FIND out what’s being said about the club in the major daily newspapers on Monday, May 9, 2011
Herald Sun
Green’s gesture typifies win
By Mark Stevens
BRAD Green turned to the Melbourne faithful in the northern stand and grabbed the crest on his guernsey so hard he almost ripped it off. Adelaide was dead and buried by the time the third-quarter set shot sailed through, but the passionate celebration was more about the week than the moment. The Demons endured a torrid time in the lead-up after a woeful loss to West Coast and as skipper Green copped as much heat as anyone. "It just came out of the blue ... how proud I am to play for the Melbourne footy club and how proud I am to captain it," Green said of the emotional gesture. "We'd been under the pump all week and I wanted to put the symbol out there that we're out here playing for the jumper. "A lot of things are said when you're captain of the club. "I don't want to sit there and be treated the way we've been treated in this past week."
Demon pride after horror week
By Rod Nicholson
THIS was the Mother's Day gift Melbourne president Jim Stynes boldly predicted. "Mum, whose nickname is Mother Teresa, is the ultimate optimist so failure is not a consideration," Stynes warned before the critical clash with Adelaide at the MCG. The Demons didn't give Stynes a minute's anxiety, ruthlessly winning by 96 points after what Stynes described as "10 excruciatingly tough days" of intense examination after the 54-point loss to West Coast. "The media criticism during the past 10 days really hurt. It put pressure on everyone and everyone lifted," a jubilant Stynes told players and fans after the rampage at the MCG. "I wouldn't have cared had we won by only two points - this was about building characters. "This will help the players know they have resilience and that they can cop criticism and not let it run them down. "We took a step forward today but we will be judged again next week and that is good for us. "We must build resilience and develop under pressure."
The Age
Demons repay Stynes’ optimism
By Martin Blake
''WE WON'T be distracted by noise, and there will be plenty of noise. We have a deeper belief in what we're creating.''- Jimmy Stynes, president of Melbourne. Jimmy Stynes had his mother at the football yesterday for Mother's Day. Acknowledging Teresa Stynes' presence before the game when he rose to address the faithful at his president's lunch, he pointed out that having raised a family of six the woman he and his siblings call ''Mother Teresa'' still outsprints numerous Stynes to church on Sundays. His mother, said Stynes, was an optimist, which meant something good must come of the day, just as it did in 1991 when she accompanied him to the Brownlow Medal count and watched him win it. ''Who could forget the green, snakeskin handbag she took to the Brownlow in '91 as a lucky charm?'' he said. The unfailing optimism worked a treat. After what Stynes called ''10 excruciating days'' since Melbourne's dreadful defeat by West Coast in Perth, the Demons ran out again looking for redemption. Less than three hours later, the heavy scrutiny from the news media and doubts cast on the future of Melbourne's coach, Dean Bailey, looked to be slightly premature.
Statistics fail to measure Demons' passion
By Greg Baum
LAST week, after Melbourne's capitulation to West Coast, fans and media had the Demons up against a wall as if before a firing squad. All week, they had their backs against that wall as an inquisition was mounted, trying to reconcile top-eight status with a bottom-four performance. Last night, the Demons were lined up against another wall, this one resplendent in the club's colours, as charismatic president Jimmy Stynes, reflecting on a 16-goal demolition of Adelaide, addressed them, saying: ''Without doubt, that was our best win in three years.'' Then he led them and jubilant fans in an extracurricular chorus of It's A Grand Old Flag. From wall to wall, Melbourne was unrecognisable as itself. It had 39 shots to 13 yesterday, but that was the least measure of it. For the shell-shocked Crows, this was their worst defeat since Neil Craig's fourth game in charge, seven years ago, but it could have been worse. The Demons did in the second half what they should have in the first, and would have but for overeagerness and inaccuracy.
The Australian
Demons hit back to maul Crows
By Stephen Rielly
THE football world was looking for a response from Melbourne yesterday, but unsure that it would, or could, come. So bad were the Demons in Perth 11 days ago that the sense of something deeply wrong within the team had been difficult to dismiss. Defender Colin Garland described the loss, to West Coast, as an experience that reminded him of the bleak times two and three years earlier, when the club wasn't in the business of winning but accumulating draft picks. It followed then that the AFL community, especially those of the red and the blue persuasion, might only believe in the progress of Melbourne's reconstruction again if they saw yesterday that the club had been both shaken and stirred by such an inept performance. And shaken and stirred, it seems, they were. The Demons mauled a young and quickly broken Adelaide side at the MCG in a manner not seen from a Melbourne team since the finest days of Neale Daniher's time. As Melbourne president Jim Stynes told the players and fans in the rooms afterwards: "There was criticism flying around all week. You felt it, you hurt and without doubt it was our best win in three years".
