2 hours ago, Unleash Hell said:

Nice summary @binman

we might not agree why changes were made to the 2019 version of the game, but I think there are multiple reasons why our season never got going.

They other issue id like to raise to continue the discussion is the MFC had no ace, no go to for 2019. We weren't fast, we didn't have small forwards who put on pressure, we didn't defend well, all we had was Max Gawn.

I would love to see us excel in an area of the game in 2020. Where do we start?

Is it retooling our mids - like Brayshaw, Oliver, Viney, Harmes etc or is it recruiting in new players?

Structure or ability?

 

Agree with Binman and particularly your 2nd para Unleash Hell.

I think all of Brayshaw, Oliver, Harmes & Viney had surgery or injuries over pre season that made our two way running in midfield much worse. Add in Jones who just wont run two ways and Lewis too slow and you get caught out a lot. Then have back line sitting too high and you have big defensive problems, Dees in 2020 unfortunately.

Forward line with TMac not fully fit and out of form, Weideman not kicking on from 2018 and not one nippy forward, the forward line didn’t function.

Add pre season woes and then injuries during the season and you have a crap year.

After 50plus years on watching Demons, seems like we’ve rarely if ever been a good two running team, and our best football is when we keep the ball moving quickly. Round 6-11 last year we started to really move the ball and play with confidence and it was electric! Hopefully after nearly all our players get a full pre season under Burgess and they train two way running and spread, stop all going for ball at same time, with a soft draw, 2020 offers some hope!

3 hours ago, pewpewpew said:

I for one welcome our new communications minister to the club.

I love it. 

I guess we were all wrong. It was a good year after all. Go Dee’s! Defensive kings!

I like to look for the positives where possible and after wading through some scary stuff implying defensive improvement, I concluded that 'the vibe' doesn't sound like he's requesting a trade. I hope that's the case and that a preseason under Burgess may fix any delusion. 

I do think Bomb-it Brayshaw did learn a lot from his occasional tagging roles.

4 hours ago, pewpewpew said:

I for one welcome our new communications minister to the club.

Just to see it again. ...GOLD !!

5 hours ago, Demonland said:

I'll just leave this one here. 

Should have just thrown  it in the bin... (thats where our season and brains trust is )

One of my biggest concerns going into our pre-season is there won't be proper reflection and critical analysis of player performances. Bradshaw's year has without a doubt (to me at least) been average at best, maybe he learned something about himself and a few things that will make him better beyond 2019 but this year he looked lost at times and seemed to lose confidence in his own ability. 

He is not a winger, and should not be tried there again. He's a guts player that likes to get down and dirty. 

The club needs to stop with the flufff pieces (I understand them wanting to generate positivity) but make it clear that they aren't just writing 2019 off as a year cruelled by injuries and deeply assessing what went wrong with out key playmakers, Brayshaw being on of the main ones!

I could pick out many things I dislike about the article but the general the gist of it and the overall content - I just think it’s fair to say that the timing is very poor. 

The club is leading Brayshaw up the garden path with feedback like that.

The season was a big [censored]-sandwich. Sprinkling hundreds and thousands on it with content like this only makes it worse in my view. 

 

Yeah nah. Brayshaw's year was the single biggest reason we went from where we were last year to where we are now. He's that important to us, and to have a 3rd in the brownlow player dish up some of those performances this year no wonder we stank so bad.

Koolaid ....Obviously  now the official  drink at the MFC

We nail mediocrity. 

I took two things from the article. 

The first was that it’s bad PR. Why send a message to members that we’re happy with how our defensive efforts were going in a year where our defensive efforts were patently not good enough? The article could have remained positive but at least been honest about our need to reflect on things and learn from them. 

The second is that the quotes from Brayshaw don’t look like things someone would say if they’d requested a trade (or are planning to), as has been reported on here. 

15 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

I took two things from the article. 

The first was that it’s bad PR. Why send a message to members that we’re happy with how our defensive efforts were going in a year where our defensive efforts were patently not good enough? The article could have remained positive but at least been honest about our need to reflect on things and learn from them. 

The second is that the quotes from Brayshaw don’t look like things someone would say if they’d requested a trade (or are planning to), as has been reported on here. 

Agree on both points. 

 I know it is a hobby horse of mine but our comms are not up to scratch.

But maybe, just maybe your two points are related. Maybe the point of the article is to give some confidence to supporters who have rumours about him wanting out that they are not true.

I wonder if a sub text is also flagging the understanding of how much critical aerobic fitness is to the current game. Maybe that's a stretch.

