Times up?

[Vipercrunch 2,827]

I remember walking away from the Richmond lose last year and predicting that Daniher had coached his last game for Melbourne. I walked away from the game on Saturday, this time predicting that maybe it was time for a mid-season retirement of one of Melbournes all time greats.

The David Neitz I saw has lost the ability to compete. The mind seems willing, but his body no longer has the ability to take him where he needs to go. The amount of times I saw him attempt to get the ball, only for his body to leave him inches (sometimes feet) short, well it was sad.

He has by far been my favourite player over the last 10 years. A true champion of Melbourne, but I can't see any point in him continiung. There will be no fairy tale finish to his career. We are too far from any real success to even dream that. Perhaps he still has a role to play off the field, especially if there is a problem between the coach and players as some are reporting, but on field, I think his time is up.

The only drawback as far as I can see is who will take his spot as captain. As far as Full Forward goes, I would be happy to see Miller parked there for several games, or Newton if he can find the will to compete (if only we could put the competetive nature of Neitz into the body of Newton). But who should replace him as captain? The only names I could come up with were Cameron Bruce (I disagree with what many people around here are saying) or James MacDonald.

[Gorgoroth 12,963]

Bruce is not a captain, need to lead by example and bruce does not in the hard contested ball area, Junior is the best bet, but for me I think NEitz will play till seasons end, unless he gets injured, no way in the world will the club lean on the big man to retire early either.