OUR SEASON

[DeePressed 114]

Reasons for Deespair

1. Lack of fight when we really needed it. Pathetic.

2. Brand of footy? I still have no idea what that means

3. Coaches/Selectors making drastic and dumb changes in either of the must win games in Cairns.

4. Lack of development/improvement. Brayshaw, Harmes, Lever, Spargo, Weid, Baker, OMac, Sparrow, Bedford, Hannan, Hunt, Smith. None of these players have improved. 

5. TMac/Jones/Nev are all cooked.

6. Way too many list cloggers, not enough room on this thread...

 

Reasons for a Whinge

1. Essendon game being postponed. A bye would've been nice.

2. Having to go from Alice to Cairns in 4 days resulting from the above

3. Jacko going down. That didn't help when we just started seeing "Cohesion"....

4. Brisbane game. Hmmm, few decisions cost us badly in that one.

5. Bloody Covid

6. Injuries to Petty, Jordan, Hore. I think they can all play.

 

Reasons for Optimism

1. Petracca, breakout year. Outstanding.

2. May. My new favourite player. Huge, tough, and most of all hates losing. 

3. Rivers. Liked him from day 1. Looks to have all the attributes. Lock him in.

4. Jackson. Will scare opposition coaches. Hard to match up on. Lookout when he's got 50 games under his belt.

5. Kozi. Wasn't sold on him but his is work rate is outstanding. Experience will get him in the right spots and if we end up with a proper forward line someday he'll know where to be. Expectations too high in 1st year. He'll be fine.

6. Fritsch. Yes he's a bit arrogant and can't kick straight but he's a fantastic kick when up the ground. Elite numbers for score involvements and 7th in the league for goal assists. Kicked 22.24 and probably a few on the full. That's a good year considering our forward line structure seems to change week to week.

7. Langdon. A very solid year. Best gut runner we've had in decades. Get's to the right spots and tries his heart out. If we can improve his kicking technique he can become elite.

8. Oliver. Yes had some horror games disposal-wise but kept at it and had some very good games by foot and hand. He copped some real abuse both internally and externally in a tough season for everyone mentally. He gets marked by the opposition every week and deserves a pat on the back for not going into his shell when most would have.

9. Lockhart. I think he has a future down back and expecting him to improve next year. Bit to learn but gives his all and tries to show dash and break open play. Rather that than negative players who dish off and transfer the pressure.

10. Mitch Brown. Might be getting too optimistic here but i thought his last 2 games were terrific. With the possibility of TMac being traded we need a swing man. He is quite smart with the footy in hand. Worth another year unless we pull off some shrewd trading.

11. Weideman. Clutching here but can play at times. I think he can improve with a better set up/forwards coach. His last chance.

 

[Redlagged 813]

1 hour ago, Half forward flank said:

I intentionally phrased it as great work,.....  Yes, there were others with very good, Oliver and Gawn, good, Viney, Salem.

Fritsch enters the ''pretty good' category had he kicked straight. Should have had 6 yesterday.

[Half forward flank 1,022]

Just now, Redlagged said:

Fritsch enters the ''pretty good' category had he kicked straight. Should have had 6 yesterday.

Yes, I dont so much think he needs to  physically work on his goal kicking as re think it. A good player for whatever reason getting the ball in the wrong spots. Maybe a little more strength conditioning.

[old dee 23,872]

4 hours ago, WERRIDEE said:

TOP 5 POSITIVES:

BURGESS: Hardly any injuries compare that to Misson and it's chalk and cheese.

LANGDON: Recruit of the year was awesome on the wing we need another one like him maybe Baker is the answer should promise in  the last 2 games or another recruit.

MAY: After the shocker he had last year he stood up and become what we thought he could be the best full back in the comp.

PETRACCA: Stepped up to the plate when added to the midfield. All Australian beckons.

GAWN: A captain that hits form is something that hasn't happened at Melbourne for some time but it finally happened with Gawn should be All Australian again and is undeniably the best ruckman in the league.

