Fork 'em

I can see why other clubs consider some of our "fans" the laughing stock of the competition.

What a load of flaming carp.

If its a multi-faith room I hope they're scanning for weapons.

Admit to the mistakes made all around, too much management speak, losing leaders too early, devaluing our olders players, stop sulking, players who have talent but dont use either by being lazy or not committed enough, etc and then insist on people correcting their mistakes (Neeld included).

Those leaders you speak of were done and part of the problem.

Neitz after the 2000 GF in his post game speech said something along the lines of.

"We hope one day we can get back here for another go."

That wasn't what I wanted to hear after being smashed.

I wanted to hear with some conviction how we would be back next year to make amends.

Then , in 2001 with a youthful list and seniors in their prime we finished 11th.

Then had up and down form through seasons winning multiple games on end and losing multiple games on end.

And then be absolutely hopeless again the year after.

Let Wiki refresh your memory.

In 2000 Daniher took Melbourne to the Grand Final, but the Demons were convincingly beaten by a rampaging Essendon. The members had expected a new era of success, but in 2001 it was same old story: Melbourne finished 11th. In 2002, although Melbourne again made the finals, Gutnick was voted out by the members.

In 2003 Melbourne plunged into a new crisis, winning only five games for the year and posting a $1 million loss. President Gabriel Szondy resigned and it seemed that Daniher's tenure as coach was under threat. But, continuing the recent trend, in 2004, Melbourne climbed the ladder again, winning 14 games and leading the competition, albeit for one round only, in Round 18. And although the team lost its remaining four games, the club still made the finals, only to lose narrowly to Essendon.

During the 2004 post-season the Demons tragically lost defender Troy Broadbridge in the Asian tsunami, when he was swept off Phi Phi island in Thailand. He was walking along the beach with his wife Trisha when the tsunami struck. His body was found on 3 January 2005, and brought home. A funeral was held on 20 January 2005 in recognition to the No. 20 guernsey he wore during his playing days. During the 2005 off-season, the whole team travelled to the island in which Broadbridge was killed to build a new school for those struck by the tsunami. The No.20 jumper was then rested for two years.

Melbourne started 2005 strongly, being second after Round 12, however losing momentum by Round 19 appeared unlikely to play finals, then wins against Western Bulldogs, Geelong at Geelong (where Melbourne had not won since the late 1980s), and Essendon in Round 22, placed the club seventh and a finals berth,only to lose the Elimination Final to Geelong by 55 points.

In 2006, after a slow start, Melbourne again finished the season in seventh position. After defeating St Kilda in the first Elimination Final by 18 points the season ended the following week when Fremantle beat the Demons by 28 points. Melbourne's coach Neale Daniher had become the second longest-serving coach of Melbourne, and the longest-surviving in the entire history of the VFL/AFL not to have coached a premiership side.

That is not the actions of a team with good culture and White , Robbo , Bruce , Uze and Macdonald were all apart of it .

Bailey tried to change the culture but in the end the culture was his undoing.

A training ground & social Club facilities close to Our main members suburbs,,, like the Bombers have, like the Hawks had, like the Cats have, like the Blues have, like the Pies always have had.

Accessibility for the regular members to say Hello, chat, talk, get things signed, a relaxed casual atmosphere, no hoity toity.

Elsternwick Park would be a starting point, with all the public transport.

A place for the players to be normal, feet on the ground stuff... Where Suits or T shirts are the normal attire. A natural setting.

# Edit: Note that all those clubs are the Power clubs of the last 40 years or so... just ponder things.

Who , the ones that saw our last flag ?

I have no problem with Melbourne trying to tap into into 1 of the largest growth areas.

It hasn't seemed to have effected the Dawk moving out to Waverly.

There are Demon supporters in the burbs aswell.

We've had our ups and downs, but I wouldn't change anything as an MFC supporter.

You cannot be serious.

I've seen 2 Melbourne GF's.

We were absolutely flogged in both.

Comments like Malthouses give me the shytes.

Spit it out for god sake.

Don't just spill little hints.

We all know we're rubbish.

We want to know why.

"Lamb choice cut for Dees"

Ugh, who's the funnyman writing these puntastic titles for these articles, Ugly Dave Gray?

