leucopogon

From the Realfooty article about not wanting to play for the Hawks, I don't believe it. Where are the quotes? To me the typical footy journo is like a fisherman who chucks berley in the water to stir up the fish into a feeding frenzy. I will only listen to quotes on this matter, no inuendo, indications or hearsay.

Agreed Demons 32. Pies will probably get him but the more I think about the complexities of all this the more I think it could be one gigantic stalemate and Richmond might get him. What a controversy it would be.

I can understand the hysteria surrounding Judd but for God's sake, will people take off the red & blue tinted glasses for one second here? You talk about clubs like Essendon and Carlton being a million miles away from a flag and then say that leaves us as the front runners. Do you even think before you write that kind of stuff? We're in exactly the same boat as Carlton and Essendon. We don't have a rosy future either, its rebuild now for us, so what good would having a superstar midfielder do us? Judd's the kind of player that a team gets to put the final missing piece of the jigsaw into place to have a tilt at the flag. Melbourne based clubs in this position to my eyes would appear to be a) Collingwood, B ) Hawthorn c) Kangas d) Saints e) Essendon. In my eyes Carlton and us are barely in the game. Our claim to Judd is tenuous at best. I reckon the big winners out of this deal are going to be West Coast.

Just quickly, I read in the paper "The West Australian" an article by Mark Duffield in which Eagles chairman Dalton Gooding is quoted as saying: "They (Carlton) have the No.1 and No.3 draft picks and we would see that as the minimum for Chris." also, "Unless Collingwood can trade some higher draft picks, it (a deal for Judd) would seem hard." Interesting quotes, to put it into context, the headline of the article was "I want to be a magpie" and the thrust was that the reporter had good mail that Collingwood were Judd's preferred club. No quotes from Judd himself though, seems like speculation or hearsay. Still the Dalton Gooding quotes are interesting. So they want picks 1 & 3 minimum for Judd. Could be just playing "hard ball" but if this is the way the Eagles are going to deal, then I really think we might be out of the race. Like people have been saying, it will be up to CJ to pick his preferred club and I'm sure a deal will be worked out but I just can't see him coming to a rabble like us at this transitory period, couldn't possibly be that appealing, even if he was a Dees fan as a kid. I reckon he'll go to Essendon who have a fairly high pick plus high picks from recent drafts that are WA boys (ie. gumbleton, ryder) plus the room in the cap and the financial clout. Or, the Pies, but they would need to do some serious maneuvering in the draft. I hope it would cripple them to try and trade for Judd (ie. they would need to offer Thomas and/or Pendlebury to get Judd). I think we should give up on the idea and also, this talk about trading Robbo, holy SHI&!!! If we got rid of him, we'd be the least potent scoring team in the league bar none next season. The guy's carried our forward line for a good 3 or 4 seasons now. Madness.

God help us all if it pans out this way. In 4 years time, the core of the WA under18 team that just whitewashed all comers will all be going back to the West. It'll be like the Eagles of the early 90's all over again. 80% of my preferred draft picks this year are either WA or SA kids. Frightening.

I don't want him. Let Carlton take the gamble and I hope it blows up in their face. I'd prefer to concentrate on clearing out the deadwood, rebuilding the list from the ground up and moulding the team into a hard-nut, disciplined, committed and ruthless outfit. Some of the trade talk being bandied about on this forum is laughable. I've heard that Judd's injury is the same as the one that's crippled Harry Kewel's soccer career. Not worth the risk for the price its likely to cost in my opinion.

My hope: Alex Rance

Yeah, I noticed just about all of my preferred draft picks were interstaters. Seems like WA has really produced a solid crop of young-uns this draft. Hope CAC has run the rule over the attitudes and mentality of potential interstate picks, I'm sure he's a lot more wary of this after the scott thompson affair. Tall, pacy and skillful players are exactly what we need, like rodney g said, they'd complement our tough in and under brigade beautifully. I still think we need to consider drafting a good run-with player like McGinnity or Stephen Browne (again both from WA ) especially now that Godders has got the chop. Can someone tell me when the draft actually takes place, I'd like to start counting down the days.

