Dees2014

I was looking at the MFC site and from the named team you can click through to the stats on the individual players, which I didn't realise you could do quite so easily. As they say, "velly" interesting! A hot topic on here is disposal efficiency. Well I hate to [censored] the balloon, but a number of the "sinners" exposed on here in that direction are actually pretty good. As far as I can see from these stats the best in the side is Nev Jetta at 88% closely followed by OMAC at 80%. Most of the rest are in the 70's and 60's. Whilst I haven't done an exhaustive analysis, I think this exposes some of the vitriol regularly espoused by my fellow demonlanders on this subject. In this I fully recognise that those on ballers are likely to be under more pressure with the ball than others, but interesting stats nevertheless. Well worth a look.

All the more reason to get Gawny to totally dominate them then, and when he is not doing that dominate them in the air up forward.

I think today showed quite clearly that we really need a genuine ruckman. Probably for the first time since Gawn/Spencer went down we were really hurt in the middle and mostly explained our poor first half. If Max is not ready, then we should definitely play Spencil this week IMHO.

Which to be fair to Buckley he did acknowledge that on "Footy Classified".

And I would suggest the rubbing out of Hogan and Lewis cost us at least two games. Lewis is a real General down back in close games, and it would have been no different in the three he missed which were mostly close games.

Sometimes it is important to win ugly. Something we have not been good at. We are getting it done. Celebrate guys - enjoy it. We are progressing nicely, and have two of our key players back in the next two weeks.

I really don't understand this. It is often the roll of the dice but as far as I could see the umpiring was of an exceptional standard. Why can't we just enjoy a fantastic win with no qualifications. The boys did a fantastic job...

I thought Wagner was outstanding - a class well above VFL IMHO.

And why the Age? They are so better than that moron slobbo at the HS (how Gerard Whateley puts up with him I have no idea (oh yes I do it is called $$$). Caro is by far the best AFL journalist running around (and the recently departed Rohan Connelly the worst, at least in the Fairfax stable!) and that includes all the radio and television hacks on mega bucks. To compare the Age with the Murdoch Press is like comparing Trump with Macron: one has brains that other has none.

Yes, and has considerable speed. I would have thought second only to Hunt and maybe on a par withGarlett and Frost. It is an advantage in a team which is not over burdened with pace.

Also, we should remember that when a coach talks publicly about a game he is talking to a number of different people 1. The players. It is one thing to say things behind closed doors to players, it is another to praise/criticise in public. There are often hidden meaning we wouldn't necessarily understand 2. The Other coaches: ditto the players 3. The Board. 4. The demon fans 5. The press. And I think it is in that order. All of them have their own interests and all have to be catered for. There are often very specific things coaches want out of these utterances, and the Press in particular are nearly always will messengers.

Well, last week Dave Misson said Spencer was 2-3 weeks away. Collingwood would be two weeks, so maybe he might be a chance. Max apparently is scheduled for round 13 which would make it an 11 week recovery which would be pretty spectacular for that injury. I reckon if we had have had Lewis for the three games for which he was rubbed out, we would be 7 & 3 now rather than 5:5. You can see by the crucial role he played in marshalling the troops in Alice Springs what a difference he would have made to those tight finishes. With him, plus Max and Jesse back, plus Salem we could win 8 or 9 of our last 13 games which would just about put us in the top 4, and a contender. We may even get brayshaw back for the last half dozen games. We miss his run and carry. How's this for a finals line-up: FB: Jetta. T MacD. Hibberd HB: Salem. Frost. Hunt CC: Vince. Jones. Lewis HF: Petracca. Pederson Watts FF: Garlett. Hogan Hannan Foll: Gawn. Viney. Oliver Inter: Tyson. Stretch. Harmes. Brayshaw Better mix of experience, and supreme talent I would have thought! Not a bad side...

And Hoges!

It is a good deal for them. What other chance do they get to get half a day on television and the national media to have NT front and centre, and the Alice presents really well on television. Since they have been televising Alice Springs games, I have certainly changed my view of it (admittedly superficial view), but isn't that what advertising and promotion is all about - perceptions rather than reality. The NT deal is a good deal for them AND us!

Stretch for mine. Much higher skills, but needs to bulk up, which he will as he gets older.

When we get max, Salem and Jesse back which might be in two or three weeks after the break, what will be our team on current form? Let me make this suggestion FB: Hibberd T McDonald Jetta HB: Hunt Frost Lewis CC: Salem Jones Vince HF Watts Peterson Petracca FF: Garlett Hogan Neal-Bullen Foll: Gawn Viney Oliver Inter: Hannan Tyson. Wagner Stretch not a bad team. I suppose others would be Kent, weideman, harmes O mcd Smith, Vanders but none would justify selection at the moment. Hopefully also Brayshaw later in the year, I think we miss him round the packs and his intensity. who agrees?

