An idea me and my mates were tossing up..

[ptrg]

The other day, me and two other life long MFC supporting mates were sitting round, sinking a few quiet ones and discussing where Melbourne is at right now and and how we are positioned for the future. We have (in a general agreeance around the poker table that is,) a top coach, an exciting list and passionate support from a group of dedicated members.

But then we did the unforgiveable.

We started looking at where we were lacking when compared to other vicco teams.
And the glarring, trout slap in the mug truth was that we don't have the "bandwagon" supporters.

Now I know I will get slammed and set alight metho style for suggesting that we indeed do need these undesireables, but please, hear me out.

So we identified teams of the past, say the late 90's and early 00's - which locomotive would you say people jumped aboard?
Anyone Murali up essendon?

That's because they were the all dominant team back then, and we all know that essendon supporters, with their little "hirdy" and "lloydy" badges plugged on to their freshly purchased scarves, looved to boast about their club to friends and family till all their poor ears bled.

And yes, most friends already support teams. But then there are those who in fact commit the ultimate sin - they support no team while residing in the football birth town.

So they jump aboard the bombers express..


Now fast forward to 2008. Who's the up and coming team this year?
Well, if it isn't those losers (yes, I am aware of our current to semi-past history), the Sainters..

Now I can't even walk down the street without seeing some absolute **** walking around with thier little gold st kilda badge on, or driving through Brighton and seeing every mum driving their 4wd to pick up the kiddies with a fresh new "Sainters 2009" sticker on the boot window - and there's no hint of any previous years sitckers...

Where have these clones all come from?!

I'll tell ya - it's bandwagon support.

Now instead of saying we are too good for that (although, you are correct, we probably almost are), I say we take onboard what has happened in the past and begin to start our very own bandwagon of support!


We have by far the most potential up-and-coming lists (shoo shoo you Carlton scum who will no doubt spam us with your crap in here about how you are coming, just as you do with every other thread on the dee's board) and I, nay, we say that we should get out there and start blantantly talking up our club.

Let's show some pride, and awake the inner demon! Raghhr!

I have already converted three of my mates - shown them the light if you will..
And I urge all you other proud melbourne supporters to get out there and spread the word!

I'm sick to death of these four "super vicco" clubs always gettin' a mention on the yarn box!

And now richmond rekons they're back in because they drew the number 75,000 on a piece of paper!
NO!
Let's get out there and build this club up!

My challenge for all of you is to chip away at at least 3 mates this next week, and together we will create the club we all want!

Cos it's the emblem of, the team we love!

I know I'll be keeping an eye on the red and the blue.

Will you?

 

[Mr Rude]

Can you post the second book of the bible also?

 

[ptrg]

Living up to your namesake..

Sorry, a bit to complex for you?

Maybe a simpler story, like My Pet Goat is more your thing.
You can find it in all good book stores..

Just an honest post. I expected other non Melbourne flogs to flame thrower me, but not people from within..

 

[Deefolt]

Melbourne have more than our share of bandwagon support. Just look at 2000 for example. Our crowds basically double when wrnsttubg together like 4 wins or something. We get wins we will get the bandwagoners. People are sick of seeing a losing club

 

[cannons]

It's an interesting notion, but as you say, bandwagon supporters generally come with on-field success.

Seeing as Melbourne is still a at least a season or two away from that kind of success, it's hard to see us attracting bandwagon supporters at this point.

Having said that, I like your 'word of mouth' idea.

The club could have some kind of special offer to facilitate this, maybe they could offer existing members a discount on something if they manage to convince someone else to sign up for a membership, or something of that nature.

Obviously, that idea is very undeveloped, but it certainly has potential.

 

[Supermercado]

Just watch the crowd at any finals match we played last decade. Thousands of proud and passionate arseholes who leapt off when the going got tough.

I'd rather try and fire up the once a year QB types who think they do their duty unfurling a picnic rug and eating homemade sandwiches on a public holiday.

 

[richskee]

It's an interesting notion, but as you say, bandwagon supporters generally come with on-field success.

