SF33

I really like this attitude. I'm just a member, with no real interest to being part of an active supporters group, so obviously my opinion holds very little weight. But, having come late to this whole discussion (jumped on the forum for the first time in about a fortnight last night), all I was really hoping for was that it would be possible to see the crowd predominantly in red (if not, white) at home games. And I hope that the majority of supporters from the 2013/14 season and before feel the same way. That was my main concern when I read about the previous group disbanding, that the crowd for home games would be predominantly blue, if not from the first game, before the end of the season. But, by the same token, if a supporter, new or old, wants to go to a game and wear a sky blue shirt (or, of course, the new home shirt), well, good for them.

As others have mentioned, he put on a clinic from the start of the game until he was subbed out. The goal was just icing. Thing is, like with Torres' goal in the second, you knew it was going in the back of the net the moment it went to them. That will be a novel feeling next season.

I agree, to a point, but I think you have to be really careful with starting up a new sporting club in the 21st century and then trying to duplicate the timeless logos of clubs which designed theirs in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. If you do it wrong, they can be atrocious. I think what they've come up with is great, but by the same token, I like how the rest of the A-League teams have done their own thing, instead of trying to pretend that they've been around for a century (even though I think most of the other logos aren't much to write home about). Kind of like how most of the Bundesliga club logos won't be mistaken for masterpieces, but it's cool how the clubs have stuck with them, when they could easily have made them 'better', from a marketing perspective.

I'm not sure how many people it is a consideration for (it hasn't been for me, personally), but it's conceivable that people might decide to sign/not sign/sign on a different membership based on the home fixture we get. I think that's a big consideration for a lot of AFL members, say, for example, Geelong members, based on when the Melbourne home games are and how many night games are in Geelong. Like I said, it's not the difference between signing and not signing for me, but I really don't enjoy those Sunday games (play basketball that night). Pet memberships: that's another bone of contention with AFL people. You pay bugger all for your pet to get a collar in club colours or something and they add one to the membership tally. If the HAL is allowing that sort of stuff, fine (it all helps the club, after all), but you have to take the membership numbers as strictly a marketing tool (something to spruik to potential sponsors etc.), hardly a genuine indicator of revenue generated through memberships, since a member could be paying $30 or $700+ and they'd still only count as '1' on the tally. The thing is different times suit different people. Personally I don't like Friday evening games and weekend arvo games are certainly better for families. In the end no matter what the draw is someone will be disadvantaged by it. Yeah, Friday evening games are sometimes a bit tough, but I guess the flip side of it is if the boys have a win, it puts a spring in my step for the rest of the weekend. Agree that Saturday arvo is probably my preferred time. It's similar with an AFL club like Geelong (my team). With a lot of members that live in Melbourne, the night home games in Geelong and Melbourne (particularly Friday night) will always be unpopular with the supporters that are obliged to travel, but the flip side to that is that the supporters who live in that city can make it to the games, when they otherwise might not have been able to, say for a Saturday night game, when they play football, or support a local team during the day. Swings and roundabouts everywhere and it would be a bit of trial and error for Geelong, which has had a major facelift to its home ground, along with Melbourne City, who would be expected to enjoy unprecedented support and success in 2014/15.

Surely they don't count pet 'memberships' in their tally, do they?! As far as I'm aware, if you sign up (or have been signed up by someone else) for an AFL club, whether you're an animal, an infant, or never going to go to a game, you're counted. I can only assume the HAL clubs work the same way.

I'm not sure how many people it is a consideration for (it hasn't been for me, personally), but it's conceivable that people might decide to sign/not sign/sign on a different membership based on the home fixture we get. I think that's a big consideration for a lot of AFL members, say, for example, Geelong members, based on when the Melbourne home games are and how many night games are in Geelong. Like I said, it's not the difference between signing and not signing for me, but I really don't enjoy those Sunday games (play basketball that night). Pet memberships: that's another bone of contention with AFL people. You pay bugger all for your pet to get a collar in club colours or something and they add one to the membership tally. If the HAL is allowing that sort of stuff, fine (it all helps the club, after all), but you have to take the membership numbers as strictly a marketing tool (something to spruik to potential sponsors etc.), hardly a genuine indicator of revenue generated through memberships, since a member could be paying $30 or $700+ and they'd still only count as '1' on the tally.

