DirtyDees DDC

From the article on the Melbourne FC website

"Melbourne will now add more than $9m to its balance sheet. These assets are offset by $1.8m of debt taken over and $1.2m in gaming machine entitlement obligations. But in a net sense the improvement on the balance sheet will be at least $6m."

"It is important to point out that the projections we have done for our gaming operations indicate that the debt assumed under the merger can be repaid from the profits of the venues - not from any other activities of the club."

It's hard to see a downside to any of that.

Those are only projections. I believe the Bentleigh club was struggling to pay its way when they merged with the MFC.

I'm not saying the merger was a bad thing; we had by far the lowest asset base of any Melbourne based club and we needed to get bigger.

This deal should work, provided we manage the debt and we don't get a burst in the property bubble.

It wasn't just the 186 match that stuffed him. It was a series of bad performances this year.

We were 28 points up against the Hawks in rd 2 and got done by 46 odd pts.

We played arguably the worst 1st quarter of football this year against West Coast and got done.

We were leading Nth by 4 goals early in the second. They came back and doubled that margin in 2 quarters.

We were terrible against Carlton in our first friday night match of the year.

We let Collingwood kick the last 10 goals against us in our marquee match on Queens Birthday.

And in a match we started favourites, we got overrun by the Bulldogs to lose by 60 points.

Robert Walls is wrong. Bailey wasn't dismissed just because of one bad game. The 186 game was simply the final straw in Deans tenure at the MFC.

From the website - hopefully correct - The next open training session is: Gosch's Paddock - Monday 7th November - 10:00am

Anybody have any idea who the other bloke was who was running with jones, bail and nicholson? It didn't look like Tom McDonald, too short. He led them off the start line in the footage also

Maybe Evans?

Effort creates Attitude....Effort gets everything Rolling....Baby Steps at first....then lift work rates......Misson's Files will be large and varied, don't forget he worked with the Wallabies and Australian Cricket side.

His stay maybe only short...so we gotta learn everything for the future as well

Any hints on that? Didn't he stay at the Swans from 2001 to 2007, and the saints from 2008?

As long as the Effort is there.....The rest will follow...I thought what he had to say for early November was great....The Scope for improvement in this list is massive.

And attitude too. He also said you need both. He's measuring our performance against a recent premier team and a grand finalist. He'll know what we need to produce to achieve results.

Have a listen to the interview with Dave Misson. He has some interesting comments on our current performance.

He mentioned that the 3 front runners were good (Jones, Bail and Nicholson) but there were probably a few guys at the back that needed to improve - 'definitely room for improvement'.

He was asked his impressions of the first week, and he said the effort had been great. He used the word 'effort' instead of 'performance'.

He said he came to MFC with a lot of data from his previous clubs (Swans and Saints) on how they performed over 3k, so he will compare the figures later today.

He said the attitude was good and they have a lot of new things to take in, such as adjusting to MJs new game plan.

Next open training time - monday 7th Nov 10 am.

They're just being grouped roughly by their levels. Everyone can't be at the same level as everyone else; even with everyone at their absolute peak, some are always going to be better than others. Don't think of it as "the elite group", think of it as the "strongest" group, the "middle" group, and the "least strong" group.

Thanks for the clarification. Be interesting to see who joins this group in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully Clark, Grimes and Jurrah.

There were 3 running groups doing 400metre runs. They did about a dozen or so. From what I remember (and I may be missing names if someone wants to help fill in gaps) they were:

Jones, Bail, Watts, Bartram, Martin, Moloney, Bate (otherwise known as the 'Group of Death')

Of this group, it was usually a battle between Jones and Bail, with Jones usually getting the choccies. Bate was strong also. Watts kept up until the last 3 or 4 laps, but looked like he hit the wall late. No disgrace in that, considering this group contained our best midfield runners.

Am I reading this right? Out of our current list of 40 odd players, there are only 7 who are in the elite training group?

That's not great. I'll excuse the 3 guys on international duties, and highlight Watts who stepped up to have a crack at the top level, but gee we want to be competitive next year. Surely Bennell and Morton - guys with 3-4 full pre seasons under their belt - surely they should be in the 'group of death'.

Once again Sylvia and Davey are in the rehab group, along with too many teammates. I read somewhere that most of the rehab group are not far off full training. I should hope so. I think they're in for a shock from Misson and co.

They should have suspended him from round 12.

