Diamond_Jim

Interesting article from today's Guardian discussing a TV show about how the great Man United were relegated to the second division in 1973. Perhaps there is a lesson in that for us. It goes on however to discuss the obvious ... namely that these days the power clubs in all the big leagues are leaving the others far behind. "This week the research group CIES Football Observatory published a paper called Competitive Balance: A Spatio-Temporal Comparison. Its conclusions reflect what we already know to be true, that the top clubs in every European league are pulling away. The champions of the big five leagues raked in 83.3% of all possible points last season. More games are being won by a wider margin by a group of elite clubs, all of whom are now too big to fail. United can have a wretched season, can clank about the pitch like a group of sad, misfiring robots, and still the worst thing that might happen is they finish behind Everton." https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2018/dec/07/jose-mourinho-manchester-united-relegation Luckily the AFL is a far cry from what have become the almost "life sucking" European leagues but there are salutary lessons for those who think something similar could not happen with the AFL. By the way.... why don't Collingwood publish membership figures?

Agree OD and it really makes you wonder why Richmond agreed to make the Anzac eve match a "make up game " for MFC members. Eagles and I think the Crows have capped their membership lists at around 60k. Reserved seats for Crows fans are treated like diamonds by those who have them. The extra revenue pulled in by the mega clubs year on year has to have an impact on the competition at some time notwithstanding salary caps and equalisation. It has to be spent somewhere.

Richmond on the way to 100,000 members again. Let's say that is a 50k number over Melbourne at an average of say 7 home games at $20 per game. (Conservative probably) That's a cool $7M in additional revenue.

we of course like many things pioneered the hat with the great Jimmy S wearing his hat in a pre season match. Eminently sensible but much joked about at the time. There was of course the great out roar when a coach decided to take his players into the shade for the 3/4 time address. It was in Queensland I think. How times change.

The six foot running midfielder was a few years back picked to be the player of the future. It doesn't seem to have panned out that way. Others may have better theories but I suspect the pace of the game is all about running to space which can be done by players of any height. Similarly the ability to run and spoil can be achieved by shorter players. Interesting discussion.

boy there is some negativity here no one in the VFL side last year took his place and everyone knew it was up for grabs. Let's see if one of them can take it this year. Personally I think his dedication etc is what we have been missing for twenty odd years if not more.

Good post and something we haven't mentioned for a while. Realistically though as more clubs make the mcg their home ground the percentage of MFC followers in the mcc will decrease. Would also love to know the age demographic of the common group. If they are in the main under 40 it could be worth a concerted effort of some magnitude. By the way does the MCC offer common memberships for Richmond and Collingwood etc

great if we can get it. Has a resident summer cricket team and is also used by the Port Melbourne Colts. The Council (City of Port Phillip) did a master plan in 2014 or thereabouts. Worth an ask. The trees around the boundary would be under some kind of preservation order which could present a problem. The admin centre/gym would need to include a major community facility of some kind to give the Council impetus.

Somewhat on point are the arguments presently raging in NSW about the funding of the new NRL stadium. The Labour opposition have said they won't fund the stadium rebuild and in response the NRL have said they may take the finals out of Sydney. Echoes of some of the more famous stadium wars between big American cities and their NFL teams. "On Monday, Daley reiterated his promise not to fund the new stadium and called on the government not to demolish it before the election. “If I’m elected premier I will give the corporate entities, the trust, and others a loan to rebuild and refurbish it,” he said. “Football fans will get the refurbished stadium, but taxpayers will not get screwed for 100% of the costs. “The majority of people who live in NSW will never, ever step foot in one of these stadiums but they’re being asked to pay for the lot … if you think people are angry in Sydney you should go and speak to people in the bush and in the regions, they are absolutely white hot on this.” https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/dec/03/nsw-labor-leader-michael-daley-says-he-will-not-be-bullied-by-nrl-over-sydney-stadiums

Would love to see the stats of say the last twenty years correlating the top fifty draft picks with those who played one hundred senior games. One hears anecdotal comment that they are getting better but I wonder. It's a tough step from starring in junior football to being successful in the split second pressure of the AFL.

the old contract will probably be scrapped as the new one will include a pay rise etc. So in that sense I am agreeing wit you... 4 years ending at the end of season 2022

we need roughly a 10% increase to hit 50k so a 3.8% increase is not going to cut it. AFL club support were also rolled over last week so not sure if they are in the figures. TBH the membership figures mean little if clubs are going to continue including 3 game memberships etc in the same category. Post their 2016 GF Bulldogs had a waiting list for their GFG category. MFC have never had one to my knowledge. That could be a good goal for the 2019 year.

one of those tables where averages are easily skewed. Just like total games where Lewis skews the figures for ourselves. Median ages of players selected with weighting for games played in 2018 season would probably be a far more revealing statistic.

A very reasoned post Ernie... 4 years sounds about right... allows you to extend at the end of year 3 if all are happy. I do think that this list may be the last roll of our dice for a while so I want to see sustained success. A flag if possible but deep into the finals is the minimum. The last ten plus years has ripped the life out of the club and its base membership is I suspect getting out of balance age wise. We need to bring on a new generation. While we can point to the Pies and Tigers as examples of how you can turn it around we can also point to the Bulldogs for flash in the pan success. We desperately need sustained success.

