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This time x 1000. Pay peanuts get monkeys. They clearly have made a decision not to invest in comms to the level i would expect of any professional sporting club in an elite competition. Personally i think it is short sighted as fan engagement is critical in terms of continuing to grow the fan base and membership But its more than just fan facing content and engagement. Good comms is critical in terms of managing potentially fraught issues, not to mention responding to any crisis or serious incident and/or damage control. Look at last season. The Grundy demotion to the VFL to 'work on his forward craft' was a shocker from a comms perspective and the best you could say about the messaging around the clarry injury and related palaver is that they did a good job of keeping things in house. But they let Goody twist in the wind with the weekly updates he had to give. I don't blame Richo or Goody for those comms snafus - particularly goody who is not a natural media performer like say Mcrae. Getting such messaging right is the responsibility of the comms team. Bottom line is Demonland is much better source of information and content for dees fans than the MFC which should not be the case. And speaking of Demonland, from a comms perspective the club are wasting an opportunity for basically free comms and promotion. Instead of locking out fans from Casey training they should be encouraging people like Picket Fence to get downs there and report to their hearts content. Even give them special access (get some players or club official to chat to them). Then cross promote on the MFC socials. Free content and great engagement. Simples. Oh and they could hire 666 to take photos.

Its on youtube, worth watching for those that have not seen it. Clear and concise presentation.

Jeff's other son Kai getting some early ruck training in.

The club allowed me to interview Tholstrup on the Demonland Podcast. FWIW I would interview all players and provide the footage/interview for free if they let me. They wouldn't even have to promote Demonland or me. I'd do the same for training footage too but I get the need for some secrecy around tactics etc.

They mentioned they had looked at every option including Port and Fisherman’s Bend. There were prohibitive issues with every one they looked at. Caulfield is brilliant logistically. It’s in the centre of the heartland. It’s accessible from 3 different train lines. It’s 10 minutes from the MCG. It has only become an option quite recently as the Govt has decided to open it up to wider community use than just the racecourse. There is ample room for two MCG size grounds. All the space for cutting edge sports facilities admin and supporters all in the one precinct. I real need in the area for the facilities so multiple stakeholders who will invest and have an interest in it happening rather than not happening. The timeframe will be something like 4 years if it all gets approved. A lot of work has gone on by many stakeholders to get to this feasibility stage. There is an in principal agreement to pursue this. Pert said that in response to Gary Hardeman asking if we could be gesumped again like Collingwood did at Olympic Park.

They’re only there for two nights. Don’t think it’s supposed to be a gruelling off season camp more of a shake up and get out of Melbourne for a couple days. Pies went there last December and ended up having a pretty good year. Now they’re having their ‘camp’ in Morwell

Any gen Z teenager with an iphone can shoot and edit video these days. The Swans head of communications is a former 3AW journo, the Swans head of media is Tom Chadwick the former fox footy/channel 9 journo from Adelaide via Melbourne. Its not a question of talent. We've done the full preseason mini documentary series before. And the stuff we produce now isn't poor quality. It's simply a lack of investment. We do the minimum required for sponsors pieces and bits here and there but evidently the plan seems to be less is more. I like that we aren't a meme club. Apart from GWS that's ended with a lot of junk content for most teams. But some more creative content and some longer form videos like the Swans one above would be lovely

We really miss Gibbo.

FWIW the etymology of "trolling" in the on-line world dates back to the early 1990s and originated in the Usenet message groups (a kind of pre-cursor to Reddit). There's still at least one poster who posts here that posted in the Usenet group rec.sport.football.australian - "it's only other Vets that understand" Trolling in this context is based on the fishing practice of trolling. Trolls deliberately post controversial bait in the hope of snaring other posters on the line to their undoing. It's got nothing to do with the mythical creatures who live under bridges despite modern misconceptions. To that end there are very few "trolls" on Demonland, but quite a lot on Big Footy - I've even done a bit on occasion myself there for amusement. They are most likely to be opposition supporters trying to get a rise out of you. That's not what's happening here - mostly genuine supporters are posting their mostly genuine views and there's genuine disagreement. In particular, the artist @Straight Sets Simon, formerly known as Clint Bizkit is in no way a troll and is not even a perennially negative poster, heaven knows we have a few of them - who I am just resisting calling out right here. Clint has posted here constructively for a long time. Yes, they've got a bee in their bonnet about Schache as the sub in the SF (probably the 20th most important factor in us not winning the flag IMO) and have run too far with it IMO with the screen name changes, but it happens - we're all pretty disappointed in the outcome of last season. PS. For @Demonstone amusement that is etymology of trolling, some knowledge of entomology can help with the bait.

