**** this club

[RandB]

Hi all, long time Melbourne supporter/lurker here...

I'm still laughing my ass off that incompetents' the likes of Jeremy Howe think they can command 600k a year, well good luck, bud...

Our players don't even care. They're lucky to be employed.

Solid first post.

 

[CWaffles]

Hi all, long time Melbourne supporter/lurker here...

I'm still laughing my ass off that incompetents' the likes of Jeremy Howe think they can command 600k a year, well good luck, bud...

Our players don't even care. They're lucky to be employed.

I really feel you didn't take full advantage of your name, WizarDee would have been better.

Anyway welcome.

 

[Wizardy]

I really feel you didn't take full advantage of your name, WizarDee would have been better.

Anyway welcome.

I'm plushed to the scuppers as it were...but yes, point taken

I love this club, and always will... and i'll support them even when softcocks such as Nathan Buckley's mum, are hurtling insult's in our direction..

Disappointed by the lack of heart, that's all...

 

[Crusty Demon]

I always try to look for the positives, but that first half was certainly disappointing.

Mostly because we are starting to mount more disappointing patches than I would have expected this year, unfortunately.

I think that is why a lot of Dees supporters feel we haven't improved. Because we still have so many bad patches. And the fact we cannot win two games in a row. The club should be embarrassed that I has been years since we won 2 in a row! We were around 50 points down today at one stage! Against a team who didn't want to win and had several of their best players not playing or not caring. IMO, I think we have improved. But by the smallest of margins. Which isn't good enough when you consider other teams around us have gone past us. And lets not forget we are paying the messiah twice as much as those coaches. It is a skill issue. I know fitness is a concern, but we are starting games off woefully and come good after halftime. The skill set on most our players are not at AFL standard. And that goes for half our regular 22. I believe Roos when he said we will attack more this year, but we simply don't have the skills to pull it off. We need guys who can kick the bloody pill!

 

[Cannon82]

I didn't know there was a direct correlation between a poster asking Jesse Hogan to kick 10 goals and our team being a complete and utter s**t basket.

I thought everyone knew what we post here and the general vibe of the place directly influences how the players perform. It'd be naive to think otherwise.

 

[RandB]

I thought everyone knew what we post here and the general vibe of the place directly influences how the players perform. It'd be naive to think otherwise.

I thought that was just demonland. Having said that I've been posting on here since 2007 which is when the rot set in. Hmmm.

 

[Cannon82]

I thought that was just demonland. Having said that I've been posting on here since 2007 which is when the rot set in. Hmmm.

If other people on here wanted to burn you at the stake as an offering to Dwayne Russell and the Footy Gods, I won't stand in their way.

 

[RandB]

If other people on here wanted to burn you at the stake as an offering to Dwayne Russell and the Footy Gods, I won't stand in their way.

That's a bit half hearted.

 

[stretcharmstrong]

We've had ~5 coaches and 100 odd players in the last decade. At some point you have to stop blaming the individual coaches and the playing group and have a look at the structure of the club.

But the structure of the club has been completely rebuilt?

 

[qarocks]

I think the club structure is good now, it's just that there are so many sub par players still on the list.
Our best is good enough to compete with many clubs, and will only get better.
It's just that 75% of the time we are completely rubbish, because we don't have players that are good enough to be consistent.

 

[Wizardy]

We have a lot of issues, but we cannot avoid the fact that our on-field leadership is deploreable in respect to the competition. I love Jonesy as much as everyone else, but he's no Luke Hodge. We need leaders who can coach, re-enforce structures and DEMAND adherence by all players out on the field at ALL times. I don't see any of that from our senior group. It's not all on Roos...

Look at St. Kilda against Geelong last night. Our players have no excuse, but all they do is give excuses..

 

[Demon 16]

We have a lot of issues, but we cannot avoid the fact that our on-field leadership is deploreable in respect to the competition. I love Jonesy as much as everyone else, but he's no Luke Hodge. We need leaders who can coach, re-enforce structures and DEMAND adherence by all players out on the field at ALL times. I don't see any of that from our senior group. It's not all on Roos...

