heartbeatstrue

Well said. The rest of the team actually come out of this in even higher regard. Their statements of loyalty to Scully, despite the disruptive influence his intention to leave them has been all year, is greatly admirable. Starting with Trengove, I feel very proud of them all. They have displayed integrity like you say, and loyalty to MFC. Just quickly sign Blease, we don't want another year like what has, thankfully, just finished.

Disagree. Why give Scully any significance for his brief and inglorious stint at MFC. We gave his brand value by choosing to take him #1, then Bailey put a valuable 2 years of training & teaching into the young player. He repaid us very little, and I suspect was a very incohesive influence all year by his refusal to announce his intentions. Barassi's jumper was far too good for him.

Thank goodness the sculrat's finally gone. It's hard to imagine how unsettling his refusal to show allegiance to the playing group all year has been. Unlike Trengove, who is a shining light by comparison. Remember, MFC added hugely to Scully's pay cheque at GWS by picking him no.1. Trengove was equally deserving and could easily (and with hindsight, deservedly) have been our #1 pick. Scully has hardly repaid any of what MFC (and us supporters emotionally) invested in him. Give the jumper to someone who'll appreciate it's value and add to it. Quickly move on, and get this horrible little era out of our minds. #31 was too good for Scully. I wish him well as a footballer playing in the badlands for the next 5 or 6 years in western Sydney, what a waste. But MFC needs a playing group passionately committed to the jumper, and we're better off without rats in the ranks.

I wondered the same, it's not like Mick to say anything nice about MFC. "The Scully one really worries me. That club has never had the chance to see the best of that player. They put all the hard work in and they lose a young player."

Good first post. It's got a ring to it - Captain Jack. I think Trengove could be in the leadership group next year, great apprenticeship for him. And then who knows down the track... He's certainly shown something which others considerably older haven't these past few weeks. His game today was gutsy, and he's also committed (on paper and emotionally it seems) to MFC. Award his passion, and hope it rubs off on others!

Davey deserves some slack, he's just back and looked very tentative and rusty. There's plenty others amongst the leadership group (not Jones as I've had pointed out elsewhere & agree) who've been there week in and week out, and whose efforts were poor. I hope the coaches are encouraging and supportive as he gets opportunity to re-gain confidence.

If you do have kids supporting the Dees, good on you. well done, especially with so much peer pressure for them to support the successful teams of today. re Jones, do you put all his disposal problems down to "terrible delivery"? We would differ there, I've watched freakishly great players who, under pressure, almost always choose the near-perfect option. Greg Williams was the best, Judd today was incredibly (and annoyingly!) good at this. I'm not sure if you were at the 'G today, or watched it on TV. Probably you miss that wider perspective of options on TV. Jones is ferocious at winning the ball, his endeavour today was what I wanted to see from all our leaders (but didn't). I said this earlier tonight in this same thread: > Our leadership was woeful again today, promote Trengove ASAP. Here is what I was responding to re Jones: > Are my eyes deceiving me or do we have two players who struggle with the actual skill of kicking a football ... Jones and Petterd. My response: > It's a great shame, the part of Jones' game that lets him down. I love his physical presence, he just doesn't have the instinctive nous (a la Judd) to know what to do with it when he gets it. I had meant it to be constructive comment re Jones, and I wish the skills coaches would work with him on it. Viney will probably be good for Jones' game, I feel. I would prefer to see him encouraged to give it a big roost towards goal, whenever he gets the ball forward of centre. He's a booming kick when he winds up, whereas to turn it over with short passing after so much effort at winning it is heartbreaking. The softness re endeavour from many senior players (not Jones, as you correctly point out in defending him) was disappointing, after the first 20 minutes.

Thanks for that little piece of wisdom, I'll pass it on to the family. We all stayed to the absolute end, as we always do. But it's hard on kids to maintain their passion with what we've all been through. If you had kids who you'd brought up to support MFC, you'd hopefully understand. And you get me wrong about Jones, I said & mean I love his hardness and effort at winning the ball. It's his disposal and if you watched him as close as I did today, it's a great pity that this aspect of his game hasn't been better coached (no shot at Bailey here). He was good today, but like the original poster said, his kicking could improve. There are many of our so-called leaders who deserve to cop criticism today for pretty poor effort, but Jones isn't in that category.

Fair enough, and if he'd committed to MFC by now, we'd definitely be able to put this bad patch he's going thru down to simply being a bit "rusty" or carrying some niggles or whatever. BUT, he's not committed and as we know, almost certainly being tempted by a disproportionately huge sum of $$$ from GWS. So, that adds a whole other dimension into what we're witnessing. And no doubt, Tom's inextricably caught up in the on and off-field intrigue that's been MFC news this past week, going right back to the China trip. Like you I hope desperately we keep Tom, I love watching him in form. He has potential to be as good as that scrubber Judd we saw today. I hope his potential is realised with us, but I fear the omens the past few weeks including today are not good in that regard.

Agree, watching No.31 today, the problems seemed mental rather than anything wrong physically. It just seemed like his body was there running around, but in his head he's already left. Maybe he has a dose of Moloney's flu coming on, which would be about the best-case answer to what we saw today. Sad. Viney too needs to talk with Tom about the next 4 weeks (forget the other coaching staff, I sense they're all well past their use-by dates with MFC to be effective).

