In the previous three weeks I have spent a significant amount of time trying to analyze why The Geelong Football Club is so professional in all parts of the game. Remember; three premierships and appearing in four in the previous seven years (*Counting the St Kilda v Collingwood finals in 2010 as 1 premiership). If you identify Geelong and really analyze what they have done to get where they are is simply astounding. They have a senior squad of players mixed with those who are inexperienced in games. Selwood, Bartel, Enright, Johnson are consistently leaders the team in experience and important to their team. Mix a large handful of young talented kids, 1 cup of each of the following ingredients: Mitch Duncan(28), Harry Taylor(17), Alan Christensen (40), Motlop (39), Taylor Hunt (49), Billie Smedts (15), George Horlin-Smith (37). The result; a team mixed with leaders and young men bought up in a culture of competing, putting yourself on the line, taking risks and competing for you spot should be thought of as a positive motivation. Granted, the public consider Geelongs recruiting to be perfectly executed. The irony is that besides those kids listed above few other picks have performed. They are a 'great' club because they have a embracing culture built around 'winning'.

It has bought some hope to me regarding The Melbourne Football Club. The result depends on the patience we have as supporters. It makes sense for Melbourne to be competitive, its a must! The plan of action for the club needs to be 'winning'. Fighting with the attention of getting your hands on the ball, accepting risks and imperatively, ignoring the scoreboard. Build the culture from the ground up. The scoreboard should remain irrelevant for the following three years. No longer are you measured on your statistics but on your competitiveness, analyzed by tackles, who enters the pack first and stoppages. During these years you create a group of born leaders; Viney, Hogan, Tompass, Trengove, Grimes, Jones, Howe, Frawley.

Once the team gets a regular feeling of being able to compete week to week and believing in themselves the next importance should be placed on recruiting. Of somewhat less importance is the draft picks. We know Sydney and Geelong have done well in the draft and have not required to bottom out. Recruitment structures need to be adapted to the likes of Collingwood, Geelong, Hawthorn and Sydney.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel, but its miles away. We need to patient.

Personally, I do not want to hear the word re-build and the MFC in the same sentence EVER.

  On 04/05/2013 at 12:47, Mongrel Dee said:

Personally, I do not want to hear the word re-build and the MFC in the same sentence EVER.

But its worth it for the success the geelong players feel yes? Can you imagine the geelong players wearing the Melbourne jumpers. I did, the joy, oh jesus the joy!

  On 04/05/2013 at 12:42, Richmont said:

In the previous three weeks I have spent a significant amount of time trying to analyze why The Geelong Football Club is so professional in all parts of the game. Remember; three premierships and appearing in four in the previous seven years (*Counting the St Kilda v Collingwood finals in 2010 as 1 premiership). If you identify Geelong and really analyze what they have done to get where they are is simply astounding. They have a senior squad of players mixed with those who are inexperienced in games. Selwood, Bartel, Enright, Johnson are consistently leaders the team in experience and important to their team. Mix a large handful of young talented kids, 1 cup of each of the following ingredients: Mitch Duncan(28), Harry Taylor(17), Alan Christensen (40), Motlop (39), Taylor Hunt (49), Billie Smedts (15), George Horlin-Smith (37). The result; a team mixed with leaders and young men bought up in a culture of competing, putting yourself on the line, taking risks and competing for you spot should be thought of as a positive motivation. Granted, the public consider Geelongs recruiting to be perfectly executed. The irony is that besides those kids listed above few other picks have performed. They are a 'great' club because they have a embracing culture built around 'winning'.

It has bought some hope to me regarding The Melbourne Football Club. The result depends on the patience we have as supporters. It makes sense for Melbourne to be competitive, its a must! The plan of action for the club needs to be 'winning'. Fighting with the attention of getting your hands on the ball, accepting risks and imperatively, ignoring the scoreboard. Build the culture from the ground up. The scoreboard should remain irrelevant for the following three years. No longer are you measured on your statistics but on your competitiveness, analyzed by tackles, who enters the pack first and stoppages. During these years you create a group of born leaders; Viney, Hogan, Tompass, Trengove, Grimes, Jones, Howe, Frawley.

