Diamond_Jim

Given the WA premier's approach to risk management of the virus the AFL is running an enormous scheduling risk leaving the two WA teams in Perth. Qld closed the border to Victoria today and I'm sure WA and SA will follow. I have no easy solution and I'm sure it's the same at the AFL. Sure you can have bubbles and groupings but no one wants a repeat of the mess of 2020. FWIW I'd be playing all games in Victoria for say 6 weeks and then move the circus to SA for four weeks, WA for another four and then four weeks in Qld. Final 8 weeks and finals series TBD. Use country ovals in the relevant State (eg Wangaratta ) for the lesser matches. Sure you run the risk that when the circus is ready to move States that the receiving State will block you but at least the comp continues in the then playing State. Edit note: Appeared the report on Qld closing the border to Victoria was premature. Qld is formally recommending no visits to Melbourne

Amazon TV has just bought the rights to the Australian Olympic swimming trials. Low impact but a thin wedge. Bad move by swimming but in reality they aren't quite what they used to be.

the Bulldogs fluked one in the sense that they had a good/lucky run at just the right time. In 2018 we had one as well but failed badly in the West. TBH I just want a successful season. Something that seems to elude us so often.

Here we go again.............

We now have $2M plus of annual salary cap (Viney, Brown and T Mac) in the question mark basket. Not desperation stakes as yet but worrying.

so much for a national comp. Many Melbourne based AFL supporters go through the whole season seeing an interstate team once or twice at most. TBH there are simply too many Melbourne based teams. There's no city in the world that has ten local teams in a national comp that I can think of. London has around 5 or 6 in the EPL and it's catchment area is maybe 2 or 3 times the population of Melbourne.

Generally watch kayo on 30 minute delay as it allows one to avoid the ads and fast forward through the quarter breaks TBH I turn most games off around 3/4 time unless they are interesting

FYI you get two simultaneous users for $25 per month or three simultaneous users for $35 per month You need an internet speed that provides a solid 15 Mbs ( a little more than Netflix as it is not buffered like Netflix)

Who likes paying but Kayo at $15/25per month (easily cancelled when the season is over) is a vast improvement on around $90 a month for Foxtel. The problem for kayo is that Foxtel used sport as a loss leader. The new management is trying not to use this practice so how it meets the ongoing demands of individual sports in the future is the big question. For example it would not surprise me if F1 is lost to kayo in the next few years.

At least if you get a kayo account for $5 per month you can watch it on full screen TV. Now if only we could get rid of the Channel 7 commentary

Eddie will be gone by the end of the month if not earlier. Sponsors will have been on the phone demanding action and while not specifically asking for Eddie to go that will be the implied price. Eddie will be publicly painted as a martyr in that he will say that the issue had become about him and that it should be about the way in which Collingwood has openly dealt with the issue.

so the Collingwood line is that no individual at Collingwood is racist but the process is open to racism. Sounds like ...... the usual response

Interesting discussion in today's Age of the new standing the mark rules. Basically the player must stand on the designated mark and not move their feet until play on is called. According to the writer this opens up a number of angles to the kicker that were not previously there. The “stand” rule has opened up the ground to the attacking team and in particular opened up the corridor for the ball-carrying team to be far more aggressive with their ball use. “It is pretty significant,” one coach said. “It’s much harder to defend so you can be a lot more attacking with ball in hand. “It’s a bigger change than the cut in rotations or the kick-in one [pulling the man on the mark back at kick-ins a further 10 metres]. Umpires will be encouraged to give more latitude to the player with the ball to move off their line before “play on” is called. The AFL’s head of football, Steve Hocking, said the man on the mark was the first line of defence and teams structured their defence behind that player. Initial signs were that the change was having the desired effect, promoting faster, more attacking play. “The man on the mark has been taking up more and more real estate and slowing the game down, directing where play could go,” Hocking said. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/standing-room-only-the-small-afl-rule-tweak-changing-the-game-20210129-p56xv0.html

can't see the Saints cracking it in the next ten years. On the other hand there is no argument that we have underperformed for the last four or five years. If we had made finals consistently we would now be firmly in the prime TV mix and around 55k membership wise.Not to mention the additional sponsorship money that would have come along. The real issue as I see it is how do we manage as a club where our membership upside is say 60k in a time when other clubs are breaking the 100k barrier. The media money is now capped for at least the next 5 years so sponsorship and members are the only short term growth areas from a revenue viewpoint that I can see.

the problem is that if they do hit 100,000 members then they Collingwood, Richmond and a couple of the interstate clubs will have additional annual revenue of several million dollars by comparison to the MFC. The weight of that money will show notwithstanding the league's attempts at equalisation. It will get ever harder to bridge the numbers gap both on revenues and memberships. Essendon is the other club obviously at a significant crossroad as we push into the third decade of the 21st century.

Carlton were in sight for overhauling them membership wise back in 2018. Unfortunately the gap is now increasing. They are now at a record 67,600 members with another month before the season starts. Those who preach on field success have a valid point but there is little doubt that MFC suffers from systemically low numbers. From an article in today's Age “We have now surpassed our all-time membership record of 67,035 (set in 2020), to achieve that this early in the season is almost unprecedented. “We remain well on track to hit 80,000 members in 2021, which represents approximately 50 per cent growth in three years and keeps us on track to hit our ambitious strategic target of 100,000 members by 2023.” https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/carlton-say-they-are-debt-free-for-first-time-since-96-20210201-p56yeu.html

Nearly posted this morning that WA is the only footballing State not to have had a breakout with assoicated border closures in the last 12 weeks. Looks like we now have a full house Who knows what the next 12 weeks will bring.

is there anything else at the MFC

According to Wikipedia the normal capacity is 9-10k 350 seated The 9-10k was before they built the new facility which probably took a few hundred at least from maximum capacity. So I guess it to be 5k.. have we ever had a crowd that size for AFLW?

I see the email says Melbourne AFLW members get priority. Is this some separate membership to the usual MFC membership?

Defence is looking thin especially if either or both Jetta and Hibberd struggle to find form or are injured

Very close I would think though... I have a hope (not a great one) that we can get another year (2022) out of Hibberd Brayshaw is a conundrum TMac will hopefully be traded (the only reason he wont be traded is because he has another bad year or he pushes out one of the other talls which would be another problem in itself) Baker and Hunt.. no real feel but more likely Hunt goes (did we give him 2 years... not sure why) On the delists... we haven't really seen much of any of them and therefore seems harsh but that's AFL level footy

don't you miss all those wonderful articles written in the 2019 preseason saying how good we were going to be. Best midfield..best this and that and the list went on. I think every pundit had us in the eight and many had us as premiers. Bathwater never tasted so good

the Adelaide quarantine was for the top players only. Only around 15 players and very comfortable not everyone is equal in the tennis world

I can see a future in this thread. How did Langdon go and who played on the other wing?