Diamond_Jim

Gotta love the Guardian critics ... a fantastic line: "The updated Snatch is not so much a diamond in the rough as a turd in the punchbowl, contaminating all who touch it." https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/oct/28/snatch-gangster-tale-old-pony-guy-ritchie

Understand completely PF but I would go a little further. This year should have been the 8.... next year has to be 6 with a chance to push for 3 or 4. Tired of the mediocrity shown by this club. Not sure the Pollyanna's on this forum understand the damage done to this club by the late season fade out. It simply must not happen again. Remember with five games to go we could have gone top 4 and instead we won 2 out of 5 with almost our best 22 on the park. Moreover 4 out of those 5 games were against teams that well and truly missed the 8.

Interesting Macca those two English races are not on the classics list ... the English Classic (King George VI) is 2400 metres so I assume she likes it a little shorter. Surprised that she is missing the Dubai Cup at US$10M which is 2000 metres. Oh to have such choices !

Thanks for the link Maca. I see the Laurel is no longer run being overtaken by the Breeders Cup. Interesting to see what is the next race Winx is set for assuming she wins today.

So what is considered the best WFA race in the world these days for the classic mile and a half. Is it the Arc de Triomphe, the Laurel international or the Dubai race (forget the name) or the Cox Plate. Cannot really see the Cox plate ever being at the top because of the flight times to Australia and our quarantine rules. Seems that Winx is on a hiding to nothing today. The field is weak according to the pundits. Hope she wins. Cheers

we could win for years but the money deals are stacked against us ... time for a new pack of cards

It's the money mate ... we can't and never will catch up financially under this system

This structured fixture is increasingly becoming a joke. When finals positions are decided by a few percentage points a compromised draw is a travesty. Sure it maximises revenue for the game but equally it entrenches the revenue streams in the larger clubs.

There was an article in the Age a few days ago about the negotiations between the AFL and St Kilda/Footscray concerning their very bad stadium deals. It seems that while the deals will be revisited the clubs are arguing they should also be compensated for all the money they lost through the bad deal over the years. Good ambit claim and of course it ignores the equalistaion payments they got during these years. The concern for the MFC is that if these clubs get a good deal and start making regular money out of Docklands, MFC falls further behind as our crowd numbers make most games at the MCG line ball.

Agree playing these two teams in Melbourne we stand a god chance of winning both. Playing in the NT turns these into 50/50 games at best. Let's Ditch Darwin !

Given that he was a high profile transfer to the Dogs who no longer want him and one assumes he was shopped around during trade week the apparent AFL consensus would be .... No The only reason you might take him is to provide depth via Casey and act as a mentor to Weideman. Given that would be low dollars/profile I could not see him accepting that role.

I suppose the point I was trying to make is that given the annual turnover of the big clubs a premiership is nice from a cash viewpoint but not a panacea. Rather you need sustained success and several premierships such as Hawthorn have delivered. Will be interested to see how Geelong's stadium deal goes from a financial viewpoint. They have a "clean" stadium so they get all the ground advertising but of course they have only about 8 games at the stadium.

Seems that in the short term Tigers made an extra $5 Million from their premiership through sale of memorabilia etc. Of course there should be more to come in increased sponsorship and memberships. In a way I am surprised that for a club as big as Richmond it is so little. Nice to have but it demonstrates that continued success is vital. http://www.afl.com.au/news/2017-10-25/tigers-rake-in-the-cash-from-fairytale-flag For the Guernsey clash people there is this little gem: "Ironically, the canary-yellow clash strip Richmond donned in the Grand Final against Adelaide, amid heavy criticism from the likes of club legend Kevin Bartlett, has sold out and more will be available in November."

the wonders of Google seems like they went to AAMI Park as it was then called: "Earlier, tens of thousands of fans congratulated the team who were presented to the crowd at AAMI Park at about 8pm. " http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/afl/collingwood-player-live-it-up-at-aami-stadium/news-story/1fe215a7b0b16111289e1a0ac9775f64?sv=4d6b7ef20e1f311c160642caded2aec8

Because of the Commonwealth games the GCS home games for a lot of the 2018 season are to be played at the Gabba and in Townsville. The MFCSS in me suggests that we will get a trip to Townsville to add to our two NT games. I see the China experiment is continuing.

