Leaderboard

Couldn’t be bothered

On a side note, what the hell is with Razor Ray and his stupid pep talks after paying free kicks to our players.?? Anyone else notice this? The most memorable was when Viney won a free for holding the ball and he was trying to get up and get the footy back off his opponent who wouldn’t release it so he scrapped with him, it should have been a fifty, but no, Ray comes in and stops the game, buys the St Kilda defenders some time, and has a chat with Viney. He is a [censored]. He did the same to Frost.

So from qtr time up to 3.4 time they had 24 i50s for 8 goals, we had 21 i50s for 1 goal. Game over. Same [censored] different day. Too many players at the contest, not sticking tackles, defending too far up the ground, running at the player with the ball and allowing the 'chinese checker' over the top handball time and time again, allowing the switch kick repeatedly, dumb handballs to players in trouble, terrible marking, no fwd 50 crumbers, Jones and Lewis on the wings - FMD, bombing the ball pn Pruess' head with no crumbers and finally a pathetically lazy one-way midfield that allowed the Aints to transition the ball out of defence and into their fwd 50 at will. TMac - WTF has happened to this guy? Weid? - totally ineffective, Spargo? - may as well not have played, Hibberd and Jetta? - shadows of their former selves, Jones and Lewis? - it's time. Melksham? - lazy footballer who won't chase and WTF has happened to his kicking? Called it when he was 35m out that he wouldn't make the distance and bingo. Petracca? tried but is the most frustrating footballer on the planet. Keep it simple stupid. As for the coaching staff... did absolutely nothing during the game. refused to stop the switch, pick up players/play man on man. No freaking idea. Jones and Lewis on the wings did my head in. Goodwin has no idea. Stubborn, We get beaten the same way by inferior teams who control the football and run. So [censored] obvious. My advice Simon go watch the Preliminary final you arrogant [censored], watch the game against Essendon and last year's against the Hawks in H&A and against the Swans. We can see it here why can't you?

2019 is over..... to say otherwise is to don the rose coloured glasses that have dogged this team for the last fifteen odd years. Ok... the coach is going nowhere but perhaps some outside mentoring would help in this regard. First step for me is to change the Casey gameplan to emphasise skills and possession. It's an easy one. Then post bye we introduce it at senior level with input from the youth who have become used to it at Casey level. Develop a few trick plays using Gawn and Oliver. Let Weideman show us if he has the goods in the forward department in an uncrowded forward line. Then comes the hard part. Play Petty, Stretch and one or two others for a run of five games. Results and ladder position are irrelevant as long as there is a plan that can be used to win games in 2020.

Maybe Saty some of us are hurting more than you. Sorry if you find that funny or strange.

While Weid may be one of a number of passengers right now, it’s Tmac who’s a broken sleeper in this train-wreck, with Spargo little more than a pebble in the path of the outbound train. And just to murder this locomotive metaphor even further, Jones is the incompetent train-driver from the coal-fired era when others have already switched to the efficiency of electric, while the Wagners are unwanted stowaways. Hibberd got drunk and disruptive in the dining cart. Disembark: Hibberd (forcibly removed), Spargo (who would’ve thought there would be no room on board for someone the stature of Charlie? - needs a rest), anyone with a Wagner in their surname, and Tmac – the MFC isn’t some Saving Private Ryan endeavor where we need to ensure at least one brother survives. Embark: Garlett and Lockhart up in the front carriage, KK in seat HB, and Keilty and May to share the remaining tickets wherever they can find the best spot up front or in the back. Lucky: Jones again Unlucky: Stretch

