Fat Tony

The AFL needs to either stump up the cash or merge us off. The current drip feed approach is death by a thousand cuts and is terrible for the game.

We need both picks and extra salary cap space. Our situation is dire. Our percentage is 51% and we have played only three games against top eight sides from 2012 and both the expansion sides already. And 80% of our games so far have been on the MCG. Add to that our crowds are starting to drop off and our already small supporter base is dwindling. It would be stubborn, moronic self flagellation to turn such a proposal down.

Good post Lynden. Sack Neeld immediately, get three good young midfielders in the draft and retain Watts, Sylvia and Frawley and the glass is half full again. Sydney almost built is list up completely between flags and showed what good recruiting, coaching and list management can do. IMO lobbying the AFL to take measures to even up the competition is vital, however.

Any new appointment is made with information which is not available with the benefit of hindsight. Garry has the right to change his mind in light of new evidence.

Yesterday’s decision was more of a reflection about the perilous state of MFC’s finances than any confidence in Neeld.

What is the injury?

Good post Lynden. IMO decision making is largely innate and decision making under high pressure needs to be a strong focus at the draft table.

But nobody will believe in a guarantee. Neeld is a dead man walking and the players know it. We need an interim coach to instil a bit of confidence and experiment with our list.

http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/give-dees-bulldogs-2m-to-buy-players-mcguire-20130528-2n9cj.html

Without it the gap would widen even further, we would die and Collingwood would win the flag every year.

A sliding cap system should not be seen as charity, as it would adjust year on year depending on ladder position, not wealth. Really what my system is trying to do is compensate free agents more for going to weaker clubs. Even if we draft and develop players as well as Geelong, we are swimming against the tide if the competition is set up so that they can leave to go to stronger clubs via free agency. And I don't see our current position being much due to lack of anger and passion. It is lack of talent and a hopeless system.

This is why having the AFL take over is a bad idea.

On radio this morning, Eddie McGuire canvassed the idea of the Demons and the Bulldogs being given oversized salary caps next year in order to boost equality in the competition. I hope the MFC and AFL administrations were listening and are smart enough to realise that without such measures we will die. McGuire is biased, conflicted and often hypocritical, but he can see the forest for the trees on this one and clearly has the game and competition at heart. We need to propose measures such as the sliding salary cap, otherwise our next coach has no chance.

I wouldn't have thought a 15% drop off of demonland tragics is a great result for Neeld either.

Moloney's worst two games of the year have been the last two weeks and those were the only games in which Black has started on the ground.

While the end of the MFC is a doomsday scenario, the AFL has history in killing off its weakest clubs. The shot gun marriage between the Bears and Fitzroy is seen as a success by Headquarters and the same fate is a fair chance to happen to us given the tailspin we are in and that the GWS and GCS are both highly unprofitable and largely unfollowed.

The AFL stepping in will make little difference. If anything, it could highlight to AFL just how little it needs the MFC. We are a dwindling club with a small supporter base that is operating in an overcrowded market. In fact, our administration has done a reasonable job in converting our barrackers into supporters and members over the years. Our drafting has been appalling and is the crux of our current position. However, drafting is a very inexact science and while the AFL could help boost our resources in this area, this effort could still be in vein in the near term. The AFL may be able to help by funding a high profile coach, but then again ‘saviours’ have tended to be no such thing. I can’t see how the AFL can really help us in retaining our best uncontracted players (Sylvia, Watts and Gawn) if they want to leave. What the AFL can do is give us priority picks, change the system to provide clubs at the bottom with greater salary caps, redistribute more revenue to the poorer clubs, fixture our games so we are on free to air TV more often and assist us in gaining sponsorships.

We can't afford to leave it to others. Our time is running out in light of the introduction of free agency and the expansion teams. It needs to be done cleverly and out of the media spotlight initially. Demetriou is sympathetic to our plight.

Rhino, whilst I agree with you that we need a change in leadership, I don't see the AFL stepping in being the answer. The AFL needs to reduce the imbalance between the rich and the poor clubs. This has to be our focus if we are going to survive. We need an advocate to fight the AFL for a fairer go and this won't occur with an AFL insider.

