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4 members in our household - we'll donate $100 bucks each to the club for being a place of principle and integrity. Well done MFC!

Good strategy - bully the club when it's clearly in all manner of poo through no (or little) fault of its own. Cut the self-important bullshit - your $1000 means piss all in the context of a $2m sponsorship anyway.

What [censored] me off in all this is that IN NO WAY IS THE CLUB RACIST. Yet the headlines are "demons race row deepens". I CALL SHENANIGANS

I've always wondered what it means when people say our club doesn't stand for anything. Especially because I couldn't see what any other club stood for. But now I know out club does stand for something - decency.

So, you are a "glass half full" sort of guy then...

While Pollis certainly made some woeful remarks, when the dust settles on this one, can we transfer our energy on club sponsors to issues around particular sponsors that are actually important? A quick scan of the 18 club websites showed me, and this is just the ones I know about, that: * Five clubs (with three different companies) wear apparel provided by companies that currently or recently manufacture goods in sweatshops. * At least six clubs are sponsored by companies that provide life-destroying goods or services (alcohol and gambling) * Three clubs are sponsored by companies with a proven track record of human rights abuse * One club has a sponsor whose CEO made absolutely disgraceful marks regarding the homeless and charity that made news within the last 3 1/2 years * One club is sponsored by a company that has been involved in dodgy practices regarding player payment I find it frustrating that we can muster up such a frenzy over an issue like this, but can we turn a blind eye to blatant injustice around us that ruins lives. I'm not putting a position forward on where Melbourne goes to from here, but merely pointing out that as sponsors go, Energy Watch is hardly at the top of the nasty tree. Unfortunately, the timing couldn't have been worse.

Just viewed the press conference with Cam and I feel proud to be a Demon. He was outstanding.

I dont know about you guys but honestly with all the crap thats gone on this year in the media, I dont think i have been prouder before to be a demon supporter. The way everything has been handled i think has been extremely well and they deserve alot of credit for it, it wouldn't have been easy. Sure the players havn't performed on the park YET, but we know they will turn that part around. The roots are there now so the onfield performance has only one way to go. Just want to say well done to the Administration team, coaching staff and players for how they have progressed through the last few months.

He looks like Lance Whitnall after two hours in a microwave oven.

Hi,just joined demonland. I've just donated $200.00 to the club as a show of support and solidarity. It's been a tumultuous time lately. It's still a long road .tunnel up ahead.

Well, I am ashamed of you, if you are disgusted by what has just happened. Living up to your principles, even if it costs you, especially if it costs you, is to be valued and not disgusted.

The wheel of publicity turns in mysterious ways Thomo, we will be ok. I am old fashioned, when you do the right thing and act with consistency and integrity and set standards, good things happen.

Community Engagement Officer - interesting title for a job which can, as it turns out, be used to vilify someone without checking the facts. Previously, this guy Mifsud has tabled a couple of reports to the AFL regarding comments made about indigenous players (17th June, 2010 re: Mal Brown and the unfortunate Matt Rendell). Both times the AFL took it further and acted reasonably appropriately after no doubt checking the facts. But from what I understand in Mark Neelds case, Mifsud didn't get what he wanted, so he "leaked" the rumours to his mate in the media. GT being what he is, published immediately. Perhaps Mifsud should heed his own words (this from his own presser on 17th June, 2010): "The most basic and fundamental human right is a person’s identity and any remarks, comments or language that diminishes that sense of identity is indefensible."

Great press conference performance from Schwabby........................very, very polished in what is a difficult situation.

