19 minutes ago, KozzyCan said:

Weirdly, Casey didn't seem to be an albatross around our necks between 2014-2018. That was when we brought in Vince, Cross, Melksham, Hibberd, Lever, May etc.

I have no doubt distance has an effect. But I suspect players and staff can tolerate a long drive if the facilities are good. I remember when we created the agreement with Casey, one of the oft-repeated pros was that our facilities would go from the worst in the league to some of the best. Not sure if that was still the case in 2014, but I suspect they weren't comparatively terrible. It sounds like they may be now.

Just now, The Taciturn Demon said:

I have no doubt distance has an effect. But I suspect players and staff can tolerate a long drive if the facilities are good. I remember when we created the agreement with Casey, one of the oft-repeated pros was that our facilities would go from the worst in the league to some of the best. Not sure if that was still the case in 2014, but I suspect they weren't comparatively terrible. It sounds like they may be now.

Casey is a brand new state of the art facility now. We spent a lot of money to kit that place out. It is a very nice training base.

The issue IMO is not the location or the quality of the facilities, it's that we are not in one single location.

If we trained exclusively at Casey, then players who wanted to drive less could do what Gawn, May and Lever have done and move to the very affluent Mornington Peninsula. Not exactly a terrible place to live.

But it's the fact that we are all over the shop, that unfortunately means that no matter where you choose to reside, you are stuck travelling to either training base, which are on opposite sides of the city.

Nobody will convince me that the locations of some of the other club's training bases is better than Casey. But when you have a singular work place you can adjust your life accordingly. When you are spending half your week in Richmond and the other half in Cranbourne, that is quite difficult.

4 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Nobody will convince me that the locations of some of the other club's training bases is better than Casey.

Oh, that's interesting. I could have sworn I heard (from someone vaguely reliable) that the facilities had dropped below the AFL average.

Thanks for the clarification.

19 hours ago, GS_1905 said:

trouble is, you can only get so fit in 1 pre-season. Oliver was meant to go on a fitness camp last, which never eventuated. Im not sure what that didnt happen, but on the surface may indidcate that he doesnt have the drive anymore to push himself beyond the limit.

Our entire midfield need to completely reinvent themselves fitness wise if we are to play the transition game. In so many of our games this year , our midfielders have been completley out of position and unable to keep pace with the game. Its why we get scored so heavily against as team rebound right through our zone.

Is this a midfield coaching issue as well? Love Nathan Jones, but I'm not sure he's right for this critical cog of the coaching team. Player who played with his heart on his sleeve, never doubted his grit and grunt (like Viney), but not skilful enough to come up with set plays and drills in the middle. We need a midfield coach that has that. IMO!

16 minutes ago, The Taciturn Demon said:

Oh, that's interesting. I could have sworn I heard (from someone vaguely reliable) that the facilities had dropped below the AFL average.

Thanks for the clarification.

If you listen to recent interviews with players, they praise the actual facilities, and when you look at some of the videos the club has taken there, you can see it is a well resourced facilities that is large enough to accommodate not just our AFL team but our Casey side and the AFLW team.

It was recently revamped thanks to the generous donations of our supporters.

See article here: https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1491830/thurin-high-performance-centre-opening

Seem to remember the Dawks winning a few flags while training from VFL Park.

Another site you inner city whingers constantly complained about having to travel too.

Edited August 19Aug 19 by Fork 'em

On 06/08/2025 at 16:21, Jaded No More said:

I wasn't talking about the likes of Melksham or Tmac who are on the fence re: retirement, and may well have retired had Goody stayed or not.

I am talking about senior players who still have a long career ahead of them, especially those we screamed and yelled about the club getting better.

Players have to take responsibility for what has happened as well. Sure a senior coach is responsible for results, but so are his players. Our highly paid premiership players, with the sole exception of Gawn, have put up some truly garbage performances over the last 18 months. Where we find ourselves now is on them as much as it is on the coaches, including Goody.

Any change is scary. The reality is that almost every player on our list loved Goody, because he is a really good person who cared deeply about the players. And when you lose a boss that you love, no matter how poorly the company is performing under them, you are scared because what if the next boss isn't nice?

But players who are committed to the cause will understand that the club is trying to get better results, and those close to the end of their career should see this as an opportunity to steal another flag. Something that was unlikely to happen under Goody in the short term. I wonder how Pendelbury and Sidebottom felt when Buckley left... I bet they never believed they'd win another flag so soon under a new coach.

As for Kos, no matter who coaches us next there is no doubt in my mind that they will see him as one of our most valuable assets. He is by far our best and most important player heading into the future. And we still have Matty Whelan doing a brilliant job in supporting not just Kosi but all of our indigenous players. That won't change under a new coach, unless our board has a mental breakdown.

Thanks Jaded for articulating some of my thoughts so well.

On 18/08/2025 at 10:16, beelzebub said:

Sadly I suspect that ceiling was prior to Moore.

Currently very much off that mark.

Think best we all just 🤝 with #5 and move on.

We'll neither get a Bag of Crisps nor a Fillet Mignon... might have to settle for a Qtr Lber Meal.

Any which way the eos sit down needs to be an honest convo.

Im thinking there's phone calls already happening in the background.

Before Trac's injury last year we were playing reasonable footy and were in the mix to lay finals and alot of this was to do with Trac's good ball use in our forward half. It is just after a year on from an injury where he had multiple operations and had to rest for more than 4 months for his internal organs to heal before he could do any form of exercise other than resting and walking. I think he will benefit significantly from anothor preseason.