We have made the difficult decision not to allow discussion on various off-field issues involving the club including the health and well being of our players. These are private matters involving the players, their families and the club. We do not take this and other issues & this decision lightly. Of course we believe that these serious matters affecting the club we love & are so passionate about are worthy of discussion & debate & I wish we could provide a place where these matters can be discussed in a civil & respectful manner. However these discussions unfortunately invariably devolve into areas that may be defamatory, libelous, spread unsubstantiated rumours & most importantly can effect the mental health of those involved. Even discussion & debate of known facts or media reports can lead to finger pointing, blame & personal attacks and ultimately this is not helpful for the player or the club. In addition these discussions can open this website, it’s owners & it’s users to legal action & may result in this website being forced to shutdown. Our moderating team are all volunteers & cannot moderate the forum 24/7 & as a consequence problematic content that contravenes our rules & standards may go unnoticed for some time before it can be removed. We reserve the right to delete posts that offend against our above policy & indeed, to ban posters who are repeat offenders or who breach our code of conduct. WE HAVE BUILT A FANTASTIC ONLINE COMMUNITY AT DEMONLAND OVER THE PAST 23 YEARS & WE WOULD LIKE TO CONTINUE TO BE ABLE TO DISCUSS THE CLUB WE LOVE & ARE SO PASSIONATE ABOUT. Please Do NOT start threads or post about this topic in other threads. Posts will be deleted and further actions may be taken. If you see any posts referencing this please report. Do not quote the posts as that will make more work for the moderation team. Please respect this difficult decision. I understand your frustrations in feeling like you can't discuss these important issues but there are other venues on the internet that you can discuss them. Thank you for your continued support & understanding. Go Dees. ADMIN ANNOUNCEMENT 23/1/24 Late last year we made the difficult decision to curb discussion about the private and personal issues surrounding one of our greatest ever players Clayton Oliver as we didn't want this platform to be used as a vehicle to spread rumours that may harm Clayton and the Club during this difficult period. As you are all aware, Clayton has taken extended leave from the club to manage some personal matters. In light of this, we want to address the Demonland community to ensure that our forum remains a positive and supportive space during this time. After careful consideration, we have made the decision to open up discussions about footy without Clarry whilst he is on leave, but with some conditions given the sensitive nature of the situation. In light of the private and personal nature of the challenges Clayton is facing, we have decided that our platform should not serve as a venue for speculations, rumors, or discussions regarding his current personal issues. Therefore, we kindly request that all discussions related to Clarry's absence be confined strictly to on-field matters. We ask that you refrain from delving into any private or personal topics, discussions about the culture of the club, finger pointing and assigning blame or engaging in any form of speculation or rumor-mongering. We will provide all bona fide updates in the separate locked and pinned Clayton Oliver thread. To ensure the integrity of our community, any posts that veer into these no-go topics will be promptly deleted, and members who violate these guidelines may face potential bans. We understand that emotions can run high, especially in times like these, but we urge everyone to respect this decision and abide by the rules we've set forth. And please don't use this thread to question or dispute these rules. Please keep the discussion on topic and obey the rules as we really don't want to have to lock this thread. Let's focus on supporting our players and club on the field and maintaining the positive spirit that makes the Demonland community special.

Too bad you picked the dees to support then. Failure is part of the deal. Not sure how long you have been a dees fan, but as someone who has been supporting the dees for half a century the current model of failure sure beats the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s and 2010s model.

Both, old dee According to Pert at the AGM tonight, we'll be at Caulfield* and keep Casey as a 2nd training centre. We do have 4 teams so it makes sense *See last post on the previous page on the why's and wherefore's re Caulfield (an overview from the AGM)

People who confuse entomology and etymology bug me in a way that I cannot put into words.

