Little Richard

I'd say why not. He is a strong minded, strongly spoken public figure and although he is often outspoken, at least he makes himself heard. People keep harping on about what he did to the state of Victoria but this is a football club, and there is a difference. The Hawks won a flag under his tenure and remain one of the strongest, if not the strongest club in the league. He wouldn't settle for anything aside from success and is a much better option than McLardy, who seems to have lost any kind of conviction or voice a long time ago. Definitely worth a go.

Is that it? Typical of McLardy, doesn't get his back up over anything, even the future of his own position. Wish we had someone a bit more strongly spoken.

It seems to me that we have gone out and got all the required personnel to build a modern football department, we just had nfi about how to structure it or set it up. Evidenced by Jackson's comment that he can't even tell if Neeld can coach or not because of the way we are set up. Jackson should be able to sort this out I hope.

Quite a few of those players are incumbents too.

That attitude under Bailey probably just damaged a few players confidence. He might be fit enough for VFL but AFL? I guess we'll find out this week as it seems he'll be playing.

I had the same attitude about the Mets when I went to the baseball in New York (cos they weren't very good). Surprisingly they won so I guess I can't follow them.

Tapscott was rewarded immediately after that 6 goal game, which I thought was a poor move - one good game probably shouldn't be rewarded with a promotion. Tappy isn't doing a lot at the moment so I think it would have been better to leave him to dominate for a few weeks. Blease... not too sure, I guess he has been at Casey for a few games now but if only starting to show the required work rate now, he should probably be left for a couple more games imo. Just until he can really take games apart.

Really well thought out post. It makes me wonder what Neeld was like at Ocean Grove and Collingwood - has he put on this hard act because that's what he was told was required by the board? Or has he always been this way? Surely he had some kind of nurturing ability at the other clubs.

I like Scott's tone in that article, the sympathy from some makes me sick.

Depending on his performance for the rest of the year, I think a one year deal is a safe bet. I reckon Aaron is the kind of guy to understand that he isn't the player he was and one year deals from here on in (dependent on form) make sense as he is 30 in a few days and recent years haven't been great.

Instead of the salary cap maybe the AFL can just build us a stadium.

Ah yes fair enough. I don't think Tassie could support a side at all and same can be said for NT. The solution could be out at Casey, where a stadium could be built, a stand alone VFL side could be incorporated and possibly a name change to the 'East' Melbourne Demons would be facilitated. I wish we could stay as we are with success but I don't know how much longer we can go as we are. The above would be the most appealing option for mine, as little change as possible but enough to ensure financial viability and stability and hopefully a better 'club' culture and definitive area of support. I think there was already a thread on that too.

Imagine a Demonland post match drinks function... (after losing I mean)

More wins than last year would be nice but it'll take a big rise in effort, intensity and skill to see them.

Why would they let us do that when we can't even fill the G to a quarter capacity against non victorian sides? Doesn't make sense. I feel that a stand alone, small stadium would be a saving grace for us.

Dane Swan is not coming to our football club, jeez. What a rubbish rumor to start.

It's a never ending argument on here but it all stems back to the rebuild - too many young, inexperience players brought in (quite a few of whom were not the players hoped to be), senior players and leaders axed when they should have been held on to and a severe lack of these thanks to the generation gap caused by the Daniher years. It has been coming for a long, long time and of course we could be in a better position now if we didn't tank and took a more rounded approach to recruiting under Bailey, by bringing in more mature players but the fact is Neeld can only work with what he has and it isn't much at all. I'm not saying he is a good coach because there has been no evidence to show that he is even capable yet but he is trying to address these issues as best he can. Judgement should be reserved for just a little longer while the club itself is sort out.

Basically I agree that action should be taken if the 'long term plan' is clearly not working but the fact is time enough hasn't passed to be able to tell. The end of this season will make everything clear I think and then Jackson should act - removing Neeld may be required but if done too soon we could be in even deeper [censored].

The thing about Jackson saying that he couldn't even tell if Neeld could coach yet because of the mess that is the football department is pretty interesting. It seems to me that the overall football department (not necessarily individuals) could be more to blame than Neeld himself. Hopefully the restructure will give Jackson a chance to accurately evaluate Neeld and then make a decision on his future by the end of the year.

How I envy the tiges. I can't believe how much has changed since we were clearly ahead of them a couple of years ago, it's just sad. Vlastuin looks to be a great pick up by them.

Sun just reported that Neeld has claimed his job is safe. Nothing in that really, essentially no news yet.

Comes across as pretty unprofessional if something is happening with Neeld. Shouldn't he have just said 'no comment'?

Couldn't all happen in one day. The club can't handle the instability that'd cause imo.

I'm hoping for this to be McLardy stepping down and a new, capable President and hopefully Jackson for permanent CEO. Neeld should get the end of the year and probably won't make much difference if he is sacked now. I'd say Jackson isn't one for making rash, insufficiently-informed decisions. Unless of course he thinks he has seen enough in the last couple of months or so. Jeez what a well thought out, informative post.

I say stuff it, recruiting him can't sink us deeper than we already are. I'd prefer an attitude about winning for now, in the present time and forget about 'planning for the long term future' mentality that we've followed for the last 6 years. The future never comes guys.