DEE fence

While I thank the MFC FD for giving me hope, it is all air till the QB match.

Sean White (proof that you could poke God in the eye), Walsh and Wheelan as equal seconds, Lovett also pretty bloody good.

I'll bite, where is the fluff? Point of the article is there, that the club continues to look everywhere for good footballers including indigenous ones. And that its not easy swapping cultures, and bluey i know you'd struggle outside your goldfish bowl. When did jurrah ever claim to be anything? He looked like he liked playing for the club as far as his body language went.

BTW I reckon we got the best out of Farmer and Charles, the star that burns twice as bright burns half as long, 10 years out of a footballer is the exception and not the rule, so would I like all my stars to have longevity, of course, is it going to happen, that's fluff...

On a brighter note, I really enjoyed the original post, thanks for the effort keep it up.

To be clear, I have no knowledge of Mr. Barry Prendergast and how good or bad he is, just that there has been more than a few disparaging comments here about him, which was why I posted the forward looking thread. Thanks also for bringing up Jim Cardwell, he stands out in history, how do you say no to 'Do you want to come and play on the MCG, son?'. I also fully agree that good recruiting is a trifecta of the coach, the FD and the recruiter seeing eye to eye about who, what and how obviously the more functional the back office the better the front office is going to look. The more I looked into Wells the more I could see that he really does have an extraordinary level of empathy to understand how a kid will turn out, but it was also pretty clear from 6 different articles on the Geelong board that it has been an integrated FD that made his selections work.

and thanks RPFC, didn't have a clue that Taylor was coming on board-my fingers are firmly crossed.

I do my own recruiting, i.e. employing officers to work for me managing the security of UN staff in some terrible places (and looking after UN staff is like herding cats) and I find that the typical ex afghanistan/iraq SF type is usually pretty crap at doing the communicating/encouraging (soft skills) as against the hard skills that most of these very sorted blokes(and some women) have. Its why I posted, its a bloody hard job, lots of investment in time that you don't see for ages and if it goes pear shaped you eat the consequences for a long time.

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2009/12/22/133121_gfc.html

Seems a top contender from the articles on him, sadly no insight into how he does it, or the relationship between coach and recruiting

Mr P is obviously on the nose with many here, and it is a sore subject with many as the likes of Cook et. al. appear destined for the bush, so I want to know, being far away from TAC <18 comps and the like, who has the most respect when it comes to choosing the cattle? I always thought MFC suffered a bit back in the day because we didn't have a zone that had Assumption college or the like in it, but now days how is it done? I would really enjoy some knowledgeable insights into how the clubs that have recruited well have done it? Is there a 'football whisperer'

I personally would pay extra to the club if they said we want bloke 'X' he has the soft skills to identify great kids and we need to pay him X.

Cheers

Biggest mistake MFC have made gving this one dimensional "ruckman" another 3 years He will not last the season he is broken and he has never ever done enough around the ground

I can only hope Gawn Spencer or Martin can come through I love Gawns and Spencer raw aggression so thats a good start.Fitzpatrick deserves a go he always looks good at Casey Confidence is lacking in all due to lack of opportunity. Jeff White killed our ruck stocks for 4 years because he was a fav son Hope that they dont do it again.

Jeff White was worth every dollar we ever paid him, granted the rule change at the bounce killed him, but he was always worth while, problems did not start or finish with him. Yze on the other hand ...

Rivers is still essential to our list, our back six were not terrible this year and I feel he is the link, if he goes good luck to him he's been ace, but I think he's been our 'fletcher' (not as much of a mongrel mind you, and not as good a spoiler) but on the whole really does those little things you need from a smart defender that other don't have.

Never have I agreed with so many posters in one article, we are all feeling the love hey?

It says something how many people have come out of the wood work to post about the JV recruitment, the club has obviously ticked a big box with it's supporters. I pay my membership every year thick or thin, in the knowledge I might only see one game every second year, but I have to admit, it will give me more pleasure paying for the family for 2013.

