Watch the press conference with Neeld and Dawes: http://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/2013-05-19/mark-neeld-and-chris-dawes-postmatch-media-conference

At about the 1:10 mark Neeld is going on about peaks and troughs and Dawes cuts him off and states that effort at AFL level shouldn't need to be coached. Basically, Dawes is stating clearly and bluntly what is and isn't acceptable while Neeld is making excuses. Worth a watch!

Wow....what a super impressive guy we have gained in Chris Dawes. It sounds as if he could do a better job at his young age in inspiring our team that the head coach.

He will certainly help in filling our absolute on field leadership void.

Really looking forward to seeing him an Mitch on the field together.

One (of many) thing that concerns me from what Neeld said in the presser was that it looks as if he still thinks Jack Watts is a defender, not a forward. I beg to differ.

Not if the right questions are asked and the right answers are given ...

If I was in the media these are the 2 questions I would ask Mark (just about every week)

"Mark, why does your team not play as a team (like just about every other team) when you have the ball?" ..... and ....

"How do you explain the huge discrepancy in uncontested possessions that your team has in comparison to the opposition?"

Obviously you enjoy waffle - as you say you don't like his answers but you want to ask him questions haha

You can believe what you like macca, I'd say look at disposal efficiency and experience but I'm sure you'll only hear what you want from Neeld anyway

Enjoy your night

pressers, especially of losers are worth 2/3 of 3/5 of sfa. That Neeld continues his seemingly detached ( possibly form his immediate reality ) efforts at explanation border on the farcial. Whether pre or post game his mileposts seem terribly off the ( relevant ) map. Dawes has , it would seem a better appreciation of the where and how of our situation. Dont confuse that with this supposed support some would have us beleive he was simply pointing out a clearer reality.

Of course he offer mutterings of being behind his coach..he was after al lsitting next to him fcs.

Its about as believable as a baord beiing fully behind someone .

Believe what you will folks.

This man ( MN) instills in myself no confidence whatsoever. And I so terribly wanted him to.

At some point you simply have to wake up and smell the flowers

Clearly you do...

That is up there with the stupidest [censored] i've ever read on this site - I'd be staggered if Demonlanders actually believed what your implying. I'll take a wild stab and guess you believe the CIA was involved in the Kennedy assassination as well

i demand a Range Rover poll to verify if Dawes was backing Neeld or was implying that he can't coach fk me I think you need a strong drink BB

I take that back BB - surely you can't be serious

You got me - i fell for it Joke is on I

but you want to ask him questions

Well why not? They're very important questions. Our lack of teamwork is a huge issue. If we used the ball a lot better today, we might have won the game. Though it was a much improved effort.

I don't believe he gets grilled very hard at the press conferences anyway. Not considering how putrid we've been.

Anyway, Mark's future is in his own hands. I genuinely wish him well. Don't mind having to change my mind.

I read the article and suggest others do carefully. still 3years from realising their potential is what the article says. Nice little play on words by Jay Clark. 3+ the previous 2 is where that comes from.

More than likely Jay didn't bother asking Neeld what he meant by realising their potential or quite possibly did ask but did not include the answer in his article.

Neeld may have meant our potential was regularly competing withthe big contenders

Wow....what a super impressive guy we have gained in Chris Dawes. It sounds as if he could do a better job at his young age in inspiring our team that the head coach.

He will certainly help in filling our absolute on field leadership void.

Really looking forward to seeing him an Mitch on the field together.

One (of many) thing that concerns me from what Neeld said in the presser was that it looks as if he still thinks Jack Watts is a defender, not a forward. I beg to differ.

Make sure you beg to differ at match committee, sure Neeld will listen to what you have to say

Make sure you beg to differ at match committee, sure Neeld will listen to what you have to say

Haha, seriously what is your go? Someone's not allowed to say they think Jack Watts is a forward?

At what point is someone enough of a [censored] to be banned? Surely it's approaching that point with Satyricon.

