23 minutes ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

It might be all we can hope for - simply a function of our supporter base's non-interest - but I think it's at least partly to do with promotion and how seriously the women's team is taken within the club.

But we’re not the only club pulling small crowds. Even the Collingwoods and Carltons attract low numbers. Imo that’s not on the individual clubs, that’s on the AFL.

6 minutes ago, rjay said:

This was an issue...not sure it's been addressed but we wait and see.

PJ was instrumental in having us at the forefront of women's footy.

I hope this is not another one of his initiatives we've dropped.

This sounds highly likely.

I do understand that we are back to being a small club. We're now a long way past the riches that come from winning two flags and a McLelland Trophy in the space of 24 months. Our membership is poor and it sounds like sponsors aren't interested in us. That all means we don't have the same resources to spread around that many other clubs do, and the men's team obviously remains the priority. But I'm not sure that accounts for the seeming lack of enthusiasm for the women's side from the people at the top.

6 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

But we’re not the only club pulling small crowds. Even the Collingwoods and Carltons attract low numbers. Imo that’s not on the individual clubs, that’s on the AFL.

Definitely not. And we're nowhere near Gold Coast levels. But the North Melbourne final really worried me. It looked 7:1 from where I sat.

I'd also add that both the Carlton and Collingwood women's teams have gone through some very lean times. We don't have the excuse of "Well, the women's team is just not much chop".

30 minutes ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

But I'm not sure that accounts for the seeming lack of enthusiasm for the women's side from the people at the top.

It's a real watch this space for me...all the talk of one club is just that, talk.

Lets see some real action.

I don't have faith in our management or board.

I believe it's to do with Ned Guy's appointment being only 2 weeks ago. Should move quickly now. Although there's not a great deal of head coaching talent out there apparently.

Notwithstanding the reporter's view, is it possible Sloanehas been appointed as an 'interim' precisely because she is in the running for the coaching job, and that an appointment was required because of Pettyfor's (requested? forced?) return to her position away from the football front line?

How relevant is it, also, that Guy is seemingly still in 'feet under the desk' mode?

1 hour ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

At my most pessimistic, I'm concerned we might have squandered all the good work we did from the time we instituted the exhibition matches all the way through to the Premiership.

Totally agree. There’s no systemic advantage why we’d be particularly good at AFLW. We aren’t the big club in a strong women’s footy state like Brisbane and Adelaide. We haven’t taken over a VFLW program like North that provides enduring benefits. We don’t even have a home ground that gives a crowd advantage like Sydney.

It was the initial investment and securing top shelf people in Stinear and Daisy then passing that along to the likes of Hore and Hanks that has set us up. I really hope we don’t squander it.

Looks like a rudderless, drifting ship at the moment

I'm sure Daisy will come back at some stage. timing isn't right now given her project with the eagles. i just hope we haven't run our program into the ground before she does come back

2 hours ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

I really hope this is the case.

My worry (and this is my own theory with no inside info) is the big decision makers have let us rest on our laurels with the women's team, assuming the brilliant punch-above-our-weight consistency just continues forever, without acknowledging it really came from the exceptional qualities of Stinear, Hore and for a long time (Daisy) Pearce and presumably several other quiet achievers like Sloane. This meant we were (and had a reputation for being) a great place to play footy and work. We could hold on to the very best players and bring in under-appreciated or out-of-favour guns like Maddie Gay, Liv Purcell and Tayla Harris.

I know there were very particular circumstances with Eden Zanker, but her departure makes me a little bit nervous.

The fact we don't have a coach three months after Stinear resigned makes me vervous.

And what really worries me is the fact that we very often play among the best and most enjoyable-to-watch footy in the league and get fairly low crowds. It might be all we can hope for - simply a function of our supporter base's non-interest - but I think it's at least partly to do with promotion and how seriously the women's team is taken within the club. The fact we haven't had an update from the club on the coach in months is exhibit A.

At my most pessimistic, I'm concerned we might have squandered all the good work we did from the time we instituted the exhibition matches all the way through to the Premiership.

Fully agree with this.

We can't blame the AFL for our lack of representation in last year's finals campaign.

there was a Total lack of promotion / effort by the club to get Demon supporters as a whole following a great Melbourne team deep into the finals after a really disappointing men's season.

I think we're up to about exhibit F

Feels like the wheels might fall off like it did with the blokes.

Blaith Macklin leaving was not a good omen either.

I love this team and hope they stick together and we find a fantastic coach. I can't accept there's not a great candidate out there.

