Wells 11

I was there in saturday night and Watts was no better or worse than anyone else. I honestly believe its the game plan, not talent and not intensity thats killing us. People will disagree with me here but I didnt see a lack of intensity i saw a lack of intelligent game plan. No one gets any loose ball the way we play...yet the opposition, in the way they shape up, gets heavy doses of it. When I see our structure theres hardly any obvious choices about where to kick it when we DO actually get it. Looking at Essendon there was usually at least 2 obvious choices about where to go in most possessions they had. One way creates confidence, support and urgency, the other desperation and fear. For mine, Watts is one of our best. Its pure distraction to point the finger at him. The game plan is one thats either designed by a fool or the players dont know how to do it. My sense coming into season 2 of Neelds tenure is that its the game plan. Perhaps because of this, it really looks like Neelds lost the players. We can argue all we like about how bad the players are to "drop" a coach but players just dont DO that unless things are pretty bad. Its their careers as well. Im thinking of a WW1 general and how at the end of the war the soldiers didnt respect or want to follow the orders to run over the trenches. Maybe we should stop blaming the players here for a moment and start looking more deeply into what they're being asked to do.

She's having a crack at us because she got juicy inside info and saw the chance for a headline. If she had SUCH strong opinions where were they in 2007 and all the years before that? Agree with 2nd part though. Winning is the only way to turn perceptions around now.

Sad but probably true re CW. None the less she has been wrong consistently throughout the whole saga. In fact, its hard to work out how much of a saga this would have even been without her! My take on her and this. AA probably on his last chance to make an impact and protect himself from the up and coming GM, goes hard at us looking for a moral victory and to secure his position. Gets CW onside with all the inside info providing that she directs all the anger and shame at us instead of the faulty system of rules or AD. As long as we were the target then they could never be. AA failed....and GM comes in. Realising the Dees have their backs to the wall with nothing to lose in a court fight ( a fight the AFL would almost certainly lose) he FINALLY reaches for the long overdue middle ground. CW, having done the AFL's dirty work gets caught holding the wrong story but wriggles out of it somehow with an increased salary and readership. Albeit one that now loathes her and will rejoice in her downfall. Seems wrong she carries on as if nothing ever happened now....but as you said a media witch is very different to a footy follower.

My take on this is its only a juicy media STORY if its specific.... if the crime has a perpetrator everyone can scapegoat . I think the press know if it gets generalised then it will all dissapate into thin air . Whoever gets to land the "guilty" scoop could win a journalism award at the end of the year. CW already has the rights to it. So...keep the attack focused on one club and there could be a real storm to cover...complete with sackings and moral outrage. What Im hoping for is that it blows up in all of there faces. That CW is left looking like the fool she was with this and that the others are left running for cover. Can only hope we've got the ammunition to shoot when it counts. Golden rule re failure. Stay weak for TOO long and packs of wolves will pick up your scent and start eyeing you off as their next meal. We've gotta back up the top...

Its unbelievable how underrated by the media this guy was in the crossover to the dees. He lost confidence playing ruck and forward in 2012 but he's still a strong potent forward and was considered a gun in 2011. I think he's going to be huge for us..on and off the field and he's only 24! Im really looking forward to us being having a strong forward line next year. First time in a month Ive had head back in football and off CW etc etc feels good!

Two things struck me about this piece. FIrst that Caro has returned to trying to be a reporter instead of a shock jock. The second was this, Clothier, a former tax lawyer, had his team beefed up last year when the internationally recognised police officer Haddad joined the AFL as its first intelligence co-ordinator. As the league intensified its fight to preserve the game's integrity and protect it from match-fixing and the threat of performance-enhancing drugs, Haddad, who worked in Sierra Leone and Cambodia and has worked as a tactical intelligence operative for the Victoria Police sexual crimes squad, came on board and quickly had his involvement at head office widened. WTF! It's like we've been accused of "match fixing" for money! It's good that we've got a QC on side except by the time this is finished, whatever the result, his fee is going to be the equivalent of a big fine. Whatever the case, we absolutely need to fight this...

I see we were training on Collingwoods oval at Goshs'. We were always going to take that over when the pies moved to their other training ground. Does anyone know if thats happened and thats why we're on their oval? Or are they just in Arizona?

Yes but Im sure it was pretty personal to him when he was trying to coach a team that wasnt being paid! He's a great club man and he wouldn't sell Casey down the river in the media...

Nothing to do with protecting the MFC Canplay. Im sure he despises the joint. But if he were to admit that his name would be posion in the football world and his coaching / media / football career at ANY level would be finished. regardless of any assurance or amnesty the AFL gave him. Im also sure that he would never have been stupid enough to instruct any body to lose.

