poita

Every time we get one player back we seem to lose two more. Even with Downie out, I don't think we need to get too clever this week - just back our midfielders to win the ball in the middle and hold it in our front half for the majority of the game. Hopefully our defence barely sees the ball, so it doesn't matter who is down there. We need to win and win big with Carlton and Fremantle both interstate to come in the next two weeks.

The Bentleigh Club has been a disgrace in recent years. It feels as though you are imposing on them to find you a TV and a few chairs, and half the staff can't work out how to turn the volume up or get a decent picture. Last time I went (GC last year) we were sardined in a tiny room. It is not surprising that barely anyone goes there any more.

This club is as weak as [censored] sometimes. I'm absolutely for looking after Kade and his long term health, even though the club didn't do its homework and gave a three year contract to a bloke with significant health issues. But that clearly is not going to be as an AFL footballer, and we need to do what is right for the club. Let Kade get himself right so that he can live a normal life, give him all the support he needs, but get him off the list and find someone who can help the club in 2020.

Thanks to all those posting and offering their views. Also thank you to those VFL players helping out today - I'm assuming that most have full time jobs that they have stepped away from for the afternoon.

Lauren Pearce is a massive in if fit. Parry is a tall forward, so hopefully she can help us be more efficient inside 50, although we become very tall with Cunningham, Zanker, Scott and Hore down there as well. Maybe Scott moves into the midfield, even though she has been our best forward the last two weeks. Goldrick was important in the first two rounds so it is good to see her named as well.

Membership numbers are almost irrelevant this year. We may come close to matching last years membership numbers, but I expect a massive drop off from the higher categories, especially those relating to grand final guarantees. You can almost guarantee that most of the memberships being sold after round 1 are 3 game memberships which are barely worth worrying about.

I went for the first time this year on Friday , and it was simply an atrocious game of football. One team spent the entire game trying to lose and the other spent the entire game sitting back and waiting for the ball to bounce its way. Coupled with the howler monkeys on the PA, it was a tough night. Mick Stinear is a shocking coach and should have been replaced at the end of last year. He simply cannot find a way to structure the side so that players are taking set shots from inside 30m of goal. We have so many centre clearances and inside 50s each week for so little result. As with Goodwin, he is more worried about structuring rotations and managing game time that he forgets making positional changes to alter the course of the game. Birch is the worst kick I have seen this side of an Auskick session - it is incredible that we would give up a first round pick for her when there are so many talented kids coming through the draft. That said, she has plenty of mates in the same boat. Thankfully Downie and Pearce can generally clean up her messes. Cunningham and Newman provide nothing up forward - far better to move them out and create space for Zanker, Hore and Scott who at least contest. Perhaps push Hanks forward to provide some physical presence. If Cunningham is not fit enough to ruck I can't see how she can hold her spot. Paxman is a star, Gay has started strongly, but we desperately need O'Dea to find form. If we don't beat Collingwood this week I can't see how we play finals, and that is going to be a big ask with a massive injury list.

We are clearly the better side, but not making the most of our scoring chances and inside 50s will hurt us at some point. We need to find a way to take marks within 30 metres of goal instead of blazing away on the run or from set shots further out.

Stupid comment. Does Cricket Australia have a separate site for the women's team? Does the Australian Open tennis have a separate site for the women's tournament? The AFL runs both competitions so they should both appear on the AFL website.

Mulgrave and Dingley have been good enough for Hawthorn. Tullamarine has been good enough for Essendon. Neither is particularly close to the city. The idea that our base has to be within spitting distance of the MCG is so short sighted and why we are doomed to be talking about this issue for another 10 years. The City of Kingston has been falling over itself to throw money at St Kilda and Hawthorn in recent years. Not jumping into Moorabbin when St Kilda vacated was a massive error, but there are other possible options in our bayside / south east heartland areas. The board is being negligent if it fails to consider all options and is being pig headed if it wedges the club into a half baked, B grade solution close to the MCG.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/565270/what-s-on-at-family-day-this-sunday This Sunday 23 February between 12pm - 2pm. Yet another significant event for the club totally lacking in promotion. The family day was first publicised by email on 19 December and there has been nothing of note since. If the club want to sell memberships and merchandise on the day they should have been promoting it on a weekly basis. Generally an excellent day if there aren't too many in attendance and the players are very good with the kids these days.

I'm surprised they haven't updated the mission statement while they were at it. That release is essentially smoke and mirrors designed to distract from the fact that we lost $1.5M last year on the back of record membership numbers and dollars, and the board have absolutely no idea how to generate alternative sources of revenue. Ultimately they will likely do the same thing they always do - gouge long suffering members with the league's highest membership prices (or near enough to) whilst delivering mediocre on field results. Instead of aiming for 75,000 members, perhaps they could work on delivering value to those that are already here. The main positives I take out of this are: 1. Goodwin is gone at year end if we don't play finals (and presumably those who extended his contract by 3 years will follow him out the door) 2. The board is gone as soon it becomes clear that they can't deliver on the profit goals, likely when they have to pay out Goodwin.

