Cards13

I think we have to be realistic at the same time, as we are in a very bad way in a number of areas.

- Members

- Revenue streams

- Lack of profits over the last 10 years

- Huge turn over of staff in out football dept over the last 12 months - 2 years. I understand Harris got rid of most of the staff even the staff he brought onboard ended up leaving too.

But it annoyed me the we had an awesome opportunity to plug an appointment that Gary had raised as one of our issues in the paper and he was just disinterested in it.

My take on it is they have the profiel to push us as a club to the people, they tend to use it to not plug us at all or in a negative light. We all know we are on the knifes edge but I'd like to hear them use the audience they have with the public to give positive comments about us.

It sh!ts me to see these opportunites wasted when they are comfortable to offer a negative veiw of us.

Very disappointing. it's is all good and well for Gary to get stuck into us in the paper saying we are going nowhere, yet he has a perfect chance to give us a massive plug and he gave nothing...

I would have thought as well with all of what is going on at Melb (new coaching pannel, new ceo, 150th season) they (read Gary) might have tried to get Nieta on the Footy Show to pump us up for round one... again nothing.

if you're going to come out and slam us then provide some drive and some solutions Gary. FFS stop sitting on the fence and trying to be Mr in the middle for your tv career, now is when we need the likes of you and David Schwartz who are high profile and in the media to push our barrow. As everyone keeps saying Eddie would...

end rant

I'm getting bloody fired up finks!!! Might have to have a few bevvies on the day before kick-off to cool my ardour

I'm getting very excited to say the least. It has been a long long preseason for the MFC but always easily encouraged by Nieta and Brucey's words in the paper over the last week. BRING IT ON!!!!

(wandering the office muttering to himself.. it's a grand old... the team we love.... keep your eye on.... red and the blue!)

Bruce will actually kick straight this year

1) Dees to start the season slowly before coming home like a train winning our round 22 match by 89 points to scrape into the 8 of % over Collingwood.

2) Once in the finals we then proceed to the Prelim with ease before coming up against a red hot Brisbane side, TJ kicks 3 we loose by 8 points.

3) YZE_Magic makes a run at the Demons Presidency after PG does not reapply for the role. On the back of his verbose, slightly off centre all about me campaign he scrapes in by 3 votes and MFC never looks back.

gee wiz all sounds very promising for the long term. Will be intruiged to see if he can get the players or we have the players that can implement his ball speed game plan towards the later part of the season. Hoping that will be the case and myabe we can slip into the 8.

It is nice to get the information on the initial practice matches and player availabilty.

I'm liking the way BD is going about thigns and obviouslt the players have taken it onboard with the playing group finally trying to take responsibitly for dishing out punishements for indiscretions.

Ingo and A Mac looking to get past players up is great to hear. I played footy against A Mc 2 yeras ago and gee wiz he is still very very fit.

bring on round one I'm jumping out of my skin now to see us run out!!!!!

Despite the fact that the 1987 Prelim still ranks as one of the most horrific moments of my life (yes, possibly life hasn't been too bad), I've really enjoyed reading everyone's posts on the subject. I'm the first to admit I don't have the greatest strategic football brain, but I feel I have a fair grasp of the theatre and emotions associated with our great game and club. Reading your thoughts has rekindled some old emotions, and really some of my earliest football memories. I doubt anyone could script a crueller football match, I really do. A team's first finals series in 23 years, a champion in his first finals series with a chance to finish a storied career in a Grand Final and possibly a premiership, premiership hope snuffed out not in the dying seconds, but after the team was in front at the final siren. You just couldn't have a more painful game. I've tried to take consolation over the years in the thought that we spent our petrol against Hawthorn and would have come up short against Carlton the next week. That's probably right. But for the boy who sat at VFL Park on that grey day and cried by his shattered father's side after the final siren, there has been little consolation in that defeat then or since. Perhaps had the game not ended in such tragic circumstances, Jim Stynes would never have started his foundation and been able to touch so many lives for the better.

Thanks again for your comments. I know the preseason has been rotten thus far and I've offered no comment during the last few weeks, but stick by your team this season, folks, regardless of whether we're 2-20 or riding an emotional crest in our 150th year on our way to the top 4.

Don't forget loosing our best forward in the last home and away round to a broken leg.... it was just such an amazing effort to get the Prelim and almost make the grannie. Eshold (spell) how the fark did he miss that goal!?

I don't disagree with his punishment, all I'm saying he has been punished move on, don't cry out for him to be traded, that he is no good, he has broken the rules been punished now lets see what he shows over the next 25 weeks and judge him them. I will bet that if he comes out in round 2 and plays a blinda people on this site will be calling him a superstar and how good is he. We are very quick to judged someone and even quicker to change our opinion. I also agree that you shouldn't take the [censored] out of your employer but how many 18-23 yo's have done this. These players are no different from any one except the get paid well. They are still young men that make mistakes.

I think we all agree with all of that, well accept the people who want him traded (ridiculous), but they know the life they are joining. And as one poster mentioned if you’re getting a 6 figure income more is expected of you in every organisation, more time, more effort, higher results. It goes with the territory and a higher level of scrutiny.

But agree with you on the 'he's been punished, lets see how he responds' line.

Hey a positive is at least we are not bloody West Coast with there culture.

