Mel Bourne

Brian Taylor thinks his elongated pronunciation of “Llooooyd” is really catchy and cool. It f&@king-well isn’t.

Brayshaw has to present himself this next half.

Just announced his retirement. Always loved his style. Great poise, athleticism and kept a cool head out there. Was a big part of our rebuild and played some great footy for us as recently as late last year. Thought he was stiffed not to get more of a look this year, but that’s how it goes. Thank you for your service, Mr. P.

Lewis has to retire after this. He must put his head on the chopping block voluntarily, as act of atonement. He has a leadership role, yet played like a young fool. Enough.

Jordan Lewis has been horrific. Costly, classless. A spent force.

This is obviously heartbreaking, humiliating and painful. But we’ve learned something this year, fellow supporters. This is a team we can feel genuinely proud of now. Maybe not today. Well, obviously not today. But....you know what I’m saying. They’ve played their guts out and are obviously cooked for the year. But be proud. Don’t be a [censored] about it. Love your Demons.

I’m so sick of this thread popping up. Enough already.

What’s with people on this thread discouraging the use of the term “C’arn”? ”C’arn” is a tremendous “word”, synonymous with our great game. I will never stop saying it.

Didn’t that happen last year? ?

Some folks may recall the Leigh Matthews/Neville Bruns incident back in 85. Leigh Matthews was charged with grievous bodily harm by a police officer who was on duty at the match, and was deregistered by the league for a period of weeks. Now this was back in the “tough old days” before all the regulation and ultra-professionalism that followed over the years. One would imagine the same would apply in the current epoch. Regardless of Bradshaw’s wishes, the message it sends to society by banning someone from work for a few weeks for an outright assault is disturbing. Damn the game. It leaks into the popular culture. And that’s the last thing we need more of as a society. He should be formally charged.

Where’s J. Hunt at? I heard he might’ve been up for selection last week. Could be a good match to ease him back in.

Viney too. Bone stress in the toe is what’s currently ailing the poor bugger.

For the official record, it’s just a dumb joke. Unless it’s his little toe. Then srsly dude, lop it off and get out there. (Which toe is it?)

Not serious. I guess.

Is it nuts to send Cam Pedersen into a defensive role? He’s a quiet achiever and keeps a cool head out there. Hes 31 and only contracted till the end of the year and because of this, I reckon he’d be up for playing out of his skin and earning a place in this particularly special Demons outfit.

It's a It's a real factor though, isn't it. If I was a recruit from.....anywhere else, and looked to the crowd for inspiration and saw Sir Joffrey Toffrey and Lady Implanté cheering me on I'd be tempted to throw the f$&king game.

Yep. Personally I don't fit the stereotypical image of a Melbourne supporter. I come from a huge Pies family, but as a kid I got interested in the Dees because "Melbourne" made a lot of sense to support, and even a five-year old I wanted to ruffle some magpie feathers (how I'm cursing my flawed, childlike logic this weekend). The Tigers/Pies/Dogs/Blues/Roos/Bombers/Saints supporters among my mates are almost interchangeable and it's harder and harder to see a specific "type" attached to any specific team. It's a changed game, and a lot of the financial/social advantages some teams had over others have greatly diminished over time. It's a much more level playing field, which is great. But does Melbourne still promote their elitist bullshite to younger players? Does anybody here have any access/insight to the general attitude at the club? Is that Range Rover malarkey is still a thing? I would hope that given how egalitarian the league has become, that shite would have been phased out. If not, is it possible the "Toff Factor" at the club is doing untold damage? Does the club need to start metaphorically eating the rich? Keep Sir Basil Caviar out of the f$&king change rooms? Hard to feel like a street fighter when people keep giving you manicures.

Of course. Here's hoping he has a restorative off-season. I think he's crucial to the club's success next year.

As an aside from the general horror, what happened to Garlett in the back half of the season? I was confident he was going to have a huge season, but he looked generally depressed in the past weeks. Did he not fully recover from injury?

Jack Watts must go. He is a failed experiment. People say he was "solid" yesterday. Well f&*k "solid". He needed to be outstanding, and the reason he wasn't is because he is an average player who never puts his head over the ball and who looks like he's playing his first nervous game of AFL every time he plays. In his early days I got sick of defending him, then I became sick of keeping my mouth shut about how much he pisses me off. No more. He pisses me off. And he won't get better. But the biggest issue we have is a very deep, somewhat mysterious but very real and damaging psychology within the club. There is no heart or soul to be found anywhere. When Jim Stynes passed, we lost more than a great footballer and human being. We lost our sense of our history. Tell me who are the past stars of the club who still rally around the players? Garry Lyon is too busy being a media [censored]. David Neitz or David Schwarz? Ever see them around? The list really does go on. So many of the other clubs have benefitted from it's sense of history and worth. But Melbourne to me seems to be a cold and quiet club in this regard. This is just one aspect of a club that perpetually disappoints on the big stages. That makes it's supporters eternally frustrated, nervous, doubtful and ultimately faithless. To unpack the other reasons why Melbourne are such a mentally weak outfit would take way too long. I don't say any of this lightly. I have been a supporter all of my 42 years and a member for many, many years now. And today I can honestly say that I've never been more disillusioned by the club and the game in general. I might regret venting like this later, but today the feeling is very real.

I hope we don't make the finals. We don't deserve it.

Supporting this team is a one-way street.

The Pies might run out of legs. Christ knows we haven't used ours yet.

Hmmm, taking two weeks off after this upcoming match isn't exactly ideal though. I'd like to see Viney rested for one more week. The risk of us not making the final eight seeeeems to be lower than the risk of Viney pulling up too sore for an elimination final post what is bound to be a very hard-fought match this weekend. And I can't see Adelaide just lying down against WC this weekend. After last weekend's result, individuals will be playing for finals selection and the team for restored dominance. Hopefully, anyway.

Indeed JJC, this was a personal waiting-time reference! Born in 75. Just glad it wasn't 65.