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He missed 6 matches in his final year and finished top 10 in our B & F. Barring an ACL-type injury, we almost certainly would have got 12-15 games per season out of him for the next couple of years, and he was still playing good footy at the Giants in 2012. In part, because we prematurely axed our best leader. IMO forcing Junior Mac into retirement was one of the biggest mistakes we made during that era, which is saying something.

You only had horse and cart back then BBO.

Making things up? he had one bad hamstring injury that he took 6 weeks to recover from, as opposed to being an ongoing problem

That's very generous to Neeld and his approach to development, communication and people management. Each to their own, but tactical footballing nous is just a small element of coaching and you don't 'toughen up' young people by neglecting to nurture and support them. If a player has a positive relationship with their coach, they will run through brick walls for them. You don't hear many stories of Sheedy, Matthews and Malthouse being cold to their players - they were more akin to father-figures. The club was at its lowest point in its long history when Neeld left. He, and the regime that he was working under, completely gutted the club.

Yeah, you'd have been far more insightful. Everyone is awesome Everyone is a star They are all great blokes.

Delete. Bad memories especially that loss v cats.

nah. we'd win. a distinctively Melbourne thing to happen would be we come back strong and sit atop the ladder at the end of the H&A. then a second outbreak occurs, the season is cancelled and we miss our chance. again. Getting strong Milwaukee Bucks vibes about this season. Best record in the league. Small club (relative). Strong chance for the championship, first in decades. And then BOOM. Pandemic.

Still a Hayes horse and in fact the horse has won 3 races since the gear change (so to speak) It's racing well and savaging the finishing line these days. A decent G3 horse and I was confident it could win Saturday. It's a striking looking animal and now has prizemoney in excess of $1.2Million. The Goodwood is coming up on Saturday Wadda ... a top field being assembled by the looks of it.

I knowwwww.....i agonized over it and ended up going with Hang Man ! Apparently SoSiBon has been gelded, the ultimate gear change and thats its second win since. Was there a change of stable also??

I'm surprised Lyon isn't in the AFL Hall of Fame. Great player, but Neita for me.

Such mixed feelings watching those highlights. He easily could have been our best ever. I forgot how good he was through traffic too. I had the privilege of being part of some workshops focussed on water and first nations people last year. I met Liam's Aunty and Uncle. The Walpiri elders have a sacred waterhole in the desert. When the conditions are right (they can tell from how the hawks and eagles are gliding), they burn the bush which creates the clouds to bring the rain. Pretty amazing. Anyways, they said that Liam was going really well these days and back playing his footy and loving it. So good to hear. Does anyone up that way get to still see him play?

Just listening to Angus's mum on ABC Grandstand. What a terrific person. Raised 4 boys, 3 to elite level sport and with them all out of the nest has taken in Luke J, Kossie and Trent Rivers into their home. An inspiration.

There was one exception on the day which just emphasized the shame of the others. Jordie McKenzie. Respect.

North want the money...that's the main reason. It's worth around 2M to them but if I was the Tas Gov I'd be offering them around 500k. What is the economic benefit to the state of having crowd free matches on a fifo basis. Ground advertising and a bit of brand awareness at most. As to us in Alice... I'm neutral as long as the travel is reasonable. Who we play is irrelevant as there will be no crowds. If the NT allow crowds the team would be mad to play there.... so wrong to have crowds this year Remember also most teams will probably need to charter and pay for aircraft.

And there was no one in the administrative hierarchy (which the coach is not at the top btw) willing or able to stop it from occurring. Unless they too were equally blind to the mistakes being made. I have little idea about the current make up of the admin and FD staff but gosh I hope there's none left from 2010 - 2013!

Interesting podcast, but it doesn't really address exactly why 186 happened (what happened game day). It talks about what was happening, and had happened leading up to it, and the results, but not about the game itself (short of a bit of 'the boys were off'). Being 'off' doesn't lead to a 186 point smashing. And as TPF39 says, if they knew Schwab was gone, why would they dish up that?

IMO The worst coach we ever had. EVER! Cale Morton was a pretty limited footballer also IMO!

Nah, that's a bit revisionist I reckon - the club let down Jnr Mac big time and paid the price. He missed a whopping total of 6 games through injury in his final year with us and, statistically, was performing as strongly as ever. He still had 2 good years left when we showed him the door - 2 years that would have been spent showing Scully, Trengove, Tapscott, Gysberts, Morton etc the ropes of AFL footy. Not saying he single-handedly would have turned around the careers of our many wasted draft picks, but our lack of senior leadership at the time was undoubtedly a massive problem. There's a reason one of the first things Paul Roos did when he arrived at the club was recruit a 31 year-old Daniel Cross.

I still don't really understand how all of this works... I suppose we still don't have the full story. I would have thought that if the players had issues with Schwab, then they should have been jumping for joy that afternoon. The seconds got smashed as well if memory serves correctly...

Every member of that team should have been sacked. I know it is not possible to do that, but it is what they deserved. so much love and respect for Bails...NOT! I recall Brad Green was interviewed by Mike Sheahan days before 186. Wasn’t hard to tell trouble was brewing. Brad was right out of his depth, terrific person Brad, but he was not a strong Captain. Schwab kept his job, whilst Bailey was thrown out Complete shambles and embarrassment

All this talk about Jnr McDonald and other Senior Players of the day being treated badly makes me laugh. They were all part of the problem, all of them had their opportunities to lead and failed. Jnr. had long term hamstring injuries by the time he was asked to move on. People forget he had a year off before Sheedy spoke to him about GW$. all the other leaders were part of 186 See ya. The one (Big) mistake Neeld made, and it was unforgivable was making Trengove and Grimes Joint Captains. Only a fool would do that, and he did it

Gus often references his mum in interviews and it’s not hard to see why. If there were awards for raising kids she’d be front of the line.