I received the club email from SG this morning letting supporters know we will see an improved performance against Richmond. I think we can all see many the issues that the team have at present and its fairly obvious that we are an easy team to play against. However, I think there are many questions we loyal supporters would like answered. (Some of these I understand would need to remain in-house). Here's my long long list. Feel free to add more (I found it quite therapeutic) - What are the reasons for the huge drop off in performance from last year? (Apart from off season surgeries etc) - Did the coaching staff see this coming? In hindsight, were there warning signs? - Fitness seems low compared to other teams. Apart from surgeries etc, is this correct and if so, why has this happened? - Some players seem heavy to my untrained eyes. Not saying fat, just too bulky. (eg Petracca, Hibberd). What are the coaches thoughts? - Did players all come back in the shape expected? (apart from May who we have heard was behind levels expected) - Are some players playing hurt? (eg TMac, Hibberd, Jetta, Weid etc) - Is there any unrest within the group or towards coaching staff as there appears a huge disconnect at present? - Why has the desire and intensity dropped off so badly? - Why do the players' energy level seem so low? Again is it fitness, diet, desire? - What's happened to the work ethic that drove us to the finals last year? - Are there players who got ahead of themselves this season? - Has a new game plan been introduced that they are struggling with? If not, do they all have amnesia and forgot it over the off season? - SG has denied we are slow. Does he really believe that? - Have the club over rated the list? - What do the club see are the list needs for the draft / trading period at years end? Seems to me like there's holes on every line. - What do the coaches think of the players' body language during the game? I see them with their heads dropped, bending over exhausted, little enthusiasm. - What are the leaders doing on field to help lift team spirits, performance and motivation levels? - Is there a motivation problem for some reason? - There were few positional moves against the Saints. Why was this? - How does the club view the depth of our list? Seems to me to be quite shallow on players who could play AFL. Reckon our bottom 6 yesterday are solid VFL players at best. - What has happened to the Ruck / midfield dominance from last year? Have we become too predictable with hit outs and running patterns? - Has the introduction of 6 6 6 stuffed us up this season? - Why do the forwards all seem to lead to the same spot?

Wuh? Haven't you twigged yet? We're all living in a lifelong Greek tragedy. In the end we all die with no premiership. We're trapped with no escape. But please, enjoy the experience.

SO you want leg speed but your potential trades include 3 guys with genuine leg speed. I’m confused.

I am as disapointed as anyone on here.. i said in another thread 2 weeks ago we would finish bottom 4 and a couple posters seemed to think i was over reacting.... nothing i have seen suggests we wont. Seriously i couldn't believe the hysteria around Nathan Jones game v Sydney, credit to him for a couple of goals and they were important but i saw nothing to suggest he was back and playing team orientated footy.. plus the swans are the exact replica of us right now. so a win against them was never a season defining or changing win. How every person in Australia knew the Saints will be to quick and our coaches didnt and bought in Lewis and Nev. That is the biggest concern for me. But seriously, we cant hide Jones and Lewis right now.. so we have to quickly accept that this year is gone and now we just want to be competitive.. just writing that sentence makes me angry. There are circumstances, i get that, injuries, and form.. but its a leaders job (captains / coaches ) to cultivate spirit, they are devoid of spirit and its pretty Sad. But to this Wednesday night and what we can do: here are my thoughts: Harmes to go back to basics... hard tag on Dusty.. Tim Smith to come in for Tom Mc. Tom is a liability right now, he needs a rest and a reset - Smith to play out of the goal square and sacrifice his game and drag Grimes away from the contest. Garlett in for Spargo - no brainer Lockhart , stretch, baker in.. have to play the kids now. possible ins: T Smith, Lockhart, Garlett Baker Stretch Smith Keilty possible Outs- Tmac, Spargo, Viney (inj) Lewis J wagner. Richmond have 4 speedy small forwards plus Lynch and Riewoldt - Frost and Keilty or O_mac - what else do we have? And play a hard man on man defence.. we cant defend the zones when we are getting beaten so badly. get a man.. go with them everywhere. Fight fight fight, make it hard for the Tigers, I dont think we can win but we should still have the intestinal fortitude to make it hard for them.

