On 05/04/2025 at 00:05, GS_1905 said:

Because Rivers is having a smashing year. He has regressed big time.

He hasn’t been played in the midfield……

He’s covering down back

He was literally one of our best last week

Could someone please get Brown to the club. This is excellent, unemotional and maddening.

and Buckley at the end gives a damning insight: - if you can't delivery the ball, why allow the oppo to have a plus one! How long have we seen Goodwin not man up on the oppo's extra behind the ball?

Edited April 5Apr 5 by frankie_d

  On 04/04/2025 at 12:17, Rab D Nesbitt said:

I’ve found a German bar in G-Town not far from the ground that serves dark beers so I’ll save my assessment of tonight’s loss for the clear light of day.

Auf weidersehen pet

  On 04/04/2025 at 11:24, Demon Jack said:

I've been a Fritsch defender and while I thought be showed more desire to be involved tonight, my god, he is in the biggest form slump I can remember for a Melbourne player.

Shanked nearly every kick and made some terrible decisions when we looked dangerous going forward.

I'd consider dropping him but the options just aren't there.

Why did Fritta smile and laugh when he missed his snap on the run (which he should have kicked)? Not a great look.

A lot of our fans tend to somehow get annoyed that pundits and commentators don’t “respect us” and the like, but after hearing Hodge speak about Goodwin and the club on SEN, I can’t blame them. Rightfully, expectations are high, but when it comes from push to shove, we often capitulate quite easily.

Hodge was massive on the Dees pre season slating a top 4 finish, but as he was talking about the toothless and blunt method going inside 50 yet AGAIN, you can genuinely hear his frustration and even angst pondering how this style and inefficiency can keep happening. He genuinely sounded disappointed in the club in spite of having zero connection with it.

It is honestly baffling how highly we are rated externally even after 2022, 23 and 24. Bartel and Mark Fine coming into the season still had us having the best 3 starting midfielders in the comp (Viney, Oliver Petracca).

As a fanbase we have lived through it, but it is starting to manifest externally and non Melbourne people are starting to realize just how morbid this situation is becoming and it has been coming for 3 years.

Can’t fault effort, I genuinely felt the players tried in the first 4 rounds, but ultimately, it is the same [censored] and same execution as the previous 3-4 years.

Edited April 5Apr 5 by VNightCityLegend

  On 05/04/2025 at 00:29, titan_uranus said:

Has this been discussed on here yet?

Incredible disrespect from Holmes. Par for the course from Geelong though.

But also - he’s right. Whilst tagging Holmes worked, leaving a spare defender was dumb from the outset and shouldn’t have continued.

Funnily enough, I remember during our recent great years, commentators were saying the same thing about us. If you tag Oliver, Trac runs amok; if you tag Trac, Clarry or Viney run amok. Because they were all playing so well and as a team.

it’s amazing how 2-5% drops across the team (due to gameplan, coaching or whatever) can mean that the whole is even less than the parts.

and it puts more pressure on you individual players. Vicious cycle, and hard to arrest.

not sure where to from here. They have to stick fast to gameplan for 3-4 weeks, but it could come at a very high cost if we continue to spiral. Players need to start clicking and working as a team. But that confidence in each other is hard to find once it’s gone.

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Spargonicus

Who will lead us out of the darkness? I think it will be the younger group! They will then inspire the older group and lift them up to their former heights.

McVee will return and add speed, athleticism and good disposal to the backline. Windsor will benefit from the run and run and run! Jefferson will return to the spot he won in round one. He will surprise everyone by kicking two or three a game! Tholstrup will be that cheeky, annoying half forward with confidence in his own abilities. Lindsay will resume being our 'find' of the year! Fullarton will prove a handy cameo player. Culley will improve our mid-field with strength on the inside, pressure acts and good disposal! Sestan will get a run and surprise everyone with his laser kicking skills! Langford will continue on his merry way! The biggest surprise of all... Verrall will step up to the plate with impressive disposal and ball handling skills to go with effective ruck work!

It is written!

  On 04/04/2025 at 13:05, Go Lordie said:

Please stop catastrophising. Yes, it's bad right now but we still have some powerhouse players. Goodie needs to blend the new guys into the team and its new game plan.

That's called a preseason

Spare a thought for our resident Blues supporter @No. 31 whose team is languishing winless at the wrong end of the ladder and whose second team is down there with them 😭

#IfIdon’tLaughI’llCry

This morning I told my son if anyone needs me today I can be found moping on the couch. He said “I’m running outta clean jocks n socks, any chance you could mope in the laundry?” I’d put him up for adoption in a heartbeat only I can’t imagine there’d be any takers 😑

  On 05/04/2025 at 02:34, Ghostwriter said:

Spare a thought for our resident Blues supporter @No. 31 whose team is languishing winless at the wrong end of the ladder and whose second team is down there with them 😭

0-8

  On 05/04/2025 at 00:55, Young Angus said:

Anyone else worried that Petracca’s negativity and frustration towards his own team, including his display post game last night, is actually quite toxic for the team?

Can’t imagine I’d want to go to work with a guy like that. Is it all just about Petracca now with Petracca or do we still feel like he’s invested in this team?

