7 minutes ago, RedButMostlyBlue said:

I largely agree with this, but it doesn't explain the dumb football (the constant bombing into the forward line, time after time after time after time, after time, the lack of dimension to our game plan, in that we didn't have a plan B in any of our games, if you ever accepted we ever had a plan A). Our football IQ dropped big time over the break and nobody has explained why. 

That said, the return of some of our more important players will have a huge impact, as will a better preseason for 2020.

Our game plan is much the same as last year's very successful model. Easy to forget we were the highest scoring team last year.

The difference is we had more of our best 22 playing and our very best were injury free and in form.  

7 hours ago, binman said:

Our game plan is much the same as last year's very successful model. Easy to forget we were the highest scoring team last year.

The difference is we had more of our best 22 playing and our very best were injury free and in form.  

That's the trouble with a constant crash/bash chaos game style Bin. 

Too much needs to go right for the style to succeed enough of the time to win more often than not and most players can't keep it up at the level needed to succeed for more than about 3 quarters (when fully fit).

We lack a possession 'slow play' option that will hold us in good stead when all isn't going to plan (opp is on a roll, we are down a player or two on bench, a few key injuries coming into a match) or when we need to ice a quarter or match which, in the super competitive cauldron that is the AFL, is a fair chunk of the time both within matches and the season itself.

The chaos method is impacted even more once you add a few extra injuries above the norm into the mix.

Already conducive to high turnover, this aspect (turnovers) is compounded as you bring in less experienced players who aren't very good with disposal to begin with and whose less than ideal tank is spent very quickly under such a grueling / demanding style.  Not as much time for a breather either vs teams who are capable of bringing a possession game.  It's a disadvantage across so many levels.

Goody's current chaos (overwhelm with numbers at the contest) method will only work successfully when most things are working well, a la second half of 2018, with experienced in form players who have a decent tank and can manage to stick it out for about three quarters prior to capitulating through sheer exhaustion.

How often do we see our boys give up multiple goals in succession from an opposition without putting up much resistance during large blocks of a match, even when we are doing well (last week another example).  Yet we are told we are always working our way back to "the Melbourne brand".

Goody's chaos / overwhelm method might hold up tomorrow with a few extra solids coming back and the Pies off their best a little, but I'm not Sold on it being successful most of the time. 

For as long as Goody continues to ignore that the possession option is a must have if you wish to succeed in today's modern game, i fail to see us pushing to another prelim (let alone a GF), unless we have another goldilocks season or second half like we did in the back half of 2018.

Edited June 9, 20196 yr by Rusty Nails

8 hours ago, binman said:

Our game plan is much the same as last year's very successful model. Easy to forget we were the highest scoring team last year.

The difference is we had more of our best 22 playing and our very best were injury free and in form.  

I think it is time to put that 'folklore' to bed. 

Without checking exact dates, in 2018 key injuriy outs were: Tom Mc out for most of the first half of the season, Viney out for 2/3 of the season, AVB out for 3/4 of the season, Lever for all of the second half, Hogan out on and off.  KK and May weren't on our list so they are 'virtual' outs in 2018 when compared to this year's 'missing' players.

Undoubtedly, injuries and interrupted preseasons have have hurt us this year.  But I believe that card has been overplayed and a review of 2018 injuries/outs shows it was also a bad year.  Certainly the 2019 injuries/preseason have caused us to lose games but it alone cannot be the reason we have lost so many and why we have an appalling %age.

And, our game plan is no longer the same as last year.  The 'brand' Goodwin talks about is still contested footy and still manic/chaos but our structures changed from a attack to defence focus after the St Kilda game when to quote Goodwin:  we are too easy to score against.  In the next, Richmond game we went all out defence to stop the bleeding ala Roos style when he first arrived.  Since then we have been refining that defence focused game.

If we believe that all our 2019 woes are solely because of a poor preseason/injuries we run the risk of papering over other issues that lie beneath.

Edited June 9, 20196 yr by Lucifer's Hero

On 6/4/2019 at 9:08 PM, picket fence said:

So our poor season is just down to injuries then??

Injuries are but ONE factor. I have alluded to others which MAY also be considered.

Just my opinion

I'll leave it at that!

Multiple factors, but injuries are a big one.  And not just injury numbers but to which players, especially our brittle defence.

