Outside fifty

Neeld's game plan is entirely reactive and negative. The team has no idea how to attack. This was evident last year and I expected to see a change this year but today we saw more of the same.

Whilst I would never advocate the sacking of a coach after one round of football I do believe the heat should be placed fairly and squarely on Neeld. He needs to show something. To date he has given us a game plan that we cannot execute. He needs to start to develop an alternate strategy that is more achievable for this playing group. He has also shown very little in terms of game day strategy. today he was completely out coached. The reality is Mark Neeld is going anywhere, to sack the coach would make us the laughing stock of the comp , if we aren't already.

To me loyalty must be earned. For at least the last 5 years this football club has treated it's loyal supporters with contempt. It's hardly surprising that people are fed-up with these consistent half hearted performances. Having said that I do admire your stance.

Maybe just maybe Mark Neeld can't coach! His game plan falls apart at the first sign of pressure, and no sign of a plan B. The team seems unable to go on the offensive and is negatively reactionary most of the time, even when we are 70 points down.

It really is a Melbourne cup field to choose from. For mine the Black Caviar of the field is Luke Darcy. When combined with Taylor the result are truly horrendous. This from Darcy last night with 10 seconds to go and the toigs taking a set shot at goal and 4 points in front. "He needs to kick this one straight". Umm no he doesn't the games already won. Taylor is a genuine nuffty but at times can be funny. As for Dermie, I don't think even Dermie takes Dermie seriously.

My guess is that the media approaches varying clubs differently. Clubs with strong a supporter base are treated more respectfully because those clubs could have a significant impact on the media outlets bottom-line, as well as being more than capable of funding a legal fight. Small clubs like ours are simply easy targets with little or no negative effect on the media outlets.

Location Location is right. The squawks made sure they located their machines in outer burbs, and for the most part low income areas. In other words as far away from Hawthorn as possible. All overseen by the Chairman of Beyond Blue.

I've read this thread start to finish and thought about posting, but your post rjay says it all. An excellent post. I would only add that through my experience I have noticed that a reasonable percentage of "drug dealers" are recruited and promoted to be "drug traffickers".

Actually you can. This is a public record. You are more accountable under the law than a private meeting conducted in a private venue of which the majority who attended recalled that CC told a JOKE. Nothing recorded on a public record, just recollections.

I feel aggrieved for Connolly. I know that he has made mistakes but to me the good easily outweighs the bad. There is no doubt that he has been made a scapegoat for the tanking affair. Unfortunately for Chris he has paid a high price for having a personality.

Thanks for that nightmare nutbean. Rhino working the dance floor is a vision I didn't need in my head.

Yep me too. Very good sign.

Your right I am a cynic. But in my defence I think following Melbourne for the last half a century and a bit may have something to do with it. I wasn't always a cynic, in fact for the first four decades I was positively optimistic. Something changes when you hit that magical 5th decade.

Absorb what message? Forgive me for letting the last 48 years of shite cloud my vision. I’m old enough to remember when the MFC was the powerhouse of the competition, feared by one and all . Hell we were the competition! I’ve seen all this before and it does get to be a bit like ground hog day. Mergers, Tanking , White knights a conga line of sacked coaches and administrators take your pick. The history of the MFC over the last forty years makes fascinating reading. A once great power in a free fall decline. Yes I wanted us to stand and fight because I can remember when the demons always fought and guess what we Won. Now we are simply satisfied to exist because we have forgotten how to fight. We have become the whipping boy of the AFL and now the press. We constantly [censored] and moan to one and all about how unfair the competition and yet when it's our turn to stand firm we again negotiate an outcome that in the eyes of the public all but admits guilt. You can kid yourself all you like about standing tall but in the end we complied when directed too. As for suicide? Well personally I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees. In the end I guess that’s the difference between appeasers and fighters. The prospect of being there just to make up the numbers doesn’t appeal to me so much these days. But hey don’t let my feeling of disillusionment spoil your party, you should be happy, you won and I lost. We capitulated again.

