8 minutes ago, Queanbeyan Demon said:

Great post CBF.

BTW . . . I'm still hung up about the Dennis Jones regime Mate!

He also got an airing in the top 5 coaches thread!

Though for those born in the 80's and beyond, he seems to be a Loch Ness Monster type of urban legend and I'm kind of curious as to why things were so bad during his reign.

Thank goodness though that the poor fella didn't have social media in his day! He would have gotten off lightly if he got 1/3 of the bollocking Neeld got on here on a weekly basis.

Edited May 7, 20222 yr by Colin B. Flaubert

1 minute ago, Colin B. Flaubert said:

He also got an airing in the top 5 coaches thread!

Though for those born in the 80's and beyond, he seems to be a Loch Ness Monster type of urban legend and I'm kind of curious as to why things were so bad during his reign.

Thank goodness though that the poor fella didn't have social media in his day! He would have gotten off lightly iIf he got 1/3 of the bollocking Neeld got on here on a weekly basis.

I seem to recall the chapter in Robbie's book dealing with 1978, there a sentence that says some like "the least said about this year the better". Someone might like to enlighten me further however.

A lot can be said about Mark Neeld - good, middling and bad. I remember he was shocked at how unfit we were, and he knew he needed to be brutal in his expectation of training standards etc... Most of us were thrilled at his tough stance when he started.

Put simply, he couldn't communicate. Not his vision, plans, or expectations. Simply, he was not a senior coach. The video footage from the rooms showed players not listening, the game plan showed a complete lack of clarity and a whole heap of confusion, and his press conferences gave us nothing. 

Noble speaks well at press conferences, the players appear to respect him and listen to him. but I have to admit that the way the Roos are currently playing does remind me of our confusion under Neeld (with similar low scoring and low percentage). 

3 hours ago, Colin B. Flaubert said:

One thing I will never get is why Neeld still gets mentioned as much as he does. In the top 5 coaches of your lifetime thread, some people went out of their way to emphasize how shizen he was as a coach despite it being divorced from the thread subject.

That said, we may as well deal with the topic at hand.

The Neeld appointment was a calamity. However, it was an indictment on the whole club and not just one man. CS, Gaddy Lyon and Cuddles Connolly to me were dead keen to find a bloke to validate their views of Bails' failing as a coach and found their willing vessel. 

For mine, he seemed happy to have just gotten the job and thus was willing to go along with whatever CS, the Gaz Man and Don McLardy were demanding to get it (he pretty much admitted he was much too deferential to CS's assessment of the playing group during his Open Mike interview).

As a result, he ended up trying to being something he wasn't by nature and ended up alienating the playing group with the brazen attitude he was tasked with having by those upstairs. I also got the feeling that because just getting a job was his metric for success he never really thought too much about what would happen after he got it. His line that 'I've made it this far by doing it my way' gave me the feeling that he hadn't given much thought to the metric he'd apply to what being a successful coach was, thus he was much too malleable in regards people who didn't really have the team's best interests in mind.

When the reality bus did hit and his dreams were thrown back in his face, it was almost a relief that he was moved on and not just for the supporters. I was genuinely worried about the bloke (and feel bad for him and his family who might be reading pretty derogatory stuff about him online) on a mental health front. It was no coincidence that in his last set of press conferences that he regularly brought blokes like Chris Dawes and Jack Grimes along as I'm sure that facing a press pack sensing blood would have been pretty traumatizing.

I'm sure David Noble is feeling it at the moment but I have yet to see anything approaching stuff like Neeld’s first presser after we lost to the Lions (consequently used by the AFL media training department as an example of how not to go about it) and his performance at the presser after 148 (he reminded me of David Brent in The Office UK Christmas specials at the D grade celebrity event after he got the drink thrown in his face). Let's not pretend he's not as feeling as relaxed as if he's on a beach in Bermuda  relaxing on a banana lounge with a cocktail in his left hand. But I haven't felt that he's approached those levels (or even those of Rhyce Shaw).

