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I just got back from the training. I stayed until about 3pm and enjoyed myself but I have to admit it was a messy and clumsy PR exercise. Step 1. Heavily promote 35K members by round 1 Step 2. Promote and advertise open training session on a public holiday. Step 3. Change the time by an hour but provide information only to Twitter people with no information about the time change on the official website Step 4. Attract heaps of members and their kids (and there were a heap of kids) and leave them doing kick-to-kick for 1.5 hours. Many leave before players arrive. Very poor business and promotional effort MFC - I thought that carp was behind us. Anyway, to the training... This was the first training I was able to get to this pre-season, but also probably the sharpest training session by MFC I have seen in a long time. I came away feeling positive about quite a few things. There was some standard warming up followed by short sharp kicking drills. The first drill was hitting targets in a full ground drill, hitting up a forward who was running toward goal, and then actual goal scoring on the run. The main focus was definitely ball movement off half-back. Starting on the HB flank with 5 defenders on 3 forwards, so it was simulating when we get more numbers to a contest than the opposition. A handball pattern getting it free, a kick to a loose player, and then a further kick at 45 degrees across to the other HF flank amid heaps of players spreading everywhere, and then to goal. I remember Michael Voss talking about spreading forward at 45 degrees being the best way to spread an opposition defence, and it did look effective. Highlights Brayshaw is simply a beautiful mover. Takes the ball at the highest point, has a long loping running style but covers a lot of ground. Great to watch. However, at this early stage his kicking is definitely a liability. Toumpas, Watts and Salem - their kicking on the run is sublime. All three sprinted hard and could still hit targets. Salem. Quickly becoming my favourite current player. Lamumba is seriously focused when training. Strong vocally, and trains like it is a game. I came away very impressed and can see why Roos went for him. Garlett might just be one of the recruit of the year. On the run at full flight beautiful to watch. We have a heap of players to rotate through the midfield, all of similar size, but with a variety of body shape and skill set. From huge bodies like Jones, Kent and Vandenberg through to outside runners like Bail, Hunt, Stretch, and everything in between. Our issue this year will be getting the ball and keeping it: Once we have it I reckon we are looking OK with our midfield mix.. A real fight on for for midfield positions Lowlights Both McDonald boys can't kick. JKH was probably the worst on the track from where I was today. It just wasn't coming together for him. Lots of errors. I would love to see some competitive marking drills. Most of the aerial work today was very easy and low pressure, not helping Dawes, Fitz, Pederson the practice. No Hogan. A friend next to me asked about Hogan and was told he was left in Perth to catch up with family after NAB round 1. Howe and Vince still doing rehab. That's about it

I have spoken to former players, as have many others on Demonland no doubt and the one thing they all agree on is, without good admin,coaching and development, you can't have sustained success. We are fixing all these areas and are on the right track. As an aside, ate at a Salem restaurant yesterday and spoke to one of Chris's brothers, who told me that Christian is loving the club and hopefully with a good pre season and no injuries, is looking forward to producing his best footy for the club. Thinks we have a good bunch of youngsters who will develop into a strong team over the next couple of years.

I thought we could keep the training thread to topic. If mods want to merge they can merge. If anyone wants to send this through to the club they can. The club has to improve in communication and treatment of members and supporters. I think they do a fantastic job in interviewing players and coaches pre and post game, but everything else is very substandard. The intraclub game staged at Casey at a non fan friendly time of 4pm and without any associated merchandise, membership, food or drink sales was very poor. Today was worse. I'm calling on Josh Mahoney as head of football operations to get together with Paul Roos (a man who clearly has a firm grasp of PR) and David Misson to make sure they are all on the same page in the footy department. Whilst I never expect them to sacrifice preparation to appease supporters they can certainly be aware of what's happening in the rest of the club. If the club advertise a training time then that's it locked in, it can't be changed merely a couple of hours before. I'm then calling out the clubs consumer staff. The head of which is Jennifer Watt - General Manager Marketing and Communications is her title according to the website. The following are listed to work under her. If the names are wrong and the positions are blank then guess what, it's still a failure of communications! - Matt Burgan - Editor & Chief Football Writer - Debbie Lee - Community Manager - Ryan Larkin - Media Manager - Matthew Goodrope - Communications Coordinator - Ryan Earles - Digital Marketing Manager - Dave Larkin - Graphic Designer - Anna Harrington - Digital Media Coordinator - Georgina Lewis - Customer Relations Executive - Courtney Hart - Digital Video Producer - Alexandra Luxford - Community Trainee If you can't organise a popular open training on a public holiday to start when it says it will start and not change times then I don't know how you can lead a team of 10 others! If you're getting screwed around by the footy department then it's time to stand up for the members who support this club and work it out. I'm at loss at what those 10 people do considering the majority of website content comes from Matt Burgan and that we seem to be one of the least active clubs on twitter. Today was simply not good enough. For people to waste 90 minutes of precious time standing around before the main group hit the track is taking your supporters for granted. And no group of members and supporters have been more taken for granted than us loyal demons over the last many long years. Time to lift your game MFC. GRRM out

