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Hey all. Tried my luck this morning down @ Casey. Here's what i saw. The forwards had the whole oval to themselves... not to sure where the rest of the crew were. Anyways, The forwards group included: TMac, Fritsch, Kozzy, Jackson, ANB & Hunt. Harley was there, didn't train, but he was the drill assistant for the session. Warm Up: The boys paired up for some laps around the oval; Kozzy / Hunt, ANB / Fritsch while Jackson & Tmac ran solo. There was about a 50m gap between the runners. Slow, steady laps for about 10mins. A game of soccer for 5mins & then a couple of 150m run throughs at about half pace. Jackson's a glider, Kozzy's quick & Tmac's a robot. Some kick to kick about 30m apart to round off the warm up. First drill: Player in the goal square starts us off. He kicks to a player on the corner of the 50m arc who then kicks to a player at the top of the 50 - He then gathers, plays on & kicks for goal. No real intensity about this drill, boys still moving at about half pace. Lasts for about 10mins. Nothing more to see here. Second drill: Group of 4 at the center of the ground with Justin Plapp. 2 at the goal square (1 forward, 1 defender). Plapp kicks the ball up to 1 of the group of 4, they then run a carry, disposing by handball to each player, with the last chain of the group kicking to the leading forward. The kicker is rotated at each restart. Tom, Jackson & Hunt mostly leading out from the square. Fritschs' delivery is a standout. Hunt - good hands out in front on the lead. Jackson just glides across the park - Good bounce about him. Kozzy just knows how to play the game. Tom looks stiff... but that's Tom. Third Drill: Starting player positioned about mid ground closer to the flank. He gathers a random ball from Harely (ground ball, half volley, on the full etc), who then kicks a 30m kick to a leading half forward who marks 60m from goal. Player then waits for one of the two leading forwards to present. He makes his choice & the forward marks about 35m out from goal. No shots were taken. Melk appears from nowhere! some light jogs around the oval & then some kick to kick with burgo... but then joins the boys soon after. Once again, Fritschs' delivery from 60 out to a leading forward is a class above the rest. Low penetrating darts... the others are ok, but they don't penetrate through the air like Bailey's. All drills where done at about half pace. Aaron Nietschke was doing some runs along the other oval with a couple of the medical boys. No sign of Weid. Or Brown. The weather got me outta there before they ended. Happy to answer any questions. ??

Well it obviously all worked out for adelaide, and they are flying now.

Mark Ricciuto is the crazy ex-girlfriend we cross the road to avoid.

I once had tennis coach explained to me in that the best players get the balance between arousal and precision right, and can maintain this balance throughout the game and tournament. Transposing this to the MFC in 2020 and our performance vs Carlton in particular seems to explain our erratic performance. We started the game at the right level (aroused and precise), but then dropped it midway through the second, and struggled to regain it for the remainder of the day. so what happened? Without wanting to aggravate the froth and bubble crew and generate another outpouring of “More Excuses!!!”, I’d suggest a couple of things: 1. At 7-zip up we thought “this is easy” and our arousal dropped. I do this regularly when 4-0 up in tennis... 2. The Blues at zip-7 think we’re about to get fully humiliated and their arousal lifted. 3. While it took a couple of quarters to restore our arousal, the fact that we did (5min from the end), and we won is significant to our development. it’s significant because teams can rarely dominate for 4 quarters, and rarely maintain high arousal-precision for 4 quarters, so the key to success is being able to produce it when required in order to win. Anyway, just my two bits...

He may not be playing his best football now (but he was not the worst on Saturday), but your post is just unnecessarily disrespectful of someone who has served this club well and who stuck with the club despite (I assume) lucrative offers from other clubs. Perhaps your forum name is appropriate?

Lever, Pick 37 and Pick 47. FOR Pick 10 (2017), pick 19 (2018) and Pick 59 (2018) So, it ended up being... Jack Lever, Harrison Petty and Matthew Parker (StKilda) FOR Lochie O'brien (Carlton), Liam Stocker (Carlton) and Brett Bewley (Fremantle). Looks fine to me.

