2017 Post Mortem

[YesitwasaWin4theAges 6,704]

All I want now from this  f ing  football club is a ruthless footy department in the off season 3/4 of our list should be on the table you want money from us to put up with s#@t like this you have got to be kidding, no one is spared fkn joke. I feel like I've been fisted by all that has happened fix this crap.

[Dee Zephyr 19,267]

1 minute ago, SaberFang said:

Shudder to think what the vibe is like in the Viney household tonight. I imagine Todd and Jack watched together.

Just yesterday he was fielding questions on 3AW about whether he'll play in the first final. [censored], he must be livid right now.

Livid alright, also probably filthy at himself for not getting up for yesterdays game judging by his character and he shouldn't be.

 

 

 

[SaberFang 7,151]

1 minute ago, Wiseblood said:

We certainly made it very hard for ourselves.

Is it totally down to leadership?  Did Goodwin not have a Plan B outside of moving players around, so when the conditions/momentum changed we didn't have something else to fall back on?  Are we not preparing in the right manner?

So many questions, and hopefully we can find a few answers over the summer.  We do need to be ruthless without going over the top in the trade period, and Goodwin needs to sit down and reassess the game plan, as clubs had it covered in the second half of the year.

Absolutely, the gameplan was found out and nullified halfway through the year. Why didn't we have a plan B? You can't just expect to keep the one gameplan throughout the whole year without teams catching on (or in Hawthorn's case, outright copying).

It's an indictment on our coaching group as much as our players.

[DSP 1,488]

We improved, but boy we let that slip away.

Leadership is a big issue and mental toughness just as big. Those loses to North were really inexcusable and cost us more than anything.

At out best we are exciting. At our worst we are infuriating. We had a shocking run of injuries mid year. No excuse, but it took its toll.

Bridge that gap. Plug a few holes (players with dash and skill) and we'll see you in 2018.

 

I'll be back. You'll be back. In the mean time, I suggest booze.

 

Edited August 27, 2017 by DSP

[Lord Travis 10,742]

I want the club to make an apology for their failure. They publicly stated finals was the aim for 2016. They failed. They publicly stated finals was the aim for 2017. They failed. 

The club owes the supporters an apology. It's us who pay for the club to keep going. They [censored] owe us.

[Wiseblood 24,637]

10 minutes ago, Dappa Dan said:

Here's another interesting metric for you wise...

My brother is inconsolable today. He says we're improving too slowly. I tried to explain that it's all relative. You can only compare to the teams in the league... Noone that was at our level at round 1 is now "better" than us. And noone who was below us has gone past us... Port have been developing nicely for a few years with their core. GWS for longer than that. Richmond's mature players are all 5+ years in. Swans you could argue have jumped past us, but I see their usual superstars doing the heavy lifting. No Parker, Kennedy and Buddy and they're just another team. The dons is the only one that you might say went past us. They had a finals squad before the bans though, and have been given plenty of picks. Also, if they had half our injuries, we would have smoked them easily.

We're about where we should be. A final would have been nice learning... but next year we're in or there'll be hell to pay.

We are a few tweaks, a few smart list management decisions and a strong summer on the track away from continuing our improvement and staying ahead of that pack.  Not to mention a decent run on the injury front.

And I agree - there will be hell to pay if we don't make the eight next year.  Heads will roll.

[Maldonboy38 6,403]

Very difficult to separate my boiling emotions from the reality of our improvement.

My wish for 2017 was that we would be in every game we played, and for the most part every game we played we could have won. We saw real improvement from our young guns and a few surprises in Hannan, Harmes, ANB etc.... Hogan's annus horribilus, getting Lewis on board, record membership etc... The club did feel like a good place to belong for the first time ina lomg time.

However, if it wasnt for my broken rib I would be out in my shed smashing up old tools, throwing crap at other crap, and stomping around crushing unknown objects into the concrete - I cannot believe how absolutely enraged I feel after watching the Eagles glide into the 8 against a pathetic Crows, after we folded to the Pies, lost to Freo on the MCG, and lost to #%÷€×&*×#ing North twice in the year. I just want to injure someone or something, preferably a crows supporter, a Dees player, or some innocent bystander who barracks for any other club. 

When will this MFC-following curse ever end?

I need whisky - and not Johnny Walker or Monkey shoulder - a real one like a Dalmore 18.

[deebug 1,754]

1 minute ago, david_neitz_is_my_dad said:

Jack Viney admitted on gameday he wont watch the WCE vs Crows game live because he will break things. He already knew....