Sack Neeld and replace him with the most attacking, positive and experimental assistant at the club. Play Blease and Toumpas in the backline. Try Frawley on the ball. Play Fitzy. Play Howe in the forward line. Hire an attacking coach that will take the job on a two-year deal and don’t sell the farm to pay him. (We don’t have the money.) Invest heavily in the recruiting department. Lobby the AFL to change the system to give salary cap concessions to clubs on the bottom of the ladder and give us a better draw from a commercial standpoint.

Matthews, Pagan, Roos, Joyce

It never made any sense Ron.

We will finish bottom or second bottom. GCS have no leverage. We could snare him in the PSD if he nominates us and puts a Luke Ball like price on his head. Our second rounder will be #20-25.

Talk of trading a top pick or Frawley is madness and Sylvia is a Free Agent. If we can convince Prestia to come to us we should use our salary cap room to snare him in the PSD or trade our second rounder at most.

The Marxist Strategy By Fat Tony Like the Bulldogs have embarked on under President Peter Gordon, the MFC needs to start encouraging the AFL and the AFL Players Association to look in the mirror for an answer as to the current state of the game. The many systemic faults in the game are sending poor clubs to the wall and are fast leading to the competition that is permanently uneven. This is a travesty, as Australia’s ‘fair go’ culture won’t stand for the AFL evolving into an English Premier League, which only maintains any relevancy due to relegation system and the reward of European Cup/Champions League qualification. I fear that once the genie is out of the bottle there is no turning back. While our fixture is ultra friendly from a ‘winning’ point of view, it is horrendous from a commercial standpoint. Putting aside the pitiful football we are currently playing, the lack of free to air TV exposure reduces our ability to attract sponsors and members and will see our supporter base quickly dwindle over time to a point of irrelevancy. The AFL is obviously looking to maximise its TV rights deal, however short-term profits will come at the expense of poorer clubs and will ultimately see the total size of the pie decline. The introduction of expansion teams has clearly hurt the poorest clubs at the bottom of the ladder. The cream of the draft has been taken by GCS and GWS. And they have also clearly targeted the weaker clubs for their uncontracted mature recruits. The introduction of free agency has also obviously hurt the bottom clubs. Key players have left clubs such as Melbourne and St Kilda for greener pastures, while other players have moved to successful clubs despite being offered more money by elsewhere. The AFL also needs to look at players successfully manipulating the draft by nominating contractual terms. The ability of players like Luke Ball and Kurt Tippett to get through to top sides highlights this issue. Players are also weakening the poorer clubs in the trade period. The Brian Lake trade to Hawthorn for less money and the Chris Dawes’s trade to Melbourne for twice the money he was on at Collingwood are both examples that highlight this issue. Furthermore, Josh Caddy wouldn’t even entertain playing for MFC despite the fact that he would have had greater opportunity and earned more money here. The AFL also needs to stamp out third party deals like the Judd/Visy contract, which obviously subverts the intentions of the salary cap. The AFL Players Association needs to be called out for its incredible hypocrisy, wanting to see all players given equal chance of success no matter where they are drafted, yet pushing for higher salaries (and maximised TV rights), greater flexibility in moving between clubs and the allowance of third party deals. It is a ‘cake and eat it too’ stance and the AFL PA is really letting down its members at the poorer clubs. One idea I think we should propose is a change to the salary cap system whereby the salary cap reduces for the clubs that finish higher the year before. Obviously the AFL would have to ensure that the cap is fully paid by all clubs. This would help reduce the incentive for players to leave the bottom clubs for the top clubs. An example of the sliding salary cap is shown below. Premier in 2013 - Salary Cap in 2014: $10,000,000 2nd - $10,100,000 3rd - $10,200,000 . . . 17th - $11,600,000 18th - $11,700,000 I feel the AFL should also look to promote club loyalty and could also consider weighting the salaries lower in the salary cap for one-club players. (i.e. loyal players are weighted as 0.9 in the cap.) Of course, the MFC would need to tread carefully in pushing for greater equality measures, as we could easily be accused of biting the hand that feeds us. (Particularly given our draft picks/tanking history.) However, without changes like this to the system we will be dead anyway. I fear for the club unless we adopt this strategy and I am not convinced that Peter Jackson will be the person best equipped to take on this fight. While I am certainly glad to see the back of Schwab and I am happy Jackson is there at present, I am not sure whether he should be a long-term appointment given he has come from within the AFL.