Leaderboard

Some coaches just don't make great senior coaches for some reason, Alan Richardson is a great bloke, great football person and would be a tremendous asset to the MFC. i suspect though Macca leaving won't be the only change. i'm thinking it'll be a pretty significant shake up with several coaches and staff members moving on. it also shouldn't be lost that Macca has made a very positive contribution to the club in his development role, and no doubt the early career form of Petracca, Brayshaw and Oliver to name a few can in part be credited to his coaching.

Tom Brown just said we are offically linked to him as is St Kilda and Bulldogs. - Also said its Hawthorn and the Dees are 2 clubs linked to Brad Hill. -Ed langdon also linked to the Dees. Looks like we'll be busy come trade time! I like it!

Patton won't work in the forward system we need to play. We already have a cumbersome, ordinary forward line that completely lacks pace and gets rebounded off week in and week out. Patton would contribute to this problem. A player like Himmelberg as some have noted is a really good example of a nimble forward that can take a big mark but get the job done on the ground too. Even Greenwood from Adelaide, Lever's best mate, would be an interesting idea to play forward. Quick, strong, a decent kick and a good mark. Could rotate between the midfield and deep forward. We need to radically change our set up, making us faster, unpredictable and harder to coach against. We need a fit Melksham, a fit Hannan, even a fit Vandenberg would help. Along with Petracca, a Greenwood-type, Caddy, Bolton and another quick (how's Bedford coming along?), this will drastically change our forwardline. Personally, I'd implement far more rotation and switching between deep forward, half forward and midfield than we do. I'd basically play a similar system to Liverpool in soccer. The front 3 or 4 attackers constantly rotate in and out of midfield, wide positions and attack. I'd look at making us dynamic as possible by making a lot of our positions agnostic and interchangeable. Patton doesn't won't work if we go down this sort of path.

Some pretty poor comments as usual from the usual parrots. All the best to Macca and thanks for the hard work. Did some nice work with harmes and others. There aren't always hsopy/fairytale endings in footy

Lewis again did a brilliant job, this time on Grimes, he had 0 influence. Given his career is coming to a close and that he's paying in dead rubbers, the way Lewis is performing his role over the past month is demonstrating outstanding leadership.

I suspect the Scott brothers will job share at Geelong.

Rubbish comment. Read the article. All on good terms and after 5 years, have enough respect to at least not make stuff up.

Old school doesn't work now days. Just ask Malthouse when he coached carlton. Gone are the days of old hard knock coaches.

Surely the only assistant who is safe is Rawlings, who has a proven track record. The rest need and I believe will go. I hope we get Richardson. McCartney did great work at the club. I just think his old school way of thinking is not in line with Goodwin.

Would trade Viney before Brayshaw.

Macca has been a huge part of our journey Would happily have a Richardson-type in as senior assistant sort

Allan Richardson is on our radar. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/richardson-on-melbourne-s-radar-20190805-p52e46.html

Honestly, I'm just annoyed by this thread. In form, Angus Brayshaw is a top quality midfielder with calm vision and initiative to make things happening. Our of form, not so much. But also, crap trade value. Trading him because of his poor form this year, when half the team has had a poor year, would be blatant and unreasonable scapegoating and foolish from a list development level as well as a team solidarity level. Some people need to find healthier ways to manage their emotions.

Lewis Taylor from Brisbane could be a good target, as he's out of favour this year at the Lions and would be cheap. He's no star, but he provides exactly what we ned - outside run and ability to hit the scoreboard. Could be had for a 3rd or 4th rounder and be an upgrade on depth at worst. We need to retain pick 2/3 in this draft and take a gun midfielder. I'd also be keen to see the club trade our future first rounder for one of two different options: One - trade it to Gold Coast for Ben King and play him as a KPF for the next 10 years. Two - trade it to one of the clubs with a pick between 5-10 in this draft. This would give us pick 2/3 this year (gun midfielder) and either another top 10 talent such as Serong/Ash/Flanders/Young or a tall forward in Ben King. So net result is a gun mid + either a highly rate tall (play him as KPF) or another top 10 talent (preferably Serong to add more juice to our forward half). We've seen this year at Port what bringing in multiple highly rated kids can do. Rozee, Duursma and Butters have added a lot to their club already and have long careers ahead of them.

