demoniac

Tony Shaw.."Talk is cheap" He must be upset that Neeld agreed to the pre match interview with Greg's brother.

Just want to see players getting better at implementing Neeld's game plan and improving the basics like positioning at stoppages. I like Tom McDonald. A real competitor who also provides surprising run for a player of his height. Can get lost in a 1 on 1 marking contest in defence but a good pack spolier. #demonsongs....I'veseentheBaileyandthedamagedone

Our head of recruiting for 2012 is Todd Viney. At a guess I think he will be doing the picking.

but Greg said Mitch Clark is going to Freo... like the fundraising idea..a constructive idea. if i donated $50 for every time a journo made my blood boil this week the club'd have a record sponsorship and I'd be broke.

First issue for mine is that Beamer would be one of those being tested by Neeld and Misson. Neeld and Misson know the fitness levels of the mids of 2 of the better teams of recent years in the Saints and the Pies. Beamer was not mentioned in any of the pre season dispatches as being amongst the few running the times Neeld and Misson were used to seeing being posted by Saints and Pies mids. In short does he have the endurance running capabilty required to be a mid in 2012? The other area of concern would be his clearance rate when Jamar is being beaten in the ruck. Its good that when Jamar is winning the taps Beamer capitalises but its as important that he can win his share or at least stop his opponents taking posssession and clearing when Jamar is being beaten as per Lions.

You'd think they'd make him easier to retard/tackle.

Neeld and Misson are making our players prepare and behave like elite athletes. More power to them.

We have been nowhere near fit enough and opposing teams have laughed at our set ups and our structures and our intensity. Misson can fix our fitness. Neeld can fix our set ups and structures and demand greater intensity. He looks like the first Dees coach with a bit of mongrel in him since Swooper. We can't just keep on endlessly rebuilding.

Well lets talk about the 'strengths' of the team. Neeld and Misson have made it clear that our players level of fitness was well below the level of the players at the 2 clubs they came from who have won or played in Grand Finals in recent years. So fitness levels are not a strength we can play to. Do you understand what that means? Are you angry that under Bailey our players were not prepared to the elite fitness levels of players at the Saints and Pies. How can we compete with the best if don't match their fitness levels? Paul Roos, Michael Malthouse and others have similarly commented on our complete lack of a hard defensive ethos and the fact that under Bailey we consistently defended from out defensive 50 when other teams were trying to force turnovers in their backine or midfield utilising the press. So defence was not a strength under Bailey. In short it is not Neeld driving the cultural change at Melbourne its the game itself. Our players have been living in Dreamland coasting through pre seasons and playing unaccountable footy in season. I don't want another rebuild I want a Coach who will demand elite standards of fitness and who will implement a durable game plan that will stand up under pressure and who will demand the players adhere to it.

Are you sure after one game that you have nailed Neeld's game plan? I loved his presser. The reality is that he has inherited a team that was not elite AFL level fit and had a woeful defensive ethos and an outdated game plan. Did you see the examples Paul Roos showed - which Neeld says were some of the same clips he showed the players during the review - of Melbourne players letting a Lions player waltz through a ball up or failing to kill a contest in defence even though we had the numbers. A goal resulted. Every Melbourne supported who walked out of the G should have been in a similarly bad mood to Neeld. He can't do it every week but for a club that has not won a flag for almost 50 years a bit of public and pointed anger when players fail to do the basic hard nosed professional thing was most welcome.

I thought he performed well on the couch. He has to make boys into men. That is going to take time. We are coming from a long way back in terms of fitness and game plan. On a side. By God there are almost more ex players/coaches employed in the media to breathlessly voice their opinions and their opinions on other ex players/coaches opinions than there are current players. Michael says something 3AW. Its earnestly commented upon by Robert on SEN. Gerard and Mark on AFL360 study it like some revealed truth. Matthew comments on twitter about either Michael's original comment or Roberts comment on the comment or Gerard and Mark's comments on the comments on the comments. Then finally that guy with the glasses from Crocmedia breathlessly makes it a feature story on the Footy Show.

One of my pet hates is a tackled player handballing to advantage of an opposition player when they could hand ball over their shoulder in to the face of the player tackling them. Same deal when need you are in possesion and need to avoid a deliverate out of bounds free kick: hand ball in to the face of the opposing player putting pressure on you. Another alternative is to handball it as high in the air as you can to make it a 50/50 contested ball.

Neeld and Misson come from the Pies and the Saints who have been Premiers and Grand Finalists in recent years. They know the fitness levels of the Pies and Saints players. They've made it pretty clear that the Dees players were well below the standards they had taken for granted at the Pies and Saints. Its gonna take longer than 1 pre season to catch up. Getting to the fitness levels of the Pies and Saints is not an option it is a must if we are to ever be competitive.

