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Can we get the Richmond doctor to scan it please? If he gives it the all clear, then I will start breathing again...

I emailed the club and they contacted me back today apologising, The club has offered the kids that missed out yesterday a place in a guard of honour as the team runs through the banner, they also want to arrange the kids favourite player to give them a call and also offered to send a kids fun pack. I thought that was pretty good of them.

i am pretty sure we will see Christian Salem recommit to the club this week.

The people that are calling this an overreaction clearly don't get it. There was a bloody good crowd, I was really happy for the club, they had finally managed to advertise and promote something to get people out to it. The images of the kids running with Howe were hilarious, and it was a great atmosphere. I suspected it was a footy department decision to push the training back, and I understand they are the ones out there under pressure, but the time being shifted is only one part of this massive blunder. - No membership tent: if they at least had a membership tents they could have signed people while they were waiting, particularly the kids that trying to decide. They could've also had the likes of Trenners and Tracca in there as well to chat to them. - No merchandise tent: again, while people were waiting they could've bought caps, tops, scarfs etc and they could've had sharpie pens available as well so kids could get autographs. - Terrible communication: Twitter.....are you kidding me? That's all they think people need to get the information out. Email, Official Website, Facebook, SMS (I always get my membership payment SMS), and when that's all said and done they should've had someone from the club, or even better a former player or two out there explaining what's happened and running a few drills/games with kids and/or getting photos with them. I have emailed the club, and to me I'm not the main issue. The fact that I left is just a frustration for me. It drives me nuts that we had a real opportunity to engage with the younger fans and get them pumped for the season, and they totally blew it. And also just on it being a footy department decision, part me actually thinks the business part of the club should've said too bad. I know the footy is the no 1 priority, but there are times the club actually needs to put PR and fan engagement first. The time was already later that usual, what was so important that it needed that extra hour that was decided that morning?

I received the following from the club to pass on to everyone: The Club wishes to apologise for the training time error on Monday 9 March. The Club was eager to create a Public Holiday training session for our members and supporters to enjoy. Communication staff believed training was to commence at 12noon as per the time listed in the Club’s training calendar. Staff however overlooked the fact that the start time in the training calendar allowed for an hour of pre training preparation. This was an error on our behalf and we unreservedly apologise for that and for the inconvenience caused to those who arrived at the advertised time. A football staff member noticed the promoted time at approximately 10am and notified communication staff that the players would not actually hit the track until at least 1pm. At this time, all communication channels (Twitter, Facebook, instagram) were updated to reflect the actual start time were updated. In addition, Club staff contacted the Demon Army, who planned to attend in large numbers, to advise them of the change. Today, Club staff will seek to contact all those who contacted the Club about the communication error, especially those with kids, to provide them with another opportunity to engage with the club. I would like to reinforce how sorry the Club is to have put our members and supporters out. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any further assistance. Sincerely, Jennifer Watt – General Manager, Marketing and Communications | Membership Number 10305049

Well, I'm happy with the club now... I called them asking if I was to purchase a Demons jumper from the online store, whether they would be able to get it signed by the players so that I could give it to my son for his 13th birthday and we could pick it up on match day; this was because we won't get down from Sydney in time to attend any training sessions. The girl I was speaking to (Ally) asked who his favourite player was, to which I had to answer Mitch Clark. After a polite chuckle she asked me who his favourite current MFC player is, to which I answered Col Garland followed closely by Nathan Jones. She to took my mobile number and said she would find out what they could do and call me back later. Well, she did call me back not too much later (maybe half an hour or so) and informed me that they would be happy to organise a jumper and get it signed by the players (looks like it will be more than just Col) and have it in the post to me later today (so we should receive it in the next couple of days)... all at no cost to me. So well done MFC and more particularly well done Ally!!

