george_on_the_outer

Now ahead of last years figure....... 28,354

Total now 27,914......strangely.... exactly the same number as at 9 December last year.

The Lewis to defence line confuses people because they don't recognize how defence is played these days. The old traditional 6 man line up isn't played. Melbourne set up with a 4 man diamond and have done so since the Gold Coast game in 2016. Then there is a line of players "in defence" across the old half back area. That number varies upon the game plan, sometimes 1 sometimes 4 or 5. Lewis will play in this "defensive line". Sometimes it is to run forward, sometimes to hold back. The message is that he will not be used in the mid-field any more. Vince was probably played in defence last year because he broke his toe early on and couldn't kick more than 40m after that. Normally he is a 60m kick. Truth is he is a horrible defender, so I would think he will be moved to his natural position further up the field this year. Salem is the best kick in the side, and if selected he should be the designated kick in player.

I also agree with Little Goffy in his post when he says averages are pretty meaningless. Make it the average of your top 25 players and FND's analysis goes some way to showing that we still would have one of the youngest list that gets on the park each week. To back up Tiers assessment, the actual stats are included here: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-12-01/senior-citizens-who-will-be-the-oldest-in-2018 If you look at the club list for 100+ game players, you will see that only Carlton and Gold Coast with 7, have fewer "experienced" players on their list than we do with only 8. Another out take from that list is which teams made finals. Except for Essendon, the top 8 sides tended to have the highest number of those 100+ game players. Hawthorn stands as an outlier, but the injuries to Rioli, Stratton, Frawley, Hodge, Gunston, Birchall and Gibson during the season with Vickery a no show, would drop their number considerably and explains why they didn't make it.

Looks like the renewals are coming through.....Now up to 27,610 which is only 300 short of the number we have at 9 December in 2016.

MFCSS coming out already. From years of watching training, every week not in full training after Christmas is a week less for start of the season. For a mid who can't get in the running miles done in the pre-season, it affects their endurance come the real game.

Do the current TAC cup arrangements and rules enhance the selection of youngsters, or is it too open and free to make judgements which reflect the needs of AFL? Is it easier for a recruiter to have top draft picks, or do you prefer the analysis required for those picks further down?. Why do rucks take so long to develop? And what do you look for if selecting one of them?

Took all the credits for the EFC debacle, yet it was Quale and Niall who actually broke the news, and then continued with the follow up to eventually bring the house down. Not a single comment from Wilson until the whole saga was over, and then reverted to commentary about the individuals concerned. Never a bad word about Richmond, yet always took the chance to pot those who got rid of her old man. Not a Journalist, and won't be missed.

..."its not a matter of if its a matter of when AFL clubs exit poker machines, " Won't happen. Just transfer the ownership to a Trust with the beneficiary as the MFC. Voila! The club doesn't own poker machines any more.

Agreed....however in order to keep the associated poker machines ( and licenses) you have to transfer them to somewhere in the geographical boundaries specified by the Govt ( Gaming authority), or you lose them. So you need to buy something else close which will generate similar traffic, or the exercise is pointless. Bottom line is that you will need $20M+ to do all of this sort of thing, and the proposals in this thread to date about how to make more money are simply chicken feed. It takes time to build the necessary capital to engage in any serious money making ventures, and that's not the aim of football clubs....it's to win football games. Occasionally and opportunity arises and if the right people are in charge something can be achieved. Ian Dicker at Hawthorn, Joseph Gutnick at Melbourne, Paul Little at Essendon, Frank Costa at Geelong and Bruce Matthieson at Carlton, all put in substantial amounts of their own money to create external revenue sources for their respective clubs. That then creates the genuine continuous cash flow to help the on-field activities.

Have to see the financials to verify it, but as I recall the majority of our debt was from purchasing the Poker machine licenses, which are being paid off from the poker machines themselves. I think it was anticipated that would be achieved within 2 years. So we will be in a better position than North, once that happens, as we will have an unencumbered revenue source, and they still will not.

Because Richmond were given a second round compensation pick by the AFL based on salary and contract duration. For someone who couldn't get a game on a regular basis at the Toiyges in his final year with them......

No..No we are the Melbourne FOOTBALL Club. We exist for no other reason, it is enshrined in our Constitution. "...preserving and fostering the ideals and traditions of the AFL ...promoting the playing of Australian Rules football in general, including maintaining, providing, supporting and controlling a team or teams of footballers to compete in the AFL competition.....or any other football competition." No mention of basketball, netball or anything else. Leave that to Eddie who thinks he can attract followers of netball to a completely different sport while spending bucketloads of football supporters money to do so. Stick to our knitting.

4. Simon Buckley 9. Matty Warnock

Friend of mine thinks with the addition of these discards, they are going to have one Hell of a SANFL side.

