All things considered...

[Bartram_Class]

This has been as good a pre-season as we could have hoped for.

- Sponsor should be signed by the end of the week (this is the last obstacle).
- Casey move has gone down well (great intra-club crowd, schools etc.)
- Injuries are well-down.
- Membership is up.
- Pre-season performances have been much better than this time last year.
- Young kids have come on just as we had hoped (Grimes in particular)

Get that sponsor on-board, and we can be pretty content I reckon.

 

[davey_magik]

Till the sponsor comes in and the membership pushes up around 32-33K I won't be satisfied.

On-field I'm reasonably happy and hope we get a good turnout at Casey.

 

[demonfan9]

I agree. There has been a massive difference in this pre-season and last. Not to mention that we now have a fresh board, who are innovative and willing to work with the supporters.

If we can nail this sponsor (possibly two) before Round 1, then it will be the icing on the cake.

 

[maggers]

You can't stay completely hopeless forever. We have so many early draft pick kids that are starting to take those next steps. All we need to work on is consistency. If they go hard at it this year and play 4 quaters every week, I don't care where we finish.

 

[The Dr]

Agreed, we are looking a lot better than last year.

Sponsor(s) issue is a big one and hopefully that gets sorted out asap.

I can see us improving a lot, but maybe not winning a whole lot more games (if that makes any sense).

But I still reckon we can knock North off in round one.

 

[Dez!]

Till the sponsor comes in and the membership pushes up around 32-33K I won't be satisfied.

On-field I'm reasonably happy and hope we get a good turnout at Casey.

He was talking about the pre-season, I'm sure you can be satisfied with the 22,322 members we have to date.

 

[demonfan9]

You can't stay completely hopeless forever. We have so many early draft pick kids that are starting to take those next steps. All we need to work on is consistency. If they go hard at it this year and play 4 quaters every week, I don't care where we finish.

It is important to remember that we haven't been completely hopeless forever though. A lot of people will look at our last two years and think we're a joke, but don't forget that we have been regular finalists over the last couple of decades.

FINALS: 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006

GRAND FINALS: 1988, 2000

I know it doesn't change our current situation, but we do need to remind ourselves of the positives every now and then.

 

[ExTasDeeMan]

Friar-tuckin A!

Our only issue is it hasn't translated to off field cash due to shit management.

 

[KickLongTackleHard]

I have alot more excitment and anticipation going into round 1 than last year. It is good to have a fairly clean bill of health, and what appears to be good maintenance of the young draftees.

I think the sponsorship will be more than just 'icing on the cake' I think it will be the flour. I couldn't think of much worse going into Rd1 and beyond sponsorless, given our financial situation.

 

[AFL is Number One]

This has been as good a pre-season as we could have hoped for.

- Sponsor should be signed by the end of the week (this is the last obstacle).
- Casey move has gone down well (great intra-club crowd, schools etc.)
- Injuries are well-down.
- Membership is up.
- Pre-season performances have been much better than this time last year.
- Young kids have come on just as we had hoped (Grimes in particular)

Get that sponsor on-board, and we can be pretty content I reckon.

Agree with B C. In fact, I reckon its been the most postive pre season we've had for years , on top of our good showing at the draft table. All in all, good signs fpr 2009.

 

[maggers]

It is important to remember that we haven't been completely hopeless forever though. A lot of people will look at our last two years and think we're a joke, but don't forget that we have been regular finalists over the last couple of decades.

FINALS: 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006

GRAND FINALS: 1988, 2000

I know it doesn't change our current situation, but we do need to remind ourselves of the positives every now and then.

Yeah of course we haven't always been completely hopeless. But what I was getting at was, that teams like Carlton and Hawthorn used to be hopeless, but in the end you finish badly and you get good draft picks which in turn build up the next generation. The next generation of the Demons are ready to stand up, there are less older guys there taking their spots now. White, Yze, Holland, Neitz all gone last year which opens up new spots and new opportunities, all these kids have to do is make the most of their opportunties, learn from their experience and in about 5-7 years time we might just be that force to be reckoned with once again. No one stays completely hopeless in the AFL. Our day will come again when we are the mighty Melbourne Demons that we all love.

 

[RandB]

All things considered we are doing very well.