This Swans video popped up on my YouTube feed last night. I normally couldn't care less about other clubs' business and wouldn't go out of my way but I watched this one as it was right there in my feed. I have to admit that it's very impressive. Things that I liked on a single viewing: It shows what the team is working on pre-Christmas. I was interested to see that the fitness drills are fairly general pre-Christmas to identify where individual players should focus post-Christmas. It has snippets of skill and agility drills, which is much more than the circle-work, match-sim and goal kicking that the MFC comms department offers to us. It showed drills inside their fitness facility. I'm not sure that I've ever seen what takes place inside these big gyms other than weights. It showed how the players move as a team from their training facility to their outside oval, which I presume is somewhere in Moore Park. It's akin to our boys having to walk from AAMI Park to Gosch's though the MFC comms team don't show that. It had some informative sound bites from some of the fitness coaches. Also interesting to see Brodie Grundy's high profile in the video - he's obviously a designated marketing tool and possibly portrayed as their white knight. That said, I also looked out for JJ though came away thinking that I'd struggle to recognise him if he's not wearing 23 on his back - poor me 🙃. I'm now wishing I had raised the issue of MFC Comms at last night's AGM; comms to supporters is such an important tool for clubs that trade on emotions. Watching this Swans video made me realise the significant marketing opportunity for our MFC.

I often catch the Cranbourne & Pakenham Line trains and usually do Richmond to Carnegie in 13 minutes. You won't do Calufield Racecourse to MCG in 10 minutes but you will do Caulfield Station to Richmond Station in about 10 minutes. Actually, the Cranbourne & Pakenham Line trains will use the new Metro Tunnel scheduled to open late 2024 or early 2025 and will mean that Caulfield will become easily accessible to the the inner north and the western suburbs by public transport.

Not an excuse but sound reasoning ... our forward line was decimated with injury and that was out of the club's control. And then losing Brayshaw and not being able to play Petracca forward was also problematical I'm not being disrespectful in describing our finals forward line as C- ... especially with JVR missing the Carlton final 2 months ago I posed the question on how we could possibly win 3 finals without even a half-decent forward line I don't believe it's possible and the odds say that we were almost certainly going to be found out at some stage I'm actually glad that being found out didn't happen in the GF Petty, Melksham, a fit Brown and a fit T-Mac are all sharp shooters too. As is Petracca when he is on song. Fritsch didn't look entirely right either Not forgetting that Gawn just couldn't find his mojo in the forward line either And I never make excuses

I don't think it's a problem as long the training grounds are full size and at a high standard it should be fine

Yep. The club’s social media is by far the worst in the league. Social media doesn’t move the needle for everyone (understandably) but for the people who do enjoy regular updates, the lack of content and quality of it is rubbish. Minimal photos, next to no training footage, the interviews with players and coaches are just over 1 minute if we are lucky and we are one of the only clubs who doesn’t do press conferences in pre season. Billings, Tholsturp, Brown we still haven’t heard from. Would’ve loved to have heard more from McQualter also. Wish the club would try to improve in this area however they clearly do not care in the slightest since Ben Gibson left.

Mentions Goldrick as a player she's followed particularly and wants to learn from - I can't think of a better player to emulate in terms of attack on the game. I knew Jemma had a few games at Casey last season but glad to hear she's been a train-on and clearly involved at the club for a while even rehabbing after her draft year.

That's what it sounds like to me

Thanks, and you're a good addition to the site even though you're a bluebagger! Just don't tell @Redleg heehee

Melk back up and running.

Video presentations are up on YouTube but the QandA as others have said isn’t published. From all reports we didn’t miss much

Can I read a summary anywhere of what happened at the AGM? Or can I watch a replay? I don’t see anything on the MFC website. Is there something on DL?

