BenJamin on Deesy St

Will post pic when I work out how!

Indeed. The two greatest weeks of my then 13-year-old life (followed by the worst)!

Let’s get >80k like in ‘87 when we absolutely destroyed them!

JVR for Melksham: Melky has done better than I thought but we need a more imposing and dynamic F50 presence to complement BB. I’d also like to see Max be able to roam a bit more a kick behind play, and not be sat on, scragged and kneed mercilessly as a sitting duck/key target in our forward pockets. JVR could give us a spark and a bit of unpredictability inside 50. Bowey for Hibberd: line ball on whether it’s Hibbo, Hunt or Rivers out but - in the helter skelter of a finals-like game last night - I saw signs of decline in our Pig warrior. Hunt can play the lockdown role and has more pace/agility now. Bowey comes in as a much-needed, composed distributor down back. Harmes for Jordon: Jordon very stiff but I see Brayshaw as an upgrade on the wing (have been waiting for him to play there all season), particularly heading into finals, and Harmes slots into the midfield rotation. Despite a relatively quiet game, Sparrow to remain for now. His strength, explosiveness and ability to score are suited to September football. Having said that, I wouldn’t be surprised if Harmesy came in for Tom, and Jordon remained on the wing as reward for a more consistent season than his housemate.

Couldn’t agree more. I’ve been banging on about this for weeks to family and friends, ever since Salem returned to the side. Gus/Ed as our starting wingmen is a winning formula. We gain defensively with (i) Salem/Bowey being more complementary and assuming greater responsibility and (ii) Gus getting back deeper and intercepting - as a winger - more than Jordon as well. JJ has had a very good year but Brayshaw is better in that position, and better under heavy pressure, which is only going to increase now.

Thought exactly the same thing at the time. They were three key moments. We failed in all three and paid the price. I love the German but I was disappointed in Fritsch’s game tonight. Inaccurate, made a couple of poor decisions ball in hand and showed - not for the first time - some selfishness in front of goal. And a shout out to the Cats’ couple who refused to shuffle along one seat so I could sit next to my daughter. And to the old gentleman in front of me who spat out on the siren with glee, “Enjoy the trip home!”. Thanks very much, feline fiends of Mordor. Not a happy place for us.

Yep good points, Big Col, I stand corrected on a couple of comments I made about length of season in VFL pre-1970. Further highlights, as you say, just how ridiculous the fixturing has been for so long. Anyway, I’ll be heading down there this Thursday. Last two times I’ve been there (Roos’ last game and Tuohy’s goal after siren) have been very unpleasant, traumatic even. Hoping for third time lucky!

Here’s something I prepared earlier. Guess which team (other than Geelong, of course) has played the most times at Kardinia Park this century? Melbourne. 18 times. Guess which team has played the least times? Collingwood. Zero. (Oh and Essendon once, Hawthorn and Carlton thrice.) The lack of integrity and fairness in the fixture is, to me, the biggest blight on our great game. What elite, professional sporting league in the world would allow such a discrepancy to occur, where an ‘away’ team, a so-called big club, doesn’t play at another team’s home venue for over 20 years, while another team plays there almost every friggin’ year? It infuriates me. It’s like telling Manchester United they don’t need to play at Bournemouth, ever, while Liverpool does. I am sick to death of the fixture’s inherent inequity, and our collective acceptance of it (or is it apathy). If we can’t have a pure 34-game home-and-away season (which would be fair and ideal for an 18-team comp), then let’s have a 17-game season. Play each team once, alternate between playing at home one season and away the next, no questions asked, no compromises entertained. Collingwood plays down at Geelong, it’s a sell-out, so be it. People forget that for the first 90 years of the VFL, the fixture was built on playing each team twice, home and away. There were 8 teams and 14 rounds in the first VFL season in 1897. This nonsense that we have to be wedded to a 22-round season no matter the number of teams we have is, well, nonsense. The 22-round season only came into effect when the league had expanded to 12 teams in 1925. When the league moved to 14 teams in 1987, the season inexplicably remained at 22 rounds. Now, of course, the fixture is a complete mess having strayed more and more from first principles, leading to the quite absurd scenario pointed out at the top of this post and illustrated in the attached table.

