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INCORRECT, we are the oldest professional football club in the world. 168 years old. And we'll be around for another 168 years - long after we are all forgotten. A proud club, with a proud history, with players who have given their all, even in the many barren years. A proud club that deserves respect- least of all from supposed supporters. I've had it up to here with posters on this forum taking every opportunity to slag off the mighty dees.

We have been the subject of intense media scrutiny all year. We are as relevant now as any other club in the competition. If we weren't, no one would bother writing article after article about our form drop off.

things are so bad we can’t even find joy in a father son debuting? The clubs development of young players has been very good, I trust them that he’s ready Good luck Browny junior

In addition to being the oldest professional football club... We codified the laws of the game, we were a foundation vfa and vfl club, we lost players in both world wars, we originated the father son rule, we were first to recruit irish players and we established the womens game and were a foundation aflw club. Also, we are the only team to have won a mens afl premiership and women's premiership with all 18 team competing.

Mate, I'm not going to lie, I'm 6 beers down as well. I lived in Canberra for 4 years, its freezing, I get it

Sounds like an acid trip.

I am so bored by the negativity on this site and general lack of respect shown to fellow DL’s that I find I am no longer enjoying reading the posts on here. Used to luv it, but now find it hard to get enthused to read them. I now resort to looking for favoured posters, but even these are often in battle with others. There are posters on here that I swear only come out of the woodwork when things ain’t so hot, just to sink their boots in. Never hear from them when things are good. I just don’t understand that. [censored] me, it’s just a game.

The media pile-on to the MFC goes ahead regardless of facts. Some are expressing dismay that the Club has not made a strong statement. I wonder if doing that would have the same effect as feeding trolls in a forum like this. And yes, I think a lot of footy 'journos' are effectively trolls in search of click-bait, relevance and fortune.

Couldn’t agree more, 2024 has been a shambles so far and clearly we all want things to improve but the drama on here from some is way over the top. Club is profitable, memberships are good, crowds have been good (though might drop off a bit if we don’t get back on track), AFL is looking after us on fixtures, stable board, management, coaching group. We’ve still got some all time greats of the club running around out there. Maybe it won’t get better this year but if it doesn’t we’ll be back next year. It’s not a bin fire, the new game plan either isn’t working or they haven’t got it working yet and we’re missing some key pieces but because we’re suddenly out of the 8 for a few weeks it’s all “boo-hoo we’re irrelevant, pies supporters say mean things to me, my feelings are hurt so someone needs to be fired”. A few on here need to grow up.

Why do you and others bother trying to reason with this [censored]. he’s an absolute embarrassment to himself and his game day posting coupled with his ideas of what he would do if he was the coach highlight how out of touch he is. I am not over the moon about the current status and way we’re playing but to kick us while we’re down and continually trying to rewrite recent history is not the way to go about getting out of the current slump we’re in. Thank god people like this are miles away from making any meaningful decisions around the club

I've heard the same thing. Petracca to Collingwood in a straight swap for both Daicos brothers plus Quaynor thrown in as steak knives.

fantastic to see pup get his chance will bring defensive pressure in the f50 which we've been severely lacking with anb and pickett rolling thru the middle interested to see who else comes in for the game

I just watched Simon Goodwins Press Conference and feel a lot more reassured regarding Tracc’s support by the players and coaches, Goody said that he is in constant contact with both Christian and Bella as are his team mates. He also mentioned that MFC Player Welfare are in contact with the Petracca Family to provide support. They need to do a couple of stories on our website to cut off the snipers

I don’t suffer fools old dee, they don’t warrant my time or response. Hope you’re going well and not to disheartened by the current situation we find ourselves in. I have my health, a roof over my head, a wonderful wife, sons who are turning into fine young men and the family overall are in a good place. On the footy side of things, what can I say, us older folk have seen this all before, whilst the MFC are currently struggling, it’s not all bad, I have a role that I love and keeps me busy, I occasionally get to watch my boys play and still regularly get to go to the Ammo’s to share good times, talk about old stories and a few beers with good friends. In a nutshell as bad as things may seem there are always positives. Keep the faith and enjoy your time with family and if you’re still getting along to the Ammo’s smile and enjoy

I suggest a Valium with good sleep will help with your over arching thoughts/speculation. 😳😂

I clicked on this thread because it said "HOT 432 replies". What a sucker I am.

