rpfc

Without going into a massive thread distraction - uncontested possession is an easier 'kill' and would make us more competitive. Hard running mids.

Does anyone see any irony with this?

[shakes head] There is no rule anymore that means a certain amount of wins will mean you don't get a PP. Did you know that? We can beat GWS, GC and WB and it will not change the fact that we do not have a midfield and we need assets (high draft picks) to do what you said in that last paragraph - trade for, and recruit talent to turn us around. And it doesn't mean you are trading Pick 1 for those wins, I would ask for picks 10 and 20 if pick 1 is off limits. We have been a lead weight on the comp these last two years. It needs us to be better, the AFL requires us to have draft assistance.

How about we get a good experienced coach, get him to get some bright assistant coaches and build them up to be seen as future head coaches, and then pick one of them at some point in the future should they be seen as the best options? Or we could just name some bloke to take over after 3 years or something stupid like that. Whatever.

Did you read everything up to that last line? FMD. The Stynes Board is gone. As is the Gardner Board, something I say often. The report is just dressing for what the AFL is going to tell us to do. Unless of course you would like Clothier, Haddard and Deloitte to do real independent review and throw more blood into the water? Do we want a unified club or do we want to continue burning everyone who has ever been involved in the club?

Back scratching? That usually doesn't involve drawing blood... It's ridiculous to have a board report on itself but from what I read in that summary they were after a time dysfunctional micro managers who were not aware if where their role ended and the admins started. Added to the fact that the report is a vehicle for the AFL to install the best group of Demons in their eyes and I don't really care about the independent-ness of the report.

Let's hope. He can be involved for all I care. But I want one ticket to be ratified in October and for it to be AFL endorsed. I can't see a better way out of our current mire than a path with AFL support.

My question is the AFL endorsed ticket or Stocdale's ticket. I don't think there would be many fans who know how to judge a ticket - the key is the 'AFL endorsed' aspect of it. Frankly, it has got to the point where my vote will depend on whether the AFL endorsed ticket has AFL support (which it obviously will) and that they are all Demons (which I assume they will be). Stockdale seems to be against the very idea of the level of AFL involvement here and that is why I have framed the question as one or the other - AFL-endorsed or MFC-heavies-doing-their-thing.

This is for Stockdale's benefit - he wants to know our thoughts. I am happy to oblige.

It seems that Alan Stockdale's fears over the governance issues, with Jackson choosing his future bosses in conjunction with new Directors George Freeman and Glen Bartlett, and the AFL Executive, have led him to be convinced that an independent ticket is required with him as President - Former state treasurer Alan Stockdale has revealed his plan to save Melbourne Stockdale has unveiled his plan to gauge the feelings of Dees supporters toward his proposed ticket - well, we have an obligation as the foremost fan community of this club to let our feelings be known. The Road To October The AFL will install who they want with the help of Freeman and Bartlett through the medium of Jackson on an interim basis in the next few weeks. Where we come into a massive impasse is if Stockdale is not on that ticket and decides that indiscretion is the better part of valour with a rival ticket at what the AFL would have assumed would be a fait accompli of an EGM with a unity Board with their approval. Whether this expectation is hubris on the part of the AFL is irrelevant - Stockdale may challenge. This poll asks a very simple question and should reflect the view of the body of people Stockdale hopes to capture now or in October. rpfc's view: What a waste of talent. That is how I see the few of have followed Stockdale down a road that we lead to either NOTHING or a costly ticket in October that the AFL do not want to see and that the future of the club could do without. I hope the AFL get on the phone to each one of his backers and asks them for their insights into a UNITY Board.

This isn't Sautner sitting in the square - there are 12 mid positions in any high level of football and plenty of places for these kids to get a chance and shine.

What if we fall through on all of those? What if Williams wants a midfield and wants to trade him? Frankly, I have him pencilled on the trade list anyway, because this is a ruthless business and I want to get better. Watts is doing what a bright manager would instruct a player to do.

Oh, this isn't good... Does anyone else feel ill when someone uses "the fans right to decide" and in the next breath wants the AFL to install them immediately? He doesn't want the AFL to be puppet master unless he is the puppet. I guess we are headed for an EGM and an incumbent AFL-endorsed ticket and a ticket led by Stockdale. Unless sense and unity intervenes.

