From what I've been told by several Collingwood supporters (albeit word of mouth) he's actually fairly uncompromising. Strong willed, not just another 'whiteboard tactical genius.'

Absolutely stupid comment seeing he hasn't been at the club for even a single day yet.

Out of all the assistants going around I think we have made the right choice. Personally I would have rather seen an established coach ie. Malthouse or Lyon, but that would be in an ideal world. As i've said at this stage I'm fairly happy.

+1

If true, I reckon we've done as well as we could without landing a big fish senior coach. We wanted Malthouse, we wanted Clarkson, and we wanted Lyon (but I definitely wouldn't have wanted him for the Freo $$$$), we didn't get them but I have no doubt we have got the next best thing. We have got seemingly the best credentialed untried coach and most sought after, and we have got a senior assistant with great experience in fitness and applying it to AFL.

I can see our assistant coaching structures getting a major reshuffle by the time pre-season comes around. IMO it looks like we should be very happy with these appointments, and I look forward to certain players having a clean slate to kick start their careers again.

Well at least most of the posters seem pretty up beat about this guy so hopefully the threads will be positive next season....seems strange timing given the filth have a few matches to go, I guess hes not senior coach though, so probably wouldnt effect that much....

he won't do anything for the membership and I reckon we're going down the same track as Bailey, not happy about it. I mean Mark Neeld? who the bloody hell is he, he played about 60 games of Footy and is totally untried, I really thought they would get someone with experience but no they go down the same old track, get ready for thrashings next year and us being hounded by the dweebs from other clubs and the media, very frickin' sick of it, seriously thinking about my membership.

Ridiculous post. Smacks of unintelligence. Because you haven't heard of him he's not worth it?

Have just registered to say - what a completely underwhelming appointment. Not happy at all. Our boys need a hard-arse to put the fear of god into them, not a another whiteboard tactical genius.

Won't work.

Thanks for wasting our time and yours mate... you just enlightened us all with your inside knowledge of Mark Neelds Persona.... wish i could of told Gary Lyon in time

Geez get a grip

He has the Hard edge from all reports, and also has a game plan to match along with the reported senior assitant coming on board also we should be very well placed

Im actually looking forward to the start of the 2012 season now,

Neeld Craig has a nice ring to it!?

Thanks for wasting our time and yours mate... you just enlightened us all with your inside knowledge of Mark Neelds Persona.... wish i could of told Gary Lyon in time

Geez get a grip

He has the Hard edge from all reports, and also has a game plan to match along with the reported senior assitant coming on board also we should be very well placed

Yeah righto mate he's Norm Smith and Yabby Jeans incarnate. Get a grip yourself. We've been down this path before. Didn't work then, won't work now. I'm livid and expect a lot of other Melbourne supporters will be too.

Yeah righto mate he's Norm Smith and Yabby Jeans incarnate. Get a grip yourself. We've been down this path before. Didn't work then, won't work now. I'm livid and expect a lot of other Melbourne supporters will be too.

My point being dont think your special for joining up and being a pessimist flee we have alot of them already, try adding to the topic for starters....

If you have seen this before stop watching,

This IS NOT a replay for pasts gone by this is now

Yeah righto mate he's Norm Smith and Yabby Jeans incarnate. Get a grip yourself. We've been down this path before. Didn't work then, won't work now. I'm livid and expect a lot of other Melbourne supporters will be too.

You will be back...A lot of Magpie supporters really rate this guy...i mean really rate him.

we have done well here, while 3 other teams continue the search.

Posted on Bigfooty by a Collingwood supporter,

An insight into one M Neeld

Hey guys, congratulations on the appointment, you've got an absolute gem in M. Neeld, don't worry about that. I don't know if you're interested but I copied some excerpts from Peter Ryan's book, Side by Side, where he narrated his observations from spending every day of the 2009 season in the inner sanctum at Collingwood. That year, Neeld was responsible for the defensive group. I found a few passages about Neeld and put them here for you to look at.

This first one is a general introduction of Neeld and his philosophies:

Quote:

(Neeld) suspects Collingwood noticed that teams he coached played with a heavy emphasis on defence. So the club asked him in for a chat.

He is mild mannered but there is a tough streak running through him. In 2003 when coaching Ocean Grove in his fourth consecutive Grand Final, he kept the opposition, the undefeated Geelong Amateurs out on the ground after half time waiting for his mob to run out. Torrential rain bucketed down but he kept the team locked away…..It worked. Ocean Grove went on to win the flag, it’s fourth in succession under Neeld.

