Diamond_Jim

Don't remind me ........please

are there that many? Remember the Orange bananas as the rent a cheer squad at the MCG a few years back. It would be an hilarious memory except that they thrashed us despite MFC being the odds on favourites As an earlier poster mentioned the Giants still have some serious talent to return...........

Bulldogs just have the knack of being at the fall of the ball. Irrespective of whether they or the other team fumbles there is someone racing past to pick it up By contrast Scully streaming forward props on the wet grass... the ball falls away from him and is picked up by a Dog and they are back down their end Talent wise GWS should be a mile in front but that Bulldog style somehow delivers

strange game to schedule for Canberra given the ground only holds around 15,000 Then again the AFL were probably desperate for a sell out even if it was at such a small ground crowd wise

welcome to Docklands or more particularly welcome to the world of ticket prices for the bigger clubs. They block allocate for varying levels of pre-sale and thereby maximise prices. What remains is General Admission. My guess is that there will be around 10-15,000 general admission left for Sunday's game all on Level 4. Remember you have Medallion club, Essendon Reserved seat holders (there are lots of them), pre-purchased tickets and then GA. Cannot see a large MFC contingent attending so you should be right for GA.

It certainly helps to build recognition of the fringe players. Perhaps it could be phased in so new VFL players get 50 and above. It is a very difficult line that needs to be maintained in order to respect and incentivize the non AFL listed players. Whole of group training is something I would like to see introduced at least on an occasional basis. Agree.... Oscar Mac is the same number for instance....

It's a real fun experience especially walking onto the ground at the breaks and getting close up to the huddles. Make sure you take note of the player numbers in KC's opening post on this thread (or buy a record) as the players wear different numbers from their AFL numbers. Enjoy yourselves

Children under 15 are free. Visiting VFL members are half price.... I showed my AFL Melbourne support and got in for half price at Willimastown a couple of weeks ago. Reading however the 2016 ticket prices it seems that the discount perhaps only went to Casey members... http://websites.sportstg.com/assoc_page.cgi?client=0-118-0-392693-0&sID=60281&&news_task=DETAIL&articleID=5073948 The good news is that full price is only $10

Sunday's match brings back memories of the famous game against the Eagles in Perth. So famous I forget the year but we took an almost reserves team to Perth against a strong Eagles team. Against all the odds the MFC prevailed and a strong team was born.

Just have that gut feel that many Hawthorn members are not rusted on and as they meander downwards those members will change to supporters and then to occasional attendees. The Tasmanian deal papers over some matches that would have low attendances if played in Melbourne. Time will tell and who knows it would not surprise me if they won their next five or six games and were back as boring old winning Hawthorn !

Now you mention it Fitzroy was very nomadic. SEN by co-incidence had a remember the old grounds theme late last night. Lots of talk about toilets. They mentioned Moorabbin and were saying it was "state of the art" when built. Only went there once and stood on the outer terraces. North stayed all those years at Arden Street but they never cracked the supporter market. Perhaps as LDC says like Fitzroy, North as a population base were squeezed between the relatively bigger clubs. Then there was the Swans............? History has a lesson for the present clubs .... perhaps the most vulnerable is Hawthorn

Sorry... I missed Carlton .... not really sure where they are going on the power club stakes but I get the feeling that their supporters are not exactly rusted on a la Collingwood... more like Hawthorn who have yet to mange a sustained downturn

He has an X factor together with an excitement factor... MFC need that along with a good team.. perhaps I am still dreaming of that magical player

There is something about this guy that says he could star in our game plan

Dylan Grimes ?? seriously... if Zak Jones moves the worst pressure move he could have was one to the MFC. Brothers at the same club sounds great but in reality that is the worst competition one can have. Speaking of brothers.... I got onto the end of an SEN interview with Glen jakovich the other night.... does anyone know if he mentioned his brother Allen?

As an aside it is interesting to look at the inner city clubs of the earlier years. Richmond and Collingwood went on from a supporter base but Fitzroy and St Kilda did not. Melbourne had its own pluses and minuses which goes some way to explaining why we are where we are but really Fitzroy and St Kilda came from the same place as Richmond and Collingwood. Even Richmond is strange... no premierships between 1943 and 1967 but they then had four more including their last win in 1980. Perhaps it was the MCG move in 1966(?) North Melbourne is another one but to me they never really had the historic supporter base. (I could be wrong... which I often am.) It underscores how brittle/fickle public opinion is and how we really have to do something about getting the MFC back on track.

Crows ... loss the rest 50-50 so two or three wins .... of course we could luck in and win all 5 but MFC doesn't have that kind of luck

Good point.... like the forward thinking. The republic will happen unless the politicians play the system again (thanks John Howard). Perhaps the holiday will be replaced by an Indigenous recognition day but no guarantee it would be on the same day.

Would be interesting to know whether any players "rest" these days on the ground. Someone into stats might be able to tell us. In the modern game perhaps the most viable on ground resting position is around the wing as the push up forward. That being said I am not sure I would like to have that position taken by my resting ruckman ... Nic Natanui and a few others aside.

After the first five weeks hard to see the next six being worse but I suspect they will be due to harder competitors and the long injury list. Before the season I had us 4-1 at this stage with the Essendon game dependent upon how their senior players performed on return. On paper and the Essendon performance we should have been favourites. Throw in the injuries and the patchy form and it is now a 50:50 at best. The older players need to fire and a few need a purple patch if we are going to maintain any momentum over the next six weeks. Sure there is an excuse for each week but each week we were in a winning position and lost. Hell relatively speaking we stumbled over the line against Carlton.

ooooooooooooooooouch all those references to how lucky we were to have Mitch Clark in place of the guy who went to GWS were very painful

As I mentioned earlier you have to attract the "theatre goers" who have made the ANZAC day clash such a success. In reality neither Essendon or Collingwood have been up for a while and certainly not both at the same time but the event is regarded as the home and away match of the season. It is attended by a lot more than just the supporters of the two clubs as well as being a big corporate game. Sell out the MCG... put a few extra dollars on the tickets (say $10 not the $40-50 imposed today by Essendon) and as Terry in Minder would say .... that is a nice little earner. As an aside years ago Melbourne was in one of its early final series. (1988) A friend of mine knew someone and got us tickets to each of the finals. When Melbourne got to the grand final I asked whether the tickets might be available. He said ... "no my wife is using them." .. "But your wife doesn't like football" I replied... "yeah but she loves the balloons before the game!" That's a theatre goer !

In theory they share between Docklands and the MCG but the only Victorian teams they play at Docklands is us and North. All other Essendon home games against Victorian teams are at the MCG

how did we get to play the Bombers next week at Docklands when both teams nominally have the MCG as their base?

Many teams are rated by their "bottom 6" Another way to rate is by their over 25 year old players. It is in this category that we have failed miserably. Take out the recent additions of Hibberd and Lewis and one can easily see what the last ten years have done to this club. The mantra over the last few years has been draft more mids as that gives you an immediate hit. Hard to disagree but hell I hope Weid and Hulett come on in the next two years. On the ruck position.... well at least Lumumba's position is free next year. Frankly I think this season is gone unless we alter the game plan to one which is more defensive. The again we could look at using this season to fine tune the game plan. Lose next week and we may as well "play the kids".