Trent Rivers. If there is a time where you want to see whether someone has what it takes to step up in a midfield role and become a potential star then it has to be Rivers. His trajectory could be very similar to Elliot Yeo when he started out as a half back flanker in his earlier years.

Neal Bullen is a future leader of wherever the world takes him

I just assumed we stopped training ages ago.

Absolutely spot on. During the Collingwood game my kids we're complaining that we were going to lose and worried about what their friends would same to them at school the next day. While I understand this from the kids I am amazed that adults on here link their personal wellbeing to the way Melbourne perform on a week to week basis. It is one thing to get frustrated during a game but to talk about it days later is a bit unhinged.

Good.. [censored] the AFL.

Hmmm…not sure about the subtle message. But yes, certainly would not have gone unnoticed at MFC, given that one of our board members is on the Tabcorp board (Kendall).

Probably like a "Your email is important to us. Here at MFC we care nothing more about winning football games and delivering happiness to all our fans. Our medical staff are some of the highest trained in the country and we have our utmost trust in their abilites, this does not mean medical decisions are 100% correct with the information at hand at any the time but we do our very best. We've also been in contact with Christian and he is doing fine. We've enjoyed a great relationship with the Petracca family in the past and will continue to do so into the future" Nothing that can be seen as wrong there, hopefully I got the job.

I don't think so Goody will probably roll out the same team the following week.

Bevo the anti Goodwin would be an interesting change, we'd have clarry in a back pocket, andy moniz Wakefield as a key forward and McVee in the ruck

Windsor says hi.

Don’t worry Neil, you still have my brilliant and wonderfully insightful posts to read.

The old Demonland furphy. Ridiculous. Just because you don't understand why the FD are making the choices they are, that doesn't mean that Goodwin is "stubborn". It just means that he/they have access to information that you don't and/or see things differently to you.

Well said and actually embarrassing you've gotta justify the whole argument. You can always tell the ones you've never pulled on a footy boot in their life. Look at the vision and you'll see Moore only has eyes straight at the ball. Like anyone that needs to jump for a spoil or go for a contested mark, using your knee is just part of trying to gain elevation in the air. They practise this all the time at training with the bags.

Long time lurker. Been a member since 2008 (I know because I was in Afghanistan at the time when I 'donated' some of my war pay to sign up, who knew I would be lucky enough to get more PTSD from my football club than a warzone). My son quit playng in 2020, somewhat because of covid but mostly as he was a ok player in a really really good side and got relegated to the 2nd team where he was an ok player in a bottom of the ladder side. Didn't want him sitting around all weekend so signed him up to boundary umpire and he has loved it ever since. He gets paid over $100 to run for 2 hours. Bottom line, I got sick of hanging out at games in the cold and watching him run so this year I joined him. For context we live in Hobart Tasmania. Now, Tassie is different from Victoria but some observations. I have been critical of umpiring, but I have a new perspective. The state of umpiring here in Hobart is dire. Even in 2020 my son didn't need to train to get a weekend gig. I know I am reasonabley fit in my middle age, which is a big tick for running the boundary, but with zero experience I waltzed into running the boundary for Seniors in the TSL with my son. Field umpires are mostly my age or older and most have to do 2-3 games a weekend due to the low number of umpires. They are desperate for field and boundary umpires. 80% of the boundary umpires are under 14 years of age or younger. My son and I umpired a game where the 3rd boundary ump was 11. The money is good for a 16 year old, but for me....it's ok, beer money at best. Certiantly at my age I ain't motivated to do any more than I currently am doing. As for my son, it is not even factored as a career choice and he loves it. We need better pathways to recruit, mentor and guide young umpires to the top level. (Yes, for a start stop mucking around with the rules). But bottom line, any young kid that loves footy most likely plays. My son go a fair bit of stick for umpiring instead of playing from his mother's (Ex-Wife) family (Cough surname Wade, cough). Having said that, it is a position that attracts certain types that love authority but have no natural personal authority attributes in the real world. As a sign off, umpires are definately bias (don't get on their bad side), and they have bad days, but the responsibillty of the current state of the game rests squarely on the AFL, and we all know they care about only one thing $$$

The drink of choice round here of late seems to be Melbourne Bitter.