That volunteer wasn't Joeboy by any chance? my 3 words: Frustrating, Inconsistent, Infuriating (at times) what kind of car: a 1964 EH Holden (that hasn't been serviced in a long, long, long time) biggest challenge- rebuilding the list into a disciplined, competitive, never-say-die, powerhouse during the next five years.

Good effort with the transcription KJ. What you said here is exciting for sure, but further to that, not only has he been involved at a coaching level with two premiership teams he's also been involved with the resurgence of Port as a, mind the pun, power this season. That kind of experience will be invaluable for the rebuilding of MFC during the next few seasons. Can't wait for draft day.

Okay, based only on the writeups because I've seen nothing of any of them in the flesh or on the tube here's who I'm looking at: First round - Alex Rance, Rhys Palmer, Brad Ebert or Cale Morton 2nd round - Paddy McGinnity, Stephen Browne, David Myers (or any of the above that manage to slip through) 3rd round - Jack Grimes, Thomas Bellchambers, Patrick Dangerfield (or any of the above that slip through) Later rounds - Andrew Renton, Andrew Hogan (or any of the above that slip through) These picks have an underlying theme of pace, skill and size. I particularly like write-up of Patrick Dangerfield and Jack Grimes as a smoky pick. Really like what I read about Alex Rance (just what we need a proper KP backman). I think David Myers sounds an excellent prospect and Paddy McGinnity/Stephen Browne sound like excellent run-with prospects which we are sorely lacking. I'd be happy with any from this list. Bring on the Draft!

The roos can bugger off, they won flags in 96 & 99, I've never even lived to see my team win a flag. Don't care who wins the flag to be honest.

Voted Sheedy, but would be happy if it was in an advisory role to a younger assistant like Voss, McKenna, Hardwicke (a la Parkin / Brittain) with a plan of succession in place. I too think we should steer clear of ex-Dees.

I know this comment is in jest, but the point made by Toad about premiership winning coaches being former premiership winning players is a very poignant one. I completely agree we need a coach that's tasted premiership glory at coaching (not sure if that equates to assistant coaching) or playing level. So for me -- possibles: Voss, Ratten, McKenna, Sumich, O'Donnell, Longmire, Harvey, Pagan (yuck!), Sheeds, Laidley (will get another contract at the Roos I'm sure) no-way Jose's: Connolly, Grant Thomas, Bond, Viney, G. Lyon, Probably forgetting heaps of contenders here. I think the worst thing we could do personally, is to get an ex-Dee in as coach. We haven't tasted a flag for over 40 years so the only ex-Dee candidates out there will have been ingrained with that recent Melbourne culture of mediocrity. We need someone from outside our tribe to come in and show us the way to win (Danners almost achieved it but not quite and then he learned to epitomise the mediocrity of our club...poor guy). My personal preference out of the possibles listed would have an emphasis on recent premiership success as player/coach/assistant so my shortlist is probably: Voss, Sumich, Longmire (hardly an inspiring list of candidates when I look at it). As for the idea of bringing in Sheedy, t'would be a gamble for sure and one that I'd be almost willing to take a punt on for the extra-curricular benefits and noteriety he'd bring to the club. As for my worst possible nightmare...here's a hint, first name starts with a C and last name starts with a C p.s you'll notice no Riley mentioned, career coaches rarely work out (was/is Pagan a career coach? if so, he's an exception because of the awesome list he had at his disposal at North in the 90's).

Pagan, now, reminds me of Alan Joyce at the end of his coaching career with the Bullies. He was successful earlier in his career, won premierships but then the game just passed him by and he was absolutely hopeless at the death. That's where I see Pagan now, if he came to Melbourne, it would be a disgrace. Sheedy is a more enticing prospect to me, but I hope we go for someone younger and pray to God its not somone like Brian Royal or Chris Bond, have either of them been within cooo-eee of an AFL premiership as either player or assistant coach? Then again Paul Roos never got a sniff of a flag either until he took over as senior coach so i guess the knife cuts both ways. Whichever way we go with the coach its going to be a case of damned if we do and damned if we don't (in the short term at least as all and sundry supporters seem to have their favourites and their despised candidates) only time will tell if we make the right choice. Isn't it just typical though of our club that when we find ourselves in a unique situation (ie. the only club in the AFL to be without a senior coach and actively looking for a new one) within 3 weeks we're back behind the eightball and all the advantage of Daniher leaving when he did has now vanished. Like others have said, I think we might end up with 3rd best choice and I've got a horrible feeling its going to be Connolly.

