Are these the worst years of our recent history to be a fan?

club29 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 11, 2015 10:34 am

Hornet wrote:

The day this club is forced/chooses to merge or re-locate etc... is the day I'll piss on this code and never look back

There would be thousands that do the same.

I remember my grandpa doing it when Fitzroy went to Brisbane.
A few years later he very proud when his boys won their 3rd flag in a row.
I have a few old South Melbourne follower friends who said the same when they made a huge relocation.
They love "the bloods" more than ever now.

I know you say you will be gone forever but i will always hold out hope that you would be back Hornet.

Hornet · **Joined:** Sat May 21, 2005 5:15 pm **Posts:** 7354

club29 wrote:

Hornet wrote:

The day this club is forced/chooses to merge or re-locate etc... is the day I'll piss on this code and never look back

There would be thousands that do the same.

I remember my grandpa doing it when Fitzroy went to Brisbane.
A few years later he very proud when his boys won their 3rd flag in a row.
I have a few old South Melbourne follower friends who said the same when they made a huge relocation.
They love "the bloods" more than ever now.

I know you say you will be gone forever but i will always hold out hope that you would be back Hornet.

I get what you're saying but I don't love the game like I used to... I don't watch many games that don't involve the Blues

It's more than our poor form... I don't recognise this game anymore... I don't like it at times

bondiblue · **Posted:** Sat Apr 11, 2015 11:12 am

club29 wrote:

bondiblue wrote:

club29 wrote:

I really think it is time we make the big call. Get ahead of the game with a progressive move that leaves the others in our wake.
The amount of clubs in Melbourne is unsustainable. Things are going to get even harder for Melbourne based clubs and the Saints, Dogs and North are really going to struggle and we will struggle too due to being crap at a really bad time.

You watch the interstate teams with their stadiums and full houses and you can't see a flag for any of the struggling clubs in Melb for a long time. Hawks and Pies are huge. They will always be in the game. Dons and Tigers not too far behind. They are safe.

I think we get together with North and create a super club. Take the MCG as our own as part of the deal. Train out of PP and build a couple of museums to honour the past. Northern Blues.

Forget about all the negativity in our minds with mergers. This is 2015. This would be a Collingwood moving to the MCG or Hawks to Waverly type move only on a 2015 grand scale.

Not sure what the AFL or North think about such a move but if they were onboard it would be MASSIVE.

Our jumper and song would have to go but i am sure we could find a nice shade of Blue between Navy and Royal.

A whole new board with 6 guns on it.

Some fans will drop off but in time new ones will take their place and some.

Blue skies ahead for Northern.

Carn a blues.

No way.

We are not broke.

We are not filling the stadiums because we fail on the field.

Fix that up and the seats will be Navy Blue again.

Can't see it happening. Not to a level where we win flags and our fans get the "Hawthorn experience".

I see it more as an aggressive move. Getting on the front foot. A modern day version of the Hawks taking on Tasmania. I see it as something that other clubs will look at in 15 years and regret not getting involved.
I know there is a lot of pride attached and mergers are generally not looked at as a positive move. Particularly with those that followed the game through the 80's and 90's but i really think times are changing and these days change again even quicker. It is a huge 2015 play that i am suggesting.

If done right it can be done with our heads held high and will lead to a better football experience for the Blues and Roos fans.

Go Blues.

The Hawthorn experience was not based on a merger. . Quite the opposite.

The Hawks built their list from the ground up.
They got lucky with a few trades ie Rawlings to Footscray, Thompson to North and Tigers selected Tambling instead of Franklin and got 3 first rounders Roughy Franklin and Lewis.

We have more quality kids now than what they started with in 2002 Imo : Docherty Menzel Buckley Cripps Rainbow Jaksch Boekhurst Smith Whiley Byrne Gowers and older guys who will be around in 4 years time Yarran Bell Foster and possibly Kreuzer Everitt Jones Sheehan Hendo Casboult and Giles. Add class with first round picks over next 3 years a couple of left field successes and a few latter round picks.....there's plenty of hope.

The problem is many cant see tres for wood having endured mediocrity and expected success rather than planned success.

We will not merge and we will bounce back this decade.

