Grand New Flag

Many of you have misunderstood Watts reasons. Watts was used as a scape goat and hung out to dry by Neeld. Neeld misunderstood how to get the best out of Watts. Quite frankly his treatment by Neeld was appalling. The way Neeld treated Watts makes me feel sick, it was disgusting. If I was Watts I would want to know that I did not have another coach who would regularly publically humiliate me. More importantly I would want to know that the coach woudl be someone who could devlop me and the team. Watts was rattled by Neeld. Watts has never had the on and off field support both mentaly and physically that a young number 1 draft pick requires. His development has been lacking due to our horrible culture, failure to maintain senior players and failure of the club to correctly protect a boy in a mans world. He is a significant asset that sadly we have trashed.

Watts will come good, he will become an outstanding player. If he leaves, it will be another arrow through the heart of the club..... don't sugar coat this. Another number 1 pick walking out on us could start a stampede and would further wound the mentality of our players. Watts manager has had interest from 13 clubs (I am personal friends with his direct manager and know Paul Connors as well). If he does leave we will get a very good player in return. The entire comp can see how poor Melbourne is at developing talent, the entire comp can see Watts silky skills, and his overall talent. He has a good charter, and all clubs would back themselves into making him into a star.

If he leaves I believe he is off to Carlton. MM has been his mentor and MM would make him into a champion. I get the impression that if we don't get Roo's he will walk.

Don't blame Watts, blame the club.

We must do all we can to hold Watts. I beleive he is our best player.

I think your a bit optimistic Grand Old Flag.

There is really not much to suggest Roos is keen on the job.

He is most likely refusing to say no because he wants to see what the AFL arena throws at him (I am sure other clubs will approach him).

Maybe he has done a Lyon and already signed with a team and just doesn't want to publicly say that he doesn't want to coach Melbourne.

Maybe..... time will tell.

I am only reporting on what I am hearing.

I have been meaning to come on here for some time to discuss where we are at re Roos. Simply there is nothing that has happened that has changed the view of where we are at. Roos is still seriously considering, the club is rightly putting a back up plan in to place, however the club still remains more than hopeful, but confident he will become our coach next season.

Roos needs to see we have our house in order, this is a major issue, and from what I hear this why he is not confirming interest. AFL concessions also likely to be a reason. It remains telling that he will not declare no interest. He may also have issues with interstate movement with his family (not confirmed with me), this is something I have only heard on Demonland.

Interesting on OTC tonight. Jackson was very clear about football department spending remaining at least at this seasons levels. He seemed to be driving this point. Maybe there is something to be read into this. Regardless, nothing Roos said suggested to me things have moved positively or negatively at this stage, everything remains in process.

As I have said before, a decision will be made seasons end. Lets not sugar coat the alternatives, they may be good, but Roos is our man.

Again I can confirm the board remains confident. Roos continues to leave the door open. He is not one to play games, he would not be doing this if there was no chance. I hope the MFC, MCC, board and all other stake holders create the right structure and environment to bring him to the red and blue.

You can't understand those that do not like Dunn?

Re: the bolded - he has rarely done 'his bit' in the past, his pride ususally means jumper punching, his aggression usually means jumper punching, he rarely wins his position, and he has been nowhere near Colin Garland in terms of performance and consistency.

He plays a good 6 or 7 games every second year and I am thankful he is playing well currently.

There is a spot for him if he can continue his form - but I won't put any money on it.

He has been playing deep back with shut down roles and winning each week, not many players have been consistently beating their opponents this season. Yet he is smashed on here. I never said he was at the level of Garland only that he has been consistently winning his position like Garland and playing his role successfully. RPFC: I respectfully 100% disagree and again suggest that more than half our list deserves criticism before Dunn.

Ridiculous! This thread should be locked.

Also unfair to drop any of our forwards considering we only had 19 inside 50s and most of those were to the advantage of North players.

