Fitz Fitzpatrick

Guys, dont know if anyone knows if this is possible but an option for the club could be to ask Viney to sit out 2013, have a run in the VFL, then nominate for next years draft. This draft is possibly the most important in the clubs future. Our list is very average. We will play finals in the next few years but this isnt premiership material. We need guns! Viney sits out, give him a sweetner for his troubles, we then take pick 3 and 4 , trade for pick 12, and enter 2013 loaded up. then F/S Viney next year. Is this a possibility? If so, MFC can play hard ball instead of getting screwed again. Several posters appeal for us to be happy to take viney at 3 as 'hes worth it'. He could be but why settle for that. The club should fight to MAXIMISE its position not just be content cause hes worth it anyway. Fight to rape and pilage this top 5, not just take our fair share. The 'nice guys finish last' saying isnt truer than in the world of AFL football.

Hoo rah! its about time someone other than me put this self righteous character ben hur back in his box. Seems to think hes right an awful lot of the time and cant handle others having differing opinions. Must be an interesting character to meet i must say.

I have never had time for Mike Sheahan. a so called melbourne supporter who epitomisies what i dislike about the media. Just when the media beat up on mark neeld and the MFC is firing up, Sheahan has to write a "special exclusive" and turn the blow torch up higher on the Dees. What ever happened to supporting teh club you supposedly follow, Mike? When his article comes out tomorrow club supporters need to demonstrate to the footy world that we ar enot going to be swayed by this nonsence. This pressure from teh media is putting the clubs future at dire risk. I can only hope that the board and FD are strong enough to ignore this media bull**** and stay the course. I am gob smacked that people can not see what Mark is trying to do here! This is ALL about the players , not the coach and , hahahaha, not the board. lol. what a ridiculous preposition that is. The players are not AFL standard. Fullstop. Mark wants an AFL standard team and is getting crucified by the media and, im very sad to see , some MFC supporters as well. MFC is not an AFL standard team at the moment. We've brought in a guy to change things and it has become very clear why MFC has never been a successful club. Everyone is bleating about the 'tough love'. To those supporters getting sucked in by the media - Harden the **** up!!. Stay the course and broaden your vision.

I dont want to seem like an advocate for tanking but I would love to get some strong picks for the Scully debacle. I would rather finish 2nd last with gradual improvement than finish 12th because we managed to catch half a dozen sides dozing. Our list is not good enough to get that 13th premiership. the last drafts were messed up badly. The club needs another crack at early picks if this group is to get a flag. MFC is going ot be compteting against GCS and GWS just when those young guns are hitting their straps. Our list cant compte with that. I want to see Neeld use 2012 as one long pre season training session. leave the players in the side that are struggling for form as a learning exercise for them. This sounds defeatist i guess but we dont have an AFL standard list. we need one otherwise the club will only ever be fighting for 8th spot.

Ron Burgundy, this is the first post ive seen written since "the sky fell down" after rd 1 that hits the nail on the head as far as my point of view goes. A lot of supporters cant see the wood for the trees but i feel nothing but confidence that MFC is heading in the right direction. it will take time, probaly quite a bit of time but we have some of the best in the business developing this list now and WHEN it all comes together we are in for one enjoyable ride. Instead of jumping at shadows every time one of the kids has a bad game or we cop a hiding we should keep our eye on the big picture. i stated an analogy in another thread. i see this like the marinnes. the recruits must be broken down first, before they can be remoulded in to an effective fighting force. same with this list. at the moment they can not play AFL football effectively. they are in the AFL but they do not know HOW to play AFL. neeld is stripping things back to the basics. I am as optimistic as i was in October and am determined to enjoy the ride cause when success does come to this club it will taste Oh so *&$#ing sweet mate

" It is the players who need to adapt to a modern, effective game plan - if they can't, they'll be playing elsewhere next year. There's absolutely no use in doing it the other way around - why try and nail a game plan that won't take us deep into the finals even if it will win us the odd game during the year against a bottom 4 side?! " Probaly the key point in this whole discussion. This paragraph justifies exactly why neeld and co are following the path they are. Great post.

bezelbub, youre a sook. youre the kind of supporter this club needs to shed. the players who whimper and quit at the first sign of hardship and challenges must be removed from this club. The supporters who whimper and become defeatist whenver things dont go well need to be removed from the club. The word ' culture' gets thrown around more than cale morton in a bar fight, but im not sure how many actually know what it refers too. Club culture is derived from the board , the FD, the players AND the supporters. A strong club has a strong goal driven board, a smart hard working FD, competitive win at all costs playing group......AND a fiercely one eyed loyal supporter group. negative sooks like bezlebub harp on about club culture yet they are a piece of the problem. we supporters ARE the club culture. with out the above groups of people a football club is an empty building. Granted, this is a very low period for OUR club. this is where strong supporters rally behind THEIR club and become part of the solution. Any one with half an idea about football or even team sports would ve been well aware 2012 was going to be a tough year. an analogy. look at a bloke who goes in to the marines. probaly a tough kid at school who could hold his own. now he goes in to the marines and gets schooled. within days the master sergeant has him crying and wanting to go home to mum and dad. 12 months later hes tougher than he ever was. this is what neeld is doing to the playing group. the players last year were playing poor football. to improve neeld is breaking them down to build a base on which to mould these kids in to fiercely competitive footballers. 2012 is boot camp. stop the negativity, back YOUR club and enjoy the journey. success is going to be sweet.

bezelbub, youre a sook

lets stop dropping blokes after 1 game. that doesnt do the list any good at all. we arent going to go for the flag this year. this season should be seen as one long preseason. get continuity in the team . everyone is saying the players arent adapting to the new game plan. well lets keep them in the team until they get. practice practice practice. if morton is messing up then play him again. this season is such a great opportunity for teaching and learning. im not saying that we tank but forget the win loss record , just use it as a 24 week preseason training session. this is why neeld is not making as many game day changes as some of us would like to see. he wants the players to learn their role. i am pretty certain neeld is not worried about win/ loss record either. of course hes not enjoying the drubbings but hes looking at the bigger picture. he has inherited a very ordinary team. to just go for a respectable ladder positon this season is short sighted. he needs to re lay the foundations. now people say but the club said that was being done in the bailey era. well, instead of whinging just face the hard facts - it needs to be done again. now we can moan about that fact or just be grateful we have a coach who is willing to go through this rebuild. facts are facts - the rebuild has begun again.

