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Had a cushy job at a successful club. Could have stayed there for a few more years. Could have chosen an easier option like Adelaide or St Kilda but no he came to the basket case that was/is the MFC and has staked his entire fledgling coaching career on turning around the Titanic. He's been prepared to put self-satisfied noses out of joint, sack ineffectual leaders, drop soft no. 1 draft picks and most importantly completely dismantle a useless game plan that would have seen us fold under the first sign of trouble in a final. And he's prepared to get flogged week-in week-out, enduring the inevitable calls for his sacking by supporters fearful of change, in order to get the job done. Hard as f..!k this bloke and I for one stand up and applaud him for having the cojones to put his own future in the game on the line in order to turn this joint into what for most of the past 47 years it has only ever been masquerading as ... and that's a football club. I'm backing him in come hell or high water.

If the Dees starred in 'Moneyball' . . . http://youtu.be/Yw1A3AnZsD4

I'm with you RR. I have said this before and I am lucky to have more insight to the internal workings of the club than most. It does take balls of steel to do what he is doing. The size of this task again cannot be limited to the outcomes we all see on the field. Bailey certainly couldn't do what Neeld has done. Every week these knee jerk emotional reactions to losses fail to consider the holistic point of view around everest that the club has in front of it. Its easy to get caught up in week to week emotional responses and much, much harder to stay the course and have a long term view. (Here come the posters telling me they have been waiting since Norm Smith was sacked how much longer blah blah blah) Well fair enough we are all frustrated and bloody unhappy deep into our veins but if we are to go anywhere we need to let this man build the foundations of this club ground up. Unfortunately people seem to go into meltdown, disown the club, not renew memberships, call for sackings and question all his decisions being incompetent. He is one preseason and 7 games in. No other coach has ever had so much expected of them in such a short period of time. Let Mark Neeld do what we need him most to do. Once again I urge you to continue to support the coach and the club.

I'm with you on this one RR... a few people here need to try breathing into a brown paper bag.

I'd rather have a well resourced football departement with a clear vision of where they want to go than abandon all hope, rip out what ever remaining fabric of the footy club is left and then resort to under 10's footy. Calls for sacking the coaches and making wholesale off-field changes now would just be a knee-jerk reaction that can only serve to hinder our development further. We will get there, we just need to be patient.

Laughing is strictly illegal when the team is losing. I, for one, have never laughed, cracked a smile or even had a mildly amused twinkle in my eye when we're getting smashed.

Rubbish! For too long MFC supporters have quietly accepted failure and have NOT voiced passionate concerns about the club!

And the thing that kills me the most? That [censored] Scully got a win before our boys did. This is just so humiliating.

Put simply we drafted cheetah's and Neelds gameplan and many other teams gamplans require bulls. I have all the faith in Neeld none in our senior list and I don't know what Schwabb has to do with on field performance. As has been pointed out Schwabb has put cash and man power into our pitiful football department so time is needed. But as for now play blease, strauss,tapscott,watts,couch,jurrah,cook(if a sniff of form is shown) tynan,davis,nicholson (who i rate) and any other young blokes. Why not play them all? At least we can really live by the "We are playing kids and it's going to take time" line. I want to go to the footy to see development now because wins our way out of reach. I figured this out when I take more interest in casey games then MFC at the moment.

This is more of a broad statement than a comment to you wyl. I need to vent after reading some absolute trip over the last couple of weeks. The way I see it, melbourne supporters have two options. A. Take the losses on the chin and come back and support your team or B. Say it’s all too tough and throw away your membership while having a tantrum I don't know about the character of many people here, but being a demons forum I'd assume the members here are in it for the long haul. Myself, I'll be watching the Demons for the next 60 odd years. We could win the next 60 spoons, but I'll still be back at the G' ready for more. We are all angry, sometimes depressed, and ultimately craving finals football once more. We will make finals again, we may obtain that 13th premiership or we may never get there, but this is a ride that I'll never be getting off. Nothing makes me angrier than soft supporters who can’t hack a few poor years and then throw in the towel. Not after what our late president has done for this club.

What i can't understand is why we have the dumbest footballers in the competition. Last year they couldn't understand the Bailey game plan and this year they can't grasp the Neeld plan; just how ....... hard is it to get the message through to these guys? I don't know what the plan is but they have had the whole of the pre season and the first 7 games and they still seem to be lost, wtf is going on?

This has now taken the mantle of the single most naive ignorant and mind-boggling stupid post on this forum. There is no way, as it would have the club fold by season's end.

