Rogue

It's good to see CJ playing some good footy at Sandringham. From the sounds of it, Sylvia, Whelan, and Yze might be close too. What were the 'extraordinary circumstances' surrounding Ackland's striking report? The report says it's on 'Sunday-week', so that seems unlikely

There's a small grandstand. I'm not sure how many it seats as I haven't ventured over to that side of the ground, but the vast majority of spectators at the NAB Cup match were standing. It sounds like things are progressing. For those who haven't checked the link, some notable excerpts: Finances - What we'd get - Casey Scorpions GM: PS. 'While there were no formal discussions, (Casey chief executive officer) Mr Tyler said ''some of the informal discussions would have touched on a possible relocation of Melbourne Football Club to Casey Fields.'''

It's disappointing Davey's likely to miss, considering he's just running into some form. It'd be nice to have Rivers back, though.

That's right. You can get walk-up access to level three. If you're an AFL member you can reserve a seat on level 1 for the cost of the booking fee alone ($5.50). I think it's the same for a 16-game MFC membership. Ticketmaster sells the tickets, so you might want to check out their website.

In between getting dropped and being injured he struggled at Sandy, suspended for striking just when he was finding some form. In anyone's language, it's been a poor year for Newton so far.

I haven't seen much of WCE this year, but hasn't Kerr struggled playing the leading man over there? He'd cop the #1 tag here, so I imagine he'd face the same problems. Regardless, I'm not sure he's worth - to us - what we'd need to give up.

When I watched Dunn in his early(-ier) days at AFL level I thought he looked like a 'natural' forward. However, he doesn't seem to have the body of the KPP that some people wish he was.

Ferguson was not good enough, and with little upside we're far better off getting games into Warnock, Garland, and Frawley.

I'm with you there. I do miss going to the odd Fri night game.

I thought he did some good 'hard' things, but wasn't as impressive with the ball. Does anyone know what % of time he spent on the ground? I didn't notice him much in the first half. That said, I agree he looks a fair bit like Moloney from a distance.

It'll be interesting PS. Welcome to Demonland.

Your e-rep is ruined - better create a new account and regain your credibility.

Not that it matters much in this context, but I thought we broke even at ~20K.

A fair few people gave it a wrap after our NAB Cup game, but I didn't quite see it that way. I'm just not sure what there was there to be impressed/horrified about. That said, I was on the opposite side of the ground to the grandstand (when I got there it already looked pretty packed), so perhaps there was something impressive over there. That's not to say it's bad, but for those who didn't go, it was just a ground with small scoreboard + small grandstand surrounded by a small fence. Within the 'precint' there were a fair few other ovals (and some small changerooms etc. near at least one, IIRC). All the ovals seemed in good condition, there was a paved drive leading around the ovals, the car parking was very good considering it's a suburban ground (parking was within the 'Fields' area not far from the ground), and there was some decent 'landscaping' (wetlands area adjacent to the ground, some park benches around, etc). If it was your local ground you'd be happy, but I didn't think it was anything to write home about. No doubt there'd be plenty of work done if we were to play H&A games there, so the condition now is probably irrelevant. The big positive is probably that there was plenty of room to utilise. Overall I'd think it was 'nice', but if we're talking about playing games there, it's nothing to write home about as is. PS. Of course, we wouldn't be using it 'as is' to host AFL games, but maybe this is interesting for those who haven't been there.

No. A few times I was frustrated at how long Hawks players were given to dispose the ball while being tackled. However, watching the game I didn't think the umpires influenced the outcome.

Yeah, same here. Over at TD the WB are flying high - just like the Hawks - and played host to the Roos, who made a prelim last year and are in the eight atm, and only got 34,000. Anything to say about them? If Dees supporters are fickle, then most/all sporting club upporters are 'fickle'. Membership figures of most AFL Clubs ebb and flow based on performance. I'd suggest that crowd attendances do too - I'm sure you'll see us have more supporters when we're undefeated and top of the ladder after nine weeks, just like the Hawks had pretty poor attendances a few years ago when they were struggling on-field. I don't think it's a smart move to greet Dees supporters with hostility simply because they don't have the same level of commitment to AFL football as most of the people who post on here. All Clubs have the people who say they're a fan but don't take much interest, as well as those who go to every game, and everything in between. Unfortunately, we have smaller supporter bases than the powerhouse Clubs, and thus less hardcore fans. Just my 2c.

It's good to see CJ continue to push for selection.