'I believe in Tom'.

Let's hope Sylvia learns his lesson.

Let's hope he also gets fully involved in pre-season training. Last year it appeared he was parked with the modified training group.

Yet he looks fit; maybe he needs to work on his aerobic capacity instead of his washboard abs.

Any parent would have been thrilled to see their son get offered $6m over 6 years at such a young age. What a great chance to set himself up for life.

But no, they wanted more. So sad. Phil - do the right thing and knock back the offer.

This $6m $cully story broke on the rumour file in early feb.

Late Feb I spoke to a local Melbourne supporter who said he had a very strong connection to Phil Scully. Apparently Phil has an involvement with one of the south eastern football leagues.

He said Phil was adamant the story was a beat up; that the first the Scully family heard of it was in the media, and that Tom was perfectly happy at Melbourne.

My contact said don't worry; looks like Tom will be staying at Melbourne. That's why i believed Tom would reject any offer from GWS.

In hindsight there was too much smoke. The media was correct; the amount was correct; and i believe Sylvagni has stated an approach was made to the Scullys during their window of opportunity in Oct 2010.

When did the Scullys first make an expression of interest to GWS? Maybe when they kept to a two year deal mid 2010, after Trengove and Tapscott agreed to 3 year deals. Maybe it was shortly after being drafted. Some have indicated he never looked happy here.

Maybe it was shortly after Jordan McMahon kicked THAT goal in 2009. A loss by Richmond would have put them at the bottom of the ladder, giving them a first pick and a chance to recruit a kid who was a mad keen Richmond supporter. Perhaps he was not impressed with our 'list management' and thought he didn't owe us anything.

He may become a champion player, but he won't do it at a champion club. At least not for 6 years, till he returns to live in Melbourne.

Seriously I fell of my chair with the Colts V Saints score today. 11 points off equaling the NFL record for points.

As I said earlier, I cannot see the colts winning a game! And as an AFC South man, I AM LOVING IT!!!! Finally my boys have a clear shot at the division.

Marino's record will fall. Brees??? Also, I can see Cam Newton setting all kinds of rookie records! HE IS A FREAK!!!

I taped that match, thinking 'oh this will be good - a replay of the superbowl of a couple of years ago'. Not quite. No Payton Manning - no colts.

It seems that the offensive units are creaming the defences this year. There are too many good experienced quarterbacks, and too many rookies on the backline.

Really good thoughts as usual, Bhima.

Right there with you on getting Grimes and Morton into the thick of it. And Watts and Jurrah on the wing. I think that they will find themselves all over the ground - moreso with Watts. And a traditional winger did go end-to-end.

Howe will find himself iin the middle, no doubt. But I think it will be as a target rather than as another runner. But I agree he could be a shot at it.

What I would like to see is some more muscle on Morton (yeah, I know) and Gysberts and for them to be persevered with in the middle.

I would also give Bate, if his pre-season form is good enough, the first 6 weeks of the season as a midfielder to see whether he can cut it there. He was obviously not a favourite of the previous match committee but is obviously desired by the new FD judging by the ludicrous demands we had on him at trade week.

I wanted to get a bigger body for our midfield during trade week but we didn't so Bate should be given a chance - we get pushed off the ball too easily.

Bate's junior years were in the midfield and I know his glacial speed is a worry, but the way the game is today - the only place for him is in the midfield and out of the forward line where defensive pressure is paramount.

Would it help if he lost about 5 kgs?

Bate played in the midfield at Casey late last season and got a stack of it. He also spent some time rotating thru the middle in 2010. Losing 5 kilos would bring him back to about 87 kgs - the average weight for an AFL footballer.

It doesn't sound much, but try carrying 5 extra kilos around a big paddock for 3 hours on a sunday afternoon.

This could be one of the re-design projects for Misson and Craig.

The only reason to move him out of the backline would be to make room for McDonald and Davis, but surely you'd still be robbing peter to pay paul?

Do you mean Leon Davis? He's just walked out on Collingwood.

With Garland on the other wing?

Get Watts on one wing and Davey on the other. The two fastest players in the side.

My best forward line for start of 2012 depending on form and fitness would be:

Green Bate Jurrah

Davey Clark Petterd.

with Bate maybe interchanging with either the two ruckman- Jamar /Martin and Howe on the interchange bench..

What? No Watts? Maybe a midfield forward possy for Jack, till he bulks up.

