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Living in Sydney, I generally look out for Ben Hur's posts, particularly his training reports and his observations on new players to the club. Prior to the season commencing, it's pretty hard to get a handle on the new recruits from afar. And, in this regard, I find Ben Hur's posts to be very insightful. I don't, however, quite get the disdain for MFC supporters. It's footy - we're not dealing with sub particle physics after all. There is absolutely nothing intellectual about it. Most of my mates don't even follow AFL, let alone the Demons, so this is a little MFC community for me - and, with the exception of Stingray (who only signed up last week), I don't actually know any of you. That said, I know if the Dees actually managed to achieve the unthinkable and win a flag, it's with the real MFC supporters I'd want to share the glory with (ie, the Demonlanders) - not my friends, many of whom are very cool, intellectual, interesting individuals. In short, it matters not how intelligent the supporters are - it's the shared interest, the common bond/passion that I find addictive when it comes to footy. After all, why else support a club?! I cannot imagine casually strolling out of the G, having just won a flag, and not wanting to bear hug every other Demons supporter I see. The thought of not wanting to interact with, or talk to, any of them because I find them ignorant or stupid seems quite strange to me. What a soulless experience that would be. From my perspective, I have other interests, outside of footy, that fulfil my intellectual needs - and that's why one of my pet hates on this site are the constant references by certain posters to the perceived intelligence of other supporters. Given the subject of discussion (ie, footy), I find the continual references to lack of intellect to be ironic in the extreme.

If we can replace our Etihad home game with a Darwin match this is a real winner I reckon.

This is such an easy decision. Remove two 'lose money games' against PA and NM (one of which is usually played atr Etihad) - TICK. Turn them into $1m of pure profit - TICK Maintain a solid sponsor that will be shovelling in $300k+ every year we are up there - TICK Ability to market 2 game sponsorships for $60 that should deliver a bump of 3K+ - TICK What do you people want? Do you go to the Etihad games? Do you go to the PA games at the G even (we had 14k there a few years ago)? Do you want to whinge about Tassie, or do you want to 'own' the next Tassie or leave it for PA to realise what they are missing out on in a couple years time? This is proactive, it is lucrative, and it will turn a weight around our ankles (2 home games against PA, or GWS, or GC, or NM, or Freo et al) into a massive windfall for a club that doesn't say those two words often. If you are worried about heat, well, I have absolutley nothing to say to you - what a weak effing reason not to do something.

I like this move and see it as part of a very clear strategy. Over the past few years, as the Dees left the horror of the Junction Oval behind, MFC administration have gone all-out to put the MFC "brand" in places of population growth and expansion. City of Casey: a strong strategic move to place our name, jumper and brand into one of the fastest growth corridors in Australia. I live down this way and my son plays footy here and in 2012 I saw more kids in Dees jumpers than I thought I would ever see. The "Read like a Demon" initiative at local schools and library means tons of young kids meet our players and buy into our club. And they are. This is working. Once Casey Fields pulls its finger out and completes its redevelopment this move will show its merit. Now, we strengthen our ties in Darwin - another place of huge population growth and government investment. And we get a sponsorship out of it. As our players train in the NT and play there more often this will turn into 2 lock-in wins each season. The AFL, MFC and NT have to ensure we play outside the wet season and play in the right time-slot, and if all this occurs this is a huge Coup for the MFC. I see that many are concerned about it pushing us away from the MCG. We play both home and away games there so I reckon we get a good run on the MCG, all things considered. And I don't give a toss what Carlton are doing. They can become addicted to sniffing money in brown paper bags, or eating chicken wings to celebrate their Messiah - they are irrelevant to me. The Dees in the NT is a win-win for mine.

We don't win the week after because WE ARE A BAD F___ING TEAM! And I mentioned Perth because we don't give ourselves an easy out when they play over there and come back drained. Not to mention (but I will) that WCE go anywhere and win when they are good - as OD said. You don't have to like Schwab but don't expect me to take an accusation that he is "whoring out" the club. You CGAGF if you truly believe that. We will get approx. $1.3m+ from having 2 games in Darwin incl. their sponsorship. That is in place of an Etihad game (or games) that COST us money. Dwell on that fact for a moment. We whinge and moan and we handwring about the Hawks and the proverbial gun that they have to Tassie and the money they squeeze out of them, but when an opportunity comes along to have a similar deal we baulk. And for nothing more than a desire to keep an unsustainable 11 home games at the G (especially when one is always at Etihad), and faux reasons about heat and humidity that are not oppressive and that WCE, Freo, BL, and GC play with all season. We are doing this. Change the CEO and the new one will do this deal. Poach Brian Cook and he will do this deal. Get used to it.

