Lucifers Hero

I find it a bit surprising that May is coming to us as he was slated as a shoe in for the Pies. Hawks also chasing him hard. But if he does come to us it will be nice to get one over Coll and Hawks. MFC = Dee-stination Club!

Please read or quote the paragraph that followed that line you selectively extracted from a very well reasoned post and realistic option for a trade!!

Those who think we will play 'hard ball' need to think again. We started off doing that with Lever (1st rnd + 2nd rnd picks) and then gave in. And last week Jason Taylor said: "If we target a player we think can help our list improve and it's an area of need; we believe in dealing fairly with the other clubs involved,". So don't expect us to go all tough guy now. Having said that I can't imagine we will give Jesse up for just May. GCS have pick #17 so I could foresee Freo's pick #5 to GCS for May and pick #18, a pick we can make very good use of - gets us back into the first round and could get us the outside run we need or package it up for an even better first round pick. Edit: that is better than the Lever trade which was pick 2017 #10 and 2018 #15.

Has he retired? PR says he won't be offered another contract. I draw the distinction only to say that another club may pick up as a Delisted FA and if so good on him. Whatever the future holds I wish him and his family well. He has been a terrific, flexible and willing asset for us and a very loyal team member. Will always be a red and blue fave!

The rejection of the pp is a good sign. It is the second time this year the AFL Commission have turned down an AFL Admin proposal. The first was when Gill had set up a fanfare press conf to announce the GF would be a twilight game only to have the Commission knock it on the head. The reason for knocking back the pp's is: "...Carlton have got 18 first-round picks and they'll get the No.1 pick again this year. "Gold Coast have got 15 first-round picks on their list and they're going to get picks two and 15 this year if Tom Lynch goes to another club...they'll get pick three..." Well hello, as if blind freddy couldn't see that in advance When combined with the Commission's stance on pokies this is good progress with some accountability for Gill and Co. When Fitzpatrick was head of the Commission it just rubber stamped what Gil and Co wanted (especially if it helped Carlton).

Based on the polling we may not get one. Yes we have the players who deserve one but getting enough votes for one is a different matter. Viney will start taking votes from Brayshaw and Oliver. Along with Max claiming his fair share they may all finish in the top 5 or top 10 but all too good to separate in the votes. That is one star-studded midfield, the likes of which hasn't bee seen since the Lions of the early 2000's. Sadly, the Brownlow means less and less each year so Max, Ollie, Gus and Jack can rotate for the Norm Smith medal ?

Umpires clearly don't like 'stagers'. They started paying frees against him. Teach the sod a lesson.

I thought the same thing. There seems to be as much unconscious bias by umpires in Brownlow voting as there is with supporter 'affirmation' based free kicks. I wondered whether Oliver is in the same boat. The umpires could not have missed all the undeserved talk of 'diving' and 'throwing' and he is a cheeky sort of a guy. Rapt for all our players and the team. For us to come second in team polling is another strong indicator of how far we have come over the last 4-5 years. @Ethan Tremblayloved the instagram by Gus sending up the AFL. Reckon he will get an invite next year! He might start Hi-5's with all the umpires next year, not just Razor. Huge achievement for him and a great way for his family to end the year.

I don't really know. For the last 18 years my Redleg seats have been in Level 2 N8. Now that I have upgraded my niece to Redleg they are in Level 2 N6 (same row, wait listed to be together). So, I assume Redlegs are level 2. When the MFC memberships open there is often an MCG map showing the Reserved, Redlegs and Trident areas. Or I am sure the membership dep't would be happy to answer,

BUMP. Just to acknowledge Bernie has played his last game in red and blue. Its all been said on previous pages - thanks for coming to us when we crap. And thanks for giving us your all and helping build the team we have today. Roos' praise of the experience and strength you brought to our team is much deserved. My most memorable Bernie moment - running best mate Danger into the Adelaide turf!

That is quite an advantage. We have recruited Vandenberg, Hannan, Fritsch and ? from State leagues paid for with draft picks. All now multiple finals players - GCS and Carlton get the like for free. TBH I don't mind GCS getting a helping hand but not Carlton - They tanked, have had a plethora of top draft picks, deliberately trade out their experienced talent, had mega favourable fixures (Home games at the G vs big crowds), FTA favourtism, are poorly managed and are now asking for more handouts!! Oh, I forgot - the AFL and Eddie want to make them 'great' again!

I was really hoping criticism of the policies didn't happen here and we could keep the conversation to the membership options available for people to work out what suits them best. The club tries to cater for all types of members: near and far; well off and not so well off. If you aren't happy with the membership/ticket rules write to the club and or the AFL.

I think the ballot is to allocate the seating (but not sure) and the cost varies according to the seat. It may be worth checking the cost diff between the Armchair and 3-game. The former doesn't have member priority finals ticket access which could be important for smaller grounds or i/state grounds.

