On 21/05/2025 at 14:55, Roost it far said:

Agreed, must win the winnable’s. I think we can beat Collingwood, Adelaide, Hawthorn and the GC on our current, low injury trajectory. The Dogs look awesome atm and I love watching the way they play so I think they’re the toughest match up. Carlton also seem to keep finding away to beat us since Kozzies 22 heroics. The Pies are the ones who keep finding a way to win against basically all opposition. I reckon as much as Goodwin only has Sydney on his mind he’ll have been working on ways to beat them. Staying injury free is the key. We get a charmed run and then it’s game on baby!

Always tough at Kardinia or whatever it's called but I hope they rip the Cats apart tonight.

Always had a soft spot for the doggies. Probably because they suffered like us for the time between flags.

I'll never forget that camera shot during the Gf of a group of dejected Bailey look a likes. Said it all at the time.

And I do enjoy watching their version in Bont of our Tracc.

Was a great day when Tracca won the Norm Smith.

Regarding the new game plan, I’ve been giving this a bit of thought and maybe the reason Goody shelved it last year wasn’t because the players didn’t or couldn’t get it, I’m thinking that maybe his coaching team didn’t get it or couldn’t implement it. Particularly without Tracc and an half fit Clayton, I also felt that Mini didn’t get the best out of the midfield group either, our opponents constantly won the centre clearances despite Max’s domination, this didn’t happen with Yze. I think Goody trusted Chaplin but needed a bit more footy savvy so went after Nathan Bassett, Sam Radford and Nat Jones to help sell and implement the necessary changes. Did you see the joy on the faces of all the coaches and the players as they hugged each other after the game, it actually works.👍😁

5 hours ago, BDA said:

Ange will be lucky to survive. he has no plan B

ange has said previously that plan b is do plan a better

How’s the humble pie???

I'm happy we're winning, but I'm still not convinced. Seems like we've just found a different way to waste inside 50s.

They say that to be a good game plan it needs to hold up in finals.

To me it just looks like Ross Lyons St Kilda and Fremantle teams where they won a majority or the game a majority of the time but never made enough scoreboard pressure to withstand the minority game when the pendulum swung the other way.

The previous game plan never looked far away, it was the forward line and forward entries that let us down. Call me the pessimist but I don't see that much has changed.

On 22/05/2025 at 18:16, beelzebub said:

Meanwhile.. Dees. Here we are.If you don't understand how Ooze co-opted that flag well..

Then surely he also co-opted losing our next 4 finals.

Look you can tell the players love him & I guess he's broken bread with tracs family.

He's gone back to coaching from the boundary again which I think he enjoys

Did you see him with his arm around tracs dad in the rooms after the game.

Yesterday on the boundary line he was getting around his assistants.

We'll see how we go in the next few weeks.

16 hours ago, Gibberish said:

I'm happy we're winning, but I'm still not convinced. Seems like we've just found a different way to waste inside 50s.

They say that to be a good game plan it needs to hold up in finals.

To me it just looks like Ross Lyons St Kilda and Fremantle teams where they won a majority or the game a majority of the time but never made enough scoreboard pressure to withstand the minority game when the pendulum swung the other way.

The previous game plan never looked far away, it was the forward line and forward entries that let us down. Call me the pessimist but I don't see that much has changed.

I tend to agree because most of the teams we've beaten are rubbish but it could also be possible that the game plan is starting to click.

I was one who thought we needed a fresh voice.

I was wrong.

On 20/05/2025 at 20:50, bing181 said:

I'd be (pleasantly) surprised if we make finals. We can perhaps get the wins, but not the %.

...........

If we get the wins we won't need the percentage.

This isnt a topic to discuss week-by-week. We are quick to forget the poor start against teams that we had no business in losing to (North, Bombers). Yes we were expecting a less than ideal start and to be fair, we probably came up against them at a rather unfortunate time for us.

