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Ok... I have not posted for a little while now but, as always, have been getting my daily/hourly fill of Demonland reading.... As would be the case with most of us, I have not enjoyed what I have seen over the first 4 rounds (I don't count pre-season as anything to base gameday opinions on). We have all basically come to the agreement that our beloved club is bereft of mature leaders and of players with the quality of most other clubs... Yes we have recruited with a high amount of stupidity (in hindsight) but also without a lot of luck along the way.... We still have some players at the club who you can build a team around, without naming the obvious ones.... But we also have a $hitload of players on our list who would not be getting a game in any other 22.... The Melbourne Football Club have recruited 2 key people over the last six months.... The first being Mark Neeld.... This guy WILL get us somewhere! More on him later.... The 2nd key recruit is Mitch Clark... His effort and attack on the pill is exactly what our forwardline needs! We are just not seeing how good this guy is purely because of the cattle playing up the field... Our forward structure is ugly because our current list of available players is ugly... FFS you have Mitch as our go-to forward with James Sellar as his wing man! Our small forwards are either not playing/past their best/lost in previous drafts.... We rely on getting certain players back into the side who can hopefully have an impact under the new coaching regime... A forward line consisting of Mitch Clark, Liam Jurrah, Jeremy Howe, Ricky Petterd and maybe a fit/hungry Nev Jetta waiting at ground level would kick a winning score if the ball was coming down to them often enough (even if bombed in)... Currently Howe and Watts (both natural forwards) are having to play roles further up field because we simply lack quality midfielders who can find a teammate by foot... For all of Jack Watts' faults, finding a target by foot is not one of them! Our midfield is easily the worst in the league! Attack on the footy is not the issue with our mids (Nate Jones is at the base of EVERY pack all day long)... Disposal and the lack of outside mids with devestating kicks is! Unfortunately this will take time to rectify... Something we as MFC members are sick of hearing, but we MUST listen this time! Our defence is not bad... Take out Joel MacDonald and inject a running half back with silk (draft?) so we aren't relying on Frawley to try and evade 6 blokes and run the ball out of the backline and you have a core group of players who will stop opposition forwards from scoring.... Again we need the quality midfield to stop the ball coming into their F50 with reckless abandon! Now Mark Neeld... Give this guy a go people... Yes, I said this about Bailey after his first year but Dean was the unfortunate victim of a club bereft of money and resources.... Have a look at the quality of assistant coaches and fitness staff at the club now... A group consisting of Neil Craig, David Misson and Todd Viney is a group that will bring professionalism at the Dees to a new level... They are building what will give the Melbourne faithfull what we want... Finals football and a chance at success! They cannot do it with what we have on the park at the moment! End of story! We are in a position to draft well over the next couple of years... Make no mistake about it! The first half of this season is going to be hard to watch... Let's be realistic... But I have faith that the 2nd half of this year we will start to see some serious improvement (barring our injury list growing) in the results... As Mark has stated, the effort is good... But he cannot come out in a presser and say "The effort is good, but our skills are the $hittest I have ever seen!" Which is exactly what he will be thinking... Our current administration MUST keep this group of 4 men at the helm of our club together! Outside pressures will peak on Mark Neeld when we are sitting at 0-8... But we MUST be patient! I strongly believe that come the end of the year, the media will be saying that we will be pushing for finals in 2013... If we can string some exciting wins together in the middle/latter stages of the year there will be draftees WANTING to be part of our club... Football these days is all about professionalism... And the 4 coaches I listed earlier are demanding this! They will weed out the ones who won't make it and will be ruthless in doing so... External pressures will be massive on Mark and his crew.... But you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the issue at the club is with the cattle and not the coaches! Anyone who can honestly argue otherwise has rocks in their head.... Patience is not one of my strong points.... But I can see what Mark and the guys are doing... And I like what I see.... Call me Krazy