Leoncelli_36

Great thread and thanks to those who have shared a little of their personal stories through this unprecedented time. I’ve had a lot of time at home over the last two weeks. No, I don’t have corona, but I am a school teacher and our school did have a parent test positive, hence the shutdown. I feel fortunate to be in a line of work that is relatively protected from what is going on. We have had to make huge adjustments to our pedagogy and systems we use to deliver content, but that’s insignificant when I read the hardships of others. Demonland is a part of my daily life. Between classes I log on to post and read. As others have said, I don’t know any of you personally, but this is a community and one that I feel a sense of connection to, more than ever before. I know there are many on here like me that have footy as a enduring constant in their life. It’s part of the weekly routine. The highs and lows. The memories of 87. The visual that is conjured when you hear the phrase “Still Woewodin, Still Woewodin”. Footy is a massive part of our life and it’s gonna leave a massive void. I worry for the future of our club and wonder if we will ever go to a game at the G again. Sit near the same people we have seen alongside us for years. Urgh... it’s depressing. 

This is bigger than footy and so many people are in uncharted waters right now. I’ve had friends lose small businesses over night. Mates laid off. Friends cancel weddings. Footy, in comparison, seems insignificant. But, the reality is, we all love our club and what footy brings us, even when it is shyt. Demonland is a great community and I know we will all support one another through this mess.

Please stay safe, healthy and talk up if you are feeling down or alone. We will get this through this. 

36 minutes ago, Pates said:

The more I think about this current climate the more I could picture a new league forming, one based on private ownership in a similar style to how premier league clubs are. I fear for the survival of us, the Saints, North, WB, and Brisbane, also both expansion clubs (who were already a money pit). 

Should things get particularly dire it will be interesting to see where the AFL's loyalty lies, with expansion clubs who have been around for 5min or foundation clubs that have existed for a century.

Yep, no doubt about it for me, we are on the path to private ownership. Who knows what that could look like. I can’t see the membership/club model surviving this. Sponsorship deals are insignificant. I posted here the other day about how dire the situation was and that we are going to need a massive money source to continue. The problem is, this a global financial problem now, as much as it is a health issue, so finding an owner could prove difficult. 

The Melbourne Red Bulls ... yikes

5 minutes ago, binman said:

That may well be true but Hibberd's inside 50 kicks were ridiculous. Not only were the never to our advantage he helicopters the ball (unlike say may) and so they come in slow and high and make it dead easy to cover. 

You add his complete inability to kick on his right (which cost us a goal in the first q because when he should have switched, couldn't, had to turn back to the boundary and kick a floater down the line that of course got intercepted) and I'm sorry but Hibbo has lost me. 

he was also out in space most of the time and had plenty of time to survey what was ahead of him. That is what shocked me the most. He and Spargo easily the worst offenders. Spargo missed a 20 metre pass from a station position by 5 metres. He is a joke. I honestly hope he doesn't get a game for whatever matches are played this year. 

11 minutes ago, Neil Crompton said:

Quote from Fox:

“The Dees certainly never lacked for forward entries last year. Against the Eagles, they had 45 of them - 10 more than their opponents. But they still lost by almost five goals. For some reason, Melbourne thought kicking it high and long into West Coast’s vacuum-like intercept defenders time after time would work. Weirdly, it never did, to absolutely no-one’s surprise. It’s fair enough to be frustrated with a team when it doesn’t have enough talent; but when it does, yet keeps doing the same silly things, that’s a different kettle of fish”.

So either the players are following orders in continuously bombing it in long - which is an indictment on the coach; or

the players are not listening to the coach and doing what they want - which is an indictment on the coach.

 

watching the replay, there was a whiteboard held up at 1/4 time. It talked about forward entries. It had an arrow to a pocket saying 'WIDE ?". As a football coach, that means one of two things: either look for a wide option first, or why were we going wide. A second arrow read 'WHIRPOOL'' and pointed to the centre. This means that either plan B is to go to a hotspot and swarm numbers. Whirlpool is a common term for what is known as 'washing machine' in modern football lingo. It is essentially chaos ball. Neither worked yesterday, due to the fact that when we had numbers central we looked to go wide and had Fritsch covered by 2 and when we went central, we had options out wide. We need Weed or Jackson as a tall for either option to work. 

