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....and PJ expects us to be back in black next year. Not bad, I'll take it.

So nobody sees us using PSD2?

At least he takes an interest I guess.

Delisted FA, get it done.

At this stage we have RD2 as well don't we?

When it comes to North he wears rose-tinted coke bottle glasses.

haha, so it is - missed that. Should have combed every post of this majestic thread.

The 5 things I learnt from the OP, NOTHING,NOUGHT,ZERO,ZILTCH and sweet F..K all. sorry not to sugar coat it.

Former CEO of VicSport. Refreshing to bring in someone with a direct sporting background of this nature.

How did he get the nickname 'Sugar'?

I like it.

It didn't turn out very well, is that what you're getting at? To save you time in replying I think a few have missed the vibe of my post. I think their decision stank and lacked balls. Perhaps this was not evident so I'll spell it out.

For the first time ever the PP has been decided on a club's propensity to improve (without it) and nothing else. Such a massive precedent to set if not for the fact that the AFL are compromised to the eyeballs and make everything up on the fly. The conjecture when the Saints put their hands up for one will be fun. Of course the media and other club supporters will use the "if Melbourne didn't get one why are they" line to argue against it as if we were somehow hard done by - but that is down the track of course. Such is life. Move on.

The Coke-Bottle Kid strikes again. I like this bit: [He could make an equally powerful decision before the next AFL commission meeting: withdraw his request for the priority pick. And attach to that withdrawal a statement along these lines: "We at Melbourne no longer want nor need any more AFL assistance. We are sick of people looking at us with disdain and embarrassment. We hereby commit to fighting our way out of trouble, all on our own."] Well thanks Damo for the suggestion and the extra condescending tone. Love how you went to the effort of wording it for us too. Who dafuq do you think you are? It's a competition you tool, the AFL implemented these PP systems not MFC. Every team works that extra 1% within the rules to be competitive and if an established club with 2 wins and 50% isn't entitled to inquire then who is?

Regardless of his next move, he's been an asset to the club and has always gone about things the right way. Good luck for the future Craigy and thanks for your service in tough times.

It should be a significant aspect of his coaching that we've lacked. Not to say we haven't tried but we've been very ordinary at it.

Poor Brisbane.

Even the things that couldn't go wrong still go wrong.

Must admit, I'm pretty uneducated with the drug side of things here. Even if the cream is applied to a localised area eg foot would its effect still be permeated throughout the body in a performance enhancing way? If not, surely there is a line between helping a sore/effected limb recover compared to trying to change your physiological capabilities in the context of a PED via injection.

Does Rory Taggert have a future with us? I've heard promising things with his Casey games but no senior debut.

...or, to put it another way [censored] off Barrett you [censored]!

There is absolutely no chance in hell of Williams and Craig getting on at the same club. Period. Voss would be a good get as an assistant though.

EFA given we've somehow gone backwards since Bailey.

You can lower expenses, it is that in most cases it is undesirable. Not withstanding the fact we've potentially wasted a [censored] load of money of late. But nevertheless I agree we'll feel the pinch to remain competitive in the coming years. I have a feeling Jackson is going to uncover some disturbing findings re the paycheques of some of these underachievers at the club too - ancillary types and FD support. We're so bad atm you could probably wipe a few mill from our budget and we couldn't be any worse anyway.

Simply that every year we budget our cash inflows and cash outflows and make decisions based on that. We can always lower our expenses to turn a profit - to a degree. In itself the profit isn't the main issue here its our business plan and ability to increase our budget every year whilst not going into the red. I agree that the donation side of things is not sustainable nor should it be. That well is understandably drying up.