Mel Bourne

Can Tom MacDonald please concentrate less on neoconservatism and more on football?

No. He’ll suddenly become an incredible player in a different guernsey. Can’t let that happen.

What a strange and sad season. Like a lot of people here, I was deeply impressed by the team last night. In every area except one, of course. A horrible case of the yips in front of the goals, which has affected a swathe of otherwise reliable (tmac, Garlett) players. The dwindling standard of goal-kicking in the AFL has been well documented of late. It’s a deep shame to see the Demons as the poster boys for it, especially after being the highest scoring team in the league last year. I don’t think it’s due to a lack of skills In that area (the list has changed since last year but not THAT much), I think it’s fear of failure. And in many ways that is a much more difficult issue to tackle. We all know that mental weakness has been an issue at the club for years now, and we all see the lack of confidence, the skittishness, the nerves and the dearth of belief on display at disappointingly regular intervals. And we feel these things as fans and supporters too. It’s a shared epidemic. The Melbourne Demons shouldn’t invest in one or two sports psychologists. They need to invest in a comprehensive psychological program. Combined with the returns of Lever, Hannan, vanDenberg, Jetta, Melksham, Hibberd and the debut of a fit Steven May, I’m quite sure by the end of this season we’ll be defeating whoever the eventual grand finalists are, and we’ll hit 2020 with all clubs wary of us. We’ll also win the flag and Trump will get arrested. It’s going to be a great year folks. This one’s just a grind though. But hey, at least we can enjoy watching the club in a calmer, analytical way. Once you remove that rubbish called “hope” you can actually relax.

Pardon my ignorance, but is Petracca often named at full-forward?

Sam Newman embodied everything I dislike in a person. Arrogance, pseudo-intellectualism, vanity, intolerance and the list goes on. The whole idea that he was some kind of charming raconteur is a joke. He had a Pamela Anderson mural on his front wall ffs. He was the William F. Buckley to any given Monster-drinking dude with a pair of Oakleys glued to the back of his neck, and talking about him in the past tense is extremely enjoyable. The rest of the [censored] can [censored] off too. My wife isn’t a football lover. I’d try to convince her of it’s value from time to time, but she always had the perfect rebuttal, which was simply pointing in the direction of that godawful lowest-common-denominator horsesh&t and saying “I rest my case”.

REST VINEY PLEASE. We’ll take our chances, and in better ways than this.

He’s the Southern Star Observation Wheel of AFL.

Absolutely put Jayden Hunt on the wing. I have a feeling he’ll come into his own this season (despite everything around him crumbling a little bit).

No need to go near this forum again till 2020. Keep the faith somehow folks. Till then.

If we lose this Goodwin will be seriously worried about his job. Sick of seeing his shitty game “plans” in “action”. And sick of seeing his passionless, feckless, rabbit-in-the-headlights reactions to travesty after travesty.

Jetta Lever May vanDenberg Hannan And I can forgive that prelim effort and say Lewis. Will be great to have these players back.

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.

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

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.