Lucifers Hero

Will hold off on the Dees for Flag call but can see Tommy winning the Coleman. He kicked 48 goals from 17 H&A games, having missed the first five matches. If he plays all 22 H&A games he can easily kick 60 - 70 goals and be in contention. 65 - 70 goals has won the Coleman quite often in recent years. Not having Hogan there may help him kick more especially as our fwd delivery to Tommy etal improves. A bit of a smokey but Tommy is worth a few dollars to back him to win it!

IIRC, the magazine isn't usually sent with the membership pack. I recall it coming out before the start of the season rather than pre Christmas. I doubt the club is struggling to service the member numbers. It all seems to be running very efficiently and these days highly automated.. In fact it appears there is an automated tracking system in place and it sends sms when membership packs are with aussie post, having be sent from the mailing house.

31,759. Worth noting that it took till mid Feb to reach a similar level this year. That is 2,700 (8.50% up on the Dec 22, 2017 count). As and aside, received sms from club today saying my membership packs are with aussie post, so should arrive any day now!

LOL! I didn't even notice the 3019. Hoping it is a typo! Might alert @Flag Favourites 3019so that he can change.

Thankfully those days are over. Just today it was reported that recruits spent the first month living with a senior player, went to Alice on a camp together (again with club leaders) and will live together for 3 weeks in Kooyong as part of their induction to the club. They will learn early what is required of them and importantly given the internal relationships to support them now and as they develop.

I hope that club was not MFC as I hope we understand the importance of all aspects of player welfare. But above all I truly hope that club was not North Melbourne. A sad day today. A wake up call for all those in the industry that have these young men in their care. All the best to Majak.

@Flag Favourites 3019may have drawn a long bow to compare Hogan to Watts and Sylvia but he was merely noting that another talent may go begging and that we are better off for the Hogan/May trade. Remember this was is first post. He made some well expressed good points and praised the club for their work. Let's cut him some slack so that he feels free to post again without attracting harsh judgement or implication of NFI.

Interesting question but I hope they don't. Fishermen's Bend is rather soulless with zilch public transport. At Burnley, there is open space at the freeway end of Swan Street: Burnley Park bordered by Yarra Blvd which has an oval of sorts. And, The Bicentenial Park (not sure how big it is). Burnley station and Swan St tram are the only public transport options. Interestingly, there is a lot of space behind the Burnley Gardens campus (owned by Melb Uni). But that land effectively is Tiger territory as it is dominated by the Kevin Bartlett Reserve and Kevin Bartlet Sporting Complex (which the State Gov't recently promised nearly $.5mill to build a new pavillion). The precinct has two football ovals and is home to a range of sports including Richmond and Collingwood soccer clubs. Both AFL clubs are expanding their sports so I wouldn't be surprised if one or both have their eye on expanding into the aforementioned Burnley Park across the road. So I reckon we are too late to join the Burnley party! As Pert previously noted the importance of giving supporters a place to go before and after games neither F'Bend nor Burnely fit that bill. I get a sense we will push hard for Yarra Park.

Good point re giving residents direct access from Wellington Pde. Re last para. My recollection is that buildings were 'proposed' for the airspace over the railway line rather than in the park. If they build in the airspace they can keep the protective fence and give East Melb residents, the general public, MCG attendees etc direct access to Yarra Park via a 'ground level mall' type of set up. If I get really creative I can visualise that 'mall' as a retail and/or cafe area...

Based on this article Yarra Park is the one we will go hardest for Not a Pipe Dream It looks like we aim to generate a groundswell of community support (and thereby drown out the 'not-in-my-backyard' type objections of the Residents Group). Pert said: "Quite a few of the community groups and individuals are really excited by the possibilities. What they're saying is that this is an area where there's no flat ground." Amassing support of the broader community is a good strategy: get the numbers on-side and implicitly isolate the Residents Group. In that article there is a steely resolve by Bartlett and Pert that we will make it happen.

Extract from club tweet re AGM Goodwin: "I couldn't be happier with how the players have returned from their break. "Their intent, physical condition + training standard has been fantastic." This is the first time ever that players have come back in good nick. Shows it is a really committed group.

Apparently, not just yet: “There was absolutely no debate on this matter on Monday (at the council meeting) and I can’t understand why.” The Age understands an alternative plan for the lease may be put to council at its next meeting, allowing for the Melton RSL to lease the venue at a peppercorn rent for their meetings, cutting the Bombers out of the deal entirely. Staggering that a Council can commit the use of publicly owned properties for 29 years without debate or. Five years maybe but 29years! https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/this-ain-t-over-essendon-s-pokies-plan-thwarted-for-now-20181213-p50m2y.html

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!