Just a question, do you think me being accepting of the reality that we were unlikely to beat the best side in the comp is the same as being happy with it? This seems to be a common mistake made by the perennial whingers. I'm always disappointed when we lose, no matter the week, I nearly broke my hand punching the coffee table in last qtr watching the West coast game. But I was still postive after the game.

Awesome new to hear that Gus will be at the club next year. Like many good talented players that have great careers, sometimes they have a year or 2 in a dip of form. Gus will bounce back strongly next year.

Well he would be because he's a Free Agent.

Wouldn't be surprised if Rawlings leaves or is poached, seems to be highly rated in AFL circles and wouldn't blame him if he's annoyed at being moved around when he wanted to run his own team. Hope he stays of course.

A nice article from today's Guardian on Steve Smith. As usual some of the below the line comments are instructive. "Well, what did you see my blue eyed son? And what did you see, my darling young one? I saw a man batting without a chance for 149 overs. I saw Joe Denly bowling in mid-afternoon. I saw a thousand pad-roll fiddles and five hundred box-flicks. I saw a game and a series and a career defined. And yes, like everyone else I saw quite a lot of Steve Smith. The fourth day of this first Ashes Test may have ended with England’s openers battling for survival, set an impossible 398 to win and a day to play out for a draw. But once again the chorus, the melody, the rhythm of the occasion belonged to the greatest Test batsman of the age." https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2019/aug/04/steve-smith-australia-england-ashes-second-hundred

Clearly something is amiss with Brayshaw. On Saturday night I was able to go down to the rooms after the match, as they came down the race to the rooms Goody had his arm around Brayshaw who looked distressed. Mind you they all looked pretty close to distressed and I was left in no doubt as a group they are hurting. I actually found the looks on their faces pretty confronting. Pre game McDonald spoke at the club function and said that all the players know its hard for the supporters to turn up but it means a lot to the playing group that supporters turn up. Goody also turned up briefly and said the players remain united.

11 tackles in his first final, more than anyone on the ground and spent less time on the ground than anyone and 27 disposals 17 contested both of them game high and still spent less than anyone on the ground for Melbourne in the second final, But yeah sure lets trade out a captain and a player who is 10 times more the competitor than 90% of our list. I dont overrate his importance, i just rate his importance.

I agree. The ‘everything will be ok’ is just wishful supporter thinking. Most of us have been supporting the club to know that this actually isn’t the case. Successful teams like Hawthorn get ahead of the pack and make tough calls on players before it gets too late.

Personally I would much rather trade Viney than Brayshaw, but it will never happen.

Is it only Melbourne supporters who think that if someone finds a positive in a loss then they're "happy" with it? Three of the clubs you've then picked out to apparently contrast with us (Carlton, St Kilda, the Dogs) lost. Sounds to me like you're suggesting they might be "happy with supposedly honourable losses". I also love the comment that the final margin flattered us. Of course, when the final margin flatters our opponent (e.g. because we're horrendously inaccurate, or down to one on the bench), that argument never goes the other way. And 39 tackles is pathetic, but Richmond's 45 isn't? That's barely one more tackle per quarter than us. None of this is to say I'm "happy" with losing. I'm not. I hate 2019. I hate the promise that we were given after 2018 and having had all the excitement for this year get ripped out from under me. I hate that I'm back to going to a near-empty MCG to watch low-quality football. I hate that we've been thinking about the draft since Queen's Birthday. But that doesn't mean I can't look at a game and analyse where things are maybe working well, or improving, or even just changing from week to week in a way that suggests the FD is trying to change us for 2020. Agree wholeheartedly. Of course, that makes us one of the dreaded "apologists" (FWIW, I detest the phrase "wrist-slasher" as much as "apologist").