Why haven’t we drafted in much pace over the past 4 years? Can’t play with 15 inside mids

At the moment it's looking like 3-9 at the bye at best (maybe 4-8), so yes the season is done. Even if we make the finals as 8th, surely all the petrol tickets would have been spent just getting there. After the St. Kilda (?) match last year, the club spoke about how they tweaked the structure to be less aggressive and use Gawn behind the ball. With that, the turn around happened until the Prelim where West Coast, apparently, did nothing to beat us, and we just didn't turn up. Since then, a similar style, with the re-addition of the ultra-aggressive, chaotic, congested, inside, and ultimately easily-countered style of the first two thirds of last year. I'm concerned that the football department has thought natural progression of individual talent would allow for the proper implementation of a gameplan that has already proven to be average at best. What's even worse is that this decision seems to have come off the back of a degree of success last year, and scant regard for both opposition countermeasures and significant rule changes from an AFL determined to rid the competition of the style of football Melbourne are stubbornly trying to play. Whilst I understand, to an extent, feelings of vindication of the approach last year during the team's hot form, surely there is now 3/4 of a season to recognise the failures of focusing on four of five key stats and assuming good results when those stats are won, and implementing a more creative approach that gets more from less.

Agree. Richmond 2015 finished 5th (same as us in 2018) although got knocked out finals first round. 2016 finished 13th, and we all know what happened in 2017. Success doesn’t always happen in a straight line. But I will say, that teams like Richmond and Collingwood had major shake ups of their FD before it all clicked. Same thing needs to happen with us and hence the clean out of some dead wood assistants.

Disagree Saty. It is clean ball use and workrate, but it is also speed. I saw Saints run off us several times. The game plan of a congested forward 50 doesn't allow us any one on one contests to win. However at the other end you have them a plenty or mostly uncontested marks/kicks and goals. That is why the opposition is scoring at about a goal every 2nd entry and us at about a goal every 10th entry. It is a flawed gameplan that the whole footy world except our coaches see. The goals we get are from a flash of brilliance like Trac while being spun around or a great Melk mark occasionally. The opposition kick them off the ground, handball into the goal square unopposed, mark unopposed or run in unopposed. You can't win with chaos footy alone, especially when you have no pace, disposal skill and alternative plan to shut down large groups of goals. I repeat, if we went man on man early in the 3rd, we would have stopped their goal avalanche and given us a chance to fight back in the last. It is pure arrogance to not admit when you are wrong and the Coaches are therefore guilty of that. To be honest, to me, it looks like we give up when the run on starts as we know we can't stop it under the current gameplan and coaching. Players are not playing instinctively and that is why they get the ball and either handball it off to a contest immediately or hold it too long looking for their best option and then get caught holding it. We are playing a dumb brand of footy and until the Coaches do something about, it I don't think the players can.

Probably not the time to bring this up just yet, but . . . We're undoubtedly playing [censored] football right now and our structural issues aren't anything new. Still, even accounting for some slide, the difference in our performance between our early finals' appearances and now is so stark as to be completely perplexing. Meanwhile, it's not remotely far-fetched that by the end of this round the top three teams will read: 1. St Kilda 2. Gold Coast 3. Fremantle Are the personnel of these teams and respective coaches now world-beaters and masterminds - as opposed to ours being hacks and newly out of their depth - or has something fundamentally changed in the game to have thrown it so suddenly upside down? Are almost the entire commentariat and massive body of football spectators who invariably had these three teams in their bottom six for 2019 also just clueless? Sure, it's still early and even and I expect these teams to drop down (although the top three at the end of the last three even crap years were all in at least the top five at the finish of round five) - but its undeniable that there has been some form of disruption to date. Has the AFL's rule tinkering - which in being fundamentally two-fold and structural is probably more than just tinkering - had a greater impact than what can easily be determined by the eye? Is the MFC, which has developed a game-plan of such small margin of error and recruited accordingly, copping the impact of these changes more than most?

