Dr. Gonzo

We are pushing Oliver out the door, we have no power in any trade negotiation, we will be lucky if we get away with a future 1st rounder and not picking up any of his salary.

Got the club to 65k/70k members - after a flag it was like shooting fish in a barrel. No great accomplishment. Home based at Caulfield?? Still nothing on that front despite being told for years something was imminent. Strategic plan 2020-2023 was to commence building, we don't even have a funded project plan yet! Flag in 2021, right place, right time. Hard work was done by PJ. Meanwhile club leaks like a sieve, relationships fractured, culture shot, ongoing court cases, our two best midfielders since the 60s are alienated/want out, struggled to get sponsors on board despite a flag and two top 4 finishes, club comms are deplorable, supporters are taken for granted and no effort to engage us, build crowds etc two sub 20k crowds late in the season when still technically in contention. He can't survive much longer, he is a dead man walking.

I've been a member for 35 consecutive years since I was a kid, this is the first time I've seriously considered not rejoining. I couldn't go to many games this season and the club is a basketcase, not really sure what the point is.

This club is run by nuffies

The situation is incomparable. Clarrys cv speaks for itself, Jack Watts was a lightweight who never achieved anything.

Don't worry they will leak to their mates in the media about how much of a loose cannon Clarry is so the supporters focus their anger on Oliver instead of where it should be directed.

Yeah we also won 5 flags in 6 years, times change. Living in the past has never served this club well.

That's all well and good but who at the club is accountable for the list management decision to sign him up long term on 1.3m/year and putting us in a salary cap hole? These issues didn't just bubble up in the last 12 months. If we dump Oliver and eat a huge chunk of his salary then Tim Lamb at the very least and likely the board if they signed off on the contract are in untenable positions. No-one at the club wants any accountability, it's always someone else's fault.

It is the way it is being handled/played out that is the biggest issue. The people running the club are incompetent buffoons headed by the CEO Gary Pert. He has to go, what does he actually bring to the table?? All we get is dirty laundry aired in the media and motherhood statements when supporters/journos ask legitimate questions.

The merits or otherwise of wanting to move Oliver on is one thing. The manner in which it is being handled is another. Under this administration it is the MO of the club to not have direct discussions with their staff (players) and then leak to the media to undermine the player and try and elicit sympathy for their actions from the supporters. It is [censored] cowardly and pure snake oil salesman BS. None of these issues occurred under Peter Jackson....

Yes I believe it's what the supporters are experiencing with the club right now.

And who is responsible for creating that culture/environment? He's not going to be out of the league, if he is still good enough to play senior footy then the club owes it to itself and the members/supporters to sort it out. Even if the club did think it best to part ways, the manner in which this is playing out is shambolic. A good club would have that discussion with the player and his manager and try and work on a solution, not go behind the players back fishing with other clubs only to have it leaked in the media and the player lose his trust in the club. The MFC is amateur hour at the moment, it reminds me of the bad old days under Schwab, Pert has to go he was a big part of the problems at Collingwood and he's brought those issues with him to Melbourne. Seems the only thing he's learnt is how to avoid being the subject of any reviews so this time he's made sure he's heading those reviews so he can't get the [censored].

Stop blaming the media for reporting on the clubs dysfunction and start blaming the club for being dysfunctional.

The club is a basketcase. We had two generational mids that we built a team around and got a flag while still in their mid 20s. Within 3 years we've reverted back to the basketcase we've been for 60 years and both those players (on long term contracts) want out. Heads must roll, the nuffies in charge are going to kill the club.

It is on the club for failing to manage it.

Not those heads more like it

The media! The media!! I heard this phrase on an NFL podcast yesterday and it is very apt - stop pointing fingers and start pointing thumbs.

Bang on the money @ChaserJ, it is despicable of the club to leak this [censored] into the media just to save their own reputations amongst the supporters to save their own hides.

What cultural problems? We have the best culture Pert's seen in 40 years in the game 🙄

Pert must go immediately.

The "shafting of Pert" is not solely down to the Clarry issue but that could be the final straw

PM me too please

The father-son rule was nice and quaint in the semi-professional league but in a fully professional competition with equalisation measures like the draft, salary cap etc there should be no father son or academy selections. It just gives free hits to clubs for no reason other than luck. Just because Marcus Ashcroft played for the Lions why should they get first dibs on his kids who may both end up being the best players in their draft? The team on the bottom of the ladder with #1 draft pick should have the choice of all available players and if he wants to go to the Lions/they want him then let them trade up to #1 to get him. If they can't satisfy a trade then it is bad luck. They probably should've changed the FS rules after the Cats got the Abletts, Scarlett and Hawkins.

Thanks for the links and the time to respond to me. Just to reiterate, I don't believe this is a media driven conspiracy, the media care about eyes on their product and car crashes sell better than good news stories. If it bleeds it leads, right? I don't agree with Hawk the Demon about everything, I do believe the current administration have run their course and it is time for an overhaul. That doesn't necessarily mean the board but it does mean the Pres/CEO and head of footy should go. I am not a Peter Lawrence supporter, I don't know him from a bar of soap. I do think his actions have been blown way out of proportion by the club and certain posters on here and that's why I may seem to be defending him - even if I don't back him I do back his right to have his say on the club. People complaining about receiving emails from him just come across as sooks or stooges for the current admin who btw spent plenty of money on ridiculous court cases that could have been settled. So your position is that certain individuals involved with construction companies have sought to overthrow the admins of several clubs to get a foot in the door on the construction of their new home base and Peter Lawrence is their proxy for Melbourne? Seems a bit far fetched to me considering there is no guarantee at all that we will ever see construction of a home base let alone have the board convinced to go with a company linked to a board member they have had legal troubles with. If Lawrence has been a large donor and player sponsor it seems his allegiance to MFC runs pretty deep, deeper than Pert, Roffey, our ex-Pres (HWSNBN) etc....

What we have now is not leading to any of those things. The people running the club are incompetent. I agree that leaving it up to the members to vote isn't a recipe for success but the mob in there at the moment have burnt any goodwill they may have had. 2021 is in the past, the only premiership I care about is the next one and the current administration are proving they are not fit to lead us there.