Tricky

I agree with most of the points you've raised, but how could we possibly have overused the ball and end up with 150 less possessions?

How can Howe be the only player over 20 possessions?

How can we have 8 players with 10 or less disposals and another 3 with only 11 disposals? That is half the team who had 11 or less disposals. WTF are they doing out there?

Because we didn't have a lot of it and when we did, we were trying to string together the handballs (usually to teammates under pressure) and ultimately turning it over quickly.

We were clearly trying to avoid blindly throwing it onto the boot (which is about all I had seen the previous 2 weeks).

Howe was the only player over 20 possessions because he was desperate and worked his ass off. If we could clone him we'd have very little to worry about.

They may be lacking confidence, but they will need to work a hell of a lot harder if any kind of "game plan" is going to come off for them.

Depends on which Moloney, Sylvia and Jurrah turn up. If all 3 "Jekyll's" turn up, they may be a 6-8 goal difference, but too many times one or all of them turn up as "Hyde's".

So true.

Well that's just not going to happen under the current plan - have a read of Mick Malthouse's assessment of the Collingwood game plan changes and think about Melbourne under Neeld in that context. I was disappointed to see Watts not even contest one particular marking opportunity along the boundary line. He needs to be a major marking presence there with the way we play.

Neeld is trying to address various problems in stages - as I said earlier (EDIT - stated in another thread) he can't fix our horror list of issues simultaneously so it's baby steps. A defensive mindset was the biggest and first to be addressed. Ball movement is on the agenda as stated by Leigh Brown before the game.

I believe people who have pigeon holed Neeld as bringing "THE Collingwood gameplan" are drastically over simplifying and underestimating him - and at such an early stage.

I was on the members wing and saw Watts contesting marks - not sure of the one you are talking about specifically. I'll try and spot it on replay if I can bring myself to go there...

We are the "real" supporters here mate, This would give a very good idea of overall feelings whether you believe it all or not.

To mention the supporter base in a press conference is not a good sign. But at least we know Mark Neeld is honest.

Not suggesting otherwise WYL, but we aren't always the most objective/realistic!

Neeld has joined a club that has no leaders on or off the ground.

Nobody at our club has had experience with success.

Neeld has to build this template from scratch.

I agree with Patrick Smith on that one.

But what the hell happened behind closed doors between 2008-11

When the coach says he is concerned about the supporter base, that tells me that Neeld now realizes his job is actually going to be a lot tougher than even he first thought.

Or maybe he's been reading Demonland?

Good points WYL.

Yep, it's gonna take more time and we are in for some severe growing pains.

Next revelation...

We should see improvement across the board in the second half of the season.

I was frustrated to I note numerous occasions on the weekend that he was in space in the corridor and calling for the ball, only to be overlooked (probably unnoticed actually) for a ridiculous kick to a contest along the boundary line or a handball into trouble.

I accept that our game plan / ball movement is in the middle of a complete overhaul.

My point is, as we see this team develop (yes it is going to happen) JW is going to have us on our feet.

He is something for us to be really positive about.

Gave his all today.

Regarding both of them it seems.......

Yep

Do those who question Neeld at this early stage really think that anyone in football could have turned this rabble into a winning side over the pre-season?

Would they rather have had Dean Bailey behind the wheel?

It may be that we have gone backwards, but perhaps that is completely neccessary in order to move forward. We can't fix everything at once and we are a mere three rounds in.

Behind the scenes they are working on a list of problems - and there are plenty of them.

We have heard the new coach talking about trying to work on being more defensive for example - that doesn't happen overnight and no amount game day tweaking is going to instate this any quicker.

I heard Leigh Brown on Grandstand before the game today. He was talking about our ball movement being the next focus and that they would working on some aspects of that today. Again, this will be no mean feat to implement and those of us able to look past the humiliation of today's defeat should have seen some beginnings of this change starting to happen.