Grand Final Guarantee Want A Refund

Long time reader - rare poster. I go to every game in Melbourne (except Geelong because f that). I've been there through the all the highs and lows, I sat through every week of the Neeld years (god help us all). I'm almost as disappointed with where we are now as I was then. At least in those years you expected to lose every week because our list was a shambles. How does a team go from a PF to third bottom after 5 rounds? I've been a massive critic of Oscar McDonald (and to a lesser extent Frost). It doesn't matter what defenders you have back there at the moment, the mid-field is diabolically lazy and slow and makes their job impossible. There is no outside run. They are one dimensional plodders. There is no plan B. The ball comes out of our forward line in waves and stays in our backline like we are moving in quicksand. What the hell has happened to Hibberd? His run and carry is non-existent or on the odd occasion he decides to take off, he looks like he's running on the spot and bombs it to the wrong option. I don't mind the Hunt up forward experiment, but he struggled today and doesn't chase hard enough when he doesn't have the ball. The lack of support from our mid-field to help the defence is embarrassing as is the forward line pressure (don't even get me started on T Mac. It's not worth it, he's just horribly out of form). But if the purpose of playing Spargo and C Wagner is their forward pressure (which is presumably the point, otherwise i'm not sure) then Goodwin is kidding himself. Delivery into the forward line is a disgrace and has been since round 1. It is beyond me how Spargo kept his spot - even though we won last week. Corey Wagner isn't AFL standard, and instead of playing Garlett for one of these two or even Lockhart, we go with Spargo and C Wagner. It's like Goodwin has stamped Garlett's papers, and don't get me wrong, he doesn't win us today's game, but regardless he makes the opposition nervous because of his pace. Spargo looks lost. You could add another 10 paragraphs slamming the players but what's the point? We're all shaking our heads about how we can go backwards so far. Does it seem to anyone else that as a team we are just terribly unfit? What does that say about a) the preseason and the application of the players, particularly those not on modified programs and b) our fitness staff? Goodwin has just said in his press conference we have players in form in the VFL...who are they? They got beaten by a team of under 18's today. My final note - gees the recruiting of May & KK is looking like a massive error at this stage. Injuries are unfortunate, but when May turns up to training out of shape, builds his load too quickly, injures himself, comes back, get suspended, comes back again and injures his groin and is out for how long...it's gone from a 2-3 weeks injury to still another 2-4 according to the MFC website. If it is worst case another 4 weeks he will have missed 7 games with a groin injury. How do we pay pick 5 for a bloke whose level of professionalism is to turn up in that state, and why was the club not clear on expectations? And if the club was clear on expectations why wasn't there a club imposed sanction for his lack of condition. It's all good for Goodwin, Lewis etc to come out in the media and say it's unacceptable, but where's the accountability? KK has concussion issues, gets a late knock in the Essendon game and what we're fed from the club varies depending on the week. Ok, maybe a week to week proposition, it just seems odd. When he did play he seemed unfit and out of touch. I am genuinely unsure if he was in the team for the GC Suns at the end of 2018 or not, so apologies if he hasn't played for an extended period of time and I've missed it. But, gees, it looks a massive fail at this stage. Did the club not sit down with May and make the expectations clear about what shape he was to come back in? Again, sorry if I've missed this on another thread. We will get beaten by 100 points next week. Reiwoldt will be back and probably Cotchin. Can you imagine Lynch and Reiwoldt working in a forward line with the lack of defensive pressure we apply. God help us.

I don’t buy in to the emotive crap, no heart, passengers etc etc. There have no doubt been some really bad performances (Lewis, Spargo, McDonald, Jones etc), but this is so clearly coaching to me I’m astounded others don’t see it. Structure, selection and game day. It appalling and questions must be asked!!!

