Deetective Sgt. Taggert

If we start winning games and playing consistently then the rest will follow. Its not the coaches job to 'sell' the club via a gameplan thats exciting, Matthew Knights took that approach and look where that left the bombers and himself after 3 years. Leave it up to the club administration to deal with attracting supporters and sponsors. Besides, landing a proven coach like Lyon would likely be attractive and I wouldn't expect R Lyon to try transplant the same dour gameplan onto a very different list.

Lyon would surely have a strong desire to achieve what he got so close to with the Saints but would have to concede it very unlikely to happen with the saint (unless he is prepared to do a Malthouse and wait another 5 years or so through another rebuild).

I agree. I think Ross Lyon developed a ultra defensive and dour game plan to suit the players on their list at the time, which included a few superstars but not a great deal of depth. With a different list I'm sure he would go for a different approach. I think accountable football is what we lack more than anything and I think Lyon could deliver that, whether dour or not.

Slyvia's mark: http://www.afl.com.au/news/newsarticle/tabid/208/newsid/121553/default.aspx

Holy Moluck! who would have thought

Hmm. Good point. I would imagine that a ultra-professional player like Scully would actually relish being at the club 8 till 4, which may in part explain his apparent 'closeness' to Bailey. He might be be turned off by a more 'casual' approach. However, I also sure that the change would have been implemented by the club primarily to give they players some time to come to terms with Baileys sacking (and probably because Viney wouldn't have had an intensive program ready to roll out even if he wanted to). So I don't think we should read too much into it.

Stoked!

Could this be at the behest of one Todd Viney? Or Lyon perhaps?

I think that a good point also. Even if he doesn't pursue the coaching or presidency, somekind of official role, whether board member or the like, would go along ways towards clearing the waters on his current standing at the club

I made this observation in the Dean Bailey press conference thread but I feel it deserves its own space for discussion: Thinking about this a little more, perhaps what Jim might be alluding to in regards to support from Lyon is not for Lyon to step in to a coaching role, but to assume the MFC presidency, so as to enable Jim to walk away from the job and focus of his personal challenge, knowing the club is in safe hands. Given Jim's situation, I think he's probably coming to the realisation that he can't keep up his amazing efforts for much longer, but feels a huge sense of responsibility to ensure the club's future. Gary Lyon could then still continue with many of his media commitments as present. We all overwhelmingly can agree that Stynes has done a marvellous job in the role as president, and to continue despite his difficult illness speaks enormous volumes for his strength, character and love for the MFC. However, we cannot expect him to continue to do so given his circumstances and I believe that the best thing that Garry Lyon could now do for the club is to agree to a transition agreement to take over from Stynes as president at time in the future that best suits the club and Jimmy. Assuming that Lyon does not wish to pursue a coaching positions, then I believe Lyon would be a perfect figurehead for the club and would be one of the few people that would be capable of following in Stynes footsteps and carrying the torch for the club. This would still enable him to play an important role in building up a winning culture within the club, without having to deal with all the nitty gritty of the football department (although I'm sure there could be some mentoring roles going begging for Jack Watts and co.). Moreover, given Lyon's presence in the media he would bring his own networks and contacts to help bolster the club's image and sponsorship. If this plan was put in place and made public then the club wouldn't have to deal with the ongoing questions about his coaching aspirations and could focus on landing the best coach available and other important matters such as player contracts. Garry I think it's time to step up to help us to steer the ship back towards the ultimate prize

Thining about this a little more, perhaps what Jim might be alluding to in regards to support from Lyon is not for Lyon to step in to a coaching role, but to assume the MFC presidency, so as to enable Jim to walk away from the job and focus of his personal challenge, knowing the club is in safe hands. Given Jim's situation, I think he's probably coming to the realisation that he can't keep up his amazing efforts for much longer, but feels a huge sense of responsibility to ensure the club's future. Gary Lyon could then still continue with many of his media commitments as present.

Its the same Dean Bailey performance, I think we can see now why the players lack spirit. Bailey just doesn't seem to be able to communicate his emotions so its hard to imagine he'd be able to inculcate the players with the fire that is lacking.