I love facts.

sounds like you haven't read the whole thread mm, nor the other thread specifically on this topic you say " a message that was posted on their website/twitter/app is perfectly acceptable" but it wasn't on the website or app, just on twitter. secondly the tweet was sent late and after many people had already left home. thirdly they were still late (by another half hour) after the revised time and fouthly no-one from the club presented at 12 to explain to those who were there. and then there were the other lost opportunities mentioned by other posters which seem to have escaped you at least 3 posters who attended with young children had to give up and leave. one all set to buy promised kid memberships and merchandise this too, follows shortly after arranging and advertising a promotional intra-club practice match at casey at a fan unfriendly time just a week before if you think that is "is perfectly acceptable" and "it was not an issue, it is maybe a slight inconvenience" and " a testament to the vast majority of people who posts temperament" who you say are "prescious (sic)"then you seem to have missed the point. those posters being reasonably critical are not just being "precious" but genuinely want the mfc to be a truly professional club in all aspects and especially so in attracting young kids to the club. you should rethink your position

The club stuffed up, they know it and have apologized. Time to move on and thanks to Jenn Watts who is a terrific person and takes her role very seriously. She'd be genuinely upset.

If you can't see the issue here than I suggest you don't start your own business.

Petracca didn't do his ACL after all?

1 injection is 1 too many... Doesn't matter if they had 1 or 1000, they are still guilty of a drug offence and liable to a 2 year suspension.

precious about getting something simple right ? If you advertise a time - stick to it - that's not precious - that's treating your members with respect.

I just got back from the training. I stayed until about 3pm and enjoyed myself but I have to admit it was a messy and clumsy PR exercise. Step 1. Heavily promote 35K members by round 1 Step 2. Promote and advertise open training session on a public holiday. Step 3. Change the time by an hour but provide information only to Twitter people with no information about the time change on the official website Step 4. Attract heaps of members and their kids (and there were a heap of kids) and leave them doing kick-to-kick for 1.5 hours. Many leave before players arrive. Very poor business and promotional effort MFC - I thought that carp was behind us. Anyway, to the training... This was the first training I was able to get to this pre-season, but also probably the sharpest training session by MFC I have seen in a long time. I came away feeling positive about quite a few things. There was some standard warming up followed by short sharp kicking drills. The first drill was hitting targets in a full ground drill, hitting up a forward who was running toward goal, and then actual goal scoring on the run. The main focus was definitely ball movement off half-back. Starting on the HB flank with 5 defenders on 3 forwards, so it was simulating when we get more numbers to a contest than the opposition. A handball pattern getting it free, a kick to a loose player, and then a further kick at 45 degrees across to the other HF flank amid heaps of players spreading everywhere, and then to goal. I remember Michael Voss talking about spreading forward at 45 degrees being the best way to spread an opposition defence, and it did look effective. Highlights Brayshaw is simply a beautiful mover. Takes the ball at the highest point, has a long loping running style but covers a lot of ground. Great to watch. However, at this early stage his kicking is definitely a liability. Toumpas, Watts and Salem - their kicking on the run is sublime. All three sprinted hard and could still hit targets. Salem. Quickly becoming my favourite current player. Lamumba is seriously focused when training. Strong vocally, and trains like it is a game. I came away very impressed and can see why Roos went for him. Garlett might just be one of the recruit of the year. On the run at full flight beautiful to watch. We have a heap of players to rotate through the midfield, all of similar size, but with a variety of body shape and skill set. From huge bodies like Jones, Kent and Vandenberg through to outside runners like Bail, Hunt, Stretch, and everything in between. Our issue this year will be getting the ball and keeping it: Once we have it I reckon we are looking OK with our midfield mix.. A real fight on for for midfield positions Lowlights Both McDonald boys can't kick. JKH was probably the worst on the track from where I was today. It just wasn't coming together for him. Lots of errors. I would love to see some competitive marking drills. Most of the aerial work today was very easy and low pressure, not helping Dawes, Fitz, Pederson the practice. No Hogan. A friend next to me asked about Hogan and was told he was left in Perth to catch up with family after NAB round 1. Howe and Vince still doing rehab. That's about it

May this be the biggest f up we'll have to deal with this season. Seriously!

