Lucifers Hero

38,119 That is 392 since Friday night. I would say there would be plenty more from yesterday coming through in the next few days as the membership team processes them. And as I noted above beat Geelong on Saturday and that will be quite a flip upward!

That was: last game of season; we ran out of puff; drank own bath water; on their home deck with 95% of crowd their fans. This time: we are fresh; we just got another reality check vs Blues; a neutral ground and a more even crowd. Geelong aren't the fastest team going round - Play our fast, get the ball forward by any means game with players running to overlap and we have a very good chance of getting the W. And Viney has previously stitched up Selwood and Vince stitched up Danger. If they do that again it is in the bag, said more in hope than true belief...

Goodwin said at half time that we were over-possessing the ball and we should be tapping the ball forward more (and not try to take possession). We had reverted to 'slow play' - tried to pick up the ball, take on the opposition, go back to take a mark, go backwards etc. I hate to say it but the worst offender at taking on players was Viney' - its a habit he is finding hard to break. Last week we ran and tapped and pushed the ball forward and reaped the rewards. That is our brand. When we take slow play options we are vulnerable. I'm sure Goodwin will be working on that this week, especially going on to the fast deck at Etihad.

Lewis is on a 'promise' of sorts. If he gets a week it becomes two as he has a carryover 'bonus' penalty which doesn't expire until sometime in May.

DeeS...you may get away with calling Watts and Garlett shirkers but you lose all cred saying Jordan Lewis is afraid of contact.! And, lets move this to the post match thread or else it will default into a Watts bashing thread!

3Qtr time: Port 117, Freo 46. Freo never had much offensive, now they don't even have defence nor contested game Lyon may have a long contract but that won't save him. Freo have deep pockets and they showed their ruthlessness when they sacked Harvey and in the dark of night poached Lyon. World of pain for all. It may be just enough to lose Fyfe.

It may not be a BOJ sponsor but Akambo Wealth are on board for another 3 years. https://www.google.com.au/search?q=+Akambo+Private+Wealth&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&ei=aIPgWNKrBYbp8wfwgJrYCQ Article doesn't say how their name will be presented on our club/player gear. Can't imagine they would forget to mention it if Akambo Wealth were the BOJ sponsor, would they? Good news to have them continue! A good start to the year probably helped. I'm sure a BOJ sponsor can't be too far away.

Interesting that Macca suggested he latch onto Viney and Stretch and learn from them - just shows how highly Stretch is thought of. If last weeks BOG performance was classified by Macca as 'just scratching the surface of what he was capable of...' then other teams had better watch out. For us: Happy Days Roos always did have a good eye for talent!

It appears to average around 400-500 in the week after. If we win and the membership tent is still open after the game or people sign up on their devices after the game/at home tonight/this week our membership office will be busy. The big boost to memberships will be if we beat Carlton and Geelong at Etihad next week. Those two teams embarrassed us in rnds 22/23 last year and have been nemesis teams . Then would expect substantial membership numbers to follow leading up to Easter. My tip is still to reach 40,000 by our ANZAC Eve game.

WOW. Tackles: BL = 6. EFC = 9 to Qtr time. The average for a game is 15-18 per quarter by each team! Both BL and EFC will struggle big time against a really competitive team. Really slow ball movement by both teams. Again both will struggle big time against a fast running team. Unless they improve their competitiveness and ball movement both will spend the year in the bottom half of the ladder.

@markc Great new avatar picture: Is that your little guy running out with Jessie, last week? Precious memories for him.

...and Roos knocked that out of him quick smart by making him 'pay' (ie wait and wait to debut) for injuring himself playing basketball in the preseason...

And even Beveridge said it: "We will put our hand up and say a couple of balls were thrown in the grand final that should have been paid as throws...We may have a got away with a couple." http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/western-bulldogs-not-the-only-handball-bad-boys-in-the-afl-luke-beveridge-20170322-gv48uo.html What more evidence do the umpires and the AFL need! Fair and even umpiring by 3 umpires within a game is the minimum standard in elite sport. The odd mistake here and there will happen but not the obvious incompetence shown in the GF and last night. Our game deserves better.

