8 hours ago, Demon Disciple said:

We are no longer in the conversation for this years flag.

We’ve wasted our chances at winning a second premiership. Time to go down a mini/decent rebuild and get some list turnover.

Our list depth is either too old or not good enough. Unfortunately some of our trade decisions have come back and bitten us on the [censored].

New leadership is needed, on-field and off it. Max, god love him, is no longer able to put in his Herculean efforts like he used to. Too much is being needed to be done by our best players’, and when they have down games due to always being looked upon to lead, no one else is stepping up.

This has been coming for a couple of years, and despite our coach, pres & CEO continually saying they won’t be complacent, they have been left found wanting.

We desperately need fresh voices, and those that have been in charge have refused to acknowledge or even allow this with their iron fists.

Change is needed.

Absolutely spot on ! We need to really start turning over the list even if it means going backwards for a season or two. Especially with Tassie coming into the comp shortly , when the draft will be really compromised.

There’s been enough of these performance’s so far this year to suggest we aren’t contending. 

1 hour ago, dees189227 said:

Jack darling had 12 tackles. When was the last time our forwards even combined to do that, let alone one forward do it. 

 

We had 15 I50 tackles last week 

Look at the recruitment, Hunter was washed up @ the dogs, Schache @ his 3rd club, billings couldn’t get a game at the saints, Fullerton couldn’t get a game at the Lions, yet we gave up on Jordan & Harmes and biggest disaster Grundy, who’s responsible for these decisions??

Just [censored] footy, terrible sad stuff to watch as a Melbourne supporter.  Bring in Jeffo, bring in Sestan, inject a bit of youth and give guys like BBB and Billings a bit of a rest.  I like Billings, but we can't have that happening when he lines up from a good spot, looks like a deer in the headlights.  

Everyone sucked though, can't blame umps, can't blame anything, we were [censored] and it hurts.  

Harley Reid is too good...is he human?  He's huge and powerful and fast and just a kid...best player in the league already it's insane.

11 hours ago, Lou C. Fur said:

Too true. It's a marathon, not a sprint. 

The problem though...  is we're not running.  The length of the race is irrelevant if you're in the wrong one.

The absolute worry about yesterday's game is i can't really think of even one positive.  It was abysmall across everything. 

Clearly our dysfunction is not an aberration,  its our style now. We often seem to go about things in an odd way, whether thats game style, positioning and often selection. 

We are so far off the "pace" of contending it's not a debatable subject anymore ( imo )

Get ready for the "skiing" jibes as i fear we're heading downhill. 

Be lucky to finish in the 8 playing like that....actually we won't,  not unless there's serious and across the board improvement.  Where does that come from ?? The window is shut... the back door is open ...and the weather isn't particularly nice.

We're a very strange team really.  We can and have played some wonderful footy... but that seems less and less the norm.

Not a lot in my thinking to get ecstatic about. Many of the better players ( of yore ) are staring at the pension. Only a couple of the kids seem to have what's required. The list is reeking of NQRS.

Not sure anyone in the wheelhouse really knows what they're doing presently and have they the ability to right the ship ?

So whether it's 100m or 42k ...  I'm more concerned whether we can run at all and not  just walk.

We kicked ~1.8 from turn over yesterday.

System is all over the place, our team was built for repeat stoppage and territory and we need to play to that. We got lucky that Geelong's gameplan allowed ours to work, no other team is going to give us that space. Kick mark game style is rubbish and I think we rate in the 6-12 range like Freo.

Our % keeps us in the 8 but there is 5 other teams on the same amount of wins, Saints will be hungry to knock us out of the 8.

36 minutes ago, Demonsone said:

Look at the recruitment, Hunter was washed up @ the dogs, Schache @ his 3rd club, billings couldn’t get a game at the saints, Fullerton couldn’t get a game at the Lions, yet we gave up on Jordan & Harmes and biggest disaster Grundy, who’s responsible for these decisions??

It's very hard to trade in top quality players when you are consistently finishing in the top 4, and have no trade currency. We paid a lot for May, Lever and Langdon, who basically secured us a flag.

We could have traded pick 7 last year, and we would have if something good was available. We went hard for Lynch and Hawkins, but would you rather one of them or Windsor? 

When you are consistently in the top 4, you have to go after free agents. Quality free agents recently have been few and far between, unless you think McKay on $800k would have made us a premiership threat.

To get quality in our position, we have to trade quality. Would you want to trade Oliver for JUH for example?

JJ and Harmes are not winning their sides flags. They are good solid foot soldiers, but JJ is surrounded by enormous quality at Sydney, as he was at Melbourne in 2021. 

The players you speak of like Hunter, Schache and Billings cost us absolutely nothing in terms of picks and salary space. They are not the reason we are where we are.
 

Grundy was a great get, that unfortunately was handled very poorly.

 

Edited May 19, 20241 yr by Jaded No More

36 minutes ago, Demonsone said:

Look at the recruitment, Hunter was washed up @ the dogs, Schache @ his 3rd club, billings couldn’t get a game at the saints, Fullerton couldn’t get a game at the Lions, yet we gave up on Jordan & Harmes and biggest disaster Grundy, who’s responsible for these decisions??

This is it...who's making these terrible decisions?  Just shocking, some heads need to roll there is no way we should have lost to those guys that comprehensively we should be ashamed of that ludicrous display.

