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So went to dinner and did have the pleasure of speaking to Mark. Got quite a few questions answered. I must say that after speaking with him there is no doubt the club is in GREAT hands. Those piecing blue eyes could kill someone on the spot! So a few answers to questions out there. 1. Perception the club is under resourced/behind with facilities. He and Neil Craig believe when compared to Collingwood and Crows Melbourne have the same if not BETTER facilities than these clubs. The club is also more resourced with people than the other two clubs mentioned. More that our people have not had role clarity and have not been working efficiently. Told the players stop thinking facilities are any excuse - big change in culture and mindset. Restructured staff - right people in the right places. They must become more efficient. 2. Mitch Clarke offer never changed from the time it was pitched to the second pitch in Brisbane. That was media make up. The amounts reported are also overstated. 3. He said numerous times - 'I only get one shot at this.' Thats why I got Mitch Clarke, thats why we are getting the best people to the club. I want to win. You get the impression this guy will stop at nothing to ensure success. 4. Clubs volume of training was HALF of what Collingwood, Adelaide and Stkilda do. Players are no where near ready to play how he wants them to play next year and reality is this will be a stepped approach to get them to where they need to be physically to play AFL. They wont be playing his game plan exactly how he wants it next year as they currently are so far off physical requirements. 5. Matthew Bate - We will need soldiers next year as most players are not ready for AFL football. He is a required player who has the potential. 6. Its a new leaf for every player at the club and they will need to show him leadership via actions during preseason, The leaders will automatically show out and he will be selecting the leadership group. ALL players will be starting from scratch he has an open mind. 7. Thinks alot of Trengove and Frawley when I posed as leaders. 8. He has had 2 days off in his first 5-6 weeks. He has been home only 4 times during that time. He is working over time to get systems and processes and structures fixed. He acknowledged so he should be - 'its what Melbourne supporters want me to do' And again 'I only get one shot at this.' 9. Didnt want to be drawn on Scully. Never had him so doesnt make any difference to Mark. 10. Colin needs to learn you represent the MFC even when you play for Aust. Drinking night before any training is not acceptable. 11. If a solid experienced player is available at pick 36 he will consider to add body strength to the playing group. 12. Melbourne couldnt get in the door for Caddy as Essendon took up the last day with mediation. 13. Views on particular players - he said we will find out Monday at training. 'I have an open mind until I see them on the track.' Reserves all judgement until then. 14. Still waiting til Monday to see if Aussie comes back from holiday to see what next steps are. Words to describe: Genuine, down to earth, confident, strong, steely, balanced and knows very clearly what he wants from himself and everyone around him. The boys ARE in for it on Monday! Go Dees!

Message to Hawthorn soon to be ex President, stop complaining, we also play 5 intersate teams in Melbourne, if you choose to sell 4 home games in Tasmania you get what you are given. If you played 11 home games at the MCG you would have 5-6 home games against Victorian clubs.

"Who is your favourite poster on Demonland?"

If it wasn't for the Darwin game, I would be rapt with this draw. I really hope they're planning a way out of there in the next few years as it places our entire season in jeopardy.

Of the top 10 in season 2011 we only get the Saints twice and they may fall away anyway . The opening 5 games are all winnable with the probable exception of West Coast . Tough run between R6 and R11 though Essendon and Sydney are beatable - this group of games are gonna be a challenge for Neeld and co. - we need to somehow hold our ground during this time - though it would have been far worse if this stretch of games were in the 2nd half of the year . The long run home after the bye is a not tough - have we ever had an easier 2nd half of the season ? The 2nd half of the season only has 2 games against last years top 10 teams - Saints and North - both winnable . Freo away in the last round may be an irrelevant game . Esp if we can't move anywhere within the 8 ! Overall - very , very happy - we've had far worse draws . I like that we will be tested early against the Eagles - The Bulldogs and Saints in rounds 4 and 5 for the same reason - both at the G - Ideal .

what are your daughters' phone numbers?

Bailey did the rotten dirty work to get picks. Prendergast seems to have done a good job with the bounty he was given. Jimma has done a great job getting rid of debt. And now to the "new" FD. They've done nothing yet and to say they have had little fanfare is a strange interpretation of events. They have an exceptional opportunity and have inherited fertile ground. If this footy department succeed it will be built on the work of Bailey who probably sacrificed (in part) his senior coaching dreams for our club and some good work and good fortune off field. Thanks Bails.

Pretty much done to death but there will be one day a realisation that the problem is not with the full back kicking out but the continual lack of movement by anyone upfield to give the kicker a viable clear option to kick to. We just don't work hard enough to get a couple of metres of clear space.

I keep reading how well we have done with two 1st round picks for our GWS recruit, but like WYL I don't buy it. We wouldn't swap our pick 2 JT to Port for 8&9 and here we are getting about 13 & 16 for number 1 pick in the country. Would Tigers swap Martin for picks 13 & 16, would Hawks swap Hodge for 13 & 16. The compensation is nothing like what was lost. The only thing I hope is that we have dodged a bullet if the injuries are as bad as I have heard. I wish people would stop saying we were fairly compensated because we weren't. We were just compensated according to AFL guidelines not fairly or adequately.

