dee_star

The thing with Ricky was that it was hard to see what role he could play - a poor man's Howe, but you can only have so many of those marking mid sized forwards. Particularly ones that aren't great kicks. Someone may take a punt on him after the promise he showed. A few have touched on it already but the bigger question is the rate at which people are walking out of the club. If it's entirely the players fault for what has happened this year (and that's a separate debate) then the Administration that put in the Coaching, Development and Recruiting people over the last four years should be held accountable. I would argue that there's only 850 odd jobs as an AFL player, and every single AFL player has made all sorts of sacrifices to get to the elite level - to think that a large number would think things are too tough and they'll just walk away is naive. I just have a gut feeling there is much more to all this than meets the eye.

Could he play Half Back when he returns from Suspension?? Seriously though, time for it to end, it's the sort of thing you do when you're winning, not when you're rubbish.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/sport/afl/crows-got-it-right-rejecting-mark-neeld/story-fn83zgw9-1226363950856 The big issue here is not so much Neeld but more the process that the Club went through - why did we rush to appoint a coach that no one else wanted? It's the same reason we should be asking why Dustin Martin wasn't even interviewed when he was clearly a top 5 or top 3 pick when we had picks 1 and 2

Healy doesn't ask questions without already knowing the answer

I think the story that Neeld picked us over Adelaide and the Bulldogs was put out there but the Mark Neeld Publicity Machine that was in full effect for the 2nd half of last season. Both those clubs seem to be going pretty well with their choices I reckon - wonder if we interviewed either of them?

8.5 wins last year with the same Senior Players and Leadership. Adelaide won 6 games in 2011, in 2012 they have won 7 from 8 with the same playing group. robbiefrom13's post is excellent.

Interesting - I took the kids down to see the team train three or four times in December/January and I saw them do a lot of full lap running - assuming the laps were 400 there must have been doing 800m or 1km, and then repeating them over and over with a short break after every second or third one. I know it was only three or four sessions but there was never a lot of "structural stuff" - it was an hour or so of running before some basic footy drills.

I think this is an accurate reflection of what has happened in the last 9 months. Taking into account what we know, in the period leading up to 186 there was a serious internal conflict between Bailey and Connolly/Schwab. Schwab had a clause in his contract in regards to whether or not he was to be extended, and the Leaders were asked their opinion and they gave it to McLardy. It's clear from the fall out that the Leader fell on the side of their Coach. The Leaders feelings were taken to the entire Board and the Friday before 186 Schwab was told he would be sacked. The day 186 happened Garry Lyon was on MMM calling the Bulldogs-Eagles game and made comments that from seeing the score he "would be making some calls about this", despite having not seeing the game. It's no secret that Lyon and Schwab go way back, and perhaps knowing that his mate was in trouble with his job he's intervened and pushed the axe towards the coach instead - and not without justification given the result in that game but also the lack of defensive capability in the team under Bailey's reign. The fall out after this is that Schwab and Connolly remain, knowing that the Leaders don't rate them, so when Neeld and Craig arrive, they'd be in the new blokes ears telling them how the Leadership is no good and has to change. As a result we have two 20 year olds burdened with the Captaincy when they should be just worried about developing as players. In the period Lyon spent as Football Director he said he personally interviewed all the staff - then not long after people like Flack and Prendegast were suddenly gone - I wonder if they had the same issues with Schwab and Connolly that the Leaders had? In terms of "accountability" I want to know what accountability Lyon has to all this? The reality is that we are four years into a rebuild with a team that won 8.5 games last year. We were in the mix with North Melbourne and Richmond over the last few years as being developing sides and despite North's last two weeks both teams are massively ahead of us. I understand that people will say blame the players, but the Coaching sets the tone and the system the team plays with. If you want examples, look at how Essendon's mentality changed from Knights' all attack (similar to Bailey) to how aggressively they defend 15 months later under Hird, or look at the difference Sanderson has made with Adelaide in just 8 months. Both teams have largely the same players too. There's no doubt there were issues with what was happening on-field last year. Bailey may not have been the long-term answer, but to strip everything back to square one three years into a rebuild is baffling.

Connolly was moved sideways instead of being removed. Schwab was sacked until the final siren of 186 and the coach went instead. Sounds as though there are poisonous elements within the organisation that have been saved during the recent "organisational change"

I reckon I heard someone from one club say last year or the year before that their players who had VFL the next day were required to come for at least a half of footy - may have been two years ago when there was that fuss about Ablett not watching Geelong play once he'd done his injury rehab before the game. The chatting after the game was a bad look - heard the Triple M commentators refer to it as well, they were disgusted by it too

I would have thought this is very unlikely. They're already in to Luke Power, Chad Cornes and Dean Brogan, I'm not sure how many more already retired players they can handle......

