1 red eye 1 blue eye

Thanks Mazer you are front and centre re appreciation mate and you are spot on, the support was sensational!

To Deeoldfart and Dante, their generosity allowed a group of us to attend what was a stunning, emotional and historical event and was something so very special and will be cherished by us for the rest of our Dee loving lives. Thank you. It’s been a tremendous few weeks attending whatever we could re MFC starting with that magnificent Preliminary Final. We’ve attended closed and open sessions and those weeks have culminated in the penultimate, an MFC Premiership and it was incredible! The celebrations in the City today with the boys, the cup, and staff was well attended and fun. Goody has already set his sights on the preseason and continued improvement. We have held the baton here for a brief, necessary and ultimately glorious period. I’m sure all Demons are happy with our efforts but the baton returns to its rightful place now and we sincerely look forward to seeing Melbournians in particular experiencing it too. Go you magnificent Demons.

Jacqueline has just let me know that she secured the last ticket at the Tower Hill venue! She's going to phone there to see if she can get a ticket for her partner, an English boy who's curious and keen to join the spectacle!

$20 you are annoying, just lying about, you are lazy and I'm going to teach you a lesson! I'm putting you to work at the the betting shop! You'll need to come back a winner, otherwise........don't bother coming back at all!!

I've been passing on this info to my daughter and hopefully she'll get to meet a few of you. I've suggested she attend the event near Tower Hill 👍

That's awesome guys and very helpful thanks, I'll pass that info on to her, please keep the suggestions coming!

Wondering if there are any Melbourne supporters there in London? My daughter and boyfriend are looking to hopefully link up with some Dees and watch the game together. Cheers

Steve and I went and we guesstimated around 100 Demons over the far side, 200 Demons in the guts there and another 100 or so on this side, around 400 fans give or take. The boys were in the red strip today, and one singular man in blue, Angus. Is there a smidgen of a chance he'd actually enjoy being the odd one out? Or......orchestrated it? He was on the ground and involved in a handball feeder role. As Pennant posted it wasn't a testing session, light duties really., I think the rehabbers Tomlinson and Nietsche had a tougher work load than everyone else. They were involved with the group kick to kick and when that broke, started half ground sprints with around 4 others. Then the pair did a number of cone drills which were based on change of direction, calling for and leading to a coach who would pass the ball. It wasn't easy to concentrate on anything in particular as they were split into small groups all over the ground. Perty was addressing the fans and bringing players over in pairs to have photos and a chat. I was mostly just out of ear shot but was able to pick up initially that the group needed to keep a little distance and not sign autographs which was at the request of the AFL. Choco had a chat too but once again I wasn't able to hear what he was saying but I'm sure it would have been entertaining. I was able to have a chat with Shannon Byrnes, I mentioned it was great that he stayed and was still at the Club, he said he loved being here. I asked if Geelong had approached him and he said yes a couple of times but he was happy at Melbourne and that a move to Geelong would be a big move for him to make, "and anyway, I want to be here through this period, I've been through the ordinary ones too". I also asked if Nathan was likely to stay on in some capacity, apparently that hasn't been discussed as yet but he has completed coaching courses and is interested in coaching. As mentioned the session included a soccer match which was fun to watch, skills were not too bad actually, Clayton layed off a lovely back heel pass which was impressive. Salem was the goalie for the reds which had me scratching my head, surely he'd be a gun soccer player right? The red team must've read my mind as Salo got moved to the midfield. Hunty was on the orange team and was involved in some nice plays including the only goal kicked. It coincided with Salem having just been moved out of the goals, unfortunately he just couldn't be everywhere. He had the final word that I presume was directed to his goalie which was "what the [censored] was that" Hunty best on for mine! Maysie trained No snakes Go Dees

No worries mate I enjoy these threads as much as everyone else so I knew it would be appreciated.

I saw that footage too daisy and you're right he could've trained before I arrived. We'll start getting a better picture of where he's at on Friday.

No BB he didn't do any training but was in training kit and looked ok. 🤞

Oh yeah snakes, forgot about that HB, sorry Picket.I will do better next time.

Hmm ok see if I can do this......