So the NT government potentially chip in 1.2 - 1.3mil for two games, match day sponsorship & also a deal where the club gets access to the army barracks for pre-season camp. I also believe that this deal could lead to other potential sponsorship arrangements & associations with companies & organisations in the NT. I don't see how supporters can really complain when the club is being proactive & growing revenue. 1.3 mil equates to over 6000 standard memberships, how is the club going to magically grow that amount of members during the duration of this deal(assuming it is 3-4 years)? At the moment the MFC simply doesn't have the membership numbers & need to make up the shortfall somewhere. The docklands fixture is a nothing game & probably costs the MFC. It would be a good idea to replace that game with a 2nd game in Darwin as others have already mentioned. The club is being pro active in Casey trying to build membership/supporter base through community programs. Yes there is probably more the club can do in terms of growing membership in Melbourne, however the most important of those would be winning games. If people have other viable ideas to grow membership in Melbourne by all means lets hear them.

My entire family are bombers supporters. I watched the ox play when I was a kid and from that day Ive been a demon. Im 28 and he is still an icon to me.

Thank you MFC for a nice rememberance video of Jimmy. A time for reflection. We all miss you big Jimma.

Because without the money you cannot hope to compete with the power clubs. It is that simple. Get a decent list and we will win anywhere.

lose 8 kgs in an afternoon ? look out Darwin - I'm on my way ( Jenny Craig - you're fired !)

It's not about what Neeld tolerates or what Neeld accepts. The idea that players will behave when they respect the coach is all nice and dandy, but it's what the player does when he's not at the club, and not under the coach's watchful eye that is a worry. If the player has no self control or sense of correct behaviour, then it doesn't matter how wonderful whiz bang the coach is. If the player is out of control I don't want a bar of it. Richmond abandoning such a clearly talented player so young is a massive red flag in this regard. Also, before old dee accuses me of only wanting choir boys, in between the extremes of "choir boy" and "out of control lunatic" is a huge big grey area that I'm happy for our playing group to fall in.

If he leaves we will continue to go backwards. Once again we will see another ex dee revive his career at another club and add more proof that we just don't develop our players and get the best out of them

I reckon Sylvia is very valuable to us. He'll be the Guerra type player we WILL need when we're having a tilt at the flag. Clearly we need to bolster the midfield, but it's not going to be Sylvia who fills that void. That's unfortunate given our expectations when he was recruited, but he's not turned into that player. Ironically, Sylvia's value will kick in once we have built a much better midfield. In short, we need to keep Sylvia and recruit a couple of really good, established mids at the end of the year to add to the talented kids coming through (Toumpas, Viney, Barry, Kent etc). You will then see a more effective player in Sylvia. I'd be extremely disappointed if he walked at the end of this season, particularly for no compensation in return.

People here have been complaining about not picking up more sponsors - but when we land a nice deal that could build over the longer term to be worth quite a substantial amount, plus bring in a few new members and supporters, there are plenty, it seems, ready to criticise.

I appreciate your inquiry re my health.I have a Pep Scan next Wednesday and see my specialist next Thursday to find out my current status. Starting to eat now, which is a relief. Went from 88 kls to 62.5 kls whilst having treatment for cancer in several spots..Unfortunately had a relapse at the start of the year which sent me flying. However, like always will bounce back and give all you coaches a real run for your money..or in this case a run for the game. Take care and sorry that you got suspended earlier on...usually that happens to me...quite often. All the best to all coaches and watch out I will be there at year end.

Sorry guys this is just sad news to me. Playing two games up there knowing how debilitating it is on the players shows how hard it is for us and how desperate we are. Our financial plight directly impacts our football department in a massive way. I keep putting money into this club but have to watch us do this ? And comparing this to hawthorn is not a reality. There isn't the time spent traveling and sapping heat in tassie. No footy side would ever want to do this unless it was the last straw. Good for us ? You are dreaming.

