It definitely looks like our form has turned. full credit to Goody and the coaching team.

and while some complain about goody's press conferences i thought he held his nerve well and projected calm and belief during our horrible 0-5 run to start the year

6 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

Wow .... Early call, impressive call.

I was hoping we'd stay with 'em but a win never entered my mind till the last 5mins.
Seen too many teams roll over us of late when the whips start cracking.

As I said earlier I thought that win was coming last week and the last quarter worried me. My overt optimism really was partly a confidence roll of the dice. I just felt we had an important win coming at some point, our list is to good to not be winning games.

Well done Simon, take a bow. That one was for all the goody haters :)

Regardless of yesterday, he still is not the man for 2026

One big win doesn't change everything but it's become apparent that this game weak is going to have growing pains a long the way. I can't really sit here and fault Goodwin for the way he's gone about it.

Old coach or new coach, we're probably going to have to persist with change anyway so right now I'm keen to see how he manages it.

In the postgame thread, I summarised comments by SEN's expert caller for the game, Dean Solomon. @Adam The God asked that I repeat some of the post on this thread.

Here are some of Dean's observations over the course of the game pertinent to this thread:

• Goodwin clearly out coached Fagan. It was a brilliant coaching game by Goodwin

• Melbourne has given the competition a blueprint on how to beat Brisbane:

  • In the 2nd half, Melbourne set up their defensive structure to take away Brisbane's passing into their half forwards. Solomon said it was almost as if Melbourne was inviting this pass, then causing the turnover and rebound

  • After half time and in their half of the ground, Melbourne brought 2 of its forwards up towards the stoppage, bringing their Lions defenders with them, which opened up Melbourne's inside 50.

  • Make Harris Andrews ineffective, reduce Neale's and Zorko's impact - does this make Brisbane beatable?

Whatever comes from the rest of the season, you have to respect the club for holding their nerve.

Demonstrated 'learnings' from last season, I guess!

On 03/04/2025 at 01:12, PaulRB said:

We need the team to continue to work to implement the new game style that they’ve been working on for the past year, and recruiting for. We need to resist the pressure on Goody, trust that this evolution depends in part on our best 22 playing, especially those players, the quick and agile with good skills.

Pickett, Windsor and McVee are big outs, so Picket and Windsor back in are big ins.

Hold tough! Have faith in the team, the coach and their plan. This can turn quickly.

Wanted to bump this to remind those banging on so long and loud about getting rid of Goodwin, that you were misguided and clearly proved wrong. 😊

Maybe its time to trust Goody is the one to take us back to the holy grail.

Edited Tuesday at 00:052 days by PaulRB

On 19/05/2025 at 08:57, picket fence said:

Regardless of yesterday, he still is not the man for 2026

Good luck with your campaign if we make the 8!

16 hours ago, Little Goffy said:

Whatever comes from the rest of the season, you have to respect the club for holding their nerve.

Demonstrated 'learnings' from last season, I guess!

This is a good point. I admired Goody earlier this year for criticising himself for not holding his nerve last year when the team floundered with the new game plan and he reverted to the old game plan. Great as it was, the old game plan is not winning another flag.

"Better to dare mighty things and fail than live in the grey twilight where there is neither victory nor defeat".

2 hours ago, waynewussell said:

Good luck with your campaign if we make the 8!

Well Wayne if IF we make the 8 I will review But not holding my breath and if we don't HE NEEDS TO GO!

The hands are off the buzzer now so to speak.

Goodwin has the rest of the season ( a safe bet ) to show he has actually got a game plan, one that works, is working and capable of winning consistently.

I'd go as far as to say finals won't be the litmus. How we're playing and how we are trending will be the yardstick.

I think we'll still struggle to make finals. A big fail for mine. If we were to win half of the remaining games and at least be there or thereabouts in the losing ones then he might have an argument to see out his remaining contract.

If we're doing not much more than spinning the wheels in the mud you'd have to have 'that' chat.

Edited Tuesday at 05:192 days by beelzebub

2 hours ago, speed demon said:

This is a good point. I admired Goody earlier this year for criticising himself for not holding his nerve last year when the team floundered with the new game plan and he reverted to the old game plan. Great as it was, the old game plan is not winning another flag.

"Better to dare mighty things and fail than live in the grey twilight where there is neither victory nor defeat".

Similar quote from, of all places, The Pentagon Papers; "If we set out for victory then at least a negotiated peace might be reached. If we set out for negotiated peace we will surely lose everything".

We seem to be building in the right direction now which is nice. If that continues there is no reason we can’t win 8-12 games for the year and either sneak into the 8 or just miss it but with real momentum for 2026, much like we did in 2020

29 minutes ago, Ted Lasso said:

We seem to be building in the right direction now which is nice. If that continues there is no reason we can’t win 8-12 games for the year and either sneak into the 8 or just miss it but with real momentum for 2026, much like we did in 2020

Having run the ladder predictor about a dozen times it's about 50/50 that you could squeak in with 12 w. 13 is more probable this year.

