Lucifers Hero

Voss is teaching them the right way and doesn't expect everything to click this year. McKay will be back and if McGovern ever becomes a professional in his preparation and recovery they will be strong additions. They don't have a lot of weaknesses. They were ferocious for the first half last night. They will learn to do that for 4 quarters like we have. They play for each other like we do. Over the pre-season Voss will make some list changes to an already strong list. He will strengthen their all field defensive work. Next year is the year to be concerned about Carlton.

AFL prime time FTA criteria: Win games. Big memberships. Blockbuster games. Bulldogs fail miserably on the first two counts. They have won 4 of 9 games for goodness sake! The AFL is hoping they come good as they have lots of games vs top 8 teams which might be blockbusters. If they don't it will be a big flop; just like all the Friday night games they gave Carlton a few years ago. And the flop that will happen in a few months when Ess have 3 consecutive Friday night games. The Bulldogs will be lucky to make the top 8 as they need to win at least 8 or 9 of the last 13 games and build some %. Just can't see what the Bulldogs attraction is to Ch7! They AFL should have waited to see if the Bulldogs win today before they put their chips all in on them. Lose and top 8 becomes even more unlikely. The AFL should stop making 'captain's calls' on teams they want to promote and reward those that fit their criteria.

I'm guessing the crowd would be about 50/50. The AFL would allocate the same number of tickets to each club for members before sales to the general public. We would outnumber them in the MCC stand and they would outnumber us in the AFL stand. Then it depends what the 'neutrals' do. Can't imagine any self respecting Ess, Rich, Coll fan barracking for Carlton🙄. As unpalatable as it would be for them barracking for the dees would be the way to go🙃. Or, they stay home.😐

Yes, not sure what the email means by 'scan' the membership card. The GA tickets for the QB game are already on the mobile membership. There is no bardcode with them. Not sure if GA membership tickets have barcodes on the mobile app. Best to call the club to check the finer details

Players and Coaches don't care: Anytime. Anywhere. Anyone. Sponsors do and Pert may need to explain what the AFL is up to.

@ElDiablo14 Re your QB ticket question in the 'Fixture' thread. Yes, the QB game is a replacement for the Alice game. Yes you can walk up to the G and get in as a GA entry. The club sent an email to members on Monday which said: If you’d like to reserve your seat for a discounted price, you can enter your barcode into the box provided on Ticketek to upgrade. You can also purchase guest tickets and access up to 10 tickets in one transaction. Round 12-15 ticket on sale details below. Members - Tuesday 17th May 2:00pm General Public - Wednesday 18th May 11:00am YOUR BARCODE(S) ...................................... Alternatively, simply scan your membership card like you would at any home game and you will be granted general admission access subject to availability.

We may end up with that as a defacto result as 18 into 10 doesn't go. To avoid diabolically poor games they will have to fixture the 4 new teams and last year's bottom 5 or 6 teams against each other. Last years top 9-10 teams play each other. As I and others have mentioned the result will be that poor teams will play finals at the expense of good teams, like they did when we had 'Conferences'.

Somewhere in South Melbourne?

Coaches have mentioned trying different game tactics in games. Maybe Melksham is to experiment with ball movement into our fwd line. The # of points we kick says our fwd work isn't as good as the rest of our game. And, by now other clubs have done their homework on us and working out tactics to counter our strengths. If we change up our mid to fwd ball movement it helps make their ideas less damaging and give us better scoring accuracy. Good timing to change aspects of our game with Freo, Sydney, Pies and Lions over the next month. Even if Melksham doesn't hold his spot if we are trying something new and it works the selection will be a success. Lets not look at Melksham's stats but at the role he plays.

My first thought was so that Ess leaned on him to get a MSD pick but this from the AFL article dispels that: "The timing of the decision wasn’t related to the Bombers opening up a mid-season draft pick, with Nik Cox’s foot injury already set to allow that to happen". (Altho the latest AFL injury report has Cox listed as TBC rather than season ending). He has been a shining light for the game and how it should be played and a great ambassador for his culture and hopefully for the AFL at some stage.

