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Time for a Change….Don’t wait another 2 years…

Sir Why You Little
Sir Why You Little
in Melbourne Demons

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First person to go should be Kelly O’Donnell. He’s been the pro-scout for years and aside from obvious high profile targets like May, Lever, Hibberd and Langdon he’s found no one, especially since the flag when we’ve had the chance to offer success.

Our delisted/state league talent is non existent yet alone attracting anyone of quality aside from a dice role on Grundy.

Time to get someone who isn’t part of the furniture in.

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      On 11/06/2024 at 08:42, DeeSpencer said:

    First person to go should be Kelly O’Donnell. He’s been the pro-scout for years and aside from obvious high profile targets like May, Lever, Hibberd and Langdon he’s found no one, especially since the flag when we’ve had the chance to offer success.

    Our delisted/state league talent is non existent yet alone attracting anyone of quality aside from a dice role on Grundy.

    Time to get someone who isn’t part of the furniture in.

    Yep

    For all the [censored] Essendon gets, they get Nic Martin of the rookie list and Sam Durham mid year...

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    • Shocked 1
      On 11/06/2024 at 06:47, praha said:

    I think that two straight set finals exits is a red flag.. this season I don't think he's coaching well but a lot has happened and it's just snowballed. Hence why I think we're better off judging him at this point next season.

    Id rather we didnt....  we can judge it now.

    Not just me... a lot of ppl ...from.various vantage points are calling time. 

    If we're in this same position next year....we're well and truly stuffed.

    Nothing will change if nothing changes.

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      On 11/06/2024 at 08:49, The Stigga said:

    Yep

    For all the [censored] Essendon gets, they get Nic Martin of the rookie list and Sam Durham mid year...

    Dodoro might have no idea what to do with top picks but he can find a late gem.

    I prefer the pies model the best, they’ve identified the exact guys they need and made great role players out of them.

    And they’ve utilised the preseason supplemental period as a time to get guys in to compete for list spots.

    That strengthens their preseason training numbers and adds intensity. Plus you have flexibility to take the guy you need based on injuries.

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      On 11/06/2024 at 06:39, Binmans PA said:

    It's very strange because Fritta is a beautiful kick, but he's a key offender.

    agreed but i think its clear that pressure is something our club and players dont deal well with. The last few years Fritta has been our only solid consistent forward but even then i think the weight of being a one man forward gets the better of him. 

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    I think our former captain has summed it up best. We’re not a top 4 or even a top 8 side anymore.

     

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      On 10/06/2024 at 08:33, leave it to deever said:

    Goody deserves to stay.

    We would have won another flag last year except for injuries and Maynard. Ok the Laurie sub was a stupid selection but it happens.

    We need to sack our forward coach.

    Make some much better recruitment calls and start dropping players who don't perform.

    If they don't put in, they don't play...simple.

    Hi Petty 

    You think we didn't win the flag last year because of Maynard and injuries? 

    Amongst other things, we didn't win because despite having the best MFC list in 60 years, our midfield could not kick anything i50 except long bombs. And our forwards couldn't hit the ocean with a beach ball

    We've gone from an attacking, fast, risk taking team to a slow, defensive, fumbling, turn-over team in 3 years

    That's on Goody

    What a waste of a 'dynasty'

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      On 11/06/2024 at 12:29, Moonshadow said:

    You think we didn't win the flag last year because of Maynard and injuries? 

    Amongst other things, we didn't win because despite having the best MFC list in 60 years, our midfield could not kick anything i50 except long bombs. And our forwards couldn't hit the ocean with a beach ball

    We've gone from an attacking, fast, risk taking team to a slow, defensive, fumbling, turn-over team in 3 years

    That's on Goody

    What a waste of a 'dynasty'

    The excuses for our Finals Departures over the last 2 years (All 4 of them) are just Bizarre. 
    WE GOT BEATEN by More efficient Teams

    That is all on the Coaching Staff

    And what has changed this year??

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    I thought about it a bit today and have decided that I'd like to see some sackings and preferably this week. Half the coaches should be gone already.

    As for our president, talk about completely AWOL. These do gooders who are only seen when we're successful are just fair weather. It's no use telling us we want to be like Collingwood.

    Shake the place up with some people who really mean business.