It's much easier to pick the forwards with a big versatile 200cm target as one of the options.

Neeld said on Saturday that he has a number of different possibilities; he just has to find the right combination. A bit like Melbourne Victory atm.

http://www.melbourne...66/default.aspx

An excerpt - "Harrington said Melbourne was delighted to secure Clark after the Demons “stuck to their plan and persevered” with him.

“We had targeted specific objectives and we had a course of action where we thought ‘this is how we’ll play it’,” he said.

“It’s no secret that we have a real need for a big-bodied presence in our forward line to compliment a range of players we have in our forward line."

If we had failed to get Clarke, who else was available? Have we just selected the only experienced player 'on the market' who could fulfill our need for a big-bodied presence on our forward line? I'll assume here that we asked Tippett and he was not interested in playing in Victoria.

Other websites are saying we paid too much for him, but the price is not the real issue here. We don't have salary cap issues and we only had to give up pick 12 which seems a fair trade. I also don't think we could have drafted an 18 yo at pick 12 in this years draft with the same height, weight and mobility as Clark. The new coach needs immediate results next year - and Clark is 24 and ready to go.

The big bucks were paid to stop him from returning home to Perth. That was to our disadvantage, but we also lucky. He scared off other clubs by clearly stating he was not available.

It never hurts to ask.

Can't see him being on our list next year. It's either a trade or, more likely, a delisting. His value is low, whoever wants him would probably rate their chance in the ND or PSD, so we'd have to make do with a crap deal or no offer at all.

We have a new coach and a new footy department that may have a different view of Warnock than the previous coaching staff. We may try to keep him if we don't get a good offer from elsewhere.

From Mark Neeld on twitter " A big welcome to Mitch Clark, he is a great fit for the Demons - adds versatility and experience to the team"

We are all assuming that Clarke will play predominately as a KPP. MNs comments indicate he may have extra plans for Clarke. Perhaps rotate Clarke and Jamar in the key forward spot.

Clarke only kicked 27 goals in 17 games this year, but he doesn't need to kick 50-60 to be effective. If he can pot 30-40 goals a season, and free up Jurrah and Howe to kick 30+, and Sylvia and Watts to bag 20+, then he will pay his way. I also suspect that Davey will return to his first role at the club, as a fast high-tackling goalsneak. You wont see him on the backline next year in any great capacity.

Don't be surprised if the club keeps Warnock. Our game plan will change, with less emphasis on precision kicking out of the backline.

So far we have lost Scully and pick 12 for 2 1st round compensation picks and the big tall forward we desperately needed for team balance.

This is a great morale booster for the club.

We weren't able to get an 'experienced' coach, even though we tried for Clarkson, and with Eade, Laidley and Craig all available. Mick had to take a year off, and Ross didn't take us into consideration - preferring Freo.

So we had to throw out plan 1- going for an experienced coach (if that was ever truly Gary's plan) and go for option 2 - find the best assistant coach in the land and get him to Melbourne before he is picked up by someone else.

It appears both Adelaide and Melbourne were interested in signing Neeld, so a decision was requested asap by the club, regardless of Neeld's involvement with Collingwood's push for the flag. He weighed up the merits of both lists and chose us.

My initial preference was for a recognised hard nut like Scott Burns, partly because that seems to be the mould that produces successful coaches, and our 'bruise-free' football image needed fixing. Burns has the reputation of being a tough physical competitor, whereas Neeld was a taller and more lightly built, and didn't have a reputation of being one of the league's hard men of the'90s.

Mark Robinson hinted at this in an interview with Mick yesterday, and Mick chopped him up. MM pointed out that you couldn't

get two more different coaches than Sheedy and Mal Blight, yet both achieved the ultimate success. Interesting to note that the one thing Neeld wants from his team is hardness.

Matthews also said that he was not sure if Neeld was ready to coach a senior team 2 years ago, so he moved Neeld to manage the midfield. MM now reckons he has no doubt Neeld is ready. Unlike Hird, Neeld has served a long apprenticeship.

$cully is going to America for a holiday. I hope he scores a date with Tonya Harding.

It wasn't just the money. We stuffed this up too.

If we had put together a good season in 2011, like Essendon or the Swans, then he may have decided to stay.

Instead, we put up crap.

$cully looked at their potential list, and looked at our performance this year, and thought his best chance of playing in the top league was with GWS.

I hope he does his leg in round one. Gutted.