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Posted
22 hours ago, Monbon said:

And it's all Goody's fault, like, I mean, players have 'chequed out', um, the recruiters are all Orangutans, anti-deluvian, the coaches are all part-time bozos, not to mention so totally incompetents they weren't there at all in 2021, and Viney, Sparrow and Chandler and Oliver are milking the system to build great investment portfolios. Oi Weh, the MFC is mired in duck muck, is all I can say, they are all nincompoopers, and it's got nothing to do wid the luck of the AFL Charlatans, the Draw, or injuries, just plain incompetence. I mean, even noncompoopers win flags, don't they? Like Sheedy and Jeans and even Joyce, and what about Malcolm the Blight...

Sheedy and Blight = footy geniuses.

Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

I’ve seen the reaction to my suggestion. He may well be but there’s no denying he’s an assistant to 4 flags.

Much prefer Leppitsch. And comes with decades of experience

Edited by John Demonic

Posted
20 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

A few comments below @titan_uranus.

Go through the coaches of the better sides this year:

  1. Longmire's just "coached" Sydney to a 112 point loss. In consecutive weeks they've kicked a total of 12 goals, 3 of which came in the last 10 minutes of junk time last week. This from a side with about two best 22 players missing and with the so-called unbeatable midfield of Heeney, Warner and Gulden. Just one flag, none for 12 years.

Two flags in 90 years - despite the VFL/AFL poring $500 into the joint over the last 43.

  1. Fagan's had his side up for 6 seasons now without a flag. Even if he wins it this year, that's no more than Goodwin

It been a great coaching effort this one.

  1. Longmuir is unproven and has only made the finals once so far
  2. Hinkley was booed off his home ground five weeks ago and has had the job for 10 years without even a GF appearance, let alone a flag

See Fagan comment

  1. Chris Scott has two flags, but it took him 11 years to get the second one, despite having a list with Hawkins, Selwood, Dangerfield, Cameron, Stewart etc. on it

Scott's first flag was bequeathed to him by Thompson

  1. Beveridge is 8 years post his flag without a second one, despite a list with the game's best player on it and a midfield that bats deeper than anyone's. Missed the finals last year, and when they're struggling resorts to pot-shots in the media and dropping players out of nowhere

Despite what Cornsflake says about him - a coaching genius.

  1. Voss is struggling to even qualify for finals (was in the bottom 4 until two-thirds of the way into 2023 and hasn't quite got there yet in 2024) despite having Cripps, Walsh, Curnow, Mackay and Weitering
  2. McRae is still odds on to miss finals the year after his flag
  3. Mitchell is discussed in some circles as the second coming of Leigh Matthews but hasn't actually achieved anything yet
  4. Kingsley is like Mitchell except with one prelim appearance
  5. Hardwick is a great but has taken GC and cannot get them to win a game away from home, despite what I believe has been a relatively smooth run with injury this year

Goodwin has a flag and, unless Collingwood pulls off something extraordinary from here, will be the only one of the last four premiership coaches to get his side back into the finals the following year.

 

Posted (edited)
11 hours ago, Smokey said:

A few people here have an extremely unhealthy emotional attachment to this footy club. Get help. 

50 years obsession is but a grain of sand on a beach in the life of the known universe. Perspective please @Smokey.

Edited by Queanbeyan Demon
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Posted
10 hours ago, Engorged Onion said:

I dunno, for me,  Bont doesnt seem to stand up in finals when it counts... he is the Thierry Henri of AFL...

Yeah - and that guy Bradman was pretty ordinary under pressure too.

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Posted

The only reason possibly as to why the Bont might ‘underperform’ in finals  might just be because his body can’t go a 7th month of carrying his team on his shoulders.

The fact he doesn’t have a Brownlow and Neale has 2 just shows how poor a medal it is as to judging the B&F in the AFL.

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Posted
8 hours ago, Heart Beats True said:

I’ll ask a genuine question, did any of those coaches, apart from Longmire, get handed a solid list and a strong culture off the back of a succession plan?

Goodwin was handed the reins to a club that was on the up thanks to Paul Roos and some solid recruiting. All of the above coaches (apart from Longmire) came into clubs that were heading south.

Um, only Hardwick, Voss, Fly and Scott.

Posted
15 minutes ago, Demon Disciple said:

We need to offer Darren Burgess a blank cheque to come back to us next year.

Messiah complex.

Griffith knows what he's doing. Also, was head-hunted by Burgess and worked with him for a year in the changeover. How are Adelaide going BTW?