Good thread @dworship. Here is where I sit based on your post and others. Goodwin can clearly coach. He has shown that he has the ability to create a gameplan that we can implement effectively. 2018 is obviously the perfect example of this. You don't get to a prelim on luck alone. He was able to put together tactics that were simple enough for the players to follow, and follow well, and we were able to generate some fantastic results because of it (the winning streak in the middle of the season, wins on the road, two finals victories against experienced sides etc.) However, 2019 and now 2020 is where Goodwin needs to go from being a good coach to a great coach. It's been discussed ad nauseum here for a while, but there were large factors involved in our horror 2019 - ridiculous amounts of injuries, poor player form, coaches not adjusting the gameplan in the face of new rules and teams learning our game style etc. 2019 was a write off almost before it began, but you get the feeling that Goodwin takes some responsibility for that, as he should. We know that we are looking to change up our gameplan a little, although our core focus on contested ball, pressuring to keep the ball in our half etc still remain. It was good to see us switch the ball well, especially in the first half, and when we used the ball well our forward line seemed open and we hit targets inside 50 (Fritsch, Hunt and Trac to name a few). But then the second half is where Goody needs to improve. He still hasn't gotten to the point where he can see what the other team is doing to counter us and make changes accordingly. That is on our leaders somewhat as well, but you get the feeling that we really only have a Plan A (and maybe a Plan A.5), but that there is no real Plan B or C if the opposition are on to us and ramping up the pressure. That, to me, is where Goodwin needs to get better. Is he being stubborn? Possibly. We just have to hope he learns, and I'm willing to give him more than just one game back from the first mid season break in... well... a very long time, to see if he can do it. I also think that we have made the necessary changes and looked to recruit accordingly - however, getting players to gel will take a little time, and patience isn't something us Melbourne supporters are known for (not now anyway). You're right in saying that the Tigers, Eagles, Pies etc are all pretty stable lists with players who know each other and have played together regularly. We only have that in some respects. Compare our 2018 prelim side to our side on the weekend and it's quite different. Compare the others and you would probably see less difference. Either way, I think we have a sound gameplan and a good coach, but we need both of those things to become strong if we're ever going to challenge for a flag. I think Goody has the capacity to do it, but time will tell.

Dear Demonland - I have a problem I hope you can help me with: THE CAUSE: I’ve read this discussion and I don’t know if I am in the 3% astute category or the 97% non-astute group, and it’s worrying me. If I call myself astute, then I am possibly labelling myself as arrogant or elitist. If I say I am not astute, then surely I’m belittling myself, perhaps unfairly (although maybe not). Can you please help?

I agree. But if he's going to go under the name of "Pinball Wizard" he's going to have to expect people are going to think he's a deaf, dumb, and blind kid.

Goodwins failed game plan got us to a preliminary final and the following year we were crueld by injuries. This year we have had a mini rebuild but been struck down by corona. Some posters are so pessimistic.

yep everyone rants and raves about so many players, meanwhile oliver has been a gun from day dot

I am convinced Fritsch is a marking half forward, rather than a permanent deep forward He's crafty and win's his share as an isolated target, but his field kicking is very creative and reliable. Fritsch on one side as more of a stay at home HFF and Harley on the other roaming as an extra mid.