Not sure if this deserves to be in a thread on its own so I'll put it here and let the powers that be move it if they think it's warranted. Well well well, living close to Lathlain Oval is a bonus. Steve my mate who is also local and who I'll be in attendance at the GF with thought he'd have a drive up to the oval just to see if there was a sneaky chance that Melbourne might be training there. He'd been fortunate to spy a training session there before the prelim whilst out for a walk, it was just before lunch and was pretty well wrapped up so didn't call me but kept the timeline forefront of mind. I'm building a "teenagers retreat" at the back of my place, it was supposed to be real simple but somehow or other it has taken on a life of its own. I know, people keep telling me she'll never leave with a laugh, I agree and laugh too but you only have them for a short while. Anyway I've taken the measurements and I'm cutting the skirting. You can imagine my excitement when Steve calls at 10.30 to say he's at the ground and so is the MFC. Holy smokes I threw on my Demons shirt and jumped in the car, I literally live a park and I reckon 6 houses down from the oval, I saved a good sixty to ninety seconds by driving. Met Steve and we positioned ourselves behind the cyclone fence that divides "Optus Oval from the MCG" the MCG is open and anyone can access it at anytime. We are at the Bishopsgate Street end close to where the Club is set up on the boundary line. The boys are pinging yellow with red stripe balls off at the goals and I thought demonland will be happy about this. I didn't take much notice of accuracy I was too busy just checking out the whole scene. Marty Hore and Adam Tomlinson run past at a fair lick, Steve said they had already completed a number of circuits before I arrived. Adam's without a shirt and looks magnificent, incredibly fit and focused. A couple more laps from the pair and Adam was maintaining the pace, Marty was, fair to say, struggling to keep up but who wouldn't be AT looked to be on a mission. Then the yellow tops came out and the team split into 2, it was the 1st s v 2 s. The game/sim started and was clearly based on fast ball movement, pressure but not tackling. The 2nd s flew out of the gates fast and precise it reminded of the quick ball movement that I'd witnessed at Optus last Friday. I said to Steve wow the 2 s are doing a number on them. After a shot on goal play continued immediately with the other team playing on from half back. I'm not sure if the 2 s went 2 or 3 goals up, then the 1s stepped up. Brown took a towering mark, arms fully stretched like he has been, dare I say...."at the top of" no, I won't say that haha, mega runup and kicked the goal. TommyMac then took two strong grabs for shots at goal, geez I'd love to see him have a blinder Satdy week. I liked how during play a coach would yell out "ground ball" while ball was still in the air, instead of trying to mark it they brought the ball to ground and play continued. All in all what you would expect from a team that finished on top of the ladder, fast accurate play and smothers too. The whistle blew, yellows removed their tops and they immediately were back into, yes...... goal kicking. I've mentioned my admiration for Jake Bowey in a couple of previous posts, again he impressed me, this time it was his goal kicking, he was slotting them easily from the boundary, if he finds his way forward and has looks on goal, put your glasses down! The session wound up and where the boys would be walking back to the bus, security permitting we would be able to engage with the boys. So we headed over there along with a few other Demons who had gathered, and, security didn't!! Ok this is looking promising, let's see if we can't get a photo or 2. Pleasingly the learnings we learnt were the boys and staff were more than happy to mingle, we had brief chats with Melky, Choco and longer chats and photos with Jayden, who is good to go if a spot comes up. Shannon Byrnes, Salo, TMac and Maxy and photos with Track, Clarry, Nev and Ed. We can't believe our luck over here and it was succinctly put by Choco after I said to him " I feel sorry for everyone over east" he said "It makes a change from them feeling sorry for you over here" Gee whiz that's my day nearly done, got to go and get my daughter from school and then get back to that skirting. Go Dees.

Other than the training session reported for Optus, hoping to get a heads up wherever else the boys might be having a run

Nice........ now let's crank that up another notch!

I have to put up with it every year, Perth people are great but stick some blue and yellow on em and cram them into Optus and they grow another head!

Super thrilled thanks Dante, all barcodes are with Passionate Perth based Melbourne supporters.

PM sent Deeoldfart.

Hmmm not sure, I'm thinking more Spargo I just want to see his possessions pressured.

I hope that Daniels can be curbed his influence infuriated me in our last encounter.

Go the maysie route, I love you honey despite what happens 👍

It comes down to the best team on the day. 2 rested teams, its totally unpredictable! You can argue us to win but I can't seperate us and them which sets up an intriguing Grand Final. I wish it was clearer.

Agree AF and is there a way to get a message to that twerp Will Schofield and his pre game mentally scarred article, that schitt should and must stick.

Just read the paper in a coffee shop, talking about Mays injury, they reckon it was in that contest he injured it. Grrrrrrr if true!