They over-corrected at times and overused of the ball but again this should be expected.

In addition to the seemingly long list of on-field problems Neeld and his team have inherited, he has had the off field distractions and a major meltdown across the board from our senior players to contend with.

Add to this some serious holes in our list and I think common sense should tell all of us what we are seeing is no surprise.

We are long suffering but we should be rational given our current set of circumstances.

These are not excuses and of course Neeld will ultimately be accountable, but lets pay some respect to the magnitude of the mess he has taken on.

Thanks for the quick answer. Looking forward to something . . . anything from Cale Morton and Aaron Davey today. And it would be nice to see Mitch Clark pick up a couple of strong contested marks one on one inside the forward fifty.

Likewise.

Nice day here at the G. Perfect conditions.

Go Dees.

But it's so much more than bottoming out and gaining two or three guns. It takes more than that to become a premiership threat.

Despite being down and out for a few years, Carlton as an organization, from those than run it to the supporters (who must surely be the most annoying lot out there) never lost their swagger.

They have a winning mentality deep in their psyche that club. It's something we lack and I think secretly many of us envy in them.

This describes the Bummers for me.

I'm always happy enough to see Joffa having sulk.

After winning that game and didn't get Kruezer, who did we get again?

Assume your being facetious...but that would be Cale.

Let's hope we see a big one from him tomorrow.

Very good point - now we bring in the "footy" media. Who are very prone to making calls on the here & now. Sadly, the general public are heavily influenced by what they read & hear. However, again all the research points to the fact that it very difficult to get maximum return for early draft picks - in the short term. The "expectations" way exceed their early output. If you do get it in the short term - there is a high probability it will not be sustained.

Essential we are looking for "stayers" 150-200 game players with early picks - not "sprinters". Can you develop "sprinters" into stayers - it tough and very, very low probability.

IMHO you look for your sprinters in rookie drafts or at the TRADE Table - unfortunately we have not been a success at the trade table of late. I will leave that to you on why I think thats the case.

Cheers

Some would even call them _ _ _ _ _

Wasn't Matthews a mentor to Dean Bailey during his tenure? Or am I getting confused...

He was indeed.

???? i don't get that one

Actually I think he's herd enough

Dees by 1 point

Holy s*^t - is that optimism?

It's contagious cowboy!

Ok, I'm in - we've got this - Dees by 5.

stop it ewe guys.

Looks like they're feeling confident.

http://www.theaustra...7-1226324311087

ONLINE travel agency Webjet has upgraded its full year guidance, saying it expects to boost net profit by 18 per cent to $13 million

Damn, gonna have to watch TFS

Let's hope Cam has sent a friend request to the CEO's facebook account before signing anything.

rumor on demonology is that webjet is to be named major sponsor on the footy show tonight.

ooooh man do we some good news right about now

Actually, the rumour I heard was that a rather tall young team mate threw up on him... no idea how true that is though.

That's the one I heard - well done to that young man.

By all accounts, TS left BECAUSE of OUR bad CULTURE.........wonder if he would've stayed under Neeld.

Sure the $ had nothing to do with it?

Yep, perhaps it's time for me to cool my jets on this. I was literally frothing at the mouth after reading Niall's article this morning.

I'd forgive you of anything with that Avatar.

A sponsorship coordinator is not an investigator.

There are three possibilities:

1. Due diligence was done and nothing was found at the time, harmful issues arose later

2. Due diligence was done, some issues were found but a decision was made that they were not harmful enough.

3. Due diligence wasn't done sufficiently well, significant harmful issues should have been found or were ignored.

You (and Billy) are jumping to conclusion No. 3 based purely on the EW outcome, in hindsight. At present, we simply do not have the facts to determine whether the problem is 1, 2 or 3. Anything else is mere supposition masquerading as fact, and you are just guessing.

Maurie, RobbieF raised his concerns at the time of the sponsorship announcement - hardly hindsight.