19 minutes ago, chookrat said:

Before Trac's injury last year we were playing reasonable footy and were in the mix to lay finals and alot of this was to do with Trac's good ball use in our forward half. It is just after a year on from an injury where he had multiple operations and had to rest for more than 4 months for his internal organs to heal before he could do any form of exercise other than resting and walking. I think he will benefit significantly from anothor preseason.

I have no doubt Trac will be better next year - but will he return to his best again? only he knows. Is he also selfless enough to step aside from the midfield and play more forward given his poor disposal giving the likes of Kozzy, Langford, Lindsay, Windsor and Rivers more run through the middle? He is clearly disgruntled there.

20 hours ago, ElDiablo14 said:

He was in the up until 2022.

Then 2023 onwards he started to trend down, too many distractions off the field and the start of the selfishness.

Really? In 2023 he was our best and fairest and our only AA.

2 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

Seem to remember the Dawks winning a few flags while training from VFL Park.

Another site you inner city whingers constantly complained about having to travel too.

Bill Guest said it best - anything east of Central Park - the Burke Rd / Wattletree Rd corner - is too far

I still think of Chadstone shopping centre as being ‘ages away’

14 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

Bill Guest said it best - anything east of Central Park - the Burke Rd / Wattletree Rd corner - is too far

I still think of Chadstone shopping centre as being ‘ages away’

Chadstone is almost precisely the population centre of Melbourne - not sure what it is "ages away" from unless people are choosing to live in the sticks.

Trac's on $1.35 million next year if you believe Jon Ralph.

I would be amazed if teams in the window could afford the third or fourth highest paid player in the league who's more likely than less likely to be declining and is a horrendous kick of the football.

3 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Trac's on $1.35 million next year if you believe Jon Ralph.

I would be amazed if teams in the window could afford the third or fourth highest paid player in the league who's more likely than less likely to be declining and is a horrendous kick of the football.

Which is also why I doubt he'll have the longevity of Dangerfield, Pendlebury or Sidebottom.

Begone, CP5!

1 hour ago, Hopeful Demon said:

Really? In 2023 he was our best and fairest and our only AA.

Correct. Jesus there is some [censored] written by the Petracca knockers on this site.

One of very very few A graders at the club - 2? 3? - and people want him gone.

3 minutes ago, Redlagged said:

Correct. Jesus there is some [censored] written by the Petracca knockers on this site.

One of very very few A graders at the club - 2? 3? - and people want him gone.

based on 2025 form, he's a long way off being an a-grader

6 minutes ago, Redlagged said:

Correct. Jesus there is some [censored] written by the Petracca knockers on this site.

One of very very few A graders at the club - 2? 3? - and people want him gone.

A grader?

what do you think of his disposal?

43 minutes ago, Hopeful Demon said:

Really? In 2023 he was our best and fairest and our only AA.

1 minute ago, BDA said:

A grader?

what do you think of his disposal?

He never fixed it. That's the reality.

4 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

based on 2025 form, he's a long way off being an a-grader

No he isn’t. We broke his kicking in 2022 when we told the mids to kick long and to the pocket to protect from being transitioned against when the team was struggling with injuries. It broke a number of our mids and they never really recovered their desire to engage higher decision making required in today’s game.

CP5 can regain that better judgement and be back as one of the top 5 players in the game.

I just hope it’s at the Demons.

2 hours ago, chookrat said:

Before Trac's injury last year we were playing reasonable footy and were in the mix to lay finals and alot of this was to do with Trac's good ball use in our forward half. It is just after a year on from an injury where he had multiple operations and had to rest for more than 4 months for his internal organs to heal before he could do any form of exercise other than resting and walking. I think he will benefit significantly from anothor preseason.

We got spanked by Freo and had lost to WC. Our season had unravelled before Trac got injured.

On 18/08/2025 at 13:07, Go the Biff said:

Not sure that's the case. If memory serves he was in the leading pack in last year's Brownlow prior to his season ending injury

Not sure the Brownlow is the measuring stick for where a player is at, but get your point

It's bewildering that people are calling 2025 Petracca an A grader. Definitely some sunken cost bias or overconfidence bias in that I reckon. I'm probably leaning towards a preference for him staying, but I'm not certain he'll ever get back to the pre-injury form of last year and his 2020 - 2022 output. I don't think that's overly tied into his injury either, I'm slightly sceptical he wants to be at the Dees.

I can see Oliver slimming down, improving his running and getting the handball game back. I see Oliver has a lot more commitment and faith in the club, really wants to be here.

I cannot see Trac improving his goal kicking significantly enough to warrant him playing majority forward. I don't see Trac as committed to the club.

Most of the negative actions from CP5 were an understandable reaction to poor management by the club in the aftermath of his life threatening injury sustained while wearing red and blue.

You simply cannot say the same for Oliver. And then we coddled him. And it didn’t go unnoticed apparently by the playing group.

Oliver has less value than CP5 for all these reasons and his wage.

I would not trade someone just because we would get slightly more value. CP5 has a definite future in the game. I don’t think you can say that for Oliver; he has no secondary position, his commitment is questionable, and he has to be ultra fit to play a role in the midfield as he has seemingly lost his speed from the contest.

So I can definitely see a new coach coming in and seeing what an ‘Oliver-less’ midfield with CP5 complimented with speed and skill can do.