I'll make it simple for you Simma. It's a personal choice sort of thing Nobody is pressuring you If someone else wants to contribute its none of your damn business no-one is saying the club shouldn't be trying to raise revenue too got it have a nice day

I tell you what, when all of the shite does pass by and we start playing some good footy, I can't help but think that this playing group is going to become one of the most galvanised, hard-arsed bunch of players going around. Talk about learning from experience! The emotions the whole club has gone/going through can't be simulated. Last week is history and we learnt that making a stand is something more than the players assumed. Stand up and be counted lads. Go DEE'S

Not entirely certain where you are going with that reference but as I said in another thread - this is a good day for the values of the MFC, and I gave the club $415 this morning in two superfluous memberships and a raffle ticket to illustrate my feelings.

and how well has the MFC handled everything. Couldn't have been any better in my opinion

Given that we were in the media spotlight, we had to act quickly on this one to be able to control the story. We can now control the message from the story as 'we are a club of high integrity and this is unacceptable - we're too good for him so we dumped him', rather than sitting on our hands for a day and then having the media find a different angle as they speculated.

Who knew you could sue people for frustrating you. I could have been a millionaire by now!

Benny-boy, for me it is all about getting a good midfielder. Just one. We have the structure but no heart. We need a heart. We have the supporting cast; we need a star. If Jamar goes and we can get another decent pick and another potential mid, well, that is fine. We have martin & clark; spencer and fitzpatrick are developing...oh and gawn, who I think shows a bit to go on with. I'd trade almost anyone for one very good mid.

Yet Trengove, Watts, and many many other players chose to stay long term. Please, he left because he is a scumbucket who cares only for the money. Don't bring yet another sh*t person into this discussion.

I fail to see what the MFC has done wrong this week. An afl employee spreads untrue rumours, is shown to be wrong and somehow we cop the flak. Then the CEO of our sponsor makes racist comments on his own Facebook, and we are the racist ones. WE ARE THE VICTIMS HERE. we have done no wrong. We will flick our major sponsor. We have to. I expect the victory and the rebels to do the same. But to turn around and say its all the clubs fault? No way. I'm not copping that.

