Well as the 2013 season draws to a close I was glad to reflect of the huge amount of delisting's last year the only players to go forward and prosper were not surprisingly Rivers & Maloney.

Of the rest:

Bennell & Gyberts didn't play a senior game at there new clubs

Martin - played 5 average games and spent most of the year in the medical room.

Morton - played 3 "Morton like" games and was poor in the WAFL GF with 5 kicks and surprise, surprise no tackles !!

Pettard - not a bad year all in all - played his new role at HBF well for the Tigers.

The rest have fallen into the football wilderness.

Martin for pick 53 (Matt Jones). Win for us.

Gysberts for Pederson. 0-0 draw

Pick 88 (Rodan) for Morton. 0-0 draw.

Petterd and Rivers played finals footy. Moloney had a good year up In Brissie.

Shannon Byrnes was our FA compensation and did bugger all on field.

I wouldn’t say we did that well.

However securing Hogan, Viney at pick 26 and Dawes/Toumpas all thanks largely to $cully will be looked at as the major win of 2012.

Id have Petterd back. Is true he too had a disagreement with Neeld last year?

Martin im happy is gone.

Gysberts i thought was going to come back and bite us but glad im proved wrong.

Morton im not real fussed about.

Bennell been upgraded to the main list which i thought was weird considering they didnt have a coach to make that decision. Whats his WAFL form been like?

Happy Beamer is gone.

Rivers will be lucky to be given a go next year. He looked absolutely shot this year.

All in all not too bad at all. Like i said only Petterd i would have back.

Well as the 2013 season draws to a close I was glad to reflect of the huge amount of delisting's last year the only players to go forward and prosper were not surprisingly Rivers & Maloney.

Of the rest:

Bennell & Gyberts didn't play a senior game at there new clubs

Martin - played 5 average games and spent most of the year in the medical room.

Morton - played 3 "Morton like" games and was poor in the WAFL GF with 5 kicks and surprise, surprise no tackles !!

Pettard - not a bad year all in all - played his new role at HBF well for the Tigers.

The rest have fallen into the football wilderness.

the only ones I had misgivings about was mostly Petterd, & a slight one about Bennell, who I new had the talent but a big question mark over his courage & commitment to the physical.

but I have completely moved on now, & don't miss them. any of them.

Bennell (with a knee injury) and Petterd both were rookied by other clubs. With our list in the state it was we should've rookied both of them and kept them. I think Petterd is a bit of a lad but otherwise not too much trouble and Bennell is a hard working guy. Both deserved more time with all the other trash on our list.

Morton was contracted, to ship him off to any one else was a win.

Moloney is still miles away from a two way running midfielder, I'm not convinced we missed him.

Rivers would've been handy but he got shown up by Hale the other night. We would have had him in the team and Garland playing smaller but I'm not convinced he'd be in a winning team that has McDonald, Frawley and Garland.

All in all Neeld's clean out was a failure, but again not really the problem. Regardless of how little Byrnes, Rodan, Pedersen and Gillies gave it was the guys we already had on the list that weren't up to it. Pedersen the biggest failure because he was expected to be best 22 and instead was miles from it.

Martin for pick 53 (Matt Jones). Win for us.

Gysberts for Pederson. 0-0 draw

Pick 88 (Rodan) for Morton. 0-0 draw.

Petterd and Rivers played finals footy. Moloney had a good year up In Brissie.

Shannon Byrnes was our FA compensation and did bugger all on field.

I wouldn’t say we did that well.

However securing Hogan, Viney at pick 26 and Dawes/Toumpas all thanks largely to $cully will be looked at as the major win of 2012.

We got more out of Rodan that we would have got out of morton.

On Byrnes I note with interest that Champion Data says he will get the highest number of votes for melbourne in the Brownlow medal???? WTF????

We got more out of Rodan that we would have got out of morton.

On Byrnes I note with interest that Champion Data says he will get the highest number of votes for melbourne in the Brownlow medal???? WTF????

How Byrnes got 2 votes against GWS ahead of Evans is beyond me.. Not to mention Sylvia and Howe as well!!

How Byrnes got 2 votes against GWS ahead of Evans is beyond me.. Not to mention Sylvia and Howe as well!!

Who else got votes in that game? Sylvia and Evans (and Howe) were a great combination in the last quarter. Our big rucks got on top and those 3 really finished of GWS.

But Byrnes' hard running kept us in the game for the first 3/4. Was very impressed with how he played that day. Unfortunately his consistency was there and I got the feeling he carried a few injuries as well. Let's hope he can be better this year, I actually don't hate him as much as I do the rest of the sorry lot that Neeld brought in.

Who else got votes in that game? Sylvia and Evans (and Howe) were a great combination in the last quarter. Our big rucks got on top and those 3 really finished of GWS.

But Byrnes' hard running kept us in the game for the first 3/4. Was very impressed with how he played that day. Unfortunately his consistency was there and I got the feeling he carried a few injuries as well. Let's hope he can be better this year, I actually don't hate him as much as I do the rest of the sorry lot that Neeld brought in.

