Jaded No More

And Mitch Clark sat quietly and weeped.

A big [censored] you to whoever is responsible for making me hate footy right now. P.S.- I heart you Nathan Jones!

Nathan Jones deserves so many votes, for being an island of sanity in an ocean of diarrhea

[censored] this. Honestly I give up trying to make sense of this abomination.

Why the [censored] doesn't anyone run forward when we win the footy? Why oh why?! I feel like smashing my head against the level 3 railing. Nathan Jones is just about the only one preventing me from walking out. Someone please explain to me why we refuse to have a target up forward. Any target. Even Spencer. It's infuriating because North aren't great, and if we weren't such a shambles of a team, we could beat them.

Enough is enough already. Sick of wanting to cry everytime I watch us play. Wtf is this setup? No forwards, constantly outnumbered all over the ground. Just embarrassing. Two more years of this rubbish. Really?

Really struggling to motivate myself to get off the couch and go to the game. No hope.

What would stop Liam from playing next year? He can still play with the looming case, after all, he isn't even allowed back home. If he is fit, and I can't see why he wouldn't be, he should be there round 1. If he needs time off to go to court, well we'll grant him leave. It's not that difficult to manage. Again, I'm staggered by all the negativity. Liam says he is innocent, the weight of evidence suggests he's telling the truth, and he is a gun footballer who we haven't even seen play alongside Clark, and with a decent midfield. If the club just gave up on him because it was all "too hard", when we've dealt with plenty more difficult players before (Sylvia says hi btw), I would be so disappointed and disgusted. We have an obligation, not just to Liam, but to our club, to help him help us become a better team. He is a very very good player. We have so few of those!

I'm baffled that supporters think we should drop him now. He is less likely to end up in jail now, after so many mixed evidence, than he was before we heard from all the witnesses. We sign him up for a year, support him through this, and worry about the rest as it happens. You don't let someone so talented just slip by. He is a Melbourne player, and he gets our support. I, and I'm sure the rest of the people at the club, believe he is innocent. To demote him or delist him, suggests otherwise. There are so many rubbish players on our list, it's not like we are struggling to clear the list.

Ugh, year from hell continues, especially for Jurrah. I sincerly hope the club sticks by him.

I love all these "what about Clark" comments. We are allowed to have more than 1 good player. I hear it's legal. We are crazy if we don't offer him everything we can. The club will only pay him what they think we can afford going forward. If that's enough to get him across the line, then happy [censored] days. You don't say no to a quality CHF!

If we stop Petrie, you can bet some nobody hack would bob up and kick 5. Who even heard of this Port kid who ripped us apart before Saturday night? We are North's [censored], and it kills me to say it, because I hate North and their [censored] shineboner spirit garbage.

Tom Scully- one more friggin headache we thankfully don't have to deal with in 2012. Imagine this horrible year being topped off by Scully's awful form, and supporters slashing their wrists because "he is the worst #1 pick eve!!!1"

Here is what I know for sure, we are sh*t and we need good players at any cost. Travis Cloke is a good player.

Stupid thing to do. PLEASE MAKE THIS SEASON END ALREADY!!!

I have never seen a Stef Martin related post/topic, where you haven't been quick to point out that he's useless and that bringing him back into the team is going backwards. And the last time I've had a look at what's happening on the field, I haven't noticed our ruckman being the cause of our problems.

I see you've lost grounds to bash Stef Martin, so you've picked the next closest ruckman?

