Like all things in life a good list will have balance.

You can't have all tough inside players, you need some silk on the outside. You can't just have tall forwards, you needs crumbers too. So to say Neeld would only just get the tough players is wrong, I feel he had addressed areas where we needed a better mix.

  On 15/12/2011 at 04:12, hardtack said:

Knowing what we now know, yes... but at the time, he was not a mistake but was the obvious choice. Imagine the outcry if we hadn't taken him in that draft.

I went to the 'G the night CC introduced $cully & Trenners to the members in the room. It was a mistake from day 1. He never embraced our club, which is his right to do. But i just wish we had looked at his character closer before that dreaded number had been called out. If we had of drafted Martin instead the rioting voices would have calmed down real quick. Sadly our feral nieghbours got the bargain.

http://www.bigpondsport.com/its-all-over-for-fevola/tabid/91/newsid/81632/default.aspx

Look at the Second last dot point. Interesting comment from the reporter. It will be interesting the years which these two will have...

  On 15/12/2011 at 04:29, why you little said:

I went to the 'G the night CC introduced $cully & Trenners to the members in the room. It was a mistake from day 1. He never embraced our club, which is his right to do. But i just wish we had looked at his character closer before that dreaded number had been called out. If we had of drafted Martin instead the rioting voices would have calmed down real quick. Sadly our feral nieghbours got the bargain.

I'm sure they would have looked as closely as possible as well as met him and discussed the possibility of his being drafted, with him. What more could they do FCS? At the time, they made what was considered the right decision and we were all pretty excited about his being drafted. You seem to be basing your "mistake" assertion on an opinion you formed AFTER the drafting - the wonderful thing with hindsight is that it's always 20/20.

  On 15/12/2011 at 04:45, hardtack said:

I'm sure they would have looked as closely as possible as well as met him and discussed the possibility of his being drafted, with him. What more could they do FCS? At the time, they made what was considered the right decision and we were all pretty excited about his being drafted. You seem to be basing your "mistake" assertion on an opinion you formed AFTER the drafting - the wonderful thing with hindsight is that it's always 20/20.

Not at all. $cully was always an ice man, nobody wanted to believe it but it was always there. All i am saying is, after i saw him that night at the function i knew he was to aloof. His presser was the same. The club made a mistake, it aint the end of the world. If we get shafted a second time in similiar fashion then i will get mad.

  On 15/12/2011 at 04:02, why you little said:

$cully was a mistake, whichever way you look at it. These things happen, but let's not hide from a fact. Tom never wanted to be an MFC player, he wanted to play AFL Football to the highest bidder.

  On 15/12/2011 at 04:29, why you little said:

I went to the 'G the night CC introduced $cully & Trenners to the members in the room. It was a mistake from day 1. He never embraced our club, which is his right to do. But i just wish we had looked at his character closer before that dreaded number had been called out. If we had of drafted Martin instead the rioting voices would have calmed down real quick. Sadly our feral nieghbours got the bargain.

Here we go again, wyl...

Hindsight is the opiate of the masses.

Each new coaching group will trade and recruit different types of players. had we picked Martin and Trengove at 1 and 2 we'd be paying one of them too much to play for us or watching one in grey and orange. With the new clubs coming in and Sheedy's desire to derail the competition we were always going to struggle to keep all our players. Martin is know Richmond's highest paid player. Will that end up hurting them? Only time will tell. As a club we are ideally situated to whether the approaching storm of free trade. We have a balanced list and are front loading contracts. This year we had an emphasis on hard bodied players, which was an area we lacked in. By doing so we give the likes of Blease, Bennell, Gysberts, Cook, Jurrah,Morton and Fitzpatrick time to develop their bodies. Personally I think our list is in good shape and if Viney's half the player reported and we can snare some class with our compo picks we'll be up to our necks in this comp in the next few years.

  On 15/12/2011 at 04:54, rpfc said:

Here we go again, wyl...

Hindsight is the opiate of the masses.

hindsight also shows up mistakes, so they are not repeated. The signs were always there. We all just hoped we could turn him around.

Maybe he was shy not aloof

  On 15/12/2011 at 05:14, Bossdog said:

Maybe he was shy not aloof

You can think that if it makes you feel better, but i don't buy it.

Like Roost said the list is in good shape. One clanger in 4 years is ok.

Didn't he say "I'm excited to go to melbourne as my first club"?? Says it all really

  On 15/12/2011 at 04:54, rpfc said:

Here we go again, wyl...

Hindsight is the opiate of the masses.

I thought opiates were the opiates for the masses,

  On 15/12/2011 at 05:24, jnrmac said:

Didn't he say "I'm excited to go to melbourne as my first club"?? Says it all really

That it does.

Putting the sequence of events together;

If we had recruited hard-bodied role-players since 2007, we wouldn't have 2 compensation picks to use in the 2012 superdraft...

Damn that's a lot of variables to play with along the way. You'll isolate a Higgs Boson in your underpants before you figure out what might have been with Neeld (or the apparent 'Neeld recruiting priorities') in charge these last few years.

But, at least we get to see what the club does with the 'do-over' next year.

  On 15/12/2011 at 05:24, jnrmac said:

Didn't he say "I'm excited to go to melbourne as my first club"?? Says it all really

I believe it was something along the lines of "The MFC is a great club to start my career at..."

  On 14/12/2011 at 12:45, why you little said:

Gysberts still worries me a bit.

