I think its a great move that we will be aligned with Casey as of next year..

Now we really will feel like we have a home, we cannot underestimate how important this is for us..

For those who dont know Judd was nearly a demon until he was shown our "facilities" then he went running!!!

Lets hope this is the start of our ressurection..

GET PUMPED PEOPLE!!!

Yes its a positive move to create some emphasis in this region.. all for it.

But please dont delude yourself that Dudd was EVER going to be a Demon.. thats just being silly !!

I'm not sure training once every now and then in a region is going to net us many more supporters let alone members.

Sounds like we got beaten to the punch by St.Kilda, but I'll reserve judgement till we hear a bit more about it.

I'm not sure training once every now and then in a region is going to net us many more supporters let alone members.

Sounds like we got beaten to the punch by St.Kilda, but I'll reserve judgement till we hear a bit more about it.

Beaten to the punch for what?

If you mean the Sandy alliance, I doubt it. Given the alliances already in place, if MFC and SFC were both happy with the existing alliance, St. Kilda wouldn't have had a show in getting their noses in as our arrangement would've been signed and sealed ages ago. I doubt this is anything other than a four way mutual agreement.

I doubt this is anything other than a four way mutual agreement.

exactomundo !! A little bit of commonsense in the desert of competition.

I'm not sure training once every now and then in a region is going to net us many more supporters let alone members.

Sounds like we got beaten to the punch by St.Kilda, but I'll reserve judgement till we hear a bit more about it.

In what sense did we get beaten to the punch by St.Kilda? Irrespective of how the Sandy alliance was going, if we're building facilities at Casey Fields, it makes sense to affiliate with the side there, rather than have our 'reserves' players at one place, and our summer training base at another.

You're right to say that training there every now and again won't do much, but we're just got on board with the VFL side and will have Dees players competing there every second week of the season, as well as all of us training there at the summer. Once again, probably not enough to do a heap, but it's yet another step towards becoming part of that community - there will undoubtedly be more.

I think it's also smarter for St. Kilda to associate with the bayside area, and Sandringham is a nice fit - particularly with Frankston not interested in affiliating. For us, this is another step on the way towards building a presence in Casey Fields. The swap seems a win/win for both AFL Clubs.

I'm not sure how VFA/VFL Springvale old-timers on the Casey Board would feel about it, as the Scorpions were originally based in Springvale, and have a long and successful history thru several leagues, but i really hope that we can convince them to drop the 'Scorpion' mascot in favour of the 'Demon', and adopt our jumper, or a similar one.

From what i understand, the Scorpion's colours are already red, navy and white (like our clash strip). I think if we were the 'Casey Demons' in the VFL, with a modified 'Demon' jumper (hell, they can even have the surplus stock of this years silver clash strip, lol), it would go a long way into securing new supporters/members for 'the Demons' in the Casey area, and would create a more permanent 'Demon/MFC' identity in the area.

Similar to what Essendon have done with the Bendigo Bombers.

Since we've been doing jumper designs for the last few days, I thought i'd have a crack at what the Casey DEMONS should look like.

It makes sense that St Kilda aligns with Sandringham as they are close neighbours – it should have happened years ago. But it didn’t happen for that reason – it happened because Sandy panicked that it would lose Melbourne to Casey, and ran to St Kilda before St Kilda and Frankston became too attached to each other.

However an interesting possibility is that when the Saints get to Frankston (which will probably just about match the 5 year term of the alignment between St Kilda and Sandy) they will probably align with Frankston and then Sandy will be left like a shag on a rock anyway.

Thursday’s announcement is good from the Casey Scorpions point of view. Instead of being left wondering whether and when St Kilda would dump them and align with Frankston (and then potentially being left without an AFL partner if Melbourne stayed with Sandringham), the Scorps will almost certainly now align with Melbourne:

• Melbourne has no VFL partner from 2009 because Sandy has done a runner to St Kilda

• Melbourne is publicly committed to moving to Casey Fields, and

• unaligned VFL teams would not touch Melbourne because:

o Frankston wants to stand alone and will save their virginity for St Kilda post the move to Frankston Oval

o Port won’t want a team that wants to establish a new base at the Scorpions ground.

