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2027 takes him to when he qualifies for free agency. Very happy with an 8 year commitment to the club. Can't ask for anything more than that. Hopefully, he will have a few more premierships. People can relax about the 'Go Home' factor!!

Corey Wagner will make his debut with the Dockers tomorrow night, 1329 days after he last played for Melbourne.

Why must you be so aggressive and antagonistic in yours posts, @58er? If this is what you are like in real life, you must be a real pain to be around.

Excellent news. Very happy with that. See? Not all interstate players run back to mum!

Nev is from Carey Park in Bunbury, not exactly outback, but I do agree he is someone’s who will consider Kozzie’s best interests in any advice given. I was sitting near Byron at Optus on Sunday, good to see him looking happy and healthy and supporting both his nephew and the Dees

I only just saw Sunday’s game this morning, and I was thinking he’s really coming on as a midfielder, and it would be great to see him re-sign. Then I saw this news. JvR mentioned in a previous interview that Rivers had led the WA boys in their training programme over the break too - leadership potential. The fact that he and Jackson were best mates when they arrived is just a sweet cherry on top. Really happy with this signing!

posted in another thread but

Looks to be staying until 2027!!!

One doesn’t have to have kids to know when school holidays are, 58er. I have a son in Year 12 and on Tuesday I came home at about midday and there he was, standing in the kitchen, in his jocks, pouring a bowl of cereal. I said “you do know school is compulsory, right?” Then we both marvelled at the fact that it only took me ‘til Tuesday of the first week to realise it’s holidays. That’s my PB.

Hey if that $500,000 helps secure Kosi I’m down for gather round every round

The time for us to get Nat Fyfe was at the 2009 AFL National Draft where we had 4 selections ahead of where he was picked up by the Dockers (#20). We went with - 1. Tom Scully 2. Jack Trengove 11. Jordan Gysberts 18. Luke Tapscott There are plenty of regrets about what we missed out on but really, if we didn’t get Fyfe when he was a fit and healthy 18 year old with a brilliant career ahead of him, why would we take him as a broken down man with limited time left in his career at 32?

we're all just guessing ultimately! but awesome that Riv is sticking around! he's been a great pick up for us!

Time to update the Contracts Thread!!

Was at Schwartzy's pub in the GF wake in 2000. 2 things I remember vividly 1. The bar tab ran while Neil Daniher was at the bar and he had pay for a round of about 10 drinks. 5 seconds later Schwartz had restarted the tab. 2. Danners was that dirty with the tactics of targeting our kids (Brad Green very lucky he can actually speak and troy Simmons amazingly still has his head attached!) - He made it very clear that he would never step foot in Windy Hill again. (was a tad disappointed when the danners brothers all got back together for a bombers game - actually felt a bit sick by it. )

Hope he is their best player, in another loss.

Yes we certainly don't want any flappable stoppers.

Spoken like a true Dees supporter 🤣

Success

this is not just a great signing for the club, it's a really positive sign for the prospects of re-signing Kozzie as well!

I believe he’s finished already. Pounded himself to into the ground, can’t play in the midfield anymore and barely rates as a 5th forward. I hope Oliver doesn’t end up like him.

I’m not as worried as other people put it that way. The noise from South Australia in particular Port, to a few parties at this stage is fairly amusing rather than legitimate. Kozzy’s relationship with the boys and in particular Goody, has given the club confidence he’ll put pen to paper. As I said, the money isn’t an issue, and the length is flexible based on what Kozzy wants to do which is a good thing.