Do you watch Breaking Bad?

What I like about the events post-season so far is the rebuild of the football department has proceeded without fanfare. Piece by piece we have put together a new coach, fitness coach, coaching director comprising highly regarded individuals who have seen success at their former clubs. There's been no big statements from Schwab, Connolly or Lyon. They've just put the pieces in place. Considering Bails was inherited from the Harris-Gardner regime, and that what has been done over the past month could not have been achieved without Jimmy's debt reduction and club stabilization program, what we are getting to now is Jimmy's real legacy. More than compensatory draft picks or short term fixes to the game plans, the football department reform we are now seeing is what will shape the medium term future of this club. I for one am getting seriously upbeat about the future. This could be one wild ride.

THANK YOU UMPIRES ... by Whispering Jack For the first time since the introduction of drafting, the Melbourne Football Club will not have a selection in the top 30 at next month's AFL National Draft meeting. The club's head of recruiting, Barry Prendergast will have to sit down and bide his time all the way to selection 36 while all but one of the 17 other AFL clubs nominate their first picks. The new boys from Greater Western Sydney will have a field day at the meeting. Their man will call out eleven names well before Prendergast gets half way through considering what to do with his first pick. A few other clubs will already be packing their bags and thinking of heading home by that time. The Giants need those eleven early selections. They're the new kid on the block and they're already feeling the heat. The Giants' recruiting to date has been a singular and gigantic failure as evidenced by the fact that not a single player in the prime of his career could be enticed into Sheedy's lair despite rules that were stacked in his favour. Throughout the past two or three months, I've found myself wondering where are the 25 year olds who can play the game and who have the hunger to cop huge coin to pioneer its development in the nether regions of Australia's largest city? Is there nobody at all in that age bracket with an old man who can boast an ability to become an overnight sensation at talent spotting? If only Setanta had a father with the necessary skill sets to take on the role of CEO over there at Blacktown, the lad would be a shoe in to win a charcoal and orange monstrosity of a uniform and on his way to a life of fame and ... yes ... fortune. But I digress. Meanwhile back at the draft table, only Collingwood will have its chance to name a future star after Melbourne, but the Pies have already snared three players during trade week and, given the state of their list, I don't think there are too many furrows on the brows of the Pies' recruiting staff as a result of their late entry into the fray. Of course, the Demons themselves scored nicely during the exchange period with that well documented recruiting coup that netted Brisbane tall forward Mitch Clark for draft pick 12 to the Lions. The irony is that while Melbourne lost its 2009 number one draft pick Tom Scully to a far superior financial offer by Greater Western Sydney, it managed to beat off Fremantle for his replacement and secured a 200cm tall player who most definitely should fill one of the major positional gaps in its line up - one the club has been crying out for so loudly for so long. Whether this becomes a win for the club will be determined in the fulness of time but the story of the recruiting coup against the odds and the manner of its execution was uplifting in the light of the club's dark end to its 2011 playing season. Even more ironical is the fact that the club should never have been in a superior bargaining position over the Dockers to secure their man in the first place - a fact directly related to the team's poor finish this year. If Melbourne had managed to win that last game - the Round 24 fixture against Port Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval - it would have finished in tenth place for which it would have been entitled to pick number 17 in the draft instead of 12 while Fremantle would have finished two places lower giving it 14. The altered draft positions would have given the Dockers the upper hand to secure Clark from Brisbane. The result could well have left the Dees with the higher selection and another trade week might have passed for the club with no big name signings. There could well have been no high profile power forward at the club and nothing to rejoice about in another year's wasted effort at the trade table. Instead, those who remember that game at the Adelaide Oval might well thank the umpires who appeared to give the home side an armchair ride on that Sunday afternoon. The free kick count was heavily slanted against the Demons and who could ever forget the daylight robbery perpetrated against Jeremy Howe, deprived of a mark of the year nomination dead in front of goal by one of many umpiring howlers on the day? The cynics among us might even suggest that there was an element of ... er, ahem, tanking with a depleted team that should never have gone close to losing against the lowly Power but whether it was the umpires or a touch of tanking deja vu, the game's outcome almost certainly helped in delivering Melbourne's first big name recruit in almost two decades. The absence of even one pick in the top 35 translates in a reduced level of interest towards what is widely regarded as a shallow draft and this means we will be looking at next month's draft differently this year. There will be a greater focus on the selections made by Barry Prendergast with what are now picks 36, 52 and 54 but it will be more of a case of looking at those games after the event because only a brave soul could really claim to predict who will be selected in advance of the meeting. All we can say is that if the Demons' recruiting guru manages to snaffle players of the quality of Howe, Davis and McDonald who were taken in 2010 at similar levels, then it will be a job well done.

I read this thread until the words "Colin is a victim" come across the page... The internet just sighed that someone wrote that on it.

