Wodja

I was at the practice game at Docklands when Carlton beat us and their supporters carried on like they won the GF in March! I’ve been waiting all season for this game. Their supporters, they really irk me. If there wasn’t a Collingwood, they most certainly would be the team I love to hate the most. GO DEES!

I am expecting to sit in level 2A in the Shane Warne stand (reserved seating area for MFC members) that most likely will at best be half full……as has had happen pretty much all season long

Even more so if we start nailing goals!

And even more on goal kicking practice!

Maybe Choco needs to get the footy out that he markets to kids (that has a stripe down the middle) to teach them how to kick straight….. and give it to a few of our ‘goal kickers’ . Back to the basics.

I am so hoping you are wrong with your estimate of how many of us will turn up. We have 60k plus members, plenty more supporters, last home game which is a BIG game for us. I dream that we will outnumber the Carlton crew and give our boys the support they both want and need. Am I hopeful? No, not really…. but I still dream

Don’t underestimate the influence a crowd can have over and above loading and tactic considerations on the psychological impact on player’s performance levels. I was absolutely fortunate / lucky enough to attend all Melbourne’s finals last year. In SA against Brisbane I’d say it was a 65/35 crowd. To be honest it wasn’t an electric atmosphere but we got the job done ( and was amazed at how SA still resented Lever leaving ). Similar atmosphere to playing a home game in Victoria. The other finals in WA were a absolute never to forget crowd experience. Guessing it was a 70 / 30 crowd that made a 80/20 noise if that makes sense in both games. It was loud, almost over the top hysteria (West Coast booing and all). Believe it or not, perhaps even more so when we played Geelong- they love to hate Geelong. It was like a Collingwood crowd on steroids. It was electric. I loved it. Did it help our team? Undoubtedly and immensely. I could really understand why the Melbourne players wanted to do it again in front of their home crowd the following year. First game, rematch against the Doggies, the atmosphere in comparison to the GF was decidedly flat. And in my opinion it really didn’t get much better throughout the year. I get why Petracca talks about crowd numbers. The team is not getting the support they expected/ wanted from our supporter base. Does it impact their on field performances? Let’s put it this way it doesn’t help. To finish off, I am not at all filthy on the people that turn up week in and week out or when they can. I am not having a go at the elderly, Covid concerned , distance issued supporters who can’t turn up. You guys are the heart and soul of the club. I am just expressing deep felt disappointment to the fact that we have an inordinate number of fair weather supporters. I feel embarrassed but more importantly I feel for our players.

100% agree with you. I am one of the lucky, privileged if you like members that have got one of those GF guaranteed reserved seat memberships. (All sold out) All year when we have had home games I can categorically and factually state that in the section I sit (Shane Warne stand, level 2A near the wing, right next to the AFL that at best it is half full. Absolute shame. I’ve gone on about this in other posts so I will desist from repeating my disgust here.

I think the crowd played a big factor last Friday. I agree that our team seems to gear up rather well for hostile crowds when we are playing interstate and hope this holds true when we play Brisbane in the last round. My big concern is when we play home games (like last week) and this week's game against Carlton. As I mentioned in a earlier post , there are loading considerations, tactics and mindset. Supporters can certainly have an impact on the players mindset. Not making excuses for outcomes but it’s a real shame our players miss out on getting this ‘edge’ in quite a few of our home games. I’ve pretty much have lost faith in our supporter base and will be almost annoyed if they suddenly start turning up when we play of in the finals. (Off course I want them there for the players sake, but I know they are just fair weather supporters, nothing more, nothing less)

I really don’t get how the members and supporters thingy works. We have over 60k members and am totally guessing here, say an additional 30 to 40k supporters. In relative terms, bugger all turn up to games, even the big ones. I know for a fact that a lot of members - definitely the category that have reserved seats / access to GF tickets (if we make it) - (that have also been fully sold out)- don’t go to many games because there have been many vacant seats in those reserved areas in every one of our home games this year. My presumption is that we must have a substantial number of ‘fair weather’ and perhaps somewhat affluent supporters that buy the higher level memberships just in case we make the finals. Maybe that is the answer for your 2018 question. If that is the case, in my opinion that is a bit sad but so be it. I also get why we get the ‘going to the snow’ jokes. We seem to deserve it. But back to what I cannot work out. If we have over 90k supporters (even allowing for elderly, Covid concerns, distance issues) why so few in relative terms turn up to big games such as against the ferals. If the answer is they prefer to watch the games on tv, again, or just choose to attend if we make the finals, such is life. I used to enjoy bagging our northern state neighbours about how bad their attendances were for their rugby games. That has sadly very much become a tv sport. I’m going to back off doing that because I feel a bit hypocritical. I just feel for our players and I am again just guessing again, would appreciate some vocal support at our home games. Must be disheartening to know that opposition supporters more often than not not only outnumber our supporters but are also more vocal. The real downside being that our team is disadvantaged in home games if that makes sense. Just like for decades I wished we win a premiership, I now wish (actually have done so for many decades) the values and attitudes of our new supporters also change, dare I say it to resemble the raw passion that most other Victorian based seem to have. Again in my opinion the MFC as in the board, coaches, players and staff have all stepped up, the only real remaining weak link is us, the supporters base. Apologies to all the die hard fans out there including the cheer squad and people that turn up week in and week out - be you a member or a ‘non financial’ supporter. You guys are the heart and soul of the club.

