Diamond_Jim

Just went to look up what channel the opening T20 match against India is on this evening to find that it too is behind the paywall. As part of the search I came up with foxtel's new sports streaming product called Kayo. I see it includes AFL and has a price of $25 per month with a premium price of $35. Would be very interested in reviews and comments. In particular is it streamable to my TV and is it HD? Is there an app that I can put on my smart TV or is it simply a glorified version of phone streaming. Also what about contracts. Many thanks https://www.comparetv.com.au/kayo-sports/

Agree... it's mainly the gym and admin complex that we need to locate near an oval. I think it's important in the longer term simply because the other clubs will have great facilities and it will be a possible discriminator in player choices.

thought it might be but it does underscore what few alternatives are left. Perhaps we could encourage North to relocate to Tassie and take over Arden Street. Royal Park and Albert Park would be worth a look. They are designated sporting precincts. A little further out is Fairfield/Yarra Bend park

I almost put that suggestion in but I don't think we could stomach it. The black and white stands along with the big magpie are heritage listed as I understand it.

Agree OD this always had a very low chance of success and one wonders why they even announced it without getting some form of indicative advance approval. Taking a step back there is just no support for impacting public space to the relatively exclusive benefit of an elite sporting code. Need to find an existing structure that a council no longer wants to pay for its upkeep. There will always be a problem with sharing especially with cricket. One thing is for certain it won't get easier finding a suitable location.

Think of MFCSS as a shield ... not a sword and then the syndrome is clear

Enjoy a day at the VFL immensely but it is such a compromised competition on so many levels. Personally I think it is in its death throes as we know it except that no one can come up with a better idea. It might seem strange but I don't think the clubs want to encourage greater attendances as that would require facility upgrades at many stadia that the providers cannot afford. Enjoy it while we may is my suggestion especially the Burra Burgers, the Coburg craft beer and of course the Casey egg and bacon roll. FWIW my favourite grounds are Coburg, Frankston and Williamstown with a special mention for Port.

hard to see this thread getting to the mythical status of 500 pages but perhaps a few instagrams from young Hogan in Perth could get us another ten pages and then who knows

Pass mark is realistically the same I set for last year... namely finals and win one final. Expectations and hope are different but luck is so important. In our two final wins we should have blasted Geelong off the park by half time and against Hawthorn if Gunston had kicked 8:3 instead of 3:8... well. We saved our worst performance for the prelim and it bought back memories of our GF's in 1988 and 2000. I am confident about 2019 simply because in the home and away season we had little if any success against the top 8 teams yet we won well (Saints aside) against the other teams. If we can step up our performance and get some wins against the top teams a 17 or 18 game winning season is not beyond us. Make no mistake the next two to three years as Brayshaw, Oliver etc hit their peaks are the best we will be for quite a while.

one of the driest winters on record and we get a wet Cup. Fantastic to have the rain but such a bad day to have it. The race course train station has been closed due to flooding and the trains are stopping at the showgrounds which means a walk of over a kilometre in the rain

Point taken but the article also compares it with amongst others a dead rubber where England had already won the series. Such a bad decision. If you want another comparison look what has happened to cricket in England since it went behind the paywall.

Anyone who needs reminding of the differnecess between FTA and Foxtel ratings have a look at what happened with yesterday's ODI in Perth. On so many fronts an own goal by Cricket Australia and a reason to insist that MFC have decent FTA coverage. "Sunday's coverage of the first One Day International (ODI) in Perth between Australia and South Africa on Foxtel's new Fox Cricket channel attracted an average audience of just 205,000 viewers across the five major cities. To put that in perspective, Foxtel scored higher ratings in recent weeks with its coverage of Gold Coast Supercars (212,000 viewers) and an NRL test between Australia and Tonga (231,000 viewers). The figures represent an almost fourfold drop when contrasted with last season's ODI in Perth between Australia and England on Nine – the fifth game in a series England had wrapped up early – which attracted an average audience of 956,000 viewers for the free-to-air network. For a further comparison, the last time South Africa toured Australia for an ODI was in November 2014, with the opening game, at the time also played in Perth, attracting just over one million viewers for Nine." https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/foxtel-s-first-tilt-at-cricket-takes-massive-ratings-hit-20181105-p50e2r.html

makes so much sense on so many fronts. The only people it might upset are the stadium owners but with less games you would probably see a 10% increase in crowds per match is my guess.

