Demons 101
Well Saturday started off on a perfect note.
A beautiful autumn day in Sydney preceded what turned out to be a wonderful NSW Demons function. A large contingent descended on the Bavarian Cafe in Fox Studios to listen to an amazing array of guest speakers from the inner sanctum of the MFC. These people gave up their collective valuable time to support the NSW Demons fraternity and the speeches were all extremely enlightening.
Chris Connolly was our MC for the event and gave us a great insight into some of the inequities that currently exist in ground receipts and the hard work the administration of the club has been doing behind the scenes to rectify this and even up the playing field. Max Gawn spoke of how they were’ smashed’ during pre-season, life adjusting to the new game plan, how the new leadership group is starting to gel together and how his rehabilitation is coming along. Don McLardy spoke about our new sponsors and how important it is for supporters to stick with the team and how the whole board has utmost faith in Mark Neeld and the new coaching group.
Finally we had Josh Mahoney and Neil Craig talk about a myriad of topics, from how the players are keeping themselves motivated through goal setting, that morale is surprisingly high and a more thorough insight into our new style of play. All guest speakers were highly accommodating, answered all questions asked and goes to show that the club does value us up here in the harbour city. Overall the function was an almighty success and most of this was down to the diligent hard work put in by Sally and I personally would like to say thank you to her. So thanks Sal.
However this is where the ‘great’ part of the day ended as sadly we were smashed by the Swans in what can only be described as a disappointing effort (insert more vivid adjective here of your own choosing)!. The game was truly over before the Dees even got out of the blocks. So much so that whilst my good mate Ted and I were lucky enough to be holding up the banner pre-game during the players warm up, a stray ball came my way. I picked it up and passed it to Jack Trengove – if you look at our stats at quarter time I am pretty sure I was one of few in Demons gear that had an effective kick against my name at this time!
There were few highlights to come out of the game from our perspective though Jack Watts and Sam Blease both arguably played their best game in Melbourne colours on what really was a dark night for the Melbourne Football Club. It would be remiss of me not to mention Jeremy Howe who surely took mark of the year with his fantastic leap. I am not sure (but I think I read it somewhere on the internet so it must be true) that Howe’s hang time was so long that some supporters arrived back at Tullamarine before he landed on the SCG turf.
I mentioned earlier that Don McLardy made a plea to supporters to stick by the club during these tough times and to pay homage to our 101 point loss I thought I would help our President out and give you all 101 reasons why you should stick with and support the Melbourne Football Club. So here is my Demons 101:
- What else are you going to talk about on Monday around the proverbial water cooler?
- So you have to keep watching sport – it’s in your blood – so are you going to change sports? Don’t believe all the rhetoric about Rugby being the game they play in heaven! Somehow I just can’t see St. Peter being tagged a hooker.
- Rugby League – PLEASE!…..You are kidding!
- So you have to follow AFL – now you can’t possibly support the same side that Joffa follows!
- How can you possibly sing a theme song that starts – da da da da………..that makes me want to throw up!
- Don’t think you can sell all your Demon gear on E-Bay either – the way we are going at the moment you probably couldn’t give the stuff away!
- How could you sleep at night leaving big Jimma with all his hard work on increasing membership being stripped away?
Well it isn’t quite 101 reasons but you get my point. Stick with us – the ride may be bumpy but it will be so worth it in the end – I promise you.
This leads me on to this week’s game and it is the Blues on Sunday. The Blues have some injury concerns and I certainly hope for a good showing and I so desperately want us to win – for no other reason so that I just don’t have to listen to da da da da ANYMORE!
Go Dees
Darren Spence
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