The Chazz

Yeah, you must have missed the rule changes. Basically now, it is like a home and away season, where at the end of each round, there will be a ladder. At the end of the "season", the 2 top teams play in the Grand Final. Percentage and all that goes with it are now important in the NAB Cup. Pretty sure that's right - happy to be told otherwise. Cheers.

Agree RP. But in terms of regular exposure in the media, and in particular print media, Super 15's gets a hell of a lot more coverage than AFL. The QLD Reds are massive up here, and when reading the Courier Mail on a daily basis, you often have to go in 5 or 6 pages from the back (or what I call the true front page!), until you get to the AFL section, passing 2 pages totally dedicated to Bronco's, then 1 page of NRL, then 2 pages of Reds, and a page of Super 15's. The point I challenged was about a potential international sponsor, and how much more coverage they get in Qld if they sponsored AFL over Super 15's. It's not true.

In terms of media coverage, excluding televised games (as mentioned in my original post), Super 15's is easily the 2nd sport behind the NRL. That goes for print media too. I know mate, I live here. And in the past, a Brisbane AFL game took priority over any other game scheduled for the same time. Even if FOX had broadcast rights for the Lions game, and say Melbourne v Hawthorn (example) was a Channel 7 game but on at the same time, the Brisbane game was always televised.

Won't be us if they are only spending $4m over 4 years. They will need to double that apparently. I can assure you, sponsoring an ACT Super 15 team would get more FTA coverage in QLD in terms of media (not actual games televised) than sponsoring a Vic AFL team. It's a food chain thing up here - 1. Broncos (NRL) 2. Reds (Super 15's) 3. Roar (A-League) 4. Daylight 5. Lions (AFL)

Spot on WYL. This is the bit that RR is shosing not to understand. Put it in another way, if Pendlebury quit Collingwood, and said that he only wanted to play for the MFC and that he will enter the draft, only showing the MFC his medical records, do you think it would stop GWS picking him up before us? Ball entered the draft, dictated where he wanted to play, did everything in his powers to make sure it happend, denying any other Club the chance of drafting him, even though they officially had the opportunity to do because he was available at every pick until 31 (or whatever it was). For me it's not about the fact the we didn't go hard after him, it's about how they (Ball and Collingwood) ensured they achieved the desired outcome for both parties. This sort of thing shouldn't happen through the National Draft, and as a result, Free Agency has been introduced. RR - surely you have been around AFL long enough to realise that Vlad's rules overpower any state or federal law??!!!

RR, what is your issue? My initial comment agreed with both your view (which legally is 100% correct), as well as WYLs view (which is also correct in regards to the draft system being a total waste of time in the Ball case). And in regards to me "trying again", I was just offering a possible solution for the issue at hand. The issue? Ball, within his right, witheld medical documents from all but his chosen Club, entered the draft knowing too well that he would end up there, but the "idea" of the draft is that ALL clubs have the right to chose any player they wish to that has nominated, regardless of back room deals that have taken place. It's not set up for players to dictate what Club they will go to, but Ball, Collingwood and in some regards the AFL, allowed this sort of thing to happen which is a disgrace. :wacko: :wacko:

Ease up a bit here RR. You're basically admitting that Ball manipulated his way to Collingwood. By not giving other Clubs access to his medical records, which he in entitled to do, gave other Clubs minimal chance of picking him up. He knew what he was entitled to do, and as a result, got to his pre-announced destination. Simple solution for this not to happen in the future would be for all previously listed AFL players who enter the draft are, by law, required to release their medical records to any Club upon request. If it's a clause in the draft application process, they (nominating player) has nothing to fight. It would ensure the system is fair to all Clubs, rather than the regular select few.

I don't recall James Hird ever working for Cold Rock Icecream...

...and that we should stop making excuses about "perfect timing" as the reason we haven't announced a new sponsor!