Claims the Petracca family were/are frustrated or angry with the club are an utter crock. The evidence put forward by Tom Morris and Caro is a total reach: - The strongest evidence they have is Petracca removed a post from his Instagram account - They tried to lend weight to their assertions by saying his family were said to be frustrated (Morris) but no reference or source. Caro was much the same but she didn't actually articulate the family were unhappy, just inferred. Hogwash!

Sadly I don't get to the ammos these days. My eldest grand daughter is into basketball so we go to that every Saturday. The be honest I enjoy that much more than the MFC these days. If it wasn't for the Dees I would have no interest in AFL.

We couldn't attend due to loading.

It's been pretty clear to most of us (sorry @binman) all year that our midfield has been down. I don't agree though with anyone who tries to argue that there's one singular reason for it. IMO, as things almost always are, it's multi-faceted. I'd argue the following have all contributed: We intended to see some of the OP quoted stats decrease this year by changing the way we play. For example, we intended to see a decrease in our inside 50 differential, our time in forward half differential, and probably our clearance and CP numbers, because we wanted to focus more on scoring from turnover and from our defensive half and less on generating repeat inside 50s from which we struggled to generate good scoring shots. Brayshaw's retirement. Oliver's lack of pre-season. Viney's drop off in form. Sparrow's failure to take the next step in his development. Our various forward line woes which have required us to play Petracca forward more than previously. Salem training as a mid over the pre-season but then getting injured and failing to reintegrate into the middle on his return. Previous list management - we do not have enough midfielders on our list and have not brought enough in, by draft, trade or FA, over the last few years In my view, the top 3 contribute the majority of the decline. We were happy to cop moderate reductions in some of these stats but losing Brayshaw late and Oliver not being able to reach his best form have exacerbated those reductions significantly.

So many embarrassing supporters who clearly were happiest in the Neeld era. We won a flag FFS but even that wasn't enough as it was in Perth.

It's not about any given year, it's about sustained performance. If last year were an outlier then yes, you could write it off. But when you look at our performance since 2019 (this year included) 2021 is the outlier. We do not have the culture for sustained success, not at the moment. Maybe we are still building it, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. You didn't really address my underlying point though - what takes us from having a good culture to a great culture? What is impeding that? It's not just "bad luck".

There is something in there?

It is a pattern isn't it? Take out one of our best five players in the first quarter so we play one man down for the entire game. We really do have to go after them hard after this.

Yep agreed, things aren’t good but they can turn back in a similar manner as the have turned downward. If the downturn continues for a sustained period without signs of change/improvement then I will become concerned

West Coast have Charlie Banfield next season and younger brother Harper the following year, these changes won’t help them either whilst they are in rebuild phase. Charlie is going to be a very good player

Not irrelevant to me! 😊

The club is not innocent in this however let’s not let Trac’s decision escape without scrutiny. He’s no longer a rookie where he needs to be handheld in every decision he makes, he is a leader in the club and while his intent was noble, he has contributed to inflaming the situation. He should know this and tell his family to stay quiet. Just need to look at how May dealt with the situation, case in point. Was subbed out without issue. Do you honestly think the doctors treated it any differently?

Who gives fat rats clacker about this.. Really?

We’re going to win by 23 points. And if we don’t. I’m going to win $550. haha

Petracca will be in the black and white next year. Book mark it.

Our forward issues are diabolical but our midfield problems aren’t far behind at all. We’ve gone from a club with a questionable forward line but a great midfield and defence to a club with a poor forward line, a poor midfield and an average defence. Sitting 11th is about right.