praha

This is interesting... I know of a player from a new team *wink wink* that was drafted in 2010 to play in 2011 *wink wink* that was quite clearly told to hold off on study in 2011 and focus on footy. All under-20 drafted players did this at said club. One rule for one team, another for everyone else?

I agree, but that sort of rationality around here won't get you far. Don't you realise that this is the magical, amazing, can-do-no-wrong Melbourne Football Club? They're trying oh-so-hard to sign a sponsor. It's hard work, it is. How can you be so mean! You're a mean, mean man... Seriously, it's a joke we don't have a sponsor for competitive matches. If we don't have a sponsor by round 1 someone should be held accountable. It should be the CEO. If we don't announce something at the season launch tonight, it's worrying times ahead. Ten bucks we get the, "Any day now" rubbish.

From the online Demon Shop on the home guernsey pre-order page: "We are still finalising a deal for a second major sponsor therefore the time of delivery is still unknown but we are expecting late February." LOL!

I also think the Jurrah issue may have had an influence. Wouldn't it for any company, be it Chinese, Australian, whatever? Not sure what they could announce if no one has been signed. More and more likely that we'll go into round 1 without a major sponsor....

Looks great! Are they selling them?

That's a shame. I admire his pace and effort, and has a better football awareness (imo) than Bennell.

I'm not falling for the club's "any day now" BS. Get it done.

Players change - Tick Game Plan Change - Tick Culture change + Club change - LOL kidding yourself. This club will never be bigger than the establishment.

A lot of butthurt supporters in here. Malthouse is 100% correct.

The longer this goes on, the more I fear we will begin the season without a sponsor. Jurrah's issues can't help the cause. I am getting frustrated.

Every time I see a photo of the guernsey without a sponsor on it, my blood starts to boil.

Malthouse is alright. I wish we got him. People hate him because he knows his stuff, and he's as arrogant as anything. He passes constructive criticism, and is now a football commentator. He expects more out of Watts, hence the rhetoric. If he didn't think anything of him, he wouldn't say anything. It's endearing more than anything. And the end of the day, all of the commentary is the same and always has been: Watts is super talented and he knows it, and it (might) get to his head. Malthouse is going on what Sandringham told him, and that must have been that he was cocky, not fully aware of the effort needed to go the extra step. It's more commentary on Melbourne than anything. As if to say, "Collingwood doesn't pick good players that don't work hard". He is not wrong atm. Watts is young, but he is going on attitude. Sometimes some of you on here need to step back and look and stuff like this as a non-Melbourne supporter. It puts things into perspective, allows you to better understand people's behaviour.

Thanks for that. My first thought was about how Jurrah's obligations to the tribe but have made him involved. Hopefully there is no direct involvement that would entice a charge in some capacity.

Personally, it frustrates me that some supporters are soooo optimistic. When I challenge that optimism, I'm attacked for being too negative. People mistake expectations for negativity. I expect the club to perform. I do not expect 186 point losses. And so, it's reached a point now where I am no longer optimistic. I am just going to sit back and say, "OK, you talk a lot, but how big is your bark?" I have "faith", but optimism is earned. I am optimistic that Neeld knows what he's doing, but I am not optimistic that the club can win a flag. That comes down to criticism as to the club's culture, mindset, and willingness to succeed across the board. Saying, "we are making crossroads" means nothing until we are leading, or at least near to leading, in every facet, including revenue, assets, membership. At the moment, I am personally not especially impressed. I am sure they are trying, but, eh, get the job done? I'll be optimistic when we make the finals 2-3 years in a row, start posting consecutive profits, improve our membership growth and social media presence, oh, and sign a major sponsor. Until then, I'll be critical about the club's ability to perform. The 186 point loss made me a livid, angry man, and I simply cannot accept it, even to this day. Everyone should be held accountable, and the ultimate redemption is success. IMO, if you think any other way, you're accepting mediocrity. Or at least passing it off as something easily rectified.