Jones got 3, Scully got 1. I'll never complain when Jones is getting votes...he's always worthy of them.

What are you talking about? It was a terrible result for us. We lost 2 of our top 5 players (Rivers & Maloney) due to nothing more than horrific management and poor interpersonal skills of Neeld. What a dud he was. Neither of these players were replaced by someone who moved into our top 5 (or anywhere near it) and as such this left a massive hole for us. Pettard was a disgraceful delisting that angered me as was the forced retirement of Green. Pettard was judged off the back of an injury riddled year where he was played not 100% fit. Neeld was a moron for letting this talent go, and I am happy but not surprised that Pettard had an excellent year at Richmond where he locked down a spot and played finals.

I agreed with the other delisting's in 2012 except I thought Gysberts was worth keeping. Why recruit a project player if you are not prepared to develop him? More crazy stuff from Neeld. I still think Gysberts can make it and would welcome him back to the MFC.

I agree with all delistings so far in 2013.

Rivers is a downgrade on Frawley and Garland. He would have been in direct competition with Tom McDonald for a spot. It was disappointing to see him walk, but on team balance I don't see him being any more than a marginal loss.

Moloney I have mixed feelings about. I think if we had him as a centre square mid we'd have been a better side, but if we'd kept him Neeld would have stuffed about with him as he had previously. I've got to doubt that the coach failed the player in this instance. By the same token, the way Moloney threw in the towel was pathetic and showed what he's made of. He only had to wait another half a season before the incompetent one was sacked and things would have been rosy again; instead he spat it and walked out.

What are you talking about? It was a terrible result for us. We lost 2 of our top 5 players (Rivers & Maloney) due to nothing more than horrific management and poor interpersonal skills of Neeld. What a dud he was. Neither of these players were replaced by someone who moved into our top 5 (or anywhere near it) and as such this left a massive hole for us. Pettard was a disgraceful delisting that angered me as was the forced retirement of Green. Pettard was judged off the back of an injury riddled year where he was played not 100% fit. Neeld was a moron for letting this talent go, and I am happy but not surprised that Pettard had an excellent year at Richmond where he locked down a spot and played finals.

I agreed with the other delisting's in 2012 except I thought Gysberts was worth keeping. Why recruit a project player if you are not prepared to develop him? More crazy stuff from Neeld. I still think Gysberts can make it and would welcome him back to the MFC.

I agree with all delistings so far in 2013.

GNF - given your connections with some at the MFC, an I appreciate you keeping us updated where possible, I have to disagree with most of your post, sorry!

I think the fact that 2 of the players we lost were our top 5 is part of the problem. We could see what impact Rivers has in big games just by looking at his performance last Friday night. He wouldn't be in the Top 15 at Geelong, shows how far we would've gone by retaining him.

Moloney was probably the biggest loss given he can still impact a game, but just how many times did he do that for Brisbane this year? The biggest issue I had with him is the (alledged) open rejection of doing what the coach asked. I don't care how insipid Neeld was, sometimes (as a player) you have to follow orders. If he was purposely going against what Neeld was telling him, then that's not the type of player I want at my football club.

Pettered was the most appropriate delisting out of the entire group. He is a classic example of work hard at Casey, play well, get a call up to the seniors, then think the hard work is over. Was it injuries, confidence, mental weakness? I don't know. While I can't see many challenging him for his half back flank role, I think that' highlights Richmond's lack of depth more than Petterd's ability. For him to play that role with us would mean he is ahead of Grimes, Strauss, and to some degree Watts. Even Joel Macdonald could play a similar role with the confidence that you knew he would put in 100%.

I'm not going to comment on any other delisting we made in 2012, as I don't want to waste my time on them. I will say the Green retirement was perfect timing for both parties involved. Unfortunately for Green, he was a leader on a dreaded day down at Geelong, and for this club to stop going backwards, it needed to make changes to its leadership personnel. I would imagine BG would accept that.

Moloney left via free agency and I've said it many times before, I don't really care that his gone given his reported attitude and selfishness.

Rivers, from all reports the club knew he had some knee issues, so they obviously weren't going to spend a bucket load on him, and I'm not sure we really missed him given we still had Garland, Frawley, and McDonald as key backs. I could only assume he might have taken Dunn's spot in the backline, but even then, it looks like he would have missed more than half the season anyway.

Gysberts for Pedersen - I'd actually say a small win for us given that Pedersen provided us with some necessary depth when players went down, though he didn't perform well. Also it's questionable whether Gysberts would have gotten a game for us this year ahead of Evans or Jones, Toumpas or Viney.

Rodan replacing Morton - Morton would have contributed very little based on what he has shown. Rodan reportedly had a positive impact on the list in helping to lead the young players. I'll take the Rodan acquisition.