Thought this comment on an article about the never ending Harry Potter spin offs and "special editions" in the Guardian might tickle your senses: "So I took my kids to The Potter Factory in LA, I spent close to $500 on Dumble Brunch and $80 on wands that light up, but do not kill traffic cops when your car is being towed from a legal parking spot. We spent two nights at the Grindleward Inn, hauntings and visitations were extra, yeah, $100 per severed head and a mental $250 for something called a Budgeon-Fo-Killer-[censored], some kind of spell, basically helium is leaked into your room via the air-con so everyone speaks like mice for an hour or until your $250 runs out. Pathetic! Anyway, I shan't be going back. Eff you, Harry Potter and all your big-eared stupid, hairy mates. " https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/nov/28/harry-potter-and-the-56-anniversary-editions-endless-tie-ins-are-diluting-the-magic

Good points Pitmaster. IIRC a lot of the money for the Western Oval came from the federal government under a grant scheme they had running at the time. It was sold as a major upgrade of public facilities in the western suburbs. "After the appointment of Campbell Rose as Chief Executive of the football club in 2002, discussions commenced on a redevelopment of Whitten Oval. In September 2004, the club secured a deal for a $19.5m redevelopment, with contributions from the Federal Government ($8.0m),[12][13] Western Bulldogs Forever Foundation ($5.5m), State Government ($3.0m),[14][15] AFL ($1.5m) and the City of Maribyrnong ($1.0m).[16] Construction commenced in 2005,[17] and was completed in 2009. The renovated ground includes a 120 place childcare centre, a conference and convention centre and a state-of-the-art sports, medical, and health care centre for the Bulldogs to use as a training base " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitten_Oval

4 years sounds about right... allows a further extension at the end of year 3 if all is going well. I think coaches of the future will be looking for sabbaticals in their contracts (even for half a season). Year on year it's a very tough gig especially on the family front.

I get the feeling it will be the new arms race. One thing protecting us perhaps is that with the soft cap on the football department spend the mega facility can become uneconomic in that the bigger the facility the more staff you need to employ to maximise the utility of the facility. For those in the know what goes under this cap. For example the groundskeepers and the cleaners would be outside the cap but are the dieticians and the kitchen staff within?

Needs a little analysis and I am never sure where the broadcast money fits into the financial reports but at first glance we have matched Richmond's gross revenue figure for 2016 which at face value is a good result. We had an operating loss which is not good and this loss was made good by income from discontinued operations (presumably pokies). The headline item is that we now have an increase in our cash on hand of $9M. On the other hand we increased our non current liabilities by $2.3M PS: I see we extended a loan facility due in the 2017 FY for a period longer than twelve months so it was reclassified as a non current liability ... so no real change there. The various changes in accounting treatment make the reports difficult to understand. For example in our 2017 report gross revenue is shown at $51M but in the comparison table in our 2018 report gross revenue for 2017 is shown as being $51M. (These accountants do love the dark arts !!)

this is the new West Coast facility https://thewest.com.au/sport/west-coast-eagles/eagles-show-off-plans-for-new-home-at-lathlain-bc-5557316662001 There is obviously a big push by the powerhouses to take their facilities to another level. Adelaide spent $16M on their facility at AAMI park in 2008. Freo train in a facility that cost $109M http://www.fremantlefc.com.au/news/2018-07-19/fremantle-dockers-training-facility-tours- Getting back to our own facility we clearly don't have the money to match the powerhouses. Compromise is needed but we need to get a wriggle on.

to do that we would need to pay commercial value for the land... East Melbourne is amongst the highest value per square foot in Melbourne. Woop woop as you call it will not get any cheaper and it will get further out the longer we wait.

All about future proofing Binman... The Yarra park solution is better than we have (almost nothing) but it will be miles behind what the big clubs develop in the near future. EFC have an enormous indoor facility in which you can kick a football for example. Collingwood have spent big money on the old pool site but I suspect the architectural constraints of the place have limited them. If they had their time over again I think they would be elsewhere. Richmond is the unknown. Good facilities at Punt road but not really 21st century facilities. Richmond with their success and membership base (especially if they can hook their members onto the pre reserved seats merry go round) will soon be rolling in money. Social clubs are dead unless you can think of a use for them on the other 340 days of the year. Here's a site showing the training grounds for the EPL clubs. Not suggesting we have the money they have but the most recently built training facility is for Tottenham. Worth a look. It's about 30k from their home ground. http://www.footballtraininggrounds.com/tottenham.html

I think in all of this we are missing overall costs. Would love to know the cost of the Bomber's development. I suspect we are effectively asking for the land for free and we pick up the development costs. As an aside the new Perth stadium has the highest cost per seat (a measure of stadium costs) in the world. $227k on a feasibility study is small these days and I suspect it would also include lobbying and preliminary submissions etc. I have no personal knowledge but I suspect that even when you mention something being built over a rail line the planning costs soars. (Have a look at what the NBN is charging for individual connections if you want FTTP as against their standard offering.)

Many of us have downgraded our expectations on both Hunt and Garlett for 2019. If they make it that will be great. Once again a pity that the Casey season will almost certainly start a few weeks after the AFL which makes it just that little bit harder for them to show their wares. Doubly so with JLT being practice level at best these days.

On Whirlpool there's a hundred page thread on this topic which only started 2.5 weeks ago (shades of the Hogan thread !!). My head started hurting after 20 or so pages. Most of the discussion seems to be about the difficulties of chromecasting but overall the product is welcomed and gets high marks for content. Lots of discussion about whether it's 4k or HD. Apparently there will be TV apps by the end of the year so I will check back in then. Here's the thread if anyone is interested: https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2763582&p=1