darkhorse72

Hi all Just read this online http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/afl...0-19742,00.html Definitely a great initiative to promote the club and it will great more interest for us especially if we do it for more than one year. With Bricky being the ambassador.

"The friendly family club" I think "The mighty Apples" would be great. They can get the fruit people to sponsor them, and have a large apple running around the field. Maybe go with a green uniform and use it to camouflage their players on the field for sneaky possession, they could colour match to the grass, be stealthy team....

Definitely tongue in cheek and basically saying that he was not longer sort after as a AFL coach.

Its a bloody hard thing to narrow down to 5 Who I have seen in my time: 1. Robbie Flower - none better 2. Garry Lyon - could win a game by himself ion willlpower 3. Sean Wight - lved his desperation 4. David Schwartz - pre knee injuries the best but loved him afterward 5. Stephen Tingay - flying wingman whose career was cruelly ended when we needed him most, imagine a fully fit Tingay in 2000. Lots of honorable mentions do I wont bother as it would be a pretty big list, as the above were great to watch over most of their career while others had a great purple patch over a few years, normally at the end, such as Anthony Ingernson who found his niche near the end.

Thats the chap, very nice. MIke Collins it is.

Russel Howcroft, yep that's the guy. Apparentely bloody funny too

Hey all, Once again we have had almost yearly dinner with the players last night with also the pleasure of the great man Ron Barassi joining us for the trip to the west. All the players and support staff were in attendance and had dinner with about 160 supporters in the Perth Italian club. Like last year players were spread around the room with one ot two on the tables to chat with the supporters with them moving about during the night between courses. On our table we had Neville Jetta and assistant coach Sean Wellman. Unlike past years however, I didn't get to catch to as many players but got to talk to Ron a bit was great and he signed my old 1982 jumper for a bit of memorabilia and a photo as well. He was sitting with a few of his previous teammates who he played with. One chap I spoke to and for the life of me I can't remember his name. His dad played in the 26 premiership team, his brother in the 48 draw and win against the Dons and he played in the fifties for 3 flags. We had a good chat to Jetta and he is enjoying things but doesn't think he will play tomorrow (he's an emergency) from what he has been told which is a bit sad since he's almost playing at home. Jamie Bennell will play according to Wellman? Wellman is very happy with our the backline is starting to come together this year and he's enjoying moulding the young guys. He said they still really lack that confidence to really run with the ball like Geelong but its coming. The most pleasing thing is unlike last year they can get the ball out of our defensive zone much more efficiently this year and have been really working on that aspect. I also asked him if they had put some goal posts up at training this week and he said they have had more shots at goal than he cares to remember so hopefully the kicking will be a bit straighter this week.. --- I had some quick conversations with the following: Robbo, - stoked about playing last week and while a bit body sore after the game last week as to be expected, fighting fit Brock McLean - no hangup from his ankle injury and getting his match fitness back slowly, but mentioned he's can tell he's getting his match touch back as well in regards to kicking, handballing and playing at the required speed. That has been obvious in the last few weeks with a few games under his belt. Nathan Jones - only a quick chat didn't seem too chatty by the time I go to him, but happ to have help in the midfield I congratulated on his improvement this year with his kicking as its been much more purposeful. Jared Rivers - very happy to be back in the team and be player, Junior was stirring him up about being a future captain as I was talking to both of them at the same time. Junior - going well, congratulated him on being made captain, as its a great honour, hinted it would be great if held it for another year but got the diplomatic answer He has a great memory as he remembered talking to me last year and even where we were sitting which was surprising. Ricky Petterd - just happy to be playing and is enjoying the forward line. Brent Moloney - nice chap, not not having seen the players the guy has huge shoulders, looks super-fit, and did I say huge shoudlders I'm talking a couple of axe handles.... --- Spoke only briefly with Dean Bailey for a bit at the end of the night - he's very happy with Frawley and how he has developed physically this year, he also mentioned him in his speech. - about the speed of players and our Blease was the fastest in the club by far and happy was unhappy about the break last week ad hopes he keeps is speed after he recovers. He indicated he needed more speed in the team. He mentioned Jack Watts was right up there with Davey, bennell and blease in terms of speed with was amazing for a big fella. - Jack Watts: the standard line, 2nd half of year, has put on 6 kg and grown 1 cm. - a bit about Shane Valenti, basically he's a footballer not an athlete but has been working on his running and speed a lot this year, stll considers him young and time to developed which is interesting being an older recruit. - Liam Jurrah is a long way off, same with most of the rookies but all have great potential - I asked about Jack Grimes and was told he had traveled with the team, but I didn't manage to catch up with him as I didn't realise he was there till they left. About this time they had to leave.. ----- Spoke with Cameron Schwab for a bit about the off field side of the club and asked his perspective on the members numbers vs actual revenue from members in terms of membership classes and how much we get. My personal view is more members even if they pay $40 a year like MCC members. He said the problem is the general perception of a club is more members the healthier it is to the general public, regardless of what time of members they are. "marketing is perception" he went on to add that the first 10,000 dockers members financial contribute more to the fremantle club than 30,000 Melbourne members, due to the economics from the stadiums they play at. Dockers season tickets are much more expensive than the Dee's from dockers members I have spoken too. One of his challenges is to raise this per captia income for our club. Obviously he says part of the relatioship with the MCC is the additional funds they have always put into the club. We talked about the the re-joining the MCC and he says its a great thing, but we also spoke about the plit and he said it was very badly done and one of the reasons was when the club left. it was given nothing, he said given the history and wealth it bought to the MCC it should have been sent away with a share of the wealth they built up, say with $10m in the bank to set it up. It was split and given nothing, not 1 cent, it had to start from scratch. Lastly I asked him if the chap from the gruen transfer is the one on the board and he is. Say's he agreat and very smart bloke. Cameron says the state and culture of the club is nothing like it was last time round, 90's when he was in charge. He says its amazing the improvements that have been bought about since Jimmy took over and the new board in place. He says one of the best thing is that they "know when they don't know something " and spend time finding out the right answer. Not pretending they understand and then make a decision on half a guess. Which is great news and he feels when we look back in 10yrs + it will be a watershed moment for the club (for the better), that's the spirit now working inside. I couldn't be happier to get that sort of information. He is also says he spent a lot of time retaining good staff and mentioned that he is on the lookout for more quality staff. i suggested with the current crisis some very smart people might become available and he said the dockers just let 9 people from their admin go, maybe he knows a couple of them that would be good for us. Who knows. I think that about wraps it up, one special mention is for Michael Pinches who dug out of storage a "Ron Barrasi" banner last shown in public in 1964, and Ron signed it for him.. a good news story. A good night pity we only see them once or twice a year Cheers Kane

