bush demon

Whateley demonstrates in an unbiased article how deeply entrenched our problems are. There is a slide on, and all the club can waffle on about is elite mindsets. We have a winning run against Essendon but all Neeld talks about is kpi's and elite mindsets. the players, the coaches the whole club is in denial. this thing about re-build is a total furphy, we are a club that is now permanently rebuilding supported in the short term by the AFL's largesse. Watts wrong with Melbourne? Here's a good place to start, writes Gerard Whateley PS: Good to at least see Jack Trengove front up against Port Adelaide.

That's what i don't like about Garry Lyons' media role. Happy to air this scuttlebutt whilst playing kingmaker in his spare time.

Hey was that v North at Arden St? My first trek out there and we were up 7 goals to nil before we got into the ground.

Parents one day brought some Ron Barassi boots to me at my primary school. These boots are padded to protect the ankle bone, and have 'Ron Barassii' signed on them. Wow, i wore them everywhere, even through the lino corridors. Around this time i also got a melbourne jumper (pictured). When television came to the bush in the early 60's ronnie was all over it and melbourne were the reigining power, so it was an easy choice. We took off for overseas at the end of '64 and by the time we returned to oz the dream had evaporated and melbourne was now a useless team with a huge turnover of new players. melbourne in 1966 couldn't kick a goal. there were a host of new names like rattray, vearing, dowsing, leary and jungwirth. in '66 and '67 it was speculated (mostly by lou on world of sport) that melbourne would soon rise up the ladder again. his prophecy seemed to be coming true as our bad start to '66 turned into a promising '67 where we would win very close games against good teams, or lose very close games against good teams. alas this fell apart and we dropped down again with norm smith having to resign through ill health. ian ridley came in as coach in 1971 and there was a definite buzz around the club and we kicked cricket scores first half of the season and rose to the top of the ladder. got mauled mid-season by a rampant collingwood with len thompson dominating. from there we fell apart. some excitement with the ray biffen, greg parke, ross dillon teams but all beer and no breakfast. 1976 we had a fantastic finish, even beating collingwood last game. (my first visit to victoria park, and the first time we had beaten collwd for over ten years). Alas it all fell apart. big carl came in late 70's and led from the front with some inspiring play. 1981 was the return of the messiah only he didn't have the foreign legion of players he had enjoyed at north and his style of coaching was no longer effective. enter john northey mid '80's and out of the blue in 1987 he had the demons winning everything. a truly fairytale year and the best first two finals you could ever wish to see. the 1987-91 era promised much with us winning more and mmore home and away games each year but each year we had telling fade outs which gave us poor finals positions so we were usually burnt out. the last piece of true magic was the david schwartz era (1994) and the jeff farmer era (2000) when we played with a thrilling brand of football. in this century we have slowly fizzzled out to the point where i accept there really is no hope against the teams which have amassed supporters, money, fixturing, ground advantages and sponsorship advantages. sorry i !got a bit off topic here!

If they bang on a quick five goals (and Jack Watts takes a screaming pack mark) while you are on the freeway does that mean you have to head back?

Yes, yes and yes, seven days of the week. Clark on, Neeld off. It's the tail wagging the dog.

The stuff about we're 15% off elite fitness levels and the spiel about learning game structures is just so much nonsense. We are in a negative feedback loop and each year of failure makes it one year harder to get back. We are not getting closer to success we are getting further away from it. Gazza needs to do an Eddie and stop wanting to be the likeable funnyman on television. If he won't do this, he needs to let some outside-the-club energy re-energise the club. Just like Barassi did with Carlton and North. Would either of those clubs have revived and won multiple premierships without his drive? Maybe but by no means a certainty. The AFL's equalisation means we are being artificially kept alive. the players know this, everyone knows this. Without equalisation we may have gone to the wall, we may also have drawn upon the desperation of the supporters and the real soul of the club to find an answer. The draft and salary caps are killing us with kindness.

The Melbourne players are on similar money to teams that try. They are journeymen by definition, and that's before you get started on the journeymen who just arrived at the club.

1966. Bobby Moore captaining England to the World Cup victory over Germany. 1968. Fabulous silver medal to Peter Norman at Mexico Olympics. Early 70's gutsy finals action by Melbourne look-alikes, Dandenong, esp Frosty Miller and paddy Flaherty. 1970. Muhammed Ali's courageous comeback win over Jerry Quarry. 1971. Underdogs Sunderland defeat Leeds United with wonder goal by Ian Porterfield. 1970's. aus cricket team under Ian Chappell. Shane Gould. 1971 piping Lane. Early 80's Kim Hughes smashing century against West Indies pace attack. Kieran Perkins gold medal, lane eight. Steve Waugh. Cathy Freeman 2000 Olympics. Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting, World Cup legends. Aus soccer team qualifying for World Cup finals. 2005 Liverpool coming back from 3 nil down, v Barcelona in Istanbul. Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield. George Foreman reclaiming heavyweight crown at age 45.. Getting tired now.

That's not strictly true. 1971 we were top of the ladder or thereabouts for half a season, finished mid-table. Early 70's had some gutsy teams, better than their ladder position. 1976 we should have made the finals, playing like '87. Late 70's some grunt with Big Carl. The Dennis Jones period around 1977-8 was the low point.

1973 not that brilliant either. 10th out of 12. At least Biff, Greg Wells, Stan Alves, Denis Clarke, Ross Dillon and co gave some hope.

1983 wasn't that flash, either. Third year of Barass re-build, from memory.

1993 wasn't that flash, either.

THere is absolutely no doubt that some kind of 'Melbourne United' will be cooked up in the not too distant future, with about five games on the G, and the rest of the home games on some kind of boutique stadium out of Princes Park or The Dockland Demons.

Never adapted to the trend towards professionalism in the '60's when our rivals starting purchasing premierships with moneyballs and unheralded TV coverage wiped the feats and memories of our pre-media days. What idiot condoned Barassi's clearance for 18,000 quid, anyway. That's right, Norm Smith. Just to think, in the year of our last flag we had 12 flags from 26 finals appearances and had won 10 flags in the preceding 25 years, only to be followed by decades of abject surrender. I have travelled to the G every decade since those times and it's the same old, same old. Seen all our hopes come and fade, season by season. So many new brooms, so much crrrrrrrrappp on the tiles.

We are either tanking or the AFL has got us shackled to the bottom of the pool.

To paraphrase JFK, post Dealey Plaza, "I didn't see that coming either".

I don't get the 85% fit bit. What about new recruits, or players from other clubs. Are they all one/two years off the pace as well. It's part of the culture that says give up on winning games because we will win them in the future.

You mean Greg? Gerard made his mind up about the demons a long time ago.

Which of you guys wouldn't take the stupendous money on offer in his position? Left out of this discussion is the role of KS who has wasted a big pile of GWS's shopping money just to exact some kind of payback on Melbourne for not appointing him coach.

If you can't have a scull on the Wino, have a sip on the viney down past the 'grove.

The clash strip dilutes the brand and the point of difference of teams such as ours. it's like the afl has ordered us to wear surrender jumpers whenever we are not the home team.

Not his family, anyway.

He is definitely opinionated but was a great player.