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With $27m in the bank, from the sale of assets he pushed his Board to acquire and after stopping a merger and tipping in $2.7m of his own, the biggest single donation to the club ever. Show a bit of gratitude.

Training wouldn't be of a high standard out there. Players would just be going through the motions.

That place is going to be a real head-scratcher for archeologists a thousand years from now. "It appears to be some sort of temple, where each of the priests is allocated a farm in the surrounding countryside. Every four years dignitaries from the nearby metropolis travelled here to deliver tribute. We still cannot determine the basis for this worship as there is absolutely nothing of note in the area. All other local structures have long since rotted or rusted; only this approximately elliptical edifice of titanium and gold alloy remains."

The press swooped in like a vulture With questions about club culture But we only had ourselves to blame For not achieving premiership fame A simple trick would have altered the team's fate 'Tis not a secret - just kick straight

I hate the cats but rather than whinging about how they get money, and we don’t (because they obviously canvass/lobby better than us for their club. they've been a well-run club for a long time) we should acknowledge our own ineptitude. How can we not even have a location secured after decades of homelessness. We are where we are because of a number of useless boards. And I’m not too optimistic about our prospects either. Government largess has dried up because of economic conditions and who know when conditions will improve/change. MGC precinct looks dead in the water, so I really hope Caulfield works out. If not, then we are right back where we have always been, homeless with no prospects. Kate Roffey needs to get her finger out already.

Considering they've rebuilt the whole place from scratch how hard would it have been to move the playing surface 5 metres to the west and make it oval shaped on the Moorabool St wing.

Thanks, would have helped if I opened the article. In my defence though the article was about Collingwood and I am a man of principle.

Surely our grounds are a carbon sequestration capture and storage facility facilitating our transition to carbon neutral?

I’ll do the feasibility study for a slab of beer. It’s feasible, just [censored] build it. Where do I send the invoice?

Caulfield is the only option which is currently subject to a funded feasability study.

Shifter, is that you? 😜😳🤪

Gosch’s at 9am. At this stage anyways.

Bids should happen before trade period. Trading out of early picks and using multiple nothing picks is a joke. All the JUH sooking cost us Mac Andrew. Most players who qualify as NGA are not true NGA.

Oh good, flip the NGAs back to 20 and distort the draft more. All for what? Players who have local teams, elite junior rep teams and most of the time school programs but we pretend the AFL clubs have developed them? The admission criteria is rubbish. Kids born when their Australian parents were working overseas. Kids who came here when they were infants. Indigenous people who (no comment). Kids with one parent born overseas, why is that a thing? There’s surely ways to invest in Indigenous and migrant communities and have the rising tide lift all boats. It seems like a way to placate the 14 non Northern clubs but it will only distort things further. It’s only increasing the extent with which your zone matters and we saw how dangerous a recruiting zone based comp was towards the later decades of the VFL. There’s easy changes to the bidding process that would restrict the Northern Academies and Father Sons from massively distorting the draft which is much fairer than fighting academies with more academies.

Ukraine would be better

What have you got against Bairnsdale? 😀

I see Collingwood have invited 204cm ex Port Adelaide ruckman Brynn Teakle down for a chance to trial with them over the summer for a spot on their rookie list. You would think this would have made far more sense from a list perspective. Of course out of all teams it had to be Collingwood with the smart list decision here.....

Wayne - if you could refrain from interrupting my tantrum, that would be appreciated. Any entry onto Gosch's cannot be considered anything other than an official turf war, however brief. We are, after all, talking about the Filth. Thank you, I rest my case

"Liberal" in Australian politics doesn't mean left leaning. It refers to economic liberalism which is an economic policy that favours small government, low taxes, balancing the books type of economic policy. "Liberal" meaning left leaning is really only a term used in the United States and Canada. So the Liberal Party calling itself "Liberal" is correct because they're economic liberalists

But taller and slower. I can't get my head around this selection. It seems the FD must have no confidence in replacements for May or Lever from within the current list.

An incredible talent Lowell George, many, many interesting stories...

“Kolclops” yes it’s ridiculous but fun to muse over. a nick name.

Carlton surely is the most Liberal (in politics terms) of clubs with big money going back all the way to Sir Robert Menzies via Sir Maurice Nathan, John (Liberal Party bagman) Elliott and numerous others. But Hawthorn is one of the most strongly Liberal voting areas in classically loyal Liberal localities until the Teals came along. Geelong is a different matter. Lots of votes and multiple electorates. Labor and Liberal governments (think Bracks-Baillieu- Andrews) have thrown money down there.

