Leaderboard

In an uncharacteristic show of solidarity and support the Melbourne Football Club (MFC) Board has decided to put to bed the rumours and innuendo surrounding there beleaguered senior coach and extend Mark Neeld's contract to the end of 2015. Neeld's original contract was for three years up until the end of 2014, but the Board unanimously voted to extend Neeld's contract by another year to reinforce the message that, contrary to popular belief, the ailing club was going to stay the course in its rebuild. Recent media reports linking the Former Swans coach Paul Roos to the club have contributed to this bold move by the board, this and the unanimous support shown by the MFC players and Football department whom have all rallied around there Senior Coach. Rumours about AFL intervention have been quashed by the AFL CEO earlier this week who emphatically denied the AFL have any involvement in moves to replace a coach of one of its member organisation. The above is not a real article but what I would be doing if I ran this club. Why? Because at some point this club "needs to grow a pair". Stop being pushed around by the Media and others and show some real grit. I have watched and read some of the defeatist carry on on these boards about sack the coach and starting again because its all too hard. Because apparently Roos or Williams or Worsfold are magically going to make this team better. Yeah Right pull the other one its got bells on it. Well I still have faith in Neeld and the team he has gathered, I am happy with incremental improvements because soon the steps will be become great strides and the players and people we have at the club will be forged into "The Hardest Football Team to Play" I support Neeld because he has chosen to take the hardest route to success. He is recruiting the type of players that knows that you need work hard if you want to win. He has made choices based on what is proven and not on what is easiest or guesswork. The systems and plans he has set in place will make this team be successful and it will ensure sustained success. Quite frankly I think it sucks that we are not winning but unlike some I look for the little positives that are becoming ingrained into the ethos of the team. Work hard, hunt the ball and never drop your head and Play out the game. Sorry mods for starting a whole new thread but I just wanted to start a positive thread on our Coach rather than get my message lost in the Negativity that is being said about MN.

Yep I thought it was the players that were meant to have selected the leadership group... Another perspective to consider. A colleague at my work is heavily involved in the fundraising for the club, including the match day raffle. He is regularly in the rooms. I mentioned to him about some of the comments suggesting that Neeld did not have the support of the player group. He laughed it off and then commented that (i'm paraphrasing) the team now, seems more united and in better spirits then it has for years. He indicated that their is genuine positive energy among the player group and a belief in the path that they are on. Many on here have suggested that the presser's where players express their thoughts/opinions can't be believed, but I think this perspective from someone who is in and around the club regularly, including in the rooms pre and post match provides a valuable insight. Take it however you want. But to me, it suggested that the players have bought into the Neeld and Co way of doing things. Listen to the press conference with Dawes and I think that positive attitude really comes through, and he's only been in the club for about 7 months.

I have to say that the faith being shown in this bloke, given the level of performance, is extraordinary. Not even opening yourself up to the possibility that we get this appointment wrong, because it would be all too hard to start anew, is as damaging as any stance you can take on this issue.

