Mc dee

First time long time. Have felt compelled to write my thoughts as I am stunned the amount of vitriol directed at neeld whilst the board seem to be getting off very lightly. This board was given a free kick to begin with and started with no debt courtesy of stynes. Now losing millions a year. Crowds, membership and hope are well down. They have overseen a football department structure which has been openly canned by new CEO. Copped $500k fine for tanking. Lied to afl about dank. Gave former CEO 3 yr contract extension before sacking him 6 months later. Got us to the point where it is widely recognized that we need afl intervention so as not to implode. I could go on. Meanwhile, neeld walked into a fractured playing group who hadn't been within a bulls roar of finals in 5 years because they didn't work hard enough. It is no secret we had a toxic culture and he went about trying to change it. He has been canned for alienating the leaders when he came in. These leaders had got us nowhere in the past 5 years and were the epitome of the lack of work ethic which got us to where we are in the first place. It is not like he walked into Geelong and proceeded to get all the leaders off side. Last year our so called senior footballers in green, davey, sylvia and moloney responded to being made accountable by dropping their bundle and spending time at Casey. I would think this is more of a reflection on the character of these players than it is of neeld. Moloney spends the off season urinating in nightclubs and then sooks for a year when he isn't made captain. Again, reflects more on moloney than it does neeld. Because of this neeld has copped flak for getting some noses out of joint after being given carte blanche to fix the culture at the club. Note that blokes like jones, Howe, grimes, dawes, clarke etc. who are actually prepared to work hard don't seem to have a problem with the neeld's regime. I think the development problems we have had can be attributed to the work ethic of the bulk of our players who are 26 and over. Few if any would get games at a decent club. In the absence of a decent senior group neeld was forced to throw two blokes into the captaincy who ideally wouldn't be captain yet. Again, says more about the quality of senior players we had at the club prior to neeld's arrival than it does about neeld. The other thing neeld gets canned for is his 'moneyball' recruiting policy. This is absolute garbage, i think his recruiting has been excellent. Let's look at last year: In Hogan - pick 3, gun Toumpas - pick 4, hasn't started well but has obvious talent Viney - pick 26, gun Dawes - pick 20, good acquisition Barry - steak knives with hogan deal, going ok at Casey Rodan - effectively traded for Morton (pick 88). Was excellent on the weekend and from all reports is a good influence on the group Byrnes - free agent, has played a couple of good games Kent - pick 48, forced his way into side, wait and see M jones - pick 52, great pickup Terlich - pick 68, great pickup Gilles - awful Pedersen - traded for gysberts who has spent 2 years in vfl How can the above be deemed to be bad recruiting? Neeld shouldn't have to deal with players not putting in. These problems go back further than neeld and are problems which grew under the board. I think neeld has gone about trying to fix things up the right way and I hope he stays to see out his rebuild with a competent board in place providing some stability instead of the current circus