Lucifers Hero

Have to give a nod to Swan's Alex Johnson. 5 knee reconstructions and 6 years out of AFL. Huge achievement to make it back. Testament to his commitment and resilience. Wish him well.

VdB may take some time to adjust to AFL footy again but the aggression at the ball and the ball carrier that he brings is phenomenal - second only to JV in my book. VdB's contested ball work will help keep the ball in our fwd 50 and make us a better 'forward half team'. Wouldn't be surprised to see fewer i50's simply because he doesn't let the ball out!

He has played 11 games and is still 18. Give him a bit more time to show what he can do. Our fwd line is still a bit like Brown's cows. I reckon Charlie will improve as those around him sort themselves out.

That is correct - we have the second highest conversion rate of supporters to members. Problem is we don't have a high number of supporters, relative to other clubs. We have the 3rd lowest of number of supporters in the league. Sadly, it is these figures that Ch7 also consider when deciding their broadcast premium slots. Lots of supporters means lots of tv audience. Helps explain a bit why Carlton get so many games and the AFL want to 'make them great again'. Not that I agree with them one single bit. In many respects we punch well above our weight.

Updated for Harley Balic's retirement. His retirement gives us our first 2018 List vacancy. While I always find it sad to see a Demon player depart it seems the best for him and will make the Club's list management that tad easier. That leaves 10 listed players and 3 'A' rookies, OOC. OMac is in discussions with the club so just a matter of time. Based on recent selections I would expect AVdB, JKH to be given contracts. On my reckoning that will be 7 listed players OOC. Not sure if we can keep the 3 'A' rookies another year without offering them a contract. Anyone know? Some of the OOC's will have their papers stamped and some will have to wait until the end of the trade/draft period to see who we get. Anxious wait for some.

Good to see coaches have shown faith in Tyson and JKH by keeping them in the starting 22. Would be a real boost to their confidence. They are both getting more and more into games. The more continuity our players get the better now that we are getting to the pointy end of the season. Fully expect Petracca and ANB to be in.

Definitely a pedant!! The examples were to show that even the most talented have issues adjusting that are detrimental to their mental health, not to exclude any other AFL footballer or other people. Agree that there have been some poor and insensitive comments in this thread.

Welcome back AAron! Great reward for huge amount of rehab work and giving it everything he has in recent Casey games. He never gave up. He never gave in. I really like that about him. He is a true warrior!

There are too many recent top draftees dealing with mental health issues: Tom Boyd, Josh Schache, Aaron Francis to name a few. All have changed or requested a change of clubs in their first few years. Time will tell if they stay the distance. Good that Harley got out before the grind affected his well being, especially if his heart isn't in it. Wish him all the best.

Great to see Max (and other players like Brayshaw and Oliver) get recognition. It all helps us get more respect across the league. http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2018-08-02/coaches-pick-gawn-as-leagues-most-influential The really interesting (of the 16 responses) for me were: "...on which type of player was endangered, based on the way the game was being played. ...nearly 40 per cent predicted the demise of small midfielders, while almost one-third suggested key forwards were on the way out". "...to name the statistical categories often cited by media and fans they believed had little bearing on the result of matches, with 18.75 per cent of coaches listing kicking efficiency and the same percentage pointing to tackle numbers. "They also said total disposals, hit-outs and free kicks had little impact on the outcome of games". Hmmm, kicking efficiency, tackle numbers, total disposals, hit-outs, free kicks' believed by some to have little impact on the result. So much for the hand-wringing that happens on DL after each loss or to criticise 'poor' performing players! ?

I'm guessing the AFL then adds the AFL members, Auskick members etc. to the memberships sold/reported by each club to reach the AFL wide total of 1,008,494. Which begs the question why the figure the AFL reports for mfc is the same as that on our website...something isn't adding up...

I can think of a few things that might have caused our membership to not increase as much as might be expected. Unique items to 2017/2018 and in no particular order of significance: the way we missed the finals going down without a whimper in rnd 23. the 'get your finals tickets' campaign fiasco before we made finals. the lack of communication plan from the club for those possibilities the loss of our much loved #4. restructuring the membership options to 'force' new members into 'packages' eg for reserved seats and GF guarantee. price increases, especially in the lower categories and of the GF guarantee. Home MCG games vs not very exciting opponents = questionable value of membership. Time slots of Home games. Those things won't stop the loyal, die hard demons on this site from buying memberships but there would be more easily disillusioned supporters out there who would react to one or more of the above. Interestingly, we had massive record attendances at our games in 2017 but for some reason only a very small %'age were converted to memberships. As I noted in another thread I'm rapt with the 25% increase in members since the Jackson/Roos era started. But we cannot continually go backwards relative to other clubs who are also vying for sponsors and broadcast airtime/slots. It will be interesting to see what initiatives Pert comes with. Growing membership will be his biggest challenge and hopefully his major KPI.

