45 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

In Round 1, there was decidedly more space in our forwardline and we moved the ball well.

Also across the pre-season. 

But old habits die hard, especially under pressure.

55 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

And you reckon Goody and Chaplin are instructing the players to bomb long to 2 and 3 vs 1 contests?

In Round 1, there was decidedly more space in our forwardline and we moved the ball well.

It's on the players. 

It was clearly a deliberate tactic in Round 1 to aim for the top of the square which made a change from kicking to the pocket and also made sense given the conditions.

We continued with the same tactic in Round 2. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Opposition does its homework, and I reckon every opposition team knows we don’t change tactics often. They know what we’re going to do even after one game.

2 hours ago, Dee Boys said:

🧐🧐🧐
 

 

 

 

Nothing better than someone trying Gotcha, so with that when did McQualter start coaching at Melbourne oh that's right 2024 what year is it now so one year and how long has Chapin been at Melbourne 2016 and stated out as a what https://www.melbournefc.com.au/teams/afl/coaches/troy-chaplin

How about you compare apples with apples not pears.

13 hours ago, beelzebub said:

With all due...

How does your rant answer the query ?

You DO understand footy.... quite well.

So why , in your estimation , is Chaplin still a fwd coach.

Observationally...he ain't that good 

Cheers

I read all your posts in my best William Shatner. 😁

15 hours ago, WERRIDEE said:

Leppitsch started as a forward but I don't know who Davis is. My honest opinion on coaches is most of them aren't worth a pinch of salt. It's the players, but you can't sack 18 players for woeful performances like the one against Norf but you can sack the one coach. Saying that Mitchell has got Hawthorn performing I don't think they have a better list than us but they are playing a whole lot better than us. I'm not saying Goodwin is a bad coach I'm saying coaches have time limits and he has got the best out of us he won a premiership, but like Clarkson and Longmire he can no longer get the best out of us. Change is inevitable I just hope we don't hold on to him and let slip a perfect candidate in Longmire. 

The why the [censored] did you start this embarrassment of a thread?

22 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

The why the [censored] did you start this embarrassment of a thread?

Chaplin has been around forever and is coaching the most embarrassing line. I did say most coaches not all.

At the end of the day football is a pretty simple game. Our team needs to keep its one wood as contest and defence. It then needs to create some run from the back half and then find space for the forwards to lead into, all the while being ready to defend turnover. It appears we’re leaving 2 talls deep and getting the rest to move up the ground, well that’s what I saw against GWS. Against North our ball movement was sloppy and there appeared to be excessive congestion across our HF line. I guessed this was North mids flooding back to intercept our movement but we broke down there time and time again. Another problem I saw with the game was Xerri wasn’t just beating Max at the bounce he was destroying him in second efforts and was helping the North mids to first use time and time again. That was a massive advantage to them especially in the last. I’m not sure how you counter that other than reminding Max to go again after the bounce is lost or won. The other thing that stood out to me was our lack of line breaking run from continually playing on. Time and again we stopped and propped and then kicked down the line, the very thing we’re apparently trying not to do, it was incredibly frustrating to watch. Surely this is part and parcel of a successful transition game. You either get very good at hitting a target further down the field or you play on and at worst kick to your teammates advantage in a 50-50 contest. At some point this year we’re going to have to take the shackles off and get some run back in our game. A setttled 23 will help with that but that feels at least a month away even with no more injuries.

11 hours ago, chookrat said:

This place has gone full nuffy

Wait until

IF  the Dees are 0-4 heading into Gather Round to face Essendon and lose

THEN…

17 hours ago, WERRIDEE said:

Why on earth is he the forwards coach? Never played forward in his life. I can't believe we can't find a forwards coach that played as a forward. He will end Goodwin's career, no wonder Fritsch, Turner and van Rooyen look clueless out there you can't teach something you have never experienced.

Such a narrow minded view. Can you stop having opinions on Melbourne, you never played AFL ( I assume). Also my wife had a male gynecologists. 