This year we average 56, in 2011 we averaged 70.

Footywire has all the stats.

The post you quoted referred to 'our tackling being worse than ANY time since the early 2000s'. Having a single year (which didn't include any of the mentioned players) is not providing relevant evidence.

Took Port 1 pre season. Mitch Clark will be close to retirement in 5 years.

rubbish, port were in a genuine rebuild under primus and they have the cattle through the midfield that is bound to make them competitive, anyone who thinks it was hinkley that came and built the culture has no idea about football, it was already started and if primus got one more year which he was obviously hoping for the results would have been the same.

Well why not? They're very important questions. Our lack of teamwork is a huge issue. If we used the ball a lot better today, we might have won the game. Though it was a much improved effort.

I don't believe he gets grilled very hard at the press conferences anyway. Not considering how putrid we've been.

Anyway, Mark's future is in his own hands. I genuinely wish him well. Don't mind having to change my mind.

You don't realise how strongly I agree with you Macca - you've hit the nail on the head about our performance today.

I guess I was trying to say I can't answer for Neeld as I'm not Neeld - but lack of experience and kicking efficiency would be key indicators as to why those things listed didn't happen....

At the end of the day I want to see results on the field (im not fussed about press confrences - and yes I agree Neeld has been comfusing and embarassing) and as you say Macca these will take care of themselves and Neelds future.

If you load one with testosterone it will be horny as...

i think they are more likely to spit you to death

I don't believe he gets grilled very hard at the press conferences anyway. Not considering how putrid we've been.

I've noticed that as well. They go pretty easy on him. They probably figure he's had enough to deal with. Maybe AFL journos have a heart after all.

Hm, no, there must be another explanation.

horrified by the burgeoning length of this latest rebuild, which in my view was of very dubious necessity. however, one positive of the last few weeks is that there seems to be a bit more 'buy-in' from the players. in recent times the following players appear to have demonstrated that they are on-board with Neeld - Dawes, Clark, Garland, Sylvia - and are showing a bit of leadership as a result .

I have been a Melbourne supporter for 51 years now through that time I have bought my three kids up also to be Melbourne Supporters. They had no choice, even though My wife barracks for Geelong , I snagged all three.

Now for the First time ever I am actually calling in to question myself and my club and I wonder, if maybe I have done the wrong thing by my kids.

But then I think back to the year in 1987 . In what was Robbie Flower's last ever season, the Demons didn't seem at that stage if the would play finals football but something clicked and the 'Let's Do It For Robbie' campaign suddenly entered full swing.

We needed to win 6 of our last 7 games to reach the finals, we did .

Then in the elimination finals we met North Melbourne where we needed to win, we did, by a unbelievable margin of 118 points.

The Following week we needed to beat Sydney, we did, and won again by an incredible 21.23 (149) to 10.13 (73),

It looked like we could go all the way but then Hawthorn Happened and Then Buckenara's mark happened and Howlett with the 15 metre penalty and the goal after the siren . No one can just Blame Jim for that day we had opportunities to seal the game out and we didnt .

I was there for all the games and I have no doubt that had we beaten Hawthorn we would have gone on with it .

But that Day will stay with me for ever .

I saw the Melbourne Faithfull at their finest on that day, I saw there response and along with the rest of them I felt the utter gut wrenching emotional roller coaster we had all experienced over the last few weeks. On that day I saw Grown men cry. I saw supporters who looked totally bewildered, dazed and shell shocked by the outcome.

But I swear everyone who went home that day new Melbourne really did win, if not the game definitely in our hearts .

Because a passion was created on that day in all of us, a will and a want to see the MFC win another Grand final and a commitment from so many to see it through and to be there when that day come.

Back then we felt our chance was just around the corner . We had faith and belief

How things have changed !!!

Now we see a team of youngsters with a few senior players scattered amongst them who have probably seen their best behind them. What we now have is a team of youngsters who are not prepared at least not yet , to put their body and soul on line for their teammates and bleed for their club like the players did back then.

