I'm a little underwhelmed with the press conference with Jim and Don.

Us members deserve at the very least, the reasons why DB was sacked, why CS was offered a 1-year extension and why CC has the board's full support.

I was impressed though, with Don McLardy.

The Cameron Schwab deal surprised me. When Jim satrted to say his contract expires on 31st oct i expected him to say he wont take an extension. So I guess Cam is on 1 year deals.

The thing is Todd isnt an assistant coach at melbourne and I know he has done the job before but I wonder how th eassistants feel. I think it will be great to see a legend of our club coach us even its for 5 weeks. I wonder if he will get into Clarksons ear. But good luck Todd.

Todd may only be stepping in for the remainder of the season to revert back to his previous role in 2012. If he has taken the job on that proviso we wont lose him. You never know though what may happen. Has there ever been a coach who "coached" his son?

John Kennedy?

John Kennedy?

Denis Pagan coached his spud son at North. Caused huge problems that may have fast tracked his departure from there. There were allegations of favouritism in that his son was getting undeserved games at the expense of genuine hopefuls. Denis apparently had a huge clash with board member Arnold Briedis over this.

Grant Thomas coached one of his kids at St Kilda.

I am interested to see who he fields this week. Apparently dislikes Warnock, Bartram and MacDonald, so where will hardness come from this week?

Viney has some credentials and will be very keen to show his wares. Clearly, he needs to impose himself on the group and changes are to be expected. Who knows, this might be the start of something good. I know everybody is talking about the need for an experienced coach but perhaps there's something to be said for having someone who believes in the red and the blue and who is not just there for the money. If ever our great club needed to show what it's made the time is now. If Todd Viney can bring some of his courage and determination and instil it in our young potential stars we might just see a change for the better.

Whilst Viney has nothing to lose and much to gain, he is not someone I would associate with accepting failure and I'm sure he will be doing his utmost to rejuvenate our performance. The club as a whole though has a lot to lose if we don't see a better response from our players against Carlton this week. Anything less than a 100% effort from every one of the team will just feed the sceptics and critics. It's time, once again, for players to show that they want to play for the red and the blue. If they won't do this for Viney we need to point them towards the door. I'd rather see a bunch of honest triers lose every week rather than the ups and downs we've had this year.

Every heart must beat true.

I'm just concerned about Viney being a part of the 'boys club'....

T. Viney doesn't qualify for boys club as he is one of the few MEN at our club. I grew up watching the bloke and I'll be there Sunday wishing him all the best. Finally a pit-bull takes MFCs coaching reins. Non-negotiable no longer just a word.

Should be very interesting to see if theres anything of the "Viney " way of things stamped over the way teh team takes to teh game this w/e. Not a lot you can do in a week... except scare the bejeezus out of a few slow coaches and big-of-ego's.

Interesting 5 weeks ahead. ( maybe)

Grant Thomas coached one of his kids at St Kilda.

I am interested to see who he fields this week. Apparently dislikes Warnock, Bartram and MacDonald, so where will hardness come from this week?

I am interetsed to know, how do you know that he dislikes these guys?

Almost as good as getting Gary back. I would hope though that the Club put in a mentor like Thompson to assist him if he continues into 2012.

+ 1.... if we can't hook a big time alternative senior coach

Mentor set up with Todd sounds enticing. Maybe the mentor is Malthouse, Eade or Roos. Roos did say he didn't want to coach. Said nothing about mentoring though did he?

Thompson also said he never wanted to coach again

Maybe the mentor is Malthouse.

Malthouse wouldn't go through all the drama and wrangling of leaving his contract at Collingwood just to be a mentor at another club. He knows if he comes to Melbourne as senior coach and wins a couple of flags then he goes down as one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game. This is our great hope in my opinion.

Viney has some credentials and will be very keen to show his wares. Clearly, he needs to impose himself on the group and changes are to be expected. Who knows, this might be the start of something good. I know everybody is talking about the need for an experienced coach but perhaps there's something to be said for having someone who believes in the red and the blue and who is not just there for the money. If ever our great club needed to show what it's made the time is now. If Todd Viney can bring some of his courage and determination and instil it in our young potential stars we might just see a change for the better.