Once the team gets a regular feeling of being able to compete week to week and believing in themselves the next importance should be placed on recruiting. Of somewhat less importance is the draft picks. We know Sydney and Geelong have done well in the draft and have not required to bottom out. Recruitment structures need to be adapted to the likes of Collingwood, Geelong, Hawthorn and Sydney.

There is some light at the end of the tunnel, but its miles away. We need to patient.

You don't create born leaders they are born.

Geelong started the process from the top down; Frank Costa had a vision, he went and got the best CEO in the land Brian Cook and they rebuilt the club.

Their recruiting has been excellent but they've also had a bit of a kick along with father son picks in Scarlett, Ablett and Hawkins, not a bad free kick.

We can be as patient as many here would like but until we get the right people running the club we will not be rebuilding any culture and we are not going anywhere. The next 6 months is the most important for this club in living memory, we have a chance of clearing the decks and building for the future or of existing off past glories and dying a long slow death.

  On 04/05/2013 at 12:59, rjay said:

You don't create born leaders they are born.

Geelong started the process from the top down; Frank Costa had a vision, he went and got the best CEO in the land Brian Cook and they rebuilt the club.

Their recruiting has been excellent but they've also had a bit of a kick along with father son picks in Scarlett, Ablett and Hawkins, not a bad free kick.

We can be as patient as many here would like but until we get the right people running the club we will not be rebuilding any culture and we are not going anywhere. The next 6 months is the most important for this club in living memory, we have a chance of clearing the decks and building for the future or of existing off past glories and dying a long slow death.

Yep..the next 6 months are urgent like never before. Just bury the word rebuild, it has a stench about it.

We all have to accept where we are coming from and where we are, it's going to take time and we won't rise overnight, there will be more pain

we have a core good enough to build a strong side around and plenty of talent, we are improving our fitness and just starting to see some signs of culture coming in with Caseys strong performance, and players having to dominate games to earn a call up where as they may have previously been gifted games

the last place you ever see the results is on the field, so it's as simple as ignoring the negative people around bagging our club constantly, accept we are a working progress and for god sake enjoy what positives we are getting, Max gawn has been fantastic, Luke tapscott looks a totally different player, michael evans, dean terlich, matt jones, nathan jones and jack grimes wearing their hearts on their sleeve every game.

you add hogan to that, viney and toumpas get a few games under their belt, trengove gets a full pre season in and has a breakout year and things will turn.

You know what? We've had since 2006 to rebuild, seven years later, you should not be starting a 'rebuild of a rebuild' or whatever Neeld calls it. That's beside the point though, we are where we are, unfortunately.

This club needs leadership from the senior players, we have enough talent to be better than a side with a percentage of 57 after 5 weeks.

It all starts with the example that our experienced guys set, get some confidence into the young blokes, and it'll start to turn around.

Simple as that, football is not a science, but it sure as hell is mental.

  On 04/05/2013 at 13:23, Demonfan26 said:

We all have to accept where we are coming from and where we are, it's going to take time and we won't rise overnight, there will be more pain

we have a core good enough to build a strong side around and plenty of talent, we are improving our fitness and just starting to see some signs of culture coming in with Caseys strong performance, and players having to dominate games to earn a call up where as they may have previously been gifted games

the last place you ever see the results is on the field, so it's as simple as ignoring the negative people around bagging our club constantly, accept we are a working progress and for god sake enjoy what positives we are getting, Max gawn has been fantastic, Luke tapscott looks a totally different player, michael evans, dean terlich, matt jones, nathan jones and jack grimes wearing their hearts on their sleeve every game.

you add hogan to that, viney and toumpas get a few games under their belt, trengove gets a full pre season in and has a breakout year and things will turn.