Perhaps it’s the mix of teaching and larrikinism that gives Neeld a presence in front of the group. Every time he stands to speak, he keeps his message concise, making the point, explaining why an action is necessary and then provides an example.

The opportunity Malthouse has presented him to coach one of the pre-season games is wonderful, but Neeld is not surprised. He’s come to expect the gradual allocation of responsibility from the coach. “It’s interesting,” he says “I think I can coach in my own right, but my role of assistant coach is just that. My job at Collingwood is to make Mick Malthouse as good a coach as possible from a defensive perspective.”

After a pre-season mishap with a player showing poor discipline/awareness:

Quote:

Neeld is furious as he enters the assistant coaches’ room. During the season’s first scratch match held that morning, a player has aggressively crashed into a teammate, risking serious injury to himself and the other player in the marking contest. Everyone knows who is the more valuable player of the two and Neeld is not happy.

“It’s bloody stupidity.”

This comes from the box on the night Neeld was given control of the team for the first pre-season match against West Coast.

Quote:

Neeld has switched on. He is loud and assertive….His personality, normally friendly and polite, has changed in an instant. He fires questions at his workmates on the bench and in the box. He has so much information to process as he seeks to give Collingwood an advantage or deny the opposition one.

The chatter is constant, and seemingly random but Neeld is making sense of it all. The idea is not so much understanding the matchups as forcing a mismatch, reinforcing hard and fast rules, and knowing that the players are following the teams structures.

Neeld yells to Walsh on the bench to make the change: “Walshy, for ****s sake, lets be smart. Davis is on the kid Swift, get him to full-forward and tell Jack to get out of his road. He can play high.”

(later)

Neeld booms: “Walshy, get to Cooky. Relentless, disciplined footy, efficient tackles only we need.” The sentence has a touch of Yoda speak about it, but it is perfectly understood at ground level.

....A high kick goes forward, leaving the smaller Davis in a two-on-one situation. "Not high to 'Maj'," Neeld thinks out loud.

Davis spoils, grabs the ball off the ground, swivels and kicks the goal. "Oh 'Maj', outstanding," says Neeld as the only roar for the night goes up in the box. A pat on the back is sent to Davis...

Eventually the siren goes…..The phone rings, Neeld answers. He knows it’s the coach.

“Yeah Mick,” he says

“Congratulations, good job, well done,” says Malthouse.

“Thanks mate.”

During a meeting of the defensive group in the chapter entitled "The back six":

Quote:

Neeld watched on. He enjoyed the fact the group was hard on each other. Creating such a dynamic was not an overnight process. In his second year in the job, Neeld had identified each players role.

Establishing the team within a team had taken time. Neeld’s first task was to ensure the basic principles – such as limiting the oppositions one-on-one contests – were understood…His second job was for each player to take each opposition goal to heart. It didn’t matter whether it was a forwards fault, or a midfielders lapse that had…led to a goal, the back six’s mindset was to refuse to let scores happen.

“Find a way” was a favourite of Neelds, defining the defender’s only ally when all looked lost.

This meant at times, being nasty, whacking the forward as you ran beside him, always making body contact, staying goal-side, being desperate, playing, literally, as though your life depended on it. Most of all, it meant helping your mates when they needed it….

Neeld ran the meetings like an expert facilitator, throwing in an observation when required, or backing a speakers view if it was needed, or softening a hard-edged opinion when warranted.

During the semi-final against Adelaide at the MCG:

Quote:

Collingwood was charging and the box was like a fizzed-up glass of lemonade. The atmosphere however was annoying Neeld and he felt compelled to take charge.

“Boys, don’t barrack, c’mon,” he said….

Neeld would calmly tell Malthouse changes that were occurring on the field, and suggested others to take place……

(later)

Neeld is calmly asking Malthouse whether he is comfortable with the match-ups in the back half, then telling Gavin Brown to remind the defenders not to let anything over the back.

And after the same match:

Quote:

Neeld immediately poured some reality into the room. “We finished in the top 4 so making the preliminary final is where we should be. If we hadn’t, it would have been a ****ing disaster,” he said. His tone, as always, is very measured. He is congratulating the players, but ensuring they do not get carried away with the circumstances of victory.

There were some tactical matters to recognise before Neeld moved onto the positives. The players in front of him had found a way to stay on the ground when they had nothing left….Neeld saved his best for Maxwell. “Somehow you found a way to make a centre clearance when there were 29 people around you.”

