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I got the Dees down to Toorak Primary for a footy clinic the day after the Queens Birthday game against Collingwood, there was fritch, hibberd, Vince, Clayton O and Garlett who attended. one of the kids asked why they lost to Collingwood, Garlett looked at the other 4 demon players and said “they lost coz I wasn’t playing” welcome back Garlett

Now that Wagner’s been taken off the market, clubs can now re-focus their pursuits of Tom Lynch, Sloane and Jeremy McGovern.

On a side, side note, congratulations to Clayton Oliver who lines up for his 50th game this weekend!

Looking forward to Harmes in the ruck.

From a personal perspective pretty disappointed Dec didn’t get in this week, at least he is an emergency though. I understand why the chose who they did, hopefully it’s s good game.

On a side note, Nathan Jones plays his 254th game for the Demons this weekend and goes level with Brad Green on number six on the list of most games played for the club.

Great changes. Amazing how much better the side looks with some pace! Petty seems like a great young player but seemed completely out of his depth last weekend. Frost should've been included straight after Lever tore his ACL. While his disposal leans more towards the 'tear your hair out' kind, he provides us with some much needed dash out of our defensive 50. Can take a mark as well. Garlett and Spargo in the same side is something I've wanted to see for a while. Hopefully Jeffy can re-consolidate his position in the 22. He may have the occasional stinker, but our forward line is far more dangerous when he's at the crumb of the ball. He's won a fair few games off his boot over the last few years. Also very pleased for Billy Stretch. I think he's unfairly judged by many supporters. He's still very young and I've seen him do some very clever things in the senior side. I'm hoping he's given a few weeks to show his ability.

they put the simon's selections video up early on youtube and then yanked it down garlett, spargo, frost and one other (can't remember who) for hannan, petty, weideman, and tyson

Agree BUT....He had 7 tackles, maybe that is what they were looking for, forward pressure not necessarily disposals?

Goodwin must have read demonland and finally came to his senses of playing Garlett and Spargo in the same team with our inside 50s.

Looks a much better balanced side.

Since we only play one way we don’t need a set of goal posts to defend.

If we lose to Freo.... ....I’ll be amazed if Wiseblood identifies any positives in his post match discussion. ?

Dees by 20 goals. Freo won't score, Petty to take 22 intercept marks, Trac to have 47 disposals, Hogan to kick 11 goals.

Here we go again, just like the thread about Lewis on AFL360. Every time some posts "I'm sick of all the talk" or "you don't see words on the scoreboard", I want to punch the computer screen. People post as if the coaches and players have a choice and call the press conference themselves, like they're inviting the media to their house or something. It's almost the complete opposite. They're speaking because they are required to.

I loved his presser. He gave it to the payers in private ( as he should have) and backed them up in the press (as he should have). Neeld threw the players under the bus publicly and look how that turned out. Its a young group they dont need even more public scrutiny than they are already getting. Goodwin is all class imo. We're all hurting...but imo he's handling it well with the press at least.

The 50m penalties are proof positive that the AFL is run by complete idiots.

It bamboozles the opposition.

Tyson @Satyriconhome I guess those 17 others were super lucky hey? M8. No idea.

So everyone likes the inclusions with several hunting that these were obvious and should’ve been done a month ago. What will you all whinge about if they play poorly

Should have been the selections last week

I love that the press conference thread has gone all meta with everyone dodging questions.

Write Goodwins name on a piece of paper and put it in the freezer - a voodoo technique used by my mother-in-law. Believe me I know.

I'll delete the game from my IQ and move on with life. I will not seethe inside and want to burn the world down... That last bit may be a lie...

Poor bloke. Nothing he said would be good enough for most, so I'm not surprised by the reaction. But he got asked the question and he answered it honestly. Can't ask much more than that.

.... then it may just be the last game I watch this year. No Sandilands and Fyfe, Stephen Hill milestone game with his brother Brad returning after his misdemeanour and the game being in Darwin, all presents itself (somehow weirdly) as a recipe for Deesaster. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if we choke again given the pressure on the club to perform. Forward lines and back lines are all over the shop and our mids are out of gas with 8 weeks left in the season. If we can't get things to click this weekend, the season is down the gurgler.

Not surprised about Harmes' extension. Fairly surprised about Wagner's, but clearly/obviously the FD see more than I do... http://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2018-07-05/harmes-and-wagner-sign-new-contracts

The umpiring and the 50m penalties being handed out on a platter are just disgraceful, non sensical and ruining the game. The umpires appear clueless and handing out penalties contrary to common sense and fair play. Just disgraceful and a blight on the game.