Preuss's major attribute is his tap work. The previous week against St Kilda we played T Smith as the second ruck. My view may differ if I had a look at the replay, but I thought that Smith in the ruck didn't work and we lost that game when Gawn was off the ball and St Kilda took control of the centre. That's why I wanted Preuss to play against Richmond. If there's an alternative to Preuss who can give Gawn decent support, I'm all for playing him. But without T McDonald or Weideman, I think we still need to play Preuss for this reason.

I was thinking the same thing! Get it done, Dees, and put a dampener on the old enemy's finals campaign!

I suspect his contract was drafted so that he had to provide reports up to a maximum of 300 injuries for the year, a number chosen assuming we'd be well under it by the end of September.

it feels to me that the club didn't give the prelim loss enough respect. paid for it all season

After a very breif few weeks telling people I supported the wees and poos in around grade 4, for better or worse I became permanently attached to out mighty Demons on that fateful day out at the Western Oval in 87. Since then the team has frustrated the duck out of me with it's innate ability to squander talent and the opportunity for ultimate success to absolutely [censored] luck with injuries and the inability to stand up when the opportunities we were presented were upon us. Still I wouldn't have it any other way with respects to the team I support. Our days will come again and the glory awaits us will be all the sweeter. Never expected we would beat the WC in the prelim last year. They had the benifits of multiple weeks off to freshen up their list, when it's quite clear now that we were totally shagged from backing up in must win games for weeks on end ... and they had the home ground advantage with an automatic 15 free kicks for advantage (which admittedly they hardly needed that day). I never expected that we would win the flag this year, but similarly never expected our win/loss record to be such total poo at this stage of the season either. I don't put as much blame at the feet of Goodwin as many here do, but fully understand and agree that a fair bit of the buck stops with him and he hasn't exactly inspired much of a resurgence within this season which is concerning. That all said, I don't think our performances post the bye have been as putrid as has been made out, but without actually winning more games it's hard to say that we have really made huge progress or provide confidence in what is being rebuilt either. I'm giving this crop the benifit of the doubt and see what they can produce over the off season in terms of turning things around. We still have a realitively youngish list, but at the same time they are also getting to the point in their maturity when that can't be used as an excuse moving forward. As much as anything from Goodwin, I'm looking for the younger core of the group like Harmes, Brayshaw, Oliver, Viney, Trac, Salem, Fritta, Hore, Weid, Lever, Hunt, Spargo, Hannan etc to really take the situation by the scruff of the neck and take responsibility for going to that next level in performance, consistently and in-game maturity over the next season or two. Goodwin might be the man at the helm, but it's the players that are the only ones who can really determine if this becomes a champion team or just another of the also rans that we have been for the best part of half a century. I'm backing them all - GO THE MIGHTY DEMONS!!!

For all those going off about Neville Jetta’s supposed mismanagement, unless you’ve been part of the medical/rehab/fitness process first hand, you simply have no justification for such a presumption. As much as you might hope otherwise, timing the return to playing is NOT an exact science. There is ALWAYS a grey area that engulfs ‘maybe too soon, cherry ripe, and could have come back earlier’. And don’t forget there is pressure from everywhere to avoid the latter. From player, coach, management, supporters, media. And it will NEVER be perfect. If you think opinions based on hindsight grant certainty, you’re an idiot.

Have you had a couple of cheeky Friday bevs?

Getting rid of JKH but keeping the likes of ANB in the side would be absolute insanity. JKH actually impacts a contest, wins the ball and doesn't panic with the ball, which is an area he has improved in significantly. https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_player_compare?playerStatus1=A&tid1=12&pid1=4067&fid1=S&playerStatus2=A&tid2=12&pid2=3957&fid2=S&type=A Granted they play slightly different roles but JKH has given us more in 2 games than ANB has all season. ANB is and should be trade bait this offseason.

Ahhh the ol slash and burn method...hilarious! So what you're saying is - the fact that they say that they are addressing issues, it isnt enough, clear the decks, start from scratch, that's the only way forward? Deliberate forensic analysis is what is required... only those on the inside know what the problems are and externally, have the skills to do it effectively.

Two Tasmanian wicketkeepers batting together in a Test match for Australia. Got to be a first.

