Demon17

I wonder if its planned to announce at or just prior to AGM on 17th December? Hope so.

Brilliant comment. If you take Lewis out of the team, MFC drop to last or second last in games experience. Every team has outliers, but in Dees case this is more pertinent given Lewis was drafted only a couple of years ago at a late age. Similar impact on av. age too. This table then has a scary upside from the Dees for rest of comp.

I agree with above. Watching the 2 mcg finals we saw trac exude class and make serious impacts. Not for full games but his huge upside was on display. Key mid size forward is his future and best value

$1/4 mill buys a fair bit of precinct master planning and options development with costings. Serious investment at this early stage but gets the ball rolling.

Re-watching the Cats and hawks finals show excellent examples by young Spargo on how a small forward should lay tackles. Cyril had it as well. Jeff Garlett is a long way off this standard in 2018 season IMO

I dont believe there will be a drop off. The dees are now made up of hard competitive youngsters with a smattering of maturity that don't take backward steps. They know how good they can be . Witness killer performances in the first 2 finals. Those earlier teams were flaky at times with substanard on field leadership. Not so now. Viney olivet gawn etc won't allow it.

He employs researchers and is fed the stats during the game BTW. My gripe is he just won't shut up. Having watched replays numerous times of the cats and hawks finals its nauseating.

Having worked and lived in both devonport and launceston, the answer is NONE or very little. Its just a day out is the way the locals tell me. The crowds in Hobart tell the same story. The hawks and Roos are only over there for the cash, and in the Hawks (or "family club") case means they don't have to have even more pokies than they already have sucking $20M out of problem gamblers and the community.

Goodwin also talks about challenges, lots of 6 day breaks, travel etc. He will just be taking this approach and the self belief of the team will do the rest.

A lift of 5K in new memberships will help cover this shortfall for 2019 thanks to 2018 efforts. 2020 then with both games at Home could be a bonanza year commercially.

Supporters of ALL other teams will be looking at this draw and fearing the game against the Dees next year. Incl the Cats at GMHBA. And in 2018 the team show great efforts on the road - this will hold no fears for them in 2019

The real story here is the AFL scheduling a train wreck for the opening game. It will kill the Blues season from Day 1. I can hear the post mortem now; "...what were they thinking..."

I think there's an upside to having Game 1 at th G for membership sales at the ground, rather than Dees playing there in Round 2 for the first MCG game

Didn't he watch the finals series this year and see how the Eagles unlocked the secret to beat/neutralise 1 big key ruckman (Gawn and Grundy). Great forward thinking by Mahoney and co with Preuss. This also guarantees we will be watching Big Max as a 34 year old too running around.

ALSO good at confronting plane hijackers!

Do you even understand deal making? . Hogan was gone and Mahoney got us perfect support for gawn who is our marque player. We now have a premiership defence and hogan was never to remain a kpf. We sae tge clubs plan for that in the finals with weid.. KK gives run that we needed. JM in my opinion has delivered goody the keys to success. Who gives a toss about wins/losses in trades. Its the final objectives that matters. I give him an A score. What will sadden me next year is watching jesse run around in a ross lyon-coached team. He will lose a couple of years off his career with perth travel as well.

Iv'e just re-watched the hawks and cats finals. You can't be serious?

Insightful comment Ding. Good post Hogan re-signed for 3 years 2 years ago with the undertone that the club has 3 years to prove itself worthy of him committing further or he's off. Well the Dees did in spades after 2 years and are now equal 2nd flag favourite in 2019. What more could they have done. Yet he's still off to Perth and that smacks of insincerity and investment to me. But given his recent history the move can be seen as understandable and I wish him well. But we now have a premiership defence and Weid was always earmarked for a KPP role. Roll on 2019 ( and we still kept AVB whom I love even if he can't kick sometimes)

Worthwhile and timely quote for this thread BB. Many confuse application of testosterone as part of getting a deal done and don't understand why they never seem get what they need.

Deal just announced. Huge kudos to mahoney.

Could be best long term outcome for Dees. Big Maxy will now add another 2 to 3 years to his playing career and this deal will mean in the GF next year Max won't have to carry the load to his detriment, a la Grundy this year who tried manfully but was outplayed.

True. But i understand this was the figure dees received from his management and opted out as a result not prepared to pay that much and gaff moved onto roos for discussions.

Agree. Just don't like it.

Gaff wants $1.1m.

The club will not pay what gaff wants. 1.1m They recognise the need to bring a star studded young group up together a la geelong pay wise. No outliers paywise and the team has bought into this philosophy.