Goody clearly hasn't lost the players - i myself doubted that at one point, but we still have a forward line issues that have been glossed over by some out-of-this-world individual performances in the past couple of games. Playing a CHB (Petty) and 34 yo (Melksham) is not a sustainable go-forward plan. The F50 connection appears to be improving, but need a few more scalps in the top 8 before we can conclusively say we are legitimate condenders again. We have much to improve in this area.

To keep the monkey off his back for the rest of the year and in the off-season, he needs to finish strongly. Finals will be difficult but at least a positive ledger in the second half i think is fair. i'd still hold off contract negotiations until after next season though, where a finals berth is a must.

7 hours ago, biggestred said:

I was one who thought we needed a fresh voice.

I was wrong.

Well done for owning up to that mate. I wanted change too but I believe he’s the right man for the job

Could everyone please watch the post game presser, I actually think it was his best ever (apart from standing his ground a few weeks ago). He explains a couple of things really well in his usual dry manner.

We as fans (speaking for myself) go mental when we miss gimme goals - the reason... we worry that the players will drop their heads from missed opportunities. What Goodwin explained really clearly (we're not focused on outcome mantra) at the 03:30 - 04:00 min mark of the video, was that the team - 'work hard unconditionally' and that 'they were able to continue with the same mindset...irrespective of the outcome of the scoreboard'. i.e. he has coached the team to deal with what is our (my) biggest fear (speaking again for myself/MFCSS). That if we don't make every post a winner we are done.

If you think about it, the idea that with enough opportunities (quality f50 entries) the reward will come (scoreboard result), is so much better than making each shot on goal a pass/fail moment that will only increase pressure on the players. This is something top tier european football teams do all the time. The flip side is, as confidence builds from the process working, the pressure reduces and we will kick bigger scores.

By way of contrast - Look at where Carlton are with Curnow and McKay, they have this approach that their gun forwards will do all the work. I would much rather have 10 goal kickers (Kozzie with 5 doesn't hurt either). That said, Gawn shouldn't have laid off that shot at goal, that is not taking responsibility. I want that coached out, same for Trac, take your bloody set shots.

Needless to say, Goodwin has walked the path he said we were going to take and has fronted up to everything. Kudos to a legend of the MFC.

https://www.afl.com.au/video/1330462/goodwin-post-match-r11-its-a-pretty-special-bond-that-youre-starting-to-see?videoId=1330462&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1748169119001&limit=50&tagNames=ProgramCategory%3APress%20Conference&references=AFL_COMPSEASON%3A73%2CAFL_ROUND%3A1157

The noticeable change is that our on-ball brigade are sharing the ball a lot more by hand or foot (Gawn, Langdon, Oliver, Petracca, Rivers & Sparrow) Viney?

Way less long kicks forward to packs or bombs into the forward line

Corridor use when applicable only. Longish kicks to 1 on 1's being the variable

With the rest it's kick to position as the first option (notably Salem, Bowie, Langford, Lindsay, Pickett, Windsor, McVee, Chandler etc)

It's like we've got 2 types of players out there

On 25/05/2025 at 19:49, Gibberish said:

I'm happy we're winning, but I'm still not convinced. Seems like we've just found a different way to waste inside 50s.

Not happy with 36 shots on goal from 64 entries?

That’s the highest % from the weekends games

6 minutes ago, DubDee said:

Not happy with 36 shots on goal from 64 entries?

That’s the highest % from the weekends games

Some very odd ( poor ) choices of kicking.

Now that's not at all on Simon.... but it might prove prudent should he get in the ear of some 😉

30 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

Some very odd ( poor ) choices of kicking.

Now that's not at all on Simon.... but it might prove prudent should he get in the ear of some 😉

It was our goal kicking conversion that let us down in the first half (6.11). But in the second half, we kicked an incredible 13.6 to overshoot our expected score by 11 points. If anything, that's coaching and messaging at half time. Don't drop your head, keep going.