The irony in this post smells so bad you can almost see it. You take aim at the supporters who were annoyed with the day, who are in the vast majority here, and then back up your statement based on a chat with 1 person. Give me a break Saty. The club stuffed up and you know it.

Cannot remember PSD.

Standing next to me was a lady and her three kids and because of the change of time they had to leave during the warm up as the lady was running late for something, the three boys were devastated they didn't get to see Jack Viney and Jack Watts, it's really dissapointing from a club that's trying to rebuild trust and respect, i would be surprised if she comes back to training again.

I'll have a shot old fart. How about you get your 11 and 8 year old up, run to the shops to buy them a sharpie texta each, rummage around til you can find 2 clean footys, last years scarves and the knowledge that I'm going to make their day by buying them a membership each; drive to the train station and discover that you need to buy 2 mykis plus fares for even the 8 year old; get there early coz the kids are pumped to see players in the flesh; put up with the unprofessional, amateur, disrespectful treatment by MFC of myself and my childrens' time then pull the pin because the 8 year old has lost all interest and they are starting to bicker; get back home to have the wife ask the kids how many signatures they got on their footys to have both kids reply they don't barrack for us now and don't want to go this year. My kids and all the others there are the club's future. I only went as I got a club email and pumped my kids up about it last night - wouldn't have happened at Hawthorn training I can guarantee you that Sorry, but I don't give a stuff about today's training report...

I thought we could keep the training thread to topic. If mods want to merge they can merge. If anyone wants to send this through to the club they can. The club has to improve in communication and treatment of members and supporters. I think they do a fantastic job in interviewing players and coaches pre and post game, but everything else is very substandard. The intraclub game staged at Casey at a non fan friendly time of 4pm and without any associated merchandise, membership, food or drink sales was very poor. Today was worse. I'm calling on Josh Mahoney as head of football operations to get together with Paul Roos (a man who clearly has a firm grasp of PR) and David Misson to make sure they are all on the same page in the footy department. Whilst I never expect them to sacrifice preparation to appease supporters they can certainly be aware of what's happening in the rest of the club. If the club advertise a training time then that's it locked in, it can't be changed merely a couple of hours before. I'm then calling out the clubs consumer staff. The head of which is Jennifer Watt - General Manager Marketing and Communications is her title according to the website. The following are listed to work under her. If the names are wrong and the positions are blank then guess what, it's still a failure of communications! - Matt Burgan - Editor & Chief Football Writer - Debbie Lee - Community Manager - Ryan Larkin - Media Manager - Matthew Goodrope - Communications Coordinator - Ryan Earles - Digital Marketing Manager - Dave Larkin - Graphic Designer - Anna Harrington - Digital Media Coordinator - Georgina Lewis - Customer Relations Executive - Courtney Hart - Digital Video Producer - Alexandra Luxford - Community Trainee If you can't organise a popular open training on a public holiday to start when it says it will start and not change times then I don't know how you can lead a team of 10 others! If you're getting screwed around by the footy department then it's time to stand up for the members who support this club and work it out. I'm at loss at what those 10 people do considering the majority of website content comes from Matt Burgan and that we seem to be one of the least active clubs on twitter. Today was simply not good enough. For people to waste 90 minutes of precious time standing around before the main group hit the track is taking your supporters for granted. And no group of members and supporters have been more taken for granted than us loyal demons over the last many long years. Time to lift your game MFC. GRRM out

http://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/melbourne-close-to-re-signing-tough-midfielder-angus-brayshaw/story-fndv8pdq-1227255504839 great news that a youngster wants to extend his contract and stay with us for a little longer.