He is the link man in the forward line, and can kick straight which is a pleasant change

I agree. I think we would be 7/3 or 8/2 with Gawn, Hogan and especially Lewis when he was rubbed out. I can't help noticing Lewis genereling the troops at half time and three quarter time today. He would have made a huge difference in for instance the Richmond game. We have been unlucky, but we have also been "green". We are also the least experienced team in the 8 by some margin. It is no excuse, but the signs are good. Id love to get rid of this on/off pattern in winning tho. With Hogan and Gawn back for the second half of the year we will be incredibly formidable.

Yes, it is interesting isn't it. I decided to go for a bike ride, have a coffee, just chill out at half time. I came back via Foxtel IQ 40 minutes later and they were 10 points in front. I think I am a jinx. I will refrain from live watching in future -.far more enjoyable when you know the result!

I agree. I am very confident of a flag in the next 4 years, but it won't make us into the superpower club I think we should be. We should own the Melbourne brand. People come to Melbourne, not Collingwood, Hawthorn, Preston, Surrey Hills ..... need I go on. When we do win the flag we need a strategy to capitalise, and that cannot be done in a year, even two. We can become an AFL powerhouse, and nothing would give me more pleasure if we did, but it won't happen without a clear vision right across the Club, staff and supporters. There is a real opportunity here - let's grasp it, rather than knocking every suggestion which is put up. Constructive criticism yes, blanket denial no!!

I agree. I am very confident of a flag in the next 4 years, but it won't make us into the superpower club I think we should be. We should own the Melbourne brand. People come to Melbourne, not Collingwood, Hawthorn, Preston, Surrey Hills ..... need I go on. When we do win the flag we need a strategy to capitalise, and that cannot be done in a year, even two. We can become an AFL powerhouse, and nothing would give me more pleasure if we did, but it won't happen without a clear vision right across the Club, staff and supporters. There is a real opportunity here - let's grasp it, rather than knocking every suggestion which is put up. Constructive criticism yes, blanket denial no!!

When I say expansion into overseas markets is interesting but it is of secondary importance to targeting particular groups at home, I don't mean it should not be done. We dropped the ball on China. We along with Brisbane, were the first to play there as an exhibition game, and so should have had the inside running. Instead, it took a commercially minded internationalist like David Kosh to drive it to Port Adelaide's great reward. We should do everything in our power to get back in there next year as Gold Coast appear to have dropped out. They were half hearted at best. Rodney Eade's indifferent attitude to the venture prior to the game should be more than enough to get him sacked at the end of the season.

Well, let's pause for a moment and analyse axactly what I wrote. I put down an aspirational target of getting to 100000 members within six years and within three years a target of 5000, both soft targets IMHO. We already have 40000 this year, so if we did just what we are doing now with no great additional innovation, plus our additional anticipated on-field success, we should easily make the 50000 by 2019. The 100000 is based over 6 years, that is an average growth of under 10000 additional members per year for six years. There are over 350,000 people who take a tour of the MCG per year, more than 50% are overseas visitors or new migrants. That is before we really get started targeting their offspring who start to play our game, positioned as a pathway to acceptance and integration (under exploited IMHO). Oh yes, and don't forget the other interesting statistic ie melbourne as a city gets an average of an additional 1500 per week who migrate here both from overseas and the rest of Australia, by far the fastest growth for a capital city in Australia. There is no shortage of "markets" to work with, and with focus and innovative marketing strategies taking advantage of our current strengths, a few of which I have outlined, as I said, 100000 members by 2023 is a soft target.

Not strictly talking about "numbers from abroad". I'm talking attracting migrants, particularly tertiary students studying here who intend migrating with all the acceptance and assimilation issues attached to that. To me overseas markets are interesting, but very much a secondary issue.

I never said there was a sizeable supporter base, that is the whole point, and our ability to generate one from younger supporters is limited because of the very high inherited behaviour when it comes to preference choice of an AFL team. We have no choice but to build from scratch, otherwise we will at worst die, or at best be mediocre both on performance an scale. As I said in an earlier post Hawthorn is some sort of model. At the time of the merger talks in 1997, I seem to remember Hawthorn had a smaller membership than we did, were broke, but had had greater on field success. They got out of their trough, by tapping into new markets in Melbourne (Waverley Park) and crucially taking on the Tasmanian market which now supplies upwards of 20% of their members. Of course their on field success has helped them enormously, so today they have upwards of 60000 members, second only to Collingwood, and in fact in 2016 exceeded the Pies for the first time with over 75000. They did it through a combination of factors, which we have copied to some extent (Casey, NT), but obviously not yet their onfield success. However, we can fiddle at the margins, or really take on ambition. The starting point is new markets, pitch in a way no one has done before. I have no doubt after we win our 4th new flag we could get to 60000, but is that enough? By thinking differently to everyone else we could own this football town. It is a question of thinking differently, and have a cast iron will in the way you execute on the path to 100,000 members.