Ok, for 2013: 13 games at the MCG of which 10 are 'home' games and two games at Etihad of which one is a home game So, that is 15 games in Melbourne plus Geelong which is near enough to be considered a Melbourne game, so that is 16 games in Melbourne of which 11 are home games plus one home game in Darwin... Sydney is one and a half hours away as is Adelaide and Brisbane isn't much more. Hardly going to sap their strength or give them jet lag. Maybe you believe we paid up members and interstate supporters should be willing to fork out the extra to travel to the MCG/Etihad and accommodation... thankfully the club treat us with a little more respect than that. There are just two we will travel any great distance for - Pattersons and TIO whereas West Coast travel across the country eight times and half way across the country twice and Fremantle travel across the country ten times - and isn't that really hurting their chances...not!! So essentially, we will have one more game at TIO in the future under such an arrangement - hardly the end of the world, but quite possibly the beginning of a new world for the club.

I am just not so sure why people think that sponsorship and getting money into the club is such an easy and natural thing and just happens. The heart says - lets play every single game at the "G". Unfortunately the head knows that we need revenue streams and wth Darwin we will make good money - the payoff ? playing games up in the NT. We can say the Tassie and the Hawks is nothing like what we are doing but it is exactly what we are doing - additional revenue streams at the expense of travel - tassie being a bit closer and possibility of trying weather conditions - but having watched the Tassie games the conditions in winter are trying to say the least. Well done on the Dees trying to corner a market.

Can I once again explain..... AT That time of year it is NOT frigging HUMID!!!! At match time, it WILL be cool, as it always is during that time of year. Look up BOM data if you don't believe me. It is a cop out to make up excuses for the heat, it's the same for both sides, yet our supporters live by this excuse. if anything it probably has more to do with the long flight or the fact that we have been a poor football team who's chances of winning the next week were slim anyway. It is a similar, if not cooler temperature than a nice spring day in Melbourne during finals, but we don't hear the top 8 sides complaining. Anyway embrace the Darwin move, until we get better..... There's always a spare bed & a fridge full of amber fluid for any member that wishes to come up and support the club on game day. Cheers, HG.

An excellent night with 37 sign ups & an interesting number of responses requesting we call them early next week for a sign up. I have 3 in hand. The club's phone will be buzzing this morning. (pat on back) Stephie Powell is genuinely keen to help & gets to many games with his 5 year old, who has special needs. He reads this site, so its good if we Tx him. He is a funds investor with a major bank & an aspiring golfer when time allows. We had to hot seat last night as several staff were back getting on top of membership applications. However it would be great if we could exceed the 15 line capacity & create an off the bench night. "Geoff OFF, Michael your are ON for ten. Go". 30 dial ups x 2 hours x 15 volunteers = 900 calls. What a target!!!!!

I've said my piece many times about the benefits of Darwin, I will refrain from explaining again, here is some proof. Only the blind, dumb & stupid would be against it.

This is Demonland, of course posters are ready to criticise,just ignore them I was told about this a couple of days ago at the Club, been to Darwin three times, most of the players love the trip, so do the supporters who go, if you want a better attendance posters need to get on the plane and go and support

We're now starting to see why every club, with the possible exception of Collingwood, would want Dave Misson.

I seem to be in the minority who have been a long-term fan of Sylvia. Much the same was said of Brock McClean when he left and now he is a MVP for Carlton (although in his case we got Pedersen in return via the Gysberts trade). I see no reason why Slyvia can emerge as being as vital to our machine as Brock is to Carlton. For example he has never been described as soft like some of his teammates have been.

New MFC recruiting strategy; Look them in the eye. If you get a good vibe, then just go with it.

It could well be the making of our club if we make the right moves. Most important for us is to look after the younger players coming out of contract like Frawley who will get a lot of interest, just as well he is not at free agent status yet. Losing players like Silvia will free up money to pay Frawley, Watts and the younger brigade who are vital to our future and maybe lure someone like Thomas. This is a very important year and if we start to see some progress then with some money in the bank the right player will want to come to the club and the current group will want to be part of something good. More of last year and it will be a tough sell.