 

TOP 5 NEGATIVES:

GOODWIN: Selection debacle not playing Weideman and Brown earlier. Having quarters where we just wouldn't show up. Losses to bottom teams in Sydney and Freo good teams don't do that.

HARMES: Goodwin ruined him by playing him half back and ended up in the reserves.

BRAYSHAW: We didn't see the best of Brayshaw due to lack of opportunity and confidence. Butchered the ball on occasions and didn't give us a whole lot of flexibility.

MELKSHAM: Too many games where he had little impact expected more from him.

TOM.MCDONALD: Nowhere near his 2018 form and seemed hampered for most of the year so much so he was dropped on several occasions to where Brown was the much preferred option.

I like them Werridee. I don’t think Gawn had as good a year as you suggest. 90% of his hit outs go to the same spot. Makes it easy for good teams to rove to his hit outs. 

[Swooper1987 3,322]

Just looking at the Age Player of the Year award in todays paper. With only the one game (Collingwood/PA) still to play, here is the leaderboard.

Lachie Neale 101

Luke Parker 76

Jack Steele 73

Nic Naitanui 72

Christian Petracca 68

Jake Lloyd 64

Jack Macrae 62

Max Gawn 61

Dustin Martin 61

Sam Menegola 59

On 54 votes currently in 15th place sits Travis Boak who could move into the top 10 tonight and in 17th place is Clayton Oliver on 52.  So three players in the top 17 and that doesn't include May who probably makes the AA side this year.  A great effort by Gawn in particular who missed three games.  The argument could be too much left to too few, but as David King said last night on First Crack, the talent on the Melbourne list far exceeds the Bulldogs yet they are playing finals and Melbourne isn't.

[Clintosaurus 7,867]

The revisionism about the Bulldogs is hilarious. How tenacious were they when being thumped by 50 by Carlton? Or Collingwood?

They needed a [censored] score review to get them in a position to have a chance of finals.

We made progress this year and to say otherwise suggests an agenda or blinkered view. I'm not happy we missed finals but we are not far off, and I expect to be there next year.

[layzie 34,014]

I'll be back eventually to go over this, not feeling either positive or negative right now. Just digesting for the minute. 

[Jaded No More 68,974]

13 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

The revisionism about the Bulldogs is hilarious. How tenacious were they when being thumped by 50 by Carlton? Or Collingwood?

They needed a [censored] score review to get them in a position to have a chance of finals.

We made progress this year and to say otherwise suggests an agenda or blinkered view. I'm not happy we missed finals but we are not far off, and I expect to be there next year.

We made progress off the back of finishing 17th last year, a completely unacceptable position, even with injuries.

We have not made any progress since 2017, where we finished 9th, and then went on to play prelims in 2018.

Progress from there would suggest consistent finals appearances and wins. Not finishing 9th and saying "oh good, we jumped up from bottom 2", when we never ever should have finished that low to begin with. 

[old dee 23,872]

Today I am writing to the Chairman, it won’t be nasty but I will be giving my opinion and asking that he honour his commitment of a far reaching review of all areas of the club. I will also be stating that it should be done by an outside of the club source. 
I suggest that you all do similar, complaining on here while it helps our sanity will not get change at the MFC.
Do it now.

[TRIGON 4,790]

44 minutes ago, DeePressed said:

Reasons for Deespair

1. Lack of fight when we really needed it. Pathetic.

2. Brand of footy? I still have no idea what that means

3. Coaches/Selectors making drastic and dumb changes in either of the must win games in Cairns.

4. Lack of development/improvement. Brayshaw, Harmes, Lever, Spargo, Weid, Baker, OMac, Sparrow, Bedford, Hannan, Hunt, Smith. None of these players have improved. 

