Lucifers Hero

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2017-02-14/keilty-puts-teammates-ahead-of-himself A humble young man. Clearly wanted to be a Demon! “If I had an option between every club, Melbourne would’ve always been number one for me – especially this year with the alignment and being in close quarters with them...It’s probably turned out the best, but I didn’t have much interest [in going to any other clubs] besides Melbourne.” He will repay the faith shown in drafting him. Hope he gets a chance at the seniors at some stage this year.

Lily got a fair bit of criticism on the Match Day thread but given the RS nomination she couldn't have been as bad as some posters thought. What I like about her reaction is she stayed well grounded, appreciating the honour but saying: "... I didn’t think I starred by any stretch.” Perhaps not but you did your job for the team and helped them over the line. Well done! I think she is only 19 and showing very good signs. Plenty of good times to come!

The coaches etc would have known some time ago they wanted co-captains and I'd be mighty surprised if they didn't tell Jonesy of the idea prior to 'a few days ago'. To not do so would be disrespectful. So, maybe the surprise Jones expressed was Viney as co-captain whereas he may have been expecting Lewis. Viney will be 23 at the start of the season so he is not 'that' young'. Two years as co-cap and he will be 25 when he takes over. The transition is a bit like Roos to Goodwin. The leadership improvement needed in Jack (by his own admission) is his reading the play and decision making on field so I would have preferred another year to learn those things from the likes of Lewis. In all other areas he appears ready. My favourite example is the way Viney stuck up for Watts when Rance smashed his face into the turf. That sort of leadership earns respect, especially from teammates: Give no quarter, take no prisoners! Just have to go with it and trust the club.

Bit of a shame we couldn't jump on the MCC bandwagon and get in on this redevelopment in Beaumaris: http://mccnews.mcc.org.au/whats-on/latest-news/2016/august/beaumaris "In a Victorian-first, the MCC will fund two competition grade ovals, a pavilion and a multipurpose pitch as part of the redevelopment of the school". I assume it is more likely to be used for cricket than football, but it might have been worth a shot for MFC to get in on the act, given our MCC alignment. Probably too late now. Wouldn't mind our training sessions to be held there - just down the road!

It seems we have lost Daisy's Off-field services. She resigned her 'Day job' with the Dees welfare department. It also involved sponsorship, community work and working with the male coaches. http://www.theage.com.au/afl/womens-afl/aflw-star-daisy-pearce-reveals-how-she-hit-footy-burnout-tipping-point-20170209-gu9j6v.html It seems football had become all consuming and something had to give. It seems Jackson tried to lessen the load but Pearce chose to focus on playing and being a captain along with her growing AFLW ambassadorial and media work. While I greatly admire her ability to prioritise her life, it is sad that we have lost her behind the scenes work at our club. This is moreso as we lost Michelle Cowan late last year. We had the two biggest (and best) names in AFLW working with and for our club to help build its future. Of course Daisy will be a Demon player for her playing life but I can't help but think that with no Cowan and no (off-field) Pearce our development strategy is in disarray. I can't see Stinear filling that gap in any way whatsoever and all the good administrators and coaches are already taken. Interestingly, the club made no announcement that Daisy had resigned her job. I suspect they were (rightly) concerned about the perception of supporters/memberships, sponsors etc. but to me it speaks volumes to the worries in the background at the club. Daisy is our captain and will champion our club accordingly but that is different to her being part of the long-term strategy/ambassador for our club. Having absorbed the impact of that article on our club makes me less optimistic about our AFLW prospects.