Demon3, that was not the point of the article. It was how another club was being pro-active in developing talented youngsters that the club can recruit. Much like the old days with zones. With the draft its hard to take that long term look but father/son picjs gives us that opportunity. It also gives the chance of potential players to get involved with the club and build a stronger link and hopefully benefit from a our "strong" culture in getting the best of of themselves.

yep, got my tickets from the western dee's today, also off to the Friday night dinner with the team.

Isn't the AFL administration there to serve the clubs?

RFOL

Hi All Just read this article on the bulldogs about father/son picks but it also talks about a development programme they run to involve future father/son picks in the club and identify areas that need development. Much like how Barrassi Jnr was involved in the club and its culture from a very early age. http://www.theage.com.au/news/rfnews/in-th...ge#contentSwap1 Good idea as with our drought of father/sons picks coming through the system for us.

picks and a young up and coming player. details details...

He'll got to a club thats a quality top-up for a tilt at a flag. He's a Adelaide boy so that is where he is normally linked to. If the dockers were smart and since they are rebuilding they should trade him this year for some quality picks. Its a win/win. Not for us but for his own sanity he should ask to be traded away from the Freo.

He left the bulldogs for a better financed club, pity he picked Richmond after the Sydney revolt in support of Roo's. Has a game plan that doesn't work with his players. Richo at any other club would have been a superstar in IMO, he bleeds for them so much, I feel sorry for him like great players at Melbourne that never go to play finals or hold a cup.

The suggestion of giving free memberships is a valid one for a number of reasons and has been debated for a few years. 1: We already get money from the MCC and with the recent announcements more benefits will follow, I'm sure somewhere in that $1m they can say 10% covers MMC members, membership of the footy club or by some other internal mechanism. 2: They are MFC supports and already attending games, through the MCC. 3: Giving us 40/50k+ registered members gives us a huge appeal to sponsors. ie more customers to reach directly with their sponsorship. If you worried about hiding our true figures, I think the AFL rules requires the publishing of the different categories of members such as non-game day members at Richmond. We simply add a MCC members section. 4: It gets the MCC members more directly involved in the footy club, with updates, newsletters and correspondence going directly to them. This has flow on affects to building more support, socially and financially.

To say such a thing is fool hardy. I do also live interstate and therefore you never really get the full picture of a game from TV. But Mclean is a class player for our club and would be for any other club in the league. He doesn't have the speed of other top class midfielders but he has grunt and determination. He bleeds for this club and doesn't affect mediocracy, on or off the field and when I have heard him talk he doesn't beat around he bush. Not all captains are superstars and all lead in different ways. But he has the right mental attitude to be our captain. The only fear I have of him becoming captain is that we seem to have a captains curse in terms of injury. Otherwise the match report was pretty much spot on. When the pies picked up the physical pressure the boys couldn't match it.

Don't worry about contract tricks, follow the African example in fighting poachers like saving the Rhinos. Fast helicopter response teams, heavily armed rangers to take down the poachers before they get their target. Trust me, after eliminating a few poachers in this pro-active manner the rest will stay away And a bonus is we can fundraise for it like other conversation groups lol...

It will make a paper profit, whether that profit is in our own right or with assistance is to be seen. I hope that will happen is that we use the additional funding to clean out debt (AFL/MCC money) and make a small profit including that special funding, making a $1 profit after clearing $2m in debt would be fine by me. Next year with no debt we will make a profit, be debt free, then use the additional money in the bank from the special assistance to invest in income generating assets.

If you are referring to aerobic fitness I'd say we are pretty even with most clubs. The difference is the impact the body takes from the contact during the game and this affects the players ability to keep running over the game. Older/mature bodies can take these hits and keep running, lighter bodies can'. If you ever played senior footy, thin how it felt being a colt to a senior player when you play colts. Colts run fast but not after a few bumps or heavy tackles.

Just read this article: EXTRA $90,000 PER GAME NOT ENOUGH TO SEAL STADIUM DEAL The first offer was for us to get an extra 90,000 per game, which is almost another million dollars, in game day revenue. The AFL has rejected this so it looks like we get a much better deal. For once I'm happy to say they are going into to bat for us. An extra $1m+ per year would certainly come in handy and solves our cash flow issues for the moment.

very very good, the pieces are finally moving into place.

A fantastic article... A gentleman who knows what is required and how to live life.

A summary would be great for anyone that heard it, thanks for the link but I got it too late.

great news...