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    Interestingly, this year when I've seen us revert to fast, dispose quickly, take a risk style, we've scored quickly and often. Eg. last 20 mins of Blues game, which we nearly pinched out of no where

    Brought back memories of 2021

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      On 10/06/2024 at 15:48, KingDingAling said:

    That would be akin to appointing a ruckman as a forward line coach. 

    If ever there was a post to prove my point it's this.

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      On 11/06/2024 at 04:22, Jaded No More said:

    Is our forwardline great? No.

    Is it the reason we are losing? No.

    Who the hell was playing in Collingwood's forwardline yesterday? Absolute nobodies, that's who. Still managed to pile on 14 goals.

     

    Thats why the pressure should be on the coach and staff

    The game plan is wrong for the players we have 

    doing the samething over and over because it used to work is just silly. It doesnt work and the club is devoid of strategy to make meaningfull change

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      On 11/06/2024 at 12:29, Moonshadow said:

    You think we didn't win the flag last year because of Maynard and injuries? 

    Amongst other things, we didn't win because despite having the best MFC list in 60 years, our midfield could not kick anything i50 except long bombs. And our forwards couldn't hit the ocean with a beach ball

    We've gone from an attacking, fast, risk taking team to a slow, defensive, fumbling, turn-over team in 3 years

    That's on Goody

    What a waste of a 'dynasty'

    While I agree with that Moonie, I also think it likely that there is a “rotten apple” within the club that is “infecting” everyone. The attitude change in the players (for the worse) is the key for me. Whoever or whatever that “apple” is has to be weeded out.

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      On 11/06/2024 at 09:18, DeeSpencer said:

    Dodoro might have no idea what to do with top picks but he can find a late gem.

    I prefer the pies model the best, they’ve identified the exact guys they need and made great role players out of them.

    And they’ve utilised the preseason supplemental period as a time to get guys in to compete for list spots.

    That strengthens their preseason training numbers and adds intensity. Plus you have flexibility to take the guy you need based on injuries.

    What I like (🤢) about the Pies is that regardless of what’s happening externally, they are a proud and winning club that has a clear identity and focus.

    They were horrible to start the year, they didn’t panic and just kept working at getting better. They knew where they wanted to go and how to get there.

    We have no idea what we want to do, where we want to train, what is acceptable standards and who should lead us. It’s an entire club devoid of confidence and direction - all this despite being one of the most competitive teams for the past 4 years in a row.

    The club should be bursting at the seems with energy on the back of the flag and yet they have seemingly sat on their hands and drifted back into the mid-table abyss 

    Edited by BW511

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    • Like 2
      On 11/06/2024 at 22:11, Neil Crompton said:

    While I agree with that Moonie, I also think it likely that there is a “rotten apple” within the club that is “infecting” everyone. The attitude change in the players (for the worse) is the key for me. Whoever or whatever that “apple” is has to be weeded out.

    who is a rotten apple?

    Any thoughts

     

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    Petty has clearly been in the departure lounge all season long. How can the selection committee be so blissfully ignorant about something so obvious to the supporters? There was a time when this selection committee had integrity and were rewarding performance and punishing poor form. We get it, the KPF cupboard is not overflowing with options but you simply cannot continue to reward mediocrity it sends all the wrong messages to the playing group. Play a small mobile forward line if you have to.

    And the midfield needs a complete reboot. This will be the most important draft/trade period for MFC in quite some time.

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    It wouldn't be the worst thing to invest in some change at the top to refresh the list, while we still have 2-3 years of the list's peak years.

    The challenge will be the adjustment cost we will need to pay in performance to manage that change. 

    One possible side-effect of Goody's "great" relationship with all the players is unfortunately this adjustment cost premium will be higher for the club to pay. Similarly, given the boys club network of the AFL/elite football in Australia it's hard to identify a suitable candidate that is capable of taking a list with our shape (experienced and aging top-end with existing beliefs) to the next level. 

    Taking these things together, it's probably time to start planning for life after Goody - although i'd argue it would be hasty to make any more changes in season. 

    On reflection, I believe the changes they've tried to make in-season have backfired immensely.  Again, our heavy (3 years +) focus on the defensive phase and so-called "Melbourne Zone" has just meant that the adjustment cost to play a new game-style have been too high, and in fact in a sign of desperation the captain of the ship through them overboard to get back to results.  