Thank you, Clarry! An incredible career at the Dees already and you’re not even half way through. I remember your first game v the Giants - coming off the bench, being thrust into the middle and winning that centre bounce clearance with your first touch! More than 20 touches in just over 50% game time, most of them contested, so clean, so creative, so courageous. (I and my kids were very cross you didn’t get more game time and also when you were later dropped/managed in that season.) Apologies to Robbie, but you’re the best MFC player I’ve ever seen, and you’re only getting better!

Good journos write without fear or favour, know how to craft a compelling story and have mastery of the English language (or whatever their lingua franca is). In the AFL media industry, Wilson, whose affiliation with Richmond is way over-played, is a rarity amongst a sea of (mainly) blokes who are either hopelessly conflicted or plain dumb, or both. Although I don’t always agree with her, I’d much rather read/listen to her words than anyone else’s on that FC panel. Keep interrupting, Caro!

Wise words, R&br!!

F/@k the doubters, the muck-rakers and the saboteurs - go the mighty Demons!

I'll keep the red and blue paraphernalia on the front of the house.

I may need to start taking down some of the red and blue paraphernalia from the front of the house. (Except, of course, for the Haymes painted heritage facade. That's permanent, until Council comes a-knockin'.)

Now that Salem’s back, I want Gus back on wing, and Rivers selected and back in defence. JJ to remain in wing/midfield rotation, with Sparrow likely candidate to be squeezed out. Best game I’ve seen Gus play was in Grand Final as a defensive wingman. He was critical to our success last year in that position.

Ad astra per aspera. Took us 57 years of pain, suffering and persistence to win a premiership. Made it all the sweeter because of it. People writing us off left, right and centre, from within and without. Media types gleefully pulling out the stereotypical tropes about the club and its supporters, casting aspersions and salivating at the rise and fall narrative. Doubts over injuries, illness, form, hunger, method, whatever. Bring it on. Goody and the team need not look far for a simple purpose and motivation, now forged in fire, to succeed. Bunker down and prove ‘em all wrong, Dees; through adversity comes strength and triumph.

And so begins the Norm, I mean, Joel Smith curse? Nahhhhh . . . just kidding. (MFCSS be gone.) Dees by 10 goals against the Pies in a ferocious display.

Well said. A bit of unsavoury, ill-informed and mean-spirited commentary is being bandied about here and in the ‘low attendance’ thread. We endure more than enough taunts about the so-called stereotypical Melbourne supporter from opposition fans and media, than to entertain it from our own. I personally couldn’t care less how vocal or otherwise fellow Dees’ fans are at the game, as long as they don’t incessantly bag our players or tell me to sit down when I go berserk after a goal! And despite Trac’s throwaway comments the other day, I don’t think it makes much difference to the players how numerous or noisy we are anyway. After all, our boys won a premiership on foreign soil, in a pandemic-affected season no less, sometimes with stark silence cheering them on. We’d like to think we’re hugely important and can influence performance and results but, really, are we, do we? Funnily enough, our crowds this year have been pretty good. Last time I saw we were sitting 5th on the 2022 average attendance ladder (at ~33k per game) behind only Richmond, Collingwood, Carlton and Essendon. Not only that, we are one of only two teams (Bulldogs being the other) whose crowds have increased from the 2019 (pre-COVID) season. This is something to be proud of because, let’s face it, we have a relatively small supporter base - due to decades in the wilderness - a large chunk of which belongs to an older and diminishing demographic which followed the club in the 50s and 60s (like my elderly father who - as fate would have it - introduced me and my brothers to the Dees in the 70s but finds it difficult to attend games now). Despite this, we have the highest ratio of club members to supporters. So our fans, although they’re not many, are the real deal. That is, a large proportion of us care about and contribute to the existence and growth of the club, and have done so for a very long time. Broadening and invigorating our fan base is obviously important and I think the Gen X-ers among us, the once-long-suffering descendants of those who saw and grew accustomed to so much success, play a crucial role. We are the ones who need to pass the baton on and generate excitement and interest among our own kids, nephews and nieces - indoctrinate them if you will - in playing our great game, going to the footy and following the mighty Dees. We don’t need to bicker amongst ourselves and criticise or make value judgements about the very people who show up without fail every week, and who are the club’s most loyal and vocal supporters, win, lose or draw. Looking forward to mixing with the Demon Army in Adelaide in a few weeks, and painting the City of Churches red and blue!

