Craig says that it is the people that make the big difference?

Hmmm, I wonder how we can maximises our chances of getting the best of them...

A proper recruitment process I presume?

One involving psyche and EI testing?

Never said I Was against the notion - only the notion that a fantastic head coach cannot be hired without it. And, yes, I know that wasn't your argument, it was others' touchstone on all things anti-Schwab. Not really keen to rehash it.

the funny thing (well not too funny) re facilities is that we were a better team when we trained with the possums at Junction Oval

go figger

Possum Poo!

do you think it's too late to return to Junction Oval?

Not unless the MCC give the oval to Us!

Then we could develop the site for a specialty footy complex. with social facility as well.

As it was the mcc had us over the proverbial barrel & chucked us off whenever they deemed fit.

Was glad Craig called BS on Lloyd, he's been an excellent recruitment.

Othe agrue that it is due to lack of "Development"

Handy excuse IMO

You cannot make chocolates out of boiled lollies.

You expect the experts to know the difference.

No marchmellows. No more mollycoddled bliss bombs.

Only the real Chocolates, & all day suckers.

Well said Neil. Thanks for the straight answer.

Lloyd better sharpen his media skills.

IMO Craigs response wasn't to Lloyd, but to the wider footy community, to put paid to false & misleading statements that others outside the MFC, like prospective players may need to hear the truth of our resources.

Well done Smurf...

Where have all the Lloyd sympathisers gone?

Where have all the Lloyd sympathisers gone?

gosh, there are some?

Reputation from whom? Dland?? And I cant think of a an AFL journalist that has not been rightly critical of apsects of MFC's operations. And Lloyds article is not inconsistent with other evidence out there in regard the resourcing of MFC

Why are you so desperate to believe someone like Lloyd? He has consistently made comments in the past that were obviously not true and he hates Melbourne. i'd prefer to believe Neil Craig thank you very much.

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/7415/newsid/148411/default.aspx

Seriously, why do some people even barrack for Melbourne, they're so desperate to believe anything negative written in the media

Don't fall for that gormless diver ever again - that would indeed be bizarre.

It's truly bewildering that anyone would believe a word that that fool would say about our club.

A proper recruitment process I presume?

One involving psyche and EI testing?

Never said I Was against the notion - only the notion that a fantastic head coach cannot be hired without it. And, yes, I know that wasn't your argument, it was others' touchstone on all things anti-Schwab. Not really keen to rehash it.

Don't know about the EI - too much made of it wiht too little actual research support IMO.

I think a proper focus is the start of it and a process that involves appropriate measures is part of that.

Craig makes sense and I truly hope we can (continue to) improve our human capital year in year out.

Having said that I don't think what Lloyd said is too far removed from our need to improve in this regard. He didn't specifically mention GPS units he mentioned having enough funds to monitor all players. "Monitor" is a broad term here, it isn't just about strapping GPS units on, as Craig said we need more personnel to analyse all the data - surely that falls under the monitoring umbrella.

Lloyd can be a goose but I don't think he is out of line here.

Craig makes sense and I truly hope we can (continue to) improve our human capital year in year out.

Having said that I don't think what Lloyd said is too far removed from our need to improve in this regard. He didn't specifically mention GPS units he mentioned having enough funds to monitor all players. "Monitor" is a broad term here, it isn't just about strapping GPS units on, as Craig said we need more personnel to analyse all the data - surely that falls under the monitoring umbrella.

Lloyd can be a goose but I don't think he is out of line here.

What he said was that the club couldn't afford enough gps units for all the players, which is clearly not the case. It was a poorly written article based on rumours and second hand information, at best. A real journalist would have contacted the club before going to print but that clearly did not happen.

Shame on anyone here for believing that goose

What he said was that the club couldn't afford enough gps units for all the players, which is clearly not the case.

Show me the quote.

Maybe we could bypass the spending on extra facilities and just call on Tim Watson to come and tell our players to collectively pull their finger out.

It worked for Jobe with the help of two people. Greg Williams and a fitness guru.

edit: Good to see Craig respond with Burgan. He says we need people in specialised coaching/support positions if we had the extra money.

Sheedy has always mentioned that in his time at Essendon. People...

Show me the quote.

Spending all of my time at Essendon, I thought it was standard practice that every player was monitored throughout every session with GPS data to get 100 per cent accuracy on workload and fatigue. This, obviously, costs money but I was shocked to hear that in 2012 only some players at the Dogs and Demons can be monitored each session as they don't have the funds to monitor all players.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/the-offfield-battle-rages-20120922-26e24.html#ixzz27R8ETdWc

The suggestion from Lloyd is that we don't have enough money to monitor all the player which is clearly bollocks, Craig put that to rest.

Spending all of my time at Essendon, I thought it was standard practice that every player was monitored throughout every session with GPS data to get 100 per cent accuracy on workload and fatigue. This, obviously, costs money but I was shocked to hear that in 2012 only some players at the Dogs and Demons can be monitored each session as they don't have the funds to monitor all players.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/the-offfield-battle-rages-20120922-26e24.html#ixzz27R8ETdWc

The suggestion from Lloyd is that we don't have enough money to monitor all the player which is clearly bollocks, Craig put that to rest.

Just as I thought nothing about GPS units which was your original claim.

We are under resourced (if you can't analyse all the data then you can't monitor all the players in the most meaningful sense of the word) Craig verified that - he also said that once our funds improve he hopes to address this so there is a clear monetary link. I think we all need to deal with it (like the club hopefully will) and move on.

Just as I thought nothing about GPS units which was your original claim.

We are under resourced (if you can't analyse all the data then you can't monitor all the players in the most meaningful sense of the word) Craig verified that - he also said that once our funds improve he hopes to address this so there is a clear monetary link. I think we all need to deal with it (like the club hopefully will) and move on.