Interesting comments by Collingwood's coach re the Time-On rules. http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/wayne-siekman-calls-on-afl-to-change-afl-womens-timeon-rules-over-manipulation-fears/news-story/be71a44a3d3e42bcc105b02e8470dab9 Essentially, because there is no Time-On when points are scored this is open to manipulation. His example was that a team can run down the clock by taking as much time as they like after the opp kick a point. And it is an extra advantage if that team is in front and kicking against the wind. Brisbane seemed wise to this last Sunday and took 30 seconds after points to kick the ball in. Hopefully the AFL change the rules but I doubt it will be in season. In the meantime I hope our team is wise to this tactic

Thought I would give this event some profile, so here are the details: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2017-02-08/2017-family-day-at-luna-park Gates open @ 9.00 am. Lots of fun things for kids including free rides until 11.00am! Lots of chances for selfies with players for adults!! Hopefully, it will give also a boost to our membership numbers.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/jobe-watson-has-returned-his-2012-brownlow-medal-to-the-afl-20170208-gu8g0o.html A bit more info on return of the medal: "The delivery of the medal was handled by McLachlan, Watson and Watson's father Tim". But Gil is still stalling: "...the league CEO added he had "no idea" what the AFL would do with the relinquished Brownlow." There is only one thing to do - Melt it down so that no-one can gain any future commercial value from it. And Gil should demand Essendon take out the 2012 Brownlow medal from Watson's profile on their website!

I've tidied up the grammar and filled in the gaps: (Jack is a) player who is 6.5m tall, runs like a deer and kicks like a dream. He gets my vote on all counts!

The match being discussed as a curtain raiser at the G is the AFLW Grand Final. Even tho the GF game/presentation time partially overlap our game it shouldn't affect our crowd at Etihad (unless our women's team make the GF). And our game is a StK home game and not on FTA TV so we don't miss out there. But I hear and agree with your message that MFC interests rarely rate in AFL decisions. (A side benefit of the AFLW GF at the G is it will make it harder for Ess to do a 'hero worship', song and dance march to the G and pre game brouhaha as it is also Roughy's first game back (the real hero). The AFLW GF and Roughy's return will hog all the media in advance leaving the return of the convicted EFC players to a petty side show. (I suspect Ess will be lobbying hard to not have the GF as a curtain raiser at the G!) But I digress - if a Vic team play an i/state team in the GF it could well be a curtain raiser at Etihad (our game). If two i/state teams it could be Princes Park. So, it is a 'wait and see' who makes the GF before the venue is decided. It would be great (albeit unlikely) if our women's team play an i/state team in the GF and it is a curtain raiser for our StK game at Etihad!

Last night I said to a friend I would be surprised if many of the 10 banned players returning at Essendon will get senior games, as most of them were not often in the best 22 in 2015. Today I saw this: http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-02-06/no-guarantees-for-returning-bombers-says-worsfold Oh my, how the narrative has changed! A few months ago it was 'we can't wait to get them back' implying back on the park playing senior football. Now its: "...Worsfold said there would be no guarantees given to the group ahead of the home and away season, with no extra loyalty afforded their way for knocking back rival offers to come back to Essendon after their suspensions". I'm surprised to hear Worsfold say that in public. It is such a blatant contrast to the club's adulation of players showing their loyalty by signing up again. Clearly loyalty is a one way street!! We will never know what they were told before signing up or if this is an about face. If the latter well silly players for trusting that club again!

For Robbo: Yes it does matter. The medal is now not just a piece of tin. It is now a real collectors item simply because of the rarity of its 'provenance'. And he is still the official winner on the EFC website. http://www.essendonfc.com.au/player-profile/jobe-watson For them nothing has changed and the AFL is condoning the lie. Its an insult to the history of the Brownlow and to Mitchell and Crotchin. Jobe must give it back and his name expunged from all records not just an asterisk beside his name.

Jesse made an interesting comment on Goodwin: “I can’t fault him so far, he’s been unreal and it will be good to see what he’s like in a game situation and see if he can keep his cool like he does at training.” http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2017-02-05/hogan-aims-to-be-a-leader-in-attack Even tho Goodwin has been around a few years he will still get a honeymoon period so I reckon he will keep his cool, at least in public. Behind closed doors I suspect the players will get his wrath when warranted. A short but good interview. Jesse sounds like he is maturing rapidly, that he aspires to become a leader of our young forward line. Good on him. I think he nailed the benefit of recruiting Hibberd ("...older half-back that we haven’t had for the last few years...") and Lewis ( “...has been a wealth of knowledge and his experience is something money can’t buy.")

