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Can't wait to see if Gysberts, Morton and Cook have put on some muscle in their time off.

I managed to pop in for 45 minutes this morning on my way back to the office, not much happening when I went past. Strauss and Garland running some pretty quick laps together Davey running laps on his own Mitch Clark was out there briefly didnt see him do any running but may have done that before I got there Grimes and Frawley did some run throughs together then got involved in the lap running (Session 1 I know but Grimes looks super fit, Frawley was stretching to keep up with him at times) Gawn and Spencer running together, Gawn looks the fittest I have seen him look, at one point they did a bit of kick to kick, not the most skilled session thats for sure! :-) Fitzpatrick was running on his own, doing laps and sprints Dunn & Watts did some warm up laps together then some run throughs having their running action filmed, where about to start laps when I left. For quick notes, Davey still seems to run with a limp, looks like he will play his career out that way. Grimes was really vocal even with only 10 of them out there. Everytime a group ran past he would encourage them to run harder and faster and to keep it up. To me it looked like they were assessing their fitness levels on these laps as mentioned in other posts and by the club. Great to see Mitch Clark out there even though briefly and for a bloke that hasnt been allowed to run until now looks in pretty good shape. I left just after 11 so maybe someone hung around longer than me and saw some other players come out as there was about half dozen people watching. New season cant come quick enough! Get some hope back!

Now i have you attention can i say that i support the current administration and think for the first time in a long time the board seems to be united and the FD is kicking goals. So why did i start this thread? Simple. I am sick of every other thread being hijacked by all the naysayers and posters with crystal clear agendas. So for those posters (you know who you are) please post all your angst here. Talk to each other. Bat it around. Others can come on and engage if they wish - or perhaps simply for a chuckle. But it would be great if other threads were not hijacked. Go for it on this thread, let the bile flow!

Buckley was a spud when he was with us, I was staggered when Collingwood took him. Picking him up again would be a ridiculous decision. If we're looking at ex-MFC players who have pace and absolutely nothing else, why stop with Buckley? Might as well bring back Jace Bode and Luke Williams while we're there.

AGM's are pretty frequent. Hardly a year goes by without us having one...

Apparently he was out celebrating with fellow Tiger recruit Dees Dayz, a couple of losers adding some more loserness to a loser club.

Looking at the stats from last years goal kickers I can only find 1 Second KPF who kicked over 40 goals, which was Roughhead for the Hawks, and I think we can safely say he was getting a lot better delivery than Dawes will next year. I think 25-35 goals would be a good return, anything over that is a bonus. His role is to crash packs, make a contest, provide a chop out for Clark by taking a defender and to kick goals. Saying unless he kicks 40 goals he has failed is ridiculous!

No, no, no, no. We've suffered NQRs for too long. Time to move on.

To be fair, I'd rather put my career in the hands of Dawes and Byrnes than Morton, Gysberts, Cook, Bate, Bennell etc.

Hall fo shame - is that a list of the worst Vietnamese soup restaurants?

Deez Dayz turned out nothing like I had planned.

I observed our training session today, and was quite impressed with what I saw. The boys looked very tuned in to what they were doing and were moving quite freely. Get those rugby posts down though. Mind you, I only caught 5 seconds of it from a train going past Richmond

A 13th Flag. Sorry it just had to be said

A-grade quality stars We have plenty of portential stars, but until one or two really 'make it' and step up to be in the top % of players we'll always be lacking that something that all great sides have

I like what the club did this trade period. They recruited so they could play with a type of STRUCTURE Neeld wants us to play with, competitively in 2013. If you want players to play a certain type of game, with a certain kind of method, there's not much point if the type of players you have just cant do it. No one really learns anything losing by 60- 90 points each week. Neeld has set us up to play a type of game , that we will refine, but that will set the blueprint for the young players to adapt to NOW. I disagree with the thinking around here that all the players sacked weren't trying, or weren't disciplined etc. I'll miss some of them. I just think they were the wrong TYPE of players to play his game. Wrong shape, wrong playing attributes i.e speed, height, build for the positions he wanted them filling. On top of which he inherited a [censored] load of bad feeling in the playing group both post Bailey and the recognition that the club had underspent of the FD with big consequences. Consequences that were made obvious on Neeld, Craig and Missions arrival. He wants to be an AFL coach LONG TERM. So, he's got a list he wants, or that is a lot closer to what he wants, than when he came. He's the coach...for now I back his vision. At least he has one! I also think Neelds relationship with the players will be a lot different this year when he knows he wants to keep them. We're going to find out a lot more about his system this year than last....and, love him or hate him, you have to admit he's been brave and put his arse as firmly on the line as anyone could. I for one am impressed with kahunas.