I'm anti-Neeld, and for me it is1. I don't like his attitude/manner. He reminds me of the school-teachers who were involved with school cadets back in the sixties. The kids who ended up doctors, lawyers, teachers etc did not choose to go in the cadets. We only had two AFL-level footballers in my year, and from memory cadets wasn't their thing either. There is an army mentality which is recognisable, and no doubt it has its place, but it's not for everyone. I thought Neeld from the outset had a limited range in terms of the attitudes/mentalities he was prepared to relate to. He seemed to me to be a bit of a cadets officer - he did not appear to be seeking relationships but ratehr obedience and deference; he relied on hard talking and demands for compliance. I'm a teacher, and I don't reckon what appeared to be his way is too smart - crushed compliance was what I feared he would produce, at best, and so far nothing has convinced me my fears were wrong. 2. I also had reservations about his acknowledgement of and alignment within the existing war-zone (as I saw it) that he walked into at the club - and I think in his fixed-mind approach he marginalised some players we couldn't afford to lose. It hadn't been his squabble, and in taking sides as he appeared to do he inevitably alienated people (players) in a way that compromised his job. Was he just on principle opposed to anyone who in any way could be seen to have broken ranks? I thought the players post-186, and post-SchwabvBailey, plus post Jimmy, needed sensitive handling, as well as a raising of standards. Neeld's attitude to what was inevitably the quite extraordinary state of the players was not what I thought we needed. I am currently open to the possibility that perhaps this is changing - posters have cited anecdotal evidence some of which I can see no reason to doubt, and there have been public statements by players... 3. Results. There is too much about Neeld's coaching relationship with the players that I can't know - but results are the proof of the pudding. Jesus said "by their fruits you will know them", and that sounds about right to me, at the end of the day. Though I do admit the argument that he needs time is not easily dismissed: obviously, things were already in a terrible mess when he arrived, and things nothing to do with him made them just get worse and worse. All the same, with your backs to the wall, the coach has a powerful card to play, and clearly he has not played it effectively even if he has tried. Remember that terribly undermanned side we took to Perth a few years ago? So, a little unsure about this third point, I am really in need of some scoreboard encouragement before I will give up my instincts against the guy. 4. too often his picking the team is puzzling to say the least. Roden in and out, in and out; Magner; Watts; Green and Jurrah earlier; a whole lot of criticised selections. If it worked, I'd accept it and learn - but there is no masterstroke revealed, and we just go on getting hammered. If people like Rivers etc didn't say stuff that so mirrored our concerns, perhaps it'd be easier to suspend my disbelief. 5. Neeld is a public figure, yet he seems to be making statements that either contradict earlier statements he made, or that are pre-game excuses/negativity, or that are seemingly baseless predictions about the future. If I am unconvinced by this sort of talk, how must the players feel? Unless Neeld talks differently behind closed doors, I am afraid he lacks the degree of honesty, intelligence and respect for those he speaks to that we need our coach to have. Teachers who cover up, or lie, or billshut, lose the students, at least to some extent. We can't afford to have that happening when everything else is so crap. We need to be able to close ranks very tightly, total trust all round - the players and the coach, anyway, even if it doesn't include supporters. I just wish I could believe he is rock-solid in consistency, integrity, truthfulness, loyalty to players, etc - but at this stage I don't.

I heard Rivers speak on Triple M while sitting in traffic last night, and what struck me were his comments about the pre-season training at Geelong compared to Melbourne. He said that Geelong, despite all the youngsters on their list, don't do any of the straight running that Melbourne do. The Cats get the footballs out from day one of pre-season and get their fitness while doing "football training" rather than running for an hour then doing skills under fatigue, where bad habits get ingrained and the quality of training suffers. When we talk about how unfit we look maybe this is part of the reason, we do too much running in pre-season that isn't "game running". The times I've seen us train in the pre-season we've done lots of lap running in pairs, which is obviously nothing like what happens during a game. Not sure it says much for the "elite training standards" that we've heard so much about

Almost lost my [censored] when I saw the thread title.

Why worry about other supporters when you can come on here for a pounding from your own. Its seriously disgraceful the way we eat our own on here. We all cop it enough without the crap our own give each other. On top of that many here are happy to put their opinion up as fact but when a guy puts up how bad he feels as we all do we lay into him??? Stick together and look after each other should be our mantra right now, we need each other for support and therapy if nothing else!!

I agree with this. I have always thought Neeld took a fairly abrupt and potentially arrogant approach with the senior players (and Jack Watts) when he came to the club. I didn't think it was particularly clever at the time, and I suspect with the benefit of hindsight Neeld would probably have done a few things differently if he had his time again. That said, I think Neeld has softened in his approach in this respect in recent months. He is learning too, and it seems he has learnt some things about dealing with the players and also with the media. In short, I think Neeld quickly, and correctly, identified the problems with the list and the culture upon his arrival. Although I think the way in which he initially implemented some of his changes lacked a certain amount of emotional intelligence. After all, clubs are about people - and I suspect Neeld didn't give sufficient respect to this fact at the end of 2011. Losing Moloney and Rivers was not cool - they should still be on our list IMO. However, we are now seeing a far more professional, disciplined player group IMO - and the foundations for success are clearly being implemented at the moment. Technically, the changes have been sound - in player management terms though, perhaps there's further room for improvement. And this is the very reason I would like to see a contract extension announced for Colin Sylvia asap.

