The heart beats true

Gerald Healy, Greg Williams, Tony Locket, Peter Everett and Barry Hall disagree. I love the Swans attitude and culture but every year after the Grand FInal the story revolving around the teams involved is about how do they afford to keep the group together. Geelong players took less money to stay as a group and got flags out of it. This year the Swans look set to sign the best available tall in the game. Can't see how thats fair after winning a flag with an extra mil to spend.

Back on topic: I think what the game tells us is that Neeld is onto something in theory. But coaching isn't judged solely on theory. it's about making it work and that can only happen if the players buy in and put in. Honestly I think there was only one way Sydney could have won on the weekend and they pulled it off. That shows they followed through and worked hard. I've never seen a team tackle like they did on Saturday. There is 25 examples of extraordinary tackling. We don't have a list of hard workers like the Swans. That team committed to competing at every opportunity. We showed all year that we didn't want to do that. Part of it was buy in - it was obvious that some players didn't want to do it Neeld's way (Beamer) and it only takes 1 to not do it before 4-5 don't do it and it breaks down massively. The other part is execution and I think we don't have the midfield numbers or experience yet. The unfortunate thing is that the club also lacks the leaders required to pull everyone up to that level. It's going to take extraordinary on and off field leadership for us to get to that level.

Finals would have been better if Geelong didn't coast against Freo and actually showed up. Freo and Adelaide in Melbourne finals doesn't help, and Adelaide fans don't want to pay to go to finals apparently. The lack of competitiveness from us and the Doggies, Richmond and Carlton's demise (they are fickle supporters), and obviously the expansion teams all effected the regular season. I will say that I went to the GF and the whole experience was amazing. The crowd was phenomenal, both teams played well and the skills were outstanding given the pressure and conditions. I think the AFL is doing ok overall. Fox Footy is great to catch up on games you can't watch live during the weekend (or get to). I do wish the league would stop trying to make Grand Final day about anything but footy. I don't need bands for the other 26 weeks of the year. If they must do something on the day focus on the highlights of the year and the people that play the game at every level. Friends of mine watched in the US and they couldn't believe how great it was to see young kids give the Swans their medals. We have a good thing going thats built on involvement and inclusiveness and the more the day is about that the better the atmosphere and the better the experience.

I'm confused as to why anyone thinks this wouldn't be his low. He's a Melbourne supporter so he's seen us play. I love the club and went to every game I could get to but this year we were terrible 90% of the time. Not below average - terrible. The bigger issue is that the list cull we all thought must be on the cards is looking less likely with each passing day as nobody wants to play for us. The real low might be that we have to hold on to players that aren't up to it just to keep a full list. If we can get Lynch, 2 experienced mids and Viney plus another ready to go kid we can get better but I would think that living on the Gold Coast and surfing in the afternoons looks like a lot better than playing for us. Sheahan is right, and thats why it hurts.

Wonder how happy Dane Swan is now knowing that Jolly robbed him of any chance this year? He'll walk from Collingwood for money once his contract is up.

Did you watch that game? Bennell and Ablett should have got 3 and 2. Without them we would have won by 200 points.

What needs to happen to fix this is that AFL needs to allow Foxtel to televise their own broadcast of the same game. 7 has no competition so they treat their audience like fools. Just by allowing competition they'll have to lift their game. I also LOVE the idea of a broadcast without commentary with just crowd noise. I wish Foxtel would bring that back.

Did I miss something about Caddy? A lot of what I've heard is that Essendon are the front runners as they are his first choice.

All I know for sure is that 90% of the posts on this thread make a 17 year old kid sound like the second coming. I hope for his sake that the young bloke is as good as some hope he is. Fortunately we've had a stellar run with high draft picks called Jack. They've all lived up to their potential so far :-/

Here is what I don't understand. Why doesn't he pull a Nik Nat? Come out publicly saying that he has lived around the country but that he want's to stay in Melbourne as he feels it's his home and he'll play his best here. The kid is going to play AFL and get drafted by someone so it's not like he's doing a disservice to his chances on draft day. That way GCS and GWS know that he'll ask to be traded home after 2 years if they chance their hand. It's not draft tampering by us as there is plenty of precedents of this by other players and I think it set's him up well as a future player for the club that he is 97% likely to play for anyway. He starts the relationship on the right foot.

Easy on Lingy. I reckon he's got a head that could only be on TV in 2 countries in the world - Australia and Ireland (They don't have TV in NZ yet do they?). Everywhere else he'd be kept from the spotlight. He's a rare species and I like a bit of ginger diversity on the box.

I hope you are right. My concern is that the players are so low on confidence that they couldn't buy a win against a half decent side. Neeld has a lot of work to get both the fitness and belief where it needs to be.

