Rhino Richards

If Hyundai is part of a global cartel that is dishonestly and corruptly ripping everyone off on the sly then it is fine and perfectly moral with the AFL and certainly sits well with the Carlton ethos. However if Hyundai was a manufacturer of illegal drugs and putting "Such is Life" across the bonnets of its cars...well then.........

It would be an awesome effort for the 20yo to do given he is going to be given alot of respect by opposition coaches this year especially with TJ gone.

Congrats on the appointment Andy. I am not aware of your coaching qualifications and experience but the fact that you have played in the red and blue seems enough for some. Given the progressive clean out of NQR MFC players over the past two years who dominated at VFL level but could not do so at AFL level suggests that Sandy will find the going tougher in 2008 than in the recent golden years. Together with the aging of mainstays like Liddell, Gallagher and Sautner its going to be tougher. Good luck.

Its been one comment made some weeks ago and repeated ad infinitum by those that cant part with the fact that Miller is not the long lost CHF we have been searching for. Body strength was not his problem last year. It was his heart for AFL and his decision making under pressure Pity he cant mark. Honest but unlikely. I would expect the following players to step up: Sylvia -With a good pre season will hopefully apply him to the task and have a greater impact. Bartram- Sorely missed last year. Will make everyone wonder where was he last year. McLean- Should have the sting to perform under Bailey.

Was it a case of reporting on Cousins disposition in the LA hospital rather than the release of medical records? In any case an Australian court could only rule on the publication of the records in the Australian media not the release of the records by the LA hospital. If the records are reported in a foreign media outlet I am not sure how the Court can reasonably suppress the data.

Source??

Agreed.

No. In accordance with Australian Accouting rules, the AFL assistance money is to be taken into consideration in determining the annual profit/loss. That goes for any special deals for selling home games. I agree with Nasher's assessment on the outcome.

I think Sunbury is a very fine destination for Libba and a fitting compliment for his coaching abilities. I notice 15 other clubs absolutely brawling to get him in their Coaches department.

Agree. Exactly right.

Dont mix politics with sport!

Firstly settle down. Secondly, your metric for assessing Valenti is crook. Bartram went straight into MFC in his first year and was good day one. Valenti has never been close to Bartram. Jones and Pettard made the step to AFL as soon as they were ready to go and not left to dominate in the VFL. Be careful MFC have had a number of players who have dominated at VFL level and not cut it at AFL level and we have delisted many of them. FWIW, PJ has won a Liston medal and struggles at AFL. A Liston medal is tinfoil and not a guarantee of AFL capability.

Thought the same thing Mo. So how will we know the other clubs are interested? When they draft him ahead of us?? Or if they leave him out all together do we just adopt a case of me tooism and avoid making an assessment ourselves? We would never have got Aaron Davey with that superficial stance. I am not saying Valenti will or wont make it but if CAC or any other recruiter were to adopt that stance then they should not be in the job. Out of all those "hopefuls" and having seen them play I am not overly excited ay any of them and Dappa's made a reasonable fist of the assessment.

On the scale of footballer stupidity that we have witnessed over recent years, this is indeed small beer. I agree with Nasher on the titling of the thread.

TV Rights. They contract to provide 16 teams playing 8 games a week. IF they could get value the AFL would have more licences out. BTW, welcome and you will find earlier in the thread there were attempts to crystal ball the AFL team list in the future. Well done Demons 32.

Asian would tune in just as readily if it was in Europe. The West coast of the USA is small beer. Its the East coast that takes in Argentina and Brazil that will bring in the bucks. Its not impossible but not an attractive financial option. No not at all. The rise of Cameroon 15 years in World soccer followed by Nigeria heralded the dawning of Africa's acceptance of the world game. With 680 million people on that continent FIFA were itching to do it. Its a possibility but a long one. Lets get back to the plight of the Roos!

TV time is poor for both the US/South America and Europe. Australia is a small market with limited upside for soccer. South Africa is: 1. Tapped into the Euro time zone 2. A growing market for soccer with huge upside. You are dreaming if you think we are in with a show for 2018.

