Dr. Gonzo

Don't know if it will blight the club because I think the whole footy world realises Mifsud & Demetriou are in the wrong here. I agree he can't keep his job though.

Back to the topic - will be interesting to see what follow up, if any, there is from the MFC on this. We shouldn't just let this slide, we should force the issue and let it be known that we don't take too kindly to our coach and players (Davey in this case) being slandered by rumour, innuendo or inference. On top of this we should force the issue regarding Mifsud's role - if he felt there were problems with how MFC/Neeld were conducting ourselves surely the right thing to do as a Community Engagement Officer would be to call a meeting with the club and discuss it or at least make a phone call instead of leaking to the tabloid reporters to wage his war through the media. How can the AFL expect the clubs to take their employees seriously if they let rubbish like this go unpunished?

Yep Davey has been slurred as much as Neeld by this whole shemozzle. Nothing like a quiet week to get the boys focussed on the enxt game hey? Wonder what that feels like.

Yep - Mifsud burns Rendell in an article in which he basically lies (quotes him out of context) - Andy D forces the Crows hand and tells them to sack Rendell - Thomas is told some more "untruths" by Mifsud and publishes the comments at an opportune time to out Mifsud over the Rendell issue - Andy D clues on to what has happened and gets Rendell a job before Mifsud admits to feeding Thomas the Neeld rumour - Mifsud offers his resignation but Andy D refuses to accept it to save his own face over forcing Adelaide to sack Rendell

How can the AFL/Demetriou expect people to take them seriously if Mifsud remains as an AFL employee? Doesn't the AFL have an "integrity" office? Surely they should be investigating this. We should demand some explanations and Mifsud's head on a platter. I hate to always refer back to the other mob, but can you imagine the fallout if this was said/reported about Malthouse or Buckley at the Pies? Eddie would be on a crusade. Stand your ground Demons and let the AFL know we won't be the whipping boy anymore. If this means we are on the outer with the Fat Controller and his mob so be it. Our integrity is more important than the AFL's corruption.

LOL how many senior indigenous players do we have? Pretty short list.

OK speculation/conspiracy time; Thomas knew that Rendell was unfairly maligned and sacked based on some allegations by Mifsud which were not entirely true. He knows that this guy is spreading further untrue or not quite true rumours and decides to go and put them into print to bring the issue to a head and somewhat vindicate Rendell. He kills two birds with one stone by being able to have a crack at Neeld who for whatever reason he seems to have an issue with as shown in the rest of his column. Neeld and MFC are a particularly easy target after the weekend so he picks his target and lets loose. EDIT: on further reading it seems Thomas and Mifsud have a relationship going back to St. Kilda days (along with Rendell) so it looks like Thomas really is just an idiot.

Just posted this on BF; I get a feeling part of the reaction is that everyone in the football community wanted us to win on the weekend and we let them all down - so now they are responding in the same manner as a lot of our fans by spitting the dummy over the players/coaches performance because they didn't get the result they wanted. As supporters we have every right to react emotionally immediately following the game, but I think this is also a test of our resolve - we need to actually SUPPORT the club and the coach by backing them to the hilt and continuing to turn up to games all year. In football all you have is your club, players, coaches and supporters - all other tribes (including the media and those in it who have their own club allegiances) are the enemy and they can go and get stuffed as far as I'm concerned. Neeld has coached ONE GAME - I'm prepared to give him and the players a little more time before the knives come out. Midway through this year we will know which players have bought in to the new coaching structures and midway through next year we will have a better idea of where we sit with the new coach/FD.

Aren't Mahoney, Viney & Royal the only ones left?

Yeah the observation about Melbourne being historically an attacking team and Neeld trying to implement a defensive side to us was spot on and will be difficult to change the mindset overnight. Look at the couple of clips they showed (and Neeld said these were picked up by the assistant coaches and shown in the review with the players) our players run with the opposition but get sucked towards the ball allowing their player to run free. Same with guys like Davey hanging 20 metres off their opponent in the hope that a turnover may allow them to run forward of the ball - but often it just means their opponent gets an easy uncontested possession. You could see Neeld was clearly agitated at these clips and he has his job ahead of him to change the mindset of the players (one of the examples shown was of Bartram who is supposedly a shutdown player).

May have changed his opinion after making those comments in the heat of the moment with the anger from the result still palpable and realising there is limited options to bring in to replace the under performers. Seemed to me he regretted making that comment as seen by his deflection about not being able to make comments about selection prior to channel 7.

I don't really see the relevance to what I posted?

I don't have to think about it at all - it' blatantly obvious.

