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Matt isn't a professional presenter, that's not his role, he is responsible for the content on the website which has improved significantly since he started. Maybe he isn't polished or as attractive as you are after but if you go back and look at the lack of content, articles, interviews pre him I think you may feel differently. The interviews with new staff, the increase in pieces such as the stats and tactical pieces on the site last year were all due to him pushing increased content. Have a chat with Matt, I think you'll see the positives in having him there

Yeah, I copped years of crap for wearing that number on my back, 6/7 years now (4 diffrerent jumpers), with a badge thrown in there for good measure. Friends were buying me drinks and giving me congratulations when he bagged 5 against the blues, I got messages of congratulations when he made the AA team last year. My support has never faltered. My girlfriend reguarly questions who I love more, her or the big man, I'm very good at changing the course of conversations

Not a comparable situation. Mitchell stepped down as a highly successful captain to honour his "Kirribilli Agreement" with Hodge. He had a young family - and wanted a bit more freedom to concentrate on his own game. Even if Greeny resigns - without pressure to stand down - , the perception will be that he didn't measure up. As captain he did have to cope with serious off-field tensions. Would the divisions have been wider - and would the players have been even more inconsistent - with someone else in the captain's chair? Without answers to these questions we need to be careful not to bag him outright. It would say something for his resilience if he threw his hat into the ring for a leadership position again.next year.....egocentric perhaps, unrealistic maybe - but tough nontheless To me it is very important that he remains at the club ... and that we as a group encourage him to play on.

He's not that comfortable infront of the camera yet, but he's light years ahead of Moloney and Green! But he excels at being the club's beat writer, which is what he pretty much is. Burgatron is alright by me. I think we're lucky to have him.

Interesting that on One Week at a Time last week, they rated Melbourne, along with Collingwood and the Kangaroos, as the three most approachable clubs in the AFL from a media perspective. (They rated St Kilda worst as a 'nearly-closed' shop, and Essendon, Hawthorn and Carlton as being very hard to get information from.) Sure much of it might be 'spin' but there's nothing injudicious about it, including the use of social media. There's nothing wrong with being approachable if you want positive press and to build favourable media relations.

Sorry I object to these people ringing up. My answer [censored] off!

It's the fact that we're not in our premiership window that actually allows us to do something like this, it's not a prohibitive. We wouldn't be drafting Kozi to be our premiership full forward, we'd be drafting our practice target until the real targets get good enough to be used in that capacity. The point is to fill a gap so the players playing in the guts get used to the idea that they can hoof it forward in times of an emergency and know that there'll be a bloke there who can grab it (this is why those who say they'd prefer Newton have obviously missed the point). The reason you can't use Jamar is because you need him in the ruck (!) and the reason you can't use Martin (when not in the ruck) is because he can't take the big marks yet. The reason you can't use Cook or Fitzpatrick yet is because they're not strong enough or good enough - the system is going to fall down if the option to use can't actually be used in the manner we want. I'm not necessarily pro-Kozi but I appreciate the logic. It's solving a clearly defined problem - we've got no giant who can be counted on to take a strong contested mark at any time during the game while our homegrown talent develops. We want our midfield to get used to hitting that target when there are no viable leading options so when the window is open, there's nothing new that needs to be learned in that regard. There aren't going to be too many options available to fill this role. I also don't share your view that Kozi wouldn't move. Dawes was never going to shift for mine - he's a young player whose best footy is ahead of him, playing in a successful team. Kozi might not "want" to move per se, but I expect St Kilda will listen to offers, and ultimately if we make an offer that is attractive to them and they indicate they want him to move on, he'll become a lot easier to convince.