How would I have gone playing BP in that draft RP? The top 2 were a given, I had Ball at 11 and Vardy at 18. Would mean we wouldn't have Tappy who I rate, and Gysberts who I'm still unsure of, but the way Vardy played his games in 2011 was quite impressive, and I agree with your sentiments re Ball. And I'd still have 2 first round compo picks up my sleeve

The sponsorship announcement is directed at the Club's fan base/membership base. Media outlets understand this, hence the size of the exposure it receives. A captaincy announcement is of more interest to the broader AFL community. Having a sponsors name on the new captains shirt will give them greater exposure, but that doesn't mean they will talk about the sponsorship in greater detail, becuase to the broader AFL community, it's not as relevant. I don't think we have a new sponsor, and when we do, I don't think they will hold off from announcing it, regadless of what other announcements are in the pipeline.

And if they made the announcement prior to the announcement of the Captain, would that not mean double exposure?

If I owned a company that was a new sponsor of the MFC, I'd want it announced ASAP, regardless of what other sporting events are on. If I'm pumping $1m or so a season in to an AFL Club, the people I want to know about it is the AFL community, not the tennis community. Over the last 2 weeks, there has been stuff all AFL news in the paper because basically, there's nothing to report on. So, announcing it now would probably get noticed more by the wider community/die-hard AFL followers, as they, like most of us, crave news at this time of year. I know personally, when I check the Herald Sun website a number of times each day, the first section I check out is the AFL to see what's happening. I'm as big of a sports tragic than most of us, but regardless of the time of year, the location of it in the paper, the AFL section is where I head to first. Even making a joint announcement with our naming of the captaincy, it will be largely overshadowed. Hypothetically, if Tregove were named captain, he'd be the youngest captain in history. Someone like the Herald Sun will probably have a full page on that, but there won't be as much exposure for a new sponsor as you think. The opening paragraph will read something like "The Melbourne Football Club has named Jack trengove as Captain, which makes him the youngest in history. And on an historic day, when the Club unveiled its new leadership group, they also revealed their new major sponsor, with X company signing on for 3 years. But it's the Trengove appointment that shows the new direction the Club is taking..." The article would go on about the new Captain, then if they're lucky, the new sponsor might get a paragraph at the end of the article, or midway through. The media will be more concerned about the new appointment, and while at a presser, CS would be trying to promote the new signing of a sponsor, the journos will shift focus back on the new captain. Is there really a wrong time to make an announcement of this nature? In our eyes, we're the biggest Club in the world, we're the most important, and that anytime something happens, it should be deemed news-worthy. To the outsiders, we're a struggling Club that has underperformed for years, and are quite irrelevant in comparison to the bigger clubs. Nb. I'm basing my opinion on the belief I have about how much income our sponsorship will generate for us. If, on the other hand, someone pays well over $2m a year for 3 years, then the level of public interest will increase, therefore creat greater headlines. The arguement is am I under-valuing our brand, or are some over-valuing it? Time will tell.

Dr, would a stand-alone media announcement of the MFC getting a new major sponsor be worthy of full pack-page exposure? I don't think it is. Throughout the year is when they will get the most media exposure - when the games actually start and photos, interviews etc are ongoing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying an announcement won't get media coverage, it will, and quite a bit. There will be an artice in The Age and Hun, on the AFL website, and most iprotantly, on the MFC website. I'd be surprised if it made the TV media streams - they may get a brief 5-second comment. Some of us just need to realise that we are not one of the big 4 clubs, therefore, we don't get as much exposure as we probably should.