Both good articles but he way I read them they seem to state that there was no evidence to show whether soft padded helmets reduced concussion or not, and that more research was required. Interesting one of the solutions they put forward is to make head gear thicker and heavier". I think one thing we can agree on is once a player starts to accumulate concussions they seem to occur more frequently. By that stage it might be too late to wear a helmet as the damage is done.

Josh Mahoney wore a padded helmet for a large part of his career so one would think he would be a good sounding board. As you said Cards the NFL helmets are a much more rigid and heavier helmet and the contact more brutal and frequent. The Head is used as a blunt instrument. Personally I'd be surprised if a padded soft helmet would add too rotational force in a collision in AFL. The other thing to consider in NFL is that its more likely to be a helmet to helmet collision which would cause a lot of rotational force.

Couldn't agree more DC. Over the last couple of decades of supporting the MFC I have come to the conclusion that it's not easy supporting such a spineless club. I was really hoping that this would be our line in the sand moment , a chance to really define ourselves, but alas we rolled over yet again. You only have to read the posts on these forums to realise that their are a lot of MFC supporters who baulk at the prospect of a fight and then try to disguise their retreat as pragmatism. I saw the same type of pragmatism at work in the merger vote in 1996. Pragmatism is the ultimate weak arse response.

To be honest with you OD for the sake of the sport I love I would more than happy to be proven wrong.

In an ideal world you would be right. Unfortunately Agencies are in competition with each other for Gov't funding. The ACC would have seen this as a perfect opportunity to get it's brand out there and would have always gone public with the findings of its investigation. The fact that politicians would then see this as an opportunity to hitch their own wagon to the investigations is hardly surprising. The ACC cannot and should not name people in a public forum. Once the criminal investigation is concluded then and only after charges laid will the names and the organisations named. As of today no individual has been found guilty of anything but in all probability this will happen. I disagree with you strongly as to the risk. The risk of organised crime pervading our sport is very real if not a reality already as is the use of PIED's.

I understand the frustration of people are having with this issue, but I believe this comes about because they don't understand the processes involved. ACC investigate and report and then AFP and other law enforcement agencies act upon the ACC investigation. I don't read Andrew Bolt so I can't comment on what he wrote other than to say i'm sure that it is as politically opportunistic as the original press conference. If you want balance without an agenda I suggest that people look at "Offsiders" on ch2 and listen to what Gerard Whateley and Roy Masters have to say on the issue. What I will say is that these investigations by matter of necessity take time. These days the law is heavily stacked in favour of the defendant and the prosecution has to work twice as hard to obtain a successful result, all of which takes a considerable amount of time.

One of my favourite periods as a Dee's supporter was the John Northey period. Northey was a straight shooter who ran with an "us against them" philosophy for motivation . If there is one good thing to possibly come out of this whole affair is we can rightfully claim the tag of the persocuted underdog. Which ever side of the fence you sit ( tank or no tank, court or acceptance), I think we can all agree that we have been treated unfairly to some degree. We can now stand tall as the underdogs and bad boys of this competition and if were smart enough use it to our advantage. This brain wave came to me this arvo as I valiantly defended the dees at a bbq , whilst might I say under the influence of a considerable amount of "Little creatures Pale Ale". BTW the consensus of the group after I brow beat them with "the facts",was that we have been treated as scapegoats for the AFL incompetence.

Me too Clint. It was well known before that match that the Swans were not interested in the pre season comp and made sure that they lost that match. That is the definition of bringing the game into disrepute. Still the Swans are an AFL love child, so no case to answer.

Actually now I think about why do I get the ads. I took out a life time membership. Not really complaining cos i must admit she's real prrrretty.

We must live near each other.

This article has all the hallmarks of a fishing expedition. A bit like when a Government leaks a proposed policy and then sits back and monitors the media for responses. Depending on the level of the reaction they then determine whether to proceed with policy. Either that or Kero is just having one last ditch effort at trying to influence the AFL. In what world is $ 500,000 a light penalty? My guess is $500,000 is the lump sum total and could be made up with several different components.