Fellow Melbourne supporters, I put it to you that there is nothing 'random' or 'coincidental' about the mysterious surfacing of the 'tanking' issue over the past 24 hours.

Mike Sheahan and Gerard Healy clearly threw Brock McLean a 'Dorothy Dixer' on On The Couch the other night and whether willingly or unwittingly, he took the bait hook, line and sinker. I'd be leaning to the latter given the forthright way he answered the question.

Yes, these men knew what a sh1tstorm such comments would cause and have clearly set about going on the attack against the Melbourne Football Club and specifically, the powerbrokers who run it. The question is ... why?

No proof of course. Just a hunch. But I put it to you that they were put up to it by a disgruntled element within our own playing list, blokes who face the chop at the end of he year or who have had their noses put out of joint by Neeld's iron-fisted methods.

Brock still has a little cabal of "mates at the club". He found a sympathetic ear in Sheahan.

You do the math.

I'm not sure I agree with your assertions re. OTC. However, it is clear that the club is leaking like a sieve from within & without. Look at Carlton, they pulled the same trick & barely anyone has spoken about it, with all their political turmoil the sackings of Sheedy & Knights, nobody leaked.

Either there are a disproportionate amount of loose lips at the MFC or there is a real power struggle at the club. There's not much I like about Johnny Winston Howard but his quote "disunity is death" applies very strongly to the MFC's current plight.

Not so sure about it coming from within the MFC but it was certainly staged, it's the only reason Brock was on the show.

This is more than "a storm in a teacup". That is all i can work out so far.

This issue was always going to reappear. Well here it is.

You're on the money RR. It was clearly a set up. Why else would you bother to interview a basic nonentity such McLean? The question is who is pulling the strings and why? If any enquiry finds MFC guilty then it could have disastrous ramifications.

  On 31/07/2012 at 22:24, Range Rover said:

You do the math.

opportunistic journalists + not very bright footballer = big story

Personally I think asking Brock about leaving MFC was a reasonable question because there's not much else of interest to ask him about and the tension between "the donation " then leaving the club deserves to be explored.

After he blundered into deep water with his response all the dirty laundry just had to come out..

The players and last coach were left carrying the can on Hollywood Boulevard and everyone knows it.

There will be plenty of folk ready for payback, though considering all those people know that various clubs have tanked in various ways over the years perhaps they should have pushed the 'donation' harder than the 'leaving'.

A couple of the usual suspects may be hiding behind what someone on here called the elephant in the room.

As always in sport participants,past and present, carry the can for administrators

  On 31/07/2012 at 22:59, Bitter but optimistic said:

You're on the money RR. It was clearly a set up. Why else would you bother to interview a basic nonentity such McLean? The question is who is pulling the strings and why? If any enquiry finds MFC guilty then it could have disastrous ramifications.

Why BBO? Well, there are some very pi$$ed off people (some at the club, some out of it) who would like to see Melbourne stripped of our draft picks, Cameron Schwab sacked and Neeld's tenure doomed to failure.

That's it in a nutshell.

Putting it simply, it's about bruised egos, revenge and money.

wasn't Sheedy on the program after OTC? also kicking the boots in

But what affect would any possible ramifications have on Neeld??? Has absolutely nothing to do with him.

  On 31/07/2012 at 23:08, DeeJP said:

wasn't Sheedy on the program after OTC? also kicking the boots in

Sorry no

Sheedy was quite 'reasonable' on MFC

He basically said he was checking them out as much as they were interviewing him and decided that he probably didnt want the job anyway .

Protecting his own sense of self worth is hardly sticking the boots in

  On 31/07/2012 at 23:10, Forest Demon said:

But what affect would any possible ramifications have on Neeld??? Has absolutely nothing to do with him.

Take a worst case but not implausible situation. IE. The AFL decides to punish MFC in the same sort of way that Storm was punished by the NRL.

We are stripped of draft picks. Where does that leave the coach of a team that is already p*** poor?

  On 31/07/2012 at 23:10, Forest Demon said:

But what affect would any possible ramifications have on Neeld??? Has absolutely nothing to do with him.

Are you kidding? Stripping our draft picks would stuff him.

What's more, the whole stink of it (even if the AFL don't penalize us) will make luring decent players to the club nigh on impossible.

