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The reason GWS and GC are in existence is simple and twofold. I have said it before and I'll say it again. 60% of the advertising revenue in Australia comes from NSW and Southern QLD. Rugby league viewing stats (in around 2008 when the decision was made to expand the AFL) had the NRL holding around 8 of the top 12 viewed sports programs excluding the Beijing Olympics). The AFL, on order to make theirs the pre-eminent national product for advertisers, needed greater exposure on those two regions. They were given a solid head start because the AFL did not want to see the Brisbane Bears reincarnated. They wanted a competitive team quickly. This has happened with GWS but GC seems to have stuffed it up. All the clubs agreed to it and to the concessions. We have 9 games a week which is why TV revenue drives outcomes. IN 2011 braodcast rights were around $1.25bn. In 2016 these rights were around $2.5bn. Be in no doubt that this show is driven by TV money and not by 'real fans'.

I'm really glad AFLW is back.... Like a new GOT series, sometimes folk are disappointed with the first episode, but the final quarter was magnificent! Those that continue to express the need to compare it to the men's game are lost in a time warp! The whole competition is crammed full of inspiring young women; at the summit sits Daisy... a wonderful role model, for all genders! Go Dees

Took my oldest demon tragic daughter (4.5years) down to the game yesterday and had a great time. Took us 36mins from Vermont and parked a stones throw from the ground. Walked into the ground and within 10mins she had her face painted, sunscreened up (dad forgot to bring some! thanks Chemist Warehouse stall ?), photo taken with Daisy mascot, got a free bag of stuff including another footy, got some thunder sticks and she wandered onto the ground and joined in with the pre game kids activity. Great start to the day ? Sat behind the goals at the car park end once the girls came out onto the field I watched my girl run around furiously trying to get the balls that were kicked over the fence in goal kicking practice (seriously 30+ yo males behind the goals, let the kids get the ball occasionally!). After she was bowled over a couple of times by 80-100kg blokes she gave up and sat with me in a huff for a while. Before a Melbourne bloke with a lanyard wandered over and handed us and a few kids around us with a demon flag! That made my little ones day and from then on my eyes and those of the people around us were not safe as she waved her flag furiously at any sign of action on the field. Free kick, wave the flag, mark, wave the flag, someone near us says go dees, wave the flag, goal, go absolutely troppo with the flag!!! After the game we raced out to the middle and were one of the first few there, which resulted in a cartwheel celebration from her followed by a rowsing game of run away from dad with the footy as fast as you can as he runs along behind like a packhorse weighed down with all the free gear scored during the day. After bumping into a few people we knew we headed to the car for the journey home. Seriously though, WHO DESIGNED THE CARPARK!!! Who ever did, should have their engineering qualifications jammed up their a r s e! Fortunately I have a large 4WD (not a range rover) and was able to drive over a couple of kerbs and then down the wrong way on a one way street to get to freedom without waiting the 30-40mins to get out ? Overall it was a great day and a perfect way to brainwash the kids into being died in the wool demon supporters! We will be back on Friday, Go Dees!!!

Article quietly hidden in the Financial review: http://www.afr.com/business/sport/the-afl-propped-up-gold-coast-suns-with-25m-after-sponsorship-woes-20180201-h0s15t While most clubs get $10-15M from the AFL each year, this is an absolute disgrace for an enterprise that simply will NOT work. How would an extra $10M go at any other club? There are no fans in the back blocks of the Gold Coast, and the list of failed sporting teams from that area is long. Can't get sponsors....there is a reason for that.....businesses can see value in promotion through sport, but they can also see that money would be wasted with this venture.... How well would a Tasmanian team go if the AFL threw in $25 M toward their operating costs? And then provide ambassadorships to leading players on top of their salary cap?

I read an article recently can't remember where but it was about Roger Federer. I can remember with the now great athlete carried on like Nick Kyrgios. The article goes back to this point and the appointment of a new coach that his No1 think he taught Roger was Humility and respect, respect for the game and people with in the game. The coach was in a car accident and died soon after taking over as coach. It clicked with Roger and he worked hard on what this coach had started and made him the player he is today. Every Junior coach of any sport should get this article pin it to the club rooms give it out to parents. If you don't respect the game and your opponent and be humble in both victory and defeat you don't deserve to play the game.

I'm really looking forward to the next few seasons, this one can't come soon enough. We finally have a team to support that's in the game. It's been a long time coming, embrace it, don't fear it...

If we do not make finals this year I will still blame Jack Watts

Spot on rjay, win lose or draw we have a team that can compete with the best, I firmly believe we will play finals this year given a reasonable run of injuries. Even if we don't I am confident we will win more than we lose. We have come a long way since the days where the only thing to be decided was the size of the loss. Heads up guys this season is going to be fun.

