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Interesting discussion with my niece on Christmas Eve (her and her partner are Melbourne barrackers, yet I have not been able to convince her to join or to enrol her her eldest toddler)! She spoke about Collingwood FC's Netball Team and the fact that she followed a lot of their player's, some of whom were recently poached from the Melbourne Vixens. She also mentioned that a number of the netball teams around Australia were directly aligned to other AFL and NRL teams, yet the Melbourne Vixens were not. She thought that it would be very positive and consistent with our Women's AFL Team, if we aligned with the Melbourne Vixens, thereby increasing our appeal to many women who followed both codes. Food for thought as we seek a competive edge in a city with nine AFL teams.

Credit where credir is due. Peter moore, whilst certainly no saviour was very servicable at the dees

The only fair dinkum saviour I've seen come to a footy club and totally succeed was a guy we employed 3 seasons ago, although many could rightly claim his boss as one too. There may have not been a footy club at all without them. We now have a very strong management team, we are improving financially and have a strong coaching team. On field Hogan, Gawn, Petracca, Brayshaw, McDonald, Watts, Viney, Hunt, Salem and Oliver could all claim to be realistic chances at All Australian jumpers over the next few years. If a Fyffe/Dangerfield/Tom Lynch type choose to come play with us that would be very nice but we don't need saving anymore do we.

Boxing Day means a lot of things to different people. Some relax after the festivities of Christmas, many head out on holidays, others head off to the big stores hunting for bargains while others still go off to the G and the Test. This day to me will always be associated with the 2004 tsunami which took the lives of a quarter of a million people as the big waves hit shorelines around the Indian Ocean in one of the planet's greatest natural disasters. Among the victims were many Australians included Demon defender Troy Broadbridge who was on his honeymoon at the time. We won't forget him - today, we celebrate his life and memory ...

The 2016 trade and draft period saw some familiar surnames the club's history, stretching all the way back to our first season in the VFL. Dion Johnstone from Scotch College and Oakleigh Chargers via Warrnambool shares his surname with George Johnstone who played eight games for Melbourne in 1897-98. Then there was also ten year player Travis Johnstone who played 160 games (111 goals) from 1998 before moving to the Brisbane Lions in 2008. Trapper was an AFL Rising Star nominee in 1998 and won the club's best and fairest, the Keith 'Bluey' Truscott Medal in 2005. I don't believe that any of the Johnstones are related. Mitch Hannan comes to the club after spending a season with the Footscray Bulldogs in the VFL but way back in 1927 a little known player named Peter Hannan from Yarraville played 2 games with Melbourne. He ended his career with 6 games at Footscray in 1933. Former North Melbourne champion Johnny Lewis gave Melbourne three good years in the twilight of his career in the 30s and the club will be hoping for the same from Jordan Lewis after he crossed from Hawthorn in the trade period. There is no record of a Hibberd, McKenna (a bit of a surprise actually), Filipovic or a Keilty at the club before Lachlan and Declan were drafted in the recent rookie draft but the Smith name is legend at the club and Tim Smith now joins Joel, son of Shaun, in illustrious company. Norm Smith played in four premierships in a playing career that spanned 1935 to 1948 and coached the club to six flags between 1952 and 1967. His brother Len also played with the club and played and coached at Fitzroy and later for a short period at Richmond during which his innovative approach laid the foundation for the Tigers' golden era of the late 60s through to 1980. Norm's son Peter also played with the club for a short period in the 60s. Current MCC President and former captain Steven Smith was one of the Demons' best players in the 70s and 80s and captained the club. At least a dozen Smiths have represented the club. Included are Ray Smith, a defender from Essendon in the mid 70s, Shaun Smith (father of Joel) who took the mark of the century in a game in the 90s at Carrara and tall forward Nick Smith who was listed on the injured list as being out for "four to six" weeks so often that he earned the monicker "426". On balance, having a Smith at the club must be good because a Smith has been associated with the club for ten of its 12 premierships - 11 if you count dual Brownlow Medallist Ivor Warne-Smith who played in the 1926 team. Having two Smiths at the club will therefore be even better!

Diamond Joe was both a saviour and a very naughty boy.

Diamond Jim Tilbrook!!!!

If the rumours on Fyfe are true, he can go to the Saints or Blues, who have apparently offered him bundles of cash. I don't want a "me man", I want us to keep building a great team. We are on the way and I don't think this FD is going to derail that. PS. No guarantee that Fyfe will come back as good as he was, after the broken leg. Dangerfield while obviously having a great year, has probably cost the Cats a few players, because of the salary cap and I wonder if that will hurt the team fabric.