WHO ARE WE? by Whispering Jack A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since Melbourne's NAB Cup win over Collingwood when we were all so excited about the direction the club was taking under new coach Mark Neeld. It might have been a Mickey Mouse NAB Cup game in which both teams were missing regular key players, but there were definite signs that the hard work of summer was about to pay some dividends. It's hard to believe that only one month has elapsed since that time of unbridled optimism for the immediate future of the Melbourne Football Club. Since then the club has lurched from one disaster after another starting with the Liam Jurrah crisis and reaching a crescendo with a disastrous situation created by Jason Mifsud, an AFL official talking out of school to media person Grant Thomas who promptly published untrue allegations against Demon coach Mark Neeld. What should be a major crisis for the AFL and it's leadership has been turned into an opportunity for diverse groups and individuals to dump on one of its clubs. In the interim, Melbourne has barely raised a whimper on the field copping a couple of NAB Cup wallopings and a humiliating 41 point drubbing at home against the Brisbane Lions who finished in 15th place last year. Moreover, the club has been subjected to a blaze of criticism from good judges of football and from the bad. David King claims that "Melbourne has been masquerading as a football club for years". Robert Shaw says "Jack Watts was hijacked by the Melbourne Football Club at 17 years of age ... straight into an institution." Others accuse the playing group of being mentally and physically fragile, lacking in talent and demonstrating a shortage of the pride, passion and interest necessary to achieve success. Some of the criticism is justified but some of it is muddled and without any depth of thought or insight. The usual response when a team gets a lashing from the press is to return fire and prove the pundits wrong. Melbourne's problem is that it faces a the difficult task of rejuvenation in what has become it's "house of hell" - Paterson's Stadium - a cursed place where not a single current Melbourne player has seen victory. It last won there in Round 19, 2002. A few years before that, the Demons did manage to produce a shock victory over the Eagles in Perth with an undermanned and depleted side. That was in round 14, 1998 when Melbourne 14.12.96 defeated West Coast 11.13.79 in Robbo's break out game. It would be an understatement to say that the club needs a repeat of the heroics the team produced on that day. Demon coach Mark Neeld has ridden the waves of last week's disasters with class. He was impressive in handling the after match presser last Saturday and has been strong on the Mifsud issue correctly shunning the advice of AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou to take legal action over Thomas' comments. Neeld is resolute. He isn't interested in pursuing personal vendettas or engaging in witch hunts over who leaked the story to the AFL official who passed on the malicious gossip to someone who wasn't too particular about fact checking, a practice employed by most reputable journalists before going to print. He knows he has to keep focussed on the main purpose of his job and that is to develop his list, to win games and ultimately, premierships. The greatest coach in the club's history was brought down in the midst of preoccupation with a defamation action, a situation from which it has never fully recovered. The team Neeld takes across the Nullarbor must not be distracted by the off field events. The players need to show that they're prepared to have a dip as they did a month ago against one of the competition's flag favourites. Their performance this week against the Eagles could well define the direction they will take in the coming months and years. It will prove who we are as a club. - Ralph Waldo Emerson (American author and poet) THE GAME West Coast Eagles v Melbourne at Paterson's Stadium - Saturday 7 April 2012 at 4:40pm (AEST). HEAD TO HEAD Overall West Coast 27 wins Melbourne 15 wins At Patersons Stadium West Coast 13 wins Melbourne 5 wins Since 2000 West Coast 11 wins Melbourne 7 wins The Coaches Worsfold 0 wins Neeld 0 wins MEDIA Fox Footy Channel live at 4.30 pm (Victoria) RADIO SEN ABC774 THE BETTING West Coast to win $1.06 Melbourne to win $9.00 LAST TIME THEY MET West Coast 16.14.110 defeated Melbourne 9.8.62 at Etihad Stadium Round 21, 2011 The Demons were two weeks into the post Dean Bailey era and after a competitive first twenty minutes or so, managed to sink into the standard insipid fare they produced at the time. Jeremy Howe was a stand out and Sam Blease showed some flashes but for the most part it was dross. THE TEAMS WEST COAST EAGLES Backs Beau Waters Darren Glass Will Schofield Half backs Adam Selwood Eric Mackenzie Shannon Hurn Centreline Andrew Gaff Matthew Priddis Matthew Rosa Half forwards Ashton Hams Quinten Lynch Jack Darling Forwards Josh Hill Josh Kennedy Chris Masten Followers Dean Cox Luke Shuey Daniel Kerr Interchange Andrew Embley Nic Naitanui Scott Selwood Ashley Smith Emergencies Sam Butler Patrick McGinnity Gerrick Weedon No change. MELBOURNE Backs Clint Bartram James Frawley Joel Macdonald Half backs Colin Garland Jared Rivers Jamie Bennell Centreline Nathan Jones Jack Grimes Jack Watts Half forwards Jeremy Howe James Sellar Ricky Petterd Forwards Brad Green Mitchell Clark Lynden Dunn Followers Mark Jamar James Magner Jack Trengove Interchange Rohan Bail Matthew Bate Tom McDonald Jordie McKenzie Emergencies Aaron Davey Josh Tynan (Stef Martin) In Jamie Bennell Lynden Dunn Tom McDonald Ricky Petterd James Sellar Out Sam Blease Aaron Davey Stef Martin Brent Moloney (injured) Josh Tynan New James Sellar (Adelaide) Umpires L Farmer M Leppard G Fila RAINY DAY WOMEN #12 & 35 "Well, they’ll stone ya when you’re trying to be so good They’ll stone ya just a-like they said they would They’ll stone ya when you’re tryin’ to go home Then they’ll stone ya when you’re there all alone But I would not feel so all alone Everybody must get stoned" - by Bob Dylan I couldn't help thinking about this Dylan song every time I picked up a newspaper or switched on the radio or television set this week. And just so you don't get any wrong impressions, the writer has said of his work that the reference to stoning was in the biblical sense. It seems no matter what happens, whether the truth is told about us or not, whether we do the honourable thing or not, we're going to get "stoned" and the critics are out there like vultures circling their prey particularly because we're vulnerable at the moment. And perhaps it's because of that vulnerability that the West Coast Eagles are treating this game with a touch of caution. They happen to be almost the flavour of the month after coming into last season as the previous year's wooden spooner, rising to preliminary finalists and opening last week with a big away from home win against the Bulldogs (who should prepare themselves for a stoning if they fail in Adelaide on Saturday). The Eagles don't have an A class midfield like the other premiership contenders but it's handy and has some emerging young contenders like Shuey, Gaff and Masten to go with experienced hands in Priddis, Kerr, Scott Selwood and Rosa. The Eagles also have what many would call the competition's predominant ruck division in Cox and Naitanui. The comparison with Melbourne couldn't be starker if you go on last week's form where it got nothing from its ruck division or from its onballers at the stoppages. When you then consider that the Demons couldn't better the Eagles at home two years ago when they were wooden spooners, it suggests we're in for another one-sided contest again this weekend. While the indications are that the team hasn't bottomed out after the disruptions of the past month and the process of adjusting to a new style of play, there are some glimmers of hope on the horizon. The two young co-captains are in the starting midfield. Jack Grimes had about four minutes there in last year's Adelaide game before he was injured. There are many who believe he has the capacity to add some flair to the Demon on ball division. Likewise, Trengove who had an interrupted pre season and showed some early good signs last week is ready to take another step forward in the midfield. Nathan Jones is progressing well in his second year in a leadership role and James Magner was a revelation in his debut last week. With players like these stepping up to the plate, there is no reason why club could not improve quickly around the stoppages and reverse the disasters of the last half of last week's game. It's a tough ask especially with Melbourne winning only 4 of its past 28 games on the road (and half of them were on neutral territory). On the other hand, the Demons have a strong defence when it gets its act together and it’s been augmented this week by the size of James Sellar. Similarly, the attack now has a tall key in Mitch Clark who took a while to get going last week. This week Ricky Petterd and Lynden Dunn come in to assist him and we’re all waiting for Jack Watts and Jeremy Howe to take the extra step forward. I keep coming back to that 1998 game when the Demons won against all odds in the west. I think of how competent and composed the current squad looked against Collingwood a month ago and how the team dominated possession in the latter half of last week’s first term but failed to score goals to match their ascendency. These are all long shots but if they click, the score will be a lot closer than many of the experts who are stoning us right now would have us all think. West Coast by 16 points.

