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The guy we really seem to be missing is the one in the pink clothes who was always running around giving out good advice. "If you get between the ball and your opponent, defending is much easier" "Stand over there, somewhere near your opponent. It will help." "See how your opponent is always getting his hands on the ball? Now you try it." "Now try getting it to another Melbourne player. You can kick OR handpass it. Your choice! If you can get it to one who is on his own, that's even better." That guy was really good. I wonder what ever happened to him?

Our defensive problem is two-fold. One, we play a high press reliant on keeping the ball inside our forward half and forcing any opposition exits to be rushed. Hence we take aggressive defensive positions to chop off the rushed exit. But when you're not dominating the contest/clearances and not applying enough forward pressure, the opposition exit cleanly and then it's game over. Once they're out, our lack of leg speed means we aren't going to catch them and the high press and aggressive defensive positions means the opposition have loose men streaming inside their forward 50. With no pressure on the ball carrier it's just handball-chip kick all the way to an easy mark inside 50. The joke was this was happening in the first 5 minutes of the game! In the first quarter alone they constantly had loose options inside 50. The worst thing you can do when you play a low-on-confidence side is give them easy goals to get their adrenalin flowing. Guess what - we did just that in conceding 6 goals in the first quarter. The question is how can your structure be so easily dismantled by an ordinary side in the first quarter of a game? It's mind boggling. The problem was there for all to see last year. It happened enough times to be worrying. But our contest work and inside 50 pressure was so good that it masked the problem. So far this year we haven't reached anywhere near those levels in our contest work and inside 50 pressure work so the problem of our defensive structure rears its ugly head. I just find it astonishing that we've seemingly been happy to move into season 2019 without any tinkering to this area both in terms of structure and personnel (other than the recruitment of May). It's just unrealistic to expect to dominate the contest every single week. We needed to find a way of absorbing pressure when the opposition gets on top, when we lose the clearances and contested ball, when we can't retain the ball in our forward half. But we are so easy to transition and score against and not only is it giving the opposition confidence but it's deflating ours as well. The second problem with our defence is that when we are finally able to get a one-on-one or a legitimate contest, we have a combination of horrible one-on-one defenders and out-of-form defenders. 20 goals against a previously-struggling Essendon is putrid stuff. This after 20 goals last week in wet conditions. We will not go anywhere unless we can limit the scoreboard damage when the game is not on our terms.

We were putrid tonight but the afl and their umpires have completely ruined the game. The umpiring was so so bad on both sides. Worst I can remember. Unfortunately for us it was usually at crucial times which made it feel like a fix up. The Jetta one the worst. Closely followed by the Melksham hit in the head in front of the goal, yes he should have marked it but that didn’t mean the umpire doesn’t have to pay a free. And the one against frost where frosts jumper is halfway up his chest whilst his arms are in the air, but then free is paid against him. Good trick! Should become magician. When Oscar was bending down to pick up the ball in the wing and was kneed in the head and they went on to score a goal. The 50 against Harmes but no 50 to us when “the package” drops the knee into our player after a mark right in front of the ump. The couple of protected area infringements on our forward flank that were ignored which would have resulted in shots in goal. The list goes on, there were more on both sides but honestly it ruins the game. Let it go or get em all. This nonsense where they seem to have a new rule of the week and ignore all other rules is ridiculous. When you have the commentators critiquing them the whole time you know it’s gotten bad. Really struggling to watch AFL these days with the the absolute pitiful standard of umpiring. I still tune in to Melbourne as I love the Dees for some strange reason. But honestly don’t watch many other games any more. In the past would watch 3-4+ a week. How to fix this? Put some money in it and make them full time for a start. Can’t make them any worse. It’s not possible.

I don’t think Frost is the one we should be throwing poop at. Based on his skill set, I think he is the perfect third banana. He is fast and that can’t be undervalued. May, Lever then Frost. Has what they don’t and they have what he doesn’t. The quicker we realise that Omac is not the project defencive player. Maybe he is a forward like his brother. IMHO both McDonalds need to hit the gym and become players that are referred to as beasts.

I miss Lynden, he was twice the player Oscar was. He actually wanted the ball.

