Jump to content

Featured Replies

time gentlemen please...

It's time to raise eyes to Friday.... and drop any distractions in the run to this weeks game.

 

Bring on the Cats.

 

The amount of Neeld sympathizes that were probly [censored] canning Neeld on this forum 5/6 years ago is disgusting.

You've all forgotten how bad it was.

I blame half of the posters here for Neeld.

Schwab - our clueless former board - a Demonland representative  supporter faction - and Lyon - in that order.

Is Goodwin the right guy thread . . . Neeld.

We were tracking as could be realistically expected in 2011 and not beyond repair. But - we have a soft underbelly and poor culture! Let's get a school teacher in to straighten em' out.

Well done to whoever you are.

 
7 hours ago, rjay said:

Can't agree with this 'deanox'.

In his first few years Roos turned over most of our list. He inherited a disaster.

It wasn't repairing, it was a total club rebuild with Jackson at the helm.

The blame has to be shared for the mess, no doubt.

Neeld played his part but die was cast well before he arrived.

Oh it definitely was a total rebuild and lost turn over under Roos, but in 2012 someone needed to stop the tail wagging the dog, and that attitude was driven by a bunch of senior players and we had a culture that sustained it. It would have been tempting to try and capitalise on the skills of the list, and turn 8.5 wins into 10 or 12, but Neeld chose "the hard way" of trying to change the culture.

The problem is at the same time as tackling cultural issues, he completely destroyed morale and failed to develop any of the young players and bring them along with him on the journey. So even though Roos had to start again, at least he was starting from 0, not from -10.

2 hours ago, Skuit said:

I blame half of the posters here for Neeld.

Schwab - our clueless former board - a Demonland representative  supporter faction - and Lyon - in that order.

Is Goodwin the right guy thread . . . Neeld.

We were tracking as could be realistically expected in 2011 and not beyond repair. But - we have a soft underbelly and poor culture! Let's get a school teacher in to straighten em' out.

Well done to whoever you are.

I'm a bit confused by your post. I'm not sure what the Ggodwin thread has to do with it?

We were a shambles in 2011. We might have had on field highlights but off field we were divided and going backwards.  Three foot effortless was embracing a new level of professionalism and we still had blokes on Hollywood boulevard. We were being left behind in the football department arms race and wernt going to catch the pack. I don't think anyone is saying Neeld was the right solution, but they can see why it was necessary to try something. As per my post above,  he didn't have much chance with all the off field stuff going on. 


Neeld is the worst Coach is VFL/AFL history, he inherited a team that had won 8.5 games the last year and he went 4 wins & 2 wins.  There is no excusing his appointment or his complete lack of depth for the role.  For all the talk of poor training standards, going youth over experience i was in it for the long game, it is all complete bullshite.  I believe that Neil Craig as escaped very lightly for his role, he was the senior assistant.

I remember dialogue around how good our training standards were at around 2013.

as good as collingwood etc.

poor list decisions no decent game plan and a poor match day coach . Fail. 

9 hours ago, rjay said:

Can't agree with this 'deanox'.

In his first few years Roos turned over most of our list. He inherited a disaster.

It wasn't repairing, it was a total club rebuild with Jackson at the helm.

The blame has to be shared for the mess, no doubt.

Neeld played his part but die was cast well before he arrived.

Rjay, did you happen to watch the interview?

One thing Neeld said toward the end that if he had his time again (and thank Christ he won't!), he would've questioned the tactics/directive from Schwab, Lyon, et al, about getting rid of a certain group of senior players.  Because he didn't question it in the first place, he went hammer and tongs to get rid of them.  In hindsight, he would've done the job (of turning over the list as directed) a lot more along the lines of how Roos did it.

Biggest difference - Roos had the experience to know how to do it, and Neeld didn't.  While the end goal of getting rid of the likes of Moloney, Green, etc was achieved, it could've been done a lot better.

There are many things that made me cringe in the Neeld era, however, there were a few things that made a lot of sense, even though I may not have liked it at the time.

 
10 hours ago, deanox said:

It was so clear at the time that our "senior" players had no leadership abilities and were not setting standards. Jones wasn't yet a leader, Green was an unsuccessful leader,  and Moloney - as much as I enjoyed him when on song - was a selfish player who from reporters actively worked against the coach and was a big part of 186.

Agree with most of your post but wasn't Moloney crook that day? Had 0 stats at half time and spent the second half asleep in the rooms? Surely shouldn't have played but probs wasn't a big part of 186....

