The heart beats true

I actually think that was his way of showing the playing group just how poor they were. He knew he was gone, the only ones that could do anything about it are the players and they showed absolutely nothing. Staying in the box implied that he was in control when he clearly felt that he wasn't. Good luck to them now. Maybe Bandicoot and co could sign up as Port members. I think they'll enjoy the next few years of sticking the boots into the new coach.

Or, he was a bloke that started his career with a successful team only to spend 75% of it being thumped and constantly under criticism. I thought it was obvious Brad has been told his time is up this year and he was enjoying the last bag of goals he'll kick on the G in front of his family. I was glad he got to do that, and I think anyone that wants to take that away from a 250 game player is mean spirited.

See this comment I have a problem with. I don't genuinely believe that you want Neeld to succeed. I think you'd rather be 'right' about him. Why else draw this rather obvious conclusion for everyone? Can we just give it a rest for a few days? It's boring.

I'm a bit confused about this 'strong hold' that we apparently have. Is this part of the same strong hold that got 13,000 in to see the Freo match? You're kidding yourself if you think that there is any growth for the club in Bentleigh. It's why Hawthorn moved to Waverly. We went to Casey because their is population growth there and we need growth to survive. Shoring up Bentleigh is like Geelong shoring up Colac - a nice idea for the 10,000 that live there but a horrible business decision with no room for expansion.

They are kidding themselves. We are a bad side at the best of times but if you take out 7 of our first 18 (let alone 22) with injury then the argument should be made that this will be a very close game and could go either way. The coach and FD are too new to be let go, most of the players are well aware that they are already playing for their futures. That only leaves those higher up the chain and I can't see ANY foreseeable reason why a Healy would want to put pressure on them, right? Right?

Don't take away the conspiracy theories BH. It's all we have left in 2012.

I would imagine that not playing like the worst team we've fielded in the last 20 years would probably help both causes.

That's a very good description of his skill set rpfc.

You'd be even more confused if you've seen much of Cook playing at Casey. Looooong way to go.

Just saw that a reporter from the Hun wrote an article today suggesting that Kevin Sheedy will lose against GC Suns to ensure they get first pick in the draft. The club president issued a press release within hours saying what an insult it was to the club and coach. Meanwhile a former player accuses us of deliberately trying to lose and we do nothing. Neeld told the players on the weekend that it's time that this club stood for something. I wish those further up the chain agreed.

That article draws a parallel that simply doesn't exist in it's very first sentence.... 'FORMER Melbourne ruckman Paul Johnson has added weight to Brock McLean's claims of tanking in 2009, saying player development, rather than winning, was the priority under former coach Dean Bailey.' Choosing Player Development over winning does not equal tanking. Otherwise we could be accused of tanking in 2012 by picking Neeld as coach and changing our game plan.

I get your anger regarding the situation Pipefitter, but you can't side with Mclean on this. He went to play for the team that wrote the handbook on tanking.

This is absurd. If we got beaten by 10 goals I can understand the hand wringing but if ANYTHING had happened differently in that match we would have won it. It's no like we kicked the ball to Jordan McMahon deliberately, it's not like he was a certainty to kick it, and in fact the siren blew before he marked it and it shouldn't have been allowed! On one hand the media think we are irrelevant idiots, and on the other we are brilliant masterminds of the most complex rig in the history of sport. Which one is it?

Johnson certainly doesn't call it tanking. His story is very similar to what we are doing now. Nathan Brown is a paid media commentator. His account of this can't be seen as being very relevant in light of that. He has nothing to lose and everything to gain by placing himself in the centre of this (when really it has nothing to do with him and he can offer no insight that anyone that watches that game on TV can't see).

It's a slow news week is all. The talk before this came up was that the season is too long and that it's getting boring. This is a manufactured story being pushed by a group of people who rely on there being something to write about. If Scott Thompson had to face the tribunal then this would have been much less of an issue. Hopefully the AFL's investigation will take 5-6 weeks. This will take us to mid September when there is much bigger footy stories. Hopefully between now and then a couple of players hit there 3rd drug strike and Wayne Carey and Ricky Nixon stay busy and this will all be forgotten about.

Our general crapness actually works in our favor. Surely it proves a history of being non-competitive. You only have to point to this year and see that players are playing out of position. This year everyone knows it's because we don't have the cattle. In retrospect it looks odd but at the time of the accusations we were a struggling team just doing what we needed to do to get a better understanding of our list. If we get hung out to dry for this then it's going to start an all out war. Carlton, Collingwood, Hawthorn and WCE are all implicated. Last time I checked most of those clubs are at the other end of ladder to us. The only thing that can happen is that the AFL provide an amnesty and put in place a more severe deterrent. But I agree. If they come for us and us alone on this then it stinks of hypocrisy and they will have a MFC lead riot to contend with. Pitchforks and Blazers at dawn!

I think we can all agree we've proven this to be true over the last few years.

What happens if we lose? Half of D'Land gets what they want - an opportunity to kick the [censored] out of the coach, the players, the administration and anyone else that might be in the vicinity. If we win? They just wait a week for another opportunity to kick us.

I reckon Brock will clarify that he didn't like playing out of position and in a team that was experimenting and the AFL will accept it and move on. They look like morons if this goes further as they've already done an investigation. The good thing is that it's in the AFL's best interest for this to go away.

Depends whose telling the story Daisycutter

This makes it sound like something from the Hangover. Does it involve a donkey and Richard Gere's hamster?

If thats how you feel then please stop following the MFC. That way you won't get to bask in the glory of Watts, Howe, Clark, Jones, Trengove, Grimes, McDonald, Blease, Viney, Frawley et al.

Not wanting to get off topic but it's a lot easier to play in a midfield with a hard working Brownlow medallist, Scott Pendlebury and Dale Thomas (and 2+ other quality 100 game players) than to play alongside Nathan Jones and the latest from Casey. Let's not turn every thread into an excuse to kick our future shall we.

The facts: 1. Brock did appear to try and recast himself as harshly dealt by the club and leaving for cultural reasons (tanking). In the light of day this has been proven to be untrue, simply because he left for Carlton. 2. The On The Couch team tried to establish Brock as a real clubman by talking up his $10,000 contribution to the debt demolition. Posters here have pointed out that there is an allegation that this was his way of 'paying' a club sanctioned fine in a media friendly way. Still need confirmation, but it doesn't look good for Brock. 3. We tanked. You can call it whatever you want but we did. The issue for me isn't that we did it, because the system encouraged it. The issue is the residue this left on our culture combined with the handling of other issues (Jnr., 186). Brock is no angel and we did the wrong thing in hindsight. The only thing we can do is try and move forward with a cleaner slate. A lot of the players are gone/going so for mine that only leaves those further up the chain. They should be replaced so this can be put to bed and we can all move on.

Bit early for Sammy Blease BH. Has just started playing consistently this year (which is still not true of Strauss and Gys). If he was surrounded by better players to learn from he could be anything. Think about how everyone kicked Lewis Jetta for a few years and now look at him.