Knuckles

He may never be a Reiwolt or Daniher type. But Kennedy isn't lightning quick and doesn't have massive vertical jump, same with Patton, Lynch, Walker or Hawkins. We need to remember all them bar maybe Reiwolt have struggled at times early in their careers.

Spud??? Weideman gets both hands and on the ball in marking contests at VFL and AFL level when he isn't disadvantaged by the delivery, just needs the confidence to hold onto them. Building his strength will allow him to provide a better contest when out of position. His work rate is great, and from what I've heard he gets it.

Out of interest has anyone seen, read or listened to any constructive commentary from the so called AFL experts about where we need to improve. I have been trying to keep up with any media commentary and haven't come across anything other than the standard stuff about lack of tackling in the first quarter and so forth. I don't have Foxtel so I might have missed something there Its been a massive bug bear of mine for years, how these so called experts offer nothing more than a standard footy follower could tell me. Particularly when we were really bad in the Neeld years there was never anything analysis of where we need to focus our efforts to improve. It's pretty obvious they do next to no preparation and just really on group think. Light years behind the coverage of sports in the US and Europe.

Hoodoo or not. The fact is, if we can't take care of North relatively easily, do we deserve a place in the eight. I think we are more than good enough to do both and do some damage in September.

So glad none of our players seem to have this habit. Drives me mad that all we hear about is how protecting the players heads is of the highest importance and then there are cheats like Mathieson doing everything possible to initiate high contact. I would have thought the AFLPA should be giving him and anyone using similar tactics a call if they are serious about player welfare. Someone will get seriously injured soon enough and only have themselves to blame. Bottom line. It's not in the spirit of footy!! Which surely means something.

If we picked had of picked him up at no.50 in the draft, would people care if he was delisted?

Any one at the club- What are the real reasons behind our continued on field embarrassment? I really want to know. Not weak excuses or explanations about game plans or training loads. What are the real problems?

Commentators talking about how slow a team is playing is my pet hate. Most teams look slow when they are struggling for form and confidence. Adding players or changing training loads has nothing to do with speeding a team up. It is all about ball use (our weakest point) and decision making (our second weakest point).

During my uni years training as a PE teacher, the first practical thing I was taught was that people can only process and respond to 2 maybe 3 things at a time. That related to all people, not just school kids. The other thing which probably relates more to the MFC right now is that it takes a extremely high number or repetitions to make an action permanent/automatic. I am confident Mark Neeld is following this theory, thinking long term.

Morton was a huge positive today. Did a lot of work in close and used the ball well. The thing that disappointed me most was the number of times we allowed easy lead up marks for guys like Chapman, Podsiadly and Johnson. It was far to easy for them to move from half back to half forward. I think it was a lack of pressure in our forward line and slow reactions from our backs.

How can anyone not be happy. Clark has been one of very few positives. Massively front ended contract which will free up cash for next year for trades and free agency.

I'm increasingly frustrated by the continued attack on our recruiting. If we take WCE and compare it with MFC as was done in this article there is one massive difference. LEADERSHIP, the Eagles have leaders such as Glass, Embley, Kerr, Cox, Waters and Sellwood who are all premiership players. Outside of premiership players the Eagles also get leadership from Priddis, Rosa and Hurn. The WC recruits players have had these guys to play with and and learn from. Who are our experienced leaders, Green, Davey, Rivers and Moloney. At various times the first three of these guys haven't been automatic selections and all four of them could hardly be rated as high quality leaders, at least from what we see on the field. I really think that having senior players setting the tone around a football club is unbelievably important and unfortunately the Demons haven't had this for years. If you add to this the fact that taking the field with A-grade talent makes it so much easier for young players to develop. If we compare Shuey/Gaff and Trengove. Trengove is asked to do a mountain of work every week and the team has relied on him almost from day one. Whereas Shuey/Gaff has Priddis, Kerr, Rosa, and the Sellwoods doing the majority of the heavy lifting. This takes so much pressure off them and allows them to develop properly without being asked to do to much. The same thing applies when comparing Watts to Naitanui/Darling. I have always thought we would have another dip in form (admittedly not this soon) and then we would need add another group of young players to make our list competitive with the best. When Trengove, Grimes, Watts, Tapscott, Frawley and Jones are our experienced leaders, I think the Demons will be much better positioned for success.

I agree it has to do with both. But I think our player development and culture are the major issues. Recruiting- At this point it looks as though picking up Cook was a major blunder. Other then that I can't seen any glaring mistakes. How could anyone have foreseen the Scully situation and Martin was clearly ranked third by all recruiters in that draft anyway. As for Watts, again he was rated as the number one in his draft by most of the so called experts and there was no controversy at the time we drafted him. I firmly believe his career will ultimately surpass Naitanui Development- I look at our list and think back to when a lot of these players came on the scene showing plenty and have gone backwards. Gysberts- The perfect example came out in his first four or five games looked like a star, but has struggled with injury and form ever since. Trengove- Has pretty much stayed at the same level sine arriving. Luckily this a pretty good level. Tapscott- Looked great early last year. Then fell away as the year progressed. Remains to be seen how he comes back this year. Howe- Had everyone excited throughout last season. Looks to have fallen away this year rather than going to a new level. Garland- I'm not going to mark him too harshly. But his game doesn't seem to have improved over the past 2 years. Blease- Was looking good at the end of last year. Now is battling to make the team and doesn't seem to have a position. Morton- The whole of the AFL thought we had picked up a gun when drafted. Played reasonably early, but his form has slipped away year by year. Watts- Again everything I read leading up to the draft had him number one. Mismanaged on his debut. Has showed plenty at times, but not consistently. Should be making his mark on games consistently by now. Bennell- Has had some reasonable games early. Will be lucky to be around next year. Has not progressed at all since being at the club. McKenzie- Showed plenty of energy early and was impacting games. Skills are still poor and doesn't seem to have expanded his capabilities at all. I don't really like to single players out but I want to illustrate by thoughts that very few if any MFC players have improved over the past 3 - 4 years. I think this must be a result of poor coaching. But I also think the more senior players we have are poor role models and have failed to set the necessary standard.