Kate said at the AGM that she had spoken to everyone . Pert said at the AGM that they had looked at every option. I may be too late

The 2 ovals that are being talked about would be located inside the Caulfield race track according to what has come out of the AGM (Pert) With possible buildings for admin and players gym and indoor training facilities being behind the back straight of the racetrack I'm imaging that those buildings might double as grandstands on race days or for footy practice games and such like After watching the AGM things look like they are in full swing for a possible training base at Caulfield (and we would keep Casey as a 2nd training base) It wasn't just mentioned in passing, more so front & square I was actually quite surprised at the focus on Caulfield by the club because if the subject matter was nowhere near being at a starting point, I'm not sure we would have heard much about it tonight (at all)

Yeah, Apollo Bay runs rings around Bloody overrated Lorne!

I AM VERY CONFIDENT HE WILL!

A serious question, ie I'm not being facetious. For the sake of argument lets say you are right and the 'way we started the QF was nothing short of abysmal, bordering on pathetic' and we 'weren't ready to play football right from the start'. And for the sake of argument let's say we agree that losing Gus had a massive impact on the game. For the sake of argument, let's leave the obvious, and completely understandable, emotional impact of Gus being poleaxed just a few minutes into the game out of the equation. But let's agree that from a purely footy perspective losing Gus for almost an entire game had a significant impact on our chances of winning the game. I meant to say, we lost one of our best players and leaders, a starting midfielder, had to cover all the kms Gus runs in a game, lost his defensive smarts and had to bring our sub on early, robbing us of the chance to bring a fresh player on late in the third or early in the last quarter. And finally, for the sake of argument, lets agree that inaccuracy cost us the game and that we were clearly the better, stronger team in the last quarter. So to the question. Given we started poorly, lost one our best players only a few minutes into the game and were down 20 points at the end of the first quarter, were you impressed with our mental strength to fight our way back into the contest and be in a position to beat the team who finished top of the ladder and went on to win the flag?

Hi Rab and PStD, I'm from Ballyroan, in Rathfarnham, Dublin. So I know the Hellfire Club and Massey's wood really well as we used to mountain bike up there after school and on hikes with the family and scouts. Later on we used to drink cans up there and even made student movies there. I grew up around the corner from Stynesie and passed his house on the way to school each day. I went to the same school and played for the same club in Ballyboden too. We got a half day off school when Jim came to our assembly with his Brownlow medal. At the time we had no real idea what a Brownlow was, but we knew it was important. Our experience of aussies was as rugby legends whipping all opponents and massive tanned athletes bashing the heads off our innocent Gaelic football heroes in the compromise rules series! Those games were great and we loved the high standard of the visitors and the tough contests and to see an all star national team playing international opponents. Australia seemed really good at all sports in the 80s and 90s so if he won a medal here by beating locals he must have been really good. The teachers told us he was voted best and fairest in the league so we felt really proud and inspired that someone from our school and neighborhood could go so far away and achieve that. He was back again with his brother Brian in 95 when Dublin won the All Ireland final. There was another raucous assembly in secondary school where Brian and the team passed the cup around what became a mosh pit of teenage boys. Amidst the chaos he shouted into the mic asking who thought we should celebrate with a half day? It went absolutely crazy and then he told us all to just go home so we did and it was like a mini prison riot! It was brilliant! I moved here in 2012 and have been following the Dees since those darker days. I left Gaelic football and rugby behind over there and took up over 35s AFL masters over here. I've been a Dees member for 7 years and this year will be my first year as a Redleg member. I really enjoy this forum (mostly lurking) and the podcast. As for the training ground I wish we could have a base by the MCG. I'm not sure what happened to the talk of AAMI after the women's World cup though? Although it would also really suit me professionally, I know that Fisherman's bend is under huge pressure from competing commercial interests and sports. That location would be great but I don't think it can happen as the land prices went crazy with the ad hoc rezoning. Caulfield seems a bit further away geographically, but it's probably good for the team and the rest of the club with enough space for facilities and parking and near transport. It's not that far compared to Casey so plenty of supporters could get there a few times of year for events. The Casey situation seems mad to be so far from town and the MCG. That's a big commute for lots of players and staff so it would be really great to get a proper modern elite facility at Caulfield. I'm hopeful this can become a reality. Positives are that there is plentiful green space and it is a location designed to facilitate large sporting events. It seems like a good idea in principle.