I can't help but link this to the Great Membership Drive and the clubs stated goal of breaking their membership record. How many of those families who sat around for an hour waiting and then left again are going to become members this year? I wonder how many of their kids are going to listen to their mates and follow a decent side instead? All I can say to those who had to leave again before anything happened is please don't just vent on here. Write to the club and tell them about your experience. Let them know that they dropped the ball and they might have a look at the way they are handling supporter activities and do things better next time. Put it in terms of memberships. A supporter telling them that they had planned on buying four memberships today but left disgusted after the team never showed is a quantifiable loss to the club, and if they get enough people saying it they will listen.

Met Brendan at the races yesterday and spoke to him about the Dees. I think he will prove to be one of our best recruits behind PJ and Roos. He is a nice guy, who was quite prepared to give of his time, about 15 minutes on this occasion, to a Melbourne fan. It started with my welcoming him to the club and he then asked about my involvement. We discussed his role at the MFC and where he sees the club. He said that if we stay the course and don't get sidetracked we hopefully will be a good side in the next couple of years. He is enthusiastic about our younger players and is looking forward to working with them and the other Coaches. From the Freo game he thought Newton and Vandenberg showed they are ready to play for us. I asked him about the rumour that his leaving was tied to Griffen and he assured me that is not true. Griffen received a great offer from GWS and with his age and fitness level he had to accept. IMO the Dog's President has done us a real favour by changing Coaches. I think Gordon panicked and wasn't prepared to stay the course. We now have Brendan and that is our good fortune. I can assure you he is a modest man and highly knowledgable about footy. Many say that he is the best development coach in the AFL. Many on here would say his position was the most important to fill. I think we have done it with the best man available. Good luck Brendan and Go Dees.

I think it's perfectly reasonable to be P'D off by todays efforts. Waiting around for an hour and half for your team to turn up is just poor public relations. In a highly competitive market like the AFL it is imperative to look after your supporter base. Today the club dramatically failed to do this. On the training side of things I couldn't help be impressed with Toumpas. Didn't miss a target all day and looks quick. Salem may just be the best kick in the side alongside Watts. I was also super impressed with The Prince whose intensity during all the drills was outstanding. I thought Max King had a good session today, for a big guy he's a beautiful kick.

It was clearly advertised that the open training session started at 12:00. We arrived 15 minutes early to get a snag and watch the boys train for an hour or so. By 1:30 they were just getting their jumpers on for a warm up. We had to get our car from a two hour spot some walk away so we left. A family next to us with four boys did the same. This is why we have been on the bottom of the ladder these last years. This would not have happened at Hawthorn, that's why they are on the top!!!

Nice bit of trivia I forgot to mention. Ainslie's NEAFL Coach Chris Rourke was pushing the bloke to anyone who would listen and so he went off and made a bloke listen - he rang up one George Stone (known from footy playing days down in Vic) and told him about Aaron. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that Stone is the reason Aaron was given his chance but its a nice little story about recruitment that you rarely see anymore; former fat kid from Tathra gets recruited from non-football heartland after call from coach to a wise old bloke at an AFL club.

I feel for all those that made the effort to get to Goschs only to leave disappointed. Promoting the club is just another area where we need to lift our game. Its not rocket science. On a public holiday where Melbourne promotes one of its biggest attractions of the year. People travel from interstate, visitors from overseas all wandering around enjoying the day. Yet we (MFC) sit on our hands and leave a perfect opportunity to entice potential new members go begging. Too make the club bigger, we have to think big. WELCOME to MELBOURNE the Home of the Melbourne Football Club. 1: Place posters around to inform everyone after the parade, see a AFL football team go through its paces,meet the players 2: Hand out leaflets at various points to make people aware, where they will be training. 3: Have a couple BBQ's setup with hamburgers,snags, right next to both, have a membership tent. Injured players helping and giveouts for the kids. 4: After training interact with the players, kids love this. As for penatly rates, min 4 hrs pay for a few hours work, those that gave up a few hours, could have get off work early the next day.If they signed up a couple of hundred or least hand out the details for all membership packages, then it was worth it, but also might just pay in the long term.if quoted they got a reference they attented the public day training session, they get a discount or something extra (merchanise). At worst it makes people aware of the MFC, Some may not know we even exist, but they would if we put it out there. Certainly would go a long way to offset the wages for a handful of the staff. And so much more could be done, but oh no, its a public holiday stuff that. Our PR division needs to have a good hard look at itself. One can only hope, today might be a wakeup call, that we can /could do it much better. We should be going hard at every chance we get.

