DemonWA

I see parallels between the Melbourne Football Club and the Australian Cricket team. Melbourne had a period of success during Danaher’s time (top 8 finishes, grand final appearance in 2000, prelim 2006). In 2006-2008 the core of that side retired or were traded – All Australian players like Neitz, Yze, White, Robertson, and B&F winners like Travis Johnston. The Dee’s weren’t world beaters and the players weren’t as good as the aussie cricket team, but I see this mass retirement of the core of the team to be similar to when Hayden, Langer, Warne, McGrath, Symonds, Martin, Gilchrist retired. Brad Green & Cam Bruce were like Ricky Ponting, Mike Hussey – a few surviving senior players in an otherwise very young side The MFC admin of the time were happy to gift games to talented youngsters based on talent alone, and I see that to be what Cricket Australia is doing by playing Hughes, Warner, Doherty, Maxwell etc. You end up with a situation where senior players get [censored] about the team selections not being based on current form alone & younger players in advertantly believing they dont need to prove anything to get a game The Melbourne situation spiralled out of control and culminated in a 186 point loss to Geelong at Kardinya Park. I’m tipping a 5-0 white wash for the aussies in the ashes.

Sorry to hijack lads, but perhaps this thread could be renamed the "No tank No B$ thread"!

If caddy isnt interested then lets look at people who are

The big difference in my eyes is the fact that alcohol is legal and many of the drugs are illigal. Whilst i agree they both have similar risks in terms of addiction i think the fact that drugs are against the law means it society should make more of a deal about people using them. Social drug use is a crime, and those who take drugs socially are criminals in the eyes of the law. Yes, its a faily minor crime in the scheme of things, but if society made more of a deal about it and the punishments for possesion were harder we would have less crime, less broken homes etc etc. Thats another reason why i find it so hard to feel for drug adicts. They have knowingly broken the law.

Agreed Old dee. The choice to dabble in hard drugs is one made by the individual. Its well documented that these substances have seriosus side effects. If the persons initial decision to try drugs ends up ruining their life, then they only have them selves to blame. People get all sympathetic with cousins' situation because he's a high profile sportsman. I dont see the same amount fo compasssion offered to the drug addicts that cant afford to pay for their habbits, who cause a great deal of crime in society. Even still, out of all of the groups in our society that deserve our support, time and effort, i think Drug Addicts get a better run than they deserve. Yes we should help them, but its not wrong to call them dumb for the decisions that they have made.

I respect gerard whateley but i find myself, on occasions, having to turn the radio off when Scwabb & Walls and Whateley are commentating on ABC radio. I find that they can very easily get into a negative rutt of bagging teams or players. Give me the light hearted styling of Brad Hardie, Graham "Smokey" Dawson & Adam Papalia any day of the week! haha

im sure he can too. Im just frustrated by all of these puff pieces on the clubs website, like Barrassi's birthday and now this blazer. I'd happily have no preseason activity on the site apart from match reports, injury updates & sponsorship info

i dont really care either way. Im sure players hold onto a few of their gurnseys for afetr they retire, now they have another pice of fabric that will gather dust?! Cam should focus on getting the FOJ sponsor on board instead of bringing back old traditions for the sake of nostalgia

love the no nonsence, straight shooting old dee

of course they are, but there is a right and wrong way to deal with things. You dont hear the PM coming out and naming which ministers arent doing their job to the level she would like. Thats for behind closed doors IMO. I dont think being hard and driven is muturally inclusive with being a [censored]?! The comment about Davey/Casey fans didnt need to be said in public. Respect is a two way street. Its pretty disrespectful IMO for a new coach to make such a statement about a player who has served the club well for as long as Aaron.

Is this known for a fact? If Neeld is pissing the boys off left right and center it wont be a good thing for the morrale of the group or our on field performance. Just like Gary Lyon said after the sacking of Bailey, the guys need to enjoy their footy...

I tend to agree Billy. I'm optimistic that the man knows what he is doing, however i also feel that he is making alot of bold statements in the press that dont need to be made this early into his 1st preseason

Some real critical posts on LJ. I don’t think his defensive side of his game is as bad as people are making out. Neeld is talking the talk – a hard line where he has no time for treating people differently etc. Whilst that’s all well and good in principal, the reality is that people are not all the same and some people don’t react to certain management styles. I really hope that behind closed doors he is a little more tactful in his dealings with people that what we are lead to believe, or at the very least that Leigh Brown and the line coaches can play a bit of a “good cop” role to Neelds “bad cop”! The lad's aren’t robots, and whether we like it or not some people need to be managed differently to bring the best out of them. A good manager will adapt their style when dealing with certain personality types, so whilst I don’t advocate “going easy” on guys like LJ, I really hope Neeld's style doesn’t ostracize various players on our list. Whether Neeld likes it or not, LJ is on our list, he's got a heap of talent, and probably needs to be managed in a different manner to say Jones or Moloney? I’d be interested to hear how RudeBoy thinks LJ will react to a “my way or the highway” style?

Callum Wilson is on the eagles list, but plays WAFL every week becasue he has Lynch, Kennedy and now Darling infront of him. I dont think we need to draft in a player from another club, but he wouldnt be a bad choice.