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I hope Bernie's unfortunate remarks don't upset Heritier.

"I've had five coaches in six years. You can only imagine if your boss changes every year almost, it's hard to keep consistency," Blease said. "As a result, I feel that moving to a new club with a 7th coach is the best move for my career."

Probably the most cared for animals on the face of the earth. Who told you they are forced to race against their will? I have raced and bred horses for 30 years and I have never seen animals given more love and care. Talk about a brain dead human.

He was always arrogant.

He's not wrong but it is a massive deflection of responsibility for his own career. His line about Prendergast is really interesting - he must have been hurt by being called a failed draft pick... I am sorry to say this, Sam. But we didn't have a good history with picking the right player, and you were no exception.

Problem with the Bummer players is that they never learned to say "neigh".

He's not Dawes 'Machsy', he does mark the ball and mark well. My point is we do need to improve our forward line dramatically and those calling for mids, mids, mids need to open their eyes to this. The games I went to this year our forward line was appalling and when the mids were going ok they had no one to kick to in the forward half. Now whether McCartin is the answer I don't know, if we get the 2013 version then he was well on the way. If he's not the answer we better have a good plan to get either Cameron or Walker for 2016.

Time to ban horse racing. It's a cruel sport for animals and punters alike. Enough.

Horse racing is such a joke of a 'sport'. What a great idea racing horses against their will for the thrill of some braindead humans,

If we take Newton as a DFA, then you can switch off the draft after pick 3. Two rookie spots - perhaps one for Tapscott - and our list is set. Mahoney might have said this in Adelaide - but its looking like gospel. Roos' comments late in the season suggested a larger turnover of players than this - but Terlich is about the only "marginal" player coming out of contract we chose to re-sign. Terlich shaped like a good hard-running player in his first year - but too many mistakes seemed to emerge last year - and I expected us to let him go.Word was that he carried a few injuries in 2014 - so I'll bow to the club's better judgment.. Nothing is certain in list management. At one point we didn't think that Trenners was going to be on the list in 2015 The trade for pick 40 gave us the option of a speculative mid- draft pick. As events have transpired it appears as though we are going to be able to sneak a youngster with potential (Newton) directly on to the list as a DFA instead.If we have decided that Newton is a better prospect than the speculative pick we planned to take, then it would be insane to sit back and wait for whoever is available at 40.

(Chokes on cornflakes)

Last time I was confronted by a Demonland homepage featuring you as the last poster on the first 10 threads was grand final day 2013. You ok Demoneyes?

Was I the only one expecting Jones puts off contract talks as the focus of this thread when first opening it up?

It amazes me that an experienced AFL footballer (or any sort of personality for that matter) would not know the dangers and implications of saying anything that could be considered even remotely controversial on social media. These guys can be bloody thick.

Poor form Bernie. Insensitive and not even funny. Why would you?

The bloke makes a slightly insensitive remark about a horse after a million beers and the politically correct do-gooders find someone to pay out on for 24 hours. Get a life.

Seeya Sam...... Point 1. You say that the clubs instability is the reason for the failure of our early draft picks. Yes, it probably played a part but what about some of the later picks during your lacklustre career at Melbourne? Jetta (pick 51), Bail (pick 64), Howe (pick 33), Mcdonald (pick 53) all say hi/bye..... From the start of this year you had no excuses...... Most other failures are because we were 'Prendergasted'. Point 2 will prove this beyond doubt plus some.... Point 2. Recruiting played a major part in the slow erosion of our club. I dare anybody to go to this link http://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/td-melbourne-demons?year=1998 and scroll through from 1998 to 2011 without needing a bucket. Not only were we 'Prendergasted' but we were well and truly 'Cameroned' too. Which leads me to a new word 'Camdergasted'. 'Camdergasted' and for 13 years no less...... No more softc**ks please. Some points of interest after reviewing our recruiting history. 1. Despite some scathing direct and keyboard warrior attacks Jack Watts re-signed and wants to do the hard yards in helping revive this club. Look out for a steady improvement in 2015 and beyond. 2. Neil Daniher deserves credit for what he achieved with the list and facilities he had at his disposal. 3. Things are looking up from a recruiting perspective since the 2012 draft. 4. The culture change is nearing completion with the likes of Jones, Salem, Dawes, Trengove (what an amazing character), Tyson, Dunn, Cross, Vince, JKH, Mcdonald, Grimes, Jetta etc. all developing nicely. I can finally see a decent improvement coming for season 2015 which will provide the springboard for seasons beyond.

