Lucifers Hero

If our midfield is as ferocious and brutal as the last few weeks the ball won't get to Kennedy and Darling often enough and if it does our equally ferocious backmen will make them earn every possession. Kennedy and Darling won't get many easy or clean possessions.

That happened rather quietly. The last announcement re pokies was in April and the club announcement said: The Leighoak Club will be sold to Moonee Valley Racing Club in July, while the Bentleigh Club's gaming licence will not be renewed beyond 2022. Surprised I didn't see anything about the Bentleigh Club sale in the local papers - that land is worth squillions. It would be quite newsworthy.

Collingwood is setting up their live-feed screen at Margaret Court arena @ $10 a person (5,000 people). I guess our club finances don't stretch that far. Not complaining as I'm just rapt that we have come this far. Just a shame that we can't all get together in an arena type atmosphere. Edit: Now that I think about it they we would have to hire Rod Laver arena for us which seats about 12-14,000. Prohibitively expensive, I'd say.

Agreed Wadda. Max may be the one to do it. Coincidentally: "Gawn taking Stynes and Bailey with him into battle against West Coast" https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/gawn-taking-stynes-and-bailey-with-him-into-battle-against-west-coast-20180918-p504ex.html “I definitely reflect on Jim Stynes as much as I can,” Gawn told RSN on Tuesday. “He’s got a couple of mottos that stick with me and every time I look at my jumper before I play it sort of pops up in my head. “And Dean Bailey I’m going to be forever grateful to for drafting me so there’s two guys that sit with me and I definitely think about them.” Max's pre-game ritual is to look at the #11 on his jumper before each game: Funny how an image like the headstone really stirs the emotions. A reminder that a lot of people have been on this journey with us. Still tear up at the picture.

This guy and a few of his demon mates will be proudly watching from far above: https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/melbourne-fan-places-scarf-on-jim-stynes-headstone-in-irelands-wicklow-mountains-ahead-of-preliminary-final/news-story/c3ac1073c01861a33d0245120c5c692f A moving picture from the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland. Brings a tear or two to the eye.

Rang them and unfortunately, no. Very poor since mfc ostensibly own it. In fact their website no longer shows any connection with mfc at all.

Try email. MFC Membership team is doing a great job and working late. I received an email at 8.00pm last night. They will respond. I asked a similar question of Priority 1 and 2. This was the response from the club last night: "If you register with someone who is a priority two you will drop to priority two with them. There is no way around that unfortunately". So my reading is: to sit together registration is to be with the lowest priority group. Not sure but I would imagine the system is smart enough to know that if a Priority 3 is being registered with a Priority 2 it will reject both or drop both down to Priority 3. Not much the club can do about it as the AFL make the rules. We have been caught by surprise a little and I will be paying more attention to GF priority groups when I renew memberships for next year.

Several people yesterday were interested in the breakdown so I've extracted the summary showing 2017 Actual vs the AFL Standard Range: Yesterday, I estimated: 20,000 MCC members, 20,000 AFL members, 20,000 'AFL Entitlements/Obligations'. These are generally much closer to the mark than the AFL published 'Range', the latter being to allow them to do what they like eg the AFL will never have just 5,000 for its 'Entitlements/Obligations' nor '0' for 18 AFL clubs. Needless to say there isn't a lot of equity in either the allocation nor that it is the Competing Club Members that actually pay full price to attend (even tho their club membership cost is not much less than other AFL/MCC members). But, as they say in the classics: Life wasn't meant to be fair!

Approx: 20,000 to MCC members, 20,000 to AFL members, 20,000 to AFL affliations and sponsors. Numbers to each group can vary.

HAWTHORN v MELBOURNE 10 Jack Viney (MELB) 6 Neville Jetta (MELB) 6 Jack Gunston (HAW) 6 Tom McDonald (MELB) 1 Isaac Smith (HAW) 1 Max Gawn (MELB) Almost a clean sweep again! Well done Guys! Leaderboard (top 10): 15 Steele Sidebottom (COLL) 10 Dylan Grimes (RICH) 10 Jack Viney (MELB) 10 Elliot Yeo (WCE) 9 Toby Greene (GWS 9 Tom McDonald (MELB) 9 Sam Weideman (MELB) 8 Phi Davis (GWS) 8 James Harmes (MELB) 8 Brayden Maynard (COLL) Not sure of the value of the leaderboard as some players have played 1 game, others 2.

SEN just interviewed Mahoney and he said venues to watch the game: Fed Square Sporting Globe at Richmond Sporting Globe Ferntree Tree Gully Casey venue (didn't hear where) In another thread there was discussion of showing vision to players from Melbourne fans watching live to keep them energised..

ie he will be playing Saturday

This is where we are disadvantaged by not having a home base. Other teams can set up screens at Punt Rd, Vic Park, Western Oval etc etc etc. It seems the club is looking for a suitable spot to set up the live feed and show vision to the team. Edit: SEN just interviewed Mahoney and he said venues to watch the game: Fed Square Sporting Globe at Richmond Sporting Globe Ferntree Tree Gully Casey venue (didn't hear where) I guess vision to players will be from one or more of those venues.

