MELBOURNE coach Simon Goodwin believes rival teams attacked the "vulnerabilities" of the reigning premier during the second half of the season.

Goodwin referenced the side's inefficiency going forward, its inability to deal with pressure situations, and its struggles in retaining big leads as aspects of Melbourne's season that opposition teams preyed upon.

"Clubs are no different to what we do. We attack teams' vulnerabilities and clearly there was a pattern throughout the year of what we struggled with. We'll unpack all of them," Goodwin said.

"We tried to address it on the run throughout the season and we weren't able to do that to a level where we could get results. We did it to a level to finish second on the ladder, which I'm incredibly proud of.

"But, once again, in finals your vulnerabilities find you. They find you in big games where it matters and if they're not corrected, they'll keep finding you. We've got to go away and fix it."

Goodwin said a disjointed second half of the season ultimately caught up with his side.

 

"It's devastating, the result. There's no question about that. I can only imagine our supporters and how they would feel. Our players and staff are all feeling exactly the same," Goodwin said.

"Clearly, to give up 70 points in the second half … you've got to give credit to Brisbane. The game swung a bit back their way. We weren't able to execute the basics of the game for long enough in the phases that we really value.
"We speak about this a lot. In finals, generally your vulnerabilities come out in games and we've had some throughout the second half of the year. When we've lost games of footy, teams have been able to impact in the second half of games and mow down leads. It happened again tonight.

"It's certainly not a shock, in terms of that. That's been a pretty consistent theme for us when we've been beaten, so we've got some work to do. 

I think he summed it up. Unsure why and how the coaches couldn’t fix the continuing forward line dysfunction and the Mids continuing to kick high up and under rainmaker kicks to the forward pockets. Goalkicking accuracy was probably the only thing that the coach didn’t cover. It was something that we thought could be costly and it was. 

Simon says let's get a forward.

  On 10/09/2022 at 12:51, spirit of norm smith said:

I think he summed it up. Unsure why and how the coaches couldn’t fix the continuing forward line dysfunction and the Mids continuing to kick high up and under rainmaker kicks to the forward pockets. Goalkicking accuracy was probably the only thing that the coach didn’t cover. It was something that we thought could be costly and it was. 

“…. the continuing forward line dysfunction and the Mids continuing to kick high up and under rainmaker kicks to the forward pockets.“

Well surely that would have to be the instructions / game plan which emanates from the coaching staff.  Otherwise surely no player in their right mind would continue with what clearly doesn’t work.  
 

Set shot goal kicking must be addressed, and under pressure snaps.  Cost us several games including both finals. 

Need a new forward coach.

The elephant in the room … we weren’t fit enough 

  On 10/09/2022 at 12:49, spirit of norm smith said:

MELBOURNE coach Simon Goodwin believes rival teams attacked the "vulnerabilities" of the reigning premier during the second half of the season.

Goodwin referenced the side's inefficiency going forward, its inability to deal with pressure situations, and its struggles in retaining big leads as aspects of Melbourne's season that opposition teams preyed upon.

"Clubs are no different to what we do. We attack teams' vulnerabilities and clearly there was a pattern throughout the year of what we struggled with. We'll unpack all of them," Goodwin said.

"We tried to address it on the run throughout the season and we weren't able to do that to a level where we could get results. We did it to a level to finish second on the ladder, which I'm incredibly proud of.

"But, once again, in finals your vulnerabilities find you. They find you in big games where it matters and if they're not corrected, they'll keep finding you. We've got to go away and fix it."

Goodwin said a disjointed second half of the season ultimately caught up with his side.

 

"It's devastating, the result. There's no question about that. I can only imagine our supporters and how they would feel. Our players and staff are all feeling exactly the same," Goodwin said.

"Clearly, to give up 70 points in the second half … you've got to give credit to Brisbane. The game swung a bit back their way. We weren't able to execute the basics of the game for long enough in the phases that we really value.
"We speak about this a lot. In finals, generally your vulnerabilities come out in games and we've had some throughout the second half of the year. When we've lost games of footy, teams have been able to impact in the second half of games and mow down leads. It happened again tonight.

"It's certainly not a shock, in terms of that. That's been a pretty consistent theme for us when we've been beaten, so we've got some work to do. 

 

Oh please. All of those things were evident in mid season but we went into the finals with the same set up, the same tactics and strategies and the same game plan as were used in May and June. We had some work to do then to overcome the vulnerabilities. We have to do much better than this.

Einstein says

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results

Simon, you are stating the bleeding obvious. You talk about our inefficiency going forward, and yet the coaching dept failed to change the game plan or personnel required to address things. That's on you and the rest of the coaching dept.

And I'd like to know how pursuing Grundy addresses our "vulnerabilities". Lack of sustained forward pressure was an obvious vulnerability, so how does the plan of having Gawn or Grundy resting forward address that?

