Chook

Which means he's probably damn good trade bait.

That's the human condition summed up pretty nicely.

So I backed you up all week Morton. Don't make me look like a fool on Sunday.

Glad to see Morton being given another run. Sorry to see Petterd not be given a go and absolutely perplexed to see Couch continually denied.

With the press being so dependent upon rigid team structure, the moment that structure is penetrated, you absolutely can leak goals. Lack of training, fitness and work ethic are probably the major reasons why we're conceeding so many goals.

Do they still have that old "Distance gained per possession" stat? I'd be interested in seeing that.

When I said 2007, I meant 2008 (Bailey's first year as a coach). I agree with you that Morton should have developed by now. But he hasn't, and I'd like to see him given some opportunities under the new coach to show some improvement. You point out that Morton was given games under DB, and I don't disagree. I merely assert that giving him unconditional games probably hindered his development, since he doesn't appear to have been given enough impetus to improve. That is not what I suggest Neeld should be doing. Playing AFL games is both a reward for effort and a valuable learning tool. But being gifted game after game with not enough coaching on the fundamental errors which are limiting performance is a horrible mistake that I think underpinned Dean Bailey's downfall. He analysed premiership-winning teams and found that their success correllated with an average of x number of games' worth of experience for the players. What he didn't seem to recognise was that the Premierships were won on the back of more than just games. I'm speculating here, but it appears that he took the attitude that simply marking time in the AFL would be enough for his high draft picks to become good. Clearly it wasn't enough. I certainly haven't made up my mind on Neeld yet, but from all reports we are significantly fitter this year than we have been in previous years and our defensive press works better than before. These are two issues that Dean Bailey was reticent to fix during his tenure, and the fact that Neeld is making strides to catch us up to the rest of the competition is encouraging. It shows a level of proactivity that I don't believe I ever saw from Bailey. I don't want to get into the relative merits of a 60+ game coach in comparison to a 3 game coach. Needless to say, the fact that the old one is gone makes me inclined to support the new one. To be honest, I doubt Morton will make it, and I certainly agree that if he doesn't, there will ultimately be no-one to blame for that than him. However, I would like to see every opportunity be given to him to improve. Given that most of his flaws are to do with his attitude and "intensity," I feel that with the proper instruction and coaching, further games in the big time will be of more benefit to him than continual relegation to the VFL.

All valid examples of players who developed quite well under Dean Bailey. I have to give him credit for that at least. That's a very small sample-size, Rhino. Cast your mind back to round 3, 2007 and you will see that three weeks is certainly not long enough to judge a coach by. My statement is that Morton should be given more games under Mark Neeld. I used the Hird example to show what faith in a player can do, provided there is significant work done in other areas. To my knowledge, DB never publically supported Cale Morton in the way that James Hird supported Patty Ryder. He gave him more games under the (ultimately flawed) "games at all-costs" mantra, but he didn't seem to be able to motivate quite a few of our players to get the best out of themselves. I think Morton needs that kind of motivation, as do many of our players. In fact, the examples you mentioned above all seem to be people who don't require as much outside motivation to improve/were practically guaranteed to improve based on their talent and youth anyway.

