'Told us so' how? He's played zero games. He'll be playing zero games when we next have a crack at a flag (while kids we give opportunities to instead will be carrying us there).

Your comment may well apply to every current player in the AFL. Given that we've made 2 grand finals in 44 years, and been beaten by huge margins, when exactly will our next crack at a flag be? 5 years, 10 years or when Ben Cousins is in a rocking chair?

I think we all need to stop bringing up us not recruiting cousins, there is nothing we can do about it now so we may as well forget it.

The most concerning thing is that we may have to do a West Ham United in the English Premier League and wear our numbers on the front of the jumpers because we have no sponsor. That is the most concerning thing, as well as the fact that the Melbourne Fc board is quiet as usual which gives no hope or even optimism.

I'm not at all worried about not having a companies logo on our shirt front. Takes me back to older days not having it.

I am more concerned about the lack of sponsor in terms of money. We need the cash boost not our shirts with a logo.

Why would they cop a bashing? They have made an attempt to help a guy who was in personal trouble, who also was a premiership player and brownlow medalist, if he relapses he will cop the bashing, not Richmond.

In saying that, I'm happy we didnt recruit him

Ever read a newspaper or watched the TV news? Those sharks feed on pain and misery. You'll never see a headline with the banner "Everything was good yesterday". Cousins stuffing up would be meat and drink for the media, and the mob mentality of the public would be two steps behind.

I totally agree. To get a sponser you need exposure in the media, high numbers of members and to be a club that captures peoples hearts that people find young, new, interesting, sexy, winning etc. and all of these things are tied in together.

For a battling club we are doing OK in the media at the moment. There was an other page sized story in the HUN yesterday about Watts and there has been a fair few high quality articles in the age. I think it would be realy positive to meet with the people from the age or others in the media and work out ideas to that the news papers etc. would find interesting eg a King Lake vs Flowerdale warm up match before a Melbourne home game. Imagine how those guys would feel playing on the G. Anyone involved in the bushfires could come along for free. and you could auction off our red cross jumpers after for charity.

I think the game at Casey in a couple of weeks time will be a good opportunity to showcase the club. And a 30 year deal with the Casey scorps on that day would really increase interest, particullarly if there was five or six thousand people there. It would also be a great launch for the partnership. You could leak out a few stories in the week before about how we still don't have a sponser. It would make a great platform to announce a sponser on that day.

The Age is one of our second or third tier sponsors. That would be why Martin Flanagan is 'embedded' in the club this year. By my reckoning, Melbourne had just as much, if not more newspaper coverage over summer than the other clubs (Cousins aside). I wouldn't be surprised if part of our deal with The Age is to have a minimum number of Melbourne stories per year. If it's not then it should be.

Any marketing deal the Age has w. anyone has to be completely separate from editorial. I know things aren't going great there ATM but don't think they'd let the lines be blurred. M. Flanagan certainly wouldn't.

Your comment may well apply to every current player in the AFL. Given that we've made 2 grand finals in 44 years, and been beaten by huge margins, when exactly will our next crack at a flag be? 5 years, 10 years or when Ben Cousins is in a rocking chair?

It certainly won't be when Cousins is playing good footy (if he's playing any footy at all).

It's the same rationale we used for the TJ trade - we're (very) unlikely to be in the 'window' while he (or Cousins) were playing good footy, if at all, so electing to go with younger players gives us the best chance of us having a crack within the

I don't know about you, but I'm not interested in hanging onto or recruiting guys with only a few years to go - at best - just so we can make up the numbers. We've done enough of that of late.