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He is the kind of player who knows how to accumulate as he has showed at Fremantle and a 30 plus possy in his first game for us. His kicking skills need a bit of polishing and has the time on his to correct it. He is a professional and trains hard, a real goer and hope he can fulfill his dreams out our great club.

How good was the game? Not the result but the free flowing contested footy with no umpires interference (the incessant play on if the player takes time to find a target) and the open centre bounce where a ruckman could run and take a leap. White and Simmonds were outstanding and made the game look better (I know there are knee injury issues but there needs to be a better answer than the small circle and the repeated pushing and shoving). Its time to tell the umpires to shut up and let the game flow. The players know best. And what about white jackets and hats for the goal umpires - got to be better than the tee shirts and baseball caps. All these replays have displayed to me that the game was better when there was no "kicking down the line" and constant switching looking for cheap stats. Traditional kick ins from the square were a better means to restart the game and create a contest. What's worse, listening the BRuuuuuuce, Dermie, Landy and others reminded me that they were old hat 20 years ago but they are still with us. No wonder I don't miss footy as much as I should. Gil and the boys have neutered the game and it is less like real footy than it was. After the virus society will have to start again. This is an opportunity for our beloved great game to go back a bit and realise what made it great. It used to be a fast moving and attractive spectacle, now it is a dour struggle. That's all. Off the soap box.

no argument from me but of course it just puts a hole in next years revenue. Perhaps 20% off for five years would be doable. Unless the GF is played in November, I see little chance of crowds being allowed and even then that would be a big stretch based on what we are being told about social distancing lasting well into 2021. Can you think of something the club could do for you that would not involve significant financial burden. How about a lottery where the prizes included a shared super box with a former player or two, or admission to the rooms or to a player training luncheon. I'm sure there are others but as I said the club needs to engage its members

I think Hardtack the club has assumed it is a donation. Did you expect any different from an industry where the common fan has been taken for granted for years? The reality is that the MFC will go broke if it has to refund the fees but there is a balance that I believe the clubs are in danger of missing. Where that balance is I am not sure but at the least it should encompass more fan engagement by the players who after all are the main beneficiaries of our largesse. Pay cuts will be the norm for many players as TV advertising revenue falls etc etc. Should you ask for a refund of the GF guarantee or the equivalent of an airline voucher as you suggest.Go for it. Should you be entitled to receive it? Probably yes but should that be extended to reserve seat fees, Redleg membership and the list goes on. Caroline Wilson's article about a tax deduction on the basis of a charitable donation missed the point as tax revenues will be stretched for years to come. The fall out from this disastrous virus in an economic sense is just really starting to raise its ugly head. Other than the ubiquitous Amazon and the mega tech companies it is hard to think of one industry that will emerge unscathed. I have always tried to drill into my children that you need to have six months worth of living expenses available in the event of unforeseen circumstances. Of course they laugh at me. Perhaps I should have been advocating for twelve !! Good luck Hardtack in these very difficult times.

Looking ahead I'm guessing the final will be Lyon/Gawn v Stynes simply based on the voting so far. Gawn is ahead for me but not by much. If Tingay didn't fall through a bloody window i reckon it could have been the other way around.

hes just what we need. got off to a good start but yeah his kicking skills could improve. sometime its just choosing the wrong option makes people think you can't kick straight. hopefully that improves because he's a running machine with plenty of pace.

$cully? silky delivery? sickly deliverance i'd believe...

Music by David Bridie

Great year 1964. The closing match at the mud heap (Glenferrie Oval) probably was the first time I heard a crowd chanting Melbourne Melbourne etc. Exciting win. MCC were great in letting us in early to put banners up and we made the old girl "Greysmith Stand" look good. After making the Granny we were at the Prelim and at three quarter time we went and queued up outside "T-Section" and stayed there all week to get the seats behind the goal. Parents kept coming in with food etc and snuck home during the day for showers. Black & white filth were more than us and we got pushed to the side but still a formidable support for the Dees. The rest was history and after the match, having been there all week, wasn't sure what to do but the Club turned on food and drink outside the change rooms and never got home until Sunday. Sure we were young then and not quite sure how I would handle a flag these days. I'd give it bash though. I have, like most, been really patient waiting for the next.

Maybe you were thinking of QLD v Vic 7-11 Jan 1966. Vic needed 387 runs in 2nd innings, 265 on the last day, after only scoring 130 in 1st innings. Watson opened with Redpath and were there on day 4 both on 61. Watson eventually out for 109 and Redpath 180 to win by 3 wickets.

This game will always be remembered for the Wiz show but Powell’s performance was pretty special too.

