Cards13

Just back home after my first visit to Casey Fields. What a nice facility. Great pavilion. Had a couple of beers on the social club balcony. The locals are funny fellas.

The overall Casey Fields is going to be an amazing area once it is finished, along with the aquatic centre (looks great even half finished) and houses are added around the Casey site. Bit more shade would be handy... my pale skin from 12 months in the UK is now bright bloody pink!

The game: Wind was 5 goal breeze from the north. Very very warm day to be playing footy. Skills from both sides were very poor due to conditions.

Aussie and Maric stood out for their skills, ball use, smarts and body use early but both faded out as the heat took over.

Zomer - Was 2nd to every contest he was involved in, very ordinary day out but the conditions did not suit big men at all.

Maric - as mentioned above looked a cut above, was the real positive out of the game.

Rivers - played 15 mins each qtr, zoned off really well in conditions, was caught out a number of times zoning off due to conditons but will be much better for the run.

PJ - was good in the ruck but gave away at least 3 silly free kicks, game was not suited to big men as the ball fell well short into wind and floated way long with the wind.

Aussie- thought he looked really good. An exceptional pick up on the run in the first 5 mins showed he was over hammy, played until 10 mins into 3rd then left Casey 10 mins into last with Davey. His defensive pressure was so good to see.

Liam Jurrah - Very few touches of the footy. Looked a little lost at times. Didn't lead hard enough but in the first half was screaming into the fwd 50 3 or 4 times on his own and was over looked. His ability to find space was good to see and he had some nice long chases to create pressure and as mentioned conditions did not suit tall forwards. Will need a fare stint at Casey for mine.

Valenti - Plenty of it in the first half but his skills will not allow him to get much further than where he is I feel. Just not long enough with the boot. He was in and under every stoppage and some decent hands out.

Mckenzie- slow to start but really ran out the game, some nice passes, linked very well and was also in and under. He was doing it all. Not much pace but just keeps on working. Might develop on.

I think it was the MFC who chose to move away from LG because the Iprimus deal was worth more

it has been discussed on here we chose they chose... I'd just like to see a sponsor stick with us fpor the long term and build on something..

There was an email sent to all members sometime not long after 11.

Here it is in full:

Melbourne Football Club boosts its defensive stocks with Kaspersky

.'

thanks mate should have checked my emails!!

Awesome news! Glad we took our time with getting the best value for money we could, not jumping in straight away and taking whatever was available earlier... we got there in the end. 2, 3 year sponsors we can get behind. Sounds like a massive company that is expanding here is hoping we can keep them onboard after 3 years especially Kaspersky, we don't want another LG, not known is Aust then once the profile is large enough no longer sponsoring us.

was there an annoucment or is there a link to the annoucement?

Planning to head along, will be my first footy since we beat Freo at the G last year. Can not wait.

Will keep the eyes peeled for the Jurrah and try and post something when I get home.

Would like to help buty have other commitements unfortunately. I hope we can find someone who can offer up some time.

Thanks to you and all the Dees' supporters for welcoming Liam amongst your ranks. BTW, he will make his debut for Casey this saturday afternoon at 2pm out at Casey. This will in fact be the first time any of the Dees' coaching staff have seen him play a game - any game! I'll be the bloke there with the biggest smile on my face.

Stock the esky and the Ipod... trip to Casey is on the Cards

Robbo and Jamar were on the photo stand, $2 for a polaroid with them and was fantastic value, especially considering what I had heard about Richmond's family day a few months ago.

Noticed the Pies had a photo tent on the news the other night, I might be mistaken but looked like ther were charging $20 for a pic... again I might be mistaken.

Can not wait to see him play some footy, even if it is for Casey. It is great to see for all of our off field issues re lack of fund and the like Bails and Pend were not afraid to take the task on.

thanks for the update RB. Anyone who knows of a place for them to rent pass on to the club

Good news as we have A sponsor, here is hoping we get a Major sponsor ASAP.

Would love to see others plans on where we can improve off field too...

Sounds positive.. can we "stay competitive for long enough"

Any ideas big or small send along as they can germinate into something like Demon Heartland which came from this site!!

Anything to benefit our once great club and get it back into the top level of the league off the field as well as on it.

