bush demon

Good to see some passion, Tonatopia but no, no, no. Who is to say these four horsemen of the apocalypse (Sheedy, Matthews, Roos*, Malthouse) would have been any different. It's not all about the coach. The club seems to have a deeper malaise which is around loss of purpose in the national competition. let's just hope it's like the lawnmower which won't start after six goes (previous dud seasons, i've lost count) but sputters to life on the 7th. don't forget other clubs are facing big issues in the national comp. and we just have to get lucky with recruiting. bringing in mitch clark and hopefully another big marking forward may make all the difference. * to make it add up to four.

Because we are at the bottom of the ladder, Demonland periodically sponsors a 'pick on a draft pick' thread to tear down our young players. As stated many times, many clubs passed on Jack Darling, it is not a demon disease. We picked two marking forwards, howe and cooke. Howe is Harte-like, Cooke not yet there. Anyone who has watched Cooke at Casey knows he is by no means a lost cause. He has bulked up, just not getting the pill enough yet. he is certainly not on his own as an under-achieved player on the demons' list this year.

Saw Ray and family tonight, they are all pulling together, Ray has surgery on Monday. All chuffed to see such great support from Demonlanders community, thanks everyone. So impressed with Alfred Hospital stuff happening everywhere, dedication to the cause on display everywhere. Ray in good spirits, best wishes to Steph and see you again soon. BD

What if we went zip-10 under Rats, culminating in a 100 point defeat at the Metronome Fortress? Would Ratten then tell us that a few players needed to get on the reality xylophone?

Mick no doubt has the runs on the board. But I feel he is too consumed with the circumstances of his leaving Collingwood and in proving a point, and this will always be a negative for the navy blues. The fallout on two great clubs will be great, maybe similar to what happened to our club way back when. How the mighty fall. http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/last-supper-came-early-for-ratten-20120829-250i1.html

Thanks GSmith, Ray is not an old man but he has worked hard all his life and the most passionate demons man you would ever see.

My old schooldays and MFC mate Ray is now fighting his biggest fight at the Alfred Hospital. In childhood, we would slip off from Springvale Under 12's football games and catch the train to Richmond to see our beloved Demons play. Saturday nights we would go play pool at Rockys, or kick the football down at the park. They were the days. Hang in there mate, I am coming up to Melbourne tomorrow night to see you. Love from BushDemon.

to come out with obvious platitudes like that means jt is just not on the reality bus. our reality check is now 47 years old last time i checked.

Carlton thinks they can buy a premiership by sacking a contracted coach and enthroning Malthouse as to restore the blues' fortunes. This trick has already been tried - with Dennis Pagan - and there is no reason to believe that Malthouse can bring Carlton a premiership. He was a long time at Collingwood before he got lucky. Carlton's culture has been to buy flags but the lack of loyalty in this case will rebound on them.

i wouldn't say the tigers are a lock for the opportunity to play in finals. they have the worst record in the league over the last thirty plus years in terms of finals appearances. ours is much better.

I admire what Neeld and his group are trying to do, and Neeld's forthright manner and approach. I am probably in a minority on this site in that I have seen many many re-builds or so called re-builds and the hype, to quote led zeppelin, remains the same. hell, even norm smith had a re-build at the start of 1966 which ushered in the likes of dowsing, rowland, stone, jungwirth someone else whose history is better can fill in the details or corrections. i got my reminder and thanks for being a long distance member yesterday, timely, because our membership will drop to 32,500 next year and i am not a glass half full person otherwise i wouldn't have done the journey this far. i am just stating facts. given that gws and gcfc are dosed up on steroids and afl mega dollars, their position below us is just an accident of history. we are in fact by far the worst team in the competition and unless some as yet unexplained phenomena takes place over summer next year is going to be pretty hard to take. edit: just remembered another 're-build' player from 1966: Syd Catlin. In summary: mid 60's rebuild: dowsing, rowland, stone, jungwirth, catlin, vearing. George Lakes 1970's rebuild: Ditterich/ Tilbrook/ Molloy 1980 rebuild: Moore, Templeton mid 80's rebuild: Jarrot, Icke, Wilson. late 80' s rebuild: (some success) Johnson, Stretch, spalding, Wight, Lovett, Lyon.