Rexy · **Joined:** Fri Aug 15, 2008 6:46 am **Posts:** 28227

club29 wrote:

Hornet wrote:

The day this club is forced/chooses to merge or re-locate etc... is the day I'll piss on this code and never look back

There would be thousands that do the same.

I remember my grandpa doing it when Fitzroy went to Brisbane.
A few years later he very proud when his boys won their 3rd flag in a row.
I have a few old South Melbourne follower friends who said the same when they made a huge relocation.
They love "the bloods" more than ever now.

I know you say you will be gone forever but i will always hold out hope that you would be back Hornet.

Can't see the big navy blue fish giving up their little pond.

club29 · **Posted:** Sat Apr 11, 2015 2:27 pm

bondiblue wrote:

club29 wrote:

bondiblue wrote:

club29 wrote:

I really think it is time we make the big call. Get ahead of the game with a progressive move that leaves the others in our wake.
The amount of clubs in Melbourne is unsustainable. Things are going to get even harder for Melbourne based clubs and the Saints, Dogs and North are really going to struggle and we will struggle too due to being crap at a really bad time.

You watch the interstate teams with their stadiums and full houses and you can't see a flag for any of the struggling clubs in Melb for a long time. Hawks and Pies are huge. They will always be in the game. Dons and Tigers not too far behind. They are safe.

I think we get together with North and create a super club. Take the MCG as our own as part of the deal. Train out of PP and build a couple of museums to honour the past. Northern Blues.

Forget about all the negativity in our minds with mergers. This is 2015. This would be a Collingwood moving to the MCG or Hawks to Waverly type move only on a 2015 grand scale.

Not sure what the AFL or North think about such a move but if they were onboard it would be MASSIVE.

Our jumper and song would have to go but i am sure we could find a nice shade of Blue between Navy and Royal.

A whole new board with 6 guns on it.

Some fans will drop off but in time new ones will take their place and some.

Blue skies ahead for Northern.

Carn a blues.

No way.

We are not broke.

We are not filling the stadiums because we fail on the field.

Fix that up and the seats will be Navy Blue again.

Can't see it happening. Not to a level where we win flags and our fans get the "Hawthorn experience".

I see it more as an aggressive move. Getting on the front foot. A modern day version of the Hawks taking on Tasmania. I see it as something that other clubs will look at in 15 years and regret not getting involved.
I know there is a lot of pride attached and mergers are generally not looked at as a positive move. Particularly with those that followed the game through the 80's and 90's but i really think times are changing and these days change again even quicker. It is a huge 2015 play that i am suggesting.

If done right it can be done with our heads held high and will lead to a better football experience for the Blues and Roos fans.

Go Blues.

The Hawthorn experience was not based on a merger. . Quite the opposite.

The Hawks built their list from the ground up.
They got lucky with a few trades ie Rawlings to Footscray, Thompson to North and Tigers selected Tambling instead of Franklin and got 3 first rounders Roughy Franklin and Lewis.

We have more quality kids now than what they started with in 2002 Imo : Docherty Menzel Buckley Cripps Rainbow Jaksch Boekhurst Smith Whiley Byrne Gowers and older guys who will be around in 4 years time Yarran Bell Foster and possibly Kreuzer Everitt Jones Sheehan Hendo Casboult and Giles. Add class with first round picks over next 3 years a couple of left field successes and a few latter round picks.....there's plenty of hope.

The problem is many cant see tres for wood having endured mediocrity and expected success rather than planned success.

We will not merge and we will bounce back this decade.

Members money and sponsorship will be hard to come by this decade. The Hawks timed their move way out east perfectly (lucky). Boom times in Australia. The rest of this decade we will be one of the clubs that are in the selling "hope" as our main product...............or with a little sacrifice and a bit of gumption we could be a superclub playing blockbusters that mean something on the MCG every couple of weeks. Still Blue boys and representing the ever expanding north of Melbourne.

jim · **Joined:** Wed Oct 12, 2005 9:21 pm **Posts:** 8201

keogh wrote:

Yes

In theory we should be top 4 given where we were at 10 years ago.
That is how the comp is set up
The club have been shit because
Shit coaching appointments
Shit trades
Shit recruiting
Shit injury management
Shit player development
Shit culture
Shit leadership on and off the field
Shit admin decisions
That's a lot of shit

And shit flows downstream
The board mainly the Pratts and Mathiesons are the problem
Until the board goes I am afraid to say we will get further behind most clubs who do these things better

Shit!

