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O.K., here is now where we separate the men from the boys. I want us to nominate the silliest thing you have said during the last 5 years. I think during the last five years, up has become down, winning has become losing and Cameron Schwab has at varying points been labelled a genius. This is not a post to settle old scores. Don't come on here nominating other people. This is about the silly things you have said. I'll get the ball rolling: 2013 realistic expectations Posted by Colin B. Flaubert on 19 December 2012 - 10:23 AM I've used this analogy before and I will use it again until it is hammered home. The village needed to be burnt down in order to save it. Neeldy needed to introduce accountability and discipline to the group. Home truths needed to be told. Have a look at the undermining of the coach at the start of the year and tell me that the tail wasn't wagging the dog prior to his arrival. Look at the blokes the club recruited and why they were recruited and tell me that there wasn't a deficiency of leadership and a cancer eating away at the soul of the team. Some might say that he should have moved on the arsehats who were reinforcing low standards upon his arrival. It appears that he gave them enough rope to hang themselves with. They were told what was expected, they didn't like that and cracked the sulks. Notice how no-one on the board was ever upset with Needly? It was always outside agitators who were being leaked to by players that were undermining the coach. That being said, Neeldy needs to start delivering this year. I am giving him less time than I did with Bailey because like most of us, I am sick of the 'patience' argument. He now has a decent spread of age. Excuse time is over. Next year, we need 8-10 wins or serious questions need be asked. And also: How do you mend a Broken Club ? Posted by Colin B. Flaubert on 04 November 2012 - 10:51 AM Neeldy is doing the right thing to fix this club up. While a lot of talk recently has focused on the planning of 2009, not has much as focused on what Neeldy is building. The thing that has stood out for me in his time at the club was the statement 'I don't believe in quick fixes and I don't believe in fairy tales.' List management prior to 2012 was based exclusively on quick fixes and fairy tales! Since as far back as I can remember, MFC has lived in 'all we have to do' land. After Joe Gutnick became president, all we had to do was recieve his money and recruit a boatload of players. From as far back as I remember, all we had to do was move away from Junction Oval and good facilities would ensure success. In 2008 and 2009, all we had to do was have two bad seasons so we could gain a priority pick to recruit the best youngsters. The question was never asked, 'Then what?' It was never considered that having all the most highly rated players in the world wouldn't matter if they weren't developed properly or the environment they were in wasn't conducive to keeping them on board. A second thought wasn't given to the fact that a weight weighs the same, it doesn't matter how shiny it is (I borrowed that one from Dean Bailey). It's hard work, committment and a strong culture that makes a good football team. That takes years to put together and it seems Neeld is willing to lay that foundation down. Players can fit in or fornicate off if they aren't willing to put in. Some people have criticized some aspects of the clubs recruiting in the preseason. They wonder why we got more mature aged players rather than kids from the draft. The answers are simple. Firstly, there needs to be some good role models around the club. For two long, the culture of 'Stuff it. Let's all go have a beer.' dominated the club. Now we have two blokes who are regarded as good role models (Byrnes, Dawes and it sounds like Rodan is being groomed for that role) to show these young blokes how to prepare. Secondly, it has been done to create greater in squad competition. For too long, blokes have been getting gifted games. I like the idea of playing youth but ONLY if they have earnt their stripes. It is now up to the youngsters to knock some of the older blokes out of the team via their performances at lower level and by their work ethic on the track. That to me is indicative of a culture of hard work. Another poster on here once wrote that the MFC had been synonymous with 'pipe dreams and laziness'. I could not agree more but now I think we have a coach, while he may ultimately not be successful in turning the club around, who has the right idea on how to turn things around. And finally (My god, how could I compare Mark Neeld with Barack Obama?!): Slipped So Quickly Posted by Colin B. Flaubert on 28 September 2012 - 08:33 AM There is a political/economic comparison that can be made to the Dean Bailey era at Melbourne and that is of the United States Presidency of George W. Bush. 1) Bush inherited an economy that facing a downturn after the dot.com bubble and the negative impact of 9/11 and tried to stimulate the economy with 'tax cuts' (though I must say rather disingenuously). The short term created massive deficits but few jobs/Bailey inherited an aging list with few newcomers and tried to pump it up with draft picks. The short term created some woeful performances but a few youngsters who showed promise. 2) After the initial firestorm, the economy recovered somewhat and GDP started to grow. Deficits were still a problem but unemployment had gotten to an even keel. A bigger problem was the insane risks financial institutions were taking with sub-prime mortgages and credit defaults swaps. Bush however lets these institutions call the shots /After a few years of pain, the club looked to be getting back on an even keel but massive losses to top four sides and a lack of fight is a problem. An even bigger problem (not known at the time) is the in house war taking place between the coaching and football department and Bailey taking the side of the playing group and in some cases kowtowing to their whims (i.e. cancelling fitness trials). 3) The stock market crash that caused the GFC. Thousands of points wiped off the stock market.Thousands more lose their homes. Large investment banks go under (Bear Stearns, AIG). This one day of carnage sets the tone for 3 years of economic pain to come/186 happens. Players show no fight and are absolutely pantsed making a mockery of their 'support' for Bailey. Bailey is sacked, Schwab reprimanded. Demons get flogged in subsequent game and win one more game for the year against Gold Coast, an expansion team. Like the Great Recession, the seeds of it's cause were found somewhere in steps one and two: plans that were myopic and narrow sighted (playing exclusively high draft picks and shedding experience/cutting corporate tax rates) and an inability to stand up to those who could make the most difference (Bailey cozying up to the players to use in his game against Schwab and therefore giving them the whip hand/Bush playing havoc with the amount of leverage available to financial institutions and not once creating policy that might go against their perceived 'interest'). We still feel the negative blow back of 186 today in the form of the performances given. The 'successful' lead up of 2010/11 was merely masking the inherent weaknesses of that playing list. Neeld is our Barack Obama to some extent (not in his personal charisma but in regards to the mess he inherited). And like Obama, the jury is out if he can actually turn it around. I hope for his sake that he does. I guess unlike Obama he has stood up to some of the causes of the Meltdown but like Obama, he has yet to provide real results. *Also kind of ironic both of these incidents both involved the GFC.