Robbie57

It's simple, there was a clash yesterday. Both teams have a clash strip, just so happens that ours clashes with their original strip. At least one occasion Blease mistook a saint for one of ours and passed it to him.

Any clash should be eliminated where possible. The solution yesterday would have been for us to wear our traditional jumper and the Saints to wear their clash strip, doesn't matter whose home game it was, that was the solution, the AFL failed.

Spot on. I turned on the TV and couldn't believe my eyes. It was hard to follow and one goal came from it without doubt. McDonald crossed goal clearly thinking it was only Dees in sight.

This ranked up there with the Umpire outfit debacle.

The strips are too close but both teams normal jumpers dont clash at all.

Agree to a point. Quite a few of these young players are only now able to put consecutive matches together after coming back from long term injury - as well as Spencer there's Blease, Tapscott, Strauss, even Grimes at the beginning of the year, now Jetta. Next year this will apply to Watts & Jurrah, and Martin & Morton if they're still around, & not forgetting Gawn & Taggert.

Not many of our younger brigade have been able to string together say 15-20 games without injury. Perhaps that's one reason for the feeling that we haven't got enough out of them collectively.

Good points, lets hope that Misson will start to stem the flow of injuries on the second full pre season.

Watts has flourished under Neeld as well after a rocky start.

I am really hopeful that they are all heading in the right direction.

Spencer was terrific on the weekend.

What I am seeing at the moment with our younger payers is incremental improvement each week.

McDonald has improved week on week.

Blease ditto and more focussed on getting rid of his mistakes.

It tells me that we have some good coaching going on in the background.

This might be for a seperate thread but our Round 1 team next year may look like this:

Strauss Frawley McDonald

Tapscott Watts Garland

Trengove Sylvia Boak

Blease Clark Jurrah

Howe Cloke Davey

Jamar Jones Grimes

I/C: McKenzie, Viney, Chapman (or ?), Bail

Emerg: Jetta Evans

Gys and Pick 12 to Geelong and/or Port in some combination in some complicated deal.

If I were in charge -

Delist - MacDonald, Petterd, Dunn, Bate, Bartram, Bennell, Davis, Spencer

Re-Sign - Jurrah, Moloney, Rivers, Strauss, Bail, Blease, Sellar

If we are following the moneyball plan I dont see how you would get rid of Macdonald cheap and reliable. His last month or so has been very good.

Spencer is terrific trade bait or back up. His performances in recent times show he has the makings of a agile AFL ruck and I bet a few clubs would be interested.

Gys is the interesting one. Perhaps there is some complicated deal in the works that involves Boak, us and Geelong.

The most interesting part of the year for us is going to be trade week.

I have been looking at the 3 sides at the bottom GC,GWS and us.

I think GWS will win this w/e due to the high number of injuries at GC which will leave

them on the same amount of wins as us.

This would then set up a game between us and GWS as the one that determines who finishes

17th and 16th. With our injury list growing and the likely hood we may put a few players in the sheds

for the remainder of the year we are no certainty to win that one.

http://www.smh.com.a...0808-23usb.html

Whilst it is shaping up as a battle of the injury lists it is likely GWS will be just as depleted at the weekend. and are not as experienced as GC

GWS and GC are not going to risk us saying "no he not worth it", that is a very risky proposition.

They would gladly take Daniher at 2 so no risk in nominating him for them. Viney is a very different matter.

GC is the only threat and I suspect at the end of the day they will play it safe.

A true leader at the Club, carried himself with Dignity this year and lived to his ethos of giving all to the club.

Thank you Brad for the many years of loyal service, i hope the club can help realise your post playing dreams but if its to be elsewhere you have deserved it.

A champion on and off the field.

Brilliant.

As for this stuff, I have a few inklings but we have apparently told all but Blease, Howe, and Jones (maybe a couple others) that we won't be talking contracts until October when we have a better idea of FA acquisitions, trades, and possible delistings from other clubs.

October is a tough month to be an AFL footy player...

Uncontracteds below (Fitz may be a year later but I can't find anything on that)

http://demonland.com...0395-contracts/

I assume that they are delaying the named players because they want to be able to given them the best deals they can having regard to who we end up with.

Frankly i cant see that we will get rid of 10 players we would have to recruit amazingly well to do that. For mine we should give Jetta a go now and see. Spencer is improving and unless he is used in a trade will stay on. It appear Bail and Bartram are thought by Neeld to be worthy. Joel Macdonald has been amongst our best players in the past few weeks and his endeavour is really good. I has a clanger most matches but I think Neeld would see him as a money ball type. he will not be delisted. I think we will see is more players of the Sellar type being signed if we are to turn over 10 plus players

http://www.melbourne...x?newsid=142524

maybe one of those small forwards could play a 200cm forward like what Rivers is trying to play.

This says it all, we need some better targets. They will make our current and our new drafted mids look better.

Neeld is being clear in what he wants.

Buckley offers Howe the tribunal a helping hand:

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/afl/jeremy-howes-blood-smear-case-to-test-change-in-community-standards/story-e6frf9io-1226433845022

Stupid act if intentional but lets wait for the evidence.

Ah Sheehan said a week ago he was sure there would be a deal done with collingwood within 10 days.

Not sure I would accept what he says on this. He made what I thought to be a pretty acid comment about the dees early in the show which makes me think he is not close to this at all.

That said if we want him we pay overs and no loss of picks.

Good points Robbie. Melbourne were not a 'bottom club" when Neeld took over though. On the contrary we were spruked up as having a list to die for! Were pushing the eight hard and most of us thought this year we could make 8. AFTER Neeld took over we dramatically commenced our race to the bottom.

