Ron Burgundy

I much prefer Stuie's emblem to the current emblem. That said, I also like the MFC emblem that is written in a similar font and style to Carlton's (ie, just the letters, MFC, overlayed on itself). It's in the top section of the current emblem.

I'd like to see Wellman return as the backline coach too. Not that that will happen obviously ...

In fairness, it'd actually be pretty hard to pull that off.

He'd be an inspired appointment, but I still don't reckon he wants it. For a start, I don't even think he wishes to relocate from Sydney to Melbourne. Apparently he loves living in Sydney. But, if not, I'd be extremely happy with Choco Williams as our head coach, particularly if Junior McDonald returns to the club as part of the package. The next coach obviously needs immediate 'player buy in' - and I reckon Roos or Choco/Junior would get that.

The club is definitely not being gutless at the moment. Paying out some of CC's contract is presumably unavoidable. Seems to me that PJ is not mucking around at the moment - and that he's obtaining AFL endorsement for all of his tough guy moves at the moment. Can't be a bad thing ...

Couple more ins too please: Mark Williams and Junior McDonald.

Choco plus Junior McDonald and I'm very, very happy.

And yet, he was apparently trying to get to Essendon having just won the Bluey. Leadership in spades.

I hope for Brent's sake that he is good enough to play for the Lions for the next 20-25 years. Because, on the strength of that, he strikes me as being pretty well unemployable. His instagram lacked class. And maturity. And sound judgement. I expect some of his teenage twitter fan base found some short term excitement in it though. Can't believe I was actually disappointed to see him pushed out of the leadership group.

I just hope the club manages to land Junior McDonald as a senior assistant coach asap. Don't want any required players getting restless again.

Not a perfect analogy IMO. It is more like the franchisor stepping to manage its brand and business by an inept franchisee. The underlying business has not failed - one of the business's franchisees simply cannot operate the underlying business to the expected standards of the franchisor. Big difference. When receivers are appointed, the underlying business virtually always ultimately fails (or has failed and the receiver is simply selling off assets). In this case, the franchisor (AFL) is stepping in with the intention of guaranteeing the viability of its franchise. I think this is a good result for us. Even though it's obviously absolutely pathetic we're in this situation, the fact that the AFL is helping us out is a long way from a secured creditor appointing a receiver. A very long way from it. I otherwise agree with the sentiments you've expressed in your post.

Bloody hell. It's enough to make you want to neck yourself. Top post, by the way.

It'd be interesting to see what the list would look like if we now traded current players/picks/$$$ for all of the players we actually should've picked with the high end draft picks we stuffed up over the last 6 or so years. We'd probably be back on track. At the very least, we'd definitely have a midfield.

I agree. Losing Woewodin and Powell at the end of 2002 was a big mistake IMO - the cultural rot started to kick in then.

Couldn't disagree more re: Sylvia. He must be re-signed.

Harvey?! Fair dinkum - that's laughable.

Not sure I agree with that. For instance, barring injury, we will have a bullet proof forward line next year. In 2011, I don't think our forward line was even VFL standard. The midfield was ordinary in 2011. It still is. There are some green shoots there though - a much improved Nathan Jones (under Neeld) and Viney, Kent, Matt Jones and Toumpas all look to be solid mids going forward. Losing Moloney wreaks of poor management though. In some respects our backline has never quite recovered since we lost Wellman as the backline coach, but I think Garland's improved under Neeld and that our backline is fundamentally sound. Terlich has been a good find - we still need another good running half bank flanker (like Pearce Hanley), but I don't think our backline any worse now than it was in 2011. Losing Rivers was a mistake though, as was recruiting Gillies IMO. Overall though, I can't see how our list is worse now compared to 2011.

That said, BH - Neeld may well have picked the so-called 'obvious' high end picks, but that's something this club has failed to do on too many occasions previously. I also think the likes of Matt Jones and Dean Terlich were not obvious picks - and they've been absolutely inspired bottom end picks.

Great post W_J (as usual). Neeld strikes me as a really effective assistant coach - hence, the very positive endorsement the club apparently received from Malthouse. His systems and processes, I expect, are very diligently and well constructed - but he seems too inflexible to operate in a changing environment (eg, match day when key players go down) and otherwise deal with the subtleties of player relationships and people/media management. Just my perception though. I would really like to know what the core, required players on the list actually think of him - and not have to base such views on unreliable reports from the likes of Damien Barrett and Caroline Wilson.

It was just so infuriatingly amateur.

Same - but WITH Junior McDonald as his senior assistant. Getting Junior back is pivotal to keeping the players on board IMO.

It was already crap.

I don't think it's clear to most of us either 'ihatesnakes', but some here seem to think the President needs to have some kind of brand name/profile in the market. Don't know why to be honest ...

I have big questions on Neeld, as does everyone obviously - it's impossible not to in the circumstances. I don't think he'll be the coach in 2014. I also think he's done and said some very stupid things, which he most likely now regrets. That said, I think the next coach will inherit a much better list (structure, attitude and fitness) than what he inherited at the end of 2011 - principally due to the changes Neeld has implemented/made. In short, I don't believe not all of what Neeld has done has been detrimental - in fact, I think some of what he has done has been very positive. It's just a pity he seems to have lacked EQ and proper judgement in dealing with the senior players when he first arrived, and that he stormed into the MFC sheds at the end of 2011 in much the same way as Stormin Norman stormed into Iraq in 1991. He never seemed to overcome the schisms seemingly created from that time onwards.

Didn't they also report that was gone on the Monday following the Hawks game ...