This bit was interesting:"The sponsorship deal, believed to be worth $200,000-$300,000 a season, could be worth millions of dollars when combined with home games in the Territory." It all helps, and the heat and travel is hardly going to have too much of a negative impact on us where we are at the moment... if anything it may harden us up, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Why are we so worried about turning the ball over in the spine of the ground? We literally have nothing to lose by going down the middle. If we continue to play that boundary hugging style (predominantly) we will continue to lose games. Unless our skill levels increase by an astronomical rate. What are the chances of that? I saw some strong evidence in the practice games that we're going to be playing a lot more corridor football. Hope the trend continues. Playing the boundary does serve one purpose - it limits the damage. Big deal ! A loss is a loss. Obviously, there are times when moving the ball around the boundary line is the best option but the Collingwood model did this with breakneck speed a lot of the time.(Geelong closed down the Pies boundary line movement in round 8 of 2011) The corridor is quite a large expanse of the ground in actuality. 20 - 25 metres in from the boundary line from the HBF to the HFF/FP is the corridor these days. So it's not as if the middle of the ground is a slim part of the ground - there is quite a lot of room. Our players need to learn how to 'gut run' into space. The coaching dept. need to knock the laziness out of our blokes. I'd rather see the team play a far more enterprising brand of footy. If that means we get towelled up in the process on occasions then so be it. The greatest risk is not taking a risk. "The boundary line is your friend" - not if you're not a highly skilled team. That style makes a poor/average team even worse. We saw the evidence last year. Other clubs last year could read our game plan like a book. We were so predictable. Of course, our players were being taught how to play a far more accountable brand of footy with a large emphasis on defensive skills. The side effect or consequences might have been that our players played a much more inhibited style. Fair enough but this is year 2 now. We need to take the game on with a lot more 'spread', give and go handball, kicking to 'position' and we need to play on at all costs. And that includes using all areas of the ground. What have we got to lose?

We have more of a chance of winning at Darwin than we do at Etihad. I say bring it on, we wont get the injuries we get at that s**t hole called Etihad. Also we only get a crowd of 10000+ to etihad then get penalised for it. Let's play the interstate teams we hate to go and see, up in Darwin and have a better chance of pocketing some cash.

IF we are guarranteed that the 2nd Trip to Darwin means 1 less "Home" game at Etihad then i can live with it (almost) but if we lose a home MCG game and still have to honour an AFL agreement by playing 2 Home fixtures at the Dome, i will not be happy. Yes short term we make some $$$ but long term we will again be a nomad. Carlton will take our place even if it takes a decade. Walking on potentially dangerous grounds..Why? I do not trust the AFL.

Penned an article on just this: http://backpagelead.com.au/afl/8863-afl-supporter-hope-springs-eternal Stupidly optimistic as always.

What I want to see is consistency of performance from individual players - the gap and distance between best games and worst games narrowed. Herein lies our problem - I saw a few quite exceptional Ricky P games - a few being "count them on one hand". The same could be said for plethora of footballers we have had and a few we still have. What we need is a few more Nathan Jones'. I disagree with so many on here when they point to him being close to the next step to becoming elite. I dont believe he has the natural talent to become elite. But what I love about him is over the last two years the gap between his best and worst has all but disappeared. He consistently plays the best he can play and he should be lauded because of it. Consistency and quality of performance - week in and week out. Give his best and does his best consistently - when we can get a dozen footballers plus who can make that claim then we will see wins.

I don't think he is a bad player at all - I actually think he has the potential to be a gun but he just doesn't do it and surely after 10 years he's had enough chances, so I wouldn't be overly fussed if he went.

When have you heard that players have lost 8kg during games in the dry season? I'm not talking the training in summer(humid), I'm talking the games? Absolute rubbish. We will start winning games the following week when we are better, at the moment we are a bad football team, good sides win on the road then back it up, at the moment we're not a good side.

No wonder the AFL got his FA status wrong. He apparently doesn't exist at AFL HQ. After all, how many times have players from opposing clubs escaped match review penalties for 'collisions' with this invisible man?