Getting ready for passover and cancelling his Energywatch accounts.

interesting how caro talks of the leaking to Thomas but not of the leaking to her or Smith i think she might have some double standards here or at least a conflict of interest

I'm not ashamed of my club I might be gutted, disappointed, despondent, angry, upset and miserable .....but not ashamed..............................tomorrow i predict the sun will rise again and the sky will still be suspended above GO DEE's

To be honest the MFC doesn't need fair weather supporters like you. If You are ashamed, you don't need to be here. This is not the time to sook and play victim. This is the time to stick with the MFC. They need supporters to be more dedicated and supportive than ever. They have dealt with all situations listed better than any of the other AFL clubs and the league itself. For the first time ever we are debt free with a $6 million asset base. Is it all perfect? No. Do you think we should just pack up the club? No way. Now is the time go hard and dip in again for the dees. After all this is OUR club. No one can take away the passion and heart and soul of the club no matter what. We will survive and we will succeed. OUR club doesn't need spineless supporters and players and the fact you pretend to be a Melbourne person is insulting. If you want to be ashamed go barrack for someone else. It's not easy and anyone who sticks with the club now truly does have a heart that beats true for the red and blue.

I don't agree, we could actually come out of this better than before. I see this as an enormous opportunity to stamp ourselves as a club of integrity and strength. The kind that attracts sponsors. We are certainly getiing a lot of media lately. I am hopeful that we will have little trouble attracting a sponsor, if one strikes while the iron is hot they will get good exposure right away. They can be the knight in shining armour supporting the clubs resolve to stand against racism and bigotry.

Listening to 3AW this morning I think the club will be severing ties with EW. They have to sort out the legalities. Many here need to take this on board. Calling the club and demanding things and threatening walking away with your $ isn't going to influence, nor help proceedings. If anything this is when you need to stick fat with the club and back them in to make the prudent decision without the emotional pressure from outside screamers. We'll get a sponsor soon. Go Dees !

one crisis at a time please. Just take a number and wait your turn.