FFrom BigFooty's ImperialPurple: It was Schwab that brokered the deal that saw us send the #1, 20 and 36 pick to the Hawks in 2001. (That in itself is enough for the vitriol). We got Croad and McPharlin. (We kept pick 4 and got Polak.) Hawks picked up a couple of handy players in Hodge and Mitchell with two of those three picks. Then 2 years later, Schwabby was at it again when he traded Croad back to the Hawks in exchange for pick 10. So Hawks end up with Hodge and Mitchell - we got McPharlin. Now I love McPharlin, but we probably could have got him anyway as a homesick 20 year old at the time. The very next year he sent off pick 3 (I think) to Brisbane and Adam McPhee to Essendon in exchange for Des Headland. This was after a bidding war with WCE which saw them pull out when the stakes became too high, and sign Daniel Chick instead. Now I am happy that we never had that cancerous creature at our club, but Des never really reached any great heights under CC's coaching, Brisbane picked up Brennan, and McPhee went onto become AA and a B&F winner at the Bombers. Our second round pick went to the Dees for Farmer so we were out of the first two rounds of the 2002 draft. Schwab then stuck his hand in things again in 2004, when in cahoots with Connolly he traded our first, second and third picks in the draft for Josh Carr. Again, Carr was a good player, but was he worth compromising our entire draft year for (after having done it in 2002 also)? I would think not. In 2006 after reaching a prelim, Schwabby and CC were determined that a big signing would be the final piece of the premiership puzzle. They packaged up our pick 13 + the only player from the 2001 debacle in Polak, and sent it to Richmond for pick 8. Richmond used pick 13 to get Coleman medallist Jack Riewoldt. Plus they also had Polak. So then, Schwabby waves pick 8 under Collingwood's nose and says - "Give us Tarrant". Collingwood say that pick 8 is not enough. So Schwabby and CC pack favourite son Paul Medhurst off as the "sweetener" and send him along with pick 8 to Collingwood. Collingwood used pick 8 to get AA CHB Ben Reid. Plus they also had Medhurst. Net gain Freo: Tarrant and a Bottom 8 finish in 2007. Net gain Richmond: Riewoldt and Polak (who was handy till he ran in fron of a tram). Net gain Collingwood: Reid and Medhurst (who despite not really doing a whole lot more there than with us, scores himself an AA guernsey). Schwabby loves to get his hands dirty and get involved when it comes to trade time. He loves the thrill of outbidding other clubs when he has a target. He will continue to up the ante and pay way overs, rather than back down. He will happily mortgage the future and pay a player more than he is worth to put a #11 on the back of a big signing where he has "beaten all comers"... oh sorry, didn't mean to get so specific... but I think you see a pattern here and let me tell you - the end will not be pretty. When Schwab and Connolly were given their marching orders I swear there would have been a huge number of FFC members who would have volunteered to drive them to the airport and personally see them onto the plane and far, far away from our footy club.

But can you make a man who doesn't care decide to commit? I think so.

But Dean Bailey showed he didn't know how to develop players. Mark Neeld, Neil Craig, Dave Misson and the rest are probably far better at that than Bailey ever was. So much has changed since the DB era, so you can't expect the same results from giving players more matches if they need it. Look at how James Hird's faith in Patty Ryder has helped his development. He's currently in All-Australian form despite everyone calling for his head last year. I have faith in Mark Neeld's ability to get inside Morton's head and get him to go harder than he did under Dean Bailey. Remember, despite having played 65 games under Dean Bailey, Morton's only played one under Neeld. So as far as I'm concerned, history means nothing. If he plays next week and shows absolutely no development in any area, then I'll be much harsher in my assessment of him.

Imagine your boss gives you valid criticism of your work, tells you how to improve it, and then sends you to the basement to sort letters or something. What would you think about that? How is Morton supposed to show improved his intensity if he's relegated to a leage where the intensity is inherently lower? I'm not saying leave him in the ones forever., but nothing good comes from chopping and changing a team every damn week. Mortons issues are mental; confidence, willingness to risk injury and help his team-mates, and so on. Those areas of his game are most easily fixed by keeping him in the side.

But Dean Bailey showed he didn't know how to develop players. Mark Neeld, Neil Craig, Dave Misson and the rest are probably far better at that than Bailey ever was. So much has changed since the DB era, so you can't expect the same results from giving players more matches if they need it. Look at how James Hird's faith in Patty Ryder has helped his development. He's currently in All-Australian form despite everyone calling for his head last year.

So you get smashed while the Demons get smashed. Is that the idea?

I have had a similar experience with Freo supporters I know. I have to say it's made me very sceptical of him.

Does he still have that wicked hobo beard?

I am dead against playing in a way that will not win us finals in the future. If learning to play the Mark Neeld way causes us to not win a game all year, then I'll support it as long as the experience the players gain will be relevant in the future. Attempting to lose games (and thus not giving our players optimal practice in whatever game style the coach believes will win us a Premiership) would be a terrible mistake, and is likely to cause more harm than good.

Even after his injury, he'll be back at about round 8. If he is still relegated to Casey, he'll have another 14 weeks to get back into the senior team. It's not the end for him.

People should be able to buy all clothes without logos. I don't want to have to pay to be a walking billboard. It should be the other way around. If I'm advertising Nike clothing, I should get a discount on my merchandise.

This is the sort of thinking I never saw from Dean Bailey, and it gives me a lot of confidence that Mark Neeld knows how to turn things around at the Dees. The other thing I think should be looked at is goal-kicking accuracy. You can be getting thumped all around the ground, but if you're converting your shots on goal, you can remain in the game for a long time.

Red Herring brand, obviously.

Pick him up as a Magner-like rookie and he'll be good to go. Otherwise, he's probably not worth it.

Someone needs to take out MuhammedKZ before he escapes us all.

Everyone loves a winner. As long as we start winning, I won't be too worried.

I think we're a better chance against the Dogs than against the Tigers. I tipped against us this week, so my optimism batteries are fully charged.