Diamond_Jim

Regret the underlying reason but it is a great thing to see the cars being removed from Yarra Park on some match days. Look forward to a big Demonland barbecue or similar when the Dees get a car-free match. "Cars will be blocked from parking at major sporting events at the MCG in an effort to strengthen security against vehicular terror attacks. Yarra Park will be closed for marquee matches, including the Richmond-Carlton AFL season opener next week." https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/mcg-car-park-to-close-for-major-sporting-events-20180314-p4z493.html

I think the Bulldogs premiership got them an additional 20% or around 8k members. If we managed that we would move up one rung perhaps and challenge Carlton. Would be interesting to see what flags 2 and 3 do but I would think the improvement is incremental. Would love to see some age group analysis done of the supporter bases as I fear our demographic may be edging towards the Tobin Brothers end of the field. The Blues are obviously a problem for the AFL as they are in danger of being the repeat of Melbourne in the '70's and slipping into irrelevancy. It is so obvious that the Friday night games are all about reversing this trend but of course it comes at the cost of the less powerful clubs such as ourselves.

Ignoring GWS and GCS we are heading for the lowest membership figures in the comp after North and Brisbane. Line ball with Saints and Dogs. Disappointing given the "potential" of this team.

Is this the end of Mourinho at Manchester U after this morning's performance against Sevilla The comments section of the Guardian is on fire: Here's a sample: "Just woeful. The away leg was the worst United performance I have seen in years, this evening’s nonsense struggled to reach the dizzy lows of that debacle. If ever proof were needed that The Joyless Twatknuckle (TM) is in no way a United manager, then the first half of this evening’s farrago. It was anti-football, which is what TJT (TM) is. He is the antithesis of United and he must go." "Don't care whether United win or lose, but that was just bad football. There isn't room in any eleven for Lukaku, Sanchez, Rashford and Lingard, particularly if you then tell your full-backs (both wingers of yore) not to cross the half-way line. A collection of talented players can only be so dysfunctional, but Mourinho's personality is writ large on this team and no good will come of it." https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/mar/13/manchester-united-sevilla-champions-league-match-report

Whatever you think of Jeff Kennett it is refreshing to see a contrary view: Kennett says he told the Hawks players not to expect him to ever approve them playing for points overseas, adding they have an obligation to their members to do whatever they can to win a premiership. The former Victorian premier would prefer officials stabilise the local game before all else. He took issue with minnows like St Kilda needing league help to balance their books. In 2016, the Saints received $18.6 million in league handouts while Hawthorn were among seven clubs to get between $10-12 million. "Most of the clubs are financially dependent on the AFL to open their doors," he said. "For goodness sake, surely we should be concentrating on making the game here self-supporting." https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/afl-s-expansion-into-china-india-a-waste-of-money-kennett-20180313-p4z43p.html

ratings in NSW and Qld are very low and show no signs of increase. Ratings =advertisers Bears have now been in Brisbane around 30 years and the media penetration is low in a city where it only competes with one NRL club. If it wasn't for pay TV who use AFL as a loss leader the TV rights would be lucky to increase at all. Foxtel pay around 60% if not more of the rights fees.

Tax is only paid on profit ie revenue less all expenditures. At the moment it gets in more than it pays out. All those payments out unless they are on capital account are allowable deductions so in simple terms ...no profit = no tax. Sure it runs a small surplus that would be subject to tax but as a percentage of revenue tax would be lucky to be 2% if it were levied. GST on ticket sales if applicable is the big tax hit by the way.

reminds me of channel 7's intros to the GF years ago............. "Beaming to 150 million viewers world wide" Of course few if any of those viewers were actually watching !

source and stats please I am an avid reader of newspapers including those circulating in the UK and SE Asia Have never seen an article on AFL. In fact the only place I have ever seen it in Asia is the sports bars in Kuta which is not exactly "overseas" if you get my drift. BTW ... it does not even get a guernsey on the main pay TV Sports channels in Asia but rather it is low definition on the Australia channel which doesn't exactly rate its socks off and is promoted as a lifestyle channel.

Your mistake DM is to think of the MFC as a service centre. They are there to sell you something. Call centres have daily targets and a pre defined message. MFC is little if at all different. Your friend is a forum like this where you can sift through the advice and work it out for yourself.

Thinking the same thing DA. I see the game is at Colac ... the late Cliffy Young territory... home of gumboots and spuds

Travis Johnstone when on song could win a game off his own boot. He played the game as if he had his own time and space. Unfortunately we did not see it that often. His third quarter against Adelaide in a preliminary final will go down as the best quarter I have ever seen played by a Melbourne player. A conundrum ... you bet... Jack Watts x 2-3 in that department

2 of his goals scored from marking contests apparently

wish him good luck from us all

thanks mate .... good luck and happy watching

When you have time if you could let us know which of the MFC team are playing that would be great. Hope you can find a shady place as it is warming up as you say. 29 at 11:30 am

I think you will find that the idea of the "long bomb" is to kick over the defenders and allow the forwards to run onto the ball. The first Petracca goal came from exactly such a play. The ball that is no good is the one that is put on the forward's head so to speak that is easily defended

Taxes are paid on profits ..... have a think about your statement

thanks..I'll have a look at it

thanks DC ... can you give me an example of one please when you have time ... a post or PM whichever is fine cheers

The degree of incompatibility in the phone market sometimes astounds me. Love or hate Microsoft when they were dominant everyone built to be compatible with the microsoft interface which was made freely available to developers. Because I travel I use a "cheap" Chinese phone (Xiaomi) which is actually one of the world's most popular brands but for reasons beyond me it will not connect to my laptop when I want to transfer photos. I do it via Dropbox but why can't they all talk to each other. I worry that we are going to a large number of non compatible interfaces.

If you're interested, this is the test in layman's term from the ATO site and just to blow your mind the definition of a charity relies substantially upon a law passed in Elizabethan times (that's Queen Liz the First back in the 1600's) : Your sporting organisation will be exempt from income tax, and can self-assess its exemption, if it is not a charity and meets all of the following requirements: it is a not-for-profit society, association or club it is established for the purpose of encouragement of either of the following a game or sport animal racing it meets one of the three following tests physical presence in Australia test DGR test prescribed by law test it complies with all the substantive requirements in its governing rules. This means that your organisation must operate only in a manner consistent with its rules of core importance to its operation, including those related to its object and purpose and those relating to its NFP status. it applies its income and assets solely for the purpose for which it is established.

I posted this during the game thread and our wonderful Demonland host replied that our forward entry had been woeful for the quarter: It is from the AFL game day website and is speaking about the third quarter: "Despite the Demons winning the inside 50 count 16-12 in that third quarter, it was the Saints who found their efficiency, having ten shots on goal from their entries for a result of 6.3 (39)." That stat is so worrying on so many fronts but most damning of our coaching staff. We had plenty of the ball but failed to adopt our game plan to take advantage of our possessions. The four St Kilda goals in the first quarter ... a quarter in which we had total domination was also a concern. It was a practice game but those two faults are the ones we should have been practising as we often failed in these areas in seasons past.

SEN treated that game like a "practice run" ... not sure why they bothered turning up other than to give their producers etc a run. Listened for about 10 minutes and realised the comments on the AFL website provided better insight

Jetta. Garlett and Jones have had around 70% game time each for some very low disposal numbers. Anybody got some insight Thanks