2 hours ago, Brownie said:

Blaith Macklin leaving was not a good omen either.

The fairly up-close-and-personal ABC interview/report suggests nothing about the Club being involved in / responsible for Blaithin's personal challenges and her (temporary) response to them. If anything, the contrary applies?

I know it is stating the blindingly obvious but playing at Casey is not helping develop a strong supporter base or promote the team. But the fact the club seems perfectly happy with this and has, to my knowledge, never tried to justify the reason is illuminating.

18 hours ago, Craig T said:

I know it is stating the blindingly obvious but playing at Casey is not helping develop a strong supporter base or promote the team. But the fact the club seems perfectly happy with this and has, to my knowledge, never tried to justify the reason is illuminating.

Much like the saga of our home base for decades upon decades, I can see this just being kicked down the road. There definitely was a big push for attendance at Casey homes games last season, the helicopter and all that, as you know. Personally I felt aspects of that were poorly executed (not enough lead-time), but there was at least some effort.

But I don't think that (and the step-up in facilities for spectators) has been reflected in terms of numbers. Standing in line at one game last year, someone in front of me was like, "Look, they've got seats! And a scoreboard!" Then they realised they hadn't actually attended since the summer seasons. I know I'm repeating myself and preaching to the converted here...

Still, the one big chance MFC fans had to show they'll come to Princes but not Casey, for the Prelim, it was pretty much the same hardcore of fans against absolute sea of Roos. Yes, there was the expectation of a trouncing playing into that, but still.

Like you say, it's hard to know if there's any interest from the club in alternatives or is it just Casey or bust? It's never a factor in any discussion of a home base, that's for sure.

More positively, it's good to see the players are working hard in the pre-preseason, including the new faces. I guess you can tell it's not "official" because no MFC branded clothing. Clockwise: Austin, Baker-West, Allen

www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=895922839855613&set=pcb.895923019855595

https://www.instagram.com/p/DVIOqlZkizS/?img_index=1

Good to see Liv back in action as well

19 hours ago, Craig T said:

I know it is stating the blindingly obvious but playing at Casey is not helping develop a strong supporter base or promote the team. But the fact the club seems perfectly happy with this and has, to my knowledge, never tried to justify the reason is illuminating.

Where else would you like them to play? They shift a home game each year to Princes Park and generally have a number of away games at traditional grounds around inner city Melbourne so there’s a chance for traditional heartland fans to see them.

Short of moving full time to Princes Park which is an awful solution our best option is continuing to grow Casey

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

our best option is continuing to grow Casey

I think the problem is that we haven't seen any growth (or very limited growth).

Are we flogging a dead horse with Casey?

If so then it might be time to cut ties.

1 minute ago, rjay said:

I think the problem is that we haven't seen any growth (or very limited growth).

Are we flogging a dead horse with Casey?

If so then it might be time to cut ties.

Crowds haven’t been great but that’s common across aflw. Only the club would know the impact on membership and developing a fan base out there.

It’s not the optimal ground, but I don’t think anywhere else is better.

7 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Only the club would know the impact on membership and developing a fan base out there.

I would guess very little judging by membership numbers...

14 minutes ago, rjay said:

I would guess very little judging by membership numbers...

afl.com.au

Members make it a momentous AFLW season

The AFL is delighted to announce a new AFLW club membership record for the second consecutive year

...and Melbourne one of the growers. Don't know if we hit the 7000 objective set for Season 10 (probably not) but still...

On 25/02/2026 at 12:39, Ghostwriter said:

But we’re not the only club pulling small crowds. Even the Collingwoods and Carltons attract low numbers. Imo that’s not on the individual clubs, that’s on the AFL.

The AFL expanded the comp too fast and as a result the quality player pool could not supply enough players. There are lots of games that are of poor quality. Hence the punters have a poor view of the competition and stay home. I tuned into quite a few games last season ( non MFC) and after a quarter my interest went elsewhere.

5 minutes ago, old dee said:

The AFL expanded the comp too fast and as a result the quality player pool could not supply enough players. There are lots of games that are of poor quality. Hence the punters have a poor view of the competition and stay home. I tuned into quite a few games last season ( non MFC) and after a quarter my interest went elsewhere.

To be honest 'old dee', I had the same feeling with the AFL mens competition...

A lot of games I lost interest in and went and did something more productive.

