Connolly denies it all - as well he should/needs to:

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/connolly-claims-conspiracy-20130114-2cpwu.html

Not sure if "I don't remember any meetings" counts ...

Good old Jon Pierik...

"But most of nearly 60 witness statements contradict Connolly and recall the meeting at the Junction Oval"

Followed by:

"About a dozen people attended the meeting"

Not getting any closer to getting the footy journalism awards his bio is missing.

Not surprised this has got back to some Bailey bashing. I am not surprised his career with us was a failure. The meddling by incompetents like CC and CS into FD matters is documented fact, aside from Whiteboard Wednesday, tanking, poor player development, recruiting, player revolts etc. All this after the meddlers took over. We will never really know if he would have been a good coach because he had too many banana skins placed in his path. What is telling though is the high regard he is held by players. His success as an assistant at PA. And his good work in assisting Sanderson in helping Adelaide rise like the Phoenix last season. With Neeld so far, his first season really sucked. All I see at this stage of his career is a good flogger of horses but not much of a leader of men.

I'm not a big CS fan either and never bothered with his whiteboard bs, even though I'm a football and MFC tragic something just kept pushing me away from it, never saw any of it.

Don't agree with you about Neeld at all, we didn't have a good season but I'm prepared to wait until his 3rd season to judge whether we got our man. My feeling is we have but lets wait and see on that one, unfortunately it's more than a one year fix.

By the way if Bailey let CS and CC walk all over him he wasn't the man for the job, simple as that.

...and I don't think now is the time to be pushing the anti CS & CC line, as I say I'm not a fan but a lot on here are impressed with how things at the club have turned around at least financially. I will accept that until someone gives me some solid proof to the contrary, not just implying things without posting any evidence to back it up.

Let's get through this and see where things stand then. This is not the time to get even, it only hurts the club.

I cringe at the thought of anyone, including CC making public statements.

Everyone should keep their heads down until the MFC have replied to the evidence... Only we can stuff this up

I cringe at the thought of anyone, including CC making public statements.

Everyone should keep their heads down until the MFC have replied to the evidence... Only we can stuff this up

Looks like most of the quotes are coming from our lawyers so is likely to be a strategy behind it which seems to be discrediting the investigation. But your right I'm not sure I like all our dirty laundry being aired with this now moving into 186 and political conflict at the club.

Who is this legal representative and how accurate are these supposed comments? That's if this 'legal representative' even exists.

Once again it's another vague column from Pieric. It's hard to take these things seriously when there are these constant 'Phantom' people passing on this stuff.

For all we know Pieric could have just made this stuff up. Do we trust this bloke to write things in an accurate way?

Nearly all the quotes attributed to CC in this article have come from this mysterious 'legal representative'. Of course, it's written in a way where the reader could be fooled into thinking that they are direct quotes from Connolly himself.

Edited January 14, 201312 yr by Macca

Suprised at the timing of this release above...it just confuses the issue even further.

That of course could be exactly why it has been released...

Waiting & watching....

I wonder if we could all agree on two things for this thread moving forward

1. We will not move off topic by discussing who appointed what coach when

2. We will adopt the Vlad definition of tanking i.e systematic match fixing over and above accepted list management practices

I expect this to be resolved at 12.05 am at a date decided by the age when they electronically publish the Afl decision in its 47th exclusive on this story:)

Claims he was lined up by certain elements at the MFC. Hopefully, that side of the story will now start coming out ... we await some interesting developments.

Valid Point - While it throws the credibility into doubt of the accusers if you explain the political nastiness that was going on at the time, I really think we would be better served by sticking fast as a club and presenting a united front, even to those that have left the fold.

My guess on this is that it was Green , Rivers , Moloney , Bailey, etc that wanted Connolly out.

These guys are all now working elsewhere-and liked to train their own way.

Connolly and Schwab have cleared the decks of senior players who thought they could call the shots off-field.

Jnr McDonald may have involved himself in politics as well.

I've heard rumours his whole family are down on us for retiring him at 34.

I was at a golf course around that time and a few ex-players were there for a function .

CC spoke and talked about re-uniting old players/members from the 80's to re-build the club off-field then on.

There are always rats within any organisation when things go badly.

I trust the 80's guys like CC over the new breed.

The snipers who have fed Caro and undermined CS and CC must be smoked out ,given a fair hearing, then shot at dawn.

Edited January 14, 201312 yr by Biffen

What knockers ?

And what are they knocking us about ?

Those on here that are giving their qualified support to Neeld but seem to want him to fail so it suits their purpose.

That do?

Reading your posts OD, I fear you have a reason for wanting instant success as Its like you have a diagnosis of dementia. Its either this or you will be in an old ppls home in 2018 and you fear the whiskey will not be on offer and a valium will be administered to curb your over the top behaviour come a Demon premiership.

If I was you, I'd ask family to bring you home for a week (from your aged hostel) and tell them you to feed you your drug of choice for a week. You may forget the win due to your old aged, but you will remember the premiersip for 5 minutes. Better than nothing really

Strange post mate

I will put it down to the time of day

Claims he was lined up by certain elements at the MFC. Hopefully, that side of the story will now start coming out ... we await some interesting developments.

No, for eff's sake.

We don't want more division and turmoil. We want this episode over and consigned to history.

No, for eff's sake.

We don't want more division and turmoil. We want this episode over and consigned to history.

quite often Ted what we want and what we get are very different.

I suspect the infamous year of 2019 is going to haunt the MFC for decades.