And Dan is chipping in to upgrade Punt Road: "A $60 million redevelopment of the Punt Road Oval... looks set to be unveiled before the forthcoming state and federal elections". https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/jack-dyer-stand-may-go-in-60m-punt-road-oval-redevelopment-20180907-p502dv.html Our comparatively miniscule plan seems to have taken a back seat. Sigh... Re any news - I noted a poster last week was told by the club that we no longer owned nor had anything to do with the Bentleigh club which was quite a surprise. The last comment by the club was The Bentleigh gaming will cease in August 2022, although Melbourne will continue to operate the club, without the pokies. Wouldn't mind a Club update for both our standing re the Yarra Park development and our ownership status of Bentleigh Club ownership - it was/is an exceptionally valuable piece of prime real estate

Collingwood is underrated here. They had their first choice backline out (Moore, Godsack, Dunne, Howe, Scharneberg) and Treloar out simultaneously for a large part of the second half of the season. Sure they had a run of luck but made the most of their chances and reached the top 4. Having Treloar and Goldsack back has really strengthened their team. And they still have 6 players who played in the 2010 Premiership/2011 GF. As an aside the Eagles have 12 of their 2015 Grand Final team playing. I'll be honest and tipped neither team to make the top 8. But both teams have done enough to get there and have solid recent finals experience. Should be a riveting game - doubt I'll be watching. Don't get me wrong, I loathe them with a passion but they haven't gone past us. They were always further down the track. We will catch up and overtake them soon enough.

Kudos for being brave enough to come on here. That is a fair commentary.

In a way, it is a little early to start this thread but 2019 memberships will open soon. I thought while our finals success and ticketing experience is fresh in our minds it is a good time for folks to think about their membership. Certainly, for me it was quite enlightening to learn what different membership categories mean for access to Finals tickets. (And amusing to watch us all staggering around in the dark not knowing what to do to negotiate the process or Ticketek. It was fun sharing it with everyone on here). The main things I learnt: Three game or better membership had the same priority eligibility to Finals weeks 1 - 3. For the Grand Final it all changes. Broadly the categories were: Ballot: Priority 1 - Memberships with the Grand Final Guarantee (GFG) included or added on (plus some other categories) Ballot: Priority 2 - 11 Home Game or better memberships without GFG (plus some other categories) Ballot: Priority 3 - All other memberships The odds of Priority 3 being allocated GF tickets seemed quite low. I think, the AFL sets the broad eligibility rules so the above may change for 2019. For 2019, I assume the memberships with the GFG will sell out fast as the number sold is capped and people that already have it get first choice to keep it. At the risk of the membership team being inundated with early calls, I was able to upgrade my niece's 3 game membership to a Redlegs membership late last week (same row but not to sit together; wait listed for that). I will post the link to Memberships when I see it on the club website. A couple of other thoughts: This isn't the thread for posters to criticise supporters asking for barcodes etc - 2018 caught us all by surprise so cut them some slack, especially the country and interstate folk This isn't the thread to complain about Ticketek or the AFL ticketing policies. Maybe the mods could pin this for a while so that new info can easily be found. One final thing: What an outstanding job the Membership Team did. It all went without a hitch which is no easy task the first time a new project is undertaken by a team in any organisation. Kudos to Tracey and her team for the work, time and energy they put in to making our lives as straight forward as possible.

I've moved on from yesterday! We didn't go all the way but we had some very fine performances over the three weks. Interested in who people think was our Mr September (across all three games). My votes are (in Brownlow style): 3 J. Viney 2 N Jetta 1 J Harmes They were the most consistent - each had an exceptional game in at least one of the earlier finals and were the most likely to drag us out of the quagmire yesterday. (Apologies to Weideman and T Mcdonald).

The lesser of two evils, bb!

No. Jack has great 'bull' type/follow me into battle leadership but doesn't have the footy IQ to go with it (no offence intended). Lever has that footy IQ in spades. I would like to see Lever as co-captain with Jack. Jones won't give up the co-captaincy easily but Goodwin has made tough calls before and won't shy away from that.

Lever. Lewis is still the best we have for footy IQ and analysing the play during quarters. So for me he plays on and limit his games to the eastern seaboard to conserve his energy. He was mentoring Lever who is a fast learner. When Lever went out we missed his leadership down back. He has learnt plenty in the coaches box this year. He will learn more playing alongside Lewis next year. We don't have enough good leaders. Jack Viney brings his own brand of leadership. No offence to Jack but he doesn't have the subtlety and footy IQ Lever has. Tbh I would like to see Lever as co-captain (with Viney) next year to learn more from Lewis.

Eagles to stop Magpies winning their 16th flag to be equal top with Carlton and the much loathed Essendon. But the Magpies will get the benefit from the umpires. Nothing would make Gill and Ch7 happier than a Magpies premiership. Feel ill at the thought of all that FTA prime time black and white football next year.

Good question. A WA poster said during the week that WCE had asked for the oval to be watered. They expected it to be slippery. It seems we didn't get the info. Like you would love to know what boots they had. They never fell over while we were slip, sliding away.

Shows how bad everyone else was. Couldn't find anyone who won their position today/

What also struck a chord with me was this about Peter Jackson: "I’d already said no to the Melbourne job a couple of times...At the time, Peter would’ve been with Melbourne for six months, tops...But I could already tell how much the club meant to him. You could hear it in his voice". So many people have contributed to the 'New Melbourne' but the one who had the vision and made it happen is I hope the club has a very fitting farewell for him in a few weeks.