Diamond_Jim

Well past my student days but I know we have a few teachers on here and I remember some sage advice that many have posted over the years. My advice.. Do your best.. Don't stress and remember to take some time away from the books to clear the mind. Throw a basket ball, go for a run or just get away. Not sure that computer games serve the same aim but nothing wrong with a couple of half hour stints if that floats the boat. Perhaps minimise the social media as it may just leads to a communal worry fest or similar. But most of all remember that in no way does your VCE determine the rest of your life. You do. Good Luck and Go Dees

The outside is definitely part of Yarra Park. The oval and immediate environs as I understand it are the property of the RFC but I could not confirm that. Here's an article from earlier this year where RFC talk of redevelopment of the oval surrounds. Needless to say if they could get a commercial development going the land would be worth a fortune. They talk in the article of the land behind the goals in particular. No way should they be allowed to touch the old stand. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/richmond-to-consider-all-options-for-upgrading-punt-road-oval-facilities-including-demolishing-jack-dyer-stand/news-story/bf5edb57c7ee4e9146c73506dd351173?nk=34fd14988ab099a0a18aab69e413ab5d-1540858399

Looking forward to the fixture as I am going to try and make the bucket list road trip to Alice and the Rock while taking in the big clash.. (remind me what they called it ?) Now... "The Road to Alice" or similar could make a great summer time thread. Pro Hart in Broken Hill, bacon and egg sandwiches at renowned road stops... the possibilities are limitless

Understood but then again I have always enjoyed the more esoteric discussion of football politics that the lazy summer months encourage. Go Dees

The drip feed of the fixture including the hints as to who will play when (I see North are now confirmed for Good Friday against either Essendon or Richmond) is so amusing. This desire of the AFL to occupy the entire media space and more interestingly the willingness of the media to lap it up is a marketer's dream. Anyone else feel that it is just getting too over the top?

If we are serious about expansion, Carlton membership is what we have to surpass. Won't happen in 2019 but 2020 is a possibility. Shame about the prelim performance.. probably cost us 2-4k of new members immediately signing up. The other impact of the low key first round fixture is on reserved seats. No encouragement to sign up to a season of reservation as we all know there will be plenty of seats.

Dropped over to the Port forum in the last few rounds of 2016... they seem to be quite realistic in the main. Should be a win for MFC but nothing is certain with the MFC as we well know.

35-40k is the likely crowd unless we can get some hype around the game. Port supporters aren't known for travelling and the MCC/AFL theatre goers will have better MCG games to attend on the Thursday and Friday night. The last round game against GWS is perhaps a good pointer.... 37k

so we get the relatively dead non FTA TV slot against an interstate team.... Obviously the AFL love the new MFC. Amazing.. little wonder we have some trouble attracting premium sponsors

A bit of puffery from Al Jazeera on the progress of stadiums for the next World Cup in Qatar. The strange thing about Qatar as distinct from previous hosts is that Qatar is effectively a city state with most of the stadiums within a 20km radius of Doha. From an attendance viewpoint it will make the event very different. How they will accommodate the fans has not really been discussed. Qatar is adjacent to the UAE with Abu Dhabi and Dubai around 500 and 650kms away respectively. By road however one has to cross a small part of Saudi Arabia which makes it all the more interesting. Have spent 3 days in Dubai and cannot say it thrilled me. Give me Cairo or Istanbul any day. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/qatar-2022-world-cup-stadiums-181025142408471.html

Correct me if I am wrong please but do the interstate teams play the other interstate teams twice each year. Of course they have two "derbies" a year but do they play the other six teams twice? If that is right that is fourteen games of the fixture already allocated. Many thanks

Sound familiar..... “There’s the commercial outcome but it’s also a chance to grow our fanbase,” he said. “There are so many Chinese international students in Melbourne. Monash University, one of our performance partners, has 10,000 Chinese students in its own right. “It starts to differentiate our football club in a very competitive market.” https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/oct/25/st-kilda-replace-gold-coast-for-afl-game-in-china

a big second from me on that post RBG !

