Broken Heart, But Still Beats True

Oh, to be a Melbourne Demons supporter. The expectation. But then the despair. Year in. Year out. Why do I do it to myself? And with a young son now, why should I do it to him as well?

I wrote last year when the Club seemed like it was at its lowest point after the infamous massive drubbing by Geelong. That game ended up with the sacking of Dean Bailey as coach which I thought appropriate at the time. Not so much for that one game but for his whole four year tenure as coach.

I now see, after only three games in 2012, that those thoughts were more than appropriate. Fore I can only surmise nowadays that those four years were completely and utterly wasted.

I took issue with the fact Bailey didn’t seem to have a game plan and lacked any tactical nous to make decisions or changes to try and alter the course of the match. It was like he thought “I’ve got some of the most talented kids in the country through the draft and all I need to do is give them plenty of games and success will follow”.

And that’s what he did. He gave them games and gave the older guys more games as well. Very little in terms of accountability. Very little in terms of standards and measures around performance. Around improvement.

Well, haven’t the chickens come home to roost now. Many of these kids might have 20-50 games under their belts but it’s hard to see any development or progress in terms of the intangibles. Footy smarts. Positioning. Decision-making. Hardness.

Why have players at other clubs with similar levels of experience gone on to bigger and better things? And why is it that ours haven’t?

I’m not for a minute doing an analysis of the top draft picks over recent years and going through a game of “we should’ve picked Player A instead of Player B”, etc. Those arguments are irrelevant until such time as both players have finished their careers and you can properly look back and evaluate.

For instance, I still think Jack Watts will become a better player than a Nic Naitanui or a Stephen Hill or a Daniel Rich. But he’s only just turned 21 (and so have they mind you) so let’s leave that debate until we seen a hell of a lot more from him and from them.

No, the point of this is to ask the question why do Melbourne’s players seem to stagnate and never really make the jump to the next level? Where’s the ‘progress’ that you can hang your hat on and feel good about the next year or two to come? Where’s our next ‘superstar’ who the rest of competition look on at and wish they had?

We’re a patient lot we Demons supporters. We’ve had to be. I’ve been waiting my whole life for a Premiership. And that’s after being filled with talk of the glory days of the 50s and 60s from my father. It’s hurt a lot. But that’s the thing, it seems there’s no end to the hurt in sight. In fact, this year may bring even worse hurt based on our first three performances.

I’m a glass half-full sort of guy though. I still retain some hope for 2012. You can stop laughing now.

Yes, my reasons are this. Basically, new coach Mark Neeld is actually starting from scratch with this playing group. Many of them have plenty of games under their belt and many of them have now got AFL experience. But that ‘experience’ has been under a system devoid of strategy and tactics and accountability and standards. It will therefore take some time, maybe quite a bit of time, to instil some of these elements into the Melbourne Football Club as a whole and into the current playing group.

It’s quite obvious that the players are struggling with this so far. Actually playing to a game plan and having structures in place must seem very foreign to them. But they will become accustomed to it and dare I say it, ‘while it won’t happen overnight, it will happen’.

The challenge for Mark Neeld and the coaching staff is enormous. Everyone knows it now. There’s no glossing over. No papering over the cracks. I’m a pure realist on that front. As one of the new coaches in 2012, his task is definitely the hardest. The others have inherited lists that just need a bit of a reno. Neeld has inherited a list that needs a complete rebuild.

But I do have faith (hey, it’s all I got) that the club did make the right decision to appoint him as coach as I think his attributes in teaching and developing will eventually be rewarded and of course be crucial to any future success.

I’m keeping faith then and actually think that, while the first half of the year will be dismal (more of the same I'm afraid), the second half may see some real improvement and hopefully some stuff we can hang out hats on for next year. Instilling a game plan and teaching our young players some of the intangibles of AFL footy. The stuff that you need to 'progress' both as a player and a team.

But by god, I can’t believe I’m saying ‘there’s always next year’ so early on into a season. Definitely some sort of record.

Yes, they certainly make it hard for me to love them the old red and blues but hey, what am I going to do? This heart beats true and I'll remain a Demon for life. And so will my son.

Hopefully.

EDM.

EDM's Belated Post-Election Wrap

Some observations folks on the recent Queensland Election landslide and all that it now means. If you follow me on twitter at @NahSeriousBlog you may have heard a few of them already.

No one, not even the movers and shakers within the Labor Party, expected Labor to win the election. But geez, no one expected the margin to be what it was. Absolutely incredible. They lost seats in the west of Brisbane and Ipswich they’ve held since 1904. Former Ministers Mulherin (Mackay) and Pitt (Cairns) are the only Labor members outside of Brisbane. Conversely the LNP won seats and created local Members out of people who never ever thought they’d have to give up their day jobs.