The first impression, and that is all the the vast majority will ever get, is that they are pretty satisfied with what was an awful season.

If that is actually the case then we are genuinely doomed to eternally accepting mediocrity.

I hope there is some underlying subtext that I have missed though.

sadly, these articles do nothing to change perceptions.

a little like a corporate AGM, when the head honcho's try and spin a story (sorry we call it a narrative these days), when the shareholders have seen an ongoing fall in the share price. They don't buy the narrative.

also sadly marketing jargon and communication are rapidly becoming our everyday language and normalized. but marketing jargon never provides an honest or truthful explanation.. we accept that advertisements for material goods are full of hyperbole and bluntly, untruths. 

it is understandable that the harsh reality of our performance is hard to spin but that's the problem.

perhaps the truth hurts too much and the club has taken the view that it has to provide hope to its supporters. but in spinning their message, supporters lose faith in the club.  the club is between a rock and hard place, but a little more honesty would be sensible. when personal relationships are in trouble, honesty and plain, direct and simple communication goes a long way in mending broken fences. 

of course it is possible that there are two different t perceptions. Those of the bulk of supporters and those of the coach, club and players. unfortunately, the words of the president, coach and players are unconvincing. the explanations lack credibility because we have heard them all season. from goodwin down, those delivering the explanations talk like empty vessels, as if they don't believe their own explanations.

you can sell hope for only a limited period of time, unless it is supported by performance improvement and winning games. 

perhaps hopefully we supporters have got it wrong and things turnaround in 2020. 

I don't know, the club has got itself into a terrible position. 12 months ago the club and the majority of supporters were basking in our success and the thought that sustained success and even a flag was within grasp. everybody believed we were heading in an upward trajectory. we have become the victims of our own expectations. 

its going to be a hell of a year in 2020 one way or the other. so much at stake.

 

Edited September 4, 20195 yr by hemingway

Tom Morris, on his Live Chat today said:

"Brayshaw has been told he is staying"

6 minutes ago, Rusty Nails said:

Saw that episode last night 

20 hours ago, McQueen said:

I could pick out many things I dislike about the article but the general the gist of it and the overall content - I just think it’s fair to say that the timing is very poor. 

The club is leading Brayshaw up the garden path with feedback like that.

The season was a big [censored]-sandwich. Sprinkling hundreds and thousands on it with content like this only makes it worse in my view. 

 

I swear there was a paragraph about him getting positive feedback that has now disappeared from the article

17 hours ago, hemingway said:

sadly, these articles do nothing to change perceptions.

a little like a corporate AGM, when the head honcho's try and spin a story (sorry we call it a narrative these days), when the shareholders have seen an ongoing fall in the share price. They don't buy the narrative.

also sadly marketing jargon and communication are rapidly becoming our everyday language and normalized. but marketing jargon never provides an honest or truthful explanation.. we accept that advertisements for material goods are full of hyperbole and bluntly, untruths. 

it is understandable that the harsh reality of our performance is hard to spin but that's the problem.

perhaps the truth hurts too much and the club has taken the view that it has to provide hope to its supporters. but in spinning their message, supporters lose faith in the club.  the club is between a rock and hard place, but a little more honesty would be sensible. when personal relationships are in trouble, honesty and plain, direct and simple communication goes a long way in mending broken fences. 

of course it is possible that there are two different t perceptions. Those of the bulk of supporters and those of the coach, club and players. unfortunately, the words of the president, coach and players are unconvincing. the explanations lack credibility because we have heard them all season. from goodwin down, those delivering the explanations talk like empty vessels, as if they don't believe their own explanations.

you can sell hope for only a limited period of time, unless it is supported by performance improvement and winning games. 

perhaps hopefully we supporters have got it wrong and things turnaround in 2020. 

I don't know, the club has got itself into a terrible position. 12 months ago the club and the majority of supporters were basking in our success and the thought that sustained success and even a flag was within grasp. everybody believed we were heading in an upward trajectory. we have become the victims of our own expectations. 

its going to be a hell of a year in 2020 one way or the other. so much at stake.

 

What’s at stake? The reputation of our weak, pathetic club? It’s already at rock bottom. Yet another coach’s job? Goodwin being sacked will hardly be a surprise and based on this year he wouldn’t be a huge loss. 

There was potentially more at stake this year: we could have been playing finals again with this list that played finals last year, and all those forward 50 entries. The players in the forward line were not up to it. The midfielders feeding the ball to them weren’t either.