Memo: Barry Prendergast

[Jerry Lundergard 420]

Agree with Titan on this one - the entire post feels like a follow-on from the venting that started against the coach and players post Thursday night. Yes, we were Horrible (capital H intended) the other night and I dearly hope we can bounce back against the Crows - but 2011 (so far) is like a reality-tsunami has hit MFC fans, and rather than except the fact that rebuilding is a long process (which really only started last year) we want to point fingers as to why we're not in the top four NOW.

If the rebuilding process only started last year, what were we doing the 2 years prior to that? Challenging for the flag?

[Steamin Demon 392]

If the rebuilding process only started last year, what were we doing the 2 years prior to that? Challenging for the flag?

We were culling the [censored] left behind by the previues coach, Much like what the Liberal party are doing now in Victoria.

[Sir Why You Little 37,038]

We were culling the [censored] left behind by the previues coach, Much like what the Liberal party are doing now in Victoria.

Trouble is every other club is able to that a lot quicker than we always do...The excuses must stop otherwise our great club is not going to survive.

That's the bottom line.

[Dee Fan 3,247]

Is this purely because he attended a "good school" i bet you know very little of james? or am i wrong? also will you ever comment in a positive way on topics i dont recall this?

I never mentioned his school, I mentioned his privileged background and that was information that was released by the club after they sent him up to Liam Jurrah's home town for a reality check.

I've probably followed this club longer than two of you lifetimes and I've seen it all, Flags, Spoons, almost winless seasons and crap sides, still I come back year after year to support the club.

I've had plenty of good things to say about the club too but I don't have my head up my ass and if something's wrong I'll point it out. For years I sat back and clapped all the things the club did and never questioned them but not any more I'm sick to death of watching the same crap served up year after bloody year.

[praha 11,240]

Melbourne missed out on a strong forward in the draft despite its great position? No way!?

[Dee Fan 3,247]

Trouble is every other club is able to that a lot quicker than we always do...The excuses must stop otherwise our great club is not going to survive.

That's the bottom line.

That's because we always seem to recruit nice boys that can play football but don't have any mongrel in them; if they don't have the right table manners they're out.

Plus we employ coaches that seem to be in training for a media career after it's established they can't coach a football team.

[Red Sox 2]

I think some are forgetting what might become of Cook. Tricky's post sums it up for me. As much as what Darling has shown to date, I can't say he is a good decision maker apart from hitting packs. Cook, from what I've seen makes good decisions and when he fills out soon enough there could well be egg on many faces who are screaming "I told you so."

Fwiw, I liked what I saw in Darling, just like I preferred some others. Namely, Billie Smedts. But I'm not a recruiters bootlace, and I'm prepared to cut the recruiters slack and not come to a conclusion after 5 games in 2011. Lucas Cook may well be just what we need.

My previous post alludes to what I think of Cook.

But disagree totally re Darling here HT as it was his ability to hit up so well and make good decisions against Hawthorn that stood out. Weagles press up has much to do with his ability to be that link player coming up from half forward.

[sylvinator 96]

This is one of the worst cases of premature e-draft-ulation I have seen.

you don't draft for 1 year, you draft for a 12-15 year career.

Go on melbournefc.com.au and look at vfl highlights from last week, Cook looks to be a beauty.

More importantly he's 196cm, and when him and Watts both hit 100kg in 2-3 years time, we will have 2 super athletic, agile and smart 100kg 196cm twin towers who both have outstanding kicking skills.

[Sir Why You Little 37,038]

That's because we always seem to recruit nice boys that can play football but don't have any mongrel in them; if they don't have the right table manners they're out.

Plus we employ coaches that seem to be in training for a media career after it's established they can't coach a football team.

with the right coaches our list will fire. Ya gotta pay top dollar for that. We are now in a position to do it.

When Bailey joined we had no money...he has done a really good job, but he has reached his point.

[Sir Why You Little 37,038]

This is one of the worst cases of premature e-draft-ulation I have seen.

you don't draft for 1 year, you draft for a 12-15 year career.

Go on melbournefc.com.au and look at vfl highlights from last week, Cook looks to be a beauty.

More importantly he's 196cm, and when him and Watts both hit 100kg in 2-3 years time, we will have 2 super athletic, agile and smart 100kg 196cm twin towers who both have outstanding kicking skills.

Cook is going to be a gun. That's why we need the best coaches now. Not in 2 years

[Dee Fan 3,247]

This is one of the worst cases of premature e-draft-ulation I have seen.

you don't draft for 1 year, you draft for a 12-15 year career.

Go on melbournefc.com.au and look at vfl highlights from last week, Cook looks to be a beauty.

More importantly he's 196cm, and when him and Watts both hit 100kg in 2-3 years time, we will have 2 super athletic, agile and smart 100kg 196cm twin towers who both have outstanding kicking skills.

That may be so, but do we or will we have anyone to get the ball down to them? We have a serious shortage of quality midfielders.

[Sir Why You Little 37,038]

That may be so, but do we or will we have anyone to get the ball down to them? We have a serious shortage of quality midfielders.