He didn't want to leave WA. He didn't want to leave WA. He didn't want to leave WA. He didn't want to leave WA. Repeat it to yourself 1000 times until you understand.

Watching the Eagles dominate against North right now. Every time Nik Nat or Darling do something good I think 'that'll send D'Land into a tail spin about our recruiting'. They look red hot.

I'd take Cloke. He has a huge body and I think that would make life a lot easier for Mitch and blokes like Blease and Jetta to crumb from. We need to spend the money and for once we actually have it. Wellingham I'm not convinced of. It's really hard to understand a midfielders value when you've got so much focus on Swan, Pendlebury and now Beams. If it's just him and Nathan Jones you'd have to think he's going to find the going much tougher.

This is total BS. I think the club has done everything they could to support Jurrah this year and to be honest I think he's made some really poor decisions that would create obvious animosity between parties. Regardless of the legal incident lets look at Liam's handling of it: - Comes to Melbourne after the arrest and runs to a rival club president to a do an interview without notifying the club. They only find out hours before it airs. - After the club puts a lot of resource into his recovery and his personal legal issues he leaves the club for SA only notifying the club once he's already there that he's not playing out the season. - Quits the club for good but has obviously been discussing other opportunities behind his current employers back and makes them look foolish with the way it's announced. I for one can never and will never understand the complexities of Liam's personal situation and I genuinely feel for him. The reality is that he is employed with a group of 40 other players and the club has to be seen to be operating in a way that is fair and balanced. I think anyone would understand that different individuals require more room to move than others but you can't continually disrespect your employer. He could have handled things better and he chose not to and those decisions are his and his alone. I support the attitude that he hasn't been good for our club culture this year. He became too much of a distraction.

Gees Tex if this is how your feeling in early September I think it's best you lock yourself in a panic room until the end of October. Gysberts has no physicality and will be pushed aside in our team for the next 2-3 years as our younger bodies develop. At that point he will have had 5 years in the system and probably only added another 15 games. He is a victim of bad choices made before and around him but we can't keep all these under developed, under performing guys and expect to get better. If someone else wants him and we can get a bigger body that helps us get some respect and self belief back then it must be done. Hold on to your hat mate. You'll see a lot more going down in the next 6 weeks. We haven't even scratched the surface.

Not really a Monfries fan in the context of the MFC. Have concerns over his work ethic and mental attitude. I agree that we need some more forward options but what we need more than anything is players that command respect. I wouldn't put him in the top 50% in the league in that regard. I'd be concerned that he'd be another not quite big enough, not quite strong enough type.

Jared Rivers is one of the most reliably consistent competitors at the club. He is nothing if he is not competitive. I suspect that the ball is in Jared's court to an extent, but the clubs not pressing depending on who becomes available through trades. I'd expect a deal to be done late October once things start sorting themselves out.

This. A thousand times over. It's been obvious all year that our club lacks a spiritual leader. We are bereft of true leadership and integrity at all levels. I think the club is reeling without the big bloke, which is not to say folks aren't trying just that we need someone with a certain gravitas to step up and lead us into the future.

Good on all those that contributed. I hope you got to interface with some at the club and remind them of your passion and your pockets. It's nice that those at the club have a great (but sometimes difficult) job, but they are there to succeed and I hope that those that donate remind them of the supporter bases desire to see competitiveness.

Everyone forgets all this stuff the minute the club starts to be a force on the field. Nobody talks about the effect of the WCE drug culture now because they are winning. If they were 16th you can bet there would be murmurs of it everywhere. If EVERYONE at the club wants to keep their jobs we must start winning and competing at every level. And, although the circumstances are different, don't North look a different side since Eugene Arocca left? Makes me wonder about the effect management has on club culture.

Excellent news. Sammy will be a star.

Yeah, it's obvious to me that he has changed tack. It still concerns me that 90% of the staff that were unhappy with him are still there though (the players). That can't be good for culture and I know from experience that if people lose faith in management it's very hard to gain it back This would be true if half of our list could kick ;-)

In regards to the article above I just want to point out the quotes to those of you who have been screaming about 'speculation' and 'innuendo' regarding the playing groups relationship with Cam Schwab. I do believe these direct quotes from Jim shed light onto the reality of the situation. "Some of his behaviour was proving destructive and it was clear he had lost the faith of the coach and the playing group. "I felt that some aspects of his work were first-class, and perhaps that two-thirds of what he did overall was good. "But I was frustrated by the fact he was choosing to ignore the board and seemed determined to run his own agenda." He is the luckiest person in the AFL to have a job. Garry Lyon kept him in his gig at the expense of the players. It's no longer innuendo. It's come from Jim himself and I think it's pretty damning.