Is it too hard for the club to have someone come and talk to the supporters and keep them informed as to what is happening and why? It's called public relations and the MFC has no idea. This is the area where Chris Connolly is most missed.

Call me crazy but I want and expect both. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

Machsy, Lack of professionalism is a huge reason we have performed so poorly as a club for so long. It also costs us supporters

Given that I went today and left disappointed just after 1pm with my young child, I'd have to say that your post is perhaps the stupidest thing I've read on Demonland. I've been a club member for nearly 20 years and my kid has just started taking an interest in footy. I'd hoped to sign up the young one as a member and maybe get a photo or two with the players. Unfortunately we will be away when the Luna Park family day is on. The praccy game at Casey the other week was too far for us to travel, and there was no membership tent there, so it proved to be moot, as it was today. MFC has missed another opportunity to sign up a young fan and gain considerable merchandise sales. Will do my best to keep it in the family, but after today's effort, I'm not sure and definitely not impressed. The club will get an email from me. I care rhaz and I will remember this for a lot longer than a week.

Was re-reading some of the charge sheets from the AFL about EFC bringing the code into disrepute. Some interesting statements: 19. On 5 August 2011 Hird was interviewed by an officer of ASADA and an officer of the AFL Integrity Unit in relation to his recent informal inquiry of an ASADA representative as to whether any AFL clubs were using peptides. During that meeting Hird was informed by the AFL’s Manager Integrity Services that peptides were a serious risk to the integrity of the AFL, in the same category as steroids and HGH and implored Hird to report to the AFL if he came across any information relating to peptides. Corcoran and Hamilton were both present at the meeting. The club were forewarned of going down the path of peptides. 20. On 22 August 2011 Robinson sent to Hird the results of a clinical trial from University of New South Wales on the pathway of the effectiveness of a supplement known as Lactaway. The paper was co-authored by Dank. Dank writing his own paper on the effectiveness of a drug. He has no qualifications in this area. 21. On 23 August 2011 Hird received from Benita Lalor (Lalor), the Club’s then Performance Dietitian and Recovery Coordinator, her appraisal of Lactaway. Ms Lalor’s appraisal included statements that suggested that there was no meaningful proof of beneficial effects, no data on the side effects/long term use of Lactaway in elite athletes and potentially relevant warnings that its use may cause additional muscle damage. A club employee whose job it was to investigate such matters nailed it. The club had 23 soft tissue injuries in 2011. 22. Less than three minutes after receiving this information from Lalor, Hird forwarded her email to Corcoran with the comment: “This is what we are dealing with.” So Hird, having been told to stay away from peptides, and informed that this particular drug was untried and untested preferred to push ahead, sideline the club appointed Performance Dietician, preferred in the pursuit of his 'cutting edge' program to follow the path of a quack that had written his own paper and formed his own conclusions. 23. Later on 23 August 2011 Corcoran emailed a reply to Hird stating “Jim – unfortunately they know everything and can’t learn any more! Time to move on! ...” Corcoran was also on the Hird Kool-aid and actively tries to circumvent the club appointed specialist. I assume she was interviewed by ASADa and would be very interesting to see what she had to say. But Hird says he has been wronged and there is a vendetta and conspiracy against him and the club. He is living in bubble world. The ASADA evidence must paint a devastating picture of deliberate and calculated circumvention of the rules as well as the deliberate and calculated circumvention of the club protocols and experts. The evidence took 3-4 weeks to present and compiled hundreds of pages. Has been reviewed by eminent judges and WADA prosecutors. EFC are cooked.

Guilty.

