Leaderboard

If I may I would like to address a couple of your comments and appreciate everyone has their own opinion. In terms of management style and whats right and wrong, history shows there are many different styles of leadership that can be successful. Singling out players rightly or wrongly according to the latest management school of thought has been done because every player needs something different. Not one approach fits all. I can suggest with some authority that Neeld holds strongly to the value that every single player needs to be coached, lead and challenged differently, not one size fits all. He challenged Jack early as he thought thats what Jack will respond to. It is actually as simple as that. You cannot say that is Neelds' style. In fact it is a management solution that fit a certain situation to which he applied to Jack. I hope that makes sense. Secondly, Neeld himself was the first person to point out to players at our club on arrival that at CFC tell everyone they have the best club and resources in the world. The fact is he told them MFC have newer and better facilities for PLAYERS. This does not mean the coaching staff do. Yes we have invested in more coaches than ever and that is a huge step which Neeld himself initiated and led. I can tell you it is falacy to suggest that our football club coaching staff have better resource off the ground than other clubs. Neeld has personally driven the club to get up to speed on all types of common industry coaching support tools which the football club didn't have. The club has traditionally thought it was an innovator but reality is they have been at the bottom of the table for everything to do with coaching resource and infrastructure. Again I make these statements as I have a bit to do with most AFL clubs and can also benchmark MFC. Neeld has done a MAMMOTH job to rectify this and has worked himself and the staff into the nights to get it to where it needs to be in order to play on a level playing field. When I say mammoth what he has done so far is outstanding. But he knows there is so much more to do and the club admin needs to make further gains to support him. Again I understand everyone is entitled to an opinion, but its very easy to cast judgement when you don't actually know what, who, where and how are going on behind the scenes. Just one more point on emotion if I may indulge ... Mark is not emotional about our players. He is objective and sees them for what they are. They are the people who bring to life his game plan. He is VERY strategic and the emotion will come in when you start to see players earn his pride and trust. It has still been a blank canvas and rightly he is at the moment letting the Sports Science team get the job done to get the players into the shape required to be part of the game plan to deliver ultimate success. It is my personal opinion that Mark will use the emotion card alot like we have see Chris Scott or Brad Scott....Rarely....but for a purpose. Don't underestimate MN, everything he does is calculated and for a purpose driven outcome. A game is yet to be played. But if MN does fail it will not be because he didn't leave no stone unturned. Go Dees

I took the liberty of creating a short video of the clips I took during the forward 50 entry drill and the clearance work Video deleted as per clubs wishes It includes the injury to Howe, clanger kicks from Jetta and Bennell and a nice mark from Watts

That might well be the case but I thought he put his case well and argued it through in a clear and concise manner. That's what debating and discussion of this nature should be like rather than the nitpicking, ad hominem attacks or misrepresenting other peoples' viewpoints which happens on this and many other forums (please note, I'm not having a go at any individual poster on this thread). BTW, I read the views of the new AFL coaches for 2012 in Inside Football and didn't consider it a contest between them as to who was the best or the worst media performer. That's something that in the main is in the eye of the beholder anyway (I was more interested in what they had to say about lifting their respective teams and all made some interesting points and observations). I consider Malthouse and Clarkson as poor media performers but they're premiership coaches and I think Clarkson is a terrific coach in that he is innovative and flexible both during and between games. He's fortunate to have a great list but it's what he does with it that impresses.

Like it or not Austin made the decision to walk away from the game as it was his right to do. The personal tragedies and the injuries did not help. I think we should all wish him well representing the Tiwi Islands which is his home and that he can be happy in his place there.

vote #1 jones

I say put the video back up. If other teams start copying us it might bring them down to our level.

The mourning process for indigenous Australians is very complex & sometimes lenghty(sometimes upto 18 months). It can probably only be fully understood by a member of that community. Anyone making a judgement on whether Austin has enough heart is being unfairly judgmental IMO. Only Austin knows what his obligations are & some posters should seek to understand what he is going thru before forming an opinion.

