Lucifers Hero

That is one of the scariest comment I've seem on here for quite a while... What reminds you of 2012?

Misson's take on pre season so far: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2017-11-15/nealbullen-stretch-impress-early He applauds Stretch and ANB. Not everyone showed up as would have liked: “They’ve come back in OK shape – some that we would’ve liked to have come back a bit better and there are some we are pleasantly surprised with,” he said. Can any of our track watches tell which players look just ok? He talks about the players that were/are on injury list. Kent gets a mention: "Kenty, with his shoulder, has been able to do a fair bit of running work, but still needs to improve that strength and range in his shoulder". So while he isn't getting a mention in reports and photos he is obviously working out, somewhere". Good on him. A notable mention is Viney: "...He’s still got to work on getting his range in that ankle back. We’re not going to rush him back into football work...". The latter bit is especially good to hear.

Kent is not a 1 to 4 year player so technically isn't due back till nov 20. But your point is well made - given he had a bad 2017 on and off the field, you would think he could make a statement about commitment and earn back the faith, by coming back a bit early as other senior players have (eg Max, Viney, Pedo). I doubt he will be on our list next year. Maybe he knows it. We will know in a few weeks how much he cares about his AFL career.

No bounce No 3rd man up No straight arm block (recall the 'Max Tax' - 5 frees vs Saints) So, very little tactical nouse required by ruckman these days! Days of the great ruck duels are numbered...as Jeff White said: Sad... Wish they would leave the game alone!

Thank you demonstone. Clever work!

Or as earnest says better injury management. Gawn, Salem, Jones, Watts, Tyson and Garlett had soft tissue injuries. Viney and Hogan and bone injuries. Not one of them came back thru Casey and with the exception of Jones were 'rushed' back into the team. Jones was given 'extra' time to recover and not one of the other players was as good post injury as before, even after a few games under their belt to blow out the cobwebs and get match fitness back So I would say better injury/game management "and we would have played finals in 2017 and I mean finals". The coaches and the medicos rolled the injury dice and lost. No finals! To come back to thread title - should we trade our medical/fitness staff!!

Making good progress: 23,162. Up on comparable date in 2016 but just a few hundred behind 2017. Wondering if @george_on_the_outermight update and pin the 'Annual Membership Tally' thread?

That he wasn't allowed to do that surprised me as we desperately needed outside run and a steadying force going forward - Billy can run, lowers his eyes rather than bomb it in fwd and is accurate when playing with confidence. Not a prolific ball getter but can use it well, not brilliantly but better than most. Getting every player to be aggressive at the contest is good in principle but we have an abundance of those in and under types but precious few with speed and ball delivery skills. If Stretch isn't given the freedom to run and we traded HWSNBN Mark11, delivery into our fwd line will still be an issue this year. Hope Billy gets the licence to run - it would be great to see him in full flight.

For general info: Since the latest CBA, all Category A rookies can be selected to play from round 1 regardless of injuries, promotions etc. The difference between a Cat A rookie and a senior player is now length of tenure, termination conditions and pay scale. It is the reason we reclassified Maynard from a B rookie to an A rookie. It was a good move by the AFLPA as it gives clubs more flexibility. For example, if it was in place this year we could have played one or more of the rookies when Lumumba's departure left us an AFL player short.

Possibly just the angle of this pic at training that makes him look skinny especially in chest and legs. Delighted to hear your reports that he has bulked up and tracking well. He is an exciting prospect.

From mfc website: "...ruckman Mitch King caught Petracca’s eye....Mitch King has put on a bit of size ... about five or six kilos, so he’s looking a bit fitter and a bit stronger,”. It seems King has done a lot right during the break. Hopefully he really comes on this year. It will be good (and important) to 'keep Max honest' with competition building for the ruck spot and as a back up if Max breaks down again. King had bad luck going down early last year with a ruptured acl but he could be a surprise packet this year! Wish him well. On a different note, Weideman still looks pretty skinny...

Roos was really big on this. His wife Tammy did a bit of work with the players and I recall some saying it really helped them. Post Neeld, he and Tammy were starting behind the eight ball but still helped achieve a much improved mindset and consistency during the 3 years. Roos employed it at Syndey and they also went onto win a flag. Captain Kirk was one who really embraced 'mindfulness'. Also. I read recently that Dusty did regular sessions to help him - can't remember if it was meditation, yoga or both. Cotchin also spoke highly of the program. Some might say 'mindfulness' is all a bit airy fairy but when really tough guys like Kirk and Dusty take it on then it is worth paying attention. Goodwin is more about contest and competitiveness. Also, I think Goodwin wanted to leave Roos' initiatives behind and introduce his own. So to answer your question, I doubt 'mindfulness' will be back at the Demons. Nonetheless, Richmond and Sydney have shown the value of both. Edit: The article D4life refers to http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/mindfulness-and-meditation-helped-richmond-break-afl-premiership-drought-20171103-gzed1o.html

In recent times: Jimmy's 11. He won his bronwlow in it. Subsequently cherished and worn proudly by Maxy.

Jack T was on radio saying that he contacted Jack W (in Canada) who shed a tear or two on hearing they would be together at Port. Shows how much they think of each other. I shed a few tears too. Never thought I would say this but I hope Port has great success next year (except vs us) with our Jacks! Good luck JT. Whatever happens, you'll always be a Demon champ!

It looks like a lot of people held off to the last minute for the Oct 31 cut off for Christmas membership mail. That and the Nov 1 Direct Debit renewals have kicked in and today's number is 21,559! Still about 1,478 short of 2017 figure around this time (23,037) but improving!

