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Meh. Jumped ship to chase success in our lowest point. Good riddance

Dominating finals isnt a requirement, because not all players play finals. He has only played 5 seasons since being drafted. In each of the last 4 years, he has had more disposals than any othe MFC player has ever had in the history of the game. He has had the 1st, 4th, 3rd and 3rd most contested possessions in the comp in the last 4 years. He has had the 6th, 9th, 3rd, and 10th most disposals in the comp in the last 4 years. He has had the 7th, 13th, 3rd and 8th most effective disposals in the comp in the last 4 years. He has had the 5th, 7th, 3rd, and 6th most tackles in the comp in the last 4 years. He has had the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 7th most clearances in the comp in the last 4 years. These are the stats that are relevant to midfielders. He is comfortably in the best 5 midfielders in the competition. It would be arrogant if he said he couldn't get better full stop. He hasn't said that. And neither did I. He doesn't need "better coaching" to get there. It is ridiculous of you to claim he doesnt have good coaching, when he has been able to be able to develop this well.

He got the cheap Flag he wanted. I remember the day he "gave up" whilst playing under Roosy..

Thanks for nothing Chip

What's this story about Goodwin ever taking any input from assistants. I know directly from Brendan McCartney that they had a close and fruitful relationship. When Macca left everything he said was positive about Goodwin.

A must read for aspiring elite midfielders: Lachie Neale's: inside-the-mind-of-the-afl-s-best This year, "I worked really hard on driving with my legs, kicking the ball a lot more and trying to get centre forward to set up a few more attacking plays for us, rather than just trying to accumulate the footy. I've worked really hard to change that and add little bits and pieces this year and it's come to fruition a bit this year and, if I kicked straighter this year, I'd have a few more goals (he's kicked 11.13)." "There's been patches throughout this season where I haven't probably played at my best, so I can become even more consistent and try to deliver more week in and week out. I've tried to add a little bit in terms of when I get attention and release our players and free up a few of our players, which I haven't done so well in the past. "It might not show in disposals and clearances and key stats, but trying to influence the game in other ways as well going forward." I see a lot of Oliver in Neale prior to this year's improvement. I have been criticised on DL for saying Oliver accumulates high stats but doesn't impact the game. He needs to impact games and kick goals himself and have more goal involvements. Then he will be in the class of Dusty, Neale, Dangerfield. I love Oliver and would love to see him fulfill his potential so I hope the club develops him to become a complete, elite player and not leave it up to 'natural' improvement. I have little doubt he can do it.

This is the only thread I've ever read that has got to 2 pages with not a single dissenting post or cross word to another poster. Hate of the bombers. Bringing dees fans together since September 2000.

People need to stop thinking of Preuss as whether he is best 22 and think of him as a quality 2nd option in a position with low coverage. This is not like saying he is our 10th best mid, 8th best forward. If Gawn went down early in the season you are not going to throw second year LJ into the ruck for a year. He has significantly more value on our list as risk mitigation than being considered for a player in contract. If he goes this will not be to do him favours this will be because the deal works well for us. With potentially 3+ clubs in need if he leaves I am confident it will be for an important part of our list management puzzle whether player or pick(s) that support the overall picture.

Excellent point Steve. Over the years, some of my best smut has been deleted and yet the above dull rubbish continues to clog and derail a thread.

If Fantasia, Daniher and Saad go, then with compensation picks and traded picks , you can guarantee that our first pick (23) has dropped further. This is exactly why we traded out of this draft to get Pickett last year.

You want to start from the bottom? That isn't ruthless, it's something else entirely. One of the commonalities among all of the recent successful teams is that they went through a period of not quite making the grade when it seemed like they should. Throughout these periods, those teams didn't flinch. They made smart decisions and chipped away at their deficiencies. Hardwick had seven - what many here would call failed - seasons at Richmond before breaking through. Had Richmond jumped the gun and removed Hardwick, I doubt they would have had anywhere near the same success. That's not because his coaching skills are any better than the next guy but because when you make significant change in an organisation, it's not a free hit. If you lose ten guys from any organisation, that has an effect on everyone. It's not that substantial change should never happen, but you'd want to be damn sure - like North Melbourne probably are - that rebuilding your team, both from an on-field and cultural/morale standpoint is what you want. I don't think this is where our team is currently at. There are many areas that need improvement but let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

What a load of rubbish. He gave the club very good service and got himself an AA guernsey when we were tripe. Good luck to him but clearly haters are gonna hate.

My most hated team by the length of flemington straight. I was at the GF in 2000. Essendon most arrogant supporters in the league. Starting to worry about Carlton becoming great again.