Please get your grammar and punctuation in order, as they change the meaning of parts of your post. You are entitled to defend MN and you have been doing so in many posts in a short time, but fortunately many MFC supporters and D/L posters are more knowledgeable than you give them credit for. (Yes, it is permissible to end a sentence with a preposition - even Shakespeare knew that.)

It hadn't been his squabble; that's the crux of it for me, unfortunately it had been the squabble of the ones who gave him the job and he seems to have given them all the answers they wanted and then followed through. He walked into a divided club that wasn't of his making and has not been able to heal the wounds, his approach has been to cut out what he sees or has been told was the infection. The infection was higher up the chain unfortunately and those that employed him were the carriers, one has been moved on and another so called power broker (don't like the politics he says) has been marginalised. His career as a senior coach is in the balance now and may live and die on the decision to involve himself with the division. At the time of his appointment we needed a senior coach but those available would not have been so pliable and sucked into the squabble. That bares a lot of thought. Sorry to focus just on this part of the post 'robbie', I think the whole post is well reasoned and written. I still hold out some hope that Neeld will make it through but it is diminishing by the week, he may well have burned bridges very early and that is a pity for all of us.

I would suggest that the easy option is writing-off a new coach who has a problematic list and 28 games at the helm, hoping some other bloke can immediately turn lemons into lemonade

What an awesome idea, extend Neelds contract when Roos, Worsfold, Clarkson and Choco may all be available at seasons end.

All clubs supporters "eat their own" when the team is going badly. It's a function of the emotional investment people put in their footy teams. It's great that you have the emotional control not to get angry or upset or want to lash out, but don't carry on as if getting narky with each other or getting narky with the club when it is down is unique to Melbourne. It's not.

I reckon this sums it up pretty well: Melbourne 56.1% Bulldogs 72.8% We've been disgustingly bad. Furthermore, we've been rubbish for longer than the Bulldogs. We also just sacked our CEO. Why shouldn't we get more negative attention? As an aside, the coverage of us post-Carlton was fairly positive re: our effort, despite the fact that we got pounded by 10 goals.

But unfortunately OD we don't have the other players around to make these 10 players look good like the cats do. That makes a huge difference.

Are you seriousGeelong also had Selwood and the rest to lead these guys

Man I'd classify myself as a Neeld supporter (or apologist as some of you too often pull out) but even I was in shock and annoyance when I saw the title of this thread. I understand what your saying about the benefit of stopping the media blood sport on sacking Neeld, but it would be showing blind faith and we have to show more intelligence than that. And at the end of the day who cares what the media says, if the club is backing Neeld then they can do it on their own terms.

Redleg we are pretty much irrelevant to the competition at present so we are given the irrelevant time slots. This game will struggle to get 50 000 viewers on Foxtel Not sure why you are surprised

Um, he is contracted for another year already. Extending it would just be an entirely emotional act with no bearing on the situation except to increase our liability in the event that we do choose to dismiss him.

How many 'like' buttons can I have?

Cripes i thought was another Mclardy Letter to the Members Almost got on the Phone!!!

We do have something in common with them after all. Melbourne have been producing the same standard of football for the last 7 years too

I am a Neeld fan but to the end of 2014 is long enough at this stage

I don't think it's any secret that Tappy improved as soon as Mrs Robbie became his sponsor, he wouldn't dare not play well and let her down.

for mine it should be Neeld or Roos. we don't just need to build a side... we need to ReCast the whole club culture over a long time frame. we need someone to oversee this for 10 years. a 45 yr bad culture is manifested into our whole club including past players & admins etc. the problem is the culture issues are so in-obtrusive, they are unrecognisable to the vast majority. and they are reflective of much of todays society. ...... most won't understand it, so won't see any problem. this is the problem, of why its so hard to rectify. .