Top line midfield coaches will fix that.

[BAMF 4,353]

and notice how he is playing against kids?

Ummm..... he is a kid.

The kids he played against were the same kids that Darling played against.

Everyone recruited from the Under 18's are kids.

[BAMF 4,353]

That's because we always seem to recruit nice boys that can play football but don't have any mongrel in them; if they don't have the right table manners they're out.

Always?

Sylvia is a antagonist. Dunn is clearly one of the biggest bastards to play on. Newton was so arrogant that it held him back. Tapscott has already belted a couple of opponents. Moloney is certainly not a softy.

[jabberwocky 2,301]

That may be so, but do we or will we have anyone to get the ball down to them? We have a serious shortage of quality midfielders.

We have the cattle, it is now about how it is developed, the game style, entrenching bloody minded competition and promoting the right leaders to preach it all.

We have the midfielders, we need a system that works and confidence in that system.

[Rhino Richards 1,467]

with the right coaches our list will fire. Ya gotta pay top dollar for that. We are now in a position to do it.

When Bailey joined we had no money...he has done a really good job, but he has reached his point.

Did Bailey win us tatts did he?? Where did all the money suddenly come from???

That may be so, but do we or will we have anyone to get the ball down to them? We have a serious shortage of quality midfielders.

We have a serious shortage of mature hard bodied quality midfielders. We have Scully, Trengove, McKenzie and Gysberts who are definite quality but are just kids.

Top line midfield coaches will fix that.

You are seriously dreaming. Its about the cattle in the midfield.

Example Aaron Davey. We all know how much Talent he does have, but our club has never demanded that he produce it regularly.

Look at Chris Judd last night, Amazing...but he produces that regularly. Aaron Davey if motivated right could be just as good as Chris Judd, but he has never been pushed hard enough, by either himself or the MFC Football Dept.

This has to be one of your greatest codswallop pieces WYL. Can you show me the weblink where it states the Club has never demanded that he produce good football reguarly?

And Davey even at his best would never be in Judd's orbit. Not even close. As Matthews, Richardson and King agreed on 3aw today that Judd is a once in a generation footballer. Davey wont even get close.

We have the cattle, it is now about how it is developed, the game style, entrenching bloody minded competition and promoting the right leaders to preach it all.

We have the midfielders, we need a system that works and confidence in that system.

Fair assessment and we need to get gametime and experience into that talent.

[Sir Why You Little 37,038]

Did Bailey win us tatts did he?? Where did all the money suddenly come from???

We have a serious shortage of mature hard bodied quality midfielders. We have Scully, Trengove, McKenzie and Gysberts who are definite quality but are just kids.

You are seriously dreaming. Its about the cattle in the midfield.

This has to be one of your greatest codswallop pieces WYL. Can you show me the weblink where it states the Club has never demanded that he produce good football reguarly?

And Davey even at his best would never be in Judd's orbit. Not even close. As Matthews, Richardson and King agreed on 3aw today that Judd is a once in a generation footballer. Davey wont even get close.

Fair assessment and we need to get gametime and experience into that talent.

So it's just carry on everything is fine hey Rhino? Get real.

[Radar Detector 1,347]

Trouble is every other club is able to that a lot quicker than we always do...

This is just patently untrue. The only club to race to a flag after their rebuild is Hawthorn.

St Kilda, Geelong and Collingwood all took around 7 years after bottoming out which would have us as a flag contender in 2016. Carlton is another who bottomed before us but is still climbing.

This doesn't excuse some of the rubbish we have served up this year but there is no evidence we are progressing any slower than others before us. Even Essendon is a bit ahead of us in their rebuild. Don't forget they made the finals in '09 with a young list while we were "winning" our last spoon. Last year was an anomoly year for the Bombers IMO.

[Sir Why You Little 37,038]

This is just patently untrue. The only club to race to a flag after their rebuild is Hawthorn.

St Kilda, Geelong and Collingwood all took around 7 years after bottoming out which would have us as a flag contender in 2016. Carlton is another who bottomed before us but is still climbing.

This doesn't excuse some of the rubbish we have served up this year but there is no evidence we are progressing any slower than others before us. Even Essendon is a bit ahead of us in their rebuild. Don't forget they made the finals in '09 with a young list while we were "winning" our last spoon. Last year was an anomoly year for the Bombers IMO.

They all got a lot further down the road in 4 years than we have, which is my main point.

[old dee 23,791]

Always?

Sylvia is a antagonist. Dunn is clearly one of the biggest bastards to play on. Newton was so arrogant that it held him back. Tapscott has already belted a couple of opponents. Moloney is certainly not a softy.

Oh please UTAH we all saw how tough they were on Thursday, Sylvia is so tough he knocks himself up running across the field.

[Radar Detector 1,347]

They all got a lot further down the road in 4 years than we have, which is my main point.

But we're not four years down the road. We finished last 18 months ago... We're really only two years in from our "bottom out". People forget this.

