praha

My life in a nutshell.

Melbourne supporters outnumbering Geelong in the CBD by 20-1. I've seen more Storm supporters than Geelong.

your jedi mind tricks won't work here, DV.

The two loudest roars I've heard from Melbourne supporters: Travis Johnston's third quarter goal vs Adelaide in the 2002 Semi that put us up by 2 goals. And the final siren of the 2000 qualifying final vs Carlton. Nothing has come close since. I suspect that, should we kick an early first goal tomorrow night, the roar will trump all of those before it.

what he said is actually spot on. the delivery is about as passionate and empowering as a dry piece of wood. But put those words into a Roos or even say a Barrassi and it's the best speech ever. The guy's vision was perfect. It's a just shame he speaks like as if he's never met another human being before. you just can't follow a guy like that into battle. he'd stop in the middle of a fight to ponder.

The problem certainly isn't individual scalpers. You will NEVER stamp them out. The problem is on-sellers like Ticketblaster (yes, blaster. with a "b") who buy hundreds of tickets at a time using bots and people scattered everywhere, and then sell them at inflated prices.

what's the alternative?

Granted but that same 8.5 win team lost by 186 points. and could barely get within 10 goals of any team above 10th on the ladder. He was a [censored] coach. No one doubted that. He also inherited a bunch of non-professionals who would joke around at training and throw up on each other on trips. This was a guy that had come from a Premiership winning Pies team, that had also played in a GF the year before and won 23 of 25 matches. He mentioned when he first arrived how had the training habits and approach to game day conditioning was. I think he saw a team that was so far off the line that he saw no option but to go to an absolute extreme. It may not have been the right decision, but he essentially went from driving a Ferrari to driving a Datsun. Not trying to defend his mistakes, and it may not have gotten as bad had he never have come on, but all I'm saying is that it had already gone to [censored].

100%. He acknowledged and said of a lot of the harsh truths that many didn't want to hear. When Roos said a more refined and diplomatic version of the same thing 12 months later we all followed him and nodded in agreement like as if Neeld had somehow put us in the mess we were in. There was really nothing wrong with Neeld's vision. Schoolboys like Green couldn't hack it. The problem was the execution and Neeld just being a terrible coach.

Ironic. The club's downfall in the early part of the decade started before Neeld arrived, when Green was captain and led a player protest on the way to a 200 point loss. Neeld wasn't the caused of our problems. He was a symptom. So was Green in the twilight of his career. Neeld at least is diplomatic albeit dismissive of accountability. It wasn't Neeld's fault that Bailey was sacked. Or that the club was in the position it was in when he arrived. But sure, Brad. Whatever you say. And yeah I am sympathetic of Neeld's plight. People forget our first year with Roos was also garbage. Neeld inherited a club and team on its deathbed.

In the past when this was brought back by the Schwab administration, it was used as a branding exercise. The logo, events with poets, blazers...it was a bizarre exercise in trying to make the club about the vision, rather than of the vision. Things like brandishing "MCG - HOME OF THE MIGHTY DEMONS" along the Olympic Stand, showing footage from the 60s before the first bounce...no one really cared because no one understood. It was assumed the players and fans knew of and respected this past. The club demanded it, rather than working to earn it. This appears to have all got lost in the vision. How can you build an identity around a history of success when you're losing games by 186 points and players are protesting against you? This has and always should have been about the playing group. Only they can drive home this ideal, this vision and standard.

Is he high? Loved Stynes but that was a dark, lawless and incompetent period in our club's history. He oversaw tanking, 186, a failed rebranding, among other things. Stynes was a member of the boys club, who, along with Schwab, applied bandaid solutions whilst drawing up fantasty ideas and long term plans on whiteboards with zero business or rational case behind the ideas. Stynes came in and saved us immediately with debt demolition, but it was downhill from there. He was out of his depth. We may as well have picked a random store manager from McDonald's to run the joint. May cop some flack for that and some may not want to hear it, but we were in a worse place when he left the club than it was in when he started. I'd rather forget that time and I have no idea why Mclardy would bring Stynes' legacy up in that way.

No.

lord nev.

This is obvious sitting at ground level at matches. I think a lot of supporters are badly damaged after Sylvia and then Watts. Neither have the personality nor the competitive drive of Petracca. A lot of people think he gets ahead of himself, or that he doesn't realise how good he is. He does know that. And is perhaps his harshest critic. Something I think neither Sylvia or Watts were. They were almost content. Petracca is made for finals.

they look like the kind of blokes in high school that would pick on the exchange student.

"Hollywood" I feel is a good nickname for Petracca. Heard someone calling him that at a game earlier this year. Looks like a million bucks. Might be a flop. Might be a summer blockbuster. The trailer looks good and we all have our midnight screening tickets. But ready to slam it online if it doesn't meet expectation. But we'll back in and go see the sequel.

I remember in 04 we were 1st after 18 rounds. Front page of the paper. First time we had been 1st that deep in the season since 1964. Boy were we being talked up! Then we lost to Port by 70 points and ended the season with 4 straight losses before losing to Essendon in the Elim by 5 points. Broadbridge's last game.

Jimmy Toumpas and Tom Scully. In all seriousness though if healthy enough, Daniher. Otherwise, Barassi.

Last final I attended. Haven't seen a finals win since 2002. Grandmother passed away night before Saints game in 06 so I missed that. Cats absolutely destroyed us that day. Even without the injuries it was no contest. If not for Nick Davis the following week, Geelong would have probably won the flag that year.

Will ultimately bank on GA and MCC. Melbourne doesn't have many AFL Members. Geelong is midtier. Afl members pretty much sold out as is MCC with walkups on the day. Melbourne has 45k members. Consider maybe 3000k are AFL Members with club support. 42K club members. Maybe 35k max will have taken up club allocation. Also factor those scammy on seller sites that buy hundreds of tickets in bulk. For the GF they will move all tickets but you're looking at maybe 5k-10k that won't sell. So maybe 80k, 82k max.

afl members only had standing room and "level 4 back" remaining. GA is similar but only single seats. I'm predicting around 68k. Max 75k. 92k for Richmond v Hawthorn.

Cocaine can also provide an added sense of awareness, alertness and energy. The more pure, expensive stuff -- undoubtedly the chosen kind by young men with lots of disposal income -- lasts longer and is rightfully classified as performance enhancing. Any athlete caught having taken it hours or even a few days before an event should rightfully receive a heavy penalty. Collingwood can't hide for much longer. If they go all the way, their flag will be tainted, and people still start digging even further. It'll unravel soon enough and the questioning was only the beginning.

that sucks. good luck.

Bottom line is Blues supporters must bring in the numbers.