I'm with your rjay. I'll remind people of this. Howcroft was terrible this day. He failed to take responsibility of the horrendous state he and the Board he sat on left our Club. I don't like people who don't take responsibility. He was dismissive of the membership that was present that day and displayed a sense of arrogance and entitlement. It's mind numbing to me that he is again on our Board. Hopefully Glen Bartlett explains to him his role and hopefully he does it. But I find it hard to believe we couldn't have found someone better. This smells like "jobs for the boys" to me and why you'd want to remind members who have a memory and understanding of just how poor the Board he sat on was I just don't understand.

AFL looks to bring back under 19s This would probably help a lot of young footballers develop.

Good news in an email from the MCC today: "Finally, I would like to announce and welcome to the MCC Committee Russel Howcroft who has been appointed to fill the casual vacancy created by the retirement of Mark Smith". Russell, of course, is one of the stalwarts on the ABC's Gruen show, but importantly is a former MFC Board member. We hope that this will continue to ensure our voice is heard over at the MCC, and that more can be done to sign up those 5,000 MCC members who go along to 4 or more Melbourne games each year, but do not sign up to the MFC/MCC membership.

I posted the following in the Coronavirus: AFL & MFC topic, but it may have got lost amid all of the other discussion, so I'll post here; there may be others who have forked out for this as well, who might be interested. I have also posted the content of an email I have sent to the Membership section of the club, just to canvas their thoughts. This becomes particularly salient if the GF is played to an empty house. Here's what I posted in the other topic: Nothing to do with players or facilities, but I have a question relating to the GF Guarantee payments that some of us made along with our membership renewals. If there are finals and if they are played to empty stadiums, what will become of these payments (which are quite substantial)? I have no objection at all to my membership fees being retained by the club, but I am wondering whether there are plans for these additional charges to be carried forward to next year? I'm not even sure I would like to be guaranteed a seat at a GF this year, to be honest, as I would seriously doubt the chances of such an event being a sell out. I would like to see the club offer the option of applying it to next year's campaign, rather than using it this year, given the circumstances. Has anyone heard anything on what might happen to the GF Guarantee payment? And this is the content of the email to the club: Hello, My son and I took the GF Guarantee with our memberships this year and so I am now wondering, with the current state of the season, what will happen to this payment. Obviously I would never entertain the thought of calling for a refund of our Memberships, as I understand that the club needs members in order to survive, and now more than ever. However, the GF Guarantee is a different kettle of fish, in my opinion. As this season has been compromised to the point that if there is a Grand Final, it is very possible that it could be played to an empty stadium, or, if such restrictions are lifted, there is a great likelihood that it may not even be a sell out as it will not carry the significance of a “normal” season; it will be more like the final they had for the pre-season competition in years gone by. My son and I have both discussed this and we really would not be so enthused about attending this year’s GF, if the Demons were to make it that far. So, my question is this: Will there be the option to move our GF Guarantee for this year to apply to next season (with the option to use it this year if members so desires)? In other words, will you be offering the option that members could have it applied to the next full season? regards, "

It's interesting people remember Trenners pre-injury as being slow anyway, I certainly don't. I'm not saying he was going to win any 10m sprints but I felt he had enough power out of his first 5 steps to get away quick enough. I remember a tigers game in particular (I think it was his second year) where he was a powerhouse. He had the attributes to be a gun, he lost them from the injuries (and I also join the "miss-management" group as well). Scully was always seen as number one, and really we saw enough to suggest it was the right move. For me the debate was always Trenners vs Dusty, I think we went for better character over raw talent (not that JT was talentless). Nobody picked Fyfe to become the player he has.

I suggest you graduate to Nebbiolo...

Sometimes it's just knowing your team mates.

I was always on the Trengove wagon after i'd watched him a few times. Scully, I couldn't fathom what the attraction was by most across the footy world. But i thought, what do i know. So I stayed mostly quiet, thinking i must be wrong and missing something with him. Now in hindsight, scully is exactly the mature version I what I imagined he would be, Pre his injury. The one I'm sad about is Trenners. I think we miss handleable his career badly. My other preferences have briefly watched them were Gary Rohan, and Daniel Talia was a standout for me, when I saw him play, one night that season.

The re-draft would be more interesting with a short writeup on why the original player drafted was no longer in that position in terms of value. It was a really shallow draft that year, it seems so. Trengove would have been a great player without his foot injury, till then he was tracking very nicely in terms of quality. Scully, could run and it comes back to athlete vs footballer. With the rate of rotations today, I think the footballer wins again. During our dark period we focussed on athletes who couldn't play the game and count learn in a poor team for someone to cover them as they did. As it turned out 2009 was a wasted draft.

The next Round 2 matchup sees Max Gawn take on Stephen Tingay. You can either vote by going to our Facebook or Twitter pages or for convenience you can vote in the poll above. Max Gawn: 121 Games 58 Goals 2 x Keith Bluey Truscott Trophy 3 x All Australian Stephen Tingay: 162 Games 84 Goals 1994 All Australian Tournament Fixture:

Trengove also played like Clarry in his first year. I’d love to see his draft camp numbers over 20m sprints. He seemed to lose all his power and pace after injury.

