Wodja

I sound defeatist don’t I? Put very simply, I just feel that money talks and it is very hard not to think that what we have right now is a form of professional entertainment that tv : multi media interests have an enormous say in. Football comes second (as do supporters)…… unfortunately

Agree it is inevitable and will happen , it is just a matter of when. But……...I’ve just had it in my head and dreamed (dare I say fantasied) for decades that we would play and win a GF at the G during the day. I would just love to see that dream realised this year and then I would be prepared to accept us winning the next one in 2023 under lights.😊

A comment that I heard on DeeBief the other week. ‘While other teams talk about premiership windows of opportunity being open, we are just going to walk through the front door’ Not even a sniff of VoN. Love it!

Not all that many sleeps to go for you then 👍😊

Could just be me, but I would have thought that Ross Lyon’s ‘use by date’ as a coach has expired and that there would be better options out there

My ‘love to hate’ syndrome is influenced by actual players in opposition sides (eg No1 hate team several years ago and still high on the list, GWS. Why? Toby Greene, Shaw and Mummy, need I say anymore! ). Over the years teams I hate on this basis go up and down my ‘hate ladder’. Every club seems to have a somewhat unique ‘supporter culture’ This is a more stable ‘love to hate’ influencer, for me at least. That is why the classic sides are always up there (eg Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon, Port etc for very obvious reasons ) even though at times I have no issue with their actual team and game style. To be honest I at times can get a little bit jealous of what I see, hear and feel when I experience the passion of those opposition supporter bases when I’m at the footy . Why? Because deep down I know how other teams supporters perceive us to be like and at times it is almost embarrassing and hard to argue against. Examples- a) The whinging whining syndrome- I have and will always hate hearing someone call out ‘come on Melbourne’ in a slow moaning groan tone at the ground. b) fair weather syndrome- when the team gets going we like I guess most supporters of other teams will tend to start coming out in droves, but I reckon (no evidence whatsoever) we would hold off doing this longer than others, waiting perhaps until we are a absolute certainty to make the finals c) similar to the above - the priority syndrome- ‘we are off to the snow’, see you in September d) This is the one that ‘kills me’, the negative Nellie syndrome where you have a fair swag of supporters that you feel almost are happy or wanting the Dees to trip up to prove that they were right (this was overtly apparent last season and still lingers on now this year after now winning 15 straight!). I say all this through my lenses. I came on board the year after Melbourne won the flag in 1964, I was 5 years old. I have suffered like everyone else over the years. The only difference from my suffering to younger supporters is that I had over half a century of it. The commonality with the younger brigade being that we experienced failure for all of our lives, until now. It was real tough. On the upside, I was in a most fortunate position to have the privilege of attending all of Melbourne’s finals they played last year. Sheer luck. What was most noticeable in the last two finals (Geelong and Footscray) was the electric, noisy passion of the people that attended the games. It very much had a strong West Coast feel to it, including all the booing! Gets worse, I loved being part of it. There was noise, positivity, passion). WA hoped on board with the Dees and you could tell and feel this. To try and provide some contrast. I was hoping that at the 1st round GF rematch at the G that having genuine supporters attend that the noise/ passion would go to a new level. It didn’t. (Yeah I know, it was a Wednesday night and all that, but still). I have had to accept somewhat reluctantly that the way that other teams supporters perceive us to be is pretty much on the mark. Having said that, the MFC have actually changed (ie the Board, the coaching staff, support staff and players). They have managed to change their ‘culture’. I feel for want of better words our supporter base has in a sense not as yet hopped on board as much as I would have liked them to. Perhaps we won’t, culture change is very difficult to achieve. But I still live in hope. I am an old bugger and I get it that we have had some [censored] decades and any change, particularly real culture change is hard to achieve. It takes effort. My only hope now is that a lot of newbie’s that don’t carry the scars of the past hop on board the Dee train and lock in on the new culture that our team have created. We have a window of opportunity right now. I want us to become the most respected and at the same time hated team in the competition. Apologies to anyone that I may have inadvertently offended. My only excuse is that I am an old bugger that did not realise how much passion and belief I have for MFC. What I dreamed about when I was a kid is now happening. Time for all our supporter base to hop on board, the team has changed, so can we. Time to burn the VoN. GO DEES

Talk about a man walking the talk ( definitely no pun intended). An absolute legend

Agree. I like Goodwin’s mantra - ‘we respect every team in the competition’ . It would be a big mistake to presume that we have any game won before you actually play the game.