I'm with you WW. I've been wrong more often than I care to remember but this bloke seems to me to have so much talent. I think potentially he could be Barry Prendergasts best value for money pick and could be one of our most important players going forward.

Yeah trenners... thanks for going to the trouble. Interesting that you caught the moment when Davis clipped Howe. I'm hoping Number 38 is on the paddock in the morning. He is set for a breakout that will see him rated highly across the comp.

Sorry everyone, I assumed (incorrectly) that open training sessions are ok to post information about, including videos. Damian Hardwick was even there at once stage to check out this session! But I understand that if we can help it, we shouldn't be posting videos online for others to see, to make it easier to check out what our boys are doing! It's been deleted. Cheers

I'm not sure Neeld's comments were even statements of negativity. He said Watts needed to: Focus on becoming an elite footballer. Find new levels of fitness and hunger Develop a massive work ethic and appetite to play footy Not forget his core business and train really hard Get to know the new sports science director really well Get to know his new coaches really well Get a massive work ethic to fall back on and train his backside off. Sounds like statements of positivity and an action plan to me (nowhere did he use perjoratives like 'lazy', 'disinterested' or 'unprofessional'). The only argument could be whether it should or shouldn't be in the pages of the Herald-Sun. You can't discount the idea that the club, Neeld and Watts were happy for such a challenge to be made public.

I don't think Neeld's comment about Watts were "humiliation". They were a challenge and a call to improve ... improving his dedication, his professionalism, his application and his training output are exactly what Watts needs if you ask me. Here's the article: Lift your game. It's also part of the new coach showing some authority, including in the press. Elsewhere, I'm a bit confused about what you deem to be a "performance". Your references seem to be to articles in the written media, which to me aren't really 'performances' at all. There's also often not a lot Neeld can do to totally control what the press reports. Also, as a new coach, I'm prepared to accept a few mistakes, and forgive a few utterances that perhaps should have been left unsaid ... not that there's been many by my reckoning. "Media performance" (not just words in articles) to me is really shown in the television medium, and Neeld has been fine. He's not full of charisma, and he doesn't seem to joke much (perhaps he's wisely following the teacher control maxim of 'never smiling before Easter'), but he's straight down the line, doesn't 'um' and 'ah' much, and generally speaks intelligently, knowledgeably and without hesitation. He answers questions directly, without fuss, 'management speak' or obfuscation. I think he's much better than Bailey, who began every answer with a long nasally 'aaahhhh ...', and refreshingly he also doesn't have the media distrust, rudeness and suspicion of older, more cynical coaches like Malthouse. At least not yet.

How after the last 5 years can ANYONE be concerned about what has happened over the last 5 months!!! Astounding IMO.

Yeah well, I reckon Id rather have a coach that can just give the media the bird, rather than one selling ice creams to who ever wants to listen.....go dees at last, lets give this guy a red hot go and we,ll see where we are 2 years from now.

You sort of get the feeling that the MFC went after a new coach... the likes of which it had a reasonable idea of, but whats transpired since is Neeld's proved a catalyst for wholesale change. I think we're still coming to terms with this as its been so throrough and so dynamic. In so manyrespects its hard to recognise this club as ours. No complaints mind you You cant expect to build anything substantial and long-lived without due care to the foundations. These seem to have been implemented , and of a scale and design never seen before at the MFC. Rome wasnt bult in a day , but built it was, grand it became, and awed in its day and still now. One of the many endearing legacies of Rome, and particular its great Colliseum was how it took a simple building unit, that you and I know as a brick and remoulded it, redefined it and utilised it in ways un heard of before. Its not always the complexity or ability of any single aspect that determines effeciveness and success its the design and implementation that ensures this. This is exactly how I see the club at present. Neeld and Co are taking our 'units' and redeploying them into roles better suited to not only themselves but the greater good of our own Rome...aka The Mighty Demons. If he ( Neeld ) is half as good a thinker re football ( gameday) as he is in regard to all that goes into getting there then we are in for some interesting times