Freddy Fuschia

I've been watching the Kangaroos play and dead set they are doing everything in their power not to win this game by very much at all. I think they are going to force Freo to "doctor" a narrow win or even a defeat tonight.

Could someone please hand around that face palm. I am more than somewhat bemused by this and many other threads on Demonland. How many times has this subject been covered? How many times have people whined about the process of selection of Neeld and what we coulda, shoulda, woulda done if only this, that and the other? How many times are people going to come up with a Caro Wilson or Mark Robinson article with some half informed information about this process or that. Hello? It's nearly a year ago since Neeld was appointed. Neeld is coaching again next year. Is there nothing more current we can discuss here?

Not long after Jim Stynes took over from the previous Board, journalist Charles Happell wrote an article in Crikey entitled Chairman Jim Stynes puts the Hollywood back into Melbourne I felt at the time that the source of Happell's article was most likely a disgruntled former board member or employee and that there was no love lost for Jimmy or his appointee for the CEO job who just happened to be Cameron Schwab. "Former chairman Paul Gardner was never one of the boys and became a victim of the Stynes putsch. Then Paul McNamee was given precisely 106 days as chief executive before the freshly-installed Stynes board decided last week his time was up. Now Stynes is looking at bestowing patronage of another “mate”, Cameron Schwab, whom he has openly urged to apply for McNamee’s vacant position." At the time I posted this on Demonland Interesting article on crikey.com.au:- Well now Happell has reared his ugly head again on Back Page Lead in Footy's Great Survivor and why am I not surprised that he is scathing of the club's re-appointment of Schwab while ignoring all the good things he has done? Anybody want to play a game of connect the dots?

Whether CS lucked out or the improvement in our financial position was due to his financial acumen, he's been in the job during the time we've been turned from a financial basket case into a viable entity. We're no longer on the nose with the AFL admin either. WJ's right. The club doesn't need the snipers. Time to move on.

I feel for Liam and his plight and his decision to go to SA to be with his family in these difficult times was probably the right one for him. The problem I have with this is that he left without informing the club. I think that sealed his fate because when all is said and done, our sport is a team game and doing that indicated a lack of respect on his part for the team. Without that respect, how do you expect a player, no matter how talented, to put in for his teammates when the going gets tough on the field?

Is it a co-incidence that the game on which the HUN is hanging its hat was between Melbourne and the Sydney Swans? After all, the Swans were coached at the time by Paul Roos who likes to spend his time hanging as much [censored] on the Melbourne Football Club as he possibly can. He would most likely have some notes and enough of a recollection of that game to feed a HUN reporter desperate for a beat up of a story to fill some dead space in his trashy newspaper. The same Paul Roos who, earlier that year, instructed a player to go forward but not to kick a goal which could have won a NAB Cup game for the club he was coaching. The club that only won one NAB Cup in all the time he was coach. The same Paul Roos who, when questioned, about his direction to the player got off because he said he was joking. It's ok for Roos to tell jokes but hearsay from unnamed officials is enough evidence to prove that an injury hit team with 2 wins out of 18 was deliberately trying to lose to a finals contender in hostile territory? The only thing it suggests to me is that Roos was in decline as a coach in 2008 and further, that if he was the source of the information given to the hack from the HUN then his credibility is now in tatters.

I couldn't agree with you more. The media should at least give Brad Green and the club a few moments to reflect on his magnificent career before starting with the politics of whether he should have played on for another year or not. Clearly, Mark Neeld has a plan for the club going forward and the discussion as to whether we should keep players reaching the end of their career would have been best kept for another time. Thanks for the heads up about the Groucho play. I love the Marx Brothers and their humour. Include me in!

Good get. I couldn't believe my ears even I heard that Cornes was being rested and I agree this is your typical Kevin Sheedy shifty move. If he doesn't play then it's probably due to an injury that GWS doesn't want to disclose.

Where was the club doctor?

OK. We forgot the early assessment of Max but the story in today's Age about Jack's progress and Dylan Grimes' rising star award from last week have got me wondering about his younger brother. Does he play footy? Is he any good or is he a young kid living a more talented brother's shadow?

The world is rosy according to this from the MFC site - Five things we learned from round one

Two players, Liam Jurrah and Neville Jetta have apparently had botched surgery in the past twelve months or so and have had to go in for further surgery. How does this happen and what, if anything, does this say about our medical staff past and present?

Six years is the time Leigh Matthews indicated rin this Sydney Daily Telegraph item from last week - Leigh Mathews forecasts at least six years of pain for GWS fans Six years of pain = Voldemort's six year contract. One can only wonder how things will unfold over that time.

That's ok - he's still got Sheeds.

Could you elaborate please on how a VP interviewing a captain is regarded as a breakdown in separation? What would you have done in these circumstances where there seems to be a breakdown between the coach and administration and you were concerned how if, at all, it was affecting the players? Who should have been reporting to the board and what if that person is embroiled the conflict itself? Do you just sit on your hands and do nothing because you might be offending against this concept of separation of powers?

There's a fundamental difference between Jimmy standing down voluntarily and what TimD originally suggested. He also modified his position after reflecting on it.No need for extinguishers - just congratulations to the bloke who inspires us all and did save the club with the help of many generous supporters.

Great post? Give me a break please and forgive me for thinking there's a touch of revisionist history mixed up in all this but when Lyon took on the task was he even aware of what funding he was going to have at his disposal? IIRC he was one of the Demon heroes who attended that function in August that raised 800k for the club? Did he say he was only going to take on the post if the money was there for him to spend? And if the AFL money was there for us then wasn't available to most other clubs looking for coaching personal or the likes of Craig and Misson? Was he guaranteed back then that the club could attract such people or for that matter as impressive a candidate for head coach as Mark Neeld? Was Lyon a "shoe in" at the time to be a part of prising away a Mitchell Clark from Fremantle? Now, he doesn't deserve any accolades for overseeing the process because the people under him did all the work. And he wasn't helping an old mate, he was just doing it for ... um ... a joke? Right? FMD, the nitpicking over this beggars belief!

You miss the point - he made a statement to the playing group as well as the individuals, not the supporters. The irony is that a small group of supporters have freaked out for no good reason whatever.

None of us are privy to what goes on in the minds of the selectors so we usually look at players from what we've observed about them in the past or on the basis of what we hear and read about them in the media or from their statistics. OK, so the selectors appear to have got it right about Hilfenhaus this time but they've also been wrong with other selections. Unless you're perfect yourself that's no reason to mock other posters.

Silly me and I thought it was a winter sport.

GWS feels that it needs show biz hype and pizzazz to entertain and bring in the Sydney theatregoers but they've got it all wrong.The western suburbs are very different to the caffe latte set that inhabit the so called "better parts" of town.

China: Enter the Dragon (part one)

... and in his day, if Jimmy had Scully's knees he would have played every game of the season ...

Hold it right there. Is there any evidence of this so called "direct support" or the demands that are being alleged here? If not this is an unwarranted slur on a club sponsor and there's no place for it on this site.

There's a fine line in how issues of race, religion or culture should be dealt with but you have to draw the line when people resort to stereotyping. It's amazing how many incorrect perceptions people have of others when they've never met people of another race or religion and then suddenly get to meet them for the first time face to face.