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"The Caulfield proposal includes two football ovals, two rectangular ovals and walking tracks." whats a rectangular oval??

Demonland when we land the Armstrong and Bo Allen double

I'll be sweating if we go Smilie at 5 & Armstrong at 9 (or vice versa). I just don't see it. Smilie is arrogant and lazy. Word is we might have a few players already like that :-/.. Would love it Jagga slips to 5 (hello general consistency & good delivery to our forward line!) and if we could nab Tauru or Travaglia at 9, I'd be stoked. Tauru looks a weapon (prob as a KPD) and Travaglia has speed, dare and sounds as though he is an upstanding citizen. But, should they are all gone, Taj Hotton or Jobe Shanahan at 9.

Personally, I believe the Caulfield home base being approved and put in place is the most important thing we can do to keep up with the bigger clubs. I would hazard a guess that 40% of Victorian AFL players would live in councils like Bayside, Glen Eira, Stonnington & Monash. This would mean our home base/training facilities will be the closest for the majority of these areas. I imagine the number will only increase given the large salary cap increases, so the average AFL wage will be much higher than 10-15 years ago. If we want to lure players from interstate or other Vic clubs this is going to be a huge factor in their decision making.

People are losing their censored over an aging, third-rate forward going to Collingwood? Seriously?

I don’t see this as an issue… no one builds a facility like this with 100% cash. The club will have $30m from cash reserves and members donations. Assume they will be able to raise another $25m from governments, the AFL, the Melbourne Cricket Club and private investors and benefactors. It will leave a $45m shortfall which would be borrowed and paid down over decades. The club generates $60m in revenue. Paying the debt off at $3m annually isn’t a concern.

First...we don't have 70K members. There are only about 40K adult individual members. Take away duplicate memberships, children etc. Second...All those people don't have a spare $200 available, especially today. Third...the Board has said they will not spend the proceeds from Bentleigh Club, Leighoak on a base. ( why for heavens sake?) The MCC owes us heaps and should contribute after 160+ years of bleeding the football public, mainly MFC. The big opportunity was fluffed by the Board post the premiership. No fundraising toward a future base, when supporters were throwing money at the club with merchandise sales.

Good to read that the Caulfield Racecourse Reserve Trust is supportive of our proposal and that as a tenant the Melbourne Racing Club's view on the matter doesn't carry alot of weight. Re funding, based on below it looks like most clubs have received in the order of $30 - 50m in State and Federal Government funding for facilities in the past 20 years. Given we had little funding in the 20 years preceding this it would be reasonable to assume that we would receive at the upper end of this minus the funding we received to develop Casey, so probably should expect in the order of $40m between State and Federal Government and a top up from Glen Eira Council. This leaves ~$30m from Members and Benefactors. I don't buy onto the argument that State and Federal Government don't have the money. Outside of Wartime or a Great Depression there is always funding available for this sort of project. https://australiansportreflections.com/2024/02/28/update-on-federal-and-state-governments-funding-of-afl-and-nrl-high-performance-training-centres/?amp=1

I probably ask this question every year, but does anyone know when the club will resume full training after the Xmas/New Years break, next year? I want to catch at least one session at Gosch’s with my son, if I’m in any condition to make the trip down from Sydney; unfortunately there’s no way we can get to Casey, so sessions there are out of the question. Thanks in advance!

I agree, Oxdee. And if anyone whines, we can just point at Kardinia Park. Also, I'll buy a brick. put my name on it MFC and away we go

I've been fortunate enough to see the design of the two proposed ovals. Here it is.

Personally that’s about the most positive article I’ve read about the plan. I’m a believer that if it’s agreed that the project can go ahead then the money will come.

Smart to give Jones a part time role. Money well spent to stop him slagging of the club in the commentary box.

As much as I love Jonesy I would have thought Daisy Peirce would be a great asset in the coaches box.

Do we bid on Lombard at our pick? He’s a talent and Suns need to pay up. Assume Suns (guaranteed) to match it and would cost them a decent points bounty. Not sure why clubs delay in bids… surely Ashcroft gets bid at 2 or 3, Lombard at 5 or 6, Kako at 10 or 11, Marshall at 13 or 14 and Camporeale at 15 or 16. Make the clubs pay the right rate or higher to get these “prioritized” youngsters.

It's not so much kicking as decision making. He has a nice enough punchy short left foot kick as well as the ability to roost it, but he makes bad choices by hand and doesn't see options by foot too. I certainly feel like it's time to sacrifice some athleticism and ball winning for quality decision makers. Maybe not if he was Tracc/Oliver level contested beast. But he's not that either.

I really like Allan which personally I rate him higher than Smilie and about the same as Langford. To me he’s a got an incredibly well rounded profile with a sky high ceiling, he tested top 5 for standing & running vertical jump and top 5 for agility, he ran a sub 3 seconds 20m sprint and a 6:20 2km time trial, all at 191cm and a strong frame. Most importantly all that athleticism shows up on field with his fierce competitiveness and appetite for the contest makes him really good defensively in the midfield or down back, certainly leaps and bounds better defensively than Smilie & Langford. He plays with more of a presence than those other 2 but they at this stage certainly have him beat for skills but I think there’s a lot of scope for him to also make that a strength as he’s got a huge leg can kick the ball probably almost 60m and has flashed good decision making lowering his eyes when he needs to it’s just more about executing those short kicks he needs to get better at. To me reminds me a lot of Elliot Yeo with his power and versatility, I’d be very happy if we got him at 9.

It's based on the concept of a boxing ring.

No. Saty spoke to him though. He will try again.

Welcome back Juice Newton.

If we’re not taking the Viking at 5, we have to make out like we are. That way, if North want him, they can’t trade with Richmond, and have to take him at 2. This leaves us with an extra top 5 ranked player to pick from, probably another gun mid.

I would be comfortable taking Armstrong at this pick, but definitely not at 5! We need a premium level mid for that pick.

I reckon the censor is actually fascist. I mean, it's right there in the name - auto censor. As in Autocratic Censor. Wake up people. Do your own research.

It is like walking through a shopping mall food court at 5.50pm on a wednesday. If there's one last bento box left and you want it, it is yours.

Well??? The bloke is past it and even St Kilda don’t want him, which tells you where he is at

Does anybody else experience a little heart flutter whenever this thread has new posts?

If the AFL umpires end up being housed at Caulfield, I expect the AFL would stump up a fair amount for that alone.

70k members chip in 200 each that's 14m + the coterie donations hopefully 5m the club has 10m thats nearly 30 the afl matches our 30 and the state and federal stump up the remaining 40m... done

Me when we leave Smith and Langford on the board at 5 only to take Armstrong

That was a knee to the head. Umpiring is so bad (and it’s regularly very poor) they didn’t even pay a free kick. In the AFL, that’s clearly paid. The ump is as right there. Sure it’s accidental, but still a free kick. Losing Goldrick was a blow. She’s had a good night and a very good season.

My guess is the club don’t really care where he is from BUT I do this time around… drafting interstaters in recent years hasn’t concerned me but there is just too much other stuff going on now at the club to take the risk, especially when there are so many good vics around that mark in the draft

Such a brave effort but Hawks had that little bit extra composure with the ball. So much to admire with this Melbourne team, they gave it their all but a few were running on empty at the end. Too bad the AFL have no idea on fixturing and the less said about the umpiring the better. Not saying they cost us the game but they were just generally bad.