OUT: Pedersen, Dunn, Trengove, Byrnes, Davey

IN: Garland, Jetta, Taggert, Magner, Tynan

Dunn: You can't be serious. I thought he was our best on Saturday. Dunn was on a very dangerous player in Lindsay Thomas who is Norths leading goal kicker with 45, and kept him goalless despite endless inside 50s and opportunity for Thomas. He was the ONLY Melbourne player to beat his opponent on the day. Further Dunn's form has been consistently good. He is given a role each week and this season has almost always completed his role with distinction. Dunn made one poor error which cost us a goal, but outside this was excellent in an awful performance.

I can't understand the Dunn haters on here. He is doing his bit. He goes in hard on every contest, wears his pride on his sleave, shows controlled aggression and usually wins his position. He has been close to our most consistent this season, behind Garland. With the roles that Dunn is given he will never be BOG, but due to the ball constantly being in Norths 50, he was our best on Saturday. Clint..... watch the game on replay and spare your frustration to those who do not go hard enough and lose their position every week.

Hogan will be close to useless if we cant get the ball to him. Watts, Dawes, Howel, Clark (when fit), and Hogan, it would not matter if this was the best forword line in the history of the game, if we cant get our hands on the ball, and get some sort of foward entry that is not kick and hope or mis kick ,our forwards line wil remain redundant. As a forward why would you stay at a team than does not give you any opportunity. It goes without saying, but if we can't get quality ready to go mid-feilders this off season, that can step up next season, we will lose what looks like our great hope..... our forwards. We are a good chance to lose Watts seasons end regardless, although this would break my heart, at least we could trade for an A Grade Mid. We should try and keep Watts at all costs, because he will become a champion, but if he chooses to leave all is not lost. We can't afford to lose any others, we must spend all our picks on mids........... ready made mids. Simply our survival depends on it.

Roos simply cannot say anything other than "I don't know if I'm interested in coaching Melbourne next year."

What if he said "coaching the MFC is something that really appeals to me." The place would go into overdrive, the media berserk, he'd have cameras so far up his nose and journos annoying the absolute sht out of him at every move.

Things need to change for him to become interested. Whatever they are, Jackson is working on.

People on here are demanding the best possible candidate going around but are all too quick to dismiss Roos because he has a few conditions and won't fully commit?.

Eade and Williams are top line coaches but lets exhaust all avenues available to get Roos before we go there.

Hang tight!

Yes, that is my understanding. Roos has put conditions on a move to Melbourne and Peter Jackson & the AFL are trying to fill those conditions.

Anyone of the posters with ( inside info) like grand new flag have any updates

Sorry mate, I have nothing.

As I have said before, Roos will not make a decision until later in the season.

If Roos decides to coach again it will be at the MFC.

Midfielders are generally pretty easy to find in the draft. So we should be able to add to Viney, Toumpas, M Jones, Kent (and maybe Taggert) in the upcoming draft. If we want to recruit a ready made midfielder from another club and we can't get him via free agency we need to accept that we will have to trade away one or more "good players"* or those with potential. I hate losing home grown talent. But in this instance it may be worth it.

*I just hope that another club sees Dunn, Sellar or Pedersen as "good players".

Dunn is given a job to do each week, and does that job usually very well. Playing deep in defence he will never be one of our best but he is beating his man most weeks under significant pressure due to massive inside 50 count. Further Dunn can play all positions outside of ruck which makes him a valuable utility and depth player should he lose his place. I don't think he should be considered as trade bate.

I have also considered your argument that we should trade a KPF for a mid. My view is not this season. Lets see how everything pans out after next season and if we truly have too many high quality KPF than lets look at trading one for a mid at the end of 2014. With better supply next season surely we will get better value then.

Neeld................... make no mistake..... the worst coach in the history of the game.

Craigs performance has been good, but he is made to look better than he is because Neeld was that bad.

The rumour mill says he has purchased a house in WA.... Eagles fans will tell you its because Woosha isnt going to coach next year.

Confirmed as 100% BS by Roos. Not only did he confirm that he had he not been to Perth of late, nor seen any houses but also had never heard of the suburb of the house he was meant to have bought. He found the rumour very funny.

