The heart beats true

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.

He has no contract at Carlton and I thought the interview would focus more on that but they really blew over it.

No, it's a by product, and again your not actually making an argument that says what he said was incorrect. All your doing is saying 'why is he even on?'. I'd argue that the 30+ posts on this site alone in the last 45 minutes prove that the story is relevant and you can stick your head in the sand as long as you want but the problems not going away.

Did you watch the game on the weekend? He kicked the winning goal. He's on because he's an interesting story about how football styles come in and out of fashion. Stop trying to distract from the fact that what he said was right and what the club did has left us in a poor position in terms of culture and pride.

Brock placed the blame very high up the chain. He laid blame on the same people who put the folks in place that we just got rid of last year for the new round of people that are struggling. Makes you wonder when everyone will start looking at those at the top doesn't it?

I would guess 'administration'. You know, the ones that the players felt were too involved in the football department before 186 last year.

Thought the irony of going to Carlton was rich, but I do think it points the bone fairly at the club's administration as Brock made it clear that players and coach did not agree with the policy. What goes around comes around and i think we are seeing it right now. To be honest I don't buy that it's entirely a media beat up. I think football fans are interested in it especially in light of our ongoing lack of competitiveness.

I counted 7 players on that injury list that would be in our best 22. Hoping that some of the 'sky is falling/sack the coach' types are paying attention.

Brent Grgic. Went on to be terrific for Bell Post Hill.

Good point Oucher. This is why I'm advocating for anyone that wants to [censored] and moan on Sunday to show up on Friday and predict the result. You can't tell me that based on the midfield and forward line we played on the weekend, and our recent results at Docklands and against North that you really thought we would be competitive? But everyone shows up and screams about how the coach is useless and the players are going nowhere, completely ignoring injuries and experience. I know it frustrating but let's try and be realistic.

Thoroughly deserves the Bluey coming his way. Without him we are 4 goals further behind. Good to see a positive thread too ;-)

'It's just rubbish to watch and will cost us members.' If you're talking about the hysteria on Demonland after a loss then I couldn't agree more.

The more I see of the club the more I firmly believe we are going to be spending serious cash in the off season. It's a system built on results and the clubs supporters won't tolerate another youth policy rebuild. Neeld isn't stupid (besides what some here believe). He knows he's going to be judged on his record more so in year 2. I firmly believe that the most influential thing we'll do in 2012 is wreak havoc in October. That includes cutting expensive wood and shopping for genuine talent. The Mitch Clark experiment has proven the coaching staff right about our list. Expect big changes, and then let's judge more in the middle of 2013.

Really? Why?

Sad but very, very true.

This brings me to an idea. More commenters on here should post their thoughts on the losing margin before the game. I reckon I would have picked at least a 9 goal loss today, as I couldn't see us kicking more than 10 for the game with that midfield and forward line. It's really irritating when people come on here and kick the coach, FD and players while completely ignoring the lack of experience and skill in the team that took to the field. If your going to be Mondays expert have the balls to have a dip on Friday.

Gysberts for Jetta. Hoping Stauss starts on the ground and has a job to do so we can see where he's at. That'll be it I reckon. No way in hell Petterd comes in now. I doubt there's any point in Watts coming back in a hurry. They'll be very conservative with him.

If we have 11 spots to fill after the supposed list cull that is coming we can't expect to get more than 3 experienced, quality players. That leaves us with 8 kids coming in. Those 8 kids aren't going to hit the ground running. We'd be lucky if 2 do. That leaves us with a really junior list and what would apper to be a very inadequate senior team. I can't see 2013 being great for Neeld and I think it needs to be for his future as an AFL coach. I'm genuinely expecting us to pay bank over the off season for players that most won't rate. I think a lot of careers are riding on us spending big. Fascinating times ahead.

Yep, we should definitely be modeling ourselves on a coach and his underperforming team destined to miss the 8 for another season. FFS, maybe we should look at the top sides and model ourselves on them. You know, the ones that are hard at the ball and run all day and have great skills? Just a theory.

Excellent work as always KC. Good to see Gysberts doing well. Will be fascinating to see if Morton gets a recall too.

Not even in the worst 5 performances of the season. At the first bounce I looked out across Docklands and genuinely thought 'this is the worst MFC side i've witnessed in 25 years'. You really can't complain when you go in with that mentality. Jones tries hard. Howe will be a player as will Tom Mac. Greeny showed why he's hung around for 250. There's always next week!

And.... Cue the doomsayers threads about Neeld and 3/4's of the list.