The Duke · **Posted:** Mon Apr 13, 2015 9:15 am

The club should rent a shed at Storage King, take down every single piece of memorabilia from the last 150 years and lock it up!!

I'm sick of hearing about what a @#$%&! wonderful history we have. All the new recruits ......'it's just great to walk around and see all the amazing pictures and trophies' :banghead:

.

Clear the joint out. Start from scratch. Forget the past. Concentrate on the future. We're too busy with our heads up our arses reflecting on 1970 when we should be working on the next 20 years.

Who gives a @#$%&! about the past. That's history. Kids don't give a @#$%&! about crusty old flags and black and white photos of Jezza's mark.

The Blueseum · **Joined:** Thu Nov 08, 2007 8:02 am **Posts:** 1623

The Duke wrote:

The club should rent a shed at Storage King, take down every single piece of memorabilia from the last 150 years and lock it up!!

I'm sick of hearing about what a @#$%&! wonderful history we have. All the new recruits ......'it's just great to walk around and see all the amazing pictures and trophies' :banghead:

.

Clear the joint out. Start from scratch. Forget the past. Concentrate on the future. We're too busy with our heads up our arses reflecting on 1970 when we should be working on the next 20 years.

Who gives a @#$%&! about the past. That's history. Kids don't give a @#$%&! about crusty old flags and black and white photos of Jezza's mark.

CLOSE DOWN THE BLUESEUM!

From the Blueseum

The Duke · **Posted:** Mon Apr 13, 2015 10:33 am

The Blueseum wrote:

The Duke wrote:

The club should rent a shed at Storage King, take down every single piece of memorabilia from the last 150 years and lock it up!!

I'm sick of hearing about what a @#$%&! wonderful history we have. All the new recruits ......'it's just great to walk around and see all the amazing pictures and trophies' :banghead:

.

Clear the joint out. Start from scratch. Forget the past. Concentrate on the future. We're too busy with our heads up our arses reflecting on 1970 when we should be working on the next 20 years.

Who gives a @#$%&! about the past. That's history. Kids don't give a @#$%&! about crusty old flags and black and white photos of Jezza's mark.

CLOSE DOWN THE BLUESEUM!

From the Blueseum

I did think of you while typing that - and I reckon The Blueseum better services the club than the actual trophies and flags themselves.

NavyIrish · **Joined:** Sun May 19, 2013 9:14 pm **Posts:** 88

The Duke wrote:

The club should rent a shed at Storage King, take down every single piece of memorabilia from the last 150 years and lock it up!!

I'm sick of hearing about what a @#$%&! wonderful history we have. All the new recruits ......'it's just great to walk around and see all the amazing pictures and trophies' :banghead:

.

Clear the joint out. Start from scratch. Forget the past. Concentrate on the future. We're too busy with our heads up our arses reflecting on 1970 when we should be working on the next 20 years.

Who gives a @#$%&! about the past. That's history. Kids don't give a @#$%&! about crusty old flags and black and white photos of Jezza's mark.

I like what you are saying. The past should be an inspiration for future success. The club uses it as a cloak to hide their present failings.

Synbad · **Posted:** Tue Apr 14, 2015 11:14 am

Dominator_7 wrote:

This is nothing compared to the Dark Years under Pagan.
No money
No players (apart from Fev)
No facilities
Belted by 10 goals + more often than not
Contrary to what others said, until Pratt turned up out of the blue, it felt like there was no future.
The depths of how much of a laughing stock we were might be forgotten by some people, but we rivaled the Mark Neild coached Melbourne for crapness on and off the ground.

Pratt may have given us hope but he also gave us inate laziness and the mindset to rely on sugardaddies.
There was nothing that had any staying power with Pratt.
Single mothers syndrome. Ultimately failure after its early hopefulness

Taff · **Posted:** Tue Apr 14, 2015 12:35 pm

Synbad wrote:

Dominator_7 wrote:

This is nothing compared to the Dark Years under Pagan.
No money
No players (apart from Fev)
No facilities
Belted by 10 goals + more often than not
Contrary to what others said, until Pratt turned up out of the blue, it felt like there was no future.
The depths of how much of a laughing stock we were might be forgotten by some people, but we rivaled the Mark Neild coached Melbourne for crapness on and off the ground.