Fundamentally, I've come to realise that who we have playing as our back 6 won't actually matter if the break down continues further up the field. That's not to say that I think we missed Oscar. Clearly, he is vulnerable in more ways than one. But this issue runs deeper and is now on Goodwin's shoulders. He has continued to play an extremely aggressive zone defence that relies on everything going our way further up the field. I will continue tomorrow though. There's much to talk about.

Yep this club has been all talk and no walk for an eternity. Just shut up and do your jobs you overpaid hacks.

Yep, if Roos actually said on the post game last night that what Goodwin is implementing is an extension of what he was putting in place, I just don't buy that. Goodwin almost immediately implemented this ridiculous aggressive defensive press, which with complete midfield dominance, can and does lock the ball inside our 50 for an extended length of time. However, this almost always leads to easy opposition goals out the back. It also means that without us converting every clutch chance under pressure in our own crowded forward half, this game style has the propensity to break our back psychologically. Whenever we have dominance over a team and we fail to score in our crowded forwardline, seeing the opposition slingshot down the other end for an easy goal, is soul destroying and undoes a lot of our hard work. The game style sets us up for failure more often than not and relies on such little margin for error that it is so clearly unsustainable. This is year 3 of the aggressive press and it doesn't work without, as you say mate, world record midfield dominance. That's unsustainable. You can't expect that every week and every season. I want sustained success and I'm sure the club does too.

Too defeatist I think. In 1987 after 16 games we were 6 wins and 10 losses. We ended up winning the last 6 in a row and finishing the H&A in 5th spot and should have won the preliminary final. We are capable of putting a block of form together which could still see us reach finals. Writing off the season is a cop out and gives the club more excuses for inept performances. I have paid this club a fortune over the years in membership fees and I want to see a decent return on that investment. Effort and a willingness to do the basics well would be a great start.

If that is so they took a very big gamble and at this stage it has not paid off. A flag is just one side of it. The other side is: Sponsorship (Jaguar is only a one year deal); memberships (thousands of new members joined this year that probably won't next), game attendances (who wants to see thrashings); broadcasting (there go our Thru/Fri/Sat night timeslots); funding for new facilities; etc. All these will suffer badly as a result of a 1-4 start. Yes, a very big gamble and very cavalier of them to flirt with the hard work put in by so many over the last few years to get some respectability for our club. If your hunch is right, they better have a plan to get us up and running soon or we will be 1-6 in 10 days after playing Tigers and Hawks at the G.

I don't think it's our defensive structure the problem is our forward structure. We win enough footy, we get it forward enough but we have no space to work in. Our key forwards can't take a mark and we have no crumbers sweeping the loose balls. A couple of times yesterday we were running into an open goal just had to work through the defense and stuffed up both to es allowing the Saibts to rebound it out. Our forward line is a shambles, I think we desperately miss Hannan and AVB across half forward and TMac is in the worst form of his career. Petracca is played too close to goals needs to play more across half forward and Melksham is also out of form.

Agree, with most of that. Did you notice that our 2 best players Oliver and Brayshaw are going at about 60% disposal efficiency. IMO that is down to the gameplan and congested forward 50, where they kick to a contest every time because no one has got free, which won't happen under the chaos game plan.

Drove from Mt Eliza to Caulfield. No trains running so one of the slowest tram journeys of all time from there to Flinders to Richmond and back again....to watch an absolute rabble. And so many flaws. But what was pretty glaring to me was the complete lack of nous on the forward line. Say what we like about Garlett, at least he doesn't telegraph to the opposition what he intends to do. We appear to seriously lack footy IQ. Petracca has skills as does Melksham but I can't remember when we last had someone with the smarts of a Gunston or a Breust. Probably Aaron Davey.

