Whispering_Jack

I think what he means is that we're closer now than we were a week ago and in a week's time we'll be closer than we are now. Other than that, nobody has a clue what's going on.

I watched Tom Swift play in last night's NAB Cup game and I think West Coast might be onto a winner there. I fully understand Melbourne's reasons for not selecting him but Blease and Strauss who were drafted before Swift are going to have to be very, very good to match what I believe I saw in him last night.

I quite like the idea of both clubs having mutual alternative strips if this can be done to both their satisfaction. Both have predominantly red and blue and in fact, the old Springvale jumper was very close to ours except that it had the white logo and the red collar was smaller. It shouldn't be too hard for something to be worked out between the clubs.

Demonland/Demonology has retained the Earl Spalding Trophy with a comfortable victory over Talking Carlton. The game was played in great spirit with some fantastic passages of play from the boys in the red and the blue. The win makes it four wins on the trot for the mighty Dees, thanks mainly to Rollo's organisational skills and a good all round performance from the boys. It was a great feeling to sing the Grand Old Flag after the game and there's more reports and photos to come later but I must add that the joy was overshadowed when we got in the car after the game and heard the tragic news from the bushfire areas.

When was the last time a team lost a coach because he had to do a deal over some geldings and a player to a vesectomy on the same day? No need to panic unless I start the pre match speech with a high pitched voice.

A poor excuse and it's lucky there's a quality coach on hand to take control.

Don't hold your breath then because the impression I got from Jim by what he said, the way he said it and from his body language was that, while he was confident of snaring a major sponsor by the start of the premiership season, it's still a fair way from being a done deal. He did produce a list of the companies the club had been talking to about sponsorships but didn't say how close or how serious those clubs were in terms of sealing a sponsorship deal. One possible plus here though is that if we are talking with a number of companies, then if the club promotes its sponsorship packages properly, it might end up signing more than one sponsor from the group with which it's having discussions. After all, every club has a number of major sponsors and if the people involved in these negotiations can play their cards right they could turn what is currently looking like a bit of a fiasco into a triumph. According to melbounefc.com.au we currently have a total of 15 "partners" which seems to be the pc term for sponsors these days. We have no premier partner (i.e. main sponsor) but the rest are found in the following categories:- Platinum Partners The Age and Volvo Gold Partners Reebok, Coca Cola*, Reflections Group and Red Mercury Silver Partners Leading Solutions, Jeff Banks London, Tyrell's Wines and Pet Goods Direct Bronze Partners Konica Minolta, Musashi, Victor and Adriatic Furniture I checked out Collingwood's web site and they have a similar number of sponsors arranged in different categories and of course, we don't know how much their sponsorships are worth compared to ours. I'm almost certain that they would be bringing in much more given that their fixture is so much more favourable in terms of attracting sponsors. Collingwood has four premier partners - Wizard, Emirates, Lexus and addidas as well as another 10 major partners and three official suppliers. They have an obvious financial edge on us in this area the minute they open their doors for business at the start of any season. I'm getting a bit tired of the blame game on this sponsorship issue. People might want to go back years and blame Gardner and Harris, they might want to blame PMac. Let's get over that and get on with the job of finding sponsors for what will hopefully be an exciting era in the years ahead when our young talent reaches maturity. If there's anyone to blame in the end, it will us the members and supporters for not keeping the pressure on whoever happens to be in power at the club entrusted with the job of "getting it right" as Cameron Schwab stated at the AGM. One of the things that crossed my mind on Thursday night was the fact that although we're a club that's traditionally associated with the top of the town, the leaders of business, banking and industry, we can't attract a corporation to sponsor the oldest club in the competition. We just have to do better than that! * weren't they recently associated with a major sponsorship rumour around here? I'm glad that at least they're on board already and I don't have to resort to Pepsi in protest but if we can't get them on board as the major sponsor why not persuade them to upgrade their sponsorship to a Platinum Partner. If they do, I'll immediately go out to the local supermarket and buy a carton of Pepsi.

I don't think that I've seen anything worse at AFL/VFL level since the days of the old Army Reserve Cup when a Collingwood seconds player decided to emulate the activity of the competition's sponsor by declaring war on everyone who happened to be on or near the vicinity of the ground.

If it happens (and it's already been pointed out that it's not near to being set in stone) it would make us part of an organisation worth in excess of $200m rather than being an outfit that's worth in excess of a negative figure of $2m. With due respect to the great RDB, we would still have to worry about the business side of things but we'd certainly have a fair sized cushion of comfort. However, there might be some pitfalls to consider as well. Once you become a section of the MCC, you lose a measure of your independence. Questions therefore need to be asked about the cost and effect of that and whether it's worth selling your soul to achieve such an outcome. This is not to say I'm against the idea. Just playing devil's advocate.

Whichever way we look at it, we seem to be getting a picture of a CEO who is not on the same page as the board of the club he's supposed to be serving. He seems to have acted on his own and not reported in writing to the board on his progress with sponsorships and then there's the Jonathan Brown issue. These matters seem to vindicate the new board's decision that he was not the right fit for the club.

The club is very happy with the connection with Casey. The sign off with council is taking time because the arrangements are complex and involve a long term commitment. It will however happen and CC pointed to the fact that the Casey CEO (a Saints supporter) was in attendance tonight). The club has its first practice match (intraclub) there on Friday afternoon. Bubbledome - we will utilise facilities there and at the G. The split between the two may not perhaps be the ideal and we'll have to see how it works but in the end we will have far superior facilities to what we have at the junction (which is an embarrasment) and this is far more appropriate to a club in the elite level of the competition. In answer to a question - clash jumper not yet finalized but will be a massive improvement on the bland number we had last year. Another questioner asked about the Demon as an emblem of the club and it's on the way back.