Seeing as Melbourne is still a at least a season or two away from that kind of success, it's hard to see us attracting bandwagon supporters at this point.

Having said that, I like your 'word of mouth' idea.

The club could have some kind of special offer to facilitate this, maybe they could offer existing members a discount on something if they manage to convince someone else to sign up for a membership, or something of that nature.

Obviously, that idea is very undeveloped, but it certainly has potential.

Agreed! Great idea

 

[mfc150]

How old are you dude? did you see the Robert Flower retirement bandwagon coinciding with our first finals appearance since forever.

If you build it they will come.

 

[Mr Rude]

Living up to your namesake..

Sorry, a bit to complex for you?

Maybe a simpler story, like My Pet Goat is more your thing.
You can find it in all good book stores..

Just an honest post. I expected other non Melbourne flogs to flame thrower me, but not people from within..

I wasn't disregarding the notion of your post. I was simply implying you could have said all of what you posted in about 5 sentences.

Its pretty bloody simple. If we win, we will get the supporters. Right now we are one of the most unattractive sides to watch. Only the diehards turn up and as soon as we get some success they will come out of the woodwork.

 

[dee64]

How old are you dude? did you see the Robert Flower retirement bandwagon coinciding with our first finals appearance since forever.

If you build it they will come.

Correct, and the Essendon bandwagon coincided with their success in the early to mid '80s.

The facts are that the MFC have probably the highest percentage of members/supporters ratio out of all the AFL teams. Unfortunately, we don't have a large supporter base.

Our poor attendances are due to the garbage that we serve up on the field. You might believe that we have a great coach and an exciting list, but our performances suggest that's folly. No neutral footy followers would attend our games.

In the '70s and early '80s, as a kid, I'd happily traipse down to the G on my own just to watch Robbie play, knowing full well that we'd probably get beaten. Despite being a paid up member, I won't rearrange other commitments (work or social) around this current team, because I find the brand of football we play excruciating to watch.

Call me a bandwagoner if you like, but as I've got older, my priorities in life have changed. Watching garbage football is not high on my list.

 

[The Demon]

The current administration is also putting a lot of time and effort into attracting new members from the Casey region.It would be interesting to find out in a few years time if that is having an effect.

Not sure how the utes will look parked next to the Range Rovers,however I think it will be a good mix and help us shake the tiresome "Mt Buller" tag.

What do others think?

 

[Captain Jack]

The current administration is also putting a lot of time and effort into attracting new members from the Casey region.It would be interesting to find out in a few years time if that is having an effect.

Not sure how the utes will look parked next to the Range Rovers,however I think it will be a good mix and help us shake the tiresome "Mt Buller" tag.

What do others think?

Well it seems to be working at least in part... the car park at the Intraclub last month was full of utes, Commodores and the like. Only saw one Volvo... ironically its alarm was going off.
If only my one-eyed Essendon friend had been there... never would've mentioned Mt Buller again.

How old are you dude? did you see the Robert Flower retirement bandwagon coinciding with our first finals appearance since forever.

If you build it they will come.

I think you'll find that most of us never saw Flower play... unfortunate, but that's the BF demographic. Myself included in that.

 

[wowlace]

I've been a member since 2007 when I moved here. I joined up when Melbourne sucked. Dunno if you would call that jumping on the bandwagon.

 

[Gazza_11]

I say we make a thread now were all the true Demons supporters sign up. Then in 2020 when we have 15 premierships, we see how many true Demon supporters have been there the whole time!

 

[Fairtex]

I say we make a thread now were all the true Demons supporters sign up. Then in 2020 when we have 15 premierships, we see how many true Demon supporters have been there the whole time!

Says the guy who joined in March 2010 after the draft (And yes I know my join date says march 2010 but I was an existing member).

 

[Gazza_11]

It says Feb 2010 actually

And I've been on the Dees since I could walk!

 

[HiHoEverybody]

I remember going to a Melb V Rich game In round 22 (When Farmer took that grab on Lyons back) and there was 75,000 people at that game. We played Rich In round 22 at the end of 2008 and there was 30,000. Dont worry when we're winning they come out of the woodwork.

