Dr. Gonzo

Who gives a crap? Did it really have that big an effect on your life that you need to crack the sads about it? Just close the browser window and leave the thread if you don't like it, it's not like it was a spam link for weight loss pills or something.

Recruit footballers who can win their own ball over athletes, play them in the reserves until they're ready and earn a game, don't expect 18 year old kids to come in and be the teams best players, have a reserves side that is controlled by the club and plays to the same game plan, have a strong leadership group who sets and demands standards on the track and on the field, have a strong and stable off-field with no cliques trying to destabilise the club for their own vindictive ends. 125/150 (3 flags) is a mighty impressive stat but I think just as impressive is the fact they had 10 players with less than 50 games experience tonight and still made the Dons look second rate. If they're not flag favourites yet, they should be.

I can't speak for others, but I have no problem with Trengove it's the clubs management of him I have the issue with. If he is still recovering as you say then he should not be playing - simple. No point throwing him to the wolves and risking further aggravating the injury and allowing him to flounder in full public view while trying to lead the worst side in the last decade out of the mire. Take him out and get a plan in place to get him right for next year and if he plays some games this year it's a bonus.

He does it every time his contract is up for renewal, I'll believe it when he puts 2-3 good years together.

Why didn't Hogan play?

Haha seriously what do you think the Demonlander's opinion will be on this one??

Pretty sure the suspension would be 6 months of competition not just 6 calendar months - so they would miss a whole season.

Who Spargo??

Haha ohhh great...

If it was a choice I'd go with Frawley - at least he's already shown he can play, Neeld has yet to show he can coach.

Cop-out.

Mate not only that but before the team ran onto the ground they had the cameras trained on Watts in the change rooms and coming up the race (all being shown on the big screen) and introduced over the loudspeaker at the G as "the Melbourne Football Club and number 1 draft pick Jack Watts" (or something to that effect) - it was incredible just how poorly they managed his debut. He was also on the back page of the Herald Sun during the week all used as a marketing ploy to ensure we got a crowd over 60k as Demetriou was threatening to take Queens Bday off us if we couldn't draw a crowd. In respect of your prior post re: the moving on off our senior blokes I am happy to say I am one of those who got that completely wrong. I agree they should have been kept on and used to mentor and shield our young players through until they had matured however at the time I absolutely thought it was the correct thing to get rid of them all and load up on draft picks. I don't think I or the club were alone on that either it was a bit of conventional wisdom at the time however it is clear that that route did untold damage to the club and also the young kids coming through who have had to shoulder way too much responsibility before their time. For the odd one it may work out and they relish it but for most I think they are more likely to burn out and crumble under the weight of expectation. We thought it was as easy as plug and play and all you had to do was get as many high draft picks as possible and pump games into them and in 4 years they'd be a powerhouse - it is now clear that was utterly utterly wrong and we need bigger bodies and experienced minds on the field and training track to help these kids through. That is why I understand Neeld's strategy in recruiting the experienced guys even if they haven't worked out as he'd hoped.

We can't control what the media say but we can control how we treat our players. I agree with the OP it's definitely an aspect o our lack of development and seems to be ingrained in our culture where we keep trying to anoint a teenage rookie as the saviour of he club. Was disappointed when McLardy referred to Hogan in his letter to supporters after the Essendon game.

Yeah I agree was just using it as a frame of reference.

Frawley is by far and away the best Full Back we have had at this club at least since Danny Hughes. I cannot believe some people would even consider being happy to see him go.

I think you are both partially correct - our players inability/failure to properly implement the zone is a contributing factor as is our players inability/failure to spread or spread at the correct times. I think another contributing factor is our poor skills resulting turnovers across midfield/half forward which allows the opposition to quickly transition the ball to their forward line with little pressure. It is pretty hard to implement a defence-zone if you're caught out trying to create an offensive play in your forward half and the ball is turned over due to a skill error.

I agree but that was done under a prior coach, FD and recruiting manager. So the changes have been made we just need to wait for them to bear fruit.

Wouldn't you call sacrificing a high draft pick now for Hogan who can't play til next year as being in the long term interests of the club?

I don't disagree with you although I think you're a bit harsh on Byrnes, I think he's been OK for us. Last week in the second and third quarters he was practically the only player who was running hard to spread and create options when we were trying to move the ball through the midfield.

Do you get upset when the leg of lamb you put in the oven 5 minutes ago is still red raw?

On Nathan Jones - yes he was shut out of the game and is something he needs to work to overcome but my question is who is there in our midfield giving him a chop-out?

Sylvia streaming forward, Pedersen fails to push forward to create the overlap, Sylvia hand all's to a stationary Pedersen who is immediately tackled cost us a goal. There would be at least several more examples if you went back and reviewed the tape which is why I put today's loss solely on the players heads, not Neeld's. He should have moved Watts forward earlier though as he was clearly struggling (again) down back and we struggled to find targets up forward.

The point was that that happened under Bailey not Neeld sorry if it was unclear.

Nah I disagree there - there was improvement today in the structures and systems we had. Still issues in the centre square and our skills and decision-making let us down but I thought there was improvement today. Today I thought was a better effort in this regard than last week (minus the last quarter last week). If our players play the percentages more often and take their first option instead of trying to set-up the "perfect" play we would have at least broken even with Brisbane and likely would have won.

Didn't he get dropped from the leadership group after he got blind drunk and [censored] on the bar? Anyway there's already a thread discussing Moloney, what I'd like to know is how people think Neeld coached today? I didn't think he was too bad and if our skills and decision-making abilities weren't so poor we could have won.