Wow! Brent Moloney just unloaded on Mark Neeld on Instagram.

Unfortunately it wont let me put my screen shot on here as it says its too large..


Apparently the leadership vote that Neeld was talking about, is a lie. That seems to be the common theme amongst those who have since had a go at him. Putting Trengove and Grimes in charge was apparently a directive from the board, which is pathetic in itself. Why the need to lie about it, I wouldn't know.

The 2 guys I feel the most sorry for, are Trenners and Grimes. This move ruined their careers. 

6 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Wow! Brent Moloney just unloaded on Mark Neeld on Instagram.

Unfortunately it wont let me put my screen shot on here as it says its too large..

 

On 9/3/2018 at 10:59 AM, jnrmac said:

Nothing, I repeat nothing good will come from this.

✔️✔️

Not even 24 hours later and former players hitting back with venom. 

Friday night can’t come quick enough.

12 hours ago, McQueen said:

That was the worst Open Mike ever.

Neeld couldn’t even describe his role at Essendon but reading between the lines he managed to upset all of the line coaches and game analysts enough that his good mate Woosha couldn’t save him.

Just a load of rambling nonsense.

Worst ever I agree. Sheehan didn't do his homework or didn't ask the right questions.

What effect did the captaincy have on the career of Grimes & Trengove

Why was Stef Martin let go.

Why were Moloney & Rivers traded ? 

Why was Jones ignored for the captaincy.

Time for Mike to retire.


5 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

Worst ever I agree. Sheehan didn't do his homework or didn't ask the right questions.

What effect did the captaincy have on the career of Grimes & Trengove

Why was Stef Martin let go.

Why were Moloney & Rivers traded ? 

Why was Jones ignored for the captaincy.

Time for Mike to retire.

Agreed. If Mike had done his research he would have had heaps of ammunition for rebuttal. 

The one good part was at the end when Neeld clipped Tommy Morris for going early on the Essendon story without all the facts.

2 hours ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Agreed. If Mike had done his research he would have had heaps of ammunition for rebuttal. 

If he did that he couldn't close with his usual insincere 'you're a good bloke' routine.

It's a hard line to straddle. Watching interviews where the interviewer puts his ego and the need to be perceived as 'right' annoy me and you do need your subject to get their points across.

I reckon Mike however could have pressed him a lot harder on his time with us. The fact that he didn't has emboldened some on here to start up an 'alternative facts' version of what happened.

 

 

Edited by Colin B. Flaubert

Not that any of this matters now but I was a Neeld apologist at the time. I felt the club needed a cultural reset and he was doing the hard work while dealing with some very unfortunate distractions: EnergyWatch, Jurrah, Stynes death and later the tanking investigation.

I was wrong. We were a dysfunctional club from the management down. Instead of engaging, educating and protecting his players he took a divide and conquer approach, causing a litany of wrecked careers including his own. That he got another AFL gig afterwards speaks to the big fat boys club that is clubland admin.

Headlines like this were predictable: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/divisive-demons-days-in-afl-are-revisited-20180905-p501vt.html

Mike could have waited till our finals campaign was over before broadcasting it.  After all he is a Demon fan.  We really don't need ancient history to be dredged up. 

If ex players and demon media folk really love the club they should just pipe down for a few weeks.  Give the team some clear air to do their thing.

really, who cares

we've turned the corner

and as goody says we're focused on making our own history


5 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Agree with most of your post but wasn't Moloney crook that day? Had 0 stats at half time and spent the second half asleep in the rooms? Surely shouldn't have played but probs wasn't a big part of 186....

My understanding was that Moloney was sick as a dog all week, should never have played but declared himself fit. Obviously coaches/ medical staff should have overruled him but not sure they had the control. If he was that crook that he passed out, he shouldn't have been near the team. 

Mike Sheahan needs to roll out the following this week:

- Mark Thompson

- Lachie Whitfield’s ex-girlfriend  

- Lance Franklins Jeep mechanic 

- Alan Didak

- Ben Cousins

- Focus on Footy

5 hours ago, Jaded said:

Apparently the leadership vote that Neeld was talking about, is a lie. That seems to be the common theme amongst those who have since had a go at him. Putting Trengove and Grimes in charge was apparently a directive from the board, which is pathetic in itself. Why the need to lie about it, I wouldn't know.

The 2 guys I feel the most sorry for, are Trenners and Grimes. This move ruined their careers. 

