I think we need to remember Neeld was the fulcrum of serious internal division within the club. Both Todd Viney and Neil Craig had continuous run-ins with him last year on both selection issues and drafting. Both were against his dislike of Maloney, Martin (surely a wasted talent) and Petterd, which was the direct reason why they left, leaving an even bigger hole in our midfield. They were also against exiting senior players like Green, Bruce and Junior which left a gaping hole in our onfield leadership, and directly lead to the lack of development in many of our first and second round draft picks. Neeld effectively threw away six or seven years of development which should have left us in the top half of the ladder with a brilliant young list.

We were seen for a lot of 2008/2009 as THE up and comer in the competition and the one in the "also rans" who would come out of the pack and challenge for the premiership. We could always over that period go to the football and feel that we could on our day beat anyone. But we did not count on the internal division and the divisive leadership of Cameron Schwab who finally managed to roll Dean Bailey after the disastrous trip to Geelong - something that could have been predicted for such a young list. Schwab was certainly poisonous to a high performance culture, but then adding Neeld to this was not like pooring petrol on a raging fire, but like throwing in an atom bomb. The whole place became disfunctional.

From then on, everything we did destroyed value. Craig and Viney tried to put their fingers in the dyke but to no avail. The worst of the worst was list management. Apparently, both of them believed we should not so easily give up first round draft picks such as Morton and Cook, nor should we be so ready to get rid of our older more experienced players, thereby depriving our list of badly needed experience. Neeld was the source of the impression that the MFC "eat their young". Under him, the regime was totally disfunctional and leaderless, but that same accusation could be directed at the board, particular both former chairmen. The board as a whole was derelict in their duty of ensuring the right leaders were in place and functioning.

Finally, we have, going right back, had a "cargo cult" mentality (remember Peter Moore/kelvin templeton, the Jarman brothers, Joe Gutnick, Jack Watts, and now Jesse Hogan. Even Ronald Dale Barassi - although he did at least lay the ground work for future success). All at one time or other were seen as an instant solution for our lack of the ultimate prize. What we don't seem to understand is that excellent Organisations need to be built from the ground up with a commitment to the best at all levels, in a culture which allows excellent people to thrive and contribute.

We now though through Peter Jackson have an opportunity to build such an Organisation, recognizing that this takes commitment and patience. Fortunately, we have the full support of the AFL, certainly the most successful sporting Organisation in Australia, and recognized as one of the best in the world. Clearly Dimetriou has run out of patience with Melbourne and has decided to fix it once and for all, to which we all should say "hooray!"

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to turn the MFC into the premier Organisation it should always have been. We need patience, and it needs our support. We should also never again put up with the mediocrity as we have so often done in the past.

Not sure the mods would be happy about your finger in the dyke remark but I liked it.

Id summarise our problem as having a poor Administration who didnt understand what it took to be professional football team.

While our fortunes may have been better with a different coach we'd never be anything but a bottom half side without fiximg the Administration.

I think Neeld started what needed to be done but lacked the experience and support to see it through.

Not sure the mods would be happy about your finger in the dyke remark but I liked it.

Id summarise our problem as having a poor Administration who didnt understand what it took to be professional football team.

While our fortunes may have been better with a different coach we'd never be anything but a bottom half side without fiximg the Administration.

I think Neeld started what needed to be done but lacked the experience and support to see it through.

You missed a few points:

Senior Coaching Ability

Management Skills

Knowledge of People Management

Communication Skills

Effective Game Plan

Adaptive Game Plan

Recruitment Skill

Understanding of AFL standard footy

ect...

Otherwise Mark Neeld was a true Legend in his own Lunch Box.

Edited August 20, 201312 yr by TheBigFrog

Bailey certainly played a Geelong style, very much high scoring through the corridor - very much suited to our future forward half of Clarke, Hogan, Dawes, Fitzpatrick and Howe.

Neeld directly brought Clark and Dawes to the club and under his regime we traded for Hogan.

Neeld was like a Frankenstein though, once he was let loose he wreaked havoc in ways his creator couldn't have foresaw.

Love the analogy, the scary thing is that I suspect it has more than a grain of truth too it.

Neeld directly brought Clark and Dawes to the club and under his regime we traded for Hogan.

He undoubtedly did some things right. He had it seemed a particular vision of where we were going and how. Maybe at another club it might have all gelled, but we are after all Melbourne , and we'll bring anyone unstuck.

I think he misread the path that lay in front and as a result it was one step forward , two lurches off a cliff.

Edited August 20, 201312 yr by belzebub59

You missed a few points:

Senior Coaching Ability

Management Skills

Knowledge of People Management

Communication Skills

Effective Game Plan

Adaptive Game Plan

Recruitment Skill

Understanding of AFL standard footy

ect...

Otherwise Mark Neeld was a true Legend in his own Lunch Box.

How would you justify this position if he lands a gig as a Senior Assistant Coach in 2014? From what ive heard he is highly rated in this capacity and a number of clubs are bidding for his services.

The proof will be in what he is doing in 2014.

How would you justify this position if he lands a gig as a Senior Assistant Coach in 2014? From what ive heard he is highly rated in this capacity and a number of clubs are bidding for his services.

The proof will be in what he is doing in 2014.

Mark Neeld >>>>>>>>> The Peter Principle

How would you justify this position if he lands a gig as a Senior Assistant Coach in 2014? From what ive heard he is highly rated in this capacity and a number of clubs are bidding for his services.

