Whispering_Jack

All of the above represent part of what I was saying but it's more than that to me. Our new coach has to be creative and not just a follower. He has to primarily focus on developing a winning style and the defensive part of the game (i.e. how to deal with your opponent's strengths) should come next. We always seem to be imitating that which has already been successful rather than being creative e.g. this year we decided to go with the "run and carry" that worked for last year's premiers so we adapted our entire pre-season including the fitness regime to enable us to compete with the teams we couldn't beat last year especially away from the MCG. This was a reaction to the way the game was evolving and we failed at it so badly that, not only can't we beat the teams we couldn't beat last year, we can't beat anybody now - certainly not away from the MCG. Of course you need luck with injury and you need to have the cattle anyway but I still believe that all things being equal, our list is capable of making top four. Certainly if we trade and draft well this year and we don't have a repeat of the injury plague of 2007 we can rise very quickly. We do however need the right coach. On the subject of coaching I think the way Carlton and Essendon handled their coaching positions in the past week was positively appalling. Two coaches with six premierships between them were given the brush off in a very ordinary fashion. I think Pagan has been badly maligned by Carlton both under the new and the old regimes. The Barry Mitchell situation was high farce and the ultimate dismissal was a humiliation for a bloke who was restricted in carrying out his duties by the stupidity and greed of the Elliott regime. Pagan himself was performing as good a job as he possibly could this year given the destabilising that was going on behind his back. It wasn't that long ago that I watched three consecutive Carlton games - Adelaide (a game lost that could easily have been won), Bulldogs (a high scoring shoot out where Pagan out coached Eade) and Port Adelaide (a 10 goal triumph over a team now in the top four). The experts were in raptures over the high scoring and exciting brand of football that Pagan's team was playing. Yes, they went into a slump as will happen when you have a young side and you're missing leaders like Whitnall and Stevens (physically) and your star KPP (mentally). Interestingly, I heard Dwayne Russell on 3AW stating that he expected Carlton, under Ratten to go super defensive and lock down games from now on. He predicted that in this way St. Kilda would beat them by only six goals and not 16 implying that this was a better way to develop the Blues for the future. I don't agree and believe that if we haven't crossed Ratten off our list already, then we will if that's all he can bring to a young team, albeit with nothing to play for other than priority picks. As for Sheedy, he's always been an innovative coach and, despite the way the press is nodding to itself and saying that Essendon did what's best, the Bombers treated him appallingly. They told porky pies about what was going on and didn't afford him the respect a four-time premiership coach deserved after 27 years service and who single-handedly built the Essendon brand to what it is today. If whoever's deciding the Melbourne job considers that he has a couple of years of creativity left in him, I'd grab him as coach of the Demons before Richmond realise what a dud they have and someone forks up his severance pay for them.

A reference no doubt to the relentless pressure football displayed last evening by West Coast in its total dismantlement of the football club formerly known as Footscray. The Bullies are now for all intents and purposes dead in the water and I know some people might regard this as blasphemous but I reckon that we might even beat the bastards at the Dome in a fortnight's time. My thoughts while watching the Eagles going around last night were that I now at least know what our next coach needs to do - he must be able to develop a team that sets its own agenda for a match and then carries it out efficiently and ruthlessly. The key of course is the total control of the midfied which enables you to dictate the terms upon which the game is played. Unfortunately, no Melbourne coach has been able to do that for over four decades. It's time and a matter of who?

Here's an interesting conspiracy theory I've come up with straight out of left field and it concerns the sacking/dismissal or whatever of Kevin Sheedy. The Bombers' next four games are as follows:- Round 17 v Adelaide at TD Round 18 v Hawthorn at MCG Round 19 v Fremantle at Subiaco Round 20 v Carlton at MCG The next three games are all potential defeats so imagine the scenario before Round 20 if Essendon suddenly finds itself in 13th place on the ladder with its season shot to pieces and with Sheedy knowing that a loss to Carlton might secure for the Bombers the fourth pick overall in the National Draft as well as serving to prevent an old foe from securing picks 1 and 3? Far fetched? Probably, but if Grant Thomas is to be believed, the Bombers tanked last year to improve their draft position. Sheedy is a crafty old fox and he would have nothing to lose at that stage of the season. Why not tank again just for the fun of it? They say Sheeds is a genius and something like this would prove it!