Don't worry, this thing has been well thought through by the agitators.

"If" it was staged by orks (power brokers lurking in the shadows) surfacing through cracks to dismantle the current regime, any ramifications or penalties incurred and set upon the club (ie removal of draft/compo picks) will have set the club back further than anyone can imagine.

Edit: And they will be asking themselves in due course: "Oh my, what have we done..."

Sometimes the simple explanations are the best guys

1 MFC tanked to get draft concessions

2 The players cracked the shiits about the schemozzle that was the FD

3 CS and CC were meddling, leading to more disharmony

4 The players unwisely tried to be 'players' in the battle as well as onfield

5 The Coach got shafted

6 Jimmys heroism camoflauged but didnt heal the wreck that was MFC admin, but left it untouchable (the elephant in the room)

7 MFC's continued underperformance and Neeld schoolmaster persona has irritated journos looking for headlines.

8 Brock isnt media savvy

9 Dimwits denial of the reality of tanking and his arrogance is red reg to the bull that is AFL journalism

It's ironic that Brock found the tanking so unpalatable and ended up at Carlton.

Also, wtf is Paul Gardner trying to do?

My wife thought that tanking has a really bad effect on the club culture and I greedily disagreed. I rubbed my hands at the prospects of high draft picks and pointed to the other obvious tankers like Carlton, Hawthorn and Collingwood. I now tend to agree with her. Mind you, I think the culture at the club was brittle long before we decided to tank.

It is terribly interesting that NO OTHER CLUB that blatantly tanked has had to deal with the scrutiny that MFC has.

Carlton: Need I say more?

Collingwood: There is no way known that 2005 was a 'fluke'.

Richmond: Hmmmm......

West Coast: 2008/2010, anybody?

Fremantle: Didn't they 'rest' about their entire starting 18 when they had already secured their finals berth when playing against Hawthorn at Aurora?

If MFC get some kind of kick for this, I damn well hope they point the finger at other organisations. However, given the silence from the club of late, I don't hold high hopes.

I would simply love to dismiss this conspiracy theory as nonsense - but I stood resolute on Tommy Voldermort and the view that nothing sinister was happening or happened and got badly burnt. I therefore stand wishy washy, non-commital, on the fence and wait to see what comes to light.

Range Rover, i generally enjoy your topics and agree with your angle on things around the MFC but i think your clutching at straws here mate

  On 31/07/2012 at 23:47, btdemon said:

Also, wtf is Paul Gardner trying to do?

Is there a bigger f/wit going around than Gardner ? Keep your gob shut.

He was also the [censored] that used to say there were bigger things in life than winning games of football. I've always hated the soft touch Melbourne supporters. And to think he was President ?

The bottom line in all this was/is that the MFCas a club is not strong enough to withstand "tanking". The only way we will survive all this is to work bloody hard at winning and being clever.

Rats is a good word to use when a former president weighs in and claims we were tanking.

  On 31/07/2012 at 23:23, Range Rover said:

Are you kidding? Stripping our draft picks would stuff him.

What's more, the whole stink of it (even if the AFL don't penalize us) will make luring decent players to the club nigh on impossible.

Don't worry, this thing has been well thought through by the agitators.

Let me get this straight...so a current player who is going to get the arse is somehow responsible for Brock McLean going on On The Couch and being peppered with questions about us tanking just so Mark Neeld will have a tougher job coaching in the next few years with less draft picks...and I'm the one kidding myself.

I agree there could be some sort of motives at play from people in the media, but to say it is from a rat inside the club to harm Neeld is just ridiculous.

If this has been done to try and bring anyone down, it certainly isn't Neeld...I would be looking a lot higher the MFC food chain to someone who for whatever reason seems to have made some enemies along the way.

  On 31/07/2012 at 23:55, Ben-Hur said:

Is there a bigger f/wit going around than Gardner ? Keep your gob shut.

He was also the [censored] that used to say there were bigger things in life than winning games of football. I've always hated the soft touch Melbourne supporters. And to think he was President ?

Stynes message was often the same tho'.

  On 01/08/2012 at 00:20, My TD said:

Stynes message was often the same tho'.

At least Stynes' was founded.