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You would have to be a real [censored] to call the club and abuse their membership department and demand refunds right now. This is not within their control and a club like ours can ill afford cancelled memberships on top of losing home game attendances. The biggest shame is our performance last year probably means lots of supporters were waiting to see how we perform in the first few rounds before deciding to renew this year.

Just caught up with some of this thread. Might give Land a rest for a while. Too many [censored] idiots. Footy can't come quick enough.

As a health professional who has read a lot about the crisis, I have found the events in Italy terrifying. You are right that the mortality rate is low (around 1%). In Italy it’s closer to 10% because everyone has contracted the disease at once and the health system is completely overwhelmed. They don’t have the capacity to ventilate anyone older than 60. It’s nuts. The measures that are being taken are to prevent everyone contracting the virus at once. If we spread the process over the next couple of months we will be fine. But if everyone continues with their normal activities and spreads the disease rapidly...we could be italy #2. So suck it up.

The panic doctors are causing creates more problems than a life threatening illness to immuno compromised people? What are you smoking? Doctors are promoting that we take caution in eliminating unnecessary travel and being hygenic, its the blase attitude of people not taking this seriously that are the reason why this illness has spread and continues to spread. People compromising the health of those around them. "Just deal with it when people get sick" is the atttude that will overload health systems all at once and to the point where people will unneccessarily die from being turned away. In affected areas of Italy, doctors are having to choose who to give life saving equipment, respiratory aids and beds to, doctors and nurse shortaged, workers getting infected, infecting their families etc. Ive read reports from people over there, and they have a full lockdown now with only supermarkets and pharmacies open to avoid more spread. France and Spain now following suit. Demonland is living up to its name with all the climate change deniers and eugenics proponents in here lately.

Can I interest you gentlemen in a tape measure?

Totally agree. To paraphrase Hawke 'anyone who berates the MFC Membership Department is a bum.'

MELBOURNE FANS, BREATHE IT IN! (Not the Corona virus, don’t breathe that in)

See if you can focus your thoughts on solidarity with those worst affected, biologically and economically, rather than reaching out so ludicrously for ways to insert a virus into your personal political narrative. The level of ignorance and hate it must take to declare that 'America deserves what's coming' when the impact of both the virus and the measures to control it will hit in massive disproportion those most marginalised and least culpable for the deep injustices of that society. Also, at this stage to the best of my knowledge we don't have a racial breakdown of persons 'acting most like a neanderthal' but I'd love to hear your evidence to support your obnoxious racial profiling. It would be very disappointing to discover that you are just sticky-taping it on in an effort to use racial hatred as a cheap populist mobilisation tool, setting yourself in the same gutter as the creeps you claim to be so different superior to.

Dear Members, We write to you today in what is uncharted territory for the Melbourne Football Club and the wider AFL community. On Friday night, we received confirmation from the AFL that our AFL and AFLW games would go ahead, but without our loyal members and supporters in attendance for the foreseeable future. Whilst disappointing, the health and safety of our players, staff and supporters must come first. This has always been our number one priority, which is why we support the AFL’s decision to continue the competition without crowds in attendance. Earlier this week, we put in place stringent strategies to protect our people from the spread of COVID-19. These measures included separating our staff and players into four different locations and implementing working from home arrangements, where possible, to best safeguard our people. We also asked our staff and players to make significant lifestyle changes to ensure that our teams remain as healthy as they can amidst the current pandemic. We are confident our measures are as good as any. They will give us the best chance of keeping our people safe, and will enable us as a Club to continue to perform at a high level. So, 2020 is going to be a season of extreme challenges; many that we have never faced before as a Club. This will test us but, in many ways, it will cement our unity. We are well placed to perform, and plan on being in a strong position when our members and supporters can re-join us at the MCG, once deemed safe to do so. It goes without saying this is an unheralded situation for the AFL community as a whole and we will need our collective resilience, agility and support to successfully navigate our way through these extraordinary circumstances. As you are aware, an enormous amount of work has gone into our Club to set ourselves up to challenge for the ultimate prize in the coming years. What will be so very important during these times is your continued loyalty, support and commitment to the Club and the players we all love. What we would like to ask is for you to maintain your loyalty, to support us like never before and to retain your membership, while encouraging others to do so. The harsh reality is that we really need your support during this time of significant financial challenge. In saying that, we firmly believe the Melbourne faithful will stick together through this. Whilst physically we will be separated for a period of time, we will work on ways to remain close as a community in a digital form, and our media team are looking at exploring other exciting avenues to keep us all connected. The bond between our players and our members is strong and is critical to our Club. The players thrive off your passion, so please keep that coming. Everyone at the Club will play their role and together we will get through this. Our board, staff and players are all working incredibly hard to make the best out of this situation. Our membership team will continue to operate during normal business hours and are available to answer your questions. We do ask that you please have a level of patience and understanding when dealing with the membership team during these unique circumstances. Thank you again for your support as a member. We will continue to update you regularly as more information comes to hand. On behalf of everyone at the Club, including all our players and staff, please take care of yourselves and those around you and we look forward to having you back at our games shortly. Go Dees!