Apparently the sky is falling. Oh dear, oh my. Breaking News... This Season is a WRITE OFF !! other than drafting its irrelevant where we finish. Time to pension off the non-performing once-was-senior players together with any other "I dont really want to be at Melbourne" types and build a team. 18th... (or last ) ..Been there done that. Hardly the end of times folks. Good for list management I say B)

Under Bailey we played the football equivalent of run and gun! Dishonest, forward running, unaccountable bruise free football. It was never more evident to me than the North Melbourne loss at Etihad last season.................and then 186 was the exclamation point! Players who have been allowed to free wheel, and pick and choose their effort for 4 years under Bailey are now demanded to work just as hard both ways................and surprise, surprise...........they aren't up to it! The fools paradise they lived in under Bailey is over. While they all struggle to come to grips with the effort and professionalism required to be elite AFL players, it's the supporters who have to suffer yet again. There's no light at the end of the tunnel for this year, it will finish up a bus crash.................but Neeld needs to be fully backed in to get the job done, and tough calls on players are going to have to be made. How a player from another Club in Clark can come in show true passion, commitment, and effort compared to his teammates highlights the diabolical mindset of some of our players!

What is wrong with our club and players. Not 6 months ago, we were better than North, bombers, port, adelaide, Richmond, Gold Coast, comprehensively beat sydney. We looked like the next big thing. How have we gone so so so so so far backwards. What is wrong with our f&%*#ing club And to make it worse, we'll end up coming second last, because we'll beat GWS and fluke a couple of victories late in the season, and we'll have to use the prized pick 2 on a father son

I just want to highlight something Jurrah just did then. The ball was rolling towards Casey's attacking forward fifty, with Watts and a Box Hill player chasing it about a metre away, Jurrah was about two metres away, but instead of going for the ball as well, he ran forward backing Watts to beat the Box Hill player. Unfortunately Watts fumbled the ball. The point is, he was thinking ahead and whilst numbers to the ball are important he backed Watts in. Too many times we see three or four Melbourne's players go for the ball which is great for winning a contests, but once they have it there are no options around the pack running off. It was only a little thing but it's the kind of football smarts and thinking Melbourne need.

Sack the coach after 7 matches! Sounds like a definite fool proof plan for success. What could possibly go wrong?

Totally agree. No one is holding you here. Go follow the netball. We don't need fair weather supporters. You stick with your club through thin and thin and more thin if that's what it takes. If you can leave that easy you were never truly Melbourne in your heart.

Then you're part of the problem. If you dont have a membership and want us to FOLD then why bother posting!

Basically you're not alone. I sensed a change in me last night that was my spirit finally being broken. I don't see any hope of a win this year which makes me wonder why bother? Neeld treats this group like a bunch of caveman kids that knew nothing about football when he walked in the door. In fact he is quite vocal about it. How does that inspire others to follow you? He even treats them like children in the pressers for all the world to see. I'm losing faith in him and his game philosophy at a great rate of knots.

Brian Royal out the door.

Moloney had a half-decent first quarter which flattered the stat sheet. Totally went missing from then on when the heat went up. As is his want. Jason Dunstall gave Sylvia (3) Davey (2) and Moloney (1) Triple M's "worst on ground" votes, to which Garry Lyon replied something like "no argument from me Chief". The three worst players in a pool of 44 who laced up boots for the game. Not to mention, aside from Mitch Clark, the three highest paid players at the Melbourne Football Club. Sylvia should do the honourable thing and bank transfer his match payments to Magner, a player with half the ability but five times the heart.

Didn't see a Melbourne member there tonight having fun - we feel bad. It's not ok for Melbourne players (selected or not) to have an attitude that allows them to have a jolly time. Completely reasonable criticism.

I was thinking maybe the outs should be those who were in our best so they can experience what it's like to play in a winning side.

I've backed the players for far too long, only to see them throw up chicken hearted efforts time and again. No more. There is something seriously wrong at our club and has been for a long time. Neeld has my full support to do whatever he thinks needs doing to fix it.

i have been hardtack for 7 weeks now let me know when i can stop i'm getting a really short of breath

I said I have more faith in Neeld and the FD than I do in the players. They lost the contested footy count by what must be a record margin, it doesn't matter what 'style' of game you are playing - if you can't win the footy - you're rooted. I don't believe in changing philosophies so that a team can win 5 games instead of 3. If we had some star players and they didn't suit our game style - then you can argue for a change. But we don't have those, we have poor senior players who didn't give a sh!t on Friday night and that is not the fault of any game plan.

And on what do yo base your opinion that he was a bad choice? He is 7, yes count it, 7 games into a senior coaching career. He has had to revamp the entire coaching team, he has had to try to introduce the players to a game plan and he has had to deal with all manner of outside issues. Remind me again, how long did it take Bomber to have success with the Cats?