5. TMac/Jones/Nev are all cooked.

6. Way too many list cloggers, not enough room on this thread...

 

Reasons for a Whinge

1. Essendon game being postponed. A bye would've been nice.

2. Having to go from Alice to Cairns in 4 days resulting from the above

3. Jacko going down. That didn't help when we just started seeing "Cohesion"....

4. Brisbane game. Hmmm, few decisions cost us badly in that one.

5. Bloody Covid

6. Injuries to Petty, Jordan, Hore. I think they can all play.

 

Reasons for Optimism

1. Petracca, breakout year. Outstanding.

2. May. My new favourite player. Huge, tough, and most of all hates losing. 

3. Rivers. Liked him from day 1. Looks to have all the attributes. Lock him in.

4. Jackson. Will scare opposition coaches. Hard to match up on. Lookout when he's got 50 games under his belt.

5. Kozi. Wasn't sold on him but his is work rate is outstanding. Experience will get him in the right spots and if we end up with a proper forward line someday he'll know where to be. Expectations too high in 1st year. He'll be fine.

6. Fritsch. Yes he's a bit arrogant and can't kick straight but he's a fantastic kick when up the ground. Elite numbers for score involvements and 7th in the league for goal assists. Kicked 22.24 and probably a few on the full. That's a good year considering our forward line structure seems to change week to week.

7. Langdon. A very solid year. Best gut runner we've had in decades. Get's to the right spots and tries his heart out. If we can improve his kicking technique he can become elite.

8. Oliver. Yes had some horror games disposal-wise but kept at it and had some very good games by foot and hand. He copped some real abuse both internally and externally in a tough season for everyone mentally. He gets marked by the opposition every week and deserves a pat on the back for not going into his shell when most would have.

9. Lockhart. I think he has a future down back and expecting him to improve next year. Bit to learn but gives his all and tries to show dash and break open play. Rather that than negative players who dish off and transfer the pressure.

10. Mitch Brown. Might be getting too optimistic here but i thought his last 2 games were terrific. With the possibility of TMac being traded we need a swing man. He is quite smart with the footy in hand. Worth another year unless we pull off some shrewd trading.

11. Weideman. Clutching here but can play at times. I think he can improve with a better set up/forwards coach. His last chance.

 

Nice work @DeePressed. Re Pessimism Point 4, from my perspective:

• Weideman's improvement was tracking quite well until the last 3-4 weeks.
• Spargo improved and if we start playing with system then his inherent footy IQ will become more apparent.

[old dee 23,872]

2 minutes ago, TRIGON said:

Nice work @DeePressed. Re Pessimism Point 4, from my perspective:

• Weideman's improvement was tracking quite well until the last 3-4 weeks.
• Spargo improved and if we start playing with system then his inherent footy IQ will become more apparent.

Hmm last point, what is his big skill that worries  opposition teams?   

[Smokey 4,389]

I'm not feeling as bad about that season as much as some, however I admittedly only watched about half the games live this year. That was a strategic move on my part after the Port loss because that was the moment we weren't a finals team in my opinion. I actually enjoyed the second half of the season being a fair-weather fan haha. 

Obviously disappointing, but I can see plenty positive's in there. I'll try to articulate them in the coming days, but for now it just feels like the same old Melbourne, doesn't it? 

I'm with @old dee - I will request the chairman comes good on his review promise also. 

[drdrake 3,187]

I think the last game summed up our season.  Slow start, followed by a period of great football, then really poor football and to finish with a almost there game, got the win but should have been Ruthless in the last half and won by 10 goals, we weren't rested on how good we played in the second quarter and hung on. 

Highlights

May, Petracca, Rivers, Jackson, Langdon and in the last half of the year our backline group by far our best performed group.  May, Lever, Tomlinson, Salem, Hibberd, Rivers are a back 6 that kept us in a lot of games.

Concerns

Midfield we have massive issues in here when opposition teams run and spread even more so other big body midfields that compete at the contest.  Essentially we have Langdon on the outside and our inside bulls just butcher the ball to much.  There was a massive disconnection between our Rucks and mids.  Don't think our midfield works hard enough defensively.