Just watched Gawn on 360 and picked up a little something that only people who are involved at the coal face and are clear about what is being coached/ instructed can talk about. Some of the more astute on here (about 3%) have noticed the change in the direction to "play on at all cost/ chaos football". This has been evident at times and is most likely the result of what many believe is the waste of our inside 50 entries by bombing it in long - The CAUSE. To address this the players have been told to slow down a little and be more measured (not exactly Max's words but near enough) - The TREATMENT In Max's comments on 360 he has alluded to the players thinking too much about the above instruction and when they were challenged by Carlton instead of adapting to the new rhythm/pace of the game they simply stuck to their instructions. - The CONSEQUENCE I think this shows we are trying to rectify our shortcoming but much like the AFL we don't always see the potential ramifications of changes. I would hope that Richardson in his role is always the one to question changes and look at what might be the potential effects of introducing those changes. In writing this I've realised we're trying to get a cohesive 22 play together and many of them have played together very little. If you look at how Richmond, Collingwood and WC play "together" I think it's more an effect of time spent out on the field. In some respect how many players we have available (many of which are new to the Club) may be compounding the problem. There is already a big question over Goody however if he is given as much time as Buckley and Hardwick some of the issues should resolve themselves. The challenge will be how quickly Goody can get everyone on the same page.

Agree he has not been in form, has some weaknesses etc. But at his best he is a gun who reads the play beautifully, and will be an integral part of our next 8 years. Yes we have up two first round picks but it was 10 and 19, not 5 and 8. The trade was equivalent to "Lever and 72" for "pick 8". That's less than we paid for May and about the same we paid for Weideman. He will play 180 games for us if he stays injury free from here on it. It was a good deal.

@bing181 - couple of good shots there. Thanks for getting them up here for a look. While it's disappointing to see three go up while two wait down in the wings, especially as they all went the spoil which would mean the ball hits the deck, this is something that they CAN get better at. If we were showing shots of them caught behind their man, constantly being beating one on one etc then I'd be more worried. I like the shot of Nev at the bottom of the second one as he keeps an eye on Gibbons. That's some experience there.

Interesting here - where both Lever and Smith should have stayed down. They left their men (Smith/Betts, Lever/Lang) to jump for a mark that May had covered ... with predictable results. McKay was the only Carlton player who flew, Lang and Betts stayed down to walk in an easy goal. (Jetta was upfield on Gibbons.) Going to be a long season, ironing out these kinds of mistakes and developing the kind of understanding that's needed to avoid them takes time.

To me our first quarter was based around fast ball movement with high pressure, after that we went into slow ball movement and pressure dropped off. Slow ball movement just allows your opposition to set up in front of the ball. When that happens the good sides have the ability to move the ball and make the defensive team to shift, they keep doing this until they find a hole in the defensive trap. Issue we have when we try to control the ball we usually turn it over across half back or the middle of the ground, once that happens you will get scored against. Big concern for me is we dominated whilst we controlled the clearances as soon as that balanced out we couldn't score. I don't know why Jackson wasn't used in more centre bounces, something different a bloke that cab jump over you like Nic Nat compared to height and size of Max Gawn. To me they can compliment each other and on Saturday we should have used the switch more especially after quarter time

It was interesting listening to Max last night. He talked about the variables that might have caused the second half fade out. One of them being how some of our players might interpret the terminology about patience with the ball differently. It might take a while before we are on the same page but this season isn’t that long. Here’s a terminology that can’t be read in different ways. Beat those [censored]ers on Sunday!

I don't think pw is saying we should have gone after the younger Jones at the expense of his brother. We could have had both.

The lack of respect for a player who has given his all for a decade and stuck fat when he should have gone elsewhere, is truly pathetic. Players are allowed to slow down towards the end of their career. The malice being shown towards him is completely unnecessary. He has done everything right by our club, and deserves the same back. That includes hero supporters sticking the boot in.

Ricciuto's comments are somewhat embarrassing for a football club director and they’ve already been disputed by the manager of two of the players he criticized in Charlie Cameron and Mitch McGovern. Colin Young pointed to the club’s infamous 2018 training camp, which was ‘cult-like’ and left several players distraught, as a key reason for the departures. The problem is that the Crows haven’t been setting the world on fire on the field so Ricciuto would be better advised to keep his trap shut and not try to emulate Jeff Kennett who at least runs a club that’s tasted some success in recent years. He should be doing his job as football director and concentrate on the task of getting his mob off the bottom of the ladder or thereabouts.