The AFL needs to keep 16 licences in place for commercial reasons and for exactly commercial reasons will not have just under half of them housed in one state. And only two of the seven AFL clubs are stand alone profitable. It beggars commercial sense. In Sydney they support RL , RU and to a lesser extent AFL and soccer. Its is far from a one horse town. RL is pumped hard into Sydney because News needs to get a return on the disasterous investment in funding it years ago. Attendances, TV ratings are a very good measure of interest in a sport. RL struggles while the AFL is achieving credible numbers with just one club. If AFL is too survive as the premier sporting competition it must increase its foothold in NSW. It knows that it cannot turn its back on further opportunities there. Any move by a side from Victoria to NSW will only happen after significant investigation by the AFL and the commitment to that 2nd NSW club similar to what Sydney has got.

The FFA wont win the right to host the 2018 World Cup unless they play the games at 2am in the morning. There is no way a 3rd rate nation in a crap zone for TV will be given the rights. However, soccer is not an infatuation. It has a strong following here and in my opinion poses more of a serious threat to AFL than RL which I think is a provincial fat necks sport that has got nowhere to go but disappear out of News Limited's backside. The AFL should always be on its guard. Its a one country code and will always suffer from that.

The media are an easy target and deservedly so. But they only survive a populous willing to participate in the vacuous lives of celebrities. For the life of me I cant work out why so many people buy New Idea, Who, Women's Day to fill up on dishonest slop about Britney, Paris, Diana and other royals who have nothing to do with them. What do these melonheads get out of that braindead bile? The media two faced criticism of the ugly paparazzi is countered by the people who buy these gutter publications that funds them.

There is no doubt Sydney is rooted towards RL. However the penetration of Aussie Rules is greater in Melb than the penetration of RL in Sydney. NSW/Qld effectively carries ARU as well as the competition from the world round ball game. They also have the Sydney Swans. In Melbourne, the Storm is a News Corp heavily funded interstate club with average attendance of 11,500 per game. The average crowd for an AFL game is approx. 36,000. Melb Storm is a splinter mark in a city that clearly has not embraced the Storm any more than a passing distraction. IMO the Storm has no real traction in Melbourne and is still a News funded charity and will be ad infinitum. Its a top performing RL club.....for Melburnians...so what. The average crowd to an RL game in Sydney in 2007 (despite growing attendances) is only 15,750. The average crowd to a Swans game in Sydney is 19,701. Sydney is far more establish there than the Storm is here. I would not expect a 2nd team to be easily embraced by Sydney and see it as a 10 year plan to get acceptance. But if the AFL dont aggressively pursue the biggest market in Australia which is not yet totally dominated by another sport yet then it is nuts. Longer term the AFL is at great risk to other sports with only one AFL team. The World game is still to really rise in this country at some point and its impact could be far greater than it is now. The AFL needs to move to strengthen the beach head in the northern States and be ready to commit capital to the Gold Coast and Sydney rather than propping up Clubs with a legacy of history that are proven that they cant financially stand alone or build a a well supported brand.

Unless mergers are actively sought by both Clubs and their supporter and the AFL is still scarred from their failed efforts to merge Melbourne and Hawthorn, then they will not happen Its a political, PR and financial disaster for the AFL and the Clubs involved. Relocation of an existing Victorian Club allows a reasonable basis for the retention of the existing supporter base while tapping into new markets. Mergers create more destructive (self) interest groups in the merged entity than the attack on Iraq

There certaintly isnt at the moment and its getting worse? There must be a printing press hidden. You have misread my posts and I have put forward a 16 club AFL competition. The AFL competition is what it is. Seriously lopsided and getting more so as the interstate clubs development the financial strength to develop football teams and facilities that many Melb based clubs struggle to match. The Melb ourne clubs that cant match these rsources will struggle and continue to enjoy a lack of on field success which will further erode their ability to improve their competitive position. Anymore that 5 Melb based clubs plus Geelong and the excess of sides will be slowly but surely financially strangled. Outside Essendon, Carlton and Collingwood, it naive to assume any other club is a certainty to survive in Melb. If the AFL is to remain the premier support football code it will need to develop 2 more clubs in Sydney within the next 10 to 12 years. Sydney is the biggest, wealthiest and most attractive demographic for advertisers and TV rights priced on that ability will dwarf the current arrangement. The next Club in Sydney should be in the North of the city within 5 to 6 years where there is a reasonable AFL support. With 2 clubs the AFL should be able to beam a "Sydney" game into Sydney every week almost and have a live AFL match in the harbour city each week.

This year the wicket has not been playing well. In the last game there was actually tap water leakage under the covers. VCA is investigating the circumstances.

Then why are only 2 Vic based clubs that are financially stable, profitable and not living solely off AFL largesse?