The Chazz

As I said, it's my opinion based on no "inside" knowledge, and of course the Club and the people running it are in a better position than I. I'm not in such a hurry to look at what he's got to work with. One thing that I find inexcusable is the minimal amount of support around the stoppages our players receive, especially those being tagged heavily (ie Flash). We don't work for each other off the ball anywhere near enough. You don't need talent to do that. This in my view has to do with the way we set up at stoppages, which I would put some blame on the midfield coach.

RP, I'll bite (as expected). Have a look at Royal's resume. As an Assistant Coach, he is been involved with Melbourne, Western Bulldogs, Richmond and St Kilda. The only team he has been associated with that went close to winning a flag was St Kilda (they drew the year he was there), who he was with for 1 season. My concern with Royal is that he has been involved in the game a long time, and has never been involved in a premiership. While he's not on his own there, the game has changed a lot in recent years, and I'm just not sure if he's "fresh" enough with his ideas. This is obviously a totally uneducated personal opinion, but that's how I feel. BTW, I'm not obsessed with "shiny and new objects", I just think we could do better than him as our midfield coach.

I would love to see someone like Robert Harvey get poached for this role.

Brace yourself for the "we should've picked up Nate Fyfe or Ryan Bastinac" posters. I love Tappy. I would love for him to have a period of time where he has no injuries, and is given a specific role in the forward half, and given 6-8 weeks to show he can do it.

Good bloke is John, WYL. Had the honour of having breakfast in his company one day in a business environment. Makes you walk a foot taller and you truly do feel like anything is possible aft spending time with him. If he had that impact then, I'd love to know what he used to say on the field.

Or that he has had some minor interuptions and a late start to preseason and he needs to build his fitness?

The day they start doing preseason in Queensland, the day I'll be fortunate enough to recognise new players.

Interesting that you're impressed but not surprised. Perhaps you have looked at threads that weren't related to tanking and found that I'm quite a positive person. Big call playing him in the 1s straight up. Didn't Hawthorn play Hodge at Box Hill after his long absence?

I need the sound at the moment so I know who certain players are!

There is no way any club at AFL level should play a player that is coming back from a long term injury too early. Ok, I may be a little off when I say he needs to be 100%, but Mitch will be nowhere near 85% by Round 1, so it's too great a risk. I wouldn't mind betting therie's been confusion (me included) in this thread about personal fitness v match fitness. We play Mitch when his injury is 100%, and he builds up some match fitness through the VFL. He can then go in to the AFL at 85% match fitness. After being accused of so much hatred toward many people Old, I thought I'd show the sensitive side of me!

How quick one can erase Kelli Underwood from their memories.

You can play through niggles RP. When you have been out for nearly 12 months, you should be 100% ready to go when you return. As boring and childish this line is, I'm glad some of you aren't coaching.

Sellars is probably 70% the player Clark is. With that in mind, it is smarter/safer to play Sellars at 100%, than Clark at 70%.

We have Dawes, Pedo, Fitzy, Watts (if need be), Sellar. We don't need to play a tall forward who isn't 100%.

Hardtack, you do not play in the AFL unless you are 100% right, especially when you are a valuable commodity like Mitch.

I can see what you're saying Old, and it's something that we have probably been quite guilty of in the past, as recent as early to mid 2000's with Green, Bruce, Yze, etc. The difference I see with the group named above is that onfield, we have some bloody tough bastards in that group. Clark doesn't take a step backward or sideways, Viney will be like that, and there's no bullsh!t with Trengove, Dawes and Grimes. Sure, Watts isn't in that category, but one thing you have to admire about him is that he is Melbourne through and through. If he were to leave it would be due to him being delisted. He competes with Jones in the GF for the most loyal blokes on our list. Toumpas has that mix of class and hardness, but the former probably outweighs the latter. I'm happy with that, as we need that balance. At this stage, I would prefer to see Tom Mc concentrate on becoming a great CHB. From all reports he is a professional unit already, especially with his training and preparation. I think he has a bit of Harry Taylor about him in that respect, although HT is unoffically diagnosed as having mild autism! (For those that don't know, he writes pages about his direct opponents, so that he knows what he needs to do the next time he plays against them. That's not normal!). It is a good core, and could be that premiership core that we hear so much about at the top 4 clubs. Will be a couple of years away, but the foundations are there.

