Dr. Gonzo

Morton will be lucky if he is on a senior list next year.

Pretty sure I read somewhere earlier that Petterd didn't train with the main group yesterday so he is probably overcoming a minor injury of some sort other wise he would be in.

TD didn't hijack the thread, the thread had already evolved into a general discussion on drugs, their impact on society and how society deals with the drug question. The thread is about a former champion player addicted to drugs who has now been arrested. TD's post is well within those parameters.

It also reduces the amount of violent crime, by the users to fund their habit and by the pushers to maintain their turf. The problem is while certain governments are able to fund their covert wars through black budgets funded in part by the illicit drug trade there is no hope of decriminalisation on a large scale. It is also an extremely convenient method of depriving people of their civil rights on the basis of labelling them a "suspected drug user". The thing with keeping all "recreational" drugs prohibited is that humanity is also deprived of the many benefits that some of these substances could provide. Marijuana has so many benefits that are well documented that it is a crime to keep it illegal. The fact that research into other drugs such as psilocybin, LSD & MDMA is halted by the criminalisation of them has probably put psychiatry back decades. I am convinced that the guided and educated use of hallucinogens can help people with addictions or other minor mental "illnesses" (for lack of a better word) far better than current psychology/psychiatry and the drugs they peddle on behalf of companies like Pfizer which are far more dangerous and addictive than many prohibited substances.

It wouldn't surprise me if most of these drugs are developed by US intelligence/military related industries - they already feed their pilots (and probably other armed forces) "dextroamphetamine" i.e. speed to enable them to perform long missions at optimum level. Diet pills are also basically "speed" which suppresses a persons appetite. Drugs are everywhere and I agree that the issue needs to be addressed in an intelligent way rather than just illegal bad, legal good manner. I think what is being fed to us in our food and what is prescribed by GP's/psych's is of far greater importance, particularly when people either don't know what they are consuming or are relying on someone else's "expertise" to make the decisions for them.

Just wanted to bump this thread for anyone who is interested in trading some of the stuff they bought. There's a few games I really want (94QF v Carlton, 87 Night GF v Essendon) but am always looking for new stuff that I don't have. Anyone interested in trading PM me, I have built up a decent collection of games to trade so not just the ones I got through the NAG sale.

That game wasn't the best and I'm surprised they chose it considering the catalogue available. It wa a low scoring game at Waverley - not much to get excited about other than it was against the Pies. Wouldhave preferred our win against them in 92 at Vic Park or 93 with Jako kicking 9. That game was a pretty poor standard but not all games from back then were. I wish they had've shown the '94 QF against the Blues that is one game I am dying to see again.

Yeah I understand that and I'm not having a go at you, just using this as an example. Many kids are exposed to drugs by the age of 14-15 and are just as ill informed about making a decision. I know there were some kids in my school who had tried marijuana before they had even finished primary school. The problem is around education I agree but even that counts for nought sometimes when confronted by your peers and the invincibility of youth. Just saying drugs are bad and shouldn't be touched is counter-productive because once a kid tries marijuana at the age of 14 or 15 and realises there isn't much wrong with it and they are not going to die it increases the chances they will then try something a bit "harder" because they think, well if I was lied to about this drug they're probably lying about all drugs.

I see many people on here commenting that they have no empathy or compassion for Cousins for whatever reason - but they miss the point that this isn't about someone seeking public approval, empathy or compassion. This is a man (still young) who has personal demons to battle which is made even more difficult by being in the public eye and having an ego fuelled by too many slaps on the back and wry smiles from a young age because he can run and kick an inflated piece of leather. I don't see him out there pleading for your approval so why do people on here feel the need to use the opportunity for their self-righteous moralising and judgment? It really is egotistical of them Just to pick out one argument, RobbieF commented on having given up the drink but also stating he can't understand why someone would inject or swallow something that is potentially harmful. The fact is regardless of having now given up booze you did pick up a drink for the first time once so you would know exactly why someone would inject or swallw something that is potentially harmful. You were lucky enough that your drug of choice was easier to give up than some others which create a greater chemical dependence due to the foreign nature of the chemicals used to our biology. Some drugs the body absorbs and processes better than others for this reason which is why it is more difficult for someone on speed to go cold turkey than someone who is on weed or MDMA. This is a broader social issue but the facts coming in are that prohibition doesn't work. There are many reasons but taking this one in particular, question why does speed/meth even exist? It's a cheap, easy to make substitute for cocaine. If natural drugs like weed, opium, psilocybin, coca were decriminalised or god forbid legalised it would take out a massive market for other prohibited drugs which are more potent & more addictive and are used to fund violent gangsters, dictatorships and even coups, assassinations and terrorism of the CIA who is one of the biggest drug runners in the world. When the Afghan war started Afghan opium accounted for about 7% of world supply - it now makes up somewhere around 92%. Same thing happened during the Vietnam War. This is why drugs remain illegal and why the chances of them ever being decriminalised are slim to none while the current world order remains.