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Posted
On 03/08/2024 at 19:34, Roost it far said:

Personally I’d love the club to bring in Jason Akermanis as an assistant. Success follows him. 

Hahahahaha

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Posted
38 minutes ago, BW511 said:

There’s also ‘overtraining’ which may not have happened as a result of this year alone, however the cumulative effect of 3-4 years of the most taxing gameplan could certainly do it.

I have been pretty convinced we have been going about things in a fashion that’s far more difficult than it needs to be.

 

Even before this year's woes, our star midfielders have long been guilty of lofting their hard won ball high and aimlessly into our forward line.  Smash it on the boot and get it forward, anywhere will do.  Perfect for intercepting defenders to run it back at us.  And Repeat.  

For years we've over used the unnecessary (and often hospital) handpass to a team mate about to get smashed or pinged for HTB.  

There's also been an obsession with territorial gain of holding it in our forward 50, and long kicks to the pocket without scoreboard gain.  

All of these things are laborious and taxing and they're all coaching directions or else they've been tolerated by the coaching staff. 

The contest and tackling emphasis must be really gruelling on guys like Viney and lots of the team are really showing wear and tear this season so that 21 style can't be sustained forever.  Nor should it be as the running waves just break through it.  

It's not all bad though as this season lots of the youngsters (plus Tmac sometimes and returned Melk) seem to be lowering the eyes and looking sideways or shorter for better options.  

Mcvee has shown silky skills and bowser gets caught sometimes but he dinks some nice passes as does Kozzy.  

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Posted
On 03/08/2024 at 19:34, Roost it far said:

Personally I’d love the club to bring in Jason Akermanis as an assistant. Success follows him. 

Do you need reminding of what he said about Jim Stynes after he died? 

Akermanis is roundly despised by the football community, not least of all the MFC, and is eking out a living as two-bit real estate agent these days, and somehow HE gives real estate agents a bad name. 
 

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Posted
10 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

I was meant to say Justin Leppitsch ok! ☄️

Ok if that’s who you meant that is a MASSIVE fkup! 

Posted (edited)
10 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Oh dear.

We're still loading when finals has been shot and players are banged up.

There's excuses and then there's this. 

I've heard it all now @middleagedemon

It's the classic goal-post shifting that is the more hilarious thing from Binman and the like.

It's now fatigue apparently!!! Fatigue! 

I mean, give us a break! 

How did fatigue go for us when we managed to peg GWS back in that last quarter? Was it fatigue in the first quarter alone against the Bulldogs? How are we measuring this exactly? 

You can't take that bunch seriously because there'll be an excuse that becomes 'The Reason' for our failings for that given season. Which is utterly ridiculous given these are commonalities ALL teams go through and just covers over underlying issues that have existed for too long. 

Injury and fatigue hey. Wow. 

How you measure these as a supporter depends entirely on what level of bias one holds for their team. For Binman and co, the dees  always seem to be victim of such cruelties, more so than any other side in the AFL! That's because this particular group of dlanders have held the long-standing and unequivocal belief that we are the best team in it, we have undoubtedly the best game-plan and the most talented list. 

If you vehemently believe the above to be true, you're no doubt going to throw up one or two excuses as 'The Reason' for a failed season. Which is exactly what this crew have done since the 2022 finals campaign, all the while completely ignoring a set of underlying issues that have plagued us even throughout our 2021 home and away year. 

Along with the obvious disadvantages that all teams face every year, why don't we look at some of the contributing factors that have remained with us as a side for far too long now. And are the reason that all supporters get so frustrated with Goodwin. 

1: Jackson replacement/genuine Gawn support. Why is it that Goodwin defenders cannot seem to handle criticism of the failings in this area? It's been a significant fail given the way we have relied on him and provided next to no support. If dlanders are happy to throw up the injury excuse when he's out or when 'carrying' injury, how do you not point the finger at Goodwin and co for providing no support in a game where injury is bound to happen to anyone at any time? Especially so when part of your game-plan has been built around Max Gawn. 

2: Midfield balance/attribute diversity I've banged on about this for I don't know how many years and it has plagued us in just about every game in which a team brings heat to our midfield. How much longer will it continue? Look no further than the first possession that we had on Friday night against the Dogs. Viney racing for a ball in dispute, gets to it and has two free Melbourne players if he manages to hook a dominant hand handball over his right shoulder. But no, he sees red, handballs blindly forward straight to a doggies player who takes possession. That kind of play is emblematic of our entire midfield unit when any serious heat is applied. And it happened all night. We have a contested heavy, ball winning heavy midfield unit who all lack in the same area when under pressure. Composure and disposal. 

