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You need to stop the Bulltish about propping up the Dees. Its garbage The AFL has an uneven draw which kills clubs that don't get Friday night games , blockbusters and marquee times. Carlton haven't played at Kardinia park since 1998 I believe. We have been the home team against Essendon twice in the last 10 or 11 years as an example. Stadium deals also kill a lot of clubs. We play the G with 20,000 and we lose money. The cats with 20,000 make $500k. West Coast spend $300k a week more than melb because their stadium deal sees than get all the corprate box revenue, all the advertising revenue and a large cut of the food and bev revenue. The AFL recognise these imbalances because of the nherently unequal nature of the competition hence the equalisation fund. It is NOT proping up Melbourne and anyone that suggests it is should rightly be shot down in flames.

If we are going to be a serious threat for finals, we should have a list capable of beating Geelong without Viney.

How many of you guys started having a tug after you watched that video at the thought of being as negative as possible? I read the responses before watching the video and seriously thought he had a major setback. Instead, it's basically the same stuff as before with the caveat being he is a 'line ball' to play Round 1. While I'll be surprised if he does play, he won't be too far away after that. Just calm your farm, guys.

Why?

http://m.afl.com.au/news/2018-01-31/mcc-reveals-its-top-five-matches-for-2018-season?camefrom=EMCL_2077735_86305375

Is it really about building something for the supporters to make use of? Ideally, I could see some value in that, but as much as we are and should be the heart and soul of the club, isn't the purpose of this particular facility primarily about combining the back-of-house (or "administration") with the footy department?

I hope so. He's a natural CHF. Has the strength for pack marking and the agility to hunt ground balls. When he runs his defender around he's far more damaging. The space within which he will work as a CHF is ideal for his game style. Parked in the goal square is much harder for him because there's less room to move and consequently easier for the opposition to nullify him.

Ducker will be breathing a sigh of relief.

They make it so easy, my friend. The same ones roll up every time.

And there we go. Wiseblood gets to mention his pet topic of "negativity" again. Remember the lube Wise.

Very misleading screengrab- he was on crutches last year and they’ve reused the footage. 95% of that interview had him walking and standing in his footy boots.

I'm happy the Maroochydore camp is done as it's always a sign that the real stuff is just around the corner. And thank goodness for that.

Yeah because Melbourne's 2013 list deserved to get the same amount as Hawthorn's 2013 list. Forcing clubs to pay a minimum of the cap only works if clubs are actually able to attract decent players.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-02-06/offfield-role-tweak-for-demons-great-viney MELBOURNE great Todd Viney will have more varied football department responsibilities this year as part of a Demons reshuffle. Viney's new wide-ranging duties will see him provide support for Melbourne's fitness, recruiting and coaching staff, while still being an authoritative voice on list decisions. Melbourne's national recruiting officer, Tim Lamb, will have an increased role and take over some of Viney's former tasks, with senior coach Simon Goodwin keen to get him more involved.

Records are made to be broken.

To me this is his Presidency in a nutshell. He is behaving the same way as he would business without the understanding that the rules ( for better or for worse) are very different. I would extend it further that it is not only separation of powers problematic but also his lack of understanding about the different standard of propriety between private business and elected public officials. I can't get over that he spends every second week at Mar-Lago and the Gov't is being charged for it for both his guests and all the admin and secret service he takes with him. If that is not a conflict of interest i don't know what is. In sense, he is not the first to do this as President's have traditionally taken themselves and guests to their second homes. And I am sure that there were added expenses for this however -hotel rack rates ???

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-01-31/mcc-reveals-its-top-five-matches-for-2018-season

Like Klinger when he tried to eat a Jeep to get a section 8.

Tigers and Dogs winning the flag is great for the AFL, means anyone who has few injuries, good draw, bit of luck and can put together a very good last 6-8 weeks is in with a chance for the flag. Demons best players still seem better suited to 2019/2020 for a tilt at the flag, but finish top 4 this year and you never know! 2018 shapes up as an exciting year, just a little luck and we are finals bound, and our best will get us in the top 4, go Dees!

Well said. If you just look at Carlton getting 6 Friday night games this year, it is a major revenue raiser, assists with finding a sponsor and many other benefits. Am looking forward to seeing the Blues pumped in the majority of their Friday night games. AFL provide a fixture to maximise their revenue, TV deal etc and attendances, the smaller clubs suffer, Melbourne and a few other smaller clubs should get compensated by the AFL every year for this imbalance. We get screwed royally every year. The salary cap and the draft are the two key items that level the playing field for the 18 teams, the fixture doesn’t!

That is one hell of a case of gastro --- been to the doctor about it, DC?

Wish we could skip all of this and get straight to the Tassie footy side~!

Seems to have thrown in the towel.

It’s all about Greater Western Sydney. That’s the population the AFL want. It will be the same size as Sydney is now in 20-30 years Brisbane and GC are just useful for broadcast rights deals. The AFL can cover those costs when $Billion deals are done.