Was only a matter of time. I have always been critical of those that have rested their faith in future successes in Jurrah. These people clearly know nothing of the place he comes from. It's a very hard life for him -- both his community and living in Melbourne -- so stuff like this is to be expected. He is a great player but he will always be compromised by issues back at home. That is understandable, and I think you should all acknowledge that so as to avoid disappointment when/if he does quit the game so as to focus on his family and community. Great bloke. I wish him all the best. I lack disappointment because I have expected things like this to happen from time to time with Jurrah, as was the case with Aussie.

Brisbane at the G - W WCE in Perth - L Tigers at the G - L Bulldogs at the G - W Saints at the G -W Geelong in Mordor - L Hawthorn at the G - L Sydney in Sydney - W Carlton at the G - L Essendon at the G - L Collingwood at the G - L Trying to be realistic. Losses to teams that finishes above us last year, unless I think that team has dropped off and will finish below us.

Who cares about the cannabis pipe? As for the pills, you'd be a real idiot to put stuff into your body that's been made in the basement of a Vietnamese drug runner.

He has no point whatsoever. Eddie's a great business man, smart, but arrogant as hell, and a patronising [censored] at times. Must be hard working your arse off to get Melbourne up and going again, only to have this guy speak about your club like as if it's nothing. The guy is butthurt and frustrated. It's fair game. This always happens: someone goes out of contract, and he/she is offered a job elsewhere. Just so happens we have someone close to Collingwood staff. He's a butthurt moron sometimes. Love listening to him in the mornings, but Jesus Christ he can be an [censored].

Debt isn't always bad. It's when you're in debt without many assets, like Melbourne was, that is bad. Carlton has many an asset, a large supporter base, a great franchise player in Judd, great facilities and a great brand. They'll be fine. Focus on your own club.

Melbourne's social media presence is pathetic. I unsubscribed (but still like) Melbourne's Facebook page. The updates were dull, uninformative and too robotic. Not surprising that the club hired someone that clearly knows nothing about online communities.

But those on here will still find an excuse if we lose Don't you know the rules? You have to be optimistic otherwise you'll get banned... We should absolutely destroy Brisbane. Good teams smash [censored] teams. Time to see if we're a good team. Make a statement. We'll see how far this club has come. inb4 "round 1 is too early to make a call"

Well then that means he's going to be a champion. Phew!

TBH I think we've reached a peak. You can't expect massive membership growth unless you actually have an install base. Membership isn't indicative of install base -- support numbers are -- so we should look at expanding in that area before we all act so certain of achieving 40,000+. Club is taking massive leaps to expand the support base, which is great, but as it stands I don't think we will see massive membership increases this year, maybe even a small drop of 1-5%. Just my thoughts.

The whole membership thing is interesting because it really means jack [censored] aside from being an indication of install base, which is important. Collingwood is targeting 100,000 members, but what % of that go to over 70% of matches? Would be an interesting statistic. I think Melbourne probably has one of if not the highest % of supporters:member ratio. Our support numbers are low, but I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. It's really just about expanding the brand as much as possible within what you've got, expanding team spirit, getting as high a % of your members to the games as possible, and ultimately being successful on the field. Naked truth is that we will never be as big as Collingwood. It's too late not in this media climate. But we have potential as a "boutique" club with its home at the MCG. We need to embrace that as much as possible, and I think we already are.

The club was still running on the success of the 60s. People were getting excited about the Dees again. 2 decades of crap wasn't enough to make people forget how dominate the club was. Bit like the sudden surge in popularity of the Bulls in the NBA. No one ever forgets that success. But the doldrums in the 90s and just complete and utter incompetence all the way through to 2011 almost destroyed this club. Teams like Collingwood acknowledged their large demographic and grew from there. Melbourne just sat and expected to grow without any real effort. Looking deeper at our support base now and we have the lowest number of <16 year-old supports, lowest AusKick sign-up numbers. The club has failed horribly in the off-field department. But you all don't need to be told that.