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As a Zionist I approve

Don't know much about him. I hope is a good player. I don't give a f$ck where he his from. People better stop pandering to the MSM political MK Ultra programming and just enjoy watching football. If people are that worried about what is going on in places they know nothing about then get on a plane and go over there and fight. If you are not going to do that then you are full of shit, shut the f$ck up and let us enjoy our football without this mind control shit. Come on City.

Two solid signings. We might finish 10th now

Anyone that doesnt want to sign a player because of their nationality is being racist, whether theyre Israeli or Palestinian. You might not think you are, but you are. Simple as that

Stadium in Caulfield?

Bloody glad he's back! If we had of lost him to Victory I would have been and I'm sure a few others would have been pissed!! Hopefully means the back of Talbot, at most he should be coming off the bench now...

Better than our squad is looking for the upcoming season....

Reports of a Arzani and Kisnorbo falling out... Lol

Thank fu$k they lost the Aus cup final to Macarthur!! As much as I like Paddy I wish nothing but a failure of a season to him and that miserable lot...

Finally we've cornered the zionist market in melbourne Our attendances are going to boom this season

How would you reate my boobs? Sexy gifs/images/videos

He was interviewed by round ball Australia today his a upcoming football journo

Yeah why not sign a 36 year old who has played only 10 minutes in a year.... Last time played more than 25 mins in a match was Jan 2023

Good start, thanks for doing this! Comes from the top doesn't it, the fact that many of our fans still don't even know who Brad Rowse is, is very telling. He might be a very good corporate CEO but the fan engaged is minimal.

While I respect your right to want to enjoy the games with your daughter, nobody forced you to join the FRG. How do you expect to represent the fans if you don’t know what they think. I think Perth’s approach is more in keeping with the purpose of a FRG. Do you have access to meeting minutes? If so, can you post them up here for us to read?

This is great Matt, welcome to the forum and thank you for providing this insight!

Hi everyone, long post, but a bit to cover! I'm Matt Mann (who is mentioned above). I am the co-chair of the Melbourne City FRG. I only saw this thread yesterday when another FRG member sent me the link. So, I thought I would post and clear a few things up. So firstly, who am I? I'm in my early 40s and a Melbourne Heart foundation member. I grew up in the UK moving to Australia in the early 2000s. Football has been central to my life from my first game at 3 months old, and was a season ticket holder at Sheffield Wednesday. Moving to aus as the NSL died, I watched some A-league but lacked the attachment I had for Wednesday. Melbourne Heart formed and they signed Sibon, whose name I had on one of my Wednesday shirt I was all in and bought a membership. Over the next few years I moved into the active area. The change to City gave me mixed feelings, but I kept my membership and continued to attend right up until the Gallop boycott. Seeing the game I love treated so poorly burned and I felt I needed to do something, so I voted with my feet. Time passed, and my daughter started to be interested in the game so I attended a few games. Then bought a membership again, now I sit on the wing. This time when the league did its best to alienate fans (The grand final debacle) I decided to try and do something to help, this is why I applied for the FRG. So that's me. Now, the FRG. So as some here have said, an email asking for applications was sent from the club. I formally applied writing why I wanted to be involved (was limited to like 100 words). A few weeks later, I was called by the club and "interviewed" later being told I had been one of the 12 offered a place on FRG at the end of the application process. Your FRG and it is every fans is made up of a group who went through the same process. From 10,000ish members a few hundred replied (I will ask the club for the exact number), of those 12 were picked. The group by design is diverse I think every type of membership is covered and many demographics in terms of age, gender etc. At the first meeting, we voted for a chair and it was a tie between Kathleen and myself. We could ever vote again or be Co-Chair we and I'm so glad we decided to do this. So, how does the FRG work? We meet either online, at AAMI Park, or at City Football Academy. The club uses us a a sounding board and is very open and very honest with us (more than I ever expected). The group is all volunteers and doesn't get paid. We are not club employees. We don't do it for perks, etc. What I have seen is a group of people who want to improve the game and the club. Has the first year of the FRG been perfect? In short, no, the club has been slow to create an easy way for the fans to contact the FRG and promote it. Have other clubs done a better job? Yes, but web pages and better links are coming. At first and understandably somewhere unsure about being identified as FRG members in case they were targeted by unhappy fans. Perth, for example, have their FRG in shirts so you can spot them at games. I, for one, wouldn't do that, I'm at the game to watch the game and spend time with my daughter. But we, as i said, we are pushing the club to open up better ways to communicate. So that's the Melbourne City FRG. When the email address and link are live, I will post them here, but if you have a question, ask away! Now for the National FRG or APL FRG. That now has a page (including a pic of me). https://aleagues.com.au/more/a-leagues-fan-representative-group-details/ Each club FRG sends the Chair to this group as a result of us having Co-Chairs we have 2 members (told you it was a good thing). This group meets less frequently and is honestly finding its feet. I have been very vocal (hence why I'm in lots of the minutes) on taking the APL task on the state of the game. Recently, we have been seeing a shift in the way the APL engages with the group. They are starting to use us as a sounding board before going public with things, our feedback has had direct impacts on recent APL decisions and I genuinely have hope that the new leadership is learning. But they are still hampered by the previous leaderships misteps. Now to clear up a couple of direct comments from the thread. Matt Mann Vs Matt May, it's Matt Mann this is a typo that I correct a few times but never got changed. Kathleen has never represented Victory. I Think this is from when she has spoken about watching a game at the home of the matildas?

