Dr. Gonzo

I just watched a Saturday night replay of the round 7 1988 game Melbourne vs Hawthorn. Albeit a condensed version that game would crap on anything from the last 10 years. There were hardly any ballups around the ground and the skills on display were quite good. No chipping the ball around, no flooding, no scrums, great marks, great tackles, great goals, one on one play around the ground and players on their last legs in the last quarter.

Even if it comes back by Queen's Birthday (which is extremely unlikely) there won't be any supporters allowed in negating the benefits of hosting it.

People might also find themselves in the dole queue now when 6 months ago they wouldn't have ever foreseen that. To not be understanding that circumstances have changed considerably for everyone, not just the AFL and clubs, is extremely ignorant. I haven't been impacted (yet) and hopefully I won't be - but I'm not going to guilt trip others who may be experiencing extremely tough times at the moment.

Kayo was the first thing that got cancelled

Sure - and maybe the players can take a bigger whack as well to share some of the burden. I'm not talking those on minimum wage - those who are earning $300k plus a year should be foregoing everything above that in the interests of ensuring the ongoing financial viability of the competition.

I won't be seeking a refund either - at this stage. But if someone has lost their jobs or stood down without pay and pay for memberships for husband, wife and kids I can understand why $1000-$2000 might be seen as more important spent on groceries and bills instead of season tickets for games that won't happen.

That interview had two purposes. 1) Eddie wanted to let people know there would no automatic refunds of everyone's membership fees and 2) tune in to Footy Classified! They would've set it up before hand, classic face/heel promo work.

A lot of those up there is highly recommend especially The Coach, Football Ltd and Time and Space Id add Urge To Merge by Ian Ridley The Grand Old Flag by Lynda Carroll Grand Finals Vol 1, 2 and 3 (2 is the best ) The Phoenix Rises by Ross Oakley (hire it from the library or get it at a 2nd hand shop tho) A Game of Our Own by Geoffrey Blainey The Last Quarter by Martin Flanagan - includes his book about the 1970 GF, Souther Sky, Western Oval and The Game in Time of War Also Every Game Ever Played, I have the 1992 edition that covers up to the 1991 season (probably no longer in print but was the bible for me as a kid)

So they're looking to recommence the season around about the time the virus is expected to peak? Rocket surgeons running this competition (assuming Maher is actually on the money of course)

You need to explain how relocating/merging or killing off any clubs is going to lead to a better bottom line. In the 80s/90s I could see the argument. But these days with the size of the tv rights contracts that rely just as much on volume of games as quality and with each Victorian club having a minimum of 35k paying members (most at least 40k) the financial argument to get rid of Vic clubs does not make sense. Ifyou merge 2 Vic clubs with 40k members each you're not going to all of a sudden have a club with 80k - a lot of those supporters will be lost to footy.

After the Fitzroy debacle if the AFL white-anted another club into relocating/merging they would lose a lot of their support from the wider footy community, especially if they continued to prop up wastelands like the Gold Coast. Any Demons supporter should be extremely wary of these kinds of moves - once (if) North goes we won't be far from the front of the queue to be next on the chopping block.

The only ones pushing for mergers will be the non-Vic clubs - they will want to shift the balance of power outside Victoria so they can drive their agendas such as moving the Grand Final away from the MCG NB - we clearly CAN support 10 teams in Melbourne, we have been doing so for almost 100 years. If the AFL didn't hamstring clubs with biased fixturing and stadium deals or implemented a revenue sharing arrangement like exists in competitions such as the NFL clubs would easily be able to stand on their own. The AFL looks after the AFL's bottom line at the expense of the clubs. Clubs should be pocketing the majority of AFL revenue however when the AFL hands out a million dollars here or there they act as if they are doing the clubs a favour! They should never have been withholding that money in the first place.

It's just the AFL/Media pulling out every trick in their kitbag to try and stay relevant and in the news while there are no games being played. Anything to generate discussion. Mergers? Private ownership? Wildcard Round? Best of 3 Grand Final Series? Night Grand Final? Christmas Day Grand Final? Well at least that's a new one!

Private ownership is the one big thing I hate about US sports. I just don't get it. We would no longer be members but season ticket holders. If you get saddled with a bad owner (like Woody Johnson and his sons for my NY Jets) or one who thinks he can dictate to the coach and GM like Jerry Jones at the Cowboys you're absolutely screwed and there's nothing the supporters can do about it. Not only that but they'll be looking at more and more ways to gouge money from supporters, say goodbye to GA tickets.

This should have happened 20 years ago once they began compromising the fixture for tv dollars. If at the end of all this Melbourne ends up merging or dying I'll be lost to the AFL. I don't think that would've been the case in the past but the game on its own is not enough to keep me interested anymore. Without the tribalism of supporting the club I have since I was born, that my family support, footy as it is played in the AFL would hold little interest.

I can't get past the paywall but I'm assuming Dangerfield wants the AFL to make player salaries public...

Land that size in the CBD? Yeah I'm pretty sure it would have some value

The clubs own 1/18th share of Docklands don't they?

Settle down Cam

This should be done next year (assuming we're back to normal by then).

We'll be lucky if there still is an AFLW next season (not to mention a few AFL clubs too)

I haven't got an email about this yet....

It sucks and it is going to have a massive impact on the entire economy. I would not want to be a business owner right now. But I don't think you can escape the impact. Whether we close things (like schools) down now or in 3 weeks, you're just delaying the inevitable and allowing things to get worse in the meantime.

It's BS they're more worried about the impact on the economy than the availability of health care workers. You can't negotiate with a virus, you can't bargain and wait it out til the school holidays. Incompetent buffoons in charge everywhere who know nothing except their neo-liberal ideologies and worship of the marketplace. But at least Scotty has some stern words for those acting like idiots, I'm sure they'll listen.

School, work, supermarkets - essential services Professional sports - non-essential luxury entertainment The point is not to eliminate exposure, chances are a majority of people are going to end up contracting the virus at some point. The point is to slow it's movement through society so the public health system isn't overwhelmed and people die because they can't get treatment. Any non-essential activities should be reduced or eliminated to reduce the chances of infection and slowing the spread. But it will spread now that it's here, I don't think we can put the genie back in the bottle. Borders should've been locked down a month ago but then again a month ago I was laughing at people who were worried about this. I thought it would be another SARS/Avian flu deal. The effects on health and the economy are beyond what I imagined it would be and for Australians it is going to get worse before it gets better.