Yep, both diverse, skilled, adept. This was a difficult one to separate, Demon3.

If the players aren't one the track at 12.01 I'll be bitterly disappointed.

I wonder if Gazza was a part of the creation of, or the carrying on of the soft culture, that was never fully snuffed out from the club under Barrassi. Barassi got a lot of it out, but it was such a mess. Northey helped a lot as well, but so many of the senior players, who started pre Barassi, were still infected from way back in their early years. So when we got strong it still inhabited the clubs being. >> Holywood Boulevard.and the like. I think it got worse under the time of Balme. And it certainly stayed around after Balme's time. Right thru til Neeld, in a way. I believe Neeld cracked the soft culture network right open, and left it bleeding, when he was removed... so in a way he was also a victim of this same culture. he removed some ofit but then he was sent packing before the job was completed. Maybe a bit of MfcSS stepped in to remove him because of fear of what he was doing. Certainly MfcSS from the outside of the club panicked at what was happening... and this in-turn made the admins panic, and start sacking people. The truth is now we will never know just what Neeld could have done with the rebuild. Because people panicked, and sacked him. What was left out of the rebels, was Watts for one, who was finished up a few years later, and he was a very self oriented player, who would only work when he was ready, and not before. Now Port can try with him. And god luck to them, they'll need it. After Neeld, Roos had a chance to do something great with the club, and we had pJackson at the helm, to steer things up top. IMO, were in the best position since Norm Smith was flung out, to resurrect this clubs aggressive Demon culture, and to put the soft rot into outer-space. We see today, the story of the same failings in Gawn as a young player, before he was woken up by being dropped, & a Roos comment, saying that he Roosy himself could have got 90 hit-outs, against that opposition. Around that time, there was also mentions of trading Gawn out, to the annoyance of many around Demonland. But the proof is now in the pudding... that we did wake up Gawndog, and he is not just a very good player now, but has earned the Mfc captaincy. Lets hope the same happens to both Petracca and to Brayshaw as well. They need some more heat under their rumps to continue firing them up. And some other young talents, following those Boys.

All good points, Lyon was a 2 time All Australian CHB as well, he also had diversity.

Jurrah was as clean as a whistle with ball in hand. Great vision too. Had that amazing knack to be able to visualise what was going to happen before others could

Of all the 'couldabeens' that we've had at MFC, Jurrah is the one that hurts the most. Schwartz would have been a gun CHF, but we've seen plenty of similar players (just not at MFC!) Jurrah could dominate in the air like Goodes, crumb like Betts and do the freakish like Buddy. He was a truly unique player. Such a shame we only ever got a glimpse of what he could do!

Amazing footballer. 36 games. 81 goals. So exciting. Jakovich Schwarz Farmer Davey Jurrah Blessed to have seen these blokes play. True excitement. Maybe we’ll add Kozzzzzy Pickett to the list one day.

Yes agree. It’s definitely a good summary of where the club is at. It’s all the usual topics that us Demons fanatics talk about. Spoiler alert - forward conversions are poor (need to convert from inside 50s dominance) - defence suffers on transition from mid/forward line turnovers - injury free run needed, especially for Lever and May (they forgot to mention Jetta only played a handful of games in 2019) - Supporters hope and faith needs to be rewarded - Goodwin has a long term contract but if 2020 is poor like 2019, he’d be under pressure - youth to propel themselves up to A graders (Oliver, Petracca, Brayshaw) - Jack Viney could be placed for a year to showcase his awesome ability - recruitment of Langdon and Tomlinson is a big plus - Tom McDonald could rebound and be critical to kicking enough goals - big question marks over Sam Weideman (very important year) - Jackson and Pickett are super exciting young talent - Bailey Fritsch is developed into a very handy midsized forward and Dees need to get him signed up to prevent other clubs - Jones future as he is now not an automatic selection (could this be his last year?) I think they should have covered off the reliance on New Captain Max Gawn.

Must say that was what I was thinking but tbh not sure that hanging around in a park is even allowed these days. So many rules in so many States and countries it's impossible to keep up with the finer nuances.

In a lesser club list, and team.

Tipped Neitz to win this competition a while back and expect him to do so. He holds the records that matter. Most goals, most games, most games as captain. He’s the best.

Thats probably the most accurate rundown of our team i have heard for years. Identified every one of the issues that have been talked about repeatedly on this site, then talked about the upside to our list. First time i have heard someone who actually watches our games and knows the players. Good interview.

It's posed that way because you can answer any way you want.

Will never forget it. Was meant to drive down the highway for it. If I remember correctly we lost to Carlton the week before and Melbourne supporters were calling the radio after the match, all saying how something must be wrong at the club because of how dysfunctional it all seemed. 7 days later, we lose by 186 points. I was deathly ill so stayed home. Fell asleep shortly before the match. Woke up shortly before half time. Had a message from a mate that read, "wtf is wrong with your team?" Checked the scores and we were down by 100+. Later that evening, radio lines were filled with callers wanting to vent. One young guy in particular was yelling, filled with rage. Never heard or experienced anything like it when it comes to football. If you can find it and are a sucker for pain, the matchday thread on here is fascinating reading. A combination of jovial self-mockery, unprecedented anger, and bewilderment. The progression of the conversation would be entertaining if it weren't so depressing.

Nietz easily.

Enjoy

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here 'Martian'?

A huge thank you to Mrs Brayshaw from all Dees supporters.

All teams need good people to help out when youngsters are brought into a club. Mother (and father?) Brayshaw certainly fit that bill. All of their boys seem like genuinely nice fellas, and that is a direct reflection on the parents. It is a very good thing that they have opened their doors to our new generation of players. Thank you Brayshaws....