To his credit he does highlight the fact that the team is playing with an eye on the future and that things will get better [Good luck on game 200 Robbo!] The same theme is repeated by Paul Wheatley in today's Sunday Sun - "There are seven weeks to go and we want to finish strongly to help our planning into 2008," Wheatley said. "It's a great opportunity for young fellows to gain extra experience, which has to be beneficial for them. "That's been one of the big positives out of the year, the games the young fellas have had. "Ricky Petterd won a Rising Star nomination, Nathan Jones has come on since last year and is now a regular in our starting side, (James) 'Chipper' Frawley is a very good type, nice and athletic, and you can see him improving each week. "Then there are guys like Michael Newton, Simon Buckley and Colin Garland, who have also been getting games. "It has to stand us in good stead for the future."

NORM SMITH AND THE CURSE OF THE DEMONS

The funny thing is that I think Chris Connolly handled himslef very well on the Footy Show tonight and he projected a completely different image of himself than when he was coach at the Dockers. I think that when he had the job he was trying too hard to behave like Kevin Sheedy of the West but the real person came out tonight in the interview and he was pretty good IMO. That said, I agree with the others who say he has a role at the club in management etc. but not as the head coach and I say that not for any reasons related to his own personality or ability or even his record as coach of Fremantle. I think the MFC needs a total outsider who can come into the club and take some very tough decisions about changes not only in the playing group but (and I hate using this word) also to the "culture" of the club. That's no slight on anyone who is at the club now or has been there before but I think that we need a major overhaul to turn things around and Connolly isn't going to provide that.

NORM SMITH AN AFL LEGEND One of the highest individual honours the game can bestow has gone to one of the MFC's true greats - the late Norm Smith.

Murphy looks OK but Campbell is a real unknown quantity. Would only entertain this on a swap of players or low draft picks. The biggest problem with this is that it arose on a thread on bigfooty so it has to be taken with a grain of salt.

News from today is that Jeff Farmer has been a naughty boy again. This is from Marjorie on DOCKERLAND FARMER UPDATE Thursday, July 19th, 2007 at 1:09 pmBY BRAD KLIBANSKY FREMANTLE forward Jeff Farmer is being questioned by Western Australian police after being involved in an altercation outside Perth’s Burswood Casino. It is alleged 33- year- old Farmer had an altercation with bar staff and was escorted out of the casino by security guards where he proceeded to damage a vehicle parked outside at around midnight Perth time. This is not the first time Farmer has found himself in trouble with the law. Earlier this year he was investigated by police and suspended by the Dockers for a drunken attack on a patron and a security guard outside a Perth nightclub. It seems to me that Jeff's in a bit of trouble over there and he might want to return to where it all started and the place where he was a far more relaxed individual before he was lured across by Cameron Schwab. Based on the Akermanis deal, I don't think it would cost us that much (and I don't believe he's 33 years old either). I reckon Jeff's behaviour would improve in this environment. Perhaps it could be a straight out swap with the Byronator going west and the Wizard coming east. They could even change jumpers though I suspect Pickett might have some problems fitting into the one that Jeff would be leaving behind.

I'd like to challenge that proposition or at least qualify it. A club's list comprises 44 players (including rookies). Let's say you have 11 players who you believe are simply not going to figure in your team's next premiership assault. Why not for example, seek to trade the best two of those players away on player/player trades, upgrade two rookies, draft six players in the National Draft and introduce three new rookies. That would constitute a turnover of 1/4 of your list and allow you to release players who you think aren't up to it. After all, why keep a player on the list if you don't have faith in his ability? By releasing him, you eliminate the possibility of a repeat of previous failures. This is what I would expect from a new coach who has made a thorough study of our list and who, from the minute he steps through the club's doors, is not prepared to put up with mediocrity. I purposely haven't named any names here because I expect the person appointed to the new job to be well versed about the weak links in our list. If he isn't then we've chosen the wrong person to coach the club. To those who would argue that it's better to keep an older player on the list rather than to draft deep into the draft pool, I'll cite the example of Port Adelaide which drafted Gray in the 50's and Westhoff in the 70's.

I think he's gorn now.

Quite clearly the MFC property steward doesn't read Demonland.

It could also mean that Melbourne will take an extra player to Brisbane which would leave four on the bench for the Sandy seniors (on the other hand they could fly the emergency back on Saturday night as they did last year with CJ and Warnock).

And how would you define "troublemakers" Redleg? Does Michael Voss qualify in view of the recent charges laid against him?

I think the lid is slowly lifting.

