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Debt free $10M in cash and off AFL lifeline Out of Gambling 65000+ members Senior coaching support (note c.f Saints for example) and outcomes. Premiership Ongoing Top 4 window potential Central Australia indigenous relationships Female President. This is a 'status quo' I like, compared to what I was watching since 1968.

Yeah, it’s weird getting old. I’m 44. I’m currently doing this program with people mostly in their 20’s and it’s really obvious they think I’m not that cool. It’s the first time I’ve really felt judged for my age. The only good part is that when I make jokes about f*#king their mums they look terrified, because it seems plausible.

Take some comfort from Leonard Cohen… “You start off irresistible. And, then you become resistible. And then you become transparent – not exactly invisible but as if you are seen through old plastic. Then you actually do become invisible. And then — and this is the most amazing transformation — you become repulsive. But that’s not the end of the story. After repulsive then you become cute – and that’s where I am.”

Plenty of criticism here on Lyon. Understandable given the circumstances of Ratten going and Lyon's perhaps divisive personality. One thing he is criticised unfairly for is his coaching. His record is excellent and in many ways he is a pioneer of forward pressure and defensive midfield zoning. This is also a feature of Goodwin's coaching and most current coaches. Coaching the Saints to consecutive grand finals and Freo to their first is a remarkable effort. It's all well and good to be parochial in our dislike of everything that isnt Melbourne, but we shouldn't lose sight of the fact, that Lyon has been a very good coach for more than a decade.

Really like the way this Petracca bloke moves, treadmill or no treadmill. Looks like he's been going at it for a while in this session, and isn't it great to see him operating this way - hammer and tongs - at this stage of the next season. This bloke does not compete with his mate Clarrie, he just ensures that he is in the best possible condition that he can be and takes it all on (including the physical testing) from his own inspiration and volition. Gotta admire his inputs to our Club; professional endeavour and focus. Onyer, Tracca!

Dr G normally love your work. But this is not your finest. I'll tell you a cautionary tale. I got my email address hacked a couple of years ago. The hackers used my email address to send out automated emails to 30,000 plus addresses every hour all over the world. This lead to my email address being registered on international registries as a spam address and being permanently blocked. That leads to it being rejected everywhere and everyone of those emails that goes out generates a detailed anti spam warning back to your email system. It literally means you're getting up to 100,000 email rejection notices per day. And it's impossible to stop. It goes on for weeks. This jammed our work email system and caused it to shut down so the entire business lost it's emails for some days. I was forced to quarantine and shutdown my email address. Have a think about how many places you use your email address. All had to be scraped and started again. I can't begin to tell you how many hours were lost over many many days for me and our whole business. Plus it damaged our corporate and personal credibility with people getting hundreds of these emails. They don't care it's from a hacker not you. You might think that's hilarious but I can assure you my business and I didn't. We've just seen the devastating impact of hackers getting hold of people's information at Optus and Medibank. It's turning into 10's if not 100's of millions of dollars of damages. Both these companies had excellent cyber security. This joker has got front page publicity in national newspapers about getting all our personal data and how unhappy a lot of members are about it. What cyber security do you think he has to stop the scenario above from happening especially as he has made himself a target with his publicity. I have contacted them twice asking for their details so I can contact them and to find out what cyber security steps they are taking to protect our data. I have not had the basic courtesy of a reply on either topic. I am extremely concerned about this. Don't be fooled by this bloke and his faceless group. They might claim Democracy, transparency and accountability but they practice the opposite. They won't even tell you who they are, how many of them there are or their details so we can contact them. But they have litigated to get that information from all of us. If there were enough to be relevant they would have said so. I'd be very confident it's just a couple of people he's drummed up. A couple probably called Fido and Daffy. This is not an election. It's not a campaign with a couple of policies, it's a Constitution with hundreds of paragraphs and he wants to change them all. Do we get hundreds and hundreds of emails from all members voicing their opinions about what they want or don't want on each paragraph of his new Constitution. I could have done that. So could have other people I know who submitted suggestions that didn't make it. How do you go about doing this practically. You are never going to get everyone agreeing to the same thing. I accepted the process the Board set up with a Committee of experienced qualified people. We all got the opportunity to respond to changes that were sent through to us. If this gets stopped whats next. I don't agree with virtually all his amendments. Some I strongly disagree with. So what negotiations are going to go on. How do we ever move forward. I find most of the proposed amendments important and necessary. When you go on to his email which is supposed to be about responding to the Constitution you find content referring to Bartlett's legal actions as some sort of blight on the Board members he is suing. In my opinion that is a dirty political smear campaign which has absolutely nothing to do with the Constitution but everything to do with his naked ambition to get elected after he's been rejected twice. I urge people to get out there and send in their Proxy's to vote Yes. And to be clear I've got no ambitions to get on the Board. I have had no contact with anyone on the Board or the Admin about this process other than sending in my suggestion. My only agenda is having the Club in a position to do it's best work. I believe a stable Board is essential for that and this bloke is actively working to do the opposite. I'm appalled he's got my private details and won't tell me who his group is or what he's doing to protect my details. This bloke and group need to be kept as far away from our Club as we can get him.

