7 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

They can kick long but for God's sake at least kick long to a teammates advantage! And coach to create space in the forward 50 for the forwards to work in. Kicking it long on top of a forwards head who is wrestling with his opponent is never gonna succeed.

I agree, it would help if we had tall fwds to mark and if they had leading patterns predictable to the mids

On Saturday we had the farcical situation of Spargo and Kozzie trying to contest against two tall defenders. That is on the selection committee.

1 minute ago, Lucifers Hero said:

I agree it wasn't another string not a new bow. The context of the Lewis comment was Yze added another way to move the ball out of CB clearances. Implemented beautifully in the 3rd qtr of the 2021 GF.

Somehow we have lost that string that Yze added.

We know it’s there and posed whether this is coached - I don’t think it is.

Probably the old insular, low on confidence, I have to try harder mindset that is behind this.

By the logic of the press conference if we don’t come out firing in q1 on the weekend goody should walk because otherwise he’s just talking absolute bull. I’ll be watching with baited breath as I just don’t see the signs but if he manages to get the team to collectively pull the finger out I’ll be impressed and then he needs to get them do it for the rest of the year. If he does then we will get our share of wins for the remainder of the season and he might keep his job

I realise a lot of people have asked genuinely, but can anyway suggest what the new game plan that Goodwin keeps referring to is? i honestly cannot identify what the players are trying to do. they aren't taking risks, they seem to be doing the same thing, just slower and with worse footskills (if that is possible)..

the kickouts at the moment and mistakes in the D50 are particularly bad atm too and no one seems to be referring to those. perhaps that is a result of trying to avoid the boundary line upon exiting our D50?

1 minute ago, Lucifers Hero said:

I agree, it would help if we had tall fwds to mark and if they had leading patterns predictable to the mids

On Saturday we had the farcical situation of Spargo and Kozzie trying to contest against two tall defenders. That is on the selection committee.

*Cough* Gawn, May....Lever.

1 hour ago, KozzyCan said:

Feels like we're going to be hearing about the third quarter for years.

Pinched from BigFooty

https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/attachments/1000025373-jpg.2281169/

1 hour ago, BDA said:

Goody has definitely got better at press conferences. He doesn't scratch his leg obsessively anymore and he does sound confident

trouble is saying it and the players hearing it are 2 totally different things

looks to me like the messaging just isn't getting through anymore. I know change doesn't happen overnight, but this game plan was worked on last year and this pre season. If it hasn't come together at this stage, the likelihood of everything clicking is far less.

Time for change

My issue is, what exactly is this huge change to the gameplan? Play through the corridor more instead of around the boundary? More run and carry instead holding it up then bombing it to Gawn? It's not exactly revolutionary, not sure why it's so difficult to implement.

2 minutes ago, kurtneverdied said:

*Cough* Gawn, May....Lever.

Fair point.

iirc, Gawn was on the bench or somewhere else, May was at the other end of the ground and Lever didn't play..

At half time Goodwin said Petty was moving fwd as we needed some aerial presence. I thought: No Sh---ttt Sherlock! Shame they didn't think of that at selections. Having another tall fwd wouldn't have won us the game but it probably would have helped the score and better value for our 50+ i5-'s.

24 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Not so sure. I accidentally watched the last quarter of the 21 GF when it came up on a feed, and there's a LOT of get ball bomb ball I50 from the usual suspects.

Huge difference is what happened after that, with Brown and McDonald being able to either mark or make a contest of it, letting the others get to work.

From what I can see, the Yze approach added another string to the bow, I don't think it was a whole new bow. Could be wrong.

Yes and Salem & Petracca had a stack of inside 50 entries each in that GF mostly decent sized kicks to a lot of 1 on 1's

For instance, Fritsch was targeted deep 8 times (6 goals 2 behinds) but was he not in 1 on 1's on most of those occasions?

As most will acknowledge now, from early in 2022 most of the opposition teams flooded our forward line but our class got us through (before it didn't) ... on top of that, intercept marking in the backlike became the norm for a lot of teams

And now a lot of opposition teams are adebt at rebound footy out of their backlines. The counter attack as well (often using the corridor)

Finally, we lack class in our forward line so our style of footy gradually became ineffective

So we have to change but as you've correctly forecast, bing, that change is going to take quite some time especially with our lack of class up forward

Unless ...

We bite the bullet and play Viney, Petracca & Kozzie in the forward line (primarily) Along with Fritsch & Melk, JVR and with Fullarton or Campbell (Max needs a decent chop out)

Mostly Medium, with 2 talls only (the resting ruckman & JVR

Midfield will suffer but we can get a few to learn-on-the-job

Apart from Clarrie, Sharp, Spargo, Rivers, Sparrow & maybe Langdon, we can use Langford, Lindsay, Windsor, Tholstrop, & Chandler primarily in the midfield

Just some speculation on my part, but we need to find a way to win some games

So here's how I'd structure the forward line

HF Petracca JVR Kozzie

F Viney Melksham/Ruckman Fritsch

Fullarton or Campbell to play as back up ruckman (20% - 25%) with stints up forward (Decoy?) or on the interchange (and Max can have a couple of stints up forward as well)

If JVR can find some form, that team has a dynamic half forward line (if we can deliver properly!!)

Sorry about the long post but there is a lot to cover and it's just my 2 cents worth based on the team absolutely needing change*)

Edited April 15Apr 15 by Macca

55 minutes ago, Lucifers Hero said:

Somehow we have lost that string that Yze added.

