Lucifers Hero

WOW. Didn't know that. Like the Saints they also have about 35,000- members. Very poor turnout! At least when we were rubbish you could rely on at least 20k to 255K supporters going to our games. Given daisy's post above maybe that can be the 'North Hobart Saintly Roos'. and merge them! Both those clubs are in strife with average lists, coaches that don't appear to have it and members that don't go to games even when they don't have to pay! This is where PJ et al are kicking goals. He has rebuilt our club financially and strategically. The most recent Leighoak/pokie decisions are a real game changer for us to hold us in good stead for the next 20 or 30 years. North and Saints have just been treading water and will be left behind to feed off the largesse of the AFL. They can no longer blame it on their poor Etihad stadium deals.

Today O'Meara is the the one to watch. While Mitchell is attracting the attention, JO'M will be the silk. He is slowly building into the player he was always going to be. His true breakout game is not far away - let's hope it is after we play them next week!

Pretty poor for a Home game from a club that has 35,000+ members. Fair weather fans! North supporters are the same. From where I sat yesterday (Southern Stand) it looked like there were hardly any North supporters. I would be surprised if more than 5,000 of the 35,500 were for North. Quite disappointing turnout from them as its really important we get good numbers to the G for our Home games.

As always spot on with your assessment. I feel, Lever's arrival has 'disrupted' our defense eg Hibberd has played 'out of position' and Hunt dislodged. This week, Hibberd said: "the inclusion of Sam Frost...will allow him to play his more familiar run-and-carry style, rather than a deeper defensive, one-on-one role." http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2018-04-06/frosts-return-to-freeup-hibberd Both Hibberd's run-and-carry style and Lever's interceptor style mean they play off their man and are not really accountable (and both rarely tackle). I don't think we can afford both players doing this (especially if Hunt comes back with his own run-and-carry style) even with a zone defense. Too much 'defending' is being left to Nev and Oscar. Smart coaches will exploit it, mercilessly. Yesterday, I didn't notice much talking nor backing up among the defenders. Almost like each was doing their own thing without much synergy. Opp coaches are becoming very good at isolating our defenders and our guys need to start talking and helping each other. I know our defense is a work in progress and Goodwin etal are experimenting but hopefully, the back 6 settle quickly and they learn to work together. We have three very challenging games coming up and Clarkson and Worsfold are very clever tacticians.

This thread gives a running tally vs prior years. It is pinned to the top of the Forum page The figure at this time last year was 38,554 so we are about 850 up.

We are getting closer to 4 quarters of consistent football. And it was good that once we got the lead they didn't really come back or get close. And. It was great to get the win and exciting to finally break the hoodoo! The next 3 weeks vs Hawkes, Tigers and Bombers will tell us a lot more than beating 2 of last years bottom, albeit much improved sides. Win 2 of 3 over the next few weeks and the season will start to look really exciting.

Very good chance - the membership queues were quite long before the game today!

Yes, altho' I have a feeling the AFL want the Good Friday game between Vic clubs to help the Children's Hospital Appeal. Having said that any idea that avoids automatic 'blockbuster or premium time slot' games given to big or under performing clubs is worthy of discussion.

No one will be watching especially after Saints debacle last Friday. They should be showing the Syd vs GWS game. I know which I would prefer to watch tonight! I see the AFL is looking to give Good Friday to one of the big drawing clubs. As if Rich, Ess, Coll, Carl, don't have enough blockbuster or stand alone Thurs and Fri night games as it is! So the big get bigger and ... Having said that the game last week was appalling and something needs to change. But Good Friday shouldn't just default to big clubs. Perhaps, two of the prior years top 8 Vic sides to make it a bit fairer and a better chance of a decent spectacle.

In the pregame news it was good to see Clarkson come out and say the AFL needs to stop rewarding 'head high' free kicks, ala Selwood. His point is that if the AFL is serious about protecting the head it needs to minimise risk of head injury now or later in a players life. More on his thoughts in this article: https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/alastair-clarkson-calls-for-umpires-to-crack-down-on-shrugging-tactics-to-avoid-concussion-issues/news-story/7c9549f992b1e6d33e1dd59c163dfe67 A new technique is where the player with the ball doesn't drop the knees but leans to one side and lays his head in the attacker's arms. Free kick! Many players do it and it is a blight on the game.