Your positive vibes are worthy buddy however, can we all bin the rebuild mantra and start winning games? The real world says MFC supporters have had enough.

  On 04/05/2013 at 13:27, Soidee said:

Your positive vibes are worthy buddy however, can we all bin the rebuild mantra and start winning games? The real world says MFC supporters have had enough.

I'm sure i am as frustrated as everyone else about where we are at, but i am not going to ignore what is obvious and expect more, aside from recruiting a couple of absolute star mids we are just going to have to give this group the time it needs.

sacking the coach won't destroy the progress in fitness and such that has been made, but to me it makes no sense to sack Neeld unless we have an experienced coach committed.

  On 04/05/2013 at 13:27, Soidee said:

Your positive vibes are worthy buddy however, can we all bin the rebuild mantra and start winning games? The real world says MFC supporters have had enough.

You have to rebuild to win games.

Rebuilding takes time. Otherwise you get into our current situation...

Bailey, rebuilding from Daniher, axed 2 years later because of short-term performance

Neeld, rebuilding from Bailey,... see where this is going?

In a constant state of axing, hiring, rebuilding and then having supporters complaining about how we have to rebuild, want to axe the current coach and hire a new coach who will have to rebuild, and want short-term wins only to be complains about this again in 2 years

Honestly laughable

In the past few years I will admit to barracking for us to lose so we get draft picks.

I thought it was the end of that this year, but now I find myself wanting us to lose so we can get rid of Neeld, he is pathetic.

I know it's selfish, but this guy has no idea, that is the only thing I am sold on about this club, that Neeld is the worst coach I've seen coach this side.

Peter Jackson, if you are listening, for the love of God, get someone down from Sydney or Geelong to fix this rabble up.

Assistants coaches under Roos and Thompson continue to prosper.

The clock is ticking until the end of the season when it will become apparent how many of our top 22 want to leave the club. If there are 3 or 4, or more, we will move into an end-game scenario. we are being crushed by a competition which doesn't want or need 18 teams. the tv rights deal is illusory and won't keep propping up the bottom clubs.. when mfc is sacrificed, other clubs will be discovered lacking in culture, namely footscray, stkilda and a few years after that north melbourne.

  On 04/05/2013 at 14:23, ThreeOneSix said:

In the past few years I will admit to barracking for us to lose so we get draft picks.

I thought it was the end of that this year, but now I find myself wanting us to lose so we can get rid of Neeld, he is pathetic.

I know it's selfish, but this guy has no idea, that is the only thing I am sold on about this club, that Neeld is the worst coach I've seen coach this side.

Peter Jackson, if you are listening, for the love of God, get someone down from Sydney or Geelong to fix this rabble up.

Assistants coaches under Roos and Thompson continue to prosper.

Did you ever see Denis Jones coach us?

Neeld is every bit his equal.

Bailey used to word "rebuild" to try and buy some time and it didn't work. Now Neeld is doing the same thing.

Geelong have an identity. They represent the entire city of Geelong, its suburbs and all its people.

the MFC have no identity and no home.

IMO I believe people are being confused with the term rebuilding phase in Neelds statement, what I believe he means is that the football department has been overhauled to become relevant in todays game and the one major area they did when he stated we really only had Kelly O'Donnell and I think one other as development coaches now we have assistant coaches each having their own line coaches who I now believe are Casey's assistant coaches so that will be a great help in the development of the second tier players but this will take time but once it all gets up to speed when new players come to the club, support can be more one on one with them instead of a group which will quicken their progress dramatically.

They have taken a club who's method was outdated 20 years ago and has now only scratched the surface, people can say what they want about Neeld and co but we are heading in the right direction IMO and yes it may take a bit more time but at least we are catching up with the leaders of the pack.

The other part of his mantra is culture and to change a culture you have to show them a culture that also takes time, he always talks about roles and understanding your role, train at an elite level all the time not when you feel like it as in the past, prepare like a top athlete, recover like a top athlete etc.

