praha

A star in a shocking team under zero pressure. Pressure gauge went up a notch after a finals year and the more experienced players buckled. Hard. 2020 is a changing of the guard.

Unsurprising he considered leaving. Unsurprising we offered him a one year contract. Let's be honest: this year is very much a "one last shot" for Jones. A legacy contract.

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2020/02/06/melbourne-outline-objective-of-to-hell-and-back-documentary/ What I get from that is around the preseason there will be symbolism about the club's broader issues/challenges/failures over time.

I wouldn't called reminding people we've been garbage for 50 years, after a 5-win season, "brilliant". It's like we're in bizarro Cameron Schwab land. Instead of focusing on the glory years of the 50s and 60s and forcing 19 year olds to wear club blazers, we're focusing on the trash years and releasing documentaries about them. I wonder if we'll get a Chalkboard Tuesdays next.

No one even really knows what the documentary is about but I agree that the timing isn't good. Comes off a bit patronising. I don't think the intent is to attract new members, this doco is exclusively for those already engaged with the club. I work in PR and corporate comms, it's one thing to reflect on down times but ultimately the best PR is when you can relay a victory. Everything else is reactive risk management. It just seems a tad tone deaf to me. My approach would have been a very strict focus on the pre season, looking forward. You should never make a branded effort to amplify poor performance in this way until you've got the uplift to quantify the changes and improvement. It's one thing to acknowledge poor performance during a press conference, in the moment when you're asked a question. It's another when you make a conscious effort to actually make poor performance a component of your brand management. The documentary might be really interesting for us diehards but it's still a rather poor PR move imo.

The bottleneck is only part of the problem. Forcing people to top up at only 2-3 machines, AND closing the gates when 90k people are all leaving at once is just stupid. Open the damn gates and let people going home ffs .

don't read too much into this stuff, old dee. at least it opens a discussion point on what we need to see from him in 2020. But I've long ignored player, coach and management interviews/press conferences because they're mostly PR fluff and newspeak. I recommend you do the same. I mean it's not like the kid is going to get in front of a camera and tell us he's no good and isn't up for it: of course he's going to say he needs to be consistent/hard at it/committed etc etc.

No. Cleveland Indians are at 60+ years. And a bunch of NFL teams are at 50+ years since they won anything, if anything. Tottenham hasn't won the league since 1960 I think. We're bad but we're not the worst. But we're thereabouts. Which basically sums up Melbourne's history. Maybe that should be our promo this year: "To hell and back...or thereabouts"

Don't forget Jakovich. But in Balme's defense he rarely had all of the aforementioned on the field at once. When he did we were unstoppable. Injuries and poor player management defined Balme's regime.

I don't remember the Northy years well as I was too young but that era comfortably topples the Daniher era. We were never really respected by the league, no one feared us in finals during Daniher's time. The Daniher era is looked upon through red and blue tinted glasses. Sure it was fun at times but it was a pretty average period. 10 years, 6 finals appearances, 2 Prelims and a GF reads well but the best of it was 1998 and 2000. After that we were nothing more than a making-up-the-numbers team. Yze, Bruce, Green should have all been traded after 2003 season. Should never have left Jolly waltz out and should have asked for A LOT more from the Thompson trade. IMO the latter Daniher years royally screwed the club for years by creating a top-heavy, downhill skiing side of decent players that once slowly broken up led to gapping holes across the team that plagued us, and created a chain reaction that ruined us for a decade. 1999 2001 and 2003 alone were putrid and Daniher in hindsight probably shouldn't have survived beyond 2003. I love Danners and there is no doubt he went all in later in his coaching career to try and steal us a flag but he sW something in the team that just wasn't really there. Northey created a feared, strong team. Daniher had a few in the team but ultimately we just sort of stayed in neutral of most of his career.

I'm....Ron Burgandy?

Yeah, Jones has been consistent alright lol

Jones gets a legacy vote, sure, but our best player? Just have been a slow decade. Its Gawn by a country mile.

Gambling. We stepped out this year, benefited from the feel good PR, and banked on being at least half decent to pull in the funds. Instead we were terrible, played away on Queens Birthday and Anzac Eve, and pulled on 30k to each of the corresponding Pies and Tigers matches later in the year, when the same matches 12 months earlier that late in the season would have been 80k+ and a 500k windfall.

I honestly think it's less about what we do and more about what other teams do. The competition is harder and more even than ever, you basically have 12-14 teams all capable of a top 8 finish and probably 6 teams that can reasonably win the flag. 2018 was probably our only genuine shot at a flag for at least another few years imo. It was to be our Bulldogs 2016 year but it wasn't to be. That was our run. Now we plug the holes in the list, reboot, change the guard (Lewis, Jones etc out) and the new brigade takes over. We may well make finals but we're probably more reasonably in for a firm finals run and challenge in 2021, perhaps 2022. There are just far too many teams thereabouts with us for us to be a lock for finals. And we *still* lack experience and that winning mongrel that took Richmond almost 8 years to build under Hardwick. End of the day no one beats a modestly healthy Richmond, which is imo on par with Hawthorn as the best "team" of the decade (in that, the way they play at their best).

How [censored] has Essendon been? Carlton has been putrid and still won more finals. So have we.

12th. 9 wins, 13 losses high percentage scoring deficiences to hurt us in a number of games injuries to start peaking up around round 15 OR Top 2 Premiers One or the other.

The challenge isn't even picking the right bloke. It's keeping both Jackson and Pickett happy, and keeping them in Melbourne.

I don't think it's the list. I think it's the club.

See now, Saturday Morning Runs mean something completely different for me. Especially after Friday night work drinks...

What was the question asked about Omac?

I dont know about you, but filming a powerpoint presentation is the opposite of engaging content.

Horrid, really, that two games essentially make or break our profit-loss margin. We are set for a loss this year. The club took the high road and pulled out of the pokies. It claims it's in as good a position as ever but is selling assets and home games. We still don't have a home ground and just saw one of the most significant drops year on year in history. Bartlett and Pert have a lot to answer for. And the club's performance puts even more pressure on Goodwin to perform. We have one good year and then revert back to garbage and financial losses. I hope those in attendance [censored] grill them.

Some of the trash I see written by Petracca here and on Facebook is astonishing. Criticise Goodwin, and the club's lapdogs come to gobble you up. But it's free reign on a player who continues to trend upwards. Astonishing. Trac had a great 2019 and was one of a few highlights amidst a [censored] disgraceful year. True testament to him and his character that he actually got better as the year progressed and our year was shot, and our on field "leaders" did little else but show up (Gawn the exception). We expect poor player performance, and celebrate mediocrity because, next to trash, it seems like gold. And yet, we hold "potential" in such high esteem that we often bury young kids under the weight of expectation and hope, and often take our frustrations out on them. Petracca is the new Watts. Good thing he's twice the player and 10x as motivated.

Have a close mate from Seattle that I used to work remotely with about a decade ago. Huge Sea Hawks fans, but his comments about the Mariners well remind me of what it's like to be a Melbourne supporter.