I'll be signing up along with my dad and cousin before the end of the membership freeze (Friday week, I believe). For existing members, I think that's one of the really important days; there's no real benefit of signing up before then, so it's probably not top of the list of priorities for some (like, getting a new Hyundai with last year's membership deal, for example ). I think there will be a significant spike the week after next. Probably already been answered, but what do you get for a new sign-up nominating you as their 'recruiter'?

Sounds like whoever posted that is either jumping at shadows, or taking the piss (likely the latter, in my opinion). It's hardly conclusive evidence.

I guess with the likes of Troisi, that have probably been earmarked to be a major part of the Australian campaign for Russia in 2018, there's a bit of a conflict of interest, as to whether running around in the A-League is the best thing for their development in the prime years of their careers. Similar to the conflict with an international marquee, that if you want a big name, it's almost certainly going to be a guy in his twilight years.

Nope. I too once despised Williams but I can see with a little further development he can turn into a 10-15 goal scorer a season, he gets into good positions his finish sometimes lacks a bit of class, but he gets the opportunities every game which some could argue is the hard part. gee you use that argument for Mifdud , remember him, he had som many oppotunities but took just one Big difference between a guy who scored one goal and spent most of the season in the youth squad compared to a guy who kick 12 goals and came equal second for the golden boot and that was after JA left him with no confidence in the first half of the season........so really no where near the same argument Agreed. To me, Williams has always seemed like an icing, rather than cake, kind of player. Which could mean he'll find his niche playing second fiddle to the likes of Villa and the next signing up front. That should really have been the role he was playing last season (and seems to suit his ups and downs a bit better), but Mifsud lost the plot, Williams stood up and, overall, had an outstanding season. Until we sign one more forward that will be ready to go from the start of the season, or two that will be ready to go after Villa departs, I think a spot in the first XI is Williams' to lose. Maybe he is a regular as the second striker, maybe he'll be a designated impact player off the bench, maybe he does a bit of both. But I think we'll see a lot of him in 2014/15 and think he will have an important role.

I vaguely recall the last time we had Wellington away twice that the second game was in Dunedin. Anyone suspect/know if that would be the case again (venue for the game in Feb is 'TBD' at the moment)?

If he's an international for a different country, surely he's not available as an Australian? Plus, he should be in the prime of his career right now. Having departed Celtic, I'd be very surprised if he didn't sign with another perennial Champions League contender, probably in one of the big leagues, to test himself. And I don't really know much about his personality, but surely even if he considered Melbourne, it would be at an international marquee salary. He's 29 and he's still got money to earn. he has an Australian citizenship so he can be an Aussie marquee. Terry mcflynn and Ali Abbas were visa years at sydney before they became Australian citizens. But yours probably right that he will still wants to test himself at the highest level, but I'm sure it's something city will explore in a few years Fair enough; I stand corrected. Probably worth a call then, but yeah, I can't see him accepting a move to Melbourne when he should be in his prime playing (and earning years). I imagine the opportunity for some silverware might not have the same attraction to him (compared to challenging himself at the best level he can) as it might for someone like Duff as well, since Celtic has won its last three leagues practically unopposed (won the last three by an average of over 20 points).

If he's an international for a different country, surely he's not available as an Australian? Plus, he should be in the prime of his career right now. Having departed Celtic, I'd be very surprised if he didn't sign with another perennial Champions League contender, probably in one of the big leagues, to test himself. And I don't really know much about his personality, but surely even if he considered Melbourne, it would be at an international marquee salary. He's 29 and he's still got money to earn.

Hoping for Wellington away over Australian Day weekend myself. You're right. That would be tremendous.

I guess we'll find out in due course. It's an obvious enticement to get members signed up and close the gap between the Melbourne teams' membership numbers and also, the game would presumably be played at Etihad (if not the MCG), which, even given Man City's standing in the game, would probably take some filling. From my perspective, I'd go regardless though, so it's certainly a fair point that you make. Even just a members on-sale date before the general public would be nice.

