Dr. Gonzo

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No way they can - they can't play half a season under one set of rules and half under another. If anything they may cut back to 17 games but even then I can't see it happening. This will probably be a minor disruption and they'll work around the bye rounds giving them flexibility. I still think we have a 22 game season.

I imagine there's no way we're playing in the Alice next week either. Wonder if they'll try and reschedule one of our matches later in the year there (GWS most likely). Club will be missing out on big dollars if that match is scratched.

Such a shame been looking forward to this one since Anzac Eve ? I know in the bigger picture there's far more important and devastating ramifications for people - but it still sucks

Well an AFL membership is also a GA MFC membership - I don't think it gets you into reserved MFC members areas but you can enter at any gate at an MFC home game and sit in GA areas. That was pre covid, with the grounds sectioned off at the moment you can't cross over but someone on the AFL members thread on big footy was testing using his Hawks AFL membership to reserve seats in GA this year instead of in the AFL members section - main benefit is you could sit with others who may not be AFL members. If you want to sit in MFC reserved members areas you would have to upgrade your membership through the MFC, so let them know you have an AFL membership and want to add on a reserve seat package.

We play better when we're being more methodical and controlling the game (why Salem has been so important to us). It allows us to setup behind the ball and cut off opposition chains from our forward 50. The start of the game is usually more free flowing until things settle down which is why we tend to get off to a slow start. On Saturday the game never settled down which is what cost us. Even against North it took until the 3rd quarter to slow things down.

I've been looking forward to this game since we beat the Tigers - I know the players preach one week at a time but it would be hard for them not to look ahead and circle this top of the table clash on the calendar. We got through 3 games with wins not playing our best but tripped up at the last hurdle. Let's see how the players come out on Friday, hopefully they'll get back to the pressure and hard running that we displayed earlier in the year and in particular against the Tigers.

Easier for me to get a ticket then ?

Agreed and I'd also add "AFL reserve" is now different to what used to be the "AFL Members reserve" - AFL reserve holds about 22k but only around 13k-14k tickets have been made available to AFL members for recent Grand Finals. The AFL have limited their transparency on this in recent years eg they no longer detail how many club support members each club has. Interstate club members also seem to have access to the AFL reserve in H&A games and someone on Big Footy said their Richmond coterie membership I think it was gives them access to the AFL reserve for Richmond away games. It is also difficult to get seats on level 2 these days as they are often included in corporate/dining packages. I cancelled my AFL membership several years back as I wanted to give the money to the club instead of the AFL. Then I went to an EF with my cousin who barracks for Richmond when they played Carlton in 2013 and couldn't believe it was $80 a ticket! If you're going to 4 weeks of finals should your club make it that's an extra $750 give or take on top of your membership (if you can get a ticket). AFL members will pay around $250 or so on top of their memberships (booking fees for first 3 weeks of finals plus half price GF ticket for Full Members). You're right that it does feel like sitting in the opposition members area particularly against Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon, Richmond and Hawthorn - I often look to the Members/Northern side and wish I was sitting over there with the MFC faithful. Oh well, only another 20 years or so til I become a provisional member of the MCC. With the AFL membership you are a GA MFC member so you can choose to purchase add ons through the MFC (such as GF guarantee or reserved seat in MFC members area) though I guess this kind of defeats the purpose of the AFL membership unless you're going to a bunch of non-MFC games.

We were destroying teams in 2018 as well. I think we're more structurally sound (well except for last week) but the have the capacity to blow teams off the park. Good matchup.

With AFL membership you have to pay a one off joining fee. You become a silver member, I'd estimate at this stage there's about an 18-20 year wait for gold membership. The benefits of gold membership are priority to access GF tickets if Melbourne make it (tickets are released for gold members of competing sides first, then all other gold membets, then silver members of competing sides) and cheaper PF tickets (I think you pay just the booking fee which is around $20 silver members pay for the full ticket which is around $170-190). All AFL members get entry to first 2 weeks of finals at MCG just paying the booking fee which is around $20. You could probably sign up later this year just paying the joining fee, they usually have deals like this later in the year. If you nominate Melbourne as your club of support you retain your consecutive years membership with Melbourne and have all the same rights/benefits as a GA member of the club (voting rights, membership pack etc). If you sign up for AFL membership now you're effectively buying an additional membership. I think silver is around $470 a year (plus one off joining fee is about $220), full membership is around $620 a year.

"Mr Merlino said there were no changes for the rules on sport crowds, major events, bars or restaurants."

If we lose to Collingwood I'll give up hope. I'll keep the faith for the moment though.

Ticket sales suspended? Looks like it might be played in front of an empty stadium ?

What if we lose on Friday then beat them at the G later in the year? Premierships aren't won in May, as long as we play well and prove we can go with them I won't be too concerned about the result. Of course a win is always preferable but a loss won't necessarily mean it's time to start jumping off the Westgate.

If we play well and lose I won't be too concerned.

Bring back #32 Captain Jack Sparrow!

Uncontested possessions was the stat for me. We smashed Richmond in this earlier in the year and crows were all over us here on Saturday

Where have you heard Salem is 50/50?

That's a real shame mate and sorry to hear the bad experience you have had. This kind of stuff means the world to kids so I know how disappointed they are when they miss out and how frustrating it is when it's because of a basic administrative error. Hopefully the club can sort this out asap for you because they cannot afford to bleed members especially if Pert wants to reach his 75k target.

I wouldn't worry too much, I doubt anyone really thought you wanted the city of churches turned into Fallujah.

[censored] off with this negative [censored]

I thought Petracca was decent yesterday, won several clearances (he did tend to blaze away with them though), kicked an important goal in the 3rd from outside 50 and continued to run and present options. I think people are being a but harsh on Petracca, Oliver was phenomenal but I thought Petracca played well also (barring that late fumble on the wing).

We're not dropping/resting Jordon, Jesus H Christ. Young player has one less than stellar game - stop the presses! He's been great this year and even yesterday was still applying pressure through the middle, laid a good tackle early and was rewarded with a free.

Percentage won't matter after we beat then next week and go 4 pts clear ?