May a “really dumb footballer”. Really? HUGE get for us IMHO. Any other club in the comp would take him in a heartbeat.

Love it. Bound to fire Lever up... Bring on the Dons!

A gun. But i don't think he works as hard defensively as he should

Bennell managed after just one game? You serious?

Nothing a few peptides can't fix.

The bombers survived a 5am start. poor things! are they OK??

There's no point harping on about an arbitrary percentage of astute observers. Only to say that you fail to take into account that DL is already a very niche small percentage of a larger group of demon fans that don't spend much time discussing and dissecting our matches, list management and coaching on a forum. Edit: So I think most people on here have to have some level of astuteness to spend their time on a niche forum reading and discussing these topics. There are very few people right now that are in the extreme category of thinking Goodwin needs to be sacked immediately. Almost all are in the wait and see how the next year or two pans out as we await how Goodys tactical changes play out on field, how the group adapts to challenges etc Tbh the 3% figure you threw out seemed like an attempt to pump yourself up and put the rest of the forum down, but it seems it was just a marketing theory. I don't want to derail the discussion however, so I'll leave it at that.

I should have asked before, are you related to SWYL? He has a habit of scanning a post and picking out something he can throw barbs at and ignores the parts he might agree with. In your case did you not read the last line of my post? The challenge will be how quickly Goody can get everyone on the same page. Now that's not a let off. The issues I spoke of can't be fixed at halftime by an address by the coach and to think otherwise just puts you squarely in the 97%. As if I need to point out anything else but WTF. Your opening comments really say a lot about you. "Goodwin's failed game plan has been replaced by Goodwin making the players doubt themselves" So are you saying Goodwin shouldn't have tried to rectify as you say the failed game plan? (Personally I think it needs to be tweaked and players added to be successful). I didn't say anything about making the players doubt themselves, but we had 9 players who had played less than 20 games together, 3 that were playing in the side for the first time, should I go on. You seem to think that the side should instantly be like Richmond and everyone should be on the same page. "it's compounded by Goodwin not picking a consistent lineup" well yes, in a way but that would be because we are trying to fix things wouldn't it?, "but we're relying on these issues to "resolve themselves"? That's not what I said, I said given sufficient time (like Bucks and Hardwick) Goodwin should be able resolve the issues ie getting everyone on the same page. I'm not suggesting Goody be given a free ride but I don't see any option other than staying the course and you have indicated you don't think he should be sacked, so what exactly do you want him do?

So, Goodwin's failed game plan has been replaced by Goodwin making the players doubt themselves and it's compounded by Goodwin not picking a consistent lineup, but we're relying on these issues to "resolve themselves"? Also, are we saying that in the 2 chances Goodwin and the leaders had to address the players while Carlton had the momentum that they didn't recognize this need to adapt? That's not very convincing of the ability to 'rectify' going forward. I'm not in the sack Goody camp, yet, but this sounds like a bit of a let off for him. He makes the decisions, he deserves the heat at the moment.

Probably still singing the song.

I like those matchups.

Wasn't Lever nearly BOG when we smashed the Crows in the Alice by 90 pts? Mark? Hello? ?

There are guys at his club that would walk over hot coals for that sort of coin. Or maybe not.

Meatheads gonna meathead.

Inclined to say Smith botched this, as he did multiple other contests. His defensive work on the weekend was absolutely abysmal, directly costing us 3 goals from 8. Barely touched the ball either, registering his first disposal in the 3rd quarter. He wasn't alone as a poor performer on the weekend, but his errors were the most glaring and showed a lack of football IQ. He really is an athlete, not a footballer. He should be played forward or not at all.

These are the exact and only stats I looked up this week. It was an issue in 2017 and I believe we lost close games due to it (and thus missed the finals). Then in the off-season they got Hogan and Gawn ultra slim and fit. In early 2018 suddenly we were top two for contested marks from memory. It's not the pack-marks. It's the outlet and release valves at half-back and on the wings which are needed. Edit: apologies to @Wiseblood who had already noted we were second for CM in 2018.

