Lucifers Hero

There are a few 2020 RFA's that might attract a first round pick; Wines and Viney come to mind. Both out of contract and both recently lost their captaincy. With all the Academy, FS and high quality FA's the 2020 draft will be a bit of fiasco. Re Daniher, various clubs who need a tall forward will back themselves in to rehab him - it sounds like his rehab issues were as much (lack of) motivation at Essendon as physical. Given that a club only has to stump up $ and no draft picks I suspect it won't only be Sydney keeping an eye on him. I reckon he will get a package that with/without some AFL fiddling, rates him a first round comp pick. Whether that is pick 2 or 19 depends on where Ess end the season. Landsberger was suggesting they will be bottom 4.

34,579 up from 32,985 a week ago. So, it looks like some optimism has kicked in among members, as well as memberships from last week's Family Day. Still about 2,300 behind same time last year but wouldn't be surprised if this gap isn't bridged before too long.

An interesting prediction by Sam Landsberger: Bold prediction: Essendon nosedives into the bottom four … delivering new coach Ben Rutten an early compensation pick as free agent Joe Daniher successfully departs. Question: Is this a year for Ess to tank again? The 'woe-is-me' injury narrative is already dampening expectations. They would get two top 5 picks; a natural one and an FA comp pick for Daniher. While 2020 is a compromised draft they can do well cashing one or both in for 2021 picks.

Round 2 vs GWS is shaping up to be more challenging than round 1 vs Eagles. GWS thrashed Swans by 16 goals without Origin players: Green, Whitfield, Cameron, Haynes, Cogniglio, Kelly and they lost their 2019 B&F winner in Taranto 10 minutes into the first qtr. Sydney were missing Origin players: Mills, Papley and maybe some senior players and they rarely take pre-season games seriously. Nonetheless, GWS look a team to be very wary of. Fortunately we are fit and healthy and hopefully we have sorted out the wrinkles in our game plan. Players and coaches will need to be sharp from the first bounce of the first game.

Excellent news for Max and May to get extra game time, especially if they don't make it back for Marsh02 in Tassie next week.

AFL Review of the game https://www.afl.com.au/news/378990/melbourne-midfielder-emerges-unscathed-from-practice-game 90% of the article is about the Dees ? Interestingly, it says that Gus played the first half in the forward line which may explain why he was quiet and not sighted at center bounces. No injuries reported.

Make or break game for finals. Both teams in the same Conference and both on 8 points. Pies second and Dees 4th on the Conference B Ladder.

If you wish follow the current figures they are posted on the club website https://am.ticketmaster.com/melbournefc/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=parallax&utm_campaign=2020_membership#/ and to track vs prior years

Interesting. They have shown 'waitlisted' for a while. Maybe there are premium members who haven't renewed yet and the club is holding their spot open. Thanks for the tip re Trident membership. I renewed Redleg memberships for myself and my niece last September so will stick with those.

It isn't the Reserved Seat with GFG members that haven't renewed. These memberships have been 'Wait Listed' (I assume means 'sold out') for a month or two. https://am.ticketmaster.com/melbournefc/reserved-seats#/ I've no idea where our membership will end up but with the Family Day sales yet to kick in, Max as Captain and Petracca starting to fire all bode well for the 'undecided' members from 2019 to re-sign. And ANZAC Eve and QB are Home games this year which should encourage a few extra 3-game memberships. A few good early wins and who knows. Let's wait a few months before making verdicts on 2020 membership level.

Squad named for North Melbourne practice match 9. C.Spargo 10. A.Brayshaw 12. T.Bedford 18. J.Melksham 20. A.Tomlinson 23. J.Jordon 24. T.Rivers 28. O.McDonald 29. J.Hunt 31. B.Fritsch 32. T.Sparrow 33. O.Baker 34. M.Hore 36. K.Pickett 38. M.Brown 40. C.Wagner 41. J.Lockhart 42. J.Wagner 46. A.Bradtke Eight VFL players to top up the squad. Names in bold played last week. Good to see Brayshaw over his elbow injury and ready to play. Max has said he will be ready for Marsh02. But no sign of May getting a preseason workout. Otherwise our injury list is looking quite good re the top 22-26 players. North Melbourne squad 1. M.Daw 2. M.Williams 3. J.Anderson 6. T.Garner 8. B.Scott 14. T.Dumont 15. P.Ahern 16. A.Bonar 17. J.Pittard 18. S.Atley 19. J.Walker 21. D.Tyson 23. B.McKay 24. S.Durdin 25. R.Tarrant 30. C.Comben 31. C.Taylor 32. M.Wood 34. J.MacMillan 36. J.Crocker 38. T.Xerri 40. T.Murphy 41. M.McGuinness 42. T.Campbell 43. A.Hall 44. C.Zurhaar 46. L.Hosie VFL-listed player Adam Tipungwuti will also be part of the North Melbourne squad, wearing no. 28.

