We have off days, all teams do.

I’ll hold off on writing us off for the year until I see how we go against Collingwood.

For what it’s worth, our young brigade is bloody exciting and there’s no reason we can’t be hopeful next year (assuming we address our key forward issues somehow during the trade period)

If we're going to stink it up I'd rather do it in Alice and earn $800k. Playing a home game in the NT might be the only thing preventing us from getting an away game against GC in the top end.

Seems to me when TMac was playing CHF he straightened us up with accurate goal kicking just like Daniel Turner does when he gets shifted. I would like to see TMac be moved forward again & if he has a so called foot issue fair enough. But in my opinion Goodwin has failed us by not trying this move again.

10 minutes ago, Smokey said:

For what it’s worth, our young brigade is bloody exciting and there’s no reason we can’t be hopeful next year (assuming we address our key forward issues somehow during the trade period)

Agree on our potential. Keep Disco down back, he will become the new Lever. Find a new May next draft. I really think we go all in on JVR and now play him for the rest of the year to learn in the cauldron and get him a personal coach who has played his role (ideally CHF). Finally get a pure FF for F's sake.

8 hours ago, Disco InTurno said:

You increase the volume of opportunity.

To put it back into footy terms, you try to implement a gameplan which creates a plethora of goalkicking opportunities for your side so even if you miss a lot (like against Sydney) you make enough to still beat the fewer number of opportunities your opponent will get.

Bomb it long creates volume of “opportunity” but doesn’t work

8 hours ago, ElDiablo14 said:

Then we are doomed to fail, no matter how much we dominate all other facets of the game.

At least try to generate goal opportunities in a different way. More chaos play around the goal square than set shots.

And stop bombing it long 😡

5 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

You may find all this funny, but I don’t

People spend a lot of money to get to Alice, to a game i don’t think should be there to be served up the rubbish we were given yesterday

We should go up there in the preseason in my opinion.

Skils, execution and coaching are not up to scratch, that was VFL standards yesterday

McRae will rip us to shreds next monday, the Filth know how to kick goals, last Friday they had free players everywhere

February average temperatures range from low 21 to high 36!

Not ideal for footy.

Just now, monoccular said:

Bomb it long creates volume of “opportunity” but doesn’t work

And stop bombing it long

Bombing it long isn’t the gameplan—it’s just unfortunately what some of our senior players revert back to when they panic under pressure when we’re losing.

On 01/06/2025 at 21:16, picket fence said:

Stuffed!! Cremate the body and prepare for 2026

Pickett Get down to the ground and give em some coaching .. See the goody thread.

Its a shame because we would have beaten 16 other teams yesterday.

Given our percentage we would need to win 14 games to make it and would miss with 13.

Just cant see us going 9-1 over the last 10. The three interstate trips in a row are killer.

Edited June 10Jun 10 by FearTheBeard

We need to go 14 straight from here to win the flag.

So you're telling me we're still a chance!😄

15 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

We need to go 14 straight from here to win the flag.

Light work. See you all at the G on grand final day.

Hopefully we can get to 10 wins and presumably avoid the bottom 4. Our list is better than a bottom 4 finish and I can't really stomach giving Essendon a super high pick off us.

More importantly I hope we can beat some teams in the hunt for a finals birth on the run home such as a Hawthorn, Carlton or Bulldogs and actually put some learnings in place in terms of winning close games and rectifying our accuracy. If we can made amends on this front, then we can head into 2026 with some hope and confidence.

12 minutes ago, Harvey Wallbanger said:

So you're telling me we're still a chance!😄

Your reports have convinced me we’re headed into a rich vein of form.

Let's see how the boys look at tomorrow's flush......oops light recovery....session tomorrow.

I've been surprised by the lack of commentary on game style regarding yesterday's game. Our approach yesterday was very much 80% 2021-2023.5 method. Which is: win the contest, bomb long to create repeat inside 50s, and hope more shots on goal leave us ahead of the opposition at the end of the day. (the NBA 3 point method - data drives most elite sports in the world and the tactics employed by coaching teams)

The remaining 20% was where we changed our angles when we went longer, tried to use forward handball on the rare occasion and a very small amount of uncontested possession at the back.

But our entries were sloppy, high and often to our disadvantage. Melksham and even Petty did well on a few occasions to halve a contest versus 2 or 3 defenders.

I'm not sure of the stats, but we did appear to use the corridor more than we have in the past, but that's a function of playing a team that gambles so much with numbers forwards and leaving space through the corridor to ping back into.

I was most disappointed with our entries though and it was the most similar style to the way we played in 2022-2023 that I can remember. We know this is a highly competitive model, there are a few Demonlanders, myself included, who think we left a flag on the table in 2023 with this game style. It matches it with the best, but aren't we trying to evolve our game style? Use more aggressive forward handball, use more uncontested possession to open up their defence and control tempo?

I find it really fascinating that there are no cries on Demonland last night or today about the game style being outdated when we go close in games, but when we turn off our pressure (not a function of game style), it's an outdated model and Goody needs to get with the times.

I've seen posters say Goody has worked out how to stop these sides playing fast. This is not new. We were masters at this in 2022-2023, so much so we finished top 4 both years playing against this fast ball movement. I just think people see what they want to see sometimes.

I'd prefer we continue to evolve our game style, particularly, how we move the ball and how we enter forward 50, because if we do this, the forwardline will function and we'll start to blow teams away. Until then, we'll be ruing missed chances, scoring shot differentials and inside 50 differentials.

I think we can win a flag again soon if we get this right.

