Wodja

The problem is not with our cheer squad. The problem is our supporter base culture. A positive summation is that we are polite and quiet. A less positive assessment would be that we are quite boring and lack passion. Frankly, I’m jealous of sides that have loud passionate supporters, which is pretty much most other sides in the comp. I was at the GF in WA and it was obviously a ring in crowd but it was loud, real loud and it was exciting. I loved it. Simple as that. I so much looked forward to seeing and hearing our real supporters in the rematch at the start of the year and to honest it was almost disappointing in comparison. Similar crowd numbers ( and even allowing for stadium acoustics) it really lacked atmosphere. Bottom line was that people that didn’t even barrack for Melbourne showed more passion last year (that was in both the Footscray game and the Geelong game prior). I guess that as a collective that is who we are. Very, very quiet. I really feel for our players at times. We have so much of a middle class conservative boredom embedded in us that it is embarrassing at times. We lack passion. (apologies to the middle class out there who are loud snd proud and the exceptions to the rule Melbourne supporters that show passion). I dreamed for over 50 years that we would win a flag. Tick. I also dreamed that with success the long suffering supporters would come out of their shells. Fail. I can almost feel that given a choice the polite clapping brigade would like things to stay as they always have been, for people like me to disappear. Well it would be impolite of me to say you should consider changing your ways so I won’t. You have got it pretty good at the moment. I keep dreaming of course. I hope we have further success on the ground and that attracts a new breed of supporters to the MFC. To me success in the stands will be defined as when the polite brigade would rather watch footy on Kayo because they find our new breed supporters over the top loud and proud. Chances of this happening? Pretty low but I keep on dreaming.

I am soooo hoping that you are right about ‘loading’. I was even accepting that there was a real chance that we could drop next week’s game against the ferals. The aim of the game is of course September. But I just saw the ferals get over the line against Hawthorn and my most love to hate player in the comp is now Ginnivan (he even surpasses Weidman from Footscray playing for frees and that is no easy feat). So noooooooo, we have to beat them come what may.

No matter what the make up of the forward line set up is going to be, I would love to see the mids get more creative and in particularly, quicker with their entries to the forwards. It appears to me that we have become a little too slow and predictable going forward. This enables the opposition to roll back and defend, particularly when we just end up then kicking to a pack. A bit of creative quick ‘controlled chaos’ footy going forward could be the go. Bring it in quick, so that at the very least if the forwards are not in a position to mark it they bring the ball to the deck and let our smaller forwards have more opportunity to get busy. May help us get some mojo back. Success breeds success.

Not to forget that the delivery to the forwards from the mids also has to looked at and improved. The forwards are part of the problem, but definitely not the entire problem. Geez I hope we get it sorted for the Queens birthday clash.

We as supporters have one job to do, go to the G, that is the only tangible way to help our boys. They need us right now, more than ever. But don’t rock up there and sit there like a stunned mullet, make some bloody noise, in fact go wild! If your partner doesn’t like you doing that sort of thing, leave them at home. If you have kids, bring them along and let them see the ‘other you’. Monkey see, monkey do. We truly need a new breed of supporters. GO DEES and kick Collingwood’s (self censored).

I’m in the 60 plus bracket and only found out and joined Demonland this year. Where have I been??? What interests me was I did not realise how immature my emotional intelligence is when it comes to all things footy- and I’m loving it! My wife of course, is not surprised at all (at my lack of intelligence), she thinks I need to get a hobby!

But they certainly ‘out- noised’ and ‘out- passioned’ us.

I love being positive about Melbourne, it’s the only way I survived the previous 56 years prior to last season and stuck with them. And trust me in those 56 seasons at the end I was downright miserable. I was also that positive about Melbourne last year that I upped my membership midway through the season to guarantee a GF ticket if we made it, despite Covid breaking out and not seeing any games from June or thereabouts onwards and the likelihood that finals would not even be played in Victoria! I was that positive that when I went travelling up north my ‘game plan’ was to get home to Melbourne knowing deep down that the finals weren’t going to be played there. I was that positive that when I got to Adelaide heading home (you wouldn’t / couldn’t travel through NSW) that I saw the Dees beat Brisbane in the first final. I was that positive that instead of going home I turned right to go to WA thinking there was a real chance that we could win the big one. (I was also thinking what a [censored] I would have looked like if we failed and I travelled all that way to see them lose). I was that positive (and privileged and lucky) to see the Mighty Dees crush Geelong and then Footscray). I’m still positive this year and am hoping for big things. Trust me, at year end if we don’t win the big one I’ll once again be miserable….I’ve had plenty of practice. I am positive but I am also a realist, it is going to extremely tough to win back to back but I feel that we are still a realistic chance. It can be argued that me being positive doesn’t help the Dees one ounce. Nor does it bring negative. So on answer to your question about what I would be satisfied with at year end? Another premiership, simple as that. As I mentioned in an earlier post, each to their own, I just hope the players don’t read too many of the full on negative posts because I need them to be positive!🤩