Rightly or wrongly the majority of other club supporters I know view the MFC as tankers.

That is going to take some time to go away.

Edited January 14, 201312 yr by old dee

What notable things await in 2019 I wonder lol

quite often Ted what we want and what we get are very different.

I suspect the infamous year of 2019 is going to haunt the MFC for decades.

Rightly or wrongly the majority of other club supporters I know view the MFC as tankers.

That is going to take some time to go away.

So we'll give them more ammunition?

The only way out of this is to bin the infighting and win games.

So we'll give them more ammunition?

The only way out of this is to bin the infighting and win games.

I do not disagree with you TF

I was just stating the the real world.

I have stated a number of times on numerous threads that the only solution is to start winning games.

IMO that is the only way out.

But the stigma rightly or wrongly will stick.

I'm not a big CS fan either and never bothered with his whiteboard bs

So you call it 'bs' on the basis you've 'never bothered with it'?

Thanks for the well-informed contribution to the debate.

Tim in the first place means that, not 3 years down the track but in the first place when he was appointed, was Fan happy with the appointment and in turn the process that lead to the appointment. Can you direct me to where he has given an opinion on that?

No Robbie - I know where it is but I'm not doing your work for you. I'll give you a hint - try looking at how Fan has described both processes to get some sense of his opinion. Then remember what emphasis Fan puts on good process. Then join the dots.

Is it just me or I am alone in not being very happy with the CC's article from this morning ? The disclaimer is that it is a journo writing - not necessarily what CC has said. Taking the article at face value, I would have much rather that if he said something to say, get on the front foot and say - "absolutely i said it, I also said in the same meeting that pigs can fly and Justin Beiber is straight". He has been quoted by many people for his tongue in cheek humour and many have also reported the comments about sackings - why deny it ? What apparently he has done is pot elements in the club for trying to "get him" in this investigation - not a good look. All MFC parties to this investigation should be pushing back against the AFL not finger point inside the club.

Is this a united front against the AFL ? Nope

Just my views on this tanking...

MFC have stated we will take it to the high courts if they try to charge us.

I dont think it will come to that.

Why?

The AFL have been assisting MFC financially until we get back on our feet....

The last few years the Demons have got back on their feet financially and seem to be doing well.

We just wouldnt have had a small profit & all these players come on board if this wasnt the case so i believe we are in a good spot but still need to keep this financial stability up & runnig permanently obviously.

I healthy MFC is an important cog for the AFLs coffers like any other club,when we are up & about the crowds will come & will put bums on seats when you win.

Maybe not in the bigger crowd sense ala essenscum or the Pies but we do have an fair following make no mistake.

So...why would the AFL hammer us back into the ground with a heavy Carlton like fine when we are turning it around financially? We are one of there babys as well as the rest...

It is all about the $$$ with the AFL....period.

Even if found guilty by the AFL we are prepared to take it to court and win there.Do the AFL want to then have this drag even further...I dont think so.

The AFL as documented by many including idiot Grant Thomas created their own monster with tanking & I am no oxford scholar but cannot see this standing up in court based on the tanking & draft picks scenario.

If they try to slam us for this guilty or not, then we will open the door on all the other clubs who have gone down this road of tanking in a more dilligent under the table way than we have...

We know who they are dont we..

I'm sure we will know soon.

I think we may get out of this just yet.

We cant find out soon enough tho can we.

Go Demons!

So you call it 'bs' on the basis you've 'never bothered with it'?

Thanks for the well-informed contribution to the debate.

Don't just take one sentence out of what I said 'Maurie', you are better than that. Although you are probably right that my judgement of it is a bit flawed given that I never bothered to watch it. It always seemed a bit of a toss to me so I didn't waste my time.

My overall point is that whilst I am not a fan of CS or CC, now is not the time to get into that debate. There are some that think it's a good opportunity to take a cheap shot and don't back it up with any evidence.

Is it just me or I am alone in not being very happy with the CC's article from this morning ? The disclaimer is that it is a journo writing - not necessarily what CC has said. Taking the article at face value, I would have much rather that if he said something to say, get on the front foot and say - "absolutely i said it, I also said in the same meeting that pigs can fly and Justin Beiber is straight". He has been quoted by many people for his tongue in cheek humour and many have also reported the comments about sackings - why deny it ? What apparently he has done is pot elements in the club for trying to "get him" in this investigation - not a good look. All MFC parties to this investigation should be pushing back against the AFL not finger point inside the club.

Is this a united front against the AFL ? Nope

I think that all the gallant posters that railed against hazy and america et al for showing dissent should now line up to pot CC for the same thing. He should simply accept the status quo and shut up. It it time for solidarity REGARDLESS of circumstance.

Don't just take one sentence out of what I said 'Maurie', you are better than that. Although you are probably right that my judgement of it is a bit flawed given that I never bothered to watch it. It always seemed a bit of a toss to me so I didn't waste my time.

My overall point is that whilst I am not a fan of CS or CC, now is not the time to get into that debate. There are some that think it's a good opportunity to take a cheap shot and don't back it up with any evidence.

Like... yourself.

With that mind-boggling whiteboard Wednesday quote.

Bizarre

I think that all the gallant posters that railed against hazy and america et al for showing dissent should now line up to pot CC for the same thing. He should simply accept the status quo and shut up. It it time for solidarity REGARDLESS of circumstance.

But the article doesn't state any facts; it makes allegations regarding what CC has allegedly said. If this is proven to be the case, then yes, I'd support your call for CC to fall into line.