A number of clubs are now well and truly out of the premiership loop. Each year the habit of non-success grows worse. It's not just Melbourne, Footscray and StKilda. Richmond started the habit in the early 80's, and unimaginably teams like Carlton and Essendon have won one premiership between them since the mid-1990's. If Melbourne gets back into the habit of winning games I believe it will be a miracle. The competition is rapidly morphing into a super competition and we are being edged out of it. Like Carlton, the summer off-season and the draft are looming as our last and best chance to fight our way back into a respected position, let alone think of premierships.

I think the reason they allow this loophole is to market-test who still wants to read HS articles despite the paywall.

I have been steeped in this Scully story ever since the news that we had drafted him, through to his first fluffy kicks, through to Stan Alves and Mark Maclure on ABC opining that he would be a gun, through to him being touted as the saviour of our club, and through to the trickle of rumours that he was "gone". Through to looking up his 'clanger' and possession count for GWS games. I now honestly believe that it is time to let the issue go. Too long has the club been steeped in this victim mentality. After all, our greatest son walked out on our club with a premiership trophy and best and fairest medallion around his neck for $$$ at Carlton knowing that they would spend money to buy premierships. Today we revere RDB and rightly so. Scully was inaccurately rated as the No.1 draft recruit, not the first time this has happened. As a young elite sportsman he has played the system to his advantage. who wouldn't take that ridiculous amount of money?The fallout is that we got draft compensation and the opportunity to recruit a gun forward so the club will not really be losers in the long run.

Big Jack Fitzpatrick reminds me very much of Big Bob Johnson. What a great snap for goal he is. Think he is very much in the mix for 3rd tall on the forward line for '13.

He was on Marngrook on Thursday night. He was given wraps by Ronnie Burns for the work he has done with young players back home. Looked fit, and they said he looked fit. Wona said he had been training hard and hadn't given up hope of being re-drafted into the AFL. Great to see him on the show.

A lot of this is spurious, because it's really all about "team" and "buy in". Melbourne went 8 zip with an average list in the season (1965) after Barassi left us but we kept winning because the aura of winning freaked out other teams. Players like Jamar and Davey (as a backpocket sweeper) would grew a leg like the second half of '87. All it takes is for the leading player group to gell and sell the message. Every great team has several players not quite elite but are swept up in the passion of the cause. I think we are not too far off, and look forward (again) optimistically to the new season. ps i think we will give adelaide a good shake on the w/e, as they have got ahead of themselves.

Ross dillon and Greg parke and peter collcott

Trevor Barker would be far and away the finest exponent of high-marking in the video era of AFL/VFL. Jeremy Howe may well challenge him in time, if his sublime 2012 is any indication.

He will Go To Sydney West, and the commentary will run thus: Scully sprays the ball and Cloke doesn't mark it.

In 1965 I wore my Melbourne jumper (pictured) around the UK. What if I had stayed in Australia, and Ron Barassi had taken over the coaching role in 1965, Big Bob Johnson returned to play for Melbourne instead of Perth, and Melbourne had remained a power in the league and now had 75,000 members?

What if Simon Eishold hadn't shanked it.

Goes totally against the Neeld doctrine, and would set us back a season or more if it was even thunk we would tank or give our last game the heave-ho.

These discussions are reminiscent of primary school swap cards. As if these players would up and walk across to the MFC just because a poster of an unofficial supporter site raises their personal bid. As Austin Powers would say, "I'd like a gold-plated toilet seat, but it just ain't going to happen".

They did beat us this year, comfortably. But their drop-off from 2010 against us at Etihad has been stark. I went to both games and we definitely showed more resolve this year, and they don't have the same slick ball movement as they used to. At the G we would beat them. If we defeat Adelaide on Saturday we will most likely go above them, which would not be a bad ending to the season, and something to aim for.