Mazer Rackham

Burg: "Bit of a problem, mate. They reckon they won't have enough hamburger buns." Goodwin: "Christ. The boys won't be happy. How many burgers can they make?" Burg: "They reckon 40. But they've got plenty of chiko rolls and dim sims." Goodwin: "Alright. Change the order. Take the 40 burgers, get 20 pizzas, family size, and all the dimmies they've got. And a large chips. And a bottle of Coke."

It's not an either/or proposition. But I think we can agree they are precious, snowflakey, bad losers and umpires' pets who got demolished in a GF and will be forever remembered for being on the wrong end of "that 10 minutes of football". Bit of a shame when you think about it. "Yes, word got around. Your boys were too scared to show up. That's why we're forced to beat up on those second rate no-hopers out there." ALTERNATE RETORT: "Yes it [censored] is. And we're walloping them! NOW BURY THEM DEMONS!!!" Impossible to know. Can we try it and find out? "It's awful, winning a premiership on the back of lots of first round draft picks. You should try it some time. Oh, that's right ... YOU ALREADY DID!" And the old catch-all retort for any insult, barb, taunt, etc, to the winners: "Are you trying to make me feel good?"

The ultimate revenge. Singing your conqueror's victory song. In public.

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"Decided". Right. "Mark Korda today decided to walk the plank as the water below looked so sparkling and inviting."

Get used to it. You can only be yourself, but other Demon supporters can and will be insufferable, even to fellow D supporters (there's one on bigfooty rubbing Doggie noses in it in the most ungracious fashion). When the Boston Red Sox won their first "World Series" in something like 85 years, after a curse, near misses, tragedy, humiliation and lost hope (sound familiar?), were their fans humble, thankful, gracious in victory ... ? Were they [censored]. In no time, they were rubbing noses in it as hard and as long as they could. Their "good sports", "loser", supporter base turned into a bunch of [censored]. Maybe that's baseball, maybe that's America, but more likely, that's sport. We can be as humble, gracious, etc, as we like (and of course we D-landers will be!), and a select few nuff-nuffs will earn for us all a bright reputation as arrogant, smug, and so on. The more we win, the more burnished the reputation. What can we do about it? It's a choice. We can barrack for a losing team and suffer the barbs and taunts of unpleasant oppo supporters, or we can barrack for a premiership winning team whose supporter base is widely seen as arrogant and insufferable. I know which one I choose.

The Essendon team of 2000 was a really great team. Everyone fell into the trap of thinking all their players must be superstars. When that team broke up and players went elsewhere, those players turned out to be good players who played their role. Very much like our ANB, Spargo, Harmes, etc. Champion team beats a team of champions.

Cop 1: "So, young fella. There've been reports you were CEO of Melbourne and made them successful again." LJ: "CEO? Me? That wasn't me!" Cop 1: "Wasn't you, eh?" LJ: "No, that was someone else!" Cop 2: "Of course, son. It's always someone else. What was the name of this someone else?" LJ: "Er ... it was before my time at the club. Jackson ... someone Jackson." Cop 1: "Someone Jackson? Very convenient." Cop 2: "Someone Jackson, but not you?" Cop 1: "I wasn't born yesterday, son. How many Jacksons can there be at your football club? ? I think you'd better come along with us." Cop 2: "Yeah, we want to introduce you to our daughters."

Gavin Brown wasn't too bad. Now there's Nev. So 2 outa 3,000 ain't bad. Congrats Nev! The Pies don't deserve you!

It's a terrible thing, haggling over which of 4 or 5 awesome goals is the best one in a grand final demolition job for the ages. GO DEMONS!!!!!

Oliver's at the end of the third. Jackson runs in looking like he got that bike for Christmas that he asked Santa for but thought he wouldn't get. Then Sparrow runs in looking like his lost puppy has come back home. Sheer joy!

Interesting thing, confidence in sport. The boys got some belief through the early part of the season, meeting challenge after challenge and rising to them all. Round 23 gave them a huge charge -- against a bogey team, on a bogey ground -- and turned out to be important a second time, lending hope when 19 points down in the 3rd in a GF. And then the GF win itself. The nature of it. So emphatic, against a quality team. No-one can beat us. No lead is big enough. Everyone saw it. It works the other way too. Opponents also get the belief -- that they "can't" win. Sometimes the difference between winning and losing is the expectation that team A will somehow "find a way" to win, when what is happening is both teams are playing out a pre-determined script. Team A scrambles a goal, team B thinks "oh-oh, here they come" and heads drop. When the great West Indies cricket team was on the decline in the 90s, it still took a long time to finally beat them in a series. Such was the belief of their invincibility, for us AND for them. When we finally cracked them, looking at their team retrospectively, you realised they weren't that good any more, on paper, and confidence and belief was an extra player (or three) for them. Moreso for their opponents. Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus have won golf tournaments they "shouldn't have", because of the confidence and belief that somehow they'll find a way, and their opponents also believed that, and then a ball gets a lucky bounce, or unlucky, and "Tiger's making his charge", "Joe Blort is being stalked by the Tiger", and BANG BANG BANG, Tiger Woods is holding up the cup and it seems pre-ordained. Nicklaus said something like, he's won as many majors with good play as by his opponents giving it away mentally in the final stretch. Season 2022 is going to be very very interesting seeing how we deal with our new reputation as the dangerous team who will destroy you in 10 minutes, and how our opponents cope with also believing that.

