Skuit
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Posts posted by Skuit
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It warms my cockles to hear that Geoff Freeman has been hanging out with Lindsay Fox and Eddie McGuire in Europe and is now ready to step back in to save our club from outside influences.
I'm sure it has nothing to do with state/federal politics or AON and Zurich, or any other related matter other than what is best for us fans and those poor blokes like Lleyton Oliver running out on the field.
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Langdon is my preferred choice at #5 (on top of other traits, I like the 'deliberacy' of his passing in some, but not all of his videos), which means the MFC should probably jump off right now. I am most definitely not a qualified scout.
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3 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:
Gippsland Power dasher Ricky Mentha took a shine to “Kozzy’’ Pickett when he trained with Melbourne briefly last year.
In what would be a historic move for the Demons, they are considering taking their Next Generation Academy member as a Category B rookie after watching his progress with Gippsland Power in the Coates Talent League in the past two years.
Hey WWSW: can you please clarify what the the historicity of the move is according to the Hun?
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Clayton Oliver and Marty Hore are half-heartedly kicking a deflated football around the dusty streets of Gunbower.
Marty: Hey Clarry, it's been great visiting one of your many home towns, thanks again for the invo, but maybe we should head into to city for a decent bite to eat?
Clarry: Nah, I don't want to go back to Melbourne. The local does a steak sammy with the lot and eggs from Trac's good friends at the @theaustralianeggcouncil.
The pair are suddenly distracted by some strange heavy breathing from a nearby bush.
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5 minutes ago, RickyD said:
All good. I think I've said everything I came on Demonland to say.
Thanks for reading everyone. Go Dees!
www.change.org/MFC_reviewYou don't want to stick around and discuss the club you love? I would recommend avoiding the game-day threads, but elsewhere you can share your passion for your favourite players, game-day tactics, who you think should be selected each week, potential trades and recruits, and many other wonderful topics on the sport of football.
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1 minute ago, RickyD said:
Let's do a hypothetical...
- Assume I was paid by someone else to post here
- Assume someone helped me get published in the Age because of a vendetta against the club.
- Assume someone with a connection to my work at Tourism Australia has other motives and was involved somehow
- Assume I've never actually watched a demons game, was not a member and don't support the club
- Assume I copied everything I've written from other blog posts that use Z instead of S.
Done. Cheers.
But seriously. Now you're doing what you're accusing me of doing - pointing elsewhere to avoid the topic.
You had a complaint about the club published in the Age. You connected it to your promotional social media.
A perceived conflict of interest in the MFC review process is peripheral to those facts.
I'm ambivalent as to an external review, but have had many complaints about the club over the years.
I have never reached out the media about them though, and connected it to my promotional socials.
You took this action and need to own it. It's fair that some might take exception to your approach.
Again, take a look at what this thread is about: your letter being published in the Age.
You can argue your case for an independent review in the many other related threads on the topic.
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1 hour ago, RickyD said:
You’ve praised @Skuit for his 'investigative journalism,’ which involved digging up my public social media profiles and using irrelevant information to distract from the issue, turning it into something about me. I am irrelevant to the cause and the issues being raised. What @Skuit has done is the same BS technique often used by dishonest media organisations to spin the narrative and avoid addressing the actual topic. In my opinion, it's a cancer on society.
You believe the media providing backgrounding, transparency and fact-checking is a cancer on society?
I haven’t attempted to spin the narrative to avoid addressing the topic at hand. I’m discussing a different topic: your involvement with and approach to the matter. It’s there in the thread title.
You’re the one who made this story about you, and connected it your promotional social media accounts. You’re not some whistleblower who is irrelevant to the subject of an open letter concerning our club being published in the Age.
Despite how you wish to frame it, I think you’ll find most supporters already agree with the MFC conducting an independent review, but some may take issue with you bringing additional negative attention to the club for what seems like self-serving purposes.
My bigger concern is that your actions have coincided with a period of significant white-anting by those who have political and personal agendas, with the media being used a primary tool.
That includes outsiders being paid to post to this site. So, when a major national newspaper publishes a random fan’s letter – which you yourself have acknowledged is quite extraordinary – it naturally raises suspicions.
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8 hours ago, RickyD said:
Jeez there's a lot of skepticism here. Not sure why it's important, but yes, Ricky Dunn is my name mate 🤣
Congratulations on at least being transparent as to your identity. The same question still applies to you though: are you being 'compensated' to launch a very public campaign against the club you claim to love, or is it just another self-serving exercise to promote your own content and media production aspirations?
The reason some might be skeptical, is that others are obviously being paid to currently post on this forum or have connections to those who are, and your 'open letter' was accompanied by a video uploaded on a social media account which is solely focused on tourism and has never had anything remotely to do with football.