Whist punished myself and watched the first quarter again, as it’s currently on fOx Footy. We dominated the first 13 minutes. With 3 minutes left in the first quarter, the score was 4 behinds to 1.1.7. T Mac gives away a dumb 50 and the momentum swings. Max allows Nic Nat to take one out of the ruck and they score an easy out the back goal. We go inside fifty after a run of 3 Eagles goals and Fritsch offers a lead wide and Petracca misses the hit up, ball turned over from throw in and it’s up the other end. He should have kicked the goal and Fritsch should learn to lead to the middle, where we had crumbers and numbers. They kick a fluke goal and it’s suddenly 31 to to 4. The eventual losing margin. We matched them for the remaining 3 quarters, but our errant kicking and failure to execute passes inside 50 remain our biggest issue. 

where is Goodwins presser ???

4 minutes ago, Skuit said:

Called a six-goal loss maybe a week ago (check the archives - @Pates can back me up), revised down from a four-goal win. Everyone was super-chuffed about no crowd - but footballers simply can't travel 4000-odd clicks across a continent and perform in an empty stadium against the home tenants - especially when their loved ones are at home and you can't even get within four square metres of the flight attendant, let alone achieve any mile high credits. Any criticism of the team or Goodwin right now is untoward and misguided. Imagine fronting up alongside William Wallace when you've been forewarned an hour prior by some weirdos called Bill and Ted (or Gill) that the land will ultimately be ceded regardless. Enjoy your next twelve weeks of freeeeedom from MFCSS my friends. 

Looked to be a few players simply going through the motions at times. Patches of lack of concentration and intensity. It smelt of preseason game. I am not sure their hearts were in it. The long flight at an awkward time and odd preparation saw them play below their best, I can agree with that.

however, the structure of our forward line is deplorable. And, the delivery into the forward line provides us no chance to actually win games. It must be improved. Weed in after the lockdown and I’d even give Jackson a go. Out spargo and brown. Both offered nothing. Spargo offered 4 goals to the opposition 

Guys, most here who are realists predicted a 30+ point loss. Admittedly, we played like we were still in preseason mode, but 27 point loss over there, amidst all that is happening isn't world ending. There were a lot of new faces out there today and teams generally take time to gel. I am not excusing how poor the i50 entries were, there is a clear lack of connection. I will line up Goodwin though. His setup and lack of pressure on Eagles ball carriers is a structural issue he has implemented and it absolutely stinks. The allowance of opposition sides to simply kick to unmarked players is alarming and unforgivable. He has a lot to work on in the next 10 weeks. He also, not for the 1st time, tried to make a medium sized forward our key target. Fritsch had 2 or three defenders swarm him all game and there was a clear directive to kick to him at all costs. pathetic.

Spargo should play an entire season at Casey. He'd be lucky to get a game in VAFA 1sts side. Can't mark overhead and is an appalling ball user. His 50 metre penalty was inexcusable. He directly contributed to 4 Eagles goals. Simply not good enough. 

Positives were Kozzie and Bedford. Vines was outstanding and Trac was good. 

Gawn must have been underdone, as he had played a half of footy all preseason. 

Backline held up ok. 

Spargo

Hibberd 

ANB

all out

Tom McDonald back to the goal square and Fritsch to a pocket. 

We must play 6 in the forward line. Cannot allow Bailey to be taking two defenders.

Luke Jackson needs to play. Jones back when fit. Salem back when fit. Gawn to be back to his best, as he was clearly underdone.

If Fwarkin Spargo is in the round 2 team, I’ll lose my shyt 

Spargo is dumb as dumb gets

Putrid. Pathetic. Inept. Stop dishing this crap up

16 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

Oh no wasn't jonsey going to get to 300 this year? Bugger.

Whoever started this virus has a lot to answer.

At least I won't have to hear about Essendon or Collingwood for awhile. 