How the f**k is getting [censored], walking away from the scene of an accident involving your own car (even if your not the driver) and not contacting the club for several hours (after the police, in fact) "showing a bit of mongrel"??? It certainly shows a great deal of terminal stupidity, but mongrel?.... nah! And the fact that the club is prepared to come down hard on him will hopefully be a sign that the pissant culture is on the way out.

Well I think it's BS. The guy was on annual leave. He was smart enough not to drive. The police are taking no action because no offence was committed.

Col Sylvia for captain! ...anyone?

I get what you are saying but I just see it as more likely that Gubby offered it (yuck) or Phil wanted it (eww). And Velocity was stuck in the middle with p.u.

actually rpfc I can think of a few scenarios where Velocity/GWS may have made the suggestion bottom line is we don't know who instigated the nepotism but we do know who accepted it

I reckeon it's a great draw if we're up for it - a great chance to come home flying

Some people are getting way too excited about Gawn right now. Jamar is still far better than Gawn and will be for the foreseeable future. I think Gawn is a really exciting prospect but he's still a long way off, so let's not count our chickens before they hatch.

I'm happy to play Essendon away every year if we get to play Collingwood at home every year on Queen's Birthday.

Absolutely Never let hindsight be mistaken for foresight.

My thoughts: Home games: 13 games at the G, 9 of which are home games (away games against Richmond, Carlton, Essendon and St. Kilda). Score: 8/10. Loses points for the Etihad game against Freo and having fewer games at our ground than Collingwood, but overall a very good result. Play GWS at the G which is huge. Interstate games: 6. Score: 4/10. We sell one of these to Darwin against Port so we can't complain about that, but we make two trips to Perth to play likely the two best interstate sides. Play GWS at Manuka instead of Sydney. No trips to Adelaide is a bonus. Timeslots: The times are all over the shop with 9 games a week, but we play 8 Saturday arvo games, 1 Friday night home game against the Hawks, and only 6 Sunday games, of which one is at 1.10 and another at 1.45. Great result with the Saturdays. Score: 9/10 Ease of draw: We play St. Kilda, Richmond, Freo, GWS and Brisbane twice. St. Kilda would be the shakiest finals team from last year and they're the only finalist we play twice, and both times at the G! We only play at Etihad twice, but once again travel to Kardinia Park, and we play in Perth in the final round. Score: 8.5/10. I think we've done very well here. I thought after receiving such a cream puff draw last year we'd be given a much tougher one this year, but we've done well again. Let's start performing on the field and then the business side of the draw will take care of itself. It's a very good draw for the team, hopefully we can make the most of it and make the 8.

I think we play 8 in the 22 not counting "the flankers" - the starting 5 with the ruckman and 3 on the bench with the 2nd ruckman - one of them is interchange. At least 1 of "the flankers" run through the midfield also so I reckon there's 9 in the 22. Moloney, McKenzie, Trengove, Sylvia, Blease, Bail, Jones, Grimes, Gysberts, Morton, Petterd ...

Similar stuff was written this time last year, since then the on field performance has gone backwards, the senior players preformed badly, there were off field behaviour problems, our number one draft pick left the club, the coach was sacked, the players turned on the management, the club was divided, Lyon started sniping from the sidelines, and Jimmy has had to step away from having an active role. Hopefully we are in for a good season, but get realistic, nothing has changed yet.

Unless he wants to go, I think we should just keep him and we might find the careers of Jamar and Gawn compliment each other and in 3 years time Jamar might be near the end as The Gawn Decade © begins. And even if Jamar is still at the club, it doesn't mean Gawn cannot be first ruck or play ahead of him. I just think that Jamar is such a great tap ruckman that I would like to have him show Gawn how to go about it.

... and it's so go to see a tweet from Jim:-

You're right. I forgot Luke ball. DOH! That aside, I still think Geelong's midfield were physically stronger and knew how to win the big ones.

Given that you didn't support the club through the humiliating years of 87-88, not to mention the 23-24 years previous to that, are you in any position to make any judgements about the Melbourne Football Club? There you go wyl.

You don't mean "The Dutch Paul Newman" do ya Yoda ?

Darryl Hannah....

What was it like acting opposite Harrison Ford in Bladerunner?

I would think it'll be a cold day in hell before much really eminated from the bowels of GWS . Keep in mind its books are really just a chapter of the AFL's own. Vlad isnt likely to unveil much anytime soon. Be interesting to see where Holmes heads next.

See Brad Green's latest Tweet? "BradGreen18 GWS and Scull bring a whole new dimension to the Father-Son rule!!!"

With the apparent imminent appointment of Dave Matthews (big AFL brain) as GWS CEO it certainly looks as though some direction has come down along the lines of 'this is embarrassing us, people.'

Hot News Flash. $$cully's Mum is now the new CEO

I like the thought but i believe the AFL's response to you will be "tell WYL he's dreamin' .. "

The thing with Davis that makes him such a good prospect is his raw power. Explosively fast, good hands and willing to back himself and break a tackle. Currently excellent defensively and started to add a really damaging dash to his game later on. Seems very coachable too. Quality prospect who makes the back line very flexible.