Absolutely nothing! It was the first place that popped into my head that was an adequate distance from Melbourne. How about the sewage treatment plant at Werribee? A bit too close but it seems to fit the bill?

Great article here on who gets the money from GF Merchandising. A couple of things surprised me: AFL take 12.5% Costs are over 50% (given mass produced on Bangladesh templates there must be a few middlemen) The club only gets 15% Surprisingly, Melbourne’s 2021 premiership surpassed Richmond’s 2017 drought-breaker for merchandise sales, despite the Tigers’ significantly larger fan base. The likely explanation, as Davies suggested, was that Melbourne’s flag was during the COVID-19 shutdown and many fans splurged online on items when they couldn’t attend the game. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/merch-bonanza-where-the-money-goes-from-magpies-record-flag-windfall-20231121-p5elp7.html As an aside on costs... In India you can buy the official cricket top for $20. Knock offs abound at around $5. How do we get to $100 plus for an official top

In retrospect probably a victim of our increasingly gentrified or is it geriatricfried(?) list. Not naming names but there are a few gents nearing the superannuated end of their tethers. Trust Goody has the Tardis tuned up for a career defining retrospective.

Leighoak was sold back in 2018. From the 2018 financials "The Club had net assets of $13.109m at balance date, underwritten by the cash position largely achieved through the sale of Leighoak Club, and the Bentleigh Club land asset. The Club’s overall debt at the end of 2018 totalled $2.629m, which represents a reduction of $1.500m during the year. The Club will continue to prioritise the repayment of debt from its operating cashflow over the coming years, as it has done in prior years, with $5.499m of debt repaid since 2013" Btw the financials for the last 8 years are up on the website. And note we had debt back then. Not now.

The state and the nation are broke. Getting any type of funding is going to be extremely challenging. I would be surprised if we made any progress this decade.

Had a beer last night at Bad Shepherd with the same fella. We chatted the draft amongst other things and I asked him if he was surprised that we got Brown via the Rookie Draft. He reckons Brown dropped later in the year due to some disposal issues and limited scope for improvement. Under pressure missed some targets by foot and his contested work is scrappy, not clean and momentum building. Also wondered about his ability to get bigger. In saying that, he did say his club didn’t put a lot of effort into Brown as they try to avoid non WA players at the later stages of the draft. On a positive note, he also said if Goody told Brown to run through a brick wall he would and is very coachable. He thought we had a pretty good draft as Windsor and Tholstrup are good enough to play round 1 next year.

You think he acted alone without the Board. It was 90% actually, $2.7m of $3m, still the biggest single donation ever given to the club. What revenue streams back then, would have got us the $30m approx he left us, for Bentleigh and Oakleigh, plus his $2.7m. What have the last few Boards added to what he left us? He may not have been the President I personally wanted, but his contribution to the MFC was huge, in addition to helping save the club from a merger, which would have seen a different club today.

Yep. Id be surprised if the Lygon st Ruskies ever give 1 dollar to the MFC. Libs arent any better. Portsea Golf club turning its nose up at Comrade Dan recentlywont have helped either. Portsea = Establishment=MFC= Royal Red and Blue colours. We're cooked.

yet our actual 'base' of supporters has swung green, teal, and red glen iris, malvern, malvern east, caulfield - all skewing left

These guys went pretty well..

Assuming your quotation is correct then the heading in bold, Bentleigh Club Sale, is a direct indicator of what is being referred to in the phrase 'proceeds of the sale' ie the bentleigh club. Remember also the the sale of leighoak and bentleigh were not simultaneous events but 4? years apart but I will see if i can track the leighoak proceeds. (we are not in debt now but we were then)

Was a great game indeed. Jamie Bennell kicked the opening goal within 20 seconds and we were away ❤️

There is a particular wave front at Esperance allegedly famous among surfers, and known as 'the cyclops'. Between that home town detail and the sunnies and being a bit of a beast, I think we might have a name.

Agree totally,In an area, I deem weak on our list, being small backs,I feel we should have retained him.At least for another year.Best of luck Deakin, hope you make it.With regards Shipp andO’leaty both should be given a trading run with the hope of making our last pick via SPP.

Was always a wrap for him and hope he makes it at North.

Deakyn deserves another go at Arden Street. Clarko, Todd and Co may sit up and take notice. Kids got talent!