In our small broken up groups I mentioned this - Gilbert Arenas in particular - and Mark Jamar seemed to like the idea.

I went on to say that even players rotated, taking turns writing blog entries would be interesting. Supporters just want an insight into the players' personalities.

As we formed back into our larger group the word 'blogs' was thrown out, but I think the idea was lost in translation, but something may be taken from it.

Its important to remember that although there were ideas thrown out here & there, essentially this was just some young supporters donating their morning to the club to act as a focus group.

Yea the Gilb is a good one, as you'd expect when you are not playing at all . Chris Cooley of the Washinton Redskins is also a good one. The rotation is a good one.

It was quite an interesting morning. Having been to the original summit, and being able to compare, during the 'Youth Summit' today, the facilitators seemed to have stricter ideas of what they wanted the groups to talk about - with Communications, Branding, and Match day being the 3 specific areas each of the groups focused on at different points during the morning.

This told me that the club knows exactly where it needs to improve, and the fact that is it canvassing ideas from supporters is fantastic.

A lot of people had very similar ideas - which again, makes it easier for the club in terms of where they are going wrong. The website and emails were heavily focused on during the Communications section. "What would make the MFC site more appealing to you?"

A few of the ideas that came out here were live news feeds from all of the major news sources - meaning that for MFC news, the club site can be the first (rather than the last) place to go. More extensive player profiles, as well as more player content and player/fan interaction. I also really liked the idea that someone brought up of making the site slightly more edgy by giving fans the ability to 'customise' their own MFC site. You sign up, design the homepage you want with the type of items YOU most want to see (i.e. injury news, player video, gallery). Obviously this would be a fair way off, but this is exactly the type of thing that would make the MFC site far more appealling.

The branding section was run by the President of Globe Australia. The discussion was based around how to make the club more appealing to a younger audience - what is 'cool', and what is not. I loved a few of the ideas that came out based on making fun the MFC stereotype. Someone suggested an MFC trip to the snow which involved a massive snow-ball fight (I remember a few years ago when on a Queens Birthday game, the snow was brought to the 'G. This could be done again). The discussion covered issues like "How important is the club's history to younger people" and "What is more important [to a younger audience], the team or the individual players?".

Brent Moloney was involved in this discussion, and he pointed out that Melbourne really needed to attack Auskick kids - somehow get more involved and forge a deeper connection with more young kids - because we aren't going to get adults to change clubs, but we can influence the kids.

The final area that my group visited was the Match day section. This discussion was based what we do on match day, how to make match day more appealing, and how to make the day more of a social event, rather than just a football game. Ideas varied from official club pre-game drinks at a nearby, MFC affiliated pub. This was people who don't necessarily feel comfortable going to the football by themselves can meet other Demons supporters, and feel more associated with the club. Further ideas included interactive games for kids before the game and at half time (much like is done at the cricket), having more 'Demon' areas in the group were people know other Melbourne supporters will be sitting and actually outnumber the opposition, and also the Premier League-style idea of each player walking out onto the ground with a young kick (whether they be actual Melbourne supporters, or the Auskick team representing Melbourne that day). Anything that can give kids more of a connection with the club, and an interaction with players, can only be a positive thing.

I was really impressed by the involvement of the players. Jack Watts and Brent Moloney were both keen to add their two cents during the group discussions, and I'm sure others were too. I know its been said a million times, but I must say it again, Jack Watts is the most impressive young man to have walked into the MFC in my lifetime. He's very sharp, very polite, very sociable and certainly not too overawed. At one point during the Match day discussion the facilitator told us not to worry about a budget with our ideas, to which Watts replied (slightly under his breathe) "That's realistic...". And when the young players introduced themselves, Watts reminded us all how old he was and to "Please be patient".

Jim Stynes mentioned to us all that in his day, the players and staff were very much kept away from the supporters - and from what I can tell, Stynes wants to move away from that mentality. Every player spent time with each of the groups, in each of the different areas. While some are quite shy, it was really good to see them interacting with supporters (I'm sure it helped that many their today were around their ages). Players there on the day included Simon Buckley, Paul Wheatley, Brent Moloney, Tom McNamara, Jack Watts, James Strauss, Jared Rivers, Mark Jamar and Sam Blease (please let me know if I've missed someone.)