With that said, I'd prefer the Neeld stuff be given a permanent break. The bloke works for the Geelong Supercats as the CEO. He's realized the footy coaching deal wasn't for him and thus changed careers. I remember getting yelled at by a member of the board for referencing Neeld in 2014 as apparently I was 'living in the past and causing division'. I think it was perfectly germane to talk about him as we were coming out of his era. But being hung up on him nearly 10 years later? Seems a bit excessive.

Good, thoughtful post. I suppose it was traumatic to be a dee in his period. I mean there were plenty of lows before him but that was the lowest era of all of them. But its also good to remember he was a human too. 

I’ve been considering more recently that he bought in taylor directly and then inadvertently Jackson and Roos. So in fact , without Neeld there’s no flag. So yes… time i put the sword down. 

25 minutes ago, Wells 11 said:

Good, thoughtful post. I suppose it was traumatic to be a dee in his period. I mean there were plenty of lows before him but that was the lowest era of all of them. But its also good to remember he was a human too. 

I’ve been considering more recently that he bought in taylor directly and then inadvertently Jackson and Roos. So in fact , without Neeld there’s no flag. So yes… time i put the sword down. 

I think the other issue was the bullishness before seasons which devolved into ever lowering horizons being imposed on us as the year progressed. I felt like I was conned at the time.

The best analogy I can use with the Neeld preoccupation is if Swannies fans were still bagging Gary Buckenara after the 2005 GF in their online fan communities. Most opposition supporters would be rightfully looking at them as though they were a few stubbies short of a slab.

Edited May 7, 20222 yr by Colin B. Flaubert

If anything the Bombers remind me of our Neeld era

There is a sense of inevitability in the crowd

They've even got a heritage logo and cluttered jumper circa 2013

I think the drafting under the Bailey period was horrible, and I don’t think many great coaches could make success from that list. Notwithstanding, I think Neeld was a very, very bad coach. I hope we can all move on at some stage, and I take a lot of solace knowing we got here from there, but bloody hell that was tough.

I like the way Noble takes the game on. Same as Dew. It’s not always the best score outcome but they are playing the right type of game, which when they have the right talent will do them well. Compare that to Hinkley’s game which was to shut everything down against us, that was deplorable. 

So no, Noble isn’t Neeld. And to be frank, I don’t want any team to experience that… except for Hawthorn.

Edited May 7, 20222 yr by TheWiz
Spelling

We just won a flag… move on

Recalling the Neeld era is painful.  It represents the absolute nadir in terms of footy department disfunction and on-field ineptitude. It provides a case study on how not to run a footy club

I understand why people want to consign to history and forget about it but we must retain the memory and remember the lessons lest we repeat the mistakes again

Neeld was a disaster. Named the 2 jacks as co captains, young and inexperienced players that should never have been put in that position. Put the senior players noses out of joint straight away. The single worst coaching decision by any coach of any club in my time watching footy. Let’s not ever do that again.

14 hours ago, Colin B. Flaubert said:

He also got an airing in the top 5 coaches thread!

Though for those born in the 80's and beyond, he seems to be a Loch Ness Monster type of urban legend and I'm kind of curious as to why things were so bad during his reign.

Thank goodness though that the poor fella didn't have social media in his day! He would have gotten off lightly if he got 1/3 of the bollocking Neeld got on here on a weekly basis.

He was the worst coach in our long histrory.We used to go into the the rooms after the game back then,we just got our usual thrashing and in walks Denis Jones with a large bottle of beer and tossing it down.That sums up how it was that year

Sam Mitchell might be…

Noble won't succeed as a coach.  The first coach of a major rebuild rarely makes it

15 hours ago, TheWiz said:

I

So no, Noble isn’t Neeld. And to be frank, I don’t want any team to experience that… except for Hawthorn.

