Lucifers Hero

I believe details were sent to 'mailing house' this week so should be received next week, if aussie post has its act together. As an aside, based on the chat in this thread and the release of new Trident and Redleg memberships, lots of members have upgraded or added features (eg reserved seat, GFG). That is great news: not only have no. of members increased the average spend per membership is increasing. So a nice 'extra' impact on club revenues.

What about this guy...

I had a Redlegs wait listed seating request which couldn't be accommodated but was offered seats in new membership categories. Those with existing wait list seating requests get first option on these and then they go on sale to the public. New releases: Trident Open Air – Bay P12 - Premium Reserved Seating on Level 2A of the Great Southern Stand on the wing. Redlegs Open Air - Bay P9 - Premium Reserved Seating on Level 2A of the Great Southern Stand in the pocket. You might try contacting the club and ask if you can still upgrade to one of these new categories . As an aside, Membership now 30,891

Pert was glowing in his comments on Goodwin and Mahoney. Pert Interview He sounded very genuine. On Goodwin: “This was a leader of the club, more than just the player group, this is someone who understands the influence that he has in a broader sense" On Mahoney: "Josh was there when Roosy (Paul Roos) come on board rolling into Simon, so he’s been the one that culturally has been a constant as our program has been developing. He’s going to play a bigger role down the track.” Pert flagged Josh would be more involved in commercial activities and oversee the Casey program. All good to broaden his experience to take the next step in his career: be it to AFL HQ or a Club CEO. I would daresay in a few years Josh will leave mfc to take that next career step. It will be an opportunity he has earnt and deserves. By then I hope we have a flag for him!

SEN interview yesterday, summarised here: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2018-12-04/a-great-time-to-be-a-melbourne-fan-pert “We need to build a facility where the club can get together and to create a meeting place for our members and supporters before and after games. That’s what great clubs are about." Full interview

I was delightfully surprised to hear Pert say that the new facilities would have social areas for members/supporters to go before/after games. Most of us had thought this was unlikely to be included. So it narrows down the options to be somewhere around the MCG. He was instrumental in getting the dedicated areas for Pie supporters at their MCG games so he has a good idea of what is required.

Gary Pert just said on SEN there are 22,000 MCC members who list MFC as their club but only 50% buy an MFC membership. If Pert is even semi successful in that quest we will exceed 50,000!

On face value an impressive interview. He has a clear view of his role and his priorities are to grow the club and get the new facilities in place. Seems to have worked hard to engage existing managers and stakeholders. Time will tell how it works out but if he achieves those goals, I won't get too hung up on the odd issue that might arise.

30,096 a 8% increase on Nov 30, 2017. I wouldn't be surprised to see this rise substantially before Christmas - we have already exceeded last year's Christmas Eve total. We are on the way to reach 50,000!

A few smart clubs saw how WCE performed during the finals. We were one of them and zeroed in on Preuss. The media (and some clubs) didn't get it at first. It finally dawned on them that the game is changing. Some have been scrambling to find a second ruckman so a few have been thrown lifelines: Mumford, Roughead, Clarke and perhaps Spencer. A few clubs will be found wanting with just one recognised ruckman or two average ruckman. Ironically, they seem to be the clubs that ended the year at the bottom of the ladder.

His job is backroom stuff and to state the obvious it is off-season. Anyway, not sure what could be said at this stage. Wait 12 months. If he takes a leaf from Jackson's songbook he will keep a low profile and let the football do the talking. So we probably won't here much at all about him or from him. Assume: no-news-is good-news.

28,663 Have been keenly awaiting an update! 1,053 (3.8%) up on same time last year: 27,610 on Nov 30, 2017. Thought we would have had a bigger leap on the back of the finals attendances but a good start, nonetheless.

A fascinating insight into how round 1 and early parts of round 2 unfolded with a behind the scenes look at the pick trades. Draft We may have been caught napping with pick trading and left it too late to get into the action. We were one of 3 or 4 clubs to not pick trade during the draft. Maybe we just didn't have enough currency early in the second round. I suspect picks 20 - 25 will be very valuable in future drafts especially if held onto until draft night: if a highly regarded player slips down the order or a club is keen on a particular player still on the board, the interested clubs will come courting!