We're certainly playing like we've been on the bong.

I'm still confident about our side long-term. We are just going through a very poor patch. We have a great core of players in Brayshaw, Oliver, Harmes, Petracca, Lever, Viney etc. We just need to keep adding to our side. Let's not forget that Geelong lost a prelim in 05, missed the finals in 06 and then the rest is history. We just need these young guys to keep developing. Trac: he needs to back himself. He had a chance in the third quarter to kick a goal from 50. Instead he chips a kick to a 50/50 contest. Take it upon yourself young man. Brayshaw: gun at finding the footy and just needs to clean up disposal. Oliver: I love him so nothing bad to say. Just get back to your best. We will be ok.

I knew what we were getting when he as an MFC paid employee wore a Richmond scarf to the entire 2017 finals series and carried on like their number 1 fan boy.

Been a while since I felt this flat. I'm not panicking yet, but I couldn't feel any flatter. Just an awful feeling. The bottom line for me is the gameplan, which is what many of us discussed last week. Yes, ANB should be dropped, Frost and O Mac were putrid pretty much most of the night and we have others like Hibberd and Tom Mac who are horribly out of form. They are are small pieces of the puzzle right now. But the ease with which opposition teams are scoring against us right now is alarming. In that third term the Bombers kicked 7 straight from roughly 12 inside 50s at one stage. This is horribly similar to what the Cats did in the third term last week. Every time they ran forward they looked like scoring and we did absolutely nothing about it. When you have McKernan and Tippa kicking 4, you know you're in deep trouble. We simply made the same mistakes last week and we paid dearly for it. How often did we turn it over at half forward and they hit a couple of over the top handballs and ran off with the ball? How can we let that happen? Are the instructions wrong, or do we have players at the moment who simply aren't putting them into practice? The pressure is on, now. Goody had a week to rectify things and he didn't. Thankfully the Bombers are rubbish as a half decent side would have probably beaten us by more. If there are any positives, it's that we seemed to lower our eyes a little better this week, but we still allowed the ball to get out too easily. Gawny wasn't bad, Gus tried hard and I thought some of the lesser lights like Lockhart and Corey Wagner did some good things. But we have nowhere to hide now. The season is slipping out of our grasp and we have very little time to get back into it. It seems hollow for me to say, but don't lose the faith.

Pretty interesting stat regarding Lewis.

I’m not going to try and establish the root cause of our current malaise - I worked out a long time ago that the view from TV (or the stands, sorry guys) without knowing the strategic context is too narrow to be able to do that. Nor will I pick out scapegoats (be it players or coaches). I understand why people like to single out the likes of ANB - I doubt there’s a more unclean player on our list and that dropped mark gave me flashbacks to the Dan Nicholson era. But he was also in our team last year when we were flying, so the idea that replacing him in the side is magically going to fix everything is fanciful. He’s the sort of player who will always look worse when the team sucks and better when it’s flying. The current problem is deeper and system-wide. I will say though that I’m deeply disappointed and hurting over this start to the season. I hate that flat, almost hungover feeling on Saturday/Sunday morning following a disappointing performance. We’re all feeling it and we all thought after last year that this was behind us. The odds are stacked against us now even for making finals. That’s obvious even to the greatest optimist. I’m still hopeful we will turn it around though. I think we’ve got a leader in Goodwin who can and a playing list who are up to it. It’s just a bloody shame that we’re talking about “turning it around” three weeks in to what was meant to be a promising season. I hate footy.

We got the wrong one.... should have gone for Charlie. At least it would have been entertaining.

I feel really bad for the Tigers with all their injuries. I think as a club we should do the right thing and offer them Troy Chaplin back.