But it's going to be odd , will fox footy shut down, I'm guessing no footy shows. It's strange times at the moment

Fox Footy should play the first AFL season 1990, from start to finish, as it would have been played that year. As in, on Friday night play the Friday night games and then play the weekend’s game. Get them recalled by their current commentary team. Just an idea. They’ll have to think outside the box. Better than just playing re runs of recent games. Play it as a season. 

2 hours ago, Mental Demons said:

heard on the grapevine that this has not been a good trip for Melbourne. They had to move hotels and have had little sleep and stability pre-game. Players vomiting from the overpowering smell of disinfectant. This will be the last game for a while, men or women. The only option seems to have all the teams playing and staying in a remote venue and doing as many games as they can in a month or so. It seems this is more to meet advertising contracts not footballing needs. To continue the existing season will be near impossible and may damage the AFL brand. Put a line through this season and maybe plan a carnival type format in a few months if it is safe.

I call BS. There was video of the players gathered yesterday watching the women’s match. They seemed up and about. 

10 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Has an Achilles injury according to the MFC website.

Well that’s him out for a moth or more. That hurts us. More than people realise. Probably not so much against West Coast. In the next few games though

Anything on Jones? Or is it a case of him being older and spared the flight? He was showing plenty in the preseason in a new role

What’s up with Jones? 

If we go ahead without crowds, could the club look at having tarps covering the seats that are additional sponsors. Without trying to be funny, imagine a big Kleenex dunny paper tarp covering the punt road end goals. Is there an opportunity here to get a bit of extra cash to cover the shortcomings from gate receipts? Coles and Woolies must be making a fair bit of money at the moment...

i know this is the type of post that could easily be a Nuffies on AFL Pages content, but genuinely think these are some of the things we could explore in order to increase $$.

Even a 'MFC Membership: Show your support. Signup Now: Call 1300 DEMONS'

1 minute ago, george_on_the_outer said:

But it means the CLUB does not have to put its own operational ( week to week ) money into that project.  It can retain that to keep the club running.

so who spreads the word, the Club? Starts asking for handouts? I don't think you get the point of this.. The club isn't about to ask fans for charity donations at this time. Crowdfunding is a different beast. Anyway, didn't want to get into an argument...was simply trying to help. 

Just now, Demonland said:

True but there are those of us that already take out a membership and might want to assist the club further (if fanancially viable).

What @george_on_the_outer mentioned above is a great option.

Could we not set up a form of crowdfunding through one of these GoFundMe type pages which raises money towards supporting the Red and Blue Foundation. 

9 minutes ago, george_on_the_outer said:

Far better..if people are so inclined....is to donate directly to the club through the Red & Blue Foundation:

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/support-the-club

no third party involved ...and it is tax deductible as well

It also asks you to click through about 5 windows before you donate and is project specific, which means the club has to put funds towards a particular aspect ...not sure if its  related to what is happening right now

4 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

The most basic level of fundraising is to not bother the club for a membership refund.

wholeheartedly concur 

11 minutes ago, 58er said:

Go Fund Me would be fine IMO 

I am trying to find their rules on what sort of organisations qualify...I am not sure MFC would...

here are some of the current fundraisers for sport - https://au.gofundme.com/discover/sports-fundraiser

5 minutes ago, rjay said:

I think it might be a bit early to call on this.

There may be many family members & close friends in need of assistance as this all plays out.

In that case the footy club won't be a priority.

As I said, I am not trying to jump the gun. I am fortunate enough to be a full-time employee and will not be affected the same way as many. I can afford to help, some can't, and that is completely understandable. 

I'd really appreciate your support Demonland. We need to spread this via social media and do what we can. I don't think anyone grasps the financial impact this will have on our club. 

6 minutes ago, Demonland said:

What about GoFundMe?

Yeah, that's an option. I am just looking at all the platforms now. I am keen to get the ball rolling on this, but want to gauge what people's feeling are towards it. I can understand that there will be people for and against. 

Also, I don't want to jump the gun. We need to hear from the AFL.