Well its been a year and a bit since Action Jackson talk the talked on the couch. Fair to say he backed it up by making people on here look very silly by walking the walk! I have so much admiration for PJ for what he had done for this footy club. Looking back nlw we were really a shambles. He has installed a newly well ran board and a stable coaching structure with Goodwin, Roos and Mcartney. We have a long term sponsership with AHG that by all reports seem to have a positive relationship on the footy. Well done PJ. Looking forward to a big 2015 with this guy steering the ship again. Btw being a public holiday im using my spare time today to bake some humble pie for the likes of Jumbo and Saty. Hope you like icing.

That may be true but it's also irrelevant to this current discussion. I don't wish him any luck at all, in fact after hearing that interview I hope he gets delisted after a year. Bagging your old club in public is just not on.

Agree with the part about groupthink on Demonland - oodles of it but I must confess you got me with the bit about the "fantastic brand of running footy" because that's where I thought his greatest failing lay and to an extent, Bailey and most others at the club during and after recognised this. That style was good against the competition's lesser lights and worked against the weaker interstate clubs when we played them at home (eg Adelaide and a weakened Fremantle in 2011) but it failed miserably against the stronger teams that had real running ability in that they ran both ways and not just when going into attack. Look at our third quarter v Hawthorn and the game v West Coast and then against every team that applied the pressure blowtorch on us with the press. We simply had too many players who lacked the work ethic or the will to get to the point where they were fit enough aerobicly to go with the leading clubs in the competition and hence, the dramatic inconsistency in performance. Fact is, we were never going to get any better unless things changed dramatically and they didn't. There's no better example than the recently departed Sam Blease who was sent back to Casey more than once to improve his defensive running and three years later, he had improved marginally at it - what a waste of talent! The fact is that this one way running game was becoming obsolete early in the decade and we were never going to improve without stepping up considerably our ability to run defensively as well as in attack. Both Neeld and Roos recognised this, the former didn't have the full support of a divided team and lacked the experience, strength and the back up from the club to bring the playing group together as a cohesive group. That's water under the bridge now but it's taken Roos a full year and he has yet to overcome the deficiencies created by years of poor recruiting, poor player development and inadequate coaching by all of them to the point where the argument about who was the better coach is totally moot.

We will get no draft or list help from the AFL, as they believe we will win the flag this year.

We all know he's right. Melbourne gave him the worst possible chance to become a top-flight AFL player. But could you imagine Nathan Jones coming out and saying this? The fact he signed with a new club and immediately started placing blame for his time here on the club and hardly on himself is reflective of his poor attitude, which is the primary reason he's not made it yet.

Would be absolute insanity to trade in for pick 40 and not use it.

FFS get a grip. Bernie made a lame joke and I hope he had a few beers because it was ordinary. He's a country lad and I daresay is way more desensitised to this than city folk. I doubt he would've posted it had he seen the anguish of the owners, strappers etc It's sad for the horse and connections but [censored] happens.

You don't know that.

There's funny...there's clever...and theres stupidity Ill give yo u5 mins to figure out which of the above applies to Bernie in this respect. The club has shown its not impressed by 'poor taste' efforts. Did Bernie not take any notice of the "Rolf" episode Theres joking between mates...all fun and games ...yeah...and then theres putting it out to the ...well ...world !!! smart move Bernie

This has to be your best post ever. Horse racing is a spectacle for people but it ruins the lives of horses. Anyone who then goes on to make light of the death of an animal, needs a good smack around the head. Pretty pathetic.

You guys might be playing with yourselves...

Brainless insensitive comment. FFS.

I too am absolutely no expert at all, but I will suggest this... he's not going to get any smaller. McCartin, like Brown, Roughhead, Hawkins, etc is a great big lump of a kid, who is going to grow into an even bigger lump of a man. He has good pace of the mark, good athleticism and agility and if he can maintain these through further access to elite training, then he should develop into a big, bustle power forward. He is not a skinny kid that needs to bulk up in his early twenties, and we certainly won't be looking at preseason training with crossed fingers to see if he's added and muscle to his frame. If anything, his big frame is a huge advantage as he starts in the AFL because he is not going to be rag-dolled like many recruits.