I find it disrespectful that the Football Department was clearly not ready to start the new 2019 Season and the Gameplan of Chaos Football is now outdated with the new rules. Goodwin better make some serious changes real quick. Essendrug are a garbage side who hadn’t scored goals in the First Quarter this year. We gave them 6. He is lucky he signed when he did, because he is certainly ill prepared for 2019 at this point

It is a genuine indictment on this club that fans can watch our players start the season so complacently and preach patience because "the players and coach are hurting too". That's the kind of rubbish we stood by for about a decade before we got serious under Jackson and Roos. I will be patient, happily, because most teams that make a deep finals run for the first time take a step back the next year. Teams figure them out and start paying more attention. But this start to the year isn't normal. This is far more than one step back. Three quotes stood out to me yesterday: A.Brayshaw: "Unfortunately some of our players aren't buying in and coming back to help defend" Lewis: "I think May would look back at the way he arrived at the club and wouldn't be happy with it" Goodwin: "We're going to try and turn this around" Would this kind of defeatist language have happened under Roos or Jackson? How could our recruiting team not realise that Steven May has dreadful standards before they signed him up on a high priced deal and, if there were concerns in his medical, why would they not have given him an off-season exercise plan? Brayshaw literally accused his teammates of downhill skiing after the game - does that symbolise a united playing group? For all the fugazi about the boys loving Goody so much, why has the top-down consistency that Jackson established eroded so quickly? Why have our players forgotten how to play football? Why are they putting in so little effort that two senior players blasted them for it on the same day? Goodwin insisted after the Cats game that we are not underdone, so what's the excuse? Where the [censored] are our captains in all of this? I'm just not confident in the culture of this club at the moment, and I never once had that concern under PJ and Roos.

Personally, I am not buying into any of the rubbish on this thread about our players not being good enough or trying hard enough. I do think the amount of surgery that went on after last season has hampered our start. Logic suggests the following: they are the pretty much the same players who got us to a semi-final last year- the only ones missing last night were; Lewis, Tyson, Vandenberg, Hannam and Spargo. Vandenberg, Hannam and Lewis may have made a bit of difference. But not substantial, as Hunt, J Wagner and Fritsch (new to the team) played well last night So what has changed since September 2018? well - the rules. I think, the most significant change in the last 10 years; 6/6/6, kick out from goal square and the willingness of umpire to play free kicks for infringements that were not paid last year So what has the coaching staff done about this? well - not much. As we sit 0/3 and likely to be 0/6 in a few weeks logic suggests to me that the coaches have totally failed to adapt to the new rules, and the players are simply executing a failed game plan- these are pretty much the same players that were a game away from a grand final So what to do? anyone that knows anything about coaching young people (in business or sport) knows that piling on criticism and anger tends to make them withdraw, lose confidence and perform worse. Coaches must take responsibility, admit their plan is wrong, learn from the likes of Geelong who have clearly adapted to the "New Way" and change their model- quickly. As my old friend Darwin said:

Oscar is playing like rubbish no way to argue against that. But he has the capacity and potential to play much better than he is at present. Frosty was our best key backman last night and I do think he is doing his job. Our defense as a team was atrocious again last night. So many loose Essendon players that took easy marks and receives in defense, which wasn't Frosty's fault. I do wonder if we should just keep it simple and go man on man.

I just spoke to someone close to one of our senior players. I was told that Pruess will almost definitely play against the Swans. He has been battling abductor issues but should be right to go on Thursday.

If I read one more quote for Melbourne supporters to be patient. This is not just about poor form the start to the season is an unmitigated disaster. These issues are bigger than the coach and as usual they are a reflection on the whole club. How the hell have we ended up with a goal to goal line which is close to the worst in the league. How have we burnt top draft pick to secure two injury prone defenders. Who is responsible for recruiting a defensive coach who game plan would not work in under 9. How can we come into a season so woefully under prepared. How is it we have one of the best mid fields in the league including the best ruckman yet are on the bottom of the ladder. What strategies are in place to assist Goodwin who is wearing all responsibilty. How can we have no outside leg speed when this deficiency has been obvious for years. Why do we have a president and chair who are completely invisible when the titanic is sinking. This is so much more than poor form it is completely indicative of what been happening since 1965. Successful club have a winning culture it is clear this place is utterly devoid of these principles. Whilst some club under perform it is not to the extent of this disaster. Sorry this has been served up for to long. Supporters were patient through the re build and have a right to expect better than what is being served up at present. The president and CEO need to get off their collective backsides and explain to members how we have arrived at this horror show. I was patient and optimistic with the Roos re build but believe somewhere somehow it gone off the rails. This is far more than just momentary form and I feel that five years of patience has been completely burnt.

