hardtack

Just so they could give you more ammunition?

24,000

Thanks KD, err, RGRS... greatly appreciated.

I'm crossing every possible extremity on my body in the hope that Dawes has a good game and scores at least 2 or 3 goals... with the current climate that has engulfed these forums, I genuinely dread coming on here to read a thread about what a massive recruiting fail he was. It has gotten to the point where I look forward to going to work more than I do to logging into Demonlad on a Monday morning.

For those wanting Magner promoted, you're out of luck (me included) - just tweeted: "Neeld: we're not going to elevate a rookie for this week. It will be a weekly thing that we'll review."

I don't... if he really is captain material, he will take it on the chin and understand why it had to happen... Trengove would be the first to admit he is in the middle of a slump in form and that Jones is the right man to have there to take some of the weight off his shoulders.

So you are saying that the roles of Captain and Vice Captain are not important enough to warrant reporting in the press to keep supporters across the changes going on (temporary or otherwise)?

I understand that RF, but if you look at the numbers, 2012 and 2013 are pretty much the same - the only comparison figures I could find in the Membership 2013 thread were from March and they were 26, 791 in 2012 against 26, 751 in 2013 (40 members difference)... does anyone have something more recent? So, during the course of Neeld's placement there has not been much of a change. However, if you compare 2011 and 2012, there is a big dip of something in the order of 1,300 at the same time (maybe 4 days difference between when the figures were taken). This was the year when Bailey was dumped as coach, so it is fair to assume (at least I think so) that this dip reflected the destabilisation Bailey's sacking caused, and the disenchantment felt by the member base. So, I would think carefully before putting Neeld out to pasture.

Updated AFL free agency list Restricted free agents Scott Thompson (Adelaide); Eddie Betts (Carlton); Nick Maxwell, Dale Thomas (Collingwood); Jobe Watson (Essendon); Lance Franklin (Hawthorn); Aaron Davey (Melbourne); Kane Cornes (Port Adelaide); Nick Dal Santo (St Kilda); Mark LeCras (West Coast); Adam Cooney, Dale Morris (Western Bulldogs). Unrestricted free agents Graham Johncock, Jason Porplyzia, Ben Rutten (Adelaide); Simon Black, Jonathan Brown (Brisbane Lions); Heath Scotland (Carlton); Alan Didak, Ben Johnson, Alan Toovey (Collingwood); Dustin Fletcher, David Hille, Nathan Lovett-Murray, Jason Winderlich (Essendon); Paul Chapman, Joel Corey, Corey Enright, Josh Hunt, Matthew Stokes (Geelong); Max Bailey, Xavier Ellis, Brent Guerra, Michael Osborne (Hawthorn); Colin Sylvia (Melbourne); MichaelFirrito, Brent Harvey, Drew Petrie (North Melbourne); Brett Ebert, Tom Logan, Matt Thomas (Port Adelaide); Daniel Jackson, Luke McGuane, Chris Newman, Shane Tuck, Matthew White (Richmond); Jason Blake, Lenny Hayes, Justin Koschitzke, Stephen Milne (St Kilda); Jude Bolton (Sydney Swans); Dean Cox, Andrew Embley, Darren Glass, Mark Nicoski, Adam Selwood, Beau Waters (West Coast); Dylan Addison, Daniel Cross, Daniel Giansiracusa (Western Bulldogs).

Just exactly how many paying clients has the MFC lost during Neeld's tenure? Membership numbers appear to be going along at a similar rate to last year, sponsors have come and gone and come again as is perfectly normal. He was given the brief to fix things and as we all know, he is at the halfway mark of that brief. As I said earlier, by adding a couple of high performing mids at the end of this season, plus possibly one more defender, we will start to look like a real team. Let him complete his brief and then see whether he is up to it or not. There is NO quick fix when it comes to the issues at the MFC and the fast-food, want-it-now approach will not work. I've been following the Dees for 55 years and am quite prepared to wait for them to get it right this time.

I was of the understanding that as ASADA is involved, this is not between just the EFC and the AFL - ASADA, and by extension, WADA, will impose the penalties. The AFL can impose additional penalties as a show of strength, but in the end, it will be ASADA that has the final say. Of course, correct me if I'm wrong.