If we’re gonna lose, let’s do it this way - a couple of games clear on top, with almost a third of our premiership team out, our two superstar mids either sick or blanketed, our two key forwards non-existent. Kudos to Freo but this game was a mid-season write-off once they snapped our resistance in the third (aided and abetted by a couple of very dodgy frees to Taberner and some brilliance from Frederick). And let’s not underestimate how hard North hit us last week - might not have shown on the scoreboard but the Kangaroos were brutal. Boys played sore and tired today. Been up for so long, this performance was bound to happen. I wouldn’t be surprised if we lose another one or two in the next month before kicking into gear when our best side gets back on the park, hopefully not long after the bye. Oh, and go the Reds!

Re crowd numbers, I don’t begrudge people’s choice or (in)ability to attend games. All I will say is that our team has evolved into a once-in-a-lifetime champion team and every performance - much better seen and experienced in the flesh if you can do so - is to be treasured and savoured. Thank you, MFC/Narrm, I for one will never get enough of this winning feeling!

Forgive me, RTG, but in the midst of our third quarter onslaught last night, and having watched us strangle the life out of another team, I shouted, “Just give us the bloody Cup and be done with it!” I may have been waving one of my kids’ scarves around madly Kevin Sheedy-like at the same time, flicking an innocent bystander in the eye for all I know, specks of saliva spluttering from my mouth. Yep, dignity and modesty have gone out the window. Time to revel in utter dominance!

Contest and defence. We are so bloody good. What a team. Other sides are terrified of us. They park the bus, chip it around. So what? We’ll out work them, be patient, grind them down. They take a risk, we’ll exploit them on turnover in devastating fashion. They score? Who cares! We’ll reset at the centre bounce with the two best rucks in the league, and the two best offensive mids (and also arguably the best defensive mid) - all in their prime - with the field set at 6-6-6. 100 points to 7 in 45 minutes of football in a GF has spooked the comp. They don’t know how to play us. No lead is ever safe. Fall behind and you’re stuffed. It was a while coming (my whole life!) but what a time to be a Melbourne supporter.

As has been intimated here, I think it’s time we view our ruck performance and effectiveness as a combination (of Max and Luke), not as individuals. They are different yet complementary, and their roles and positioning change as required, now in-game and even at the behest of our fearless leader, in order for us to swing momentum and win games. Our ruck division - so multi-faceted, adaptable and powerful - is the best in the comp by a long way, and is getting better. It is simply formidable, putting paid to ridiculous media commentary over the years that rucks are not important in winning premierships in the modern era. Not concerned in the slightest with Big Max. In fact, quite the opposite. I wouldn’t be surprised if both Max and Luke were named in the same AA team - that would be a first!

Some of the calls for Spargo to be dropped (and the question marks on Pickett the week before) by a select few seem to ignore the critical function our small forwards play when we don’t have the ball. The triumvirate of Spargs, Kozzie and ANB is the envy of the rest of the comp. They set the tone and positioning of our forward press. They are absolute gut runners, elite pressure players and epitomise MFC’s team-first mantra. I liken them to one organism, such is their understanding - they are inseparable. Spargo also happens to be one of our ‘stickiest’ tacklers and best inside 50 ball users. He only needs a handful of touches for maximum impact. Don’t get me wrong, I like Bedford. He’s shown a bit and got himself bloody fit but he’s not up to Charlie’s level yet.

Brett Stubbs says hi to Clarko