Ron Burgundy

I would have him in the centre, but then moving forward. He's very effective around the half forward line.

I should perhaps also add that I told him that I loved him at the Blazer presentation night. He smiled rather awkwardly and then moved on. I didn't have the chance to tell him that I'm not in love with him in that kind of way. A bit embarrassing really.

Agree with RR. The appointment of the two Jacks should hopefully pay dividends in a few years from now. Given their age, it's not wholly unsurprising that they appear to be struggling 4 weeks into their first season, particularly in an under-performing team. That said, Mitch Clark is the best recruit we've had in years. A complete masterstroke landing him. I love the man.

Probably the dumbest post I have read all year. And that says something. Demonland's Tea Party element is starting to raise its stunningly enlightened head.

Some very ordinary posts on this thread already. Well done folks.

Disgusting stuff. They'll be relegated to the VFL next week - unfortunately we'll probably get them at Casey. I can see the future though. Neeld is the answer. There were some really good signs today (except for some very poor set shot kicking). Davey and Morton, for the first time in a long time, also looked good. Please - no negative stuff today. They genuinely don't deserve it.

I agree. If there's any list you'd want to be on at the moment as a small, fast, crumbing forward trying to break into the seniors, it'd be ours.

No way! I'm sick of seeing the club trade/delist our senior players for limited value. Travis Johnstone aside, we rarely if ever win on these trades. Getting rid of Sylvia for some unproven mid-teen draft pick would be an absolutely ordinary play. We need more class on this list, not less.

Mitch Clark is just the type of player this club needs. I wish we had a few more of his type. Absolutely inspired play by Neeld to land him.

I'm not remotely worried about Watts. He'll be a gun. I simply hate watching Darling though - would possibly be my favourite player if he was in the red and the blue. And what makes it worse is that he should be.

I agree. Perhaps the mods should change his username to Dr Crap.

Sylvia is our only true game breaker. He's one of our most important players. A must keep. Bail - great athlete/runner, some questions marks about his football ability. Definitely not a mistake at pick 64. Bennell - I still have hopes for him. I think he has enormous potential, which he can still realise with the influence of Neeld and Misson. Has pace and skill - both of which we need. Bate - definitely has a role to play IMO. Need his hard body. Much prefer him on the ball. Jetta - obviously a great kid. Tries all day. But I just don't know if he's quite good enough. Dunn - by no means a superstar, but still a required player IMO.

All top quality though.

At the moment, I just want to see us nail the basics. Win the clearances. Win the hard ball gets. Higher tackle count. Defensive pressure all over the ground. All the urgency stuff. And I want to see us unearth more players who can find the ball themselves, and then use it properly. We're not a top 4 team. Unfortunately we're the complete opposite. Let's concentrate on nailing the basics for now. And cop a tip - Ross Lyon, as good a coach as his is, wouldn't have this list scaring the likes of Carlton, Hawthorn, WCE and Geelong at the moment. It would take Lyon TIME too.

I agree with you Deers. I cop heaps of cra p for being a passionate Dees supporter - especially living in Sydney. My response to this is always, " ... unlike you pr1cks, I have character. I could easily choose another franchise/more successful club to support, but my loyalties can't be bought. And cop a tip - the clubs you support would love to have the core MFC supporters behind them - because we stick behind a club that hasn't exactly given us a lot of joy over the past few decades. Supporters of the Swans, the Toyota Camrys and several other franchises would have skipped the coop long ago if they had to endure our run." I also say this to kids who support the Dees. Stick in there - it shows character. It's easy to support some cliched club that's always competitive and that all your friends support - it's much harder to show loyalty to a club that isn't quite as cool. But, at the end of the day, you know who'll have the most respect as a person and a supporter. Gallipoli wasn't exactly a successful invasion - but it did say a lot about Aussie character, and that's why it's now such a celebrated and iconic part of our history. In much the same way, for all the heat we've endured in this journey, I reckon a lot of people will not resent any success that ultimately comes our way. And it's for this very reason. ------------------------------------------------------------------- As an aside, whenever a friend of mine has a kid, I give the kid a Demon beanie bear - they're only about 10 bucks. Despite generally having many more expensive fluffy toys in the cot, it's bizarre how many of the kids only want to hold the Demon beanie bear. I'd like to think I'm programming their minds before they even know what's going on. My mates don't particularly like giving their kids anything red & blue, but, because it's a present for their kids (not them), they generally feel obliged to let their kids have the beanie bears. Even if it only converts a few, it'll be worth it.