Okay. I am officially devastated. Disappointed. Distraught. I cringed when I saw the pyrotechnics and fireworks when the team ran out. Whose bright idea was this? Please save our hard earned cash for something better than this. I scoffed at Hawthorn's use of the flames every time they kicked a goal in that final last year, and now my team is doing it? Please no. Also, I hate to say it, but I think we should cancel Robbo24's entertainment interludes because they seem too trite and not suitable when the team is going so bad. Melbourne is back to being the team everyone can laugh at and be confident of beating. Just great. Thank you Dees.

You're absolutely delusional. He was finished 2 years ago, when he was almost immediately surpassed by younger players. He's too slow for a wing, he offers very little leadership and still goes around aimlessly bombing it when there are better options in front of him. He can no longer win the inside possession with as much skill as any of our mids (his mode of clearance was always Brent Moloney-like anyway - long bombs), so he's finished. We need to accept that, thank him for his years of loyal service and move on. How he was made captain again this year is absolutely beyond me, but anyway, I've long held the view that he's a limited player (at his best, a solid B grader), with little, to no onfield leadership. It speaks volumes for the rest of the leadership stocks on our list that he was made captain again.

O McDonald had 5 touches, 2 of them were ineffective. 0 marks. Why is he in the team?????????can’t beat an opponent, doesn’t win the ball, no attacking side to his game.

ANB, Oscar and Jones were our worst three players. Your comment was he was far from our worst, and I think that's incorrect. If he wasn't our worst player he was very close to it. He's having no impact on the wing. As the captain of a side which knew during the week that our disposal going inside 50 was a focus point, he took our opening clearance and mindlessly bombed it 50m to an Essendon player. He doesn't get involved in scoring chains, he guards no-man's land without taking a player, opposition players are running around him, he's fumbling the ball, he's turning it over. I don't think I'm "blindly supporting the lynch mob". Indeed, I think you've got your Jones-coloured glasses on. As I said before, I've loved Jones and everything he's given to this club, but right now he's a bottom 4 player for us and he's holding us back.

Unfortunately that's just not correct.

The players may love Goodwin, but a tactical mastermind he ain’t. We clearly spent no time this pre season working on the new 6-6-6 rule. It got to a point tonight where they made Fritsch stand at the very edge of the square so he can run to the backline as soon as the ball was bounced. Absolute goddamn geniuses in the box I tell you. Our defence is all at sea. We miss Lewis, and with Jetta and Hibbo badly out of form, let alone the trading of a fat unfit FB who so far got himself suspended and done a groin, we are not looking to improve anytime soon. Frost is a horrible horrible footballer and a total liability. OMac has no support. We are always out of position and out on our feet. Now let’s talk forwards. We appear to have none. None in form anyway. TMac is hopefully injured, because at this rate he should go back to defence. Trac is slow and fumbly. ANB is just a complete no. My biggest concern is our lack of pace. We are totally one dimensional. If we don’t win a clearance we are basically stuffed and have given away a goal. That’s a lot of pressure on the mids and is a completely stupid game plan. Goodwin said there are no more excuses. So let’s see if he can handle the pressure. He’s had a bloody dream run with Roos and making prelims last year. The honeymoon is over, and lucky for him he’s scored a new contract before proving that last year wasn’t a fluke. Right now, we look more like wooden spooners than finalists.

What's the point in naming ANB and Oscar as out. Goody absolutely loves these 2 spuds and will not in the world ever drop them. Makes me physically sick knowing they will play next week.

I know a few people are getting upset about Weids tonight. I feel like a lot of fans got carried away with what he produced in the finals last year. He isn't ready to consistently take the game by the scruff of the neck. He will have a lot of games where he will struggle to get involved over the next 12 months. He will also have a couple of blinders. He is a young KPF who has good hands on the lead and a great set shot for goal who is playing in a team who continually bomb the ball into the forward 50 with no thought to kick it to advantage. He only needs to get his mitts on the ball a few times a game to make the most of it but we continually bomb it in. Very frustrating. He got 2 goals tonight. Delivered the ball into the forward 50 to advantage KK to set up another (exactly the reverse of what should happen) and played out 87% game time including a smidgen in the ruck. Its about what I expect from a young kpf with 22 games to his name.