Umm no they arent. and never were.

I can't understand the VFL......Why have a full bye 4 weeks into a season......If they want to be a feeder comp to the AFL they should follow the afl fixture to some extent.....Otherwise clubs will have their own reserves side and have their own comp.....which will destroy the VFL comp...

Who gives a crap? Did it really have that big an effect on your life that you need to crack the sads about it? Just close the browser window and leave the thread if you don't like it, it's not like it was a spam link for weight loss pills or something.

Channel 7 reported that last night Geelong had 10 players in their team last night that have under 60 games experience. They are blessed to be playing alongside some current day champions like Stevie J, Enright and Bartels. Amongst them are Christensen and Motlop. Aside Garlett, is there a more exciting creative footballer around than Motlop? They are further blessed with 3 capable talks in West, Vardy and Blicavs such that Hamish McIntosh is now in No 4 ruck spot. In the past few years Geelong have lost arguably one of the great players in the past decade in Ablett, retired off their greatest full back ever in Scarlett and retired off Dual premiership players in Harley ( ex Captain), Ling (ex captain) and Ottens. Last night they had Chapman, Corey, Hunt and Varcoe out of the side and they did not miss a beat. They also had to cover Rivers up back with IPod. After giving Essendon a 4 goal lead in the 2nd qtr, they then ruthlessly peeled Essendon like an onion. They were awesome last night like they have been for seven years now. In that time they have won over 80% of their games. Wow! Geelong were always going to have generational transition greats through to eventual retirement. But I can't think of a club that is progressing through this so professionally and effectively. In They have the blend, the mix and the culture so right. It's the complete and total opposite of Melbourne.

Poor us. We don't deserve this. Why don't they just leave us alone.

There's an interesting article in today's Geelong Advertiser by Paul Chapman about the relationships of players within the team environment - Footy relationships are tested at times. We need to realise that football teams are not a single homogenous group and that the views of individuals like Moloney and Rivers might not necessarily be reflective of the rest of the group. In my discussions with some of the (younger) members of the playing group, some of the older brigade at the time of Neeld's arrival were more self-absorbed than team oriented and Neeld, Craig and the football dept saw that. If they were the right quality for team leadership they would have been considered favourably. Their behaviours indicated otherwise and they spat the dummy. It hurt the club in the short run for it to be bereft in mature leadership but Moloney and Rivers weren't worthy contenders. Let Riv say what he likes and it will be accepted for what it's worth but I'll always remember him as one of many at this club and in this era who never lived up to his potential and he is hardly the one to speak about his own leadership credentials.

Greg Wells was a terrific footballer, but a recruiter he ain't. Stephen Wells, on the other hand...

Geelong are a phenomenal football team. The fact they are producing like this after 7 years is a credit to the environment they have at the club. They're able to bring young kids and recruits in and make them a part of a successful development system. They breed success and instill confidence from day dot. To think back in 2006 they missed finals and we made the semi finals. Completely reversed from there! Geelong are definitely the greatest club of the modern era. Hopefully we learn from them and can build to some sort of success.

I don't think it takes a lot to work out what happened and why..... The Green-Moloney- Rivers leadership group went to the Board on the eve of 186 and asked them to sack CS. When CS - and his mate, Gary Lyon - starting talking to possible replacements the first thing they said was that the leadership group had rebelled and that they expected the new coach to pull it apart and start afresh. The day CS prevailed over Bailey was the day the leaders effectively lost their jobs. We are kidding ourselves if we think that Neeld started assessing the leaders with a clean sheet of paper. Neeld may have irretrievably "lost" the players with his tough initial stance - but I'm not sure that would have been entirely his fault.I'm prepared to give him the rest of the season to demonstrate progress ................ but I reserve the right to change my mind if we get thrashed this week!!

