binman

Bring back the roller coaster!

Keeping the sad vibe going, just over heard a fella tell his mate as they were walking a busy street "i reckon GWS and GC will get a win before the dees". Jeez louise. Let's win this week dees! That will leave the toiges 0-3 and the gloom and doom talk might transfer to them

What choice do we have? Our enthusiasm might wane. We might find it hard to convince ourselves to trudge of to the footy mid winter to watch the dees get smashed. Like watching a car crash in slow motion we will read about more crazy stuff happening at the club. We will put up with (just) the oh so funny comments about the dees from family and friends. We will slowly accept that we have to almost rebuild from scratch and won't progress until we have turned over every player older than 25 (with the possible exception of Jamar). Despite ourselves we will start wondering if the curse of The Red Fox is real. But what choice do we have. As i said to my 9 year old son once you barrack for a team, that't it, ther's nothing to be done.They're our team and for better or more likely worse we have to remain loyal.

Yes, i agree. My feeling is we are still dealing with whatever did actually go wrong last year. It was widely reported around the time of 186 that the admin and footy department (and players) were at loggerheads, suggesting Hells Gate's comments about how involved Schwab has been in the football department's business over the last couple of years are close to the mark. My sense is this might well be central to what went so badly wrong last year and i also feel it continues to impact this year. Don't get me wrong i'm not suggesting Schwab is responsible or should go but there was definitely some sort of trauma last year (beyond the obvious in the sacking of Bailey and 186). Trauma takes time to deal with and can linger for a long time, particularly if it swept under the carpet and not properly acknowledged and/or addressed. There is no such thing as drawing a line and fully starting afresh, something Neeld is now having to come to terms with. Something still doesn't feel right at the club

Apparently he's got a pretty good right fut on him

Yes there are many, not last of which is the brand is Energywatch, a brand that will forever be tainted. It is a company that is dead in the water

Perhaps Demonland could be a sponsnor

Have you read what he published on facebook? There is a litany of disgusting references, comments etc. He makes multiple obscene racist comments, misogynist rants and direct personal attacks. The guy is a lunatic

Thanks this post has clarified things for me. You are taking the [censored]!

Are you serious or are you taking the [censored]? Of course we have to dump them as sponsors, we have absolutely no choice. From an ethical and moral perspective we simply must immediately sever all ties - i'm surprised they haven;t done so already'. Leaving aside the ethical imperative we also have to cut ties on financial grounds. Do you think we have a hope in hell of attracting any new sponsors (or keep our existing ones for that matter) whilst this fella is involved in the club. How do, in good faith, negotiate with say an large Chinese company (ï'm not racist because my cleaner is Asian"). No company in the world will come near us, now or in the future unless we cut ties. For god sake the Prime Minister has come out and criticized him - the Prime Minister!

Not returning multiple calls (and tweets) over a 3 week period from a club CEO (knowing full well what Schwab wanted to talk about) . Refusing to take Aaron Davey's calls or return messages from Tuesday on and then not wanting to participate in a mediation session his own employer had wanted to happen. What's his role again? That's right community engagement. I don't see much evidence he knows much about engagement. Perhaps he could google the word (and whilst at the computer might also look up the words confidential and trust). His "mate" Thomas might also consider looking up the word friendship as it would appear he has no idea what it means. With friends like that ......

To be honest i don't reckon jokes such as this one are particularly funny as it makes light of what Neeld was wrongly accused of doing. If, in the context of player meetings relating to performance, plans etc he had spoken to the indigenous players as a group rather than as individuals this would have absolutely been racist and wrong. Neeld was furious and hurt by the accusation, an indication of how innapropriate such an approach would be

That's true but i'm with Stuie on this one. He said they were pulverised from the start at clearances, which suggest they weren't switched on. He could have acknowledged it's his role is to ensure the players are switched on. Isn't ensuring a team is ready to go a key role for the coach? Neeld himself has said previously the buck stops with him. To be fair no journo asked him directly about his performance, perhaps they were too scared, he was pretty wired. I would have thought he at least would have been asked about preparation, his lack of creative moves (eg if we were getting smashed in clearances why leave a player who has been one of our best in this regard over the pre season sitting on the pine whilst Blease applied no defensive pressure? What about throwing Clark into the ruck for a bit or Watts to full forward etc etc). These were pretty basic questions that were not asked

