Darwin game scrapped. Big win for us imo

Dees just sent a member announcement saying the Darwin game is back at the G moving fwd.

9 hours ago, martin said:

Apologies if this is old news but Sky just reporting that we have signed up for another four years to play games in Darwin & Alice Springs. Suns have the same deal.. Hard to believe. No doubt we will play 'crowd favourites' Adelaide in Darwin with no bye to follow. FMD

Sky News - sheesh!

All their 5000 viewers will now be misinformed  - as usual.

1 minute ago, Cards13 said:

Dees just sent a member announcement saying the Darwin game is back at the G moving fwd.

Maybe we are playing Darwin preseason game. Can you post the member announcement. I received nothing 

Yep just got the email. Good riddance. 

AFTER hosting a match in Darwin for the past 10 years, the Melbourne Football Club will bring the home game back to the MCG in 2020, as announced on Wednesday.

CEO Gary Pert said this was a fantastic result for the Club, with the members at the heart of the decision.

“Supporters have made it very clear to the Club they would love to see the Darwin home game return to the MCG as soon as possible, so they can watch their team live and share in the excitement,” he told Melbourne Media.

“This is something we have been working on with the AFL for quite some time. However, it was important the timing coincided with the opportunity to return the game to our traditional home, the MCG, rather than other alternatives.”

Melbourne will retain its established home game in Alice Springs for at least the next four years, announcing a new agreement with AFLNT and the NT Government. 

“It is important for supporters to appreciate that Alice Springs is a critical part of the Club’s long-term strategy,” Pert said.

“Our players have really taken ownership of this game and truly believe it gives them a home ground advantage."

 

Darwin was always the game that the members hated, the players always seemed to look flat the following week. 

Keeping the Alice game means we still have an NT presence which I think is a positive, perhaps we’ll still do a Darwin pre-season game. 

Positive move for me and it also shows that they have listened to the members. If we really are going to get back into the contenders list then getting a home game back will help. 

Edited October 15, 20195 yr by Pates

Kept saying every season I would venture up north to watch one of these matches. I liked the idea of sitting on the grass in the sun watching the footy. Missed the boat but fantastic news for the club ?

 

Also fantastic news for us idiots who just forked hundreds of dollars over again for a new membership. 

Yes, now I can go to even more footy and escape my children! (who should be coming with me really)

 

Great news

good result

the 'heart of the nation' game is one that ch 7 have got right behind so will always be telecast

now, who will we play at 'home' at docklands? i'm presuming the aints...

Great news IMO.

11 minutes ago, whatwhatsaywhat said:

good result

the 'heart of the nation' game is one that ch 7 have got right behind so will always be telecast

now, who will we play at 'home' at docklands? i'm presuming the aints...

The home game is coming back to the G, not Docklands.

4 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Great news IMO.

The home game is coming back to the G, not Docklands.

we have 11 home games...1 of which is in the alice, one of em will end up being at docklands i'm tipping

Great!

23 minutes ago, whatwhatsaywhat said:

now, who will we play at 'home' at docklands? i'm presuming the aints...

"... However, it was important the timing coincided with the opportunity to return the game to our traditional home, the MCG, rather than other alternatives.”

Isn’t all this just Pert putting positive corporate spin for the AFL dudding us with the Suns being given priority over the Darwin zone? Weren’t we always leaving Darwin once the AFL announced its rescue package for Suns? 

Darwin is one of the countries greatest sh!tholes so this is great news! 

He says the game is coming back to the G but in reality it will be transferred to Marvel in my opinion.

Great result that we’re getting out of there though.

30 minutes ago, Earl Hood said:

Isn’t all this just Pert putting positive corporate spin for the AFL dudding us with the Suns being given priority over the Darwin zone? Weren’t we always leaving Darwin once the AFL announced its rescue package for Suns? 

Spot on.

Who will the Suns play in Darwin?  .....Melbourne??

Let's see if one of our home games gets shunted to Docklands, like Collingwood, Richmond and Hawthorn.

1 hour ago, jane02 said:

Kept saying every season I would venture up north to watch one of these matches. I liked the idea of sitting on the grass in the sun watching the footy. Missed the boat but fantastic news for the club ?

 

You haven’t missed the boat at all, Alice is where you sit on the grass.

 

This is great news for the club, Darwin’s climate meant it was never a good idea, Alice in winter is quite cool, the game must be made part of the indigenous round and the club has done a great job promoting the heart of the nation game, there is reasonable support here for the Demons (better than Darwin), though I would love to see the club put on a charter bus to bring people from Nyrripi to Alice (whose community team is the Demons - I have Imanpa Demons tracksuit pants, but they changed their name due to being embarrassed by our decade of misery).

 

We also have an academy here, not sure how well we do this though.

 

It must be said though, the NTAFL have done a pathetic job and getting worse at running this game, if the Demons don’t put some pressure on them to lift their game, our hard work in this part of Australia could become a bit counter-productive!

Edited October 15, 20195 yr by Rod Grinter Riot Squad

3 minutes ago, george_on_the_outer said:

Let's see if one of our home games gets shunted to Docklands, like Collingwood, Richmond and Hawthorn

The specifics of him saying it's coming back to the MCG makes me think we won't have a Marvel home game..  at least for 2020. Who knows how long the AFL will let that go. 

iirc we are contracted to play 9 Home games at the G.  We get 2 Away games at the G as compensation for the NT games.  I assume we will lose one of those G 'compensation' games.

In the mfc web article, Pert does not say we will get an extra10th game at the G. 

I believe Vic clubs are required to play 1 or 2 Home games at Marvel Stadium.  PJ got us an exemption for 2019 due to the NT games.  (Can't recall if that happened in 2018). 

A side benefit was Alice and Darwin were counted as interstate games so we usually had fewer other Away interstate games. 

Hopefully the change means there is an extra game in Victoria but it could mean an extra interstate game.  Hopefully, it won't mean two trips to WA.

Will be interesting to see what the 'fine print' looks like.

Edited October 16, 20195 yr by Lucifer's Hero

It's a great result for Football, it really is.

Happy the Alice game still remains?

Excellent Result

good work Mr. Pert