A bit late but here it is https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/red-flags-remain-over-the-crows-cultish-camp-20180406-p4z84b.html If the story of not letting Eddie contact his little kids and pregnant wife for a week is true, it seems quite cruel. Some of the other stuff sounds really out there... Bit of a witch hunt happening by the Crows to find out who leaked it - it seems they are blaming partners, wives and player managers. Hmmmm.... Crows don't look too flash at the end of a Caro pencil! I think mfc handled the fallout of our camp much better than the Crows are handling this.

If the coach is to be believed Frost is there for defence: '... we were keen to put another tall defender in Sam Frost into the team...' http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-04-06/jayden-unlucky-but-not-at-his-best-goodwin Looks to me they are experimenting with different defense combos. So small forward line it is. Pray for accurate kicking into the forward line and lots of pressure from midfielders and our small/mid sized forwards.

I was referring to past administrations. Bartlett, PJ et al have been the polar opposite of pipe dreams and wishy washy. They have made things happen and there are more on their 'To Do' list.

I'm not sure why people think Frost will play on Tarrant to hold him accountable. Frost presents no danger as a forward (nor do our other tall players, except Hogan) so Tarrant will have a field day playing off him to double/triple team against Hogan.

That is not a description of Kent! He was dropped last year for not doing those things, not doing the 1%'s and not playing with a 'team first' attitude. How many times did he take it upon himself to shoot for goal when there were players in far better positions than him or hang around a pack for the easy ball. Hopefully, we aren't relying on him as a 'pressure forward'. The ball will bounce straight back out of our fwd50 if we are. In a nutshell, he might be fast and have other attributes but those highlighted are not in his repertoire. More often than not he is selfish.

I suspect we have always had similar goals but they have been more like pipe dreams, with wishy washy thinking on how to get there. ie no idea! This feels like a smaller version of what Hawthorn did to set themselves up as a strong club. Different scale, different ideas but really solid planning and delivery of said plans. What we need now is for the coaches and players to deliver on field!!!

Somewhere in the interview PJ mentioned a new facility with a commercial return. That could be things like: naming rights for a facility sponsor, using the fitness facility to generate income. In practice pools, gyms etc are used for only a small % of the week so they lie idle for most of 24/7. Not a very efficient use of resources. the facility having other commercial functionality which might attract a paying public. What I really liked about the strategy is the club is getting back to our 'core business' ie football. This is a different direction some other AFL club's expanding into esport (Adel, Ess), other sporting codes (Coll), management of sporting facilities (Rich)etc. (They can afford to as they facilities in place and have huge incomes). All well and good but it is yet to be shown whether these add anything to the AFL clubs or just become a management distraction, as they are not 'core business'. On a side note, PJ's contract is up in Oct. I reckon he will stay until at least we have 'the spot' for the new facility wrapped up. In the interview he hinted we might have 'the spot' this year. I am confident he wouldn't move on without a person in place that he believes can build on his fantastic work. But I really hope he renews his contract for at least another year. Where would we be without this guy:

I'm not at all concerned about the loss of the $2.0m profit. We lose about $1.3m (2/3rds) when Leighoak is sold and $0.7m when we hand back the Bentleigh pokie licenses in a few years. As PJ said there is plenty of time to get that $2.0m profit back elsewhere (without using the $11.0m capital from the Leighoak sale to pay back our debt). He mentioned things like: grow the fan base, increased game attendances, earnings from reinvesting the $11.0m (I don't think he meant interest) We also have more sponsorship income now with Zurich and Infiniti on board. And potentially more sponsors in the pipeline. Sure, those revenues might happen anyway but this is part of a strategy to reposition our club 'for the next generation of fans' (Barlett's words). We have never, ever had any long-term thinking let alone planning as we are generally chasing our tail. It is refreshing to have the building blocks in place for a solid financial and football future. I'm rapt with this decision and the commercial thinking behind it. I applaud PJ, the management team and the Board. I am excited to see what they have in store as the strategy unfolds.