In other news: sky is blue. It's going to get dark at night, and the sun's going to come up in the morning.

Website : worldometre Scroll down to Coronavirus update The site is updated every few hours and provides a great in-depth breakdown country by country detailing new cases, total cases, people recovered and total deaths.

Perhaps keep it to yourself.

Yawn. I want something done about the greatest terrorist threat to the world, namely the USA. Sorry, but you show symptoms of a very brainwashed racist.

On all available evidence, he's still on it. ?

To think/ponder more broadly. Its possible, this situation is man made. As I've stated before. Imagination is the beginning of thoughts. Ideas. Learnings and results. Scoff all you like, but wondering is not against the law. And nodding heads in hindsight, once someone else has found the reason, and or proof, is just being a sheep. Let your mind wander, instead of being too inhibited to imagine things. Imaginings are the binging of creation. And most imagineering is not fanciful. Otherwise you will be fully at the mercy of others reporting news after it happens, for you to absorb.

The AFL has a 60 million dollar future fund and own a stadium in the Dockland's worth probably about a billion dollars. Clubs might have anywhere up to a 30 million dollar black hole for this year and the AFL have to pay their own expense bill which is something crazy like 130 million a year to run the comp. Players on match payments will earn less. Players on huge fixed contracts should consider a donation back to the clubs I believe. Making 800k without games doesn't seem fair to me. But how much that donation is has to be left up to the individual if the have guaranteed contracts. The point is the AFL and clubs should be able to fund their way out of this. If clubs ask for donations to pay down debt it should be in a years time when games are back on and revenue is coming in. There's a whole bunch of industries where the businesses and employees will be in long term trouble that need government support so everyone pulls through and keeps the economy turning once we are through the worst of it.

Ah good comments enlightened one. Italy was slow to react, as has Terra Scomo. We also do not have the ICU beds, respirators and protective equipment to cope with a sudden spike in cases. And we have too many people with a laissez faire attitude. From politicians down many want a bob each way. You don’t need to be a scientist or genius. You just need to look at what’s happening overseas and how governments have reacted.

You are showing ZERO class in this thread matey. If your mother saw your posts she would probably put you across her knee. DD said nothing in this thread to deserve your childish carry on, and to ignore the guts of his reason for not caring too much about footy right now is staggering. Give it a rest.

Lever has played 19 of a possible 45 matches with us. To be generous, perhaps 4 of those games were of a quality that would justify his 2 first round picks, $800k, 5 year contract. Has to do way, way more before there is talk of him succeeding Max

I personally wanted Lever as co captain next Max. Really rate his leadership. But yes, it seems there are other who really just simply don't rate Viney as a leader. It feels like Jack's got a lot of work to do if he wants the top gig again.

Cheers mate, all good up here, no virus cases here. The prospect of what it will do in remote communities up here is terrifying. The AFL would have been much smarter to stay away from NT and not risk bringing virus

I’d take Black Plague with pick 3. If Spanish flu lasts until pick 21 you’ll be getting that for sure.