I normally skim past your posts Saty but had to correct you on this. I understand you take this club criticism personally chap, but try not to speak on behalf of the club. You miss the point, so I'll type it slowly. The club would have made far more from the day than what it cost to get a permit and fund $1000 for a membership/merchandise tent. I would have easily covered about a quarter of that with a new kid's membership and merch sales. Judging by other parents spoken to, I was clearly not alone. My young one was disheartened, but if the desire is still there of course I'll buy a first membership. The lack of vision and poor communication within the club cost it financially and more importantly in terms of goodwill. It's ameteur, not professional, definitely not a good commercial decision and does little to esteeme the club to young supporters. New, young supporters are the future of our club, not you, not me. MFC can definitely put funds into the FD and engage with young supporters at the same time. Time to stop making excuses.

We were touted as taking McCartin because he was the best available not because we knew Jesse Hogan would have his foot stood on in Nab 1.

I laughed at this, then cried.

It's not a small minority. Those complaining aren't a fringe group, they are a substantial number on here which likely means plenty more of those who went. You aren't the clubs spokesman and there's good reason for that. The club has rightfully and unconditionally apologised. They didn't need to add qualifying statements like you did about people 'getting the [censored] and leaving'.

TDI i understand what you are saying. You may well be right that by not having merch or membership sales they were trying to keep costs down. But i hope you are wrong because that is plain stupid. Such short term, black and white thinking has no place in a sophisticated business looking to grow its membership and become sustainable into the future. For heavens sake they have made a public goal of getting to 35, 000 members by round one. How much do you think the advertising costs are for this push? And they miss this opportunity to sell memberships because it might cost some overtime pay? Please. Yesterday was another opportunity lost to sell more membership. The more memberships they sell the more money there is for the FD. Simple.

if it was more than half an hour ago, he would have forgotten it

The club makes some silly mistakes. This is one, the failure to provide any services at the intraclub at Casey was another. A third was after the Giants game last year when a Player Sponsor function was held at AAMI after the game. It was a dreadful day at the footy and the weather was bitter. We headed over to the function which was in the café next to the footy department. Everyone was disappointed with the day and to make matters worse when we got there the door to the café was locked and a couple of MFC staff were sitting at one of the tables. We knocked on the door seeking some shelter from the weather only to be told the function started in 20 minutes and we couldn't come in. Thankfully after 10 minutes or so of agitating sanity prevailed and we were let in. It was such a simple thing done so poorly. The MFC really should come on here an explain and apologize. We'll forgive them, everyone makes mistakes, but just ignoring it heightens the aggravation that I reckon is totally justified.

I agree Wrecker. Like you, I'm normally in what you describe as the 'over reaction crowd', and yesterday I thought I could see yet another training thread being derailed by what I thought at the time was an overreaction to a relatively minor irritation. Now, having read both threads more closely, I can understand the disappointment and even anger that this issue has generated. My opinion has been swayed by the strength of feeling shown on Demonland, including from quite a few posters whose views I strongly respect. Clearly there is an underlying issue here which our Club needs to remedy. Let's hope they get the message and do so promptly.

Make senses to me. If the club believes he is going to be good it is a much cheaper alternative locking him away for another two years now rather than waiting for 18 months of exposed form and then see his contract price increase significantly.

If I'm correct the BBQ was run by demon army which are some kind of cheer squad. So yeah it pretty much was a suburban footy club. So I wont judge them too much because they are out there trying their best for the club. They shouldn't run out of drinks, soft drink cans last forever and they should have more of these BBQ's, same goes for sauces, mustards, even onions which if left over could just go back between the members. Under catering on bread and snags and not having a second BBQ on the go either for more snags or even burgers etc is missed opportunity as well but understandable. Really I have to feel like these cheer squad types probably get the same stuffing around from the club as the rest of us so probably were messed around on the time and didn't have any support either. I guess the main thing we hope for is the club learns from its mistakes. They didn't learn from the intraclub at Casey for today. Maybe for next years intraclub and/or if there's ever a labour day open training again to realise these are really important fan events that deserve appropriate planning and support from the club!