Hopefully the club took something out of the day. I continue to be impressed by the kind of people that Jimmy is attracting to the club both in the coaching staff and the off-field areas. The club is in a dire situation, but we really are giving ourselves the best chance at stepping up to the plate and becoming a force once again - but this of course will take time.

As Jack Watts stressed, "be patient"!

Sounds like some good ideas... We need to be more innovative, instead of us being 50 steps behind we need to be 5 steps ahead.

Our website is rubbish, slow to load, content all over the place, but as you mentioned it is Telstra's so we have to work with what we got.

Player blogs would be something intersting... ala some NFL and NBA players have there own blogs giving updates, have some of our younger players doing the same things on the website.

Snow ball fight... lets go further, lets have a snow day at the g! Get as many kids to come along and we can have a snow hill down the hill out from of the members... teach kids how to ski and board... Have a snowboard jumps competition and all!!! Get Mt Buller or Hotham to get a few of there snow guns out...

Yes! It was sad. Ripped Carlton to threads kicking 4 in the finals of 94. I recall he broke his leg badly during his career. I think it might have been at another club. Either StKilda or Carlton. I think he played for both.

Was that for Carltanking at princess park? Someone dived or fell across his leg, it was worse than Nathan Browns from a few years ago as in it was flapping around all over the place.

My old man hated Charles but I loved him cos you or he had absolutely no idea what he was going to do with the footy once he got it.

Thanks for the update guys...

wasn't able to get the game over here damnit. Quick one, did Garland play on Roughie? Is so I am surprised people saying he played so well if Roughie snagged a bag of 5 inlcuding the game winner. Thoughts from the esteemed posters?

Ah - it was only a matter of time.

The ultimate refuge of the intellectually bankrupt.

"You can't criticise Rudd, his policies and the performance of his Government unless you can show how you would make a better PM with better policies yourself".

Bulldust.

The difference between Hazy, other Stynes critics and me on the one hand and Stynes, his Board and his administration on the other is that at no time did we come to the Board of the day, demand that they step aside and then hold ourselves out to members, supporters, the media, the AFL and other stakeholders as having the people, plans and vision to rebuild the Club and make us powerful and successful again. Stynes has made precisely these claims.

Unlike us, Stynes and his Board have nominated for election to the Board and received the endorsement of the members. This imposes responsibilities and accountability on Stynes that are not shared by us plebs. I have never said I could do a better job. All I have argued is that Stynes should deliver on his promises.

intellectually bankrupt.. if it makes you feel a better person to say so flower

So you were happy with the previous board and the $5million debt? Stynes and the new board did hold them accountable and have taken over. Stynes and his board need to be held accountable as well. It is the nature of public office. But you can not say they are not moving the club in a direction. The current board has a direction, are they working hard enough to secure our future? I would say yes. Are they working hard enough for a sponsor and a home and an identity? I would say yes. Have we acheived all of those goals as yet. No. Did the previous board achieve the goals they has set out, no either. No previous administration of the MFC has.

By showing such a "vocal" voice of discontent you are suggesting something else could be done. Offer your services don't just offer discontent, offer support and options, ideas, answers.

Whilst there is no way that any of us can verify his claims about the sponsors, the denigration and dissmissal of Paul McNamee in this thread continues the worrying trend of Jimma jingoism.

The notion that Stynes would have kept him on if he got the sponsorships is laughable. Stynes was clearly falling over himself to appoint his mate Schwab to the position (even nominating him as a "mentor" for P. Mac). It seems to me that replacing P. Mac with Schwab was a bigger priority for Jim then securing a sponsor. I doubt not only the wisdom of this position but the motivations also.

P. Mac is a high profile type, his blackberry is probabaly nuclear powered. He was the ideal candidate for securing sponsorships for the club and I'm sure that this was one of the reasons he was given the job in the first place. The contemptuous dismissal of the possibility that P. Mac may have secured sponsors whilst at Wimbeldon not only shows an ignorance of corporate diplomacy generally (apparently the Primus deal was nutted out by Szondy and Primus MD Greg Wilson on a golf course), it also illustrates the desperation that certain people have when defending Jim's decisions right or wrong. Similarly, the idea that P. Mac was being negligent during his 40 day tenure with Stynes pays no heed to the reality of the situation i.e. he knew his number was up.