I'd normally agree with you Moonie, but I think it's time for Garlett to get another crack. We need a spark down there and he's served his time at Casey. Fingers crossed he can snag 3 or 4 goals for us on Saturday night!

Really good selections.

His time will come.

I see a common theme in the inclusions...

Jeffy when on song is a terrific small forward. He has surely done his penance and is at his best on the big AFL stage not at some VFL sideshow.

Hannan is surely a definite out, a few mates on thin ice

It’s not even an imagineable outcome for me, but I thought that last week too.

if we lose - season over. ill vent for a while then lose interest If we win - even by 80 pts, ill be asking where was this last week. if we beat freo then dogs, ill get sucked back in a little and be ripe for the next disappointment Good times!!

We have been playing our best footy, and getting our best results, when our "bottom 6" play well. So with that in mind, and other than the obvious improvement from the likes of Jones, Lewis and Hogan, we desperately need the likes of ANB, Hannan, Tyson and Fritta to keep raising their game. It's a team thing. Our top players can't wait for the bottom players to lift before they can improve, but equally, the bottom players can't wait for the top players to improve before they can. They all need to be on the same page, and take forward steps at the same time.

It’s the CLUB that keeps repeating itself....

An excellent post. Perfect summary of the issues. These warrant repeating: The game-plan is the game-plan - we're a highly offensive team and we're going to leak goals...it's a tentative and difficult plan to execute requiring a high level of familiarity and defensive cohesion. But with Lever going down, we're now trying to plug gaps or rebuild with inexperienced 'role' players rather than reset according to individual strengths - with not enough consideration for the difficulty of our set-up and need for maturity and cohesion. Lever went down in round 12. In round 13 Oscar was concussed and sat out the last quarter and hasn't been the same since. Nev hurt his shoulder also in round 13. In round 14 Nev had a serious head knock, was very wobbly and hurt his ankle so was touch and go to play last week. Both are playing a long way below their best. To expect 2 injured players, 2 over 30 players, 1 fit AA player and Smith to defend a game-plan that is very highly tuned vs Port (rnd 14) was unrealistic. But to then add Petty (rnd 15) and remove a very experienced player in a very depleted defense, was sheer folly. Realistically, no game-plan should be dependent on one player and nor should it be so inflexible that when a key player goes out that it is not adjusted. Why we insist on being so rigid with a game-plan that is high risk, easily defeated and very taxing on players is beyond me. I totally agree we need to back track on something. I'm torn between: 1)Tom Mc going down back because our forward line structures are breaking down and players seem confused on positioning, running patterns and what their roles are (eg all going for pack marks, all in for the contest). We will be robbing 'Peter to pay Paul'. He is also playing under an injury cloud with bruised lungs. 2) Changing the game-plan to have less risk and more suited to the players selected. I would hope that at some stage we have practiced a game-plan for this scenario Certainly a more defensive forward line and midfield will help but it is a very taxing game-plan and it will be very difficult to sustain it in Darwin conditions without damaging our chances the following week. So, I'm hoping for option 2) and hoping for healthier Oscar, Nev and Tom. Lever going down has hurt but it has been our response to Lever going down that has done the real damage.

As posted elsewhere, we've conceded ten goals less this year than at the same stage last year. However, we've quickly gone backwards without Lever's increasingly growing presence. The game-plan is the game-plan - we're a highly offensive team and we're going to leak goals. The idea is simply to leak a little less the best that we can manage: small margins tipping the offensive/defensive ledger in our favour. The problem as I see it, it's a tentative and difficult plan to execute requiring a high level of familiarity and defensive cohesion. This is one of the reasons we recruited Lever - among the strongest intercept and organisational players in the league. That also then freed up Tmac (our previous best intercept defender) to move forward on a permanent basis, while defensive regulars form last year - Hunt, Frost and Wagner - have all been jettisoned from the team. But with Lever going down, we're now trying to plug gaps or rebuild with inexperienced 'role' players rather than reset according to individual strengths - with not enough consideration for the difficulty of our set-up and need for maturity and cohesion. Establishing a role-based methodology with personnel understudies and a one-in-one-out capacity is great in a general regard, but you can't expect to replace Lever with J. Smith in such a finely-balanced system, and you can't have the inexperienced and ungelled Omac and Petty alongside him as your three tall prongs . The defensive game-plan needs a serious rethink due to Lever's absence, or otherwise the reintroduction of more experienced and familiar players in this form of defence in order to carry it out. I don't expect the former, so the latter has to include Tmac as a real consideration - however damned much it hurts. The current path isn't the one we cultivated when we originally set out the plan. We now have to back-track if we're going to figure a way forward in the less than half of a season still left to do so.