2 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

I read all your posts in my best William Shatner. 😁

I have never understood why AFL clubs don’t bring former stars in for a session throughout the season. We have four stars in Schwarz , Neita, Robbo and Lyon who could all teach a trick or two about the craft, quite separate to game plan. Things like separation, leading, when to leap and a lot more. 

18 hours ago, WERRIDEE said:

Why on earth is he the forwards coach? Never played forward in his life. I can't believe we can't find a forwards coach that played as a forward. He will end Goodwin's career, no wonder Fritsch, Turner and van Rooyen look clueless out there you can't teach something you have never experienced.

I'll just leave this here, again. 
Make of it what you will.

8 minutes ago, JTR said:

I'll just leave this here, again. 
Make of it what you will.

Can someone please call 000 there has been a murder

I don't know if Chaplin is the problem, the solution or somewhere in between. What I do know is:

1. Having 2-3 key forwards all standing in the same positions and competing for the same contests doesn't work.

2. Playing midgets across the half forward line and expecting them to mark high balls doesn't work.

3. Having Spargo manning grass by himself on the wide HFF whilst his opponent intercepts balls inside F50 doesn't work.

4. Entering the F50 from the flanks so that we take most of our shots from 45 degree angles doesn't work.

5. Slow ball movement through the middle of the ground that results in high balls to packs or kicks under pressure into the F50 doesn't work.

6. Having your best goalkicker roaming the wings doesn't work.

What does work is:

1. Unselfish forwards who block for each other and create pathways for teammates (Watch Brown & McDonald in 2021 as exhibit A).

2. Multiple forwards leading in different directions at different times.

3. Forwards who lead hard at the kicker and demand the football out in front.

4. Crumbing forwards at the feet of marking targets.

5. Quick, direct movement inside F50.

I can't stand Hawthorn, but they have perfected all of these things.

1 hour ago, 48 Year Now said:

I have never understood why AFL clubs don’t bring former stars in for a session throughout the season. We have four stars in Schwarz , Neita, Robbo and Lyon who could all teach a trick or two about the craft, quite separate to game plan. Things like separation, leading, when to leap and a lot more. 

100% agreed!

We got Mark Jamar back as part-time ruck coach.

Why not one of David Neitz, David Schwarz, Russell Robertson or even Garry Lyon as part-time forwards/goal kicking coach? I am pretty confident at least ONE of them would be more than happy to do so?!

 

18 hours ago, DemonDave said:

Does playing in that position have a bearing on the quality of your coaching?

Looking at the last two premiership teams,:

Brisbane Lions forward coach last year was someone called Murray Davis, who had previously coached their backline for a decade. 

Collingwood forwards coach the year before was Justin Leppitsch, who made his name in the Lions 3-peat as a centre half back.

 

But he cameoed at CHF or FF some times. 
Time to get OUTSIDE help

Seek advice from Brownie Lloyd Schwarta Neta Tom  Hawkins Jack Reiwolt and brother Nick. 

Intrrbiew them and give them the rest of the season to coach the forwards individually and as a team. Simon has NO IDEA and the midfield coach should Be involved for connectivity issues. 

 

20 minutes ago, JTR said:

I'll just leave this here, again. 
Make of it what you will.

 

22 minutes ago, JTR said:

I'll just leave this here, again. 
Make of it what you will.

Brisbane, Gold Coast and Hawthorn have forwards as a coach 3 of the better teams. Says it all really. Xavier Clarke was a forward also.

7 minutes ago, Supreme_Demon said:

100% agreed!

We got Mark Jamar back as part-time ruck coach.

Why not one of David Neitz, David Schwarz, Russell Robertson or even Garry Lyon as part-time forwards/goal kicking coach? I am pretty confident at least ONE of them would be more than happy to do so?!

 

Agree 

14 hours ago, chookrat said:

This place has gone full nuffy

When the 0-23 predictions arrive we will be past that.

