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Melbourne Heart Fan Forum - January 6th - Bench Cafe


Jimmy
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They're planning a world class facility at LaTrobe.

Grella was cheaper than a youth player. They would take the risk on him again.

Membership and match day attendance is the highest priority, along with the long term sustainability.

They are scouting for immediate replacements of a CM and a full back.

Potential for a w-league team in 2 seasons.

Have started contract negotiations with Germano, worried about Fred's age/body.

The club spends $550,000 each year on community outreach to kids.

There are release clauses in the contract of most of the players. They don't want to lose the players, but at the same time don't want to be the ones to stand in their way of playing at the higher possible level and setting themselves and their families up for life.

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Did anyone ask or find out why (maybe someone on here spoke to the guys after the forum)

-gray was signed

-why the active area cant go back (without accepting the normal OHS crap)

-what the criteria for selecting our manger was

-general questions on our current recruitment plan, previous recruitments or future squad plan (not just this window)

?????

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I wassnt at the meeting but im glad to hear they are staying at LaTrobe. There have been a few comments about moving to Epping because its a growth area but Latrobe by far is the better option.

Firstly, its situated at a University reknown for its health sciences department, which has its own private hospital. The potential for the club and Latrobe to work together with students getting access to players and inturn the club getting access to the hospital will provide a huge benefit to the club.

The university has 30-40k students when I studied there and therefore a huge untapped base of support.

Also being at a university means there is far more scope for government funding to build these facilities because its a university and therefore has alot more community benefit than building somewhere else exclusivly for the club and it is no doubt cheaper. I also think latrobe is in the best location, right in a sweet spot and has the potential to become a new football hub for the north west growth areas. I think the epping ground is too far out, especially if we decided one day to move our home games up there. Melbourne is not other cities where they can have different locations for different clubs ie London because the population is no where near the number required to make it work and furthermore, Melbourne is a fucking big city geographically. I know I would struggle getting all the way out to epping from where I live.

In saying all this, although this forum is so bi-polar the bottom line is we have a very well run club which started from nothing. If we want to adheare to this youth policy well that will take time to generate succcess and yes we all get pissed off when our good young players get sold but thats the nature of the game.

I also think the reserves team in SL2 NW is a master stroke and is going to set up the club for the long term

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Sidwell is very well spoken, but I kept thinking he just made sure to keep positive and say the right thing. I just got a vibe that we're in a pretty bad financial state. JA his usual cool self, but one or two members made a great point of showing more emotion during/after matches, keeping in mind how its portrayed by the media etc. He stressed we need a real leader in midfield. I wonder how much less if any Colosimo and Thompson try to lead out on the pitch as they've previously had the armband.

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Did anyone ask how they attend on increasing Attendances and memberships? Why Gray was signed? What's the go with Hoffman? Why do we seem not to give fuck about winning? Why are we so skint with everything? etc or did Sidwell just bluff you all into believe that everything is fine? Where is the substance?

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Did anyone ask how they attend on increasing Attendances and memberships? Why Gray was signed? What's the go with Hoffman? Why do we seem not to give fuck about winning? Why are we so skint with everything? etc or did Sidwell just bluff you all into believe that everything is fine? Where is the substance?

Shut up dickhead.

One thing we all may take from this evening is that John Aloisi will be our head coach next year.

If you truly love this club - you'll back him.

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Lol. Expected something like that when I saw you replied.

Can anyone answer my questions?

you'd know if you weren't a shit fan and

actually went to the forum :up:

Had work commitments I tried to get out of but failed and it's not like I could of just headed out to it after work, would arrive two hours after it finished :up:

Edited by Jimmy
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Did anyone ask how they attend on increasing Attendances and memberships? Why Gray was signed? What's the go with Hoffman? Why do we seem not to give fuck about winning? Why are we so skint with everything? etc or did Sidwell just bluff you all into believe that everything is fine? Where is the substance?

Aloisi and JD seemed very embarrassed when speaking about Gray, and did admit he was holding up a Visa spot, but weren't worried because of the guest player contract still available.

If we had a full squad, Hoffman wouldn't be needed, but Aloisi alluded to almost not being able to field a full squad sometimes.

Aloisi seems to have been in Sidwells office asking for more money.

Aloisi has full backing of Sidwell, saying he's done a great job with the limited squad he has had.

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Lol. Expected something like that when I saw you replied.

Can anyone answer my questions?

you'd know if you weren't a shit fan and actually went to the forum :up:

Says the bloke who doesn't even want to go to certain matches :droy: :droy: :droy:

Missed 1 home game in 3 seasons m8, not sure what you are referring to.

Also, why weren't you there? Late shift @ coles?

