Mark Neeld is right in
that the tanking issue will probably not have much affect on the demons playing
group as they train through summer. With
the discipline that they commit themselves to football, what player really has
time to contemplate what is happening in the boardrooms of the club? Whether the players suffer from the clubs
further loss of credibility or not, they are out of excuses. Melbourne's 2012 season was dismal. Some people might remember Neeld's first few
months as dees coach last summer, where every second day he was making brave
statements about the dees being a tough team to play during his first
year. He even joked about ignoring the
advice of media advisors when he honestly answered media questions. His transparency and availability might have
been refreshing then, but as the team sunk from loss to loss, his tough statements
looked sad. This scribe privately
wondered if Neeld might have been better to wait for the dees to have some wins
before befriending the media sharks. He
certainly learnt the hard way.
Neeld will hopefully be
much more quiet this preseason. Far from
talking tough, he will definitely keep expectations low. Read: when you’re
playing in premierships, most sides (have players which) are around about the
100-game mark, and we’re far away from that, so we’ve just got to make sure
it’s time spent really well."
Emphasising lack of experience and long term vision is an easy option
for a coach, but some supporters have had just about enough of it. If Neeld continues that train of thought,
Melbourne supporters will remember the Bailey years, and the sense of dejavu
would be unbearable.
The tanking issue cannot
and will not be used as an excuse. The
AFL hopefully will not take draft picks from the Melbourne. If it did, the cycle of demon poverty would
be amusing, if it wasn't so sad. After a
period of sustained success, call it the Daniher years, the team lost some
champions, got a new coach, and went downhill very quickly. At that time, it was the done thing, and many
a famous club accepted the harsh reality of failure as a the first step to
success. Supporters did too. High draft picks were seen as the best, if
not only, way of getting back to the top.
The priority draft pick was an incentive to lose. Melbourne did just that, contriving to win
less than five games and getting said draft pick. It was, cynically put, exploitation of a
flawed system. And if players still tried their best at every contest, then
surely it was legal. But in a cruel
twist, the player Melbourne lost so hard to win was taken from them by another
'playing god' flaw in the system, namely salary cap exceptions allowed
GWS. The draft picks have not brought
success to Melbourne, quite the opposite, but still the demons will have to
answer for tanking during that fateful year.
If Melbourne were successful, resentment would be rife, and the
punishment for the tanking years would be harsh. Because they are not, let's hope the
punishment is reasonable.
Because Melbourne, in
contriving to lose games, have punished themselves to a far greater degree than
any administrator could do. They have
disappointed supporters much more than simple on-field incompetence could ever
do. They have almost destroyed the faith
of long term fans who wonder now if the club has any heart at all. In an age of obsession with club culture, the
tanking administrators have done more damage than a busload of drug addled
players could do. Forget the long
suffering supporters. Think about the
players who were part of that dismal season.
Players like Brad Green,
Cameron Bruce and James McDonald had played in a Grand Final in 2000. They were there when the dees went all the
way to the last Saturday in September.
And then, as their careers were coming to an end, they were there
to witness orchestrated losses. Bruce
left as soon as he could. McDonald
was mercilessly forced to retire, even though he was the captain and still
a top 5 player and the heart and soul of the team. Green hung around for a few more years of
disaster, shafted out of the captaincy for two kids. Now the connection with the most recent period
of success is lost, and current players have no one to look to for
leadership.
Thankfully, Sydney has
won the flag. The idea that you MUST
have top 5 draft picks to get to the top 5 a few years later has now been
debunked. There are many ways to win a
flag, and hopefully no team will be given reason to lose a game again. When Jimmy Stynes died last year, most demons
fans thought the team would come alive out of pure passion. They didn't.
The time for talk of the future is well over. Neeld must put up or shut up and leave. If he can't find ways to win games and be
competitive in losing games this season then he can tell his story
walking. Melbourne have 11 players who
have played over 80 games. Add to this Chris Dawes, captains Trengove and
Grimes, and previous first pick Watts, and the whole looking to the future card
looks a little bit weak.