And now we have Popovic. There is no longer a need to book tickets to North America.

Seems fishy 🤔 Allegedly Talbot scored. The game definitely didn't happen

Don't get ahead of yourself, we have to win a game first. That means: scoring not conceding on a counter-attack after controlling possession controlling a game, not switching off

Hahaha fkn hell

But what values do you need to have? An Israeli, Palestinian or even Russian/Ukrainian footballer can't control what their government is doing

We couldn't get a better marquee then this dude and we need a marquee we can't just play kids. If people have a problem with this signing says more about society then anything else.

What a surprise four MVC players in the squad. Valupellay??? Seriously?

Not very good we never get them on time and the club care less now then they did then

Probably women's coach? Or at least youth

Oh 100% agree, and I'm not here to defend the club for their slow actions. I'm trying to break down some of that "secrecy" and this week will be raising it again.

Whilst all this is a slow start but hopefully heading in the right direction! This sounds harsh, but perhaps some clubs are making poor decisions and selecting the wrong type indivuals to their own advantage. Ultimately the FRG respresents all fans and if these indivuals are intimited and anxious to mingle with their own fanbase than we are missing completely the point again, even though I understand your point. Out of the 12 selected FRG reps, is this is a collective decision or are the other 10/11 or so more open about their FRG roles? Do we have the active fan base represented in our FRG? I find it an interesting discussion, having a FRG who at game day would rather not communicate with rest of the fanbase. Also Kathleen being active in government and football admistrication for years, would be very governance focusses, is she active here by the way, she is of the same opinion?

Delayed response due to old synapses. Answer : Yes

Fantasy Sign-Up https://sportsdeck.com/aleague/dreamteam/team/field I have also setup a tipping league too, it's the same account so nice and easy! Code 768424

Anyone interested?

Yeah I do agree I don't think CFG care about Melbourne city as a club they just want to spit out youth to sell

Stuff pride. At the moment we got Vidmar.

Harry, Harry Kewell.... 😅

#BuildTheCaulfieldStadium

According to some, WSW didn't "read the room" when they signed Israeli Tomer Hamed in 2021/2022... Let they lad play and hope he does well for us.

Nathaniel Atkinson is the first 😄

Highlights via Western united.... Probably don't watch for your own sanity https://x.com/ForeverMelbCity/status/1835164155273466285?t=MbzZ1pwleE9KGqrX20PROw&s=19

3 of our 'best' players are so unreliable. We have no squad depth with nabbout, lecks, and tilio being unavailable all the time.

I believe that's former victory player rashid mahazi

Unfortunately I did not get a chance to watch the game so I can't comment but Arnold does have his limitations. The problem is finding a good coach that can make players jell when they are all living in different parts of the globe.

That's why they are called "highlights"

Is it going to exist? We might need a back up plan

He's a gun Great signing

I'm thinking of automatically suspending anyone who depresses me any further about our prospects for the coming season... Good signing by Sydney. I suppose he was automatically disqualified by City in that he'd never heard of Adelaide...Not surprising really. I remember Greek singer Melina Mercouri saying "I went to Adelaide once. But it was closed."

No, but I'd be pretty surprised lol.

None the less, if you get an offer from an EPL club to coach their women's side would you decline?

That continues our pre-season tradition against WU. We've played 2 A-League teams for our pre-season preparation to date; there's at least one other to come. We've lost them both: The first, a Cup game against Perth, saw us lose control of the game from a winning dominant position and then concede a succession of goals until we lost 4-5 The second, against WU, we lost in the usual fashion; dominate possession; unable to break down the opponent, concede on a counter-attack. Yes, it's pre-season, young players and all that, but the manner of the losses shows no progression from last season: the same frailties, conceding in the same manner. It'll be a long season.

We're in for the poverty season: a team of youngsters, and minimal investment. If any of the youngsters do well, they will be sold and we'll lose them. We are beginning a rebuild cycle after a wasted season last season, so 2-3 years before we get good results