The strange 2017 season for the Demons ended appropriately, in other words, almost there but not quite, reason being, we stuffed up when we didn't need to.

No use now dwelling on what might have been, time to look towards 2018.

What do we need?

A back up ruckman who is reliable and can get a kick and take a mark.

A backline that doesn't have as many holes as a rusty plastic sieve.

To find a player or two who can and will deliver more than the sporadic contributions players like Harmes, Stretch, Hannan, Wagner, Vince and Tyson consistently deliver. 

A big, big improvement in our turnover ratio. 

An appetite to get the job done from the opening bounce, to stop relying on catch up footy.

That's my 2 bob's worth.

So near, yet so far. Rue the day, lads, that you allowed North to beat you twice, Freemantle once too often and Hawthorn when they were seriously down and out.

So as you reap so shall you sew.

 

As Goodwin has said all along , it's where you sit after the final round that counts.

Even though we have a talented list, we seem to lack heart when it counts, and in the final analysis we're just not good enough to compete in finals.

I am shattered.  I am not yet ready to look at any positives.  I simply want to use lots of swear words.  This is a season wasted.

Goodluck improving membership next season you [censored]

Positives (Sorry Buck): Oliver, ANB, Hibberd 

Negatives: Wasted year, still losing games we should win, Jesse's shocking year (not his fault), Max's shocking year (mostly his fault). 

This hurts. More than any other year of watching other teams in the finals this hurts. I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to watch any of it. 

The idea that Essendrug are in there, West Coast who are the biggest flat track bullies, that had we actually beaten the bottom team properly when we were 32pts up, that had we actually done the job when everything was on the line this week, we could/should be in there instead. 

We've improved, but we're still a laughing stock. 

Just so very Melbourne.....

shattered. Not sure when I will or come close to letting the frustration go....

 

Not ready. Need to grieve. Truly gutting way to finish the season.

I know I won't feel this way forever but I'm at the stage where I want to hand my membership back and walk away, we are just a joke of a football club with no heart, I hope the club are really ruthless at the trade table this trade period and the 1st player I would ship off is jack watts we need to rid ourselves of anything from the tanking era, jones being the exception, viney can be sole captain though, I just can't get over that 1st quarter yesterday 3 tackles with finals on the line just mind boggling stuff, hope the players are hurting right now they deserve it 

Jack Watts can shoulder the blame for all of it.

Club will find Sponsorships and trades harder to negotiate than they might have been after this weekend.

Take the players out behind the back shed and give them all the cat-o-9-tails. Goody can have a few as well. Any coach who ignores history deserves a flogging too.

FU MFC. Have a [censored] off season with my best regards.

 

Pass on Lever. He can go to Collingwood. Haha

Very average today. Brain fades and turnovers. 

We got to watch him closely. Over rated! Get Frosty back.in the side.

Lever and Laird two of the worst kicks late in the game resulting in goals. Shocking!

i know it was down to us but were the crows just sitting back ? 

I think this song sums up this weekend and year:

 

Pathetic weak efforts as always.

Each time we need to and should win we stuff it up completely. 

We need to look at all areas. Too often we keep on keeping on.

Goody needs to realisr that vince and Salem are not defenders.

Tmac either plays forward or they hammer him until he can kick a football.

Oliver must learn to handball a lot less.

Tyson needs to improve his kicking.

Viney should be made sole captain and the leadership group re vamped.

Hogan needs to show intensity more often and lead for the ball more often. 

And our game plan needs tp whole off 25% of our handballs.

That's a start. 

This has been a very difficult year for many of our players. We had a first-year coach who did a lot right but failed on several key occasions. Others will talk about the players, so I want to talk about Goodwin. I never talked about Neeld because his flaws were many and obvious. Goodwin has only a few things wrong with the way he does things. I'm going to name 2 in particular.

1. The way he treated the Bugg social media stuff
2. The self-professed approach of not talking about finals in the lead up to the game that would decide whether we were in or not.

On the first point, I don't have much issue with his response; that we want to be respectful and professional. My problem is that he distanced himself from his players by saying "That's foreign to me." If it's foreign, fine; but as a senior coach its Goodwin's job to understand his players and what interests them. That's the only way to motivate people — by understanding what gets them going.
   By chastising our players after one of our best performances of the year against the Bulldogs while simultaneously saying he didn't understand social media, Goodwin undermined his credibility and badly damaged our players' confidence. On that note, Tomas Bugg is a very important player to the fabric of our football club. I hope he is given the credit he deserves for our strongest month of footy this year.

On the lack of talk about finals, I think this was a terrible mistake to make with a team so young. Almost every player on our list has never played in a final before; we had to talk about it because they were all thinking about it. That we didn't talk about it meant that they all had to work it out for themselves what they were feeling and how they would approach Round 23. It wasn't until our match against Collingwood was almost over that we seemed to finally get on the same page and approach the game in a unified way. Failure to communicate is just not acceptable as a senior coach.

Edited August 27, 20178 yr by Chook

2 minutes ago, Biffen said:

Jack Watts can shoulder the blame for all of it.

No Doubt. Also, no doubt, said in jest.

Too soon to look at anything objectively.

I don't believe at the outset of a year you can judge it on whether you make the finals or not - you need to consider the variables and circumstances that arise during the season.

Now that the season is done and I see the opportunities that we've squandered, I can say that the year was a failure.

It hurts that I honestly believe we are capable of beating any team in the 8 this year... however we won't actually be there to do it.

Melbourne players need to sit down and watch the eagles and Geelong players.Those players played with guts and heart something those weak gutted Melbourne players know nothing about...

the issue isnt the list. Its the mental application that is hot some weeks and cold the next. Spend the off season understanding why and then fix it.

AFL is the ultimate high performance environment and we have shown improvement on last year so Goodwin gets a pass from me.

However I expect that some individuals in the football department are made accountable for our finish and lack of ability to get up for 1st quarters. Something is still seriously wrong with our DNA. 

Goodwin and the match committee needs to review their team selection as some of their selections this year have been baffling. He clearly likes making an example of Watts yet allows other senior players have a free pass. 

Finally we need a kicking coach and recruit some players that can execute this basic requirement. 

Absolutely livid at our coaches and players performance at he end of the season. 

 

 

We must be very active in the trade period.

I'm concerned we are overpaying lever based on the offers being reported. 

I'd put tom McDonald, dom Tyson and Christian Salem and jack watts on the trade table. The first two can't kick. And the later two aren't ruthless enough. 

We need to put serious work into the mentally fragile minds at the club. If you can't bring basic effort week to week and beat bottom sides we'll go absolutely nowhere. 

2017 is officially a failure and we have no one to blame but ourselves 

It's comforting to know the players will be on the gas tomorrow while my phone continues to go into meltdown with [censored] laying the boots in.

What a terrific weekend to reflect on!

1 minute ago, Dr.D said:

the issue isnt the list. Its the mental application that is hot some weeks and cold the next. Spend the off season understanding why and then fix it.

Make Viney sole captain.

Jones has had his time.