This has been unashamedly pilfered from 'Johnny Karate' from Big Footy, with thanks: We have clearly been the most innovative club in the past 30 years… Ian Ridley wanted us to merge with Hawthorn which really united the club. Joseph Gutnick made us play an extraordinary amount of marquee Sunday games to fit in with the Sabbath. This was a real commercial boon for the club. Gabriel Szondy and the KPMG crew took over with the innovative fiscal responsibility route where we somehow ended up millions in debt. The Paul Gardner board attempted to solve this by attracting Chinese investment and surreptitiously dumping our Demon logo. They also made the erudite decision to offer Chris Connolly the footy manager role as a consolation prize for missing out on the head coaching gig. Jim Stynes’ board hired Cameron Schwab. Wiped the debt and then got it back. Were somehow so devoid of talent that a man who was recovering from brain surgery was deemed the only person able to step in as Football Director. Hired Mark Neeld and extended Schwab’s contract after we were belted by 186 points. Glen Bartlett stated we would be bigger than the New York Yankees. Froze out Peter Jackson from choosing his own successor. White anted his own coach, was fired from his own board and has been feeding Mick Warner talking points ever since. Kate Roffey still hasn’t settled the home base issue, despite her State Government contacts. Has appeared in the media a billion times claiming credit for the premiership. Now her board wants to change the club constitution to further entrench their positions.

Hair line fracture must be ok 🤞

Cyclops, I don't know if the data provided to Deemocracy includes a key linking both sets of data, or whether they have simply added email addresses to the original list. In any case the postal address would likely include the person's name and in most cases email addresses and names would be similar and relatively easy to match. Re if this were a game, while I get that Peter Lawrence wants to be on the Board, his challenge re the Constitution takes out Boards attention away from football, our facilities and growing our membership, costs money in legal fees that could be better spent on our footy program or facilities, and creates disunity while we are in the best position we have been on and off the field for more than 50 years. While his version of the constitution may be better the proposed changes are sensible and address the matters of substance. I'd get that if the club were proposing changes that reduce transparency and accountability then Deemocracy's approach might be warranted, but he has picked a big argument over a set of relatively minor concerns. I also back that the Board has stood it's ground as they cannot have a powerful member second guessing every decision and threatening legal action if they don't get their way.

I don't give a rat's how insular they as long as it never returns to the pathetic, useless , embarrassing and destabilized boards prior to 2013.

The failure of straight sets will drive this group and coaching staff to never experience that feeling again.

Like he said as an 18 yo, I want to be the best in the league.!!

This is probably one of the hard calls that the coaches need to make. He makes great decisions with the ball and he tackles really well, in 2022 he just didn’t do enough of either. I can’t work out whether it was injury, form or whether something else was asked of him. Either way, it can’t just be left like this. We need more from his position.

This is the first full thread I’ve read through in months. Lol what a journey. old55 never came back with his black metal verdict. Anyone checked on him? Back to the user names thing, @Ethan Tremblay’s short stint as GingerGuitar still makes me chortle once a week.

You still need good governance in any organisation. It's not open slather any longer just to win games of football.

Some might say that the board control is a bigger issue that voting systems. Yes, of course we need electronic voting, but if the board is trying to slip through controls that make the club less democratic we may need to question the process. Seems to me there's a lot of aspersions being cast here about Lawrence and Deemocracy's motives. For all I know their motives might be perfectly reasonable. I fear somewhat for a club with a McGuire or Kennett-style dominance where they can never be voted out or removed because they control board membership so tightly the members are basically disenfranchised. I guess we'll see if more than 25% of the members think board control is more important than voting methods.