Edited June 10Jun 10 by Adam The God

My two cents worth is that from the back half we always considered the switch as a first option (and I think it is still the "go to" option based on all the arm-waving and pointing from players encouraging it to happen). However Collingwood seem to be alert to those possibilities and defended well - "layers and spreading" they call it. (It helps having the experienced Sidebottom and Crisp on the wings). So the switch doesn't happen and that turns the game into more of an aerial defensive battle with Howe excellent for them and May and Turner the same for us.

I suspect tactics around game style have to be adapted to the strengths of the opposition and Collingwood often score from turnover in their back half and corridor, and we seemed to nullify that by perhaps not taking as many risks as, say, we did against the Swans. See Wheelo's stats on how we quelled their defensive half to forward 50 and to score - we did really well.

But you're right - a narrow honourable loss leads to less discussion about game style. However, I don't think it was evidence of Goody "putting the new game style away". Let's see how we approach things against Port next week.

6 minutes ago, Harvey Wallbanger said:

However, I don't think it was evidence of Goody "putting the new game style away". Let's see how we approach things against Port next week.

Good break down mate.

I want to focus on this bit.

I think Goody and the team have shown quite a lot of game style flexibility this season. If we were winning more often, we'd be hearing that we're learning to win in different ways.

I think it's very likely we went back to a formula we know works well against the best sides and will try for a more expansive game, as you imply, against lesser opposition that have greater difficulty defending the ground as well as Collingwood do. Their defensive transition reminds me of ours between 2021-2023. Incredible and a split second hesitation in ball movement and their entire side is back into defensive position.

I do feel quite strongly about our high lofted kicks inside 50 yesterday though. I think we have to minimise them in order to score more, unless we have even numbers.

When we had them on toast in the first quarter, we saw them revert to this long and high kicking to the top of the goalsquare. Our defence managed to neutralise these quite easily, even at ground level. But when they were going high and long, it was to even numbers. When we were going long and high it was often to extreme outnumbers or to the advantage of the defender(s).

I'm fine with bombing it long if you can get a contest and it's not too often to the disadvantage of our forwards, but I felt yesterday it was.

23 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

I do feel quite strongly about our high lofted kicks inside 50 yesterday though. I think we have to minimise them in order to score more, unless we have even numbers.

Interesting watching Kozzie when under pressure and forced to quick quickly yesterday always opt for the low mongrel.

I get that sometimes you just need to turn and dump it, but like you say the big garryowens aren't working.

Yep, Kozzy one of the few who regularly kicks them flat. Chandler and Langdon have both been really good at this as well, but I think @Harvey Wallbanger is right. It was intentional the way we played, and won't be the go to every week. It wasn't even the go against Brisbane or Hawthorn when we played them both.

1 hour ago, Adam The God said:

I've been surprised by the lack of commentary on game style regarding yesterday's game. Our approach yesterday was very much 80% 2021-2023.5 method. Which is: win the contest, bomb long to create repeat inside 50s, and hope more shots on goal leave us ahead of the opposition at the end of the day. (the NBA 3 point method - data drives most elite sports in the world and the tactics employed by coaching teams)

The remaining 20% was where we changed our angles when we went longer, tried to use forward handball on the rare occasion and a very small amount of uncontested possession at the back.

But our entries were sloppy, high and often to our disadvantage. Melksham and even Petty did well on a few occasions to halve a contest versus 2 or 3 defenders.

I'm not sure of the stats, but we did appear to use the corridor more than we have in the past, but that's a function of playing a team that gambles so much with numbers forwards and leaving space through the corridor to ping back into.

I was most disappointed with our entries though and it was the most similar style to the way we played in 2022-2023 that I can remember. We know this is a highly competitive model, there are a few Demonlanders, myself included, who think we left a flag on the table in 2023 with this game style. It matches it with the best, but aren't we trying to evolve our game style? Use more aggressive forward handball, use more uncontested possession to open up their defence and control tempo?

I find it really fascinating that there are no cries on Demonland last night or today about the game style being outdated when we go close in games, but when we turn off our pressure (not a function of game style), it's an outdated model and Goody needs to get with the times.

I've seen posters say Goody has worked out how to stop these sides playing fast. This is not new. We were masters at this in 2022-2023, so much so we finished top 4 both years playing against this fast ball movement. I just think people see what they want to see sometimes.

I'd prefer we continue to evolve our game style, particularly, how we move the ball and how we enter forward 50, because if we do this, the forwardline will function and we'll start to blow teams away. Until then, we'll be ruing missed chances, scoring shot differentials and inside 50 differentials.

I think we can win a flag again soon if we get this right.

Yesterday turned into a final. Welcome contest and defence.

On 02/06/2025 at 17:04, Smokey said:

We have off days, all teams do.

I’ll hold off on writing us off for the year until I see how we go against Collingwood.

For what it’s worth, our young brigade is bloody exciting and there’s no reason we can’t be hopeful next year (assuming we address our key forward issues somehow during the trade period)

If we continue to play 4 quarters like we did yesterday for the remainder of the season, we'll find a way to feature in September (with a bit of luck going our way in other parts of the draw)

#we'renotdeadyet

28 minutes ago, Smokey said:

If we continue to play 4 quarters like we did yesterday for the remainder of the season, we'll find a way to feature in September (with a bit of luck going our way in other parts of the draw)

That's been the most frustrating thing about Melbourne in the last few years. IF we play like that we would beat most teams, but then we tend to just not play like that. It's anyone's guess whether we get the good Melbourne or the disappointing one next week and probably every week for the rest of the season.

32 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

#we'renotdeadyet

On reflection, I'm pretty sure our 2025 tombstone will have the numbers 19.11.125 d 9.12.66 inscribed.

Edited June 10Jun 10 by John Demonic

I swear I read on twitter laat night something along the lines that we are in the top 3 premiership teams on some stat metrics based on form over the last 3 or 4 weeks i think it was. Collingwood and Geelong were also up there.

Need to find it..