Furthermore, despite the inherently un-empiricle nature of P. Mac's claim, it does smack of veracity. Firstly, because he was sacked 8 days before the expiration of the extention of the Primus deal. And secondly, and more worryingly, because it is unsurprising that a sponsor would get cold feet in an environment where the CEO/negotiator is getting the sack a few months into the job, and where there has been a hostile board takeover. Frankly, I would not be surpirsed if the company in question had greater faith in P. Macs business acumen than in that of Stynes and his unknown potential appointee, I share those reservations.

So why was Jim in such a hurry to sack P. Mac during such a sensitive period anyway? Some of you have stated that P. Mac has some "serious ego". I suspect this is correct. He, like Jim, is a high profile sports celebrity. Perhaps it is possible that Jim didn't want to share the limelight? Could there have two egos to consider? If this was the case then it is to P. Mac's credit that he pursued sponsorship deals independently and opportunistically when it is likely that he was advised to keep a low profile. Of course the whole "mates" thing is also a worrying consideration. I beleive the reason that Jim cited for the sacking was that P. Mac didn't share the same "vision" or somesuch. Aside from the whole J. Brown fiasco (in my opinion the on-field stuff should be left to the expert on-field staff appointed by the board), I wonder how these "visions" were so different. I suspect sponsorship and finacial viabilty at least would have featured quite prominently in both of them. Lastly, there is another possible motivation for P. Mac's hasty sacking, that is, that he apparently wasn't Jim's first choice to begin with. Of course, it is (hopefully) to the previous board's credit that they consulted Jim on this matter, but I would hope that this wasn't the sole reason for sacking P. Mac so summarily at such a crucial time. We will never truly know if Jim's decision (and the timing of it's execution) to dismiss P. Mac was the right one, but one thing is certain: it was Jim's call and it is Jim's responsibily, much like the current sopnsorship situation is.

In any case, I started this post by pointung out that P. Mac's assertions are unverifiable. And it is true that he might have reason to make these claims (be they true or false) given the way he was treated by the Stynes board (i.e. reading about his dismissal in The Age). However, some of you state that P. Mac's reputation was damaged by the way in which he was brushed off. My worry is that this could end up damaging Jim's reputation, particularly if what P. Mac said is true. Amidst all this conjecture and the spite that is defensively being doled out to P. Mac, there are some facts that remain:

- P. Mac spent his last 40 days under a hostile administration.

- Whilst he was there we had a major sponsor and the option to renew our deal with them so this issue was less urgent.

- P. Mac had less time in the job then both Stynes and Schwab have had.

- We are not waiting for the draft to announce our new major sponsor.

- We are not waiting for the captaincy announcement to announce our new major sponsor.

- We are not waiting for the end of the Australian Open to announce our new major sponsor.

- We are not waiting for the AGM to announce our new major sponsor.

- We are (hopefully) not waiting for the "Youth Summit", the NAB Cup or the end of the "financial crisis" to announce our new major sponsor,

- WE DON'T HAVE A MAJOR SPONSOR, WE SHOULD HAVE ONE ALREADY, AND IF WE DON'T GET ONE SOON WE ARE SUNK

Some of you probably took something away from the announcement at the AGM tonight that we have something in the works. Apparently, we had the Mission Foods deal in the works. Words don't cut it for me anymore.

Cheers

P.S. As for you Hannabal Hugh, I (once again) suggest that you take your irrelevant crackpot theories and start a new thread with them in the "General" section. I'm sure that it will get all the attention that it deserves.

It is all done and dusted, Stynes and co are leading the club, PMac is no longer around for better or for worse we will never know. We have to deal with what we have now. A man who has put himself on the line for this club once again, working is tail off to try and save us from following Fitzroy into histories pages. It is fine to have concerns but you also have to have solutions otherwise it is just whinging. Where are you solutions to go with your concerns Haze? How are you helping the current admin bring on and retain a new sponsor long term and get the most value possible from the sponsor? How are you offering your services to ensure we have a membership base that grows instead of diminishing? How are you helping bring the fragmented sections of MFC people together as one and get behind the current board as ONE?