I'm presuming this is why you're a solicitor and not a mathematician, W_J.

The AFLPA couldn't care less about the teenagers... No, I just meant that Evans' vacated spot on the list may be better next year rather than this year. If you delete every player you don't want in one year, you are going to have to delete someone you do want the year after...

I think several clubs, including the MFC, aren't paying 100% of the TPP because they don't have enough good players to need to. Don't know what your knowledge of finance or accounting is like VB, but it's not usually about how much cash the club has physically sitting in the bank account or whatever (hopefully we're okay there or there are much bigger problems!) The club will have a budget to pay its players, which will hopefully be up to 100% of the salary cap - at the very least, it'll be higher than what they're projecting to pay to accomodate 'contingencies'. The additional cost added is not the cost of paying out Evans (sunk cost - he is already included in the budget), it's the cost of whatever player we recruit that goes outside our projected costs - and if it's someone like Anthony or Newton, that's not going to be a very large sum. Honestly I'd expect the cost of delisting a contracted player such as Evans to be absorbed in to the existing budget, but even if it's not, it would not be outside the budget by a huge amount and it should be an amount the club can comfortably handle paying. (I know we have a few accountants on the forum, of which I'm not one, so someone please tell me if I've spoken a load of garbage up there) I'd like to see your evidence that the MFC was "damn near insolvent" before the DD campaign.

Yes, preferably after the next list lodgement...

Yeah, fancy having empathy!? People are just weird. I want my football team to succeed at the expense of human well-being. In fact, I'd be glad if all the opposition players died of polio.

Can't even get both his kids to support the club... Just starve the kid, Steve! That'll learn him.

I find it truly hard to fathom the nasty comments aimed at Sam Blease on this site. Finally the inside word from a player who is confirming everything we have been speculating on. Yet some of the very people, who I am sure have previously acknowledged the exact same faults of our club and recruiting, are getting nasty just because it comes in the form of a player who speaks his mind. Suck it up you pack of princesses! Don't shoot the messenger. It hurt to read his comments, it tasted bitter and foul and it made me angry, but I believe they were true words, spoken by a young, naive lad who, despite his faults, has stated publicly what we all know and are too embarrassed to acknowledge beyond the realms of an anonymous online football forum. Since Sam was drafted we have been a basket case. Full stop. No arguments. A flat out basket case. It's time to tip your hat to the truth and accept that we have become a different club now. That was the past, let it go and lets move on.

No. Let me put it this way, what would you hope to get out of a pick 23? A 10 year player? I think Frost is going to become a very important player for us, I think he'll end up being our best tall defender and is definitely worth pick 23. Don't try and make stuff up to suit your own agenda, it just makes you look foolish. In other words, stop being a smart arse.

What makes him an overlord and what's with bringing in stockbrokers and insurance salespeople? We need more lawyers on the board I think Howcroft was very entertaining at AGMs for a while and then things stopped being funny.

Hey s-t-i-n-g-a I know you're being facetious but you're better than that. I think Sam was basically a good kid who went through hard times to get where he was and probably lacked the proper guidance to help him understand the hard work necessary to make it. I wonder how many true role models he had a club that had very few mature leaders such as he might have had elsewhere. I wish him luck at Geelong. He'll need it and he'll need to take more responsibility on himself when he gets there because whatever he was doing over the past few seasons achieved very little for himself and his club.

I must say I love the comment Blease said the defensive side of his game had been under the most scrutiny, and believed it was something he could address at Geelong. "Most of the time Roosy's game plan was based more around defence and I guess I lean more on the side of offence … and defence is something that hasn’t come natural to me," he said. So I guess it must have been one of his many new Geelong coaches that pointed out that he needs to work on his defence because it is certainly not something he learnt at Melbourne and as he put it, defence was a primary focus at the MFC and yet he still did not understand that is what he had to do at Melbourne, but now realizes he can turn this around at Geelong. Sorry the guy is so far up his own backside blaming everyone for his poor effort and form that did not allow him to break into one of the worst teams in the league. A good player can still find and use the ball which is something Sam was really not that good at most of the time. Thanks for the salary cap relief Sam, enjoy sitting on the bench with Mitch.

