What was your excuse?

[Go the Biff 3,474]

Retro round isn't it  ? Certainly reminded me of the old days.  A whole row to myself on the wing and plenty of room on the train 

[BillyBeane 254]

I was there, but I can see why many weren’t. We were non competitive last week so I think many were scared off.

Is the way we played today the only way we could have beaten port? I think to this that is the case.  I’m all for contest and defence, but the wider problem is that it’s a bloody hard watch and we seem to make the same mistakes entering 50 over and over again. Surely it’s got to change. 

 

[Queanbeyan Demon 7,023]

I went to the rugby game instead. Lots of forward passes missed by the ref.

[titan_uranus 25,255]

8 hours ago, Moonshadow said:

It's a dumb thread. Turning on people who barrack for the same club is dumb.

Wow. Speechless. 

[Ugottobekidding 1,244]

Life is too short to watch Goodwins putrid he plan in action 

[rolling fog 1,208]

On 27/07/2024 at 23:36, wobbie said:

I went tonight, and I rarely go. Sat there like a loser by myself, and sadly left early like one too. I went in part knowing that the crowd would be awful, and I had to do something, also knowing that the last hopes of the season were on the line. We can all feel the low morale, it's no fun when your team is on the way down and serves up rubbish at random.

I went to both the GWS game and last night, and I sat by myself like a legend. 

It was quite peaceful being able to spread out, no queues for anything. It’s a form of therapy for me.

I live close by and will do what I can to get my membership fee's worth for the year. But I’m the sort that will go to the opening of an envelope if it’s held at the MCG. 

Looking back on the opening handful of home games this year I had a solid crew of a dozen-ish family and friends that I knew would be at each game and meet up with - and for the last month it’s now reduced to just me - read into that what you will! 

But there can be no doubt that MFC supporters in large part have voted with their feet. 

[roy11 4,076]

I told my friends there were more people there than the Port Game! At least I wasn't incorrect.

Never seen the Frank Grey Smith Bar with so much space, usually you need to be as nimble as Kozzie to get through it without bumping into people.

I know the season is a bit poor  but would have liked to at least his the 20,000 mark but understand some people are disenfranchised, some are time poor, illheath, have kids, cost of living etc. Understand some people pick and chose games based on chances of winning, we're all at different stages of our lives.

 

 

[FearTheBeard 1,234]

Well done to the few of us [censored] who continue to go and watch them play a horrible brand of football. 

[layzie 34,528]

I've been out for a couple of hours around the Prahran area and already seen a heap of Blues and Hawks fans around. This would have been the prime Sat night game and I wouldn't blame them if they were annoyed about being relegated to the early Sun timeslot, I'm sure we would have complained about it in the past. 

[djr 1,605]

4 minutes ago, FearTheBeard said:

Well done to the few of us [censored] who continue to go and watch them play a horrible brand of football. 

Our "horrible brand of football" almost beat the 2nd and 3rd placed teams over the past 3 weeks. And this is with a banged-up team made up of youngsters.

[ex52k2 250]

As to the finances, we would have had to write a cheque to the MCC for not getting a break even crowd. Approx 20000 people, we pay or collect approx $10.00 for each above or below that figure. So in the last two home games we would have had to pay approx. $50000.

Another point which I am much more afraid  of both carlton and essendon want more games at the G. Which clubs attendance do you think lends itself to being moved to docklands, to enable more home games for the above teams?

[roy11 4,076]

Also a minor point that's not too important in the grand scheme but connected to attendances - I go to game as a neutral and have mates who like to go to games as neutrals (need to get value from that MCC m/ship!) but a large chunk of them have voiced to me they don't like watching/attending Melbourne games cos of our style and F50 entry.  Based on what @ex52k2 has said it seems every bum counts/costs!

[ex52k2 250]

My information on the break even figure was a conversation with Cameron Schwab about 10 years ago. It was during a walk to the G on a queens birthday game. He said that different grounds have different break even figures.

Waverly was 14000  G 20000 and docklands 30000.

Now those figures have changed, no Waverly, lower at docklands now owned by AFL.

But as I said above I am more worried by other teams wanting OUR ground.

[Bowserpower 169]

Another average turnout. Even the cheersquad looked pretty thin, disappointing when even they don't want to show up.

[sisso 2,627]

I don't know why we have this self flagellation/obsession about low crowd numbers....it's just how our supporter base is when the side isnt winning, and no different to many others in the comp. Carrying on about it isnt going to change anything....

