Dappa Dan

Less than 18 premiership points and we get a pick AFTER the first round... Do that again next year and we get one BEFORE the first round in the next draft.

Never seemed to hurt Eddie McGuire. Oh, and if I haven't said it before... GREAT Avatar.

Agree with all of those... but on Warnock I'm not sure he'll be retained. He probably will since we don't have KP defenders coming out of the woodwork... But he's certainly not SAFE.

Oh jesus... Daniel Bell is a defender. He's not going to be a brownlow medallist, but then neither should Woey have been. And the point is moot anyway. We traded the years from when we traded Woey onwards for Bell. Woey played maybe 1 ok season for the pies then was delisted. Bell is paying dividends now, and will continue to for another 10 years. The Woey trade was CLEARLY a good move. And Mick, you have to trade something to get something. ANYONE besides biased Woey supporters knows we got the good end of that deal. In fact, go ask a few pies supporters what they'd prefer. Daniel Bell or Woey.

2 rookie promotions (Neaves and Hughes), 5 draft selections (rouunds 1-5 plus priority), 1 pre-season selection. If the coach coming in does the right thing and delists the dead wood, he could very well get rid of up to 12 players. But then he wouldn't want to delist all of them. 8 is more likely a number than 3.

Did you actually send that? I dunno. All power to you, it's your call... And well done for doing it, if you did. Personally though, I'm going to reserve my praise for him just for now. I think he lost a few brownie points (of which he had PLENTY in store) when he went back on his words earlier this week. In the wash up, what matters is how he handles the hiring of the new coach. The Daniher era is over and the LAST thing he needs to do now is think about it. He has a CRUCIAL and exciting period in which to stamp his identity and influence on this club. NOW is the acid test for Gardiner, and the results won't be seen for probably another 3-5 years. At that time, I'll thank him should he deserve it.

Hmm. Good to see there are a handful of landers who don't mind sticking around to chat even when things are as dire as they are... Yeah, look. Like I said, Carroll isn't a STAR of the competition. But in the end he's a good backman. You can't use your first selection in a superdraft for EVERY defender. Personally I'm happy with a starting KP defense of Carroll, Frawley and Rivers... With Warnock, Ferguson and Miller in the wings, I'm not AS confident. Actually, if you look at our defence, assuming Petterd ends up there one day... Rivers (22), Frawley (18), Petterd (18), Bell (21), Bartram (19)... That's a YOUNG defence. Even if you round the six out with Carroll at 26, it's still complete... and you have Buckley (20), CJ (21) and Warnock (23) all coming through and let's not forget Whelan (27) who will be there for a few years yet. Yes we still have some recruiting to do, to replace Ferg and Holland (you can't expect to do will with 3 KP defenders ONLY), but there's no reason to throw your hands up in the air yet occo... I mean, not for 2008. The list is still as good as it was at the start of this year. Just look at the Bombers, Kangaroos and Geelong. They all went through this. Hang tough mate.

Expand on this. Ordinary overhead? I think I know what you mean, and I agree on this to a degree, but I reckon he deserves SOME credit. He's leading our marks this season and without being Juice, he's ok at taking a mark in a pack when it's needed. Did you perhaps mean as a spoiler? And while his speed is certainly not a strength, he keeps up, assuming he has the right match-up, and he runs to the right places, which makes it easier. I reckon Carroll is certainly a workman. He certainly doesn't MOVE like Frawley, in the sense that he's not as quick to react, not as flexible... But he has some aspects of his game that raise him above the category of ordinary IMO, such as his courage, his ball-finding ability (gets more touches than many similar players), his set-ups and his out-and-out toughness... I've seen him take some horriffic hits and he just gets up and keeps going. His durability would be up there at this club. In fact, I'd go so far as to say he's pretty much our most durable. Oh, and the hair-do... He gets points for that. Simply impossible to call him a good ordinary player with a bonce like that.

All we could ask, Neale, is that you gave it your best... And you went above and beyond. Many players, officials, even many fans' hearts don't bleed true for the Red and Blue and I think you proved beyond a shadow of a doubt yours did. If you remember nothing else from this document, remember that you WERE the man to coach Melbourne Football Club. No-one would have coached us better in your 9 and a half years, and I doubt anyone will prove more effective at this club than you... at least not for a number of years. From the bottom of my heart I thank you for leaving the club that I love in a better state than it was when you arrived. It's been my honour to be your fan...

