The key to what we've done is to provide experienced support and leadership to the cluster of talented kids coming through the club so they develop to their full potential.

If we can get an across the board improvement of 10 - 15% this year from

1. Clark (a full year uninjured),
   
2. Dawes (back to his 2010 form),
   
3. Jones (continued improvement),
   
4. Grimes (2nd year captain and his first full season),
   
5. Trengove (2nd year captain and should get is body right in 2013),
   
6. Frawley (back to 2010 form, settled backline),
   
7. Tom McDonald (another preseason of work to build his strength more)
   
8. Blease ( realised in 2012 that hard work = success, is a convert),
   
9. Watts (maturing well and able now to build on his frame and compete with men all over the ground),
   
10. Howe (knows he could be a star if he works),
    
11. Tapscott (had to trim down in 2012 and develope more strings to his bow, should be capable and confident all over the ground)
    
12. Garland (played out of position in LATE 2012 has capacity now to play front or back)
    
13. McKenzie (with Dawes and Clark to target should add more offensive disposals to his defensive style game),
    
14. Viney (bang, knows whats required, hungry as, like to see him play forward pocket when not in middle),
    
15. Strauss ( confidence player for whom injuries have stymied his momentum, if uninjured has line breaking capacity),
    
16. Taggert, Tynan, Gawn, and pick 4, (Should all be pushing hard to play AFL games and if they are they'll have improved by more than 15%)
    

If these 19 young men improve we'll be well on the way to climbing the ladder.

Good trading period and it would seem we have the players and processes in place now to improve.

To me I just don't get it. People can justify the gysberts decision because he played 1 game and got 9 possessions. The kid had something to work with. Is blease all of a sudden better because he wasn't playing at Casey but was getting the same sort of low possession counts?

We just threw out our one player who can play second ruck in Martin ( who does it now ? Pederson ? Give me a break. Fitzpatrick? Spare me). We gave up gysberts for a bloke who played one decent year of afl and is now mid twenties.

Sure we had to do something but I'm afraid I don't share the excitement in this thread. Time will tell but I know in 2012 we had the slowest weakest midfield in the afl. We have done little to rectify that unless they think viney and pick 4 are the new saviours.

Sure we needed another key forward but our midfield and rucks just got weakened.

Gysberts wasn't getting a game and do you think it would have been easier for him to do so with Wines and Viney in front of him?

Not talking saviours here but certainly PLAYERS OF FOOTBALL that will keep Gysberts at CASEY.

As for Martin - he will only ever be a back-up ruck but he is a terrible forward.

You cannot be a decent back-up ruck if you can't play forward.

The sub rule has meant there is nowhere for rucks to hide except in the forward line. In 2014 I am betting we move to 2 subs and suddenly the importance of the 2nd ruck's ability to play forward is even more pronounced.

Pedersen has been told he will do it - so I guess I can't give you a break. Get your head around it.

He will do fine and will be actually useful around the ground.

The thing with Gys is that if Neeld didn't like the way he went about it then how likely was he to succeed if we kept him? I realise nobody has a crystal ball but Neeld has been emphasising the fundamentals for 12 months now and we don't have the time nor the inclination to keep players who aren't on board or capable of playing in the required manner.

For every player Neeld let's go he will find the required replacement. Gysberts is far from irreplaceable.

Gysberts being a ball magnet is a myth. It's on the back of a couple of early games where he was able to play an outside role and if you watch those games again he butchered the ball - which was OK for his first couple of games.

This year he played 13 completed games for Casey in his third year on an AFL list and averaged 19.7 disposals per game. Hardly a ball magnets effort. And his kicking efficiency was deplorable.

Funny how you say Pedersen "couldn't get a game at North", but overlook Gysberts' solitary game this year for Melbourne.

Want to have a wager on who plays more AFL games next year ? There will be a lot of eggs on faces in 12 months time when people see what Pedersen can do.

are you serious. for 13 matches to average 19.7 disposals is nothing short of brilliant.

The problem we have is in 2 parts

1 Older players who should have provided leadership eg Moloney,Rivers,Mclean,Sylvia etc have all failed as they have left the club retired with Sylvia still not leader.

2 Many early picks have failed eg Morton,Gysberts,Cook,Maric,Bate,Dunn a real disaster!

So as Wallace said as a coach we need some hardness & strong leaders & culture to bring into the group as thus far its not happening.

How many of the players who left would get a game at Swans,Geelong,Coll or Haw? maybe rivers who can hold head up high...

