timD

How many daft things has malthouse said that no-one looked twice at? How many genuinely mad things did sheedy say? How does choco come across? Or clarkson? I think way too much is made of stuff said to the media that then gets interpreted. Like tea-leaf reading or graphology. Neeld copped it last year when he just about came out and blamed the players for being weak against Brisbane. Now when he just dodges the question he gets blamed for saying something stupid as if it is indicative of his actual thought process. Do you reckon that any coach tells the media what he is actually thinking? some might be better at obfuscation, but that is what is going on at every press conference. It is the same as the idea that Neeld doesn't simplify his message. He coached Ocean Grove. Do you reckon he used complex game plans there? He coached collingwood's mids - not exactly mensa level either BTW. If we want to criticise neeld, and there are plenty of reasons to, why don't we do it on grounds that make some sense - like player positioning and matchups?

What a dork - he'd never do that in a game - at least not to anyone other than a kid or someone not looking. The sooner we get rid of him the better.

Do you think he doesn't know or that it is a line he is feeding to the media?

How did Dunn cut Blease's head? We already know that Dunn hit Bail when Bail was wearing a vest telling players to go easy on him. We know Dunn is fond of rabbit punching on field but failing to go when it is his turn. Now Blease is cut? More detail is required, but I reckon there is enough there is suggest that Dunn could leave now and we'd lose nothing.

Yeah. Bail's disposal makes me cry a little too. But he runs hard and spreads well all the damn time. He is brave. He has a better tank than Blease and I think we need that more than nice disposal and the odd burst of speed. And Bail finds the ball more. I'd swap blease for byrnes.

HT, why would you drop Bail (who works hard) for either watts or blease (who just don't)?

Talk about drawing the wrong conclusions. I am a psychologist, right, So does that mean that I should show the same attitude to my patients as I do to commodore-driving clowns that cut me off? Should I be full of non-judgmental empathy and a need for honest reflection? Or can i just tell them to get lost? The idea that Neeld should treat everyone the same and a failure to do so indicates some negative characteristic is wrong. You won't do that in your own life; why hold an irrational standard for Neeld?

I also thought we were out coached. It was like rope-a-dope. They played two behind the ball. Their midfield wins, we get the ball back on our back line and work frantically to get it out...only for it to bounce back in again. Again and again and again. But we are caught. If we don't play more blokes back or on the ball, they will carve us up.

Going on heresay is weak - I know, I know. That said, I do trust my friend. That part is reliable - what he told me is unverified BUT it appears to fit a pattern of poor management. The player in question was no superstar but he tried his guts out. What disturbs me is the idea that senior players have no impact beyond their playing skills/performance. I do wonder if the "rebuild" under Bailey placed too much emphasis on new talent and too little on cultural change and leadership development/team functioning?

There is a lot more to the senior player disgruntlement. a mate of mine (yes this is third hand) was a health professional attending to a senior player. The senior player stated that he hated CC. When asked why, the player reportedly said that he was told it was his last game before he ran out...like, when he was in the rooms about to go down the race. I have no reason to doubt my friend - he isn't given the exaggeration - so the only issue is the player and from all reports he is a very decent fella.

Rob, I target you because I don't like that way act. Without a shred of evidence you have blamed Fan for leaking to Caro. Not one shred. Then you invent some clique that Fan "Informs" that wants Schwab out...and then you agree that he needs to go. Your effort is duplicitous, hypocritical, baseless and gutless. You'd never want your own rep. smeared but you do not hesitate to crap on others. There is no conspiracy. You are a [censored] and your behaviour has finally [censored] off quite a few people.

That's cold, man. Really cold

I may well have a patient-lite morning. If the books stay clear, I'll be there.

30 essendon supporters? Really? Sticks and stones? C'mon. Suck it up, take a break and get back to it.

Amen

Yeah, I do. Of course there is a chance. WE all know what is required for that chance to be transformed into an outcome. And that means that the chance, the odds, are poor. We are a team with no known history of winning. We have to create that now. However, once the penny drops...

thanks Glib one liners indeed. Smart-Alec and proving the point all in one is not a bad effort. Now maybe we are back at perhaps thinking about the point of the op. Lord knows that the club needs to know. Maybe the issue of team is the biggest thing ATM? If we are training well and everyone reports that the structure of training is better then perhaps this is not really an issue of players or coach, but rather a sense of team? That players are not yet playing with the sense of selfsacrifice and mutual responsibility they should have because they don't think or feel like a team? That cannot be the only problem of course, but I do wonder to what extent "not putting in" is a function of lack of respect for or sense of belonging to the team, rather than talent or fitness. It is the biggest issue facing the club IMO - how to get the players playing together in a coherent and effective way. Bailey couldn't do it and neeld is struggling too.

Pre season form is hard to use as a reliable indicator for future performance. Truth is, I think the biggest issue will be that the team doesn't know how to play as a team yet purely due to the number of changes and lack of time together. Combine that with a weak midfield and I struggle to see that will win. But i'll hope we do and I'll be dirty as when we don't.

Were you awake over the last five years?

"Look no further than this board..." Back it up. You are happy to imply that Fan/bob is a leak. WJ is happy letting that little smear run (you want to speak to that Jack...any back up your little claim of "more coming soon"?). How's about you back that up, champ? Prove Fan is the leak. You won't though, will you. Gutless, gutless, gutless. Put up, RobbieF. Stand by your convictions...they must be based on more than i/net rumour...surely. Right now, you are the Kevin Rudd of this site. Whispering but without the balls to back it up. "Some recent threads"...Really? Like when I started a thread about teamwork and Jack made a smart-alec, content-free contribution? Like that...but you'd like to call me on sniping? Get a script-writer. You're not good at this whole logic + evidence thing. And while we are at it, why don't we get a few things straight about psychology. Being a psychologist doesn't mean that I care about everyone, or that I'm psychic, or that I have infinite patience for garbage. It doesn't mean that I don't get angry when snipers like you ping away at people on the basis of nothing more than your fevered imagination. I have no patience for cowards, for liars, for hypocrites, for users. I have no time for the thoughtless, the mean, the ignorant or the willfully deceived. I have no patience for conservatives who rail for the preservation of values such as integrity & personal responsibility and then abandon such values when it suits. I have no patience for you, Robbie.

Such a great player that no one else has picked him up. And CM has been. You must be the only bloke to not know why.

Slanderous nonsense. Put up or shut up, Robbie. Either prove it or go away and make it permanent. Sniper.

I've nothing to add but wanted to re-iterate an excellent point!

I know this; you know this. What absolutely floors me is that THEY seem to have no idea about this. I knew this as a kid and I was a terrible footballer. Playing basketball I knew this. It cannot be that hard. I figure it is that they have a low IQ or are so exhausted or pressured that they are almost operating without thought, or that they have no investment in being a team and so don't care or think to play like one (or a nasty combination).