CHANGES 2012 - THE RIVERS RUN RED by The Oracle Melbourne coach Mark Neeld promised that the club would approach the AFL's free agency and exchange period with aggression and he has delivered in spades. Five players have been added to the club's primary list and another will come on board in 2014 after selection in the GWS Mini Draft. Two left the club as free agents, three contracted players were traded away and another eight (including three rookies) have been delisted after they were told they would not receive contract offers for 2013. Brad Green retired at the end of the season. The end result, after the carnage, is that fourteen members of the 2012 playing lists have departed, most of them involuntarily. When you add to that, the eight changes at the end of last year, it means that 22 players, virtually half the playing list, has been turned over since the end of Dean Bailey's reign as coach of the club. The rivers are certainly running red. The Melbourne Football Club's playing lists for 2012 were:- PRIMARY LIST: Rohan Bail Clint Bartram Matthew Bate Jamie Bennell Sam Blease Mitch Clark Lucas Cook Aaron Davey Troy Davis Lynden Dunn Jack Fitzpatrick James Frawley Colin Garland Max Gawn Jack Grimes Jordan Gysberts Jeremy Howe Mark Jamar Neville Jetta Nathan Jones Liam Jurrah Joel Macdonald Stefan Martin Tom McDonald Jordie McKenzie Brent Moloney Cale Morton Ricky Petterd Jared Rivers James Sellar Jake Spencer James Strauss Colin Sylvia Rory Taggert Luke Tapscott Jack Trengove Josh Tynan Jack Watts VETERAN LIST: Brad Green ROOKIE LIST: Tom Couch Michael Evans Kelvin Lawrence James Magner Dan Nicholson Jai Sheahan Leigh Williams We farewell former skipper Brad Green (retired), Brent Moloney (Brisbane Lions) and Jared Rivers (Geelong) who left as free agents and Jordan Gysberts (North Melbourne), Stef Martin (Brisbane Lions) and Cale Morton (West Coast Eagles) who were traded at the end of the exchange period. The club has delisted Matthew Bate, Jamie Bennell, Lucas Cook, Liam Jurrah and Ricky Petterd from its primary list and rookies Kelvin Lawrence, Jai Sheahan and Leigh Williams. We wish them well and it will certainly be a bitter-sweet experience to see many of them running around in different colours in the future. You don't have to look hard for justification for the hard decisions that need to be made in order to bring about changes when you're dealing with an organisation that has been starved of any form of success for a long period of time. The ingathering of new names and faces has been long awaited at the Melbourne Football Club and these are the first of the new crop who will take their places as part of the team in the near future:- # Dominic Barry # Shannon Byrnes # Chris Dawes # Jesse Hogan # Cameron Pedersen # David Rodan I haven't included Jack Viney whose name will officially become a Demon when his name is called out by his father Todd as second selection overall in November's national draft. The lists currently stand as follows but with delisted free agency on the horizon and the drafts coming up, there are more changes to come:- PRIMARY LIST: Rohan Bail Dominic Barry Clint Bartram Sam Blease Shannon Byrnes Mitch Clark Aaron Davey Troy Davis Chris Dawes Lynden Dunn Jack Fitzpatrick James Frawley Colin Garland Max Gawn Jack Grimes Jeremy Howe Mark Jamar Neville Jetta Nathan Jones Joel Macdonald Tom McDonald Jordie McKenzie Cameron Pedersen David Rodan James Sellar Jake Spencer James Strauss Colin Sylvia Rory Taggert Luke Tapscott Jack Trengove Josh Tynan Jack Watts National Draft Picks 4 27 (Jack Viney) 49 53 70 73 and 74* ROOKIE LIST: Tom Couch Michael Evans James Magner Dan Nicholson 2014 PRIMARY LIST Jesse Hogan * the places of these draft selections can be taken up prior to the National Draft by delisted free agents secured by the club and during the National Draft by rookie elevations.

