george_on_the_outer

All these changes cost money, so another couple of pineapples donated to keep this great site running.

No aeroplanes! St. Kilda wouldn't appreciate being in Cairns, for starters. More possible flights from BN/MCY/AD to Cairns. Not surprising Sydney went up 2 days early. What would have been better...AS/MCY/CNS with a 3 day stay in MCY or AS/MCY (at 3am) then off to CS the next day?

The weekly "bookmakers form" is out: https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/804744/a-chance-to-return-who-s-in-the-frame-for-round-15- so you can lock in Fritsch, Lockhart, Harmes and ANB( although I don't know why for the last 2) Forget about Smith...no mention ( and if Lockhart comes back, he will be taking on Papley) Preuss a possibility if Max isn't fit.

Is there any way of knowing what the available players are in the phantom draft? i.e those not tied to Academy or F/S. There are some mentioned in the Twomey list, but obviously not all....

same here...

26 August 2020 $636,407

The game isn't over yet. North Melbourne for one have given up on a stand-alone side. This opens the door for Port etc... https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/north-melbourne-s-vfl-program-abandoned-after-just-two-seasons-20200730-p55h09.html

Correct. The old swimming stadium ( now Lexus/Holden etc) centre was offered to the Gutnick Board, but not Olympic park. Probably the cost of re-engineering a place with a Heritage overlay would have been too much. Eddie then engineered Althletics Victoria to move to create the training oval for them. It still has a training running track around the perimeter, but the athletes have been fenced out of there during Covid.....will they get a chance to return?

Melksham was 2 to 5 metres over where the mark took place before he started moving sideways. He was called twice to come back, and he didn't.

Because he is horribly out of form, and can't get a sniff of the ball. His spot will be saved by Jones and Sparrow not being there next week.

Scores from turnovers: 59 to 23!!!

There are a couple of other positives outside of the "debt free" thrust of the article. Firstly, the sale of the Leighoak and the Bentleigh club pokie licences has been probably at the most fortuitous time, given the Covid situation. Both closed, with no income. We really picked the right time to sell. Secondly, the generosity of the MFC supporters & sponsors. With only 100 or so wanting their money back , it means the Club has the cash-flow to continue operations during the footy season. And with the sponsors committing to next year, that provides surety to continuing operations. Without that support, we would be on AFL largesse, both this year and next and maybe beyond. The Club has been very forthright about not being under AFL financial control, and so it puts us on equal footing with the larger clubs. For those who think that on-field success and performance is their motivator to join as a member, then they need to listen to "The Merger" : https://www.iheart.com/podcast/256-i-was-never-given-a-name-a-43053728/ and see how not taking out memberships nearly bankrupted Hawthorn, after 4 premierships in the previous 10 years! Thirdly, as Redleg has pointed out...we can thank our lucky stars for what the Gutnick/Mann board did in purchasing the Bentleigh Club. It has provided continuous profit to plow back into football operations for 20 years, and now its sale will probably provide the basis for a permanent training facility.

Exactly, but the term "debt free" is a bit of a misnomer in the sense that assets are being sold to pay down the same debt, with a fair bit of that debt associated with the remaining pokies licence fees. From the article: "The sale of the Leighoak gaming venue – following the 2018 decision of president Glen Bartlett's board to withdraw from gaming – had netted more than $10 million, which was used to create a $7.5 million investment portfolio that the club can draw down on." So I would think the other $2.5 M is used to pay down debt. .....voila debt free! Trouble is with the sale of Bentleigh and Leigoak, the revenue bases have/will also disappear. What is going to replace them?

From that video, I can see she will love to be able to tackle in the AFLW.....and yes, has some dash!

$619,842 today....

I am keeping an eye on Geelong's set up at centre bounces. Only noticed it this week against Power. Basically they have 2 players set up either side along the goal to goal line, but 5metres + from the edge of the centre circle. When the ball is bounced they sprint to either side of the circle. The effect is that one of them will hit the ball at full pace, or the opponent if they get the ball first. It also takes 2 of the opposition out of the centre congestion. Port didn't react to it all night, but then Hinckley didn't react to much at all. It was the worst coaching example I have seen. It was pointed out in the match commentary, when he left Clurey ( undersized) on Hawkins for the whole match, but worse still was that he left him 1 on 1. No zone defence, no 3rd man in. Hawkins had a field day. 6 goals mostly from just pushing Clurey aside as the ball came in.

This Club only has 1 player ever to play 300 games. In Jones, we now have the chance to double that. People talk about Club culture, and this is the way to achieve it. i.e everything in OUR power to get him to that milestone after he has given so much to US. If it means another year on the list, then so be it. I could name 4 players who will not be there next year. I could name another 4 who will probably be moved on, or never make the grade. Yet Nathan is playing in our first 22 at the moment. We will not be heavily involved in the draft this year, it is compromised and we have given away our first round pick. Keeping Jones on the list will not affect our draft or trading position in any way. As a club we have to make it happen.

Yes.....Patterson gives a full rundown on why we went so hard for draft picks this year. We only lost 1 player who finished in the top 10 of the B+F, in O'Dea. But in terms of list re-generation losing players in their late 20's and replacing them with others likely to be around for 10 years is the right thing to do. Particularly as this year is the first uncompromised draft due to expansion sides, with further compromised drafts in the future. And as Patterson notes, this is the first group of players to " come through the system", since AFLW has been possible. The talent is there this year, grab it while we can.

Bruce has got to get into the side first....

Finally over 40K!.......40,005

We have already traded out of the 2020 compromised draft to get Pickett. It would be pointless to trade in draft picks this year, particularly since the absence of lower level and under age competitions has made player assessment more of a gamble. We will be looking for player swap type arrangements, plus 2021 draft picks.

A week and a bit later the total is now: $584,548.50

And if we can't beat North without Brown, Ziebel, Cunnington and possibly Daw..ditto.!

For those who haven't heard him in action: https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/790074/rd-10-match-highlights?videoId=790074&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1596632647001 At 00.56..01.00 02.55..02.56 05.10..05.11

Someone has got their wires crossed: This is from Michael Gleeson's article in the AGE today: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/chairman-s-criticism-was-fair-goodwin-20200804-p55ih8.html ...."Melbourne are one of the AFL-assisted clubs required to provide weekly updates on their profit and loss so they would require AFL approval to make a large payout to cover a sacking - were it to come to that."... As Lucifers Hero says...the Balance sheet is OK because of the Bentleigh Club ( which hasn't been revalued in donkeys years ) but a Balance sheet doesn't put food on the table i.e money to run the show......unless you sell an asset. Or as LH says: "The only way we can get cash from the Bentleigh Club without selling is to borrow against it. But where would we get the cash to fund the borrowing? Pokies money is all but gone." ....