Ouch!

I think if you look at Geelong, Hawthorn, Essendon, have really embedded their culture since the 80s as a minimum, Collingwood moreso the 90s, Carlton was rocked but rebuilt (around it's supporters and ex players) its not a 3 -5 year thing, it takes a lot of time.

1) Chose a path to take, 2) Ensure buy in from all parties, "deal with the fallout of those who do not buy in quickly and absolutely" 3) Have enough faith to stick to the path, thick and thin. 4) Give it enough time to embed itself (5 years+)

Look, it's no secret that we are playing crap, but what you have written above is just sensational generalisation. We have in fact played sufficiently well in patches of all three games, We played well enough for the first half against the tigers and whilst we broke even in the final quarter the game had finished and it doesn't' really count except to say we didn't allow it to blow out more than it already had done. To say the GWS has shown more in a couple of quarters than we have for the whole year is just wrong. Feel free to say that the GWS showed some fight in the last quarter against the Eagles ... yeah fine, I can accept that.

From The 'Age' MICK Malthouse says Melbourne coach Mark Neeld has walked into a club that was previously ''about anything but football'' and thinks his former assistant is ''starting from scratch''. Read more: http://www.theage.co...l#ixzz1s9sXOH2M That hurts to hear such an assessment, and whilst it might be no more useful than Leigh Matthews critiques of Jack Watts, it begs the question how on earth has this club just 'wallowed' around for the last... 4-5 years as it has. It's also a massive backflip from the comments that Malthouse made a couple of years ago where he said that Melbourne had the most exciting list in the competition, and this was a view shared by several people. So, starting from scratch means what? starting from scratch with rebuilding a list? rebuilding the football department? rebuilding the confidence of the players that are in fact worth keeping? rebuilding the knowledge that these players have to play the game? Thoughts anyone?

It's this sort of mentality that has resulted in the MFC having no experienced players to show OUR younger players the way. I don't want to be overly critical, but why trade Jamar to GWS and let him help their young list whilst we create yet another void of experience at the club... It's a mercencary approach, and we lost way too many senior players when Bailey came through, many of these were possibly warranted, but others not so... we can't do it again when the cupboard is so bare.

Just on a point of clarification, but Jones is in in the leadership group, and therefore does retain a position of seniority. As to Green and Moloney, they are still senior players, and even without the title should act accordingly. Alack of buy in is not really that much different to sooking in my books. I agree that the Green bashing is not a good thing, and he has given a massive amount to the club. I do believe that at this point in the season he still can get back into the team if he finds form.... and that there isn't a 'youth' policy.... yet

I have no problems with stay positive messages, but I am all for getting ON the boys backs and laying this at their feet, they are the only ones to turn it around. I agree 100% that it's frustrating, but seriously, what else can you do ..... venting and getting angry works for a while, and I felt ill after seeing the dmg that the Tigers had inflicted on us in the 3rd qtr but we are all supporters of the MFC, by the very nature of that means we are supporting this club, that is a positively motivated action, Support. On a side note, the premiership quarter is where we are struggling badly. AFL site says that in the first 3 rounds, we have been outscored 152 to 28, thats terrible, and you would imagine that the coming out to play in the third qtr is a big focus for the dogs this week.

So we know that it can work.... albeit being a NAB game, but we put together 4 quarters there.... and resisted several challenges.

Ins: Moloney (if fit, else Couch) Out: Martin too many changes taking place, how the F*** can a team expect to perform with 4 changes or so each damn week. .... I can dream that they will eventually perform can't I!

I just watched the presser with Neeld then, and bloody hell it is hard to do so... I also make sure I give myself time to cool down by watching the next day. Sure I was [censored] off like everyone else was with the performance yesterday, but then by cooling down and listening to this helps me to try understand where things are headed. We have gone backwards for sure, but I am hoping it is one step back and two steps forward. I don't have much more to add except that Neeld is the senior coach, he is calling the shots and we have no choice but to stick fat, whether we like it or not... the club saw fit to bring him, Misson and Craig into the club to turn thing around and I hope they can, if they can't, well let face it that will look after itself too. Since "186" we have had a massive amount of instability surrounding the club, the structures that Neeld and Misson are creating whilst I hope are solid good, are still a source of instability that the players and supporters are struggling with. The last month has rocked the club a fair bit.... but we need 2-3 years of stability, not 2-3 weeks. Hope this isn't seen as overly positive, just trying to be realistic.

Why did I think of GWS and meat pies when you said this!!!