Anyone up for this...? We promise not to send players for early surgery, and instead, they play the entire VFL finals series. We invest around $14,700 with above-mentioned betting agency. Casey wins the flag. We pay off our $500k fine.

Wow, we must be in the period where the tanking investigation has well and truly passed and we are waiting for Round 1 to start.

I blame the GE Money Genie. Society didn't know any different other than to put something on layby if we couldn't buy it straight away. That damn genie gave us the ability to have something before we earnt it! Every year we say that the preseason seems to last forever. Round 1, 2014 will feel worse than ever given it started last Friday night!

It stays. Enough said.

That's just from this thread, 3 and a bit pages...

So you've got nothing to back up your lies? Considering you don't like "keyboard heroes", you make it hard not to be personal when you make sh!t up about another poster, then avoid any challenge by changing subject. Poorly played champ.

I don't believe I said that the club changed his roles because of the fine. Obviously they changed him before the investigation, which I put down to his incompetence in that role.

All I wanted was for you to show me where I have this "hatred" for "so many people" in "a majority of my posts". You have made accusations that are totally incorrect, but you've managed to try and make me prove my innocence? A "majority of my posts" on this thread are replying to yours, as I don't appreciate being "labelled" something that is total crap/carp/tripe. My above posts talks about my disappointment toward a number of people involved in that Geelong game. I don't think I'm alone in feeling that way. In regards to RPFC, he and I are like brothers, we agree on a lot, we disagree just as much. I'm happy for people to disagree, but do appreciate it when if someone disagrees, that they give me the respect by explaining their thoughts (see Nutbean above), rather than give me the throw away line of "get over it". As soon as RP did that, post #60 above, I accepted it and we moved on. And what are you talking about "can't handle the heat, don't come in to the kitchen"? Very keyboard hero talk isn't it? I don't actually know why you wrote that given that I'm still here copping the sh!t that anyone throws at me, and I'm not giving in to the masses. If someone asks me a reasonable question, I will answer it. I apologise to anyone who is sick of my posts/ranting in this thread. I hope you can see that I'm just trying to stick up for myself and not accepting someone making incorrect accusations. I think deep down you'd do the same for yourself.

It's a good question Nutbean. I absolutely agree that CC should've been suspended, and think the 12 month period is probably par. With that said, I think the $500k is way overs, as I feel we as a Club responded to what CC had said by transferring him to a different position. He is an employee of the club, and made an error of judgement. A fine of that size is too high. On the other hand, with Bailey coming out admitting that he left players out to give his team less of a chance, but without directing them to lose, that didn't help the cause, and no doubt inflated the fine. So, does that mean Bailey has to take responsibility? Absolutely, to some degree. If he is telling the truth, that he felt pressured in to making those selection decisions, then again, we have to turn to CC - how can we not? In my view, Bailey should've got off, so that in my opinion tells me that there was evidence suggesting he did the wrong thing. All I can suggest was that they had medical records of players that were left out of that Sydney game, and some of those players who could've played would've been in our best 18. This is totally my opinion based on nothing, other than me trying to work out how it all came to this. I could be 100% accurate, I could be totally off the mark. If there were these so called divisions within the club, someone high up needed a foot up the arse for not sorting it out. The AFL gave them that by fining us $500k. A lot of my frustration is still hanging around from 186. What happened that day at Geelong should NEVER EVER happen in a professional sport. I am adamant that some players needed to go because of it, and I feel that the right ones have now gone (took Neeld 2 years but he got there). That doesn't mean I soley blame the players, and think some officials were involved, and hoped they they copped a whack for their involvement. I don't believe any Melbourne supporter should forget the events of that day, and they should certainly not forgive those responsible. Since that day, I haven't had any faith or confidence in my club, and that pains me to say. That changed on Friday night when I looked at the blokes running around on the park believing that between them and the Football Department, nothing like that will happen again (hence why I gave up reading the NAB Cup thread after about 2 pages of absolute negativity). I don't mind my team losing, if it happens each week then sobeit. As long as I know the players are given every opportunity to perform at 100%, and in return put in 100%, 100% of the time, then I can handle it if we aren't good enough.