On 17/05/2013 at 21:27, Clint Bizkit said:

He's frustrating but I would rather keep him than lose him for nothing.

Was just about to post the exact same thing. If we lose Davey and Sylvia that's another million dollars in the cap we have to figure out who to give to. Yes we can use it to lure someone else but the hard part is convincing them to come. Hell if we give 3 year contracts to McKenzie and Jamar, Sylvia should be given 5.

  On 17/05/2013 at 21:42, Dr. Gonzo said:

Was just about to post the exact same thing. If we lose Davey and Sylvia that's another million dollars in the cap we have to figure out who to give to. Yes we can use it to lure someone else but the hard part is convincing them to come. Hell if we give 3 year contracts to McKenzie and Jamar, Sylvia should be given 5.

As you can see, Sylvia features in my eclectic group of favourite players. When he is on fire he is exciting to watch and can fire up others. He does not shirk and brings others along with him. Sure he can be hot and cold but we have few players on our list (Howe is another) who can surprise us with those freakish goals when we need it most. I was also a great fan of Moloney (pre-2012) and he is now showing at Brisbane why we needed a core of guys like him and Rivers to add depth (c.f Gillies & Co.).

  On 17/05/2013 at 10:45, Swampfox said:

I beg to differ

IMO there are 6 - 8 players who's names all start with the letter J that have more natural talent than Sylvia

Jake Spencer? (You cannot be serious!)

  On 17/05/2013 at 10:50, Tall Defence said:

I'm on the record in another thread as saying I reckon we could be back in the finals as early as 2015 if we can keep this group together.

The big question for me is if Neeld can last that long?

Well Tall Defence, if you think we could make finals in 2015, what were your expectations in 2011 when we were a hell of a lot better than we are now.?

And are Rodan, Gillies, Pedersen part of the list to be retained? I see we have given Pedersen a 3 year deal-- for heavens' sake!

What possesses you to think this mob can improve under this disaster, who has butchered the list and replaced players with rubbish?

Spud. Lazy. Will let us down forever.

10th year and what have we got?? Nuthin

  On 17/05/2013 at 14:52, stuie said:

Thought that already happened with Rivers and Moloney, who have both bagged out Neeld since leaving....

Where has Rivers bagged Neeld? Quote or link?

  On 17/05/2013 at 10:45, Swampfox said:

I beg to differ

IMO there are 6 - 8 players who's names all start with the letter J that have more natural talent than Sylvia

that's not the point.

The point is i dont care what you all say Colin has been a good servant to the club, he may not have yet lived up to his potential but currently is enjoying his best patch of form he's ever had to endure. The is abit of disipline about the way he plays now.

Now... Jack Grimes, Jack Watts, Jack Trengove, Jack Viney, Jimmy Toumpas and Jeremy Howe...

maybe all have more natural talent than Big Col... but he would combine better after the J Squad have played more games

He's the kind of guy that will be 32-33 if/when this team is thinking about finals. And he'll play to that age. You need that experience these days. Sign him.

He's 'earnt' the right to go where he wants and I think he will do that.

I would keep him but I don't really GAS, to be honest.

Let him walk Im so over him and his dont give a s&*t attitude

  On 18/05/2013 at 00:08, jackaub said:

Let him walk Im so over him and his dont give a s&*t attitude

Brilliant...that's the spirit

some of you guys are disgusting.

We have next to no experienced players worth a cracker in our team and you're ready to just let him walk.

Some of the crap you guys say about him really makes me wonder why we have such a crappy culture at MFC.. The guy tries hard for Melbourne and i honestly believe he is clicking, finally.

If he isnt around Melbourne will have trully lost a player who has much more give, look at the glass half full.. let him fill the glass in the next 4-6 years.

I say fight tooth and nail for him.

You cannot honestly tell me you'd rather replace Colin with someone like Tom Couch or Magner. That is not something i would be willing to do

  On 18/05/2013 at 00:22, Grimseyisgod said:

some of you guys are disgusting.

We have next to no experienced players worth a cracker in our team and you're ready to just let him walk.

Some of the crap you guys say about him really makes me wonder why we have such a crappy culture at MFC.. The guy tries hard for Melbourne and i honestly believe he is clicking, finally.

If he isnt around Melbourne will have trully lost a player who has much more give, look at the glass half full.. let him fill the glass in the next 4-6 years.

I say fight tooth and nail for him.

You cannot honestly tell me you'd rather replace Colin with someone like Tom Couch or Magner. That is not something i would be willing to do

What if we fight hard but he wants to go somewhere where he can win?

We already have a dearth of senior experience we can't afford to lose a guy like Sylvia despite how much he frustrates me. The time to let him go was 3-4 years ago when we could've got something decent back but to see him walk for nothing would be a blow.

  On 18/05/2013 at 00:25, rpfc said:

What if we fight hard but he wants to go somewhere where he can win?

that's different to saying "let him walk"....fighting for something, giving our best shot and then being unsuccessful would be a step in the right direction for this club at the moment.....

  On 18/05/2013 at 00:22, Grimseyisgod said:

some of you guys are disgusting.

We have next to no experienced players worth a cracker in our team and you're ready to just let him walk.

Some of the crap you guys say about him really makes me wonder why we have such a crappy culture at MFC.. The guy tries hard for Melbourne and i honestly believe he is clicking, finally.

If he isnt around Melbourne will have trully lost a player who has much more give, look at the glass half full.. let him fill the glass in the next 4-6 years.

I say fight tooth and nail for him.