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Yep went along and Sidwell paints a picture of a club being built for the long run. Community engagement, getting kids involved who will be with the club and building a base over time. He said we've just about at break even at the moment but that I guess also factors in players being sold. He said he was proud to be giving young players a chance to pursue their football dreams and that we should feel proud of that too. The problem ATM is that it creates instability in the team with new players having to be blooded so performances are going to suffer. Sidwell and JA reckon a problem for us this year is that we haven't had a full squad to pick from so our best team hasn't really made it on the park. Also JA/JD agree with comments from members that on field leadership is lacking. This could also explain some erratic performances and lack of Heart on occasions. JA was hoping Grella would provide the onfield leadership but that's gone kaput. It was also put to Sidwell that increasing membership is helped by winning silverware. He said he "got that" and again made the point when summing up the evening. Plenty of other questions asked. Others can add more detail. All in all some good questions and answers were reasonable.

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Anyone ask about Gray?

This is what I wrote in the Jan Transfer topic:

Aloisi said that Gray cannot play in left back and he cannot play in midfield, he's just a centre back! So I asked the question, if he can't play in any position other than centre back, but then you don't have him playing in centre back then why is he taking up a Visa spot? Is there a chance he will be released to open up one of the Visa spots and both JA and JD gave me the impression that is a very likely scenario...depending on who they want to sign.

They also said that the FFA have made concessions for WSW when it comes to Visa spots so if Heart need to another spot, they'll appeal to the FFA.

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Aloisi pretty much implied that Gray sucked balls.

In his own words "He isn't a left back, a defensive mid, and as a centreback - he isn't really up to it".

Don't say I didn't tell you so JD/SM on twitter. Normally I'd never object to a signing of a player I've never seen but Gray's signing taking up a visa spot whilst we released Kristian K was the most underwhelming piece of business by MHFC of all times.

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Lol. Expected something like that when I saw you replied.

Can anyone answer my questions?

you'd know if you weren't a shit fan and actually went to the forum :up:

Says the bloke who doesn't even want to go to certain matches :droy: :droy: :droy:

Missed 1 home game in 3 seasons m8, not sure what you are referring to.

Also, why weren't you there? Late shift @ coles?

Doesn't Jimmy live in warrnambool or something.

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Yep went along and Sidwell paints a picture of a club being built for the long run. Community engagement, getting kids involved who will be with the club and building a base over time. He said we've just about at break even at the moment but that I guess also factors in players being sold. He said he was proud to be giving young players a chance to pursue their football dreams and that we should feel proud of that too. The problem ATM is that it creates instability in the team with new players having to be blooded so performances are going to suffer. Sidwell and JA reckon a problem for us this year is that we haven't had a full squad to pick from so our best team hasn't really made it on the park. Also JA/JD agree with comments from members that on field leadership is lacking. This could also explain some erratic performances and lack of Heart on occasions. JA was hoping Grella would provide the onfield leadership but that's gone kaput. It was also put to Sidwell that increasing membership is helped by winning silverware. He said he "got that" and again made the point when summing up the evening. Plenty of other questions asked. Others can add more detail. All in all some good questions and answers were reasonable.

Good summary.

Financially, while we might be fairly close to breaking even, that does include player sales. So without these, I reckon the situation would still be worrying. The increased TV money will help next year, and Sidwell seems to think sponsorship will remain ok. But nevertheless, I think it's evident that we still need to increase memberships to be sustainable long term. We can't rely on selling players every year.

Edited by Sash
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As an avid follower of the forum I think both of you are great for the club and appreciate your input and humor. I'm not saying kiss and make up, but the last thing I want to see is valuable comment disappear because of public spats. This club is struggling and I dont want to see the heart and soul of the place ripping in to each other.

No one has answered the Hoffman question btw.

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No one has answered the Hoffman question btw.

I'm not sure what people want to know about Hoffman, but Aloisi was gacious enough to admit that it wasn't really fair on him to be asked to play left back last week. I'm not sure what we're going to do now with Aziz gone. I suppose Mitchinson, but Aloisi seems to think he's maybe not quite ready to hold down a starting spot yet. Also, somebody made the comment that Hoffman isn't a holding mid, to which JA said that currently we have no holding mids. (Apart from PG who's needed in central defence.) We still want to recruit a good one as a priority. Hoffman's basically filling holes because our squad is constantly missing players with injury or whatever.

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interesting that JA said we dont have any holding mids. Obviously Gerhardt is one but is needed in defence, but what does he classify Germano and Thompson as if they aren't holding midfielders? And if that's the case and we don't have a holding midfielder on our roster, why was Srhoj released at the end of last season?

I think our main problem is, and has always been having a solid and stable defence, and if we can find good CB's then Gerhardt can push into the midfield and be more involved in the game because he's a terrific player and leader. There's no use going and getting another holding midfielder when there's other areas that need addressing more urgently.

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interesting that JA said we dont have any holding mids. Obviously Gerhardt is one but is needed in defence, but what does he classify Germano and Thompson as if they aren't holding midfielders? And if that's the case and we don't have a holding midfielder on our roster, why was Srhoj released at the end of last season?

I think our main problem is, and has always been having a solid and stable defence, and if we can find good CB's then Gerhardt can push into the midfield and be more involved in the game because he's a terrific player and leader. There's no use going and getting another holding midfielder when there's other areas that need addressing more urgently.

Sorry, I think he meant that we don't have a Grella type dominant holding mid who can control a game from that position. Gerhardt was signed to be that player, but we lost Good & Hamill.

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