Dropping blokes every week is not going to help the club. 2012 is going ot be a write off. Personally im not even interested in the win/loss record. I would like to see the club use this season purely as a year to see what the list has. Play these blokes all year. morton, bate, mckenzie etc. play everyone as much as possible then by rd 22 neeld and co, as well as us supporters will know exactly what this list potential is. then slash and burn as necessary. Sending these guys back to casey for half the season means another season gone and still not knowing if they have potential or not. id like to see morton play every game. if hes [censored] then its an easy decision. same with gysberts, bennell, strauss etc. 2012 should be used to get as many games as possible in to these guys. play seller at chf for 6 games. see what he does. put davey in the pocket for 6 weeks. theres no point continually dropping blokes out of emotion. one of the major reasons that the list is so underdeveloped is that these kids have been in oand out of the side like yo-yos for the last 3 years. this year is an opportunity. of course we want to win but we arent going for the flag so lets put em in, leave em in and see what we got

I was thinking of a few Star Wars characters could be handy as well. Darth Vader, - one out in the goal square. Chewbacca - in the ruck, Yoda - small quick inside mid. Off the half back flank. Han Solo. Solid run with plenty grunt. Luke Skywalker on the wing. Skilful and polished but lacking agression. Very persuasive around the club so tends to always get a game. Coach - Obi wan Kenobi. Very motivational type of guy and has the 'buy in' from all the players.

I live overseas and havent seen any footy yet but can you guys give me an opinion on Sellers ability to take CHF. I havnet seen any footage of him but would he provide enough of a target to open up a hole in front of Clark and allow Watts to stay further up the ground as a link out of defence. Seller seems to be a big bloke. Is he mobile and can he hold a grab?

Fair enough but hes only got another 12 or so blokes to step up. the list of those at Casey is not long enough to drop 16 players every week.

Dont want to sound pessimistic guys but can someone tell please, what is the deal with 1st round picks this year? Does GWS get 1st picks again or is it back to normal. perhaps we are in for a good half of the top 10 picks this october?

We all slam Eddie at every chance but the fact is the guy doesnt pull any punches. If anybody wants to $* with him or collingwood they know they better come lawyered up. I know it could be a distraction at this pivotal time for the MFC but gee a fair part of me would love to see Neeld grab Thomas and Mifsud by the ears and drag them through the courts. A big loud statement that says " Dont F*#* with the MFC .that games over.

What a load of tripe. Talk about drawing a long bow.

Neither the Club or Neeld has ever said success is just around the corner. Only the posters on here that have absolutely no idea what it takes to turn a dysfunctional club and playing group around, ever thought success was just around the corner. The most fascinating thing about forums is watching posters whip each other up in to a optimistic frenzy then the same Nellies slashing their wrists for each other when their little fantasies of the week before werent fulfilled. This is a very BIG job ahead of this club. Referring to the "rebuild " of the last few years is too simplistic. the rebuild has a very long way to go. The "kids" in the side atm arent even the most important part of this rebuild. Its Craig, Misson, Neeld and the Board that count here. Most of the list will be a distant memory before this club hits its so called "premiership Window". Thats a fact. But the Club has the best chance at achieving success in decades. Just be realistic. The team is shite and turds dont polish up too well. Any criticism of Neeld at this point is just laughable. Why dont we just sign coaches up on a 1 week contract. LOL

The most sense Ive read since the game. Very good post. Lets stop wringing our hands. This is a multi year process with many setbacks along the way. Too many people , including Demonland regulars and the media have over rated this list. I believe MFC will taste success and see an era of success in the medium to long term but this list wont do it. This is Neelds blank canvas. Some will stay and I feel in hindsight we may all be a bit suprised as to who forms that core. The current "kids" will be the team middle to older players with plenty of top recruits picked up in the fortcoming not so successful couple of years. Now all you posters that crave instant success wont like to hear that but we are kidding ourselves about this 2014 premiership window. The trade and draft picks in the next 2 to 3 years are going to be where we find the guns.

Billy, Hoo ra! i completely concur. I cant even remember the last time Lutz posted something that wasnt of a condescending nature toward another poster. Get over yourself Lutz. Your are tiresome.

LJ will never be elite. He will be enigmatic. sometimes sensational, other times he'll disappear

"The new leadership is about developing more leaders, not discarding those we already have." Summed up fantastically, Torpedo. Very good reflection on this issue.

I would make an effort to spell anyones name correctly, i agree with you there, but i wouldnt pull people up on their mistakes just for the sake of creating contention. We are all here to discuss issues relating to the MFC, not ridicule people who may make a typo here and there. we all lead busy lives and perhaps individual posters are doing other things at the time. Lets just keep the discussions to the crux of the posts, not people typos. not a big deal

Obviously not a good mate of Brents there Lutz. youve absolutely slated the poor bloke here.

I didnt know Demonland had become a Spelling Bee Did I spell that right, Ben-Hur?

Thanks for the explanation old dee.