btdemon

I agree with this. I know he's not popular at the moment, but Davey should be in that list too. The Dees did everything but kick straight yesterday. They came back from the brink twice and nearly a third time and generally looked the better team. It was very frustrating to watch. However, I am still confident that the extra experience, more mature bodies and the arrival a new coach with a new game plan will see a move up the ladder next year. We must find another quality mid to replace Scully if he goes.

If he were to take the job ongoing i think it would very important the the club that the club surround him with innovators and tacticians in the assistant roles. We now hear about the "line coaches" doing a significant share of the ball-movement and tactical coaching. They fire stats and suggestions at the head coach throughout the game. Todd has a very honest, no-nonsense approach in the way he talks to players and the media. That's what makes him so refreshing. There would be no doubts in the minds of the players as to what was expected of them in terms of commitment. I don't know if he would be the great innovator, but maybe its more about getting good people around him? Incidentally, it was interesting to hear him mention (a couple of weeks ago), the lack of defensive discipline the had become a problem amongst the players. I can't remember the quote exactly but it would seem that he was pointing out an attitude the had come about under Bails and it needed correcting. I was very sorry to see Bails go, but it would seem that maybe his biggest flaw was that he was too nice. ND had the same fault. They always had faith that the talent of the players would shine through. It seems that Viney is also a very good "people person", but is so direct and no bulltish.

The guy can take a contested mark and is a natural forward, BUT his kicking is unreliable, he has had a chronic back problem and there was some question about his temperament when he was playing at the Gippsland Power. He is not worth Martin and a draft pick. We would be much better off looking for and tough and skilful midfielder. Especially if Scully goes.

He's had one bad year and there were probably mitigating circumstances (I'm just speculating). Why are we so quick to condemn him? People forget what excitement and class he has brought to the Dees. In the darkest days of 2008, Bails said he wished he had three or four Aaron Daveys in the side. Obviously a reference to the fact that he was one of the few truly class players at Melbourne at the time. Yes, he has shown a lack of discipline, and on a couple of occasions didn't "go when it was his turn". He has lost confidence and rhythm. However, players of his class don't lose their ability. He is still only 28? He had a broken leg at the end of last season and has an interrupted year this season. Trading him would be so dumb. I look forward to him rising to the challenge under a new coach.

If we did, presumably it would be with either a PSD or rookie pick. I can't imagine he would survive to the rookie draft. If we picked him, he would last 2 years max? Are we going to be a GF chance in the next 2 years? Answer: probably not. He would probably help win a couple of games next year and may well teach our young forwards how to play that position, but we must also remember that when older players reach their use-by date it often happens quite quickly? here is no guarantee that we would get two or even one year of quality footy from him. We would have used up a draft pick on a possible player of the future.

Can someone tell me if Fitzpatrick's kicking is as goofy and unco as it appeared last year? I saw him in the intraclub practice game at Casey last year and his kicking looked a little Jake Spencer-ish.

Many pundits would claim that good midfields not only win premierships but in fact they get you there in the first place. First use of the ball has always been important but is now crucial. Not only first use, but good, precise use. In the past few years, with zoning and the press, the concept of the midfield really extends to the half-backs and half forwards. Flankers have to cover nearly as much ground as the mids and with rotations these guys have to much more flexible. Some of these teams listed below have won "the big one" with fairly pedestrian key forwards. Port's 2004 and the Swans 2005 teams don't bristle with exquisite talent but they had very good team ethic and structure and were fed by excellent rucks. StKilda didn't win it, but they went so close and have been consistent top-line performers over recent times that I included them in my argument. If you look at these key midfields they are mostly top quality with very effective ruck combinations. 2001-3 Voss, Black, Lappin, Aker, Pike, Power (Charman, Keating, Mcdonald) 2004 Cornes, Carr, Mahoney, Burgoyne, James (Brogan, Lade) 2005 Goodes, Kirk, Ablett, Buchanan, Dempster (Jolly, Ball) 2006 Judd, Cousins, Kerr, Braun, Fletcher (Cox) 2007, 2009 Ablett, Ling, Selwood, Bartel, Corey, Chapman (Ottens, King, Blake) 2008 Mitchell, Sewell, Crawford, Lewis, Bateman (Campbell, Renouf) 2010 Pendlebury, Swan, Thomas, Wellingham, Ball (Jolly, Brown) StKilda 2009 Ball, Hayes, Montagna, Schneider, Dal Santo, Jones (King, Gardiner) The recruiting team at Melbourne seem to have been attempting to build like this for the past couple of drafts. When we chose, Scully, Trengove, Gysberts, Tappscott, Gawn, Fitzpatrick in 2009 I could see that they were heading this way. Many people screamed that we should have chosen key talls like Butcher, Talia or Carlisle when they were available but I could see the thinking of the recruiters. If you have a surplus of high quality mids they can redeployed on flanks like Corey, Hodge and Chapman. This means that you win the ball where it really counts. My biggest concern is that there is not quite enough size in our mids. Gysberts is tall and will no doubt put on some bulk but doesn't appear to have the frame to make him a Corey or Pendlebury. Let's hope for the best. Tappy will probably end up in there when he has the engine. The biggest worry about Scully (apart from him going to GWS), is his knee. I am confident that he has the combination of qualities to make a fine topline mid providing we keep him and he can overcome the knee problem, but seeing the plight of Cooney causes me to doubt it. Maybe Grimes has many of the right qualities, except quick, precise disposal. However, one of the things good mids need is resilience and resistance to injury. The punishment is relentless. Yes, a big bodied forward woud be handy, and no one would be surprised if we went after one but we potentially have have the tall defenders, with the addition of Davis and McDonald, already. If a powerful, quality mid is available, we should always go for them.

