george_on_the_outer

Loved the Prawn/Goose combat at 0.56

A new one: And an old one, but history keeps repeating itself:

Not all it is cracked up to be. The delivery services do not make money. The company makes it from the software they sell to merchants to use their product. And not a usable product when the businesses get big. Will fail eventually.

Sitting in a beachside cafe after a long walk on the Chrissy break, wearing a Demons cap to avoid the blistering sun. Passer-by chimes in with "go dees". My wife, who has little interest in football turns to me and says " It's just like a secret handshake with your mob isn't it?"

There was something dodgy about St.Kilda's numbers last year. All season we had a tally 1 or 2 thousand more than them, and then suddenly in July ( yes July!), they found another 4 thousand members. They went from 42,605 in June to 46301 in 4 weeks.

For the nth time....cricket is played there for half the year i.e nowhere to train, nowhere for pre-season. The administration offices are tiny and spread apart. The football department HAS to operate out of AAMI because there is no room at the MCG. If you want to see how big a modern football facility has to be, look at Collingwood or Essendon.

Got there early so watched the re-hab group for a while.. I counted 13 including O'Mac, Petracca, Brayshaw, Melksham, Viney, Hannan, Lever, Stretch, Oiver, VandenBerg, Baker, Hunt and Jetta. Viney, Hannan and Melksham running laps and timed sections, with Viney running out in front by a mile and freely. I can't seen him not being back in the main group after Christmas. Melksham not as quick as Viney, but cannot see anything obviously wrong with him. Hannan looked like he was running on egg-shells. Nothing obvious but he pulled out of a couple of the runs to go to trainers, and then left the session early and before the main group arrived. Lever ran lap after lap, and was moving freely. Kicking with right foot with a trainer at times. Baker also running plenty of laps, and has put on serious muscle both in the legs and upper body after his early end to last season. Of the rest it would be hard to see anything obvious as to why they are not with the main group, perhaps with the exception of Oliver/Jetta after shoulder surgery, which requires a long period of no contact. Saw a little of Neitscke and Jordan in the drills. Pleasingly both kick well, sharp, low and accurate. Can they play football? Have to wait and see. Once again there was an academy kid on the track, who I can't find out who he is, but his kicking is elite and was training with the main group of players. There will probably be evidence later, but some bloke in a red suit and beard showed up. We all thought it was Saty in disguise!

So which fans would possibly turn up to watch this rubbish?. You can't even support your team any more. Country teams are screaming out for financial support, teams are folding and Gil spends money on this?

It's not surprising we have more in rehab given we went deep into September. We haven't seen this problem for years and we are not accustomed to it. Having said that, it is still not good to have so many players in that situation. But as Andy noted, the ones who were in the rehab group weren't losing fitness. Lever is probably the only one who has to come back from injury fitness wise. Every year I note this, ( and there is no scientific basis for it, just years of observation): For every week after the new Year that a player is not in full training, you can subtract a week from when they will be available in season proper. Or to put it another way, players need 3 months of full pre-season training.

We would not be trying to move them out of the stadium, it is their occupation of the training areas in Gosch's paddock which restricts what is possible. They don't train inside. In the same way we don't train on the MCG. So like us, they have piecemeal training and administration facilities. IF...IF something better was offered to the other tenants, it would mean WE could develop ours in proximity. OR we have to move somewhere else which can accomodate an oval, which means we will not be in proximity to the MCG.

This is probably one of the answers that avoids all of the other problems of trying to put an admin/training/club building on postage sized pieces of ground in and around the MCG/Gosch's or over roads/rail/tram lines at extraordinary expense. IF Melbourne Victory, or Rebels/Storm were to vacate to bigger and new facilities themselves, then one of the two training fields that are currently permanently set up for Rugby or Soccer is free. Voila!..... room to build something right in Gosch's, alongside Olympic Boulevard without massive cost, tree removal or locals getting their knickers in a knot. So where could they be convinced to go? There is space down alongside Docklands-Marvel that we were rumoured to be interested in some time ago. Would be more enticing to certainly the Soccer crowd, especially with games played regularly at that location.

The Yarra Park proposal was always going to be problematic, and a compromise particularly for Office and Admin space. I don't understand why we have not been mentioned in association with the Caulfield racecourse development..... https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/guy-first-out-of-barriers-with-pledge-to-open-up-caulfield-racecourse-20181007-p5089l.html More space, no limitations on use, community involvement, part of the Demons heartland.... And it could make ProDee doubly happy if his mob get up.

Darren or Craig?

...and they shut access to the place down for a couple of weeks at Grand Prix time. i.e just before the season starts.

Has Jeff Kennett joined us?

Look at the time stamp....

After 200+ pages, ain't this the truth about what is holding this process up. As Ouch has pointed out the CEO....the CEO!!! is doing the negotiations in the public domain......imagine PJ coming out during trade period saying we will or will not accept XYZ for a particular player! Bell is Football manager and now he is doing the negotiations after being there for 5 minutes! It's all well and good for everyone to surmise what will/will not be a good/suitable trade, but if you don't know who you are really trading with, it makes the job almost impossible. To top it off Freo has pick 6 at the moment. Their next pick is 80! There is no way they can improve their position for next year, so asking for their next years first rounder may be a piece of true inspiration.

WIth the change to the goal square next season, it will almost become necessary to have 2 talls( rucks) on either wing at kick ins. It will be a bonus if one of them can play forward as well. Once the ball goes down one side, the opposite will have to work hard to get back to provide an additional target, or go the other way and defend. Either way you will need 2 really mobile talls( rucks). One Max will not be enough to cover the whole ground and provide a target as well as actually ruck. The important thing is to get someone like Preuss, as he fulfills all the NEEDS for the next season, as well as a backup ruck role. Mumford, Roughead and Casboult don't have the tanks.

Special K

Don't give up yet. The existing seat holders have a limited time to renew if they are not on automatic rollover. There will always be people who don't renew, so get your name in.

Tally up now. Final number for 2018 was announced as 45,000. Perhaps we have to wait for the annual report to find out the exact number. Off to a good start though. The automatic renewals are up 4K on last year.

Win a final now removed.....more to come!

Only a couple more on the list now....

Fixed up.......

Yes we will. Why do you think Richmond played a home game there last night?