Sounds like we're going to end up with a first time Coach - not the worst thing but it'd be good to have someone like a Neil Craig in the Bomber Thompson type role. Having said that, not every coach needs an older experience coach with them. Hird was an unusual one, he had absolutely no experience as an Assistant, and everyone agrees that Voss should have had some help, but he was in the same boat. The Scott's, Hardwick etc didn't have any help and I'm not sure it's greatly hindered them.

Brenton Sanderson. None of the experienced coaches we want will be available and he's the best of the Assistant Coaches

I think it's a one man show High Tower on the basis that Schwab is on his last legs at the club according to the recent media reports, Stynes is obviously battling far more important things than footy and has been encouraged to take time away from the club to look after himself, and the other two on the committee are not footy people. And aside from that, Lyon's will and leadership will override the others anyway. As I said I'm not having a go at Lyon because I appreciate the fact that he's stood up and helped when it's needed but it concerns me that we're throwing contracts at these current coaches when none of them are actually available, and inevitably we'll end up going through a genuine process to find a Coach and we'll be miles behind Adelaide and the Bulldogs, who have already started genuine processes.

Am I the only one who thinks we are going about this in a very unprofessional manner? We've brought in an "outside consultant" in Lyon to effectively run the football operations despite him repeatedly saying that he doesn't want to be involved at all, and despite putting this sub committee together we appear to be running through the AFL Club rolodex alphabetically to try and poach the Senior Coach from Collingwood, Hawthorn and now St Kilda. There doesn't appear to be any sort of plan or process in place to select the BEST available coach, only a one person "team" looking for a band aid solution before they vacate the building as soon as possible. I'm not being critical of Lyon, I appreciate that he has taken on a job that he doesn't want to do to help the club in its time of need, but how badly are we going when one person can come in and just run the show and forgo a genuine selection process for the most important job at the club?

Love his run and dash. Looking forward to seeing him play more midfield and half forward

This would certainly be an issue for those two clubs but it's a small price to pay for the increased development from having complete control over your young players. Young, Sinclair and Fasolo are good examples of this

The point here is that there must be balance, and both Eade's all out attack with no defensive structure and Lyon's ultra defensive setup have produced results that were close but not good enough. If we go with Eade because Bailey was a first time coach who failed then it's a disgrace. One of the tv shows mentioned Trengove's comments about how good a list we have for a new coach coming in - it sounds like there is a severe overrating of the stage our list is at. There is a lot of potential but we are still developing, not a finished product, and if the likes if Eade and Williams are out if touch now, how much further out of touch will they be in three years when we should be genuine contenders? Go with the best candidate regardless of age, and put some good sound assistants around them. Thompson, Clarkson, Worsfold, Roos and Williams were first time coaches, this hysteria about getting an experienced coach is crazy

While I think Eade is a good coach he's the wrong fit for us. We need someone up with the current tactics and the Dogs this year showed to be behind the current trends and maybe that's why they could never get past the Prelims. We must go with a young coach and support him with a good experienced senior assistant

Not sure why Viney and Matthews are in the poll when both have ruled themselves out. The more I think about it the more I like Sanderson. If recent weeks have suggested anything it is that the MFC needs a good culture and I think the best Assistant from the Club with the best culture and success over the last 5 years is Sanderson. I believe he has been the defensive coach at the Cats as well so it would be good to bring an experienced defensive focus to the MFC as well

Moloney from Martin, Watts, Jones and Trengove for me.

Rodney Eade falls into this category as well Nasher. Outside of Clarkson and Malthouse what other experienced and successful coaches are there available? I'd rather see us go with a coach who is coming from a currently successful club with a good culture than try and manufacture an "experienced coach" who not been successful

I agree why you little about looking at clubs that have been recent winners. I wonder if Worsfold would consider leaving West Coast? Now that they are on the rise again he may want to stick with what he started, and leave once the older guys retire like Cox and Embley

It was a shocking incident to see live at the ground. I think they didn't realise how graphic it was when they showed it over and over on the scoreboard. We haven't had a good run with these sorts of injuries in games involving Melbourne, Strauss, Nathan Brown, Jason Snell.

I like Eade as a coach and think he's done a good job with the Dogs but he's completely the wrong fit for Melbourne. The last thing we need is an old style coach, we need someone who is up with the modern trends. Lyon's emotion was clearly visible. If he'd had the desire to coach a few years out of the game in the early 2000s it would have been interesting to see how he would have gone at it