Nick "426" Smith meets Luke Molan

I still think he is more worthwhile than Maric. Aussie is a great kick but more importantly, a good user who knows how to find the right spots. Maric is a good kick, has good skills, but can't put it together. Aussie may not be fit until round three or four. He will effectively be missing the first four or five weeks of pre-season. Not ideal but if he manages not stack it on over the lay-off, he might be OK.

Neeld, Sanderson, Hinkley and McCartney all have big reputations. A friend who is a Geelong freak reckons that Sanderson, McCartney and Hinkley were the architects of the Geelong "style", not Bomber. I can't back this up with any evidence but its perhaps points to the importance of having very bright people in the coaching panel. Neeld's Wiki CV certainly looks ok. :Mark "Neeldy" Neeld (born 13 July 1971) is a former Australian rules footballer who played with Geelong and Richmond in the Australian Football League (AFL) during the 1990s. He is currently an assistant coach at the Collingwood Football Club. Neeld, from St Joseph's originally, spent four seasons with Geelong and had his best season in 1991 when he put together 21 games, three of them finals. Used on both ends of the ground, he kicked three goals in the Semi Final against Hawthorn and two goals in Geelong's Preliminary Final loss to West Coast.[1][2] In 1994, Neeld joined Richmond after being traded for the 38th pick of the draft, which Geelong used to recruit David Innella. As coach of Ocean Grove in the Bellarine Football League, Neeld steered the club to four successive premierships from 2000 to 2003. He spent three years as the Western Jets senior coach in the TAC Cup before appointed the defensive assistant coach of Collingwood in 2008. His coaching duties changed in 2010 when he was put in charge of Collingwood's midfield." Eventually new coaches evolve and appear on the scene. Malthouse, Clarkson etc were all novice coaches at one stage. The experience and training, in very good football organisations, that these guys have is probably more than Malthouse, Sheedy, Eade, Matthews or Woosha ever had. They are all worth considering. Ross Lyon had that long apprenticeship under Roos, as did Longmire. We should certainly be chasing the best I agree. If it is Malthouse, he will probably determine who his assistant coaches will be.

Show me the desk! I wanna see the desk! Was it one of these?

The lack of crumbers hurt us yesterday. Watts will go fo a contested mark if he is one on one, but if it is a bigger pack he will often palm the ball out of the pack. Has anyone else noticed this? It's not necessarily a bad thing and if we had Davey or Aussie or even Bennell hanging around we could have had a couple of goals yesterday. Watts is really good at this. He has great hands, good spring and a long reach. It also gives a second effective option if he can't grab the mark. Davey could've eaten those up if he had have been fit and firing.

There were times yesterday when it was obvious we needed a crumber. Davey was really on one leg from early on.

It was very sorry to see either of Jurrah and Sylvia dropped. Bate and Dunn were less impressive to me. The message must be being sent to LJ to chase or else. Not only chase but cut the angles with more vigour and urgency. Sylvia hasn't been that bad. Maybe he has been white-anting because of his contract negotiations. Who Knows? I just hope that anyone who doesn't put in this week gets similar treatment. We should know by year's end who is fair dinkum. My biggest criticism of DB is the same as with Neale Daniher. They were both teachers who wanted their boys to play well and always gave them the opportunity. Think about what ND said about Yze when he was playing dreadfully week afteer week. "This guy can win games for you", and he kept playing him until the noise to drop him became deafening and he couldn't ignore it. I admire this in both coaches because it is a very positive human quality and often releases the potential in a person. It also makes them very popular with their players. Unfortunately footy can be a very much more cut-throat situation and demands that clear lines be drawn at times. This may seem like a contradictory argument, but at this time in the history of the club our player culture needs to make a massive change. Incidentally, from all reports, Mick malthouse is very well liked by his players.

