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In case they don't (podcast) to summarise he said our style of footy last year would not have got us much further than where we were, i.e. winning 8, 9-10 games a year. That he believed it was neccesary to strip us back to a more defensive/contested way of playing. He said to expect more pain over the next year. His explanation of the work ethic required to play this way is that it is not at all appealing to footballers and therefore takes time. For me they are points well made. It comes from a player just out of the game and not trying to build a media profile through stupid assertions or opinions.

...blokes like Watts copping all the flack, despite clearly making progress. Then you've got a guy like Kruezer, who is consistently hailed by Carlton fans (at least the ones I know) and some press, as an A-grader. One of the most ineffective and overrated players in the competition. Though, as I tweeted Emma Quayle the other day, he escapes criticism. Then there's another guy - Bryce Gibbs - as soft as butter, but it's Watts who is under the microscope every time (apparently the commentators on TV were into him today). I'm not saying we can't question someone like Watts' development, but don't get sucked in by all the media hyperbole. All it demonstrates is a lack of intelligence and foresight. In Jack's case, the media attention is particularly severe. There's no doubt Jack needs to improve on his hardness at the contest, but his decision-making and disposal are usually right on the money. He is class and with the addition of toughness, his ability would be unquestioned. PS. Mods - I have no idea if this warrants a topic of its own, but I thought I'd share it, nevertheless. Edit. Spelling.

Basically a Port supporter called in ans said how he doesn't like hearing MFC compared to Richmond a few years ago (fwiw nor do I) but because he thinks we've gone backwards this year and are a lot worse. Mooney stated as fact that last year MFC were a very attacking side and that would be fine to get 6-8 wins each year for probably the next 20 years, but we'd never go anywhere or have a gameplan capable of winning finals. He said Neeld has had to go back to go forward, has a defensive gameplan that WILL stand up in finals, and it will take some pain and at least a couple of years, but we'll get there. (sorry about the delay on that bit of the OP, had to take care of something at work)

It's clear to me that Neeld is willing to suffer pain this year due to your point on Year 1 At lot of coaches get the "luxury" of coming in and replacing a coach with a mature list (Chris Scott, Brenton Sanderson etc.) Neeld has basically come in and had to change the ENTIRE program, as he saw it as not good enough to hold up in finals football (or even possibly make it to finals football) There is a difference with what he is doing to what others have done He's changing the game plan, radically. He's changing the training regime, radically. He's changing the players roles and mindset, radically. A lot of people got a false sense of hope when Dean Bailey made the comment that whoever coaches Melbourne next year has a golden ticket to the finals If the new coach kept the status quo, perhaps we would be in contention for the finals, but would we ever be in contention for a flag? Did we have the game plan for that? Neeld clearly thinks not and has pretty much stripped everything back to the bare bones I thought we saw a glimpse against Carlton on what is possible and what is to come Yes, they didn't play their best football, but we actually saw some attack. He's said it before, he is teaching them to master defence. Right now they're no good at a defensive game, but they have somewhat improved. When they nail it, they will attack more There's some dead wood at the club and we will see them gone at years end, and it could be drastic, a huge clean out He will keep those than can / will play to his plan, he will draft those that can / will play to his plan We have 3 guaranteed 1st round picks in this year’s apparent super draft. He will build a midfield from this draft IMO and teach and develop them on a fast track I personally think we'll see improvement in the 2nd half of the year, we'll see massive improvement next year (wishful thinking perhaps but the way I see it)

With respect, Jose, you're a blue sky junkie. Under another guise last year you wouldn't hear a bad word about Bailey, when in reality, he wasn't the right man to take this club forward. I completely understand some Melbourne supporters angst at what has been going on at the club. When one considers that Leoncelli wasn't replaced; the club losing its way when Stynes became ill; the club once again having to revert to Lyon to help orchestrate a coach; the club being stone motherless last while a club we all thought we were ahead of is showing real signs of improvement; the failure to develop a plethora of draft picks, including a handful of top 5 picks; and the embarrassing handling of our current CEO it's little wonder that many feel you need the patience of Jobe to keep getting hit in the solar plexus by this club. Make no mistake, this up-coming draft is astonishingly important. Despite some supporters view that we can't recruit properly, it's a must that we make the most of our strong hand. I genuinely believe that our medium term outlook hinges on it. And if we do recruit well we can turn things around relatively quickly. Richmond notoriously stuffed up draft after draft, but even they have got quality players with Deledio, Cotchin, Riewoldt and Martin because they were constantly at the well. Hawthorn have stuffed up plenty of drafts. Think of Dowler, Muston, and Thorpe, but they too got a few right. Stars are what makes teams become successful - plus a good defensive game-plan that we're learning. We have a chance to get a couple of stars into our club. Clearly there's no guarantee, but we must be a decent chance considering the picks that will be at our disposal. Which leads me to Viney ? I'm not quite the blue sky junkie, but I'll place my faith in the club - again - to make the right decisions with regards to our recruiting set-up, but I can completely undertsand the concerns of some others. I really like Todd Viney and reckon he's a switched on footy person. I doubt he'd accept the role if he thought he'd compromise the club he loves. But it's critical they make the right choices. As stated, we could really change the fortunes of this club. And just because some of you have heard that comment before with regards to other drafts doesn't invalidate this next opportunity. We just have to nail it.