Don't think we need anymore B Grade talls, so not interested in Duigan, however, Laidler may be worth a look. He is of AFL quality, but just up against a fleet of small running players at Carlton.

We need Roos or Williams to have any hope landing decent players. Who is gods name would want to come to the MFC? We are a basket case and career destroyer. Come on Roos, save us from ourselves and sign.

Lets hope so GNF. Happy about the 7s if true.

Not sure what you were able to get on, but the max bet of $20 that I was allowed to place at $7 would still be a good win. A decent dinner for my wife and I to celebrate.

For the record, and for people not to be carried away, from my understanding the current odds are not a bad reflection on reality. Perhaps $1.50 would now be the fair market.

A deal has not yet been done yet.............. but its looking dam good.

If this is to be the way forward then a construct needs to be created which provides an unambiguous framework for such concessions. Has to in order to seem fair to the receivers as well as the rest of the teams. If its all adhoc it will be seen as far too open to corruption etc.

If for eg its setup where particular circumstances trigger such a requirement ( concession ) then some automatic enactment of a particular style mini draft for the concessioned club(s) might work. Everyone knows where they stand. I do however see a problem that this may well become misused in the very same way that the older auto PP system failed. Clubs may see the reward of 'tanking' as too great to resist, so possibly the auto trigger aspect is its own catch 22.

A possible out of this is that a minidraft where the picks are traded becomes only of as much value as that current climate of tradable players presents. Seasons will vary as to whom is on the market and how well that type of player suits the 'needy' club

I suppose if litmus a was a continued poor result i.e not just one year but systemic failure ( a-la us ) then it might deter a club from an 'aberational' year .

I do not see any formal framework, certainly not one made public. This would create the tanking issue again. I expect it to look ad-hoc even though it may not be. I also know that some sort of mini-draft is being considered. The AFL has brought in US experts to consider different options on evening the comp. This is how seriously they are taking it.

So, hypothetically, say we do continue to improve and win 3-4 games on the homeward stretch, where would that leave us in relation to concessionary picks relative to the likes of the Doggies / Saints? Mmm. Could there be some AFL sanctioned "list management"? Surely we would never allow that again given what it did to the fabric of our club last time!

The AFL want to even up the competition. The combination of two new franchises and free agency has significantly stretched the divide between the top clubs and the bottom clubs. This is very unhealthy for the AFL, it significantly weakens the competition. Over the coming years you will see the AFL go to unprecedented lengths to try and close that gap. Over the coming years Melbourne, WB and St.Kilda will all be given significant draft concessions from the AFL to re-even the comp.

Roos will not commit until he has draft concessions confirmed along with board and GMFO appointments. Although things are looking good with ever increasing likelihood, we should not expect a signing until late in the season.

As I have said before the MFC have been in pursuit of Roos longer than is admitted.

Finally Casey get a chance to be at full strength as such due to the emergencies. With our run of Sunday games for Melbourne theres been at least 1 if not more missing most weeks.

As for the Melbourne side besides Frawley who I think it will be smart to give a rest to there are a few names who I think will be discussed in regards to demotion - Rodan, Nicholson, Dunn as well as Kent, Davey and Byrnes as to who stays in the team and who becomes the sub but I agree that most will get another chance.

Dunn has been playing his role very well. Don't think he will be considered for demotion.

Things are moving in our favour.

If the story about Neeld trying to trade him to the Roos for a 2nd rounder was true, then I guess that would be another reason Watts didn't like the man too much.

My sources say this is not true.

As for the interview, it was well played by Watt. He said without saying it that he did not like Neeld, he did not respect Neeld and nor did most on the team. He said pretty directly that Neeld did not have the interpersonal skill required to caoch at the senior level.

????? I am sure its been said, but he is a free agent. He either signs with us or he signs with someone else................ he can't be traded.

There is simply no point in not trying to re-sign him.......... regardless of how disappointed you may be, he is still in our best dozen players and should be our best player. So we will be weaker if he does not sign.