The reason I believe Neeld bought in Rodan, Byrnes etc was to buy some time so they can develop some of the players so they can then step into that role without having the best players playing on them and having extra pressure on them.

So while some supporters want to sack Neeld I believe the club will honour his contract and those supporters who don't like it support the club or not that is your choice.

  On 04/05/2013 at 21:34, hogans_heroes said:

Geelong have an identity. They represent the entire city of Geelong, its suburbs and all its people.

the MFC have no identity and no home.

We have an identity: we are the oldest football club in the game and one of the oldest sporting clubs in the world.

Ironically that was one of the things Cameron Schwab was trying to emphasise by bringing in the blazers and foundation culture values.

Also we have a home: its one of the best stadiums in the world, and we are just generous enough to let other clubs play on it.

We are a young team, so nothing will happen overnight, but our biggest problem is the second something goes wrong we want to sack everyone.

the recruitments of Rodan, Byrnes, Gillies, Pederson do make sense to me, they give us depth on our list, and there one the odd chance one or two would prosper and become a really good player for us, the others basically cost nothing so it was no risk and we got some good depth

Byrnes and dawes could only be having a good influence on our young group though

  On 04/05/2013 at 21:34, hogans_heroes said:

Geelong have an identity. They represent the entire city of Geelong, its suburbs and all its people.

the MFC have no identity and no home.

We have a loose general Identity of Melbourne, but with other clubs here in Melbourne, they have an enriched Identity, more representative of their Flock.

They have the ritual belonging that stems from a real Home base That the supporters can Identify with, & feel Included at.

the footy has become more & more removed from the supporters on the outer. and this is a Large part of why we cannot get a wide based supporter base & it effects the players abilities to produce firebrand footy.

In a sense this could be close to representative of our membership plight >

We have the tip but no Iceberg due to no home base, & an {Exclusiveness} that shuts people out in the Cold.

Those people end up barracking for the Pies & Bombers of this footy world.

We lack the base to build from as a club, & therefore we lack the 'Spirit' that comes with those passionate people who end up elsewhere....

  On 04/05/2013 at 21:37, demon3165 said:

IMO I believe people are being confused with the term rebuilding phase in Neelds statement, what I believe he means is that the football department has been overhauled to become relevant in todays game and the one major area they did when he stated we really only had Kelly O'Donnell and I think one other as development coaches now we have assistant coaches each having their own line coaches who I now believe are Casey's assistant coaches so that will be a great help in the development of the second tier players but this will take time but once it all gets up to speed when new players come to the club, support can be more one on one with them instead of a group which will quicken their progress dramatically.

They have taken a club who's method was outdated 20 years ago and has now only scratched the surface, people can say what they want about Neeld and co but we are heading in the right direction IMO and yes it may take a bit more time but at least we are catching up with the leaders of the pack.

The other part of his mantra is culture and to change a culture you have to show them a culture that also takes time, he always talks about roles and understanding your role, train at an elite level all the time not when you feel like it as in the past, prepare like a top athlete, recover like a top athlete etc.

The reason I believe Neeld bought in Rodan, Byrnes etc was to buy some time so they can develop some of the players so they can then step into that role without having the best players playing on them and having extra pressure on them.

So while some supporters want to sack Neeld I believe the club will honour his contract and those supporters who don't like it support the club or not that is your choice.

Could not agree more with Demon3165.

Neeld has made some really good decisions, and you can already see him trying to impact on the culture. Last year he started by dropping big name players if they weren't performing.He recruited depth players over the off-season to create more competition for spots as well as enabling younger players to develop at Casey and not have to play them before they are ready...in retrospect he maybe should have kept Toumpas back instead of playing him straight away.

The other aspect that has changed is the Craig role with the leadership team. Neil Craig spends a lot of time developing our leadership group, with leadership being a lamentable weakness in the last few years at the club along with its midfield. It will take time to see the changes and Neeld, or any other coach for that matter, was never going to be able to turn the club fortunes around overnight.