Maybe that’s why they have signed Melky to a one year contract 😉

Leaving him on the wing for centre bounces did my head in at the end of the season

I always return to “Enter The Wu Tang (36 Chambers)”. It’s got such a dark, subterranean mood throughout, and just drops you into their world. It’s the “Exile On Main St” of hip-hop.

Still mining the ore DA. Saw the ghost of Anton LaVey down there humming along to a few of the tunes.

I agree Titan, it is a yes/no vote, but I think it's a positive move to include an alternative rather than just criticise the proposal.

Bringing back people who've never tasted or been part of success. Interesting.

It really is a great shame that the board is so insular and has gone to such great lengths to stifle a different voice, such that we now have this as the result. A board that continues to achieve so little progress. Their great achievement is maintaining the status quo. It saddens me.

The Beatles were obviously very good but if I had a choice to see one of the 2 i would chose The Doors over The Beatles.

Congrats to Gillard, well deserved Another milestone: That brings Kate into the top 5 alongside and ahead of some players who get lots more kudos. Check out 17th - Duffy! Very respectable average. And 18th, our old friend Scott - she's revived form to kick 7 for Geelong this season, good for her. .

I voted "No" to the limited changes in favour of the Deemocracy group. I believe the entire MFC constitution needs to be overhauled. People may disagree with how I voted but everyone has their own views. I hope that the MFC board and Deemocracy group can eventually come to an amicable resolution. I am sure these problems can be resolved if both parties sat down amd worked it all out peacefully.

This is a point that I think Deemocracy have quite cleverly concealed through the use of their own model Constitution. This is not a vote between the Club’s proposed changes and Deemocracy’s. It’s a vote between making the Club’s proposed changes or making no changes at all. If the 75% threshold isn’t reached, the motion fails and no changes are made. We are then back at square 1. It is implicit in their position that Deemocracy would prefer that than to have the Club’s changes go through. Of all the changes, the only one of major difference is the 20 member support for nominations. Holding up the entire Constitutional reform over that is, in my view, dangerous.

I think Mario Lanza fans are more likely to be the hip op generation rather than hip hop.

I would love to have seen Jimi hendrix

I have my opinions that I try to keep to myself but the continual degrading of players, ours and others, past and present worries me. coaches are a bit different, more like paid employees or hired guns. I do feel sorry for the saints supporters who are in for a lot of pain. My old mate Phil in particular. Apart from the little old lady that hit me on the head with her umbrella about 40 years ago at Moorabbin. Perhaps I did not have a lot of couth when I was younger. I might have deserved it.

Great summary of Lyon and esp about Lyon not being responsible for the Ratten decision. The Board endorsed Ratten 10 weeks before sacking him. And clearly from Basset's mealy-mouthed answers at yesterday's presser he was 'aware' Lyon was gettable so they may have pulled the trigger on that data. But he might have had deniabilty on talking to Lyon pre-Ratten sacking by using 3rd party info . Shocking work by the Saints Board. Lyon may suceed, who knows, but culture trumps everything else so let's see.

Unless it’s the finer detail of the constitution running through Max’ mind when he is lining up for goal?

I did, and for St Kilda's sake, I hope he coaches better than he commentates. Not that he was alone there, the other commentators were also abysmal.

What a difference a few years makes. Not saying it was you Binny, but I recall a number on this forum telling us how much closer to a flag the Saints were to us at the end of season 2020!