Jack Viney is the heart and soul of our footy club, he like us are hurting like crazy right now, but i bet he will be the one that will be the first back at training in the summer.

[MudDogs Gawn Win.. someday 499]

See ya next year Demonlanders.

I can't take reading anymore.

Do yourselves a favour and forget your password and start fresh next year ??

Edited August 27, 2017 by Mud Dogs Gonna Win

[dee-tox 4,835]

There are no simple answers, but...

Vince must retire.

Must find outside class in the midfield.

Gawn needs to get off media street. Being a bogan clown and playing like he has for two months makes him laughing stock

Must take risks at trade table. Trade OMac, TMac, Tyson, Watts and Stretch.

Must find consistent small forwards that go hard for 120 minutes.

 

[P-man 13,366]

I hope they feel foolish. They blew it. Completely blew it.

There is no excusing that first quarter effort yesterday.

[Wiseblood 24,637]

1 minute ago, SaberFang said:

Absolutely, the gameplan was found out and nullified halfway through the year. Why didn't we have a plan B? You can't just expect to keep the one gameplan throughout the whole year without teams catching on (or in Hawthorn's case, outright copying).

It's an indictment on our coaching group as much as our players.

I think it's just inexperience and a little stubbornness.  The game plan worked superbly in the first half of the year and contributed in a big way to wins over the Saints, Adelaide, Doggies etc.  They probably didn't want to let that go and just stuck with what they thought worked, regardless of the outcome.

On Saturday it would have been, in hindsight, better to go man on man and make sure we had more numbers around the ball.  We didn't do it, the Pies planned for our two off the back of the square and the rest was history.

We can only hope Goodwin is already looking at ways to improve it, and he'll hopefully learn to make sure he has a few more tricks up his sleeve in the future. 

[jnrmac 20,104]

Melbourne the only club that can fark you twice in one weekend

Way to go spuds.

[Age 485]

It's funny. As a whole, I have tried to take a more attitude in my life as I've generally been too negative with many aspects of it. The one thing I just can't get positive about is the demons. A few weeks ago against port I actually started to get a little excited as we were spent but they actually seemed to fight it out, got the win and I thought we may have actually been turning the corner. Oh how wrong I was!!

What does the club need going ahead? It needs to not worry about players , nor coaches but spend every dollar it can to find a sports psychologist who can fix what is obviously wrong in the collective mindset of the club. The way the players can never get switched on for a supposed easier game. The way the players ease off in a game when they get to a comfortable lead (funnily enough if they had not let the lions come back from 32 points down in the last and we'd be playing finals).

If we can ever get the mindset right then we will be a club you can be positive towards but until we do we are just kidding ourselves, like we have been for the 40 years I've been around.

 

[deebug 1,754]

2 minutes ago, P-man said:

I hope they feel foolish. They blew it. Completely blew it.

There is no excusing that first quarter effort yesterday.

Very true.

[praha 11,240]

Just now, Wiseblood said:

We certainly made it very hard for ourselves.

Is it totally down to leadership?  Did Goodwin not have a Plan B outside of moving players around, so when the conditions/momentum changed we didn't have something else to fall back on?  Are we not preparing in the right manner?

So many questions, and hopefully we can find a few answers over the summer.  We do need to be ruthless without going over the top in the trade period, and Goodwin needs to sit down and reassess the game plan, as clubs had it covered in the second half of the year.

It's very worrying.

The big question is whether we over achieved or under achieved. I hope the latter. 

I think we'll play finals next year but today has turned out to be a huge failure. The likes of Jones, Watts, Tmac, Viney, Gawn, who have been there since the worst, are all top 22 at most top 8 sides yet they are losers this year. 

The club must be absolutely filthy on itself. This is as big a [censored] up as it's been in for decades. From a financial and business standpoint, this weekend has hurt the club BAD. After hearing PJ pregame yesterday, he does a good job of keeping a distance between off and on field. But he must be furious. The bloke can only do so much. This is why I'm certain we'll  see certain players up for trade. You can only go through this so many times. We need to rid this club of loser stink. Goodwin and co will be majorly under the pump this off season.

[DistrACTION Jackson 8,770]

I really wish the club didn't send out that email mid week.

So embarrassing!

[layzie 33,862]

Just now, Is Dom Is Good said:

I really wish the club didn't send out that email mid week.

So embarrassing!

I can't wait for some stupid TV show to get a hold of that..

[Earl Hood 6,086]

2 minutes ago, dee-tox said:

There are no simple answers, but...

Vince must retire.