I did a bit of research into the MFC membership numbers inspired by reading this thread and a request from @JimmyGadson Jimmy asked for details on the last 10 years, but it is the last 5 years that has seen remarkable development in MFC membership numbers. Below is what I discovered: By the end of 2022, Melbourne Football Club were the 8th largest AFL club by membership (66,484): In the past 5 years Melbourne coped better than most clubs either side of and during CoVid. Most clubs suffered massive membership losses in 2020 (grey bars in the graph below). Melbourne suffered the 3rd biggest downturn in membership in 2020, but this was more than offset by the 3rd largest increase in membership during these 5 years: During 2021 and 2022, Melbourne's bounced back and increased it's membership by more than any other club - no doubt spurred on by winning the premiership in 2021. That's right - Melbourne were the fastest growing club in terms of membership during this period with 25,913 new members signing up during this period. Collingwood and Carlton were the next fastest growing clubs during this 2 year period with figures of 23,522 and 21,741 respectively: If Melbourne continues to grow it's membership at this rate, the 70K membership mark will soon be passed and the Dees will push towards a 6 figure membership to challenge Richmond, Collingwood, West Coast who have already achieved that milestone. In conclusion, Melbourne has been the fastest growing club in the AFL during 2021 and 2022. Another premiership by the Dees will no doubt further increase Melbourne Membership and place the Demons in a position to surpass even the biggest of the AFL clubs. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope this has been informative. All figures have been referenced from the tables below, the figures of which were found at the following sources: https://www.sen.com.au/news/2022/09/05/all-18-afl-clubs-membership-tallies-for-2022-revealed/ https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/teams/west-coast-eagles/afl-membership-numbers-ladder-2021-afl-club-membership-by-team-club-records-west-coast-eagles-richmond/news-story/27b74f6e8e6225c5666c4a9e493891b0 https://www.sen.com.au/news/2019/08/06/afl-club-membership-numbers-for-2019-revealed/ https://www.afl.com.au/news/142385/afl-club-membership-heads-towards-a-million https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/454510/afl-announces-2015-membership-numbers https://www.afl.com.au/stats/premiership-winners https://web.archive.org/web/20121019233016/http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/146980/default.aspx https://web.archive.org/web/20110825021430/http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/118901/default.aspx https://resources.afl.com.au/afl/document/2019/12/05/0b3bf9a6-8f7d-4094-8591-d10f5babd3cf/afl_annual_report_2010_V2-min.pdf https://resources.afl.com.au/afl/document/2019/12/05/0f1757b4-7638-44ae-8718-12326f215abc/afl_annual_report_2009-min.pdf https://www.footyindustry.com/wiki/index.php?title=Club_Memberships https://www.footyindustry.com/?page_id=228 https://www.footyindustry.com/?page_id=142692 https://s.afl.com.au/staticfile/AFL%20Tenant/AFL/Files/afl_annual_report_2005.pdf

Did you know? There’s studies on the correlative relationship between trolling and what’s called ‘Dark Tetrad’ personality factors (the levels of psychopathic, narcissistic, Machiavellian and sadistic traits a person has). What’s been found is that the levels of these traits a person has, is shown to be positively predictive of whether they’ll engage in trolling or not. On top of this, levels of loneliness are also another factor that is shown to be positively predictive. The more dark traits and higher levels of loneliness a person has, the more likely they are to troll. There’s also a social factor to online trolling which is driven by a desire for attention from others. The emotional reward is a sense of power and (saddest of all) feeling successful. So when someone engages in trolling behaviour, it’s indicative, that they’re most likely somewhere in what the above describes. Make of this information what you will. Dees by 23. P.S. It’s ‘Coober Pedy’ not ‘Cooper Pedy’.

Great looks like we are learning from our mistakes of last year… lever isn’t right give him the week off.

Petty 100% goes back with Lever out. He can play the intercept role and May and Tomlinson will play the shut down role. Lucky for us Essendon are missing their two starting tall forwards. I would be interested to try Rivers on Stringer. Similar body shape. Rivers definitely has the size and speed to cover him. He can run with him midfield and forward. Could be a decent matchup in the absence of Hibbo. I think McVee and Bowey are both too slight and Gus doesn’t have the speed.

Honestly Tomlinson was unlucky to be dropped. Definitely deserves another shot. The backline will miss Lever but will be fine

To me Trent Rivers has always had a committed look about him, when you watch Momentum, Sound the Alarm and the Granny shots he was living the dream and I’ll never forget when he went up to Lyon after the game with the cup in his hand saying that we want to do this again next year (despite Gazza calling him Jordon). Pure joy and one of the team.!!!

James Brayshaw looks forward to calling Jared Rivers' name in Melbourne games for years to come.

Yes but as @Jaded No More and @jnrmacposted it could equally mean we know Kossie is going. Note that we signed Angus long term probably around the time we knew Jackson was going. Anyway, absolutely tremendous news that Riv has signed on!

I’m surprised no one’s suggested Geelong yet.

Agreed, we'll recommence at 5.10pm Friday afternoon

To be fair, Scully and Trengove were, at that time, universally considered to be first and second choices. As for Gysberts and Tapscott, and in many respects for Scully and Trengove, could it be that the player management and development at the time was inept? We have improved. Phew.