Moloney would be a stop gap??

get a game at Collingwood?

Morton

Gysberts

Martin

Rivers

Moloney

Bate

Dunn

The thing with Gys is that if Neeld didn't like the way he went about it then how likely was he to succeed if we kept him? I realise nobody has a crystal ball but Neeld has been emphasising the fundamentals for 12 months now and we don't have the time nor the inclination to keep players who aren't on board or capable of playing in the required manner.

For every player Neeld let's go he will find the required replacement. Gysberts is far from irreplaceable.

Neeld is extremely weird. He can't look at the camera straight and to date seems to be full of hot air statements. I compare him to a Denis Jones on steroids. The steroids will get him two more years than Jones.

The key to what we've done is to provide experienced support and leadership to the cluster of talented kids coming through the club so they develop to their full potential.

If we can get an across the board improvement of 10 - 15% this year from

1. Clark (a full year uninjured),
   
2. Dawes (back to his 2010 form),
   
3. Jones (continued improvement),
   
4. Grimes (2nd year captain and his first full season),
   
5. Trengove (2nd year captain and should get is body right in 2013),
   
6. Frawley (back to 2010 form, settled backline),
   
7. Tom McDonald (another preseason of work to build his strength more)
   
8. Blease ( realised in 2012 that hard work = success, is a convert),
   
9. Watts (maturing well and able now to build on his frame and compete with men all over the ground),
   
10. Howe (knows he could be a star if he works),
    
11. Tapscott (had to trim down in 2012 and develope more strings to his bow, should be capable and confident all over the ground)
    
12. Garland (played out of position in LATE 2012 has capacity now to play front or back)
    
13. McKenzie (with Dawes and Clark to target should add more offensive disposals to his defensive style game),
    
14. Viney (bang, knows whats required, hungry as, like to see him play forward pocket when not in middle),
    
15. Strauss ( confidence player for whom injuries have stymied his momentum, if uninjured has line breaking capacity),
    
16. Taggert, Tynan, Gawn, and pick 4, (Should all be pushing hard to play AFL games and if they are they'll have improved by more than 15%)
    

If these 19 young men improve we'll be well on the way to climbing the ladder.

Good trading period and it would seem we have the players and processes in place now to improve.

Your a good supporter

are you serious. for 13 matches to average 19.7 disposals is nothing short of brilliant.

To be fair, he probably spent a few of those games gaining match fitness. But for a supposed ball magnet at AFL level, averaging 19 possessions at VFL level is a bit of a concern. If he is as good as advertised, then he should be dominating at VFL level and getting 30+ in most games.

I wish him well at north and hopefully he can prove himself as a bona fide AFL player. I'd just say that the jury is out at this stage.

Neeld is extremely weird. He can't look at the camera straight and to date seems to be full of hot air statements. I compare him to a Denis Jones on steroids. The steroids will get him two more years than Jones.

Takes one to know one, by the looks of it. What a strange post.

To me I just don't get it. People can justify the gysberts decision because he played 1 game and got 9 possessions. The kid had something to work with. Is blease all of a sudden better because he wasn't playing at Casey but was getting the same sort of low possession counts?

No, the penny dropped for Sam and he realised he had to work hard to be a player and not just rely on his natural talent.

Neeld is extremely weird.

Sheedy ... Malthouse ... Mark Williams ... yes, give me one of those weird premiership-winning coaches.

To be fair, he probably spent a few of those games gaining match fitness. But for a supposed ball magnet at AFL level, averaging 19 possessions at VFL level is a bit of a concern. If he is as good as advertised, then he should be dominating at VFL level and getting 30+ in most games.

I wish him well at north and hopefully he can prove himself as a bona fide AFL player. I'd just say that the jury is out at this stage.

thats AFL buddy, not VFL.

He has averaged 19.7 from 13 in AFL

I do think we are heading the right direction.

Imagine in 3 years

Midfield: Viney, Trengove, Jones, Wines, Mckenzie and Maybe Grimes

Forward line: Howe, Dawes, Sylvia, Hogan,Clark and Blease as a M/F

could lead the AFL with that

are you serious. for 13 matches to average 19.7 disposals is nothing short of brilliant.

thats AFL buddy, not VFL.

He has averaged 19.7 from 13 in AFL

Those numbers from BH are VFL stats from this season.

So quit with the passive aggressiveness already.

And he averaged 23 possies in 6 wins in the AFL in 2011 and 17 possies in the 9 losses he played in. Those numbers are good, bad, and indifferent really...

