bing181

You do neither yourself nor your arguments credit by taking this reductionist, either/or stance. There is a huge range of shades and colours between black and white.

Excellent work again. Would rather read this than wade through the various sites, and helps keep the footy interesting. A few close games, on form at least, and we get to see whether Collingwood are really done or not.

Like Dennis Pagan or Terry Wallace? How did they go at their second clubs? Pagan came off a premiership at North, but Carlton bumped along the bottom for years with him at the helm. I'm with Chris Dawes. There's no magic bullet. We just need good people in the club, doing their jobs properly, no matter where they come from.

How about Dane Swan's midfield coach. Oh wait ...

How far and how fast. Also includes acceleration data, as well as heart rate and other metrics if required.

And we receive a visit from the straw man.

You have one source. Strange that it hasn't been corroborated anywhere else - in all the "what's wrong with Melbourne" articles, even in the most fanciful, this is a flag that no-one (else) has run up the flagpole, even by the most shoot-from-the-hip commentators.

Have a look at the ladder. The top 5 teams are all coached by "untried assistants" - and one of those wasn't even an assistant, untried or not.

As you would.

OD, perhaps go through them again then. Garland clearly speaks about the preparation for the week being about "this is what we need to do to beat these guys". Royal also spoke about winning in the team selection chat last week. On the other hand, if you had some time to kill, why not go through comments, press conferences etc. from other coaches etc. from other clubs in the lead-ups to games, and see how many times those coaches speak about "winning". You know as well as I do how often we hear variations on "they have some good players and we know they're going to take it up to us", regardless of how one-sided a match looks on paper. We're all hurting OD.

This was specifically addressed by Craig a couple of weeks back, when he made it clear that the players were not being given any excuses. In Garland's interview, he says on a couple of occasions that the focus on preparation is to win "this is what we need to do to win" (or words to that effect .... check it if you want), and Royal spoke about winning in his team selection chat with Matt Burgan last week.

Not disagreeing with the thrust of your post, but North's Board has members from a range of backgrounds. I'm not sure of the footy expertise of the QC he replaced, or of some of the other members. If you were to replace one or two of our Board members with people from a football background (ex-players or administrators, with some solid business experience), the makeup of our board would look much like North's. Just as a general comment, as with much of the current discussion around the Dees, it seems to me that it's about getting the balance right, not necessarily about lurching from one extreme to another. Many here are criticising Neeld for the slash and burn approach he took on arrival, so perhaps we could learn from that.

I envy you the life you must lead if an article in the sports section of the Sun is "sickening".

Garland commented on something similar in his interview, that players were running, but not always to the right places or at the right times. He also made a comment in an earlier interview, that in the AFL, if you hesitate for a split second, it's already too late, and that that hesitation was making us look slow. Dawes' point about time that should be put into improving as a team, now having to go into working on the basics, is an excellent one - albeit depressing. I like what he says and what he brings - a future coach I suspect. It's also great that he's now out on the field - not only to lead by example, but because now his input and leadership can come from the inside, and will carry more weight. Just a shame that the Jacks and Mitch aren't out there beside him.

You're just not right on Neeld Binman. There were questions about the fitness, as there should have been, but he was positive about the club and the possibilities from the very start.

Agree that Josh Mahoney is the one who looks a bit exposed in all this, but there's certainly a place for Craig and Viney. You get the feeling Craig is much more interested in the performance, mentoring and leadership side of things than being a football administrator and part-time politician. Viney would be the obvious person as HFO, but not sure either if that's where he's at.

I'm just not sure how much we wanted - or more to the point, needed - Hannath. He's similar in age and experience to Gawn, Spencer and Fitzpatrick, and though he seems a handy player, there's only so many rucks (resting forward perhaps) you can play down at Casey. If he'd been a mid ... maybe. I'm not sure of the usefulness of constantly revisiting this year's drafting. It is what it is, let's see how it plays out over the next year or two (at least). We were never just going to take 14 kids to replace our departed players, and if we've taken a bit of a punt on a couple, or thought outside the box, so be it. There seems to be some pervading idea that there are heap of best-22 players floating round in the "delisted" or "can't consistently get a game" group of players, but in reality, they're mostly fringe and depth players at best. Finally, just with the FA, it's obvious that all clubs, us included, were expecting much better compo than what we got for Rivers and Moloney. I suspect that with what's happened, FA will be a lot less appealing to all concerned come season's end.

Interesting - Essendon obviously have had similar issues with their FD, with different but equally (potentially) disastrous consequences. Jackson has made no comment on the organisation of the Admin side, so presumably that's in order (fingers crossed ...). One wonders whether this newfound explosion in the size of FD's across the board haven't led to a few teams playing catch-up, making it up as they went along. Having Elite Performance Managers and Directors of Strategy is all well and good ... but without the right structures in place, it seems that we're not getting what we should out of these additional positions. Good to hear that Jackson has spent time visiting European soccer clubs to see first-hand how the Big Boys do it.

Up until a bit over a year ago, we had that person.

Caroline W's latest take: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/the-trouble-with-demons-20130513-2jif5.html Includes: "The club's new chief executive, Peter Jackson, remained uncontactable on Monday after Sunday's scathing public analysis of the mess he has taken on, but is understood to have met the beleaguered Neeld for a frank chat. Although Neeld's future rests with president Don McLardy and his board, any move remains highly unlikely unless Jackson recommends it, and knee-jerk decisions are not his style. Jackson made it abundantly clear on Sunday that big changes were required at Melbourne, and quickly. He would not guarantee the coach's position or any other, but called for all those under pressure to work with the benefit of some ''clear air''. That breathing space will be afforded to Neeld at least in the short term, with Jackson clearly appalled at the dysfunctional football set-up left behind by Cameron Schwab and which has clearly played a major part in the team's dreadful performances in recent years, and more notably since Neeld was appointed coach. The most pressing void appears to be at the helm of football, and performers such as Geoff Walsh (Collingwood) and Neil Balme (Geelong) do not grow on trees. Jackson spoke of four people reporting to Schwab, and although he didn't name them those four are Neil Craig (director of sport performance), Tim Harrington (list management), Josh Mahoney (football manager) and Neeld, who also reports to Craig. Jackson also made it clear this was a mess but has clearly not had time to assess whether any official capable of taking hold of the football operation exists at the club. There is irony in the fact that Essendon, the club Jackson ran for 14 years until 2009, is also looking to restructure a football department which was so dysfunctional from the end of 2011 that it allowed its players to be subjected to a cavalier, dangerous and potentially unlawful sports science program."

No, let Neeld keep coaching while we put a proper, functioning, supportive, focused FD around him, then let's see what happens and where we are.

Perhaps check out the contract situation and revisit your list. Some of your "Don't Needs" are on contracts longer than one year, and Davey and Sylvia are FA, so there won't be trades there.

No he didn't, been discussed on the relevant thread.

I think some of those injury projections are from the club's list last week. Let's see what Misson has to say tomorrow. Casey having a bye last week hasn't helped clarify things.

Probably a bit OT, but once again, you have to wonder about having the FD and players in one place, and the Admin in another. Can't be helping contribute to a sense of unity.