I agree, he's not showing leadership and seems to be s strange selfish cat.

I don't blame him wanting to leave as Goodwin obviously has no idea and has been gifting games to undeserved underperformers for years. There's still no denying that Tracs behaviour last year was disgraceful and corrosive to team spirit.

Apart from scoring 33% of our goals last night 😭 he did lots of pointing and gesturing but not much leading by example.

He could follow Dangerfields example last night, not huge numbers but very effective and damaging. And setting up his team mates to score. Not blasting away hard won possessions and burning leads or open forwards.

  On 05/04/2025 at 00:55, Young Angus said:

Anyone else worried that Petracca’s negativity and frustration towards his own team, including his display post game last night, is actually quite toxic for the team?

Can’t imagine I’d want to go to work with a guy like that. Is it all just about Petracca now with Petracca or do we still feel like he’s invested in this team?

I actually don’t mind it, shows he actually is invested and gives a [censored]. He wants what we all want as supporters and that is success. Right now it ain’t happening and he’s frustrated and to be perfectly honest so am I.

  On 05/04/2025 at 00:29, titan_uranus said:

Has this been discussed on here yet?

Incredible disrespect from Holmes. Par for the course from Geelong though.

But also - he’s right. Whilst tagging Holmes worked, leaving a spare defender was dumb from the outset and shouldn’t have continued.

For those that don’t think the head coach pulls the strings. Do you really think a line coach (Chaplin) would say “ I’ve got an idea, take my half forward to push up and tag Holmes. We’ll play one short…..we’ve got this”

All for the tag but to give them the plus one then not have a plan going forward knowing they had a plus one by having decoy runners or blocks, an overload on a side of the ground to create space to lead into or a short option at the 40 metre mark ie the player originally on Holmes. It’s unforgivable. You don’t get points for winning the inside 50 count on a weekly basis.

Don’t get me started on allowing an illegal amount of uncontested possession. Unforgivable. Go man on or a split zone or something. I really want to be respectful given that he has delivered us a premiership. He is not the person to take us forward. No reaction to what the game and opposition is giving us during the game. He has too much faith in the system or method even if it is not working and unfortunately it will stamp his papers.

  On 05/04/2025 at 01:32, VNightCityLegend said:

A lot of our fans tend to somehow get annoyed that pundits and commentators don’t “respect us” and the like, but after hearing Hodge speak about Goodwin and the club on SEN, I can’t blame them. Rightfully, expectations are high, but when it comes from push to shove, we often capitulate quite easily.

Hodge was massive on the Dees pre season slating a top 4 finish, but as he was talking about the toothless and blunt method going inside 50 yet AGAIN, you can genuinely hear his frustration and even angst pondering how this style and inefficiency can keep happening. He genuinely sounded disappointed in the club in spite of having zero connection with it.

It is honestly baffling how highly we are rated externally even after 2022, 23 and 24. Bartel and Mark Fine coming into the season still had us having the best 3 starting midfielders in the comp (Viney, Oliver Petracca).

As a fanbase we have lived through it, but it is starting to manifest externally and non Melbourne people are starting to realize just how morbid this situation is becoming and it has been coming for 3 years.

Can’t fault effort, I genuinely felt the players tried in the first 4 rounds, but ultimately, it is the same [censored] and same execution as the previous 3-4 years.

Hodge has sounded like a Dees supporter the way he's expressed his frustration, I love it. He's one of the better commentators out there.

  On 05/04/2025 at 02:34, Ghostwriter said:

Spare a thought for our resident Blues supporter @No. 31 whose team is languishing winless at the wrong end of the ladder and whose second team is down there with them 😭

#IfIdon’tLaughI’llCry

This morning I told my son if anyone needs me today I can be found moping on the couch. He said “I’m running outta clean jocks n socks, any chance you could mope in the laundry?” I’d put him up for adoption in a heartbeat only I can’t imagine there’d be any takers 😑

If you passed him off for adoption the way we dispose, he would be passed into the wrong house.

Well last night again showed up the lack of forward craft and positioning of when to hold your opponent under the ball and then move and how to use your body, only fritta knows how to do that but he needs to be the third banana so to speak, JVR has cricketers hands when the ball comes in hard and fast and by that his hands face outwards and arms bent to far back the forward players always seen to let their opponent with them instead of sprinting for the ball the backline is to slow in movement and again out to the left again and the cats were smart they let us have that one then manned up thus stopping the run however we allowed loose players for the cats to switch the ball at ease because we push into the contest all the time, the same going forward we have to wait to kick into the forward line and the cats always had 2 to 3 defenders on their own.

And the midfield is again slow and predictable like bears to a honey pot unfortunately Max is becoming a libility at centre bounces he just can't jump anymore to give us first use, Oliver is a shadow of himself sides have worked him out, Viney went back to s rugby player and got caught again, langford just a kid but there is a lot to like, forget Windsor off the H/B and back on the wing.
The game plan is a mess it seems Goodwin and the skills are comparable to under 15's football by hand and foot, and they seem slow, but then again when you are always second to the ball, it appears that way.

I see parts of the media want to see fritta suspended for that tunnelling act.