They are training in Darwin next week. I assume the boys are flying........ They are training in Darwin next week. I assume the boys are flying........

Not sure if any of them were.

We are lacking a super star, more run in the midfield and a Yarran-style runner out of the back. I hear strong mail (from the bloke that told me would ahve taken viney at pick 3 and about the Gysberts trade to north before it was public domain) that the club think Rory Taggert will come on in 2013 and add depth to the mids with Viney and Wines (and yeah im talking like he is already ours). The aim is to make this the hardest club to play - we got enough talls to out-tall North now.

A bit more pace and outside run .

The Holden 186 Red.

I'm sick of hearing ppl in the media saying that we have just wasted 4 years of rebuilding. Out of the 14 players that have been delisted 1 retired, 1 left because of family reasons. Three where rookies and four were players, who at over 26 and have been at the club before the rebuild stage. So that's only four players who where picked up during this rebuild stage. Four out of 35, how is that a waste of 4 years? This is why we got rid of Bailey, to get a coach to fix this club and that's what Neeld is doing.

Got a text asking me to come down to watch on Thursday. Good initiative by the MFC

Couldn't stop laughing at those who at times asked "why is Buckley a star at Collingwood, but was useless for us?" Laughable to even suggest picking him up.

Wow that Woods/Grimes/Johnstone 3 way trade really worked out for us. At least that was 1 trade where we came out looking good. I dont think the other are worth looking at. Only Neeldy knows that.

He is doing exactly what he was hired to do Make the team more competetive win some games and assist in changing both the culture and the perception of the club He gave all on the list 12 months to be consdered relevent to the clubs future Some failed so be it! To all those delisted /moved on we can only hope they learn play well and have great career. I am sure all those no longer with the Dees know exactly why they were not continuing with the Melbourne Football Club WE must support Neeld and the Football department and I am sure we will be competetive in 2013

Backroom deal? Talk about manipulative laguage... I hollered until the collective ears of Demonland that the importance of getting Viney in the second round was of paramount importance. To be able to get a third Top 5 talent in the draft is list altering. That deal - where three parties worked in their own best interest - got us a dominant FF/CHF, and maintained our ability to pick two mids in the Top 5 in Viney and Pick 4. Without this deal we might have had to pay Pick 3 for Viney or not taken him at all and still got our Top 5 picks but no future FF/CHF. When a ruckman is supposed to 'complement our slow midfield' I think we have got bigger issues than whether we swap our back-up ruck Martin for Pedersen. Pedersen is useful in the forward line and as that is where the back-up ruck would play - hallejulah... And nobody else thought MArtin could be first ruck. Where was the rest of the AFL? The Lions got him to help Leuenberger for reason that escape me - he is useless in the forward line and that is where he will play most of his footy. If Knights got Adelaide nothing then so did Byrnes for Geelong - which means he would not have affected our compensation at all. And comp wasn't bundled - if we had two net players lost - we would have got 2 crappy picks rather than the one crappy pick we got. And you cannot do everything with kids. We have enough kids. We have enough projects as it is and enough talent to expose over the next few years. What we need is to create an enviroment for the talent we do have to thrive and improve. It wasn't happening under those that have left so if the FD think that Byrnes and Rodan can help that then bring it on. A agree with most of this save for Rivers - he was already pushed out of the backline - and the last line: we brought in 5 players that will improve our team straight away and secured 3 Top 5 talents. We had a very good October.

Nevermind, the baby wasn't fully commited to the bathing process and was just getting in the way of new babies who can understand the importance of scrubbing.

A little from column 'A' and a hell of a lot from column 'B'. Just a general comment but at what point during the 27 month long trade week that we just suffered did any of the 17 other clubs beat our door down with offers for these players that we have supposedly just thrown away? Morton? Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if we had to slip a $50 to one of the WCE guys to take him. Gys? A couple of clubs looked and turned up their noses before North decided he might be a tad better than #49. Martin? Let's just say that if he wasn't tall we'd be paying him to play at Casey next year. These guys couldn't get a game in one of the worst sides I've seen us field, and people think we screwed up by chopping them. I reckon we got 'overs'. Some of the posters here might rate the guys we traded but the rest of the football world certainly didn't.