Petracca & Oliver should be embarrassed watching an 18yo push them aside 

2 hours ago, dees189227 said:

Jack darling had 12 tackles. When was the last time our forwards even combined to do that, let alone one forward do it. 

 

I think that even Kennedy could come out of retirement and do a better job than BBB, that's the sad reality.

as [censored] as the game was, no point throwing the baby out with the bath water. Didnt Collingwood lose to them last year?

7 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

It's very hard to trade in top quality players when you are consistently finishing in the top 4, and have no trade currency. We paid a lot for May, Lever and Langdon, who basically secured us a flag.

We could have traded pick 7 last year, and we would have if something good was available. We went hard for Lynch and Hawkins, but would you rather one of them or Windsor? 

When you are consistently in the top 4, you have to go after free agents. Quality free agents recently have been few and far between, unless you think McKay on $800k would have made us a premiership threat.

To get quality in our position, we have to trade quality. Would you want to trade Oliver for JUH for example?

JJ and Harmes are not winning their sides flags. They are good solid foot soldiers, but JJ is surrounded by enormous quality at Sydney, as he was at Melbourne in 2021. 

The players you speak of like Hunter, Schache and Billings cost us absolutely nothing in terms of picks and salary space. They are not the reason we are where we are.
 

Grundy was a great get, that unfortunately was handled very poorly.

 

On Oliver, based on all the drama off the field and current form... it's starting to look like not out of the possibility to seek a trade for him. It may be the best for the club and him.

The smoke still needs to settle on this one. Everyone is still hurting and I don't blame them.

I can't quite buy into the wholesale changes attitude yet though. I'd like to get games into some youth but not at the expense of handing in the season just yet. 

49 minutes ago, Oxdee said:

We had 15 I50 tackles last week 

Chandler and Kozz had 12 tackles combined this week (7 & 5)

QUESTION 

Why does Max not tap the ball to our mids??

1 hour ago, At the break of Gawn said:

After watching First Crack last night, I think it’s time we drop our new game plan and go back to what works for us. Yes, we went out in straight sets last year, but that method gave us plenty of opportunities to win both games. It was mainly just accuracy that let us down. This is a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bath water by the coaching group. We only needed a few tweaks, instead they’ve overhauled the game plan and we’ve lost our identity.

And that's the problem, the gameplan, we had problems in 22, 23 we tried to play the same way and the game has moved on, we have several poorly skilled group of players, one paced midfield that became robot like going from contest to contest forward line that stands still waiting for the bomb in.

It seems we have tried to marry 2 gameplans and that is the major problem one is old and the other is a problem where you have to move the ball with pace, let's see what Goodwin and co decide to do but it is a problem. 

 

3 minutes ago, picket fence said:

QUESTION 

Why does Max not tap the ball to our mids??

Cannot tap the ball when you don’t jump for it....

10 minutes ago, cookieboc said:

as [censored] as the game was, no point throwing the baby out with the bath water. Didnt Collingwood lose to them last year?

Funny you mention the filth...

Let this sink in

 

I was really angry last night but some of the terrible takes in here has me all good now. Would be nice to have some consistency in gaps between games and amazingly we have 7, 7, 8 in the next 3 weeks.

12 hours ago, leave it to deever said:

We have been exposed as not a real flag chance.

A shame.

Midfield was flat footed again

Who do we have banging down the door?

It's a worry 

I think most of us had an inkling about this and our team this year.

 

I don't think there is any 1 real flag chance in the league.  Sydney still look good, but it'll be interesting to see how they go at the MCG.  Port were very lucky against Hawthorn. Geelong, Carlton and GWS have fallen away.  I dont think the Blues or Cats have the legs to get through the finals.

It's a very even league, we have to accept that we aren't going to be great every week - particularly with travel.  Fitness and depth will get us over the line as finals footy will be more like Rugby Union.

Getting to the line will be the issue.  When our top tier doesnt fire, it really exposes the next level down. Oliver didnt have a pre-season, so should have more in him.  The form of Viney and Trac is not up to previous years, perhaps Trac should stay in the forward line more?  That was probably Mays worst game at Melbourne, I dare say he will bounce back.  Lever was missed.

I thought Kozzie, Nibbler and Salem were all very good. Windsor is going to be a 200 gamer.

Not stinking over the last couple of years has meant we haven't been able to draft players of the ilk of Harley Reid, which is part of the even competition the AFL wants.

 

13 minutes ago, Fromgotowoewodin said:

Chandler and Kozz had 12 tackles combined this week (7 & 5)

I thought the pressure from both was awesome.  Kozz seems to be more conscious of big hits too

I’m n last night’s form we could easily drop the next two and slip outside the 8. Saints will be under pressure. We will have some key outs, none bigger than Lever.

 

The selling of a home game to Alice Springs always f…s our season. We could easily drop that to Freo. It’s basically a home game for them. 

10 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

Funny you mention the filth...

Let this sink in

 

No Waterman and McGovern out early. No hysterical crowd. 

Apples and Oranges imo

Just now, DemonWA said:

No Waterman and McGovern out early. No hysterical crowd. 

Apples and Oranges imo

Last year Collingwood lost to Hawthorn the week after Hawthorn had lost to St Kilda.

Earlier this year Sydney lost to Richmond, who have just lost by 100 in back to back weeks.