Hey all, I have put some rough thoughts into a mock draft for the first two rounds. I do not expect this to be accurate in anyway and doesn't factor in potential pick swaps between now and the draft. I have not done in depth player profile analysis/descriptions as that has been largely covered by MadAsHells previous phantom draft on page 3. Nascents 2022 Phantom Draft ROUND 1 1. Brisbane - Will Ashcroft - Mid - 182cm 76kg - (f/s matched bid) Prolific ball winner that wins ball inside and outside of the contest and knows where the goals are. The question here is if GWS will bid on Will or if they select the man they traded up for in Aaron Cadman. I think GWS will keep Brisbane honest and make them pay full price, considering they lost 3 midfielders in Hopper, Taranto and Bruhn I'm sure they would be more than happy to take Ashcroft should he have been available (sans go home concerns). 2. GWS - Aaron Cadman - Key Forward - 196cm 88kg The best KPF in the draft with impressive marking ability both on the lead and in contests situations as well as fantastic second efforts once the ball hits the ground. Strong speculation in the media that he is their man. Go home factor supposedly limited due to him being from the country . 3. North - Harry Sheezel Medium Forward/mid - 184cm 77kg There's not much North don't need but have gone for the medium mid/forward in Sheezel who brings class forward of centre as well as capacity to go through the middle. Not as explosive as some, but perhaps the player with the highest IQ and skillset and hits the scoreboard regularly. 4. North - George Wardlaw - Mid - 182cm 81kg Injury has limited his exposure but with his combination of a strong inside contested game with explosive athletic traits will see him taken high. Has drawn some comparisons to Clayton Oliver with Wardlaw showing impressive vision in-tight in the contest and able to release handballs quickly to teammates in space. Has suffered multiple hamstring injuries which may put question marks on his durability. 5. Essendon - Bailey Humphrey - Mid/forward - 185cm 86kg Strong powerful mid that hits the scoreboard regularly with 21 goals in 11 NAB league games. Gone against the grain a little here and can see the dons overlooking the outside midfielder in Tsatas. 6. Gold Coast - Reuben Ginbey - Medium defender/mid - 189cm 85kg Started off as a 3rd tall lockdown defender before transition to being an inside mid where he thrived in the contest. Ginbey has the great combination of high level endurance and speed/power. Said to not be a great flight risk which GC might factor in when considering other players. 7. Hawthorn - Elijah Tsatas - Mid - 186cm 79kg Simply too good to pass up here as a high production midfielder with a real turn of speed. Predominantly plays outside but doesn't look out of place in the middle. Could easily go higher. 8. Geelong - Jhye Clarke - Mid - 181cm 77kg The easy selection here. Strong competitive contested player that provides leadership. Appeals due to the retirement of Selwood as well as an ageing midfield in Duncan, Guthrie and lesser extent Danger (as he spends more time forward). Considered Phillapou, Busslinger and Jefferson here among others. 9. West Coast - Mattaes Phillipou - Mid/forward - 192cm 89kg A taller midfielder, has too much talent to let him slide any further for mine. Has plenty of upside with his athletic ability and is fantastic overhead making him a dangerous threat forward. Will most likely spend most of his time as an inside mid which is where I've decided to focus their rebuild around with their first early selection. 10. St Kilda - Jedd Busslinger - Key Back - 196cm 82kg Plays predominantly as an intercepting defender but does have the ability to shut down opponents as well. I simply don't rate most of St Kildas defensive unit and with Lyon now on board I can see it being an area of focus despite holes all over their list. McKenzie a possibility here being an NGA member but have overlooked for now. 11. Carlton - Oliver Hollands - Outside mid - 183cm 71kg An elite runner and outside winger, Carlton have been looking to fill this position for a while. Acres is a decent stop gap but I don't think will be their long term solution. 12. Bulldogs - Cameron McKenzie - Mid - 187kg 80kg If McKenzie gets past Saints and I don't think he slides much further than here. With the departing dunkley and ageing Liberatore, I've opted for the next best midfielder. 13. West Coast - Ed Allen - Tall Mid - 194cm 82kg At 194cm, Allen has so far played predominantly through the middle and wing where he has had an impressive finish to the season. I haven't seen a lot of him unfortunately and am being guided by others who have, is now being talked up as a bolter and I suspect if the eagles want him they'll have to take him here. 14. Melbourne - Elijah Hewett - Mid - 185cm 84kg Found it hard to select for us here. Players such as Phillipou, Hollands, Jefferson, Hotton, Busslinger and even Weddle entered my thought process. As my mock took shape I've ended up settling on Hewett who will develop as the next tier of Midfielder. Another player with that desirable speed and endurance mix, he is extremely competitive which fits the Melbourne mold. 15. Sydney - Matthew Jefferson - Key Forward - 195cm 76kg Another I had difficulty placing, at one point had him going earlier to Geelong, Saints and briefly Hawthorn with considerations for the dees, he has since slide with Sydney now a potential destination. I've placed him here due to Swans investing heavily in small/medium running types. With Franklin not having long left in the game, Logan and Amartey are left carrying the load with cameos for whichever ruckman is fit to take the field and rest forward. 16. Brisbane - Jaspa Fletcher - Mid - 184cm 73kg - (matched f/s bid) A cheeky second bid on a Brisbane player from GWS, Brisbane matches. 17. GWS - Olli Hotton - Mid/forward - 181cm 76kg A player I really like in the draft, I think he is too good a player to let go further. Quick mid/forward player who is dangerous forward where he spent most of his time earlier in the season. GWS may avoid due to potential "Vic Metro go home factor" bias 18. Collingwood - Lewis Hayes - Tall Defender - 197cm 81kg The place I see the pies most deficient in, they take the next best rated Tall Key Defender. Intercepts well and can rebound effectively. Needs to put on muscle to improve his contested game which shouldn't be a problem over time. Was outpointed in a 1v1 by 185cm 17yr old Harley Reid a couple of times highlighting this fact. 19. Sydney - Josh Weddle - Tall/medium Defender - 192cm 89kg Sits only at 192cm which some view as too short for a key Defender, Weddle plays above his height with impressive athletic abilities as shown with his combine results where he tested well for running vertical leap (2nd - 90cm) and had a 2.94sec 20metre spring and 6.03min 2km run. Can play small and tall and should compliment the McCartin brothers well as Rampe ages. 20. GWS - Brayden George - Medium Forward - 185cm 87kg Unforunatley will sit out next year with an ACL injury, however I feel is too talented a player to let slide out of the first round. With mulitple first round picks, I can see GWS taking a "risk" on the powerful bushranger forward.