You make a good point... and I'll make one that will either enhance it, or denounce it. I find, when the last 60 seconds of the match contain a play or two that are match or even season defining, that fitness and endurance play a more important part than at any time throughout the match. That is, if you are fit enough to edge ahead slightly of an opponent, you give yourself the chance to control more of what is happening... This may not have been such a huge factor tonight, but I think it's important to consider. I think it's also important to your case to consider that somehow, champions kick the goals and lay the tackles that are important at these times. Consider Hird, Neitz, Archer.... captains' goals are a regular occurence for these guys... I think there's a fair amount of evidence to suggest that some players are chokers, others are not. Or perhaps some players have the mental make-up of a person that is more susceptible to choking... others don't...

The money raised was well worth it in ANY case. The club's gonna need it soon... On Juice, I was listening to much of the game on the radio... Nathan Buckley actually said he was our best forward in the first half... while he wasn't kicking goals he was creating opportunities and leading/marking well... defending well... That's encouraging... unless you don't rate Buckley.

You should of had a listen to Finey's Final Siren on SEN this evening. He had some good points to make about the dying seconds of a match. One was that the final play of a match isn't where the game is won or lost. He says that if you get a bad umpiring decision, or you drill a bad pass, or fluff a mark... there are hundreds of free kicks paid or not paid in a match and likewise hundreds of kicks and marks drilled, taken or dropped... It's among all of these that you find the reason for winning or losing, and with footy, sometimes some of those are sheer dumb luck. On the other hand he said the Bombers deserved it more. They are in form enough to know how to win, they have a winning culture, they're SICK of losing footy matches over the past 2 years etc etc... For my part, I reckon it's more the former... And that goes for entire seasons. Was the reason we didn't make the top four at the last hurdle last year because we lost against Adelaide? No... it was to do with losing the first 3, and losing twice to Carlton. And more-over our fade-outs... Likewise for this match we didn't lose BECAUSE brownie gave away a free, or Bruce didn't get his.... we lost because we weren't good enough. We never were. The fact we got close amazed me.

You think? I reckon we are...

Jesus. Take it easy. Brown is done now. He was played as a last goodbye, to Daniher and for us. And no, players like him are NOT the reason Neale is unemployed. He DID select and retain him after all.

I was just about to put a link in for that fifth one... Jeez. Lose CAC and things are REALLY gonna go belly-up for us. New coach, new footy department, pretty much a new selection panel... probably a newish list... We're starting again. THIS is one of the reasons I didn't want Neale to go. In 10 weeks we'll be the LEASt stable club in the league. MFC doesn't bounce back the same way the Pies and Dons do after a bad year or two. We've not got the fans, money and infrastructure to just rebuild everything. Where's that hairdryer... I'm taking a bath.

Print that out and frame it Scoop. Hard to top that one.

Jeez.... so would I. At the pub last night me and a bunch of MFC mates were consoling, and we all raised one of he more solemn toasts I've been involved in for Neale.

Of course. I'm resigned to the decision. I had my moments of frustration with him, it's true. Many of them. but I'm conscious of two facts. The first is that he'll coach somewhere else, have success with money and support behind him... And we''l pay for it. the second is that we're MFC. We can't pay for a Pagan, and we can't woo a Matthews. We have to take a punt on an untried, or assistant.... We're always going to be blooding the next supercoach. In that sense, we'll never get the next big thing in coaching... or likely won't... hence saying we won't get a BETTER coach.

No frakkin' way is Chris Connolly coaching this club. He's welcome here... just not when in control. I'd rather have just kept Danners.

Either 9-3... or 3-9.

Loved the man. I have serious doubts that we're gonna find a BETTER coach... I don't think there are many coaches that could have done a better job with the veiled basket-case our club is. I was resigned to the fact he was going soon, but would have preferred a different exit, and I certainly didn't want him to go, not in my heart. he was red and blue. Now there's one less person who's heart bleeds that colour. We're all worse off without him.

Jeez. I remember when Schwarta left it was one of the saddest days of my MFC following life. This one is up there. Daniher's final stand. If the 22 can't get the job done now, they never will.

Gotta have the Sylvia turn and bolt down the wing, sideways to Bate... goooooooooooooooooooal!!!

I'm pretty sure Bruce hasn't. But then that's a pretty unvalid point I make.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHTO you two. You've had your fun. <_< The only BIG query I have over Voss is the fact that he's going to need a couple of years to REALLY get up to speed AT LEAST! If ANYTHING can be done to get past that teething period I'd like to see that it's pursued. If he can learn as MUCH as possible about coaching, and MFC's list such as it is, then I want us to go after him with everything we have. If he's recruited after round 22, then I'd suggest we are going to have another disgraceful year in 2008. But of course, the fact that he's still listed at Brisbane means the point is moot.