There's a bit of irony there. I remember coming home from work one day in the early to mid 1980's to read about how Melbourne was interested in two up and coming young South Australian brothers. We drafted Darren Jarman but he never came to the club while Andrew Jarman insisted he wouldn't leave SA. Darren Jarman eventually played for Hawthorn and later joined Andrew at Adelaide. Both were champion footballers and we missed out big time.

In law there is a doctrine called the De Minimus rule which means that the law does not concern itself with little things. Perhaps that's why you can't find it.

I'm only guessing but it's possible that Riley might have decided he didn't want some of those players to travel to Bendigo to play in a VFL seconds game. Ferguson played with them last week and needed the match fitness and Pickett needs as much time on the ground as he can get. Moloney could have played half a game in the midfield but Dunn and Miller really don't need a game in the bush IMO. Hopefully Barry's carrier pigeon will come back with another message soon.

Mick, It may be that some or all of the players you named didn't end up playing. As for Fergs kicking 6 that doesn't mean much other than that he should get a game at AFL level within the next 12 months. A year ago I saw a bloke called Newton kick 9 at VFL reserves level against the Bombers including 6 in a quarter. Look how long it took him to make it!

Thanks Pantaloons. Somebody's pointed out to me via PM that Essendon wasn't at full strength because David Hille was out suspended. I accept that and I wasn't making excuses anyway but I also should point out that in his absence Laycock aquitted himself reasonably well and I doubt whether Hille's absence would have made much difference to the final result. On the other hand, Melbourne's list of players out injured was significant, not to mention the fact that a few who played weren't 100% fit. At his best, the skipper would have slotted through at least one of those 3 shots from inside 50 that he missed in the last quarter and I therefore calculate that this would have made a difference.

A small piece of evidence that backs up what I'm saying and also explains why it was in the best interests of all that ND and the club parted company early once the decision was made that he wouldn't continue. As a career coach Neale's prospects might have been badly harmed had he coached a team that went poorly in the final half of the season under this sort of a policy which is, in reality, the best way forward for the club. I believe that we will still go through a roller coaster ride over the next two months but that this period could also be the making of our club. The regrets are that the process was nicely manipulated by the media (who were only doing their job) and that communications with the skipper and senior players wasn't all that flash. Neita might not have been very diplomatic when he spoke out yesterday but at least he was being honest which is refreshing when you look at some of the things that go on at other clubs. TOUGH LIFE OF RILEY "MELBOURNE caretaker coach Mark Riley will demand a tough approach from his team in the final nine games of the season. ... "The Demons look like being without David Neitz, Travis Johnstone, Brad Green and Daniel Bell - and will make a decision on whether two or three other players may be sent off for season-ending surgery this week. It points to a youth-filled line up for Sunday's game against Carlton at the MCG. Out-of-favour key position player Brad Miller is one player likely to return, along with youngsters Lynden Dunn and Colin Garland. Rising Star winner Jared Rivers may return in the next fortnight, but Clint Bartram's season is over."

We were the pioneers with the Irish experiment but it seems that we've taken our eyes off the ball in this regard. Collingwood, Carlton, Brisbane and Sydney have drafted Irish players in recent years. We seem to be uninterested. Likewise with the Sydney experiment. The Pies have picked up a good player, I'm not sure we're taking it all that seriously. Probably, has to do with the funding required and the fact that we don't have the resources to spend in that area compared with other clubs.

I just wanted to say thank you to The Reverend. It's been a bumpy ride over the past ten years. I should also add for the record that it's been my belief for some time that his departure from the club at the end of the year was inevitable - that it was for his good and for the good of the club that there be change but that is not to detract from his ability as a coach or the great things he has done for Melbourne. I look forward to being present when the club awards him the life membership he so richly deserves and wish Neale and his family all the very best for the future.

In a few weeks time Neita is going to become the first MFC player to hit 300 games. It's one of the tragedies of the game that Neale won't be involved with the club on that day. A real shame. I look forward to being part of the group that gives ND a standing ovation at this year's AGM (and please let's have one of those Members' Information Nights as well where we can pay tribute to the bloke for his 10 years of outstanding effort for the club.

At the risk of removing the dignity from the occasion of the night I wonder what others think of what looked to be a blatant leg pull on Cameron Bruce late in the game which went unnoticed by the umpires. Had Bruce been rewarded with the free, the Bombers would almost certainly not have kicked their 18th goal and therefore they would probably have run out of time for victory. Was that a free kick or what?