Diamond_Jim

No wildcard surprises me as it kind of made sense (far more than round zero)

AFL Members are sold out so it's looking like a sellout all round. In reality there aren't that many seats available having regard to the popularity of the event itself. Surprised that the MCC has not gone full ballot but I suspect it will come. I prefer the ballot to the online ticketmaster rush that AFL members have.

There was a ballot which allocated 14,500 reserved seats Total Number of Unrestricted MCC members is now around 41k with a further 20k unrestricted who aren't eligible for the GF

around 7-7:30 am is my guess. Gates open at 8am. You enter get your seat and will be given a reserved ticket for that seat. You then disappear and return around 1pm or thereabouts. Brunch places will be doing a roaring trade. You could take a punt on later but it's up to you. There are only 7k unreserved seats https://mcc.org.au/my-mcc-membership/visiting-the-members-reserve/2024-afl-finals-series/2024-afl-grand-final#Access

If you can over summer watch each game of the 2021 season. (Most games are on youtube) From a scratchy error filled game in Round 1 against Freo you can see the gameplan evolve. Even the kick to the forward pocket. Cannot quite remember when we hit our straps but IIRC it's around mid season. The final H&A game in the empty Geelong stadium is unreal. Kind of sorry they used the fake crowd noise as it was almost other worldly that year. There's a version of the G&F with Denis Commeti commentating. My favourite. BTW I trace the turnaround from Mitch Hannan's failed disposal into the Dog's forward line. It happens about 30 seconds before Caleb Daniels dumps Max Gawn and the rest is history.

The last Virgin flight to Brisbane out of Melbourne is 22:30 which I suppose explains the weird start time. Frankly you'd think that between the AFL and channel 7 they could afford to charter a later plane and make it say a 7pm start

This finals series is feeling like what Hawthorn or Geelong supporters must feel when their team misses finals..... Irrelevant !

I don't follow the pokie machine industry in depth but as I recall we exited at the top of the market I think. Since then the various restrictions and licensing amendments have made the individual pokie machines far less valuable. So income wise perhaps we have not lost that much. On the other hand we missed the big boom in land prices and perhaps a sale of the Bentleigh club today would have given more. The real answer is a big future fund with diverse assets such as those held by US universities. They take decades to build but you need to start sometime

It's not so much about the crown leasehold it's the ability to transfer the leasehold and its improvements at value. This leasehold will be littered with covenants limiting its end use. There is not a great market for AFL facilities. In the case of Hawthorn and Essendon they can subject to planning approval sell the underlying land for industrial or residential use. We could end up like say North Melbourne which carries a large asset on its books in the form of "leasehold improvements" at Arden Street. Take that asset out of their balance sheet and it looks rather sick. In short we need to raise fresh capital to complete this activity or better still get the Government to pay for it a la Geelong and Footscray.

Agree. This is why we should not be using Future fund capital on the build. At least Essendon and Hawthorn own their land.

Hope not That is "future fund" money. Use the income but not the capital. Frankly we should have been raising money for the training ground for years. Of the $113M being spent by the Hawks various governments are putting up $30M ($15M from each of State and Federal)

Dingley has a budgeted cost of $113 M for the Hawks facility (The land cost was under $8M)

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Mobiles will be okay. It's the television they'll restrict. Netflix operates that way. As an aside Foxtel is up for sale and the most likely buyer is a foreign hedge fund turnaround organisation. They'll pretty it up and onsell it in in five years. The mega rights deals with AFL, NRL and cricket will make for interesting negotiations with the offshore owners

The $35 sub is for 4k... 2 screens I suspect password sharing will disappear by 2026... It is the way

Gambling sponsorships like tobacco in the last century will be gone within ten years. I wonder who will be the mega sponsors of the future Watching AFL and NRL I often have no idea who the main jumper sponsors are so I'm obviously not the target market

Just to let people know that the Digital membership with Kayo is likely to rise substantially for 2025. Collingwood are reportedly charging $350 which is only $60 or so under the usual 12 month price. Definitely now worth opting out around August for those who just want football

Oh well Feasibility is a step ahead of "concept plans" Frankly I expected a little more after all these years

To be fair he's proving better than Schache

No way can Lamb be blamed for Grundy. That had to be an 80% Goodwin decision as the playing abilities of both Grundy and Gawn were well known to everyone and easily discoverable by game tapes and intelligence from other clubs/players. The others are clearly in Lamb's bailiwick.

Looking back we could/should have played this better. Back in the 70's there were lots of choices with the benefit of hindsight. Imagine if we had pumped money into an expanded Junction Oval complex. (Imagine if we had any money at the time.Remember even Collingwood teetered on bankruptcy.) The League was a mess with the VFA fast surpassing them with its live Sunday football. If it's any consolation I don't believe Richmond or the Pies will be seen to be having comparatively great facilities in ten odd years. Richmond.. one oval.. no pool.. limited parking etc etc. Pies are in a heritage building (the swimming pool) which is not a great shape for gyms etc. The old Olympic Park oval is fine but no second oval and massive indoor facility

Unfortunately the game appears to becoming more one of strength rather than open skilful ball movement. You could see that in the finals last year where even with a "full team" we were bustled off the ball. A great pity as our style was delightful to watch

yes but you would miss being girt by sea

seven or so minutes from game time and a lot of empty seats. Oh well.......... Go the Orange Men

Great win by the Storm. 37-10... unlucky not to be closer to 50-10. Complete dominance A side note... Storm's winger is a mature recruit from an NZ Aussie Rules background who then tried Rugby 7's.