RobbieF - I'd suggest you stop searching for evidence based explanations here. There are none. In my observation, Dr Who seems consistently to avoid fact based analysis - and he is continually in the habit of qualifying, or ignoring altogether, overwhelming evidence that counters his view of our recent recruiting decisions. To be fair, recruiting has not been our only problem, but to suggest that it's actually been good, is completely delusional. It literally breaks my heart to see some players that many of us (as rank amateurs) would liked to have seen in the red and blue overlooked by us, then picked by other clubs with lesser picks, and now dominating in those positions. In terms of some of our recruiting decisions, I feel as though we received this great inheritance, spent it recklessly, and we now have this sickening realisation that we're facing bankruptcy. And we're all saying - how the hell did this happen?!

I would like to see us recruit some quick midfielders who can find their own ball. And a couple more hard nuts. And a quick forward - Nahas or Betts type. Blease and Bennell will hopefully develop into quick midfielders - but, at this stage, we don't have enough of them given the number of top 20 picks we've had. Watching the Dees play last weekend, I couldn't believe how many light bodied/medium sized players we have, virtually none of whom have any pace.

Neeld is the solution. Of that, I am absolutely convinced. I'm just relieved we managed to land him before he realised how ordinary our list actually is. My view about Neeld is based on his actions and insights thus far. In short, he has quickly identified the problems and has already taken steps to deal with them effectively. Actions (game plan) recognised Bailey's game plan, whilst attractive to some supporters (despite resulting in an incredibly poor win-loss ratio over 4 years), would not consistently win us games against good opposition, particularly in finals - sought to implement a new, effective game plan that, once properly understood and executed by the players (which, clearly, it is not yet), should help us win big games (recruiting) quickly worked out that our recruiting has not been very good, and that it has been at odds with developments/changes in the game - looking at the respective midfields over the first few rounds (Lions, Eagles, Tigers v MFC) has said it all - he stepped in to demand mature, hard bodies in the 2011 national and rookie drafts (despite our recruiter saying he had identified various other players), he moved heaven and earth to land Mitch Clark, the club parted ways with Barry Prendergast, and he has seemingly tried to land Collingwood's national recruiter, Jason Taylor, in the meantime (leadership) - identified a leadership vacuum at the club - embarked on a rigorous selection program for the leadership group - canned most of 2011's leadership group, and promoted young players who are the future of this club (whilst acknowledging they are indeed young and have a lot to learn). Brave decision - will pay dividends in the future (list development) - recognised that we needed to be elite in the fitness department - convinced Dave Misson to join us - obviously had a hand in convincing Neil Craig to join us too. We now have an elite fitness and development staff and program - this will take time to bear fruit though - more than three AFL games, in fact more than one season Common misconceptions IMO - some here are saying Neeld should modify his game plan to suit the skills of the current player group, even though every expert seems to suggest that the old game plan could not consistently win big games (despite, at times, being pretty to watch) - these same posters have stated previously that, unlike the Swans and North who refuse to bottom out so as to maintain an underlying competitiveness every season, in being patient and selecting talented kids over recycled players we will be able to compile a premiership list rather than a list that, whilst competitive, will only ever be a top 6 list (ie, pick an 18 year old at pick 39 instead of trading pick 39 for Josh Kennedy, pick Luke Tapscott with pick 18 rather than Luke Ball, etc) Here's the rub though. 1. A good list involves a blend of older and younger players, not just plugging 50 games into kids only. Lists are a continuum - there's never an end point, unless of course the club folds. 2. Simply implementing a defective game plan just to suit a weak player group won't win us a flag - it will only superficially make us more competitive in the very short term. My take out Neeld needs time to implement proper structures, identify and recruit better players, and introduce an elite fitness program. He's doing all of these things. But it will take TIME. It's not his fault we've had to endure a terribly long, horribly bad, rebuild over many years which hasn't got us to where it should have. It is the players who need to adapt to a modern, effective game plan - if they can't, they'll be playing elsewhere next year. There's absolutely no use in doing it the other way around - why try and nail a game plan that won't take us deep into the finals even if it will win us the odd game during the year against a bottom 4 side?! In short, I'm glad Neeld's recognised this and is not burying his head in the sand, like some others here. He's taking steps to fix it. Actively. And he needs our support. He's got mine. Give him yours.