I'm not "hanging it on Gawn", I think he's great potential and should be a much-needed big physical presence for us. Was just adding to the other poster that his kicking too needs work. If Jones only handballed 3 times today, then it seems like each time got us into more trouble. Gawn's clanger was a doozy. My point is, Jones' (& Gawn's today) decision-making in their disposal options is not good. Today several of Jones' kicks were into trouble too, so it's not just his handballing. It's something the skills coaches should be working on & solve.

Add Gawn. And to compound the problem, both Jones & Gawn constantly hanbdball into trouble - happened plenty of times today. It's a great shame, the part of Jones' game that lets him down. I love his physical presence, he just doesn't have the instinctive nous (a la Judd) to know what to do with it when he gets it. Too often caught indecisively holding the ball, as well.

Are you kidding?? Very disappointing, can relate to most of the disappointment vented here. I have one family member who wanted to split at half time, another has also lost all passion for this team and berated Dad for committing them to a lifetime of misery. Coming home, he decided to flex his independence and announced he was looking for another team to support. [update: he's over his disappointment and sticking with the Dees like his Dad... we'll suffer together ] I am simply sick of sitting there and being humiliated by other supporters. High time to give them a bit of the treatment, will be sweet when the day comes. We have regressed unbelievably even in the past month. Our leadership was woeful asgain today, promote Trengove ASAP. And No.31 looked like he'd already left. Now I have to somehow brace for another humiliating Monday. Surely the players could have shown more tenacity, for the Club & Jimmy's sake.

6 Watts 5 Trengove 4 Dunn 3 Garland 2 Howe 1 MacDonald

In an earlier post on this thread, I said maybe my hairdresser had the reason why Sylvia was dropped: My hairdresser (she's a Blues supporter) thinks it was Sylvia pictured out with his girlfriend Sat night, being consoled... and maybe the club took a dim view (of what??). I didn't see the article so don't know if it was him, or what he's supposed to have done if anything. But hairdressers are never wrong (like wives) Anyway, I wished her a bruising wretched day tomorrow. She said she's scared And then I thought you confirmed it was Sylvia in the HUN (which I hadn't seen). It has been a long week, you & your Dad enjoy tomorrow, I'll be right under the coach's box keeping a weather eye on Viney!

Thanks wyl. I knew I shouldn't discount my hairdresser. And even better, she's worried about her Blues tomorrow!

I was thinking the same, he's an emergency and maybe Viney would like to spring a surprise. Sylvia can't be held solely accountable amongst the more senior players for last week. He was far from worst. No doubt I'd keep him. My hairdresser (she's a Blues supporter) thinks it was Sylvia pictured out with his girlfriend Sat night, being consoled... and maybe the club took a dim view (of what??). I didn't see the article so don't know if it was him, or what he's supposed to have done if anything. But hairdressers are never wrong (like wives) Anyway, I wished her a bruising wretched day tomorrow. She said she's scared

Yes! Get him into leadership quickly.

The "curse" is supposed to have started with the pathetic attitudes within the club hierarchy when Norm Smith was stabbed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Norm_Smith As far as I'm concerned, any curse ended last Saturday. Our lean period being effectively bookended by the worst (Fitzroy, 1979) and second worst (Geelong, 2011) losing margins in footy history. From now on, talk of "curses" and the rot within the administration are totally unacceptable and absolutely over. Hopefully the reasons for the years of failure are now well and truly in the open, and being addressed by tough uncompromising leadership. Lessons learned, failures behind us, culture being adjusted to one that demands success at all levels throughout the club. And supporters right behind such resolve for mental and physical toughness.

Hopefully a company of crack lawyers...

This is true, why wouldn't anyone say it to any of them given the chance? Jimmy is unwell and he'd be the first to admit his health problems have got in the way of his leadership. His health must come first, no question. As for the rest of them, which management or on-field leaders would you uphold as shining lights of best-practice leadership? Shortly we're about to discover what leadership abilities G. Lyon possesses. Fingers crossed.

At this moment Scully's not part of our future, he's removed himself from it and he's effectively in no-man's land. If he wants to get back on board, then fine but he needs to do it. Crook knee and all. Right now we can be plotting and planning how to get best value from those 2 draft picks. I hope Scully stays, I like watching him. But if he's gone, we have opportunities that we wouldn't if he stayed.

Cheers. It would be nice to think we as supporters carried some influence, collectively we do I suppose by our passion and support at the games. Pies supporters by the noise they generate do seem to have some influence on umpiring decisions. We did in the "no merger" campaign (except those in favour carried the day and we relied on Hawthorn supporters to save our club). But in terms of being responsible, or in fixing the current mess within the club, I just can't see supporters being influential unless we all acted with one voice, which ain't going to happen.

52,354 plus my family (3) which makes 52,357. There'll be plenty of Carltank supporters wanting to see the Blues romp away with a big percentage boost. I'm tipping they'll go home disappointed.

Well I believe you need to re-think this one. Of all the groups in this sorry saga, the supporters are the ones blameless. That may simply reflect our lack of power and influence, but be that as it may, I suggest the proportion of blame on MFC supporters is currently zero in this mess. So, ipso facto, there's nothing the supporters can do to "make this whole saga go away". I've said in previous posts, the rot within our club has been festering for a long long time, and sacking DB won't of itself fix the heart of the problem. Only strong and fearless leadership at the top, and great resolve to make the tough calls, will do that. Otherwise even a little remaining rot will eat at morale, permeate through the club, and ultimately boil over into insipid playing performances like we've seen far too many of.