A good summary of the process, thanks. Can't help but feel that by not considering the quality of games doesn't undermine their goal to get more fans and more money. Its taken 7 years to get to a point where the quality is good from the better teams. So this is the time to go for max crowds but if the quality isn't there or a 10 game season is seen as a joke more and more fans might just lose interest and the whole thing backfires on the AFL.

The abysmal AFL attitude to umpires is highlighted in this article: football-s-forgotten-figures-the-umpiring-crisis-threatening-the-game They have been shunted from reasonable (sort of) training facilities to virtually nothing. It is a blight on the AFL who surely aren't serious about improving the lot of umpires if they continue to treat them as third class stakeholders.

Scarf available at the Demon shop on line again. https://shop.melbournefc.com.au/melbourne-demons-narrm-scarf/

Yes,that is a risk. A report 12 months ago, has his property portfolio at $14m+. dustin-martins-14-million-empire Carr has done steered him well. But as you say what happens when he retires is another matter.

Apparently he has well connected friends, if you know what I mean...

Wasn't it Hardwick who put it out there a few days ago that Dusty might want to live in Sydney but didn't say which team.

I looked at OOC the list as 'must keep'. Smith may again stay on a short contract but it would be good if his body could withstand more than a handful of games. Next year's OOC bring a new set of contract challenges with so many premiership players and new draftees yet to get a chance. Elsewhere posters have said the club expects to lose best 22 players altho looking at the contracts I can't see who they are likely to be. But if our players get great development and outgrow the opportunities we have then I wish them well. They owe it to themselves to make the most of short lived careers.

I thought that two about two divisions but doubt the AFLW will buy it for equality reasons- the newer teams won't get out of second division. The other thought was Conferences but they failed badly because teams in Conf B made finals with less wins than teams in Conf A. 9/9 giving one cross-conference game each. I would probably prefer conferences if they had a balanced fixture. 18 teams for 10 games is just awful and as you say it will really water down the quality. As it is about 6-8 teams weren't competitive this year. That jumps to 10-12 teams next year.

Oops. Yes, I got Hibberd and Hunt wrong - brain fade. I most definitely think Beddford deserves another contract but didn't put him my certainty ie 'must keep' category of this year's OOC players as we have other small forwards waiting in the wings: Chandler: is actually contracted for another year. He was courted by Adelaide last year but was offered a two year contract by us and stayed. For the second year of the contract he must be promoted to the seniors. Laurie: As a new draftee it is hard to see him not be given a chance at AFL level with another contract. Kozzie and Spargo aren't going anywhere so where does it leave Bedford? I agree he will be offered another contract but he will most probably get more elsewhere and become a regular 22. That is all a bit clinical on my part. On a more emotional level I love watching Bedford play and he has really taken his chances when selected. And I never want to see a demon player leave our club.

big-new-pay-deal-for-aflw-players Great to see the pay increases for the players. What doesn't make sense is a 10 game season when there are 18 teams. How can the draw not be super compromised! Nearly half the comp doesn't play each other!! Guaranteed this year's top 6 won't play any of the 4 new teams or last year's bottom 4. For them it will be like a finals series within a regular season. And what a massive free kick into the upper part of the finals for any of last year's top 6 to play a new team or last year's bottom teams. At least they have increased the finals to the top 8 which hopefully means the better teams will make the finals regardless of who they play. But there is also a chance some will be eliminated before the finals because of a compromised draw. imv a 10 game season has made it a lesser comp than it should be. A lot of games will be hard to watch. What are the odds that Carlton and Essendon get very favourable draws... Note to AFL: Can we please have some Home games vs Freo, Lions and Crows where we get the ground and crowd advantage. To not have that makes it very difficult for us to have Home finals let alone a Home GF. They have had that advantage over us long enough!

One of my favourite!

I would be surprised if either GWS or Syd pick up a $1.0m+ tab and give Rich some high draft picks. Suspect it will be one or the other or watering down of both. Hardwick is so transparent. I don't doubt his sincerity in supporting Dusty's move but it is a clear ploy to max a trade. .

If it was a recording I would FF 🙃

Now via Ticketmaster. https://www.ticketmaster.com.au/event/25005C9AC5993106

I detect a fair amount of nonchalance among dee fans. Not hubris and not taking this era for granted. Well, maybe not even nonchalance; may impatience. LIke: can we hurry up and get to September! 🙄