DV8

Yes. But that camp isn't about fitness. Its all about mental toughness, to show the club which players have more mental toughness to withstand anything thrown at them. This is how Bellamy works out which of his players he can rely on to get the job done, whilst the rest, he then knows more about, and how to get the right training for them to improve. Its also about building 'a comraderie' of not letting one another down under intense pressure. Its these things that Melbourne traditionally are poorest at. And so its no wonder that some of the players turned up their noses. That's its too hard. They don't like it. Its not about the paycheck, its not about the players, its about this club, its about winning, its about Premierships. The players are only the servants. They should get perspective that they are not the game itself. Guess what, they don't hand over Premiership Cups on a silver platter, to my knowledge. .

We are at our best when the whole club (and supporters) remains nervous about all games. Its 'when we feel comfortable', that's when we fall, fail, become soft losers. We can never afford 'that comfortable feeling', in any 2 horse race.

Its as if supporters are waiting to win one, & then win the next one, and when that occurs, 'It's as though, 'Here we go', 'Here we go', 'Here we go'. 'We're on a roll now to finals'. This IS the epitome of the front runner. Who cracks under real pressure.

We're not mentally strong collectively, in any comparison with the mean AFL average. We lost games by points, we lost games & momentum when we played injured players who should have been rested longer, & some went on holidays mid season up north to overcome an injury. came back no better. softness pervades the club. If we were mentally strong we would have won more of the close games & we would have allowed players enough time before coming back in, thus trusting our list players to do the job, whilst injured players recovered. Becoming mentally tougher is an ongoing process, that needs refreshing often. year by year. You don't acquire that by refusing to go on a time trial, or refusing to do some iron man type camp. We've got a long way to go before we can goo ALL the way. .

In any AFL campaign, Expect injuries; all clubs will get them in Pre and Main seasons. If your not copping injuries, your not playing hard enough. Its part and parcel of what you get in physical contact sport. Trying to avoid injuries is an easy way to exit the competition early. Injuries aren't our downfall, lack of courage is one of the main issues. 'Playing Safe', instead of taking the game on and backing ourselves against the best of them, is the only way forward. Don't worry about umpires, of knocks, bruises, or even broken bones. They will occur, sometimes, or even often. But its all part of an AFL season and we cannot waste our focus on these negatives. We cannot take our eyes off the ball and our goals..

I hope 'that old tail' is not still furiously wagging. If it is, it needs to be docked off.

Spot on Layzie. And he's (malthouse), countering that bloody Cornes, who is running that bath, for us all to lap up in.

I'm referring more-so to the Hawks machine of many decades, & really the Swans as well, since Barassi went up there, with the likes of Paul Kelly, Lockett, Roos, Kirk, Goodes, Bolton, etc. All leaders of their era in the AFL. All winners, all stars for the right reasons. All courage and guts. Never say die. this is what we lack, to keep the arrogance & the pitfalls at bay. Our stars all fell to the same pitfalls, and really did not get the chance to learn the ways of the really successful clubs. So our stars cannot really advise as all fell to the soft footy ways within the club. Gerard Healey did learn the wayz. We do not have ONE Luke Hodge to call on, nor one Sam Mitchell, no Brett Kirks. Ours have not measured up, since one Flower.

Even Northey's boys, ended up with this trait, which ended up being titled 'Hollywood Boulevard'. Ever wonder how the teams that Balme'y had control of, under produced. Star-studded,,, but mentally weak teams. We had big names, who would star when it didn't count. And after that period, that same attitude prevailed, even under the new incoming coach. We got to finals, but never really were serious contenders; even in GrandFinals, where we were just toyed with, in the serious stuff.

Its in the walls, its in the fabric, its in our songs words, its everywhere, in all areas of this club. Like spores, hard to sterilize them. Coaches come and go, and that makes it hard to control this infection. With us its like athletes foot, the spores are always around. In the old days we had ruthless hard coaches who were aware of the little psyche things, that creep in. In the NRL the Broncos have Wayne Bennett. one wise old hand, and always gets the most from his players, just like Kanga Kennedy did with his. We have this 'elite thing', going on around the club, and this is the relentless 'open-window', to the selfish play that creeps around this club. This is where the arrogance starts from and takes hold, because arrogance can be like a drug of addiction.

He doesn't mean just 'arrogance'. 'Playing safe', is something bathwater drinkers, do, do. Not putting in the hard work & courage, when the chips are up in the air, is a part of bathwater-bloated failure. Fear of failure, and playing the 'safe options', is a habit of this club, traditionally a habit, since at least the late 70's. And it's a losing habit. a painful habit, and a supporter-killing habit. a membership killer. a club killer. It is all those things and we've done it well for nigh on 45 years now. We are the winners of playing safe in the league. The world record holders of that game, play-safe.

since? before that era. At least for 25 years now, and counting.

We lack quality past leaders, 'who were winners of the competition'. Leading in the rooms after games. Not letting the current players get ahead of themselves. We should outlaw backslapping our players from prior to Rnd 1. No backslappers allowed around the club after games, win or lose. Backslapping is great for overheated Ego's, and plenty of disappointments.