I think it's worse by hand 'poita', hand balling is for many about little league standard. It's an area of the game that is really hard to learn. A lot of the congestion is caused by poor use by hand. I think the first thing they could do to fix this is bring it back up to 18 players on the ground. It goes against what I've said before about the talent pool (add no more teams yet) but in this case it might help the game a bit. The players don't kick long enough and play doesn't link up, it doesn't help with the congestion (16 on the ground) in the womens game and is I think in part responsible for the low scores.

I've seen bits and pieces of womens football for about 15 years, since I used to work with one of the St Albans Spurs players, but Saturday was the first full game of AFLW that I have watched. Overall I really enjoyed the day and the contest. There is clearly a lot of goodwill towards making AFLW work and getting it right first time, and I hope this happens. A few thoughts: The skill level, particularly by foot, is poor. There are very few players who can hit a target 25 - 30 metres away. I thought GWS were better at this than Melbourne. Perhaps this is a consequence of bringing in so many players from other sports. Hopefully this improves markedly as the new draftees are players who have been in the sport better. Melbourne were much better around the contest than GWS and looked much better in the second half when they were prepared to move the ball forward by any means, rather than chipping the ball around. I doubt they will get a half to sort themselves out against the better teams. The gap between the best players and the rest is immense. You could immediately see the effect that losing Paxman had on Melbourne, as one of the few players who can use the ball well. I was okay with 13 goals kicked across roughly 70 minutes of play (1 every 5 minutes or so), but we clearly had the best game of the weekend. Anything less than 10 goals a game just doesn't cut it. I suspect the game would benefit from playing on smaller grounds. I don't see any reason for the competition to expand from 8 teams to 14 over the next two years. There isn't the player base, and with little or no revenue generated by either the competition or the clubs, all you are doing is creating a massive gravy train. Far better to focus on getting the fundamentals right and having the best product possible over a period of time, and then expand when this is achieved.

I'm feeling it too. Have been thinking there is huge pressure on the team to make finals this year. As much as I think they are primed and ready to make the next step, the last few years and watching other teams like Carlton and Collinwood and North that were also said to be building over the past decade, but then only falter into mediocrity, tells me it's no certainty. I'm really looking for this Melbourne team to mature into something solid and dominant beyond MFC teams of the 90s and put a consistent season from start to finish, stitching up a top four position and setting it's self up for a realistic crack at the big prize, rather than scrapping out the last six rounds just to scrape into the top 8.

Tim Watson has claimed today on SEN that Melbourne mismanaged the Lever signing Watson claims that not having Lever dressed up in a Melbourne jumper before he went overseas was a faux pas and battered the Demons' reputation, particularly when Essendon had a back page spread of their new signing Devon Smith in Essendon colours. The back page of Friday's Age which announced the trades for both Lever and Smith had photographs of both players in their new colours. No doubt, Watson missed this for some reason ... but that pales into insignificance when one thinks of his own club's reputation that was tarnished to a significantly greater dimension than a possible wardrobe failure by the Bombers' own issues over recent times which involved injecting players with unknown substances and led to 34 players receiving 12 month playing suspensions. Given Watson's involvement with the Bombers, he should be the last person to comment on the reputations of other clubs.

Big feature on the ABC tonight on 7.30 report about MFC womens players and what they have given up to play for the club Here is at least a write up: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-01/aflw-women-career-injury/9380274 and the video link: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/meet-the-aflw-players-who-sacrificed-their-day/9385274

We are probably among only a few that understand dc. Sorry but I could not help myself.

thank you, gough

they're not "providing financial backing", they are redistributing (some of) the tv rights money which wouldn't exist if it weren't for the clubs...... no clubs, no afl.....the fact that the afl waste so much money "should be the bigger concern"

i've been feeling sick in the guts for 53 years.......toughen up princesses

Even though I didn’t think it at the time, it’s possible that 2017 is the year we had to have. A finals birth is absolutely there for us in 2018. And not a mere position in the 8, we now have the list, the coaching group and the experience to make an impact. In short, it’s ours to stuff up this year. For some reason, I don’t think we will - I definitely see us playing finals for the first time since 2006.

Take heart, Doc. This is THE YEAR when when we either make the 8, or completely f*** it up somehow.

He's a simpering, smug fool. Someone should tell him that his big stupid glasses don't make him look intelligent. They just make him look like a simpering, smug fool wearing big stupid glasses. In fact they just make him look more stupider*. I think I've lost the plot. If anyone finds it, could they please send me a private message? Reward offered. *note. Attempt at humour. Probably unsuccessful.

the decontamination cost would probably make it uneconomic, jim

I understand the concern about Mifsud’s absence for us but what I really want to know is why Scully wasn’t playing for them!