That year (2009), Maxwell, Heath Shaw, and O'Brien finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively in the Best and Fairest voting. I was there that night and noticed how much credit each of those three players gave to Neeld in their speeches for inspiring their career best performances that year.

He's had a really good grounding at the Pies, and perhaps the best endorsement is hearing people at the club regularly comment on how in sync he is with Mick Malthouse, that their coaching philosophies are so incredibly similar.

You will be back...A lot of Magpie supporters really rate this guy...i mean really rate him.

we have done well here, while 3 other teams continue the search.

Dont forget Craig if it happens to be that way,

He will bring good things with him!

Thanks for posting that. Good read.

I'm sure it will be lost on those here wringing their frustration on their lack of understanding.

Garry Lyon on MMM Yesterday Here

Anyone who is critical of this appointment can JOG ON.

The only people that know what's best for the club have made this decision.

Looking forward and doing so with a very positive outlook.

Once again JOG ON!!!

That is pretty much how I feel. Would like to see a Neil Craig type appointed to a Senior Assistant type of role also.

nooooooooooo

Anyone who is critical of this appointment can JOG ON.

The only people that know what's best for the club have made this decision.

Looking forward and doing so with a very positive outlook.

Once again JOG ON!!!

Garry Lyon was a significant part of Baileys appointment,he got that wrong.Of course he admitted he got it wrong and said he would never be on a selection panel again.O.K ,then Jim Stynes asks for his help and lyon comments it is hard to knock back a mate who is so ill. Fair enough.

Lyon then takes command,typical Lyon and his processes ,comes back with a similar applicant to the one just failed us.What if Neeld (who) is not a key link in Malthouses successes,maybe Bailey(who) was not a key link in Williams success at Port.

Melbourne did not get the best man available,he is at Freo.We needed a self acknowledged [censored] to get our man.Malthouse,Matthews,Sheedy,Clarkson have a mongrel in them Garry does not.Garry likes to be liked.

You can bet MFC used terms like due diligence etc ,but that is crap.We needed someone in there to scrap for us.

Last time Lyon and his cohorts interviewed Sheedy with a knowledge they were never to hire him.Big mistake.Disrespect.They kicked sand in his face.Sheedy would have struggled to see how a man who struggled to get a game for essendon would out point him in a coaching gig.

We hired amateurs,who ticked off a guy who a few years laterr came armed with artillery.Sheedse grabbed james Mcdonald in the knowledge most Melbourne supporters were still stinging from his messy departure.Then he set his sights on scully.Sheedy is a strange, egotistical, maniacal man.Where there is smoke there is fire.

I cannot believe nothing changed,we were promised something big from our great ex captain from the start of this process,if Mick Malthouse ,Lethal or someone of that ilk is not part of the department,he has let us down.Ross Lyon is a massive miss.Garry uses terms like dereliction of duty ,well he is in it.

If i hear Neil Craigs name again ill dead set rip my two memberships.Are you kidding,this bloke is as soft as butter.

Posted on Bigfooty by a Collingwood supporter,

An insight into one M Neeld

Hey guys, congratulations on the appointment, you've got an absolute gem in M. Neeld, don't worry about that. I don't know if you're interested but I copied some excerpts from Peter Ryan's book, Side by Side, where he narrated his observations from spending every day of the 2009 season in the inner sanctum at Collingwood. That year, Neeld was responsible for the defensive group. I found a few passages about Neeld and put them here for you to look at.

This first one is a general introduction of Neeld and his philosophies:

Quote:

(Neeld) suspects Collingwood noticed that teams he coached played with a heavy emphasis on defence. So the club asked him in for a chat.

He is mild mannered but there is a tough streak running through him. In 2003 when coaching Ocean Grove in his fourth consecutive Grand Final, he kept the opposition, the undefeated Geelong Amateurs out on the ground after half time waiting for his mob to run out. Torrential rain bucketed down but he kept the team locked away…..It worked. Ocean Grove went on to win the flag, it’s fourth in succession under Neeld.

Perhaps it’s the mix of teaching and larrikinism that gives Neeld a presence in front of the group. Every time he stands to speak, he keeps his message concise, making the point, explaining why an action is necessary and then provides an example.

The opportunity Malthouse has presented him to coach one of the pre-season games is wonderful, but Neeld is not surprised. He’s come to expect the gradual allocation of responsibility from the coach. “It’s interesting,” he says “I think I can coach in my own right, but my role of assistant coach is just that. My job at Collingwood is to make Mick Malthouse as good a coach as possible from a defensive perspective.”