Isn't this the fear that many had? That players were not happy? Whose fault is it? The last coach wasn't great for, and apparently to, young Jack who has the biggest decision of his life to make. He can't wait to see whether we screw up the next appointment? I really don't know how we can all lament the basket case we have become but expect blind faith from the players whose careers are affected by this club's malaise. Get off your high horse and get down in the mud where the club is.

Exactly. If these players cannot share some of the VFL midfield load then I don't shake my head at Welsh and Casey - I shake my head at our recruitment.

Had a fantasy auction and got Brees and Gonzalez as 'best in class' for their positions but had to settle for Gore and Ball as RBs to back up Lynch. Welker is a gem pickup IMO and I hope Mike Wallace can get near the puss that Tannehill will throw at him... I am pretty confident but we will see how the 49ers and the Broncos use their RBs before being too confident.

In what? No President. Board in flux. No head of the FD. AFL haven't approved funding of The Great Firing Squad of 2013 yet. No needed Priority Picks awarded as yet. We are in no position to cast judgement on anyone casting judgement on us.

I just don't think Jackson was saying that, alias. I think he was bemoaning the reciting of numbers in the draft in the past as if their pedigree were enough to turn the club around, without putting time and effort into an environment to get the best out of them - to then turn the club around. I could not stand hearing the names Hogan and Viney and Toumpas touted as the answer to our problems, without acknowledging that we have to be set-up to allow these boys to flourish. We need talent as well as "experience, leadership, matured bodies, hard ball getters and a decent coach." They don't "add to the laziness we are all beginning to call the 'cancer'" - they just shouldn't be shouldered with a burden that is beyond them.

For a sitting CEO to say it - it's new.

Ok, our problem isn't that there is a guy on wing in space waiting for nobody; our problems is that the bloke 'out the back' (that would normally get the handpass to then kick to the Gaff-like player) gets sucked into the contest because they don't trust their teammate to get it to them, and the Gaff-like player that is supposed to be running to space on the wing doesn't bother because A. he is too worried about his own bloke, and B. he doesn't think his teammates will be able to get the ball, get it out the back, and kick it to him. Takes a while to rebuild trust in teammates.

I really have not heard an MFC CEO say the things Jackson has been saying... It's hardly a 'heard it all before' scenario.

Frankly, I agree with the sentiment that you only coax a person so far and then give up. However, as I have said a couple of times - why should Roos commit when we do not have the stable essential ingredients that would make-up a club looking for a coach; we don't have a President and we don't have a head of the FD for next year. In what world would anyone capable of resurrecting this club agree to come to the club when two positions are not filled? If Roos is the kind of person I think he is then he will wait until those two positions are settled, the Board is appointed, and the AFL has given approval for the club's direction. And as a fan of the club, I have no right to expect an outsider to show as much blind faith as I do - nor would I want them to. As Jackson noted - our culture is nowhere near those of the best clubs. Hiring a coach before we have a stable Board, a President, and a FD head is not a move in a forward direction in my opinion.

We don't have a cue. Every team is in the pub and has a cue (GWS has a pencil). The MFC has a trout.

Well, I taped it and watch it just before going to bed (slept well) and I also got a great deal of satisfaction out of the interview. Jumbo has said he only has blame and no vision, and I understand the frustration in hearing these uncomfortable truths, but if you do not correctly diagnose the problem then you cannot treat it. We have relied on where we have picked in the draft. We have spurned experience in lieu of the high risk potential of mass youth. Our culture has been near-enough-is-good-enough for my entire life as a Demons supporter. My satisfaction comes from the words said and not the deeds done, so Jackson has to back up what he sees with action to do something about it. We need to build a culture from scratch pretty much and, hopefully, that will entail a competent, proven Footy head, either Eade, Craig, Williams, or Roos as coach, and the targetting of some senior players from other clubs that can help our emerging players onfield. I didn't want to hear a few things that he said, but I know that he is a proven Administrator in an AFL environment and that he knows best practice. And he is right - we are fueled by nothing but hope at the minute. Thankfully, it's a renewable resource.

Now THAT is a hypothetical.