Can I get whatever you are drinking in Thailand!

We were a bottom club and certainly not on the up or pushing for the eight. In the same period for the others coaches above (ie 2007 onwards) we were 14th, 16th, 16th, 12th, 13th!

I think its fair to say we were not exactly at some Olympian height above where we are!

Just starting to wonder if Malthouse's recommendation was some sort of backhander. In some organisations its best to remove someone not quite up to it by giving them a good referral for another job just to get rid of them.

Neeld has made a lot of mistakes in his first year and many of his decisions have been very puzzling indeed. Which is not helpful for such a fragile club as us which needs strong leadership and direction. A good sea captain knows how to sail with and against the wind. Neeld seems to try to want to change direction of the the wind. If he is any good he will learn and adapt. If not I can't see him surviving with a similar record as now in 12 months.

"get rid of him"? Malthouse was leaving and had no reason to get rid of Neeld. All indications were he was wanted at Collingwood.

As for the sailing analogy its just doesn't fit. But let me try, the ship was rotten and the crew mainly press ganged so he has ordered a rebuild to get it seaworthy and is looking for the right crew. If he didn't do this the ship would continue to ship water for years (as Cam Mooney so astutely said).

Mark Neeld would not have got the Gig at Magpies or Bombers . Yes Buckley and Scottsss can Coach. Observe how the Kangaroos have left Melbourne for Dead. Observe the basic game style . Melbourne ignore the loose player preferring to kick to contest. This is one reason Melbourne don't spread well under Neeld. POLICY!!! Kangaroos do both! Spread and create loose players and not afraid to attack via corridor.

My simple point is the facts dont support what you are saying.

Malthouse proved he was a good coach by reversing what had been a terrrible situation at Collingwood over a lean 2 years the first of which was still pretty dire. Roos got handed a successful club which was not down the bottom of the ladder.

Brad Scott has maintained a status quo at North, 9th , 9th and after a woeful start now they are 8th (remember a few weeks ago the hot seat Brad was in?). The 3 years before he got the gig they were 3rd , 8th and 13th.

Chris Scott got handed a team that in the same period was1st, 2nd, 1st, 3rd, 1st and this year down to 7th. His 1st tells us nothing about if he can coach a team up from the bottom as Malthouse did.

Can the Scotts (if we must add them all in) and Buckley coach.? Chris scott is going south, Brad has held their position (which may be a good effort) and anyone who had the collingwood midfield would be acclaimed a good coach.

Malthouse took over from a struggling T.Shaw at Collingwood. Within a very short period of time, he took an average playing list to Grand Finalists for 2 consecutive years.

P.Roos took over a poor performing Swans outfit and turned them into Premiers within a short period aswell. Both team lists were average, but these coaches had the ability to turn average teams into champion teams.

And, they didn't need to bottom out, they just starting winning, and developed a winning culture almost immediately.

We want a winning culture. And if that means win win half of our games instead of 10% of our games, surely it is a better outcome.

And to answer your question, I would have selected Sheedy over Bailey, and later Malthouse over Neeld.

I am dissapointed that the club gambled our future on unproven coaches. Nobody in their right mind would second guess Sheedy or Malthouse, they are tried, tested and proven performers, 2 of the best coaches of all time.

This is probably why I am so impatient with Neeld. There are better candiates waiting in the stands that if selected, will allow us to have a better crack at the premiership in a quicker period of time.

So, we remain patient and continue the gamble with Neeld or we move decisively and hire Malthouse or Roos.

NB. I would have picked Mathews over both of them, however he was either unavailable or unmotivated.

This is not correct. Neither was actually available and their records are below.

Roos:

Since 1995, the Sydney Swans are the only club not to have missed the finals in consecutive seasons, only missing the finals in 2000, 2002 and 2009. They were 7th in 2001 and Roos took over mid 2002. He came off a very different base to Neeld.

Malthouse:

1995 – 1999 Collingwood finished 10th, 11th, 10th, 14th and 16th

Malthouse in 2000 took them one slot higher to 15th (Leon Davis, Ben Johnson, Rhyce Shaw and Josh Fraser were recrutied) and then in 2001 (Alan Didak, Shane Wakelin) they went to 9th.

If Neeld had replaced Malthouse or Bomber Thompson his coaching credentials would be very different. Can Buckley or Scott actually coach, that is something that we will only know when they have been in charge for a while not one year with lists at the top of their game.

Congratulations a champion of the club.

(another year if he wants it for mine, has looked better up forward and leading)

Boy that is one depleted side.

Disgrace.

6 j macdonald

5 Martin

4 t McDonald

3 Frawley

2 Sylvia

1 bail

Made it as well .....

Thanks Nasher greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys for the service, donation made.

6 jones

5 Sylvia

4frawley

3 watts

2 Nicholson

1 Howe

Goal kicking is the one of those things you can't really just practice over and over and over again, and expect to see results. Kicking goals at training is a lot different to kicking goals in match, where you're being watched by thousands of people and the result of the kick is actually relevant. So much of a good technique is fueled between the ears.

Practice is essential for accuracy. Johnny Wilkinson is the prime example of this he just practiced until it was ingrained. Its like learning a musical instrument.

Personally I think it is amazing how poor forwards kicking is given they are professionals. In the 40 metre range 25 degrees off centre either way they should never miss.

Clokes idea with the headphones and crowd noise is good.

This is f77king bullsh22 im sorry but magner why did you run into that marking contest when you should be picking up the crums.

Not happy at all

Dont think it happened then remember early in the game he pulled up sore after a contest, thats probably when the tear started.

Very bad luck for Mitch was on track for AA. Hope he recovers and picks up where he left off.