Guys, as being a local Ballarat Dees supporter I'm just giving you the heads up if you are attending the NAB Cup game v Doggies Saturday 4.10pm start in Ballarat. If travel by train check the VLine site for times etc then a short Taxi ride from the station. By car, turn off the freeway at North Ballarat and the ground is 5 mins away. Parking? They will try to slug you $5 to park next door at the Showgrounds...cheaper to turn East at the Subway/Servo and park down a side street then it's a short walk to the ground. Show this years membership card to get in for free. Last years game here Blues v North had 7850 crowd and I would think max would be mabye 9000? You will be standing! The small grandstand will be full of players families and officials etc. If you can't stand all day you would have to take a chair and get there EARLY! If disabled I'd assume contact the AFL as would be normal practice. The only tiered viewing is the Northern end near the scoreboard behind the goals. If watching from the east (highway side) expect the setting sun to be in your eyes. The ground will have a great atmosphere and the surface is exceptional, if the weather is nice pop into town early have some lunch and make your way to the match. Alternatively arrange to have a catch up for a bbq with friends at Lake Wendouree then off to the game pumped up for a Dees win! Enjoy the day! EDIT BY DEMONLAND: The Game will be LIVE on http://melbournefc.com.au

It was only a stretch when he insinuated that's why Hawthorn are at the top. Delaying trainings doesn't stop premierships but it does show the gulf between the best and worst run clubs. On today's training, the delay of precedings wouldn't particularly phase me, but the sad part is the stories of kids leaving disappointed. There are excuses for the reasons behind delaying the event, but there are no excuses for not sending out an official or player to get around the youngsters who made the trip out early. If Hogan wasn't training today, send him out with a pen for 30 minutes with Petracca and set up a photo table from 12.15-12.45 to pass the time. At absolute worst, the lack of a senior official not making themselves available down there to explain the delay is beyond reasoning. Either way, as a football team, good results will always override bad PR and I'm hoping this year that will be the case. Training seemed to be reasonable and I'm excited of the progress of VDB, Newton and some of the younger guys. Pretty excited to see how we go against a Bulldogs side whom I feel we should match up with strongly against this weekend.

All finished. Night nighty.

Worst part of the post - what do you want the Community Manager, the Graphic Designer and a trainee to do? Is Burgan supposed to be banging out Photoshop on one screen and setting up school visits in another while responding to tweets on an iPad and taking media calls on his phone? Fair enough points otherwise but this is reaching way over the top to try and add to the argument.

Ok I started a new thread for the other stuff. If it's combined so be it. But I thought others would want to focus on the actual training! Somewhat in between timing stuff ups and actual training had me thinking about how the players arrive for training. They come out in dribs and drabs and then proceed with a slow walk around the oval with or without a footy before some light stretching and then some kick to kick to warm up the legs. When I played local footy I hated the way some coaches mandated group warm ups, but at the same time I do think there might be some method to the madness. It's a team game, warm up and get stuck in to training as a team. Just food for thought. From there it was in to the standard kicking drill they do that involves the ball going cone to cone in a diamond shape. A middle group takes one of two options. Generally solid kicking. The drills opened up from there. Lots of 5 v 7 ball movement from defence to attack that was very messy at times. The good news I guess is we can zone off and defend pretty well. The bad news is still too many lack confidence and flair when getting the ball out to the open man then up the field. A Brayshaw kick diagonally back in to the centre was a highlight. The speed of ball movement was mixed. Love watching some like Garlett, Kent and Salem when they link and run. It was in to different drills but the same emphasis, getting the ball going forward quickly. Toumpy had some clean moments and trained well. Roh Bail knows how to run as does Lumumba. Had a good look at van den Berg, there's a certain flow to the way he moves that just looks like a natural football. Dane Swan waddles his way to a browlow and van den Berg probably has a fair way to go on fitness and repeat speed, so who knows what it means. Ah I don't know, there was just a few moments, it might all count for nothing. Benny Matthews took Maxy King to fake hit outs to a group of Jones, Cross, Michie, Salem, JKH a couple of others. The rest were split in groups doing a midfield drill or having a bit of goal kicking. Garland, Gawn and White did some extra running. White is a solidly built lad. Brendan McCartney finished the session with most of those who didn't play in the NAB 1 plus the 2 subs (V'berg and McKenzie) as well as Gawn and Pedersen getting some extra running through a tough ball movement drill with a smaller group working hard. Overall most of the better players looked in solid nick. The skills started ok but the lesser types felt the pressure. It wasn't great but it wasn't terrible either. Maybe a 6/10 for execution probably dragged down by some senior players making early mistakes that looked like they are ready for more games but probably an 8/10 for doing the correct drills with decent intensity and in good numbers.