I have never, never seen a worse decision when Jetta was charged face on hit on head and no free! Even without contact a player cannot run straight at an opponent even without making contact .He must turn his back at the last second. The decision against Neville when he made a perfectly legal spoil was also laughable. Melksham too was held, pushed the back for no free in last quarter. I could go on. Loved Maxy's huge kick off the ground one of the few good moments. Throwing away my membership? Come off it mate you stay with the ship. Too many fairweather supporters on this forum I am sorry to say. Our defence is certainly our problem ATM

Who honestly gives a flying f$#k

Has ANB done anything beneficial for the team in 240 minutes of football? Him and Frost, [censored] me I’ve rarely seen 2 more useless players. Then there’s the defensive setup. Whoever is in charge of that... did they have a ceremony where they took out all of Paul Roos’ notebooks and shat all over them just to really ram home the point? Just embarrassing, you feel the easy score coming no matter where on the field the opposition gets the ball. We let one of the worst teams in the comp score 130 [censored] points. And Essendon should be embarrassed that they let the worst team score 112.

I’m not saying we were great but it makes it tough when you get slaughtered by the umpiring

I find it disrespectful that you think Goodwin won't be working his butt off for the club, players and supporters even with the contract extension. Pretty poor form there, even for you, adc.

I've got a lot of faith in Goodwin. He's a smart operator and has shown before some innovative tactics and also an ability to adjust to get us out of a hole. It was also good to hear him specifically refer to the team defence and that we leak far too many goals, which in turn gives the opposition belief and confidence. That was the biggest issue last night. I disagree with some on here about the changes to the game making it an uncontested game. I still believe a game based on contested footy is the right way to go. The year is still young and as the rounds roll on it usually becomes more contested. And we know that finals footy has always been a contested style of footy. So I don't believe we need to fundamentally change our approach as being a contest-based side. What we do need to do though IMO is to make some slight tweaks, both in terms of structure and personnel, to be able to defend better when we're not dominating the contest and to get some more spread away from the contest. We've actually been fairly ordinary in the contest this year. Last night Essendon beat us in contested ball and clearances and they are far from an accomplished contest team. So of course our game plan will look a failure when we are not achieving the key fundamentals of the plan, which then fully exposes our weaknesses. Getting our forward 50 pressure and contested work back to something resembling last year will make a massive difference, but clearly we need to consider some more conservative set ups behind the ball.

Can't believe people think extending Goodwin's contract was a bad idea. Imagine the media outcry if he was uncontracted and 0-3. The media would be baying for blood and the pressure immense. They just love sticking the boots into mfc; any excuse will do. They would pressure the CEO not on when the contract would be renewed but if. We would have the usual media circus waiting for the death knell comment: He has the full support of the Board. I've heard that far too many times at mfc this decade and tbh I never want to hear it again. Remember the instability caused by coaches being out of contract and uncertainty among players' current and prospective? No, I don't want my beloved club to go back to those dark, dark days. I'm delighted Goodwin's contract was renewed. At least he and the players can get to work to improve without worrying about his tenure.

I've been trying to find an upside to all of this. My wife is due to give birth in 2 weeks, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to get out to many of the games, at least initially, and had become ok with the prospect that I'd miss some of our romping wins. Thanks to the Dees, it looks like I won't miss any of our (romping) wins, and I'll probably be well timed to return to the games when we've turned it around! I look forward to taking our kid to a game, and being able to tell him/her (we don't know yet) about how much we have our sh*t together.

We clearly miss Lewis in organising the defence. Vince was pretty good also. Jones would not be much use. Never seen him organise anything. He just plays his own game.

Look, I understand the frustration given a 0-3 start. But let's be honest here, the CEO should be assessed based on off field performance more than on field. Coaching is up in the air, and yes, he has a hand in that part of the business. But from the outside looking in the club has record membership numbers, good sponsors and minimal off field issues since he has taken over.