Not defending him because it was absolutely stupid but what would he be charged under? A dangerous act?

I had a work commitment last night, so I only caught bits and pieces of the game. Still, I feel like I saw enough in one passage of play in the second quarter. Langford was streaming through the middle and got a bit too cute and turned it over. The Cats player who intercepted was about to kick it straight back to us, but Rivers... umm... I don’t even know how to describe it... made a "clumsy" attempt at a mark? It ended up gifting Geelong a free and an easy shot at goal.

A bit later Turner kicked a goal to get us back in the game. Then Rivers again, but this time he put in a brilliant couple of efforts out on the far wing. But our nemesis Umpire 22 pulled a free out of nowhere, and the Cats goaled again. Then a last quarter where we actually could have got a bit of a run on and made things interesting but instead it was yet another lay down.

It just wasn’t enjoyable to watch. If we were 0–4 but each loss had the effort of Round 1 then I could cop that. But Goody drawing positives from a 40-point belting is giving me serious 2012–2013 vibes. Yuck.

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Bang Bang Bang

I totally feel like how Petracca looked, so I get it, I really just hope that translates into him trying to get everyone up and about and helping the team and the kids do better. You’re right it does appear he is invested, just frustrated, I just really do hope he stays and keeps being the beast he is and makes us better….my worry is he is too annoyed and just wants out so he can be back on the winners list, but let’s hope he’s better than that.

Just hope after everything that happened he still does love his club. L O V E LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Young Angus

Everybody love Everybody.

Semi-Pro

Edited April 5Apr 5 by YesitwasaWin4theAges

I just realised that we actually kicked more goals on the day they beat us by 186 points.

  On 05/04/2025 at 02:34, Ghostwriter said:

Spare a thought for our resident Blues supporter @No. 31 whose team is languishing winless at the wrong end of the ladder and whose second team is down there with them 😭

#IfIdon’tLaughI’llCry

This morning I told my son if anyone needs me today I can be found moping on the couch. He said “I’m running outta clean jocks n socks, any chance you could mope in the laundry?” I’d put him up for adoption in a heartbeat only I can’t imagine there’d be any takers 😑

Tell me about it, footy really sucks right now. My almost 5 year old son last night asked me "Why are both Carlton and Melbourne losing all the time now?"

Luckily we have some holidays abroad booked to look forward to as a diversion. I made sure we would be back by September, shouldn't have bothered 😁

BTW, I think both Voss & Goodwin need to go, they are losing their players after repeated failures (not just this season). Just a question of the right timing now I suspect.

Goodwin managed a long drought breaking Flag and he will always have a place in the history of MFC for that.

Voss got Carlton into a Prelim after a long time in Finals wilderness.

But they are both stubborn, inflexible, wedded to an older style contested footy approach and struggling to adapt to the current and evolving trends in the game.

Also, both clubs have some other issues they need to address, not just the senior coach but the senior coach is always the face of problematic issues.

By the same token, both clubs have the nucleus of very good teams that in the right hands with some savvy trading and drafting could be in contention again in the near future, full blown rebuilds are not needed yet IMHO.

On trac, I get his frustration but what is he doing on the field to will his team over the line.

Is he working with the youngsters to make them better, I know he kicked a couple of nice goals last night but he also missed tackles & wasn't always near his opponent

  On 05/04/2025 at 05:46, dees189227 said:

On trac, I get his frustration but what is he doing on the field to will his team over the line.

Is he working with the youngsters to make them better, I know he kicked a couple of nice goals last night but he also missed tackles & wasn't always near his opponent

Could be that he's not fit enough to really impact games the was he was early last year. I think its telling how much time he's spending up forward. Its seems almost 50/50 split. As much as I love the kid do we really think we would be playing a 19 year old Langford so much through the middle in his first two full games if our best midfielder was fully fit?

If Petracca was fully fit our best and most competitive team has him predominantly playing and dominating in the middle. I think there's more to it then just this but its certainly a big factor.

Edited April 5Apr 5 by Young Blood

  On 05/04/2025 at 01:55, Spargonicus said:

Funnily enough, I remember during our recent great years, commentators were saying the same thing about us. If you tag Oliver, Trac runs amok; if you tag Trac, Clarry or Viney run amok. Because they were all playing so well and as a team.

it’s amazing how 2-5% drops across the team (due to gameplan, coaching or whatever) can mean that the whole is even less than the parts.

and it puts more pressure on you individual players. Vicious cycle, and hard to arrest.

not sure where to from here. They have to stick fast to gameplan for 3-4 weeks, but it could come at a very high cost if we continue to spiral. Players need to start clicking and working as a team. But that confidence in each other is hard to find once it’s gone.

If it was only 2-5% we'd be ok. Just look at the player ratings.

Viney is almost half the player he was. Thats almost a 50% drop in player ratings compared to last year

Trac is not much better. was something like 40% down compared to his pre-injury. Oliver is actually better but his year last year was not the best to compare to. Rivers, Fritta and so many more are actually significantly, double digits, down in terms of performance ratings.

It is absolutely woeful. Nobody could have predicted this in their worst nightmare.