If anyone, Richmond should rightly be the Tassie Tigers. (Then we could take over Punt Road oval which is in Melbourne not Richmond!) problem solved (for us)!

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.

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'.

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.

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

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

The competition is getting closer every year now the the GWS and Goal Coast concessions are drying up. We could finish as high as 3rd or as low as 14th, our season won't come down to games or even quarters, it will come down to moments. Bookmark it.

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.

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

And another courtesy of 'The Count': Checked out a bit of the rehab group ... - Viney was very clean when they had the footys out. - Joel Smith has put on a really good amount of size - Harmes started there, then moved over to the main oval and ran a few laps before joining in with the main group towards the end. He's really matured in his body shape I think. - Jeffy and Johnstone also moved to the main oval and ran a few laps together, and Weid ran a few of his own as well, has put on a little bit of size, but still has a ways to go Viney and J.Smith were running some sprints and then some 400's together, Smith was smashing him, tho I believe is a fair way ahead in terms of running. - vandenBerg did his own session up at the rooms under cover, did a fair bit of boxing and battle rope stuff, but its very clear that he's been off leg for some time, huge upper body, tiny pegs. As for the main group, as Jack said, the conditions meant that you can take absolutely nothing away from a skill perspective, but it at least looked like they were training to them, in the full ground drills, the long kicks down the line were kicked to space to the advantage of the man, rather than trying to hit a target. - Agree on Hogan, one of the better performers in the conditions, and looked hungry. One of the drills in the positional groups, Hogan had to tackle TMac while Pedo tried to shepherd him, and TMac avoid being tackled by him. Pedo was doing a good job, and it got pretty heated between the two for a second, and Hoges just concentrated on getting rid of Pedo, which he did, before getting back to TMac and tackling him to ground. - Trac is still sublime to watch, even in the rain. Was with the mids all session, and was covering the ground well. - I was impressed with Tyson, and I'm a critic. Was moving really well, noticeably better than last season. - Nobody told Oliver it was wet ... ridiculous what he can do. He walked past me afterwards as well, deceivingly tall. - Hibberd kicked in from a behind during some of the heaviest rain, and it would have gone 60+ - Fritsch took a few nice grab, needs to smash the hamburgers tho - Get on board the Ginga Ninja, I've seen plenty of him in full flight in the NEAFL, and he looked like he was fitting in really well.

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?

Eagles will let him go fairly cheaply if thats what he wants, they wont hold him back. If he goes, he needs to find a team with a great o line as that is what made him look so good last two weeks. Their oline especiallu kelce and Johnson were immense.

Would rather see Lynch be paid outside the cap to stay on the G.C, than see him run out with Colonwood next year. Everything about the game now is about T.V and the money that comes with it. It's bad business to see a side smashed every week. Advertisers don't want to spend money when nobody is watching. It's also why the AFL installed professional management for us, including Jacko. We were on deaths door, but it would have meant one less T.V game every week if we folded. If that means they pay Lynch to stay on the coast, I'm fine with that. I would spew if he ran out with Eddies mob, or essedon.

You are probably correct. The best solution would be for the commentators (and journos) to make pariahs of players who misbehave. But sadly at the moment they applaud it loudly and proudly.

Forget the railyards. They will never be covered in any meaningful capacity that would facilitate our purposes. Eddie can also forget about dropping Richmond Station underground. The disruption and logistics are of a magnitude to give even the largest of Civil Contractors colliwobbles. Will never happen. The magic triangle at Goschs actually has potential.

saw a post yesterday, biffo (not demonland) that fair dinkum said "shabby sheik"

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

Downward.

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"

How is this a surprise? The AFL will not let GCS or GWS fail. As for a Tassie team, it's been gone over again and again. But it looks like NMFC will eventually become "the" Tassie team, by stealth.

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.

trajects (sic).....sheesh!

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.

There is Norway and there is Qatar who make $60 billion a year in royalties from their gas reserves. We are about to surpass their output in gas exports but our income is measured in the millions because we have sold out industry to overseas multinational companies who specialise in tax minimisation and enjoy tax holidays because they have invested money in extraction infrastructure. We are handing over natural resources for next to nothing to overseas multinational mining, oil and gas companies who exploit our resources and pay minimal tax and royalties. Rex Connor might have been on to something all those years ago!

Hmm, that's an interesting one yeah. Trying to think of some rationales. Main one would be that people don't see the Demons as a team which will win constantly all season, but they do see us as being capable of putting a surge of form together to win through the finals. Those odds would suggest 'they' think we are about 50/50 to make the finals, and if we make the finals, we're about 50/50 to be top 4, and if we are in the top 4 we're about 50/50 to make the grand final, and if we make the grand final, we're about 50/50 to win the premiership. One coin toss at a time?