Awesome news re JV, and what made it sweet were the tweets as mentioned by others, leave spud Dawes at Collingwood, I don't want Collingwood discards and as if they would let the cream go. But back on topic, the next season for me will give the MFC a chance to draw a line under the 'tanking' years and become a fair dinkum club again.

mark Neeld should take the entire playing list to Norm on the first day of preseason. Lay down the standards that must be kept.

They should fit poles to the base of the thing and make the players do laps of the G carrying it together.

...and to lift the curse they should get the administration to do the same thing...

My favourite Whelan moment was defiently the hird bump!! in todays game he probably got 6 weeks but boy he made sure he hurt them!

do you reckon Hird thinks about that bump when he loses to the Dee's two years in a row??? Probably doesn't but I'd like to think so.

Another ego lost to the game, oh well, can't wait for some other journo's to follow

The Best "Hot & Cold" Player i have seen....when Travis decided to flick the switch he was the Best Kick in the AFL.

If only he had had the application of R. Flower.

Rolls Royce skills, Garry Lyon called it one day when he wrote an article about trapper not doing the work to put on extra bulk to protect himself

At least we had Robbie Flower growing up, currently they have no one.

I do think RF basically kept the club alive in the dark 70's he was the only thing I could hang my hat on in the school yard and I still hate dipper and ironmonger for trying to kill him. We could do with another 'saviour' type player - I think Chris Grant was that for the Dogs.

The club is 150 years years worth of stories of thousands of peoples, the last six years (and my childhood in the 70's) is not enough to even remotely make me think of giving up. With my family connections to the club it is basically my tribe, a group I identify with and thankfully because its a sporting club stupid things like religion and race don't come into it.

That said if the club became a plaything of some Russian ogliarch or Clive Palmer type [censored] then I would think the club had died. As much as I thank JoeG for his input I was glad when he withdrew from the club because I did not want to see my club used as a vehicle for a political agenda. I also see Free Agency as a serious threat to clubs like ours and remain very nervous about it.

My two children have no choice and I have/will blackmail them at every turn - I was very proud when my six year old daughter (at the time), called a Penrith player a 'bumsniffer' after he ridiculed her for supporting the Dee's (she was living in the hostile territory of the Blue Mountains) and he had been canvassing the school room asking each child who they supported in the NRL.

My son was signed up even before he was born and that was 2010 when we truly stank as a team.

The reason people are bringing up Davey is because he is meant to be the mentor of the indigenous players at Melbourne. He is meant to look out for them and communicate with them. Ensure they are happy at the club and if they are not that the club knows about this so that they can try to cater for the players.

3 walkouts in the last 12 months.......surely he ain't doing the best job. All he has left to mentor is a kid with a broken leg who is going to be delisted.

still posting garbage, the issues LJ is facing are way more than needing a mate for a chat about. I am heart broken that we have lost three indigenous players recently, I consider indigenous footy to be free flowing and attacking footy which I enjoy immensely and want as a hallmark of the club. I also consider sport as one of the best ways to deal with the scourge of racisim and I want my club to be a part of that (be clear that I'm not accusing or implying anything here, just saying why I care).

Anyway three players who I would have loved to see succeed have left, the thing I'm calm about is that they didn't leave because of any garbage reasons to do with being indigenous, which is the way it should be and one of the reasons AD is a mentor.

So if you want to say AD has had a terrible year, no argument, just stop this baseless garbage about him not doing his job as a mentor its not what I hear from the club.

As an aside I remember being at a night game between GFCvMFC where AD tore them a new ar$3hole (this is pre hamstrings forward pressure days) when I was sitting amongst a Geelong group and I was cheering AD to have a grumpy old bastard say 'little [censored] (sic) will never amount to anything, will go walkabout they always do and never a star" I replied is that what you think about all of them and he replied with some cr@p that I won't type here, to which I said, fair enough what about polly farmer? to a person, every Geelong supporter turned and looked at this [censored] who said nothing, he and his wife left shortly after, we won the game.

re Davey

Maybe theres more validity in the off the cuff lambasting that you ridicule so quickly.

Davey does have a role as mentor of his 'brothers" Liam was one of the charges under his wing. So maybe there is a question to ask , how much might have Aaron known about Liam's inclination to go walkabout?

If he knew anything did he pass it on to the club ?