[whatwhat say what 23,855]

5 minutes ago, sisso said:

I don't know why we have this self flagellation/obsession about low crowd numbers....it's just how our supporter base is when the side isnt winning, and no different to many others in the comp. Carrying on about it isnt going to change anything....

this

who cares about turnout at the end of the day - the media narrative?

it makes zero difference to the broadcast rights, which is where the majority of the money comes from in the competition

big turnouts are awesome, but not going to happen for us as we are not a 'big' club by any stretch of the imagination, and certainly not on a saturday nite against a non-vic side

we have an older supporter base

i'm expecting we'll have more sunday slots in 2025

 

[BDA 23,048]

Tbh I won't mind Sunday timeslots next year. Means i can bring the kids to the footy more often.

[At the break of Gawn 4,512]

There is something going on with our AFL fixture and high rating time slots for games against poor crowd drawing teams (either interstate or non-big clubs). We’ve played Saturday or Thursday night games (worst attended games but high tv ratings) at the G on 5 occasions. Lions, North, GWS, Port and Geelong (fans don’t travel much for night games). On the flip side, the Pies have played/play Port Adelaide, Adelaide, Eagles and the Lions during afternoon slots at the MCG. Why are we getting more free-to-air games than Collingwood? It doesn’t make sense to me. Collingwood have only 1 Saturday night home game at the MCG this year. We’ve got 5. We have 15 FTA games this year, Collingwood have 14.

Is this something that has been driven by us as a club? Because it’s absolutely killing our crowd attendances. Surely it can’t be the luck of the draw with that much of a discrepancy.

 

[layzie 34,528]

1 hour ago, sisso said:

I don't know why we have this self flagellation/obsession about low crowd numbers....it's just how our supporter base is when the side isnt winning, and no different to many others in the comp. Carrying on about it isnt going to change anything....

Sure, but how many of these clubs go sub 20k at the G on a Sat night when they are still technically in the running for finals? 

There's a bare minimum and I don't feel we are reaching it. I'd rather not start getting Docklands home games as a result of it, the health of the club is important.

[layzie 34,528]

1 hour ago, whatwhat say what said:

this

who cares about turnout at the end of the day - the media narrative?

it makes zero difference to the broadcast rights, which is where the majority of the money comes from in the competition

big turnouts are awesome, but not going to happen for us as we are not a 'big' club by any stretch of the imagination, and certainly not on a saturday nite against a non-vic side

we have an older supporter base

i'm expecting we'll have more sunday slots in 2025

 

But why should we bother going then?

I do see what you're saying in that the broadcast money is probably a lump sum anyway but you still like to think that when you come to the game that you're supporting the health of the footy club financially as well as the team on the day. Is this just old fashioned thinking now? Do the networks really care how it looks on TV once they buy the rights?

[Guest]

13 hours ago, Moonshadow said:

Just checking, am I permitted to attend the last game vs Collingwood? Thought I'd run it past you, as you're the arbitrator of attendance

TIA 🙏

BTW, still waiting for you to find where I have got stuck into one of our players

You get stuck into people who request that our players not be bagged. And I can show you examples of that. Oh, I have a wealth of examples. 

As for legitimate reasons for not attending, that’s subjective, so what one person sees as legitimate, others mightn’t. One thing’s for sure though, if your excuse/reason is because we’re not winning, then you’re not a true supporter, and you deserve to be berated. Unfortunately I think many who throw out excuses/reasons such as train lines down, not feeling well, can’t afford it etc. are masking the true reason, ie. we’re not winning. For had last night been a final or we were a premiership contender, the crowd size would’ve doubled, plus some. 

[Sir Why You Little 37,457]

I lasted 20 minutes watching on TV

The gameplan is a hard boring slog to watch, i hate saying that, but it’s the truth 

7 goals on a dry fine evening is just not good enough 

I hope the Board and Senior Management have the balls to look very seriously at all this…

[chookrat 4,268]

14 hours ago, BDA said:

not correct. I'm on that line.

they were running to Caulfield. change there onto the Frankston line to get to Richmond

That seems a bit complicated. Between having to swap trains and it being dark outside I can see why crowds were low.

In seriousness I reckon we have a large cohort of older supporters along with young families with not many supporters in the 15 - 30 year old age bracket given we haven't been an attractive club to attracted new supporters over this period. We seem to have alot of 5 - 15 year old supporters who over the next 10 - 15 will attend more night matches with along with the parents with young kids.

[BringBackTheDemon 146]

My excuse is the game plan is boring as [censored]. Missing finals and wins and losses are irrelevant, if you play an exiting style supporters will turn up.  

[Demonstone 23,573]

10 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

7 goals on a dry fine evening is just not good enough 

It was enough to win the game for Port Adelaide.