After a pre-season mishap with a player showing poor discipline/awareness:

Quote:

Neeld is furious as he enters the assistant coaches’ room. During the season’s first scratch match held that morning, a player has aggressively crashed into a teammate, risking serious injury to himself and the other player in the marking contest. Everyone knows who is the more valuable player of the two and Neeld is not happy.

“It’s bloody stupidity.”

This comes from the box on the night Neeld was given control of the team for the first pre-season match against West Coast.

Quote:

Neeld has switched on. He is loud and assertive….His personality, normally friendly and polite, has changed in an instant. He fires questions at his workmates on the bench and in the box. He has so much information to process as he seeks to give Collingwood an advantage or deny the opposition one.

The chatter is constant, and seemingly random but Neeld is making sense of it all. The idea is not so much understanding the matchups as forcing a mismatch, reinforcing hard and fast rules, and knowing that the players are following the teams structures.

Neeld yells to Walsh on the bench to make the change: “Walshy, for ****s sake, lets be smart. Davis is on the kid Swift, get him to full-forward and tell Jack to get out of his road. He can play high.”

(later)

Neeld booms: “Walshy, get to Cooky. Relentless, disciplined footy, efficient tackles only we need.” The sentence has a touch of Yoda speak about it, but it is perfectly understood at ground level.

....A high kick goes forward, leaving the smaller Davis in a two-on-one situation. "Not high to 'Maj'," Neeld thinks out loud.

Davis spoils, grabs the ball off the ground, swivels and kicks the goal. "Oh 'Maj', outstanding," says Neeld as the only roar for the night goes up in the box. A pat on the back is sent to Davis...

Eventually the siren goes…..The phone rings, Neeld answers. He knows it’s the coach.

“Yeah Mick,” he says

“Congratulations, good job, well done,” says Malthouse.

“Thanks mate.”

During a meeting of the defensive group in the chapter entitled "The back six":

Quote:

Neeld watched on. He enjoyed the fact the group was hard on each other. Creating such a dynamic was not an overnight process. In his second year in the job, Neeld had identified each players role.

Establishing the team within a team had taken time. Neeld’s first task was to ensure the basic principles – such as limiting the oppositions one-on-one contests – were understood…His second job was for each player to take each opposition goal to heart. It didn’t matter whether it was a forwards fault, or a midfielders lapse that had…led to a goal, the back six’s mindset was to refuse to let scores happen.

“Find a way” was a favourite of Neelds, defining the defender’s only ally when all looked lost.

This meant at times, being nasty, whacking the forward as you ran beside him, always making body contact, staying goal-side, being desperate, playing, literally, as though your life depended on it. Most of all, it meant helping your mates when they needed it….

Neeld ran the meetings like an expert facilitator, throwing in an observation when required, or backing a speakers view if it was needed, or softening a hard-edged opinion when warranted.

During the semi-final against Adelaide at the MCG:

Quote:

Collingwood was charging and the box was like a fizzed-up glass of lemonade. The atmosphere however was annoying Neeld and he felt compelled to take charge.

“Boys, don’t barrack, c’mon,” he said….

Neeld would calmly tell Malthouse changes that were occurring on the field, and suggested others to take place……

(later)

Neeld is calmly asking Malthouse whether he is comfortable with the match-ups in the back half, then telling Gavin Brown to remind the defenders not to let anything over the back.

And after the same match:

Quote:

Neeld immediately poured some reality into the room. “We finished in the top 4 so making the preliminary final is where we should be. If we hadn’t, it would have been a ****ing disaster,” he said. His tone, as always, is very measured. He is congratulating the players, but ensuring they do not get carried away with the circumstances of victory.

There were some tactical matters to recognise before Neeld moved onto the positives. The players in front of him had found a way to stay on the ground when they had nothing left….Neeld saved his best for Maxwell. “Somehow you found a way to make a centre clearance when there were 29 people around you.”

That year (2009), Maxwell, Heath Shaw, and O'Brien finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively in the Best and Fairest voting. I was there that night and noticed how much credit each of those three players gave to Neeld in their speeches for inspiring their career best performances that year.

He's had a really good grounding at the Pies, and perhaps the best endorsement is hearing people at the club regularly comment on how in sync he is with Mick Malthouse, that their coaching philosophies are so incredibly similar.

No surprises here.Nothing substantial just what you would expect from an assistant coach under Malthouse.People under rate Malthouse,Collingwood play for him.

Very happy with Neeld. We need Neil Craig though as a mentor - those who don't see that can't spell - weird, but true.