Simple fact is that he would be playing Casey this year and would struggle to ever get in the mix of Viney, Wines, Jones, McKenzie, et al.

Now if Jordan was a spritely young thing with a great kick, a huge motor and some pace things would have been rosy...

What we just did was upsize a team light on for size & structure. When Neeld came to MFC we had only one genuine key position player, Frawley, we then got Clark then Tom Mcdonald came on, we went out and got Dawes, now we have , at last a complete goal to goal line. We've added some bigger tougher bodies in other positions, now we won't get pushed around so easily and will be able to better compete against the better sides.Anyone who doubts this watch MFC v geelong 2010 and see how easily they rag dolled us in the one on one contests. It was obvious then that we had to get much bigger.We have Viney & pick 4 to come. That will be 2 top 10 midfielders in the one draft. How often does that happen? I suspect people may be surprised by how much we can possibly improve next year

Great Post

Agree totally we will improve in 2013

Neeld is extremely weird. He can't look at the camera straight

You do realise that his facial 'contortions' are caused by muscular pressure on his optic nerve in his face from a broken jaw when he was playing?

Mark Neeld tells of the blow that changed his life

Tbh i would only be actually worried and concerned had the likes of Barrett Denham and such given us accolades. Theyve shown over time that this kind know 3/5 of 2/3 of f-all !! They ethuse their version of a populist treatem and ignore the realities around them.

We did what we had to do. Did what has been needed for too long but just as youve no hope of creating lawn after the first slash of overgrown grass neither will we have our perfect or preferred line up in 2013. But its a fair finkum start.

This is totally lost on some. Hardly surprising and hardly worth worrying about.

You do realise that his facial 'contortions' are caused by muscular pressure on his optic nerve in his face from a broken jaw when he was playing?

Mark Neeld tells of the blow that changed his life

Of course he bloody doesn't.

Sometimes I think the guy is a troll, but that'd be giving him too much credit.

I'm generally supportive of our trading/recruiting so far, although it is too early to really judge the outcome. Only one thing roooollly rankles.

Remember when we got pick 11 from Carlton for an apparently clapped out Brock, and used it to draft the Gysmeister? We were so sure that this was the greatest trading win in a decade, or maybe more. And now we have come to admit that we were right royally screwed.

Remember when we got pick 11 from Carlton for an apparently clapped out Brock, and used it to draft the Gysmeister? We were so sure that this was the greatest trading win in a decade, or maybe more. And now we have come to admit that we were right royally screwed.

We did it to ourselves.

We were gifted a free kick in front of goals, and put it out on the full.

Just realised that we downgraded draft picks in the Gysberts Pederson trade, not the other way round. You're kidding!

We wanted Pedersen; we didn't want Gysberts and we got what we could for him - the alternative could have been just to delist him for no pick at all. He was going to go - we got a pick ?rookie upgrade?

I'm generally supportive of our trading/recruiting so far, although it is too early to really judge the outcome. Only one thing roooollly rankles.

Remember when we got pick 11 from Carlton for an apparently clapped out Brock, and used it to draft the Gysmeister? We were so sure that this was the greatest trading win in a decade, or maybe more. And now we have come to admit that we were right royally screwed.

No point crying over spilt milk. And if you want to go that way, how about wait to see how Pederson goes until you write the report card for this time-line of trades (Mclean - Gysberts - Pederson)

What we just did was upsize a team light on for size & structure. When Neeld came to MFC we had only one genuine key position player, Frawley, we then got Clark then Tom Mcdonald came on, we went out and got Dawes, now we have , at last a complete goal to goal line. We've added some bigger tougher bodies in other positions, now we won't get pushed around so easily and will be able to better compete against the better sides.Anyone who doubts this watch MFC v geelong 2010 and see how easily they rag dolled us in the one on one contests. It was obvious then that we had to get much bigger.We have Viney & pick 4 to come. That will be 2 top 10 midfielders in the one draft. How often does that happen? I suspect people may be surprised by how much we can possibly improve next year

Great post and cause for genuine optimism going in to 2013.

GO DEMONS!!!!

BRING IT ON.

Christ, this forum gets worse every year. Can people learn to posot only in regards to the bloody thread topic and not wonder off spinning crap.

thats AFL buddy, not VFL.

He has averaged 19.7 from 13 in AFL

Re-read Ben Hur's post. 19 poss from 13 at vfl level this year and thus I stand by my comment. Gys played 1 at afl level this year.