Given there is only 13 more games for us we'd need at least 8 wins.

If Goody can manifest 8 wins even I would say that was a fair achievement and he should be allowed to further his ideas in 26.

If we only manage a handful more wins with a fairly complete list you would have to see that for what it was....underwhelming would be kind.

22 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

Having run the ladder predictor about a dozen times it's about 50/50 that you could squeak in with 12 w. 13 is more probable this year.

Given there is only 13 more games for us we'd need at least 8 wins.

If Goody can manifest 8 wins even I would say that was a fair achievement and he should be allowed to further his ideas in 26.

If we only manage a handful more wins with a fairly complete list you would have to see that for what it was....underwhelming would be kind.

I’ve had a few cracks at the predictor too and it seems like the difference between the top 8-9 clubs and the bottom 6-7 is pretty large. If that plays out to be true, we’ll need 13 wins to get in.

Not sure we can get to that figure.

If we make a run and just miss out, I’d expect Goody to see out his contract and coach in 26.

I’m not convinced he’s the right person still, but I think Jaded mentioned that we could probably do a better job with surrounding him with more talented coaches and admin. That would allow him to play to his strengths in player management etc. That’s probably a good place to start.

2 minutes ago, JJJ said:

I’ve had a few cracks at the predictor too and it seems like the difference between the top 8-9 clubs and the bottom 6-7 is pretty large. If that plays out to be true, we’ll need 13 wins to get in.

I'm in a little footy group chat and someone wrote a message "Finding it very hard to figure out who is good/[censored] this year" - This gets bumped with every confusing/unpredicted result so far this season.

curious if the robot has a better idea.

18 minutes ago, JJJ said:

I’ve had a few cracks at the predictor too and it seems like the difference between the top 8-9 clubs and the bottom 6-7 is pretty large. If that plays out to be true, we’ll need 13 wins to get in.

Not sure we can get to that figure.

If we make a run and just miss out, I’d expect Goody to see out his contract and coach in 26.

I’m not convinced he’s the right person still, but I think Jaded mentioned that we could probably do a better job with surrounding him with more talented coaches and admin. That would allow him to play to his strengths in player management etc. That’s probably a good place to start.

Yeah.. I was initially getting just 13s .. but kept doing it.. and got a string of 12s.

Like you suggest there may well be a gap formed between top8 and below , making it quite hard.

Hence even I ( big of me I know lol ) understand it might be better to view the trend and form.of of our games for rest of year. I really doubt the 8 is attainable .

But here's hoping. Despite what some think... I really would prefer we're competitive and winning.

I got 16 and then 15 so I went with the 16

Edited Tuesday at 06:442 days by Roost it far

2 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

I got 16 and then 15 so I went with the 16

I'd take that 16 in a heart beat.

You might need new dice... just sayin'

Admire your optimism 😉 👌 👍

11 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

I'd take that 16 in a heart beat.

You might need new dice... just sayin'

Admire your optimism 😉 👌 👍

Well I only do those with a best case scenario attitude. I’m actually not overly fussed about the ladder atm. If we can stay largely injury free and keep improving then I think the year is still alive. I’m also seeing optimism for the future. I find it funny how many people think ruckman are overrated. Max was unstoppable when it mattered on the weekend. It’s why I think going hard for Jackson is such a smart move. With White and Sinnema likely additions we can pretty much throw everything else at Freo if he wants to leave.

On 19/05/2025 at 08:57, picket fence said:

Regardless of yesterday, he still is not the man for 2026

Aw shucks, you all just saying that.

3 hours ago, beelzebub said:

I'd go as far as to say finals won't be the litmus. How we're playing and how we are trending will be the yardstick.

Totally agree @beelzebub .

Focusing on “wins and finals” as a benchmark for Goody’s ongoing tenure reminds me of Goodhart’s Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure".

The target should be a flag and the measure a flag-winning game plan and players able to execute it.

When we focus on convenient objective measures like wins and finals, a coach is incentivised to play it safe (stick to the game, play the old brigade) and achieve short term goals rather than take risks and incur failures in pursuit of longer term loftier goals.

We are all just making up the conversation and the numbers at this juncture me thinks

If I'm being critical of Goody (and I think there are still valid criticisms) of Goody when we lose, I goota give him credit when we get good wins. Tactically I think Goody used all the pieces on his chess board correctly. From Clarry doing a run with role on Neale, to Melk blanketing Andrews. I also saw that our gameplan of using the hands to move with pace rather than bombing long coming out stronger. I also notice we are going back to using the get out chip kick when we can.

I'm still not 100%if Goody will be our coach next season, but for now he is turning things around and that's all we can ask of him.