george_on_the_outer

Not much of a forward line...Fritsch, Brown and Melksham only. Still it is a good opportunity to give the likes of Jordan, Hore, Rivers, Baker , Bedford, Bradtke and Wagners a run. I suppose that means we can take C.Wagner, Angus and Bayley off the injury list?

Not the whole story. Richmond moved to the MCG in 1965 due to Punt road widening and reduction in ground capacity to 22,000. It signalled the start of the professional era, which included pre-season training. Barassi when he returned in the 1980's got the MFC out of the MCC, simply because the MCC refused to provide enough money to run the club in the professional era. ( I don't know that much has changed with the MCC today). Since cricket occupied the ground for 6 months of the year, the MFC was training at all manner of suburban ovals. We weren't thrown off, it was just that the MCC did not recognise that the amateur era was over, and that we needed proper training facilities. Stynes then re-negotiated with the MCC to provide some financial support since 25K of the MCC members indicated that they were Melbourne supporters. They still to this day get to turn up at Melbourne matches " for free". Pert indicated at the AGM that at least 5K of them attend 4 or more Melbourne matches and still do not take out the MFC/MCC option. Or to look at it another way, they probably go to more MFC games than cricket games for their membership, but the MFC gets nothing from them.

If you look at the latest "Hell and back" video, the training session is held at the Murphy/Anderson oval complex. In the background you can see all the spare space around it.

Port would be an attractive option, but not for what Eddie suggested. The North Port oval where Port play would not be an option, but down the road is the Murphy reserve with Anderson oval and soccer grounds. There is also plenty of space alongside to build. Even further down WIlliamstown road are the open spaces alongside the container terminal and even where Melbourne Grammar have their playing fields at Flack reserve. I hope we don't finish up building something for 2021 and we find we are looking at the same again in 10 years. Hawthorns new facility planned at Dingley will cost $130M, Adelaide planning to spend $80M.....and both their current facilities are superior to anything we have today.

100% agree. An absolute waste of money for something that will be empty except for 10 or 12 evenings a year! We didn't sign up for the cafe at AAMI park because it wouldn't make money. Collingwood don't have a social club at their facility. They use the rooms in the Ponsford stand etc. If we all need somewhere to celebrate there are still plenty of rooms in the MCG used for that purpose today. If we ever win a Premiership we can set up tents in Yarra Park.....I won't care, and I dare say neither will any other supporters.

...and the Saints received $30M for the re-development of Linton st.: Wikipaedia: "Recently renamed RSEA Park - St Kilda Saints FC LTD's Moorabbin venue was approved for a 30 million dollar redevelopment financed by the State Government, St Kilda Saints Football Club LTD, Australian Football League, Kingston Council and local football leagues. St Kilda returned to Moorabbin Oval as its primary training and administrative base in March 2018."

Because it is not big enough to hold all the admin and coaching staff in the one area today.....and there is this thing called cricket which uses the ground for 6 months of the year...

Best part of the night was Adam Tomlinson who when presented to the audience.... remarked that for his previous club the numbers in the room at the Melbourne AGM probably represented the total supporter base at GWS.

No use complaining about the lack of notification. As others have already shown, it has been emailed to members, it has been on the club website and worst of all ( which I brought up in question time) was that 9,000 members ( I think that was the number) were sent mailed notifications, because they didn't have an email address. It cost 4 days of packing from volunteers and $1 to post each of them. And guess what, probably only 150 people turned up.

...Ain't that the truth! The MCC has the following sporting sections: MFC, bowls, hockey, target shooting, lacrosse, tennis, netball, royal tennis, golf and squash.....and yes they have a football team as well as the MFC! How are these paid for and how are their facilities paid for? Certainly not from cricket. Member fees? Hardly. It is the income from football, ground advertising etc during the football season. The tenant clubs are thrown a few scraps from the table. The MCC has a baseball facility at Box Hill with clubrooms etc, yet the MFC has no permanent base or a proper 21st century training facility after 160years!

That is simply not true. Gosch's paddock is much smaller than the MCG, and the other open areas are occupied by Melbourne Storm, Victory and Rebels as their training grounds. So unless you can move them out of AAMI...... Secondly Goschs is a public area. We cannot not control the grass, surface maintenance. It was un-usable for 6 weeks last year, and training had to be moved to Casey. Lights for training during winter? Won't happen in public parks. It is one of the reasons Hawthorn is moving from Waverley.

If KK was in this position last year we would be looking to add an additional player through the PS supplementary or mid season draft. This year while we have 13 on the sidelines THIS week, that number only includes 3 or 4 who would ordinarily be in the first 22 and are expected to be back fully fit within 2 weeks or so. While I hold no great hopes for KK given he hasn't recovered ( not just played) for nearly 12 months, it is a calculated gamble to keep him on the list...any selection to replace him would be unlikely to get a game this year, so why do it? It is not like last year where Dunkley was slotted in to fill the huge number of gaps we had, and finished playing 5 games. Similar story to Bennell, if he comes good fantastic, if they don't then we have 2 gaps in the EOY draft already.