Thanks HBG. Again, it seems like poor membership communication on renewals. The new 'packaging' concept seems a back door way of raising revenue, especially as there are limited GF tickets available. At some point the club will need to cap the number of memberships with the gfg (as Bulldogs did post 2016) and then new members will only be able to buy the vanilla GA membership. To me it seems that without a 'reserve seat' option it is one less offering to help attract new members! Or offer a mid point for those who want to opt out of the gfg. Oh well, hope the club hasn't inadvertently deterred potential new members. We need every member we can get!

Thanks for the confirmation dc. The lack of a basic GA home game + reserved seat option would be a terrible oversight so one must think it is deliberate! Like you, I think it will come back and bite them. Or maybe it already has. Including the GF guarantee in what was a basic membership is like the club forcing people to buy a product with an option they may never use and don't want. This plus the lack of transparency and information on pricing/product changes is disconcerting.

Website says Redlegs includes Reserved Seat at the package cost of $479. https://membership.melbournefc.com.au/packages/view/82/Redlegs. I've had the same seat for 16 years. The seat number is on the renewal advice and is automatically allocated to me if renewed before a certain date. If your membership is different maybe contact the club to clarify. This map shows Redleg Reserve as N1 to N9. Cheers

That's good to know. Thanks I couldn't find on the website if someone wanted to buy a new GA Home + Reserved seat membership. Will have another look when I have more time.

Sorry to quote myself but that post prompted me to look more closely at options. The club added two new membership packages! Who knew? These new packages are: Demon Seats Plus Open Air https://membership.melbournefc.com.au/packages/view/499/Demon-Seats-Plus-Open-Air Cost (Adult Home Games): $429 Demon Seats Plus Undercover https://membership.melbournefc.com.au/packages/view/85/Demon-Seats-Plus-Undercover Cost (Adult Home Games): $479 After some labourious manual comparisons I found other combos that include the GF guarantee! Compare above to these: Redlegs: Cost (Adult Home Games): $479 (incl Reserved seat and it has more benefits) General Admission: Cost (Adult Home Games): $221 plus GF Guarantee option $229 ie $450! (This will go up to $520 after round 1). Note: there is no Reserved seat attached to this membership combo!! So anyone wanting a GF guarantee should buy one of the packages instead because they get a Reserved seat (really important for potential high attendance games like Anzac Eve and QB when premiums might be charged/reservation fee could be charged). The downside appears to be that members can no longer buy a Membership with Reserved seat without the Grand Final Guarantee option kicking in. (It may be there but I haven't been able to find it on the website). I wonder what people who had the Gen Admiss plus Reserved seat option in 2017 saw on their renewal notice? This could really hurt families who like to have a reserved seat so they sit in 'their seat' within a Demon crowd. It is the most traditional of Club membership and some people would have had the same reserved seats for years. Maybe theseare the 'diehards' that have not renewed because they want a Reserved Seat but not a GF guarantee. I would be interested to know if anyone can find a General Admission plus Reserved Seat option on our website. But who knew about the new packages/chages? How on earth is anyone supposed to easily compare? I'm not having a go at the club here - I genuinely believe there is an issue with the club communicating price and feature changes in a way that is easy for members to work out where they stand and what their options are.

Sorry hardtack but that is what the mfc website says. For mine, on my (non-automatic) renewal they added a $99 AFLW membership on the basis of my Demon AFLW Foundation Member last year which I thought was a once off 'donation'. I would have preferred the club sent an email to say it would be added to my Redlegs membership renewal or allowed me to opt out, on the on-line renewal process. From what I could see the on-line renewal screen did not allow changes to existing memberships. There is a lesson for the club from your and my experiences: Membership renewal notices should tell members what price or feature changes have occurred. It isn't hard - a standard email to tell all members of the new charges/features, is all it takes. Currently, it is quite difficult to compare membership options and features on the club website. In fact it would help it there was a 'compare' feature on the website. Things for the membership team to think about for next year. It would save some member angst and earn some goodwill if the club communicated changes better and made it easier for people to evaluate their options.

Re the Grand Final Guarantee -- if you want it buy your membership with it included before round 1 because then it goes from $229 to $299 per membership. https://membership.melbournefc.com.au/packages/view/958/Grand-Final-Guarantee There is only a limited number and once you have it you have 1st choice to keep it the following year. As Diamond Jim says, it is now serious money especially when there is more than one family member.

Just putting the current status out there (as we usually do at this time of year on Demonland) and to keep d'landers informed of club related stuff. I agree most of the 6,000 diehards will probably renew. There have been 7,000 additional members join since Roos’ appointment was announced. They will be less resilient than the diehards and us on Demonland. The club really needs them all to renew and renew their usually membership and not downgrade it to a lower level or to a 3 game membership. The fixture has not helped this cause. Not many enticing Home MCG games. As always it is up to the coach and players to deliver - no 'mental weakness' against the lesser clubs, especially in the first part of the year. No more three quarter efforts. I truly hope we beat our prior record of 42,000+ but the current trend doesn't look promising.

No promises from the club for next year ding. In fact, the opposite! In the PJ interview on SEN last week Garry Lyon asked him if making finals was 'not negotiable' next year. Jackson said something like '...nothing is not negotiable...'. So I doubt anyone from the club will use the F word next year. Lots of tippy toeing will happen around the F word.

That would certainly influence some people. A poster reported a while back that the cost to add the Grand Final Guarantee went from $80 in 2016 to $229. That GFG increase would have been quite a shock to people who are used to buying it for $80. Personally, I think that is a rip off by the club as my Redlegs membership which has the GFG built in went up by only a small amount in total. For members who were already disillusioned/disappointed by the clubs performance/decisions that GFG increase (and other price increases) could well have been the straw that broke the camels back and it gave them just another reason to walk away.