In fact, I'm hard-pressed finding anything related to your support of the Demons across all your socials over the past decade and beyond, except for one 'repost' of our grand final victory. You do however reference West Ham United a lot, which seems odd compared to your total lack of public recognition given to the Dees until a week ago.
I'll take your word for it though that you are - were - a member of the MFC, as I likewise have rarely ever stepped foot in our home city. I did however grow up in Aussie Rules territory in South Australia, supporting the Redlegs, which explains my connection to the red & blue, as frequently detailed right here on this fan site.
Note to admins: RickyD has openly connected his Demonland profile to his petition to his Instagram page, so I'm not 'exposing' or asking anyone to reveal themselves. My question is why he has continued to go so hard after getting his fan letter 'surprisingly' published in the Age, which is already so ridiculous to begin with.
Ricky has since humbly expressed his regret for bringing additional negative media attention to our club - defending his approach by counterbalancing it with what is in his opinion the best interests of the MFC - while at the same time courting the likes of Kane Cornes on Twitter and gleefully promoting the letter's publication.
On that point Ricky: why do you have such a big and happy 'disarming' smile while complaining about our governance on film? Surely you must be as bitter and disenchanted and full of vitriol as the rest of us to take such drastic actions, rather than looking like someone who just had their cocktails comped on Koh Samui.
You're bringing serious Brett Kirk vibes to that recording mate. I would love to compare your expressions to what might be expected of @Sir Why You Little filming a similar hostage video from Thailand. But some other quick questions while I'm here, which I'm sure you can answer in your adopted tone of voice:
Why did you spell 'idolized' in the American fashion in your letter to Brad? Did you write it in its entirety yourself? I quickly cross-checked all your other blogs I could dig up and didn't come across another instance of you using a 'z' in place of an 's', only examples to the contrary. But I know you've been out of the country a lot though.
Also, some of those on the record as having driven the recent board challenges at other clubs as highly paid strategic comms outsiders - and now being suspected of doing the same at the MFC - had very lofty positions at Tourism Australia, where you also worked, at the same time. Do you perhaps know of them or have any relationship?
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I once saw Eddie Betts jogging down the street in Darwin. I didn't immediately realise who it was, because he was running on uneven broken concrete next to the main road with all the exhaust fumes and you don't think about AFL players being so close to the equator anyway, but I gave him the old-mate nod and he gave back a knowing smile. My conclusion at the time, after I realised it was 'the' Eddie pounding the footpath, was that it definitely had something to do with Wade Derksen, but now when I think about it a bit more deeply it probably had something more to do with Pickett and Shai Bolten being mates. I was on a bicycle though, so who knows?
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19 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:
Thanks for the links and the time to respond to me. Just to reiterate, I don't believe this is a media driven conspiracy, the media care about eyes on their product and car crashes sell better than good news stories. If it bleeds it leads, right?
I don't agree with Hawk the Demon about everything, I do believe the current administration have run their course and it is time for an overhaul. That doesn't necessarily mean the board but it does mean the Pres/CEO and head of footy should go.
I am not a Peter Lawrence supporter, I don't know him from a bar of soap. I do think his actions have been blown way out of proportion by the club and certain posters on here and that's why I may seem to be defending him - even if I don't back him I do back his right to have his say on the club. People complaining about receiving emails from him just come across as sooks or stooges for the current admin who btw spent plenty of money on ridiculous court cases that could have been settled.
So your position is that certain individuals involved with construction companies have sought to overthrow the admins of several clubs to get a foot in the door on the construction of their new home base and Peter Lawrence is their proxy for Melbourne? Seems a bit far fetched to me considering there is no guarantee at all that we will ever see construction of a home base let alone have the board convinced to go with a company linked to a board member they have had legal troubles with. If Lawrence has been a large donor and player sponsor it seems his allegiance to MFC runs pretty deep, deeper than Pert, Roffey, our ex-Pres (HWSNBN) etc....
Thanks for your balanced response Gonzo.
Let's agree on some things to build some rapport: I also don't know Peter from a bar of soap, but he sounds pretty charming from most reports and his love of our club isn't remotely in question.
The way the board has conducted itself is pretty shameful in a lot of respects in my mind. Self-serving and undemocratic. I salute 'Peter' in overturning some clauses, others we can argue about the club defending from a difference of political opinions.
We also both agree the email list thing is pretty small-fry in the contemporary world. My position is the club had to at least make a show of challenging it, judging by some of the responses on here. Let's argue about that later or via DM.
I personally don't have a position on anything as to our management etc., other than my concern that people are being paid a lot of money to disrupt our club, and our own supporters are jumping on board out of on-field frustration and not realising the greater damage that is being caused and not for the sake of our club.
My bigger issue is people being paid to post on here, and some of our supporters and the Dland admins somehow not caring about that. The construction stuff was just speculation, as was made clear, but is the most immediate link that jumps out between us and Hawthorn and timelines. Like I said, give me a few days, and I could provide some links.