If true that's an amazing revelation. I have heard insiders speak on this issue and been told that the player assessment took place. Note that I wasnt told it was a vote for captaincy, but more of a leadership attribute assessment, in which those guys were so far above the others they had to be appointed.

 
2 minutes ago, deanox said:

If true that's an amazing revelation. I have heard insiders speak on this issue and been told that the player assessment took place. Note that I wasnt told it was a vote for captaincy, but more of a leadership attribute assessment, in which those guys were so far above the others they had to be appointed.

I don't know what is true, I know just that I am so glad we have  proper on and off field management now. 

I don't think any of the current players, admins, coaches etc could care less about Neeld going on last night and I highly doubt it will have an effect on our preparation or mindset for Friday night.

We're a totally different beast now, one that is ready to feast on the carcass of Geelong.


Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

Featured Content

  • REPORT: Hawthorn

    Melbourne and Hawthorn who face off against each other this week have more in common than having once almost merged and about to wear a blue jumper with a red v triangle and an embroidered picture of a bird on the front.  They also share the MCG as their main home ground, their supporters are associated with the leafy suburbs of Melbourne and in recent times, James Frawley graced the colours of both teams. Even more recently, both have bounced back from disastrous five game losing streaks to start off a season. Of course, the Hawks turned their bounce into a successful leap from the bottom of the ladder into a finals appearance, making it to the semifinals in 2024 and this year, they’re riding high in third place on the AFL table. The Demons are just three games into their 2025 bounce back, and are yet to climb their way out of the bottom four although they are sitting a game and percentage out of the top eight. However, with the current sportsbet odds of $3.90 to win this week’s encounter, it seems a forlorn hope that their upward progression will continue much longer.

      • Clap
      • Thanks
    • 0 replies
    Demonland
  • PODCAST: Harvey Langford Interview

    On Wednesday I'll be interviewing the Melbourne Football Club's first pick in the 2024 National Draft and pick number 6 overall Harvey Langford. If you have any questions you want asked let me know. I will release the interview on Wednesday afternoon.

      • Clap
      • Love
      • Thanks
      • Like
    • 24 replies
    Demonland
  • REPORT: West Coast

    On a night of counting, Melbourne captain Max Gawn made sure that his contribution counted. He was at his best and superb in the the ruck from the very start of the election night game against the West Coast Eagles at Optus Stadium, but after watching his dominance of the first quarter and a half of the clash evaporate into nothing as the Eagles booted four goals in the last ten minutes of the opening half, he turned the game on its head, with a ruckman’s masterclass in the second half.  No superlatives would be sufficient to describe the enormity of the skipper’s performance starting with his 47 hit outs, a career-high 35 possessions (22 of them contested), nine clearances, 12 score involvements and, after messing up an attempt or two, finally capping off one of the greatest rucking performances of all time, with a goal of own in the final quarter not long after he delivered a right angled pass into the arms of Daniel Turner who also goaled from a pocket (will we ever know if the pass is what was intended). That was enough to overturn a 12 point deficit after the Eagles scored the first goal of the second half into a 29 point lead at the last break and a winning final quarter (at last) for the Demons who decided not to rest their champion ruckman at the end this time around. 

      • Thanks
      • Like
    • 0 replies
    Demonland
  • PREGAME: Hawthorn

    The Demons return to the MCG to take on the High Flying Hawks on Saturday Afternoon. Hawthorn will be aiming to consolidate a position in the Top 4 whilst the Dees will be looking to take a scalp and make it four wins in a row. Who comes in and who goes out?

      • Thanks
    • 151 replies
    Demonland
  • PODCAST: West Coast

    The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Monday, 5th May @ 8:00pm. Join Binman, George & I as we analyse the Demons 3rd win row for the season against the Eagles.
    Your questions and comments are a huge part of our podcast so please post anything you want to ask or say below and we'll give you a shout out on the show.
    If you would like to leave us a voicemail please call 03 9016 3666 and don't worry no body answers so you don't have to talk to a human.

      • Thanks
      • Like
    • 25 replies
    Demonland
  • POSTGAME: West Coast

    Following a disastrous 0–5 start to the season, the Demons have now made it three wins in a row, cruising past a lacklustre West Coast side on their own turf. Skipper Max Gawn was once again at his dominant best, delivering another ruck masterclass to lead the way.

      • Thanks
      • Like
    • 215 replies
    Demonland