I'll have a shot old fart. How about you get your 11 and 8 year old up, run to the shops to buy them a sharpie texta each, rummage around til you can find 2 clean footys, last years scarves and the knowledge that I'm going to make their day by buying them a membership each; drive to the train station and discover that you need to buy 2 mykis plus fares for even the 8 year old; get there early coz the kids are pumped to see players in the flesh; put up with the unprofessional, amateur, disrespectful treatment by MFC of myself and my childrens' time then pull the pin because the 8 year old has lost all interest and they are starting to bicker; get back home to have the wife ask the kids how many signatures they got on their footys to have both kids reply they don't barrack for us now and don't want to go this year. My kids and all the others there are the club's future. I only went as I got a club email and pumped my kids up about it last night - wouldn't have happened at Hawthorn training I can guarantee you that Sorry, but I don't give a stuff about today's training report...

Saw 90 minutes of training (after the Vince/Howe show), and saw Oscar McDonald nail 3 successive set shots from close to the boundary all between 40-50 metres out. Beautiful relaxed economical kicking style. Watched Angus Brayshaw nail all but one of his foot passes, and I still don't know which is his dominant foot. Thought JKH moved and handled the ball beautifully, with a couple of understandable fumbles. For me, his movement and reading of the ball stand out. Seems other opinions are available

I went down today and was inpressed by the siza and movements of Vandenberg! This bloke could be anything!! Also newton looks good and by gee Stretch looks lively! Grimes looks to be kicking better! And big Dawes is looking a million bucks! Watched him repeat lead on the wing for 10 mins 1 grabbing everything! I hope he gets back to his 2010 form!

I think I posted this when he was sacked by the Bullies. Was very impressed by this speech and very happy to have this man in our players' ears.

Disappointing from the club. If you advertise it in advance and make a big deal of it, then you need to stick to it. They changed the times late and then didn't even stick to that. They should have just had a normal training session and not advertised it if that was going to be the case.

Surely the point is DF that all the conditions that surrounded this event on the Monday of Moomba are known. Large crowds, difficult to get there and Park etc. The Club set this up as a day for fans to come along. Then at the last minute the time is changed from Morning to afternoon and then run late for the afternoon session. No they did not start with the intention to mess up. But they still seem to have achieved it. We are still a long way off the the league leaders.

Had a chance to chat to him when I was down in Melbourne last weekend - his former Ainslie NEAFL mates smuggled him into the Sat Night of the Coaching Conference at Etihad to watch the last 60 mins of the Asian Cup (he didn't watch much of it though). He was strictly on the waters too - he is very keen to do the right thing (TGR - if you were anywhere near the bar on the far end of the room - that's where he was). He is a very confident boy but said he has got nothing on these AFL boys. Hopefully they can take that confidence into games... I won't repeat everything he said but one piece of relevant information was that the 1st year players have not been given a position of the ground that they will play or a specific role - they have just been told to concentrate on a basic mindset of good behaviours; all the ones you can think of that a player needs - from training habits, to recovery, to in game behaviours like sheparding, attack on the footy and the how they want to play as a team. I would say it is like a little boot camp to get the new recruits up to speed - tinker with the plan for those with experience with it, and let the recruits learn in their first year. He is confident they will give him a couple years to get going but he looks solid, he looks stronger than he was a few months ago, and he is just keen to get down to Casey and play some good footy in 2015 and earn that second year.

I didn't go, but it sounds like a total PR stuff up. The question needs to be asked of the people at the top that were in charge of the organising. You just can't treat the supporters like rubbish. We have been treated like rubbish for so many years, it has obviously become 2nd nature.

How lucky to have snagged this bloke. Gordon's an idiot ( thankfully )

Are you seriously suggesting that it's ok for the Club to treat it's most loyal and committed supporters / customers with contempt. I was there today and it was a shambles.

Your defending the indefensible.

Sorry but this is shocking form after sending emails to members asking them to get along to this training session. I'm really dissapointed in the club.

So unless you went it is not wrong?

Very disappointing experience as a supporter and golden opportunity wasted by the club. I turned up with the extended family at 12pm as advertised and left with a bunch of grumpy kids at about 1.15pm with players just beginning to turn up. We certainly didn't feel like our club was inclusive or accessible today.

Jesus. Settle down people. Next time your stuck in traffic or late for a game, ring up the AFL and ask them to delay the game until you get there. Guess what? Shirt happens!

Sitting here waiting for the team to turn up, can't help but think that this club really does treat it's supporters with a degree of contempt. Waiting for well over an hour now.

