rpfc

I also think having Craig as coach makes it easier to restructure the FD. We know that Mahoney is the interim head of the FD and Craig is the interim coach - reporting to Mahoney. I would like to know what Viney's position is within this change, and how Harrington and Taylor fit into all of this. I guess that is another thread.

If the AFL, through Jackson, see Kennett as an answer then it will happen over the next month. As Jackson said - the Board will be renewed by casual vacancy appointments.

I said at the time when Bailey was ousted that there is are no good ways to dismiss a coach. Even with the short change of tune, this is lightyears ahead of what we did to Bailey. Good Intentions by Jimmy but that is the contractor the Devils uses for his landscape design...

Uh-huh... You were saying?

Mate, this was on the cards for a while... He has had to 'win back' his job ever since the Essendon game. Hopefully, Jackson knows what he wants to do with the entire FD before he dismisses Neeld. But Neeld's time is borrowed.

Contracted people from other clubs of course!

I just cannot get over how poor our list was, on reflection, in 2008. Poor decisions and recruiting and the desire to chase a flag that is not 'around the corner' can do terrible things to a list.

I have no idea to what you are referring but I will take it as progress considering you usually rudely tell me, as you so eloquently put it, to FO...

Do you really think that Moloney would make us THAT much of a better team? These threads and our win/loss record would still be where it is with Brent in the team, we would have just one more player to lament the poor form of.

Jackson is assembling a Board. If Kennett is in it - I owe you a coke. And now I rest my case. Adjourned.

It's been said.

The list they inherited had major holes in it: Buckley, Batram, Holland, Bate, Miller, Neitz, Morton, P.Johnson, Yze, Petterd, C.Johnson, Green, Maric, Bell, Robertson, Rivers, Weetra, Newton, Newton, Wheatley, Bruce, Martin, White, Warnock, Carroll, Bode, and Whelan were on the list inherited by this Board. That is 27 players that were at or near the end or not good enough. 27! The rot in our list was well and truly set by then, as I explain above.

The AFL have stepped in. They are already here.

Well, that seems like a platitude considering the AFL is pulling our reigns AND holds our purse strings.

If your argument is gamestyle then don't try to create a Strawman argument that doesn't wash. The list has not been ruined by this Board and Neeld, nor by the change of agendas from whatever-style-of-player Bailey wanted to whatever-style-of-player Neeld wanted. Don't know why it would matter. The Bailey Recruits failures are noted and many have moved on. So attack the gamestyle all you want (keep in mind that the MFC 2013 side plays on from marks the most in the comp) and don't try to sell this List rubbish. That is on all of us, and can't be wished away onto a vanquished foe. But I will leave you and hazy to revel in our misfortune.

Do you even read yourself? And aren't we all mates in the Demon-verse?

Don would be calling the shots? Don't be so naive - this isn't Moscow circa well...anytime really, this isn't Hollywood, he isn't an evil ogre - he has moved on and now Jackson - with his expertise is looking at Board as well as the Admin and the FD. How about this? If Jackson sees the great Jeff Kennett as our absolution then so would the AFL and we can go forward into the night with this marriage, happily arranged by the AFL paratrooper in Jackson. If not, then the AFL and Jackson both believe that, despite public platitudes, it is not best for the MFC to surrender to Kennett. Who will be right? I don't know. But one thing is for certain, if you want to vote on it you are going to need to get a copy of the constitution because for the umpteenth time - there are no wholesale elections to the MFC Board at the end of any year.

No he is reacting to the swarming masses of MFC supporters who wanted the AFL to intervene and a few weeks after they did intervene by parachuting a CEO into the place the swarming masses are hoping for Kennett to intervene...

I don't have blind faith in him and I don't see him as a messiah but Jackson has the mandate of the AFL to shake up the club as CEO - both above and below. Jackson and the AFL have stepped in - there is no need for Jeff Kennett.

I don't think that this can be considered anything other than fact; the recruiters, and the philosophy imbued from those above (ie. coach) is the reason the list is where it is. Picks 4 (Morton), 9 (Molan), 13 (Bate), 14 (Bell), 15 (Smith), 15 (Dunn), 21 (Holland), 21 (Maric), 25 (Armstrong), 26 (Rodgers), 28 (Pickett), 29 (P.Johnson), 39 (Moorcroft), 43 (Newton), and 44 (Pickett). From 2001 to 2007 wasted. And then I can say that Scully (Pick 1), McLean (Pick 5), and Gysberts (Pick 11) are also failed picks for the MFC with the Scully compensation clouding that to a massive degree, but as overpaid as he is he would be more value to us right now than his compensation. Hogan will alter that view next year. Going back to 1999 and 2000 we can add Pick 5, Pick 32, 47 and the loss of Scott Thompson (Pick 16). And I do not do it to blame a Board in the past - I have already said that blame is so shared across The Demon-verse as to make it pointless to apportion it. Which is why I object to this Board being blamed for the list we currently have. All I am saying is that our list is terrible because we haven't had our 32 year old Pick 5, our 31 year old Scott Thompson, our 30 year old Pick 9, our 29 year old Picks 14 and 15, our 28 year old Pick 5 Brock McLean and Pick 21, our 27 year old Pick 13 and Pick 29 (Pick 15 being Dunn), our 24 year old Pick 4 and Pick 21, and our 22 year old Pick 1 and Pick 11. Don't make half these mistakes or have half this ill-fate and we could have: Scott Thompson, Nick Dal Santo, Jed Adcock, Nathan Van Berlo, Patrick Dangerfield, and Cyril Rioli. This kind of Sliding Doors scenario is inherently unfair but I only chose half of those above. The facts do not allow one to pin the blame for our list on this albeit failure of a Board.

