IT WAS great to have Neale Daniher come back to the club theday before last Friday night's match, for Neita’s 300th game againstCollingwood.

Neale spoke about Neita's career and the 10 years he hadspent with him. He seems the same bubbly character as when he left Melbourne earlier in theseason and it's great that he was invited back.

One concept Neale came up with was talking about whereplayers were when Neita was at the club on the cusp of his debut in 1992.

He asked players how old they were and Jonesy (Nathan Jones)said: "I was four."

We had a big build-up before the game. We had some of ourpast greats in the rooms, including Brett Lovett, Jim Stynes, Todd Viney, PaulHopgood, Matthew and Steven Febey, David Schwarz, Guy Rigoni and Stephen Tingay– which was fantastic.

It was great to see these guysagain and it really gave our boys a lift. Unfortunately we don't get to seethese guys enough, as they don't want to be seen to be “hanging around” theclub, but I'd love to see them more.

We then paid tribute to Neitaand it was a special occasion. It was unfortunate we weren't able to get a winfor the big fella, after we started off shakily in the first half.

Our intensity was there, but ourinability to utilise our skill and our turnovers proved costly.

In the second half, we startedto play better footy and we still competed hard, but we weren't able to put theicing on the cake.

It was a great credit to theboys to come back, especially when we had three guys – Ben Holland, Daniel Belland Aaron Davey – all sustain injuries. This left us with one player on thebench.

I thought we were a chance toget there in the finish, but we ran out of time and fell 11 points short.

We then had Neita's 300-game celebrationfunction on Saturday night at Docklands and it was great to catch up andreminisce with him and the boys.

We don't get to do that enough -get together and have a few beers. It's good every now and then, and not a badthing.

The inner sanctum, board membersand administration people at the club attended, along with our wives, fiancésand girlfriends, so it was a good close knit group and a great night.

On Monday, we were shocked tofind out that Chris Fagan was leaving the club.

I originally met Chris when Iwas in Tassie before I came to Melbourne,so being a fellow Tasmanian it was a surprise to see him announce he washeading to Hawthorn.

I think it's a sad loss for Melbourne, but Chrisloves coaching and I think he wants to get back into that area. He loves beingout there with the players and the role he has accepted at Hawthorn seems tosuit him to a “t”.

With Neale already gone andChris set to leave the club, it's certainly going to have a different feel atthe club next season and that's going to be interesting in itself.