Changing coaches would be an excuse if you went from a good player to bad player then back to good or vice versa when used different roles. But Blease came in under Dean Bailey. Broke his leg. There goes 2009 and really 2010. I can't help but think the advise to him was do your rehab, get fit, go out and get a kick. 2011 he played a bit, moved around positions. Then from 2012 under Neeld and continuing on I really can't help but think the advise to him has been the same the entire time. Play half forward. Defend first. Make better decisions than you currently do. Get fitter. I hate it when anyone says 5 or 6 coaches. Blease had Bailey, Neeld and then Roos. The caretakers in Viney and Craig were unlikely to have asked for anything significant form Blease besides from him to get a kick. Craig clearly paired back the game plan last year and tried to retain some possession and besides that just play natural football. It got a bit of results in some of the games. There was no magic about it. I'm not going to bad mouth him for having a crack at the club. It's nothing different to what Roos has said and we laud him for calling it how it is. But I will say I think it shows that he's just never got what AFL footy is about. It's probably the toughest sport in the world and no one can do anything for you when you are on the field. He might get some easy kicks down at Geelong but if he doesn't work for them they will dry up pretty quickly.

A couple of things come from that interview. 1) Blease reads forums 2) I'm sure the stifled development argument would be a popular one amongst the players. Anyway, it was inappropriate but hardly untrue.

Dom Tyson had nothing but good things to say about GWS when he left them. I understand Melbourne's culture was probably far worse, but Blease could of AT LEAST said nothing at all instead of taking swipes at us....for example, 'Melbourne have finally got their [censored] together and I see them going places but I feel. like I need a fresh start'. Simple. No hard feelings though...can't see him turning things around.

Really, if we were set on acquiring Frost to fill a need, and were happy to go the draft with only 2 live picks, pick 23 may as well have been pick 4. Or alternatively pick 104. Either way, we weren't going to use it. So those saying we gave up too much in pick 23... We were never going to be able to select a mature KPD in the draft. And clearly Brissie wanted too much for Merrett, or he was less appealing. But I'm more and more comfortable with this trade as time goes on.

BBO you have an interesting take on this. I heard the interview live as well but I was driving home from work!! I thought he was not very articulate at all, he tended to waffle on too much and I am not sure why Half and Dr Turf let him ramble on. It crossed my mind and it is only a thought bubble that the elite A graders tend to speak very well, very concisely and with authority, a sign of their confidence, leadership and focused thinking. I thought Blease knew what he wanted to say but took 20 words to say what could have been said in 10 words. Maybe that is just me. However I had some sympathy for his argument, looking at the data how could we have got a dozen or more first round picks so wrong, it has got to be something about the development versus talent. Having 5 coaches in 6 years is a good argument for failure. He has a point but then having watched him over 5 years you still wonder why he couldn't improve his game given his physical talents. I still think his problem is his decision making, not his physical gifts. He is a dumb footballer with some other great attributes. I hope he matures and makes a go of it at the cats.

so he gives the club a whack on the way out. [censored] him. Hope he fails dismally and is delisted after 12 months of one way running. Regardless of whether he was right, you just don't say things like that publicly, it's such a small industry, if he stays in it if any fashion there's going to be a pretty high chance he'll work with someone who he just offended. He's shown himself to be an arrogant and self centred little [censored], he can gagf

And if not, a word or two about Bert wouldn't go astray either.

I think that is what will happen. I'd be very close to taking McCartin and Wright, I think they would complement each other nicely and the club would have stashed away a truly nightmarish forward setup for other teams to worry about for years. They are both beasts. Brayshaw is good and he would be a safe/steady pick, which is probably a sensible line to take but Im not sure I could take him ahead of either of the two forwards. My only question mark re McCartin is the management of his illness, but he is extrememly talented and I know a few clubs would 100% be taking him at number 1. Not a huge rap for this draft. Had Petracca been proven to not be able to play in the midfield he would still be a gruaranteed top 10 pick as a medium sized marking forward and most of the players have enormous question marks hanging over them in terms of being top picks.

Oops ... well it was either me or the autospell but it does explain why I've been having trouble logging in as Whispering Jake.