No, Georgia Campbell is our first, son of Adrian who played for Melbourne in the early 90s

Loving the thought of drafting Jemma Rigoni as a father-daughter selection next month ❤️💙 there’s a certain phonetic joy in yelling, “GO, RIGONI!” again :)

we've been profitable the past 2 years so no operating deficit to fund per cashflow statement there has been a $5.5m investment in property plant and Equip (capex) this year. I presume this is the money spent on Gosch's paddock. This is money that needed to be spent imv so i'm ok with it. Worth noting that the FF generated $833k interest income (see note 3 fin asset income). These are a healthy set of numbers so i don't think the financials will be a fruitful angle of attack for you. Club culture is a different story. Reckon you're on firmer ground criticising the club in that regard

tenzing really tensimg big time

"Whilst there was $0.5m in legal proceedings expenses during the year, the net cost after recoveries is $0.1m. It is regrettable that the Club is required to incur this expenditure." "Whilst the Club has been unable to achieve its aim of commencing construction on a new Melbourne home base facility during the strategic period, all involved in the Club are working tirelessly to deliver the vision of a world class primary facility that can be enjoyed by players, staff and supporters, and are confident this vision will be realised in the term of the Club’s next Strategic Plan. We understand the delay is frustrating for players, staff, supporters and your Board, however it is a long-term project and in order to deliver the world class facilities we want we can only move at the speed determined by our key project partners and State Government given our requirement for land and funding. The Club is continuing to work closely with the Victorian State Government on our primary home base, and as advised at last year’s Annual General Meeting this includes opportunities within the Caulfield Racecourse."

But are you tensing up? Were you tensing up? Will you be tensing up? One never knows on DL. One never knew, nor will one ever know.

Was expecting lots of ‘stoked’ and ‘super excited’ and ‘get around it’ and 18yo kid with a mullet and rude sports sunnies. None of that. Great listen, he sounds like a gem, hoping he can play like one too!

Thanks @Axis of Bob. We all have our hobbies hey

There’s a lot more to this than the ’54 first rounders have gone home’ headline. It’s 19% of first round draftees, which sounds alarming but I ran some of the numbers myself. The data is extremely heavily skewed by a few things. Firstly Gold Coast/GWS. 56% of all the first rounders (30 in total) who went home had been drafted to either GWS or Gold Coast, with only 24 of ‘go home’ players leaving other clubs. Victorian teams have the best retention of all clubs, with each club on average only having lost 0.9 first round players across that 12 year span. This equates to an 8% chance (0.08 player per year) of any particular Victorian club losing a draftee in any individual draft year (compared with Gold Coast/GWS who lost an average of 1.25 first round picks per year to their native state). Those players who ‘went home’ from Victoria were: Reece Conca (106 of his 150 games at Richmond), Jamie Cripps (16/228 at St Kilda), Troy Menzel (40/44 at Carlton), Jimmy Toumpas (who was basically delisted, 27/37 at Melbourne), Blake Acres (who didn’t want to be traded and returned to Victoria, 75/145 at St Kilda), Ryan Burton (who didn’t want to be traded, 47/139 at Hawthorn), Sam Petrevski-Seton (94/121 at Carlton), Luke Jackson (52/75 at Melbourne) and Jason Horne-Francis (17/41 at North). If you look at that list there are really only a couple of ‘we were desperate to keep them players’, being Cripps, Jackson and Horne Francis …. Which equates to one good Victorian first rounder going home every 4 years. Secondly, the data is heavily skewed by the first 3 years of the sample (2010-2012), where a total of 29 players went home, whilst only 25 went home in the next 9 years. The return home rate reduced by 70% after 2012 (0.17 players/club/year) compared with that from 2010-12 (0.54 p/c/y). These were due to the GWS/GC start up priority draft selections where they had great difficulty retaining those players, with GC and GWS losing an average of 8 first rounders each to ‘go home’ across those 3 years. Post 2012, a Victorian club loses 0.06 ‘go home’ first rounders per year …. Only 5 in total, and this includes those that were traded reluctantly (2 of the 5) and one that was given away cheaply. Basically, the go home factor for Victorian clubs is mostly non-existent. It’s slightly higher for WA and SA clubs, Sydney and Brisbane (0.13 players lost/year) and much higher for GC and GWS (0.88 players lost/year) but it is far lower than it was during the formative years in 2010-2012. In short, despite Jackson leaving, I wouldn’t worry much about it. I’ve got my working below for anyone interested.

I hope so, last time Demonland thought he was fat we won a premiership

Unbelievable. The guy got us 2 facilities we sold for millions, I think in the order of $30m and personally threw in $2.7m of his own and you are having a go at him, for not begging the members for money, for a facility, that several previous and post MFC Boards have promised and to this point have failed to deliver. Wow!