My main question is why one individual would spend multiple-millions of dollars to gain an unpaid board position? Just ego? We probably have similar feelings about Diamond Joe. So yes, I think some people are being paid a lot of money to actively disrupt our club, and they are doing that through the media and direct [censored]-stirring with our players.
I don't know if Peter is paying them, or they are bankrolling Peter. Either way, it's not cool anymore. I want it to [censored] end, but mostly I just don't want that [censored] on our own fan forum. I come here for an escape. I left Australia due to divisive politics and tactics, and now the exact same [censored] is happening at the heart of our club.
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I saw Heeney in the media last week parroting the line that he would have been lost to rugby without Sydney academy intervention. Seriously, what have the Swans or Lions got anything to do with that? Why do they need a leg-up? Is it about player retention, or junior talent knowing they have a smooth path to a list and can stay in their home-state?
Absolute nonsense. I see no good reason why the AFL can't just invest in their own academies in Brisbane and Sydney, and every other state, to try and lure athletes from other sports. ? The clubs can chip in cash. Why should that be incentivised with some draft freebies? It seems so counter to equalisation and common sense that I truly don't understand it.
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Clarry is the ginger-ninja.
Players who I have felt upset about leaving the MFC:
Jeff Farmer (to be honest, I can't remember my feelings that much).
Liam Jurrah (I thought we could still work it out).
Sam Frost (made football fun, but I got over it after a good breakfast).
If Clayton, Trac or Kysaiah leave, I'll probably take the opportunity as well.
Soft. But I'm sick of this abusive relationship.
And our own fans who constantly gaslight and fuel it.
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5 minutes ago, Demon Disciple said:
The implosion of our club, going from the most stable and successful it’s been in 50+ years, to its current state is unbelievably breathtaking.
And yet you want to continue entertaining the idea that it's unique to our footy club - the MFC shemozzle syndrome? - and not potentially due to bigger, outside forces? Why do you genuinely think Roffey jumped ship so quickly?
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9 hours ago, Demonland said:
Tom Morris reading out the synopsis of his own novel to potential publishers is my new ASMR bedtime routine.
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3 hours ago, Norm Smith's Curse said:
A good club might look at Oliver's issues last year and see Tassie coming in and press the trigger and try and trade one or two high calibre players after maximising their value.
A good club would have kept Clarry's issues as quiet as humanly possible and maximise that trade value then.
A good club would have sensed Petracca's issues and got out in front of the story as soon as it was said he would 'leave tomorrow if he could'.
Instead MFC leaked most of Clarry's issues themselves, did everything they could to reduce his trade value, and is now shopping him after he had his worst ever season due to lack of preseason.
MFC admitted to making minimal effort to stay in touch with Petracca's family after his injury to actually support Petracca's position that the club was the problem rather than he.
MFC potentially leaked stories about Petracca to make him sound like a primadonna and in doing so lowered his value also.
I heard tonight Kozzie is also considering his options.
Laughable.
I didn't know it was possible to cram this much [censored] into such a tiny space.
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3 minutes ago, Adam The God said:
The board lost me when the last two presidents emailed members telling them who to vote for, having installed candidates in casual vacancy positions just prior to the election.
As cultural issues have snowballed at the club, we've had persistently terrible comms (something Binman and others have been on about for years) through clear cuts to the comms department over several years; the board failed to deliver a promised 2024 strategy; we had a President who didn't even bother to turn up to the Presidents function earlier in the year (or sending a replacement) effectively rendering us voiceless; the CEO couldn't manage to land a shorts sponsor despite having three top 4 seasons in a row; the CEO went on radio and essentially put a target on our back with ridiculous hyperbole about the best culture in 40 years; the board via Rennick as the mouthpiece said in Federal Court in May that members did not want them installing candidates into casual vacancies etc etc.
Look at who they installed as our latest President. A bloke that goes out and has a coffee with Guitnik and it ends up on the front page within days. We also continue to leak like a sieve under Green and Pert's leadership.
I'm not exactly sure what there is to assess if you basically agree with you were never a fan of Pert's.
As for this idea that you have to out yourself on an internet message board, it's bizarre. You don't have to agree with the information that Hawk is passing on, but to demand Hawk out who they are is really quite strange and IMO unreasonable.
Finally, vis a vis all those links, I have no idea what you're trying to suggest...
And btw, I've always loved you as a poster. You can have your view and I'll have mine.
Dude. What if i agree with 98 percent of what you have just posted?
I would rather hear it from you than someone who is being paid to post on here and has no link to our club.
You can back change. Just be careful who you get in bed with to achieve that change.
You're a sensible guy Adam.
You don't think posters should be transparent about their political affiliations? If being paid to post?