All year we have pretty much put in one good quarter and that has been enough to win most games. Obviously that’s not going to be enough against the real contenders…..but we are still in the top four! I would love for us to win the next two, but even if we just managed to snag one win, I would still hold the faith. The game plan is to be there in September and firing. Heaps of opportunities for improvement and I still have plenty of faith in our boys. If we can get it all happening we are a big chance to beat anyone. Looking forward to the hunted becoming the hunters. It’s so much more fun being positive than feeling all doom and gloom. I’m going to back the Dees, not bag them. Each to their own. GO DEES

Need to start getting back our mojo over the next two games. The players need to get their act together and so do we, the supporters. Rock up to the G next week and make a lot of noise!

What’s this window business? We’re walking through the front door. 😊GO DEES

I know it is just fanciful thinking…. but wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow have some training sessions conducted with our supporter base to remove the ‘veil of negativity’ that somehow seems to permeate into our culture…. despite what we have achieved last year and how we are currently travelling. Yeah I know …. I’m dreaming

I agree and I get the disappointment. Looking forward to May taking care of Buddy come finals, if Sydney are good enough to make it that far! In the meantime I hope we give them a good towelling. GO DEES 😎

I think you only had to look at the vision and ask one simple question. Is this what we want to see happen in a game? Game over Buddy

Goody, you are an extremely good bloke. I for one are both very proud and thankful that you stuck with the Dees. I hope you hang around for quite a while.

“We are just going to challenge the MRO's view of whether it's an intentional strike," Swans coach John Longmire told reporters on Monday. Are they serious? If he sort of missed hitting him the first time he certainly did better the next try!

Not that I am a Toby Greene fan in anyway whatsoever, I wonder what chance he would have if he appealed a similar incident. I think Franklin is a real chance to get off because of his ‘status’ and if that is the case it is a real shame. If you apply the ‘what message these kind of incidents have on little kids’, this is a no brainer- it deserves a week.

You just made my day. 🤞

We had a few key players out prior to this game, got a couple more injuries during the game, appeared tired and slow at times.As a collective we were ‘off’. A one quarter effort was not going be enough against a serious premiership contender such as Freo (defence wins premierships and they have a very good defence). We not only lost but were thumped after half time. Not happy but no big deal. We were totally outplayed because we were not on, but they certainly were! Plenty of learnings from this. We have also pretty much been hunted by most sides in the prior 10 games (North Melbourne included!) which is an added pressure. This was always going to be a danger game. Even more so after Freo losing two in a row at home prior to them playing us. They got us and good on them, they did well. Next three games are HUGE! Two other genuine premiership contenders and the Pies who will set themselves for a big one. I trust the boys will reset, back themselves, their systems and become the hunters. I too need to reset as a supporter. I was beginning to take winning too much for granted. I am nerrrrvously excited about attending the next three games. Bit like last year. Bring it on.

I think it was just under 30,000.

I reckon our players feel the same way. Looking forward to them responding in the next few weeks

In the scheme of things we had a hiccup, something that you can’t avoid from time to time. Every now and then you need to experience failure to make you more hungry for success. It is a good time to review and reset. Big lesson is that against better sides we need to put in more than a one quarter effort to put sides away. Still on top, long way to go- GO DEES

I believe it was sent to all members but I note that in my email that I have an option where I can choose to unsubscribe from the mailing list. Maybe that could be the problem?

This world seems to be full of opposites. You are either a introvert or extrovert, optimistic or pessimistic etc. Some supporters are optimists - love having won a flag and now 17 on the trot, looking forward to trying to break a few records and so on. The mfcss appear to be pessimistic by nature, not happy with scrappy wins, various players and performances. Such is life, people are different. I’ve been told, never give advice unless it’s asked for, but bugger it. For the ‘never quite happy people’ out there, I’ll borrow a quote from Industry Super Funds logo- ‘it’s never too late to change’. Not suggesting to come across to the dark side (and be happy), but rather be realistic about what we have done and are doing. Savour or at the very least tolerate the so called ugly wins and then cherish the big ones. What we are experiencing now is possibly once in a lifetime moment. Who knows how long it will last. Plenty of time later to become once again miserable…. maybe.

Did it again!