Sometimes its just experience, to learn to be smarter thinking of how to place the ball , if your skills are not touch perfect. To me, putting the ball to advantage is the most important thing.

Valid question Ht.

To Trengove's defence he couldn't run after all his foot injuries. Prior to that he showed enough, we did completely stuff him up though. Pick 8 was the one we really stuffed up.

Of that list Bizzell by a country mile. Need more time to see if Baker can play as he still young but I think has a bit. I am far from being a Miller fan.

i thought potentially Barry Denny from Morningside was our best .Got cleaned up by Terry Wheeler and career disappeared after that .

Whitey was from the Frankston area and was drafted by Freo from the Southern (now Dandenong) Stingrays. I'd agree that Miller and Bizzell are the best two banana benders to have played for us.

There were no Luke Molan moments in this draft. IIRC all our own pundits and the press thought we picked correctly. We used the same strategy in picking Trengove as we did with Clarry a couple of years later.i.e. A late bolter. Rear view mirror stuff.

It’s on now (11am 26/4) on Fox Footy. How good was The Wiz?

Haven’t watched this game in years but I’ll take your word for it. In that case I guess Powell could’ve kicked 6 in a prelim.

A pure 24 carat gem of a man and player. The benchmark for all who follow in his footsteps.

The AFL is exploring options with the ATO for club members to get tax refunds on their memberships. Interesting concept. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/tax-refunds-for-afl-club-members-reportedly-on-the-cards/news-story/da44934ee3a5de34b906eb560844b9c4

The racing will continue on into the Spring albeit with reduced prizemoney Wadda. Unless there is an outbreak of the virus. But they'll still be racing for good money even with the reduced prizemoney. Not sure about the internationals but again, is anyone in Australia the least bit concerned that it might be locals only? As much as I like the Internationals competing, we'd just be going back to the way it was (still as popular too) I see Queensland racing put a stop to their winter carnival stakes races a month back then changed their mind a week later. So the show goes on. Speaking of the racing calendar, Morphettville, Gold Coast, Doomben & Eagle Farm take over for the next 2 months in terms of stakes races but the fields in Melb & Syd could remain quite strong as well. The owners need to keep racing their horses for the prizemoney (just in case it all comes to a halt) Next week we've got the G2 Hollindale Stakes from the Gold Coast as well as 2 x G1's from Morphettville (Sangster Stakes & Australasian Oaks) Australian Group Races

Hard to believe we let a midfielder that kicked 4 goals in a prelim (And 3 goals the following weeks GF ) go to St Kilda 2 years later- for no return.

I was at the Punt Road oval when Roger Dean dived. All of us in the crowd were trying to work out what happened....no replay on a screen to to enlighten us. Today Dean would probably only have been fined for staging.

Me too do. Had the 29 on my jumper but I think I got it from a friend of my old man. I think Bluey Adams was his neighbour and he followed Melbourne and was happy that I didn't follow dads saints. But the story would only make sense if Bluey came from Mornington where this all happened to the best of my recollection..

More 'raw' ability than most & although he stood somewhat in the shadow of Jimmy Stynes, he was an amazing player & athlete. Loved him RIP Sean

Neitz , Schwartz & Robbo crashing packs up forward, what a delight to watch, not sure we have had a player like that since..

How good is this! Sunday morning, cup of coffee in bed and watching this. Remember going with a Norf mate, face paint and all. Great memories. We need the 3 word player analysis.

RIP Anyone who represented elite sport in two genre's deserves hero status

Although he often played injured, Barassi's '64 season catapulted us into the grandy, and ultimately the flag. He wasn't a top performer in the finals series, but was undoubtedly the no.1 legend of the vfl, and losing him cost us our weltanschauung. there has been no viable replacement

Thanks for posting Dante. I was just preparing my next piece for the 1964 and all that series and I came across his name as making his debut in Round 3, 1964 against Carlton. Melbourne had some pretty decent cricketers back in those days. Neil Crompton was a very good state cricketer who was a trifle unlucky not to get a test cap. Watson himself ended up choosing cricket because of test duties and then we recruited Max Walker a couple of years later. Unfortunately, we missed out on another good cricketer in Peter Bedford who went to the Swans and won a Brownlow. Condolences to the Watson family.

That’s right. A result of a 4 game suspension thanks to a magnificent acting performance from Richmond’s Roger Dean.

Had a great finals series in 87/88 .. the final vs Westcoast when he went forward & kicked golds turned the game. Very sad that both he & Stynes passed away so young!

But if the NRL pinches your idea and it helps them survive instead of foundering in their own cesspit of a "sport", then you will be banned from AFL..........

and i wish we still had norm smith coaching our club

We were 48 points up early in the 4th.