Get a little closer to the screen, i have to whisper so the mods dont hear.. You're an idiot.

I hate the locker room - I only ever check the main board. Surely things like this can have their own thread instead of being shunted away on a board few venture to.

Good OP. Gibbs is as soft as Watts is but no one cares because he generally avoids having to go into any contests because Murphy, Judd, Carrazzo and Simpson do that for him, leaving Gibbs to mop up across half back. At Melbourne, there's nowhere to hide. The biggest thing holding Watts back is people's ridiculous expectations, benchmarks, comparisons and criticisms.

Who would you have had coaching MFC and how would they be coaching us HN?

I'm not usually wont to quote myself ... but I will. From the 'Everyone Stand Up And Applaud Mark Neeld' thread of a few weeks back. Posted 12 May 2012 - 07:44 PM He (Neeld) has 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. Cam Mooney. Finally a commentator who understands what's going on. And he should know!

Is this OD 'looking forward' to something?! Or are you using the saying as a description of the linear 'forward' movement of time?

Ridiculously ignorant post. Hang your head in shame for writing this tripe, and if you actually believe it then it's even worse.

You have to learn to crawl, before standing before walking before running. In the defence vernacular, we have to learn it thoroughly,,, before we venture into an offensive structure. If things go awry we fall back into defensive pattern. But first we have to learn which players have the hardness to apply a defensiveness game structure, & secondly we have to then learn which players are prepared to run hard enough defensively & then back again offensively. We have many who don't like the hard stuff of tackling & chasing,,, & just want to be the star.

Surprisingly smart guy. Leaves the rest of the SEN chimps for dead.

I would expect that to happen but it wont happen here. I am expecting alot of clubs will see him that way hence pushing up his trade value.As long as we are adequately compensated it could likely be a win-win for both clubs.

Touche, good pick up and I'm suitably embarrassed. (And I know there should be an accent on the e in 'touche'. I just don't know how to do it.)

I've had my clerk's visor on, assiduously poring through mountains of records looking for an omen against this particular enemy. Eureka! Round 7 1966 - a winless Melbourne shows a bit for the first time for 3 quarters against C'wood in round 6 at Vic Park before getting blown away in final quarter. Plays reigning premier Essendon next week and wipes the floor with them. Follow the form!

When I have time to watch games at the moment, which is rare, I ignore the score and focus on which players are developing. In essence I have my own scoreboard – not that it is any better reading than the actual scoreboard some weeks.

for a second year player he is underated..has played on big names. He has had some cool heads around him to help him.

Watts would be considered an up and coming super star if he was drafted by pretty much any other afl club

And while we're at it, let's also sign up Sammy Blease for 2 yrs before he flies off to join his mate interstate.

After beating the bombers and smashing the pies GWS will be a piece of [censored]. Dunn kicks 8,Sylvia plays unselfish reliable football and his efforts show his love for the game and his club,Moloney gets a stack of kicks, Watts knocks out two players whilst running back with the flight of the ball and after putting on 30kg Lucas cook stiff arms Scully so hard his black heart is smashed into pieces.

Just quietly, the game can't be all that easy in the Melbourne back line at the moment.....

+ 1 Thank god another who sees the Neeld game plan is not solely about hugging the boundary. It's brutal lots of boundary contests then quick switches when players have the legs to create space through the corridor and switch with speed of ball movement. Saw it sinking in today a bit but out on their feet and not enough running power or endurance to do it over 4 quarters. The running will come, need to target mids to win our share of clearances for the finished article Patience required

The worst post i have ever seen full stop.

Trying or not trying, he's playing sheizen football and has been ineffective in all but a couple of games. The past two weeks he's been in our bottom 3 players. I can't see how can stay in the side after these performances.

Dees by 6 goals. Easily.