It is that simple. We win the ball in tight and give it up almost immediately when the heat is applied. And every single side that have a half decent midfield know this when they play us. As the game goes on, the more desperate our mids become to win a clearance/contest and the more we swarm to the same ball and man with ball, in part because these mids have been 'ball winning' players since they were kids and desperation kicks in. The commentary around our lack of pace/run and the 'fatigue' comments are actually by-products of what is happening in close. We give the ball up that easily when heat is applied, it makes the opposition look quicker, fitter and like they have more players on the ground. When opposition half-backs could see the standard set by their mids on fri night, they knew they could have a field day by rolling the dice and streaming off their men, getting that call right the majority of the night due to how easily we were giving the ball up in close if we were getting our hands on it. (Which for much of the night we weren't even doing). So then it's two fold. You've got oppo half-backs playing their own game of footy as their mids are just consistently either winning first possession themselves and handballing out of congestion and then to running half backs, or they knew if we were to get first possession, we'd likely cough it up thanks to the the heat their team mates were applying in close and our lack of composure and disposal came to the fore. 

When the dogs bring heat like that, they look a million bucks because they are one of a few clubs who have mids who excel at feeding a ball out of a contest with a quick, smart handball under pressure. Libba and Bont specifically are specialists at this. Even Treloar has better hands in close than most if not all our mids. 

Now, clearance altogether has two parts to it. The one I listed above and the second being our actual setup at both centre bounce and stoppage. Both our positioning and lack of connectedness with Gawn has been wildly inconsistent for too long. Another issue that Binman and his brigade seem to ignore when they say things like, 'oh well, we don't place a premium on clearances anyway'. 

How about nah. Clearance gives you complete ascendency if you get it right. End of the third Q grand final? 

3: Forward setup/personnel. 

Again. How long? Let's go back to last year's finals and those who basically said inaccuracy cost us the flag. That might be so, but that has been in part down to game-plan and personnel. And inaccuracy has cost us in plenty of other games over the last few years. I'm not sure what Goodwin expects when he plays two key defenders as key forwards and one young kid who is still learning how to be a forward at AFL level. (JVR played a lot of defence as an under-aged kid and I don't classify him as a classical key forward).

Our inability to land one has been telling. We have a make-shift forward line that consistently looks like a dogs breakfast with little to no predictability in the way it moves. At the very least, Ben Brown was a straight line ball leader, which created vacuums of space for specialist forwards like Fritsch or Kosi to creep into. Goodwin has seemed happy to continue to play 'competitors' which means our kids are again happy to bomb away into the forward 50 with little to no intentionality. 

This problem also goes hand-in-hand with our midfield issue which I highlighted above. We have average ball user through our midfield when under no pressure and they're poor when under pressure. 

So, what will it take for us to land a specialist forwards assistant coach and perhaps a complete re-think of the type of players we want to have inside 50? Are we prepared to continue to play Fritsch when the ball isn't perfect for him given his complete disinterest in competing defensively? Another factor in why opposition teams waltz the ball out of our defence. Opposition defenders completely exploit that part of Fritsch's game. Do people notice this? When will Goody hold him to account? I won't hold my breath given the myriad of issues we have in our forwardline anyway. 

Ben Brown at full fitness is what this team misses more than supporters give credit for and we need to bring in another player of that type pronto. 

So, whilst I'm not in the 'sack Goody' camp. I certainly think that he's done this team no favours in the last few years and if he is not to blame, who we blaming? The umpires? Injury? Fitness? 

How about no. Those things will be there every year, period. Sure Petracca has been a missive loss. But that's even more telling! If a team is that reliant on one player, there are some serious underlying issues. 

And just so it's clear, I'm no doomsdayer. I believe we can rectify, recalibrate and go again whilst we still have some key pillars. But we need to absolutely nail this off-season and nail the pre-season and actually fix some of these underlying issues that have existed for far too long. 

If not, it will indeed be a wasted era. 

Edited by middleagedemon
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Posted (edited)
21 minutes ago, Mel Bourne said:

Do you need reminding of what he said about Jim Stynes after he died? 

Akermanis is roundly despised by the football community, not least of all the MFC, and is eking out a living as two-bit real estate agent these days, and somehow HE gives real estate agents a bad name. 
 

 

Edited by Engorged Onion
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