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What an absolute disaster this off season has turned into. Leaks to the media on a daily basis. Players being disgruntled. Lack of clear and honest communication from the Melbourne Football Club. Allegations of the Melbourne CEO sounding out clubs to see if they are interested in Clayton Oliver in contrast to the views of the coaching panel and Simon Goodwin. It has been an absolute mess and we are the laughing stock of the AFL after a mere 3 years since our Premiership in 2021. Sadly, I think it is time for Gary Pert to either resign or be sacked. I say this with a heavy heart as I thought Gary Pert was doing a good job. But it seems like I am wrong. Gary Pert came to the Demons to become our CEO after 10 years at the Collingwood Football Club. He did a lot of good work there. But there were rumours from Magpies supporters telling us that Gary Pert meddles too much with football related issues. Myself, and many others ignored this scuttlebutt. In many ways Gary Pert has done an excellent job. He helped the Demons end their 57 year Premiership drought after the internal football department review at the end of 2020. Gary Pert helped us get our membership numbers up to well over 65,000+ which is amazing. He also helped us finally make progress with the Home Base to hopefully be built at Caulfield Racecourse (if everything goes to plan). However, there has now been lingering cultural issues that have been festering. Some of these relate to individuals and topics we cannot speak of here. But we all know what they are. This has been a dark shadow hanging over the Melbourne Football Club and something which will eventually all come out like "opening a can of worms" in the future impending court cases. Of course, I won't say anymore. Anyway, the main thing is that we have had a horrible 12 months at the Melbourne Football Club. Our second straight sets finals losses in 2022 and then 2023. We also had the much publicised dramas around Clayton Oliver and his behaviours. Then the possibility of him being traded. Which fortunately did not occur at the time. Season 2024 started with the suspension of a player for reasons we cannot discuss here. Then the forced retirement of one of the Melbourne Demons leaders and comradery promoters in Angus Brayshaw after almost getting killed by that vile Magpie thug Brayden Maynard. Then during the season we lost Christian Petrracca to a serious injury, ironically, also against the Magpies. Due to injuries and poor form we tumbled down to an embarrassing 14th on the ladder. Once the season concluded we then heard rumours about Christian Petracca being disgruntled and wanting to leave the Club. Fortunately, this was resolved (for the time being). But you had our former President Kate Roffey make a total fool of herself in a disastrous radio interview. Who admitted to not talking to our star player Christian Petracca much or his family?! Not long after that Kate Roffey resigned. Now of course Gary Pert isn't responsible for all of this as Melbourne Football Club CEO. I did mention that he did a lot of good things. What irked me the most was the illusion that "everything was fine" at the Melbourne Football Club and the culture was the best it had been for years! This was deceitful in my opinion. Especially due to the various controversies that cannot be mentioned here. Further to this why would the CEO in Gary Pert be independently asking AFL Clubs if they were interested in trading for Clayton Oliver?! Especially if the coach in Simon Goodwin wants to keep Clayton Oliver at the Demons! Shouldn't we try to keep a generational talent like Clayton Oliver and work through his issues? Just like the Tigers did with Dustin Martin or like the Giants did with Toby Greene? It really has been an absolute train wreck publicly for the Melbourne Football Club. The media have been like vultures gleefully picking at us. Even so-called Melbourne supporters like Tom Morris have been quite pernicious in their behaviour reporting the Club. I think the best course of action now is for Gary Pert to resign as CEO after the Melbourne Demons Best & Fairest. That way, he can leave with some dignity and we can hopefully salvage things with Clayton Oliver (as well as Christian Petracca) and then start things fresh. It will also make sure that the independent review being done for the Melbourne Football Club is indeed independent. Mark my words, the Melbourne Demons would be better cutting away the dead wood now if we are going to start again fresh in season 2025. Anyway, we shall see what interim President Brad Green and the Melbourne Football Club Board does next I guess? The ball is now in their court to make some important decisions and give proper explanations to us as Melbourne members.

I haven't been on Demonland for a while due to work commitments and family matters. However, I thought I should make a post about the serious issues the Melbourne Football Club is facing. After finally breaking our 57 year Premiership drought in 2021, things are now looking grim and we need to fix the serious problems that the Melbourne Demons are currently facing. This is why I support former Demons champion in David Schwarz about having an entire review of the Melbourne Football Club. I don't think CEO Gary Pert should do a mere internal review as I don't think that will be enough. We need both internal and external people investigating the problems the Melbourne Football Club has and look to identify these problems and find solutions to them. Kane Cornes actually wrote a good news article discussing our issues the other week: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/the-demons-stand-at-the-gates-of-footy-hell-these-are-the-five-mistakes-that-got-them-there-20240808-p5k0ms.html I actually agreed with many of the unpleasant truths that he identified about the Melbourne Demons. An external review is the only way to get to the bottom of all our problems at the Melbourne Demons. Some of the problems have been out of our control like Luke Jackson wishing to leave the Demons and return home to WA. Others, have been due to rotten luck, like poor Angus Brayshaw being knocked out by Brayden Maynard and then forced to medically retire due to all his concussion injuries. Why the Demons players didn't seek vengeance for what happened against Angus Brayshaw still bitterly disappoints me. But I guess I have a more bloodthirsty attitude compared to others and would of liked to see football played the way it was in the good ol' days of the 1980's with brawls and pay back against any of our players that were hurt by an opposition player with "an eye for an eye" mentality. Sadly, our attitude against Collingwood on King's Birthday this year was as soft as butter on a hot summer's day in my opinion and was humiliating to witness. Nevertheless, other issues have to do with poor list management and recruitment. The foolish trade for Brodie Grundy, with the experiment given up after one mere season of trying to see if it could work and then trading away both James Jordon and James Harmes. Not trading in a tall forward or a forward-ruck to help Max Gawn was a big mistake. I don't think we bothered using Tom Fullarton at all either. Losing Alex Neal-Bullen is disappointing too, but family comes first and hopefully we can arrange a fair trade for him to either the Crows or Power. Then there are cultural problems and the poor behaviour of Demons players. Obviously, some of these matters cannot be mentioned. But the most important factor is the need to raise the level of the professionalism of a significant portion of our players. David Schwarz even mentioned this on the radio with Demons players allegedly mucking around during their preseason camp down at Anglesea. Most importantly, we also certainly don't want to see one of our greatest Demons players ever and Norm Smith medallist in Christian Petracca leave the Club. Losing Christian Petracca would be as bad as Ronald Dale Barassi leaving for Carlton at the end of 1964. So reconciling with Christian Petracca is a crucial matter that needs resolving. The stagnation regarding our Home Base development at Caulfield Racecourse has also been incredibly frustrating and this also needs to see further progress. In the end, I don't think I am alone with these concerns and the entire Melbourne Football Club (from boot studder to President) has a lot of pertinent questions to answer. We as Melbourne supporters and members deserve answers and explanations for how things have fallen into disarray so rapidly in season 2024. Anyway, we still have 2 rounds to go. So let's see what happens....