It showed out in the Casey game during the first Qtr with the howling gale. The pressure on our ball winner was 'hot', and we started to cough the ball up all the time. Like it was a fur-ball. The other clubs cottoned on, piling on the pressure on our mids. Its been downhill skiing, since that game. Melbourne sides Never;;; never seem to have enough strength & guts in the midfield's traditionally.. that's where you want your 'tough mothers', going in hard. Our Mens team better not be like this this 2018. Like past Melbourne midfield's of the past 25 years.

You make your own luck. Get in first, head down and you will win many frees. Get to the contest second, there is a good chance you will infringe. We make our own luck being timid & conservative attacking the footy & player. So we make bad luck, 'old chap', as that saying goes. I would rather give away a free from being aggressive at the play, rather that being timid and indecisive with the footy. Be aggressive at all times in the game, even in the last 2 to 3 minutes. We had plenty of ball & opportunity, but we wasted the ball, time and again, in the first half.

I can't understand how they've been saying how great our midfield is.? It's how we lost over the past few weeks. Fragile under pressure. Poor hands in close, under pump. We are too nice, when tackling, generally speaking. They have to be told to get physical at Qtr time? They should have been the mongrels in the game, from the first siren. Not told to be at the 1st Qtr time address. We have the wrong type leader Yet again, to drive the physical meanness that winning Big Finals matches require.

And we seem to stand off the opposition when they are first to the ball, don't stand back and put a hand in the air. Keep running in, as the opposition is just collecting the ball, run in and bump, make them spill the bloody thing. Don't wait for them to dispose of the ball as we stand with one hand in the air, guarding them like Netballers. Ball on ground hesitant to decide whether to attempt to pick the ball up on the run or just kick it along the ground. When in defence and we don't have support, kick it along the ground, closer to boundary, when one-out. Don't try to pick it up if you are a tall surrounded by 3 opponents. Just keep the ball moving away from the opponents. soccer it. If we are forward, then try to get the ball to advantage.

This is it exactly. If garland gave the message to the girls to start slowing back on offence; I want him sacked immediately. This is typical Melbourne of taking no chances. And drop off the offensive pressure. We cannot affords this attitude to reemerge within our club after all the rebuilding. Any wonder whenever we get a lead, we never bury sides. We play the conservative insurance, 'do no damage' game. Its 'bullsh'. A sure way to backfire and lose, which is what I thought as soon as that girl started waving her arms to slow it up. We lost this game after we were holding the momentum against the bloody wind, & then we 'surrendered the momentum', back to the Doggies. We simply did not deserve to win this game with the lack of fortitude we used, to play winning footy. The doggies played the better style of footy around the contests and packs getting clean ball to teammates who tried to move the footy forward in a positive manner. I feel like we were out-coached by the Dogs who used a simpler method of footy.

I don't like the game setup at all. I prefer Daisy Pearce on the wing or back flank where she can use better vision and space to direct the ship, eg: Hodge. Pearce dcxaqn come at the footy from outside the square, receiving and using the footy to good effect. Wasted as a first touch in-under type player. I like Paxman R/R in the midfield setup. We lack physicality in the crunches, physical power to stand up under tackling pressure or bumps with ball in hand, & we lack poise with the ball, inside the contest. The girls around the boundary appear to need to ask for permission, before they try to do something, after marking the bloody ball??? PLAY on!!! Create some bloody movement into our play. stuff this static type footy from Melbourne !!! Break up the play with carrying the 'effing' footy. The players forward our our ball carrier can move according to the direction of carrier. If you have space to move with the footy, USE IT !!! The girls are already playing the same useless Melbourne style of ball use, as we've done for decades. No wonder these girls are hesitant to make a decision with the ball. And lose their confidence with the team. It appears we try to play a clean cut skilled style, which comes unstuck under pressure. Just give the first option, and move the 'effing' ball; and keep it moving. Keeping the opposition playing mental catch-up. I reckon we will have some players wanting to move on with the introverted style of offence we tend to lapse into. What is it with this club, that we all seem to go into a conservative mindset with the bloody footy in hand.

Yep drink bathwater, then speak with shiddy breath. That's what used bathwater is good for. Pre-Tenders love their own bathwater. Winners just make their actions do the talking, for them.

Gill's talking up our membership department. Thats all Gill's doing, apart from talking carp.

Hey Cassiew. If THEY want to make a retro jumper for fans to buy and wear. Why not something along these lines. Maybe some 'slight' adjustment, to the colours, but only slight. So a lace up Jumper to wear to warm games,,, and also in a Vest form to wear over other clothing and under that plaid jacket. Reversible clothing, dress down on one side, & dress up a little on the other side with pull up collar.

Late start to preseason, needs the fitness work, and touch? I would not play him Rnd 1 anyhow. I'd give him the extra week to get it right & to get more fitness base. We need him running from CHF and following, we need him in the packs & in the ruck. Lets not risk him aggravating a tender injury on his foot in Rnd 1.. give him the extra week, hopefully that will be enough. If he makes the injury worse, he could end up be out again for 5 weeks. Even if we lose in Rnd 1, we can keep it to a minimum, & be ready for Rnd 2. Its a long season, and we have to go the distance, and we want to be ramping up in August, not so much in March.

Anything! that fires up our supporters, is great for us... as it also raises the hackles of our senior players. How much more motivation do we need to get angry 'for' the footy. So we are "soft", great; now lets open the show, and see our royal softness go royally hard.

The old jumpers around 60's, were very dark blue, in photos.