Gave his life willingly, to save his loved one. Have visited his resting place on the Island. Legend. R.I.P Troy

I've heard from sources more credible than Yarran's FB account that Fyfe is definitely not well liked amongst the playing group. He thinks he's God gift to the club and isn't humble at all about being a Brownlow winner. Quite the opposite of his speech of that night. I doubt the MFC would be interested in such a personality given the recent hard work around behavioural standards.

If my hopes for the future of Petracca and Oliver in particular are well founded, I don't think we will need to chase "saviours". Keeping the talent together is more important, ala Geelong and Hawthorn in their premiership years. One player however talented, is insufficient, as Carlton (Judd) and Collingwood (Buckley) found out. They eat up salary cap and get surrounded by low priced and low capability players.,

Went to my girlfriend's place yesterday afternoon, during the exchanging of presents I unwrapped a copy of "The big book of AFL", I was instructed to turn to the section about the MFC, in which I found return flights from Sydney to Melbourne for the round 2 game which is our first home game against Carlton. I already have flights booked for the QB weekend. This means a minimum of 3 trips from the bunker to the G this year as we will be playing finals. Cant bloody wait.

I'm thinking of reviving our Book of Numbers series and for starters, I reckon it's time for a look at Number Eight. My favourite player to wear the guernsey was the late Bob "Tassie" Johnson who passed away last year. Late AFL great Robert "Tassie" Johnson lives on in enduring love affair on the Sunshine Coast Tassie was a great exponent of the drop kick and holds the club record for most games wearing the number 8 (202). He played mainly at full back where he was a true champion of the game but on the odd occasion would also go into the ruck and performed well there. The list of players who wore the number from 1912 to the present day: 1912 Fred Harris (also #29 in 1912, #7 in 1914, #28 in 1919) 1913 Jack A "Dodger" Evans 1914 A "Bert" Trahair 1915 Jack A ‘Dodger’ Evans (see 1913 above) 1919-1925 Charlie Lilley (also #6 in 1913 and 1915, #11 in 1914) 1926 Herbert White 1931-1932 W ‘Bull’ Adams 1933 - 1941 Rowley Fischer 1942-1943 Don Hewson 1945 Ralph Latham 1946-1947 Roy Stabb (also #22 in 1945) 1948-1951 Doug Heywood (also #25 in 1943, #26 in 1944) 1952 Ian Toyne 1952 Maurie Lehmann 1953 Don Cameron 1954 Geoff Collins (also #3 1948 to 1952) 1955 Kevin Clarke 1956 - 1957 Jim Sandral 1959-1969 Bob "Tassie" Johnson 1970-1975 Peter Keenan (also #10 1981-1982) 1976-1978 Peter Johnston 1979 Glenn Elliott 1980-1982 Brent Crosswell 1983 Les Bamblett 1984 Peter Thorne (also #40 1978 to 1979) 1985-1995 Graeme Yeats (also #45 in 1984) 1996 Craig Turley 1999 Jeff Farmer (also #33 1995 to 2001 and changed back to 33 during the 1999 season) 2000 James Cook 2001-2006 Alistair Nicholson (also #44 1997 to 2000) 2007-2014 James Frawley 2015- 2016 Heritier Lumumba

Couldn't find numbers on their website. If we win a GF I would think our membership will go into the strastophere, well beyond 50,000!! I do recall the Bulldogs 2017 'premium' membership sold out within 48 hours of the Grand Final. Their 'premium' membership guarantees access to a Grand Final ticket and it now has a waiting list a mile long. That might be a bit of foretelling for Dees fans - this may be a good time to upgrade membership to a 'premium' option ('Redlegs', 'Trident' or 'Legends') to guarantee a GF ticket when we play in it - and play in it we will!!. Or buy the 'guarantee' as an add-on to other membership options. https://membership.melbournefc.com.au/packages/view/741/Grand-Final-Guarantee When we get to the GF might be too late to get that precious ticket!! And we will get there (and win one or a few)!!

"serviceable at best" was a reference to what redleg said who first brought this description up. i thought it unnecessarily harsh (specially the "at best") i don't claim he had 5 (if you count his last short year) great years. His first 4 years were not all up to his 1984 year but overall i'd rate him better than just serviceable. He certainly wasn't a saviour, on that i agree. The expectations on him were certainly high despite his drop off of form at collingwood but that was a problem of those who thought they could just buy a saviour. getting a brownlow in '84 certainly gave us something to cheer about in a pretty miserable period.

Is only relevant for us ...in time he's been here. Pretty good i reckon.

Fnoath.