[jayceebee31 761]

Don't blame it on the recruiters, the coach give them a breif of what they want to fit in with their gameplan (or just game, no plan). I think that skipping on Luke Mitchell will be a bigger regret.

I agree- Luke will be something special as well if he can get his body right-could be another Griffiths at Richmond though.

[Theo 272]

If someone makes a mistake that's ok if they continually make mistakes then that's another matter. We've drafted some ordinary players over the last few years and that's the fault of the football department. I don't care if other clubs pass up on a player and I get sick of the well 15 other clubs ignored him too, I only care about what we do.

I have to agree with you our recruiting has been average at best. We have been a bottom four team or middle of the ladder team for 10 years or more. No matter how you sugar coat it we don't have the personnel to be a top 4 or even top 8 team. Let's look at our recruiting:

2004 Bate Dunn, Newton

2005 Jones, Buckley, Bartram

2006 Frawley, Pettard, Garland

2007 Morton, Maric

2008 Watts, Blease, Strauss, Bennell, Jetta, Jurrah

2009 Scully, Trengove, Gysberts, Bail, Gawn Fitzpatrick Joel MacDonald

Jones, Garland, Frawley, Trengove, Gysberts, Bartram, Morton, Bennell, Bail and Jurrah played against West Coast. Scully would have likely played if fit.

Now how many of these players are A Graders - Nil. Scully, Trengove and Frawley may get there. (Dustin Martin is probably already there). How many are going to make top AFL players?.

Some of these players have already left the club or are playing VFL.

In 2008 for example we picked Strauss at pick 19, Bennell at 35 and Jetta at 51. In between these picks other clubs picked Shuey, Ballantyne, Trengove, McKernan, Suban, Zaharakis, Dayne Beams, Hannebery, Roughhead, Liam Anthony,Redden, Ash Smith, Rhys Stanley, Sloane.

Rockliff who trained with us at Casey in the pre-season was picked in the pre-season draft by Brisbane.

We do not have good depth. We have too many light-bodied prima donnas. A poor goal-to-line. No strong KP players apart from Frawley. We are mentally and physically weak and fall apart in the heat of battle.

The club has got it wrong and no matter what spin they put on it we have been given a golden chance to recruit well but have blown it.

By the time our skinny small and tall players have developed, free agency will allow them to leave.

I love this club but I am tired of the inconsistent crap we are dished up each week.

p.s I like the look Howe and Tom McDonald. They may add some glue to the brittle tooth picks we have.

Edited April 30, 2011 by Theo

[jackaub 1,402]

That's because we always seem to recruit nice boys that can play football but don't have any mongrel in them; if they don't have the right table manners they're out.

Plus we employ coaches that seem to be in training for a media career after it's established they can't coach a football team.

Hey Robbie you may be rightI seems to me that we dont recruit hard nutts

One day i want to see someone in Red and Blue thrash themselves like Judd does or Swan or Suell

We are not playing for ourselves let alone for

or a great club

iI want Jim Stynes or McLardy to come out and tell the truth about what is going on in the football department

[jackaub 1,402]

I have to agree with you our recruiting has been average at best. We have been a bottom four team or middle of the ladder team for 10 years or more. No matter how you sugar coat it we don't have the personnel to be a top 4 or even top 8 team. Let's look at our recruiting:

2004 Bate Dunn, Newton

2005 Jones, Buckley, Bartram

2006 Frawley, Pettard, Garland

2007 Morton, Maric

2008 Watts, Blease, Strauss, Bennell, Jetta, Jurrah

2009 Scully, Trengove, Gysberts, Bail, Gawn Fitzpatrick Joel MacDonald

Jones, Garland, Frawley, Trengove, Gysberts, Bartram, Morton, Bennell, Bail and Jurrah played against West Coast. Scully would have likely played if fit.

Now how many of these players are A Graders - Nil. Scully, Trengove and Frawley may get there. (Dustin Martin is probably already there). How many are going to make top AFL players?.

Some of these players have already left the club or are playing VFL.

In 2008 for example we picked Strauss at pick 19, Bennell at 35 and Jetta at 51. In between these picks other clubs picked Shuey, Ballantyne, Trengove, McKernan, Suban, Zaharakis, Dayne Beams, Hannebery, Roughhead, Liam Anthony,Redden, Ash Smith, Rhys Stanley, Sloane.

Rockliff who trained with us at Casey in the pre-season was picked in the pre-season draft by Brisbane.

We do not have good depth. We have too many light-bodied prima donnas. A poor goal-to-line. No strong KP players apart from Frawley. We are mentally and physically weak and fall apart in the heat of battle.

The club has got it wrong and no matter what spin they put on it we have been given a golden chance to recruit well but have blown it.

By the time our skinny small and tall players have developed, free agency will allow them to leave.

I love this club but I am tired of the inconsistent crap we are dished up each week.

Great Post

The football department need to stop spinning and be accountable

It appears to me given the lack of progress and the way the game has changed we will need to rebuild once again

Gee its hard to follow this club sometimes

p.s I like the look Howe and Tom McDonald. They may add some glue to the brittle tooth picks we have.