HT, I strongly believe, and have said on this forum in the past, that this should've been our angle when trying to crack the Chinese/Asian market. In today's climate, if we are going to places like the NT and China with the intention of making $$$, it makes the job a lot easier if we can show we are doing things within the local community, rather than just searching for a quick buck. The work we have done in the NT community has seen the signing of NT Tourism. The hard work is now starting to pay dividends, and if we manage this right, it will be a sustainable income stream for us over the coming decades. We MUST make sure we don't rest on our laurels up there, especially now that we are seeing a financial reward. It is a very similar story with the onfield section of the club. Put in the hard yards now, and sucess will come. As a club, we want to make sure that when we get there, that we work even harder to ensure that it is sustained success.

I think people are a bit hard on Col 2011 he was 5th in kicks 5th in handballs 5th in handballs received 2nd in tackles 2nd in inside 50's 2nd in hard ball gets Kicked 25 goals Played in 19 games 2012 he had a severe back injury just prior to the season which limited him in a lot of ways....Plus playing in a sub standard mid field with a new game plan.......Cut him some slack....

Good stuff 19. Get around it guys. And Stephen Powell! One of my favorites. Glad he considers himself a Demon!

When he first started with us he was an eye opener, ok. Not great because he was still young, but very courageous, he took the game on. Any way i wish him all the best, the only one i was really sad to see go.

A little anecdote on Tassie. A Hawks friend of mine coincided a holiday for 2 weeks with a Hawks game. The morning of the game it was so cold that he had trouble opening his motel room door as it had iced over - then the rain, hail and sleet started coming down sidewards and did not relent for 7 hours - the game was 500 metres from his motel and he watched the game from his room for fear of frostbite. He was dreaming of Darwin.

Please explain why you'd be reading anything from the Richmond website? That should be grounds for a life ban from Demonland. Mods, where are you?

I'm waiting for Jnr to splutter his thread ending crap of Sylvia and very surprised he wasn't first in but I can only ever ask myself why everyone is so certain Sylvia will walk out as soon as his contract is up?! He's never held us to ransom come contract time in the past, never come out in public and criticized even though he's been punished and watched teammates thrown out the door. There is nothing that proves or disproves he doesn't bleed red and blue and wants to be a life player?

You have to think outside the G, great move if it involves sponorship as well, hopefully they can organise the games in a 2 week period.

Sounds OK to me as long as those matches replace Etihad ones and are scheduled in a way which doesn't destroy our chances in the subsequent games. I hope we can make the AFL accept that in return for us bringing the NT into their empire.

Confirmed in the paper what I was told NT Government getting on board as sponsor

Geez there are some stupid threads and comments regarding Sylvia on this forum.

We can't have our cake and eat it too though WYL... We won't survive on Sunday twilight games at the G.

I agree with most of the posts above, there is of course some excitement/hope. However I think the NAB cup has dulled my expectations significantly. I think we will improve as the year progresses, all I ask for is no more 100 point losses - not one this year! I think all we need is a spark that two wins in a row to get the ball rolling , get some momentum and belief in the group - if we can go on to do that we will improve immensely, the players will actually go into games knowing they can win. Its when this spark occurs (2 wins in a row) that will decide how well we do this year! It could take till round 22 for the team to gel together and play as a team with desire.

I work with dozens of footy fans and not one of them has any depth of understanding at all. Reality is that most people don't have the time or inclination to become students of the game. Supporter forums are just a microcosm of that.

Having lived in Northern China (Dalian) and Hong Kong from 2004-2006, i can say that the game can only appeal to city centric folk. China may be big on land and people but in the cities space is at a premium. Plus the Chinese aren't big on contact sports (not including martial arts) I started a small group of students (i was teaching English at the time in Dalian) where we would go to the local artificial football pitch and they would teach me how to play football and i would teach them how to play AFL. Usually we'd end up playing best of 5 from the corner flag, They would curl it into the net and i would banana kick it in. We did get a few onlookers who would jump in, hold the ball and roost it as far as they could. Must say the highlght was playing kick to kick in Tiananmen Square, had a couple hundred onlookers until one of the Canadians who were travelling with our group shanked one and hit a bloke on the head! Next thing, a Tarago full of soldiers in uniform were over questioning what happened! I'm sure i've got the photos somewhere at home... Good times!