Word on the street is they're changing the name of their training facility from The Hanger to The Hurt Locker

Hatred of the bombers. That's what Melbourne supporters have got in spades.......as well as wit, charm, a great sense of humour and stoicism. And in my case, enough single malt whiskey to get me through the football season.

They may have lots of top 10 picks but as we (and Carlt, Bris, GCS, etc) know only too well without the culture, administration and coaching they don't amount to much and you can still wallow at the bottom of the ladder. They are in denial. Their GM Football claiming the players leaving have a problem rather than the club have a problem. Too arrogant to admit their 'glorious' club can do wrong. Its all karma for their drug cheating years. They have earnt their stint at the bottom of the ladder. Hope they enjoy it for a long time to come!

MFCSS flaring up like crazy. Either Trac is fat again or will be eaten by a crocodile. Failing that, he clearly looks unhappy about his first placing in the best & fairest and will seek a trade to the Trinity Beach Bulldogs.

Wouldn't jump up and down about this too much. This could be us next year if we don't make the 8.

Agree wholeheartedly with Ungarie Boy. Some Posters : Use possessions as their criteria under rate the opponents especially for the defenders , do not take into account what /and how the ball is coming down to your zone/opponent. So many people have criticised OMac for Membrey's mark . There was nothing he/or 90% of AFL defenders could have done. Once a bloke gets 3 yards in front and the ball is delivered in the right place all you can do is hope !! A lot of criticism of players really does go beyond the pale. They are all young men with different attributes who are playing their hardest. That does not mean they are insipid/mentally retarded/ absolute S#$$$@ etc whic is routinely leveled via some contributors. The Mc Donalds ( and I am not related or have met them) were both No 51 draft picks , and neither came to the club with reputations like TRac, Clarrie etc so they have been very good team players for MFC . They have been a credit to have played as much AFL as they have and would not have done it without massive personal efforts. So....lay off the personal insults !!!

I think it's a lot to do with Max to be honest mate, these guys are dominant mids, but i don't think we get anything like the value for Max's dominance that we should, but the reality of Max's dominance is that we set up very aggressively to win clearance and don't give ourselves much room to defend as a result, so if we lose stoppage or they get it to the outside we're under the pump. Max in my view is the single most dominant tap ruckman i've ever seen, and we should be scoring 5-6 goals per game as a result of that dominance. but the majority of his taps the players aren't reading, or aren't quite right so they're either contested or to the other side too often. I think a gun midfield/stoppage coach could tidy this up very quickly, i think this is the area, where if we get it right, we will become a top 4 side very quickly. because our backline is solid, and if we can get the ball in to our forwards 1v1 from clean clearance more regulalry, they'll be hard to stop.

Interestingly the players that played the were generally those that could play on the outside in their later career. Brent Harvey, Kevin Barlett, Michael Tuck, Shaun Burgoyne, Robert Harvey, Craig Bradley, Adam Goodes, Brad Johnson, John Blakey, Gary Ablett, Doug Hawkins, Kade Simpson ...... Some of those were inside players at their peak, but they got the longevity by being able to play outside. That's what we're seeing with Jones, Lewis and Vince, who didn't have great pace to start with so fell away one they slowed down from 'average' to 'slow'. Isaac Smith, provided he stays injury free, will not become 'slow', but he may move from 'fast' to 'average' whilst still remaining a great aerobic athlete. Even an averagely quick Isaac Smith is still a very good wingman and should continue be for a number of years (injury dependent).

Tom's right! Many supporters seem to think that unless a player is elite, then they must be junk and fair game for abuse (not being relevant). No team has won a premiership comprising only A grader's (supported by elite) look at our very own Stephen Armstrong as a Weagle premiership player. There's even a Morton who won a premiership. Oscar performs admirably and as strange as it seems I am more relaxed with him kicking than most of our other talls (he's safe, despite others like May being better kicks). Many seem to base a lot of their opinion on his early output when he was thrown into a struggling team, as a KPP, while very young (and not fully developed). As a coach I do not just see the numbers as performance. I currently have an inside midfielder who doesn't wrack the big numbers expected of the role (which others in the team could do better), but when he plays in the midfield we never lose it and rarely is a goal scored against us (they predominantly happen on his rotations). I seem to recall Omac coming into the team this year which equated to May and Lever performance lifting to new levels, which they then maintained ' making Omacs role less of a need; but would they have gotten to that point without the confidence gained from Omacs inclusion. This is not say he cannot be traded, it's just an observation that he does have value, he is a contributor, and can form part of a premiership team. Ironically calls for him being traded is actually recognition that he can play such a role (for someone)!

