Demon Disciple

Ok. We all know who our senior indigenous player is. What if he comes out and vehemently denies such an allegation? Channel 10 might very well become our FOJ sponsor with the amount of $ they might need pay up to cover defamation.

Are you kidding me? Those boos, particularly at 3/4 time were definitely for the woeful performance put on by the players. Sure the umpiring wasn't great, but they did not cost us the game, we did that all on our own. The players were booed and rightfully so. Do these guys realise that their earning average is roughly 4 times that of the average Australians? They have it so good, and seem intent on putting in half-arsed efforts. If they were in an everyday normal job, many would have been given the arse. Too many have had it too good, for too long. I don't care if Neeld does get half the list off-side, at least he is trying to worm out those who don't deserve to be there.

And to those who are wondering what CS is doing with his time, i'm sure he will announce the release of a new, limited edition guernsey sometime soon.

The problem is not only our midfield, though it is the most glaringly obvious problem. We lack another quality KPD (if Frawley goes down we are farked. Garland isn't a KPD, an continually refuses to man up, though that goes for the whole team yeasterday), we lack another KPF (unless Watts decides to come on this year). The midfield - we lack everything. No skill, no poise and no pace. We'll have 4 highish picks come end of year. Viney is obviously one of them (and thank christ we are guaranteed him). Do we go all out for mids (not just dower one's)? Do we trade players with some currency who won't be around for a serious premiership tilt (struggling to find any)? Do we try and bring in quality players (who would want to come to the MFC)?

CS really has his work cut out for him now. Imagine trying to attract a sponsor after such a performance.

seriously, where will the improvement come from? My best guess is this years draft. WIth the draft meant to be strong, and what now looks like some high picks (2 top 10 picks, 1 mid teen pick, and a low 20's pick), throw in that we will probably trade for some more draft picks or decent players, our best chance to improve is at the end of this years off-season. Throw in a recruiter who has half a clue and we might go alright. Sure we don't have one, but i reckon it's better than BP and his look to the future philosophy.

we can make as little or as many changes as we please, it will have zero affect on the end result at Subi. Imagine the carnage that is going to happen. *Shudders*.

We simply don't have the cattle to play Neeld's gameplan the way he wants. Now a 1st year coach doesn't come in and get rid of 10-12 players right away, they give a year to have a look at the list. Massive changes will happen to the list come end of year. Another rebuild........ffs. It also goes to show how poor the recruiting was from BP and the tail end of CAC. A long year ahead, you bet. A long year i could take, if the players were giving their all, but what they put out today was pathetic. Look past the fact that it was the first game after Jimmy's passing, i question whether the majority of our players have any self-respect? There's only so much a coach can do, it's up to the players to go out and execute, with this list.............i don't know, particularly with the likes of the more senior players.

Only an idiot would accuse Clark of having a bad game. I challenge anyone to try and do well when the ball is being bombed into the forward line in hope, like it was today. Delivery was shocking all day. It's one thing to have a gameplan that is as predictable as it is boring, it's another thing to be woeful in clearances, the main element that the game plan relies on.

With the utmost respect to Jim, no one man will ever be, or should be bigger than the MFC. Not even the late and great Jim Stynes. Even Jim would agree with this. The club was around long before any one of its living past/present players, and it will be around (hopefully) for another 150 years at least. And with regard to the idea of a chant, it would need to be pretty decent, or else it would just be lame. If we were able to create a chant/song that was as unique and spine-tingling as Liverpool's 'you'll never walk alone' then i'm all for it (yes i know that Celtic also uses this song as well).

This Adrian fellow might want to worry about his own backyard first, before making naive comments about ours. Lets not forget that, despite playing absolutely shithouse against the Lions in the NAB cup, we still walked away beating them. The question i'd pose to him is, how will they beat us when they couldn't beat us at our worst?

I know it's way too early to predict, but aside from Viney, if we got our hands on O'Rourke, then that would go a fair way to helping our midfield woes.

I always had hoped that Jim would beat this thing, not only for himself, but because if he did and we eventually won a flag, that would've covered the 2 miracles required for official sainthood.

Still much too early, but i agree that the club needs to get on the front foot and drive Jim's endeavour hard. Wait a week for the dust to settle, then strongly campaign that it was Jimmy who wanted to see us reach 40,000 members. Honour him by helping the MFC reach 40,000. If you haven't signed up, then now is the time to do so.