Edited September 10, 20222 yr by mo64

I would love simon to explain how "we tried to address it on the run". It wasn't by changing personnel or changing our plan. Did we just talk about it a lot in meetings?

We are vunreable because we don't score enough. Even when we dominate we remain gettable and once momentum swings we are done.

  On 10/09/2022 at 22:00, Rivers Run Red said:

Einstein says

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results

Like posting on Demonland? 🙂

Smoke screen. Absolute distraction from selection and coaching failure.

We were spoiled from midfield and centre clearance dominance in the finals last year. This led to hubris, with the coaches believing that the rest of the game plan was not vulnerable and so we did not evolve it.

We needed to experiment with tactics and players prior to the last 3 minutes of the season. 

Simon says “I can only plan in the off season, from there I have no other plans and outside of injuries I’ll pretty much  stick with the same 22.”

I think the ‘shootout’ games we played in the second half of the season was the attempt to update the style, however we couldn’t integrate the dour defence and this go fast and straight tactic.  This meant that we went back to the old percentage play book, slow, down the line, kick it to the pockets and try to lock it in. Also, some of the failed 45 degree kicks (May’s turnovers) were not comfortably executed - not well practiced or aligned across the group.

Unfortunately, we were not able to defend rapid transitions from our forward half and it cost us every time.  The plan to hold teams to under 60 points and just out score them didnt hold - teams simply played bolder and faster against us, and applied man on man pressure outside the contest, cutting down our space and upsetting our skills (or exposing them).

We need a whole revamp in 2023, with a strong back 6 pivotal to our game, and a strong midfield still in play.  We need to have better skill and speed ahead of the defenders and be prepared to control tempo (fast and slow) better than being chooks with our heads cut off. I can imagine a whole new setup for next year, with the nibbler and spargo roles changing to fast attackers, rather than grass protectors.  Forward setup needs to change massively - suggest a combo of TMac JVL and Petty could be on the cards, with Weids as back up ruck (did great yesterday).  Need to get chandler, Bedford, AMW and the like into the team to see what they can bring.

Our vulnerabilities were determined by the fact that the defensive system took multiple years for the team to train to the right standard, and it was hard to break these habits. Also a pig headedness not to give more Casey performers real looks at AFL level.  Back to Back might have been possible if no one else evolved.  But they did, and we were stuck in 2021.

Blind Freddie knows that Ben Brown kicked his 60+ goals a year at North from kicks direct to his lead. He's a leading forward not a pack marker. Whoever's idea it was for the mids to just bomb it in has lost the plot

And Simon says for a few days Demonland will have different topics full of guff and twaddle, all saying the same thing but in a myriad of different ways.

We lost for any number of reasons, it happens because it is a game, where surprisingly there is an opposition t.rying to win as well.

We get another go next year and the year after and thev year.........

  On 10/09/2022 at 20:45, joeboy said:

The elephant in the room … we weren’t fit enough 

Definitely missed that Darren Burgess fitness that made us destroy teams in the second half every week

The blue print for how we might play next year is the recent Gabba game vs the Lions which was similar to how we played last year's GF:  win clearances, switch play from defence, quick overlap  ball movement down the wings, deep and centered entries into fwd 50.

Some of that was found out this year as teams targeted our defensive system and we went into our shells reverting to some bad habits.

In a nutshell we have lost the balance between defence and the attack, we had when we played 'chaos' football a few years ago.

We don't need to change a lot to find our best system and form again.

Edited September 10, 20222 yr by Lucifers Hero

Simon, I reckon it would be handy to have a fwd or two actually stay forward. How many times did we get the ball on a turnover, the player looked up (Viney several times) with no one to kick to! Even a diagonal pass. Then we got caught holding the ball. Thought I was back to the Dean Bailey days 

  On 10/09/2022 at 20:45, joeboy said:

The elephant in the room … we weren’t fit enough 

Spot on.

Everything flows from there.

  On 10/09/2022 at 23:15, Satyriconhome said:

And Simon says for a few days Demonland will have different topics full of guff and twaddle, all saying the same thing but in a myriad of different ways.

We lost for any number of reasons, it happens because it is a game, where surprisingly there is an opposition t.rying to win as well.

We get another go next year and the year after and thev year.........

We lost because it’s a game

deep man

  On 10/09/2022 at 22:00, Rivers Run Red said:

Einstein says

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results

 

  On 10/09/2022 at 22:20, Jontee said:

Like posting on Demonland? 🙂

Simon says QD is def. insane then. The biggest nut job here is me.

Edited September 10, 20222 yr by Queanbeyan Demon
Typo

  On 10/09/2022 at 20:45, joeboy said:

The elephant in the room … we weren’t fit enough 

The good news is with all the loading we have done we will be in peak fitness by Christmas 

I don't know if you guys have heard but the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.