Whats wrong with asking these ?

it did and still does sound like a cheap shot at Davey and nothing you've added is anything other than speculation without any basis on facts, which is that Davey might have undermined the team, big call in my book to accuse someone of treason with no facts.

Fantastic Job Aaron Davey is doing...

grow up

This will be better than Sumo wrestling, a phenomenal clash of egos...

MM has the Midas touch when it comes to making an emotional connection to players and getting them to play well, (from a source who is close to the coal face) and is the guy who will get them to run into the line of fire, but this will not be enough to deal with his own problem.

He also has a monumental ego on a par with any other figure in the game (and present in the Carlton board) and humility is not in his lexicon. I think the clash of egos at the blues will be huge and I don't think the blues will profit from it (this part I'm quite happy about as I hate them in a way that is generally a prelude to violence). And nothing in his arrival, if it happens indicates that the CFC board will pull their heads in.

You think the whole Pagan saga would have taught them a thing or two, and Mick's ego is going to be end of him, by the time the CFC spits him out he'll regret the BS he gave Ratten.

I don't reckon Judd will be happy about it either and he can sit and spin on his Visy packaging wrapper (still sad on him as well)

minor edit for spelling

It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling!

The paper said 1971 - Melbourne was the last time a team F'd up so badly after a flying start - must admit that depressed me before I went and had a look at Bomberblitz

It seems like everyone has been happy with the recruitment of Mitch Clark and he has demonstrated all the skills both hard and soft that we want to see when on the ground and with his team mates.

Which makes me curious, I don't believe the whole 'go back home' story of when he was traded, yet I can't see why he wouldn't have fitted in with blokes like Voss and Brown. Not that I mind I like everyone (i think) has been rapt with him being a Demon.

Was there some resentment between him and Brown over the cheek fracture? Two bulls in a paddock sort of competition that neither could back away from?

Anyone have any idea on this?

No injuries please, but a good melee would make me laugh, really want Essendon out of the eight so yes to Carlton winning. Keen to see both St Kilda and Geelong in the Finals, while far from being a supporter I love an underdog, and St Kilda in the finals would be huge. My nasty side has really enjoyed Essendon's 'fall from grace' since they lost to us.

Like a few have said I loathe Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon, Hawthorn and can't love any of the interstate teams except Sydney just a little bit. Figures of hate over the years have been Elliot, Kernahan, Long, Lloyd, Kennett, Wallis, HFC and EFC during 80's just cos. Collingwood - because they pinched my GF's whisky bottle.

Yet again this has been a season when the press (sorry WJ but i like bagging the media) got on the bandwagon early talking up Essendon and Carlton, way before it was justified. If I was a bit more OCD, I'd be mailing the writers their clippings about Carlton and Essendon.

In terms of team potential, and how good the team is at meeting their potential, this is how I'd group the league at the moment (maybe another thread I suppose).

Tier 1 (think Regiment (SAS)) teams in the comp IMHO (in no order) are Hawthorn, Geelong, Sydney, St Kilda,

Tier 2 (think Commandos) Adelaide, Collingwood,

Tier 3 (2RAR) Carlton, Essendon, Kangaroos, West Coast, Richmond,

Tier 4 (Chocos) Brisbane, Bulldogs, Freo,

Tier 5 (Bangladeshi Peace Keepers) Us, GFC, GWS, Port

Obviously the big in-consistency in this grouping because its outside the eight is St Kilda, but my argument is that with a coaching change, age of the list, and the heartbreak of some close GF's the fact that they are still about the mark with an old core says great things about the StK culture which used to be the worst in the league.

I really think we could see a bottom 1/2 of the eight get up this year.

All the talk of getting chapman for his culture building abilities gets me thinking we should go hard for Cameron Ling as a Midfield coach. This bloke knows what it's like to be in a crap team and then turn it around into a monster of a team. Many say he is interested in coaching so I say get him.

I often think posts about former players as coaches indicates a high level of belief in voodoo or 'rubbing Buddha's belly' for wealth, as the link as to why someone is going to transform players into their level of ability seems very faith based.

However on this occasion I can see Ling having that effect and would be on-board with him as midfield coach, hell I'd be happy if he pulled on a jumper.