Older demon

The point was made about free agency with Maloney and Rivers going and inadequate compensation. Melbourne expected a much higher compensation pick but got a much later selection because they picked up Byrnes from Geelong. On a like for like basis we got dudded and the only question I have is did we need to take Byrnes via free agency? He was out of contract and hardly likely to be snapped up by anyone else and maybe picked up late like Rodan was. I seem to remember that if they got the pick they expected they were going to give that to North for Pederson.

Born in 55 just in time to start our premiership run to a Mother who barracked for Melbourne, just like her Mum who barracked for the D's and my great grandmother who also barracked for the D's. I have as a family memento Grans 1929 membership card. A time when there were 18 games and the draw was called "engagement". Every game has a notch showing she went to every game and she also like to tell us that somewhere in there was a relative married to Ian Johnson the cricketer. I always wanted to play for the D's but my ambitions exceeded my abilities so I contented myself with supporting them I eventually got into the MCC and signed both kids up at birth and got them Melbourne junior jumpers. Thanks to my late father my son converted to the Kangaroos and my daughter defected to Collingwood when her favourite player Shane Woewodin was shipped to the woods. She went with him and to seal the deal her step dad got her a Collingwood jumper. I fear I will never see a flag in my life time and I can only vaguely remember 1964 listening on the radio. I have seen 2 grand finals and in both we were smashed but like Robbie Flower I live in hope.

Caller to Ox on SEN just gave the same story at the meeting yesterday and noted that many long serving club benefactors were angry and at the point of withdrawing their support even saying they would not offer financial support while Neeld is there. Damian Barret on the AFL website has stated that process is already in place to replace the coach in 2014. Let me say Board stuff is complex! I chair the board of an amateur club and it is very difficult to not get caught in the operational side of things. The board is their for governance, risk assessment, legal issues, financial planning, strategic planning in other words the role is to govern not manage. Management is the CEO's job and clearly Jackson has identified issues with reporting to the CEO. He has yet to say how matters are bought to the board and it would appear there are deficiencies there. Having said that I still expect the footy department to prepare the players to the best of their ability and send out a competitive unit each week to quote John Northey the team must 'Have a red hot go" I am not convinced that they are having a red hot go and we are the most uncompetitive I have ever seen.

Words fail me I cannot put in words how bad that effort today made me feel. Of the four friends who go to the footy I look like the only 1 from now we all give up, cannot stand it anymore!!!

Geelong 10 players with under 50 games!! How do they do it.? Greg Wells is the master recruiter and I have heard his 10 rules for drafting, 1. Must put head over ball

A. The players chose the leadership group after Neeld had cut all the old group and HE decided who HE wanted as captains. So disappointing to hear the effect Neeld has had on the playing group B. Geelong had 10 players tonight with under 50 games. Smedts 20 games, Schroeder 1 games, Guthrie 22 games, Horlin-Smith 7 games, Thurlow 1, Blicavs 6, Taylor-Hunt 47, Christensen 42, Motlop 33, West 47. So much for have a young inexperienced team being the reason other teams beat us.

Despite what the club is saying the playing group believe that Jack's shoulder is worse than reported and they expect he will miss a significant chunk of the season and may not get back as it was a severe break that needed pinning

A lot of decision making and skill gets back to coaching. In the split second you have to dispose of the ball it is as much about the give off as it is about the person who calls for it. Sometimes an experienced player will ignore the call close in and take the tackle or lift his eyes and look for the best defensive position to send the ball. It is much harder at ground level to see where a player is hot than it is in the stands. Teams are drilled so it is instinct not thought, they become reactive and need to be disciplined not play like rabbits in the headlights. If they hand ball to a stationary team mate in a worse position that is coaching and a player who puts himself in the wrong position and calls for the ball should be told so. Carlton's ability to set up from a kick in and kick it long and wide to position is the result of hours of practise not a lucky fluke on the day and I would hope we have been practising a counter move to such a play.....

