams fans turn up. Said it was a reflection on being a bit flat onfield as they feed off the crowd. All pretty fair. He seemed genuinely annoyed with our aging demographic not turning up. I for one have not been able to attend the last few games, but but will make a point to get to all home games now. It’s hard to knock the team performance when we as members are not doing our part

Yep. For me it is the “Matchday Experience” i hate all the outside advertising, loud bland music. I want to watch The Demons and talk with my mates, and hear the Crowd reactions. This has all been diluted sadly. i wish the AFL would listen to the people

The Freo and Brisbane examples are clutching at straws. Freo lost in round 9 and 10 which were played in very heavy, wet conditions and they didn't adjust their dry weather game plan. Note how well they played on a dry MCG and Optus since. Brisbane are at the tail end of 4 interstate trips in 6 weeks starting in round 7 to round 12: Sydney, Gabba, Adelaide, Melbourne, Gabba, Perth with flights home after each trip. A fair amount of disruption to training schedules etc and hardly a time to be 'loading'. 'Loading' as early as round 8 (to affect games in round 9 and 10) is rather early since their byes, like ours, aren't until round 14. imv our loss to Freo was entirely due to lack of personnel: May, Salem, Langdon, McDonald, Harmes. Having an injured Petty and ill Petracca mid match caused imbalances all over the ground. 7 of our top 10 players 'missing' and Freo exploited the weaknesses created. We weren't able to cover the gaps left. And we lost to a whole bunch of Sydney's brilliant tactics: separated their forwards to isolate our defenders so ours couldn't leave their man and intercept or help others. corralled us to the boundary and stifled our ball movement so instead of handballing in waves to running players we hand balled in circles until we turned it over. (They kicked 8 goals from turnovers we kicked zero whereas we normally kick 8-9 this way) without the boundary to enter our fwd 50 we resorted to bombing it long into the waiting hands of their backmen. closed the d50 exits. McCartin on Kozzie which enabled him to be the interceptor. double and triple teamed Brown. applied more pressure where it counted. 75 tackles to 58 tells a story. We may have counted some but weren't able to counter all the above. So yes, sometimes the obvious answer is the correct one and I've noted some very obvious objective reasons why the Freo, Lions and Demons have lost games in the last month. All in all, the cause and affect that losses are caused by loading is a bit tenuous. Now, I'm not saying loading doesn't exist just that it looks convenient and superficial to blame it for everyone's losses. I can see that loading might happen during a bye like a mini pre-season to make up for lack of a game but not in rounds 9 - 10 when many players are run down from covid, injured or ill. And I don't get why 'loading' should ipso facto result in losses. One would hope in such a tight season with competition for top 2 and top 4 red hot the 'loading' gurus would work out a way for it to not result in losses. Losses will come regardless of loading so we don't need to add to them.

Why would anyone be dissatisfied with the efforts of a cheer squad? Who cares how much noise they make It's not like the players and team are going to be affected one way or the other anyway They are volunteers doing their best to support the team. Just like any other supporter So we lose a game and it's the cheer squads fault? How utterly ridiculous

Anyways my patience is well and truly exhausted. I shouldn’t be made to feel like crap by other Dees “fans”especially not after the day we had yesterday. WCW out ✌️

Like a trumpeter?

Why not? We aren’t showing up for this generational Premiership team that he just won the Norm Smith in and is about 6th in the Brownlow.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jun/06/why-has-there-been-a-downturn-in-afl-crowds-this-season-its-not-just-covid-to-blame

Whilst people are talking about umpires, I’ve not seen a replay, but at the time thought Swans were incredibly lucky late in the 3rd quarter to not give away a 50m penalty when ANB was caught high and late, would have been an important goal. Oh well.

Not commenting on umpiring in this match in particular, but I think some underestimate the effect of bad decisions by saying it all washes out in the end etc. and rightly pointing to other factors that determine the result. In an age where momentum seems to be critical, a bad decision that gives a team a single undeserved goal can be much more significant than the mere goal itself. Ditto for a deserved free not paid depriving an easy shot at goal.

Ridiculous call. It's up to our mids to use the ball with care going inside 50 and it's up to the forwards we have in there to compete much better.

Yep. Swans were gifted at least 5 goals from decisions that were iffy at best and horrendous at worst. The Reid dropped mark in Q1 being a classic example.

We just need more people to go along and cheer. We're not going to be this good forever. Enjoy it while you can.

Ease up FTB:- in 2019 he was 19 y.o playing in an average team, and actually did very well all things considered. He hasn’t been tried as a forward since breaking out as a player. Needs to happen if/when he is fit. Try it for a week or 2, if it doesn’t work at least we know. If nothing else, need to know if it’s an option for a mid game swing, if a key forward goes down in a final

Interesting from the weekend: Max Gawn played 112 out of 115 minutes. All but basically 3 minutes. Luke Jackson played 74 out of 115 minutes Mitch Brown 95 out of 115 Ben Brown 78 of 115. I think we are about to see Max play a hell of a lot more forward.

