1 hour ago, Golden fist said:

Next 4 weeks will determine if Goody should stay or go.

I can see us winning our next 4 but losing the last 3.
not sure what the learnings would be from this.

24 minutes ago, 640MD said:

Winning Finals football is like Rabbit stew,

First of all catch the bloody rabbit,

No point in beating top 8 sides , or losing by a point or two, If you throw away games against the lower sides.

You need to be in the finals race. And if you are there, then the pressure is on the other side to lose 50 - 50.

Catch the Rabbit, make the final 8 . Wins can look after them selves if you are there in September, we will be on a well deserved break in Bali or somewhere sunny.

Been there , been the entre .

Waste of time unless you're capable.

Moot now anyway.

We're not playing finals

6 hours ago, SFebes said:

Going at it from a different angle, reckon the Crows also let us off the hook early by their own bombing into F50 instead of hitting up targets, probably due to the pressure around the ground/half forward. When they lowered their eyes they hit up targets all across the ground. Be interesting to see their DE in first Q as opposed to rest of the match. Reckon the scoreboard flattered us tbh, we hung in there on effort but still see the same issues. Fritsch, Petracca, Oliver, Jefferson, Koltyn.....to name a few. Seems like Melksham is the only Melbourne forward who actually leads in the last 15yrs.

If you go back and watch the first half you will see that we played in a similar manner to our game V Dockers, lots of short passes, playing on quickly and taking their tall marking players out of the game. It worked really well just let ourselves down in kicking for goal. Crows coach said they had to make a number of structural changes to get them back in the game. Crows and Dockers have plenty of tall excellent marking options that are hard to nullify, they got back the momentum half way through the 2nd then we had to adjust our game plan in the 2nd half to stay with them, Which we did.

23 hours ago, Dee Zephyr said:

If I was in charge I’d never take Kozzie off. I feel they got back in the game in the 2nd when Kozz was off for 5-10 mins. He was ripping them a new one up to that point.

Absolutely. There is so much group think about rotations, decision to "rest" him beggars belief.

20 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

Go ask Goodwins mum then.
She might know.

I don't like mondayss

1 hour ago, roy11 said:

I can see us winning our next 4 but losing the last 3.
not sure what the learnings would be from this.

If we win the next 4 and snag 1 of the last 3 then it will be an ok season. We are rebuilding on the run and we are remaining competitive. This is very frustrating from a supporter standpoint but I reckon next year is the year we bounce. We have some great kids coming through but still desperately another key forward. I think we will be very active in the trade period and see us trading 3-4 out.

Don’t know where to put this, and fully expect a @Clintosaurus conspiracy theory post in response, but anyway:

Good God we almost beat another top four club and should have if these mugs could learn to kick straight. It kills me.

After the dust has settled and the alcohol has warn off we played a bloody good game yesterday.

We almost knocked off another genuine flag contender on their home turf with feral supporters that clearly sway umpires.

The umpiring was it's usual sub par standard both for and against each team but on balance unfortunately started to favor the croweaters in the second half.

We did get a good run in the first half but most of the frees to us were genuinely there as the crows were often sloppy and seemed overwhelmed by our pressure and fast ball movement.

It seemed umps needed to find things to level it out, and they did. The score review system clearly needs reviewing itself.

Now the game itself was a sea sawing event with us totally dominating the first 45 minutes led by Tracc and Kozzie who unfortunately dropped off the boil big time for twenty minutes after that.

I thought May was excellent down back and father time has been good to him. Lever ( despite two horrible handballs which seemed the theme of the day for most) finally proved why he needs to be selected but I feel for Tmac who is suffering from Adam Tomlinson syndrome.

Viney was strong and involved. Sparrow as usual the opposite. I don't understand why we have kept him. Never gives enough. Just another game. Nothing to see. He may be useful as a sub in the fwd line but that's it.

Had we kicked better in the first quarter it would have been three scalps....I'm including Cwood because we were robbed there like never before. I'm singling out Tracc here who as a now seasoned player and leader in the club certainly doesn't lead by his goal kicking.

That said, after his scintillating start looked great but he practically disappeared for a quarter and we struggled to get the ball past the centre. He seems to be slowing down and many players find him wrong footed and seem to step around him.... cement shoes. But unlike Fritta I never question his intent. Fritta didn't show enough pressure and it is an ongoing issue. Either on or off and annoying to see him try some glamour footy after failing most of the game.