Thanks to Its Time last year, we were able to put together, as best we can, the membership tally comparisons with previous years. Early days yet, and the data is as good as we can get it, to show how the numbers stack up..... Membership Year 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 1st game 25/3 H 25/3 A 25/3 H 4/4 H 22/3 A 31/3 H 31/3 H 27/3 H Oct week 3 15,211 20 21,980 22 19,026 26 16,654 22 17,625 25 Nov week 3 25,028 22 26,064 18 23,037 26 20,509 26 20,223 25 - 16,287 11,922 Dec week 1 28,354 07 27,914 9 24,402 4 22,433 3 22,105 11 18,217 3 18,747 2 17,541 3 Dec week 4 29,053 22 29,426 23 26,217 22 24,097 23 23,542 25 20,623 20,166 Jan week 3 30,068 19 30,200 20 27,027 19 25,112 23 24,558 21 21,873 22,402 22,396 Feb week 1 31,251 7 31,141 3 28,013 3 25,647 1 25,416 4 22,962 8 23,422 23,457 Feb week 2 31,310 14 31,537 10 28,759 17 26,290 12 26,039 12 23,650 12 21,448 12 - Feb week 3 32,075 21 32,137 17 29,217 24 26,639 18 26,641 17 23,650 18 24,195 16 25,253 17 Feb week 4 32,948 28 32,679 24 29,450 26 27,066 26 27,736 26 - 25,277 - Mar week 1 34,034 7 33,520 3 30,524 7 27,619 4 28,582 4 24,801 5 26,023 27,806 Mar week 2 34,691 14 35,080 16 32,623 16 29,510 16 30,421 15 26,751 14 26,791 14 28,068 Mar week 3 36,513 21 35,756 21 33,146 21 30,257 21 - - - - Mar week 4 38,089 28 37,025 28 35,117 26 31,035 26 32,324 28 - 29,588 31,087 Apr week 1 39,402 7 38,554 7 35,535 1 32,001 1 - - 32,235 33,359 Apr week 2 40,160 14 39,005 14 36,157 8 33,301 9 33,175 14 - - 33,753 10 Apr week 3 40,557 21 39,281 21 36,731 20 - - - - 34,548 20 Apr week 4 40,636 28 39,634 28 37,597 30 34,068 29 - - - - May week 1 41,640 7 40,083 7 37,766 6 34,352 7 35,205 5 - 34,489 35,205 May week 2 41,825 14 40,380 14 38,102 13 - - - 34,961 - May week 3 42,057 21 40,549 21 38,327 23 34,871 20 - - - - May week 4 42,352 28 40,749 28 38,479 31 35,017 22 - - - - June week 1 43,593 7 40,934 7 38,547 6 - - - - - Jun Week 2 43,791 14 41,022 14 38,653 14 - - - 35,403 - Final July 30 44,191 42,102 39,211 35,953 35,911 33,177 35,345 36,937 Post 31 July 44,227 42,233 2018 Progressive total in Red Actual dates in Blue Date of first game of season Home or Away

Good luck to JT with his new club. Port obviously think they are in the Premiership window, by recruiting all manner of discards from other clubs in exactly the same way North did a couple of years back. Trouble for North was that it got them up and going while those older talented bodies could stay on the field ( remember their 9 wins in a row in 2016), then completely fell apart at the business end of the season. Then all those older players became list cloggers at the same time as their original senior players retired. Result: down the bottom of the ladder in 2017 and likely to stay there for a long, long time. It's a calculated gamble. If it works great, but it is all or nothing.

I know it was the case with Demetriou that his bonus was directly linked to match attendances. One would suspect Gil has something similar. They then have the incentive to maximise those numbers, or at least create the situation for maximum attendances. So given that scenario, they will structure the fixture with the likelihood of maximum personal return. No point sending Collingwood or Essendrug to Geelong as the ground can't fit the numbers. No point playing North against Fremantle at the MCG when they will attract only 20k, much the same as Hobart. Get Carlton playing on Friday night and more numbers will turn up than Carlton on Sunday afternoon or (unfortunately) Melbourne on Sunday afternoon. The fixture is still rigged to maximise the CEO personal return. Our position has improved as we are no longer sent to Etihad ( because we get more spectators at the G). Our position has changed because we have proven to get the crowds to Anzac eve and QB. But it takes a long period of sustained crowd numbers to convince the AFL. Sustained crowd numbers come from SUSTAINED success, not on the back of 1 year ( even if our attendances in that year were in the top quartile of the Teams) We will get a better fixture when we get more numbers to games. Winning alone will not sway City Hall. But winning starts to draw back the interest from the supporters. We need to keep winning, and then keep winning next year and the year after. Then the AFL will take notice.

Hartung may be something to look at as a small forward to complement Jeff Garlett. Didn't stand a chance of getting that role with Puopolo and Rioli around. Closer to goal the turnover factor becomes less of a problem, but speed to get out the back is important the way the game is played today, as we have seen with Jeff doing it so well. I trust Jason Taylor and the team to do the due diligence, and if he is what we need then......

Purely guessing, but when stakeholders are mentioned, that means we have to convince government.....Now apart from the railyards being covered, and the reality of the MCG not being available for cricket season, the only piece of land close by is where we currently train i.e. Gosh's paddock. Could we be trying to get something built there, that we don't have to share and can house club offices as well?

How are you going to top that Andy? One of the greatest interviews I have heard. The insights he gave into playing with the greats like Stynes, Viney, Obst, was fantastic and he had me rolling around with laughter telling that Exorcist story.

Absolutely correct! There are no winners and losers in trading. If either party doesn't want to do the deal it doesn't happen. The one who missed out on the opportunity to improve their list through this process were North, Collingwood, Sydney and probably Richmond. But they choose to improve their list through the draft.

Unbelievable....Mike Sheehan has been trying for 10 years at least to get him without success, and Demonland has done it..... You may need to upgrade the server quickly......

You don't replace a dozen players with 2 picks. We have the talented player already in Lever. That takes care of 1 of them. Picks are picks......excellent if you pick correctly, lousy if you don't, Certainty is more valuable than gambling. And the team that finished last get 1 pick more than the team that finished first i.e the first pick in the draft. Their next pick is 19, right behind the team that finished first with 18. You cannot build a team with picks alone, as we found out in years past. You trade for needs, which is exactly what we are doing. The same process as Sydney, Hawthorn and Geelong have been doing for the past 5 or 6 years, and they didn't have early picks. But they do have Franklin, O'Meara, Mitchell, Dangerfield....

Same reason Jake Stringer is fielding options,....he has value