The Vandenberg story isn't dissimilar to Guy Rigoni, who was a ball magnet from Myrtleford. Rigoni debuted at 23 and went on to play 107 games having been a late pick in the ND (77). Vandenberg is also 23.

I thought of Magner in the other thread about Michie. Vanders is a much better kick and better in the air than Magner and that sets him apart. I really like Vanders. Just seems one of those blokes that can get the ball often and do something with it. Very promising debut.

Bail - was scarcely noticed Cross - professional as always Dawes - played his part Dunn - lacked normal ferociousness Frost - athleticism and aggression Garland - worryingly careless occasionally Garlett - encouraging second half Gawn - had little influence Grimes - tight but wasteful Hogan - gradually displayed potential Jamar - had little influence Jones M. - never inspired confidence Jones N. - always inspired confidence Kennedy- Harris - disappointing first game Jetta - useful before injury Kent - some useful involvement Lumumba - loved his carry McDonald - was generally sound Newton - looked at home Tyson - prolific but wasteful McKenzie - struggled for relevance Pedersen - didn't enjoy conditions Salem - a little disappointing Toumpas - had little impact Van den Berg - size and talent

To be fair, he offered his opinion when asked for it by Redleg. I don't see these comments as concerning himself with club politics.

So if the club gets 'sidetracked' it is our fault? Demonland? My god this place is getting eating from the inside out of late...

Toumpas was alright against Freo. He didn't win as much ball as he should've, but it wasn't from lack of trying. He was constantly banging into the packs and laying tackles. As silly as it sounds, I think his contested work is actually decent and he's very underrated in this regard. Anyone who says he doesn't go when it's his turn is either blind or a liar. His uncontested work is where he needs to improve, which is odd as it was supposed to be his strength. Before he was drafted he was a running skilful goal kicking machine, and was the best performed midfielder at the level. At AFL level he seems to run to the wrong places to link up and just doesn't get enough of the ball due to this. If he can learn our systems better and know where to run he'll become dangerous as we know his skills are usually very good. For what it's worth, he was better than Salem yet again the other day, yet gets crucified on here as usual.

As I said on BMc thread, Brendan thinks both boys have a future in the game if they work hard.

LT absolutely spot on. I too witnessed him going in hard and laying some strong tackles. It does make me wonder though if its possible the club start giving him spells as an on baller? In his under 18s championship year he was playing as an onballer starting in the center and thats where i saw a hard running player who was linking up beautifully around the ground and just racking up big numbers of the ball including a 36 disposal game against one of them that i cant remembered. Since we have drafted him he has played majority of his time as a half forward where i think he is wasted. I look at someone like a James Aish and Leppa isn't afraid to throw him in the center and let him work into it. i also did mentioned that Toumpas was very stiff last year to get dropped when Salem was struggling himself and not getting alot of the ball. Again i thought he struggled against Freo. I think the coaching staff need to leave toumpas in the side for about 6 weeks and just back him in and let him have a good run at it. He will get great confidence in him and i trully think he can become a great player for us.

Shades of Dr Who/hoopla007...

It's a fairly even split between people who want to chat about the team they support and children (some well on in years) who want to bignote themselves and snipe at other posters who dare to have a different opinion to them. If you block the trolls it isn't a bad place to have a chat about the team.

Adelaide and Western Bulldogs made massive coaching choice blunders (possibly Gold Coast also but Eade has a very good track record) at the end of season 2014. Look at what was developing - albeit a bit slowly - and both these clubs and they will soon regret responding to team performance by abruptly changing their coaches. McCartney's comment about "staying the course" appear to be a clear reference to how the Bulldogs handled his tenure when player disgruntlement rose to the surface. Although I have no internal knowledge, only a footy tragic's opinion, it feels like McCartney was implementing a long, slow build to sustained success based on a powerful midfield, and some players and too many supporters couldn't stay the course on his values and standards. I agree with you Redleg - this will prove to be a master-stroke of an appointment.

what does this mean ?

I've always maintained that if found guilty, the very best the Essendon players could possibly hope for is an 18 month suspension backdated to the date of the infraction notices. This would be consistent with the Ahmed Saad penalty which sounds just about right to me given the level of co-operation Saad gave when he was charged. A six month reduced penalty which seems to have been discussed extensively in the media would surely be a joke. As for the recent meeting between Gillon McLaughlin and the delegation of Essendon players while the AFL Tribunal was still in the deliberation phase, it was totally inappropriate and another example of the AFL treating the competition with utter contempt.

You realize there are copyright laws rpfc?