Would be happy with this. Maybe not all in one week though and would like another look at Sellar.

You will get no argument from me that we are coming from a long way back and some massive changes need to be made. But wasn't that supposed to be happening over the past four years. I think supporters have every right to be frustrated and angry, when it looks like the club has wasted so much time. Especially when throughout that period we have been told everything was going perfectly with the rebuilding process and that supporters just need to be patient.

In - Sellar, Morton, Couch and Gysberts Out - MacDonald, Rivers, Davey and Green I also think players like McDonald, Davis and even possibly Sheahan need to be early in the year. When that time comes they need more than one or two games in a row. Give them a month to settle in unless they clearly are not cutting it.

"And Neeld is going to use those opportunities to assess performance with rigour. There is, he said, no way he will keep going down a similar path and putting blind faith in players." Yet we are asked to put blind faith in the footy club.

No I don't want sugar coating at all. My point is when the players pick up the paper this morning and see that their coach wasn't surprised that they lost, what goes through their mind and what are they thinking in the lead up to a trip to Perth. I would have liked him to say he was hugely disappointed by the effort of the team and had every expectation of winning. Then explain that it will take time to adapt to the new game plan. Not sugar coating, just letting everyone know he expects to win games, but understands the challenges ahead.

I totally agree WYL and loved his honesty from day one, but it just stood out to me that he wasn't surprised by the result. If he didn't expect to beat Brisbane without Brown who is he expecting to beat.

I agree Bailey failed and we need to give Neeld time. But I am worried he is by his responses in the press conference. Most importantly when asked if he was surprised by the result and his said no he wasn't. How can he have been at the club for 5 months had a full preseason to prepare and educate the players and then not be surprised that they lost. What kind of message does this send to the players. Shouldn't he be preparing a team to win games, while continuing overall development with an eye to the future. We definitely needed to have a more defensive aspect to our game after 2011, but I am really concerned that Neeld may have tried to do to much to soon. I am trying to stay positive but the signs didn't look to promising for a better year this year. And if as supporters are feeling disenchanted by the continual losses and lack of progress, I am worried some of the players might start to get used to losing making it impossible to create a winning culture.

Knocking Jack Watts has become a fashionable thing do to this season. As with many things in the AFL once a few commentators make comment everybody wants to jump on board. I think there are a few things we all need to remember to put the whole thing into perspective. I know many of these points have been made earlier but I would like to support them. Firstly since Jack has been at the club the Demons have been consistently among the lowest ranked teams for creating inside 50's. We all know that playing on the half forward line is seen as one of the hardest positions on the field to play. Add to that the lack of supply and the degree of difficulty would have to increase significantly. Jack had three or four good games playing higher up the ground last year where he was able to be more involved in the play and was less reliant on supply from the midfield. His other solid games were when the team was playing well (Fremantle) and he had more opportunity as a forward to have an impact on the match. In the last three years MFC has been developing in many areas of weakness. After watching the Demons play week after week our kicking effiency would have to be among the worst in the league. Playing as a forward trying to make something out the sub-standard disposal from the midfield and half backline at times looked to be close to impossible from the stands. Also the midfield has also been extremely indecisive with their forward movement making it hard for our forwards to create space and make good position. This indecision also come from the lack of forward structure MFC has had for the past 5 or 6 seasons. Jack has often been the key forward for the past two of those years. This is an enormous task for a 19 or 20 year old. Nick Riewoldt had Fraser Gehrig playing full forward while he was developing and Jonathan Brown has Alistair Lynch to help during his development. With structure as a key to the new coaching regime and the inclusion of Mitch Clark it will be interesting to see how Jack fares this year. I see Jacks lack of hardness more as a lack of self belief. I think this has been caused by him being asked to do to much to soon in his career. He has had to play as a key forward in a struggling team, often taking on the best defender of the opposition. As mentioned with a more structured game plan and forward line and the addition of MC, Jack will have much more opportunity to succeed. This should build his self belief and we will see his intensity increase as a result. It may seem like I am making excuses, but in my opinion think Jack has been up against it so far in his career. At times I think he has been mismanaged by the club and I also think he is an easy target for the media. Assuming he stays relatively injury free, he has 10 years of footy ahead of him and possibly 180 to 225 games. I think we will all look back on his entire career with great memories (hopefully including a premiership or two).

After reading post after post regarding Colin Sylvia I final got motivated and registered to add to the discussion. 2012 will be Colin's 9th years with the Demons. In that time he has never played more than the 19 games he played last year. After finishing in the mid to lower part of the eight for the first three years, he has played in teams that have finished 12th at best over the past five years. Injuries have led to Colin being unable to string games together consistently throughout his time at MFC. As a result his career has never gained the momentum needed to establish himself as a reliable A grade footballer. Hopefully with the new football department and fitness staff Colin will play at least 21 games this season after missing round one. If this is the case I am confident he will be meeting the expectations of even the most doubtful supporters. Throughout the last five years at least Sylvia has been playing in a team that lacks midfield grunt (putting it nicely). I think he will benefit hugely from the new recruiting direction of strong bodied mids. While he is able to win his own ball, I see Colin creating run and spread from the contested possession won by Jones and co. This is where he will be at his most damaging and benefit to the team. Playing in struggling teams is a battle for all but the very best (Judd and Ablett) and I think Colin is a player who will reach new levels with a strong midfield surrounding him.