Redleg

Another problem yesterday was that our 3 quickest players, IMO, Davey, Blease and Nicholson weren't playing for various reasons. The first two have lost form and the second while suspended is a poor disposer of the ball. The loss of speed over there kills you.

Some now getting their jollies from GWS being thrashed and $ playing poorly. I guess I am one of them.

Thought Neeld was good in his conference. Better than last week. Don't know what some people expect him to say.

Sounds trite, but look at clubs like WC that finished bottom and made finals the very next year.It can be done. We have a poor slow midfield but that could be changed in one draft. Viney plus 2 other or 3 other good mids can change our side. Jones playing with quick skillful mids is a different team. Fitzpatrick, Watts and Cook need to develop and LJ needs to get back in the side. Tom Mc showed plenty. Confidence dies when you are chasing and umpired out of a game in the first half. But for the umpiring we were not bad in the first half. WC are a good team and more so at a hot Patterson stadium. Having 3 umpires give you soft goals is soul destroying to the away opposition. If we were Carlton or Pies we would be bleating about the 22-1 free kick count early in the 3rd quarter. Hang in it will turn around, but it might take a while.

What a pathetic thread, yes lets all give up. Lets expect the club and players to rally but we all just give up. Yes it is bad now but I am not throwing away about 55 years of fanatical devotion to just give up. It will turn around and I will be there when it does. There is lots to fix but it will be fixed. One good draft, picking well, can give us a new midfield. That is our main problem on the field. Our list will be turned around quickly. It will change and I will be there when it does. My only alternative is to give up footy and I won't. To those who want to quit, grow some balls. Go Dees.

That is pretty defeatist. I am not suggesting all is great but it is not that bad. We don't have major sponsors atm but they will come. We have a $10m asset unlike ever before. Today we played a very good team, at their home ground, in the heat with only 2 missing from their best side. We had several good players out. We had a real crack in the first half and copped a 21 - 1 free kick count against us, which is an AFL record. They got at least 5 goals from the umpires in that first half to our none. We were ahead in the contested possessions. Clearly then we fell away in the second half. We are weak in disposal and running power and in the midfield. These things will be addressed and improvement will come. We could have 3-4 new mids next year. Joel Mc, Green and a few others will be gone. Tom Mc looked good. Magner continues to impress. Amongst the [censored] there are a few positives. I am feeling as down as you but I won't give up, not after investing 55 years in this bloody club.

The sad thing is that leaving aside Jones, our best mid is a 2nd game VFL player and he is a mile ahead of the next bloke.

That was a huge one. He is still a clearance specialist. Great player.

Just when it couldn't get any worse.

Read post 1160.

Just because he was a past champion Demon, that gives me no comfort. Who is in charge of player development at the club, is it Todd?

Given the fact that many "experts" out there are now describing our list as poor, not that I necessarily agree, is it the result of poor recruiting, poor development or a combination of both? Many players seem to kick on quickly at other clubs while many of our high picks seem to stagnate. Again let me say when I give a few examples I am not writing off these players. We took Watts and Hurley who went later is a strongly built star of his club. Like wise Melksham is a developed mid while our higher pick of a couple of years earlier Morton is playing at Casey with the same build and development as when he came to the club. Cook our first pick of 2010 seems a long way off though so many of his year are now regulars. Blease also seems to have gone backwards and I am not sure that Bennell has developed above his natural talent he had when selected. I know recruiting is not an absolute science but have we failed to get the best at our selections or have we failed to develop our players?. Something is clearly or has been clearly wrong in the past at the MFC.

Given his record of advising us who he would pick, WJ could do no worse than the paid professionals who have done the job for us.

As the game is 2.40 local time I would imagine the whole team would fly back that evening.

Surely the title to this thread needs to be changed.

If true, that is very worrying. I would actually raise that with the Director on the Board in charge of marketing. That should be investigated, because if true we have a serious problem.

This club drains you so much that I actually spent time thinking it would be ok to finish last this year, as we could virtually rebuild our mid field in one draft. Imagine getting Viney with our 2nd round pick, the 2 best mids in the country with pick 1 and first compo pick being pick 2 and then say another good mid at 10 or 11, whatever that compo pick is. You really could become a top side if these kids became the basis of a new midfield for us. We are ok forward and back and in the ruck IMO. I know we won't finish last but I just couldn't help thinking, one more bad year and then a decade of good years to follow, I could live with that.

That's another issue. It's Time asked about swapping now. Maybe you could send the club an email and they could make half hats and half scarves next time.

Winner of the best post for this week.

Agree. Did Eddie start the ball rolling, how much is he sending across?

That is one of the poorest pieces of journalism I have read. For example did he consider any of the following points before penning that piece of trash? 1. Establishing that Polis did in fact make the comments and that they were not put there by another. 2. Following the Corporations Act. 3. Applying good governance. 4. Allowing each Director to have their say/vote. 5. Making/announcing the decision in business hours and not while Directors could have been out socialising and drinking and not thinking clearly. 6. Announcing the decision to the media in daylight so that they could all be present. 7. Allowing MFC staff the time to be informed, so signs, logos etc could be removed before the announcement. etc, etc, etc. Patrick you should stand ashamed for kicking us while we are down and actually doing the right thing. Shameful piece of trash.

First congrats on being a member while living interstate. Second I don't wan't to nitpick but it would cost to swap a scarf for a cap. Those scarfs they give out are extremely cheap, ordered in massive bulk and probably cost a few cents each made off shore. The caps are far more expensive. If everyone did that we would lose a fortune. I understand your request and while reasonable if everyone interstate or in the country did it you could imagine the result. That said they should have explained that to you and maybe offered something else. I am not knocking you just trying to explain their point of view and costs involved.

I would be shocked if there aren't companies out there that can see the massive good publicity they will get by aligning to the MFC at this time. The club is down, but still leading the way in standing for what is right over financial gain. A few new sponsors and a few wins will turn everything around.

Mooney said when he played early on, he did his ankle and instead of rehabing he went out for a few drinks. He said, that drink session affected his recovery and actually ruined his year. He also said if you are serious about your football you don't drink when injured.

While not a headline, we see Nicholson suspended for a match for drinking. What's tomorrow?