As I've said elsewhere, a large chunk of modern day AFL coaching is being a psychologist and getting your communication right. Goody is a master at it.

This thread will always be a thing as some supporters don't like Goody. Even when we were the highest scoring side in the comp, supporters complained that we couldn't defend. When we were the best defensive side in the comp, supporters complained we weren't also somehow playing champagne attacking footy. You actually can't do both. Something has to give if you're to score more in the highly evolved modern zoning game.

FWIW, I think our current balance is the best we've ever achieved (outside of 2021) between contest and defence, and our offence.

And as Trac said post game, our bigger scores are coming off the back of defence. Just as they did in 2021.

Edited Tuesday at 11:382 days by Adam The God

14 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

It was our goal kicking conversion that let us down in the first half (6.11). But in the second half, we kicked an incredible 13.4 to overshoot our expected score by 11 points. If anything, that's coaching and messaging at half time. Don't drop your head, keep going.

As I've said elsewhere, a large chunk of modern day AFL coaching is being a psychologist and getting your communication right. Goody is a master at it.

This thread will always be a thing as some supporters don't like Goody. Even when we were the highest scoring side in the comp, supporters complained that we

Mate, they wouldn't even critique him as a coach, people would move an attack his personality and how he performed on the press conferences, ... ridiculous.

15 minutes ago, Engorged Onion said:

Mate, they wouldn't even critique him as a coach, people would move an attack his personality and how he performed on the press conferences, ... ridiculous.

Oh you mean

The learnings

The journey

It’s tiresome but at least it’s quietened down for a bit, although guaranteed it will be going again as soon as the siren sounds on our next loss or even team selection

This week - I think he should stay.

On 26/05/2025 at 06:53, GS_1905 said:

The F50 connection appears to be improving, but need a few more scalps in the top 8 before we can conclusively say we are legitimate condenders again. We have much to improve in this area.

Well we’ve beaten Brisbane, and Fremantle (9th, out of the 8 on percentage only), lost to GWS (8th) by a kick in somewhat unlucky circumstances and played well against Hawthorn.

That resume isn’t actually all that bad.

Hawthorn, the Dogs and Adelaide have each only beaten one top 8 side (GWS for both).

GWS has beaten two (Collingwood and Geelong).

54 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Well we’ve beaten Brisbane, and Fremantle (9th, out of the 8 on percentage only), lost to GWS (8th) by a kick in somewhat unlucky circumstances and played well against Hawthorn.

That resume isn’t actually all that bad.

Hawthorn, the Dogs and Adelaide have each only beaten one top 8 side (GWS for both).

GWS has beaten two (Collingwood and Geelong).

Beat the Pies and we are knee deep in the run to the finals.

I give us a huge chance.

On 13/05/2025 at 10:07, Bring-Back-Powell said:

A loss to the Hawks with 7 of their best 23 players out, all of whom would absolutely be in their side if a final was played tomorrow.

Another last quarter fade out.

Continued inept inaccuracy on the most perfect day of footy.

The same old deficiencies rearing their head on our biggest test of the year to date.

He's simply out of form as a coach and has been for a long period of time.

Two weeks ia a long time in football.

6 hours ago, DubDee said:

Not happy with 36 shots on goal from 64 entries?

That’s the highest % from the weekends games

I think I heard that in the last six weeks we are top 3 for scores per inside 50.

On 25/05/2025 at 19:49, Gibberish said:

I'm happy we're winning, but I'm still not convinced. Seems like we've just found a different way to waste inside 50s.

They say that to be a good game plan it needs to hold up in finals.

To me it just looks like Ross Lyons St Kilda and Fremantle teams where they won a majority or the game a majority of the time but never made enough scoreboard pressure to withstand the minority game when the pendulum swung the other way.

The previous game plan never looked far away, it was the forward line and forward entries that let us down. Call me the pessimist but I don't see that much has changed.

Never made enough scoreboard pressure?

You're a hard marker given the 131 points we put past the Swans is our highest score since 2018.