There is no doubt that Neeld needs and deserves to be given the time to develop the side. My fear is that he'll recruit and develop players to suit his own game plan, which thus far has given us 1 real victory of note. And then what happens if he gets the sack, do we rebuild again to suit the next coach who won't budge and isn't capable of working with what he's been given? In my opinion the list is not all doom and gloom. The spine is solid, and our defense has been a strength until Neeld ripped it apart to try and bulk up the forwardline (and then threw Dunn into the mix, for god knows what reason!). Our midfield is garbage, always has been, and it's not so much the ability to get our hands on the contested ball which kills us, but our ability to use the ball when we do get it. Which is why it frustrates me that Morton and Gysberts are rotting in the VFL, because for all of their faults, they can get and use the ball intelligently. The bottom line is, a midfield can be built and developed quickly, certainly quicker than a defense or a forwardline, but even with all the right players, if a coach is not using the right tactics at the right time, you simply won't win. Right now I'd argue that we've played some equally average teams and lost to them all (nobody cares about beating GWS), and lost comprehensively, when better match day tactics and selection decisions may have got us over the line. P.S.- Jake Spencer bashing is the lowest form of footy discussion.

I'd say it's because he doesn't have the fitness base to run around in the middle, especially in these conditions, and they wouldn't want to aggravate the 'hot spot' in the leg. So I suppose the real question is, why the hell was he the sub?

Lets put everything aside, history, recruiting, past coaching indiscretions, and concentrate on one very simple stat. In the first quarter tonight, we kicked a bigger score than we kicked for the remaining 3 quarters. Despite Port activating their sub in the first quarter, and having another very sick player on the ground. Last week we lost because we apparently ran out of legs. This week, we've been apparently preparing for this climate and had full use of our bench for the whole match, so what's this week's excuse? I fully understand that our list has some holes. Our midfield is horrible, yet players like Magner and Couch, who we all know will never been A graders, are getting a game ahead of Gysberts and Morton. If Neeld wants tough in and under players like Magner and Couch, he should understand that he also needs very good outside support because these guys are rubbish users of the ball. Yet both of these guys were used in attacking roles for the last few weeks. Why? Garland has had a good month up forward, and Rivers is an absolute leader of troops down back. Yet Garland was kept in the backline until the last 10 minutes of the match, despite having a dirty game defensively, and Rivers was never switched back to help. Why? Neeld persists with Dunn down back, who lacks strength and accountability, but who is a beautiful kick at goal, and yet we can't kick to save ourselves. Why? Nothing is ever so black and white that we can categorically say "problem X is the absolute core of our issues". But a senior coach who cannot react mid games, a senior coach who cannot motivate his players to push past their opponents even from very winnable positions, and a senior coach who seemingly won't budge on tactics, is a senior coach who deserves to be questioned. If you just blindly follow what is put in front of you, then you have nobody but yourself to blame for the disappointment that may come your way.

I don't think Bailey's game would have stood up in finals, no doubt, but to blame him for the ineptitude we are seeing now is just cowardly. Neeld makes the calls on who to play and where. He chose to play two rucks in this heat, to have a sub with zero fitness base, to play a tiny makeshift forward line. He tells our players to kick across the ground, even if they cannot actually kick. He is responsible for centre bounce set ups, where we are often hopeless out of position and chasing our opponent. He may not have inherited the fittest or best skilled list, but he inherited a list with lots of good young players who have now gone backwards. It's not all his fault, but when you are leading, you need to take accountability.

His predecessor won more games in his first season, with arguably a worse list, than I reckon Neeld will. His predecessor also got 8 wins out of the same list last year, including over Port in Darwin. We can keep blaming Bailey, and our recruiting til the cows come home, or the people in charge now can try to show us something positive to hold onto. Because right now we have done nothing but go backwards. We are no more defensive, but we certainly seem to have lost our ability to attack. We are back to ground zero. I'd like to see what Neeld's legacy will be. I desperately hope it's a good one, but my hope is not based on anything I've seen thus far. It is just a reason to keep holding on.

No accountability on or off the ground. Mark Neeld has a hell of a lot to answer for, and our list seems to be a lot worse than anyone could foresee after years of rebuilding.

6- Grimes 5- Jetta 4- Martin The rest are dead to me this week.

We've been rebuilding for 5 years. What's another 5 hey?