Must find outside class in the midfield.

Gawn needs to get off media street. Being a bogan clown and playing like he has for two months makes him laughing stock

Must take risks at trade table. Trade OMac, TMac, Tyson, Watts and Stretch.

Must find consistent small forwards that go hard for 120 minutes.

 

Can we at least keep Watts who is about the only bloke I trust with ball in hand. I know he has other issues but yesterday he showed up in the first quarter, while  a dozen others didn't. O Mac is getting better, TMac needs to play forward from now on so we need a key back replacement. Yes we need to trade and draft players who can kick and make decisions, our skill errors yesterday just killed us and me for that matter. 

[DistrACTION Jackson 8,770]

Just now, layzie said:

I can't wait for some stupid TV show to get a hold of that..

Already seen it on FB.

[Dappa Dan 2,188]

7 minutes ago, praha said:

The North loss was undoubtedly the key message. Once we lost that i just knew the season was shot.

I like to think it's a development phase and we'll break out of it, but it was the way we lost to North, GWS and Collingwood that has me worried, combined with the Brisbane performance. It was almost too familiar to matches in the later Bailey years. That's what worries me.

I hate to say it, but our "rebuild" still involves kicking out perennial losers. I'm not naming names because I've said them enough on here. We are still in flux and will stay in neutral until we make big decisions on club favourites.

 

- I'd love to know what specifically you mean by the north and Collingwood ones... What I saw was a super young list tiring. It's been exactly that the last 6 rounds. All the stats support it. We would get smashed by gun players, but mediocre ones we'd still outplay. It's all about tank. Tracca and Oliver particularly. The Roos loss was the first out-and-out proof. The subsequent games just proved it more. Pies game for example, their really young kids didn't win it for them. It was the mature guys like Howe, Elliot and others.

- Well I won't insist, but I'd love to know which ones. I worry about a list when 10+ players can be called dead wood. But if you're speaking of guys like Vince, Jordie, Jones.... all will be gone in a few years... but we're not going to struggle to replace them. We'll be drafting high for each spot. Not praying rookies work out. The 22, and the entire list as a whole, is in great, great shape. We're not in rebuild mode. What we needed in 2017 was for it to be 2018. And people have been saying it all year. The kids are just kids. Nothing to worry about. We'd still be the envy of most lists.

Consider Richmond. Out in straight sets and lose Dusty. Man. They'd be furious and depressed. We're in good shape.

[dieter 3,325]

I work in the wine business. I represent a Beechworth Winery owned by a super guy who was on North's list in the latter part of Barassi's years. For the last eight weeks he's rung and asked if I'd bought my finals tickets yet. I kept saying not yet. Last week he said I was a fickle supporter. I replied he who laughs last hasn't heard the bad news.

[Wiseblood 24,637]

1 minute ago, praha said:

It's very worrying.

The big question is whether we over achieved or under achieved. I hope the latter. 

I think we'll play finals next year but today has turned out to be a huge failure. The likes of Jones, Watts, Tmac, Viney, Gawn, who have been there since the worst, are all top 22 at most top 8 sides yet they are losers this year. 

The club must be absolutely filthy on itself. This is as big a [censored] up as it's been in for decades. From a financial and business standpoint, this weekend has hurt the club BAD. After hearing PJ pregame yesterday, he does a good job of keeping a distance between off and on field. But he must be furious. The bloke can only do so much. This is why I'm certain we'll  see certain players up for trade. You can only go through this so many times. We need to rid this club of loser stink. Goodwin and co will be majorly under the pump this off season.

I hope it's the latter too, yet I think it's somewhere in the middle.  We probably ended up where we were always going to end up.  

I think Goodwin, being a first year coach, gets a pass mark... just.  I think it's the players who deserve some heat.  How do they fix it?  I'm not sure.  I don't think someone like Jones will be traded, but do we make the decision to put someone like Watts up for trade? 

I'm not sure if we need to go back to the draft, either.  I think we need more experience in the side, so if we can flip a few for some established players then I think we do it.

Either way, it's going to be a long off season.

[Dee Zephyr 19,267]

2 minutes ago, Is Dom Is Good said:

I really wish the club didn't send out that email mid week.

So embarrassing!

I was surpised to receive it also but i bet you the person that clicked send, will be the first person delisted in the off season.

[Je Roos Salem 661]

I've seen so many average seasons come and go and been ok to see them off. 

This wasn't an average season, we were one of talented sides in the league.

We'll have to want it more next year, if not there's no guarantees we'll get the same chance.