Add in the loss of Hogan, for which we anticipated Tom McDonald continuing his stellar form from 2017-2018 offsetting and we are where we are.

Whether we can put Tom's decline down to injury (of some as yet unspecified nature) or some other psychological factor I have no idea.  But, had Tom played as he had the previous 2 years, Weed would almost certainly have come on a lot faster than he ha and our forward line would have far better structure.

 

For mine Oscar lost his intensity/confidence after this incident last year (which I don't think was actually too bad). I couldn't see his name in the Casey team against Collingwood - did he play?

 

Edited June 9, 20196 yr by #11-TonyAnderson
Removed extra typing I made before finding the clip

25 minutes ago, #11-TonyAnderson said:

For mine Oscar lost his intensity/confidence after this incident last year (which I don't think was actually too bad). I couldn't see his name in the Casey team against Collingwood - did he play?

 

What a disgraceful 50m penalty that was. Eyes for the ball, running at full tilt, jumped at the ball with arms in chest mark position. 

Player running back with the ball does so at his own risk. Good strong gutsy mark, but that’s where it ends. Go back and take your kick.

I’m calling it now.... Omac has played his last game for MFC. 

WHY didn’t he line up for Casey today? Anyone know? He is not the carry over emergency. He was in the stands watching on 

13 minutes ago, Nelo said:

I’m calling it now.... Omac has played his last game for MFC. 

Or what?

13 minutes ago, Leoncelli_36 said:

WHY didn’t he line up for Casey today? Anyone know? He is not the carry over emergency. He was in the stands watching on 

Is he injured?

22 minutes ago, Moonshadow said:

Or what?

Or I’ll be wrong. 

45 minutes ago, Leoncelli_36 said:

WHY didn’t he line up for Casey today? Anyone know? He is not the carry over emergency. He was in the stands watching on 

I would not be shocked if he is struggling a bit with his mental health and they have given him a couple of weeks to freshen up.

He had post season surgery, an interrupted pre season as a result and not been in great form.

On top of that  he cops all manner of abuse on social media and foorball fan forums from.so called supporters. And as we know from players like Boyd, heath Shaw, weed and others that can take a toll. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Nelo said:

I’m calling it now.... Omac has played his last game for MFC. 

Thats a very bold call

this is a disrespectful thread, calling a young man who tries his guts out for his club a potato, the worst player in the league, is weak as pis, while I admit he is out of form, there is no need for these insulting untrue comments, give the bloke a chance, let him try find some form in the vfl, give him a go up forward, bulk him up a bit, he has played some good games and has shown ability at times, you are not the worst player in the league if you have played 70 odd games of afl football and still only 23 yo. 

13 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

Certainly the 2019 injuries/preseason have caused us to lose games but it alone cannot be the reason we have lost so many and why we have an appalling %age.

Just a slight nitpick here- our terrible percentage is almost entirely due to getting belted by Geelong. If we’d scored another 80 points and only lost by a narrow margin, with everything else remaining the same, our percentage would be in the mid 80s. While obviously still far from good, it would be well within the expected range for a team that is 3-8. 

A big one or two and no more blowouts would get our percentage well back on track.

10 hours ago, Nelo said:

Or I’ll be wrong. 

you usually are

9 hours ago, binman said:

I would not be shocked if he is struggling a bit with his mental health and they have given him a couple of weeks to freshen up.

He had post season surgery, an interrupted pre season as a result and not been in great form.

On top of that  he cops all manner of abuse on social media and foorball fan forums from.so called supporters. And as we know from players like Boyd, heath Shaw, weed and others that can take a toll. 

 

 

Was fortunate enough to travel to Darwin amongst the players on the flight. Now being an old codger the thing that stood out to me was how young they all are. It was like travelling with kids on a school excursion. Not their behaviour which was exemplary but just their freshness. With the pressure they come under at such a young age it's no wonder some of them succumb. 

10 hours ago, binman said:

I would not be shocked if he is struggling a bit with his mental health and they have given him a couple of weeks to freshen up.

He had post season surgery, an interrupted pre season as a result and not been in great form.

On top of that  he cops all manner of abuse on social media and foorball fan forums from.so called supporters. And as we know from players like Boyd, heath Shaw, weed and others that can take a toll. 