But the real sleeper I expect is that St Kilda just might now seek to review its earlier decision to set up home in Frankston and seek to move into the Trevor Barker Oval. That would tick every box for everyone:

• Saints and Sandy aligned and based together

• Scorps and Melbourne aligned and based at Casey Fields

• Frankston maintains its stand-alone status

• St Kilda avoids a messy, drawn out effort to get established at Frankston.

Not much chance of the Scorps changing to the Casey Demons I’m afraid. A few years ago there were similar discussions involving North Melbourne. There was no way the Scorps would change to the Casey Kangaroos even though it had a great ring to it.

The MFC effort to engage with the Casey community will be the key to success. There will be a lot more than just a training session every now and then I think we’ll find. If played correctly this has the potential to significantly supplement and reinvigorate MFC’s membership base.

But the real sleeper I expect is that St Kilda just might now seek to review its earlier decision to set up home in Frankston and seek to move into the Trevor Barker Oval.

Unlikely IMO. One of the major problems with TBO IMO is the size of the ground. Efforts have been made in the past to find a way to stretch it but the greenies won't allow the loss of foreshore land for that purpose.

Beaten to the punch for what?

If you mean the Sandy alliance, I doubt it. Given the alliances already in place, if MFC and SFC were both happy with the existing alliance, St. Kilda wouldn't have had a show in getting their noses in as our arrangement would've been signed and sealed ages ago. I doubt this is anything other than a four way mutual agreement.

I was thinking along the lines of what Casey Scorp said, that St.Kilda may not push through as much with Frankston and try to redevelop TBO a bit more, despite the current issues with land size.

I think St.Kilda has got the much better end of the deal in this four way exchange, and that's nothing against the Scorpians. We're moving out of an area where we have a genuine historical link, being our old Zone, and where we get a pretty decent percentage of our supporters from, to a "growth corridor" with no links past or present to the footy club.

If we can make inroads into the community then it may work, but I'm not convinced this is a step in the right direction for us.

I was thinking along the lines of what Casey Scorp said, that St.Kilda may not push through as much with Frankston and try to redevelop TBO a bit more, despite the current issues with land size.

I think St.Kilda has got the much better end of the deal in this four way exchange, and that's nothing against the Scorpians. We're moving out of an area where we have a genuine historical link, being our old Zone, and where we get a pretty decent percentage of our supporters from, to a "growth corridor" with no links past or present to the footy club.

If we can make inroads into the community then it may work, but I'm not convinced this is a step in the right direction for us.

Hards, I attend quite a few Sandringham games and it is a convenient location for me to travel to from where I live but the Casey option will be far superior in so many aspects. The Casey ground is AFL sized and ground size has been a major bugbear as far as the MFC at TBO has been concered. As part of a Casey deal I believe that the club will get a real property asset, superior facilities and a possible boutique stadium where the less attractive games against interstate games could be played that will turn an actual profit instead of the loss or break even we make these days with such fixtures (this becomes more important than ever with the introduction of 2 new clubs).

We will, in all likelihood, negotiate team colours and an identity incorporating our traditional red and blue colurs which will help in developing an identity in a young, fast growing residential area where we can establish new ties with the young families that are moving out there in their droves.

Consider this: the three fastest growing population centres in the country are:

1. The Gold Coast

2. The West of Sydney and

3. The SE corridor of metropolitan Melbourne beyond the City of Greater Dandenong through the City of Casey and the Shire of Cardinia out towards Gippsland.

In three year's time the AFL will have a presence in all three places and Melbourne will be in place to take advantage of a whole generation of football fans growing up in region 3. If it's done properly, this development could certainly make the Melbourne of the future. As much as I've enjoyed our association with the Zebras, it's time to move on to bigger and better things for the sake of our future.