The basis of the game plan is still the team defence/offence press of defensive and forward press and the spread with each team adding their own variations. We need to master the presses and the spread. We are coming from way back in terms of fitness and in terms of game plan.

No. Sheedy was well and truly cooked when he finished at the Bombers. Just look at a pic of Sheedy then and a pic of Sheedy now. He looks a hell of alot fitter now than he did then. He needed a long break.

Aside from not moving on from 2007 Flood Era tactics to the press and the spread and not making sure our players were as fit as players at clubs like Collingwood and St Kilda I too was a fan of Dean Bailey. He seems like a good bloke and all that. An AFL Senior Coach? Not so much. If it was Schwab and Connolly who made that clear to a Board relying solely on a gravely ill Jimmy Stynes for footy knowledge then they did what had to be done. Neeld, Meeson and the other coaches have a big job to bring us up to speed fitness wise and tactically.

Even the great Lethal would have struggled to look good in our forward line yesterday. Leigh may be one of the great players and coaches but nothing I hear from him today gives me an impression that he has any great understanding of how strategies have become more important since his retirement.

All teams not just Collingwood played the press and the spread in 2011. Meanwhile we were defending from our defensive 50 week in week out even though Dean kept on saying week in week out that was not our game plan. There are subtle variations from club to club but the press and spread are the non negotiable features of all 2011 and 2012 game plans. We have to learn it and implement it.

Neeld is implementing a contemporary game plan that will be resilient enough to stand up when the pressure is on. Neeld is demanding that our players learn and implement that game plan which has as its core the press and the spread. Bailey could not teach us the press which is the basis of contemporary post flood game plans. He held essentially to the Geelong game plan circa the flood era of 2007. The game changed multiple times between 2007 and 2011 but there was no sign that Bailey adjusted his game plan at all. Remember Paul Roos saying last year that the Dees defended from too far back and Dean retorting that defending from the defensive 50 was not our game plan. And then week in week out we'd go out there and defend from our defensive 50. Neeld and Misson know the fitness levels reached by 2 of the best performed clubs of recent years in Collingwood and St Kilda. Neeld is demanding our players put in the hard pre seasons required to get to those levels. Bailey either did not think our fitness standards were an issue or was unwilling or unable to instruct the players to do the hard work required to reach the elite fitness levels required to compete with the best in the AFL. No wonder the players loved Dean. Well except you'd hope those who are committed to taking this club to Premiership Number 13. End of story. Go Dees and continue the hard work Mark and David.

Butcher in the clear for mine.

I've seen him play in the VFL. Gets to dangerous positions, has sticky hands and decision making and disposal are very good for a tall. Just add muscle.

I like the Blazer. Yep its traditional. So are we.There is a great story to underpin it. We've got more tradition than Eddie has chins and in recent years we've finally started to own it and leverage it.

Yep we don't have A Grade experienced players. We do have more developing talent on our list than we've had in my lifetime. We've now got the facilities and coaching team to give them every chance of becoming hardened AFL players. There is always much revisionism when struggling teams come good and win Premierships. There are more than a few multiple Premiership players at the other end of the Geelong Road whose development was questioned in the years leading up to 2007. And its the same at the Bank of New South Wales Centre. Travis Cloke did not become a champion Centre Half Forward overnight and neither did Dale Thomas harden up overnight. I don't care if the guy who said the only player he rated at the Dees was Frawley played 200 games or is a member of a great footballing family he is still a dill.

A Caro beat up. There are obvious challenges for 17 - 19 year old players coming in to an elite sporting environment: training loads, physical development, skill development, learning game plan, diet, social limitations, media skills etc. The Gap Year concept is obviously a plan to assist in that transition. From what I've read on melbournefc.com.au and elsewhere most of our young players are studying so Caro can hardly accuse the club of not doing enough in this area. The Gap Year plan allows them to focus on their transition into the elite sporting environment and only delays commencement of post school study/training by a year. Interesting to note that Caro's article is not open to comments.

Disappointed in Bruce Hearn McKinnon and Rupert Betheras. The MFC should not have found out that Jurrah was going to do the interview from tweets. However it is hard to fault either when it comes to their role in Liam Jurrah making the almost miraculous journey from Yuendumu to the AFL and the ongoing support they provide. Eddie is just his usual well dressed bully bovver boy self. Nothing surprising there. I say we move on and focus on the fundamental issues facing indigenous Australians from remote communities.