Our other fwds were problematic. Except of course for Melksham who like Maysie is still standing tall despite his age. Jvr a few moments of good stuff but nowhere never enough and really only gets a gig as second ruck. He's a different player to his first year. It's a worry. Jeffo a bigger worry who showed zip. I know he's a kid but we need much more than some jogging around.

All that aside for a team with no forward line we almost won. Our best is as good as the lions...pies and crows.

Our worst is less than North.

Oh dear. Our form is like many of our players...on one week off the other. I know I've canned our fwd line but Jake was brilliant and it's a shame the fwd supply totally dried up from the middle of the second for two quarters. He could have had six or seven. He did miss a soda.

We could have wrapped this game up at the end of the first and while good to see our goal kicking tighten up it's just rinse and repeat year after year. Same with our lack of fwds. I've backed Roo far too often. He and Jeffo don't seem to be the Future. But Petty isn't either and as bad as it was we were probably better without Petty.

Would have been good to see Goody be more involved. Disco up fwd and Howes was being smashed. Leaving Oliver to tag way too long when we were getting smashed in the middle and why we lost is why Goody needs to go.

Max works way too hard without any help. We lost Jackson and Grundy and couldn't be stuffed finding a replacement.

The club has clearly suffered from one flag contentment syndrome. After such a a long drought some would say fair enough but I'd argue the other way.

I see more years of pain ahead because from our 21 list quite a few good players like Nibbler, Harmes and Jackson have moved on. And in their wake we have been content picking up lots of has beens that we rightly haven't played.

The game has moved passed Salem and maybe a couple of others.

It may seem contradictory to can a few players and the coach and club after waxing lyrical about almost beating another top team after so many away games but that's the problem right there....

ALMOST

It's just not good enough. And then we will get smashed by a lower team.

Our consistentancy is non existent. It's synonymous with our goal kicking. It ain't there.

It's the same with our recruiting and Goody's moments of cryogenics.

Anyway credit to Kozzie who despite a quiet spell in the second is worth every penny......Viney...May...Disco and Melksham our one man forward line. I think Oliver should probably just play his usual ball get game given the clearance stats. Langdon needs to reign in the chip kicks that get intercepted too often and they all work harder on handballs to players with some space and not to ones with an opponent with their hands up someone's jumper.

Bowey ok but a few shockers. I think Max needs a well deserved rest. Some props to Lindsay. Not so for Chin who you never know what you'll get. Mostly a great start but then a complete slow down each year.

Well this post is like us. All over the place.

Watching the Giants....Lions...Pies and yesterday's games reveal a talented team without a fwd line that gets beaten by bottom teams so who knows what to think.

I just know our skills coach especially goal kicking should hand back his salary and hang his head in shame.

And ultimately I think Goody who despite being a good coach doesn't get the best out of everyone and therefore time to go. I mean we can't do that.much worse. We will finish lower than last year and before any mug argues we are not bottom , that's not the litmus test for a club that won a flag in 21 and had two years of two chances . If you thought going out in straight sets twice was a bust it was much better than our season last year. Sadly this year makes 24 look good. I shudder where we may go in 26, if huge changes aren't made.

Now credit to the club for wooing Kozzie and signing him up. He's worth every cent. Id suggest we dock the pay of players like Fritta...Salem... Jvr...and a few others. Damn contract law.

I'm not sure if keeping Jvr was smart unless we got him cheap. He's played fifty games now and while his first year was great it's been two years now of going backwards rather than the much anticipated breakout year.

Now it's way too early to make a call on young Jefferson but he better start pedalling sooner rather than later and shake off some cobwebs.

Yes I'm banging on about our fwd line because we only have one decent fwd and that's Melksham. Despite his often state of off or on...I'll hold back because he's the best we've got. Even at his age. I hope he stays on to coach.

Id love Kp up fwd fulltime but with Oliver's downhill trend, Viney getting older we must have Kp on the ball.

Rivers was ok yesterday but another who seems to have gone backwards somewhat.

We need several things to play finals.

A ruthless clean out at end of season. Good bye to players like Sparrow who never change a game. Pay out his contract if necessary.

I want a club that set the standards so high that if you don't perform you don't play. That's you Fritta. That's you Oliver. He was ok yesterday but a shadow of he used to be.

Some big bodied fwds ....the more the merrier. Throw in the kitchen sink if we have too.

Let's salvage what we have of our 21 list.

Another big ruck who can help Max. Someone experienced...not another bloody trainee. Someone who can ruck and play fwd and kick goals too. For the love of God no more players that are five years away.