I have watched Fitzpatrick play at Casey over the last two years and at the under 18 championships the year before. He has several attributes that make him a very attractive prospect. As you say, his speed, which is really good for anyone llet along a 200cm forward. Secondly he is a genuinely tall forward. Jack Darling is as close in height to Tom Scully as he is to Fitzpatrick. The reason why most ruckmen make poor key forwards is because they lack the mobility to play forward. Fitzpatrick has the ruck height but top quality forward mobility. It's a very rare combination. Only a minimal amount of weight? You clearly did not see him at all prior to him being drafted. He was ridiculously skinny. He ran like the wind but also could be blown over by a small zephyr. He came to the club at 85kg (same as Watts, but 2 inches taller) and is now listed (probably at the start of the year) at 93kg. He'll eventually get himself up to about 100 or so kg. He's much bigger than what he was when he was drafted. It appears that he's over his chronic fatigue now, which is good news. If you think his kicking is currently bad then you should have seen it when he was drafted. The only person I've seen who was a worse kick was Stefan Martin. That includes Jake Spencer and various Irish recruits. His kicking has improved a heap and continues to improve. He had a horrid technique which is looking a lot better now. Not strong enough in the air? He's a skinny developing key forward who takes plenty of strong contested marks at VFL level. He is very strong in the air and, with time and size, he will be a genuine AFL marking threat. He's 200+cm tall, developing (and has already developed a lot) and played AFL footy a year before I thought he would have a chance of doing so. I've been super impressed with his development so far - far more so than a lot of other player of ours. We were going to take Fitzpatrick in the second round of the draft in 2008, but we were lucky to get Gawn and then him in the third round. Why did he slide? A few reasons. Firstly his kicking. He was a very poor kick. Secondly, he was really, really skinny and you needed to be able to put time into developing him into the player he will be. It was a risk. Thirdly was his chronic fatigue. While it was not a long term problem, it was still a risk. Fourthly was his form. In his last year of under 18s his form was a bit scratchy, which may have had him drop down the rankings a bit. Overall, there was just so much projection of development needed that there was a lot of risk that he wouldn't become the player he could be. Luckily he has been putting on weight, his kicking is getting better and he's improving ahead of where he would have been projected to be. They re-signed him on a two year deal in the middle of the year while he was injured. I think that says a bit about where the coaches think he is. Making a hard call to delist a project tall, drafted as a stick figure in a position we really need, who has unique gifts among the league as a 200+cm player with genuine speed, that is developing extremely well and played AFL a year ahead of schedule. You're an idiot.

Just had a call from Deesbet, you know, the betting agency that relies on MFC supporters losing bets to return money to the football club. The sooner we rid ourselves of this insidious sponsor the better. And for the record yes I do have a regular bet on the horses.

I like him. He's not a flashy media performer but he seems genuine to me.

Interesting. I thought Matt's line of questions for interviews including Neeld, all the B&F place getters were ok. He may have had a sherbet or two before the end of the B&F count, who knows ? Personally, I think the club is lucky to have him. He's no Mal Walden, Peter Hitchener or Tony Jones for that matter. But he's a darn sight better than a Hutchy, better looking than Barrett and delivers better than Aami Parks from Aami Park !

I understand your point, and i agree with you in the sense that his interview skills leave a lot to be desired but the other media work he does is excellent and we usually have a constant flow of news coming out of the club. Perhaps he and the infamous 'Trumpeter' are related?

There's a bit of Andy Maher about him. But he asks the questions you expect of an inside reporter and writes well. I don't think he's in any danger. If we need to trim back on staff in our communications department then we might be an issue, but otherwise I'm still a Matty B fan.

I just hang up. Either that or I start saying "maaatt Damon" over and over

Now that's not fair. I won't have you denegrating the good folks at Champion Data like that.

they rang me last night just after i put my 18 month old son to bed my phone was in my pocket so it woke my son up. I saw that I didn't know the number so answered with "This better be F____N important". They said they would call me later.

This is a very important sentence hoopla. We do not know how much he did to try and keep unity around the club this year. I have been critical of his onfield leadership, and won't change that as it was woeful, but that is only one facet of the captains job. I too feel it is important he remains at the club, and whilst from what I have seen I would prefer another player as captain, I think he will not have two years like that in a row. You, slooniemcfloonieloonie, need to pull your head in??? You must be kidding Just to clarify, I love your style sloonie.

I think there's a difference between a one off 'administrative error' and 'prolonged systematic cheating'.

maybe that will be the job of one of the eight promised assistants? twitter assistant coach.

You are drastically overstating his weaknesses. If he was a bumbling fool who'd take out every other forward in every contest, I doubt St. Kilda would've let him anywhere near their prized forwards like Riewoldt or Milne during their finals campaigns. Of course nobody here is going to be a "massive" Koschitzke fan - if he was a player everyone loved then he wouldn't be available. Sure we'd love to attract Jonathan Brown of the 00s or Chris Dawes, but at some point we have to realise that if we want to fill this hole from the current talent pool then it has to be a B-Grader, because the best players won't budge. This isn't accepting mediocrity (before anyone bothers suggesting it) - it's just being realistic. He'd simply be there as an aide for building our structure. I quite like the idea as a stop-gap measure.

I think there is a difference between owning pokie machines and actively aligning yourself with a betting agency that engages in predatory advertising practices.

My offer still stands-- fly down and I will pick you up ,take you to training and bring you back to the airport..Love to do it and like to meet you..Are you prepared to do this?

Hopefully he can do something with Davey "anywhere"

And Emma Quayle seems to be very impressed with Satterley's appointment; she tweeted:

Like the Linsay Gaze line around if you're under 6"4 you have 5 minutes to convince him you can play. If your over 6"4, you have 5 years.