Again last night WB got all the leeway from umpires. Frees 31 to 18. Not only the number but where they were given - 2 or 3 frees in front of goal for Cloke and Boyd were a joke. The commentators thought so as well. The one against Mills was wrong - the criteria are: prior opportunity, distance from goal and pressure. At least 2 of the 3 applied to make the Mills point legit. (One could even make a case the free should have gone against Picken for staging - he stopped running and threw his hands up claiming the free well before Mills who was running at top speed had got near the ball). That is at least 3 goals from frees. Not to mention all the throws (especially Libba) not paid. Also, Sydney were pinned for a lot of holding the ball when they had no prior opportunity, incorrect disposal when the ball fell out on being tackled or high contact. Very few of these, if any were paid against WB. I would simply like each game umpired equally. Same rule interpretation for both clubs within the one game. If the umpires can't do that the AFL should send them back too the umpires equivalent of the VFL. The WB have their premiership, its time the umpires were instructed to stop playing favourites!

37,727

Finally, someone in the media wrote it: "Fairytale’ is not to be used when describing a Round 1 victory of a team that had six players return from their 12-month suspension for doping offences." http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-outsider-two-genuine-footy-heroes-prove-why-football-fairytale-term-cant-be-overused/news-story/e820d10556cc732b28d2bf2829f31cbb A Good story about real AFL heroes: Jason McCartney and Jarryd Roughead. It took someone outside the AFL media bubble to call out out the hypocrisy of the bomber players return fanfare. Those inside the bubble will never say it. (In fact I'm a bit surprised fox footy even published it!)

The full list hasn't been published from what I can tell. I can only find the top 4/5: 14 – Erin Phillips (Adel) 10 – Ellie Blackburn (WB), Karen Paxman (Melb) 9 – Lara Filocamo (Frem) 8 – Kaitlyn Ashmore (BL) Its fair to assume that Karen Paxman who had an outstanding year 'stole' votes from Daisy. Its tough for an outstanding player to score highly when there are two champions in the team. I would really like to see the same round by round detail that we get for the Brownlow. Daisy's last few games were exceptional. Surprised didn't get 8 votes to get equal fifth, over the last 3/4 games. She played injured in the first 2. The way I see it, we have two champions Daisy and Karen and when the season is as short as 7 games there isn't enough games for both players to poll well like male players do over 22 games. AFLW is a tough gig. However, I am delighted that we had 4 RS nominees, two of whom made the final AA squad along with a number of our more senior players. I think, had we made the GF we would have gone in favourites - we were playing unbelievable football in the last few rounds. As I mentioned in original post I just hope we can keep the team together.

Yep, our midfield is well and truly on the radar courtesy of one Jordan Lewis: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2017-03-28/we-can-follow-hawks-footsteps-lewis MELBOURNE is building a potent midfield capable of challenging the best sides in the competition, according to four-time premiership Hawk and new Demon Jordan Lewis..."I can't see why not," Lewis said when asked if Melbourne's midfield can follow in the footsteps of the Hawks". For mine I would have preferred Lewis to wait a while before likening our midfield to the Hawks. We are full of potential but not really achieved anything yet. Just hope he makes sure the players have their feet on the ground on Sunday. Carlton is just the team to catch us napping. Our mids will be hunted from now on. I expect them to get much rougher treatment than what some posters are complaining that Bernie dished out last week.

I've noticed that some mouthguards are transparent rather than white or coloured so he might be wearing one. ...and remove the AA Captain, currently the most marketable face of our football club and all round champion. Our colours were blazoned on tv during the weekend football coverage in the NAB ads with Daisy and little kids in mfc jumpers. Any idea what that will do to gain future supporters. Remove Daisy...Bad Call. Disrespectful call. If Oliver continues to earn his stripes, just add him...no need to remove anyone - unless you were making some other pointed point...