Whilst Viney has nothing to lose and much to gain, he is not someone I would associate with accepting failure and I'm sure he will be doing his utmost to rejuvenate our performance. The club as a whole though has a lot to lose if we don't see a better response from our players against Carlton this week. Anything less than a 100% effort from every one of the team will just feed the sceptics and critics. It's time, once again, for players to show that they want to play for the red and the blue. If they won't do this for Viney we need to point them towards the door. I'd rather see a bunch of honest triers lose every week rather than the ups and downs we've had this year.

Every heart must beat true.

Nice post Crawf. Can't send em all to the door but in general i agree.

No more pretenders please! We need full 100% commitment from anyone who wishes to play for the Red & Blue from here.

Time to bleed for the club fellas.

No more skinny/smallish recruits either please, unless they're an absolute stand out in terms or skills/talent, love to crack in regardless and likely to fill out into man bods after say 3 - 4 full pre- seasons eg., Betts/Rioli/Thomas types.

I would love to see Wanna on that example list, if only he'd commit and go for it. Seems like many of our smaller boys end up as floaters and skiers far too often.

Gives me a little hope for the rest of the season. Hopefully he can grind some grunt into that disgraceful, insipid school team that pranced around on Saturday. I hope there is a massive culture turn at this club, and Todd could begin it with more focus on winning the contested ball, making tackles count and standing by one another. I can safely say the most disgusted I was on Saturday was when Nathan Jones watched on as Chapman smacked around Dunn. God that made my blood boil.

Malthouse wouldn't go through all the drama and wrangling of leaving his contract at Collingwood just to be a mentor at another club. He knows if he comes to Melbourne as senior coach and wins a couple of flags then he goes down as one of the greatest coaches in the history of the game. This is our great hope in my opinion.

Yeh.....well i did put Roos and Eade in there as well so i'd appreciate it if you at least quoted the whole sentence for context. Not that they would want to either i realise.

But agreed. I was forgetting the nature of Mick. He wouldn't, and yes he would want to go down as a maybe the greatest so far if he did so, regardless of which team he decided to go to. Maybe Todd as an assistant then if he came our way. Doubt this would be till 2013 though, unless they can find a way around the contract conundrum.

Grant Thomas believes we should be going after Denis Pagan but we wont as he's too tough and uncompromising for the executive at MFC to deal with. Reckons we'll end up putting an untried coach in so he's easier to manage and we're able to use the "still learning/growing/developing" excuse over the next 5 years etc.

Believes appointing Eade would be a huge mistake for us as he'll bring more of the technocrat style that isn't quite able to get the team over the final hurdles to reach the big one.

Interesting viewing on Footy classifieds tonight. Lots of 'coming out' home truths.

Gives me a little hope for the rest of the season. Hopefully he can grind some grunt into that disgraceful, insipid school team that pranced around on Saturday. I hope there is a massive culture turn at this club, and Todd could begin it with more focus on winning the contested ball, making tackles count and standing by one another. I can safely say the most disgusted I was on Saturday was when Nathan Jones watched on as Chapman smacked around Dunn. God that made my blood boil.

It wasn't just Jones watching on.

At least 'Schoolboy' Nicholson went in to protest his disapproval. But agreed, when the going gets really tough and it's a do or die contest or clash, Jones does tend to shy away at times.

Hopefully he can weed this out of his game from here and bring a tough defensive side to his game.

From Demonology.

Confirmed at the press conference that he has no intention of seeking the job permanently.

Does anyone have link etc for the press conference I am up the bush for a couple of days?

Just watched Todd's media conference.

Some of the interesting comments were:

- he feels empathy with the players over DB's sacking. That he went thrugh the same thing twice in his career.

- The players feel empty, responsible, let down and are grievingl Some of them have lost a mentor because DB was their only coach. So yesterday he spoke with them briefly told to do what they had to do. They trained lightly and told them to come back today (their day off) and talk about things and what was to come.

- average and mediocrity is not part of the culture that is expected

- it is his turn to shoulder some of the responsibility like Jimmy does/has. He understands that it is his turn now to do his part.

- asked about Gary he said that he is a leader of the Club and he to needs to stand up

- Tom Scully same old future leader etc however said if he decides to go the Club will move on and get the best two picks they can. If he makes his decision early it will help planning but respects his decision to not to make a decision until the end of the season.

I liked the filthy look he gave one of the journalists when he butted in on someone asking another question.

Todd takes no prisoners. I hope some of the older players are up to it.

Does anyone have link etc for the press conference I am up the bush for a couple of days?

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/demon-caretaker-viney-does-not-want-the-job-for-good-20110802-1i96v.html

Not a link to the press conference but some info on the situation.