Not sure I agree with this. Our losses this year look to be strongly reminiscent of our MCG losses last year - plenty of CPs and inside 50s but an inability to defend the ground on defensive transition. Meanwhile each of Port, Essendon and St Kilda have played us the same way we were beaten by sides like Port, Hawthorn and St Kilda did last year - conceding time in forward half to us, conceding inside 50s to us, but scoring easily on transition because we don't run back and we leave our opponent's forward half empty for them to work with. In my view, this isn't 2019's rule changes having a negative effect, this is the same problems as our 2018 game plan which are being exposed repeatedly because we're unfit and out of form. As to the ladder, there are currently 10 teams on 3 wins (with the possibility that by the end of the round that figure is 12). It's not like there's much separating the three teams you've mentioned from the teams in the 9-12 bracket. Fremantle's win over GWS is a stellar win that deserves to be praised but other than that, those sides have hardly played the stronger sides whereas Geelong, Collingwood and West Coast have all played each other by the end of next week.

Been the mantra for a while now. Numbers, numbers, numbers to the contest. Observation from behind goals in 1st and 3rd quarters. I thought Frost busted his guts and did the work of two defenders yesterday. He often had to cover loose Saints’ forwards and won his fair share of contests inside our defensive 50. Our one dimensional plan of bombing to contests down the wing is a key ingredient to a recipe for disaster. It would work if someone could take a contested mark to at least make the opposition accountable and open up the game a bit. Think back to Tim O’Brien for Hawks against us in 2017 when we had them on toast but he constantly provided an outlet with his contested marking on the wing. When the ball hits the ground you are simply not going to win every contest, but we think we will with most of our half backs/mids sucked in to that loose ground ball. Again like the Dons game the Saints set up beautifully with a couple of loose men in the middle and outer wing. Bang, they win the ball on the wing, switch to the middle and then to the other side and get us on the counter. Frost now, after originally sprinting 50m and winning the ball in the back half now has to sprint another 50m across the arc to cover more loose men while some of our other defenders/wingmen are still plodding back to defensive 50 with hands on hips. I felt for him and wouldn’t have blamed him if he took himself off for a breather. I always thought the lack of switching by us was by design. Not so sure now, the oppo seems so well set up we simply don’t have the options to switch. When an opportunity arises our mids seem to be jogging across the ground, I’d like to think it’s a fitness issue rather than laziness. It was a filthy day yesterday and never have I seen so many supporters leave at 3 quarter time in Round 5 of a season. Don’t blame them really.

Here's where you're wrong.

Ratten did a great job with our mids. Wish we still had him.

I find the reversal in TMc form hard to fathom. He’s a very good player, but simply can’t find it. Surely there is a problem here.