The biggest change required by quite a few players is…… attitude. Think ‘hunter’ rather than ‘hunted’ ….. and then all will be fine. Something for all us supporters to consider. Are you going to back or bag your team? Looking forward to seeing this happen at the G next Saturday night GO DEES

100% agree. As much as we are pretty good at bagging out on other teams supporters and their idiosyncrasies, they at the very least turn up to games and are loud and proud. The same can’t be said for us. Almost typically, I would expect a pick up in numbers once the finals begin. What were you doing during the home and away season? I am fortunate (and perhaps privileged) enough to have one of those memberships that give me a reserved seat / access to finals/ GF etc. All year where I sit it has been less than half full. In my opinion, shameful. Not having a go at the elderly, Covid concerned and members and fans that have to travel great distances. The ones I am disappointed in is all of our fair weather supporters. We have more than our fair share of them. I can only hope that the new generation of young supporters that we hopefully attract by our team’s recent success are a new breed that actually walk the talk. I hope it is not more of the same.

Had we won last night, I wonder if there would have been a new thread about us being premiership favourites? One game at a time.

Looking forward to a three course feast when we front up against Caaaaarlton next week. GO DEES

There is fitness (loading considerations), tactics (execution of game plan) and mindset (attitude) for the want of better words. They are all to a degree interrelated. In my certainly not professional opinion, if you don’t have all three switched on at the same time, that is a real issue. I reckon we are fit enough, the tactics and even more perhaps, the mindset now need attention and adjustment. Next game will tell ( one game at a time). We are the reigning premiers which obviously makes things even more challenging ( being the hunted, etc). I still have faith that we can go all the way. Can we? Yes. Will we? Maybe. GO DEES

Block of people beginning to crowd out the top part of the Ponsford- indicates all seats below are reserved- should be a sizeable crowd

For what it’s worth - after clicking the send button I headed to the car (I live in the SE suburbs) - I got absolutely drenched! Im at the G now , obviously has pelted down here also but at the moment , no rain - for the moment. Fingers crossed , we may get another shower or two at most (I hope). Ground obviously will be slippery but that shouldn’t bother us- we are going to smash them MY concern is purely self vested- I am not under cover

No, it’s fake news 🙃 Rain hail or shine, I’ll be there - GO DEEs ps I’m looking at an App ‘Windy’ that gives me the info I want (for all I know, this could be an app endorsed by Qanon). On a half serious note, I have been caught out many times by referring to BOM’s hour to hour forward forecasts when it indicated rain. I think if you read into details, if there is a chance it will spit that will show up as rain. When I look at the Apple hourly forecasts (they obviously use different interpretations of what is ‘rain’ ) quite often it will show it will be dry - and to me more often than not have shown a more accurate or realistic projection Sadly, before I hit ‘send’ I just noted they both forecast rain! So …..I hope Windy is correct but I’m losing confidence. On the upside, either way, we will smash them

Maybe I’m reading the radar movements the way I would like to see things….. There is a bad patch coming now but I reckon (perhaps hope) that the worst of the showers will past us (or to the north of us) by 6pm or 7 at the latest🤞

Ditto. At the risk of sounding ‘Collingwoodish’ I find it incredibly difficult to articulate how I really feel about my disdain of Collingwood and all that it stands for by not being allowed to use a full array of expletives in these posts! ‘I just want us to crush these bar:$@Ed’s’ just doesn’t cut it.

I certainly hope that we have very good umpires tonight that are not overly influenced by the the feral army. Not wanting to buy into the mental health issues discussed above (at least not in this post), I also hope the umpires don’t soften up on their interpretation of the head ducking rule because of after match comments from last week. If you get caught high going for the ball - free kick. If you look like your objective is to get a free, rather than the footy - play on. Pretty simple! We’ll see what happens tonight

It appears on the weather forecasts apps that I am looking at that most off the rain (showers) should stop by 7pm tonight. So for all of those who can , rock up to the G tonight and see the mighty Dees crush the Pies…..If I’m wrong, apologies in advance… come and see us crush them in the wet.

That of course will all change tomorrow night

I was having a quiet chuckle when I was reading this post and then suddenly realised I was reacting to something that I had posted! Happy to assist with your ‘learnings’. 😊

Sesquipedalians (hope I spelt it correctly) do my head in🤯