Having been a Demons supporter since switching from Carlton under peer pressure from taunting school mates in 1964. I have been living with hope every year that the next year will be the one. 50+ years on and it hasn't changed, however this upcoming season has me feeling more than ever that we can take the next step and really give it a good shake, but I am torn between putting all my emotional energy into a team that has ripped my heart out,or giving it another shot. I guess it's nature's way of warning my body.

I know what you mean. On the basis of the following there is logically a growing expectation of this year being a breakout year :- - linear improvement; - the demographic of the team with a solid core of players reaching a competitive level of development; - the raw talent; and - what I believe is an excellent coaching panel with a gameplan that at stages last year showed it could beat the best teams. However there are some intangibles we've suffered in the past two years that make me understand what you are saying. They might be cultural issues or maybe they were caused by too young a list. My three keys to correct for success are :- 1. I reckon we've played 3 x 4 quarter games in the past 11 years. Dogs and Eagles last year. Hawks the year before. When we start playing 4 quarter games watch out. 2. We've had too many games where we fade out and fail to close out games. 3. The last two years we've had bad drop offs in the last month. Maybe 2 & 3 can be explained by too young a list or maybe there's a more inherent cultural issue. Lets hope its the former and the list has reached a critical mass of physical and footy development. In my experience the transition from being grateful for any improvement to an expectation of good footy brings plenty of frustration and gnashing of teeth. (I'm being very restrained here). I was fractionally too young to remember '64 so my first experience of this transition was '86/'87 and we're in that window now for only the second time since '64. The competition is more even and plenty of teams around us are improving so there's no guarantees. My gut tells me the footy injury gods are finally going to shine on us and we are in for a big improvement but the logic of our experience as Dees supporters won't let that queezy feeling go away until its proved otherwise. Go Dees

We received a 1.4 million grant in 2013 and that's about it. I've challenged those who disagree to put up or shut up and they've offered nothing. Compare that to the ongoing tens of millions of dollars being thrown at the Suns & Giants. The Giants are also highly dependent on AFL funding despite being more successful on the field than the Suns. And that ongoing funding will need to continue for a long time yet (for both the 2 new teams) It's not something that is highlighted by our media either - the story doesn't sell and the media are happy to toe the party line anyway.

Unfortunately, there's no commercial value to the AFL in placing a team in Tassie. The incremental increase in revenue would be miniscule because of the small population and the fact that most are already watching AFL. That's why Gold Coast was a preferred option.

Leicester, Cubs, Astros, Cronulla, Bulldogs, Richmond, Philly Eagles... the more these drought-breaking outsiders win championships, the less confident I am that Melbourne will break its drought.

I would like to see the statts that show there are more people watching TV because there is a gold coast team.

and quite often praised/encouraged too.....which is part of the problem......often called 'flying the flag'

Bears $$$hit in woods...

I feel like the worst of the 'unsportsman-like conduct' in AFL comes from the administration. The more commercial AFL gets, the less 'sporting' it becomes. 'Sporting' suggests an ethical, I suppose 'gentlemanly' approach to a contest - at least in my mind. The AFL itself has become so conflicted that it's not consistent with this principle. I think the players, on the field at least, are pretty good as a whole. The administration however is a different beast.

.... and AFL clubs has 90 interchanges a game in which players have time to receive instruction and grab a drink as well as quarter time and half time breaks. Plus as suggested there is no reason as to why a player couldn't get a drink from a trainer on the boundary line outside the field of play. I have no idea why we have to have these guys on the field.

THAT'S ONE OF THE MOST BADASS THINGS I'VE EVER SEEN

I just threw up.

DJ I think we will be both in the ground before the rail yard are covered in. Re Prahran a couple of years ago at an AGM ( I think ) PJ said Prahran was not feasible. Basically no room for any development. Also think that the council was not in favour as well.

Will come down to a bit of good discipline and luck with injuries, if we had those things in our favor last year I still believe we would have been pushing hard for the top 4, so top 8 or epic failure this year, I am slightly reluctant to embrace the hype that loss to Collingwood is still in the back of the mind, but saying that the Collingwood loss is not the reason we missed finals was a combination of things the loss to freo, nth x2 and not burying Brisbane when we had the chance, I just hope the players are hurting as much as us supporters if they are I don’t think they will let it slip this time

I hear what you are saying Brian, but there's no way in the world I could keep my emotions in check, even if I wanted to. Let it rip Demons!

I always thought the rail yard area connecting the G to Laver would be a good choice. We would then be as close as possible to our home...connected to it really and it would put Collingwood on the outer.

Not so much for his non role in the saga but... if someone had injected my son with quite literally unknown substances i Wouldn't be publicly defending them...