Pratt may have given us hope but he also gave us inate laziness and the mindset to rely on sugardaddies.
There was nothing that had any staying power with Pratt.
Single mothers syndrome. Ultimately failure after its early hopefulness

Agree except for your last sweeping generalisation.

Synbad · **Posted:** Tue Apr 14, 2015 12:38 pm

u just dont want to face it

its what the club is

Bluey44 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 14, 2015 12:57 pm

Microwaves ready !!!!!!!!

robertbb · **Joined:** Tue Jun 24, 2014 1:06 pm **Posts:** 9354

I've always been opposed to a merger.

BUT club29's posts have got me thinking. The landscape has changed dramatically. We need to innovate enough not just to catch up, but to get ahead. There are strongly supported and well-backed clubs in all states now and we just happened to have copped our punishment and bottomed out at *precisely* the wrong time. Add to that our woes with recruitment in the past 10 years, and we could end up in the wilderness for good. We may already be there. We just aren't the massive club we used to be (and that many of us think we still are).

I must say, club29's last few posts have really got me thinking. Merging with North to become the "Northern Blues" is very, very interesting. It might just be the bold, 2015 move akin to Hawthorn's Tassie move, or even South Melbourne's relocation and rebirth in Sydney.

The club would have a clear identity as being the team both for Northern Suburbs of Melbourne (obvious) and then North-West towards Bendigo (capturing what was traditionally Carlton's recruitment zone) and North-East towards Ovens and Murray (which was North's recruitment zone).

Both clubs' colours are blue, however, one could make a strong case for continuing with a Navy uniform, because:
1) To enable the continuity of the uniform traceable back to the equal most successful club in the league's history to date (and a foundation club, which North are not)
2) The Western Bulldogs are already royal blue anyway

You could still have a boxing kangaroo as the "mascot", but that doesn't mean it needs to be on the jumper necessarily (Hawks, Pies, Cats, Tigers and even current kangaroos) don't have pics of the mascot on their uniform. A Navy blue jumper with a newly designed "NB" crest would work.

If we add our membership (45,000) to North's membership... that's 80,000. All of a sudden, we're right on par with the best.

And aren't Docklands' owners wanting to build apartments at one point? And hasn't that pushed talk of a replacement 'boutique Stadium' in Melbourne? We should offer up Princes Park. The united club should be allowed to sell Arden street and pocket the cash (as the Hawks did with Glenferrie) and invest that cash, partly towards a new train station in the Princess Park vicinity (underground?) with a commitment and roadmap from the State Government to building new high speed train lines out to both Bendigo and Ovens/Murray - so every week thousands of regional fans can jump on trains and come down to see *their* team play. Drop the remaining cash into state of the art football operations (recruitment, development...) and into improving the training facilities at Princes Park while the AFL picks up the tab to build new stands (capacity 60-70,000). We'd play all our home games against Interstate clubs (plus the smaller Melbourne clubs) there, and it becomes a fortress for us again.

Thoughts?

robertbb · **Joined:** Tue Jun 24, 2014 1:06 pm **Posts:** 9354

Just started a merger thread:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34634

Rexy · **Joined:** Fri Aug 15, 2008 6:46 am **Posts:** 28227

There won't be a merger as long as the board members want to keep their play thing to themselves.

Synbad · **Posted:** Tue Apr 14, 2015 1:52 pm

oh my God!
now were talking mergers to survive???

Lets not get hysterical.....

though i think we will be someones plaything for the next decade.. and then they will be carted out in a box.. and we wont have a succession plan... because we never have any plans..

and then hopefully smething might change in the power vacum

Synbad · **Posted:** Tue Apr 14, 2015 1:53 pm

we definitely dont need a merger.. though we do need an injection of common sense

Sydney Blue · **Posted:** Tue Apr 14, 2015 2:00 pm

http://m.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/tal ... al_twitter

This hurts

Are these the worst years of our recent history to be a fan?

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