rpfc

As if Wines would change our fortunes... We need to stop thinking that kids will save us. They need 4 years and we need to be competitive now. More Matt Jones' and Dean Terlichs' if you want to get better in 2014.

We all know what you are saying but you are being way too cute. She was trying to be rude. She used a racial epithet. She was castigated. Intention is irrelevant to the one being prejudiced against. And that's who we care about, yeah? The person who is aggrieved. Not the person yelling and being rude at someone.

How is that going to work? The have to sanction the f___ing thing, they may aswell know who they are sanctioning.

Look, the girl probably didn't know what the connotation of 'ape' is. But it is an epithet and her ignorance shouldn't save her. No person has to put up with racism, even if it is perceived, the person should know why what they said was so hurtful. Goodes handled it all well and so did Eddie. We move on.

If this was English Football it would be Northey, Barrassi, or Daniher to take over as caretaker... Different worlds. The coach in 2014 would have to be Eade, Williams, or Ratten. Bassett gets huge wraps but I don't think the MFC will handle another rookie coach. We will see.

So you are happy that your club is allowing senior players to talk to a prospective coach that isn't at the club? Not only is it unlikely in the extreme, if it were true it would naive and stupid in the extreme.

So, Gysberts was spurned too soon? And who else? It's a convenient excuse for our issues: 'it's not that they weren't good enough, they weren't given enough games!' It reminds me of the poster that was convinced that Michael Newton was our FF of the next ten years. When it comes to those kids we drafted that got delisted/traded:

That is a confidence issue and that can be rectified over a summer. It is inertia. Inertia when players are worried about 'their' man more than getting the ball for their team. When some on here think that all we need to do is 'worry about your bloke' and declare that 'we don't let our bloke get the footy' we are tacitly ceding any attack and adventure to the opposition. The next coach has to rebuild the confidence of the players to run and be selfless - in both directions. It is the one area that you can have some swift and satisfying reward in. It will reduce the margin of losses and it can be implemented rather quickly. We will still be mauled out of the middle and from stoppages but we shoudl be able to encourage more dare and boldness and run over a summer. Assuming we can all deal with the increase of mistakes that happens... This is the deal: you would prefer a player get it 20 times a game and make 5 clangers than get it 10 times and make no clangers. Some of you might disagree but it is a failure to understand modern footy - the players willing to run and get those ten extra possies, even if they screw up half of them, is what drives teams from defence into attack.

You can't say. Well, I think you know how I am going to react to a poster promising me the earth with sweet whisperings of the unlikely. I don't believe it and you are being led down a garden path. What club would allow their players to be distracted by meeting a prospective new coach while the old one is still breathing? Would Jackson allow that sort of nonsense?

Whose authority?

Hope outside of reality is pointless. We can get better, it is not the 5 years of wilderness that most took Neeld to mean - we can rebound quickly into mid table mediocrity but it will not happen under a caretaker and it will not happen this season. We are in for more pain and hopefully this Spring/Summer brings us an established coach, some key re-signings, some key signings, and some instilled confidence. And there is your hope.

Pointscoring? Have some self-reflection... And you ridiculed the Recruitment of Mature Age Players and stated that it brought nothing but Clark. But that is clouded judgement. Magner, Matt Jones, Dawes, and Terlich look like they will be able to come in and fulfill roles immediately and make the team better. That's not nothing and I pointed it out. Leave the snide asides to yourself.

What do you sell? False hope? Cause that is what those last 12 words amount to.

Did you add the .2 to the $2m for flavour? And Clark, Magner, Jones, and Terlich have given quite a bit more than nothing on field while Sellar and Byrnes have not given nothing either. Mature age recruiting will help us, and has helped us, in the short term while we wait for the talented kids to be ready to play rather than just throw them into the fray. Just because Neeld brought it, doesn't mean it is a failure. Life is more complex than 'Neeld = Failure = All things Neeld did = Failure.'

I wondering that myself... Smells like Range Rover-type nonsense... And I am afraid the floggings will continue post Neeld. Just a warning.

With respect to the delusional people you are staggered with - they don't exist... So feel better.

Will that happen in two weeks time will it? That big name coach will rock up middle of the season? You don't have to go to the games but don't boycott the f___ing club... How is that not self-defeating?

They are rare individuals that will not waiver and sign-on for the pain. Trengove did it in the middle of issues a couple years back. Grimes did it this year. I want him to but we have to show this boy, and Jack, and Dimitri that we are a club that will benefit their future, not just 'bank on' them as our future.

Then 5 and then 6. Why? Because that is the linear progression of the Western numerical sequence moving upwards... Just think about that people. Think about that.

Having a good core is different from having a good list. Notice all the players at either end of the ground - Jones and Viney were the only mids in the team with Trengove, Toumpas, and Blease as possibilites. Only one of those 5 are older than 22.

Dawes was dropped in that last year once for one game and was brought back. I think you have allowed your anti-Collingwood bias to cloud your thinking. He has already played in a flag - he doesn't need to prove anything to you. He is a good player.

No he isn't. He is a NQR trying to be a role player and he is being shown up unlike his equivalent at other clubs because there is nowhere to hide at Melbourne, no-one's coattails to ride, no wave to ride the crest of. Attacking individual players is pointless. We should be lamenting those that which we do not have - 4 or 5 dependable midfielders to shoulder the burden of getting the footy out of the middle and across the ground. Hannebery, Goodes, O'Keefe, McVeigh, and Jack combined for 91 uncontested possessions on Friday night (Malceski added 24 too...) Melbourne had 158 the week before against the Tigers at the same ground...

He's going to need a Stargate for this problem...

That kind of ultimatum has a lot of issues besides the one you have pointed out. I really don't think Jackson would have given this. It doesn't make sense to me - he is there in massive part to restructure the FD. Everyone knows this and they are aware there will be changes. Giving ultimatums on top of that over an abritrary number of weeks is pointless and draws Jackson into a corner. I call BS.

Action needs to be deliberate and considered. As you say, we cannot simply get rid of another 15 players and 'start' again with training and developing players. Especially those at the end of the draft whose best hope is to become one of those many NQR players we constantly lament. There is a common refrain in the NBA that there is, at any one time, about 15 'superstars' capable of a deep run in the finals. That number is not far off in our game either. We have 18 teams in our league and about 40 'stars' of which you can mould your team around. The rest of the players are kids, role players with one or two elite facets to their game (vast majority), or NQR players fashioned into a role player or waiting to be spurned. We have to, again, trust our judgement in the draft on the high end picks and make sound decisions on whether it is beneficial to replace a Bail (to use an example) for Pick 78 or PSD1. That is the only way out of our playing list issues.