Good luck to Cale. I just hope he has a lot less horrible, tasteless, mean spirited gutless supporters to deal with at West Coast.

If they send me one, I hope it includes an air fare :-)

What had me rolling my eyes last week was Damian Barrett who said in relation to Melbourne's trade and FA period "I just don't get it" and then proceeded to mark us an E. If you don't get it Dammo how can you mark it? Bit like having your Art Teacher mark your Physics Exam. Instead of giving Melbourne an E he should have given himself an uppercut. His hysteria over Jesse Hogan picks we traded without even mentioning Barry as a gain also smelt like a guy running an agenda.

I dont know anyone on the inside, have no special, secret information and the MFC "deep throat" did not whisper in my ear. Here is my guess (yes - a guess) Prior to the supposed sacking of CS he was sticking his nose into FD issues - and the board was not happy with this aspect of his management. I can't see how they could be anything but happy with his commercial efforts ( attracting ANY sponsors to the club with our current appeal is amazing in itself, debt reduction etc etc). At 186 elements wanted to sack both DB and CS but calmer heads said you cant heave ho both. I "guess" that CS was told he can stay but limit his influence to admin and stay the hell away from footy - he has done that - everyone happy - nothing to see here - everyone move on. Just a guess.

I am considering to offer myself as a sex slave to Mark Neeld. I love this man. I really do.

How does a club get out of a $5 million debt.....Be able for the first time to get a FD that is on a par with the top sides......Without the solid working CEO and a board that can take the whole club forward......Yes Jim was the starter but without the smarts of the rest it would have faulted.......Just for the record.....Carlton has a 10 mil debt.......Richmond.....3 mil.......Coll......$4 miland don't get me started on the Lions....Port......West Coast......and the newbies........All journeys start at the begining....I back the board and the CEO to the hilt.......I have not seen the footy club in a better position for 20 years....

Won't give you the pleasure other than I'll take a break for a while. No need to say the same things over and over again. Will return around the time of the AGM at the earliest. Will have new things to say then. See you all then.

If you are negative all the time, you will be right some of the time. Whoopee.

Just heard a good joke from a WC supporter: "Westcoast to make cuts to their list in the coming days. Cale Morton waiting anxiously to see whether he makes the cut" Lol

For what it's worth, my older sister who has been a mad Cats supporter (and no, in this case that isn't a tautology) since the late 40's, insisted last night that we have made an excellent pick-up in Byrnes. She says that the only reason he wasn't playing in the ones, was because of the class that was keeping him out and there just wasn't room for him to get a regular gig...and when you think about it, at that level in a team like the Cats, the difference in skill levels required to get a run ahead of the likes of Bartell can be pretty miniscule.

I am going to stop you there...

Putting Melbourne up against Hawthorn on a Friday night was just idiotic. What did the AFL expect was going to happen? They have been flogging us for the past 5 years. I think every club should get at least ONE Friday night game each year. They should have put us up against a team that was likely to be on an even level with us. Then the game becomes interesting.

We will have Watts pick 1, Trengove Pick 2, Viney 3-8, Wines Pick 4, Clark Pick 9, Frawley Pick 12, Jones Pick 12, Grimes Pick 14, Blease Pick 17, Tapscott 18 and Strauss Pick 19 all playing in our 22 next year. Thats half our team as top 20 picks under 25 years old! The idea we needed to stock up on 6 kids is laughable! What that list of players doesn't have is a long history of success, premierships or Grand Final performances, being part of a club that is consistantly in the top 8 or a large number of games experience. This is why we need Byrnes, Dawes and Rodan. I am happy with what we have done, we have picked up quality players, clubmen and trainers that fill roles we are defiencient in. Rodan and Byrnes will play small forward rotating to the midfield, last year we had no-one play this role effienciently, Blease started to do it in the second half of the year, but ideally you want his run in the middle. Dawes plays second power forward, this was done this year by Rivers, Garland and Watts not to any great success, certainly not as well as you would think a Premiership CHF would do. Pedersen will play 3rd lead up forward/pinch hit in ruck, he just has to do better than Sellar and Martin, which I am backing him to do. As for our trades for Martin, Gys and Morton, clearly these were just contracted de-listings, money saving trades, we were luck to get anything for Morton at all. Gys and Martin may well play well at their new clubs, but I'm betting they won't. All the other de-listings were flagged months ago, all the players knew from the start of the year they had 1 year to get to the standard Neeld wanted or they were out, guess what, these guys didn't make the grade. I am always sad to say goodbye to players as like all supporters I am emotionally invested in them and always want them to be the best, however all coaches should be able to have a team that fits their standards and ideals and Neeld certainly hasn't been half-assed in making that happen for him this year.