Special mention needs to be made of Erin Phillips (Adelaide Crows), AFLW honours: · Premiership Captain. · Grand Final, BOG. · MVP as voted by players. · Goal of the Year · AFLW Best Fairest. Non AFLW honours: 2008 Olympic Silver medal, Women’s Basketball. 2006 FIBA World Championship for Women Gold Medal. Not much to add - that record speaks for itself.

I know this will get moved to the AFLW Forum very soon but as most readers don't visit it, I thought you would like to know of our AFLW Demon success It has been a really successful season for the AFLW and the Demons came agonizingly close to the GF missing the right to play on percentage. Maybe next year. We have a very talented team as evidenced by: 4 Rising Star nominees, the highest number of any club: Lily Mithen, Jasmine Grierson, Katherine Smith, Deanna Berry Winner: Ebony Marinoff (Adelaide) Demon Placings (from 14 nominees) 3. Lily Mithen, 5. Jasmine Grierson, 8. Deanna Berry. 6 nominees in the All Australian Team of 40 players, the highest number outside the Grand Finalists: Karen Paxman, Elise O’Dea, Daisy Pearce, Melissa Hickey, Lily Mithen, Jasmine Grierson Demons in Final Squad: Karen Paxman, Daisy Pearce, Melissa Hickey, Elise O'Dea . Captain: Daisy Pearce Best Captain as judged by players: Winner: Our very own Daisy Pearce Best and Fairest: Demons in the mix: Karen Paxman, Daisy Pearce Winner: Erin Phillips (Adelaide) Demon Placings: 2. Karen Paxman (Tie) Congratulations to all and especially to the winners. We will be hearing those names a lot more in the future. Lets just hope the weird AFL rules on putting all contracts up for renewal this year doesn't cause major losses of our players. And the understatement of the year: Daisy is an amazing asset to the MFC!

37,025 That is 2,000 up on 10 days ago. 600 of that due to the fine efforts of our players and staff calling fans. Prior to 2016 our highest membership was 36,937 in 2011. Yes 2011! So, a mini milestone was reached today! It won't be long before we break the 2016 record of 39,211 final tally Then 40,000 is just around the corner. About the time of our ANZAC Eve game, maybe?

Where red and black! Going on the AFLCA votes, Clarrie gets BOG in his own right. The 3 in red and black get shared honours. 3 in TOTW is probably the AFL at work helping promote that poor club. (I fully admit my anti AFL/anti Ess bias). It gives them something else to brag about! Such is their arrogance they do not even show the whole team on their website - just the lines in which they have a rep! http://www.essendonfc.com.au/news/2017-03-28/team-of-the-week-rd-1 Nauseating!

Two alternative views of new 'no third man up' rule: 1 Geelong totally nullify the affect of Sandilands by surrendering the hitouts but scored most from clearances. (Dockers ending up 63-18 hitouts). No 3rd man up, no big deal! http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/live-afl-round-1-fremantle-v-geelong-cats/news-story/ebe52c3413fb7f60bed19d7e4ba0a0fa Geelong had their own gameplan and it worked brilliantly. (A page out of Beveridge's book ala 2014/2015) 2. Richardson sooks about it in StK vs Demons game. “You can’t do anything, really,” St Kilda coach Alan Richardson told Fox Footy’s AFL 360...“I think that’s something that’s been lost in the whole argument about getting rid of the third-man up". WOW - a startling admission that he really had no idea what to do if he couldn't have a 3rd man up! That is what preseason games are for. He should watch footage of Freo vs Geelong to get some ideas! Max is one of the best but for a coach to not have a plan...it is going to be a long season for Richo and the Saints. http://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/st-kilda-becomes-the-first-victim-of-afls-decision-to-scrap-thirdman-up-at-ruck-contests/news-story/7e7ed8d944f1ae70cd0557c755686b71

I also thought it was ok, Ron B. Like other 'unsociable' footballers Bernie plays close to the edge of the rules. Sometimes his antics get noticed, sometimes not. It is Bernie's job to ruffle opposition feathers. Someone needs to do it. Bernie is the best we have at it...until Lewis gets going... Edit...and of course Viney isn't too bad at the ruffling feathers caper, either