So, you're saying that there was nothing wrong with the timing of Geelong announcing, even though the tennis was on. But, if we had a new sponsor to announce, we shouldn't do it during this time? Wake up sunshine, a captaincy announcement is of a lot more interest to the greater football community than who's Melbourne's next major sponsor. And what if we get a new sponsor next week - do you want to hold off on the announcement until the day we announce our new captain? The issue with that is that it is highly likely we will get back page, but 9/10ths of the article will be about the captain, especially if happened to be Trengove. I also did mention that sponsorships was partly about brand awareness, but there's a lot more aspects to it, which you're obviously out your depth to consider. For companies like Mars, it's more about maintaining their brand recognition, so yes, that would be a case of being purely about brand awareness, and not getting business relationships our of it. Same would go for Mission. But someone like Kaspersky would have seen it as an excellent opportunity to crack in to a ready-made database of high-up business contacts (ie other sponsors of Melbourne). I'm not going to pretend that I have been involved in sponsorship deals with AFL clubs, but I have been involved in major deals at slightly lower sporting levels, Aussie Rules in Vic & Qld and Rugby League in South East Queensland, and the companies that I as involved in used their investment for the purpose I am going on about (like the Kaspersky case), while sure, some other sponsors of other teams did it just for the maintaining of their brand (like the Mars case above).

Totally disagree. Any AFL team announcing a new captain would make a big article in (for example) the Herald Sun regardless of what other sporting events are on. Perhaps someone can tell me (as I'm not in Vic) how much coverage Geelong got when announcing Selwood the other day. I know the Huns website had a number of articles about it. In regards to the sponsorship, why don't some of understand that we, MFC members and supporters, are the main ones that care who we get as sponsor. A sponsorship announcement on its own will not generate massive headlines, unless it is league record amounts. Sponsors invest in to footy clubs for a number of reasons. Obviously, the exposure which creates awareness is part of it, but that's only as small part. It's having access to a captured audience (ie the folk who barrack for that club), as well as getting contacts of other companies that sponsor the same club.

Happy to agree with that! Amazing how WYL's comments about Jones not being the captain-type becuase he goes surfing has turned in to much more. God we need this season to start!

Point taken re Junior. I'd rather a captain put in a B-grade year, more to the point, 22 B-grade performances, as opposed to 3 A-grade ones, followed by 2 D-grades, then 3-C grades, etc, etc. Using those players I named shows that you don'thave to be an A-grade player to be a captain. I also question everyone's opinion to so confidently say what a player is like amongst his teammates, especially offield where the public don't have access to such happenings. I have just watched the last 3 interviews of Jones on Dee TV. The latest one was with Ellie McKenzie, which are generally more light-hearted than informative. Then I watched his B&F speech, and the interview after the Gold Coast game. I see a bloke who is honest, wears his heart on his sleeve, is straight to the point, and would only need to tidy up in some very small areas, of which a little bit of media training would easily fix. While he has been called a meat-head on here, I think he's a lot like where Shane Crawford was around the same time in his career (in terms of media potential). That's my opinion, and I couldn't give a toss if you don't agree!

So how many new customers has Energy Watch got that are opposition supporters, but decided to have a lok at what they do becuase they sponsor the MFC? The bigger ads that we/they put in would've had more impact than a news article. I have been involved in sponsorship announcements jnrmac, and from my dealings, when it's an individual club that you sponsor, any press coverage in the way of a news article is great, but it's that Club'smembers and supporters that you aim to get the most return from.

Playing ability-wise, I would have Jones along way ahead of Junior at the same time in their careers, and in all honesty, Junior was never in our Top 5 players. But then come to think of it, neither is Nick Maxwell, neither was Tom Harley (he was along way from their Top 5), Brett Kirk would've been near it. A lot on here don't rate Jones' onfield ability very highly, which we're all entitled to our own view. But as it currently stands, we have a lot of players who could, should and hopefully WILL be better than Jones, but they aren't...yet. There's a lot less risk putting him in instead of Trengove, but the return of taking a risk with Trengove is undoubtedly greater. Again, I think a Green/Grimes joint venture is the way to go.

