With just over a month until the 2014 AFL draft, every Melbourne supporter is dreading a time which should be an exciting one for the club.
This is the opportunity to add some of the most talented youngsters into the mix and hopefully (how many times have we said that word since 2006) get some consistency, wins and movement up the ladder.
I think that for any Demons supporter the excitement of trade week gets washed away when draft day comes.
We all know what draft day feels like as we all sit by our TV screens or radios waiting for the player announcements and contemplating if he will be ‘the one’ or one of the many that have failed.
The Demons have made mistakes and the club, the playing group and the members have paid for it year after year. We are sick of the negativity, and even though hope is a dangerous word we can never lose sight of it.
Yet as we edge closer to draft day, you would have to expect one of those articles reminding the football public of the Melbourne Football Club’s failures in selecting high-school dropouts instead of A-Grade students. It is the equivalent of the model posing with the horse during the spring racing carnival: you know it is coming.
The article on the AFL’s official website titled “They Could Have Been Demons” is another example of the media kicking us when it hurts most, and highlighting the sheer number of cock-ups we have made.
Mind you though, the article does put together a team I was jealous of. But that isn’t the point. Go off and find another easy target to write about besides us. At least we have a coach (looking at you Adelaide and Western Bulldogs), and aren’t embarrassing the league off the field (hello Essendon).
The improvement of the playing squad under Paul Roos and his merry men was significant compared to the rabble that represented the red and blue in 2013. Losing can never be accepted and for the first time in years the playing group looked like they would not accept it either. Just erase the last 10 rounds from your memory bank.
The club have never looked more stable off the field, and it is starting to translate into on-field performances. The additions of Sam Frost, Heritier Lumumba and Jeff Garlett will bolster our playing stocks, yet adding two more class acts to the group would take focus off the Demons. We just have to make sure we stick to the basics and pick up ready-made and not project players.
This will be the year that the Melbourne Football Club gets their drafting strategy right (fingers, toes and eyes crossed) and hopefully the last time we hear about our mistakes and hear about our success.
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Round 5 of the AFL provided plenty of action, from big scorelines to upset wins and pressure starting to build on some clubs and coaches already.
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