This show is horrible - no wonder I barely watch it anymore - the horrible staged "spontaneous" gags like Crawfords dolls spewing all over Sammy are just horrible and pathetic. Who finds this funny? It is obviously contrived.

If the Pies, Bombers or Blues don't lose anyone of significance to the expansion I will be very [censored] off. On Footy Classified Monday night Caroline Wilson heavily indicated that there was a gentlemans agreement between Allen and Eddie not to go after any Collingwood players and I'm sure Sheedy would have similar feelings about the Bombers.

On one hand that's right - but I don't think he's really asking for anyone's compassion or understanding is he? Addiction is an illness, albeit one that is self-imposed. Everyone has their demons and it doesn't really matter what your background is. I doubt he had his first line thinking it would end up like it has the last few years. I can understand the judgments that get thrown around because at the end of the day the addicts problem is self-inflicted and s/he has control over his own destiny with every action he takes. But once you fall into the habit (and it is very much to do with habit as well as chemical dependence) it can be a very difficult cycle to break. Thats all well and good but there's a reason the "Just Say No" crowd and the drug war has failed. The fact is all drugs are different. Alcohol is one of the most destructive drugs around but it is legal. Caffeine and sugar are drugs that invade most processed foods that we consume in western society. Drugs like LSD and psilocybin have many beneficial uses if the user is educated about them. Meanwhile drugs like heroin and meth have no real benefits whatsoever though are highly addictive due to the euphoric feelings they give you immediately and which you keep chasing after the first hit looking to recreate that feeling. So you can tell your kids that drug users are stupid and they should just stay away as drugs are dangerous but what happens when they have a puff on a joint and realise that its relatively harmless? How do you reconcile the fact that alcohol & tobacco are both dangerous/deadly but legal while marijuana and MDMA are no worse (and in many cases better) but are illegal? This is why "Just Say No" doesn't work because kids are smart and quickly realise that it is [censored]. This doesn't mean you should condone your kids taking drugs or even tell them it's up to them or there are no dangers with drugs, but education is better than simply telling them all drugs are bad and deadly and drug users are stupid because odds are they will have at least one friend if not a number of friends who end up at least experimenting with drugs at some stage.

I have thought this for a long time and spoken about it on here or 'Ology previously - it really is a no-brainer to at least have a go at it. Teams like Collingwood, Carlton, Richmond and Essendon all built their massive supporter bases off the back of European immigration in the 50's, 60's & 70's so I see no reason why we couldn't do the same today. Give free tickets out to them more than once a year to have them keep coming back or have more opportunities to come back. Any time we play a non Vic team at home there should be free tickets available to international students in the city. I'm pretty sure we did this R5, 2010 against Brisbane and it was our biggest ever crowd against them (although still only about 35K it was a step in the right direction.) There's no need to limit this to any ethnic communities either, target all of them. If we get some from one group and some from another, who cares, it doesn't have to be exclusive to one ethnic group. The Casey thing I'm not so sure about, yeah it's a growth corridor but who is living there? I don't live out that way and never go there but I'd think it is more likely to be suburban anglo's or at least people who have been living here for a couple of generations already - they are more likely to already have an allegiance to a specific club and are unlikely to change just because Melbourne trains down the road, particularly if we are rubbish which we have been. If Collingwood began training where I lived when I was a kid I don't think it would have made much of a difference to the kids who lived around the area. in fact I was in the old Collingwood zone and we used to have them come out training etc sometimes and it didn't make me want to barrack for them. The idea of a Demon Shop in the city, while nice, is pretty impractical. It would cost a mint in rent alone and I couldn't really see us making too much money back off it. How depressing would it be to walk in there and the place is a ghost town in the middle of a packed city. Maybe though we could have stalls set up at the uni open days and try and target the international students there with free tickets, scarves, coffee etc Would be way cheaper than opening up a shop with limited target market in an expensive real estate.