Firstly Memphis, not sure why the need to be a smart arse. Secondly, for Caro to use the sentence that she did, I'm quite sure she wouldn't have needed CS's approval. She is not misquoting him, she is not saying "Schwab said that it WOULD lure a major a sponsor", she is just expressing her opinion of what he means by his comment about "a number of relationships". Isn't that her job to do that? And I'm quite sure she, adn many others in the industry, especially around the time of 186, published a number of things that were incorrect and would have gone to print not needing the approval of the Club. But, I'm not a journo. Seems that you are so up with it, I'm more than happy for you to provide me with links to the rules of what a journo can publish. I'm one of not many on here that is happy to be proven wrong. Feel free to PM me so that it doesn't clog up the general boards. Cheers. BTW, still waiting for that quote from CS that explains how we are getting a major sponsor from China. Ah that's right, you're too worried about if yours is bigger than mine instead of just keeping a topic flowing. All the best.

Very interesting post RP, and if anything, highlights that Jones wouldn't be a bad choice as skipper. We know what we've got with him, from what I see he has onfield leadership, and from what I see offield (nb. I don't follow him on Stalkbook, only Twitter!), he always seems to get players involved in things, espeically the new recruits. We saw with Junior tha tyou don't have to be the best player in the team to be a good captain, and Jones has that written all over him. I would be interested to know what Junior did behind the scenes that made him a good offield Captain (I obviously saw what he did onfield). Serious question - Can anyone tell me? RP, you've probably posted it alrea, but who do you think the joint captains will be? I'm leaning toward Green and Grimes, with Grimes to do as much of it as his body will let him. If we get 22 games + finals out of him, he will earn the right for stand alone in 2013, but at least Greeny will be there should we not.

WYL, this whole trip to China has been blown out of proportion, mainly in regards to some posters expectations about the purpose of it. A lot on here jumped to the conclusion that as we are trying to establish a brand in China, that it should automatically equal instant revenue in terms of sponsorship. There has been a number of China-based companies mentioned as possible investors, but this is based on nothing but guesswork. I reiterate, CS HAS NOT said that we will get a major sponsor from China, not to the best of my knowledge, and I will be happy to stand corrected. The issue is for us as supporters, we hear one thing, but often don't listen to what is being said. For Schwab to say that he is hopeful that a number of relationships will come out of a visit to China, or that he has visited 6 major cities in as many days, we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that we are getting a new Chinese major sponsor on board. In time, it may well, but if you got your hopes up from the outset, and are starting to question why we haven't announced it, maybe you thought wrong (this isn't directed at you WYL). The other thing that we need to brace ourselves for is that actual amount that a new major sponsor is going to invest. We may get equal to or greater than what Energy Watch paid, which a number on here automatically assume is market value, but in reality, it may not be worth that much. Again, I've said it before on this thread, just because one company believes the BoJ is worth X amount, doens't automatically mean that the FoJ is worth more. It's worth what someone will pay, and while we don't have a FoJ sponsor, that's a big fat zero. We will have someone pay to get the FoJ spot, it always happens, they may come from China, the may pay more than $1.9m a year. But I'm one of a few that is prepared for something that doesn't tick all the boxes of "what should happen".

Until we, the MFC as a group, can show that we don't need him, and that a premiership is won, a number of supporters won't put it behind them. We have been starved of success, and I want to see that hunger in the eyes of our players. I want the players to show as much passion for this Club as we all have, and will forever show.

Try telling that to Carlton supporters when the used to play against Geelong, and in particular, Milburn. For some people, a sporting team is a massive part of their lives. For a variety of reasons, they may have not much else to look forward to other than the weekends game. It's a ruthless industry, when you believe the Club has shafted a player, you get upset with the Club, but you'll always show up next weekend. But when it's a player that shafts the Club, and we're not talking just a player, he was rated the best draft pick in his year, and a player that we had high hopes that would help end our premiership drought, it does make it hard not to be angry, especially when our team would be better with him in it. I've never seen a premiership, a lot of people on here haven't either. It eats me inside as each year passes that I haven't seen one. I'm not more hungry for a flag than anyone in here, but noone is more hungry than I am either. I'm not angry with $cummy, I understand his rea$on$, but that doesn't mean I will ever forget what he did to the Melbourne Football Club, my Club.