May i ask why? Surely not because he's off the pace with his running/fitness, in his first full pre-season, in December? The Gys is a real talent who plays the game in a way the defies his build.

  On 15/12/2011 at 07:45, Doggo said:

I believe it was something along the lines of "The MFC is a great club to start my career at..."

May i ask why? Surely not because he's off the pace with his running/fitness, in his first full pre-season, in December? The Gys is a real talent who plays the game in a way the defies his build.

Well then 2012 will be a good year. But up to now i still haven't seen enough. Bit like Frank Grimes. Potential and great player are 2 different things. The Gys could do it. But i think some of the people round here over rate him so far.

  On 15/12/2011 at 04:57, Roost It said:

Each new coaching group will trade and recruit different types of players. had we picked Martin and Trengove at 1 and 2 we'd be paying one of them too much to play for us or watching one in grey and orange. With the new clubs coming in and Sheedy's desire to derail the competition we were always going to struggle to keep all our players. Martin is know Richmond's highest paid player. Will that end up hurting them? Only time will tell. As a club we are ideally situated to whether the approaching storm of free trade. We have a balanced list and are front loading contracts. This year we had an emphasis on hard bodied players, which was an area we lacked in. By doing so we give the likes of Blease, Bennell, Gysberts, Cook, Jurrah,Morton and Fitzpatrick time to develop their bodies. Personally I think our list is in good shape and if Viney's half the player reported and we can snare some class with our compo picks we'll be up to our necks in this comp in the next few years.

I agree with you Roost It. I only started this thread to initiate a discussion about the change in our list strategy - I know it's all hypothetical and, in every respect, it is what it is.

The thing I find interesting is the clarity of vision that Neeld (and his new assistants) appear to have brought regarding the gaps in our list and the desire to plug them as quickly as possible.

Given Prendergast's comments on Dee TV, it would seem that we would've recruited very different players this off season, but he received clear instructions from Neeld to bring in hard bodies.

Prendergast suggested his team pretty well had to do an about face to accommodate the new coach's instructions and plan, which he said wasn't easy.

Despite an ordinary season, I cannot recall a more exciting post season in all the time I've supported this club.

When Bailey joined MFC, the list was a train wreck where there was a complete re build which was always going to take a significant number of years. MFC focussed on collecting talent through early draft picks, trading surplus players and careful rookie recruiting. The focus was on getting best available at the time because the list had so many openings. Given what MFC have been through and the evolution of the list to date, its not a surprise that Neelds is seeking to plugs. Given the immaturity of the list and the questionable future contribution of the senior players it was reasonable to expect Neeld to seek more mature players.

However if Neeld had taken over the train wreck in 2007, there is no doubt he would have had to engineer a similar rebuild to what MFC have done to date.

  On 15/12/2011 at 23:06, Rhino Richards said:

When Bailey joined MFC, the list was a train wreck where there was a complete re build which was always going to take a significant number of years. MFC focussed on collecting talent through early draft picks, trading surplus players and careful rookie recruiting. The focus was on getting best available at the time because the list had so many openings. Given what MFC have been through and the evolution of the list to date, its not a surprise that Neelds is seeking to plugs. Given the immaturity of the list and the questionable future contribution of the senior players it was reasonable to expect Neeld to seek more mature players.

However if Neeld had taken over the train wreck in 2007, there is no doubt he would have had to engineer a similar rebuild to what MFC have done to date.

Neeld strikes me as the type of guy who wouldnt have wanted the job in 2007. If he was into starting from scratch he would have picked the Dogs or Saints?

  On 16/12/2011 at 09:01, DemonWA said:

Neeld strikes me as the type of guy who wouldnt have wanted the job in 2007. If he was into starting from scratch he would have picked the Dogs or Saints?

yes. Mark Neeld is ready to coach a Football team NOW. That's what makes it so exciting.

  On 15/12/2011 at 05:13, why you little said:

hindsight also shows up mistakes, so they are not repeated. The signs were always there. We all just hoped we could turn him around.

I thought the consensus was that Scully was deserving of pick 1 (or 2).

  On 16/12/2011 at 15:00, Rogue said:

I thought the consensus was that Scully was deserving of pick 1 (or 2).

Great advice that turned out to be hey. But then he was a god liar.

  On 15/12/2011 at 04:02, why you little said:

$cully was a mistake, whichever way you look at it. These things happen, but let's not hide from a fact. Tom never wanted to be an MFC player, he wanted to play AFL Football to the highest bidder.

As so many have said -- hindsight is just a wonderful thing.

I can't be bothered trawling through all the post draft posts when $cully was recruited, but maybe you can, and can find and repost your response stating that is was so obviously wrong to pick up the lying, deceitful, di$loyal, mercenary, de$stabilizing, undermining, $cumbag as number 1 ??

  On 16/12/2011 at 18:33, why you little said:

Great advice that turned out to be hey. But then he was a god liar.

Always good for a laugh, the way you re-write history WYL.

No self-awareness whatsoever.

  On 17/12/2011 at 01:23, Lutz said:

Always good for a laugh, the way you re-write history WYL.

No self-awareness whatsoever.

Care to elaborate?? What's the big deal, nobody can handle the fact the club made a mistake. Watch the March 5 press conference, then watch it again. The answers are all there.

I do not blame anyone, but it DID happen. Learn from it and never let it happen again.