sue

I suggest we all try being GWS supporters instead. There we'll find 'competitiveness' is more than enough - just listen to the commentary on the Fox broadcast where endless excuses are given for the youth of the team. The entire commentary is one long inflating of their tyres and is presumably designed to build or keep support in NSW in the face of constant drubbings. (Sorry to suggest a conspiracy between Fox and the AFL, but living in NSW I hear it every week no other poor team would get that sort of commentary.) Yet we don't hear endless calls to sack their coach. So what is the difference between them and us? The usual one trotted out is that they are 'new' and we are 'old, so expectation is higher. But in this modern era when footy is a business, traditional matters little. And the GWS has been given the red carpet treatment by the AFL, desperate to build a second Sydney team. Alternatively it's said that we have had more time to come good. True. But we didn't. So I can't see how the current FD is to blame if they have to start over - pretty much in the same boat as GWS (but minus the AFL support). If you want to feel better, watch Fox on GWS and imagine they are talking about the MFC.

I'm always impressed that people here know so much more about the players, their injuries, their likely opponents, matchups, contingency matchups etc etc than a group of full-time professional people who have been closely involved in footy for years. Doubtless mistakes are made. By all means express views and comment, but a lot of the comments sound like the outpourings of know-it-alls or people with axes to grind.

Not directing this at TM in particular since the above is a common comment: Yes, the team is no good, but I think some posters wouldn't know what to do with themselves if we were good. How about taking some hope that we were able to kick a record(!) score against GWS in that last quarter. Why was GWS so especially stuffed in the last quarter against us rather than against other teams? Why were we able to take so much advantage of them when other teams heading towards the finals must be more desperate for percentage than us? I'm sure a lot of reasons will be offered, but I doubt they will add up to much. I repeat " How about taking some hope that we were able to kick a record(!) score against GWS in that last quarter."

Interesting to see what Lyon says about us below on the AFL site. The doomsayers will say he is just saying this to rev up his players. But there is truth in it in my view. If Dawes had not missed a goal just before 3/4 time and the Arrogant One hadn't got one on the siren, we would have been close enough at 3/4 time to have the confidence to perhaps pull off a win. (Yes, the Tigers missed goals, but so what, the score is the score.) "I flew into Melbourne last week and watched them play. "They were right in it up to their ears until three-quarter time. "They pride themselves on the combative side of football, clearances, it was pretty much equal against a really good team (in Richmond). "They've got some really good hard young runners. If you give them time and space they can slice you up."

I don't often agree with BagBob, but he is spot on here. It applies also to most of us posting here on the solution to our current problems as well I fear. (I'm not saying there is anything wrong in doing so - that's what the forum is for. The membership of the Board has serious consequences, fortunately the postings here don't.)

The underlined words are spot on bar only 1 proviso. IF it can be established that the players have so little confidence in Neeld that any temporary replacement would be better than doing nothing, then sack him for sure. IF.... The anti-Neeld brigade will say this is indeed the case, and point to the attitudes of some ex-players etc. (note the 'ex') and all sorts of tea-leaf readings to support that. But then I see posts like #127 which appear to be authoritative which say the players are united and behind him. If so, there is absolutely no point in sacking Neeld now given a Roos-Malthouse carbon copy is apparently not available next week.

I don't often agree with OD, but I agree wholeheartedly with the last line. I don't give a toss how the club is run. Happy for it to be run by a busload of Martians - whatever it takes. I just want to see the club perform well on the field.

The bit that opened my eyes the widest was when he was asked if this is the worse it has been, compared to 2009 etc. Can't recall the exact words but he said the blokes all came to the club today and seemed to imply that after heavy defeats in the past players didn't turn up.

There are 2 main camps on here. "Sack Neeld immediately" vs "More time needed to see what happens". It is incumbent upon the former camp to either nominate the Messiah who should replace Neeld now, or justify how replacing him with an interim assistant would be better than waiting. I've not seen anything posted that answers those obvious questions in a convincing way. Just a bunch of (understandably) frustrated fans calling for heads to roll regardless.

I'd hate to be a coach. If he has a long term plan to fix a weak club with a poor culture which will involve major changes and pain along the way, then he gets belted here for not winning. But if he puts in certain players who might help win the next game, but maybe are not part of his long-term development plan, it is because he's only interested in a short-term win to keep his job. Most, probably all, calling for MN's head accepted we were in an unprofessional mess by the end of 2011 and needed a major change of direction. You can't expect rapid improvement. Indeed if things were that bad, you shouldn't be surprised to go backwards at first. You might hope for rapid improvement, but you have to lump it when it does not happen as quickly as you would like. Of course it may not happen at all - that's when you start sacking coaches etc. But not so soon.

It is so refreshing for a poster to suggest a reasonable reason why the club might announce something 'odd' rather than immediately slam the club for being a bunch of ignorant dolts who know nothing about football.

I usually strongly disagree with calls for the Club to tell us stuff we as supporters are keen to know, but is best kept in-house and not in the hands of opponents. But maybe this is a case where the club should say something if something is wrong with JT.

umm, could it be that the ball goes in frequently and well-directed due to lack of a midfield?

Scully: over-hyped in the first half, gone missing in Q3. Give it a rest Demonland wrist-cutters, he's no loss.

Sadly for your joyous reaction to the news on this thread - it may be hard to sack a coach when several players are out at once and you are playing against a side that has found form. You may just have to hang in there till we play the Suns.

Yes a good post Ron. What if Stuie and RR are not father and son but actually the same person..... scary thought.

D-WA, most of your points are what you do if you need to change the list. It doesn't imply the relationship with those who remain is bad. And clearly our list needed some changes!! even if one disagrees with individual one.

I cannot see how anyone on this forum who is not closely connected to the club would have any idea of Neeld's relationship with the players. Examining the entrails of post-match press conferences and player's performance is just so much guesswork. I'm constantly amazed by the bold assertions people make. Lack of skills compounded by lack of confidence seems far more likely to be the problem than whether player like or respect the coach.

Since I have to watch most games on TV it is not easy to have a firm opinion on what is wrong. But it seems to me that as soon as things go a bit bad on the scoreboard we just don't get any centre clearances (or other ones) with the inevitable result that the defence is under seige both physically and mentally. This makes the defence look worse than it really is and destroys their confidence. The forward line would be fine if the ball just got there more often. The problem is in the midfield as most people are saying. I can't see that the coach is the problem - it's the midfield cattle.

It's all good to stand up for the club etc, but which of Smorgan, Kennett, Evans and McGuire has actually called AD a liar in public? At the very least we'd have to accuse him of incompetently shooting his mouth off without checking the facts within the AFL. Anyone done that recently, even from a club with lots of dosh and no need for any favours form the AFL?

Thanks to those who reported on the game. I'd love mjt to tell us just 1 thing the MFC has done right, but not in this thread. His computer will probably melt if he does - vey boring and predictable.

you are probably right. Yes we 'wait and see', something I wish more posters did before either slitting their wrists or calling for heads to be lopped.

Living in the middle of NSW I see a lot of GWS games on TV and he is clearly not worth the $ at present. Sadly the only decent game he has played was against us. Maybe we should cut out the booing next time and do ironical clapping instead.

Maybe making no denial to the press is just following a sensible policy of not making comments while a formal investigation is in progress. Unless there is a receipt somewhere or he applied it in the presence of witnesses, how could it be proved if he denied it to an investigator.

I haven't followed all this carefully, so sorry if this has been answered before: but is there evidence that JT actually purchased and applied the cream? Or is the only evidence the text message saying he should go and get some?