I used to work with coburg until this year. Watched every one of their games from the bench for 3 years. Thought a lot of their young kids were pretty ordinary. Thought they were on a road to nowhere. Some of them looked very soft and very lazy to me. One of those was a boy who played very nicely yesterday on Buddy Franklin. Highly rated tall as a youngster... has taken him a while to develop. Looks a much better player in a winning team... as do most of them come to think of it... Hmmmm....

Essendon supporters are the "Shooter McGavin's" of the AFL.

Certainly not the worst kick at the club, not even close whilst Bartram remains on the list. He's a similar kick to say Nicholson who under more pressure will make more mistakes but when in time and space is more likely to use it well. I still think he'll end up a forward. His size, endurance and marking lends more to CHF and with Watts looking more and more like a CHB it just makes sense to me. I've got no problem with him down back whilst the midfield means that's where the ball is.

Let's forget the last quarter for a moment. For about three quarters - minus maybe 5 minutes in the 2nd quarter - we were pretty competitive yesterday. We tackled hard and make Carlton earn every possession and we created uncontested play through the centre of the ground. In my eyes this was the best of Neeld and Bailey coming together. Neeld has taught our players to win the hard ball, Bailey taught our players to capitalise on uncontested football through fast handpassing and running through the centre. While we lack the ingredients of a premiership engine room (Moloney, Jones, Magner etc. will never be Swan, Pendlebury, Thomas, etc.) we do have some silky skilled players who thrived under the Bailey era. I think of Daniel Nicholson (I forgot how good this guy was), Sam Blease (as soon as this guy starts putting those running shots on goal on line, he will be a star) and Rohan Bail (just never stops). Bennells not too bad on his day either. In other words, I don't think the Bailey era was time wasted. If Neeld can develop guys like McKenzie, Trengove, Tapscott, Gysberts, Tynan and even Morton into hard-at-it ball-winning midfielders (still a long way off, I know, but I'm assuming this is the long-term plan) I think things will start clicking pretty quickly. With Clark (and Jurrah?) focal points up forward, I think the attacking side of our game will come naturally as soon as we can get all the defensive stuff down pat.

There is more chance of me rowing for the Yugoslavian womans 8 at this years olympics.

Come on, you've got to admit that's pretty funny

Pity our fans like to make themselves look so clueless. Why join the rest of the country on his back instead of being the ones who support him Ridicolous call, stupid thread

Which puts him ahead of about 15 of his teammates.

I don't understand why anyone would write a 'making the call', 'he won't make it' type of post. More big noting themselves about their so-called predictive ability than making any useful contribution to a discussion.

I dislike Essendon

His pace and confidence really stands out, got me thinking he could certainly be the one to watch out for as he gets more games on the board. That tackle on Robinson yesterday had me grinning ear to ear.

It would be nice to win, but as long as someone knocks Scully into next week i'll be reasonably content

You're not telling me we (18th) might get flogged by Essendon (2nd)? GET OUT.

Yep, pretty sure Sheedy publicly announced this. Us to win by 25, and hopefully Scully will be run face first into the ground at least three times.

Of course not. It is the whole organization. Top to bottom. How often have the right decisions been made over the past 5 decades. You can only be emotionally kicked so many times. Yesterday was the first time he said "no i don't want to go" This year has really made him sad. And at his age that really pisses me off

I'm really struggling to see the relationship between this and Viney temporarily filling the hole as the chief recruiter. Is Todd temping in a boring off field role the reason why your old man doesn't want to go to the footy any more, WYL?

Call me crazy but what I have see the last two weeks and how I beleive Neeld is with him, I think Im seeing a Sam Fisher type in the making

At risk of being inappropriately personal, Freak, I decided very early on in your posting career here that I was glad you weren't the coach, and not much has changed.

big fan of young sam blease

Definitely the template for a wingman. Fast, light, at times has excellent disposal. If he turns out to be half the player Bluey Adams was, we'll definitely have a gem. Just allow him to string some games together.

This line of argument is nonsense. So only those who have played AFL are qualified/allowed to provide comment? Seriously...

I agree that personal attacks on players should never be tolerated, but we have every right to vent our frustration at player's performances. Indeed if not here, then where? Among the muck heap that is the MFC at the present time, I find a tiny bit of solace in coming here and seeing hundreds of other guys and gals who feel the same way as I do. It's also all very well to say we have an administration and a footy dept who will do their best to get it right, but when is this not the case? Surely we as members have a responsbility to hold them to account. Blind faith is all well and good, but it can often lead to positions like the one we find ourselves in. We all demonstrate our passion for this club in different ways, and that too needs to be respected to a certain degree.

Hodgey holds up his Normy and says "hello". Seriously can we not mention players of the calibre of Judd, Hodge and Ball in this pretender`s thread? Thanks.