The problem is that they really are rubbish. As I've said before, there is no useful method in place to determine the value of defensive acts. As long as they continue to base their scoring system on possessions it is inherently flawed as it only measures half of the game. A spoil needs to be valued as highly as a mark. Effective blocks are worth every bit as much as a possession. What about the Jimmy Bartel tap-on last week that made a goal out of nothing? No stat recorded in any column, but he created a goal. Until they start adding things like these to their system it has very little relevance to the actual game.

they did, blame the players. they blamed the likes of godfrey & Jnr & others who chased hard.. but they wanted more skill but forgot about the hardball & the chasing & the pressuring & the contested marking & putting the head over the ball. they wanted more davies, & more bruces, & more greens, & less of the team 1%ers. & obviously no hardworking getting muddy styled culture. But gradually the danners gameplan, of running along the wings carrying the ball, looking for space & players playing ahead of the footy, but no physical presence was doomed & then no chase coming back the other way, with no fitness as well? = a holiday camp... culture was shot to pieces.

Regarding Rivers he was on mmm also but never said anything about Neeld or bagged the club. he was asked why he left melbourne and basically said he'd been at melbourne for 10 years and really didnt enjoy losing and said melbourne offered him a contract and geelong offered him one so he obviously took that. Which you couldnt really blame him for. Then he said the thing he noticed between the 2 clubs during the pre season was at melbourne it was more focused on running and at geelong the footballs were out the whole time doing skills work and drills. His comments surprised me about neeld. Well the younger players are buying into neeld and players like jones are thriving on it and I know he hasnt been in the club for long but Mitch Clarke loves it at melbourne and Dawes decided to join.

It is in the area of use the ball well. IMO the vast majority of players with poor disposal skills never become great. If you pick players that are poor kicks the majority stay that way.

My mother and two sisters are Cats supporters. Dad and I are Dee's Nice one Dad.

I would only take six of that group the rest are either average or are too young to know.Mate they are not that good

125 wins out of 150 games. Amazing record.

That's big from what was a respected senior player.

Yeah, what would Rivers know?

Clark, Dawes, Frawley, Grimes, Gawn, Evans and Trengove when fit. Blease would also add to a strong side as would McDonald picking up the third forward.But let's forget them and bag the club instead

There is no slugging it out. You made that up like most of your dribble. I've replied to just one of his posts. it's hardly slugging it out. Now run off and go pick on a schoolkid. That seems to be more your style. I'm guessing you're in your 50's, not very intelligent, a lawyer maybe. You've got few friends, are single and take out your frustrations and inadequate life right here on Demonland. Enjoy your Friday night Big Fella!

I asked Josh Mahoney about this at a recent training session. He said they would love to see him there in the future and are giving him very short tints now, but he has to build his fitness and demand the position with his form.

I can't understand the AFL's fixation with, and insistence on, clash strips. For over 100 years the competition coped when players were running around on quagmire grounds, covered in mud, yet somehow players seemed to be able to tell each other apart, so could fans, and the game evolved and thrived through those years. Now games are played on perfectly manicured and well drained stadiums, one even under cover, televised clearly with high definition cameras and equipment, but suddenly we're supposedly no longer able to tell one player or team from another.

What we were doing under Bailey wasn't the Geelong plan or under Neeld the Collingwood plan. I hate those rubbish terms. On what planet would Geelong be smashed by over 100 points? When has Collingwood been accused of not troubling the scorers enough (oh, you won by 15 points? for shame. It should have been 45) ? We have plans that pick one thing in isolation and run with it, without pausing to think that there is a holistic reason that clubs are successful or not. We need to work at getting a MFC plan rather than thinking 'Collingwood have good pie nights and are a good team. What we need to be a good team is to have more pie nights'.

An actual discussion free from insults. You're a breath of fresh air mate.

The South Park gif needs to become the unofficial D'Land logo. Seriously. It pretty much sums up everything I love and hate about this forum. It could be placed on the 3rd page of any open thread and adequately reflect the state of the dialogue. It's so genius it even made me smile right after looking at that incredibly uninspiring team.