I have to say im one of the most one eyed MFC fans ever but all this weak talk has got to stop we have had the best draft picks for the last 5 years and we have some how gone backwards and now sit 18th below GWS and GC ALARM BELLS MUST RING NOW give me a break

I've been supporting Melbourne for 35 years and throughout that time we've had some dark days. Never before though have I been so embarrassed and so disheartened than I am right now. I never thought I'd see the day when Clint Bartram is best on ground, and that's not giving him the credit he deserves. At least he gives 100% every time he pulls on the number 3. I went tonight with a couple of Hawthorn supporters and it was down right embarrassing to hear them talk about the club I love the way they did. Once again, like more often than not, I had no come back. And poor Mitch Clark! At least he's getting paid well, 'cause I feel pretty sorry for the guy. I bet he wishes he had his time again. Number 9 is completely out of his depth and to see him not make the distance from 30m out was another kick in the guts the poor guy could do without. Fancy making a young inexperienced kid like him captain. Not his fault, he didn't ask to be made captain. When I saw that he had 9 tackles, and about the same in kicks, my immediate though was, great well we've got another plodder to run along side the rest of our midfield. At least though he tackles. I read today that he was a gun cricketer. I long for the day that we start drafting gun footballers rather than cricketers and basketballers. Again I don't blame him. He had one standout game that propelled him into the number 2 draft pick. Everyone refers to 186 as the darkest moment in our recent history, but on the big stage tonight it couldn't have been much worse than this. All this might sound a little over the top for my first post but I, like my club am at the crossroads and don't know which direction to take next. Yes, I'll keep turning up every week but for how much longer do we have to suffer? Where to next?

my dad told me this in 1971 as an 8 year old.

Watts doesn't tackle he hugs, but not too tightly and usually after the player has disposed of the ball.

What old leaders? There are none left, that's half the problem!

I hope that they line up the playing group. Different coach, same [censored] served up. Whole different admin, same [censored] served up. What's the consistent element? The playing group.

There is one group that for too long has gotten away from any real criticism over the past year and that is the playing group. Sure the coaching group has to be accountable, but they cannot make players chase and tackle and give a damn. At least half our list is not AFL standard, tough decisions need to be made at the end of the year, although they are really simple to me. I don't care if Neeld loses the players, i want him to return to his uncompromising heart on the sleeve self, because the players have lost me and have lost many members too. Supporters are the constant, players come and go, and hopefully many go at the end of the year. Big names need to go, to be made an example of. Moloney, Sylvia, Garland, Petterd, Davey, Garland, etc some of these names need to go and hopefully the rest get the message.

So we should get excited about being in front of GC & GWS, that's if we beat them, which is highly unlikely. Watching Casey today Watts seemed to be having a great time enjoying his football, so I doubt he will ever want to play in the AFL again where it's not so much fun.

The way GWS have played and the way we are playing, we would lose... simple.

Goals to Jurrah and Taggart, Scorpions running away with a seven goal lead. Classy finish by Taggart.

Jurrah and Blease must play next week. Watts seems to have even less intensity in the VFL- cant see him back in the AFL any time soon

They all need to show more urgency and show that they really want to be playing in the AFL.

Jurrah must play next week...our best by a mile

It is interesting to contemplate that were the internet and such sites as this around in 1953, around this time, would the punters be calling for the sacking of that useless incompetent coach, Norm Smith, and the trading (or delisting then) of those hopeless youngsters like Barassi, Adams, Dixon, Rowarth,Tassie Johnson, Thorogood, Tunbridge (an awful kick) etc etc? Just something to think about. Then fast forward 2 years, 3 years, 4,5,6,7,8,9, 10, 11 years and the smug ones there would have seen it all developing - again in retrospect! So why wait till the end of the year to sack Neeld - after all, he has achieved absolutely nothing apparently, and while we are at it get rid of Missen too - he has been too hard on the poor darlings (sorry to use that word as it excites some here) and they are a bit tired. Say sorry and bring back Bailey and his fitness team (assuming he had one).

Has anybody read 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy? That's where to. You just keep going because it's what you do, but most of the time you wonder if you'd have been better to just give up years ago.

The fact we are talking about another rebuild I am sorry is unacceptable - sorry Mark Neeld ‘I am not coping that’. To take our club back to step 1 again is also unacceptable. We were a good attacking team last year and poor defending team. Now we are poor all around. Maybe instead of recounting how wrong we were over the past 3 seasons, Neeld could actually watch some tapes of our 90+ point wins and incorporate some of that play back. It could help him win back some of the players and as importantly, some of the fans.

I watched the replay. The players are so focussed on their opponent, often when the ball spills free they are trying to bump their opponent. They need to see the ball and grab it. To neeld, this not the way you play footy. Until you let the boys have a fair crack we will get belted every week. I'm not sure what this game plan is achieving other than losing, and probably losing members.

Where to next? Try the pub....

Sydney, according to the fixture

Are people aware Hawthorn was a popular pick for the flag during preseason..?

Losing is boring. When we kick goals and win it is not boring. You're trying to overthink it, but it's that simple.