A lot of blame for the debacle attributed to one man????

Let's get things into perspective: the whole team failed yesterday. Why look for scapegoats?

13 minutes ago, samcantstandya said:

Seeing those hospital handballs that resulted in goals 4 them made me cring

Changed my avatar no more Mr Nice Guy out with Garfield in with my darker side. Melb need to be more ruthless & not play Lewis next year contracted or not. He handballed goals to them gave away a 50m & wasn't the pro he was supposed to be. Salem could have his role. ANB & a few others did f all.

When we win the middle, JL can get position and set up behind the ball.  When we lose the middle, it comes in fast and he gets caught out.  Makes him look super or a dud.

my biggest disappointment was the indiscretions and poor leadership demonstrated.  His choices under pressure were also not great, but he was not alone on that front.

Salem May be his natural replacement as half back distributor.

2 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Preliminary final 0.5/10

the 2018 year 8/10

dessrves to play again with his role again as a defensive quarterback half back. 

2019 will be his last year. Let’s deliver a premiership and Lewis 5th!!

This sums it up for me, although I’d say 7/10.

It was one game. Yes, he was beyond putrid yesterday, but it’s one game.

When we are playing well as a team and have ascendency in the middle, he steadies the ship at the back. Would anyone really dispute him playing an important role in the Semi? He will again be useful to that end next season. Which will be his last.

2 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

2019 will be his last year. Let’s deliver a premiership and Lewis 5th!!

Lewis won't play in a 5th 'norm'...

If he is still getting a game in 2019 we are going nowhere.

He's not going to get any better.

Need to know when to fold 'em...

8 minutes ago, rjay said:

Lewis won't play in a 5th 'norm'...

If he is still getting a game in 2019 we are going nowhere.

He's not going to get any better.

Need to know when to fold 'em...

If you look at older players, a lot of them go into a self preservation mode.

Lewis IMO is in that mode.

He looks around when he is under the ball and his disposal can be poor at times, as we saw yesterday.This is most likely because he is aware of the oncoming contact.

I am not saying he is scared, but rather that he is not now the fearless footballer that he was a few years ago.

Clarko let him go for a reason. Yes he can play, but clearly not as well consistently, as he once could.

He is also doing undisciplined acts, which have cost us, which he probably wouldn't have done as much under Clarko.

There is a useby date for every sportsman. 

We need to work out with Lewis if it is now, or at the end of next season.

16 minutes ago, rjay said:

Lewis won't play in a 5th 'norm'...

If he is still getting a game in 2019 we are going nowhere.

He's not going to get any better.

Need to know when to fold 'em...

Alistair Clarkson obviously agrees with you, or else he’d still be a Hawk. Clarko thought Jordan had 1, possibly 1.5 left in the tank but told him to go and get himself a 3 year contract at a Club that was prepared to bring him in. 

Next year, unless we have a shocking run of injuries, it probably should be either Jones or Lewis in the 22. 

On 6/12/2018 at 8:27 AM, Wiseblood said:

There's nothing 'apparently' about it.  His leadership at the club, from what I've heard, has been excellent since the day he arrived.  He's never been quick so why we're all up in arms about him being slow is baffling.  He hits way way way more targets than he misses (and plenty at our club are prone to horrible turnovers) and his discipline this season has been good.

DS has just decided yesterday that he needs someone to sink the boots into.  Lewis seems to be his man.  He's done this before though where he huffs and puffs and stomps his feet (Tom McDonald) and has been made to look silly, so there's no reason why it won't happen again.

Lewis last 1/4 in Round 22 was sensational under huge pressure at Optus against Eagles. He's a conundrum but I'd rather still have him around next year. He will or won't earn his spot.

I believe based on last pre-season 17/18, that Goody will make hard decisions for the benefit of all (Watts, Fritsch yesterday etc. ) making the next 8 weeks or so fascinating.

Full faith in this next period to set up 2019. One will be killing off any rumours about Hogan leaving for example.

I suspect he will be a liability next season but I would like to keep him on in a coaching capacity. He has another year on his contract but we need to get more game time into Smith. He may have had a bad game yesterday but who didn’t? I think Smith has tremendous potential. He is also strong, quick and has good hands. We need to go after May, even if he is a sniper, and bring big Harry Petty through as quickly as possible. It appears that under the rule changes big forwards could become dangerous again and mobile ‘gorilla minders’ will be needed

2 hours ago, Redleg said:

If you look at older players, a lot of them go into a self preservation mode.

Lewis IMO is in that mode.

He looks around when he is under the ball and his disposal can be poor at times, as we saw yesterday.This is most likely because he is aware of the oncoming contact.

I am not saying he is scared, but rather that he is not now the fearless footballer that he was a few years ago.

Clarko let him go for a reason. Yes he can play, but clearly not as well consistently, as he once could.

He is also doing undisciplined acts, which have cost us, which he probably wouldn't have done as much under Clarko.

There is a useby date for every sportsman. 

We need to work out with Lewis if it is now, or at the end of next season.

Some good points.

An article in the Age weekender talks about the importance of timing and leaving on your own terms. Very few get it right and hang on for too long for a range of reasons. 

Its a good article with a lot of home truths. Lewis should read it, because he has the choice.

And despite dearly loving Nathan Jones, he is approaching the same point in his career.  He may have another season, but father time is now calling.  