You cannot honestly tell me you'd rather replace Colin with someone like Tom Couch or Magner. That is not something i would be willing to do

You are a lil deluded I think .Col doesnt try hard for the club Col trys hard for Col when contract time is on Then just goes a way what a waste of all that potential Club will be better without him and would deliver an immediate improvement in culture. Walk away

We should offer Sylvia a reasonable offer for someone of his ilk, equivalent of what he'd get elsewhere maybe with a small loyalty bonus. I wouldn't pay excessive overs just to keep him, as I'd rather spend that on the open market and add value to the club that way.

  On 18/05/2013 at 00:44, deanox said:

We should offer Sylvia a reasonable offer for someone of his ilk, equivalent of what he'd get elsewhere maybe with a small loyalty bonus. I wouldn't pay excessive overs just to keep him, as I'd rather spend that on the open market and add value to the club that way.

I suspect that anyone we can recruit on "the free market" will either be at the end of their career, topping up after success elsewhere or will be looking for a substantial "failure" premium to join our club. Either way we will pay overs

  On 17/05/2013 at 22:30, jnrmac said:

Spud. Lazy. Will let us down forever.

10th year and what have we got?? Nuthin

We've got a lot more out of him than a lot of other wasted high draft picks. Col has been one of our most consistent players this year (and last, and pretty much every year from 2009, though the inconsistent tag seems to stick). He's no spud.

His brain fades concern me, last week one act of frustration in a game already lost and boom, he misses the next three, Richmond, Fremantle, Hawthorn

  On 17/05/2013 at 22:18, stueyspencer no12 said:

Well Tall Defence, if you think we could make finals in 2015, what were your expectations in 2011 when we were a hell of a lot better than we are now.?

And are Rodan, Gillies, Pedersen part of the list to be retained? I see we have given Pedersen a 3 year deal-- for heavens' sake!

What possesses you to think this mob can improve under this disaster, who has butchered the list and replaced players with rubbish?

Back in 2011 my expectations were to push for finals (probably not make it) and to be competative and have no more blow outs.

What happened in Geelong that year was totally unaceptable and I don't begrudge the club for sacking Bailey and they should have sacked Schwab then also.

Since that time we've learnt that Bailey let the players call the shots, didn't push them enough and there was a divide between players and admin.

Whether Neeld is the right man or not remains to be seen (looking at this point in time that he isn't). But no one can tell me that he hasn't been given the most difficult job in footy in re-shaping a club culture and setting new standards where players have gotten away with to much for to long. There was always going to be collateral damage, it just seems that there's been a lot more then anyone expected. eg. Loosing the amount of senior players we did and the blow outs that are taking place.

We have only 14 players on our list that have played 50 games or more and only 8 that have played over 100, none of those having got to 200. Those 8 players are Rodan (won't be there next year), Davey (same as Rodan you'd think), Sylvia, N. Jones, MacDonald (see Rodan), Frawley, Byrnes, Dunn.

The point of this is although we shouldn't be loosing by the amounts that we are, until we get more games into the likes of Viney, Toumpas, Hogan, Evans, Kent, Evans, Blease, McDonald, Tapscott etc then we can't expect to win to many.

Throw into that mix the names Gawn. Howe, Trengove, Grimes, Garland, Taggert, Clark, Dawes, Watts, none of which have played 100 games and I see a very reasonable base, unfortunatly it's very inexperienced.

That's why IMO if we can keep the group together along with our required experienced players (like Sylvia), throw in a Prestia, 1 or two quality mids through FA and this years draft and that's where I see the improvement coming from. Whether Neeld's the right man for the job or not I don't know, but the talent is there, it's just which coach can light the fuse.

As mentioned I don't think Rodan will be there next year, nor Gillies. Pedersen I don't agree with a 3 year deal, but as I said in his thread I reckon he'll simply be a depth player in case Frawley or McDonald go down for the next two years while we draft another young tall and allow them 2 years to develop at Casey.

So all I can say is expect 1 or 2 more senior recruits at seasons end to provide some experience and leadership to the player group and that will be whether Neeld's there or not. And if we can't get stars then they'll probably look at the likes of Adam Selwood, Farren Ray etc.

You may not like it, but it's where we're at. Doesn't mean that once our young core have got some games into them that the improvement won't come quick though.

  On 17/05/2013 at 10:54, General said:

Sign him up. Quality player not a team in the comp he wouldn't get a game for. Perhaps hasn't reached his potential but we can't keep losing our best players.

Absolutely. MUST sign him up.

Finals are over-rated. They pass.

  On 18/05/2013 at 00:49, Retrospective said:

I suspect that anyone we can recruit on "the free market" will either be at the end of their career, topping up after success elsewhere or will be looking for a substantial "failure" premium to join our club. Either way we will pay overs

Completely agree, and I'm very happy to pay covers, in terms of salary, to bring in the right types of players (very good players, with a knack for high possessions, good culture and work ethic, etc). Salary is a no brainer, we have to pay it to someone regardless, so we may as well use it to buy what we need, with the draft and salary cap etc, there aren't many situations where you can actively just buy things. We may as well do it.

In actual fact I'd even be willing to pay slightly covers in trade terms if it secures us players. Pick 3 who may be amazing in 3 years and a leader in 6 isn't what we need now. Actual value of commodities is different for each club.

What I wouldn't do is pay silly covers for Col. Very handy player to have but doesn't give the club what it really needs right now.

Right Right Lets do a Davey or a Jamar Give him $500000 pa plus for another 4 years and really root our chances at building a great team without underperforming hacks with potential

The only thing in our favour to keep him is if its about money. We must be able to pay him well because half our players are worth squat. With Davey unlikely to be around next year also frees up plenty of coin.

If he wants to play in a successful side, well he will be gone and I wish him luck.