About the only team we might be able to compete with on the G is the Swans Ox but yes. Can't argue we would win vs many others there at this point. We learned nothing from Rnd 15 last season against this same team and have now gone backwards and yes, lack of speed is playing a massive part. We have been smashed on the fast break rebound at the G now for years (not just by the Aints) and are constantly found out with so many joe the goose goals end to end. We have a massive speed defficiency, we lack instinctive players to score regularly (outside of Jeffy), we lack fast twitch/reaction players with the agility to side step / baulk and create the overlap and run into space bringing others into the game, we lack class/finish issues (coming inside 50 and in front of goal with the exception of Jeffy) and we lack a genuine KPF. We also lack some zip around the drop of the ball up forward and down back. Opp coaches just put one or two zippy players skirting the outside of the drop (at our hot spot roughly 20 meters out or stoppages) and as soon as the ball escapes they're off to the races leaving most of our blokes in their wake linking up down the field at will or running into the square to kick an easy goal. Goody also played right into the hands of the speedy Aints starting our two slowest players in Chunk & Lewis off of both wings and leaving them there far too long. Someone also said we started with Hibb on Membury?? And his answer to one change off a wing after the horse had bolted was CWags for Chunk who went into the middle to give us what exactly? Think i also saw Clarry, Harmes (who i don't mind there) and Gus out on a wing at one point in the 2nd half. We have serious list management issues and now a serious coaching question mark. If we were better coached today i think we would have gone very close to winning had our positional set ups and structures been more proffessionally attended to. Certainly not the reverse where we magnified our weakness and opened ourselves up to them dominating us on the slingshot fast break and/or with their speed / spread on the switch out wide. I think our intensity was there from the get go but Goody stuffed too many set ups as well as too many player's unable to hit targets coming i50. This included poor forward work by key forwards running into each other's lanes (T-Mac & Weids), working back into other's lane's dragging their opponent with them also for another extra body to get in the road and/or spoil the player leading from the goal square (T-Mac) and going up together for the contested mark (T-Mac & Weids) and lastly missing relatively easy shots in front of goal or not making the distance. About the only decent thing we have going now is our inside engine room but even that is slowly starting to come undone with no outside options and too many plodding insiders who don't run with the ball but instead mostly handball to a player (often a loopy hospital one) a few feet away, inviting more pressure/tackles and yet another turnover. Some of these issues can be corrected somewhat in the short term if we were to put some decent runners to the outside and make them play that role, both on the wings and around stoppages and also instruct the insiders to not go in with so many numbers, forwards to lead out on different lanes etc etc. A clever coach and staff could make this happen as early as Anzac eve. If we corrected the set ups and other issues like too many talls up for the mark, no crumbers front and square etc (Jeffy in for CWag or Spargo pls!), this could even result in us having a surprise lazarus win. However, Goody seems too stubborn to see much, if any, of this and instead prefers to play slow plodders out wide much of the time. Have to assume he wants extra numbers at the contest, extra numbers at the hotspot attempting to mark and extra numbers contesting on the ground at the drop as it just keeps happening week after week? Fritschkreig, Salem, Harmes, Hunt and Melksham should be our go to outsiders with the possibly of a bit of Tracc thrown in around the stoppages for some short stints as a change up with a big body running through a pack for the receive from Maxy/Pruess and working out to others on the outside or up forward. Certainly not the likes of Chunk, Lewis and Cwag who have Zero running or burst ability that will see the ball cleared from stoppages more often. We are leaking like a sieve at the moment, especially in the Coaches box.

SPEED SPEED SPEED It was an issue last season and it seems nothing has been done in the offseason to rectify it. The coaches and recruiting staff have let the let the club down and the fans down. Blind bloody Freddie could see SPEED was a f.....g issue and now we are paying for it. Every opposition team will just outrun us, hit targets, kick straight and will beat us. Another lost season. Well done MFC you continue to give back to your long and suffering supporters. My kids were excited for the first time in a very long time about season 2019 and now it’s back to the usual MFC feeling. There are only so many times you can convince your kids things will change. Time is running out.

Could not give a flying poo! Lost interest this club, it just drops manure on its supporters like no other. Will not go and watch more garbage. Enough!

NO DEFENSIVE WORK NO OFFENSIVE WORK NO FORWARD PRESSURE NO HOLDING PRESSURE LACK OF INTEREST LACK OF SPIRIT NO FRINKING IDEA I AM SHATTERED.

Wingman Yes, I am old and understand there has been many changes to game styles but could someone explain why the Club that produced Robbie Flower, Alan Johnson and Stan Alves in my time has no belief in the need to have a talented wingman who can play at the MCG

Lewis and Jones were on the wings tonight . The disrespect Goodwin is showing to the wing position is astounding

Viney does a decent battle in the game, yet he still has the occasional tendency to 'relay', when in possession of the ball: '...I've got it, you're trying to take it from me ... '; he then retains it (tucks it under his arm), takes on the opponent with the silent mantra '...OK, so come an get it...' and relishes still retaining the ball the other side. However, he often loses the ball in this self-possessed habit; he quite often drops the ball and falls on it deliberately which leads to a 'holding ball' decision against him or a loss of team momentum in a cessation of play for a bounce. Other teams are now well familiar with this aspect of his game and use it to their own good advantage. Whichever way you look at this pattern, it is not progressive. When this happens in the early part of the game in which he is fresh, it creates a stop-start sequence that interferes with team momentum and effective clearance. We see all other MFC players re-set, re-position, expecting to have to repeat the process that was initially successful just a second or two ago. Gawn most often has to re-ruck and re-clear the ball from that duel, time and again. Good football can often be characterised by not over-possessing. Get into position, get ball, use ball by hand or foot as quickly as possible, depending on how 'tight' the circumstances may be at that critical moment. It is not hold ball into a contest and come out with ball at the end of that contest. Such actions and brainwaves seldom work.