Herald Sun
Green’s gesture typifies win
By Mark Stevens
BRAD Green turned to the Melbourne faithful in the northern stand and grabbed the crest on his guernsey so hard he almost ripped it off. Adelaide was dead and buried by the time the third-quarter set shot sailed through, but the passionate celebration was more about the week than the moment. The Demons endured a torrid time in the lead-up after a woeful loss to West Coast and as skipper Green copped as much heat as anyone. "It just came out of the blue ... how proud I am to play for the Melbourne footy club and how proud I am to captain it," Green said of the emotional gesture. "We'd been under the pump all week and I wanted to put the symbol out there that we're out here playing for the jumper. "A lot of things are said when you're captain of the club. "I don't want to sit there and be treated the way we've been treated in this past week."
Demon pride after horror week
By Rod Nicholson
THIS was the Mother's Day gift Melbourne president Jim Stynes boldly predicted. "Mum, whose nickname is Mother Teresa, is the ultimate optimist so failure is not a consideration," Stynes warned before the critical clash with Adelaide at the MCG. The Demons didn't give Stynes a minute's anxiety, ruthlessly winning by 96 points after what Stynes described as "10 excruciatingly tough days" of intense examination after the 54-point loss to West Coast. "The media criticism during the past 10 days really hurt. It put pressure on everyone and everyone lifted," a jubilant Stynes told players and fans after the rampage at the MCG. "I wouldn't have cared had we won by only two points - this was about building characters. "This will help the players know they have resilience and that they can cop criticism and not let it run them down. "We took a step forward today but we will be judged again next week and that is good for us. "We must build resilience and develop under pressure."
The Age
Demons repay Stynes’ optimism
By Martin Blake
''WE WON'T be distracted by noise, and there will be plenty of noise. We have a deeper belief in what we're creating.''- Jimmy Stynes, president of Melbourne. Jimmy Stynes had his mother at the football yesterday for Mother's Day. Acknowledging Teresa Stynes' presence before the game when he rose to address the faithful at his president's lunch, he pointed out that having raised a family of six the woman he and his siblings call ''Mother Teresa'' still outsprints numerous Stynes to church on Sundays. His mother, said Stynes, was an optimist, which meant something good must come of the day, just as it did in 1991 when she accompanied him to the Brownlow Medal count and watched him win it. ''Who could forget the green, snakeskin handbag she took to the Brownlow in '91 as a lucky charm?'' he said. The unfailing optimism worked a treat. After what Stynes called ''10 excruciating days'' since Melbourne's dreadful defeat by West Coast in Perth, the Demons ran out again looking for redemption. Less than three hours later, the heavy scrutiny from the news media and doubts cast on the future of Melbourne's coach, Dean Bailey, looked to be slightly premature.
Statistics fail to measure Demons' passion
By Greg Baum
LAST week, after Melbourne's capitulation to West Coast, fans and media had the Demons up against a wall as if before a firing squad. All week, they had their backs against that wall as an inquisition was mounted, trying to reconcile top-eight status with a bottom-four performance. Last night, the Demons were lined up against another wall, this one resplendent in the club's colours, as charismatic president Jimmy Stynes, reflecting on a 16-goal demolition of Adelaide, addressed them, saying: ''Without doubt, that was our best win in three years.'' Then he led them and jubilant fans in an extracurricular chorus of It's A Grand Old Flag. From wall to wall, Melbourne was unrecognisable as itself. It had 39 shots to 13 yesterday, but that was the least measure of it. For the shell-shocked Crows, this was their worst defeat since Neil Craig's fourth game in charge, seven years ago, but it could have been worse. The Demons did in the second half what they should have in the first, and would have but for overeagerness and inaccuracy.
The Australian
Demons hit back to maul Crows
By Stephen Rielly
THE football world was looking for a response from Melbourne yesterday, but unsure that it would, or could, come. So bad were the Demons in Perth 11 days ago that the sense of something deeply wrong within the team had been difficult to dismiss. Defender Colin Garland described the loss, to West Coast, as an experience that reminded him of the bleak times two and three years earlier, when the club wasn't in the business of winning but accumulating draft picks. It followed then that the AFL community, especially those of the red and the blue persuasion, might only believe in the progress of Melbourne's reconstruction again if they saw yesterday that the club had been both shaken and stirred by such an inept performance. And shaken and stirred, it seems, they were. The Demons mauled a young and quickly broken Adelaide side at the MCG in a manner not seen from a Melbourne team since the finest days of Neale Daniher's time. As Melbourne president Jim Stynes told the players and fans in the rooms afterwards: "There was criticism flying around all week. You felt it, you hurt and without doubt it was our best win in three years".
