Dr. Gonzo

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 ?

He was in beast mode last night, hope he continues that form next week.

They clearly had a plan to transition the ball quickly by foot from defense and go through the corridor at every chance to break up our zone/press. Worked magnificently and hopefully we can take a lot out of it. I felt from early in the game we needed a cool head to try and take the pace out of the game, usually that's Salem but we had no one step up and show that leadership that was required. Very interested to see how we rebound from this over the next fortnight, couldn't ask for two bigger tests. I think I still would rather lose like we did last night than lose like the Dogs did against Richmond

Yes

I'm not commenting on whether I think he should be dropped or not, I'm saying there's no way the coaches will drop him. I'm not his biggest fan by any means.

Adelaide supporters on Big Footy seem adament the ball deflected off Spargo and hence not deliberate. I dunno, I can't bring myself to watch it again just yet.

Out: Jetta, Weideman In: Salem, Sparrow If we're serious about winning next week I think we should go back to having 2 tall forwards plus Fritsch, adding a third seems to have upset the balance of the team. We need an extra small to help lock the footy in and pressure the opposition exits from our forward 50. If we're still playing with our forward setup to try and see what will work Brown comes in for Weid. I don't think Melksham gets dropped he was pretty good early, but I want Sparrow back in the team. Only way Jordon gets dropped is if he needs a rest, otherwise any talks of he, Hunt, Petty, Fritsch, Kozzie, Spargo etc etc getting dropped are fanciful and ridiculous.

People were panned because every week we are told it's a "danger game". Which games aren't danger games?

I thought the were ok, we got a few decisions going our way as well. The two howlers at the end, the free against Lever, the first deliberate and the 50 against Max were all very tough to swallow but crows supporters would have a few they could isolate as bad calls too. My big take away from the umps is they don't like Petracca. It feels like every week he has really bad calls going against him, tonight there were 2 clearly bad calls. He got one back and nailed the goal from 50 but it seems like prior opportunity doesn't exist for him.