Demonised

'The first club will be No. 1 again' or 'Older than anyone. Better than anyone.' or simply 'We are Melbourne.'

I used to be sad when footy season was over. Not this time. The agony is over. I hope.

No, I'm Spartacus!

That's the one. I've had to have two bone grafts on my scaphoid after an undiagnosed break a long time ago (footy related). I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

MUST take good care of a scaphoid. It's potentially a very nasty injury. Didn't it end Sean Charles career? And didn't it hasten Gerard Healey's retirement. Good luck, Brad.

I like the one that's navy blue with a red yoke.

I, for one, think it may be too early to talk about back to back premierships just yet.

"aerial ping-pong"? Must be a Sydney news report ...

Got to agree with Ho Chi Dee. It's a common mistake to think that spelling and pronunciation are always linked. Try 'knife' and 'pneumatic' for starters (a little linguistic joke there for you all). Assuming that looking at the spelling of a word tells you how to say it results in things like people adding an extra syllable at the end of 'temporary' and 'ceremony' or pronouncing the 't' at the end of 'trait'. The science of pronunciation is called orthoepy and it is a complex and thorny area. What makes it harder is that pronunciation in English is an evolutionary thing. We can be sure that we'll be prouncing words differently in a hundred years time ...

Agreed. I'm currently gearing up for my 45th season with the Dees and I'm champing at the bit. It's been a long, tough pre-season but now the excitement has set in. After all, we haven't lost a game so far ...

Interesting question. On the cover, it doesn't actually say what it is. Just MebourneFC and 'Bringing Back the Demon'. Inside, though, each page has a header and it's there that it's called 'Season Guide 2009'.

My 2009 Season Guide just arrived. Looks good. I like the A4 size, and the detailed player portraits with interesting 'Dean Bailey Says' comments for every player. A moving tribute to Tiger Ridley is a feature, too.

Flanagan is one of the best journalists/writers in the country, bar none. His soul is in the right place - he loves the games and its traditions. He's a good man to have on our side; can only do good in the long run.

I renewed last week (via TicketTek) after I got the e-mail. Then I got the glossy brochure this week. Could have saved themselves the postage ...

Jimmy, I always knew you were the best.

I hate the pretend choice. There is no third option ('neither'), so the result is meaningless - but will be presented as 'the jumper you wanted'. Our heritage is sold down the river as soon as we include white on the jumper. 'Every heart beats true for the red and the blue and the white.' I don't think so.

How well do they understand footy? Look at the first sentence: 'Perhaps no other institution in Melbourne both galvanises and polarises the passions as much as AFL.' The code is not 'AFL', it's Australian Football - or Australian Rules Football. The governing body is 'the AFL', true, but to my mind calling the game 'AFL' is a real sign of know-nothings, or New South Welshmen ...

Let's leverage the 'Melbourne' name. Or is that 'Brand' in todayspeak? An alliance/arrangement with the Melbourne City Council. We are the club of the city, after all. I'd love to see Melbourne Town Hall decked out with the Red and Blue, selling Demon merchandise. What about the Zoo? MFC membership gets you free entry into Melbourne Zoo? Likewise Melbourne Museum. Anything we can do to link Melbourne with the MFC must be good. What's our brand? The city is our brand!

Some atrocious centre bounces, too. I counted at least three crooked mongrel bounces that landed in the lap of a Hawk player. Two of them went straight forward for goals. Infuriating.

Wasn't as bad as last week, is all I can say. You know how when you first sit down in the outer and scope the neighbourhood, trying to size up the annoyancequotient of those around you and you spot some guy who you know is going to give you the absolute irrits all afternoon? Today, sat down, quick scope, didn't look too bad, but found after five minutes that I was surrounded by uber-irritating Carlton nongs. Made my life a misery and to top it all off they got to sing that horrible dirge of a song of theirs. Come on Demons. Cheer me up and win a game.

Was there, MCC with daughter. Melbourne players are the Kings of Fumbletown. When we did get the ball, no one made position for the kicker. Disaster ensued. Umpires. Don't get me started.

Top stuff. Facts instead of opinions. Evidence rather than supposition. Information rather than disinformation. Deserves to be in the mainstream media. Walkley Award material.

It's not just the Brockster who has to learn to deal with a tag, it's the whole team. Remember how West Coast helped Kerr, Judd etc by a third or fourth player applying a block, providing fake leads etc? This is a key to freeing top players - a whole team approach.

4 questions: 1. Why do we need a third colour? 2. Why didn't the advisory panel survey have 'red and blue' as an option? 3. Had silver/white already been chosen as part of away strip by the powers that be? 4. What are our colours again?

One of the questions in the survey was very badly constructed. In asking about a possible third colour for the Away Strip, there was no option for 'None of the Above'. I was forced to select one and I DIDN'T WANT TO! Red and blue are our colours, not Red, Blue and Teal, or Red, Blue and Yellow. What are we, some Johnny Come Lately made up team? We're the oldest club in the land -don't mess about with us!