Maybe you should say "AFLW is not going away!"

...and another one ...Justin Powers.

Not really much to report from the session. I spent most of it with BB, so he will be able to report further... Yes, the injury list looks long, but really, apart from May, Angus, Gawn and VDB, how many would be in the fist 22? Of those 4 Brayshaw is running freely and keeping up his fitness. Max is running freely and strongly, even with a brace. VDB is the unknown and also May. Smith can't be far away, and while he is running freely, he was still kicking the ball left foot only. BB and I cannot work out what sort of foot injury can allow one and not the other? Chandler was also doing repeat 50-100's, but the wrist is something that is only cured by time. Same for Brayshaw and his elbow. The important thing is even with 14 players listed, we still have 30 out there training fully. That included Melksham, Hibberd and Spargo who all participated in the small amount of match practice/simulation. So back to the track....it was very light and not much out of the ordinary apart from Kossi Pickett already having contender for MOTY! Hard to describe as he just came from nowhere in a pack and the next thing you saw was him perched sideways above it with the ball in his grasp. The trackwatchers and players erupted with awe, but the Channel 10 crew behind us were kicking themselves as they weren't set up properly. Still they wanted to know who he was, so hopefully the cat hasn't been let out of the media bag....just yet! There was a mids group near us with Bradtke and Weidemann doing rucking ( given the injuries to Max and Brayden, we may need them). Petracca and Langdon were prolific with their ability to get the ball and clear the pack. Interestingly, Jackson was part of this group, but not as a ruck. He held his own against Oliver, which was no mean feat. Sorry, not much else to say...so over to BB if he can think of anything else..... ⚕️ SATYRICONHOME'S INJURY UPDATE ? BAGHDAD BOB'S TRAINING REPORT

You can add Corey Wagner to the list with a knee. Bandages and iced. Didn’t participate in any activity. Petty apparently groin.

No The Saints ran a $1 membership 2 years ago. They got about 4K "members" who miraculously appeared in their membership total in June of that year. Trouble was their income membership for that year actually dropped. ....but hey good story to tell the sponsors!

The great AFL conference [censored]-up continues.... Melbourne beat North and are outside the 3 for finals contention in their conference, but North are in their top 3. Yes I know it is only round 1, but the same scenario can happen at the season end. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=aflw+ladder#sie=lg;/g/11h5kw1xy3;10;/g/11clhs143n;st;fp;1;;

In a printer?......It is only a bar code,either on your phone or a piece of plastic or paper.

Love watching the girls play, but unfortunately the AFL is destroying it as a spectacle, by bringing in too many teams too early. The quality and skills that were seen in the original Melbourne v Bulldogs exhibitions was first class, but now we have only 4 to 6 genuinely good players in each side. We know how good players like Daisy, Kearney, Harris, Paxman, Vescio are going to perform, because they have been playing the game for a long time, and can kick, mark and handball to the standards we are used to seeing in the mens game. Unfortunately, they have teammates who simply cannot do the basics at the moment. It WILL come, but in the meantime, the spectacle is being trashed.

Membership numbers as of today 7 February....31,519 This is 2808 down on the same day last year. The saints have 36,877 at the moment, while North have 31,910

While I'm in full support of a Tasmanian side, the AFL lost its chance years ago, when they were trying to force North to Queensland. Sadly, for the Tasmanians, the economics still don't stack up. $7-8M from the government? Clubs currently get $1M per game for those games in Shanghai, NT, NZ etc. So double that amount and you might be in the ball park.. Split between North and South? As DeeSpencer has pointed out, spending big bucks on an oval that will be used only for 7-8 games ( if they are lucky) in Hobart means either the stadium won't be built or the games in Launceston won't happen. Still with an election in the next couple of years, there is plenty of opportunity for pork barrelling ( again, and from either side).

With all the discussion about media coverage or lack of it, it seems we are not alone: Red & White Online: Swans Media stories of 11 day old interviews, pictures of new recruits not on the website, fluff articles etc......The Swannies have the same problems as us it seems, and they are sheeting it home to the AFL and Telstra, who own the websites....

But Richmond can now pay extra to other players on their list who would otherwise be pushed out by the salary cap, thus keeping their list intact. Or they can go chasing other players in the mid-season draft that they couldn't because of salary cap pressure, if they have a spot caused through injury..

The Age is reporting that Richmond and Rance have come to an agreement to pay out part of his salary that he would have otherwise been paid. One-sixth of quite a bit: Alex Rance leaves $1.4 million on the table The result is that Richmond now have buckets of $$$'s available under the salary cap for this year and next. If this is allowed by the AFL, then you can be sure that Sydney and Collingwood will exploit the same avenue for their 10 and 7 year signings, when they can't make it to the end of their contracts!