Of the 600 odd runs Australia have made, Smith has made 278 or nearly half. Amazing.

Has anyone suggested that it might be worth trying Frost on the wing?

The only case for giving them pick 2 is that they aren't a viable football club without it, in which case you have to ask if they are a viable football club with it? Would be making an absolute mockery of the competition given their list and results are both better than when Melbourne and Carlton were knocked back for a priority pick after 2 win seasons. If they really want pick 2 to get the best mates in together and fix player retention there's a very easy solution - they can trade Ben King (who sounds desperate to get out of their immediately) to us for pick 2. If we aren't interested in that straight up they can add Izak Rankine, Ben Ainsworth or Charlie Ballard for our future first. Or Bowes, or Martin, or Sexton, or Fiorini, or Powell, or Weller, or Lukosius in some deal. Compare those names to the list Roos took over at Melbourne, they are miles ahead. They have a stack of talent. Giving them even more in the hope they all stick is the exact reason PP's were taken out, teams can get it right and then they rocket to the top. Sliding them extra salary cap room in ambassador payments and having then nab a few handy free agents or good solid B grade players is the way to fairly turn them around with the young players they have already and pick 1.

Yes, but then again, Petty May Fritta away his opportunities with his lousy kicking for goal! (Sorry! Couldn't help myself! LOL)

And if it does, I care not. We took the consensus 1 & 2 in 2009, missing out on Martin at 3, then Cunnington at 4. We’ve all heard it before but Fyfe went at 20 and Cripps at 13, even Oliver at 4. Our fate won’t be determined by sliding back 1 place in the draft; it’ll be determined by the culture we foster, the bahviours we instill and the standard we set.

Can we just start banning people who suggest Frost on the wing? It's absolutely ridiculous.

I know Preuss had a shocker but he should play for two reasons. He is our backup ruck if Max goes down and needs to get to understand the game at AFL level. Secondarly we owe it to Max to give him some support for the remaining three dead rubbers for his enormous 2019 performance.

I didn't read pages 3 to 6 but the earlier negative comments are really laughable. Some posters just enjoy being miserable. Here we are 17th playing a premiership favourite team in hot form. We lacked 2 of our best defenders, and no big forwards and yet kept with them till it rained. Most expected us to lose by a huge margin. Where's the evidence Richmond were playing in second gear - it's easy to say to fit a narrative, hard to prove. In fact they had lots of motivation to thrash us but didn't. Yes, we made errors in the first half. But it is not as if Richmond missed shots to keep us in the game. Sure they may have run over us even if it had't rained, but we don't know for sure - many of the people saying that were also saying we'd be run over from the first bounce (as many of us expected), but we weren't. It is also clear that the style of play we had in the first half does not work when it is wet. So not surprising Richmond took advantage. Obviously this is something we have to fix (along with much else). But in contrast with many posters here, I just hope the players look at what they were capable of in the first half and take some confidence from that.

I had thought injuries and key players being out of form were the reason behind our woeful season. I no longer blame just these two factors. Goodwin’s had a poor year.

I do and will always support the club till I take my last breath. I support Goodwin being Senior Coach going into 2020, but after 2 years of continuous improvement and development this season has shown he needs to change several areas with ihe department and plan. What they may have felt would be dealt with by natural progression and experience hasn't and the training wheels are off, time for Goody to develop and learn from his errors

I support Melbourne too but hate them at the same time. It’s a cruel cycle like a bad family domestic relationship.

Matsuo Basho: "Lever will be a welcome return to the side (let’s hope his knee stands up after a SECOND reco)" Source Matsuo Basho: "Lever a star but has now had two knee recos." Source Matsuo Basho: "Job security the major sticking point in that scenario. Go down with a buckled knee, huge disaster for him." Source Matsuo Basho: "At the end of the day you’re a professional footballer at the elite level for ten years, with the ever present possibility of going down with a buckled knee every time you run out onto the park." Source Matsuo Basho: "Gawn is also a worry with his knee issues." Source You don't seem super consistent on knees old mate.