our spine is a comedy. Like others have said, unless we can get an elite power player in their prime holding down either of FF, CHF, or CHB and dominating games we'll never challenge seriously. Miller after promising much has let the club down oh so badly.

Please lets get someone who at least has first hand experience of winning a premiership either in the capacity of player or coach (or assistant), preferably in a coaching capacity. Who does that leave? Sumich, Longmire? I'm pretty sure that might have been one of the main reasons Ross Lyon got the gig at the Saints. So perhaps its all just garbage that theory. I'll just sit back and enjoy the ride over the coming months. No sense in getting all worked up about it.

With the suspension of Davey, what about debuting Weetra to see if he's a potential goalsneak? I notice he's off the injury list now.

I don't know why others like Alistair Clarkson are coming out in the media and criticising Gardner for doing what he did. Reading the spate of articles in the HUN website about the whole Daniher review affair annoyed me greatly and prompted me to pen those words. I think the comments made earlier being willing to embrace change in order to change our fortunes around was spot on. That's exactly what we need to do. Why dwell in the past when its clear to all and sundry that things are stale, dare I say it almost rotten, at this club in the coaching department? Just because Neale's a nice guy doesn't mean we should jeopardise our opportunity to begin an exhaustive search for the best coach possible to lead us forward with plenty of time up our sleeve before the crunch time of trade week and the national draft are upon us. By waiting until the end of Rd 22 to begin the search for the coach would be crazy on two fronts: 1) gives us very little time to get someone in before trade week, and 2) we might well be competing with a number of other clubs for the leading candidates whereas at the moment we're the only ones with a senior coaching vacancy and the ball is completely in our court to go out there and head hunt the best man available. I believe this is a fantastic position to be in and I commend the board, Gardner, our CEO, and of course Neale himself for bringing this about. While indeed this is a sentimental time to be a MFC fan (yes I liked Daniher a lot) its really one of the most exciting times that I can remember. Can't wait to see who we end up with. The only problem is that gnawing doubt that sits in the back of my mind that we'll end up with a hack like Chris Connolly. Surely the board couldn't be that blind though....surely.

Carrol is a 3rd tall option, nothing more. He's only a FB because we haven't had a proper full back probably since Jamie Shanahan. We are bereft of Key defenders of quality and I can't remember us ever having a really good one. The passing of Broadbridge really set this club back along way, Rivers injury this year is probably one of the major reasons we've only won 2 games. Carrol is undersized and/or underpaced for many of the opposition full forwards and has been shown up plenty of times this year. You can't fault his courage though and he's definitely got good hands in a contested marking situation, just couldn't get in the contest tonight. Our midfield, which is very much in rebuilding phase, has a lot to answer for though in terms of the ease at which the ball comes into the opposition forward 50. It's made it awful tough on the defense and has made Carrol look a lot worse than he actually is. In terms of the future of Key spots down back, I think Rivers needs to become our franchise CHB. Carrol/Frawley can take the third tall but we need a genuine FB with a bit of pace, a lot of strength and most of all discipline. Maybe Brad Miller can be developed into this player. With the development of Newton and Dunn as tall options up forward I can't see much of a future for Brad up there. Hopefully the new coach can pull Miller's head in and get him contributing week in week out.

