Lucifers Hero

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!

The downside of using 'Cash Reserves' to cover the Loss is that they are mainly the proceeds (and interest earned) of the Leighoak sale and iirc that money was earnmarked to help finance our new training/club facilities; facilities that depressingly seem further and further into the future! If ever!! We can expect greater losses when we exit pokies at the Bentleigh Club next year. I can't see where the pokie replacement revenue is coming from. Memberships/game attendance alone won't do it and we don't have a good track record of mega or long-term sponsors. We aren't a financially stable club let alone a financially strong one. And I struggle to see how we overcome it.

I don't think this was the AFL's doing. A year or so ago Barlett was having discussions with Eddie about QB. I recall PJ wasn't keen on two block busters in one year then a drought the following year. He rightly argued to alternate them so our revenues balance out. Technically, the ANZ Eve and QB revenues balance out over a two year period but imv we aren't financially strong enough to wear that yo-you, especially when adding the loss of pokie revenue. I'm guessing 2019 decision was on the back of 'return Home games' at the G vs Rich and Coll which should theoretically balance out the 2019 $$...which turned out to be a fizzer of an idea!! Bartlett agreed to the QB rotation one year early.

Each club can choose. Ess recently renewed their pokie agreement with local councils for the next few decades. Hawthorn are firmly committed to them. Pokies are a significant part of them being financially strong clubs. Look at their mega investments in their 'Taj Mahal' like facilities at Tullamarine and soon to be Dingley sites, while we wallow at the aptly name 'paddock'! mfc and the likes of North can claim the moral high ground but strong clubs get stronger! iirc in the press conf that announced our exit from pokies, Jackson didn't seem to keen. I concluded the exit was board driven.

'Roar' Generally good scribes. Some are good on analysis rather than 'click bait'. Insightful and largely unbiased commentary. Sometimes they use statistical analysis techniques rather than just present tabulated data.

The decennium horribilis!

Given our new recruits during Maloney's time can't see his methods worked too well. Don't think there are any left! The draftees are 'millennials' - a whole new breed on whom old school methods don't work.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/540240/rivers-benefits-from-draftee-camp Last week Rivers, Jackson, Pickett, Tomlinson, Brown and Landgon went on a 3-day camp with Goodwin, Jetta and Gawn where they learnt about the club, life as a Demon player and played some casual sports. On a different scale but it reminds me of the program the Hawks have to take new recruits to walk the Kokoda trail. Terrific initiative. Footnote: I wonder if there is a hint in the attendees of our next captain...

Training review from an AFL track watcher: https://www.afl.com.au/news/267311/draftees-shine-as-fit-again-dees-leave-horror-2019-behind Extracts: [vandenBerg] was able to run in the off-season for the first time since arriving at the Demons in the 2014 rookie draft and has been doing so for the best part of four months. Most encouragingly, vandenBerg took part in midfield drills. [Pickett] sought treatment for a sore left patella and had it taped but completed the session without any noticeable issues while running, leaping and wrestling in one-on-one work. He swapped comfortably between kicking on his left and right foot, was clean at ground level, showed good intensity and displayed clean hands but was blowing hard by session's end. Jay Lockhart and Harry Petty – who showed promise in attack through necessity this year – continue to train with the defenders and forwards, respectively, but are expected to play at both ends in 2020 Second-year players Tom Sparrow, Kyle Dunkley and James Jordon were in the thick of the midfield work. Very encouraging, especially Aaron!

Likely 'Milestone' in 2020: 50 games: Fritsch, Hannan, Vandenberg, Weideman, 100 games: Petracca, J. Wagner, Salem, Harmes 150 games: Hibberd, Jetta, May, Tomlinson 300 games: Jones. None will be more richly deserved than Jetta and Jones. Loyal stalwarts of our beloved demons. Along with Oliver (90+ games) and Brayshaw (90+) games, the 100 game brigade is quite a formidable midfield. It is what most clubs hope for: that their top talent grow and develop together. They are reaching the 'sweet spot' of age and experience. Bodes well.

The 2020 thread is up:

Final List for 2020 (excl Bennell) We have 1 list spot (either Rookie or Seniors) which is for Bennell. If he isn't recruited it can be used for the SSP (ala Lockhart in 2019) or the mid season draft (ala Dunkley in 2019) Ages and Games played have been updated. This year I have added the 'Free Agent' (FA or RFA) status of players at end of current contract, if applicable. More than half our total list is out of contract this year. Makes for extra competitiveness. The most critical re-signings imv are Petracca, Fritsch, Petty and Viney. If anyone sees any 'errors' please let me know. I'll ask mods to pin this thread. The 2019 version can be found here:

Lets not forget that our own coach was there for the duration of the program. Last thing we need is to be connected with Dank/Essendon doping in any shape or form.

^^. Thanks. Will update the table and start a new 2020 thread to replace this one.