In one word .....Kochie... he did a great deal

you bet DZ.... to some extent it's funded by the Federal Government as part of a trade delegation. The Chinese funding comes from a billionaire Chinese property developer who has very very large agricultural holdings in Australia. The AFL also contributes. Gill quoted a figure of around A$4M .. not sure if that was the total cost or the AFL contribution. Peter Gordon said a year or two back that he would want a million dollars (cannot remember if that was plus expenses) to use a home game of the Bulldogs to play in China. Interesting that the Suns gave up as they are effectively an AFL run/funded club. Not a great move by the Saints just like ours in the NT. You take the money but you lose exposure in your home market. BTW anyone who thinks it's about increasing the viewing numbers in China doesn't understand the strategy. It's all about providing a corporate platform to engage Chinese government and business interests. I'm not against it but I would like to see a lot more transparent discussion about the business model. After all AFL money is "our money" in the sense that each dollar they spend lessens the dollars available for lower tier competitions, facilities etc.

The article below suggests the next two weeks: "THE AFL premiership won’t be decided later this month, but we will learn major clues as to who will contend for it. For two straight seasons the team that finished 13th the previous year has gone on to make the Grand Final - first Richmond, and then Collingwood. We’re not saying the Western Bulldogs are guaranteed to be playing off in the flag decider in 2019. But that unique statistical quirk does underline the importance of the weighted fixture. So what is the weighted fixture exactly, and what impact does it have?" https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-fixture-2019-how-weighted-fixture-helped-collingwood-north-melbourne-in-2018-and-who-it-will-impact-most-in-2019/news-story/d61d171a77108a94459b7f31d3efb9f8?nk=34fd14988ab099a0a18aab69e413ab5d-1540258246

Great Derby game between Victory and City. Excellent debut from Honda... controversial penalty and the usual spills and thrills... 2 (City)-1 (Victory) Crowd 40K at Docklands

brilliant run by the riderless horse in the second at Caulfield Couldn't help but be impressed by the way he kicked back in the straight to come again on the line

For that to work you have to decide which of the other Melbourne clubs will make the trip down the highway. I see Carlton played at Kardinia Park this year so they are not available as a "new lamb". Leaves the likes of Richmond, Essendon, Collingwood and Hawthorn as candidates. Understand Geelong had 9 home games at Kardinia Park in 2018 so getting them to play us at "home" at the MCG would be unlikely. The Melbourne based clubs they played at Kardinia Park were us , Carlton and North. Interesting to note that other than a loss to the Swans and that 2 point win over the MFC the winning margin for the other games was in the main over 50 plus points. Perhaps the way to get them would be to design a so called blockbuster... City v Country perhaps (someone already has that... think it's Essendon.) Frankly I'd prefer to just see the Cats wither at their boutique stadium and be denied the MCG games altogether. One less competitor in the metropolitan area for MFC.

that wouldn't help the bank balance but ladder wise would be a great outcome. The home games if they were to eventuate would almost certainly be in NT

The A League kicked off last night. There's one game free to air each week on Saturday night.. Channel 1. Tonight is the Melbourne Derby from Docklands between Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City. Kick off is 7:50pm. It sees the debut of Keisuke Honda for Victory. Honda is/was arguably one of the top 10 players out of Asia and Japan's best player. For those who dismiss the game ...Try it.. you may enjoy it... the rest of the world does

will await the fixture. Who we play in the NT is very important. If it's GCS and Freo we can pencil in two wins. If it's Brisbane and Port not so sure. As we saw from last year every game is important when it comes to final positions.

why would you play that game in "dead" television spot

they ran that rumour last year.. didn't happen It was the Pies who were anxious to maximise the gate Not sure the Pies are too worried about who they play in the opening round next year as long as it's a home game for them

must say I tend to agree. I suppose our problem is that the list is comparatively shallow in that there were at best 3-4 players at VFL level that in 2018 pushed for senior selection. After the big delist 2019 may be different.