Lewis has one thing going for him, his leadership. I thought we would bring him back to help organize the backline, which is made up of mostly young inexperienced players and out of form players. Instead we bring him to play on the wing. He who can barely run, can no longer kick, refuses to tackle or run defensively. He is underdone and they played him on the wing. I have no words for the stupidity. He needs to retire but until that time he needs to play in a position where he can influence without hurting us with his lack of pace. The wing is NOT his position.

Yes, mate, I was there. Gawn wasn't that good yesterday and I didn't suggest otherwise. But I can't stand the way people like you have just piled into him when he was one of about 20 players yesterday who didn't play well. At the very least, Gawn butters up and goes again all day for the stoppages. He's coming off an elite year and even this year has already put in more strong performances than most of our other supposed A-graders. And as for being "run off his feet", he was one of the few players I saw who was running defensively to try to get back after one of our many forward half turnovers. He's not slow for a ruckman but speed is not his asset so I don't know why you have to have a go at him for that either.

We still have a rabid and frantic attack on the ball. So there's that. But where we once were, and still should be, like a stampede of wildebeest heading toward a worried family of warthogs, these days our frantic efforts more resemble the warthogs. Every week we pretty much know what the oppo are going to do. And every week we are unable to counter it. Sometimes they spring a coaching surprise on us. And we fall for it, every single time ,and are rendered helpless by it. When was the last time we sprung a surprise on anyone? Maybe the selection of Preuss, but every other coach knew it was coming sometime. Before that? Our disposal by hand and foot is shocking. Our inability to get clean mitts on the pill is disgraceful. I don't buy that the game has dramatically changed this year. St Kilda beat us with simple and basic Aussie rules football, executed moderately well. Something we are incapable of. Our talent levels has not decreased. We do have fitness issues. But the glaring standout issue is our inabillity to execute basic football skills. Over to you, coaching panel.

Play the kids. Baker, Petty, Sparrow, Jordan, Bedford, Lockard and, yes, Spargo

Imagine if we had a fwd or 2 who could take a contested mark?! Or a couple of fwds who can crumb from a contested marking situation?! Pa your handle makes me want to vomit! Kudos.

Simon Goodwin has NFI. Why he played Jones and Lewis on the Wings for the entire 3rd quarter is beyond me. They are simply too slow for that role. Wingman are a big part of the game again and these two are well past it. Lewis was pathetic tonight. Also, why is Spargo constantly used as a lead up forward? He is 5 foot nothing. He wouldn’t out mark a garden gnome. Yet, we consistently go to him as the ? on a lead

It's not speed, didn't see a St Kilda player sprint past, it is clean ball use and workrate to get on the end of the kick, we lacked the workrate and the pressure to stop the clean disposal

The answer was last year 'BBP'...we failed to address the problems of the prelim. Goodwin thought we didn't bring our brand that day...we did and it wasn't up to the standard required. So then we didn't address the real issues over the off season. We thought May was the last piece of the puzzle and we were wrong. We expected a natural progression forward and again we were wrong.

Champion Data: We were wrong!

FFS, there are loads of problems, but Petracca certainly ain't one of them. He's actually one of the only players in at least decent form and doing his part.

I agree with your thoughts. Best wishes for whatever is going on for you. You stay strong too

[censored] call. Continues to try his heart out and is creating assists for his team mates every week. Playing in our forwardline would be pretty horrible the way we bomb it in long to Preuss every time.