I'm not good on numbers but I'd say it's the biggest crowd I've ever seen at an MFC AGM (excepting the Gutnik/Szondy AGM in 2001).

Breaking news: In answer to a question from the floor Cameron Schwab said that he looked forward to seeong the Melbourne Football Club again being a section of the MCC.

Actually, you'd better read the paper because I'm making all this up. Only joking!

Rohan Bail is a Mentone boy who moved to Qld. Bail described the difference between training twice a week up there compared to 5 sessions in the pre season including weights. You get the impression that this kid will play some footy at the elite level this year. CC introduced the rookie list players and then went on to discuss what the club was looking for when drafting footballers to consolidate the club's future. CC said that in recruiting we looked at players with mental toughness who could produce the goods when it counts. The recruits led the singing of the club song and that was followed by a brief and stirring talk from Ron Barassi about football not just being a business. It's also about success and he asked whether people preferred a profit or a premiership flag.

No, not mentioned yet. They've just played a DVD of highlights of the club's draftees. Chris Connolly has just introduced Jack Watts, Sam Blease and Rohan Bail. JW is a real personality. Now introducing James Strauss. CC is a real comedian. Talking about the high numbers handed out to him and Blease. Jack and Sam are completing secondary school this year and members should understand that while their development won't be held back their schooling is important and will limit their prospects of appearing at the highest level. I sense the expectation is that most of the newbies will spend a lot of 2009 at Casey. Fields. CC said the Aboriginal players were all at an indigenous players programme in Darwin ATM and that the All Stars wanted Jamie Bennell but DB not in favour of this because it's too early. Neville Jetta's mum has told CC that she's tossing in her job and driving to Melbourne next month warning him to look after her otherwise she might end up camped on his front lawn.

Dean Bailey said there was not much to talk about last year. However, straight after round 22 we started working on the next year to engage our players in rebuilding. We had some new personnel helping get the list healthy and fit since 13 October. Casey is a great venue for training and so much better than what we had to put up with last year. The sessions are more intense, longer and of better quality. Unlike last year when we had several players injured, this year only Mark Jamar (toe), Robbo (Achilles), Addam Maric (hip) & more recently Wheats (calf) are the only injuries. There are a lot of improvers from the skipper down. The improvement is across all players. Apart from J Mac he mentioned James Frawley (+3kg) and Aussie as being impressive. But of course, it’s the games themselves that will determine how much we've improved. The players have been worked hard and are very well of the expectations to succeed.

MIN was opened by Cameron Schwab who spoke about the need to get it right. We have a red and blueprint for establishing the basis for future success & this entails raising an extra $3 -5m each year. He's a terrific speaker.

A new member set a new standard for question time by asking what the club was doing to encourage wealthy members to leave it bequests in their wills. The club is actually working on something in regard to this. The questioner (who had a central European accent?) had another crack at a question, this time about social facilities an area where we've struggled because we've moved our bases so much. It's an area now being looked at more closely.

A question was asked about how close we were to getting a sponsor. Jimmy said we are dealing with a number of options and is confident we will secure a sponsor by the start of the season. He had a list of companies we were speaking to about sponsorships (but didn't divulge who) and said we wouldn't be selling the club short and were looking for a good fit for the club. He was dismissive of the reports in today's papers that Paul McNamee had been close to securing two sponsors when he was at Wimbledon this year.

Ralph Lawrie of the Ballarat Demons is the club volunteer of the year. Going through financial reports now. Expect to break even in '09 but this depends on us securing a sponsor. The report was well delivered by a director with a nice, dry sense of humour and you almost forgot that the club was just about stuffed broke.

Just finished with the introductions. Jimmy giving report. When he met Demetriou was told club stood for very little and was quite scathing about the club. Talking about aims - stabilize club, reduce debt & find CEO, find training base (signed affiliation agreement with Casey Scorps -will sign deal with Casey council soon) & unite the club. Our objective is to get in the black. No sponsor but moving closer. Rebuild relationships with MCC & AFL. Need to give the coach the best opportunity to develop its team, Finally, the need to build the club in the long term.

McNamee's claims are problematic and puzzling. He was still CEO for a number of weeks after the Stynes-led board took over and he is now asking us to believe that he was on the verge of sealing sponsorships for the club worth $6million and that "the Demons were not interested in sponsorship updates from him." This is a club that was $5million in debt at the time and its new Board (which took over because of concerns about club finances) was about to undertake a major fundraising effort to claw back that debt. "Not interested" Give me a break! Surely, if McNamee was on the verge of achieving such a major financial breakthrough for the club, he would have submitted that information to the board in writing, as would most people in such a position on such an important matter (especially if they were being ignored by the powers that be)? Where is the evidence of a written memorandum at the time from him to the board? If, as he claims, Stynes and the new board weren't interested, it would have been prudent for him to commit to writing details of the activities he undertook on behalf of the club during his sojourn at Wimbledon. After all, that trip was already a controversial issue in some quarters. Stynes says he doesn't believe the story and I think it's up to McNamee to do a lot more than make this bald claim more than six months after the fact if he wants to satisfy us that he was really that close to achieving a bonanza for the club.

Hi Joeboy. Thanks for the report. I notice you didn't mention whether Cale Morton has bulked up at all. Are we to assume that he's still skin and bones (a three word answer will suffice )?

Looking at that list, the All Stars aren't going to be relying on much height but rather fast ball movement. There aren't too many talls there and even Jurrah is unlikely to be a KPP during his AFL career.