I do think that at least one Football Department head should roll at the end of the year. To develop our midfield into premiership contender MFC must remove Choco as midfield coach. I think a ready replacement would be the very highly rated Nathan Bassett, coach of the much improved Norwood team in the SANFL. The players don't seem to have the same connection and buy in with Choco as they do with the other head line coaches in Brown and Rawlings. Choco's contract expires at the end of the year. It surprises me that with the midfield performing so badly that people are calling for Neeld's head instead of Choco's... Nathan Bassett could almost be selected as a senior coach at the end of the year, if he isn't I would love for him to work at MFC in some capacity. - I also wouldn't mind Kevin Sheedy coming to the club, he has so much experience and has shown with the Giants development that he is still an invaluable asset to whichever club he is at.

I think the real improvement going into next season can come in the off-season if we are able to pick up some midfield players from other clubs, state leagues as well as draft picks. All this talk about the Port Power transformation should stop being seen as a magical transformation from nothing to their midfielders playing to their potential and not under performing. Everyone can see that we have the weakest midfield in the competition and I think if we can add Nathan Bassett as midfield coach (or someone of his ability) as well as make some key midfield pickups...then we could have a similar turn around seen by Port Adelaide this year.

  On 05/05/2013 at 02:29, dee-luded said:

We have a loose general Identity of Melbourne, but with other clubs here in Melbourne, they have an enriched Identity, more representative of their Flock.

They have the ritual belonging that stems from a real Home base That the supporters can Identify with, & feel Included at.

the footy has become more & more removed from the supporters on the outer. and this is a Large part of why we cannot get a wide based supporter base & it effects the players abilities to produce firebrand footy.

In a sense this could be close to representative of our membership plight >

We have the tip but no Iceberg due to no home base, & an {Exclusiveness} that shuts people out in the Cold.

Those people end up barracking for the Pies & Bombers of this footy world.

We lack the base to build from as a club, & therefore we lack the 'Spirit' that comes with those passionate people who end up elsewhere....

Maslow's dee-luded's Hierarchy of Needs

Alot of people have been upset about our moving on of Brent Moloney, Sydney are currently running all over Brisbane at nearly quarter time, Brent moloney their senior midfielder has had 1 touch.

we need players who stand up under that pressure to be our senior players.

  On 05/05/2013 at 03:31, Demonfan26 said:

Alot of people have been upset about our moving on of Brent Moloney, Sydney are currently running all over Brisbane at nearly quarter time, Brent moloney their senior midfielder has had 1 touch.

we need players who stand up under that pressure to be our senior players.

Not to mention he was O'Keefe tagging in the 1st quarter who got 10 possies and a goal.

  On 05/05/2013 at 03:48, PJ_12345 said:

Not to mention he was O'Keefe tagging in the 1st quarter who got 10 possies and a goal.

You can't have a bloke leading a team who goes missing at the first sign of decent opposition, Had a flutter on keiran jack for the brownlow at 21 dollars, feeling pretty good about that just now

  On 05/05/2013 at 02:29, dee-luded said:

We have a loose general Identity of Melbourne, but with other clubs here in Melbourne, they have an enriched Identity, more representative of their Flock.

They have the ritual belonging that stems from a real Home base That the supporters can Identify with, & feel Included at.

the footy has become more & more removed from the supporters on the outer. and this is a Large part of why we cannot get a wide based supporter base & it effects the players abilities to produce firebrand footy.

In a sense this could be close to representative of our membership plight >

We have the tip but no Iceberg due to no home base, & an {Exclusiveness} that shuts people out in the Cold.

Those people end up barracking for the Pies & Bombers of this footy world.

We lack the base to build from as a club, & therefore we lack the 'Spirit' that comes with those passionate people who end up elsewhere....

I never picked you as a fan of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Maybe I was right in assigning 'White Rabbit' as your theme song.