What I am suggesting is that his remarks are just that - remarks. Unless they impact upon the way EW does business or interacts with people, they are just the ramblings of their CEO on a social media site. One of the CEOs I mentioned made remarks that impact upon his company's corporate social responsibility. For me, that's much worse. Make no mistake, this is more about the media response to his comments. It cannot be a surprise to most of you that there are CEOs, just like there are people throughout the community, who make offensive remarks or hold 'offensive' views. It'd be nice if he wasn't racist or sexist, but in the grand scheme of things, there are bigger fish to fry. It is not his comments in isolation that may see the MFC ditch the sponsorship - it is the media attention. I have already pointed out numerous sponsors who contribute in horrific ways to the suffering of people around the world, but receive little media attention. I imagine it is the media frenzy that will push MFC to action here moreso than his comments. In essence, it is not that Melbourne has a sponsor that is quietly offensive or unethical, as most AFL clubs have, that may see us want to change sponsors. Rather, it's that the stench of our sponsor is being splashed all over the front of newspapers that will do it.

Spot on. I suggest everyone gets gets off Demonland and BigFooty, stops reading the sport section, and spends some quality time with the fam this weekend. All this hysteria over the MFC can be easily avoided. http://keepmeout.com/en/

2 Things i got to say here. 1. Do you guys think that possibly the media already had all this juice and may have been polite in relations to Jim and held out until now to throw it all out on the table.......I dont think so but I thght its a possibility. and 2. Dosnt Energy Watch also sponsor the Melbourne Victory and Vixens? If so why is the media have there hands so high in the air about MFC and there is nothing damning towards the Victory or Vixens on this? The question here shouldnt be 'What will MFC do?" It should be "What will MFC, Victory and the Vixens do"

The only way this week could get worse is if Scully racks up a 40-possession, 3 brownlow vote performance this weekend. I'll shoot myself.

RD, I've heard very similar things about Ben and Energy Watch and can't for the life of me understand how we got ourselves into this mess. My understanding of how Energy Watch works suggest that Cam would have been doing the negotiating with Ben directly. 5 minutes with this bloke should have been enough to work out he's not quite right. If you read his quotes from today, he still doesn't think he's done anything wrong! Did the club not do any due diligence or KYC on Ben and the company or were we to blinded by the $$$? ASIC is already investigating Ben for malpractice, surely this should have immediately raised alarm bells. As anyone with any business experience knows, if a deal sounds too good it generally is! Someone has to be held responsible for this mess and in my opinion it's the CEO. Ben is the whole company and thorough checks needed to be done before we entered into this agreement. I have no doubt the sponsorship will be terminated from our side (we don't have a choice) which now leaves us coming into round 2 of the season without a major sponsor at all. It's simply not acceptable, no matter what excuses Cam and the board make. In any industry, good, stable and prosperous companies survive and grow by having not only good reliable suppliers, but more importantly good stable customers. As per Radar's post above, Energy Watch were never going to be able to honour the sponsorship and a competent CEO should have forseen this. As members and supporters, we've put up with the Mahogany Table, the 100k report we paid for that never saw the light of day, the personal loan received from the company (which I'm still astounded by), but not having a single major sponsor when the season has already started in this day and age is inexcusable. My only hope is that the club comes out stronger and wiser from the past few weeks, hell things can't get any worse!

Love how we have the best list to coach one day and no talent the next.

Like the club needs to deal with angry delusional supporter emails on top of everything else. How about you wait for our reaction to this before you jump on the "I am an embattled supporter, I am disgusted, I am microwaving my membership as we speak, this will not stand, ARGH!". Do you know what I do with customer feedback emails? Trash them.

+1 emailed the club [email protected] with my thoughts.

Then contact EnergyWatch about it and tell them how you feel, don't blame the club.

With the AFL being on their high-horse about racism lately I reckon they should be offering to assist us financially so we can drop EW. These comments are disgusting, I'd admit to saying a few things in my which are not PC when it comes to racism, but what kind of an idiot repeatedly puts that kind of garbage on their FB page. Especially someone in charge of a major company. FOJ sponsor just became massive again.