I agree Maurie, whilst the general gist of the article is that MFC might have misjudged things... how people continually bring it back to NikNat v Watts is beyond me. ... the relevance to Hurley might be a better way to do it, but if we look at the top 5 picked... I doubt the order would be different regardless of who had the picks (possibly WA clubs taking NikNat first....) but not that much difference...

If (as we have heard) have gone with gameplan built around defence then there should not be any way we will get a massive drubbing, but we didn't look good last week, and we haven't played well there for a few years either. I reckon we will lose, but if we are able to hold things together for 4 quarters instead of 1 and a bit quarters, I still reckon we will struggle to win, but the loss will be a respectable one (less than 6 goals)

Surely it's harder work chasing other people who know what they are doing and where they should be running to. As the players start understanding the structures and what is expected of them comes to them, I have no doubt that our boys will not blow as hard. (Take that last comment whichever way you want to! )

I don't recall the players had a vote in this as such. Didn't Neeld come out and say that he spoke to each and every player and sought their thoughts on the club and the leadership group. But I am pretty certain he made the call from that point on. (Obviously discussing with key administrators and coaching staff)

In - Sellar, Morton, Tapscott, Gysberts and Petterd Out - MacDonald, Rivers, Davey, Moloney and Green (5 changes after round 1 is the sort of statement I would like to see Neeld make.... I can't see it happening, I reckon 3 changes is more likely)

I agree with the sentiments (and I think Leigh Matthews mentioned something similar) but I suspect a lot of people also don't think that we should be giving the team an excuse either. It was a dismal first up effort and after hearing how they have put so many more km's into their legs over the preseason, it seems inexplicable that they just stopped after a half of football. It is just one game, and as RocknRoll says, lets see what they do from here on in. I am sure that they will be competitive this week, but I recall this happened last year, we had a rollercoaster ride of win, loss, win, loss....

http://www.melbournefc.com.au/tabid/7415/default.aspx?newsid=131746 actually the announcement was made @ 11am.

it is in that it is another source. Still interested that there isn't a formal announcement to be found. Perhaps something this arvo with the announcement of the team.

Can we confirm from any other source that this has actually occurred? Not that I would doubt Dr Dream Team twitter as a valid 'sauce' I would have thought that the club would have released a statement about this given the timing of making the call to upgrade him, effectively on the eve of announcing the round 1 team. Haven't seen it confirmed anywhere else in the media, and rookie upgrades are good news stories, especially mature age ones for players like Magner and Couch.

Just watched Robbo's interview, and whilst I have always liked the information provided by Matt Burgan, but he isn't a natural in front of the TV. Robbo is, and I thought that interview had a lot more character. A good direction for DeeTV

People keep saying he is being groomed as a key forward, ok I agree, but CHF not FF as that key post. CHF requires a lot more mobility and a good engine these days. Watts has this.. what he needs is to will himself to the contest, and get a little more bulk in the next few years and I think he will be great for us. Clark is the Big key FF, which gives Watts more time to learn the craft. How exactly is Watts being played (and more importantly taught) differently to Reiwoldt (Nick) in his early career? They played him back, he played on the wing, and he didn't have the bulk to sit up there as a key forward.... what he did learn to do is improve his engine and gut running, and for a while there Reiwoldt was unstoppable and ran multiple opponents into the ground. (kicking never improved though greatly though.) What do people want Watts to be? a J Brown? Forget it... Q Lynch erm,.... no thanks. I personally hope Watts could end up i a few years like Petrie/Reiwoldt type model..... give him time. Petrie is what 26? only in the last couple of years really imposing himself on the contest... I liked his game last year... I will ignore the hype of the preseason slagging off of Watts by media, and watch over the next 2-3 years before casting judgement....

I was watching the game in the background on and off.... did someone forget to mow the ground prior to the game? that surface looked ordinary. It was not the prettiest game of football, but Sydney don't play pretty nor do they tend to [censored] teams by 100+ GWS battled hard though, and made a better fist of it that GC did in their first couple of games.

First time doing one of these for a while. Struggling a little working out the forward half,..... Have put Blease up on the wing, but thats probably unlikely. I think it's unlikely that Strauss, McKenzie and Tapscott will get a game given their interrupted pre-season, with Strauss the one with the most games under his belt getting the nod. Backline could be a little tall for Brisbane.... B: Rivers Frawley Strauss HB: Grimes Sellar Garland C: Blease Moloney Trengove HF: Green Watts Howe F: Petterd Clark Davey Foll: Jamar Jones Magner Int: Martin, Bartram, Bate Tynan(sub) Emergencies: Tapscott, Bail, McKenzie

I'm in, Oucher as the Alias