Forwards, just poor.  Went a midsize forward line didn't work, went 3 talls didn't work.  2 talls worked well with Jackson and Weiderman and I think the last few games Weiderman had little influence more through conditions and he didn't work well with Tmac or Preuss.  Saturday the defenders focused on him which let Fritsch and Brown to have an impact.  Small forwards get ahead of the ball rather than work front and square.  Petracca forward is a bonus but he needs to spend more time in the midfield.  Fritsch is frustrating player, great marking leading player but as soon as it hits the ground no defensive side and gets forward of the ball looking for the easy over the top.   I think Weiderman can become a 40-50 goal a year forward with Jackson in front of him, and improve kicking efficiency through our midfield.  Hannan, Melksham, Spargo, ANB need to be replaced.

If we can improve our kicking efficiency add some outside run we have the bones of a top 5-8 side, strong backline.  Need more outside runners and another if not 2 Key forwards to really step up if we want to push into the top 4.

Hard to assess the season, we improved from 2019, still a long way off 2018 form and the fact if we beat Syd and Freo we would be sitting 6th is a little disappointing.

  

[TRIGON 4,790]

1 hour ago, old dee said:

Hmm last point, what is his big skill that worries  opposition teams?   

Fair question; generally Spargo reads the play well, makes good decisions, has clean hands, and doesn't waste his disposals. No one BIG skill, just a culmination of things that leads to scoring involvements. 

[DeePressed 114]

18 minutes ago, TRIGON said:

Fair question; generally Spargo reads the play well, makes good decisions, has clean hands, and doesn't waste his disposals. No one BIG skill, just a culmination of things that leads to scoring involvements. 

Agree with that. He is pretty good with ball in hand. Just had higher expectations following his 2018 debut season. Probably tough to improve in 19. No one did.

[640MD 3,433]

2 hours ago, old dee said:

Hmm last point, what is his big skill that worries  opposition teams?   

I know he is a bit small,    but he gets to where the ball is !   Far more than some of ours.  involved in a lot more passages of play  than some watchers on this site are prepared to give him any credit for.

[old dee 23,872]

1 minute ago, 640MD said:

I know he is a bit small,    but he gets to where the ball is !   Far more than some of ours.  involved in a lot more passages of play  than some watchers on this site are prepared to give him any credit for.

Me included it would seem I just don't see what he regularly contributes on match day, occasional has a good day but the next few are ordinary. Would any other team take him? I doubt it.

[old dee 23,872]

3 hours ago, Clintosaurus said:

The revisionism about the Bulldogs is hilarious. How tenacious were they when being thumped by 50 by Carlton? Or Collingwood?

They needed a [censored] score review to get them in a position to have a chance of finals.

We made progress this year and to say otherwise suggests an agenda or blinkered view. I'm not happy we missed finals but we are not far off, and I expect to be there next year.

There is one simple fact each team played every other side once and at the end of that season the dogs won one more game than Melbourne. That means they play finals and we make up the numbers of the irrelevents.

[Clintosaurus 7,867]

37 minutes ago, old dee said:

There is one simple fact each team played every other side once and at the end of that season the dogs won one more game than Melbourne. That means they play finals and we make up the numbers of the irrelevents.

Totally agree. My point was people say the Dogs turn up every week and give 100%. This is not the case.

[Ted Lasso 19,549]

The patches list of things that need to improve in 2021 for us to play finals. 

1. Our work at the selection table. i think selections genuinely cost us several games this year, and ultimately that results in a finals spot gone. we need to be more willing to back guys in if they have an off game, and we need to settle the team and make less unforced changes. we chopped and changed so much the team was never really able to build any sort of chemistry. especially in the forward 50. this is just really bad coaching IMO 

2. we need to get more reward for the dominance of Max Gawn. even when he's right on top in the hit outs we seem to be breaking even or losing clearance. if Gawn is dominating we really need to be making the most of that and really looking to push the hit outs to advantage - scores stat right up. a clean tap from max should really result in a quality entry and a shot at goal much more regularly than it currently is. 