Stynes has said that everyone in the club needs to take responsibility, yet Bailey was the only one to go. It seems bit hypocritical.

Maybe we should do what Fremantle did last year and send the reserves team down the highway to get mauled by Geelong allowing the firsts to rest up for a red-hot crack at Carlton... If we actually we lucky enough to play a Geelong 'home game' at the 'G then you might carry some faint hope but down there its a write-off.

Interesting idea, I guess it would come down to his asking price though. Can't imagine the club being willing to part with much given its youth focus. BTW - I miss your training reports Bhima. Was the main reason I used to read Demonland and the site has gone downhill in the quality of debate and content as a result.

I agree. I felt coming into this game that after we put two wins together, we were always going to struggle with a 6 days break. I don't think we played particularly worse than last week against the tigers. It's just the fact we played against a more mature, and more experiences team ( esp. their midfield) who punished our every mistake and exposed our current deficiencies. The lack of leadership when our backs are against the wall is still a concern though. The margin should not have been allowed to blow out so much and whenever we got a bit of a run going I didn't see any of the leaders trying to fire us up. The ranting and roaring from Richmond fans today sounds very familiar and I think a degree of patience is just required, as much as it sucks. An article on the AFL website provides a reasonable perspective

It's the knee issue that poses some interest to me. I don't like to add any more fuel to the speculative fire but I wonder if this is a factor at all in Tom's decision? If it has been identified as a potentially chronic injury that could limit the length of his career then it would be understandable that he would feel more inclined to accept, and indeed may seek to secure, a larger contract that delivers greater benefits in the short term. This doesn't mean he will necessarily sign with GWS but would happily take an inflated offer from Melbourne by holding off till the end of the year. It may not even be something he would have pursued under normal circumstances but due to the GWS factor, he has been placed in a situation where exploiting his position is difficult to resist. On the other hand, if the club was aware of this situation they may well be happy to play along with it quietly and keep playing Scully so that they can secure the best compensation deal as they know they catch match the GWS offer anyway and don't wish to make other players disgruntled. Speculation is fun aint it?

Interesting comments. It would be hard to dislike Garland and Frawley, and I would imagine Garland would remind Wellman somewhat of Dustin Fletcher. Nice to know he still had good words to say about Bailey, obviously he just couldn't resist the Hird factor.

What's wrong with him?! Why didn't he wait untill the new players agreement?! He should sack his manager immediately...

I see little value in recruiting an established KPF when we are not even close to contending and our midfield is still so young.

If you watch the first 10 mins of the game again, I think you'll see Melbourne had some semblence of a strategy to beat Collingwoods press that worked briefly to produce the first two goals. Unfortunately Collingwood were quickly able to counter it and then went for the kill. However,the midfield was where the game was won and Collingwood's work at the stoppages and in general play was so well drilled and so well executed you could almost see in unfold before it even happened. The positioning of players and their ability to spread to the right locations and read the play was very impressive. In particular when a player would spread goal side of the stoppage and move forward to receive the ball to make an un-pressured forward entry. We just haven't reached that level of discipline and application yet and that can only realistically be achieved consistently through experience and a settled lineup I would have thought. We are still experimenting with players in different positions and roles to see what they can do rather than each player knowing their specific (and largely unchanged) role each week. This is a separate issue to a lack of consistent effort (i.e. contested possessions) but I think it goes some way to explaining to apparent lack of an effective gameplan.

Did you ask him about our seemingly step backwards in defence this year?

Or Essendon in 2009. I would have to agree at this stage. Can't see the merit in scraping into the finals unconvincingly and then getting smashed in a final by Sydney or West Coast (the likely 5-6 finishers at this stage). Unless by some miracle we produce a huge turnaround in the second half of the year of course and can make the finals in our own right.

Given that Slyvia is probably the only player on our list that could drag the rest of the team to victory makes him an ideal captain (onfield at least). Moloney would try to drag us to victory but lacks the natural talent and polish of Slyvia - although a few more goals from fifty like last week would help his cause. The big thing thats missing from the current leadership team is consistency. Arguably something that Junior excelled at.

Good thing we don't have to choose and have them both...oh wait