Given that I went today and left disappointed just after 1pm with my young child, I'd have to say that your post is perhaps the stupidest thing I've read on Demonland. I've been a club member for nearly 20 years and my kid has just started taking an interest in footy. I'd hoped to sign up the young one as a member and maybe get a photo or two with the players. Unfortunately we will be away when the Luna Park family day is on. The praccy game at Casey the other week was too far for us to travel, and there was no membership tent there, so it proved to be moot, as it was today. MFC has missed another opportunity to sign up a young fan and gain considerable merchandise sales. Will do my best to keep it in the family, but after today's effort, I'm not sure and definitely not impressed. The club will get an email from me. I care rhaz and I will remember this for a lot longer than a week.

The last time you had sex Old Dee, just out of curiosity did you enjoy it?

To answer a couple of questions, both Watts and Fitzy are hoping to get a run this weekend As for Howe, as far as I can gather it wasn't a 'normal' hamstring injury, whatever that means, and they are being ultra cautious

I can't believe it still hasn't been explained what the actual delay was caused by in the first place Did they have a weights session (or something) beforehand that went crazy over the expected timeframe? What could cause the entire group of about 70 people inc staff to be delayed over an hour? What could possibly justify a decision to postpone when they KNOW there are thousands of people waiting for them? There may be a reasonable explanation but I'm staggered it has not even been offered to us The fact the club seems to be doing ZERO to address what is obviously a lot of supporter outrage is now annoying me as much as the incident itself Very, very, very ordinary MFC

Im hearing people say "not everyone has twitter" as if most people do and its only the oldies that don't? im in my mid thirties and I dont have a twitter account (as I dont care to know what xx celebrity had for breakfast). nearly all my mates are the same so using this as the main way to communicate anything to members is ridiculous

The no merchandising or membership sales thing is mistifyin. You've got a bunch of die hard supporters out there, itching to give the club money. What a pathetic missed opportunity.

Thanks for the 'voice of reason' nutbean. I made the post to which you refer because I could see yet another training thread being derailed by what I thought at the time, to be an overreaction to a relatively minor irritation. Now, having read this and the related thread more closely, I can understand the disappointment and even anger that this issue has generated. My opinion has been swayed by the strength of feeling shown on Demonland, including from quite a few posters whose views I strongly respect. Clearly there is an underlying issue here which our Club needs to remedy, and it won't be fixed by simply 'papering over the cracks'. Edit: typo

What does that tell you ? It tells me that something so simple has been botched up and angered people. How many times have we all heard how important membership is to clubs ? Ours is one of the clubs that desperately needs members - we finally have something to look forward with new recruits and a stable coaching and administrative team. Then the club angers members by stuffing up something relatively simple. I am not overreacting - I just get disappointed when the club gets the easy stuff so wrong.

Didn't see the 'good' part.. My bad, carry on..

I sympathise with your experience. I didn't bother going with my kids because this is the kind of thing I've seen enough of. No merchandise. Bugger all communication. This is the same club that advertised events via their MBC that never happened. When I wrote an email asking about one event, I was told that the plan either never existed or had been rescheduled/changed. Yet I had responded to an RSVP sent to me from the club website AND it was still advertised on the LinkedIn page. These are small things in-and-of-themselves. However they keep happening year in, year out. And they fail to engage and make the most of supporters who are keen - despite the utter tripe served up over years by this club - to be involved.I'd guess that a whole bunch of dads took their kids in and couldn't find any merchandise to buy for their enthusiastic/bewildered kids. These "little details" matter. If you cannot get these ones right, I guarantee that there are lots of others that we don't see that aren't right either.