 

 

It’s terrible binman, it’s happening weekly to OMac. Our own turn on him during games, I was at the scratch match against the Pies in the preseason and a group of young Pie fans were hurling nasty abuse at him every time he came near us. No other player was singled out. It seemed they were there solely for that reason. Simply appalling, can’t imagine what gets trolled out behind a keyboard.

He destroyed Darling a few weeks ago and we hear nothing on his good performance, maybe a handful of positive posts. 

We keep reading and hearing if Lever and May are fit OMac doesn’t play, guess what, they weren’t available for most of last year and he performed admirably all the way to a prelim. 

We are sitting 3-8 with many performing at a below par level for one reason or another yet OMac has his own there’s the door thread. Seems unfair to me.

12 hours ago, Leoncelli_36 said:

WHY didn’t he line up for Casey today? Anyone know? He is not the carry over emergency. He was in the stands watching on 

No explanation from the club.

IF and I emphasise IF it is a 'mental health issue' could this also be at least part of the explanation for his big brother's poor season?

Just asking.

9 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

It’s terrible binman, it’s happening weekly to OMac. Our own turn on him during games, I was at the scratch match against the Pies in the preseason and a group of young Pie fans were hurling nasty abuse at him every time he came near us. No other player was singled out. It seemed they were there solely for that reason. Simply appalling, can’t imagine what gets trolled out behind a keyboard.

He destroyed Darling a few weeks ago and we hear nothing on his good performance, maybe a handful of positive posts. 

We keep reading and hearing if Lever and May are fit OMac doesn’t play, guess what, they weren’t available for most of last year and he performed admirably all the way to a prelim. 

We are sitting 3-8 with many performing at a below par level for one reason or another yet OMac has his own there’s the door thread. Seems unfair to me.

Backlines of any calibre would struggle with the lack of midfield and high forward defensive pressure we have displayed this year.  Ball bombs forward, cleared with a chain of often uncontested possessions and bang to a leading opposition forward.  All the surviving defenders (from our best 22) would be struggling.

9 hours ago, Paulo said:

this is a disrespectful thread, calling a young man who tries his guts out for his club a potato,

This is any area I also have an 'Issue' with...  when I cannot type in Diickk Seddon's surname,  yet others can call players names like 'Spud' or 'Potato', or others,  etc... as a derogatory term as possible.

Iit seems to me that these words are just as demeaning as any swear word...  yet  Diickk, doesn't cut it.?

I don't know how this obscenity filter works if demonland controls it,  but  things are crook in Tallarook,  when these issues occur.

 

Blessed R Dee.

.

Edited June 10, 20196 yr by DV8

At least OMac cannot be blamed for today's effort. However the mob have turned on Tom, who is rucking part time, trying to play in defence part time and then in the Fwd line.

 

18 hours ago, binman said:

 

I'm not interested in anything other than what you have been banging on about for an eternity. 

I've barely said a thing this year regarding Oscar so don't lump me in with posters who believe he should be delisted or worse. I've never said anything offensive toward him. Just that I don't rate him.

You're the one who made a bet that he wouldn't be dropped. He has been. Twice. 

I think Oscar is serviceable depth until proven otherwise, always have. We just haven't had the quality we needed until this now. 

You can support Oscar all you like. I'm judging him purely on what he offers individually as a player. And it's not much.

Hard to argue with that right now. 

Edited June 10, 20196 yr by stevethemanjordan

May's body work on Cox today is what Oscar has to learn if he's to progress.

Unfortunately he doesn't have the body strength or timing...let him spend some time at Casey developing & as depth.

He hasn't played his last game & won't be delisted, maybe a trade but probably better to keep.

Maybe we try him forward at Casey and see how he goes...

24 minutes ago, rjay said:

May's body work on Cox today is what Oscar has to learn if he's to progress.

Unfortunately he doesn't have the body strength or timing...let him spend some time at Casey developing & as depth.

He hasn't played his last game & won't be delisted, maybe a trade but probably better to keep.

Maybe we try him forward at Casey and see how he goes...

Needs to be trialed up forward. After watching May and Lever today do a fantastic job down back today there is simply no spot for him there now.

Might see the writing on the wall and could potentially ask for a trade at years end if May and Lever keep playing like this.