Footynut

He and James Frawley were absolute liabilities today. I was at the point in the last qtr thinking don't pass it Watts or Frawley as its a certain turn over usually by hand to a player about to be tackled.

You can't control the general public. Our club is made up collectively of many individuals who react differently to different circumstance. These 'should be' professional footballers and further adults, and shouldn't think because people clap them off when they are down that life is good. If they want to win enough no amount of clapping from supporters at half time should matter. I witness many other teams clap their players off at half time when down and guess what no one says they are creating a soft culture. When you are losing the cliche's about supporters come on out and people like to think we have more influence than unfortunately we actually do.

You have some good points re finding quality board members - granted, but don't you consider Dons comments about the cheap seats derogatory and divisive at a time when he should be continuing to do the good work Jimmy started by healing the club as one? You have spoken to him, and thats good, so you understand him but what about all the supporters in the cheap seats who don't have the same access? The best they have is to read what he talks about in his Presidents Lunch today and here he is making statements that don't help the club heal. How does Don think what was a premeditated prepared Presidents Lunch speech is going to be taken by the members in the cheap seats. We need as many members sitting in cheap seats as we do corporate support and alienation of either is unacceptable for a President. Don needs to realise perception is reality and perception is he is playing the blame game instead of telling us constructively what Club is doing about all this mess. Don't start with the poor me story Don as we all feel it albeit not in the gun.

6. Byrnes - Showed leadership for 4 qtrs was our most consistant player across the game. 5. Jones - consistant but miss a couple he could have kicked. 4 - Evans - 3 goals from a midfielder, ran all day - very good. 3. Gawn - contested marks held how refreshing... 2. Sylvia - Finally showed something last qtr 1. Davey - I thought his impact for playing just over a qtr was profound. He created options, space and pressure in defence. 2 Goals we good reward.

Id love to know if the instruction in the last was to kick long especially to the goal square. We had talls there wasted all day until they decided to kick long in the last which put GWS under pressure and kept the play in our forward half. Was it a Neeld instruction or did the players take it upon themselves or is this something Neeld has wanted them to do and they havent executed?

He is still a way off but definitely better today and is showing upward trajectory in form which is heartening.

I find Don's take on this and his referral to the 'cheap seats' a little bit condecending. Don's comment that we will end up with people from the cheap seats running the club which will be another major problem for the game is laughble when you consider how well those from the 'expensive seats' are going doing the same thing. I mean Don really could anyone do any worse than what the club has been subjected to in the last 2 years? Don really is out of touch and needs to get some perspective. I would have thought the 'establishment' type people at our club would have realised they need the people in the 'cheap seats' to make this club a great one together as one and not blame them for pressure. Lets face it at 3 Qtr time today all I could think was - what more do you want MFC...20K supporters turn up even when you are at your lowest and now you are doing this to them against GWS. Seriously Don come sit in the 'cheap seats' just like Jim used to do. You might find you actually learn something outside the ivory tower.

Unfortunately the club seems unable on any level to fix this itself and in addition doesn't seem to embrace help. In addition the club does not seem to be self aware and honest with itself internally. I would think that either 2 things need to happen. Either the AFL gets involved in cleansing the club more than just P Jackson or Melbourne Football Club supporters need to band together and cause change at the club by presenting a united front at the next AGM. This cannot be allowed to continue. If any company in the real world had these continuing issues the company would be out of business by now and the entire board and CEO would have been removed for the good of the company.

I agree Ben and in addition Andrew D has the right to protect the competition. Although it may be nothing or it may be something reality is he is mitigating risk to the game (which is clear he should as CEO and he is dealing with MFC who has history of not acting with integrity). He needs to ensure that if all goes pear shaped he has been detailed and thorough in his dealings with clubs so the AFL isn't also seen to be covering up. I don't blame him at all for his comments and in fact as a MFC member I want the same as him. I want an independent investigation and I want the club sorted once and for all. This lurching from crisis to crisis is unacceptable and frankly the club needs to find rock bottom (however far further we have to fall) quickly so we can begin to rebuild foundations of transparency and integrity in a manner that we as supporters are proud to be a part of a great club.

but he had to admit it given it was in the media with text supplied by Dank... yes we maybe have something to hide but the fact he admitted it doesn't prove it.

Ok this is going to sound like madness..but... After watching that game and looking at our list I actually think we should be able to match these teams for effort and intensity. They are human with arms and legs. They just believe in themselves more and have the insatiable hunger to get to contests and help each other. Our players I feel have bought into the psych of we aren't fit enough yet and we are still 'young'. It's total mindset - we should not be 100 point worse team than these sides. Yes we don't have a Selwood or Goodes but we shouldn't be as far off as we seem right now.

I agree I have thought of putting my hand up but seriously you have to have either been an afl former player, be a highly paid business person who earns over $1M or own a business that returns this or know someone already on the board. It seems to me it is all about profile and putting an AFL club on your CV instead of being all about the right thing to do for the club and its supporters. Seriously - a few demonlanders with their heart in the right place couldn't do worse than what these top flight business people have done to our club at the moment..... I am Dee Spondant....

so he should just give it away then? character building stuff you got.

this just shows you cannot win at pressers when you get badly beaten. many on here want him out as he shows no emotion and is too much of a hard teacher with the players. being everything to everyone on here sure would make you some sort of god I guess if you could do it.

you do realize he was showing empathy a quality many on here lambast him for not having and 'losing the players'. In addition I'm sure you want him to be as positive as possible heading into the next game?

Done some research of my own assumptions definitely only a 5 year plan. I stand corrected.

when I was 5 it felt like 8! It was an 8 year plan though wasn't it that came to an end at 5? I guess my point was I know he was a champion and no doubt deserves to be revered but he wasn't a super coach at Melbourne at all. He lost alot and perhaps best efforts might be talking to MN.

when I was growing up my recollection is my dad taking me to the footy to watch Melbourne get thumped every single week for 8 yrs under Barrass. I love the man but perhaps he would be more value to Neeld speaking about what its like to coach a bunch of players who are rubbish and think they know more than you do...

so you have seen one grab of a speech to players in Neelds time at Melbourne and decided he is a dud. have you ever met the guy or spoken to any players to verify your assumption?

I simply use the 3G network to watch given its free and I'm with Telstra. It works fine with no issues. Worth it if you don't have foxtel and are on the road a lot.

My feed was pretty good quality.

You are absolutely spot on Srjennings on all counts...

Mitch only just started running in a straight line 2 weeks ago. He has a lot of work to do and wont be risked early.

Agree its defintely changing but I just would love to see someone like Sylvia come out in pre season and blitz it setting the example. Im very happy to see us changing it just demonstrates wh culture at the swans is so strong.

So Jude Bolton after a mammoth season runs a better 3k time trial than last year. Yes he is simply wonderful as a team man, a leader, and a player. I wonder if players like Col Sylvia or the like ever look at players like Jude and think to emulate. Apart from Jones we rarely seem to hear much about our senior players bettering their pre season year on year.