Just our luck that the year we have two genuine home game blockbusters that the coronavirus is going to diminish crowd numbers. Last year we had neither Anzac Eve or QB and blew a $1.5 million hole in the accounts because the supposed big drawing home games came at the end of the year when the season was shot. Even if the virus is contained both our blockbusters will suffer lower numbers, maybe 40,000 instead of the anticipated 65,000-plus if the behaviour of the past week is any guide to the resilience and public spiritedness of Australians (Hint; there is none.) So the heat should be on those who sit on the fence every year waiting to see how the season unfolds, and also the estimated 10,000 MCC members who still resist buying even a token membership to do for this club what they demand of the players: go hard and go often. Time to buy a membership folks because the club budget is probably blown without you. NB: Moderators, I didn't put this in the Coronavirus thread because that derailed some time ago.

you and dieter need to get a room together

I'm in the UK and Europe in recent days has taken over as the "epicentre" of this thing now that Italy is in a really bad way. A cousin who lives in Milan has told me it's a bizarre experience to be in this lockdown mode but what people don't seem to be grasping is that lockdown doesn't mean complete quarantine. Public transport is still running, supermarkets are still open, and people still go to work. What is happening is that people are being asked to refrain from being in public areas if it can be helped, so you go to the supermarket and you get your goods for a weekly shop, you go to work only if you have to and if working from home is possible then that's what you do, when you use public transport you try to minimise the close quarters situation. The world will not stop if Australia (or in my case the UK) decides they need to put in the measures Italy has. The "every man for himself" mentality that has pervaded Australia and the world is truly a sad sight, and it's something that has spread because fear generates fear. I would like to think that in times like this people will get around each other, but it seems it only takes a few people being selfish for it to spread to everybody else.

Interesting, to anoint someone as a future captain I would've thought they would need to have runs on the board on the field. While Jake has shown what he can do when fit he needs to be out on the park before he can show his on field leadership capabilities. For me (of the non-Viney sort) I see Gus as someone who could lead us in the future.

Crazy isn’t it ?? Being a sports fan and seeing a lot of events listed as ‘Postp’ on various websites is nuts. Most of us enjoy 2 hrs of sports as an escape from reality, will this be reality now?

Which human manufactured the Black Death in the 14th century. Or the plague in the 17th? Or the so-called Spanish flu in the 20th. Stop making fools of yourselves.

You need a fair dinkum Rudd/Gillard NBN fibre to each premises though. That is where your prediction will fall short.

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1. Because Peter Fitzsimmons is the smartest guy on the planet, according to him, and he thinks the ball won't be bounced this Thursday. 2. Laws of mathematics and probability. 3. The trend is your friend. In essence, it will take one player being suspected in the lead-up to first bounce. Finally, the community is entertained. For decades the middle class white man has ignored the plight of refugees in detention, or Islanders in the Pacific with oceans at shin level. Suddenly when the way of life of the middle class white man is threatened with 'anxiety', who acts most like a neanderthal? As Keating would say, "this is the crisis that Australia (+/- US) had to have". The right in this country (and the US) have been absolutely focused on issues that don't really matter. Safe schools...freedom of bigotry....budget surpluses.....woke-a-phobia: all while enshrining the boganisation and nationalisation of Australia. Trump and America deserve what's coming. Guns and 'freedom' over a health-care system for goodness sake. Sugar and fat over a nanny-state. Trump will look like the clown that he always was, is and will be. That's entertainment. This might be ground zero when it comes to a realisation of what really matters.

A Stynes, a Farmer, a White, a Schwartz, a Lyon, an Yze, the list goes on .... we must pounce when the time is right.

Good work Macca. I knew we could count on you! Im not sure about the Chilian form guide, but i did notice Uraguay was abandoned ! Im considering constructing a racetrack right here Macca. We can start training snails midweek and have them at the track by the weekend. You can each have your own stables and its an easy drive up the highway to Ballarat. Barrier draw every wednesday night. Hey we can even have a city vs country cup ! Winner takes home a fresh pack of imported toilet paper.

Coronavirus issues aside we'll be able to have a bet somewhere you'd imagine. I'm not rusted on to local (Oz) racing and the trots & dogs are options as well (anywhere) haha For instance I backed a winner last night in a G1 race at Santa Anita overnight ( a tip from Racingpost.com) ... after having some success at Sha Tin late yesterday. So I'm playing with house money in a few selected races around the country today. I'm cramming as much in before it might go. Partly explains why the AFL are talking about playing extra games before they can't. So where does one find the form guide for the races out of 'Chile' Wadda!!