I don't know that we have, for me it's more about losing the ability to execute it. Which is why we're seeing so many turnovers.

Also, you need players to get into that space to be the receivers - which needs more urgency, intensity and plain old gut-running around the ball than what we're currently seeing most of the time.

49 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

It's not exactly revolutionary, not sure why it's so difficult to implement.

Because you need players with the appropriate skillset.

13 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Because you need players with the appropriate skillset.

In other words,

We’re just not good enough.

4 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Because you need players with the appropriate skillset.

Yes, old habits die hard (old dogs, new tricks?)

But I reckon at least a few can change (Petracca & maybe Oliver*) and we've got quite a few who regularly can find teammates by foot (Salem, Spargo, Fritsch, Melk, Kozzie - trouble is they don't get enough of the ball apart from Salem & Kozzie)

But Gawn, Viney, Rivers, Sparrow and a few others continue to bomb it long and also, often taking too long to dispose of the ball

*We'd be better off with Oliver handballing to players on the run . and for his first 5-7 years at the club, his handpassing far outnumbered his kicks ... Oliver at his best started a lot of scoring opportunites from that quick handpass to advantage

Edited April 15Apr 15 by Macca

1 hour ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

My issue is, what exactly is this huge change to the gameplan? Play through the corridor more instead of around the boundary? More run and carry instead holding it up then bombing it to Gawn? It's not exactly revolutionary, not sure why it's so difficult to implement.

We genuinely don’t know what it is, because the Team is not doing it.

The Questions are why not, or is it to difficult for this particular group of players to execute

Edited April 15Apr 15 by Sir Why You Little

4 hours ago, Supreme_Demon said:

For those interested, here is Simon Goodwin's latest press conference.

Make of it what you will. He believes he is confident things can be turned around. Unfortunately, as the losses mount, time will be against him.

He was confident the last 4 weeks too and look how that turned out.

Edited April 15Apr 15 by DemonOX

32 minutes ago, DemonOX said:

He was confident the last 4 weeks too and look how that turned out.

MFC responding to outside 'noise'

4 hours ago, Lucifers Hero said:

I agree it wasn't another string not a new bow. The context of the Lewis comment was Yze added another way to move the ball out of CB clearances. Implemented beautifully in the 3rd qtr of the 2021 GF.

Somehow we have lost that string that Yze added.

But we certainly had it in Round 1. It was the most bang, bang, bang our mids have been since the GF IMO.

I like the way he has spoken this week in press conferences but I'm not confident. Not once in his time at Melbourne have we corrected major poor form mid-season. We've either been consistently poor, consistently mid, or consistently good. This is undoubtedly his biggest challenge as a coach. He doesn't have the benefit of inexperience on his side as he did in 2017 and 2019. I'd be very surprised if he changes that trend.

For those who remember the Late Show in the early 90s, Goodwin's press conference yesterday reminded me of this excellent segment.

1 minute ago, poita said:

For those who remember the Late Show in the early 90s, Goodwin's press conference yesterday reminded me of this excellent segment.

Classic. I have the double DVD best of. The bit where Rob sitch is playing yasser Arafat and Santo comes into the side to dry his dishes. Mercy.

Or sh&&t scared with sitch and Molloy - copperart.

You couldn’t make that show today, nor much of the stuff fast forward and the comedy co did. Golden age of comedy

And I’m only 45!

32 minutes ago, praha said:

I like the way he has spoken this week in press conferences but I'm not confident. Not once in his time at Melbourne have we corrected major poor form mid-season. We've either been consistently poor, consistently mid, or consistently good. This is undoubtedly his biggest challenge as a coach. He doesn't have the benefit of inexperience on his side as he did in 2017 and 2019. I'd be very surprised if he changes that trend.

I agree. He was very blunt yesterday when he said we’re too easy to play against. Which is true, and is being lost amongst the focus on our lack of scoring.

If anything it means we have nowhere to hide on Saturday.

44 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

I agree. He was very blunt yesterday when he said we’re too easy to play against. Which is true, and is being lost amongst the focus on our lack of scoring.

If anything it means we have nowhere to hide on Saturday.

I also found it interesting that he spoke strongly of defence.

I just wonder if they're going to tweak things to be a little more defensive.

I'd be favour of this.

We can't score, so we may as well try and restrict the ball movement and score of the opposition.

That will be the next trend in the modern game, we know we're very good at this, let's lean into it. But when we get the chance to slingshot, let's make it count.

1 hour ago, Superunknown said:

Classic. I have the double DVD best of. The bit where Rob sitch is playing yasser Arafat and Santo comes into the side to dry his dishes. Mercy.

Or sh&&t scared with sitch and Molloy - copperart.

You couldn’t make that show today, nor much of the stuff fast forward and the comedy co did. Golden age of comedy

And I’m only 45!

Edited April 16Apr 16 by Rab D Nesbitt

3 minutes ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

A good Melbourne supporter is Rob.

7 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

I also found it interesting that he spoke strongly of defence.

I just wonder if they're going to tweak things to be a little more defensive.

I'd be favour of this.

We can't score, so we may as well try and restrict the ball movement and score of the opposition.

That will be the next trend in the modern game, we know we're very good at this, let's lean into it. But when we get the chance to slingshot, let's make it count.

But didn’t we do this exact thing last year? Return to defensive play to mitigate scoring and thus just lessen the amount we’d lose by? Unless I’m misunderstanding what you mean

(Our pressure on the opposition has to increase BIG TIME across the ground.)