Fortunately (or not) my pockets have held no money for many a year ;-)

There is absolutely no way a deal can be struck between the AFL and ASADA (who are answerable to WADA). If a sporting legend like Armstrong couldn't escape their wrath, there is no way that a relatively insignificant body such as the Essendon FC is going to be able to have a deal cut for them.

Now perhaps you can remind me where they are sitting on the table and how well they have been going and the influence Cooney is having on their fortunes. Even we have more points for than the Doggies (they do better than us in points against, but Cooney's role is to take them forward, not defend). So, if you took exception to my saying he is having little impact on the Doggies performance, just how badly do you think they would be going without him? I have watched all of their games this year, and I repeat, while he is doing well himself, he is having little impact on the team performance.

Haha... yeah, like I said, disastrous start and I haven't been in to make any changes yet... time to put in a late charge now that I've lulled you all into a false sense of security. In the words of the late great Viv Stanshall, "look out there's a monster coming".

Maybe I should go and have a look at my team (if I can remember my password)... I gave up after roughly half my team were out before they even took to the park for round 1.

I think we are seeing signs of improvement... the last quarter against GWS, first halves against West Coast and Brisbane, so there has to be hope that with a further pre-season under their belts they will be able to maintain that sort of output for full games. Additionally, we will have the added strength of Hogan up forward and if Neeld and co play their cards right, a couple of experienced and top class mids via free agency. This season has seen half of the rebuild he was aiming for, and it is patently obvious that the midfield is where we are falling down most badly, so I'm quite happy if they give him the chance to complete his work.

That shows me that individually he is doing well, but at the same time having little or no impact on the team's overall performance... in which case I would doubt he would want to become a Dee and I would equally doubt we would want him at the Dees.

Well, I would say that from his angle, he saw what he was fairly certain amounted to head high contact, and so he was committed to his belief that is was a reportable incident - regardless, even if the report hadn't been made, I think you would find he still would have awarded a free for high/unreasonable contact and the goal scoring opportunity would have still been there (and did this result in a goal really? I can't recall to tell the truth)... perhaps this would suggest that in instances such as this, they should allow the umpire to go to a third umpire who could use the Foxtel/7 footage to determine whether a reportable offence took place?

This will probably get me bagged, but what the hell... I really can't understand the venom that gets spat in the direction of the umpires on these forums (particularly in the game day threads). They have one of the toughest jobs going in the sport, constantly have to make snap decisions in a pressure cooker situation, are frequently unsighted due to the nature of the play, do not have the benefit of the replay system before making a call and are not particularly highly paid when compared to the mid to top range players. In other words, it's a thankless task... they are doomed to criticism no matter what they do - yet the game would not/could not go ahead without them. This guy made a mistake yes, but it was perfectly obvious that it would not make it to the MRP and as there was no 50m penalty, it amounted to nothing more than a free kick... and we won that count quite easily on the day. I wonder how many of the "critics" on here would be willing to take on the job, and if any did, how many would not make similar bad calls under pressure from time to time.

I suppose you developed this dislike for "private school boys" as a result of your living in that notoriously working class suburb of Balwyn North? Just give me guys who can play skillful hard at it football regardless of their education, body decoration or anything else you may care to list.

I like Cooney when he's flying, but I would always be more than a little concerned about his knee preventing him from playing his best football; after all, it is a degenerative knee problem, so is unlikely to improve, but quite likely to fail him again (just a matter of when). Also, I would hope the Dogs can keep him rather than weakening their list even further... I feel a little sorry for them as they are the one club that has been in the wilderness even longer than us. Let's raid GWS or GCS or let's go for FAs at clubs who have at least tasted success.

Well, I do recall one poster on these forums saying that they hope Carlton thrash us by a very large margin (140 points?) so that Neeld would be sacked; so it could be correct to say that there are some on here who don't support the club in it's current form. Of course, I assuming that AoB is using the word "fail" to describe our game day performance and not our viability as a club to continue to exist; and I'm pretty certain that was what he meant.

What an absolute load of rubbish... Jones is a reasonably bright person who carries himself quite well in interviews - he certainly does not fall behind when it comes to IQ levels. In the past my only issue was that he seemed a little introverted, but that is certainly no longer the case; his confidence in himself as a person and a leader has grown with his confidence in his footballing abilities.