Jordon sounds like a real prospect: "... will provide some great outside run to the Demons with his best work done on the outskirts of the ground and delivering the ball into the forward 50. Jordon is renowned for his accuracy by foot and good decision making with ball in hand which will be beneficial to Melbourne who at times lacked composure when entering their forward half. He can often play as that link-up player who can connect passages of play and impact the contest with his high footy IQ". Still only 17 but what an asset he will be if all those attributes are developed. Imagine: Salem and Jordon with good decision making, high footy IQ and accurate kicking to our forwards. Happy days! ? He may turn out to be the gem of the draft!

Under the pss rules Mclean is effectively a Free Agent so we can rookie him up until March 2019. Or line him up as pss rookie for the 2018/2019 sign up. (We don't have a rookie spot right now but a current rookie could be promoted to the seniors list where we do have a spot). Can't help but think the last seniors spot has been left vacant for a reason, yet to unfold. It seems that Keilty will be give first shot at the role and good on him. He has worked hard and could easily see him being promoted to the seniors at some stage.

I was a bit surprised by this as our debt position is quite reasonable. We save interest on the $1.5m and we can always borrow again but I thought we might conserve capital for 'our $ share' of new facilities cost - which is one of the reasons we sold Leighoak.

Overall, it is a great result. Jackson certainly left us in a very strong position: financial, staff, sponsors and football. Hard to believe it all happened in just 5 years. I have little doubt we will continue his work and be a really strong club again.

No need to delete - its a good time to clarify the player's age shown is as at the end of their contract. Thanks to all for changes. I will do them when next I update the table, which probably won't be long since the club would want to sign up a few players soon rather than later.

Yes, I meant Median. Have gone back and edited post. Thanks.

The Roar has produced player list analysis: Team Profiles The Average isn't the best measure; I prefer The Mean Median. Nonetheless, the Roar tables are a good indicator of each team. I was a bit surprised to see Collingwood so high in the age profiles. The likes of Lewis and Jones are raising our age profile somewhat. For us to finish 4th in 2018 when on average age we were 9th and average experience we were 12th shows what a mighty effort it was by the club. An interesting comment from the article: "Overall the numbers hint at a few possible conclusions, one being that putting heavy 2019 expectations on the likes of Melbourne, Fremantle and Essendon because of their notable trade period recruits might be a little premature. Of these three sides, only one – Essendon – is in the top eight for age, and they are eighth. None is in the top eight for experience. That’s not to say that these lists aren’t capable of achieving great things in 2019, but instead that they are still some distance from hitting their high-water mark in terms of talent maturity". Nonetheless, the expectations on us will indeed be 'heavy' and we will rise to the occasion! Edit: change 'Mean' to 'Median'

The club has officially locked in our list: "The Demons will have 39 primary listed players and six rookies for the upcoming season" Demon List The updated player details are: I've assumed Corey Maynard and Kade Chandler contracts are for one year. If anyone has any other info or corrections to above please advise. Its great to see so many of our young guns reach the 50-100 game range. Bodes well for us as they can only improve with more games under their belt and cohesion from playing together. Mods, could you please unpin the 2018 thread and replace it with this. Thanks.

I reckon all clubs are scouring players who missed being drafted to line them up for next years pss. They are Free Agents and can sign with club of choice. And, it is mighty attractive for clubs: recruit player as an 'A' Rookie (they can play seniors immediately) then promote them to the seniors, if a list spot is available. My reading of pss is that Tim Kelly (Geelong), Bailey Fritsch etc etc would qualify so no draft pick required. Clubs will soon squirrel away such players until the pss and get them free. This pss rule, academy draft points, trading away high picks, and clubs (eg Sydney, North, WBD) bending the live trading rules (with the AFL's blessing, because it pleased the broadcasters) to get their 'Tied' players on the cheap have significantly changed the recruiting/drafting landscape. And, collectively have opened a pandora's box of potential manipulation.

'...super competitive, win the contested ball, stays in the contest, excellent recovery...' A typical Goodwin player! Good get!

Good to see us continue our practice of bidding on F Looks like that backfired with WBD trading out pick 30 to Freo so pick 30 still in play. Lots of clubs playing funny b.....s at the last minute.