Pates

This is an interesting point, with no crowds the venue will be getting very little revenue with them then having to pay for more staff at the games (security in particular). I think food and drink is still a possibility, like you have said with the toilets if you have someone at the entrance counting the number of people and possibly having someone outside ensuring the line is distanced. I also wonder whether they may leave entire bays empty to make it so that you are sectioned in a specific area and reduce the potential numbers of people. I agree that end of the game could be a difficult prospect as you can have staggered entrances but everyone will want to leave at the same time. It might have to be as simple as asking people politely to be patient and wait, or perhaps suggest to people they leave a little early if the result is clear.

It’s pretty grim, sign of where we still sit. We’re a little unlucky in that COVID has followed a year in which our two blockbuster games were away games (still feel as though we should’ve pushed to have them flip every year) as well as a horrid time on the field really hurting the bottom line. I think they’ll do a donation drive at some point but they should make sure to let everything breathe for a bit while people count the cost of what they’ve lost. Just on the doggies and why they are one of the self-sustainable clubs, do they own Whitten Oval? They’ve had a very good membership ever since their premiership year and I feel like they rode a wave of good fortune and good management since then. Their crowd figures are still pretty mediocre so it’s not from there they get their money.

It would be quite something if we get him out on the park and we have both him and Kozzie in the forward line, after last year being so sapped of excitement up front. They could really be a lethal combo. Still I ain’t counting any chickens yet, this week was his first contact run in years so let’s see how he pulls up.

Much as I don't like it I think our strip allows for that possibility of a large front of jumper sponsor underneath the V. But I can't see how certain other teams could do it. For the extra cash, it might be a necessary evil.

Do our players have the jitters in front of goal in general? I mean the chances we created in the first quarter really should've yielded at least two goals from the quarter but I just don't have any confidence in anyone right now (very negative attitude I know). While I'm confident with this game against the blues, I think we need to make sure they don't get their tails up early. As you pointed out in your post @WERRIDEE we didn't capitalise with scoreboard pressure and cost us dearly.

Did they? They scored 78 points and we held one of the premier FF to 0 goals, 0 behinds and 2 kicks and 2 handballs. We mainly got scored on rebounds and turnovers (unfortunately reminiscent of 2019). The forward line (and the lack of cohesion with the midfield) was the big worry for me, as that was a major issue last year and we made the same mistakes.

Less games to make an impact so I hope he jumps right out of the blocks vs Carlton. I cautiously optimistic about him, hopefully it'll click for him, he seems to have the right attitude so it's about putting all the pieces of the Petracca puzzle together.

I'm not entirely up for the idea of 6 on the bench but if it were to happen this year I'd throw Bennell in for the first game with small bursts. I really hope they don't maintain the shorter quarters for the future, and it definitely shouldn't be more people on the bench going forward. I can understand it for this year as things are just completely out of whack and it gives more players a chance to perform, though I hope they'd maintain a similar (if not lower) amount of interchanges encouraging them to have the players out there for longer periods.

He keeps ticking boxes and that’s all we can ask of him. If he ends up debuting against the Blues it could be one of the most anticipated debuts from a Melbourne player in a long time. And it’ll be in front of no one!

Freo and WC have lost a home game, WC is playing the premiership favourite on neutral ground. Maybe we have lost out in terms of double ups but that as already been partially compensated with no longer traveling to KP. I’m not fussed about what we’ve lost.

Oh my god has this side by side been done before? It is perfectly on point! ?

Just an aside on things, the club will be financially stuffed from this year after coronavirus. The league is going to be stuffed for a while with spending already being cut in certain areas. While I wouldn't say that means every contracted coach is 100% safe as houses, I do think that it would take a disastrously bad season (think Mark Neeld) for a club to sack a coach with another season to run. The clubs just don't have the cash to pay them out and the league doesn't have the money to bail them out. I'd be shocked if Goodwin isn't at the helm next year.

I reckon it would be great to have a cafe/pub/function area that overlooks the oval and perhaps the interior of the center for people to look into the fitness and training zones. Sort of a way of it being interactive with the fans. I would really love it to be at Gosches paddock (and then rename it to Stynes Park), I just wonder if it too ambitious for a small zone.

I remember when they release that I honestly felt like they'd given up. I mean why not do a fan submission competition or at least a fan vote with some options? Just seemed lazy.

Ah your delving into territory well covered here, does the club have a naturally negative culture born out of the club or the fans? I think you may be going a little far with the spies idea but there are a lot of people predisposed to the worst possible outcome. Hate to say it but it is rather difficult to avoid when you've been following the Dees for a while. Carlton is a good first up team, they are improved (so we shouldn't be taking them lightly), but really with the team we have available we should be winning. I can't help but feel that winning this year will depend on mental strength as much as ability, who will be able to adapt to the new normal quicker? How do you lift players when there is no atmosphere to get people "up"? I would love nothing more than to see us come out of the blocks and smash the blues away.

One advantage the AFL has going with the "make it up as you go" fixture is they might be able to be more flexible with how they create the draw through the year. If a team starts to show some excitement and entertainment they could be bumped into higher exposure timeslots. This should 100% be an aim for us to be pushing into the minds of Seven and the AFL to get us into those prime time slots by the end of the year.

Plus the Happy Gilmore quote.

On the fixture, there is absolutely no excuses for us. 3 of them very winnable (would go so far to say should win), one of them we will be definite underdogs but it's at the MCG which helps us. If last year was the odd one out, then we should be winning 3 out of 4 at least.

Producer: "we're short about 3-4 minutes, what dribble can we use to pad out the show for a bit?" Hutchy: "we'll I was thinking that Max Gawn's hair looked a bit strange for a first time captain..." Producer: "done!" I think that conversation has been had more than a few times during the lockdown, not much to talk about so create stories.

I'm going to be genuinely interested to follow his progress at the Hawks, so many in the media were giving the club a grilling for letting him go, but I don't know if Clarko will be able to work his magic on Frost. He is way too unpredictable.

There was a golden example in there of what Frost does when he is on the liability side of things. Gave up a stupid free kick directly in front to give them level, takes a mark and immediately coughs it up. I was sad he left but we have enough liability players.

Basically I agreed with you however, and I admit I'm not familiar with the Blues list, but who would be the direct match up of OMac? Might be that he misses if there isn't a suitable match up for him. That said I still actually think as a defender taking the 2nd tall forward he isn't the worst going around.

Given up until coronavirus we were going to be playing GWS I think this draw has become favourable for us. Really 3 out of 4 should be near enough to 50/50, if we can get some momentum from wins over the Blues and bombers then the cats at the G might be a chance. I’d take us being 3-2 by the end of this. Good to have some footy to look forward to!

I’m pretty sure they’re looking at him as unlikely for the restart, if they’d gone with extended benches then I would’ve had him in to do 5min bursts here and there. Really hope it works out for him (and us!).

‘98 could’ve been a year to pinch one, we had a great team and the competition was quite even from top to 5th. It disgusts me that Adelaide went back to back in 97/98, not even close to being the best team that year, but they were the better team on the day it mattered. I was only young but I do look back at ‘94 and feel like they had the team to win it.