… and Essendon. We mustn’t forget Essendon. 

North need. Some experienced players from other clubs in a Hodge type role since Goldstein, Zeiebell are done. Try to bribe and conjure up landing Free Agents but not spuds like Polec. State league markets for some 24-27yos like Jack Hayes, Nick Martin kinds to add to the u23 list they have from drafts.

As ‘Picketfence’ would say…

”Holy Sheeit!”

Who watched On the Couch tonight?… I feel like they’ve read my mind. 

We now know just how badly North are travelling. Jon Brown pronounced that they "don't stand for anything". Footy-speak for "they're really really terrible and from here on in we're going to bag them out at every possible opportunity".

On 5/7/2022 at 9:44 AM, sisso said:

Not sure Alistair Clarkson would be doing much better with North’s current list, reminds me of us in about 2013, a bunch of kids who aren’t ready for the brutal realities of league footy week to week with no senior players to guide them…

Norf have no one to blame but themselves. The last 3 to 4 years saw the list was absolutely obliterated I mean how could they possibly have thougjt BBB was surplus to needs? Nup, whoever was overseeing list management should be held to account. Basket case club.

The first thing North need to work on is Defence. Relentless, boring defence. They may not score more than 40 pts a game but they should be aiming to minimise teams to 60-70pts. All great, effective systems are based on defence and atm Noble hasn’t got this right. 
 

Number of wins shouldn’t be the measure this year or next but margins and points conceded are definitely on the table. 
 

Hard to critique his coaching style or demeanour but he looks like one of those blokes with anger issues and capable of talking without thinking, which nowadays can be over the top for some players as the feedback  isn’t always sugar coated.

However the biggest factor I see is the onfield leadership (or lack of). As many have stated,the huge player turnover would have had a significant impact on this. They need to identify the right leaders, the right standards and make sure the playing group are upholding these standards and not David Noble. Until then, it will be hit and miss. Thai is as much a foundational component as player experience, gameplan and list quality. 

9 hours ago, McQueen said:

As ‘Picketfence’ would say…

”Holy Sheeit!”

Who watched On the Couch tonight?… I feel like they’ve read my mind. 

For those that didn't watch On The Couch they talked about the comparison with the Dees of 2013 at the top of the show.

 

North could do with a the equivalent of Cross, Burns, Vince, Lewis to help Ziebell set standards off field, protect the kids on field, leadership on field and help with their development.  Otherwise their kids will flounder and talent wasted like ours before the Jackson/Roos era. 

Cross, Vince, Burns and Lewis were a key, often underrated part of our road to the Holy Grail.

Neeld had his faults but the players ran the club during the Bailey/Neeld era until Jackson came in and appointed Roos thats when it started to change.

Noble apologized to the players for being to harsh (After Round 3)

It is all collapsing now 

And now this:

 

 

I have always believed that coaches are their worst enemy after a bad loss because after the game they should not address the players unitl they have thought things thru even waiting until monday to address the elephant in the room.

It is too easy to say something outlandish after a bad defeat even during a gameyou have to be composed to get a message across to fatigued minds and bodies.

North Melbourne did this to themselves.

They finished mid table for a decade, and hence were never in a position to acquire top end talent, both in the draft or trade period.

They then decided it was time to rebuild and bottom out hard, and dumped literally every mature player. That left them with a list of inexperienced kids and a massive reliance on 2 older heads one who is sadly battling cancer and one who is quickly coming to the end. 

It was their choice to do this and so it is no wonder they are uncompetitive. You can't expect a bunch of kids to win games or even play consistent footy. 

I feel for Noble, because just like with Bailey and Neeld, a lot of the blame has to come on the board, footy department and recruiters. If North signed off on this type of list burning, then I don't know what other outcome they could have expected in the short term.

They traded a 60 goal a year forward for a second round draft pick for goodness sake. That is not how you bottom out!