We need to make a stand and cancel the sponsorship. Perversely I believe a stand like this will attract another major sponsor very quickly. The sponsor who comes in after this rubbish and after the Melbourne FC have made a public stand against racism and innappropriate behaviour will get a million miles of publicity as well as be associated with a club which has strong family values. I also think that while we might burn a little bit of the $2m per season, we would get a second major sponsor as well. The sum of both of these might be slightly less than the sum of EW and a FoJ sponsor, but its a small concession when you are trying once and for all to show the football world and the wider community that we actually stand for something. We stand for what Jim worked so hard for. We stand for giving everyobne a go, and striving to fulfill everyones potential. SACK ENERGY WATCH NOW.

Nope I don't get it RR. Neither does the whole of the informed AFL world either. Perhaps in your little universe though, it's all very different.

This is not about a racist [censored] from energy watch. The real problem is that someone is trying to put nails in the coffin of the mfc

The most annoying thing is the club has done no wrong, and we are being dragged through the [censored], and I keep hearing news grabs like 'the racism row engulfing the Melbourne Football Club has hit a new low'. And unless you read as many articles about it as we on here do and are educated on this issue, you would be forgiven for thinking we are a bunch of cross burning racists. And the next most annoying thing is we need our team to put up an almighty fight on the field on the weekend, but we are playing West Coast at Subiaco and there is a very good chance this could get ugly. Everyone will be watching.

Wouldnt be a huge loss we need to get rid of one of him or Martin anyway I think. We still have Martin Clark & Gawn if he goes. I like Russian but he's had one awesome year and about 8 average ones.

The media driven events of the last 2 months in relation to the MFC have effectively cast us as public relations poison, and a poison that doesn't just make you ill, it f***ing kills you. Cam Schwab somehow needs to make this sponsorship stick and have us come out from it ok, because NO potential sponsor would even want to be seen in the same room as the MFC. This is the perceived public image of our club. We all know it's peripheral rubbish, but the power of the media to kill or anoint is absolute, and they are killing this club.

I've read some of your posts that seemed quite sensible. I must have caught you on a good day. So Fyfe who's shone from day one has been unbelievably 'developed' by Freo ? Rockliff, who was a star at junior level, but had to wait until the pre-season draft because the knock on him was that he was slow has been a revelation because of the coaches at Brisbane ? Dustin Martin who has played like a veteran since his first game has been developed by the Tiges even though he's surrounded by spuds ? So Joel Selwood has only been a revelation because of the players around him at Geelong even though a top 5 pick in Kane Tenace surrounded by the same players couldn't make it ? So former top five draft picks in Goddard, Murphy, Judd, Hodge, Franklin, Pendlebury, Thomas, Riewoldt, Pavlich, became A graders purely because of development ? Most professionals in footy clubs consider the head recruiter as the most important person at the club. Clearly player development is crucial, but anyone that says that talent identification isn't as important as player development, and most likely more so, is a gene short of a moron.

Still think he can be a very good player.

I, like everyone else on this site, don't know the truth. Many were quick to defend Neeld against the allegations, not condemn him until proven guilty, and accept his denial (as am I). Why is it that half the posters on this site were so quick to condemn Davey? Now Davey has made a statement denying involvement in the story. Do we give him the same benefit? Davey is condemned at the moment because he is perceived as 'soft' and is out of form. People have decide that he is a 'sook'. We don't know Aaron Davey. We don't know his character.We don't know what's in his heart. I hope that the posters who are so quick to condemn him are equally ready to apologise for the slurs and inferences they have made if he proves to be innocent. I suspect they won't! Dee-Luded went as far as to say - "...At the very least the Indigenous boys should front the Full Leadership group One at a Time, to either Fess Up, or explain what or who has said what to Mifsud...said the club should line up the indigenous players and demand an explanation." How would you feel if you were an indigenous person? You were lined up, and asked and asked to "fess up" or explain to the leadership group? .... You were treated as a suspect BECAUSE YOU WERE INDIGENOUS! Do you realise how racist this is? I am so saddened and angered by the attitudes that surface when indigenous issues are raised on this site.