SEN reported Max trained indoors today ? ...Club said he will be going to Perth with the team...

A thought - We have a few players from WA: Jetta, Hogan, Kent, Garlett... What if we all buy tickets and give them to those guys/club to get their friends to the game and barrack for the Dees. Member tickets on sale 11.00am to 3pm today so perhaps, it is may be a bit late to organise - this is when we need @Satyriconhome. Anyone else happy to buy and donate a ticket?

DeeZephyr is correct. Extract from guidelines: Tickets for successful members will be available for collection from all Victorian and selected interstate Ticketek outlets from 9am Tues day September 25. Alternatively, Grand Final tickets can be collected from the Ticketek box office at the MCG (Gate 3 B) on Grand Final Day. Please note that only the credit card holder may collect the tickets and must present photo ID, the credit card used to purchase the tickets and the Ticketek Account Number. It is highly recommended that the credit card holder collects their tickets prior to Grand Final Day. 2018 Toyota AFL Grand Final tickets will not be posted. Page 4: https://s.afl.com.au/staticfile/AFL Tenant/Melbourne/PDF/Grand Final Ballot Guide.pdf I couldn't see a ref to electronic tickets, just email notifications of being successful. A bit archaic really!

"Melbourne president Glen Bartlett claims strategic moves by the club over the past five years have left the Demons poised to capitalise on their on-field rise, while flagging post-season contract talks with coach Simon Goodwin" "Bartlett was full of praise for Goodwin, and confirmed the Demons board and management would sit down with Goodwin in the weeks after the season with an eye to extending Goodwin’s contract beyond the end of 2019". Seems it will happen after Pert settles in: “Simon, as soon as we get a chance as a board, and [incoming chief executive] Gary Pert gets his feet under the desk in October, we’ll sit down with Simon,” Bartlett said. Reckon we are all happy with that! Never in doubt and richly deserved!

Thanks DZ...I was curious as to roughly how many GF tickets from mfc allocation are set aside for them.

Anyone have any idea how many GF-Guarantee/Entitlement type memberships the club has? FWIW, I had assumed a GF-G is for a seat not just an entry ticket...I might be in for a shock!

It seems Eddie's rant last week about a missed free to Cox has paid dividends: https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/a-number-of-touchy-free-kicks-against-gws-prove-costly-early-in-semifinal-against-collingwood/news-story/c8f3688c1ee1a1a1ff2b9e84aee8bfd1 "Collingwood received eight free kicks to the Giants’ two in the opening term. Those included a number of contentious, “soft” calls — while the Giants appeared unlucky to miss out on some calls of their own... The most controversial fell on the stroke of quarter-time". No wonder they raced to a 3.6.24 to 0.2.2 lead. At the end of they day they deserved to win but that sort of umpiring can give the momentum to one team and can be energy sapping to the other.

Is this a bit of a side swipe to the Dees from Eddie: “It all turned last year in Round 23 against Melbourne...That was the moment it all changed. We got going, backed ourselves in, cleared our heads and away we went..." https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/collingwoods-2018-resurgence-dates-back-to-round-23-win-over-melbourne-last-year-says-eddie-mcguire/news-story/fadfbe5715e88082e13ddb00d1adbfd2 Really? One game? He has started the mind games in case we meet in the GF! There are two Eddies: 1) Commentator/Showman 2) President of a ghastly club. His 'gushing' and 'enthusiasm' for the dees that Picket refers to was all show. He doesn't 'love' Melbourne any more than any of us 'love' Collingwood.

Thanks Fifty-5. Very helpful. On a different note, there is a comment in the link that says: Based on their priority group, members are allocated a window during which they can register for the ballot via Ticketek. But it also says Members wishing to sit together must register their group in one transaction using the one credit card. Does anyone know how/when to register if friends with different membership categories (which will have different priority groups) want to sit together? Edit: I just notice in that link there is a detailed guide on what to do/costs etc https://s.afl.com.au/staticfile/AFL Tenant/Melbourne/PDF/Grand Final Ballot Guide.pdf I think it answers my earlier question - If people want to sit with friends in different priority groups they need to register together in the priority group of the lowest ranked member

FYI - this is being discussed in the What If? Thread.

Sorry if it read like I was having a go at you - it was meant to support your 'glory days' comment. Hence the to go with my cheeky ' Not quite ready to dream of the glory days again but happy to shift from 'one week at a time' to 'one flag at a time' comment. I'll word things a bit more carefully in future. Like you I feel totally nonplussed. Such a weird and foreign feeling to be this close to the Holy Grail. Surreal.

Lewis starts the mind games with WCE: "Wily Melbourne veteran Jordan Lewis has thrown a barb at the West Coast camp ahead of the preliminary final by suggesting the Eagles are “more predictable’’ with key forwards Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling in the team". https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/more-predictable-lewis-starts-mind-games-with-eagles-early-20180915-p5040g.html