But that’s always how it appears when coaches are crap. Omac and frost took us into the prelim .....6 months ago! They didn’t have operations either. Whatever has happened since then has sent them backwards at a huge pace. Imo it’s gotta have something to do with Troy. The first quater last night was truly lamentable...imo the most disorganised and comical We’ve looked down back since 2013. I was shocked. Yes it got better after that but whatever plan they’re attempting to implement clearly isn’t working.

Well I’m not gonna be too long in my summary. I found myself writing lines and lines after losses last year, this year I just don’t give as much of a toss about analysing something to within an inch of its life. 1st quarter was our worst quarter so far and that is saying something. Some real token efforts, no direction, no cohesion, no skill or even ability to hit targets, fumbling marks, and a defence that has played a zonal system so long that no-one has any accountability whatsoever anymore. The last one not just being limited to us I see it league wide. Man on man defending is dead in the water right now and with rules favouring defenders less than ever why the hell would you want to be one? (Wait hold the sultanas a moment! Is he defending our back line?) No I am not, they were absolutely terrible tonight as well. When there is a centre bounce I see us having no problem being first to the ball, but the 1 or two touches and the positioning of our mids after the contest stood out like a sore thumb. The number of times we’d win a contest, get a little muffed handball along the ground where we had no-one a couple of metres forward of the ball and Heppell was positioned beautifully off the contest was a joke. We got it together when we got our spark in the 2nd. Then me and my mate decided to leave our trident seats on level 2 to sit with other Essendon mates for the 3rd in the Olympic. WORST DECISION EVER OF ALL TIME. I am never ever doing that again unless we’re are 10 plus goals up. It got to the 20 min mark and I was literally counting the agonising seconds before we could p*** bolt back to our proper seats. That quarter hurt, a lot. The last was the usual, mini flurry, back breaker goal, rack em up. Whatever. Thought Gus was reasonable but same issues with disposal, Harmes reasonable, Hunt serviceable (keep him forward for a while), Lockhart could be a find after all and the Wagners gave us a bit of hardness and second efforts. Fritsch looked like the only one who could hit a target in the 3rd. No after game sorrows drowning I came straight home and started to photoshop McDonald-Tipungwuti photos and superimposing cans of Woodstock into them (I like to call him McDonald-Tipawoodie) for a joke and to take my mind off it. Now I’m listening to Crash test dummies - Mmm Mmm Mmm on repeat about 15 times in a row so far. I dunno but that song sums it all up beautifully. Im not crazy by the way, just a Melbourne supporter Well look at that, I guess I did analyse things to an inch of its life what of it? Don’t even really care who we’re playing next week, would be nice to win but game planning for opponents is a total waste of time right now when we can’t even beat A team.

The period in the 2nd Q where we looked ok coincided with Tommy Mac going off injured. I would persist with Weid, it worked for a short period. Drop Tommy or play him back until May & Lever come in. Maybe Pruess as the 2nd tall forward/chop out for Max.

Using Wings and Flanks as retirement homes isn’t working. Need specialists here to play the role. Not ex inside mids

Brayshaw's comments in an interview post-game are interesting. Talking about how we don't have enough "buy in" on defence. We have individual problems in the back six (Oscar, Frost and an out of form Hibberd mean we're really in trouble back there) but the reality is our opponents are able to transition from their backline through to their forward line too easily.

I’m no fan of Pert yet..but that’s a harsh call. Goody fully deserved that extension and I’m 100% glad he got it.

We need to stop using our wings and flanks as retirement homes. Time to get in proper players who can play those roles properly.

PLAY ON MAN.

harsh on Lockhart. he kicked 2 including mark of the night.

They clearly were.

Yes they were

Time to make the toughest decision and drop Jones. His time is up.

Im so disappointed. It seems to me that the game has passed us by. - too many players going for 1 ball (an issue last year) - not enough spreading (an issue last year) - mass inside 50s which clearly is a quality vs. quantity issue - poor forward pressure - zone defence when the game's 6v6v6 format advantages 1on1 - poor kicks from defence to 40m when clubs are taking advantage of new rules to 60m The stock is there, but the strategy isnt. Really poor coaching. We've lost a prelim, 2 JLTs and 3 2019 games... thats 6 in a row. What have we done to change? Never thought we'd be 3 rounds in and #18.