This article is really interesting. Three years ago we had the examples of Collingwood and Geelong to emulate. Modern powerful clubs where the best people are employed (wherever they they might be from) in departments that don't interfere with each other. We employed Connolly and Schwab, both of whom were formerly involved with club and could not keep their egos out of the footy dept. Harris states: "Football success requires getting the best players, the best coaches, the best environment over a sustained period. It's as simple and complex as that, a three-legged stool". "Unambiguous effort means non-delivery is not accepted, and universally. Unity means genuine and shared ownership of the strategies. Discipline means absolute commitment to individual and collective effort, outcomes and behaviours" "Football clubs are largely in the business of selling hope to their fans, but it needs to be more realistic hope than hype. One senses that impatience to end the premiership drought, premature excitement about the quality of the playing list versus the competition, and egotistical desires by some to be the ''saviour'' or hero has led to expectations of success exceeding reality, and this is in turn amplified by failure to meet basic expectations of effort and spirit". "Success means capitalising on whatever opportunities exist today, seizing and sustaining whatever comes your way, trying to build opportunities for tomorrow in a virtuous cycle. Melbourne needs only look at the experience of Collingwood, which has reinvented itself from being a financially troubled suburban club in the 1970s into a powerhouse. This was a club that seized and created opportunities Melbourne rejected, and has been able to be sustainably competitive and successful despite its own leadership tensions, financial setbacks and player behaviour issues. Success, not failure, now defines them". "The most successful clubs and organisations, such as the Collingwoods and Manchester Uniteds, continue to enrich their history and capacity to maximise their appeal to players, coaches, fans, and sponsors. They understand they only remain as strong as their capacity to withstand adversity and grow from it". http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/on-reflection-demons-must-look-in-the-mirror-20110802-1i9zk.html Please understand, I am not suggesting that Jimmy hasn't been the saviour of the club, but the "boys club" approach has prevented us being the best we can. In hindsight, we probably missed a huge opportunity to restructure the club. By Contrast, the only thing that will prevent Collingwood becoming even stronger would be sort of political infighting that we have seen at the Dees.

John Kennedy?

I see this as a mistake by the club. We have just dispensed with a valuable person, with obvious integrity, and ability as a manager of football and footballers. We have replaced him with a great player but one who doesn't like the modern analysis approach. Meanwhile the 'old boys' network is retained. Our club legends are few because we haven't had much success or sustained period of high standard footy over the past forty years. We clutch at straws with people like Lyon, Viney, Ox and Connolly. Gazing inward is not the way for us. Bailey brought a modern scientific approach. Succes would have come eventually. I am very disappointed.

This post on Demonology sums up why I am sometimes embarrassed to be a Dees supporter. "I suspect that we are more intelligent, have higher IQ's and are professionally more successful than average supporters of other clubs. We therefore have the intellect and means to get enjoyment from more meaningful activities other than football and therefore don't care about it as much as other clubs supporters." BEING BORN INTO A POSITION OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PRIVILEGE DOES NOT GIVE YOU A HIGHER IQ !!!!! Being born into privilege and being sent to the most prestigious schools gives you a great advantage but not a higher IQ! What breathtaking arrogance! Sometimes when I sit amongst my fellow Dees supporters and look around me I feel "I don't belong here". The feeling is more pronounced when I am invited as a guest by an MCC member. BTW I don't hail from "struggle town" by any means, but attitudes such as those expressed above make my blood boil.

How's that?

We've had many dark days, and then we have even darker ones. Please make it stop!

Most players will play given the opportunity. Especially someone as gung-ho as Beamer. It seems amateurish that the medical staff didn't just say "No". That does worry me.

What, you've never had the flu? Moloneys commitment can't be questioned.

Petterd is one of our more creative players. When given the odd spell in the middle he really gets active. I'd like to see this more regularly, especially when he is having trouble getting involved down forward.

He has no game above his head and this is a liability. Seems nervous to look up at the flight of an oncoming ball. Runs very 'close to the ground' but usually back and away from the opposition, then kicks off balance. He may make it, but to me he is too limited.

You BEAUTY!!!!