FarNorthernD

Well he has ticked off that hurdle. If he gets back to his best we will be a far better side. God I hope he is hungry for it

Ah that’s better, can get back on Demonland again

I don’t know about trust but I do have the definitive answer on an age old question. After sticking with this team through decade of darkest of times, from laughing stock -> VFL standard -> middle tier -> contender and then back to a (sad) laughing stock in the course of a few games, and most recently to the side I despise above all (with an unhealthy passion) proves, once an for all, there is no god!

If we lose tonight (to the team I despise over all others) it will just confirm my theory that supporting Melbourne is like having a child who constantly disappoints. Yes there are occasional moments of pride and joy but life with him is generally full of let downs and frustrations. Promises to try harder are followed by excuses and failure. He (sort of) got caught cheating a few years ago and now an older, drunk friend of one of his school mates, who has a big mouth, is bringing it all up again. My kid has never topped his class and although he buckled down and did his best last year, he is back to form this semester. Id like to kick him out but, for some reason, I still love him dearly......

Harmes is 186cm as is Lewis, Hunt is 187cm. Our problem wasn’t we were too small, our problem is we played crap.

And same for me. Sh!ts me to tears

Yep that’s my theory too. Our game plan only really works with 95% effort from everyone. Contested footy. It falls apart with the 75% effort brought in the JLT matches. As long as we step up, it may be ugly, but we will win

Sounds fair and reasonable

And you can add Steven May (Melbourne Grammar), Cyril Rioli (Scotch), Chris Judd (Caulfield) and Jack Viney (Prince Alfred College/Carey) to those with a ‘private school mentality’. It’s such a lame stereotype isn’t it

I agree that we are a ruck short but I’m guessing the Club looked at the options out there and decided that there wasn’t a player who could get good enough to play AFL this season if both Gawn and Pruess went down. No point having an emergency ruck on the list if you can’t use him in an emergency.

And the Saints have a back up in Ratten who is possibly a better coach than Richardson. It wouldn’t be a difficult deck chair for them to move. I agree, he is in more strife than the early settlers.

Everyone should get on board for this game. The AFL have made it difficult via the conference allocation, the umpires have made it difficult and by losing two games by four points we have made it difficult for ourselves. If we pull a big win off on the weekend against the premiership favourites it will be epic. Go the red and blue!

Considering how appalling we have been for most of that decade, Port only having a 11-5 win/loss record over us almost makes them our bunnies.

There will be a tipping point but the AFL won’t see it coming. Like authoritarian governments they have a compliant media that cannot ask any difficult questions for fear of losing their accreditation. So most of their close feedback comes from subservient and fawning journos and others dependant on the hand that feeds it. When it all falls apart they will be totally unprepared and surprised

I understand the need to appeal to the younger generation as they will be the ones who will support the game for the decades to come. Is it smart though to alienate your core at the same time? Who do the AFL, or in this case the Bulldogs, think drive the younger generation to the ground and pay for them to get in? To me the game has always been first and foremost a uniquely Australian game. The Americanisation of it with ‘Game Day Entertainement’, the creeping U.S style commentary and now Marvel Comic super heroes is an abomination. The people running the game seem to have no feel for it. This is a quote from the Age article regarding AFLX that pretty much sums the leadership of the place. The AFL said they were pleased with the outcome despite the fact it was spurned by many supporters and ticket sales ahead of the tournament were low.

Yep, totally agree. Every bloke who wears the Melbourne guernsey under Goodwin will go when it’s their turn.

So no chance that Hibberd is just right at the beginning of the season and is just yet to find some form?

What a beautifully bizarro world we live in. A few years ago the thought of us capping our premium membership so as not to exhaust our Grand Final allocation would have been fanciful.

So the skills overall aren’t up to the men’s game but check out the vid below and tell me how many of the blokes would have kicked that goal Zanker did or would taken that mark in front of the pack and calmly slot the winning goal like Cunningham did. But most of all check out the unadulterated joy and passion for the victory at the end of the game. Leaves the blokes for dead. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/2019-03-10/aflw-behind-the-win

I like the Allen Jakovich swagger reference that the author believes Melbourne supporters now exhibit. Don’t think I’ve got a strut going yet but it is certainly nice not to be the runt team of the competition and to be proud about the side you barrack for.

I really like Jeremy McGovern, he is my favourite non MFC player, but to give him the 2nd biggest contract in the comp seems wrong. What do others think? “West Coast's Jeremy McGovern will join the millionaires in 2019, having last year signed the competition's second-biggest deal behind Martin.”

Given that the MFC added the Collingwood scratch match to the two JLT games I’m assuming most Clubs would see two warm up games as a minimum I’m pretty sure I’ve read we try to get close to two games of match practice into our preferred 22 before running out Rnd 1. Then with trying other players (Sparrow, Keilty, Hore, Pruess etc) that brings you up to three games. Without practice games to ease into the season who is to say injuries wouldn’t be worse in the first few rounds?

Who knows how much it will help the MFC and, while it isn’t mentioned in the article below, the new MCC president is a passionate Melbourne supporter and comes from a family of passionate Melbourne supporters. If there was ever a time to quietly cement the MFC/MCC relationship now would opportune. Mike is the perfect replacement for the current president, Steve Smith, of the MCC who played over 200 games for us https://mcc.org.au/whats-on/latest-news/2019/march/new-mcc-president-elected (Probably not worth it’s own thread but I couldn’t find anywhere else to put this)

And the other 951 were Tyson’s

I used to really rate the Brownlow. Perhaps it was because we never really had a chance at team honours I would focus on Robbie or Greg Wells or Brian Wilson or Hardeman to hopefully bring some kudos to the club. Nowadays I don’t really care about the Brownlow at all. It’s not on my radar and I’m not sure if that’s me or it has been generally devalued. I wonder which award means the most to the players? Coaches award would be a big one you would think? I suppose a Brownlow would still bring in the most reputational post career dollars.