Yes, especially as there is no Finals Series - the top 2 teams automatically playoff for the Grand Final. With only 7 games there is every chance the ladder positions will be decided on percentage. The 3 winners so far have a huge head start with % around 400%. Lets hope we can be up there with them at the end of today! Really hope we are in the top 2. It would be fitting if the Bulldogs are top 2 as well! Playing off in the Grand Final might soothe the sting for not having the inaugural game and all the history that goes with it.

Agreed. History was created last night. As the trailblazers for the game, the Bulldogs and Demons had earned the right to create that history: to have the First goal kicker, the First win, the First BOG etc. Instead the history was gifted to the big and powerful. The respective captains, Brennan(Bulldogs) and Pearce (Demons) didn't think too much of it either "...Both admitted in the countdown to the AFLW premiere that a Carlton-Collingwood billing hasn't exactly filled them with romance..." Having failed on that the AFL should have the Bulldogs play the Demons tonight giving both teams a chance to have a 'big' game with big crowds . Instead both clubs play i/state teams which won't draw big crowds so less atmosphere etc. At least the Bulldogs get to play tonight. We are relegated to a 5.05pm start the night before school at an outer suburban oval. 5.05pm, really! More respect was deserved by the two teams that worked so hard to even get the AFL to consider an AFLW game. Edit: Just noticed our game is not on FTA TV.

Interesting comments about Hogan: he is aware of his body language issues and has been working on them over the summer with various people. Also, that he catches up with Carey for a coffee every now and then. Chuckled at the anecdote of their first meeting about a year ago. To Hogan, Carey said something like '...you stuffed up mate!' You were too good too early!!'

Not too sure what they can say. All the bio's are quite matter of fact and low key. I doubt the club has any hidden agenda. Even Jones' bio starts off with his shoulder surgery last season. Macca's preseason reviews gave a good picture of where each player is at and their prospects for 2017. On the club website if you missed them You mean this on current mfc website: vs this:

This morning it is 31,041 up 178 from yesterday. That is good increase for one day. Which makes me wonder if the membership 'slow down' is a function of when staff returned from leave and catch up with what was there over the break rather than a tapering off of memberships. It will taper off at some stage but as long as we keep the increase so far (from 2016) we will end up with at least 42,000 members. Win a few pre-season and early in-season games and 45,000 should be easily reached!

Draft position aside, we have a Parish type...Jayden Hunt And, Clarrie gives the team much better balance and he can do things Parish can't. What's more, Parish went right up the 'opposition players I don't like' scale after his pompous display on kicking his goal against us in round 2 last year. So, Clarrie every day of the week.

Am quoting your post so that @picket fence will see it! When Oscar's year is seen in total rather than moment by moment that is a stunning performance, especially for a 2nd year player. I'm sure someone will pipe up and comment on his kicking but now that we have Hunt, Hibberd, Salem et al to get the ball out of the backline, Oscar's kicking won't be such an issue especially as we will be running the ball out more than kicking it out.

I've just sent you a pm with it attached which you can just print.

Great work r and b. So to the topic. We already have 1 list vacancy with Lumumba's departure. Am hoping we can have a year where the media isn't continuously reporting on which of our players will recontract ala Frawley, Howe, McDonald(s), Hogan. It is just so distracting. To that end, I'm hoping Salem and Weideman are renewed as soon as possible. They would have to be our top priorities of the 2017 OOC's!

Thanks, I did the same in my original post and pasted the table. The lack of colour of the numbers was the problem and when trying to edit on here the formatting went awol! I guess we will just have to do without the colours! Noticed you fixed the colours - great job!

Thank you!! Please tell how you did that!! ps White and Smith should be in the relevant category for 2017

Sorry folks. Can't seem to post the table with the contract info and the formatting is all messed up when it posts. Could mods delete topic please as the messed up formatting is stopping me posting the table again. Will create the topic again when I work out why formatting isn't working this year