beelzebub

I actually dont think we are the chasms behind that some think now. we arent at teh leading edge...we arent at the backend either.. We just havent been there very long and results will take a whiles. We ARE new to this level of spendig though, no doubt

We are at historically high levels of investment in our FD. I sense it may take at least a season to see dividends. Such is life

why money..we pay the cap or near it.. that wont change.. Time however is the key.This year is a write off essentially regarding accomplishments ladder wise. Some sever ( hopefully ) pruning to be had at seasons end. there is indeed a nucleus and more the point a foundation upon to build, but as we all will know; its not going to happen overnight.

not everyone..many here see beyond the next cheap wallop !!

As bad as we are on the ground its comforting , indeed bordering on the happy to know that the Club as an entity is no longer lurching from one near miss to another.. Im sure Don would rather point elsewhere but he himself can take some of the applause. Those of us whove been around a little while will remember the days when we had a modicum of game success but was always on shakey ground ( as histry now shows ) Eventually this would permeate and unsettle the players and footy dept and wed go down the gurgler (again ). It was a game of snakes and ladders. It was a slippery time. Success, permanent and ongoing, really only comes from building upon a solid foundation and being guided by peoplel with ability and vision, tosay nothing of purpose. This is how I read the club presently. Anyone who has every watched how a skyscraper is built will note that for quite a while there seems little happening. Yet behind the hoardings manyare busy diging a humungous hole and firmiing the foundations and then, and only then do they start lifting upwards. Gradually arfter some considerable effort they get construction back to ground level and at this point many could be mistaken for thinking that not much has really happened, that very little has been accomplished but the reality is in many ways the hard word is done for now you can speed ahead and very quickly as is by magic floor upon floor rise tothe clouds.. What one sees in a building is the edifice, but you wont necessarily know the planning and preparation that went into it because what youre presented with is of a different ilk. The construction that is Melbourne id suggest has only just broken to ground level and theres still much work to be done but I too would like to thank Don and the rest at Melbourne , especialy Jim, for the fact that anything is actually there at all. Well done

One might say that our start to the season has been quite hOPELess

Ron.... the numbers dont really lie. 4 games 4 losses games stats that should make the team blush whats really to get excited about

Thats a very sobering number........sobering and disgusting at the same time but hey...we're a whole 10.5% clear of the Giants .....woooohoooooo !!!!

A little clarification. The ORIGINAL Holden Commodore (VB) is in fact based upon the Opel Commodore. Germany shipped some out for preliminary study in the mid 70's. The Engineers at Fishermans Bend then proceeded to run them into the ground. The story goes they were reloaded back into the containers they came in and labled Shizen !!! Aussie Engineers then set abot redesigning the Commodore to suit "Aussie conditions"and the rest as they say is history. To my knowledge all Aussie Commodores have been designed/engineered in Oz but may use some imput from Deutchland !! (and other GM design studios worldwide) Now possibly with OPEL and Hertz on board we might play with a bit more drive !!! Well done to all concerned with this great news....bravo !!

Opel is part of GM...GMH is part of GM they are now going to compete as separate brands here, different !! This has been in the wind for years now...that is OPEL coming to Oz.. Great news if we've scored them

My simple extrapolation is to therefor think. if His form wasnt brillian tostart with....and he is injured and will carry a niggle for however long til he's tiptop then is it too long a stretch to think he will have to run back into form ? And if so , he like everyone on the list is going to face time at Casey, and rightfully so.. Im of the thinking Neeld isnt of the camp to think anyone is going to be more likely than another be quicker to gain momentum. All bets are off now. I sense Neeld is singularly unimpressed by the efforts of many. What we do need is a Moloney full of vim and vigour wanting to take a senior's role in showing the way. We need all of that we can muster.

Geez Im sick of peopel not able to decipher reality !! good enough for you Stuie ?? He was deemed good to go for the first round.. Imnot really sure he was on the ground...if yuo get my drift. Subsequently he hasnt played. The only criteria for his inclusion again is that he earns and warrnats selecction. Up til then anyoneelse ought to be seen as a viable option. NO ONE..( nice big letters to facilitate the lessening of misunderstanding ) ought to be a walk up start.I dont care for a second whether its last years Bluey or a rookie, same rules apply. If Beamer isnt up to it because of form/fitness then someone else gets the gig.. Plain as !! Now thats not bashing.. thats reality 101

Funny...god forbid anyone suggest a player is not in form and we get eh ol' HES INJURED . As if thats an excuse. Its a reason, no doubt, but a player out of form is just that...out of form. There may be reasons but the result is the same. Im tired of excuses let alone reasons. I just want to see decent players , give a decent return on the huge investment the FD let alone the finance dept make of them.

actually..theres no cost currently to register and read the herald...so why dont people. I do.. Will I subscribe.. probably not

actually..why wouldnt it be fair? Beamers form of late wouldnt be threatening a lot of people. All players should and ought to take whatever opportunites present. Magner has taken the bull bythe horns ( and dumped th beast in thedirt and trod all over him !lol ) We cant be scared to try players. The team comes first not the consierationns of any one player ...no ??

