Deers

Robbie - good to see you're about and active on here. Indeed you have left a sizeable footprint on the Melbourne Club and the General section is just not the same.

I don't think this thread called for a peer evaluation. But if you have a cynical itch to scratch, then fine - go [censored] on your fellow Demons' supporter if it makes you feel better.

The rookie hack at the HWT building @ 11pm on a Tuesday night; his desk bare and his boss haranguing him for a scoop.

Standing by for Lloyd / King / some other douchenozzle to tear into our post-match celebrations.

What the bloody hell does that mean? That is genius rhetoric. A brilliant mind is Schwab; not befitting football administration.

When you're the greatest player and arguably the greatest coach in living memory - you can afford to make a few bloopers like these.

Bailey was the scapegoat. Schwab doesn't fall into that category. He is part of the problem. Again, you don't need Deep Throat to be assured of this.

He had too much input into Fremantle's FD as well, I believe?

Just one-and-a-half areas, actually. The Schwab administration and those senior players.

It was Schwab all along. You don't need to be armed with second-hand "inside information" to know that. His contract ends in July. He will go.

Why not the Bulldogs, or St. Kilda or Richmond for that matter? No. I would suggest that we supporters are the most unique characters in the game. And the whole footballing world loves us for it.

So, what's the immediate solution? Drop them all*? Safe to suggest we would be better off playing talented kids over them. *Edit: The handful of senior sooks, I mean.

They don't get playing defensively at all. They stand next to their man, block him out, but then instinctively dive in at the ball when it's loose and all of a sudden, it's fed to that newly-free Sydney midfielder who clears effectively. The players have taken on far too much of a new playing style Neeld is trying to implement - far too quickly. No use trying to backpedal now, though. What's done is done. As the sign reads behind Neeld's office chair: "Keep calm and carry on."

You say: "the only ones who bleed red and blue are the supporters." Are you challenging convention with that theory, or just stating the obvious? Players come and go from this club. So do the coaches, and the board members. They don't bleed red and blue like we do, because this is a profession for them. That's not a blight on their reputation, it's merely a fact. Show up at AAMI Park on the hour, punch in, train, punch out, take your cheque and go home. So what if they don't care about the club. So long as they have a damn good attitude to their profession and put in the hard yards, I don't care what they believe in.

Still waiting on him to "explode" as has been predicted since his first year. I certainly would not be paying over the top on him.

Are you sure? I've never been into the MCC and don't want to. Being bound to the conservative rules of wearing a collared shirt puts me off. Plus, it tends to be the only drawcard for fair-weather supporters to actually attend games (and for those who feign support out of fear of being an outcast in their friendship groups). But the MCC appear to be very vocal from my vantage point in the Olympic Stand.

Listen to any talk about the Bulldogs' early demise and it's tempered by the fact that "well, you'll at least beat Melbourne next week ..." and so on. It's not even treated as a contest by many. It is a surreal feeling. I thought it was laughable that we were written off last week. $4.80 outsiders what a load of chicken manure. Chunky did the right thing in his presser yesterday by commenting that Sunday's game will be treated the same as any other, despite it being a Stynes tribute. We shouldn't get our hopes up, thinking that the effort will be raised for the occasion. It treats this game as a one-off. We want consistency instead, and Neeld is working on it. Taking the emotion out of the game is a big tick next to Neeld's name IMO. But it should mean another tough loss to swallow on Sunday. Bulldogs by six goals. I'll be there, keeping an eye on individual performance.

I don't know if I have tried one of these before. Impossible to cull eleven players in one year, but with the activated compo picks we could make it six? You can build a team around: Frawley, Trengove, Grimes, Tapscott, Howe, Clark & Watts. Mentor them with experience from: Jones, Moloney, Sylvia & Rivers. Complement them with: Bail, Gysberts, McKenzie & Magner. Develop the next lot to come through: McDonald, Gawn, Cook, Fitzpatrick, Blease, Sellar, Spencer, Strauss & Nicholson. Encourage these to find meaningful support roles: Bartram, Bate, Davey, Dunn, Garland, Jurrah, Martin, Petterd. Wait and see on: Taggert, Tynan, Davis, Couch & Evans. Remove: Bennell, Green, Jamar, Jetta, Macdonald, Morton and the usual selection of rookie experiments. Some to delist, others for trade. Replenish the stocks in the 2012 draft. In 2013, those being encouraged to find a role or in the "wait and see" category will come under scrutiny.

I feed off the ridicule, knowing who I am and who I support; it makes me stand a bit taller, strut prouder, shout louder and open up wider. Because it intimidates people, makes them feel uncomfortable at the sight of a Melbourne supporter they cannot connect with. I used to work in a shoebox office with my boss. We were die-hard supporters of Essendon and Melbourne respectively. Not a day would go past that I would hound him about it, that he was an inferior creature because of his allegiance. It was cannon fodder, you would think, given that I'm part of a supporter group who haven't seen a flag in half a century and probably couldn't give a rats if we did. The game of football these days doesn't fit in to our perceived conservative culture, right? "Have you seen a Premiership in your lifetime?" the boss asks. Who cares. My team is greater than yours. "Has your Dad seen a Premiership in his lifetime?" the boss continues. Who cares. My team is still greater than yours. "How is the snow forecast? Have you dusted off your leather armchair for another season of misery? Remember when we flattened you in 2000?" It goes over my head. Because my team will always be greater than yours. It reached a point that whenever the boss had a client in and was discussing the footy, he would introduce me as "a feral Melbourne supporter." That's what I like to hear. The boss had given in, and was respecting me now. I can't wait to bare my own son or daughter and teach them about Melbourne.

Or just wallow in self-pity. I'll take the draft as my course of positive thinking, thanks.

And with that list, he has given them a radically new game plan, fitness programme and club vision (by banishing the former leadership group, replaced by youth). For a team too slow, too weak, too soft and playing from an archaic, schoolboy guidebook taught to them by Bailey. From pretty Amateurs to proper AFL footballers in one summer. Just think about that for a moment. Neeld is doing what no man has been brave enough to do for years. I'm pretty sure Harris / Fagan would have shown him the door in 2007. He might be asking too much of us, though. The adverse effects so far are astronomical. The losses sit just beneath 186; and we head back there in 3 weeks. I will back him to the end.

You called it right. I think Mark knows what he wants and needs around him. On his side is $$$ - we comfortably budgeted for a Clarkson / Malthouse type and with a rookie coach on board can afford to spend on sports science and innovations alongside the usual assistant roles.

The Melbourne Football Club as we know it is dead. That was the final dagger in the heart. And now. Rebirth. 100% Melbourne. Through and through. Believe it.

Odd. Tom really, really does not want to go. That Dale Holmes is prepared to discuss him suggests everything is now fully transparent: the offer is there and he has not decided. Mike Sheahan is on suicide watch.

Gerard Healy: "Are you sure about Scully, Mike? There's no question about it?" Did anybody see the shell Mike Sheahan was slinking into when asked that follow up to "Palmer and Scully are next to go"? The Herald Sun are in too deep on this one. Nobody is convinced, but they made their bed in April ("Scully has already signed") and now it's time to get cosy in it.