1 hour ago, BangBnagBang said:

Such a narrow minded view. Can you stop having opinions on Melbourne, you never played AFL ( I assume). Also my wife had a male gynecologists. 

rubbish . The way coaching is going I could coach. Can't play forward can't coach forward, Never trust a male gynecologist. 

4 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

I read all your posts in my best William Shatner. 😁

2 hours ago, In Harmes Way said:

I'm getting more of a Jonathan Frakes vibe from some people.

 

1 hour ago, poita said:

I don't know if Chaplin is the problem, the solution or somewhere in between. What I do know is:

1. Having 2-3 key forwards all standing in the same positions and competing for the same contests doesn't work.

2. Playing midgets across the half forward line and expecting them to mark high balls doesn't work.

3. Having Spargo manning grass by himself on the wide HFF whilst his opponent intercepts balls inside F50 doesn't work.

4. Entering the F50 from the flanks so that we take most of our shots from 45 degree angles doesn't work.

5. Slow ball movement through the middle of the ground that results in high balls to packs or kicks under pressure into the F50 doesn't work.

6. Having your best goalkicker roaming the wings doesn't work.

What does work is:

1. Unselfish forwards who block for each other and create pathways for teammates (Watch Brown & McDonald in 2021 as exhibit A).

2. Multiple forwards leading in different directions at different times.

3. Forwards who lead hard at the kicker and demand the football out in front.

4. Crumbing forwards at the feet of marking targets.

5. Quick, direct movement inside F50.

I can't stand Hawthorn, but they have perfected all of these things.

On the first point, watching Adelaide playing so many tall forwards last week- it was the talls that got up the ground and created space in behind for the smalls. We use our smalls as marking options, when they should be crumbing. 
The whole system is predictable to the opposition. 

Watching the game again, you can see the last kick into the F50, often ignores free players and is bombed to about 20-30 meters out, to a pack.

All of our star mids, especially Viney, do this often and that is why we see 19 inside F50 entries in a quarter, for a one goal return.

I am pretty sure the Coach is not saying to play this way and in fact he said just that.

We have lost finals and multiple games, by ignoring free players and bombing it in to a pack.

It is the players panicking and getting their kick away as their main goal, rather than delivering it to someone.

Viney’s lack of pace obviously contributes to his issue and possibly to most of the others.

We also are not a great disposal side and several of our better skilled players have been missing. That hasn’t helped the last couple of games.

1 hour ago, WERRIDEE said:

 

Brisbane, Gold Coast and Hawthorn have forwards as a coach 3 of the better teams. Says it all really. Xavier Clarke was a forward also.

 

Full credit to Adrian Hickmott, Carlton utility who was often used forward but never kicked 30 goals in a season, he has the small-medium squad at Hawthorn purring along.

Says it all really.

Xavier Clarke was strait up not a forward. He kicked 49 goals total in 106 games, with season bests of 12 and 10.

Says it all really.

Gold Coast is the most underperforming team to ever exist and has hosted a parade of top pick forwards who have either left in pursuit of better opportunity (Rankine, Lukosious) or been so one-dimensional that it undermines the value of their primary role (King, Ainswerth).

Says it all really.

Meanwhile, Stuart Dew only became Brisbane's forward coach in 2025. For their premiership, the Brisbane forwards were coached by a guy named Murray Davis, who never played at AFL level and who, coincidentally, had recently been moved to the forward line after being defensive coach for an extended period.

Says it all really.

And to witness art in life, here's what the Brisbane supporters had to say about that, roughly this time last year when Brisbane started the season very poorly and were on their way to being 2-5 and smacked by 54 points in round 7.

 

Says it all really.

Did I mention somewhere else about my pet peeve of people who make big announcements of how certain they are that they're right, but who simply haven't done the work?

2 hours ago, JTR said:

I'll just leave this here, again. 
Make of it what you will.

Fairly obvious why West Coast can't score