3.  Our inside/outside balance. we really need to pick 1-2 guys, or recruit them to be wingers, and keep them there, too often we all get sucked into the honey pot and teams know when  that happens if they get it to the outside we're toast. Ed Langdon helped that this year, but this ultimately comes down to players knowing and understanding their role at stoppage, this to me is a failing of Simon Goodwin and Ben Matthews. 

4. Sam Weideman and Bailey Fritsch need to significantly build their fitness, we need Sam to take much more marks on the lead than he is currently. players creating and finding space will greatly improve our % moving inside 50, way too often we're anchored to the goal square and when we can't mark it we haven't been able to lock it in. 

5. Foot skills. when a team isn't highly skilled it's SOOOO important the team has a structure and plan that makes them predictable to each other and reduces the room for mistakes. we seem to be a bit of a chaotic make it up as we go team, and that doesn't suit this list. this again is Simon Goodwin failing to recognise the list he has and trying to implement HIS game plan, not one that works for the players he has. 

 

[old dee 23,872]

My letter has gone off what about the rest of you? 

[In Harmes Way 7,823]

The by and large commentary both on here and professional commentators alike is that we wouldn't fire a shot in the finals if we had made it, however we have a fully healthy list.

This has to 100% be on Goodwin and his line coaches - and needs massive attention before preseason starts. We need to play with a defined system and roles - "brand" (and a bit of mongrel). How can we have an elite ruckman and midfielders and lose clearances consistently?  

Agree with a lot of the positives and negatives above, however it's largely fugazi. 

[loges 6,767]

4 hours ago, drdrake said:

I think the last game summed up our season.  Slow start, followed by a period of great football, then really poor football and to finish with a almost there game, got the win but should have been Ruthless in the last half and won by 10 goals, we weren't rested on how good we played in the second quarter and hung on. 

Highlights

May, Petracca, Rivers, Jackson, Langdon and in the last half of the year our backline group by far our best performed group.  May, Lever, Tomlinson, Salem, Hibberd, Rivers are a back 6 that kept us in a lot of games.

Concerns

Midfield we have massive issues in here when opposition teams run and spread even more so other big body midfields that compete at the contest.  Essentially we have Langdon on the outside and our inside bulls just butcher the ball to much.  There was a massive disconnection between our Rucks and mids.  Don't think our midfield works hard enough defensively.

Forwards, just poor.  Went a midsize forward line didn't work, went 3 talls didn't work.  2 talls worked well with Jackson and Weiderman and I think the last few games Weiderman had little influence more through conditions and he didn't work well with Tmac or Preuss.  Saturday the defenders focused on him which let Fritsch and Brown to have an impact.  Small forwards get ahead of the ball rather than work front and square.  Petracca forward is a bonus but he needs to spend more time in the midfield.  Fritsch is frustrating player, great marking leading player but as soon as it hits the ground no defensive side and gets forward of the ball looking for the easy over the top.   I think Weiderman can become a 40-50 goal a year forward with Jackson in front of him, and improve kicking efficiency through our midfield.  Hannan, Melksham, Spargo, ANB need to be replaced.

If we can improve our kicking efficiency add some outside run we have the bones of a top 5-8 side, strong backline.  Need more outside runners and another if not 2 Key forwards to really step up if we want to push into the top 4.

Hard to assess the season, we improved from 2019, still a long way off 2018 form and the fact if we beat Syd and Freo we would be sitting 6th is a little disappointing.

  

I'll be pleasantly surprised If Weideman ever kicks 40-50 goals.

[Kent 2,914]

12 minutes ago, loges said:

I'll be pleasantly surprised If Weideman ever kicks 40-50 goals.

i would be amazed also. Some of his efforts yesterday  were cringeworthy

[kev martin 10,417]

1 hour ago, old dee said:

My letter has gone off what about the rest of you? 

Not sure if I want to influence them!

I will let them do their jobs.

Hopefully, they do what they believe is the right thing.

The Bartlett spray would indicate that they are not to happy.

Keep progressing MFC.

We are getting closer.