I played a little bit with Dean Duursma (father of Xavier and Zane). He was a real football journeyman but could play. I was 16 and he was late 30’s and he was still kicking goals. He also played U19’s at Melbourne and possibly some reserves games. Ripper bloke

Was a great player but is well and truly cooked.

Well that was an enjoyable night’s footy.

Massive news. Rivers despite a down year last year has proven to be an extremely reliable and consistent player across a few different positions. Can't wait to see what he looks like in 4 years time with his development so far.

underrated player played some 2s last year and looks better for it. very well rounded player. skilful, tall, composed. love im

Great news! He’s a talented and versatile youngster with a big future ahead of him. Glad to lock away a WA talent and tick another box to keep our next core group together. Now just need Kozzies signature!

Well done, Riv. 👏 And well done MFC.

The article I read says the $500k is a once-off and split evenly across all players based on their 2023 earnings. But the on going sal cap is under review so hopefully that helps us keep a few players, including Kozzie. As an a side, a fair chunk of the remaining $250 once off, the AFL says is for the FD should go to Goodwin as he took unders in his last contract to keep FD staff at the club. Given his history he will probably want to share it or use it for more FD staff.

The problem for Freo is Peter Bell. Ultimate FIGJAM putting his little hands in every pie I take all my life advice from Randy Newman: Short people got no reason Short people got no reason Short people got no reason To live They got little hands And little eyes And they walk around Tellin' great big lies They got little noses And tiny little teeth They wear platform shoes On their nasty little feet

I've been keen on both Duursma and Reid for the last two years and Duursma is now a real possibility given Freo's fall. I genuinely can't see them bouncing back and I think they'll have a similar year to us post our 2018 Prelim exit. They simply lost too many solid contributors and have a much more difficult draw, (most of it coming in the second half of the year). So a top 6-7 pick is looking good for us with their second-rounder which will be low to mid 20's. Duursma trained with us last year so we've seen him up close and he's now in our range. Aside from that, I think his attributes compliment us wonderfully. Goal sense, unbelievable skills, overhead mark, quick for his height and can play on ball. I'd like to check his contested ball winning ability but I just think he'd be such a great addition. Reid unfortunately will be out of our reach and I can't imagine us trading three first rounders for pick 1. I think Jase and co will have a great plan in place to trade up again and aim for top 5 pick to land Duursma with a second pick inside the top 10 and a later second round pick. Definitely achievable given the hand we'll have which doesn't include the trading of our future first rounder. If that eventuates, we'll be the envy of the competition. Looking forward to following the draft closely as well as the Dees having a crack at flag number 2, how good is fooooooty!

I don't think any player makes it straight into our starting 23, unless they are top end talent like Daicos and even then its positional as well... i.e if we were somehow to snap up Reid, is he good enough in year 1 to play ahead of Viney, Trac, Oliver, Sparrow, Kozzy, Lingers in the midfield? Or even Bowey, McVee, Brayshaw off HB? The former two have had the VFL development. Not saying you wouldn't take him but we have that area sufficiently covered with depth. We are in a very rare position where we don't have to recruit for right now as we have plenty of depth. Given quality bookends are as rare as pink diamonds, you have to invest in getting them when they are available and they generally go top 5. It just so happens we are in need of at least a KPD in the next 2-3 years and we potentially have the draft capital to get it done now and invest in his development whilst we still have May playing . Dont have to agree, but that is just my view.

It depends which league. I know Dromana lacks a mid-fielder who can float forward. And the club serves some of the better egg and bacon rolls in the MPFL

The 6 day turnaround from Perth is nothing at this time of year. We're at peak fitness right now, all it means is that we'll have a more recovery focused week on the track. Posters put way too much emphasis on short turnarounds. And if we're at any disadvantage because of it, one could argue that we have a larger core group of 25-28 years who are in peak physical condition compared to the Bombers who are younger and less developed. Stop thinking so much about turnarounds, [censored]. We will win if we bring our game, rain, hail or shine.

Not strictly related to his contract, but worth raising. Did we note Kozzie's bizarre absence from the latest popularity contest: Dwayne Russell's Top 40 most 'watchable' players. I needed to check the list 5 times before I knew for sure that he'd been trumped by Jessie Hogan at #36! Has to be in the 5-7 range with Cameron, Bolton and Rankine – at least. In return, I'm thinking of leaving Dwayne off my Top 40 most watchable commentators list. 😉