Thanks for the report. Did we proactice the defence tactic of four players flying for the same ball and the ball disappearing over the back? Or have we got that down pat now?

Agreed. For some reason he has also been copping [censored] rather than accolades since day dot in the media

He played the last minute beautifully with experience. go watch the replay, he read they were going to go long under pressure and Martin was in the wrong position for an impossible kick under pressure from Walsh. When he marked the ball it was ALL carlton everywhere on his side. He kicked to Fritsch advantage whilst outnumbered and we got the ball back when others arrived. we were gone if he didn't do that. dead in the water. But some one here just think he should have pinpointed a perfect pass to the non existent teammate ?!?!?

That’s a very good way of putting it - both the supporters and players alike! That first quarter was so good - almost like a kid riding a bike on their own for the first time: it goes so well until they realise they’re by themselves, then crash!

Some really good points. Our fast ball movement and pressure gave us all the momentum. I think we had 8 or so inside 50s before their first. At quarter time Teague's focus would have been that priority one is stop our momentum by firstly slowing down our ball movement and therefore the game (as opposed to getting the momentum back by attacking and scoring themselves). To do so he dropped a player back. And no doubt demanded his team increase their pressure (which was woeful in the first quarter). Then the second quarter become an arm wrestle. As you say when the game slowed down and there was less space in our forward line we repeatedly turned the ball over. And the big concern is that has long been an issue for us. A combination of poor kicks and poor decision makers. If we had won that arm wrestle in the second and scored a couple more goals their approach in the second half would have had to change. They would have had to attack to bridge the gap. As it was they could simply keep chipping away at the deficit. Which is why it was so painful to watch. Only trac stood up and had the courage to attack. Everyone else seemed happy to play for time. May said as much in a presser yesterday. Agree Jackson should have been moved into the ruck. Perfect opportunity as their ruckman is also young. And his leap provides a point of difference and unpredictability and would have stopped them simply sharking Maxy's hit outs as they started doing after the first quarter (what is that about?- it seems to happen all the time). As DeeZephr pointed out we barely took any contested marks up forward. Tmac didn't have one, nor did Jackson. Playing Jackson in the ruck would have allowed Maxy could go forward and provide a much needed contested marking option and create some scoring opportunities and wrest the momentum back. On momentum it didn't appear we tried anything tactically to get it back or at the least stop theirs. How about Harley deep out of the square allowing Fritter to play high half forward and giving him chop out from Jones, who was killing him. Or Smith up forward and Fritter back. Or May and Tmac swapping. Something. Oliver was beating Cripps, their best mid by a country mile (arguably close to the best in the league). What did Teague do? Move him forward. And it almost won them the game. I'm no goody knocker, and the risk of giving grist to the mill of those who are, tactically he (and Richo to be fair) did not have great day.

As DL hasn't replied I'll have a crack! You appear self aware so you're not a narcissist. You should be able to move into the 3% category although your ability to stay there is subject to a number of factors. Expect an Invoice

Oops, my apology... I misread your comment. Perhaps it needed a "We..." or "The MFC..." in front, for the benefit of old farts like me ?.

All facts, which can’t be disputed. However, do you think that opposition coaches have also worked out how to counter our game plan and this has also gone towards our decline from 2018?

Harmes led our intercepts with 8. Needs to clean up his disposal but doubt he’ll be moving out of the defence.

Collingwood, Hawthorn and Eagles (all highly successful teams/clubs faded badly in the second half. I honestly think across the league it will take the first few rounds for teams to establish some consistency. A positive from our match is the first half provides a clear picture of the way we want to play, so the coaches can show players what our game style is meant to look like, and then use footage from the second half to compare what we did differently btw halves and the impact on how things unfold.

Thanks @Queanbeyan Demon Reverse the names and it could almost be DL!

Not sure I'd be ridding us of Lever or Tmac just yet. 2020 premature expectation, I'd say.