Theo

I don't know whether Neeld is a good coach or not but his decision making may well cripple this Club. Jamar's 3 year contract beggers belief. Recruiting players that were finished or couldn't get a game at other clubs and therefore using up all our ND and PSD draft picks. This meant that we lost Jack Hannath and some other young kids that we could be developing. Dennis Cometti said on MMM yesterday that he believes we went backwards and ended up with negative result after trading and drafting. G.Lyon didn't disagree and was himself critical of Byrnes and Pederson's games yesterday

So why did Neeld agree to give him a new 3 year contract. What does the football dept see in Jamar that we don't see. This along with the recruitment of Sellar, Pederson, Gillies, Byrnes and Rodan highlights that just maybe Neeld is not the right guy to be coach. The team has gone backwards. They did not even leave a spot open in the ND or PSD to recruit Jack Hannath. It appears obvious now that he has made some very poor decisions in the short time he has been at the Club. Dennis Cometti on MMM felt that after the trading and draft period the Club had gone backwards and had a negative net result.

Garry said he doesn't have the time to get involved. What does he do besides the Classifieds, The Footy Show and Triple M footy? Count his money? A pretty easy gig I would have thought. I would imagine he has plenty of time on his hands. He also has no footy commitments from Oct to the start of the each season either.

Scott Lucas said the same thing on 3AW. The midfield does not work hard enough when we don't have the ball. ditto: Sylvia and Jetta as well.

And to think they have just given him 3 yr contract. That worries me because the coaches don't see what we see. If they do it was a poor decision along with Jamars 3 yrs.

Whilst I am not happy that the MFC is the scapegoat in this "tanking" fiasco, I am more concerned how this will affect sponsorship and our ability to pay the $500K fine. McLardy has already referred to prominant finacial supporters of the Club and continually refers to the "Foundation Heroes". As mentioned on Demonology by a Foundation member that I know. Not all Foundation Heroes have a lot of money. It worries me that Don keeps referring to them to raise additional funds whenever it is needed. You can only go the well so many times before it dries up. The Club has to find other income streams without having to rely on this passionate but relatively small group of supporters.

Yes we have first option. You can have upto 3 Category B (International & Development ) Rookiies. They can be kept on the list for 3 years. After that they need to be upgraded to the Senior Primary list or be delisted. We have four Cat A Rookies in Magner, Couch, Stark and Clisby.

You can add James Strauss as a player who also hesitates and does not back himself 100%. Brandan Matera had 3 opportunities in the 3rd qtr to kick goals against last year. Strauss was in no mans land. Just lucky he missed the lot. Unless he gains the confidence to back himself and get more involved he will be out of the side well before Watts. As for Ben Hur, he has been a great contributor to this forum, I really enjoyed his training reports before Xmas and most of what he writes. No point in getting personal.

Where and when is it on.

And to think we could have drafted Tom Rockliff. Probably a 200 game player.

Someone saw him at training today speaking to Todd Viney.

They are regarded as Category B rookies. Can have upto 3. You can have between 4 to 6 Cat A rookies (normal rookie list) depending on the number of primary list players.

Evans was also a stand out in the shuttle run (beep test) as he completed 3 extra run throughs after his group had all retired. On the newbies, Howe commented on Kent's long kicking ability and surprise, surprise Matt Jones. Said that in Darwin the boys didn't know how to handle him. Great hands apparently. Was disappointed with Rivers and Petterd leaving as they were his best mates. Said Hannath could kick like a midfielder and they were hoping to keep him under wraps.

Now I've had a chance to reflect on our drafting I'm really glad we turned over the list to the extent we have. I Just wonder if Neeld had his time over again would he have been so gung-ho with the FA selections and the selection of say Matt Jones as our second pick in the ND. From postings on Demonland this selection seemed have have people scratching their heads as he more than likely would have been available in the rookie draft. I just hope this bloke warrants his selection. By filling up the primary list in the ND it really backed the club in a corner. We had the 2nd pick in the PSD yet we could not use it. Hence goodbye Jack Hannath. I just have this feeling that the club panicked a bit early on gave other clubs an advantage in assessing Hannath and being able to gazump us because we were not smart enough in keeping our PSD pick. A lot can happen in the 3 weeks between the ND and PSD and I reckon the club was very naive and should have retained one pick for the PSD. In case someone says hindsight is a wonderful thing, I have felt this way all along and couldn't believe the strategy they adopted.

If you have a lot of scarves you can sew them together and make a rug. Looks great. Get you wife onto it.

You mention Hannabal, where the hell is he these days. I used to enjoy reading his posts but I can't even find him on the members list.

While watching one of the replays on Foxtel Mick Malthouse said of Garland. He seems very nervous when he has the ball. I agree, I think he lacks composure and coughs it up far to oftem.

I agree with Ben Hur, David was an excellent player but I thOught somewhat inconsistent. I think he should have retired one or two years earlier but with very few leaders at the club I don't think they had much choice. Although they may not have been champions (excrpt Flower) I preferred watching Jackovich, Schwartz, Flower, Hardaman and Alan Johnson. They seemed be a lot more consistent although David did have some great days out.

Thanks George on the Outer, glad to see your back. Really miss your contributions on Demonology. Very little activity over there these days.

Just on the running I noticed that Jones was paired with Howe. In prior pre-seasons Jones was the standout runner at the Club however Howe had him measure every time. Howe looks incredible. Taggert ran with Blease and Blease kept up pretty well. McDonald and Nicholson are the elite runners followed by Bail and Trengove. Viney ran with Byrnes and were evenly matched but Viney willed his way to the front on most occassions. Todd introduced the draftees the the admin staff and Josh Mahoney explained the drills. I remember one drill was for players to run as fast as they can for 3 minutes. A short break and repeat twice more. All players distances are measured with the best doing about 1 km then slightly less for the repeats. They didn't do this yesterday. The big turnout also included CC talking with the fathers of some of the draftees. Matt Burgan, Tim Harrington, Matt Green from the Club, Clint Stanaway (CH9) and a Dees supporter. And as mentioned before Jack Hannath was invited to train.

It was definitely Jack Hannath. I asked one of the coaching staff at training.

I saw him at training on Friday and he just doesn't seem to be able to run fluently. No zip and of course we know he has poor endurance. He seems to be just hanging in. Hate to see him go but looks gawn at the moment. If there was somebody the club wanted in the PSD I would seriously consider paying him out and offer him a position at the Club for the 12 months.

Let's wait and see if Ollie becomes a good player first. Unless he puts his heart and soul into playing at PA no body will want him later on. Stats indicate that the majority of drafted players don't make 50 games.

Michael Evans

Neeld said in his recap of the draft that they still had a few kids on their list that were not drafted. If I was him however, I would sit young Jimmy Toumpas down and ask him his thoughts on SA players that were not drafted. I'd do the same with the other recruits. Information from within the coal face could uncover a real gem.