To be fair these teams also carry a heavy travelling schedule.

Will be interesting to see how Bulldogs fare with prime TV games. If as I suspect they drop down the media scene it underscores how hard it is to break into the big league. By contrast Richmond will come from a reasonable Friday night base to a much larger number. Have to start somewhere but from a sponsorship basis maintaining any continued presence in high profile game will be challenging. If we have a ten year goal it is to take Hawthorn's spot in the media spotlight. That will be a challenge given that Hawthorn have been relatively successful for 30 years.

Collingwood FC burnt a few bridges with the Collingwood Council when they vacated the ground a few years back and of course the Council now represents an affluent area of Melbourne which is not necessarily enamoured with Collingwood FC. There does however seem to be a lot of government money floating around for "community sporting facilities" eg Whitten Oval, Kardinia Park etc so perhaps the Council might let the pies come back if it meant getting the maintenance costs off their books. Does anyone know the ownership and cost structure for the Lexus centre and the adjoining oval. Hard to see the MFC having the money to buy it but perhaps a deal could be found.

MFC used to own a magnificent terrace house in Jolimont Terrace or thereabouts. We sold it back in the 90's if not before when realising non core assets was in vogue. Pity we did not re-invest the money in a HQ but that fails the modern Business 101 test. Not sure I would call Docklands ... "greenfield" ... the first sod was turned there over 30 years ago. FWIW Toorak (or Prarhan ) oval would be my pick. Not sure who owns/uses it these days and how the sharing rights would work.

he get's it on merit I thought. 2017 did not exactly merit a gold star

Thanks Ethan... so the catch is you lose the occasional sports program such as overseas tours by the cricket team, NFL etc. plus of course the soccer if you are into those things. At least being able to do it online avoids the interminable phone waits.

Cannot see much reason for substantial improvement by Essendon (7th at best) but I would expect Carlton to improve to around 10-12. Collingwood could drop off quickly and finish around 14-17. (Interesting to see if they play Moore down back and then make the big play for Lynch at years end.) Hawthorn and St Kilda are hard to pick as are the Eagles. Each could end up anywhere between 6 and 12. GWS, Adelaide , Swans will definitely feature in the 8 somewhere. Probably Geelong also because of home ground advantage. Freo , Gold Coast, North and Brisbane for the bottom four. Leaves Richmond, MFC, Port, and Bulldogs fighting it out (along with the Hawks, Saints and Eagles) for the four remaining places in the 8 The absolute key to the season is beating the bottom 4 whoever they maybe. To state the obvious two losses to North will almost finish our chances. So unless you count Richmond as a definite there are 8 teams fighting for four spots in the 8. Have the feeling that 2018 is going to be a "long" season.

Out of curiosity ... do Fox make it "easy" for subscribers to cancel Fox Footy over the summer months?

29 is mid second round ... this would be a high draft pick for Fritsch. I think he is more likely to go late second round or first half of the third. To use 29 will be a hard decision as it is apparent that we need once again to start looking at topping up our mid fielders given our midfield age profile and the lack of obvious starter talent at Casey. Not sure that he will bulk up much more. Undoubted contested marking skills. If we had not drafted Lever you could argue that he may develop into an intercept player capable of playing back and forward. Watched him play about five times this year. Cannot recall much in the way of outstanding ground skills but I may well have missed that attribute in the scrum that is often VFL football. Hard choice for the recruitment team.

I can see a whole off season challenge here ... picking teams with players whose surname begins with the same letter followed by a virtual play off. Wonder how the Z's would perform and has there ever been an X'er?