2 minutes ago, daisycutter said:

still 2 kpp's short od

Spot on dc.

 

A legitimate question, but for mine, it's too early in the season. I would have said wait till at least round 6, but with the disruptions to the side over the last few weeks, even that's maybe too early for a settled response.

Individual players have improved, definitely, but across the 4 matches we've never had the same back 6 (for example). None of this helps, especially on top of our comparative youthfulness and lack of experience/maturity.

Going to be a stop-start season I fear, perhaps even moreso than last year.

Edited April 16, 20178 yr by bing181

No doubt about improvement and the talent is mostly there. But there is a stage where we must accellerate the rate. Three seasons of slow improvement going on to a fourth rebuild season with a shaky start. We have to push higher this season or else we will be in danger of peaking in 7th, 8th or 9th with buggerall chance of tasting a flag. We could be in a position where we may be looking at another decade before our next window.

Edited April 16, 20178 yr by america de cali

Of course we are better than recent years

We would have capitulated totally after trailing Saints round 1, Carlscum round 2, and been absolutely spifflicated by Geelong and Freo

Sure we have lost two that we could have won with more composure, but........

Edited April 16, 20178 yr by monoccular

At this stage we havn't improve on last year,we beat two nobodies,they have different name a.k.a richmond and collingwood. Yet Dr(short for Drongo) Gonzo rather disagrees,seems to be happy with 2-2 win/loss ratio. Someone is saying that Freo have a good midfield yet if they were 0-3 nobody would have made that statement. We have got a  better team since the Neeld days however other teams have improved also. If we lose next week do some of us come out and praise the opposition's midfield?.A Loss would cause us to say good-bye to the finals.

Really sick of the continual vacuum of experienced, quality leaders. It's been groundhog day, 10 years since we've had one, maybe longer. That and a couple of A grade mids in the team at the same time. 

2 hours ago, old dee said:

A couple of spots on the ladder DJ. We won 10 last year and I have thought 12-13 this year from square one.

after yesterday 12 max. 

Like last season, we were always going to lose some games we expected to win and win some games we are expected to lose. You watch. It was Geelong in 2015. Hawthorn in 2016. Who will it be in 2017?

1 minute ago, Moonshadow said:

Really sick of the continual vacuum of experienced, quality leaders. It's been groundhog day, 10 years since we've had one, maybe longer. That and a couple of A grade mids in the team at the same time. 

You are always whining Moonie. Buy a decent shiraz - you will see the world in a different light.

Just now, Bitter but optimistic said:

You are always whining Moonie. Buy a decent shiraz - you will see the world in a different light.

Play the ball Bitters

5 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Bland acceptance on your behalf Wise. I expected a higher quality from you. 

The MFC soft Underbelly does still exist. 

The MFC Leadership is still very poor and Goodwin has been at the club for 3 years learning from the Master

Some heat will do him good. 

I was just yanking your chain.  I thought you would see that.

Bottom line - you are far, far too quick to judge.  One poor term and he needs the heat on him.  We need to judge him by the season, not by one result.  There is zero heat on him at this point as it's clear his game plan works and the team are behind it.  It doesn't help when an AA ruckman goes down in his first year in charge.  I'll give him time, you judge him early as much as you like.  It won't make you right.

3 minutes ago, Moonshadow said:

Play the ball Bitters

I shall [censored] myself mercilessly Moonie.

This question gets asked every year, and usually after a loss people are emotional about. It's a question that is impossible to answer unless you're prepared to look at the big picture, which most people just aren't when they're cranky about a loss - and the opposite goes when we've had a good win. If you chain together all the threads and responses over the years, you could conclude that we haven't improved since 2012, which is clearly not true.

Also, lots happened last year. We haven't yet reached the heights reached against the Hawks last year, but we also haven't yet been as pitiful as we were against Geelong in round 23. "Last year" is too non-specific a benchmark to compare against.

12 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

I was just yanking your chain.  I thought you would see that.

Bottom line - you are far, far too quick to judge.  One poor term and he needs the heat on him.  We need to judge him by the season, not by one result.  There is zero heat on him at this point as it's clear his game plan works and the team are behind it.  It doesn't help when an AA ruckman goes down in his first year in charge.  I'll give him time, you judge him early as much as you like.  It won't make you right.

The game plan needs work if if is completely inoperative for 30 minute blocks

that is an eternity in a footy match

1 minute ago, Sir Why You Little said:

The game plan needs work if if is completely inoperative for 30 minute blocks

that is an eternity in a footy match

Of course it still needs some work, it doesn't mean that it isn't functioning well.  We've had over 60 shots on goal in the last two weeks without our best forward.  To me, that says that what we have in place is sound AND it works.  We just need to tighten the screws a little.

We have definitely improved ... so have other teams. We need our best team in to impose otherwise the forward line becomes congested and teams rebound on us.

1 minute ago, Wiseblood said:

Of course it still needs some work, it doesn't mean that it isn't functioning well.  We've had over 60 shots on goal in the last two weeks without our best forward.  To me, that says that what we have in place is sound AND it works.  We just need to tighten the screws a little.

To be inoperative for an entire quarter tells me it needs a lot of work and needs a lot more than tweaks and tightening some screws...Your faith is a lot stronger than mine

that 3rd Q was scary.

4 hours ago, Gorgoroth said:

The only mistake Goody has done in regards to leadership is to promote Viney too early.

But once again, we have no one like s Selwood who takes the game by the scruff of the neck and drags the team along or stops the rot. The siren stopped the rot for us in the third quarter, not jones, not Viney, not tmac, not Vince. No one did anything and it was plain to see.

Remember when Selwood tried that in 2015 and Viney put him to the sword?

Swings and roundabouts.

There is a definite lack of leadership on the field. I know that Nathan Jones was absolutely filthy about the co-captaincy decision pre-season, and I think this is having an impact on his mindset. Couple that with Vineys terrible form and you have a leadership void.

 

Weve played 4 games. Could have legitimately won all. We didn't. In fact we found a way to lose half.

Distinct improvement in the height of our ceiling. Not a lot to be said of real results

The scoreboard is the scoreboard and until you can hit it with intent and consistency then all is moot.

Currently...is moot

 

I remember Neita taking strong marks and slotting them through from 50. Fat Fev could do it. Dunstall and Lockett - you could put money on them. Now we  get blokes on 500k a year missing from point blank consistently.

FMD!!

21 minutes ago, McQueen said:

Remember when Selwood tried that in 2015 and Viney put him to the sword?

Swings and roundabouts.

But he has done it many many times, how many times do you see our "leaders" do it. 

What did you see them do/try on Saturday? I saw nothing, they trudged back to the centre and "went again"

We have improved in nearly every facet of the game.

Our biggest issue is that the competition is as close as its ever been, and if u are without 4 of your best 22 you are probably going to get rolled if you don't play your best footy. We had one qtr that cost us, we didn't play our best footy when we weren't full strength and we paid the price.

Would have been a 6 goal loss last year even with Hogan. Really hoping this thread is buried post Richmond game.

1 hour ago, Wiseblood said:

Of course it still needs some work, it doesn't mean that it isn't functioning well.  We've had over 60 shots on goal in the last two weeks without our best forward.  To me, that says that what we have in place is sound AND it works.  We just need to tighten the screws a little.

It's application, not the game plan.

I don't understand all this talk about leadership void. Jones was in our best players 3 out of 4 games. Had one quiet one. Hardly a hanging offence.