Perhaps next time we'll have to give up draft picks if we want to sign an assistant coach from another club? http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/poach-coach-make-it-fair-trade-20120327-1vwjf.html What do they constitute "poaching" though? If we sign someone for 2013 who's contract expires Oct 2012 how is that "poaching"? I'm sure the clubs above the law would find ways around this anyhow. Did people hear us bitching and moaning when Essendon pinched Wellman off us after he just signed a new contract? Just get on with the job and stop being crybabies about it. You'd think the bigger clubs would be against this as there is no off-field salary cap so they can just pay more if they want to keep their off-field staff.

I have a VCR hooked up directly to a DVD recorder so I just press play and record and it's done. PM me if you wanted to organise a way to get this onto DVD. RobbieF do you have many games from the Northey era? I have a decent collection if you're willing to trade some? PM me to let me know.

The report states our positive cash flow for 2011 was just over $600K so it seems you are right, we still would have had a profit but it would have been minimal.

From what I can make out it is because of the handouts they have got from the AFL & SANFL - think they got $4M+ handout from the SANFL last year which will fudge their figures - however if you have a read of a recent article the SANFL lost money hand over fist last year and has funded Port to the tune of more than $13M over the last 3 years so they are being kept alive by a revenue source that is up to the whim of the SANFL. If you click on the link I provided to the BF thread it provides more info and has links to all the available financial reports.

Think you missed my point - what about the players that actually played in the 2000 GF? Yze, White, Johnstone etc.

MFC get the price of a normal membership out of it I think - so about $150. If you get a Gold AFL Membership you get access to a GF ticket no matter who is playing but you can get an MFC membership for the same price with guaranteed access to a GF ticket if MFC make it. Considering none of my mates are AFL Members and so I'd have to watch the GF by myself and considering I prefer to watch the GF at a pub or mate's place with a BBQ/beers I thought there's no point continuing to give money to the AFL over the MFC especially considering the contempt the AFL generally holds us in. I also think it's fairer to leave GF tickets for people who actually support the clubs involved.

What else can the club do to convert MCC members? It's up to the members themselves if they want to actually support the Melbourne Footy Club. I used to have an AFL Gold Membership with MFC club support and even though MFC got more out of that than they do an MCC membership I gave it up and spent the $500 per year on a Trident membership. If you include my 3 other family members that did the same that's probably around $1500 that the club's better off. I lose out by having to pay if I go to games other than MFC games, having to pay to go to finals and not getting access to a GF unless MFC is in it but it's worth it.

They're the figures from the 2011 Financial Report as far as I can gather - I think the $40M may be our projected revenue for 2012? http://app1.mailout....837892_0682.pdf Just having a look at that report - it looks like our "Revenue" is $33.5M and we have "other income" as $6.7M (which I think is the acquisition of the Bentleigh Club?) This is also why we had the biggest profit in the league ($6M) - without the acquisition of this asset we would have made a $700K loss going by those figures (page 11).

Haha dude you've been on some serious angry pills over the summer.

Just be aware, if you have just a general membership (i.e. you haven't paid extra for a reserved seat) you don't get into a "members area" like we did in the red seats in the old Olympic Stand in the old days. The cheapest membership will only get you into the ground, you will have to sit in General Admission seats (generally the Ponsford Stand or the Punt Road end in the pockets or behind the goals depending on who we play.

You'd think we would have learnt our lesson after 2000 but nothing changed after that. I agree with the sentiments of Dermie and Sheedy - look at Port and Essendon as well as North & WCE in the 90's all had the trademark "tough and brutal" teams not just players.

Yeah fair enough WYL and thanks for the response. Just reading through the last few weeks of this thread it seemed like some were of the "she'll be right" opinion and thought a couple of million dollars was neither here or there and something we had the luxury of being able to turn up our nose at. However the fact is, while we have increased revenue to $33.5M we are still well behind the top clubs and we need to get our hands on as much cash and as many revenue streams as we can.