I agree and like most of the team O’Dea was much better after half time. She also has about the purist of kicking actions in a comp not known for silky skills. I thought Mithen continued on from where she left off last year and Tegan Cunningham is a good pick up for the team. Hoare, the new ruck, did pretty well and should go even better when on smaller opponents. Another first gamer for the club, Jakobsson, was one of the best too. We have recruited well. Im not sure what Mel Hickey offers the team aside from tackling (9 for the game) but a midfielder she ain’t at this stage. Hopefully Paxman will come up next week as well as Mifsud. Honestly I was unsure if I could get fired up after the novelty factor of last year had worn off but for me the timing is perfect - it’s been 5 months since last seeing a red and blue jumper run around. And then when those cheating maggots paid GWS 3 free kicks directly in front of goal well i wasn’t worrying about the standard of the game!

It was just nice to get the papers and read about a dees win. Enjoyed the double page spread in the herald sun.

KNOCK OUT by Ruby Tuesday Melbourne overcame a sloppy start to its AFLW season with six straight last half goals including a late snap from Richelle (“Rocky”) Cranston which knocked Greater Western Sydney out of the contest and gave her team the win by six points. The Demons, with midfielder Karen Paxman in great early form with nine possessions, dominated proceedings in the first quarter but their poor disposal and the Giants’ ability to score goals on rare forays up forward, saw them trailing by four points at quarter time. By then, Paxman was off with a back injury (later diagnosed as “back spasms”) and things were not looking good for the Dees when their opponents scored their third goal early in the second term. At the main break they were down by 9 points. However, with skipper Daisy Pearce, the strong and reliable Elise O'Dea and the new look Richelle Cranston all lifting, the Demons willed themselves back into the game after half time. It took just three minutes for them to snatch the lead for the first time and by the 10 minute mark, they were in front themselves by 9 points. But GWS were not to be denied. They fought back against the run of the game with two goals to go into the last break with a 5-point lead. It was still anybody’s game. As it was, the lead changed hands early in the final term with goals from Cranston and Shelley Scott but the Giants were undeterred and fought back to level the scores. Then followed a tense five minutes until Rocky’s snap gave the home side the lead and the win. After the game, Cranston said, “I had no idea how that goal went in – I just heard Daisy say ‘get it on the boot’ and lucky it went through.” Other players who stood out were Meg Downie across half-back, Lily Mithen up forward and newcomers Bianca Jakobsson from Carlton and 194 cm recruit Erin Hoare who had 20 hit-outs in the ruck. The Demons are at home again next week with a clash against reigning premiers Adelaide, smarting from their first up loss last night to Brisbane. Melbourne 1.2.8 1.3.9 4.3.27 7.3.45 GWS Giants 2.0.12 3.0.18 5.2.32 6.3.39 Goals Melbourne Cranston 3 Scott 2 Hore Cunningham GWS Giants McWilliams 3 Barclay 2 Staunton Best Melbourne D Pearce O'Dea Downie Cranston Scott Mithen GWS Giants McWilliams Farrugia Barclay Staunton Injuries Melbourne Paxman (back) GWS Giants Nil Reports Nil Umpires Gibson Johansen Curtis Official crowd 5,100 at Casey Fields

Helicopter of course! Or a flying fox from the MCG!!!

Hi Brendan. I strolled down for a few hours this morning. It was a little bit wet which was annoying because I’d just bought a new pair of suede loafers that I was looking forward to breaking in. I think they look nice with white slacks which are cuffed at the bottom. I caught up with a Goody almost straight away. I noticed he was wearing the same polo shirt as he wore on the flight up. I asked if he only brought the one shirt on the trip, he just got up and walked away. He’s a bit of a jokester like that. The team split into two groups in preparation for a non-contact match simulation. Apparently Tyson forgot the bibs so they were deciding on how to differentiate between the teams, I yelled out that the team with Petracca should just go shirtless. After the game the players headed inside to the gym. I asked who could bench press the most, apparently Pedo and Frost are tied. Their max bench is about my weight so I said I’d be happy to have a bit of a competition between the two and see who could bench me. Unfortunately it was a closed door session so I had to leave.

Yep, I'd be happy to see runners disappear at the top level. Would place a small extra premium on players with real leadership and game awareness, which I think would add to the game. Would also make it that tiny bit harder for coaches to micromanage play, which in turn makes for a less predictable game and would actually see players mature more and have to show more initiative as they wont be able to just wait for a message to come out.

http://www.news.com.au/sport/breaking-news/afl-to-investigate-gws-runner-nick-maxwell-over-time-spent-on-the-field/news-story/eb028ceeb4c62840f4fdc95ca21528df Run on and deliver a quick message then get off. Employ the same or similar tactics as Maxwell and others have and the team should be penalised.

They deliberately block space that players could be leading into.They cheat.Get 'em orf!!

With Tommy Mc's aerobic capacity, don't you think it would be a waste just having him lead from the goal square like an old fashioned full fwd, it is 2018 after all You will find Hogan and Tommy Mc rotating, which hopefully will be a mare to defend

They also would have lost to us had we not been crucified by injuries.