Going from memory here, but in those years we picked up Miller, Rivers, Molan, Smith, Thompson? Thompson is the only A-Grader there and he ditched us as soon as he had the chance.

Matthews seems to dislike us for some reason - but remember this is the man who gave us pick 14 for TJ. I think the game has passed him by.

I agree 100% on Sully/Trengove - doesn't matter what happened we were never going to pick Martin but it still wouldn't have hurt to do some more homework on him. Chances are if we did pick him it would be at the expense of Trengove anyhow, not Scully. However I wanted Talia - we picked Gysberts. I wanted Darling - we picked Cook. The others (2007 & 2008) I didn't pay close enough attention but surely there is something wrong if both Blease & Strauss end up busts considering who was picked in the 10 picks after them. rpfc I agree our drafting from 2001 has been horrendous, the recent drafting we had prime picks though so you would have expected with the amount of top 20 picks we had we could have built an entire team around but it is not looking the case. It is looking more like Richmond having 5 top 20 picks and drafting Oakliegh-Nicholls and the rest of the duds.

Firstly no one is blaming Cook - as was said earlier it is about balance - Cook on his own is not the problem but taking our recruiting as a whole it seems we have too many of the same type of players on our list - too many HFF who can't do much damage in the middle (Dunn, Bate, Petterd, Howe, Jurrah) too many skinny KPP (Watts, Cook, Fitzpatrick) too many skinny midfielders/HBF (Morton, Grimes, Gysberts, Blease, Strauss, Bennell). I agree though it is not merely the recruiting which is our problem, this is a legacy that we are still dealing with from the Daniher years where senior players were given games on reputation instead of having to earn it and weren't punished for being selfish front-runners (e.g. Yze, White, Johnstone, Robertson, Bruce) - this has gotten us where we are now where the senior group having been getting games on reputation and can't lead the younger players and show them how to play committed team-oriented football.

I don't think Moloney & Sylvia are members of Mensa in their spare time either.

Which is why so many of us were disappointed that we went for another tall skinny schoolboy champion in Cook over a crash and bash old fashioned footballer in Darling. Would having Darling in our side automatically remedy everything wrong with us? Of course not but I think the type of players we have drafted needs to be looked at also. You can have a couple of Watts or Blease in the side but not Strauss, Blease, Watts, Cook, Gysberts, Morton (I'd add Scully in here also) etc all skinny "athletic" body types rather than crash and bash footballers like Darling, Hurley or Martin. I think development is a very large part of our problem and one that we are trying to fix with our invetsment in the FD but you also need to recruit the right players who you can develop into a cohesive team. This is a long standing problem, many players would come in and have great first years/games and then completely stagnate. Look at for example guys like Bruce or Green. Started off in 2000 like a house on fire but plateued straight away and never really evolved their games to the next level. Same can be said for guys like Yze, Johnstone, Sylvia the list goes on and on. Along with the investment in the FD I think Neeld has the right type of player in mind to recruit - look at Tynan on Saturday, didn't set the world on fire but had a real crack and didn't shy away from any physical contact. I want players that relish that contact, not think twice when they see opposition colours when going for the ball. EDIT - this doesn't mean they have to be built like Tapscott or McLean and be slow as treacle either - just "solid through the hips" players who have a dip and are footballers before athletes.

The thing is Bailey was seen as a good teacher and development coach so what does that tell you? I don't know but it is truly laughable and for what its worth I agree 100%. It can't ALL come down to drafting especially when we have had so many good picks.

KP forward, KP back, crumbing forward, running half back who can lock down a Milne or Ballantyne, midfielders, midfielders, midfielders with accurate disposal under pressure who can go forward and kick goals. We also need Watts, Gysberts, Morton & Cook amongst others to put on 10-15kg.

He needs to play in the backline or be traded at the end of the year. He is an OK player but doesn't really fit into our team so I would put either he or Jamar on the trade table to see what you can get. You have to give something to get something and you also need to buy low and sell high. He is worth as much now as he ever will be (Jamar probably already on the down slope) so I would see if we can get a running half back or skilled midfielder for him.

Just goes to show how unfit we are more than anything. If they get possession of the ball they can control it more instead of chasing tail all day. Have a look at the top teams, Geelong, Coll, Haw even Carl and the frenetic pace they play at for 4 quarters. That is where we have to be. I said it last year on a few occasions, our players are either the laziest or most unfit team in the competition.

Fair enough, its Sunday night and my sarcasm metre is well and truly busted after the result yesterday and nursing a hangover today from the wedding I went to yesterday. It might be time for a bex and a good lie down.