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You read too much.

The Gutte!

Why not? Cook v Harry Taylor with Scarlett coming over the top. Fitzpatrick v Chris Tarrant with Maxwell coming over the top. That's why not.

We've had threads about how good it would be to recruit a big power forward like Chris Dawes. He was Collingwood's pick 26 in 2006. He spent most of 2007 recovering from a knee reconstruction, played six games at the end of the 2008 season, then only four matches in 2009. Then he wasn't picked for the first four matches of 2010. But after that, he played 20 matches including the two 2010 Grand Finals. Imagine if Collingwood made a 'tough call' after three years on their list, and delisted him for being such a 'dud'?

This sums it up. Talls take time (with a few notably exceptions, eg, Darling, NikNat). Literally everyone knows this. Perhaps he won't make it - but it's clearly too early to call that now.

I like that he hasn't spent a lot of time telling us what he's going to do - he's just doing it. And he knows that in the end he will be judged by the results. Not his intentions.

I guess all players can't be as good as Dean Polo from day one.

I agree with "the Master" . From now on a dropped mark or missed pass in the first training run with the club after drafting will result in instant delisting.

How can one be 'virtual number one fan' of a player but want to trade said player?

I reckon what happens with Davey next year will be interesting. I argued until I was blue in the face last year that he was crucial to our midfield due to his primary weapons being class use of the ball. The club put in some hard yards converting him in to a midfielder and until this year I'd have called it a success. At his best Davey is our best user of the ball and was capable of nailing the foot passes with the highest degree of difficulty. He can also time his runs through packs to perfection. Pacy midfielder who gets plenty of the ball, splits packs and can hit a target even when under extreme pressure - what's not to like? Then this year happened. It's hard to imagine how he could possibly have had a worse year than this year. With his well documented "poor efforts" (being kind), his body language and his general poor form, he burned a great deal of credits with me. I still think there's a place for him in our midfield, but he's coming from a long way back after this year. I think using him as a forward is wasting his primary weapons. BTW he played forward in a couple of games this year and stunk in those too.

I stopped reading here.

I met jack at the G before the hawks game this year. this adds nothing to the conversation I know.

Definite possibility. I can see all of Bate, Warnock and Dunn being given second chances at other clubs.

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Definitely worth 2 years. If the Eagles had of applied this type of approach with their veterans over the last couple of years they may well have lost 1 or all of Embley, Glass, Cox, Lynch and Kerr and they all had excellent seasons. Good enough to propel them to a prelim. Brad has been in our best 5 players for for a long time. A 2 year deal for a bloke that won the B&F last year and staved off lucrative offers from Collingwood and Sydney not that long ago to stay with Melbourne when he was in his prime and we were cellar dwellers is hardly selling the farm. As for captaincy, I think he in consultaton witht he FD has earned the right to determine whether it is in the best interests of him as a player and the club to continue as captain in 2012 or handover to someone else.

Now lads. Let take the 9.1 million buy 45000 Melbourne memberships add them to our 40,000 members next year and [censored] of the bombr and the filth. and the moneys is still ours. win win

Its probably compensation for all those games Collingwood have to play in Melbourne poor dears don't get much opportunity to travel and see the country

The more I think about it, the more I convince myself that Beamer may just be perfect for the captaincy role. He has proven through is ability to rebound from what must have been a very humiliating experience with his demotion, that he can up his performance in the face of adversity (or in this case, the weight of captaincy that hit Green) and being a died in the wool Dees supporter all of his life, it MUST be his dream to lead the club and I am sure that would drive him to perform well above his current level. (he could have Jones and Garland as his deputies)

Trade for Goddard? You bet your sweet arse we should trade for Goddard. Both compo picks and a swap of first round picks. I would do it in a heart beat!

I'm pretty sure there is. I'm probably being precious, but it's a bit of a peeve of mine when players have to be "the next XYZ". Let the players be individuals without needing to have an instant comparison, and therefore enormous shoes to fill, before their careers have even started. Especially when being compared to a unique case like Liam Jurrah.

Does that mean we shouldn't invest in any more non-indigenous players?? I could mount a case to say they have been equally if not more inconsistent than the indigenous players. How about we pick the best players we can irrespective of their background and back our systems to make them the best they can be.

Ironic likeage.

This like button is proving useful. Instead of commenting +1 or that I like what a previous poster is saying I cans simply 'Like' the post. Well done Andy.

Nice little insight to see how Neeld operates with his players, lets hope this scene can be recreated next year with them both in red&blue.