One of the reasons that Gardner and his Board handed over the reins to Stynes in such a smooth and magnanimous fashion is due to the high quality group Stynes had managed to put together. The incumbent Board would have put up far more of a fight if it wasn't for the strength of this team.

Hugh

...... I would hope they were magnanimous after presiding over a $5mill debt and almost the loss of our club. Laughable. Although the way the worlds financial institutions are run they would have been given $$ million dollar bonuses slapped on the back and told to carry, jolly good show old chap just before the institution goes out of business.

Is there any convenient transport to Casey Fields yet coz last time I planned on heading down there, transport from the closest train station took about an hour...

Someone give him a lift....

While I have no idea how to fix the current situation any more than the next person I would like to see the blue print from the likes of Hazy (nice handle too, kudos) and Rflow. It is fine to not believe the current board is the right one but what is the way forward?

FFS, what is done is done.

You might be right, he/she might be right, even I might be right, but in terms of business reality, what weight does our little debate here carry, in the real football world?

Clearly, there are 2 different camps here. One says, it was all the previous administration's fault and the other is saying, it is the premature evacuation by Jimma and his boys/girls of previous regimes, that have caused the current paucity of sponsors for the MFC.

Either way, these are different times and different circumstances and unless you were Aladdin, no-one could have foreseen just how far reaching the current economic crisis could have been.

While I love debate, what saddens me, and I have said it before on this forum, is that people who claim to have passion for this footy club, slag fellow supporters.

I, for one, do not place my faith simply in the wonderful footy story that is Jim Stynes, nor the football pedigree that belongs to Schwaby. I believe that the credentials which belong to Jalland, McLardy and Howcroft, et al, are second to none, when it comes to footy Boards.

Speculate as much as you like - we are where we are.

Again, while I love debate, in the eyes of the football public, we have to stick fat, otherwise, no matter who holds the reins, we are surely doomed.

I, like many of you, love this footy club and I have confidence we will come though this trough a better and stornger club for the long term.............but please........let's be a voice of solidarity on this one.

GO YOU DEMONS!!!!!!!!!!!

Here HERE IWS. That is one thing that keeps being raised when a board of ours gets the sack, how splintered and how many different factions we have around the place. It really amazes me that for a club so close to deathes door these so called factions would rather see there own self interest destory this club than get behind the people incharge, guide then, cajole, forcibly move them in a positive direction if needs be instead of this behind the scenes rubbish

Let's not use the word "blame". I prefer "accountability".

There are lots of reasons why signing a major sponsor in the current climate is a major challenge. That's what we pay the big bucks to people like Schwab for. Campbell Rose managed it having come from a long way back it would seem.

I'm all about accountability. Schwab and Stynes should be held accountable by the members for this embarassment and the lack of a sponsor with nearly a quarter of the Club's financial year gone. The Board should hold Schwab and his management team accountable for their failure to date to deliver a key revenue line in the budget.

The main problem is that a starstruck membership will never hold Stynes accountable - just read this thread. And within the ruling Cabal, Chairman Jimma will never hold mates Schwab and Connolly accountable for underperformance in their areas of the portfolio.

Mark my words - key players in the Club and the industry including the State Government, AFL headquarters, the MCC, the media and supporter groups such as Coterie are already asking the hard questions about the ruckman's capacity to lead this Club.

The man at least put his name and reputation on the line, HE has halved our debt with his will power alone. HE might not be the right man to lead the club but he saved us.

What is your solution chief I'd really like to see it....

Whilst having a say and having an opinion is fine but unless you actually have a solution then you are just the type of typical Melbourne splinter faction that has destroyed this club and will drive it into the ground.

Where is your major sponsor that you have sourced for the club? Where is your coherant, viable business plan giving us a future? Where is the debt reduction scheme you have set up with our creditors? Where are the assests to fund our growth?

From the outside looking we do not have any of that from the current board but until you can deliver it then it is all for nought as they say. How about you and the key players in the club, Sate goverment etc come up with another viable option who can produce all of these and we will take it on.

Google is our new sponsor? wait what...