We needed a self acknowledged [censored] to get our man.

In that case it's a pity you didn't put your hand up for the job.

Last time Lyon and his cohorts interviewed Sheedy with a knowledge they were never to hire him.Big mistake.Disrespect.They kicked sand in his face.Sheedy would have struggled to see how a man who struggled to get a game for essendon would out point him in a coaching gig..

Wow, clearly you must've been right in the inner sanctum when we were selecting our last coach. Otherwise, how would you they "kicked sand in the face" of Sheedy? Sheedy went for a job and presented for it, Bailey presented better. Does choosing someone over him constitute insulting him?

I will probably be the odd one out here, but I'm backing in the last selection panels decision on Bailey. You can only choose the best person based on what is presented to you, Bailey promised a period of development, where he'd play kids and play for draft picks, he has done that. I always questioned whether he'd have to ability to get us to the next level, but I felt at that time the concern was secondary to what we required.

So was their appointment of Bailey wrong? IMO it was not.

Was their sacking of Bailey wrong? Hell no, he'd taken the list as far as he could.

Am I glad we didn't get Sheedy in the beginning? You damn right I am, he is nothing more than a promotional coach at GWS, make no mistake the real brains at the Giants is Choko.

Him and sanderson were my 2. Other than MM. Stoked.

According to Caro in today's age, the Neil Craig partnership is a no go.

http://m.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/neeld-to-coach-demons-20110916-1ke3i.html

Don't forget to mention that Garry Lyon was on the panel that selected Dean Bailey because he did a good powerpoint presentation.

Ouch.

I think Garry's gained a lot of experience since then. My chin is up.

According to Caro in today's age, the Neil Craig partnership is a no go.

http://m.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/neeld-to-coach-demons-20110916-1ke3i.html

Shattered if that's the case.

Need to make sure we surround Neeld with the best assistants available, preferably some people with senior coaching experience.

If Craig isn't coming to the club hopefully we look at a Laidley instead.

Garry lyon was a significant part of Baileys appointment,he got that wrong.Of course he admitted he got it wrong and said he would never be on a selection panel again.O.K ,then Jim Stynes asks for his help and lyon comments it is hard to knock back a mate who is so ill.Fair enough.

Lyon then takes command,typical Lyon and his processes ,comes back with a similar applicant to the one just failed us.What if Neeld (who)is not a key link in Malthouses successes,maybe Bailey(who) was not a key link in Williams success at Port.

Melbourne did not get the best man available,he is at Freo.We needed a self acknowledged [censored] to get our man.Malthouse,Matthews,Sheedy,Clarkson have a mongrel in them Garry does not.Garry likes to be liked.

You can bet MFC used terms like due diligence etc ,but that is crap.We needed someone in there to scrap for us.

Last time Lyon and his cohorts interviewed Sheedy with a knowledge they were never to hire him.Big mistake.Disrespect.They kicked sand in his face.Sheedy would have struggled to see how a man who struggled to get a game for essendon would out point him in a coaching gig.

We hired amateurs,who ticked off a guy who a few years laterr came armed with artillery.Sheedse grabbed james Mcdonald in the knowledge most Melbourne supporters were still stinging from his messy departure.Then he set his sights on scully.Sheedy is a strange, egotistical, maniacal man.Where there is smoke there is fire.

I cannot believe nothing changed,we were promised something big from our great ex captain from the start of this process,if Mick Malthouse ,Lethal or someone of that ilk is not part of the department,he has let us down.Ross Lyon is a massive miss.Garry uses terms like dereliction of duty ,well he is in it.

If i hear Neil Craigs name again ill dead set rip my two memberships.Are you kidding,this bloke is as soft as butter.

Many things wrong with this post. Disrespected Sheedy? The guy, frankly, is nuts. He had an interview and was unsuccessful. So what? The Jimmy Mac thing is Sheedy trying to wind us up

Ok like last time we have essentially an untried coach but MM was not available (I for one did not want him - where's the hunger?) and Lyon evidently was not interested in our list, or preferred Freo's. Clarkson woulda been great but that was not possible.

The Age today says we went off Lyon about Tuesday, and focussed on Neeld. What do we know about him - not much except this, he has been the first mentioned all year of the next generation coaches. Every time these conversations came up Neeld was mentioned. He has Malthouses' endorsement if that counts. I was keen on Burns and they seem to be equally well regarded. The things that are being said about Neeld, I can remember Melbourne saying about Clarkson when he went to Hawthorn.