Look at St. Kilda against Geelong last night. Our players have no excuse, but all they do is give excuses..

Jones has had an average month by his standards, but he is every bit an AFL captain.

I'd have him in the top 4-6 captains in the comp.

 

[Wizardy]

Jones has had an average month by his standards, but he is every bit an AFL captain.

I'd have him in the top 4-6 captains in the comp.

I think Jonesy is probably a pretty good 'off' the field captain who influences teammates in positive ways, but he's also someone who comes across as a bit of an introvert, and someone who is very focused and driven on his own performance. He just isn't a natural leader in my book. He leads at Melbourne because there aren't many other viable options.

We desperately need leaders who can balance their own game with the team, and demand adherence to structures and basics. It's pretty clear that isn't happening right now. I don't buy the "it's round 21 we're tired' excuse. Our players need to demand a lot more of themselves.

 

[rhaz]

3 games - St Kilda (the first time), Essendon and the Blues - we really should've won. That would've put us on 9 wins right now and we'd all be a lot happier.

With improvement in our kids, drafting and hopefully a trade or two - we will win those games next year, plus one or two more.

 

[stretcharmstrong]

3 games - St Kilda (the first time), Essendon and the Blues - we really should've won. That would've put us on 9 wins right now and we'd all be a lot happier.

With improvement in our kids, drafting and hopefully a trade or two - we will win those games next year, plus one or two more.

We should have won them this year; why will we win them next year?

 

[rhaz]

We should have won them this year; why will we win them next year?

With improvement in our kids, drafting and hopefully a trade or two

 

[Wizardy]

3 games - St Kilda (the first time), Essendon and the Blues - we really should've won. That would've put us on 9 wins right now and we'd all be a lot happier.

With improvement in our kids, drafting and hopefully a trade or two - we will win those games next year, plus one or two more.

This is our problem as a club though, we just expect it to all come together in due course. I think St. Kilda have already passed as, despite starting their rebuild later, and there's an argument that even Carlton are in front of us given todays effort.

 

[rhaz]

What else can we do except hope/expect it to all come together as the list matures? We can't keep gutting the club, starting again, then running out of patience two years later.

 

[Jack London]

What else can we do except hope/expect it to all come together as the list matures? We can't keep gutting the club, starting again, then running out of patience two years later.

Walk away.

 

[stretcharmstrong]

But those exact things would've been said last year. And, as it stood prior to each of those game on game day, we should have won them. But we didn't. So why would it change? We'll be having this discussion in 12 months.

 

[Wizardy]

What else can we do except hope/expect it to all come together as the list matures? We can't keep gutting the club, starting again, then running out of patience two years later.

One of the big beefs the players had with Neeld was that they wanted ownership of the clubs onfield direction but they were denied. Now they have it, and they've collectively decided to take a holiday a month out from round 23...

Players that have been there for 50+ games need to take ownership and deliver on field pretty quickly or be moved on. No one on our list should be exempt from being put on the table as far as im concerned (except probably Hogan, Brayshaw and Viney)...

 

[Jack London]

If we had lost one of them, it would have been a blip. To lose all three shows we have no idea how to take the game to other teams.

 

[Wizardy]

I thought that was just demonland. Having said that I've been posting on here since 2007 which is when the rot set in. Hmmm.

Ah yes, if my memory serves me correctly it was you RandB who was the one in Craig Cameron's ear spruiking Cale Morton when he was hellbent on picking Dangerfield prior to the draft. Thanks a bunch for that! Caveat: I'm pretty much making all this up.. I think?@

 

[Crusty Demon]

We should have won them this year; why will we win them next year?

Exactly. We'll probably lose the Geelong, Richmond and Collingwood games next year too!

How much more can supporters of this club take?? I know many people who used to follow this club every week. Now they simply dont care about the game. Thats what this club does to you. There are very very few highs. Mainly lows. The club is destroying my love for the game. I hardly watch any other matches now. I very rarely watch any footy shows on tv, i go to around 3 or 4 games a season now and thats only because my 5 year old boy is starting to enjoy going.

