Dr. Gonzo

100% - if this year has taught me anything it's that I hate Essendon way more than I hate the Pies - I think I even hate the Blues more than the Pies.

Glad to know we started it - one of the few positives for the year.

It seems we say that every week.

Rivers is right? How was that even 10 let alone 15? Doesn't matter Shitzke stuffs it anyway.

He copped a knock on the shin early, hasn't done much since.

Holy [censored] another goal - Saints are having a laugh surely?

Still haven't seen Moloney - only 4 disposals in almost half a game yet some people are disgusted we would think of trading him? Hang on there he was almost smothered a Saints kick.

And there it is! Goal to Howe 17 minutes into the second quarter. Wow-wee I'm gettin excited!

Is Moloney playing? Haven't seen him yet.

Despite the overwhelming negatives, one huge positive is Nathan Jones he is an absolute gun now, courage was never in doubt, now has lifted his disposal to go along with it. That kick to Green was superb. Yes sometimes still tries to do too much but I feel that's more to do with a lack of options rather than wanting to do too much.

Look you have every right to be concerned and even angry - I sure as hell am about certain things at the club. But at the end of the day I am a SUPPORTER not an agitator. Firstly let's knock one fallacy on the head - we didn't choose Neeld over Malthouse, it was and has been made abundantly clear that Malthouse was never an option, never wanted to come to the club and if he was available we would have picked him. Secondly you talk about going after mercenaries - is Clark a mercenary? Are you happy he's a Demon and that we recruited him last year? Thirdly you say we as supporters shouldn't take this shite - what do you expect us to do. Yes the board/admin should be held accountable but short of launching a ticket to run for the board/president position what do you propose the lay supporters do? Do you really think the heavies behind the scenes are happy with how the club has performed the last 6 years. We all want one thing - for the MFC to succeed and at the moment the only way we can do that is to be united behind the board/admin and coach. They may fail but we have to at least give them a go. Make no mistake another year in 2013 like weve seen in 2012 will put considerably heat on the whole club and everyone within. No point destabilizing them now though it will only hurt the MFC.

It's already August - its not too much of a stretch to conclude that 11 players out of contract at the moment won't have their contracts negotiated until after the FA period (especially considering who is on that list on the widespread belief there will be wholesale changes at the end of Neeld's first year.) What would the club have to gain from leaking this? Hell it could just be the usual media speculation that they throw up when they need to fill column inches.

Could've come from a player manager.

Ahh, no - a clubs culture is dictated by its senior players.

Thank you for saving me the time of writing the exact same response.

Luckily they're not paid to think, they're paid to do. If we cared what they thought we wouldn't need a coach they could just coach themselves. Yep we sure looked daring, exciting and entertaining against WCE at Subi last year and against Carlton in the bruise-free match - we looked absolutely brilliant every time we've played the Hawks over the past 4 or 5 years! Our performance against the Kangas at Docklands last year was just marvellous....and so forth.

Welcome to footy in the 21st Century - your aergument might hold some weight if the players had shown much in the past but they have failed under 2 (for some 3) coaches now so, yeah, I'd say it is the players.

Hmm, seems like any FA's we may sign would be offset by any FA's we lose (so if we sign Cloke and lose Moloney we would probably get nothing.) Here is the article;

This is actually an interesting point - the AFL hasn't come out and stated what compensation clubs will receive yet for FA's that leave, they have however stated what they won't get and they won't be getting the same compo teams got for players being taken by GWS/GC. There was a discussion on BigFooty the other day re: Cloke and it was indicated (via link to an article quoting an AFL rep) that the compo would be something like a pick directly after the clubs first round pick. I don't tknow if this has any asteriks to it (eg how much the contract is worth, how many years they get etc) but considering all FA's will be in the same boat being long term servants of the club you would assume the formula may be similar for each of them. This being the case would anyone turn their nose up at pick 5 for Moloney (the pick after our first round pick?) This is highly speculative at the moment but considering the AFL hasn't indicated what the compo will be it is worth keeping in mind when thinking about whether we should keep guys like Moloney/Rivers on. Even if we got a mid or after first round pick it could actually be quite beneficial to us, not only getting an early pick but freeing up half a million or so in cap space (added to half a mil for Green as well and there is your million a year for Cloke.)

Rohan was playing some very good consistent footy before his injury and had gone up a gear this year. Hi sinjury was unfortunate and may set him back a year or two but I have no doubt he will be a long-term key player in the Swans midfield.

Of course they do - say GWS bid for him forcing us to use pick 3 - assuming they get pick 5 or 6 for a min draft pick that pick is then upgraded a spot if we have to take Viney at 3. GWS have also built their side around players like Viney, Sheedy & Choco love those hard as nails guys. GC I actually think would really want Viney - he is the exact player the need to complement their midfield (assuming GWS take Whitfield) - they already have a number of big guys so may not need Grundy. Adding Viney and O'Meara to their midfield next year would add some massive grunt to Ablett, Swallow & Bennell. Assuming they lose Caddy as well it's another hard body they'll have in there. They'll know we will take him anyway so they've got no risk in nominating him. Make no mistake the kid is one of the highest rated in this draft. It's not like they would only be nominating him to spite us he is actually one of the best available. It would be great to take him at 26 but I'm resigned to the fact we will be using pick 3 and am satisfied we are getting such a great player and we will also have pick 4 & 12 on top of this. I cannot envision a situation where we wouldn't pick him besides being one of the highest rated players he is exactly what we need, a hard bulldozing body with a see ball, get ball mentality.

Yeah fair enough, my point was though that anyone who had done some homework reading up one some of the kids available & watching highlight clips could've picked a decent player with any of our early picks. It's not like players are hidden away anymore and there are surprise selections early, everyone knows which players are available and have a fair idea who will be going in the top 20. Obviously the skill comes in picking the later picks but it just infuriates me that we let Darling slip (and you could possibly add Talia there as well) when everyone knew we needed a kid like this to add some grunt to our team and forward line. I still don't really understand why we didn't take him, was it because we thought he might head back to Perth? Because he was caught with a girl in the sack on school camp? It just doesn't seem right and we've consistently taken stick figures who dominate juniors but take forever to come on at AFL level if they ever come on at all. Neeld seems to have addressed this with the recruitment of hard bodies seeming his priority over stick figures which is good because looking at Morton, Bennell, Watts, Cook, Fitzpatrick, Gysberts etc it's just frustrating thinking what could have been if we had selected some harder bodies with at least half of those picks to complement the rest of them. EDIT: This is why I firmly believe we will be taking Viney no matter what pick we have to use.

I would prepare yourself for the fact we will be taking Viney at pick 3. If he slips to the second round it is a bonus but that won't happen. Everyone knows we will take Viney at 3 if we have to so they are not risking anything by nominating him with pick 1 or 2.

Haha what a coincidence, Callan Ward might have to miss two games (against us and GC who woulda thunk it?) with OP. Surely if he had OP he would either play through or miss the rest of the season not just sit out two games. Don't worry Sheeds we will smash your mob anyway regardless of which muppets are in your team.