FCS. The intimation from Lloyd was that we don't have enough units, as evidenced by Neil Craig also inferring the same: "we’re not sitting here as a club wishing for more in the area of GPS units."

Lloyd wrote a bad article with ONE piece of circumstantial evidence open to subjective interpretation concerning our lack our resources and it was refuted by Craig.

Craig then 'flipped the script' and changed the subject onto personnel being more important than facilities when facilities are homogenous across all clubs.

At which point I nodded my head with Craig and shook my head at the idea that I gave a crap what Lloyd thought.

FCS. The intimation from Lloyd was that we don't have enough units, as evidenced by Neil Craig also inferring the same: "we’re not sitting here as a club wishing for more in the area of GPS units."

The intimation is that not all of our players WEAR gps units. Affordability of the units themselves IMO makes up no part of his point. Our players have obviously passed this on and LLoyd (knowing more about the industry) would realise we are perhaps prioritisng which players we are collating data on based on where they're at and our resources. People are getting caught up over a non-issue, even if we didn't have enough units for every player it wouldn't be due to funds and I doubt Lloyd would be that naive to suggest otherwise, it is the ancillary costs here (FCS).

The intimation is that not all of our players WEAR gps units. Affordability of the units themselves IMO makes up no part of his point. Our players have obviously passed this on and LLoyd (knowing more about the industry) would realise we are perhaps prioritisng which players we are collating data on based on where they're at and our resources. People are getting caught up over a non-issue, even if we didn't have enough units for every player it wouldn't be due to funds and I doubt Lloyd would be that naive to suggest otherwise, it is the ancillary costs here (FCS).

Well Neil Craig was be as naive as I am.

Well Neil Craig was be as naive as I am.

He's free to address any possible misconceptions he thinks may exist as a result of Lloyd's comments or address any possible questions put to him in light of Lloyd's comments. Furthermore his emphasis on the human capital side was quite apt and he may not have made it if not for Lloyd's article.

People are getting caught up over a non-issue.

If it's a non issue, then Lloyd is the one that raised it, and perhaps needs to find some actual issues to report upon. If it is a non issue Neil Craig would not have thought it worth responding to if he didnt think that Lloyd was taking a potshot at our sports science facilities and resourcing.

Neil's comments which also should not be misconstrued that we are underspending on staff, it's more that he is suggesting that rather spending money on 'gear' which we adequately resouced for, that he would recommend that spending is better utilised for bringing in additional specialist staff into the club.

He's free to address any possible misconceptions he thinks may exist as a result of Lloyd's comments or address any possible questions put to him in light of Lloyd's comments. Furthermore his emphasis on the human capital side was quite apt and he may not have made it if not for Lloyd's article.

So Lloyd shoudl get credit for points made by someone incorrectly inferring what was meant in his article?

Lloyd is truly a magical show pony.

Oh, won't he come and save us from Royal and be our midfield coach?

He can say something and then Craig can make a brillant point to the boys on what he thinks.

But Craig would never had said it if it wasn't for Lloyd...

It's all there in Lloyd's new book:

'Brillant things others have said misinterpreting things I have said'

Mark Stevens - "It's a must read. Would have liked more stats though."

Mark Robinson - "I couldn't put it down. No, seriously, I had some chocolate when I was reading it and now it is stuck to me!"

Gerard Whateley - "No-one has made a book so tangential and misdirected. The brillance is in not what he says - it's in what others say after they think they know what he means."

Ok, I may have gone all out on this one.

1858: To say that the implication of Llyod's article was that we didn't do enough analysis rather than we didn't have enough GPS units is the sort of desperate spin you'd expect from a politician trying to defend a blooper he made in a speech.

Also bear in mind that while players are likely to know if they aren't wearing a GPS, they are very unlikely to know how much analysis is going on. So either way it looks like Llyod based his remarks on thin air.

If it's a non issue, then Lloyd is the one that raised it, and perhaps needs to find some actual issues to report upon. If it is a non issue Neil Craig would not have thought it worth responding to if he didnt think that Lloyd was taking a potshot at our sports science facilities and resourcing.

The notion that Lloyd may or may not be making a trivial statement about our ability to afford GPS units is (really) a non-issue. I don't think he was, some posters think he was, the world goes on...

Again, if we can't analyse/process all the data then we may be rationalising we don't need to collect all of it on every player at this point in time. Obviously our players have said something directly to Lloyd about how they train, most probably quite harmless. Our infrastructure is the issue here but many are getting too caught up with what Lloyd (didn't say) and using that as a defence mechanism to addressing the greater issue and castig his article off.

The substance of Lloyd's article is that there is a gap between the haves and have nots and he used first hand feedback to illustrate that we have a monitoring "discrepancy" compared to other clubs. It could be reasonably assumed that he is making a more robust point than simply saying that we can't afford GPS units.

Unfortunately image is important and Neil Craig is right to come out and defend the brand of the club. He also clarified the situation in saying that we need more resources in the monitoring and analysing of player performance - as a supporter I commend this type of transparency. We're making in-roads all the time and know where we have to improve.

Neil's comments which also should not be misconstrued that we are underspending on staff, it's more that he is suggesting that rather spending money on 'gear' which we adequately resouced for, that he would recommend that spending is better utilised for bringing in additional specialist staff into the club.

I agree. We need additional staff so that we have more than one person analysing the GPS performance data of our list. Relative to other clubs we are probably deficient in this area. Whether we are underspending in this area or not is semantics - we aren't spending in this area but hopefully we will improve. However, as a result of not spending in this area our hands are tied and IMO Lloyd is simply commenting on the symptoms of that.