The club is broken. The AFL know that and have tried all they can to help by handing us Roos and Jackson. But they can only do so much. Unfortunately Roos doesnt have the impact he used to. He has a gameplan out of date and has made some mind boggling selections this year. I love the guy, but maybe we are better off having him in the background overlooking instead of coaching. Im nervous about Goodwin, but time will tell. Unfortunately as a MFC supporter, only the insane are optimistic about anything to do with this club as we are always, always inevitably let down.

But i cant quit this club. It is in my blood. I get pi $$ed off when we lose. I crack the sh#ts all week. It affects my life. When we win my week is always brighter. So i spend most of the footy season feeling depressed. I dont even watch finals now. Havent watched a GF in years. Im sick of watching other teams have success while were always towards the bottom.

All we can do is go along for the ride. Unfortunately for most of us, we have to ride it out. Some will jump off, and i dont blame them. But with FA and the big clubs getting bigger, richer, stronger, i really fear for this club on and off the field. No A grade players want to play for us. So we rely on draft picks. But our development has been so poor, we have generated no champions of the competition for decades. So these guys become our leaders who teach our new kids what they know. Its a merry go round of ineptness. Mentally everyone involved at this club on and off the field are shot. Its the only explanation as to why we havent won 2 games in a row for years! Years!! Teams love playing us because theyre not scared. No one fears us physically or mentally.

If we cant win a flag with Hogan, Brayshaw, Salem, Viney, Gawn, Petracca, Stretch, Tyson, ANB and McDonald, i fear we never will. We have to invest in these 10 guys heavily and do everything it takes to keep them and develop them properly because IMO, these are 10 of the most talented juniors we have seen together at one time at our club. The next 5-10 years are the most important in our clubs history IMO. We need these 10 guys to improve and become stars just like Geelong and Hawthorns core group did. We cant rely on snagging a champion through FA, it wont happen. If we f#ck these guys development up or they get mentally scarred by results like the last fortnight, that light at the end of this seriously long dark tunnel will disappear.

 

[Major Colvin]

Exactly. We'll probably lose the Geelong, Richmond and Collingwood games next year too!

How much more can supporters of this club take?? I know many people who used to follow this club every week. Now they simply dont care about the game. Thats what this club does to you. There are very very few highs. Mainly lows. The club is destroying my love for the game. I hardly watch any other matches now. I very rarely watch any footy shows on tv, i go to around 3 or 4 games a season now and thats only because my 5 year old boy is starting to enjoy going.

It's a strange place to be in as a supporter. The club's fortunes don't dictate my moods nearly as much they did in my youth or even early 20's. I think 2007 was the last time I felt genuine emotion about our games - because there was expectation. Having played finals the previous year, you felt like we could win games and were genuinely disappointed when we didn't. In fact, after Daniher departed I mentally checked out for that season - looking forward to starting fresh in 2008. R1 2008 we lost by 104 to the Hawks (admittedly eventual premiers) but it was one of the most insipid performances I can remember seeing of a Melbourne team. The following week we got polaxed by the Dogs by nearly 100 as well. Fair to say, I put my emotional cue in the rack at that moment and haven't held much expectation since.

Fast forward to 2015 - what's changed? Lost to the Hawks by 100+ again, lost to the Dogs by 90+ again. Zero finals appearances - languishing in 14th.

There were some very brief mirages of future success under Bailey but they were quickly snuffed out. To be honest, 186 shocked me but it didn't really hurt me - not the way it would have in my formative years of following the club. Same goes for the Neeld years and the avalanche of huge defeats we suffered.

It may be that I'm simply getting older and football doesn't hold as much importance as it did when there's little else that interests you in life. But the fortunes of the club have definitely put up walls from feeling much when we lose (which is often). You naturally get de-sensitised.

I still enjoy watching the Dees win and will always follow them. But take instance - after today's loss - I don't even feel that much disappointment. I really did expect us to lose.

As I said, its a very strange place to be as a supporter.