There is a fair chance that none of those things will happen, particularly May. What makes you so sure? Do we pick 26 for the Marsh games? I'd suggest we'll only just be able to field a full side this week based on recent updates.

Hi DeeVoted, Thanks for all your great work. Please count me in again - PC Demons.

The club should continue to do everything in its power to help Kade the person, but he is done as an AFL footballer and we need to reach an agreement with him to free up a spot on the list. We simply cannot afford to carry him on the injury list for another two years. Further the club needs to come clean on what due diligence (if any) was carried out on Kade's health before they gave him a three year contract. We have seen some abysmal list management decisions made in the past 10 years, but this is clearly the worst.

Garry Lyon remains the best Melbourne player I have seen in my 30+ years of watching football. It is a travesty that he is not in the Hall of Fame given that every man and his dog gets in these days. He was someone who did the simple things uncommonly well over and over again.

Gawn captain. Some combination of Viney, McDonald and Jetta as deputies. Neither May nor Lever deserve to be anywhere near the leadership group until they can put together a full season of consistently strong performances.

Great to see that our injury list still includes Vandenberg, Kolodjashnij, Smith, Nietschke and Hannan. The same five fringe players who crippled our depth for (almost the) entirety of last season. Add Bennell into the mix and we are carrying far too many players who miss far too much football. If May, McDonald and Gawn don't play 20 games each this year we are screwed.

There was an article in the herald sun a little while ago comparing basic 11 game membership prices and contents: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/heres-how-to-find-the-best-afl-membership-deal/news-story/d7220bad569c78023e7a3cb758ab3b4a Our prices are generally around $20 more expensive than Richmond's at all age levels, despite us winning just 2 of 11 home games last season. It is no wonder that our numbers are down.

This conversation seems to resurface every few weeks. This is less about Nathan Jones and more about the 20 players on the list who failed to step up and take his spot last year. Jones played 22 games last season because he was seen as a far better option, even when the season was shot, than the likes of JKH, Stretch, J.Wagner and a bunch of others who have previously been given many opportunities and failed every time. I expect Jones to play round 1 and he will hold his spot until someone puts together a solid enough run of performances at Casey to take it off him. Given our lack of depth and his durability, there is every chance he will play game 300 in round 15.

My only criticism of AFLW at present is that there should be 10 teams max - the original 8 plus Geelong and West Coast. The remaining Melbourne teams are just diluting the talent pool and Gold Coast is completely unnecessary. You can see how critical the best 5 - 6 players are to each team, and if that top level was stretched to 8 - 10 players per team you would see a much higher standard of play. The endeavour and the physicality is first rate. The younger players coming through who have 10 years of junior football behind them have significantly better skills and better game sense than the players who have been parachuted in from other sports. Give them 2 - 3 years to build up physically and they will raise the standard further. I can appreciate the differences between AFL and AFLW and the low scoring doesn't overly bother me, although the kicking for goal still seems to be an issue for some players. I thought Saturday's performance was solid and Melbourne probably were a 2-3 goal better side. The mid tier seems to have taken a big step forward between seasons. I was concerned about our lack of marking options up forward prior to the season and our inability to convert possession and scoring opportunities into goals is probably the only thing stopping us being genuine premiership chances.

Laumumba was the most overrated player in the competition (by far) during his time at Collingwood, but at least he was interested in playing football at that stage of his career. By the time he came to Melbourne it was all about Harry and what the club could do for him, and football was just a means to an end. He was soft, lazy and completely disinterested. Some of the rose coloured assessments of Lamumba as a Melbourne player at the time were sickening to read.

I'd love to know how many new members we have picked up in the past ten years from the Casey region. Surely that is the only metric that matters, particularly given that the football team has been diabolical for most of that period and hence the facilities at Casey Fields are clearly not providing us with any benefit.

As others have said, it appears our only pathway to profitability at present relies on a combination of us finishing top 4, hosting two home finals and screwing over existing members. This is completely unsustainable for any club, let alone one that plays finals once every 13 years. It is astonishing that we would drop lucrative sources of revenue without replacements ready to go, but that is the mentality of the powers-that-be. It is more important to be seen to be doing good rather than actually doing good. As much as a training venue would be nice, our main priority has to be to acquire a social club in our heartland area which can be a meeting point for supporters. Done properly it would replicate the investments of clubs such as Hawthorn and Collingwood which have been incredibly lucrative. Bentleigh Club offers nothing for supporters and is only accessible by car - we can and must do better.