Get rid of players like Billings. Is he still around ....what has he offered....why did we even bother. Name some names. Who is responsible for these decisions? I know Schacke is gone but another example....Tom Fullerton?....McAdam... Laurie.....Sestan...Culley...Adams.. Henderson. A few of these blokes are 22 plus so where are they all and why don't we see them?

Why haven't we tried Verral just once....he's almost 22. This would be the time to give him a crack . Same with a few others.

The remaining season is a bust but on the flipside a great opportunity to work out who to keep. And this is a must do....don't let this opportunity go by. Maybe Goody is trying to notch up our wins but it's not worth it. Big picture demands finding the cut of each youngsters and some not so young.

Not like the team is knocking it out of the park. It doesn't seem too hard to be able to get a spot.

It's seems to me players down on form continue to get games.

This needs to stop.

So cull the list. Take more risks and no more hand me downs. Another big experienced ruck...two big experienced fwds. Two experienced mids and fix our goal kicking and panic handballs. A new coach or two starting with the head coach and a dozen of Psychiatrists for our goal kicking. Before I have to start seeing them.

I've been good Santa. My rant is over. Promise.

Oh yes....as bad as our fwd line is please play Disco there and not Petty again

Edited July 7Jul 7 by Previously known as LITD.

36 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Don’t know where to put this, and fully expect a @Clintosaurus conspiracy theory post in response, but anyway:

Nah I'm done. No point arguing what everyone should accept as truth anymore.

11 hours ago, DemonOX said:

I also think that Clary and Viney could be better next season if we have a new coach with a new voice and direction/game plan. A change can do wonders for the playing group.

Nope. Not how it works.

Mark Neeld was a new coach with a new voice and direction/game plan. How did that work out? Or Dean Bailey? How about the interim coaches we had post Daniher, all of whom also had new voices, most had decent credentials (Riley, Viney, Craig). In fact, in all those cases, the interim coaches had WORSE win/loss records than the coaches they were replacing. How's it working out for North, or Richmond or West Coast? How's it worked out over the last 20 years for Essendon? 6 new coaches with new voices and a new direction/game plan across that period, and what do they have to show for it?

Anyone who thinks changing coaches would change something - except to take us backwards - is just deluding themselves and clutching at straws. And the data is out there to confirm it.

You want change and improvement? Change the list. Paul Roos understood that, which is why one of the first things he did was to bring in 3 experienced players as part of a big cleanout. Those 3 (Vince, Tyson, Cross) had a bigger impact on the team and the way it performed than any new voice and new game plan.

6 hours ago, monoccular said:

I seem to remember this being said 4 weeks ago. A rolling prediction?

IMHO JVR should only ruck deep forward to enable the real ruck to set up a kick behind in defence.

Not me

12 hours ago, bing181 said:

Nope. Not how it works.

Mark Neeld was a new coach with a new voice and direction/game plan. How did that work out? Or Dean Bailey? How about the interim coaches we had post Daniher, all of whom also had new voices, most had decent credentials (Riley, Viney, Craig). In fact, in all those cases, the interim coaches had WORSE win/loss records than the coaches they were replacing. How's it working out for North, or Richmond or West Coast? How's it worked out over the last 20 years for Essendon? 6 new coaches with new voices and a new direction/game plan across that period, and what do they have to show for it?

Anyone who thinks changing coaches would change something - except to take us backwards - is just deluding themselves and clutching at straws. And the data is out there to confirm it.

You want change and improvement? Change the list. Paul Roos understood that, which is why one of the first things he did was to bring in 3 experienced players as part of a big cleanout. Those 3 (Vince, Tyson, Cross) had a bigger impact on the team and the way it performed than any new voice and new game plan.

Ha Ha You are Simon. AKA Mr Cognitive Bias. AKA Mr Clutching at Straws

How did McRae go at Collingwood? Prellim 1st year, premiers 2nd year

How did Kingsley go? - finals first 2 years

Even bevo made finals in his first year (as a basketcase club) and Premiers 2nd year.

Fagan inherited a basket case and made finals in 3rd year - hasn't missed since.

Chris Scott won a flag in his first year.

Simon your time should be up.

Anyone else feel like we’re trapped in the shining? What us kick for goal?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DL1D3Xhyxho/?igsh=MTdraHB1aWVpbDZsOA==

14 hours ago, bing181 said:

Nope. Not how it works.