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1 minute ago, Roost it far said:
Maybe. I’m stepping out of this discussion as I don’t have enough knowledge of what’s going on. I just don’t like that it is going on. We look like a bunch of amateurs.
I just entered like a million-word post, which I wasn't paid for. I don't know what is going on either. But there are some links there so you can do your own research. I agree that we look like/or are being made to look like a bunch of amateurs.
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On 29/09/2024 at 07:04, Dr. Gonzo said:
Is it so hard to believe that the people running the club have not been that great at what they do? Easier to believe in a media driven conspiracy?
Is it not possible to believe both? I'm a Goodwin fan, but have never backed in any particular member of our board or administration because I simply don't know if they are any good at their jobs outside of some basic metrics, which as an outsider can't be assessed as to causation or correlation. It seems most on here, me included, don't even know what their jobs are, but why not let's sack everyone?
Edit: I wanted Schwab gone, because I believed he had overstepped his remit.
It's perfectly valid that you are annoyed at the club. It's also reasonable of me to point out that certain parties unrelated to our club are taking advantage of that and stirring the pot, both on here and in the media, for their own gain. You may well desire sweeping changes at management level - and we can argue the benefits of that separately Gonzo - but do you really want to support them just because they share your message?
There are forces at work, paid and unrelated to the MFC, who are deliberately trying to tear our club apart. Some casual reading below if you want. The 'conspiracy' side of it from my end, is that these other clubs also endured some serious media heat at the time of their board challenges, which may well have been true, but could have also been manufactured by getting in ears or paying $$$. I see Phil Egan is now looking at a pretty lengthy prison stint for fraud.
I sent this quote to another Demonland member, because it really stood out: "Gowers' support team of communications experts and political operatives would employ methods unusual in football circles: tactics developed in the more progressive reaches of American politics."
If you were being paid millions of dollars to destabilise a club and had no morals in the Crosby Textor era, what would you do? I would probably get on the phone to Petracca and Pickett's grandmas as just a start. Oliver also seems an easy target perhaps? We can pay for your court cases, when the club said mean stuff about you.
The bigger conspiracy then, is trying to work out why certain people are waging multi-million dollar campaigns with dirty political tactics to secure an unpaid board seat on an AFL football club? I made the jump that it could be about construction contracts. Just a hunch, so no idea if true. If someone wants to pay me for a few days work, I'm pretty sure I could dig up some links between those incoming board members and future commercial contracts.
I respect the likes of you and @Adam The God. I'm asking you both to look past your issues with the club to just assess for one second what may be going on here. Just to reiterate, I have never supported any particular member of our board. I posted apprehension about Pert's appointment at the time. I live on the other side of the world. I very evidently have no chips in this game, as compared to some others on here.
https://hawksforchange.org/ (if you ran this through a plagiarism checker against the Deemocracy site there would be some serious flags).
https://www.richmondfc.com.au/news/324165/peggy-oneal-statement (Former Hawthorn Football Club director Richard Amos officially on the record as driving the 'Focus On Footy' campaign.
https://www.royce.com.au/pages/our-people (interesting for a sniff around about who else works/has worked at the company, who owns it, and their involvement in state politics).
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/proud-passionate-and-paid-up--how-hawthorn-fans-saved-their-club-20160804-gqkthw.html (cutting his teeth? I was too busy adventuring at the time, others may remember more and some stuff about the media framing since . . .)
https://thestory.au/articles/hawthorn-football-club-afl-jeff-kennett-president-andy-gowers/ (for the above-mentioned quote. I can dig up some more media reading if anyone wants?).
The bloke you're agreeing with even has a pun in is username. I will answer every question asked as to who I am. He continually refuses to do so. You really want to back in this stranger to our forum because you want some people sacked at our club? Or will you take heed from someone who has a ten-year posting history on here, has never been involved in the politics of our club, and can get real-life good-guy vouching from other members?
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It's time for Tim Lamb to go. Can't even be trusted to get on the phones to shop Clarry around, so the CEO had to step in.
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Open Letter to the MFC
in Melbourne Demons
I love these supporter-driven revolutions. Viva la MFC!
Of course there is nothing remotely similar in the wording and tactics of those challenging at the aforementioned clubs and ours:
https://hawksforchange.org/
https://deemocracy.com/
https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/focus-on-footy-withdraws-bid-to-overthrow-richmond-board/news-story/c452c66030e7215a36388c503d09031e
https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/board-challenge-gets-collingwood-s-members-list-without-emails-and-phone-numbers-20210907-p58pof.html
Meanwhile, Carlton hasn't gone close to a flag in more than two decades, and let's all agree that Essendon hasn't been best served by member revolt and external consultants.
Richmond withstood the ructions and picked up three flags, while the Pies have been the only club to have bucked the recent trend as to stability and found some success.
But yes, let's burn the house down.