The LNP won 88% (78) of seats with only 49.7% of the vote. Beating Labor’s record in 2001 when they won 74% of seats with 49% of the vote. Not exactly fair that a party that doesn’t even receive half the votes can enjoy such a majority. Then again, that’s our system of ‘winner takes all’ and moving to proportional representation (LNP would get 49% of seats, Labor 28% of seats, etc) is unlikely as what Government would want to install it while its actually in power? Certainly not this new one as it acts to implement its agenda after capturing such a massive mandate.

I’m not sold on proportional representation completely either as all Governments would probably end up being a Coalition of different parties rather than someone enjoying a majority of members and therefore being able to form a Government. Then again, maybe that’s a way of smashing the current two party system in this country which results in a lot of sameness and a lot of spin.

Certainly glad I don’t work in the Parliamentary Service having to teach 49 new members the ins and outs and rules and procedures of a working Westminster Parliament. Good luck to the new Member of Lytton as well as it constitutes his very first full-time job coming from stacking shelves at Coles.

The Parliamentary Committee System has been decimated by so few Opposition and Cross Bench Members. Normally a committee has 5 or so members – 2-3 Government, 2 Opposition and maybe a Cross Bench. There’s now not enough Opposition members to fill posts on the committees (10 in the last Parliament) so they’ll have to be stacked with Government members. Not good for the review/evaluation of Government policy and actions as the Committees are designed to do.

Perhaps Queensland needs an Upper House again after dismantling it back in 1922. Every other State has one which acts as a House of Review of the Government and its legislation. Can’t see the public voting to bring it on though if it means we have more politicians rather than less. Maybe fill it with all the Mayors across the State and merely sit a few times a year? Yeah, not bloody likely is it.

Labor had no right to win the last election in 2009. Due to a clever campaign, particularly in the last week, they came over the top of the LNP and had an unexpected win. Will never forget The Courier Mail calling it for the LNP on the morning of the election before sheepishly having to admit it got it wrong the next day. The irony is that if Labor had lost that election in 2009, they still would have won a decent amount of seats and been in a position to challenge and win this election. That 3 more years in Government may cost them 12-15 years in Opposition.

Was the Bligh Government really that bad? No doubt they were a tired lot that was too focussed on the media cycle, particularly in the last 12-18 months of its end of days. But I think that was due to them being so sensitive to public opinion knowing full well that they would face the ‘time for a change’ challenge if/when an election was called. The hate out there for the former Government and its' Premier is way over the top for mine considering it did deliver on a number of fronts over a number of years and did make some very difficult decisions despite the fact it knew it would be unpopular.

Speaking of which, the asset sales decision, while unpopular, did significantly add to the Government’s bottom line in the wake of the GFC and probably allowed for the saving of thousands of jobs across the economy given the Government’s hand in building some massive infrastructure projects and offering incentives to the building and construction industries. Again, not sure why there’s so much hate around that decision. Did the Queensland people really have such a great love for a road toll operator or a coal port terminal?

I lived in Queensland prior to Labor coming into power and it was a boring, staid and an inward sort of place. I couldn’t wait to get the hell out as soon as I finished my degree. By 2004 though it had changed dramatically and I was happy to return. It’s now busy, cosmopolitan and enlivened. Of course that’s not purely because of Government as business, industry and people have a lot to do with it but the Government did assist in creating some of the conditions to make it work and promote a number of industries that you would never associate the old Queensland with. Science, innovation, gaming are some that spring to mind. Again, was the former Government really that bad to deserve to be annihilated?

It’s quite sad really when the people doing the most trashing of your legacy are your own people. Hearing Annastacia Palaszczuk saying she’d always disagreed (maybe privately) with Labor’s former policy on this and on that is a bit disingenuous. Weren’t you in the Cabinet Room that made those decisions Anastasia? Isn’t 20-20 hindsight a wonderful thing though.

And finally, a lot has been made about Labor’s negative tactics in attacking Newman and his family’s business dealings. For the record, it wasn't Labor that ‘dug up that dirt’. It was The Courier Mail. Labor did run the infamous ads and for a week or so they did seem work with polls showing only a 50-50 split in Ashgrove and Newman looking very unsteady under intense questioning.

Alas, the issue was how long they ran them for and the constant bombardment of the ads over nearly a month. They really should have kept it to a week or so just to create some doubt in voter’s minds before moving on to something else. But again, isn’t hindsight a wonderful thing?

Anyway, there’s EDM’s random thoughts on the 2012 Queensland Election. Strap yourselves in folks for quite a ride over the next few months and years in Queensland politics. And of course EDM will be happy to offer his two cents worth on it all from time to time so stay tuned here at Nah Seriously on a regular basis as well.

Til next time,

EDM.