bing181

Given the number of people around here who were demanding that we do everything and then some to get Malthouse to Melbourne, some surprising reactions. For mine, I love the Dees, and after that, hard to work up much passion either way re any of the other clubs. For Malthouse, does seem that his time is up, in the same way Thompson's was at Geelong. All change. 2012 already looks interesting - and impossible to predict.

I like him a lot - he's not stupid, he asks the right questions, or at least enough questions to keep the interview moving on, he's very pro-Dees, he's up to speed on what's happening in the club, and the "amateur hour" presentation is actually pretty solid. In particular, for an in-house broadcast, he's just the right balance of "one of us" and "someone slick that we brought in just to do this presentation". And as others around here have pointed out, the club's on-line presence and content has gone up a number of notches since he came onboard. But heh ... if you don't like him, don't watch him.

Even though Mahoney has been named as Football Manager?

Get rid of him straight away. Would show teams like Collingwood how to manage players. They should have dumped that guy they got at pick 58, instead of persevering with him for 4 ordinary seasons. What was his name ... Dane Swan?

Thanks for the vid. Time will tell if we have ourselves a coach, but we've certainly picked up a handy after-dinner speaker. Inspiring stuff, and once again, I just find myself wondering why it has taken us 3 years under Jimmy and co. to get to this stage. Professional.

Yes - and perhaps in the light of recent events and what is now being said (e.g., Schwab's comment about giving the (incoming) coach what he needs, and not trying to fit round pegs in square holes), there's room here for a thread looking at just what has been going on with the FD. We can probably all mostly agree on the players and their failings, but it also seems increasingly clear that neither Bailey nor the players were given the support staff (from coaches to conditioning) that they needed - and deserved. Not excusing anyone, but it does seem that the blame for a miserable 2011 should perhaps be more widely distributed than it has been up until now. Finally, the elephant in the room here for me is Jimmy - who has been somewhat non-present for reasons we all understand and respect. Perhaps the temporary lack of someone at the top with real football experience, not to mention the absence of someone with football experience to act as a conduit between the club (especially the FD) and the board and admin, is what has left us scoring runs off the field (sponsorship and finance), but not on it.

Not so sure about this. Spencer was only out for the season (= this season), and with Strauss there's talk of him being able to do at least half of the pre-season.

According to the Age: http://www.theage.co...0920-1kjlc.html "DAYS after appointing a new senior coach, Melbourne has cleaned out its football department, moving football boss Chris Connolly out of the department altogether, and parting ways with two assistant coaches and the fitness adviser. Connolly has moved out of the football offices at AAMI Park and into the club's administration at the MCG across the road, as part of his shift from general manager of football into a commercial role of helping to ''grow the club''."

As reported on MFC site: "MELBOURNE ball movement coach Mark Williams, midfield coach Scott West and fitness manager Joel Hocking have departed the club." Hang on to your hats people ...

Starting to feel the same thing myself.

Confirmed by St Kilda club twitter: stkildafc St Kilda FC David Misson today advised the St Kilda Football Club that he will be taking up a position with the Melbourne Football Club.

Agreed. With the benefit of hindsight, perhaps Schwab's interference in the FD - if that what it was - was warranted, and came out of a frustration that things weren't where they should be. He (Schwab) has certainly looked the goods over the past week (Scully, Neeld etc.). Also agree with your comment re Bailey. Now that we're into the next season with a new coach, I don't even know that Bailey's appointment was the wrong one ... at the time. Certainly, Neeld already inspires a lot more confidence going forward, and perhaps we have Bailey to thank for not burning a great coach, putting them through 3 years of what was always going to be a miserable few years.

Not just MM - there has been the odd murmuring here and there that at least some of the players feel the same way, that they'd prefer Neeld over Buckley. Of course, could be the normal web goss., but from what Collingwood fans are saying as well, I don't know that there'd be too many complaints if it was Neeld taking over the Pies.

This from the Adelaide board on BF: .... today had the opportunity to speak with a person who has a significant role at the Collingwood Football Club. Mark Neeld had the opportunity of both the Adelaide Football Club and Melbourne Football Club roles, both offered to him as of yesterday, however Adelaide have been educated to deny that this was the case and Mark Neeld has been instructed by Melbourne to not discuss the issue other than how he signed with the Melbourne Football Club, this is factually correct and if you get the opportunity I'm sure the AFC will not deny that this is the case, there were 3 reasons that Mark Neeld chose the Melbourne Football Club Senior Coaching position: 1) Mark Neeld in conjunction with Malthouse viewed both teams list - scope for development, scope for carrying out the game plan that Neeld plans to introduce and the general talent being viewed as superior to Adelaide due to astute drafting due to sustained poor performance. 2) Mark Neeld felt that the Melbourne Football Club had stabilised its management performance and is continuing to excel in the financial department, with the 3rd highest sponsorship deals and another to be announced in the coming 2 weeks, he felt Adelaide's off field financial performance was less than stable with much work to be done. 3) Mark Neeld was satisfied with the support staff that are going to be provided as part of his coaching set up with long term deals about to be announced as part of the shake up of the Football Department, this includes the area of Sports Science and Football innovations.

Jeans ... 70-odd pretty average games, and then took over St Kilda with no experience whatsoever. That Yabby Jeans? Or Norm Smith ... passed over at Melbourne, and picked up as a reject by Fitzroy to start his career. With no coaching experience whatsoever. Neeld. Great choice, widely regarded as the best of the assistants, and was always going to be first cab off the rank. That we got him before Crows, Dogs and even St Kilda is a rather nice fillip to end the week on. PS You're livid? You could always head over to some of the Adelaide boards, where there is much gnashing of teeth that they missed out on him.

... not to mention, have a look at what the Collingwood supporters and people who've seen him at work are saying. Great move. BTW, of the 8 teams in finals this year, 7 of them have untried coaches. Of the past 10 or so premierships, almost ALL of them have been won by first-time coaches. (Malthouse and Matthews the only exceptions)

He doesn't have to do any negotiating, he already has a contract till the end of next year, with a promise of an extension.

Who's being sycophantic?

Berating the club and running down all and sundry connected with it at every opportunity is your idea of "rocking the boat"??

Careful here ... we're not the only club with live compo picks. Not sure of who's holding what, and how this plays out, but I don't believe it's as clear-cut a picture as that.

Unless Green is moved on or retires, hard to see how we're going to lose any experience this year. On the other hand, we have a lot of 2nd/3rd/4th year players who will be one year older - and thus, more experienced.

But he's only going up to "check out the facilities", right?

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/7415/newsid/122936/default.aspx "..... and I just want to give a real big thank you to the Scully family as well. I’ve been lucky - because I’m from Werribee myself - and when I came to Casey it was a long trek, so I would travel out to Berwick to stay with the Scullys the night before a game at Casey. Especially during pre-season, that’s three nights a week, and it’s pretty solid. So, just a big thanks to them, because there’s no doubt that without them, God knows where I’d be."

... he just needs to get through the pre-season unscathed. Which could be a challenge in itself, Cale has a habit of picking those unexpected "My finger broke when it got caught in a training vest" type injuries ...

- compensation picks don't have to be used this year. Or even next year for that matter. - they can be traded, or used as part of a trade. Even back to (cough cough) GWS.