 

[Supermercado]

I remember going to a Melb V Rich game In round 22 (When Farmer took that grab on Lyons back) and there was 75,000 people at that game. We played Rich In round 22 at the end of 2008 and there was 30,000. Dont worry when we're winning they come out of the woodwork.

I reckon there were about 50,000 hopeful Tigers fans there that day. It sounded like it from all the crying

 

[bean dailey]

I loved that game.. Probably in my top 5.. because I have a hate for Richmond.. Your right it was 50,000 crying tigers fans.. And 25,000 Melbourne fans thinking about finals and farmers mark infront of the red seats!

 

[goDees22]

Yep, awesome game. All the Richmond fans there cos if they won they'd be 4th i think, only for farmer and neitz to absolutely destroy them, and then adelaide and st.kilda after that. Biggest travesty ever that adelaide won that flag after we flogged them 3 weeks earlier

Aaaanyway, i've been trying to do this for ages, anyone with half a brain and knows how the draft and salary cap works knows we are gonna be up and about with an awesome team in a couple of years, hopefully we get everyone on board. I myself have probably been a bit bangwagonish, i live a long way from melbourne but used to bend over backwards to get to every game at the g, now i'll go if i'm free but prob only went to about 6 games last year.

 

[Fairtex]

It's simple really...People don't want to fork out money to watch s**t football.

 

[Rojik of the Arctic]

Go back to the 1987 finals against Nth and Sydney where we had 70%+ of the crowd that turned up to watch (I missed the Hawthorn on as I was away on holidays thank god). 3 years earlier it was three men and a dog watching the games. We have 'em they just are a bit quieter than the rest until the team starts winning.

 

[bingers]

Correct, and the Essendon bandwagon coincided with their success in the early to mid '80s.

The facts are that the MFC have probably the highest percentage of members/supporters ratio out of all the AFL teams. Unfortunately, we don't have a large supporter base.

Our poor attendances are due to the garbage that we serve up on the field. You might believe that we have a great coach and an exciting list, but our performances suggest that's folly. No neutral footy followers would attend our games.

In the '70s and early '80s, as a kid, I'd happily traipse down to the G on my own just to watch Robbie play, knowing full well that we'd probably get beaten. Despite being a paid up member, I won't rearrange other commitments (work or social) around this current team, because I find the brand of football we play excruciating to watch.

Call me a bandwagoner if you like, but as I've got older, my priorities in life have changed. Watching garbage football is not high on my list.

_________________________________________________________

Dee64. Couldn't have put it better myself. Probably equally well, but not better.

 

[pierresmate931]

Yep, awesome game. All the Richmond fans there cos if they won they'd be 4th i think, only for farmer and neitz to absolutely destroy them, and then adelaide and st.kilda after that. Biggest travesty ever that adelaide won that flag after we flogged them 3 weeks earlier

Aaaanyway, i've been trying to do this for ages, anyone with half a brain and knows how the draft and salary cap works knows we are gonna be up and about with an awesome team in a couple of years, hopefully we get everyone on board. I myself have probably been a bit bangwagonish, i live a long way from melbourne but used to bend over backwards to get to every game at the g, now i'll go if i'm free but prob only went to about 6 games last year.

If they won they would have been 8th, but as usual they finished 9th. 76 point win to the dees was huge. I got cautioned by MCC security at the tender age of 10 because i was waving my flag to viciously and i sconed an old Richmond supporter in the melon

 

[lose]

If they won they would have been 8th, but as usual they finished 9th. 76 point win to the dees was huge. I got cautioned by MCC security at the tender age of 10 because i was waving my flag to viciously and i sconed an old Richmond supporter in the melon

gold... but not as good a day as 94 when g lyon kicked 10 and the ox was simply a freak and we destroyed the dogs at the g... was only 5 but will never forget that day... plus got abused by a couple of old dogs women because i kept waving my flag... guess they had a pretty bad day... as did danny southern... lol