Analysis What is it with Eddie and plans?

Jamolad

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Aug 31, 2020
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...Without these people we’d still be living in 1986.
Aren't we already?

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nick1408

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Dec 12, 2010
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While I like Eddie thinking outside the box but it annoys me when this type of thing comes up for a few reasons:

  • North Melbourne members won't vote for it. This is probably the number one reason why I can't see a plan like this getting off the ground.
  • The AFL can't force it. They won't play 11 home games in Tasmania is North Melbourne won't want to (and can't afford) to lose the revenue of the Melbourne-based members. They can't play 11 away games in Tasmania as the AFL has contractual obligations to play 22 matches at Adelaide Oval and Optus Stadium (I assume there are similar deals for Queensland and New South Wales).
  • is $20million enough? The Tasmanian government has already said they aren't going to put money into a relocated club. This proposal will simply become another suckling on the AFL teet while slowly (or quickly) killing off North Melbourne. At least with a newly created AFL team in Tasmania the Tasmanian government has committed $150million to the cause.
  • Why North Melbourne everytime? I mean, Richmond went through similar crap in the early 1990's but Richmond was a different beast then with bugger-all money and excellent visionaries at the club like Alan Bond. It took Richmond 10-15 years to turn that around. North Melbourne are a seemingly well run club with not a lot of debt (if any) and a pretty handy inner-city location. Their on-field performance won't change simply by moving them south to a place they don't want to be and the locals don't want them to be.
Edit:

I'll add a few more broader items that meet some of the points listed in the Herald Sun article:

SIGNIFICANT draft concessions for three consecutive drafts as well as academy access in Tasmania
I could be wrong but don't North Melbourne already have access to Tasmanians for their VFL side?

THE option of an ambassadorial/senior coaching role for four-time premiership coach and former Kangaroos player Alastair Clarkson, which he says would be akin to the recruitment of master coach Ron Barassi in the early 1970s, resulting in the club’s first two flags.
More or less the same as any club but Clarkson has to want to go there and he has already stated he wants to go to a club that is a contender for finals. Whether Noble is the right man for the job remains to be seen but right now I don't think it would matter if it was David Noble, Alister Clarkson or Tom Hafey coaching North Melbourne, their on-field performance wouldn't be great.

COMMERCIALLY beneficial fixture arrangements for blockbusters matches in Melbourne and Tasmania as well as premium slots in the next TV rights deal
All well and good until whoever owns the rights asks for North Melbourne less on Friday nights and more on Sunday afternoons. I have no issues with clubs getting equal access to premium timeslots but ultimately the TV companies themselves are the ones putting pressure onto the AFL for higher membership clubs to be in the premium slots. I'd also imagine that all Tasmanian games will be on free to air (if that is a part of the new deal) in Tasmania so there is less incentive for a company like Foxtel to ask for Tasmania on a Saturday night when it is competing against free to air with the same match. Foxtel cannot sell advertisers or subscriptions on that.
FREE access to streaming platforms such as Kayo for its members.
How does Foxtel sell subscriptions when you give the product away for free? The A-League does do it for all clubs but the A-League is a very different kettle of fish. I'd suspect if the AFL subsidised Kayo/Paramount+ for North Melbourne members that every other club would do the same for their members. Nothing comes for free in life so I'd like to see what the payoff for free Kayo is.
 
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Jul 28, 2012
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I don't get why this is so hard to understand.
It's very easy to understand except for one thing, it won't be Tasmania? It needs to be Tasmania Devils, Dolphins, Spirit, Pines , Foresters or anything else with no connection to a Victorian team. What Eddie is saying is "let's keep North Melbourne and their base at Arden street and call them Tassie"? If the whole thing is not viable, then forget about it. IMO, it's Tasmania in Bottle green, red and yellow embracing 160 years of their history not someone else's. If North are to be the sacrificial lamb then so be it or send them to North Sydney?
 
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Aug 4, 2003
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Relevance Deprivation Syndrome.

ding

Kevin Sheedy went through this stage in the 2-3 years after he got the tap on the shoulder at Essendon before being consigned to the ‘Old Coot’ pile and coming back for his little retirement gig at GWS.

At least Sheeds was probably just filling time between free breakfasts and Sportsman dinners, Eddie does appear to still be working - but I guess that’s why he’s pumping out the clickbait.

As far as his grand plan for this Melbourne-Tasmania team….