1 hour ago, Timothy Reddan-A'Blew said:

afl.com.au

Members make it a momentous AFLW season

The AFL is delighted to announce a new AFLW club membership record for the second consecutive year

...and Melbourne one of the growers. Don't know if we hit the 7000 objective set for Season 10 (probably not) but still...

I would take little notice of AFL figures or most anything our current board/management have to say.

Actions speak and neither have covered themselves in glory.

27 minutes ago, rjay said:

To be honest 'old dee', I had the same feeling with the AFL mens competition...

A lot of games I lost interest in and went and did something more productive.

Yes I needed to cut my nails and other important things.

I think the poor turnout of fans at the prelim was at least part due to us not developing our base to begin with. Yes, being in a prelim should pull plenty of the casual fans, but if the hardcore numbers aren't what they should be that doesn't help. And playing the vast bulk of our home games at Casey won't meaningfully grow our numbers. It's always instructive to say "what if the men.....". Well imagine if all but one of the men's home games were played at such a remote location, and despite having a great winning culture from go to woe attendance numbers weren't great. I know where much of the blame would be leveled.

As for alternative venues, that's been discussed at some length previously, with several good suggestions, so I'm not going to go over that ground (ha!) again, except for drawing one comparison. In round two last year we played St. Kilda at Casey, and despite it being our first home game, the whole helicopter ball drop incentive, and the fact the Saints had just beaten Adelaide in round one, 2152 people showed up. The following week we played Collingwood at Vic Park, and the crowd was 2794, an increase of 30%. And being there I can tell you most of them were Dees fans. So I'd venture to suggest that ANY inner city venue would be preferable.

But I will say that from my own experience, I've had enough. I've traveled out to Casey for the vast bulk of our games since 2017. I do so by public transport as I prefer to leave the car for my partner should she need it. From the inner city it's usually a seven hour round trip for an 80 minute footy match, and often more if buses are replacing trains. If I was living in country Victoria and I wanted to watch my team play in Melbourne that's fair enough, but having to give up that much time to attend home games for a team that geographically is literally minutes from where I live is ridiculous. And as I said previously, with no real explanation from the club as to any meaningful reason why it might be beneficial for anyone involved.

18 hours ago, rjay said:

I think the problem is that we haven't seen any growth (or very limited growth).

Are we flogging a dead horse with Casey?

If so then it might be time to cut ties.

It's pretty clear at this point in time that the current population of Casey and surrounding areas has zero interest in football.

As with the GC17 and GWS situations, it is going to take at least one generation and maybe two before football gets a foothold in these areas.

That will only come about by hitting the schools hard and almost dragging kids to games.

It is only when those kids are grown up and have their own kids that it will start gaining traction.

Much like kids who jumped on to Hawthorn's bandwagon in the 1980s turned them into a financial powerhouse twenty years later when they started bringing their families to games.

I'm not convinced that we have the patience and the money to see the Casey experiment through, and I'm not sure that we should even try, although clearly someone is going to reap the rewards in the future.

As for our AFLW side, it is blatantly clear that the program has been allowed to wither on the vine. It is quite shameful really when you look at the resources that have been thrown at the Goodwin-led circus in the past four years.

4 hours ago, Craig T said:

But I will say that from my own experience, I've had enough. I've traveled out to Casey for the vast bulk of our games since 2017. I do so by public transport as I prefer to leave the car for my partner should she need it. From the inner city it's usually a seven hour round trip for an 80 minute footy match, and often more if buses are replacing trains. If I was living in country Victoria and I wanted to watch my team play in Melbourne that's fair enough, but having to give up that much time to attend home games for a team that geographically is literally minutes from where I live is ridiculous. And as I said previously, with no real explanation from the club as to any meaningful reason why it might be beneficial for anyone involved.

Sorry to hear that, but I get it. I'm in the same boat to be honest and I'd say we're fairly rusted on as W fans! For me it's more about convincing others to come along with me. Fewer are willing to make the trek. I have more luck in that regard for away games in more convenient places. Vic Park is a highlight as a venue, and to be saying that is just wrong!

I guess it boils down to, are we converting enough super-engaged fans from the Casey region compared to the number of fans we'd attract somewhere more central. It would be interesting to have an insider view at the club on this. But without that info, I figure, if someone's a potential fan who wants to check it out, the likelihood of that person living around Casey or being willing to travel there on a consistent basis seems...low.

I'll still promote to existing Dees fans that they should try to get along to a W game just once a year to support the club and appreciate the pride our players have for the jumper. But it can be hard to do that in good faith when things feel a bit rudderless at the top.