Lately I've been revisiting a few older films that have now been released on BluRay... The Night of the Hunter and Cape Fear (two of Robert Mitchum's best), Martin Scorcese's King of Comedy and After Hours (both brilliant), Lindsay Anderson's "If" which is one of my favourite films of all time and Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket. Have also rewatched one of my favourite recent films Hunt for the Wilderpeople which I consider to be one of the films of the year.

Lets just win one week at a time

Fyfe is the best player in the league imo so you'd obviously love to have him if he fit in the cap with no future issues He would be no saviour but would make us a much better team.

Believe it or not, yes! I have even been to some, albeit many moons ago ...

Bloody show off

Thanks Jack. You are a marvel for filling the quiet times with gems like this.

i don't think most people care, jnr. they just enjoy the shock and outrage. by the time the truth is discovered it will be yesterday's news and no-one will care

Ha. I once pulled up next to the [censored] at the lights at the corner of malvern and orrong roads.... drive off up the road and its traffic and parking chaos so where does the messiah park? The bus stop. He parked at the bus stop. I hope he got a ticket.

Not that I wish him any harm, but how's Justin Beiber's health these days?

I would be happy to take Fyfe at the right price...the dream would be that he wants to come and be part of history, a premiership player and not just a money grabber. Unfortunately someone will pay him overs (he will take it), let them, we have a team to build.

Begin the airing of grievances.

Never expected Schwab to be "all over us" after 4 years. But after 2 stints as CEO for the MFC i found it interesting that there is no mention of the club Not that i lost any sleep over it

I had a lot of fun watching a couple of the recorded replays last night. Watching the Hawthorn game brought back a great memory. There was a moment late in the third quarter where Hawthorn had noticeably gone up a notch. The game was a its hottest and we soaked up the pressure and responded strongly. We were up for it. I told my parochial Hawthorn supporting nephew that we were going to win at that point. And we did. It really is one of my favourite parts of footy. When you're the underdog and you're in front and the favourite is mounting a charge and you find a way to meet the challenge and then go on with it. Sometimes that moment may only be 60 seconds of frenetic footy but if you take their best shot and then respond, you know you'll be ok. I had the same feeling at times during the Collingwood games and the Port Adelaide a week after the Hawthorn win. I'm slowly learning to trust my football team again. When they're on and playing well, like they were in these games, you can trust them to finish it off. Can't wait to see the new and improved model in 2017 with a couple of extra wise heads and the ongoing improvement of the 1 - 4 year players.

I taped a few of these games and later on today will settle down and watch selected passages. Perfect way to start a holiday break.

The AFL also calls itself a non profit organization. The Commission do fine out of that arrangement

Ha, yes, Carlton supporters still insist they have won the most premierships, at 16.4 - that's including 20% of North's premierships in the 90s.

North tried that - didn't work out too well for them

Well it's all totally bogus......and why arent we doing it Pet memberships for $5 I'll three..lol Fair dinkum ...It's ridiculous , but no more so than counting them !! fmd

29,426. As one who can remember former rover and premiership player Ian Ridley, later in his life speaking as president and warning us that in future clubs would need 20.000 members just to survive (I think we at the time had about 8,000 members - TOTAL) to this pre-Christmas result I can only respond: Wow! The club has performed remarkably to keep this number rising in the past couple of weeks when most of us are winding down from work and gearing up for Christmas. Anyone disappointed in not making 30,000 before the break should console themselves with this context. It really is a tremendous result and offers great hope.

You miss the point. WADAS ASADA and thereby as signatories AFL rules make hiding from a drug test as serious an offence as failing one. AFL have chosen to ignore this.

I'd like to beat Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon and Hawthorn!

However North have broken their record for this time of year, so expect them to at least get to their final tally of 2016. I'd like to beat all of North, St Kilda and Bulldogs but it's possible we could have the least of all 4.

I'd never have guessed

Actually its 29426

nice jump in one day. wonder if 30k by year end is now a possibility?

29426 ?

There are several CEOs of top 50 ASX listed entities who are far less impressive than McLachlan who are paid more than him.

Btw.keep that heart beating true CBDees

While I agree with your post, I also think it acts a driver. "Hey, we're not sure if you'll make it, lets see your drive and prove us wrong".

Agree and it is a player from 50 years ago. I must say I feel differently about 2, but it is in great hands ATM.

How about we just don't make a stupid big deal over it? Wheaters didn't appear to be crushed under the terrible burden of #31 - probably because nobody at the time was trying to turn him in to Ron Barassi.

IMO we should just allocate it to the next available player next year and let them create their own story in it. I think resting 31 just increases the burden. Look at 1, it has had the least auspiscious journey, but now it's in good hands and may have it's time. The fortunes of numbers will ebb and flow as they should.