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

I like this down to/including point 6 - then I think peripherals intrude into the central issue, which surely is "the wreck". Journalists no doubt are irritated by stuff, and McLean's lack of awareness got the petrol onto what was only smouldering, but his being on the show and being pumped for this story was either a conspiracy or it was journalists with the sniff of something that hasn't gone away. I incline to the latter scenario.

Important to note that no-one is suggesting that we are still tanking, or that we were the only ones who ever did; the tanking story in itself is stale news, and already ruled on by the AFL. In my view the real story that is being fished for is not really about tanking per se - I'd suggest it's about the power structures and processes that led the club to be tanking, as outlined in your points 2-6, and how that stuff affected (and perhaps is still affecting) the players, and the club's performance. Why the MFC cannot improve with all the picks it's had is a real story to be unearthed.

MFC's continuing wreck has to mean something isn't right. There has to be a "sufficient reason". Neeld being less than a lovely or tactful person won't do (he has excellent credentials and references, and in any case look at the personalities of successful coaches - Clarkson, for starters, and Norm Smith, etc etc), and it's not just "the cattle" (remember what Roos said about basically this group when we ripped Sydney up two years ago). Yet your very real and presumably very destructive points 2-6 have still not been dealt with, so we believe, and the on-going wreck surely tells us something destructive is continuing the wrecking. To get to the bottom of the wreck, surely these points need to be explored. Well, how is a journalist to get at it?

Just doing their job, and without any specific malice towards MFC, journalists who could see loose ends and elephant droppings all over the club would be bound to go after what is surely a big story. McLean is just dumb enough to open the can, and it looked to me like that was the intention in the interview. The AFL weighing in is collateral damage, the erratic red herring. God only knows who they'll target, if anyone - but the big story is still there to unfold. Bring it on, I say.

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.

Kudos to you Nutbean. Once bitten, twice shy eh?

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 ?

I haven't even heard what he's said, but I always hated that smug, horse-headed P.Rick.

http://www.sen.com.au/audioplayer/Audio/Paul-Gardner/5415

Kudos to you Nutbean. Once bitten, twice shy eh?

I neither confirm nor deny.

This clip's for you, Old55. Hopefully it'll jolt you out of your slumber.

Can't say I didn't try!

Reminds me of words that lead to 'We are the problem'. Cartoon character Pogo's words: "I have seen the enemy, and he is us."

But will the AFL see it ?

Of course it was set up by the bloody panel.

But I don't believe Brock is smart enough to have purposely knived the club.

He's just a bloke desperate for a post-footy media career, with not too much between the ears.

They led him down the garden path, and he saw something he could talk about and be seen as a purveyor of insight, and leapt on it like a [censored] in heat.

He thinks he's being quite noble with his "honesty", and I'm sure the media horde would agree with him.

They'll probably pat him on the back, buy him a few beers, and ask him if he'd like to talk some more.

That idiot Brian Taylor called for MFC to be kicked out of the competition - a million monkeys and a million typewriters - that idea would save me a lot of grief.

lol...on the back of this? When did he say this?

Everyone knows BT is a goose but that is new territory even for him.

Of course it was set up by the bloody panel.

But I don't believe Brock is smart enough to have purposely knived the club.

He's just a bloke desperate for a post-footy media career, with not too much between the ears.

They led him down the garden path, and he saw something he could talk about and be seen as a purveyor of insight, and leapt on it like a [censored] in heat.

He thinks he's being quite noble with his "honesty", and I'm sure the media horde would agree with him.

They'll probably pat him on the back, buy him a few beers, and ask him if he'd like to talk some more.

His mates in the underworld wouldn't call it being noble.

I agree the set up looked smelly. Too quick on to it and too quickly did BM pick it up.

Today I am more concerned with Paul Gardiner. What a donkey.

John Meeson and Paul Johnson have both commented reasonably without showing signs of relevance deprivation.

But Gardiner?

As ordinary as his admin was, it at least did what it could to keep the place running. But his comments this morning are a disgrace.

The only thing saving us is that four other clubs, including some very BIG ones, are also in the frame (exhibit a: the Hun this am)

His mates in the underworld wouldn't call it being noble.

I'd like to know what his mates in the underworld call it....

lol...on the back of this? When did he say this?

Everyone knows BT is a goose but that is new territory even for him.

Tuesday night 3AW about 6.15.

I listened to the SEN Gardiner interview and he clearly accused the players of tanking

He didn't talk of coaches 'tricks' but talked of the way the players played

this is a very DIFFERENT accusation and he should be pulled up on it

He basically implied the players (under instruction or not) deliberately played poorly

Why has no-one picked up this

I listened to the SEN Gardiner interview and he clearly accused the players of tanking

He didn't talk of coaches 'tricks' but talked of the way the players played

this is a very DIFFERENT accusation and he should be pulled up on it

He basically implied the players (under instruction or not) deliberately played poorly

Why has no-one picked up this

I did, but I didn't bother mentioning it because I assumed everyone knew Gardner is an idiot that knows sweet FA about football. Highlighted by his time spent with us.

I'd like to know what his mates in the underworld call it....

I think the term is "dogging".

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.

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

I think that if any conspiracy exists, it has been initiated by people who support Neeld and want to get the old administration out of the club. Everyone knows that the AFL will never admit that tanking exists, because of the inevitable blowback that would occur.

I put it to you that a number of players who were agitating for Schwab's dismissal a couple of years ago (Jared Rivers I know was one of them), have orchestrated a penalty-free way of throwing shite at those administrators who were (and perhaps still are) interfering with on-field matters.

This cohort of dissatisfied MFC loyalists have used On the Couch as a decidedly public forum to attack the existing members of the administration, in an attempt to once and for all eradicate the last vestiges of the amateur culture that has pervaded this club for nigh on fifty years.

I'm willing to bet that the AFL will not impose any sanctions, that Neeld will not be fired, and that the current CEO and President will both be sacked.

We will finish either second last or third last, and pick up a number of hard-working, mature, disciplined players. We will overturn our list and board, and finally remove every soft, amateur mind from the bowels of our great club.

Neeld will remain; the Melbourne Football Club will grow strong, and everyone else can just eat _shit_ and die.

^^^^

I hope you're right mate.

This clip's for you, Old55. Hopefully it'll jolt you out of your slumber.

Can't say I didn't try!

Look I'll pass on Range Rover's Life Coaching thanks all the same

what disturbs me is that Gerard Healy played for Melbourne and isnt Mike Sheahan a Melbourne supporter?

what disturbs me is that Gerard Healy played for Melbourne and isnt Mike Sheahan a Melbourne supporter?

they are both melbourne unsupporters

what disturbs me is that Gerard Healy played for Melbourne and isnt Mike Sheahan a Melbourne supporter?

If their real target is something rotten that needs to come out, maybe their motives are not as bad as it appears. i think any footy-lover would have to be concerned about MFC's lack of success and its collective inability to find or apparently even look for the elephants.

what disturbs me is that Gerard Healy played for Melbourne and isnt Mike Sheahan a Melbourne supporter?

Gerard's brother Greg is on our board - it's hard to believe he wishes us ill.

Gerard's brother Greg is on our board - it's hard to believe he wishes us ill.

Have not heard a word from him old55 since he joined in February.

Would have loved to have overheard the phone call yesterday morning.

If their real target is something rotten that needs to come out, maybe their motives are not as bad as it appears. i think any footy-lover would have to be concerned about MFC's lack of success and its collective inability to find or apparently even look for the elephants.

WTF?

They are pathetic narcissistic media whores only interested in their inflated egos and pay cheques.

Don't even think of giving them credibility, FFS.