It is the quickest way to break down barriers and help integrate a new group into the team structure and also provide close daily contact for the youngsters with our core playing group via the use of positive team building exercises. Eating Together breakfast, lunch and dinner and spending time together after hours. Rekindling the love for each other after a horrendous fade out two years in a row. The coaches and players can benefit from this type of exercise, like we did in SA & WA in 2021.😁😁

Put away the footys in preseason and bring out the chickens!

Reckon he needs to be pushed out of his comfort zone. To date he's spent most games seagulling across half back picking up cheap possessions. I'm not sure we're really developing him. Big year for the young fella

Your come to your father for advice he asks “has she got any money” you reply her family is loaded your father says “ you have my permission to wed”

I don't eat much meat it has to be said PF but a slice or two of square sausage occasionally with a bit of HP sauce is lovely. There's also a wee butcher in Sunbury that does shell pies and haggis as does David Jones in the city. Go easy though if you're planning on being around for our next flag as you can feel your arteries furring up as you eat the stuff.

What I want to know, is why Goody always wears visors, surely a cap is the more SunSmart option for a man with a shaved head. Asking the important questions as we cap the year off. (Pun not originally intended)

Great news and a big congrats to the Gawns. Would be greatly appreciated if George and Louis could both work on their forward craft ASAP

Fair enough. But whilst i take your point that prior to the Gus incident (which occurred at the 8 minute mark of the first quarter) we weren't as switched on as we should have been, surely you concede that for the rest of that quarter we were understandably in la la land psychologically and emotionally and that had a direct impact on our effort and performance level in the first. Basically the first quarter was a write off. Which left 3 quarters to put in maximum effort. Which they did. Are you not impressed that after quarter time they rallied and put maximum effort in right up to the final siren? I mean plenty of teams, including plenty of other dees teams over the years, would have turned up their toes after the first quarter (how many finals end up in a blow out after one team is jumped in the first quarter). We didn't and whilst I understand your point about how we started the game i think the team deserves a lot of credit for their fight in the last 3 quarters.

Im already concerned about trying to play 2 Gawn rucks in 18 years.

I will do some research on it.

What do you want me to say or suggest? I'm merely pointing out the deplorable stats of the first five minutes of that final which set the tone for most the night, which caused us to play catch up footy. I've listened to numerous NFL press conferences this year and the common theme from the losing coach is "we were flat and didn't come to play, that's on me as the head coach, I take responsibility for not having them prepared" It's up to Goodwin and Co to analyse how they prepared the players in the lead up to the Collingwood final and why we were jumped in such spectacular fashion.

I know some are saying that a training facility is all about the players and coaching staff and I get the point and largely agree but it should also occasionally be a home of sorts for fans, when they have open training sessions, family days, maybe even Premiership celebrations. I went to the Carlton open training session at Princes Park on Saturday. Several thousand people there, it felt like a community gathering, young kids looking at the trophies, memorabilia, old jumper exhibitions etc (that has been done really well at Princes Park). If done properly it should be more than just a place where players train and yes the location is important. It should be a place that helps the fans connect to the club and its history. MFC should most definitely try to have a museum component, being in the rare position of being the founding club of the whole sport. If that can't attract some government funding I don't know what will.

I agree that the coaching staff should not be immune to criticism despite them being the obvious key drivers in winning the 2021 flag. We can be forever indebted to them, but we also have to move on and critique them year on year. Accordingly Goodwin and Co need to take responsibility for the Collingwood final, and specifically not having the troops ready and switched on from the opening bounce when the finals are their hottest. The first 5 minutes set us on the wrong course to get to GF day. Before the Maynard hit when we were 12 points to 0 down: Inside 50's - down 7-0 Ground ball gets - down 9-2 Contested ball - down by 10. All critical KPI's to win a final. There were also extremely questionable selection moves. Played 1 tall defender short which enabled McStay to kick 2 third quarter goals - a contested mark between Rivers and McVee and an uncontested mark with no defender in the same postcode which screamed structural issues. In fairness the poor start was rectified against Carlton the next week before the next set of issues reared their head in that final.

Arrrrh! Just as I suspected.