There's nothing cleverly concealed, the point of their alternative ideas are simply to promote debate It's putting an alternative idea forward. Just like an Opposition would put an alternative policy position to a Government in parliament (where the alternative policy is not going to be voted on - the minor parties take this to the extreme to highlight their agendas) The Nominations obiection is clear, and obvious...

The band is public enemy. The fella with the outsize clock like a bling necklace is Flava flav. Not really a rapper, more an old school hype man. 'Yeah boyeee'

As Tim Lamb says, it's his versatility that is attractive. Is taller than Weid, can play forward or back and has proven that he is a goal kicker in the VFL. Could also be cover for the injury depleted BBB. Sadly, Weid never did. With some intense coaching and training, could do well and surprise.

ANB was one of our leading goal assist player two years in a row.

And he needs to learn to think quicker!!

I directed the show open and package for Vh1’s Hip Hop Honours while I was based in New York. I used to be so cool. I think my coolness left sometime around 2012 (and took most of my hair with it).

POTT!

So if the No vote succeeds we have gone through all this kerfuffle and $$$$$ for nothing. Voting No doesn't get the No constitution up. And I can go back to calling Kate Roffey Chairman? This is so far from our core business of kicking it through the big sticks and will not do anything to improve our accuracy in front of goal.

Revising the game plan in the forward line could make a real difference to our scoring rate and accuracy, including all of the entries to the fwd line itself. Hunter and Schache could be entering into a carpet ride, given their attributes and also, most of our existing forwards would benefit as well because they are potent footballers traditionally given a teaspoon of opportunity instead of a tablespoon of common sense. I'm thinking what good forward feeds could be possible, adding the talent-base with Hunter and Schache, fed by Langdon, Clarrie, Tracca, Gus, Rivers, Sparrow et al, and observant, agile JVR, Fritta, BBB, Petty, Kozzie, Spargs, ANB, et al. It's also about suitable pathways being available, eyes up, without the gaps in the chain of events that formerly had to dictate that in the majority of cases, we bombed long - over the heads of the gaps that existed - to get the ball into that disastrous left forward pocket.

Love the sentiment... what's the evidence that that happens though Mono for other players across the AFL/VFL history...? He sounds lovely in the interview... lovely person, lovely vibe... Casey for him then...(mostly)...but please...prove me wrong.

Can’t be any worse than the Weed (saying with respect for a man who did his best) The Shack was competing against much better forwards at the Dogs, therefore I’m hopeful but not expecting the Shack to be our main power house forward.

There is history behind this. Lawrence nominated last year and the club refused his request to put his case to members. The club actually behaved very poorly and is looking to stymie and genuine nominations other than the ones they want. Not sure they are as inclusive as they make themselves out to be