I was very disappointed with the output and error making of Trengove, McDonald and Mckenzie. So 2 mids and a tall and a captain. If Grimes is on long term injury list the Magner for him, Sellar for Mac while he gets some confidence and learns to kick and Davey for Mckenzie and Fitzpatrick for Trengove as we need a tall mobile marking forward (not convinced that Dawes is ready yet)

Here is a thought for you all. I hope the first thing the interim CEO does is act on the contract situation. I see this as a difficult proposition for Jackson as he will have to work out from the FD who and what price contracts he offers to those coming out of contract. I think it would be really bad to put all contract talks with all players on hold while he tries to get the house in order. I suspect that at this stage the FD would know who is in their plans for recruitment next year and what sort of funding is required. Last years 3 year plan with the new FD will already have looked at the player mix for next year but that will have changed dramatically with the CEO situation. Tough gig to pick up, make decisions in an interim role.

While I am on it did anyone get a letter from the club yesterday signed off by Mark Neeld? He acknowledges that many have written to him expressing their unhappiness at the team performance and have stated they will not take up membership or renew. I have renewed recently, having said I wouldn't till Neeld went but I figure nothing will happen till Jackson does his review but the last thing the club needs is a letter from the source of our problems telling us everything will be OK. I would be happier if he offered to stand aside then see who renews

I found it interesting that Malthouse announced this week if he had to tolerate what Neeld has he would have been out. Interesting call so why hasn't Neeld taken the hint and resigned as he seems to copy everything his mentor (Malthouse does). Maybe the irony will be that Mick's Blues will belt the hell out of this week and put the final nail in Neeld's coffin.

The most inspired appointment of a captain happened at Geelong years ago when they went for Tom Harley. At the time it seemed a strange decision but history shows it was inspired as he wasn't the first picked every week and he wasn't their best player but he was the best captain. He lead the leadership group that turned Johnson around and marked the start of their culture. Who is our Tom Harley? sadly I would have nominated Rivers but he left and clearly our coach didn't see him in that light as he removed him from the leadership group. I don't mind Grimes as captain, believe that trengove should have been vice captain and suggest that Garland may be the "Tom Harley" in the wings. Grant Thomas rotated the captaincy over 5 years until they found who among the group would hold the title and avoided the embarrassment of having to remove the captaincy from someone.

You have asked where can the current list improve? I would add another dimension of whom we may lose as out of contract players at seasons end. I was concerned when so many older players came on the list and worried that the coach was topping up to win some extra games and shore up his contract after a shocking first year. We have Tynan, Taggert, Strauss, Kent, Barry, Fitzpatrick and Davis who we have no idea if they can play as we haven't seen much of them for a variety of reasons so it is time to see if they can play. I would go smaller with our line ups as there are too many tales and by that I mean players who take contested marks. I think goodvibes has the skeleton of the team but I think we need to outsource. If Neeld really had read the book "Moneyball" he would have targeted clearance specialists and known ball winners. Rodan, Byrnes, Pederson and Gillies do not fit into that category and I reckon the FD just took whoever was available. I can see big improvement in Gawn and his 2nd efforts are sensational. Michael Evans has been worth the wait he will run and Hogan will be the most anticipated arrival next year.

This early in the week we need to see who comes up and who is injured. Tom Mac needs to go back to casey to find some form and confidence, Rodan and Blease may be good at VFL but they don't cut it at AFL especially against an elite Carlton midfield. Jordy fumbled and just seems off the pace and is a atagger only, so that is 4 out and Davey may need a full game at casey after 2 weeks as sub. That makes 5 out

The interim CEO Jackson was appointed after the club spoke to the AFL. Be under no illusion the first person to read Jackson's report will be Andrew Demetriou as he assesses just how big a basket case MFC is. Remember Vlad stated that he thought MFC had chosen wisely in appointing an interim CEO of Jackson's stature after the club asked the AFL for assistance. The AFL are concerned for the club and competition, and despite what people want, rebuilding again was dumb and very poor strategy. The majority of the supporter base have had enough and Don knows it. The club has gone from declaring that Neeld would take this group forward and make them tougher they never dreamed that we would go so far backwards so quickly. Quote from Neeld "I didn't see it coming" The board may have given Neeld a 3 year mandate but I doubt the AFL will. Another disastrous season and bottom 2 finish this year will have the AFL wanting some action, as Vlad has said they cannot afford to have MFC fall behind the expansion clubs. The MFC brand is being trashed and that perception has to change, so heads will roll and it is usually the coaches that goes first.