Mark Neeld was a new coach with a new voice and direction/game plan. How did that work out? Or Dean Bailey? How about the interim coaches we had post Daniher, all of whom also had new voices, most had decent credentials (Riley, Viney, Craig). In fact, in all those cases, the interim coaches had WORSE win/loss records than the coaches they were replacing. How's it working out for North, or Richmond or West Coast? How's it worked out over the last 20 years for Essendon? 6 new coaches with new voices and a new direction/game plan across that period, and what do they have to show for it?

Anyone who thinks changing coaches would change something - except to take us backwards - is just deluding themselves and clutching at straws. And the data is out there to confirm it.

You want change and improvement? Change the list. Paul Roos understood that, which is why one of the first things he did was to bring in 3 experienced players as part of a big cleanout. Those 3 (Vince, Tyson, Cross) had a bigger impact on the team and the way it performed than any new voice and new game plan.

Understand what you mean about a change in coach not magically leading to improvement.

But I can't agree that Roos' voice had less influence than mature recruits. Neeld's voice was completely wrong. We deliberately went for a bloke with a tougher approach after deciding Bailey was too nice and we found ourselves with someone who couldn't control their frustration. It was worse given how young our list was. Roos' approach was FAR more balanced - neither soft nor stupidly aggressive. And he had gravitas.

Vince and Cross were fantastic. Tyson was good for a while as well. But part of the reason Roos got them - and had licence to go the big cleanout - was because we made a break. We said "Nup - whatever Neeld was doing wasn't working." The interim coaches you mentioned had no opportunity to do this. They were coaching the same group with the same neuroses and habits built up in the fading years of the previous regime.

I think his game plan was important as well.

Anyway, my point is, I don't expect a new coach to get us into the top 4 in year one or two. What a new coach would bring is a fresh beginning - as Roos did. They wouldn't throw everything out - even if we wanted it, that's impossible in a sport with 40 players on a list and 22 in a team - but they would break away from certain solidified ways of going that a ten-year coach simply can't.

I'm actually not saying "We should sack Goodwin now". But we seem to be failing by our own standards - those presumably agreed to by Goodwin. I say that because Goodwin seems all in on this change in the way we play, and said on the weekend "we're in a hurry" to return to flag contention. He's made it clear numerous times that he thinks this group is good enough. To me, that means 2026 is make or break.

Frankly, I would be astounded if we made the eight next year.

Would you persist with him if we finished outside the eight for a third year in a row?

So the keays goal was wrong , had it been a bird team as opposition ,imagine the up roar

1 hour ago, Satan said:

So the keays goal was wrong , had it been a bird team as opposition ,imagine the up roar

Exactly

And its been the 4th result in recent years at Adelaide affected by wrong umpiring decisions.

11 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Exactly

And its been the 4th result in recent years at Adelaide affected by wrong umpiring decisions.

Maggots did it twice.....no excuses

Adelaide, Keays and Rachele fined for wearing metal studs in their boots

Crows pair fined, club sanctioned for defying metal studs ban - https://www.afl.com.au/news/1360692

1 hour ago, Mickey said:

Adelaide, Keays and Rachele fined for wearing metal studs in their boots

Crows pair fined, club sanctioned for defying metal studs ban - https://www.afl.com.au/news/1360692

do we get the 4 points?

10 hours ago, jnrmac said:

  11 hours ago, Mickey said:

Adelaide, Keays and Rachele fined for wearing metal studs in their boots

Not even a box of bandaids.

The real question that comes to my mind is not so much why they were wearing then... but how !!

They're BANNED !! Why were they even available??

AFL couldn't give a 💩

On 07/07/2025 at 09:57, SFebes said:

Going at it from a different angle, reckon the Crows also let us off the hook early by their own bombing into F50 instead of hitting up targets, probably due to the pressure around the ground/half forward. When they lowered their eyes they hit up targets all across the ground. Be interesting to see their DE in first Q as opposed to rest of the match. Reckon the scoreboard flattered us tbh, we hung in there on effort but still see the same issues. Fritsch, Petracca, Oliver, Jefferson, Koltyn.....to name a few. Seems like Melksham is the only Melbourne forward who actually leads in the last 15yrs.

Interesting you say that about Melksham being the only one leading, in the Casey game vs Essendon Jeffo was leading far and wide and taking marks and played his best game. Why did he hardly do that last week?? Coaching or confidence?

On 06/07/2025 at 18:06, VoiceOfReason said:

Petracca and Oliver, thanks for your service.

What a malaka.