    It's not hard to see why version 1 of this list (contested inside heavy) to version 2 (contested inside heavy + strong team based defence) worked well.  We have a limited list in terms of speed, skill, and most importantly vision.  Trying to evolve the game-plan to play a vision based, skill-based game was a hell of a bet given who we have in our team.  Further, such a change in a competition that is SO close, was also a hell of a bet.  The far safer (and simpler thing to do) would have been to back the stats in and go with the same gameplan one more time. 

     

     

     

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      On 11/06/2024 at 22:40, Kent said:

    who is a rotten apple?

    Any thoughts

     

    I have thoughts but I would only be speculating. It might be the game plan, it might be a coach or a particular player. But I do know that you don’t go from being a top side to a poor one, when you basically have the same personnel, without some other influence disrupting the system. The change in attitude by the players is simply a reflection of this. 

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    • Like 3

      On 11/06/2024 at 22:51, RedFox said:

    Petty has clearly been in the departure lounge all season long. How can the selection committee be so blissfully ignorant about something so obvious to the supporters? There was a time when this selection committee had integrity and were rewarding performance and punishing poor form. We get it, the KPF cupboard is not overflowing with options but you simply cannot continue to reward mediocrity it sends all the wrong messages to the playing group. Play a small mobile forward line if you have to.

    And the midfield needs a complete reboot. This will be the most important draft/trade period for MFC in quite some time.

    If you are right, it is the Jackson situation all over.

    I have said to friends for a while we are not ruthless enough. Here's another example (if you're right).

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      On 11/06/2024 at 23:06, Neil Crompton said:

    I have thoughts but I would only be speculating. It might be the game plan, it might be a coach or a particular player. But I do know that you don’t go from being a top side to a poor one, when you basically have the same personnel, without some other influence disrupting the system. The change in attitude by the players is simply a reflection of this. 

    This is speculation but you could easily understand why the following may have impacted the psyche of some players:

    Brayshaw…

    Oliver….

    Players held to different standards. EG Petty, McAdam, Bowey & Turner coming straight in without having to prove themselves at Casey.

    Confusion over the game plan. 

    Finger pointing by players

    Failure to execute under pressure

    Mixed messages for younger players EG Woewodin getting dropped after Freo when senior players fundamentally are not following team instruction such as Fritsch

    Lack of development as players/ careers stalling

    Aside from JVR, no discernible targets up forward

    Petty. Mishandled. Came back early. Playing forward with zero result. And still wants to leave.

    As I said above this is speculation but in the pressure cooker of AFL life, you wouldn’t need too many issues like the ones above to lose focus.

    I think a lot of it comes from the coaches box which isn’t a direct shot at Goodwin but it’s a shot across the bow. I vaguely recall falling asleep last night listening to the Demonland podcast when someone mentioned we needed to clean house and bring in some new thought leadership. Not a bad idea.

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    I think it’s fair to say we aren’t winning a flag this year. Best we could hope for is finishing in the 8 and winning a final and getting that monkey off our back. 
     

    What we need to now make the call if we think we are a chance to bounce back next year. Perhaps a quick external list review. If we decide we are not winning a flag this year or next then we need to get very aggressive with turning over our list while we still have some mature players that have trade value that won’t be part of our next flag. 
     

    We still have a very talented young group of players so it’s not a total rebuild. Just a mini rebuild, the pies have shown it can be done  

    Our last rebuild was hampered by new clubs coming into the comp. I’d rather we get aggressive in the next couple of trade periods to avoid it happening again. 

    Edited by Colm

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    •  
      On 10/06/2024 at 08:41, Sir Why You Little said:

    This is where i disagree. 
    You make the situation WORK, you do not give up after 5-6 games. 
    that proved to me that our Coach was out of his depth 

     

    Agree. From multiple points of view this is the biggest failing of the FD under Goodwin. 

    Gave up after 1 failed plan, then managed it all so poorly that Brodie (allegedly) refused to play for us again a month short of finals. Pathetic & bizarre. 

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    Speaking of time for a change“…waiting another two years…” I wonder when we might hear from our Board about our current strategic plan.

    It seems that our football team are not the only ones "dropping the ball".

    After explaining that we had not in fact started to build our new home base near Gosch’s Paddock, and we had missed our membership target in the 2020-2023 plan, last year’s Annual report said  “The Club will launch our 2024 – 2027 Strategic Plan in February ahead of the commencement of the 2024 seasons.” Has anyone seen it? Or should I have read that as February 2025?

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