Well.... theyre rolling the dice arent they.. ( maybe theyre loaded !!) Well sometimes you just turn up and hope its not a bath, hope theres something akin to a crack and sometimes you just hope. I barrack for Melbourne and always will,, ill cheer them on come Sunday...but I picked the pups in the footy tipping. Call me what you will but tipping calls for pragmatism, turning up only requires blind faith !!!

so thats one in the members...one in the AFL members...and one in the public area.. So whos footing the bill for all this and really what makes any one lot more special than another. Personally im not a fan of PC zealots

Hes blowing his own trumpet withe a revisionist verve. I wonder if hed be so amenable if others compared his predictions with outcomes. But thats unlikely as Stevens prefers to write after the fact unlike a more learned and informed commentator such as Quayle. Stevens idea of fishing would be a Trout farm !!!

So the [censored] bag award for revisionist history in 5c ( I spent too much ) psuedo-journalism goes to ...........drum roll.............Muck Stevens!!!! Honestly mate, did some kid in a Melbourne jumper take his ball home and not play kick to kick with you when you were youngen ? Cant wait for the next instalment of Red and Blue Hills !

Im not advocating going out and not trying to win. Im not advocating the directives to "play players in ...interesting positions" What im saying is it obviosly comes as no greta surprise that we arent setting the world on fire. The great teams of this century , i.ethe likes of Geelong, Brisbane, Hawthorn and dare i say it that team of Filth all had some very medicocre games, indeed season(s) as their respective rebuilds to hold. Brisbane possibly a bit of anexception , bit still bumbled to start. Why....because the teams didnt comprise the required talent to start with, not across the board nor with experience, real experience (75-100 games ) in legs that prove more than useful in years to come. But rebuild/build they did and play together they did and eventually things clicked. There was the required tweaking along theway, this bloke out, new bloke in etc but they came from raw positions . So the FD will have to think...who's likely tobe in any decent lineup in 2-3 years time. If the name doesnt pop out now...then in simple terms theyll be relegated to playing out their days with the MFC in the ressies. yes we're paying/paid them but we are dealing with that finite of resources called time. That is more precious for some players to develop than the dollar value already accredited to some players. So this is where we go back to the time honoured way of 'list management". Its not game throwing,its not tanking (as some rightfullysuggest it infers a a decision not towin where youcould) We simply cant, arent able. Neeld upon arriving showed the board a picture that indicated he couldnt fill all positionon thefiled with the cattle he had to hand. He has started shopping... but only started. He also indicated ( by some reports )he had misgivings about some players being bookmarked for particular positions/roles. And he is changing that. This for all intents and purposes is a year of real investigation. Preseasons are full of hype and fluff and only when real competition starts does the wheat separate from the chaff. As the season progresses I would expect Neeld and his Assistants tofurther refine the list and identify the glaring holes, whilst also possibly unearthing a few positives. At seasons end he will have real first hand and relevent info upon which to cull and remodel the playing list. Stevens alludes the process is tanking. He does this because he is lazy in his writing and flawed of argument. We will win some games this year, but i cant see that number going far beyond the fingers of one hand now. Another year of pain....how novel.

There is an element to the Stevens article that does ring true (shame he tarnished it with the rest of the bollocks), i refer to the notion that obviously the club expects a hideous year, well at least the worst of the coming years to come as they have indeed rolled the dice with the comp picks. You wouldnt do this unless you do 1) expect to struggle somewhat and finish in a position that would benefit ( as much as possible ) the club going forward and 2) that coming years ought to get better. Both assumptions...and fraught with danger I concede So it therefore goes that whillst the degree of calamity might not have been predicted/expected, nor was any great amount of success ( this year )

and thats suprising given his weight....its not a hard task to do...he aint heavy !!

Maybe Hoover can sponsor us !!

I wonder how hard to screen somethiing else over the EW area. At least make them palatable

I certainlydont but once Vlad started selling the games soul he suddenly had them howling.