Let's Win The Flag This Year

[FS25]

**** I love this club. But I’m absolutely ******* sick of the whole ‘our team’s in a development phase’ mentality/paradigm that’s a part of the league and our club especially. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A RE-BUILDING TEAM. AT ANY ONE TIME THERE ARE ONLY GOOD SIDES, AVERAGE SIDES AND SHIT SIDES – HAVE A LOOK AT THE LADDER TO SEE WHO’S WHO. Anything else is designed-to-sell-memberships marketing spin that’s admittedly hard to ignore especially when it’s shoved down your throats for a good couple of years. Sure, a young side should get better as it matures, premiership teams are experienced ones, and long term trends aren’t irrelevant. But we’re NOT destined to finish 8-12th this year. And 7th in 2012. And 3rd in 2013. And win a flag in 2014.


ANYONE who actually blindly goes along with that stuff, even after what's happened so far this year – I just reckon you should take a step back and reassess. We need to start living in the present a hell of a lot more – both the supporters (like those who regularly put up with shit because deep down they think we’ll be right in 2013) and the club itself. You never know what’s gonna happen – the plane the team’s on could crash and wipe out half our side. Jurrah and Watts could both do their knees. Right now, we’ve got some great players. In 10 years time I don’t wanna be saying.. “Shit, we had a team made up of trengove, scully, jamar!!, davey, sylvia, jurrah!!!, gysberts, frawley!!! etc etc.. how the **** did we **** that up and not make the most of it?” EVERY YEAR, a club and its players should come out saying/thinking ‘We’re gonna win the flag this year’ and ******* believe it. And I reckon that might be some of the reason why a team like West Coast can come out and do what it’s done, while ours, which was first raised on a diet of “if we can win a couple of quarters and be competitive we’ve done a good job and I’ll be proud of you boys”, and right now is only “continuing along its path until it’s ready to make an assault”, does what it does. Who knows, maybe a new coach might be the only way the players can truly get out of the mindset that losing’s acceptable. Go Dees.

 

[Captain Jack]

I must admit that when I saw the title of this thread, my first thought was troll.

EVERY YEAR, a club and its players should come out saying/thinking ‘We’re gonna win the flag this year’ and ******* believe it. And I reckon that might be some of the reason why a team like West Coast can come out and do what it’s done, while ours, which was first raised on a diet of “if we can win a couple of quarters and be competitive we’ve done a good job and I’ll be proud of you boys”, and right now is only “continuing along its path until it’s ready to make an assault”, does what it does.

Nicely put. Accurate call. Amen.

 

[stretcharmstrong]

Stopped reading at

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A RE-BUILDING TEAM

... really, no such thing?

 

[Supermercado]

Don't agree with absolutely everything in the OP but makes some good points. I almost spew when I see somebody write "will he be in our next premiership team?" Stupidest comment - especially when you're dealing with a history like ours.

 

[ThePuppetMaster]

Some interesting points there, maybe demanding a lot more from our players will get better results.

However we ARE a rebuilding team.

But the approach of ingraining high expecations can't be a bad thing.

 

[Billy Demon]

Problem with planning for the GF/Flag in a couple of years is you have to assume everyone else does nothing while MFCs grand plan is rolled out - problem is the other teams won't stand still ..look at Richmond this year. Some good points in this thread - doesn't hurt to have some urgency - can supporters keep waiting for the game plan to stick?

 

[FS25]

It was a bit of a rambling vent so I look like a bit of a tool with all that caps lock but, yeah, instead of there being ‘no such thing’ as rebuilding I was trying to say a team should never be defined by the fact that it’s ‘rebuilding’. The people saying ‘But we ARE rebuilding’ – yeah, all I’m saying is it’s time to shift our focus more away from this long-term you’re mentioning to the short-term. And what IS ‘rebuilding’ anyway? I’d say it’s just a nothing label perpetuated by the footy public, media, etc that gives hope to supporters - an easy way out that softens the blow of the fact that at this point in time you’re average and at an earlier time you were even shitter but are hoping to get better. What – we’re young? Less experienced than some teams? West Coast is too.

Even if it was relevant we should forget it. But it’s scary and maybe controversial to talk about forgetting about the long-term stuff now because when you take away that easy excuse what does it mean... we’re just shit at the moment? And then you start thinking well... what the **** do we do?

I guess make sure whoever’s in there is demanding results and that both they and the players don’t tolerate losing for starters. I just reckon it’s so important for the players and the club to have a mindset that looks to the here and now and to stop thinking about long term ‘rebuilding’. This wasn’t meant to sound so depressing – Bailey and co could sort it out maybe instead of a new coach – and **** I’m excited about some of the amazing footy I’ve seen us play! But at the moment anyone who knows anything about footy knows that Melbourne’s a ‘young, slowly rebuilding side with the potential to become a power blah blah’. Subconsciously, even CONSCIOUSLY, the players know that it’s just not meant to be our year this year. Why then would you put your body on the line - even the prospect of ‘scraping into the finals to get a taste of finals experience’ isn’t much of an incentive compared to winning the ******* premiership. This year we’ve even seen first hand what we can do when we’ve got something to play for. But we’ve always got something to play for – we’re one of only 17 teams in the country that have the opportunity to win the flag 4 months from now!!! It’s about belief. And a winning culture that we need to get back to.

Winners don’t sit back at the start of the year and ask whether they’d be happy with either a 6-10 or a 8-12 place finish – aiming for anything less than the ultimate prize is a ******* disgrace.

 

[Rudeurrection]

Weak team is weak, they are gutless. If they said that naughty 'F' word that would put unfair and heavy expecations on their fragile shoulders.

Common knowledge i would have thought.