The full breakdown is: I would guess the one-game memberships are in the 'Reduced-Access' figures. I recall reading that Collingwood has a huge i/state and o/s memberships and would be in that category. Ditto the StKilda $1 memberships. It is the above figures by club, that Ch7 use to determine the premium time slots so the 500,000+ Non-Full Member figures are really important as they are the ones who stay at home and watch on TV. And really important for Clubs as that is where the potential for conversion to Full members lies.

The Bulldogs have paid dearly for their Premiership Hangover. Down 9.2%! Hard to see how Carlton and St Kilda have increased by 11.3% and 10.1% respectively. This article gives a breakdown of memberships http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-08-02/thanks-a-million-new-membership-benchmark Of the 1,008,494 claimed members 456,633 are Full Club members. Would love to see a breadown of those by Club. Our increase of just 4.8% means we are falling further and further behind most other clubs? While it will undoubtedly help I don't think growing membership will be as simple as winning more games or even just one premiership.

That is true but this thread is about Max not about finals so its fair to respond to a post about his AA credentials.

To further back up his AA credentials Max leads the Coaches votes on 80 while Grundy is 11th on 56. Coaches know a thing or two about this game so if Grundy gets the AA nod ahead of Max it is only as the AFL selectors like to play up to the 'Power' clubs.

I recall that 'moneyball' is used at our training to signify something - don't recall what it meant but it was discussed somewhere on DL. Good to see Jack is allowed back in the coaches box. Um, how on earth does ch7 get a camera to see into the coaches box to film such things. I would have thought what happens in coaches box is sacosanct.

Collingwood's is also looking bad. Tyson Goldsack (knee) - test Jeremy Howe (concussion) - test Max Lynch (soreness) – test Brody Mihocek (ankle) - test Brayden Sier (leg) – test Jordan De Goey (leg) - 1 week Flynn Appleby (hamstring) - 1-2 weeks Rupert Wills (hamstring) - 1-2 weeks Adam Treloar (hamstrings) - 5-6 weeks Jamie Elliott (hamstring) - TBC Kayle Kirby (medical condition) - indefinite Matthew Scharenberg (knee) - season Long-term injuries Tim Broomhead (broken leg) – season Lynden Dunn (knee) – season Daniel Wells (foot) – season 14 players with about half a dozen best 22 sidelined. Could cost them a top 4 spot

Melbourne injury list: round 20 Mitch Hannan (knee) – test James Harmes (hand) – available Michael Hibberd (quadriceps) – 2-3 weeks Jack Viney (toe) – 2-4 weeks Jake Lever (knee) – season Corey Maynard (hip) – season Billy Stretch (toe) – season Unfortunately, round 22 at the earliest for Hibberd and Viney. With a bit of luck it will be before the end of H&A games.

Neither May nor Zac Jones have contested their respective one and two weeks suspensions. They will not line up against us in the next two weeks. While it doesn't affect our prospects Cheney accepted his one week suspension for striking Fritsch off the ball. On another note, Josh Kennedy (WCE) is out again this week and hopes to get back the following week (vs Port). Let's hope his recovery is slow until after round 22 so he doesn't play against us...

44,227 today. Memberships close today so could be close to the final tally. Just on 2,000 over last year's figure 42,233 ie 4.8% increase. Pretty good given the dramas at the end of last season/year. Importantly we have increased memberships by 25% since the Jackson/Roos era began. Light years from the Tigers 100,000+ but also light years from where me might have been without Jackson/Roos. A long way to go but we have come a very long way. Some finals and wins should get us to 50,000 next year!

I don't recall seeing the incident. The incident hasn't been mentioned in the Post Game thread and wonder if the camera crew chose not to show it! So perhaps he didn't get a free, which would be typical of our luck with umpires!

Jones gets two weeks so out for game vs us. May gets one game so also out for game vs us. Maybe lady luck is changing our way! http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-07-30/star-blue-suns-cocaptain-hit-with-bans And Cheney gets a week for striking Fritsch off the ball!

May banned for a week! http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-07-30/star-blue-suns-cocaptain-hit-with-bans

DJ, have a look at this thread for the 8 point games.