Yep i'm with you on this. More crap and less intelligent analysis - how does that work? It's also 365 days a year, which is in large pert orchestrated by the AFL with clever (if you ask them) timing of stuff such as rookie drafts, drafts, announcing fixture etc etc. Next year they'll have all the intrigue of the free agency palaver to add to the list. Some journo will prob write an irony free article about the saturation of football coverage

Intersting that Neeld highlighted the role of the players in selecting the LG. Even if input small i wonder if Moloney being dropped from it reflects on his approach to dealing with teammates (partic the younger fellas), which from what i have seen seems to involve alot of yelling, pointing and barking. It will be interesting to see if Beamer runs his boxing camp this year during the bye. Neeld may veto it i suppose but if he doesn't and Beamer doesn't run it again it may be evidence of his disillusionment with the new regime (or not). I was saying to mate before the game that he seems very flat and not happy and only 1 tackle in a game of footy from an inside mid built like a truck reinforces this for me. He should have have flattened Beams (legally) at some point just to show who is boss

1. Watts is the only player in the team with anything close to A grade disposal skills 2. Talk of him not being selected for round 1 (or for any future rounds) was pure baloney 3. Davey had a golden opportunity to straight line the ball and elected not to, sayonara (sadly) 4. Clark has to clunk his marks 5. We need Jurrah and Sylvia in that team

There was one contest in the last quarter where he absolutely squibbed it, tried to tap the ball to the side rather than straight lining the contest and i was surprised he was immediately dragged

Why has it been so long since there has been a post on Jack Watts? One thing i'll say is watching the Hawks tonight they have some seriously good kickers of the ball. The thought crossed my mind that the only two players we have who are a grade kicks of the ball are Davey (who was down in this department last year - too cute by half) and Watts. JW's disposal skills are crucial in our "workman like" line-up. Measure his contribution by goal assists and i prdict he will be our most important player this year.

Andy Moir took some great marks. Great leap and sticky hands (not much else though)

Sore he didn't get picked

Picked in the starting 18 (on a wing no less). As i said no doubt he'd be be picked, despite Neeld's apparent equivocation. Again i wonder if Neeld likes to play some mind games

Pavlich only got got 10 goals in his season as 20 year old and Brown only 14! Hacks both of them. But seriously excellent post and one to keep in mind when getting a handle on where Watts is at. Important also to remember that whilst this is his fourth season he has only really had three proper full pre seasons. 2-3 more pre-sasons and he will put on some serious muscle. I hadn't thought of a Pavlich comparison but actually i could see Watts becoming a very similar player. Up forward a bit, down back when needed and a run on the ball every now and then. AA. Some fans would still be unhappy with this though i suppose

Interesting. I have said before i am in no doubt that Watts is definitely in our best 22 (best 10 IMO - as borne out by finishing 9th in last years Bluey) and that i would be surprised if the FD don't share that view. He'll play Sat, no doubt, so it makes me wonder what is behind Neeld's public ambivalence about his selection (now and previously). I reckon Neeld is a bit of a mind game player (despite his "down the line" persona) and wonder if he is a) trying to hose down public and media expectations of JW (eg "he's in the mix like everyone else, he's a 21 year old 40 gamer nothing else" etc etc) and keeping Jack on his toes and trying to fire him up (eg make him feel he is always playing for his spot, which i suppose is no bad thing). Personally i'd love for Neeld to come out and back JW to the hilt but i assume Neeld believes this is the best way to get JW to realise his potential (which of course is his role and by all accounts one of his strengths)

Just out of interest where do he finish in last year B&F? For my money, in a year where our so called "senior" players were inconsistent and showed little in the way of leadership, JW was one of our most consistent contributors and one of the few players pencilled in week after week. Not bad for a 20 year old lad with 30-40 games under his belt. As most would acknowledge he made a huge improvement from 2010 which is exactly what you're looking for in a developing player. What does yet to deliver actually mean? If it means become a A grade star well he is 2-3 years away from that unless he is the first big fella not covered by the maxim that big players always take time. If it measn tracking towards that goal at an acceptable rate i reckon on the evidence thus far he has well and truly delivered

Bloody CS. Has all the tricks, loads of potential but just does have the crash and bash style a good CEO needs. When we picked him up in the CEO draft we we're hoping he would be a Key Position Manager (KPM) but he seems to be an outside operator who picks up easy sponsorships and bangs on about KPI's. All those big words - where's his agro, his attack on the ball.