Most posters have been on this kids back for years, I don't blame him for getting on it he has next week off then 22 weeks of the season. If you are going to have a night out Saturday night was it. Missing recovery is wrong especially for a bloke that has a history of OP, but give him a break he stuffed up now he is 5K lighter in the pocket and isn't playing round 1, he has been punished.

Everyone calling for him to be traded what for, what is the point trading someone with out knowing what you can get for them. At the moment you would be lucky to get an second round pick, he is better on our list then pick 25-40.

Dr D come on chief... if he wants to go out after games he can come play footy with me and my mates in the local leagues. The leaders of his club sat down and said be heading home by 1am a week before this. The off season had a couple of incidents for other players and he still didn't get it. Selfish is what I'd call it.

The club pays him to be a professional footballer. If you don't want to be one that is fine, get a job like the rest of us and you can go out and do what you want on the weekends, have a few beers during the week and all. But I still can't go out on a work night and get wasted and miss a work meeting the next day without getting my @rse reamed.

The calls for him to be traded are silly. How about we see how he responds first. 5 years, battled injury, if he is fitter than ever then this is his year to show it.

I think the overall issue is the clear selfishness of our players, in the 1am curfew announcement the partying issues go back to last season as Nieta pointed out, after Danners was given the flick there was an issue with how the players commiserated his sacking. So it goes back a way and needs to change for us to get anywhere.

aahhh I was ten and still have vague recollections of the Footscray game at the Whitten Oval. I was sitting on a fence in the forward pocket and remember how good it felt to make the finals after beating the doggies and having people left right and centre yelling out scores for the other game that was played that day that allowed us to make the finals.

The car ride back to Geelong on Prelim Final day after loosing to the Hawks was the worse ever. We'd (my old man and I) sat in the VFL members stand (my grandpa bought me a VFL/AFL membership for 20 years), we'd driven up from Geelong with two Hawks fans.... let me tell you it was a tough ride home for them. The old man turned the radio off as soon as we got in the car and we drove in silence all the way back to Geelong. They were jumping out there skin but couldn't enjoy it as the old man would have snotted them both and made them get there own way back to Geelong.

The two worst days I have seen though are the '88 and '00 grand final smashings. Much worse than the Prelim loss.

Swooper was fantastic at getting the side up week in week out, no one has been able to do it since.

Good to see Aussie and Dunn in and Weetra given another go..

I cannot believe grown men need a curfew. It doesn't wreak of professionalism, it wreaks of immaturity.

If you think 18-23 yr olds are grown men it's been awhile since you were that age. "Grown men" who have no responsibilites and bucket loads of cash = curfew needed to stay focused.

Will be interesting to see if Nieta is bouncing down Ackland st during the season at 1am after beers in St Kilda

"I was booked for a lot of stupid [censored] when I was young.... Drinking, speeding, indecent exposure etc...etc... but the difference between me and the small brain of Brock, is that I learnt from my mistakes and didn't have as much riding on them!! "

gee wizz I see a few incidents there, seemed like it took you a few goes to grow up.. you're right he is still a kid so lets relax and let him grow up for farks sake.

And as to the other incidents what were they? The burn out, fair enough silly ang along with the speeding has created a precedent they want to stop thus the suspension from leadership group. What other incidents? He did not get in to trouble from the club for whatever happened overseas so lets stop bring them up.

I'll get onto my match report later, but a few things;

Our backline was solid last night. The umpires crucified us at times. There were about 4 50m penalties which totally negated any influence Carroll, Miller, Warnock et al might have had. When they did get an opportunity to spoil, they did the job 8/10 times. On top of that, they worked the ball well out of defence MOST of the time. It was not flawless, by any stretch, but it was certainly good enough. The problems tended to come from our yet-again-stagnant forward line, who, apart from Bate, almost totally failed to provide any options up the ground. So we would clear the D50, then have nothing to kick to. The first half was good in this respect, but this was a very noticeable problem in the second.

Our ruck division is mildly concerning. Meesen and White are good contributors around the ground, and PJ has some deft skills for a man 2m tall, but it's the ruck contests that worry me. Jamar and White are able to compete, most of the time, without being dominant. Meesen is more of an athlete than a ruck battering ram, and his worth at the bounce is questionable. Jamar is the opposite, and is more or less MIA outside of the centre bounce. White, with his big leap, can still compete and be handy across the park, but he is well and truly into the twilight of his career.

How about Warnock and Weetra, how did they go Diablo? Weetra is certainly one I'd love to see step us this year.

I think we as supporters can tend to be very pessimistic but lets keep positive but also keep our expectations low for '08. Making the 8 will be a bonus for us this season I would think. So before we go bananas about loosing preseason games lets look at it as Bails and the new coaches getting a chance to look at the entire list, who can play and who can't, who will be given chances of bringing us wins this season and into our next phase because quite clearly this phase has passed us by with no premierships.

According to the report on Demonology from twodogs he dropped a few sitters in front of goal. Suggest he might spend a bit more time at Sandy before he gets back into the club's pyjama uniform.

hhhmmm you don't like to see an AFL player dropping sitters in front of goal! He needs to start stepping up.

How did Weetra play besides the goal? Have basically heard nothing of him since he was drafted

Brown 2-3 weeks

Nice review. Through the plastic beer goggles how'd Weetra look? Have heard virtually nothing of him since he was drafted.