You don't have a bye in July/August to enable an all team two week (sometimes longer) break from playing a game of football and recover from being smashed on the track. And teams don't want to be playing sub optimal football in August, one month out from finals. That is exactly when we started to get rolling last year - round 12 last year was 1 August, and coming off a draw against the Hawks and a loss to the dogs (games we still looked flat in) we thrashed the Suns by close to 100 and never looked back. You asked why other teams are not flagging ATM, and i noted the Freo lost two in a row prior to playing us and Brisbane had been flat in the last few weeks. (perhaps Freo did a block of hard training in that period and freshened up to be ready for the dees and the lions - would make sense and in both games they were clearly running better and, after being behind in the first quarters, were noticeably stronger than us or the lions in the second half of both games) Well, now the Lions, who were favourite to beat Freo (even though it was in Perth) and are second fav for the flag, have lost 2 of their last 3 games - and the win was a lucky one against the Suns having been 5 goals down in the first quarter. Feels like a wobble to me. The Lions play the Saints this week at home. They are big favorites, but if they lose, it will 3 losses from 4 games. The last thing i will say about about loading is that our contested ball and tackle numbers have been fine. Our all team pressure numbers haven't. It seems to me that the obvious issue is we are not spreading and defensively running has hard as were in the first say 9 rounds, or certainly when we were cherry ripe come finals last years. We are also suddenly more fumbly and making poor decisions - again juts as happened at this exact point in the season last year. Why is the question. Perhaps COVID has had an impact, perhaps the flu, maybe injury is biting. But i haven't heard or read a convincing argument why so many players running has dropped off at the one point - just as it did at the exact same point last year. I don't buy that other teams have worked us out (though teams are playing smarter - less dump kicks into our D 50 for example), or our model is flawed, or the players are a bit complacent or that we are coming back to the pack etc etc. If people want to think that the problem is one of, a combination of, or all of these issues that's up to them But i'm sticking with my theory. Sometimes the obvious answer is the correct one. And to be clear my answer isn't an excuse - it is a reason. And i reckon people should get prepared for some more losses in the next few games - and training loads will be part of the reason for the losses. I think we will struggle against the Pies, but they play a territory game like us and don't have the same ability to chain up possessions and stretch our defence web as Freo and the Swans. So i predict a low scoring arm wrestle that we just prevail in.

Watching MitchLewis v Pies yesterday, couldn’t happen but think about how important desire and a positive attitude are. His intensity and drive to win the footy was great to see. Unfortunately polls apart to Sam. Sam is a great young man. I’ve met Sam on several occasions. He’s friendly and well educated well spoken. Love to see your daughter bring him home as her partner. But he lacks a true competitor warrior type attitude. Watching him in the VFL on the weekend and couldn’t help but think he’s not going to make it. His aggression and intensity isn’t natural.

Why all the grief on here,we are sitting 10 wins 2 loses i will take that any time any year

2018 when Mich Hannan was racing towards goal was seriously loud. On a fairly bleak May Sunday in 2008, inspired by little Aussie Woneamirri, a crowd of less than 20k sounded like 120k. The joint was heaving. One of my favourite days at the footy. That said, I'd rather not have to give the oppo 50 points head start to generate atmosphere.

100% Nev, the best way to improve it is to get off your ar** and help.

No thanks Joe

Tomlinson should be given more than one game. It's a big step up, some players need more time to adjust.

They did so on the back of their smart, quick and incisive ball movement. Which we couldn't stop becuase we re not spreading as hard as we do when cherry ripe. We score the same way way, albeit with less precision ball movement and more swarm, and when on also create one on ones and lots of free players inside our 50.

Think the knock on Tomlinson is unwarranted, he was asked to play the Steven May role once Petty was injured and he ain’t no Steven May, he is fine as the 3rd / 2nd tall imo if May is back next week and we wanted to try Petty up forward for example. Lever also should get some criticism for leaving Tomlinson out to dry when he is the senior player with May out, he needed to play a more negating role and be less attacking.

Agree with all of this, I like to be loud at the footy but everywhere I get reserved seats I feel like I’m being judged, and once had a fellow Melbourne member tell me to be quiet as I was being too loud, I have changed seats many times now and the only place I have found I can be myself without ridicule is in the standing areas

I meant I cbf responding in public to YOU. Clearly I’m doing so right now. But that’s only to politely ask you to get your facts straight or STFU. Shame on anyone who unnecessarily bags the labour of love by volunteers under the guise of ‘helping.’

2022 AFL Regular Season Home Match Attendance Team Games Total Average Richmond Tigers 5 277,499 55,500 Carlton Blues 6 282,203 47,034 Collingwood Magpies 6 269,286 44,881 Essendon Bombers 5 196,719 39,344 Melbourne Demons 6 228,300 38,050 Fremantle Dockers 5 170,361 34,072 Adelaide Crows 6 197,580 32,930 West Coast Eagles 5 162,576 32,515 Hawthorn Hawks 6 184,030 30,672 Sydney Swans 6 168,266 28,044 Port Adelaide Power 5 137,079 27,416 Geelong Cats 5 132,908 26,582 St Kilda Saints 6 153,412 25,569 Brisbane Lions 5 118,628 23,726 Western Bulldogs 5 109,417 21,883 North Melbourne Kangaroos 5 73,565 14,713 GWS Giants 6 66,265 11,044 Gold Coast Suns 5 51,178 10,236 ALL 98 2,979,272 30,401

Patent nonsense. Petracca received coaches votes in rounds 7, 8, 9, and 10, including the most votes in round 9 and the second most in round 10. I'm all for pointing out deficiencies in a players game, but I prefer stuff isn't made up.

The Army are allocated a small amount from the Club. We fundraise to make up the shortfall. Cardboard, crepe paper and sticky tape don’t cost a lot individually but the amount needed each week makes for big costs. On a milestone banner, a printed montage of the player in question is printed and that’s super expensive, even though the printer is a Dees man and gives a generous discount.

Majak actually acknowledged the little boy and his brother from the boundary yesterday during the Casey match. It absolutely made their day. They didn’t even try to conceal their elation. It was so heartwarming. And then to have to read such rot as this thread is, makes me beyond sad.