Yep there will be a big Dees crowd that will come out against Brissie. It was one of Jim's main wishes for the MFC to hit 40,000 members. I reckon the club should let the dust settle and allow people to mourn, but tell those who are yet to sign up, if you're ever going to do it, now is the time. Honour Jim's legacy by reaching the goal he set for us.

There are many things i want to say, but none could ever do justice to what Jim achieved in life. You of all people Jim, deserved to witness a Melbourne premiership. The club, it's supporters and the thousands of kids whose lives you helped, will forever be indebted to you. Your presence made this world a much better place. May you Rest in Peace for all eternity Jim. The bravest of Men. My heartfelt condolences to all of Jim's family, wife Sam and particularly his 2 children. Whatever it takes.

There is no better way to summarise Big Jim, than that of the words he lives by, "Whatever it takes". There is a reason his biography is so entitled, there is a reason why such a sign hangs up above the players race. These are the words Jim lives by, they are his mantra, his creed. You could do a lot worse, than inscribing Jim's words on yourself. Whilst un-inked myself, i have long held the desire that when we finally win that [censored] thing, i'm gonna get a melbourne premiers tattoo along with Jim's creed written on my left forearm.

That is correct and i hope we nominate both, too. Good top end players, with good quality depth. Make the most of it.

I strongly oppose such a proposition. However, if we went down this path, i hope everyone realises we would be able to draft Viney with our 2nd round pick. If we finished last (apart from me going nuts at all and sundry at the club), no team could outbid us with a first round pick for Viney, we would have to use our next pick. Given that we don't have to use CP's on F/S selections, that would mean we'd have pick 1, 2 (compo pick directly after first pick), 15ish (mid first-round compo pick) and then 2nd round pick (Viney). If done right (cough Dean Bailey, Prendergast, cough cough), we could effectively be able to re-build the re-build. But if we did finish last,we'd need more than high picks to save this club. I'll be happy with Viney as our first rounder, the 2 high CP's, and another decent player with our second round pick. Can't get too greedy now can we!

i was much too young to go to the meeting at DBH, concerning the merger. My dad has told me every time it has been brought up between us, that they only asked those who opposed the merger, if they wanted to change their vote.

That we are [censored] deplorable.

If we get to halfway through the year without a FOJ sponsor, i have no doubt that the board simply not renew CS contract. Simple Looking at the video on the MFC website discussing the FOJ sponsor, CS still hopes to get it done by the start of the H&A season. He also states that it won't have a huge influence on $ coming in. This leads me to believe that the sponsorship won't be anywhere near EW, but in future, will amount to something big.

Exactly rhaz. I'd much rather thrive than survive

Totally agree with your post/tweet to the club Hardtack. I have long held the view that the club doesn't treat its members with the amount of respect i would expect of a club aspiring to become 'elite'. If there is any news about the MFC, melbournefc.com.au is just about the last source to inform people, abhorrent. On top of this, injury updates continually seem to be wildly inaccurate. We are not a big club, and we are getting smaller it seems (with our membership numbers seriously staggering), yet the club seems to want to test the loyalty of many of its supporters. I understand the club wants to keep sponsorship dealings hush hush until they are signed off on, but given that we have been given the same response from the club for near on 7 months about our next joint-major sponsor, members are well in their rights to ask questions of the club. I don't give a stuff if the Chinese take longer to come to terms, what i care about is the financial security of our club, and those who are in charge of it. It is now 2 consecutive vacant sponsorship times that within 2 weeks of the season start, we still haven't sorted out our sponsorship dealings. Only one word can describe this, amateurish. I don't care if Schwab comes out tomorrow announcing a $2m+ per year sponsor, because the questions will still remain over our ability to land sponsors. It was in a recent post where i read that lapsed members from last year had not even received a renewal notice for the upcoming season. True supporters don't need a reminder to sign up, but that is irrelevant. The question must be asked, how competent is our membership department? It was reported by the club that we still had roughly 10-15,000 members yet to renew from last year, and yet renewal notices hadn't been sent to some, if not many of these people. Pathetic. This club seems to want to achieve 'elite' status. Might i suggest that the MFC start treating its most valuable commodity in a manner that is befitting of an 'elite' organisation.

Our re-build will very much come in the form of this years trade/draft period, in which we will use our CP's (one would think). Players also not up to MN's standards will be traded or delisted. Given this draft is meant to be a fairly deep one, hopefully we'll pick up some gems and not need to do a full re-build for some time to come.