Lucifers Hero

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.

Whoever wins today must stop Coll winning the GF - it will be their 16th flag equal with Ess and Carlton. Hopefully it is us but they must be stopped!

Great Pride and Respect from Roos for Nathan: "I’m going to buy a photo of Nathan Jones...You might know the one I’m referring to. It was taken immediately after his goal against Geelong in the last quarter two weeks ago. Fists clenched. Arms raised. Fire in his eyes. I’m going to ask Nathan to sign it and then I’m going to hang it in the TV room at home. It’ll sit alongside my premiership photo with the Swans and my medals from Fitzroy To see him now leading the team into the penultimate week of the season is incredible. It all seemed like an impossible dream a few years ago. Nathan’s goal against the Cats, Max Gawn’s celebration after the West Coast game, Neville Jetta crunching Joel Selwood … I don’t know quite how to put it all into words other than to say this group has finally wiped out the negativity around ‘old Melbourne’ and the myth about mental toughness". Love that he is including other stalwarts: Jetta and Gawn. Roos knows better than most about downtrodden clubs. He hails from Fitzroy, South Melbourne/Swans and then Demons. It is no coincidence that he resurrected the South Melbourne Bloods at Sydney: Pride in clubs history, those that have fought the battles and joy of being at the top of the game once again.

Is one of those guys' Ch7's CEO who midyear (when the ratings were down) said something like: "...all we need is to get Collingwood up and about..." He got his wish!! Get ready for saturation Thur/Fri/Sat night Coll games on FTA ?

Worried about this. Not only will they have Kennedy and Darling back they have also learnt to overcome the loss of Gaff. Last time we played them was their second game without Gaff. Like us with Lever it took them a few games to resettle the side and to again play 'their way' ie 'possession' football ala Hawks; denying opp contests with target precision kicks and controlling the game with uncontested possessions. It is how they totally thrashed Richmond early this year. Very different game today than round 22. They can neutralise our ballistic/chaos game style. We need to make every shot at goal count. Early scoreboard pressure is the only way to trouble them and to quieten the Boo crowd!

Coll usually play 'pressure' football ala Tigers, Demons rather than 'possession' football ala Hawks. Coll switched styles and started with 'possession' football and totally controlled the tempo. Denied Tigers the ball. Took the Tigers by surprise and before they knew it the game was over. And the Pies kicked straight early on, thus applying massive scoreboard pressure!! Qtr time scores: 5.2.32 vs 1.3.9. Half time: 10.4.64 vs 2.8.20. Tigers made changes at half time and outscored Pies in the second half - too late! Lessons for us today: Have our own surprise tactics and KICK STRAIGHT. Nothing like early scoreboard pressure. Lesson for next week (if we make it): Don't underestimate Buckley - he is very good at countering opp strengths.

Tim Smith and Fritsch are the travelling emergencies.

What I found interesting was the disparity of fees and benefits of MCC/AFL members vs Club Members: Club members are being ripped off. Not by their clubs but by an AFL system that requires Club members to pay an exorbitant amount for finals tickets, effectively subsidising AFL and MCC members throughout the finals series. What is worse the funds from finals don't go back to the Clubs to which members belong.

Not sure dc. PRIORITY TWO –BALLOT Membership Types: Demon Seat Members, Red and Blue Home and Home and Away Members, MFC/MCC, Premium Members and 20+ year consecutive Members. I assumed Red and Blue Home Members were the regular memberships with no add ons so in the first two groups in the table posted above. If not you are right the odds of Priority 2 getting a ticket are lower than I presented. Hard to tell tho.

This is not by club but probably representative: AFL MEMBERSHIP BREAKDOWN 2018 345,079 - 11-game home membership (34%) 111,554 - Home and away membership (at least 16-17 game memberships) (11%) 121,413 - Five-game, general admission or less than 11 game membership (12%) 151,186 - Three-game membership (15%) 279,261 - Remaining membership categories: (member of a club without entry rights, AFLW member, Auskick membership, stadium member or AFL member) (28%) 1,008,494 - Total AFL members My reading is that for MFC Priotity 1 and 2 is the top two groups above (Full Members). So taking the AFL ratio of 45% of MFC 45,000 = ~ 20,000 members. Not all 20,000 would have gone into the ballot because of competing commitments, are overseas, are MCC/AFL members, prohibitive cost etc. So I would say that with last year's competing team allocation of approx 16,500 nearly all MFC Priority 1 and 2 will get a ticket - usual caveat applies: if we make it.