Also updated for Bennell. We now have a full list of 44 players: 38 Senior List plus 6 'A' Rookies. Whether we can add players in the Supplementary draft and/or the mid season draft depends on what happens with Kolodjashnij and Nietschke, both having been delivered cruel blows by injury. I would think the high priority signings are: Viney, Petty and Fritsch. Followed by Hannan, Hibberd and a few others.

fitter-faster-petracca-closes-in-on-new-deal It would be great to have him signed up early in the season, eliminate external speculation and allow him and the team to focus on getting us back up the ladder.

Those that do not venture over to the Demonland AFLW Forum, may like to know that Zurich have signed on as a Major partner with our AFLW team and will be their BOJ sponsor. Zurich will remain the FOJ sponsor for the AFL team. Great to have Zurich extend their relationship with mfc.

Great news! Sign of confidence in MFC.

I called the membership department re the loss of the 2 free tickets option as I have Collingwood supporting family and we go to those games. They offered to have 2 available for us at the time. So if you choose a game I would think the club will make them available for your family. Just can't see what the club achieved by removing the option. It is not as if our Home games are filled to capacity. The free passes are GA only so we still need to buy reserved seats or pay for their entry to the Redlegs guest area. ...if anything it makes it harder to invite a friend (and potential demon fan/member) to a game they wouldn't otherwise go to.

'lynch mob'. 'outrage'. A bit over the-top-comments for what was a reasonably put post. I repeat my doubts are about the revenue loss of the timing of exiting pokies not the decision.

I wasn't counting the non-pokie revenue from Bentleigh in the $1.1m that needs to be made up elsewhere. The amount to make up may be may be 10% but of overall revenue but it is still $2.5m! As I posted the 'several ideas' were mooted to be linked to our new training centre which seems a long way off. My point stands that the timing of exiting the pokies should have been linked with the other ideas being ready to go. I'm certainly not arguing for keeping pokies it is the timing of the exit that I have doubts about.

Found this article when we exited Leighoak: Dees to exit pokies We get a net profit of about $2.m from Leighoak ($900k as per report in the op) and the Bentleigh Club. We lose the Bentleigh revenue in 2022. We lose the Darwin game in 2020 (said to be $500k). That is $2.5m over a 3 year period. The Leighoak sale proceeds were to be invested in other activities to earn replacement revenue. At the time that was mooted to be naming rights of our new training centre, commercial activities at the training centre etc. As the new training centre is not even in the embryonic stage I'm not optimistic of the club covering lost revenue over the next few years. Somehow the club convinced the AFL exiting pokies was a good business plan "... the AFL wanted to be assured that the Demons would not be hurt financially." If this ends up being an 'own goal' can't see the AFL coming to the our rescue. It would have made much more business sense if we had the other revenue streams ready to go before exiting pokies. And if a new training centre was part of that other revenue the timing of the exiting pokies should have been linked to its opening.

Is that tongue-in-cheek? If not, tick one of the other options instead of the scarf: $25 Demon Shop voucher or Donate it back to the club.

And Lever. Plenty of support to get him thru the down times of rehab.

He missed his family Christmas day 100*100 due to a back problem. Misson Jan 22 update: “Gus (Angus Brayshaw) had a back-issue pre-Christmas which has been resolved. He started his preseason in mid-january. In many respects a back problem is more restrictive than some surgeries. Even tho he played every game, he didn't look agile in many of them - partly lack of fitness and possibly partly a lingering back issue.

While we are on memberships, has anyone noticed that the standard 'benefits' are being slowly whittled away, without notice? Until a few yeas ago we would receive a yearbook, a calendar and as an option 2 free game passes. Last year, the yearbook was replaced with an on-line version. Last year the calendar was made conditional on agreeing to automatic renewal. Having agreed to auto renewal the calendar has totally disappeared! And the 2 free passes are now only an option if you agree to a digital membership 'card' on a phone rather than a plastic cared. Like od, I consider my membership of 20 years an annual donation so the 'benefits' aren't part of why I join up but I like having a physical copy of the above. I understand the club wants to cut costs and go digital but these are small benefits to extend to members and shouldn't be so readily withdrawn.

There may be better opportunities but it will take a lot of community goodwill to make up a $1.5m+ lost revenue from Leighoak and Bentleigh. Can't see corporate sponsors being altruistic enough to reward our morality - they just don't work that way. Not saying we should have kept pokies long-term but the exit timing was poor for us. A number of us raised the financial impact cooncerns at the time it was announced.

The RGF is about a lot more than pokies and I'm not sure it is anti-pokies, per se. A club can have pokies and still meet the standards of the RGF. I wasn't saying PJ was 'For' pokies. Whatever his personal views he knew our financials are not solid enough to take the hit of no pokie revenue, which by the way will get worse when we give up the pokie revenue at the Bentleigh Club. And if 'senior AFL leadership' make 'very strong statements' about pokies then let them look at the revenue they and the game get from the on-line gambling advertising. If they were serious about the social and pschological hazards of gambling they would withdraw the rights to bet on AFL games and AFL events. Hell will freeze over before they slay that golden goose!