It also struck me as interesting that in the same week the papers saturated us all with the tanking subject, Falau quit the Giants. It got them through the heavy scrutiny that would have normally would have followed that event didnt it. Whether that was the Giants acting independently and just being smart in their timing or the whole thing was somewhat more orchestrated is something to think about. Tippett goes through to the draft one week, and the door opens for the Giants to get him if they have salary cap space. The next week suddenly after 5 months of relative calm, the whole tanking story explodes with a series of probable AFL leaks and Falau quits in the middle of it. We lose face Giants save it. I just smell a rat in there somewhere...

I think every Demon supporter who cares is hurting at the moment....( as if we werent ALEADY before this CW driven sh@t storm) but posts like this do help lift my eyes a little. Thanks BB

Great post....I feel the same

Thanks

Can you copy and paste that article onto the site...Im not a subscriber

In a magical world of best outcomes. The AFL could come out and say the rules they had in place were faulty and here are the penalties for future indescretions. Amnesty for ALL the clubs involved in the past. That would be the "just" action...but there's blue cheese on the moon too and pigs flying up to eat it.

But guilty of what LH? Thats the real question. Guilty of wanting to grow the dees as a power again in the same manner that several teams had done before us. The ONLY incentive was to become stronger. This issue is really doing my head in.

...and Richmond.

I wonder if that would still take Grundy? If so, it would give us a clear choice of Toumpas or probably WInes

Interesting just one of the captains is there too. Chance or something more?

We can only hope that sometime next year, or the year after that ,we have cause to remind him of that mark.... and loudly underline his total lack of insight. We bide our time and wait!

I like what the club did this trade period. They recruited so they could play with a type of STRUCTURE Neeld wants us to play with, competitively in 2013. If you want players to play a certain type of game, with a certain kind of method, there's not much point if the type of players you have just cant do it. No one really learns anything losing by 60- 90 points each week. Neeld has set us up to play a type of game , that we will refine, but that will set the blueprint for the young players to adapt to NOW. I disagree with the thinking around here that all the players sacked weren't trying, or weren't disciplined etc. I'll miss some of them. I just think they were the wrong TYPE of players to play his game. Wrong shape, wrong playing attributes i.e speed, height, build for the positions he wanted them filling. On top of which he inherited a [censored] load of bad feeling in the playing group both post Bailey and the recognition that the club had underspent of the FD with big consequences. Consequences that were made obvious on Neeld, Craig and Missions arrival. He wants to be an AFL coach LONG TERM. So, he's got a list he wants, or that is a lot closer to what he wants, than when he came. He's the coach...for now I back his vision. At least he has one! I also think Neelds relationship with the players will be a lot different this year when he knows he wants to keep them. We're going to find out a lot more about his system this year than last....and, love him or hate him, you have to admit he's been brave and put his arse as firmly on the line as anyone could. I for one am impressed with kahunas.

YES! ...everything I was trying to say earlier but with more facts and better worded. Can you get a job in the media somewhere? Preferably replacing Greg Denham or one of the coulda beens?

Thanks Bendigo demon...grt post. Helped relieve some doubts. Ive heard he's an articulate intelligent bloke and having a big bodied KPP who players respect could really make a difference around the place. I got excited again about him when I read this.

Actually I think its the exact opposite. We have the highest retention year to year of existing members of any club in the comp. The STORY about us is where fickle but its just not what I see. Not just that but whenever I get to talk to a dee, or run into one that I didnt previously know...there's immediate rapport. Although of all the clubs we're the only one where the supporters get bagged constantly along with the players. Something about all the bashing makes me MORE passionate.......I want them all to eat there words. Of course I may have to wait...and wait....and wait...and.......well theres nothing I can do about it anyway. Im a dee. If ether ever was a choice it got made 40 years ago.

You may be right about Neeld. But it may also be true that he came into the club at a time when he just couldn't cosy up to a whole bunch of players he quickly knew he was going to need to axe. We can tell yet..... but we did know that the place was a train wreck when he walked into it. A mix of years of low spend on football department and coaches, poor management of experienced players and our band of so called " young guns" turning out to be more like water pistols....paper ones. Its possible that Wellingham wants to keep playing finals and that Dawes doesnt want to be replaced by Hogan in 2 years time. Its possible...who knows yet. I just dont think we can sacrifice Neeld too soon. We need to give him at least a full year with more of his own picked list and less of the toxic remains of the Schwab/ Bailey fall out and the limited Bailey game plan/ body type. Whatever the rights and wrongs of Neelds style Im sure plenty other coaches have issues. He might look a lot better if we win 10 or 11 next year. We have to wait and see.