Lets look at what we have and forget those who left. Whose idea was it to recruit Pederson, Byrnes and Rodan they contributed NOTHING? Whose idea was it to make Jack Trengove captain, the kid is struggling big time? Tommy Mac is being isolated down back by opposition clubs and has a horrible 2 weeks and Bleese and Mckenzie may as well not have been there. The footy dept has a lot to answer for and for Neeld to say he thought a 5 goal loss was OK makes me sick. They had nearly 40 shots at goal God help us if they had kicked straight

Did someone mention Icebergs? Last nights 7.30 report was a confirmation of a John Sylvester report in the weekend Age that drugs, supplements etc are rife in all sports in Australia and that extends to the AFL. We are talking about highly competitive sportsmen looking for an edge and a way to extend their careers. We have been kidding ourselves that our sports people and athletes are squeaky clean. Why were MFC so pleased to get David Misson? Because his track record at other clubs was to get players, AFL ready. Do I think Essendon were the only club with cutting edge supplements NO and all the other clubs that have employed the "Weapon" Dank or Dr Bates will come under scrutiny. The question is will there be any clubs that haven't nibbled at it. Charters was at pains to say that he helped Hird get an extra year out of his career but that Hird wouldn't resort to cheating. Other players have asked to join the Dank program as they want that edge, didn't Dunne ask to come on board? This supplement stuff is out there and has been for a while and we are now only getting to see the tip of the Iceberg. Very interesting now that the anti-obesity drug is officially on the banned list as has been since 2011..the brown stuff is about to hit the fan

What he doesn't tell us is the status of Dunne and Joel Mac so we really don't know how prepared they are and whether they need a run at Casey. Yesterday Viney looked to be struggling with that ankle and may be rested. Easy to forget that Toumpas and Sellar didn't get a game at all on the weekend.

On a serious note, D's played well with Clarke of because we finally got some run and given Brisbane are quick I think Mckenzie to tag Rich, Blease for pace and Strauss so Jack can go up forward with Jetta, Viney and Clarke missing

Oh I wish we could bring Hogan in!!!

Time to start again. Football dept is gone, Neeld, Craig, Mahoney and anyone else (McLardy) who knew will not survive the wrath of Vlad. The AFL will do the clean out the board could never do and it will all be done in 1 fell swoop

The point is that under bailey we still managed to win 8 and a half games and play attractive football. Why not tread slowly in a new club and build the fitness base and take 3 years to weed out the slackers. Bailey deliberately didn't over train as he had a list of 18 year olds whose bodies it was deemed would not stand the rigors and adjustments were made. Luke Ball when he first started at St Kilda developed OP when Grant Thomas insisted he do a full pre season, note Jack Trengove was so fatigued last year he could hardly run. Don't overlook why the fitness base was low, as that was part of the longer term plan. Why did MN sack the leadership group, why install 2 rookie captains, why sack all the coaches (except Royal ) and the leadership group then ignore or discard all the footy intellect accumulated and start afresh? It was arrogant, naive and in retrospect a massive error to rebuild again. If it was just about fitness I could accept the changes but it is also about man management, management style, game plan and vision. Look at what Ken Hinkley has done at Port and how he achieved it. They too were not fit enough but all their out of contract players have stayed on. MN does it by the numbers and is so full of himself he casts of those who don't do it his way and for that he will pay the price.

Jamar is so out of form it isn't funny and never contributed much around the ground. It is more noticeable with Martin not there, and Sellar and Pederson are not the answer as backup ruck man. Given our weakness in midfield the lack of a class running ruck who contributes to general play taking marks, kicking goals etc then it is no surprise we get smashed. Gawn is untried but the ruck stocks look mighty thin at the moment

Or maybe it is about rebuilding the confidence of a group of young men whose ability and ego has been trashed. To be booed off and trashed by your own supporters is something the younger men may not have encountered. Jimmy Toumpas was inconsolable after round 1, and the way Watts was shamed on the evening was deplorable coaching. The older guys way be able to take it but we have 4 first year players in the team and maybe this is when the old recruits bought in help rebuild the club of field??