I totally agree with this. Play him in the forward line for the entire game. His only KPI being - effect 10 tackles in our forward 50. If he does that, he will also kick at least 3 goals. But it's essentially forward line pressure I would like to see from Davey. In short, I want to see a pre-Bailey Davey.

Dr Who accusing others of being 'keyboard heroes'? Now, that's funny. I almost feel tempted to click on one of those yellow smiley faces.

Nope, maurice - your comment is not quite as clever as you think, despite you placing a child's little comic face next to it. The tenet of Niall's article is that the game, perhaps not necessarily predictably, changed from 2009 - one effect of which is that tall, mobile forwards (eg Watts - selected 2008) were not seen to be as effective as hard, power forwards (eg Hurley - also selected 2008). Hence, Watts has now become more of a wing option, whilst Hurley is a key player in a modern forward line. According to Niall, the change in the game (ie, the forward press) was quite well known by most clubs. It also explains the never ending Watts v NikNat v Hurley comparisons, which, for what it's worth, are IMO unfair. Personally, I am not concerned about Watts - I think he'll be a gun and I also think the decision made perfect sense at the time. BUT - what I took out of the article was further evidence that the MFC, in particular, needed a tall, power forward. And everyone knew it. Fast forward to the end of 2010. The changes to the game were, by now, quite well known. We had pick 12 in the draft. There were two power forwards predicted to be in the mix at about our pick 12 - Lynch and Darling. Unlike the MFC, not every other club was desperately in need of a hard, power forward. It's not irrelevant that we had also copped a lot of flack over the Watts selection, and that we knew the reasons as to why. But, notwithstanding this, we then overlooked a hard, power forward (Darling) and recruited another tall, mobile forward (Cook). This surprised virtually everyone in the game - supporters and commentators alike (perhaps not Dr Who and a few others), given the known deficiencies/needs of the MFC's list. To date, the surprises expressed at the time continue to be expressed today. And that's why I placed the player bios under Niall's articles. It was just interesting to read what the players said about themselves prior to the draft given: - our needs going into that draft; and - who we then selected. BUT - the facts about these players actually speak for themselves. They do not require their own words, or my posts, to make them facts. Or do you actually not think Cook is a tall, mobile forward and Darling not a hard, power forward? Enlighten me Maurice.

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.

And, if it's the case that we didn't pick Darling because he got drunk outside a nightclub one night (hardly unusual behaviour for a young sportsman I might add), that suggests the club didn't have a lot of confidence in our leadership structure and the club culture at the time - ie, it says a lot if an AFL club doesn't believe it can haul the behaviour of a talented 18 year old into line. And, if our football department did think the leadership and club culture was sufficiently sound, why the hell did it let Junior go at least one year prematurely?! They were clearly all over the shop. Amateur in the extreme. Thank God we now have Neeld.

What's more damning is that by the end of 2010 the club seemingly still hadn't worked this out. Despite our clear need for a hard, power forward, it then picked Cook over Darling - ie, it picked yet another skinny, tall, mobile forward over a hard, power forward. Here are the bios that were posted on the AFL website PRIOR to the draft. Our ineptitude on this pick is simply stunning. Cook may very well turn out to be a great player, but he's not what this club needs now or at the time we picked him. It's that simple. Criminal stupidity. Also decadent in the extreme. Cook in his own words: http://www.afl.com.a...38/default.aspx What type of player are you? A mobile tall forward with the versatility to go back or play on a wing. Isn't this what Niall is saying Watts is? Darling, on the other hand, in his own words: http://www.afl.com.a...51/default.aspx What type of player are you? A hard, courageous and competitive player who brings other players into the game. Which AFL player do you feel you resemble and why? People say Jonathan Brown with his strength, courage and leadership. Lance Franklin as well because of his agility, speed and athleticism. What are your strengths as a footballer? Marking, ferocity at the ball, defensive pressure, strength, speed, endurance, agility and mental strength. Isn't this what Niall is saying everyone in the competition knew the MFC clearly needed, given our light bodied focus in 2008? Cop a tip, I think it is. No pick p1sses me off more than this one. It was just so obvious that, by the end of 2010, Darling more than Cook was the player WE needed at pick 12.

Get Dangerfield. And perhaps also seek to draft a recycled midfielder from another AFL side with one of our lower picks or by trading one of our 'classy', non required players. The target need not be the classiest midfielder running around, but a hard at it type who's not getting as many games as he thinks he deserves at one of the top 6 clubs (eg Josh Kennedy from the Hawks to the Swans for pick 39). In short, an astute trade.