I thought it was a pretty good performance from most of the guys today. Holland should be happy with his game, and I thought Davey continued to show form. For those who label Green soft, watch the replay a few times - there were a few courageous marks/spoils in defence that are typical of his game. I didn't see much of Miller as the game went on, and barely knew Frawley was there. Morton and McDonald didn't have their best games. While Valenti didn't get much of it, I thought some of his defensive/hard acts in the second half were really good - looked like a guy putting in 100% in that respect. Someone on one of the boards labelled Batram as a younger Godfrey, and his disposal has been pretty scrubby of late. I thought most of the young kids - and there were a heap - did well. It's good to see Warnock getting some praise, as I think he's been pretty steady this season. PS. I thought Moloney was alright.

Where abouts is that? The AFL Members area is on the Southern Stand wing - perhaps he was in there? I didn't see Stynes today, but I saw him outside the 'G near Gate 6 (Southern Stand wing, AFL members area) at half-time vs Freo, having a kick. He may have been in the outer yesterday, but in a few months he might be in the inner sanctum of the Club from the way he was talking on MMM post-game.

I actually think a reasonably amount of people would be interested in watching some AFL footy if it was 'on their doorstep' - and apparently the area around Casey Fields is the fastest growing etc. If their was AFL played locally, I would be interested in having a look, even if it wasn't the Dees. I do agree with you to some extent when you say a Pies or Blues supporter won't care, but I don't see success as measured by booting crowds numbers by getting thousands upon thousands of supporters from other Clubs to come watch just because it's local. If it is about crowd numbers, and implicitly about finances, then I'd suggest that moving games to another stadium is probably going to be a success. We've lost money on many games at the 'G versus non-Vic clubs, so if we find a 'cheaper' stadium we can avoid that. However, as I said, I don't see it as being solely about crowd numbers/gate takings. Kids are relatively fickle in their allegiance, and if we're going to give up on making real efforts to entice kids to our Club then we may as well put the cue in the rack now. Indeed. Yeah, it's a good point that I've wondered about. I recall Gough - MCC - said that he'd look at closing sections of the stands for the Freo game, in order to cut costs. I'm not sure why we need level 4 of all stands to be open when crowds will be relatively low. As I've said, cross-town public transport out east/south-east is poor, yes. All roads lead to Rome, and as you've pointed out, it means many people would have to go into town and then back out again. However, it's a heap closer than Carrara or Manuka. It's also a viable option, and would allow us to tap into a new 'market' for members. What inner suburb gives us that? Oh, please. Maybe you're just being facetious, but Casey Fields is more appropriate in all ways that I can think of, including travel times! Casey wins because... - it's closer to most local Dees members (presumption, but very likely to be correct) - it's apparently the fastest growing area in Melb - it's a realistic option as a summer training base I can only remember going to Princes Park once, but relative to the 'G it was much harder to get to than you'd think it'd be when told it was just another 6kms. Why do poor efforts at Princes Park mean that we must have our second, smaller, ground in the inner suburbs? If crowd attendance at Princes Park is your basis for argument, I'd suggest it's more logical to assert the opposite We tried Princes Park and it didn't work for us. What will change that now? Frankston & the Bayside areas are quite distinct to Cranbourne etc. IMHO.

If you read my post - which I assume you did, because you quoted it - you'll see that I specifically mention his defensive workrate, not his turnovers. An example would be to do the hard and unglamarous thing in running hard to man up an opponent that is loose and could present an option for the ball carrier, rather than just jogging along. PS. Fwiw, I thought Buckley showed much more today in terms of hard running, and attack on the ball. Edit: Another really positive thing I saw was that at a stoppage, he provided a block for McLean so that he could lose his tag. McLean didn't end up with the ball, but those are the sorts of things I thought were missing from Buckley's game earlier on.

If he's only playing Sandy 2's at the end of this season, we'd probably just want to keep him on the rookie list.

From memory I heard PG - MMM played some of the pre-game speech this afternoon - state that the Board have ~10 tables between them.

vanlo, I agree that ease of access to Casey Fields is a major issue. As you point out, even if you live in the East/South-East, cross-town public transport (as opposed to into and out of town) options are poor, to say the least. Way too many games away from the 'G, IMO.

It's the same on this board, isn't it? You need to be a member [of the forum] to post. I imagine you can view posts without registering, though. If you're talking about being required to be a (Tasmanian) Hawks FC member, I don't see how the forum owners would/could police that unless the Club shared membership details database with the Hawks forum.