Hypotheses I've read: The epicenter is in the industrial north which has one of the worst air pollution in the world It has a high ratio of smokers (as have many countries in Europe and Asia). It has a high proportion of 'elderly' people who are more susceptible; who could have been life long smokers. so more likely people have compromised respiratory systems and CV attacks the lungs. Also: They never found 'patient zero' so couldn't find the source making it impossible to track his/her contacts and control the spread. Were slow to lockdown the Lombardy epicenter, it wasn't properly enforced and locals left taking the virus with them. The first three partially explain why their death rate is so high. Another explanation is they don't have enough ICU beds and ventilators/respirators. Sadly, doctors are taking a 'wartime triage' approach; treat those that are likely to recover ie healthy and under 80 years of age (Some newspapers are saying the cut off age is 60?). Harrowing for all. Other European countries are tracking the same as Italy on a timeline so it wouldn't surprise if they also end up with a high CV cases.

Jeremy Howe made an off the cuff comment - which, given the circumstances, I thought was a pretty funny one-liner. To now suggest that the Melbourne players will want to extract some sort of revenge for this comment is just absurd. While the players will already have an opinion of Howe following his departure a few years back, I bet if you now asked the players about this comment, they would probably just laugh. To suggest that Howe is a "germ" and a host of other insults is, in my opinion, just disgraceful. His character assassination in this thread by people who most likely have never even met him is something we should be ashamed of. The guy possess the one single trait that excites all fans - no matter what team they follow - and he does this week after week - he is a once in a generation player for that skill alone. So the guy wanted to leave the MFC - get over it - I'm sure his ex-teammates have.

I’m being a bit facetious obviously (mainly cause I think Howe is a dropkick), but by the two key measures of success in this game, both as a team and as an individual, he’s come up empty handed. I think “last laugh” is going a bit far, but I take your point that his career has elevated since being at Collingwood.

Well now im wondering if these next few weeks will be the last of racing for a while. Im sure the sport could go on, but what if a few jockeys come down with the virus, will they close it down to stop it spreading. Panic stations i know, but we are now entering unprecedented territory. Lets hope for a swift turnaround around the world. If you want to have a look at the actual figures with live updates and no media or politcal interference then have a look through this website. It even tells you the amount of people on the planet inc births and deaths if you click on population tag at the top. Its quite amazing.

Pity the AFL thought up this way of generating click-bait just when we have a new captain. Max must have been tempted to say "Ask me again when I've been captain for more than a millisecond".

Sure, and fairy Nuff. I just find it all a little premature, that's all.

Ouch! Just days into a new Captaincy and some of us are talking successors already! Gawn was a good and natural choice, for heaven's sake so let us see him through - and excel - in the role. There are a few others, home grown unlike Lever - who might be considered one day but who really has the confidence to speculate and name at this point in time?

The comment was after looking at Conference A and seeing that, if we were on it, we would still be second. We may miss finals again despite winning more games than 2nd place in Conference A. But you're right, We only have ourselves to blame. Again.

Figures tonight from France: 4500 cases, which has doubled in 72 hours. Of those, 300 are in intensive care. And of those 300, half are younger than 60. A month ago we had 11 cases. 2 weeks ago, we'd just cracked 100.

A lot of similarities to the St Kilda game in that loss. The more dominate side in the first half without putting them away before being completely over run in the second half. Cunningham and Newman have been passengers all year and their performances are magnified in our losses. Newman had a great collect and run into the forward 50 while McEvoy provided an over the top option, she instead took the selfish option and missed. Zanker is our best forward and unfortunately playing ruck with Pearce injured, I'm surprised they didn't swap her with Cunningham. Disappointed by the lack of changes in the last quarter like maybe getting Daisy into the middle in a crucial period, swapping Zanker/Cunningham around, just something to get a spark. Looks like we'll miss finals again, surely Stinear doesn't survive if that eventuates.

Old mate would struggle to understand this concept. All not quite right upstairs for him. What you said though was spot. It's testing times indeed. For a lot of families, buying a membership is right now is last on their to do list. With this virus, families will be going into survival mode which means they are reluctant to spend it else where but their families. If people on here have issues with that then they have serious issues inside them. I hope all is well for you @Dee Zephyr.

But back on topic, who the [censored] do these [censored] think they are trying to make a cop move on people who are doing nothing wrong

Probably the most foolish post I've ever seen on this forum...

I've been a full mcc member for 26 years for not much return.