Call Me What You Will

What’s Baba doing these days?? Ha ha!

Simple homage to those wonderful “MCC Match Day” officials - the “Blue Coats” in another time. No matter how hard you would argue at the gate that your dress was appropriate, the stock response was always “call them what you will sir, those shoes are ‘runners’ or those trousers are ‘jeans’.” The Cleese “Upper Class Twit” imagery goes without saying.

At least my little girl will be going to the footy - her package arrived on Saturday. The rest of my family of 5 are still waiting!

Coping with the Grand Final itself will be half the battle. Having lived through 88 and 2000 live, part of me still has trouble with the trauma of those fateful days. Having embraced our wonderful 2018 journey, and putting aside the huge let down of Preliminary Final Day over there, I watched this year’s Grand Final with a strong “what if” mindset. When Darling took that mark in the 3rd quarter, I made the comment “the filth will lose this”. I backed it up with - “this is the sort of game that Melbourne would find a way to lose.....” Clearly, I still need my therapy, but my god, these are exciting times......

I thought Charlie was still only in Year 8!

Quite simply, what a wonderful extended family we all belong to - so much diversity, yet united by a common love of all things and people red and blue.

How on earth can a multi-dollar organisation delay its announcement because the feedback was not positive......Ah, sorry, I forgot, we are talking AFL here! Beggars belief.

Every game will be a danger game as we become the hunted. To be honest, I don’t care who we play, when or where - as long as we win lots and lots of them. The commercial side will look after itself if we do that. Quite possibly, an opener in March against Port will draw a lot more people than a cold afternoon or evening in the middle of winter against the same mob.

Now the dust has settled, watched the Geelong final again last night - straight through - no ad breaks! How good was the tackling! How we missed those second quarter goals!! What an absolute smashing. Elimination Final tonight vs Hawthorn.......... Yep, could be a long summer!

The “squad” approach is an interesting one. Yes, in the world game where teams play 40 to 50 games a season, astute managers will do just that - manage the squad. Key players will be rotated and rested. In our game, with less games and less margin for error, the mantra of “don’t flirt with your form” has always resonated. Interesting times.

Yep, No squirming here either. Full MCC for 40 years. Full MFC - 31 Consecutive Years - plus underwriting 4 other MFC memberships for my beloved family!! (M51 Reserved Seats). Very proud MFC Member who happens to be lucky enough also to be an MCC Member as well!

Wow! Just wow! Circus ! Now we embrace Jessie - map a very clear pre-season plan for him at Centre Half Back. Engage David Neitz as a personal mentor - Neitz’s transition from Forward to Back and then Forward again should be the template for a Jessie Hogan 5 year plan at the Dees. we should all embrace this new opportunity.

Gil and his corporate clowns have so much to answer for.......

Money had nothing to do with the May conversation - it was more about accessing draft picks to get the deal done. Gaff is a free agent I believe.

Gripping 15 minutes. The more I hear and see what our back room team do, the more comfortable I am with the direction of our club. We are in good hands! Clear and concise. Brilliant.

Whilst not compensation for the disappointment of the weekend, how good was it to have 3 players “taking votes off each other” - brilliant work lads and bring on 2019.

The dream is over, but not angry! Just sad it had to end like this. Lot’s of “learnings” from today, but a fantastic ride over the last 6 weeks. This team will get better and better - especially by referencing the disappointment of today.

Seriously, Bwooce is a complete [censored] on nights like these!

All this revolves around the big “if” at 3.20 tomorrow. If the dream continues tomorrow, I simply don’t care who we play - payback to either - ANZAC Eve or Queens B’Day - take your pick!

I am hoping that the clowns will be aware of the “23rd Man” and given the personalities of 15 and 18 will take the opportunity to shove it right up the booing ferals. One can but hope! Go Dees.

As an aside, I was born in January 1958 - my mum was a long standing Demon fan and had grown in the 30’s 40’s and 50’s and had literally seen them all!!! In 1958, she organised tickets and a baby sitter for her first born so she and dad could go to see us equal the filth’s record. We know what happened next, and I have felt that jinx ever since!! In 64, mum was inside with my 2 younger siblings who had come along and dad and I were outside “doing some gardening” with the radio blaring across the back lawn. When the siren went dad (who is a kiwi and only a token Aussie rules supporter) grabbed my little footy and threw it so high into the air that I thought it would land on the roof!! I remember great excitement and joy and sitting listening to older Melbourne cousins and uncles when they returned from the game and who re-lived Gabo’s run and Froggie’s goal over and over again. I love this club - despite all the bad times since - go Dees on Saturday in the West and may we again dare to dream!! Go lads!

Yep, I’ve posted many times - there was something incredibly special and surreal about ‘87. Like episodes of Get Smart, I can remember the commentary of Tim Lane, Robbo etc the exact word for those 3 games - Footscray, North Melbourne and Sydney. High rotation for about 31 years!!

Having lived through the euphoria of '87 (and having documented it in various other posts over the years), I still reckon those six weeks and the two finals are the greatest sustained football excitement I have ever experienced. Having said that, the sheer relief, joy and subsequent collective celebration following the siren on Sunday comes a pretty close second. Interestingly, in '87 there was always no tomorrow, with one mistake bursting the dream - and as we know the dream was finally shattered on that day out at Waverley. Today however, there is a "tomorrow" and if Judd's point is that we have gone too hard and got ahead of ourselves, then I think he forgets that we still have one more game before the big stuff starts. We could very easily stuff up on Sunday against GWS, (very MFC!!) but does it really matter? Yes, we are still in with a mathematical chance for top four but does it really matter? Unlike '87, at this moment, I sense that our boys fear no one - they will be happy to play anyone in the 8, anywhere, anytime. The celebrations have been magnificent! As someone has posted earlier, unless you have lived it Mr Judd, you can never have the last 12 years explained to you. At the very least, if we have a downer against GWS - so be it. We are still in it and I am confident that in September we will be having a real crack! How long will it last? 1 week? 2 weeks? Dare to dream everyone! Go Dees. Sorry Mr Judd, I have been inspired by the last 48 hours - the spirit of not only the Dees faithful, but the football world as well. Perhaps there is message for Gill and Hocking as well. Leave the game alone!!

Flower, then daylight to Jackovic, The Whizz, then daylight to Lyon, Schwarz, Jimmy, Robbo over the last 60 years for me.

Handy win to the poo and wee (I think????)