Dr. Gonzo

Agree those offers would appear to be severe unders.

Yeah I think BoM would be good as I could see us being able to form a long-standing partnership with them, similar to Sydney & QBE and WCE and is it SGIO? Kia would probably be a big windfall but we may get greater longevity from BoM. Either way it is a long way from where we were a couple of years ago where we were without a sponsor just weeks before the start of the season. This board has done tremendous things for our club over the last few years, let's hope the players and FD can translate that to some on-field success very soon.

Murmurings on these and other boards (Demonology & Big Footy) were that BoM was going to be the sponsor but we were going to go with Kia as the money was better. However recent other mutterings have linked Kia to Essendon so you can assume that either Essendon pipped us as the Dogs did with Mission Foods a couple of years ago or BoM upped their offer. Either way it seems the offer will be substantial and together with the Energy Watch sponsorship should be a great windfall for the club. Here's hoping.

Pretty sure Collingwood do this with their memberships but there is different cards for different levels of membership. May not just be current players though. I think its a good idea, the footy cards around these days are way too expensive for kids to collect (~$5 a pack - when I started collecting them they were around ~40 cents a pack and you got a piece of chewy lol).

What sort of connection do you need and how much bandwidth does it chew through per game are also questions that need to be answered. If you have to get BigPond Cable to be able to watch a game in decent quality you will go through your monthly allowance in half a game.

Think you may have misunderstood WJ. Trades for the mini-draft will be finalised by the Thursday and trade week extends to Monday.

Yeah that or he was still contracted (unsure about this).

15 seconds? That's Bushwhacker territory!

At least $600K-$700K Exactly right, how could they fit in Goddard with guys like Judd, Murphy, Gibbs, Kreuzer, Walker eating up their salary cap? I call shenanigans!

Yep we owe them one for Thompson but I won't hold my breath at this stage. Also huge laugh's to those who think any other club would do us the favour of taking Bate, Dunn or Maric of us for anything better than a late 3rd round pick. Would you accept pick 12 and 2 or 3 borderline duds for Trengove or even Sylvia or Jones?

Surely if its about the coin GWS would beat us hands down.

I'd say it may also have something to do with the amount of cash we have to throw around. I would assume rookie coaches out of the TAC system would cost a fair chunk less than guys like Gary Ayres or Blake Caracella. It may have been one of the caveats that yes we will provide you with as many guys as you require but there's only so much cash to throw around at this stage. Not saying its only this but I think this would be a factor.

Not unhappy with the appointment but thought he might have been one of the "assistant" line coaches rather than the forward line coach. The guy wasn't the most skilled or fittest player but eked out a very respectable career including a flag last year. You would expect this shows that he must have some level of footy IQ and no doubt Neeld will be well acquanted with him. Great also considering some posters indicating he was likely to head north (GWS? Brisbane?) meaning we may have pinched another of our FD from under the noses of another club.

And my view as well. What also needs to be taken into account is the fact that investing in the club/FD will hopefully win us that elusive flag (or flags) which will in turn reap it's own financial rewards through prize money, merchandise sales, sponsorship, membership, attendances etc. Also some (all?) of the increase in FD spending is covered by the recent injection of cash from the AFL which is specifically ear-marked in our case for spending on football operations. The AFL has told clubs what this additional money must be spent on and for us it is mainly the FD - other clubs like North were told they need to use it to pay off their debt and invest in off-field resources such as marketing and investing in strategies to increase membership and attendances and break into the western metropolitan region. I'm not sure how much this will cover but it gives us some scope to significantly increase our FD spending to be able to compete with the elite clubs without having to worry about blowing out the bank balance.

Is this even a question? Any true Vicotrian, nay Australian, is going for the Cats. Can you imagine the rubbish we would have to put up with if the Pies not only went back-to-back but at the same time equalled Carlton and Essendon on 16 flags? Makes me sick even thinking about it. And for the guy who talked about the Cats being the umpires pets and whinging for free kicks - Collingwood are the AFL pets and whinge for EVERYTHING!!!

Hopefully once Norm is resurrected at the G in the parade of champions next year and welcomed back home the curse will be lifted. Would love for the Pies to be handed the curse but even with being reigning premiers and pinching one in 1990, I'd hope our next 50 years is more successful than their last 50 years let alone ours.

Are you serious mate? Yes I uunderstand where you're coming from but geez the club can't win with some of you blokes. The club needs to roll the dice and back themselves to get some success and hope that leads to generating greater income. It's on the supporters as well to buy memberships, turn up to home games, back the club and get others along to games or convince lapsed members to sign up again. Pay extra for a reserved seat membership, by some merchandise from the Demon Shop, whatever but you can't expect to compete with Collingwood, Geelong, Hawthorn, West Coast, Adelaide, Carlton & Essendon if the club and supporters aren't willing to do their part as well.

Intensity was unbelievable especially from the Hawks and Mitchell, Lewis and Sewell in particular. Neeld should sit our boys down and make them watch that from start to finish before the pre-season starts so they know what level of intensity and gut-running is required to be the best.

No mention yet of Mahoney & Choco Royal? Hopefully they're next out the door.

Preferred the old version on the IP communities app for the iPhone. The new version doesn't seem to be any difference between the app and just using a browser. Anyway just some feedback.

I was an AFL Gold Member for 10 years but at the end of the day all it got me was access to a few Richmond games when I went with my cousin and one final every two years when I went with my girlfriend (who barracks for Geelong). There was no point trying to get Grand Final tickets because none of my mates are AFL members so I'd rather sit around a BBQ with some beers watching that than sitting by myself at the 'G. I thought I'd regret giving up my AFL ticket but I haven't missed it one iota. At the end of the day I'd much rather give ~$500 to the MFC guaranteeing me a GF ticket should we ever make it and depriving the AFL of my ~$500 (when you take my family into account as well this is closer to ~$2000-$2500). MFC only gets about ~$150 from the AFL membership. It's all well and good to say people are kidding themselves if they think you'll give up an AFL membership and at the end of the day it's your choice, but I think if you want to truly support the MFC and not the AFL (who would like nothing better than to see clubs like MFC, NMFC, Footscray etc either merge or relocate) then there is only one option. As for the AFL Record I stopped buying those when they went over $2.50-$3. Seriously what are they now $5-$6? What a joke. Bring back the mini newspaper version that cost 99 cents.

Let's weigh the scales; 6 Premierships >>>>>>>>>>>> 31 games Yep not even close.

Yep the system is stuffed, the game is all about money but I can't help but love the club. My dilemma; how do you hurt the AFL without hurting the MFC? Don't buy a membership? Don't turn up to games? What would the AFL care? I decided a few years ago to give up my Gold AFL Membership and spend the $500 per year on a premium MFC Membership so the money would go to the club rather than bankrolling the organisation that wants to see clubs like us and North go under. Other than this though what can we Common Fans really do to let our anger and dissatisfaction known to the AFL?

Thought Garry's response on Footy Classified was weak as. Don't hate the kid, hate the system? 95% of players would have taken the payday? What about Bartel, Swan, Thomas, Dustin Martin? It's bad enough to get screwed but I'm sick of this club bending over and handing the AFL the lube.

We beat Brisbane after some Jurrah magic. Oh, and $cully left early so he could come home and speak to GWS.