Bennell - hard to know given he was coming back from a knee reconstruction, but figure he would have struggled to get a game this season. I think Dom Barry will provide what we wanted from Bennell. No real loss.

Byrnes - I thought played reasonably well for most of the games, though it was again his impact on the training track that was required. Did not star for us, but I don't think that's why we brought him in. Cost us nothing, so not a bad move.

Petterd - the only move which I kind of regret. I think the club should have tried exactly what Richmond did and move him back to the half back line, where he started his career. The question for me is would he have contributed more than Terlich or Clisby, and was the change in environment the thing that saw him improve?

All in all the de-listings and other movements didn't really cause the club to lose much. Same would probably said about this years de-listings. We can't just hold onto players forever when they are fringe 22 and not showing that they will take the next step.

GNF - given your connections with some at the MFC, an I appreciate you keeping us updated where possible, I have to disagree with most of your post, sorry!

Mate, happy for anyone to disagree with anything. That's the entire point of these opinion based blogs. I expect argument on opinions.

Edited September 24, 201311 yr by Grand New Flag

Mate, happy for anyone to disagree with anything. That's the entire point of these opinion based blogs. I expect argument on opinions.

Worst part about my opinion regarding the delistings is that I am in 100% agreeance with Mark Neeld!

Somebody shoot me...

Neeld may have been a squid with most things , however obtaining Hogan was an inspired decision.

Worst part about my opinion regarding the delistings is that I am in 100% agreeance with Mark Neeld!

Somebody shoot me...

The delistings were OK it was who replaced the delistings that was questionable.

Rodan, Pedersen, Sellar etc.

I would have kept Gysberts over Pedersen (provided he didn't interfere with the work ethic/culture)

People lined up to take pot shots at Melbourne over its drafting.

However, factor in that instead of getting Toumpas and Viney with 3 and 4, we got Toumpas, Hogan, Viney and Barry with 3 and 4.

Neeld may be a lot of things, but add to the list he can horse-trade the hell out of a draft. Sadly, the one thing he's not, is a good people manager. Hence, so forth, thus and therefore.

People lined up to take pot shots at Melbourne over its drafting.

However, factor in that instead of getting Toumpas and Viney with 3 and 4, we got Toumpas, Hogan, Viney and Barry with 3 and 4.

Neeld may be a lot of things, but add to the list he can horse-trade the hell out of a draft. Sadly, the one thing he's not, is a good people manager. Hence, so forth, thus and therefore.

We could have had Wines and Toumpas at 3 and 4 and Viney at 26 if we didn't go for Hogan..

We could have had Wines and Toumpas at 3 and 4 and Viney at 26 if we didn't go for Hogan..

I think long term everyone will be happy we went for the steak knives of Barry & Hogan

I don't think we made a single mistake or have any regrets with the players we let go at the end of 2012.

We made a few blues with the players we picked up and some with those we retained but on the whole, I give the club a big tick for its recruiting.

Let's hope we do even better in 2013 (and BTW, no problems with any of our delistings/retirements so far either).

I don't see any glaring mistakes in the players we have let go in the last five years.

Probably says a lot about the overall quality of the list.

We could have had Wines and Toumpas at 3 and 4 and Viney at 26 if we didn't go for Hogan..

Happily visit this comment in a few years time and hogan is the 2016 version of Jonathan brown in 2006

We could have had Wines and Toumpas at 3 and 4 and Viney at 26 if we didn't go for Hogan..

Conclusion: we shouldn't have taken Hogan?

Yeah, nah.

Yes we made the right choices the only one that I thought we should have kept was Bennell, Bennell suffered the same fate as a number of our players they never let him settle into one role, his was a small forward then down back then forward again, he should have been our back pocket, same with Jetta he isn't and never will be a small forward but down back he looks good and through the middle he looks good except he blows up to quick.

Adding Byrnes and Pederson lets see how that plays out next year, Rodan offered the club what they expected and Dawes was great when fit. I think we will get a better assessment of the 2012 draft and trade period in 2014

Toumpas we knew about his injuries and he was always about the future not 2013

Hogan he will have the same impact next year as Jack Darling did in his first year

Viney Gun

Barry Showed some good signs late in the year

Dawes As stated when fit was good not only his performances but made blokes like Watts and Fitzpatrick stand taller

Kent Supprise packet if he can build his tank he has all the tools to be a good AFL player

Terlich/ M Jones/ Clisby all three showed lots at AFL level

To me thats 9 players we added through the 2012 draft and trade periods that will make us a much better team. We had to clean out the players that had been around for a number of years that continued to under perform. Moloney and Rivers great club men but I still feel it was in the best interest for them and the club to move on. I was happy to see Rivers playing last Friday night, he deserves to go out on a high the mans body is giving away he only has a one to two years left great he can play finals footy.

And don't forget Mitch Clark, if and a big if he stays fit he will be like a new recruit in 2014.

Here we go again all about the hype and the ifs at some stage it has to turn