You hate Martin, we get it. FFS how about showing some respect to somebody who tried hard while wearing a Melbourne jumper? Just wish him luck and move on.

Baby boomers are c o o l. WTF do you think did all the heavy lifting with sex, drugs, rock'n'roll and yes computers. boomers = culture. dude.

Just wanted to say that I'm really quite excited by this guy. Most here have him pigeon-holed as a depth player and many listing best 22's have him in the backline. And others are making Sellar comparisons. He's going to surprise many. Quite a few north supporters preferred him to Hansen and Tarrant and couldn't understand why he wasn't given more of a chance. I can understand why North were keen to pump games into Tarrant and fast-track his development and why they wanted to give Hansen every opportunity to finally justify his high draft position and obvious talent. With Petrie as their other key forward, there's no shame in finding yourself in the VFL. And if you are going to find yourself in the VFL you might as well go ahead and dominate and win the B & F. Pederson will at least be a very solid inclusion that provides that enhances our structure but I think he will be even better than that. I think Neeld will play him forward with Clark and Dawes and he will have a huge year. He's got a great pair of hands, a long accurate kick, seems to work hard defensively and will be hungry to prove himself. All aboard the Pedersen bandwagon!

The key to what we've done is to provide experienced support and leadership to the cluster of talented kids coming through the club so they develop to their full potential. If we can get an across the board improvement of 10 - 15% this year from Clark (a full year uninjured), Dawes (back to his 2010 form), Jones (continued improvement), Grimes (2nd year captain and his first full season), Trengove (2nd year captain and should get is body right in 2013), Frawley (back to 2010 form, settled backline), Tom McDonald (another preseason of work to build his strength more) Blease ( realised in 2012 that hard work = success, is a convert), Watts (maturing well and able now to build on his frame and compete with men all over the ground), Howe (knows he could be a star if he works), Tapscott (had to trim down in 2012 and develope more strings to his bow, should be capable and confident all over the ground) Garland (played out of position in LATE 2012 has capacity now to play front or back) McKenzie (with Dawes and Clark to target should add more offensive disposals to his defensive style game), Viney (bang, knows whats required, hungry as, like to see him play forward pocket when not in middle), Strauss ( confidence player for whom injuries have stymied his momentum, if uninjured has line breaking capacity), Taggert, Tynan, Gawn, and pick 4, (Should all be pushing hard to play AFL games and if they are they'll have improved by more than 15%) If these 19 young men improve we'll be well on the way to climbing the ladder. Good trading period and it would seem we have the players and processes in place now to improve.

What did we just do? Owned the trade period. You might not realise it now though.

I get the feeling that if the Swans traded Pederson, Dawes and Rodan into their club, they would be applauded for their moneyball decisions

He was following the ball...

If we play GWS, Dogs, GC and PA twice and only win 7 games then likely the season will be a shambles. i've had 5 years of KPI's, Competitive quarters, and other measurements. In that time I've watched the club lose deliberately, squander draft picks on ping pong players, fail to develop barely any of the talent, lose by 186 points thanks to a player revolt, watched a good bloke in Dean Bailey being undermined by his own employers, seen The Footy Show host called in again to try and fix the problem. On top of all this the club puts the team in pink jumpers, school boy blazers, fancy logos, continues to shuffle incompetent employees around to cover their mistakes and spins more corporate crap than I can handle, all the while wanting my money. They can stick it all up their asswholes. Let's stop the excuses and demand 11 wins. With the draw we're going to get its not that hard. 7 my ass Note: I believed the hype, not again.