True. Would be nice to find out the specificities of his contract at City because if he isn't being used as a guest player and is in fact being loaned to us, then I would assume that we intend to use the guest contract for another player (Lampard perhaps?). As much as that sounds like a great idea, I don't particularly like the idea of having two players (especially of Villa's and Lampard's ability) leaving mid season. Would disrupt the team too much. Yeah, it would certainly change the team dynamic and probably just as they would be finding a groove. Though it's pretty obvious that from management's perspective, they would be looking at the obvious benefits of getting some game time into their big-name New York signings. If they did sign someone like Lampard as well for a guest/loan, I'd like them to consider only lining him up with Villa for a handful of the games and then play the other games separately. Though, in that scenario, there's the trade-off that we'd have both for longer than we would have otherwise, but then there's less time for the team to find its feet without them, after they go back to the US.

Wouldn't mind trying to get to see my first A-League games outside of Melbourne, especially in NZ. So, hopefully not an away Sunday game against Wellington (though I think we might have them twice over there this year?).

Which is better for the spectacle as it allows Manchester City to bring some more of there world class players e.g aguero, dzeko, kompany and so forth Thanks for the info, hedaik. Yeah, I'm more than happy to play the long game with that, as long as it happens at some stage in the next 15 months or so and we can get something like that happening regularly (maybe alternate yearly with NYC/ManC, if we could get the US schedule to align somehow, which might prove difficult). And again, as long as things are locked in reasonably early, I think they'd be crazy not to offer some sort of discount/free entry for Melbourne City members for that game.

$$$$$ <------ There's 5 reasons... would you like more?? It's a boys dream to make it big in the EPL... he has been there and done that. After the WC he will retire with/without winning it. But he has done everything else. Is he definitely retiring after the World Cup, or do you just mean there's no way he'll still be kicking around for England in 2018? I imagine that if he's based in the US, he'd still be considered for the national squad (if he was making himself available), but if he's in Australia, he won't be. That, along with the standard, would be the reason why we're only ever realistically likely to get guys in the twilight of their careers, if they're big-name Euros.

Has there been any more talk about the potential of a Manchester City exhibition match in Melbourne during the preseason, or would that be in conflict with our trip to England and whatever ManC's preseason plans are? I remember a bit of speculation around at the time of the sale. If a 2014/15 club membership can be used for free entry or a discount to such a game, it would give our numbers a massive boost.

I think this is definitely a carrot we can dangle in front of some Duff-types down the track, that no other team in the A-League can hope to match.

That's slightly disappointing, but let's be honest, even though the recent Dutch article gave us a glimmer of hope, that's all it was and it was only a very remote chance (missing home is one thing, missing home and being on less money than he could get elsewhere is probably a bridge too far). Would have been nice, but now I guess we wait and see what they have up their sleeve for the other visa.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/harry-kewell-hails-melbourne-citys-signing-of-david-villa-and-tips-spaniard-to-star-in-brazil/story-fnk6rlg0-1226946951422 I hope Harry can play an active role at the club in the future. He'd be great to have around and obviously offers a good link between the domestic comp and the Premier League.

I remember seeing him at the height of his powers with Celtic in 2008/09 (a fond memory being McDonald winning an Old Firm game for Celtic and watching on with some Glasgow boys at an Irish pub in Berlin), so I'll always go in to bat for Scotty Mac. And if he harbours any serious ambitions of adding to his international caps, you'd imagine that there's few better places for him to be right now.

Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. Don't get me wrong, I was happy when he was put out of his misery and at the start of last season, a (comparatively) 'good' game was one where I didn't want to break the TV after listening to Aloisi's post match interview. But why is Mifsud considered one of the very worst foreign signings in the history of the league? Because he butchered dozens of straightforward opportunities (and he wasn't the only one who had little composure in front of goal). That wasn't Aloisi's fault and if Mifsud had converted even half of those golden chances, we probably would have had 6-10 points more on the board, by the time Aloisi was ultimately removed. Worth remembering, I think. Anyway, I don't really care what he's up to now. I just don't like the outright hate for him. I just hope that in a few years time, if they show him on the big screen as a supporter for one of our home games, he gets a bit of respect. Shit coach, yeah. But people need to settle down. He's in the rearview mirror.