I wish we could take todays side back to watch that game to experience the raw emotion, the feeling and the bonds between the players

I am truly now wondering if I will ever see Melbourne in that situation again ?

Playing off for a Berth in a finals

All I want is a real chance to share that with my kids again , Win or Lose I don't really care as long as I can get to share that experience with them now that they are old enough to understand

Back then they weren't even Born and since then there has been nothing like that final series as far as I am concerned .

Yes I know we made a few appearances since then but nothing to match that finals series, especially for raw emotion.

Today all we do is sit and watch , not wondering if we can win but taking bets on how much we will lose by .

I have never felt so disillusioned as what I do currently . .

But I hang in there hoping that maybe somehow they will turn it around

The best I can hope for now is that they will be competitive, I get excited when they at least kick a goal .

The thought of them beating a side above us is as exciting as we could hope for at the moment

Yep things have changed alright and those responsible for running this club into the ground should hang their heads in shame .

I like all supporters, though we would prefer to win can handle losing as long as we know they gave it a real hot go

At the moment its like watching a slow train wreck .

This is supposed to be a AFL club

Not Just any Club but one of the Founding Clubs of Football with a wealth of history and pride ,

Unfortunately that seems to matter for little at the moment except for the supporters who will stick by our Club regardless but we all deserve better .

Yes yesterdays performance was slightly better than last weeks but there is a long, long way to go

Lets hope that it is not as far away as what Neeld seems to think it is right now .

For all our sakes .

If it takes 3 years for this list to reach their potential and we continued to lose 95% of our games for the next 2 -3 years.

Then IMO we can be sure of one thing MN will not be the coach come 2015.

This year i have watched the guy on the MFc web site, after game interviews etc.

I just hear waffle.

Is that just me?

I hope he has a better affect on the players.

IMO Dawes made him look like a fool.

No, no, the players are backing up what I say!!!1!

The players don't take sides and back whoever is in charge.

As they should for the sake of the club. Their opinions are not public and when should NEVER try to get them out into that sphere.

I would say that that is the only fracturing crisis we haven't had in the last 2 years...

The post you quoted referred to 'our tackling being worse than ANY time since the early 2000s'. Having a single year (which didn't include any of the mentioned players) is not providing relevant evidence.

As I said, Footywire has all the stats, you can do your own leg work, I've alread showed you we tackled more under Bailey than Neeld, that should tell you something.

Who have Port beaten? Us, GWS, GC, an undermanned West Coast?? Yeah they're travelling better than us but I wouldn't be pencilling them in for finals just yet.

They will NOT make the finals this year... Mark that down... BUT who cares ??? Port Adelaide are of no interest to me.. I am only interested in what the MFC does/is doing... Making comparisons does nothing to solve our problems and will make no difference.... Faark PA

I think it may be worth noting that while he says it will take 5 years, he doesn't mean that we'll be at the bottom for that long. He's saying it will take 5 years to get the team at a level to contend for finals, and a chance at winning them. That's not an unreasonable timeline given the base we started from. It's not like at WC where they had a dozen or so premiership players they were leaving out of the side for some mysterious reason.

Again, it may be reasonable and accurate, but why is he even saying it other than to keep his job?

Players, fans, members and sponsors don't want to hear it.

Again, it may be reasonable and accurate, but why is he even saying it other than to keep his job?

Players, fans, members and sponsors don't want to hear it.

Beats me. But the players playing the next three months like they did yesterday will save his job so maybe he thinks they will respond to it.

It would get a reaction out of me as a player that's for sure...

The message it sends to players that started playing for us between 2008 and 2010 is that if things stay the way they are now, there's a good chance that you'll not play finals with us throughout your whole career.

And it begs the question of whether any other coach could do better than this.

As I said, Footywire has all the stats, you can do your own leg work, I've alread showed you we tackled more under Bailey than Neeld, that should tell you something.

does that mean bailey had the players running second to the ball

and neeld got them in first for the ball?