Weightman obviously comes from a soccer background, and if not, he should seriously consider changing codes.

It is so hard to be modest when our team is so bloody good at the moment. I’m failing miserably and I love it!

Sort of. My job is to rock up to as many games as I possibly can to support the mighty Dees. 😎

Whatever the match committee comes up with as to whether he plays or doesn’t, I’ll back them 100%. The whole team be it the board, the coaches , the medicos and the players seem to pretty much nailed it more times than not. They look like that they are one united and determined unit that are on a mission. GO DEES!

The fixture was a lot fairer many years ago when each team played each other twice (12 teams , 22 games). Perhaps if / when Tassie Devils come on board that the AFL hierarchy would consider having a 18 round season and a few byes. I bet most players would like this. Unfortunately this most likely won’t occur. AFL / broadcast interest basically means more games equal more money. Professional entertainment trumps purist principles. Just maybe then if a 20th team is created (Canberra, NT or whoever!) it may slightly increase the chances of every team playing each other just once in the season proper - but I am not still not confident .

I liked the way Gary Lyon pretty much told him not to give away too much info that others teams could pick up on and potentially use to their advantage.

I may be wrong here but I thought that Goodwin mentioned in his press conference that Lever got and then played with a corked calf? I could be wrong and don’t mind if someone corrects me.

If I recall correctly Weid did some ruck work the other week and Goodwin gave him bit of wrap in the press conference ….. so my guess is if Gawn is rested the Weed will come back in

Torn between seeing us absolutely flogging them or doing pretty much what we have with other sides- strangle, take control and then just maintain control. Same again against North the following week, because after that we have got four big games coming up. (Freo, Sydney, Pies, Brisbane) And… for the crowd to get bigger and bigger each game. If or should I say when we win all these games, I believe would be 21 consecutive wins- something that has never been done before (happy to be corrected on this - I’m too lazy to research) GO DEES

What a beautiful problem that the selectors have to consider in coming weeks. We have so much depth. I was feeling very nervous about us having to face up to Freo, Sydney, Collingwood and Brisbane in the not too distant future. Now I am nervously excited! Bring it on.

Agree, the demon machine just keeps on rolling along for now. Come closer to the finals is when I expect us to well and truly put the pedal to the metal. Can’t wait 😜

I hope all players that have contracts coming up take a leaf out of Goodwin’s book in how he went about his renewal

I’m with ya bro ….. but I reckon it’s pretty nigh impossible for us to beat anyone above us on the ladder at the moment!

Good question! The comeback victory against Geelong in the last round to become minor premiers could be considered lucky, rather than good coaching. We didn’t smash Brisbane in the first final, it could be argued that we just beat them. The Geelong win that followed, more luck or just an aberration, take your pick. And the GF win? If we kicked 7 goals in the last 8 or so minutes of the 3rd quarter, how come we could only snag snag 9 in the final quarter (one of which was kicked after the siren). And we let the Dogs kick one goal! Not to mention our performances this year thus far. We haven’t even beaten anyone in the top eight! Is this really Goody enough? Maybe he isn’t the right guy?😉

I reckon that there would have been some succession planning discussions taking part during this contract extension. No evidence whatsoever, it just seems the logical thing to do to ensure long term success. As to assuming in 2025 that we will still be contenders, bloody oath we will be. For very obvious reasons I have never enjoyed footy this much in my whole life. Just love now going to the footy with mates who barrack for other teams at the moment. Winners are grinners.

I am so happy. He not only talks the walk in terms of the new team culture he actually walks it. He also clearly knows that he is only as good as the team around him on and off the field. You can almost guess that he actually took a pay cut of sorts to ensure that there is funding available to try and keep on other key support staff in future years. I would like to think that some of this ‘culture’ rubs off onto the players when it comes up to contract negotiations. Time will tell. Just finally, I find it so refreshing how he speaks so respectfully about all of the playing group. I keep saying, we as the supporters of the team can be so proud but in so many ways we also have opportunity to improve on our attitudes and mindsets at times, me included . GO DEES

I did too! To me it was like rubbing further salt into the wound ……niiiiice. Goodonya Tom, we’ll done.