Well, Redleg stole my thunder a tad with the finances and assets but I have a thing or two to say about the list: bad list management is not felt at the time of the mistake, it is felt much later. The 1999-2000 loss of picks means we felt that from 2005 until around now - those two drafts happened to be when Geelong got all those stars we now look at with awe. We lost Pick 5 in '99 and Picks 32 and 47 in '00 (Scott Thompson was taken in the '00 draft). 2001 saw Molan, Armstrong, and Rodgers taken with Picks 9, 25, and 26. 2002 saw Bell and Smith taken with Picks 14 an 15. After Rivers was taken, Pick 39 was spent on Gary Moorcroft. In 2003 we had McLean and Sylvia with Picks 3 and 5 and I would consider them successful. Our dearth of senior players is also affected by the decision by Bailey to trade McLean at the end of 2009. 2004 saw Bate, Dunn, and Newton taken with 13, 15, and 43. To juxtapose disaster with deliverance - Nathan Jones in 2005 was taken at Pick 12. Frawley and Garland came the following year at 12 and 46 respectively. 2007 saw Morton and Maric taken with Picks 4 and 21. Grimes a shining light amongst the din at Pick 14. 2008 saw Watts, Blease, Strauss and Bennell taken with Picks 1, 17, 19, and 35. The futures on the three that are left are far from certain. McKenzie arrived in the Rookie Draft this year. I will leave it there, as the futures of Trengove, Tapscott, and Gawn in 2009 are far from certain. Sadly, Pick 1 and Pick 11 have moved on. The decision to get Ben Holland with Pick 21 (2003), Paul Johnson with Pick 29 (2004), Pickett with Pick 28 and 44 (2005), and Meesen with Pick 38 (2007) further diminished our ability to get talented players. This is why our list is where it is. This is why we don't have any decent senior players and few talented players in the prime ages for a player 23-30. We wasted, our traded out, the following picks from 2001 to 2007 which would be the make-up of our players 23-30: 4, 9, 13, 14, 15, 15, 21, 21, 25, 26, 28, 29, 39, 43, and 44. That is 15 players 23 to 30 years of age we should have if not for our awful recruitment and poor trading. That is why we have an awful list. Oddly enough, before this Board...

I only say that as it would ensure we went and traded for a player rather than trading Pick 1 for Pick 3 and Pick 65.

The failure of this Board to do its job is not for me to point out - it is there for all to see with its leaders gone and the Boards renewal happening as we speak. But are the decisions of this Board wholly the reason we are in this mire? I don't want to defend or shift blame but merely point out that 'blame' can be widely apportioned to Demons in our recent history as to make it irrelevant. The points of reference of blame for our: List The picks lost in 1999 and 2000 for salary cap cheating. Daniher trading away picks for experienced players like Pickett, Holland, and Johnson. Terrible drafting in 2007-2009. Finances Upping the FD spending that has put us in our current predicament, and The Fine, and the future 'paying out' is on their shoulders. However, they were able to help the supporters come together and get rid of debt and purchase an asset in Brighton worth quite a bit of money. But this Board did wipe out the failure of previous Boards to rid the club of that debt. Coaching Failures Bailey in 07 and Neeld in 11 have been failures but they have also had to work with a list that has got steadily worse (and they may well have contributed to that). Daniher will have to take some for the list management decisions above. Culture I suspect you are talking about this more than anything to do with performance: the hiring of perceived friends at CEO (CC's hiring was the previous Board), the involvement of the Consultant Lyon who wilfully refuses to take responsibility, the lax process involved in the hiring of Neeld, and the handling of The Tanking Saga. You can think that this is The Worst Board in History if you want to, but that does not mean that they are the reason for why we are as bad as we are. Their time has been marred but these Demons do not leave the club in a worse state than they found it. I say this, again, not to defend them - but to point out that this Board leaving will not solve our issues. We are a drain on the the AFL right now because of our performances and that comes down to the state of our list, a list shredded and abused and not replenished properly since Daniher. I think that is why Jackson says that managing the list is the most important job at an AFL club. Miles to go before we sleep.