you can have two or three split rounds that would extend the season to 20/21 weeks in length. It would also give a little less competition for the prime time TV spots

I'm tending to favour the seventeen round draw. Throw in two split rounds (Half the comp get a bye) and you are at a 20 week season. If you have to have the remaining five rounds for $ purposes then a simple random draw for the last five rounds is probably the most logical and fair. The compromised draw has simply become just that... compromised.

According to this article Collingwood played at the MCG 15 times during the home and away season. Of course they weren't all home games. The issue with the MCG contracts is that they are an obligated minimum. Nothing stops a club from playing more. Even if you don't play the minimum as was often the case with the old Docklands arrangements the contract usually has a clause stating the compensation to be paid. https://www.sportingnews.com/au/afl/news/afl-grand-final-tickets-collingwood-mcg-melbourne-west-coast/1cvf8e6du0y1x178dflgtpo52v

Our academy is only for Alice Springs. Every club has an academy now and it has nothing to do with playing there. For example Geelong has East Arnhem Land and Hawthorn has Katherine.

They are the minimum number of contracted games. With the new Thursday night slot there is an ability for an increased number of games at the MCG which they would be happy to host. Out of Docklands and the NT I suspect we know where most would like to play. The damning thing about the NT is that no one else wants to play there. Even Tasmania has North, Hawthorn and formerly St Kilda fighting over Tassie money. It tells you something I suspect. In years gone by we sold our soul to Brisbane and then the NT for the last eight years. It's time to come home.

On the money side of things here is an article from 2016 talking about the extension into 2017 and 2018. The figure quoted is $3.2 million or 800k per match contributed by the NT Government. That is consistent with what Peter Gordon was quoting a year or two back as the least amount ($1M) that the Bulldogs would want to play in China. I know we extended last year but I cannot find the press release as for how long. https://www.ntnews.com.au/sport/afl/melbourne-demons-agree-to-multimillion-dollar-deal-with-nt-government-to-play-two-home-games-annually-in-territory--for-next-two-years/news-story/94d5ee23d8073221ac36931352

Out of interest is there any sense of "belonging" in Tasmania for either the Hawks or North from the general Tasmanian population? Thanks

Very much agree Redleg and time we had some transparency on this issue. This year we had 37k against GWS at the MCG. We don't need to go to NT on the pure basis of crowd numbers if we can maintain momentum.

Hawks complaining about the fixture. I think the compromised fixture as we know it is in danger simply because there is now way too much manipulation to try and satisfy the various stakeholders while still maintaining some form of competitive integrity. Odds on that there will be a committee formed to look at the fixture. As with the gambling dollar the AFL is so hooked on the TV dollar that in turn is driven by Murdoch's Foxtel it will take strong wills to swim against the ever increasing tide of manipulation.

I think people underestimate the power of FTA television. The Foxtel ratings are almost non existent but the FTA is another matter. Would love to see the FTA appearances club by club for the last five years. Someone mentioned we have 13 FTA matches for 2019. I'll take a punt and say Collingwood have 17 or more.

In the last two years the team who was 13th has gone on to win or challenge for the flag, Guess who was 13 this year.... yep the Bulldogs

Carlton played there last year but I agree Geelong has been allowed to pick and choose it's Karidinia opponents. Time for them to have their MCG opponents rotated between the remaining Melbourne clubs. Let's face it though... the compromised draw has become a monster that has the potential over many years to destroy the competition. I don't have the answer but there has to be a better way or we will end up with an EPL like competition. Luckily MFC has the MCG which gives us some bargaining power... woe be tide the other 3 Melbourne losers ... Saints, Bulldogs and North.