Well I must say it will be a shame if Essendon are decimated by the loss of a number of players they would probably wish to keep. First Saad, now Daniher. Who next ? Let the dominoes fall and the evil empire struggle to compete for a decade. Couldnt happen to a better bunch of bastrrrrrds !!!

The guy played 130 odd games for us, more than for the Hawks. It's the classy thing to so, snipping at a guy who gave us pretty good service while he was here is not a good look.

Been saying a similar thing for years now. I agree that Max is the best tap-ruck I've ever seen, but that conception allows opposition mids to prepare to counter it from a negating perspective. When a Pedo or Preuss comes in it's back to a 50-50 contest and the pure ball-winning dominance of our mids get to shine. I honestly don't know the solution - but I hope we can come up with a way to capitalise on both having Max and the likes of Trac, Clarry and Viney in the starting midfield.

I think it's pronounced OOZAIR. Teammates used to call him "knock knock"

If we’re having to beg Smith to join us with a longer contract then we should back away from the deal. If we’re a 9th place team with a bright future bound for finals then he should be keen as mustard to join. If he’s not, let’s find someone else

I disagree - Pert has now put his own reputation on the line, by owning the responsibility. Good leadership in my book. Whether it works or not, is another question...

He’s an absolute champion. Get him a pen. Sign up until 2025 at least

How can this peanut be allowed to continue spamming this site and It’s posters? Where's a mod when you need one?

So pleased he’s done a ‘deep dive’ rather than a thorough analysis.

How did this team not win a flag???

Apparently Jon Ralph on the Herald Sun trade chat today mentioned that we are still open to trading Tmac.

Sam Mclure made an interesting comment on Footy Classified about GWS should target him for a role down back. This could open a potential muti player trade scenario. We send McDonald & Preuss to GWS, they send something to North who send Brown & Polec to us maybe???

?

And [censored] oath we should go all out for Smith. He is quality, hasn't slowed down, has been extremely durable and will instantly make us a better side and increase our chances of making the 8 and therefore a crack at a flag. It's an absolute no brainer. How the [censored] people think otherwise is beyond me.

Poster?

Scraping into the 8 in 2021 is also a fail. We need a strong start to the season and we need to challenge for the top 4for the whole season.. I'll be content with position 5 or 6 but not scraping in. Needless to say we have to perform well against the top teams

Just a hunch, but imo Pert has a 'hard edge'. Exactly what our Club needs in this situation, and what most of us have been baying for.

Agree. He goes to make us better, or he stays. He is not someone we have to get rid of. Other clubs have a need, let them pay for it. If he goes I would rookie an experienced ruck as backup for a season or 2, while LJ and Bradtke develop. Otherwise we could be left vulnerable.

Agreed, I'm not saying we will give him away for nothing, hopefully we get fair compensation, but very little gained keeping him if he's made his mind up he wants the opportunity to be #1 elsewhere.

He has also taken responsibility for conducting the coaching review, which means that all decisions will ultimately be on him. You'd think there will be pretty significant changes, as he'll want to get it right, not only for the club's sake, but for his own.

All those saying we hold all the power as he's contracted and it will be a bidding war, forget how it works. He'll nominate a club and we'll get him there at a fair price. In recent years there's only been the odd case (papley/daniher) where the player hasn't got to where they want, contracted or not, but can't see us standing in his way here.

Carlton to acquire Williams, Saad, Merrett, Oliver & Lachie Hunter by the sounds of things. Decent off season. Wonder if they're going to make a late play for Viney offering 6 years instead of 5.

I read this email out loud to myself in Gary Pert's voice last night and then proceeded to talk like that for the rest of the night.

I have no doubt he will extend for a couple of years, especially with Rivers extending

Things may change over time, but when I spoke to him a couple of days after being drafted, he indicated that he'd spent plenty of time in Melbourne before and was pleased to be coming over. Said he had travelled many times with elite junior squads in more than 1 sport. Also mentioned the fit with MFC needing a flexible tall was attractive

If there is one thing we've done well over my time following the MFC, it's developing ruckmen. Jim Stynes (Brownlow, 2 x All Australians, 4 x BnF) Jeff White (1 x All Australian, 1 x BnF) Mark Jamar (1x All Australian) Max Gawn (4 x All Australian, 2 x BnF) Not to mention Darren Jolly, Troy Simmonds and Stef Martin. That's 30 years of consistently elite performances - I'd say that'd be better than any team in the league.