Nobody actually thinks that’s a good idea right?…

It might seem viable (well not really) for this fantasy ‘Country Victoria’ feel-good team that seems so important to a small handful of people right now….but what happens when this team is successful?

Does this arrangement go on forever?

1 club playing basically 2 sets of ‘Home’ games.

For what purpose? So a supporter group that isn’t independently viable don’t feel left out? (Take your pick which group really, they are both unviable).

RIDICULOUS.
 
Jul 1, 2005
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Unpopular opinion.... I actually agree in principle - there's too many teams in the AFL. Less teams increase quality, fixture fairness, financial viability of teams In Victoria.

Re Eddie's plans... Needs a cpl of tweaks.
9 games in melb - can be at Marvel or MCG.

2 games in other states. You can't let a team never travel. No travelling would mean 8 of the Tasi games would be against non-vic teams - who would always have to travel to Tas, amongst other fixture issues
 
Keep the draft and the on-field salary cap, get rid of all other equalisation measures for teams that aren't in a developing/unrepresented market, and in five years there'll be at least one open place in the AFL for a Tasmanian team.

There you go, a nice simple straightforward plan.
 
Feb 13, 2011
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Unpopular opinion.... I actually agree in principle - there's too many teams in the AFL. Less teams increase quality, fixture fairness, financial viability of teams In Victoria.

Re Eddie's plans... Needs a cpl of tweaks.
9 games in melb - can be at Marvel or MCG.

2 games in other states. You can't let a team never travel. No travelling would mean 8 of the Tasi games would be against non-vic teams - who would always have to travel to Tas, amongst other fixture isissues

How do you sell it to West coast that they have to give up a home game every 4 years to allow North Melbourne to not travel?
 
Feb 5, 2018
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Even with my Collingwood beanie on, I am happy he left Collingwood and feel he probably should have left around 6 to 8 years earlier …

… however, we do need people in our society who come up with ideas and a vision.

They get totally smashed down by those of us who think things were better in 1986 and please stop wanting to change things Grrrrr.

And IMO, many of the ideas that such people come up with are daft. Or maybe even an idea gets implemented and is proven with the benefit of hindsight to be a daft one …

… but not every idea needs to be a winner. Without these people we’d still be living in 1986. Without these people we wouldn’t be discussing or considering the possibilities.

Plus not everything Ed suggests he is seriously advocating for. Sometimes he is starting a conversation or pulling strings.

For example, it’s no coincidence that shortly after Ed floated his “$1 Billion stadium next to the MCG” idea, that the AFL acquired what was then Etihad stadium for a good price.

The issue though is that a huge amount of footy fans on this website have better ideas than Eddie, but not the public profile or bank balance to make it be heard.

We need people in society to come up with visions and ideas but it can't exclusively be the wealthy ones.
 

Choc Milk

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North Melb should be wound up. Why should these poor kids have to go them. And don't get me started on this Shinboner spirit crap, they are basically admitting that they are unviable and unprofessional.

Get rid of North, give Tassie a licence. Job done.

We were crap for 20 years and still had 30-40k people showing up to our games, plus big membership numbers.
 

GWT6

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Jun 7, 2011
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Sort of funny that Eddie's brilliant idea is just "relocate norf" lol
I feel for North Supporters, constantly having to put up with relocation articles.
I know what it's like as a Melbourne supporter - people who have jumped on the bandwagon of clubs that have been given every advantage by the AFL at the expense of the poorer clubs, somehow think they have some authority to dictate to others clubs.

I just hope Melbourne can do a better job than North of building a better base on the back of their success, so they don't fall back into being the current target to kick
 

Choc Milk

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I feel for North Supporters, constantly having to put up with relocation articles.
I know what it's like as a Melbourne supporter - people who have jumped on the bandwagon of clubs that have been given every advantage by the AFL at the expense of the poorer clubs, somehow think they have some authority to dictate to others clubs.

I just hope Melbourne can do a better job than North of building a better base on the back of their success, so they don't fall back into being the current target to kick

The other clubs do have an authority, they pay for Norths existence........
 

Chief Ten Beers

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Aug 11, 2008
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Some ideas are just straight up disrespectful though. If I seriously advocated for all redheads to be shunted off to a concentration camp in the Nullarbor, do you think that would go down well with people, especially redheads? But it's an idea and a vision.

Look at the size of this strawman!

Bigger than Ed's own ego.
 
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