Much like Lewis last night, Goody has no option here but to answer questions, protect his players and protect the club. It's what he does every week. Would you be happier if he came out and smashed a few players for their effort? Went off his nut about the game? I doubt it. He has to give a press conference every week no matter what the outcome of the previous game, so if you don't want to listen to it, then don't. I have no idea what you really expect of him in these situations.

His best football came as a deep forward last year. In the absence of Jesse he was a match winner more than once ( QB, ESS). If it’s simply a confidence issue play him in his best position. Let him clunk a few up forward and hope he gets his range back. I believe he would offer more than 4 possessions ( Hannan) if allowed to use his strengths. I thought he battled hard against the Saints, a better showing than previous weeks anyway. Rotating between the centre square and half forward isn’t working. You could argue we don’t need to play him deep as we are the number one team for marks inside 50. My belief is you need to play him in a position where he can impact the most.

Lever has made our coaches, mids and forwards defensively lazy. Looks like to me we add Lever and we change our our game style to be more attacking knowing we have a gun key defender down back. The issue early in the season Lever was finding his feet, when he did we looked good, then injury comes and it has stuffed us up. Make no mistake this is a coaching issue called putting all eggs in one basket. All the defensive traits Roos tried to teach our players thrown out the door. Don't be sucked in this weekend, we will beat the Dockers, it will hide the issues until the Bulldogs get us the following week, then a massive downhill slide till the end of the season. We will finish with 10-12 wins with really 1 injured player

It might be as simple as bringing in an "experienced KPD" in Sam Frost, like last year, then Tmac can stay forward. But mids still need to defend better, they're happy running into forward 50 for an easy goal but lazy to keep it in there

We didn’t have Lever last year, yet we held up OK apart from maybe a Crows game in Darwin? So how did we cope last year and not get blown away? Doesn’t make sense to me on how we’ve leaked so badly this year, personnel issue or coaching/structural? Happy to be corrected on last years games but IIRC it wasn’t this bad.

I too support the concept that we need the best people not the best ex demons. But I recently listened to an interview with Stan Alves on 774 with Matt Clench on Stan’s retirement from broadcasting the game. Stan said he no longer liked the modern game and called time on himself because he was not adding value. It was best for younger people to take over. Very honest appraisal. A a large part of the interview was about Stan losing his son early and the devastating affect that it had on him, very moving and instructional. But also how it motivated him later on. But another interest in the discussion was on his time as coach at St Kilda. He was a real innovator and took the Saints from nowhere to a Grand Final but was constantly being challenged by the Board about his unorthodox (at the time) tactics. Think leadership groups, meditation before games, letting players take responsibility for their own training, every player must set personal goals, it goes on and on reflecting modern football methods but maybe a decade or more ahead of his time. I thought Grant Thomas was a real innovator but I think he took a lot of ideas from Stan. They lost the final and the next year struggled somewhat and his enemies in the Board moved on him in 1998 and he was gone.And the Saints went downhill until 2009. What an opportunity for MFC to have bought him on board as an advisor for the Reverend? Stan came across as an exceptional person who would have added immense value to the MFC as assistant coach, mentor or Board Member. Another missed opportunity I believe but he could still fill a role on the board.

I would have thought that being nominated as captain of any sporting team means you show the better leadership attributes than your peers in the team. Doesn’t mean he is going to be a gun footballer but we know he is comfortable in a leadership role. Captain of the U19 Aussie cricket team says to me that we have an individual that is determined, focused and will give it everything he has.

Make Melbourne Great Again.

He could have spent the 10 minutes blaming our loss on the umpires, their poor decisions and a conspiracy involving the upper echelons of the AFL and illumanati who dont want Melbourne to succeed becore finishing by reading a series of 'mean tweet' comments from Demonland.

I don't get why people who think words are meaningless etc pay attention to the footy press during the week. I don't necessarily disagree but if you're just gonna say "actions not words" etc you may as well just shut off outside gameday other than to get injury reports