Deefella, you're missing the point defending the MFC for not having staff by citing high public holiday wages. While I don't think this is a valid excuse, I'll entertain it. So it's going to be a public holiday and they decide they can't afford staffing or convince volunteers to give up their day off and attend training. For the same reason, they can't open the Demon store. Okay, fine. Here's an idea: maybe they shouldn't have made a big song and dance about said open training session, spending the week promoting it in newsletters and all MFC related media. Just treat it like any other nondescript training session. Don't go out of your way to invite members and non-members alike, along with their families, to a training session if you aren't prepared to stump up the cash for resources to make it a worthwhile A) membership-growing exercise or B) supporter-supporting exercise. And while the list of ten employees within the media/communications department was earlier called out as irrelevant, I can speak with experience from working in that industry. I've never seen such a bloated list of managerial waste for a media department. No wonder we have such an embarrassing excuse for a website and our media presence is a joke. One needs only look at Collingwood's media output to see how far behind the eight ball we are. If only Howcroft had shown any interest in the MFC when he was involved. He could rightfully have swept a broom through the whole department and use his experience in the media to give our club a genuine online presence.

Call me crazy but I want and expect both. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

It wasn't great. The session itself was good but 90% of people there obviously didn't know of the 1pm start because the crowd was the same at 12pm than it was at 1pm. It's great that people volunteer their time but the sausage sizzle was a shambles. They needed to rush out to buy more sausages, and the people managing it were clueless. It was just sausages and bread: why not just pre-make them so people can grab and pay? The ladies looked at me like as if they wanted to take my intricately detailed order: yeah, I want 4 sausages, How'd you guess? On top of that, they ran out of cans of drinks, and there was no mustard or sauce left. Waited 30 minutes for dried sausages in bread. Never seen so many people have to line up for so long for a sausage! Except maybe during the Mardi Gras broadcast! As I said, the training session itself was great to watch, but no merchandise and membership stand was a bit bizarre. It seemed like a bbq run by a suburban football club, which coincidentally took place at the same time and place as an AFL team training. It was my first training session since the 2000 GF and my second overall since I started supporting in 1990 and it was strangely ameteurish. But just to reinforce, the team trained fine. But as a fan and support exercise, it was embarrassing.

It was only a stretch when he insinuated that's why Hawthorn are at the top. Delaying trainings doesn't stop premierships but it does show the gulf between the best and worst run clubs. On today's training, the delay of precedings wouldn't particularly phase me, but the sad part is the stories of kids leaving disappointed. There are excuses for the reasons behind delaying the event, but there are no excuses for not sending out an official or player to get around the youngsters who made the trip out early. If Hogan wasn't training today, send him out with a pen for 30 minutes with Petracca and set up a photo table from 12.15-12.45 to pass the time. At absolute worst, the lack of a senior official not making themselves available down there to explain the delay is beyond reasoning. Either way, as a football team, good results will always override bad PR and I'm hoping this year that will be the case. Training seemed to be reasonable and I'm excited of the progress of VDB, Newton and some of the younger guys. Pretty excited to see how we go against a Bulldogs side whom I feel we should match up with strongly against this weekend.

Don't worry I already have. The following email sent earlier today. To whom it may concern May I suggest that when you publish a start time of 12:00 for a open training session you stick to it.Today I sat and waited for nearly an hour and a half for the main training session to begin.Yes you updated the start time on twitter at 11:00am but I and I assume many others were already in transit by then. I watched supporters turn away and leave before the main session began, including many families with small children .This is not rocket science. It is time this organisation started to treat it’s supporters with some respect instead of the contempt that we are all too frequently served up. You plead for 35K signed members before round one, yet offered up todays effort. Seriously unprofessional MFC. Yours Sincerely

I think it's perfectly reasonable to be P'D off by todays efforts. Waiting around for an hour and half for your team to turn up is just poor public relations. In a highly competitive market like the AFL it is imperative to look after your supporter base. Today the club dramatically failed to do this. On the training side of things I couldn't help be impressed with Toumpas. Didn't miss a target all day and looks quick. Salem may just be the best kick in the side alongside Watts. I was also super impressed with The Prince whose intensity during all the drills was outstanding. I thought Max King had a good session today, for a big guy he's a beautiful kick.

probably not...youre really old after all !!

You really need to get your priorities sorted. This is our grand final.