Don't forget to remind him back! "Yes, yes ... our Norm Smith winning premiership star. When I think that he could have been playing for you guys ... thank you so much for letting us pick him. I expect your customers who follow the Bulldogs also thank you for Bont?"

AND we've still got a few scores to settle. Geelong, Hawks, Ess come to mind. Also Collingwood, Carlton, Tiges, Dogs, Eagles, Crows, Lions, North, Eagles, Swans, Freo, Port, Giants and Suns a few others.

Cop: "What's that say? MARIE 1 ?" LJ: "No mate, it says MELBOURNE FOOTBALL CLUB AFL PREMIERS 2021"

"So ... do you have any dreams, Jack? Life goals?" "Yeah ... I wanna make snow angels in confetti on Optus Oval." "You mean like after a grand final?" "Doesn't have to be a grand final, but if that's what it takes, I'm prepared to win one." "You know they don't play grand finals at Optus?" "Damn, you're right ........... unless there was a global pandemic! Do you know how to book plane tickets to China?"

Look, he's not too bad, just don't talk footy with him and you'll be right.

A friend of mine who wasn't/isn't into football wanted to see a game, at the G. So I took him along and it happened to be that Hawks game. And who did we run into but "Ernie", who is a guy we both knew, and a big Hawks supporter. My friend doesn't like Ernie, not one bit, so he wasn't enjoying that Ernie decided to sit with us. Ernie didn't have to say much ... his entire demeanour was one of smugness at the pitiful Dreamons trying to take on the all-conquering Hawks. Well, my friend ended up enjoying the match and very very much enjoyed Ernie's gradual non-smugness and very rapid exit as soon as the siren went. The beers went down well.

We let it get to a place where an iffy decision could hurt us. Took the foot off the gas and paid the price.

That's funny. The Pies' hallmark this year under Buckley (in fact most years under Buckley, but especially this year) was intensity, but with glacial ball movement, and iffy disposal. QB was the one game where they got everything to click, and that was because of the "Buckley's last game" pump up. The result was an annoyance and not much more than that.

Why would we copy some other club's tradition? We might as well stick "yellow and black" in our club song words because it's always pretty cool to hear that being roared out. The "never walk alone" thing grew organically out of Liverpool. Hard to see it really take off here in Oz. I do know that other clubs around the world have adopted it, but that's a level of fake-ossitude that I think we don't need to be part of. Cultural cringe, if you like. Any "tradition" we end up with will emerge by itself without controls. I'm not against an intro song, but the crowd will decide if they want that, and if so, what song. Happy for the club to try out some, see what sticks. The song Goodwin used from the musical ... "This is me" ... (in another thread) ... would be a good starting point because it emerged from within the club without anyone trying to steer it. It has some meaning to this team as it was used as part of the drive to the flag. Not imposed because someone got the shivers watching another club do it on TV. It's possible to do two things at once: admire what other clubs around the world do, and not feel the urge to grab a bit of that for ourselves.

We didn't beat Geelong by 187 and we didn't beat Dogs in the GF by 120, but there's always next year.

Steven May is already coaching! We are blessed to have both May and Lever -- two outstanding football brains and on-field coaches -- in the one team. Massive advantage and no co-incidence that we are the league's best defensive unit.

when you walk ♪ from the G and you've had a pie and don't want a beer or a chip at the end of the gates ♫ there's a great big van with balls of dough fried in grease walk on queue up and bag yourself six ♪ though your tongue be scalded by jam walk on walk on with sat-is-fied guts coz you'll never make them at home you'll never make them at home ♫

A bit of Sunday morning poetry for you all. Remember, remember Twenty-fifth of September Firepower, awe and shock I see no reason Why Melbourne's fine season Should ever be forgot Recall, recall Petracca's great goal and Sparrow's and Clarry's on top I see no way How Melbourne's big day Can ever be forgot