 

11 hours ago, Demon17 said:

Lewis last 1/4 in Round 22 was sensational under huge pressure at Optus against Eagles. He's a conundrum but I'd rather still have him around next year. He will or won't earn his spot.

I believe based on last pre-season 17/18, that Goody will make hard decisions for the benefit of all (Watts, Fritsch yesterday etc. ) making the next 8 weeks or so fascinating.

Full faith in this next period to set up 2019. One will be killing off any rumours about Hogan leaving for example.

Sorry, FWIW I would have felt more comfortable as Watts playing the easy +1 role in the back half.  Might not have the tough intense reputation of JL, but the difference is actually mythical in the past 3 years.

 

Lewis is a protected species in many parts of the media.  Dermott Brereton highlighted Frost and OMac as those that made almost career-ending errors in the first quarter.  Roos turned around and raised Lewis’ undiscipline and handball.  Dermie turns around and blames Jones for handballing to Lewis in the first place!!!  This is a so-called expert who is ultra-conflicted with his old mate Jordie.  The single most inaccurate assessment by a footy expert in my memory?  “Absolutely” to use a tired old Dermottism.

Lewis had a horrible game on the weekend but his previous 2 finals were excellent.  

There were 16 players who were horrible on Saturday. 

In saying that I do think he had more bad games than good thid year and I dare say the conversation will centre around him being a depth player next year. 

 

Say what you will.

Swap Lewis out for Lever, that's our ideal 2019 back line. Yes you lose a little bit of good ball use, but we have Salem for that. We also stop the 1-2 goals cost per game from Lewis (at least) via brain fade/free kick or slowness.

Then Lever stops 1-2 goals via intercept mark, something Lewis cannot do. All other areas of the game like tackling, handball, etc. they are about the same, Lever probably a better tackler.

There you go no brainer, Lewis done when Lever is back & fit. Dees a 2-3 goal better Defence.

On 9/22/2018 at 10:00 PM, Wiseblood said:

Funny how this thread doesn't pop up in the previous two weeks, or the two games prior to finals, when he was terrific. 

Then the usuals come out to pot him in a game where 20 players stunk it up. Funny that. 

Not everyone praised his game against Hawthorn.  I thought he was awful and said so.  It's also funny that many quote his "leadership" in defence of his position in the team and yet in the first quarter on Saturday he was completely undisciplined and showed exactly why he isn't a leader on the ground.  Yes, we had 22 players that "stunk it up" but he is supposed to be the leader that help us not "stink it up".  He failed and should be called out on it.

I can always accept skill errors and poor decisions on the ground, that's part and parcel of the game,  but I can't accept the self-indulgent,  arrogant, stupid and undisciplined tripe he dished up on Saturday, it hurt his team, the club and us as supporters.  

Lewis is a great of Hawthorn - 4 flags and a BnFin a flag year -  but the game has passed him by. Treacle slow, ill disciplined and with ever worsening composure and disposal. Wonder exactly who Goody thought he could match up on in Eagles forward line. I could not find one.

If he wants his 2019 dollars we tell him he'll play entire season for Casey. Hopefully he retires without a settlement for 2019 contract.

Edited September 24, 20186 yr by demoniac

On 9/23/2018 at 10:57 AM, dieter said:

A lot of blame for the debacle attributed to one man????

Let's get things into perspective: the whole team failed yesterday. Why look for scapegoats?

What are his 2018 positive onfield attributes?

Lets see:

Slow

Ill disciplined

Lacks composure

Unreliable disposal

Struggling to see above attributes warranting a place in in any AFL team's 22.

I would be happy to see him out of the seniors or with Damocles hanging over his head. 1 ill-discplined act that costs us a silly goal (choose your own measure) and he's to Casey for the year.

Too many silly acts this year for mine.

He’s useless now. Too slow and may as well have gift wrapped those goals.

Looks like we have found our scapegoat.

Amazing how , after a loss, we seem to find the odd chook in the chookpen !!

44 minutes ago, dimmy said:

Looks like we have found our scapegoat.

Amazing how , after a loss, we seem to find the odd chook in the chookpen !!

Oy , leave me out of this.

There's no question that Jordan has overtaken Oscar as the supporters biggest scapegoat.  As noted earlier in the thread, it's amazing how nothing has been mentioned on this thread since July 10, and then it comes up again when he has a shocker (and let's not beat around the bush - he had an absolute mare on Saturday).   His games during the latter part of the year have been pretty good overall, and he was fantastic in the first final.

Whilst there definitely needs to be a conversation about whether or not he can go again in 2019, I do think the criticism is way over the top.  Our kick ins are miles better than they've ever been and Lewis (with Salem) is a major reason...just watch how he makes the right decision about 90% of the time when kicking in.  He definitely has the odd clanger by foot but it's usually because he's trying to set something up with an attacking  45 kick or trying to open up the play, most of which come off.  To say Watts could have played his role is ridiculous....we tried that with him during the Roos era and it didn't last long.  

Anyway, I get that he frustrates more than he should - he's definitely not as flint hard as he used to be with Hawthorn, and we all know he's not quick.   But he's played some very good footy for us and I for one will be forever grateful that he chose to come to us  (admittedly helped by the incentive of a 3 year deal) when he left Hawthorn.  

 

 

6 minutes ago, Demonland said:

 

Good. He has unfinished business.