The proof will be in what he is doing in 2014.

No proof was in what he did to the MFC in 2012 and 2013. THe taken a team who won 8.5 games before he started Coaching to one that was lucky to win two. I will not go on as the sight of his name gets me angry.

IMO the guy was a disgrace and I trying very hard to be polite.

Great if he gets a gig next year as he can play back some of our money as I understand we paid up until 2014.

Neeld came in with a Malthouse attitude and had neither the credibility or the ability to communicate effectively to have his ideas executed.

It is a shame, some of the ideas were right but the execution deplorable.

Hit. Nail. Head.

Neeld directly brought Clark and Dawes to the club and under his regime we traded for Hogan.

Fifity-5 two of those three two are injury prone crocks who seldom contribute much on the field.

So far only one likely success who has yet to play a game.

I hope you are correct but the early signs on two of them are less than wonderful.

Edited August 21, 201312 yr by old dee

Players; Watts (Trade, the difference between his atitude to the club and Flash's was and eye opener to me); Nicholson; Gillies; MacDonald (Gone); Sellar; Davis; Bail; Magnar; Couch; Davey (gone, but I would have gven him aother year); Strauss; Jamar (cant keep him, Gawn. Spencer, Clarke, Dawes and Fitzpatrick on the same list)

Coaches: Chocco (never any good); All the others subject to the wishes of the new coach

Admin; Mahoney (need a hard nosed experienced football administrator wihtour Mahoney's baggage).

Gets - Junior needs to come back in some capacity; As many quality mids as possible (I would chuck bucket loads at Daisy), quality small forward (Happy to trade Watts for one of Carltons), I would also like to add an offensive running backman like Harry O

Fifity-5 two of those three two are injury prone crocks who seldom contribute much on the field.

So far only one likely success who has yet to play a game.

I hope you are correct but the early signs on two of them are less than wonderful.

I was simply pointing out that praise for Bailey's game plan in anticipation of a having forward line with Clark, Dawes and Hogan is a bit rich.

I was simply pointing out that praise for Bailey's game plan in anticipation of a having forward line with Clark, Dawes and Hogan is a bit rich.

I suspected as much Fifty-5.

I don't expect much from Clark and Dawes they both smell of grand ideas but we have selected players who are seldom going to be on the park unfortunately.

Edited August 21, 201312 yr by old dee

I think we need to remember Neeld was the fulcrum of serious internal division within the club. Both Todd Viney and Neil Craig had continuous run-ins with him last year on both selection issues and drafting. Both were against his dislike of Maloney, Martin (surely a wasted talent) and Petterd, which was the direct reason why they left, leaving an even bigger hole in our midfield. They were also against exiting senior players like Green, Bruce and Junior which left a gaping hole in our onfield leadership, and directly lead to the lack of development in many of our first and second round draft picks. Neeld effectively threw away six or seven years of development which should have left us in the top half of the ladder with a brilliant young list.

We were seen for a lot of 2008/2009 as THE up and comer in the competition and the one in the "also rans" who would come out of the pack and challenge for the premiership. We could always over that period go to the football and feel that we could on our day beat anyone. But we did not count on the internal division and the divisive leadership of Cameron Schwab who finally managed to roll Dean Bailey after the disastrous trip to Geelong - something that could have been predicted for such a young list. Schwab was certainly poisonous to a high performance culture, but then adding Neeld to this was not like pooring petrol on a raging fire, but like throwing in an atom bomb. The whole place became disfunctional.

Neeld was a failure. But we can stop at the terrible relationship with players and the overemphasis on defensive processes.

There is no need to invent a maze of cause and effect to also blame our list on him, and also make Viney and Craig look like Saints.

Losing Moloney hurt 2013 and maybe 2014. Losing Petterd meant we had to find another HBF with suspect skills... Losing Martin, Morton, and Cook was nothing - just look at how much AFL they have played in 2013...

Our list is bad because of poor drafting, short term trading, and poor development - dating back to 1999 and continuing until a date to be confirmed later with brief periods of respite in 2005 and 2006.

As for the exiting of senior players - Bruce and McDonald were forced out at the end of 2010. So this burning of experienced players is something that Neeld doesn't have to bear all his own.

I won't allow people to waive away our issues as we wave away Neeld, Schwab, and McLardy.

Our problems did not begin or end with them, and to think otherwise is doing our rebuild a disservice.

I want to forgive the mistakes but not forget them, otherwise history might repeat.

Agree.

There seems to be an underlying impression that if we attribute all our failings to people already gone, that our current problems will fail to exist.

These failed appointments were merely symptomatic of a greater cultural problem.

We need to focus on, and are some way along in, fixing that culture.

That must be our focus, and everything else will follow suit in time.

Edited August 21, 201312 yr by Machiavelli

Nice one Dees2014. Without a doubt the core of the rotteness was meddlesome Schwab though. His policies killed the spirit of our playing group; sacking leaders, making them tank, getting in Neeld to smash their confidence and force the vestiges of player resistance out the door.

Neeld was like a Frankenstein though, once he was let loose he wreaked havoc in ways his creator couldn't have foresaw.

We were a competitive unit before Schwab won the civil war against Bailey. We beat Freo by 94 points only a few weeks before he was sacked.

I'm surprised the mods haven't picked you up on this Demonstrative. Important factual error which cannot go uncorrected.

Frankenstein was actually the name of the doctor who created the monster, not the other way around.