Dear Paul, You have come under fire from fans of the club, coaches at other clubs and the media about the way you and the board members have handled the whole Neale Daniher affair. I'd just like to throw my support behind you for making a tough and decisive decision on a crucial issue. You could see the writing on the wall that things needed to change in the footy department and went about instigating those changes by calling for the official review. It showed to the fans and sponsors of the club that you were being proactive in pursuing a course of due diligence to turn the fortunes of the club around. The fact that Neale Daniher decided to walk away this week was probably to be expected, he knew his time was up and he's a proud man that wouldn't have been content to sit around for the last 10 weeks as a "lame duck" figurehead. I'm sure that you and the board members were astute enough to have predicted this and once again, my hat's off to you and the board for doing something about our failing fortunes as a football team. It would have been a lot easier to do nothing and let season 2007 take its course. In my opinion leaving the critical task of finding the best possible replacement for senior coach until the conclusion of the season would have been pure folly and left the Club vulnerable to being ill-prepared for the all important trade/draft period. It's fantastic to be in the box seat to get the plum pick of the best available senior coaching candidates and even more heartening to know that whoever is lined up as Neale's permanent successor will have a good couple of months to run the rule over our playing list and get an idea of the drafting/trading priorities to take our team forward and become a genuine top four contender in time. Once again, my heartfelt thanks go out to you and the board for the way you've handled this delicate situation. I have a feeling that this moment in time could well be looked at as a turning point in the recent history of the Melbourne Football Club. Congratulations for having the guts to make the tough calls that were required. Oh just one last thing before I sign off: Please make sure you don't bloody hire Chris Connelly

As much as the loss hurt, it was just this thought that gave me much comfort. I could see the loss coming, starting with the missed tripping free kick against Bruce, the tempo footy tactics with 90 seconds still left to play, the failure of Doggy to have one functioning football brain cell, every time they bombed long into the forward line we couldn't cope. Long gone are the days when Jeff White played a kick behind play and mopped up that kind of attack. Go Tiges! I want Kreuzer.

Some random observations from tonights game (**** key observations): ***** No legspeed - Backline a rabble.....no Rivers, no backline - Doggy Brown "Goodbye, thanks for the memories" - Brock - chinks in the armour appearing, becomes a thug when he plays badly - Wheatley "superboot", sink your slipper son, always - Robbo, keep your feet! - Captain courageous - our only true leader (a worrying sign considering he doesn't have much time left in the game) - Junior definitely in our top 3 - 5 most important players right now - Hate to kick him when he's down but Nathan Carrol is having a very ordinary year. - Loved Sylvia's work but we need his strength and awareness in the middle to take some of the heat off Jones and Brock - Bell poor guy, crocked again **** We need a first rate tagger that can handle players like Hird and/or hurt the opposition the other way (hopefully Bartram becomes this player, with Godfrey as backup) **** We're a soft tackling team, even my wife noticed this, opposition break our tackles with monotonous regularity and we get sold far too many dummies - Newton welcome to the forward line son (EDIT: now that Juice has got his first game, can Mark Riley please now start teaching Miller to become a key defender or trade him off for someone that can play that position. We are so short on key possie backmen, Gerard Healey was spot on, this has always been a big problem for our team as long as I can remember) - Petterd looking very promising, love his courage and his skill level, more muscle and confidence could see him really blossom into something special - Our talls don't fill the hole in the opp. attacking 50, why? This used to be Whitey's bread and butter, I guess this was Rivers role as well. **** we're the up and under kings, disposal and footskills really need work **** Prospective coaches must be looking at our team with an air of perplexity. On the one hand they'll look at our fighting spirit and skills that we showed in quarters 2,3 and most of 4 as a big positive but the first quarter was utter tripe. The way our players turn it on and off like a tap is baffling in the extreme. This is the single biggest issue that needs addressing by the new coach, inconsistency and mental frailty. Unfortunately this is the legacy that ND has left (as much as it hurts me to say it as he's a top character and was good for the image of the footy club). My top 5 for the night 1) Junior 2) Col 3) TJ 4) Petterd 5) Ward/Godfrey (couldn't split em)

If Newton does kick a bag there'll be a lot of posters on these forums out of pocket. I just hope the kid beats his opponent, that's all you can ask of any Melbourne player, a couple of goals would be a bonus for him.

Just to add something else to this thread: reading the comments from Gardner about "the best person to come out of the review and selection process will get the job" makes me think that unless Riley does something miraculous like win 75% of the remaining games he's not really a chance, surely we'll be interviewing better candidates than him?