So does he replace Prendergast, or was his a different title?

Better than "Lamb to the slaughter."

AA ruckman are rare commodities.

And our 'young stallions' are injured and raw.

Jamar has been on one year contracts for years, it's very unfair to label him as a greedy mercenary the way you have.

Maybe once , but right now he ain't no AA ruckman.

The young stallions won't be injured forever but then again , maybe they will.

I missed the part where I labelled him a greedy mercenary but lets not talk 3 year deals on current form.

And like it not he's 1 of our mature leaders , I'd like to see him leading like 1.

Took forever to come good , had 1 stand out year and has again lost his mojo.

Should we do what we've always done and hand him a retirement fund or let the young stallions loose?

Sorry Bing.....Have no idea what you are talking about...Have you just woken up? or maybe chugged a full can of Vanila Coke in one gulp??

If you want me to edit an apostrophe just say so...

Thou art Melbourne supporter.

Therfor thou must use correct punctuation at all times or run thy risk of pompous punctuation police displaying thy superior football knowledge by pointing out thou heinus crime to thou.

Relevant for the club right now.

"Get up you son-of-a-[censored] , cause Micky loves ya !"

I'm still not sold on Darling, and am surprised by how easily some have been.

It's like all the gun kids at Geelong and Hawthorn - try putting them in our side and see how they go.

Darling would provide a contest, but his weaknesses would be that much more glaring.

We'd be no better off in the long run.

I haven't seen enough of Darling to be sold either.

The thing with Clubs like Hawthorn and Geelong , only their best and hardest working kids are getting a run.

Mark Neeld's first address to the MFC:

You are the lowest form of life on Earth. You are not even human f**king beings. You are nothing but unorganized grabastic pieces of amphibian sh*t! Because I am hard, you will not like me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn. I am hard but I am fair. There is no racial bigotry here. Here you are all equally worthless. And my orders are to weed out all non-hackers who do not pack the gear to serve in my beloved Corps. Do you maggots understand that?

(Full Metal Jacket 1987)

You can't handle the truth.

Sounds like the second coming of christ......sure there isnt a little bit of Carey in him also?

Lol ... I'm sure there woulda been if he was old enough to remember Carey.

A splash of Ablett sr aswell no doubt.

Shoulda picked him on the size of his ego alone.

The cycle will turn .

Its starting to open up again now.

I did see Embley get crunched though

Embley didn't get crunched.

Popped his shoulder trying to tackle.

Carro & Thomas's relationship has always been prickly.

She wasn't gonna miss the chance to make him squirm.

Didn't Demetriou convince the reluctant Schwab to take on the CEO role ?

Really , it's not that they didn't fly the flag as the bump was legal.

Its that no-one dished out any punishment of our own.

Still doesn't explain why the team didn't fly the flag for a captain? Not at all.

Cause they're weak as pizz.

Grimes had the opportunity to brace for that hit if he was more aware of his surroundings.

Thats the problem nowadays though.

Since Demetriou has all but erased the bump from the game the players don't expect contact like that anymore.

When it does come they are taken by complete surprise.

Back in the days you learnt to expect contact , ride it and keep playing.

Speaking of Knobs , hows Grant Thomas's form on FC tonight.

Dancing around Carro's interrogation about the Misfud saga.

Refused to admit he'd made a monumental buck up by throwing his mate in the shite.

Yes , losing Thompson really [censored] me off at the time.

Still does but not as raw.

How is that losing twice?

Doesn't matter how we got pick 12.

Rubbish. First I heard of Bartell's name being put forward. Bartell was a sub 10 draft pick; Moloney was picked in pre-season draft ie about 100 picks later.

Just because you hadn't heard it doesn't mean it's rubbish.

We swapped pick12 for Moloney to enable them to get Ottens who they wanted badly.

Geelong had a bunch of highly rated young midfielders Bartel being 1 , and it was only a matter of which 1 we'd get.

Moloney being a Demons supporter as a kid put his hand up to go and we accepted the deal.

The fact we allowed pick 12 to be swapped for a player that as you said went another 100 picks later is another reason to ... 'Sigh'