Hope you are right 'Rusty' and that extra space isn't just used up by their spare man in defence and other than Jeffy, our small forwards haven't shown much success so far this year, at being able to pounce and snare goals. The make up of this weeks team is a bit of a mystery. It supports the game plan we would like to have (midfield defence, accurate fwd 50 entries, high pressure forwards) but that isn't what we actually do or are capable of doing. But gosh I hope this team works out!

Is that an update or did I miss something - the article referred to Phase 2 testing before' it' being released to the general market in a few years ie not needing special permission to use. Nonetheless, I'm in full agreement with your original post that you/I hope MFC are not into it and that everyone especially the AFL, has there eyes wide open. Edit: there seems to be some inaccuracy in what has been reported. I just came across this https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-legend-malcolm-blight-concerned-footballers-are-being-used-as-lab-rats-for-trial-drugs/news-story/58aad17fbaa46917f7b60148e3e313d8 Quotes: Malcolm Blight has voiced his concern that footballers are being used as ‘lab rats’ for trial drugs following reports players are using a new ‘wonder drug’ to cure knee, hip and groin pain. [The CEO], Rennie told the Herald Sun that it was approved by the AFL’s chief medical officer Dr Peter Harcourt, with the report saying that the drug was being accessed by AFL players under the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s ‘special access scheme’. However, the AFL has since provided a statement saying “Dr Peter Harcourt did not approve this medication”. It has left the players allegedly using this drug in the lurch.. It wouldn't be the first time a company has made claims to keep their share price up. Anyway, very confusing. Suspect there is more to come.

OK, so Frost is named at CHF. They tried that at start of 2016 and it definitely did not work. Some here assume he will actually play in defense. So, who gets pushed out of defense and who will be the other tallish forward? Do we have another tallish player who can mark and kick goals! If we continue to bomb it i50 and they play an extra down back then heaven help us with a short forward line. North will have 2 or 3 up against Jesse every time the ball gets bombed in. Even if it goes to ground our small forwards have not shown the tenacity of Tiger small fwds to keep the ball in our fwd line. It looks like a makeshift forward line. Will be keen to see who kicks our goals

Looks like Hunt is out https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-teams-round-3-full-squads-team-lists-ins-outs-injuries-benches-and-supercoach-news/news-story/7fdad0de94eb09f68c9835f34aad09c3 The new backline hasn't settled yet and none of them (except OMc) are playing anywhere near their 2017 best. Would have liked the match committee to back him in for a bit longer. If he is to be part of our permanent defense team then the best way to get him into form is to let him play so he can be part of the defense as it learns to be a cohesive unit again. For mine he has enough credits to not be dropped for one poor game. But if he is suffering from some possible back issues (which some posters mentioned last week) then ok but rest him. Will be disappointed if he plays at Casey this week.

I didn't connect it to anything at EFC and know it is not banned from an ASADA view. Nor is it illegal in a medical sense. But the players are still guinea pigs, as is anyone who participates in a trial for new pharmaceuticals. My point was that hopefully players know what potential risks the product holds as it as not yet been fully tested on humans. That is what their Phase 2 testing will be.

The thing I found odd from the article is that while they have the ok to use it, the product is still to be fully tested and is not on the market ye,t so the 40 to 50 AFL players are being used as guinea pigs. Clearly, the product is not illegal but hopefully club doctors have told those 40 to 50 players any potential side affects etc.

Interesting that Goodwin has always said something like: “the past isn’t relevant to us, this team will make its own history” when asked about other hoodoos eg Etihad. And he is right about that. Some player quotes from yesterday’s SEN interviews: Salem: “To be honest we haven’t really spoken about it at all”. Melksham: “The North Melbourne boys were giving us a fair bit of stick about it…I certainly know about it now. I think there is a fair bit of bitterness towards North in that sense that they have got the wood over the boys for most of their career…It’s a pretty big stat and we’re pretty keen to get rid of it.” Lewis: “We’re planning on it not being 18 in a row.” While Goodwin doesn't talk about hoodoos it seems some players have and breaking this hoodoo means a lot to the them! Hope the ‘bitterness’ Melksham talks about spurs then to go the extra mile and make sure it is not 18 in a row. Maybe this is one of those times Goodwin can drop the talk of 'humble' players and harness that 'bitterness' to get that elusive win.