Wodja

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🤯

As someone else mentioned in another post, this bias (and the inherent advantage they have with their home ground and who they play / don’t play there) tends to make them home and away champions more often than not over the years than they perhaps deserved. Looking (perhaps clutching) for an upside to all this I would like to think that if we finish second in the home and away taking into consideration that ‘we were going to be hunted all year’ what a great result! I also then would like Geeedlong to actually think that they are the legitimate favourites heading into the finals. Bring it on and GO DEES!

For the love of Binman?

Totally agree with the first paragraph, I am sure they will remember. I liked the way Gawney diverted his answer in a recent press conference about how he felt about Ginnivan’s mental health concerns to discuss the over the top attention that Jacko received in Perth last week. He certainly remembers. Therefore, In your second paragraph I’d change ‘like’ to ‘despise’ and immediately after ‘play’ insert ‘for free kicks’ . Totally agree again with your ‘just deserts’ comment that follows. All the attention and negativity that he has received has been brought on by his antics and actions. I know he is just a kid but the Pies hierarchy didn’t help the situation- they should have counselled him to pull his head in a bit. Such is life.

With all due respect to everyone ‘if it is not broken, don’t fix it’

The cold and wet weather forecast for Friday night I believe is just another piece of ‘fake news’ that the ferals are putting out there to try and keep fair weather Demon supporters away - but bring some wet weather gear just in case

Agree, it’s OUR home game! We really have no excuse. We have been so proud of our growing membership numbers. We (I) bag out on teams like Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon etc. But at the end of the day actions speak louder than words. Turn up and make some bloody noise. I hate being out numbered and out noised at our home games.

I’m sure we all remember the Filth booing Oliver when he got BOG against the Pies (40 odd possessions, great many contested) and that little piece of excrement Ginnivan, mouthing off at Gawn when he got injured, not to mention how all he seems to try and do is drop his knees and milk the free kicks. Business end of the season now, bring it on. Our lads said they looked forward to try and get the job done in front of big crowds this year and are fulfilling their end of the bargain. We have one job to do, turn up and make some bloody noise GO DEES!!

We owe it to the boys. Rain hail or shine, turn up.

Curiosity question and apologies if already addressed earlier. I understand there are various levels of MFC membership and am aware amongst them that you can get ‘priority access’ for finals tickets and some of the higher tiered memberships give guaranteed access to a GF ticket (if we make it) Thinking just a little ahead here. What happens if say we play Collingwood in a earlier final? We have around 65k members and I’m guessing they have 80k plus. MCG capacity is say 100k and after say allowing say 50k seats allocated for MCC snd AFL members (I am just guessing these numbers) that leaves say 50k left for footy club members/ general public. Even if only half the members from both clubs wanted to get a ticket 72k people would be chasing 50k seats. So the question is how would the ticketing system/ process work? It would appear that you would either have to- a) be first in first served or b) there would be some ballot system i have no idea how it all works. Does anyone know the answer? Once again apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere.