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1. Checks Demonland 435 times a day... it's a cultural edifice. 2. Likes the 'witty people' that post things on Demonland 3.First and last thing that is checked daily on computer/phone. 4. Questions whether this is 'life structuring' or merely 'enthusiastic' 5. In denial that it impacts on daily functioning and being present with family.

Winning this much is a strange feeling right? But it's caused me to reflect on what it means for this team and club more generally. A couple of observations. 1. This might not gel with some people on DL, but our squad was dominated by losers. Repeatedly our stars (Viney, Brayshaw, Jones, Oliver) had lost lots of games. And when the blowtorch came on in the Norf game it was interesting to watch Brayshaw in particular start to fluff kicks, or just heads start to go down. That all too familiar MFCSS started to come on, that familiar old feeling as we waited for our team to roll over like good trained losers. But we didn't - and why? Because we are now starting to build a winning culture - people who just win. It has been instructive to watch conditioned winners in the young team (who have probably always been winners in their younger careers) come in and play with that youthful exuberance and unencumbered drive to win. These guys don't have the baggage of being habitual AFL losers like some of our more senior members of the squad. I think this makes a HUGE mental difference in pressure situations and has been one of the most positive changes in this team, this year. 2. This team still plays with the yips. When Dusty Martin takes a forward 50 mark - you can see he is relishing the moment and wants to kick the goals to win the games. Oliver, Petracca, Max, Brayshaw and Kozzie are still not there yet. Look out when this winning confidence starts to do what it is doing to someone like Tom McDonald (confidence 200% atm). There are more gears to this team. 3. MFCSS is just another way of saying you don't trust the club. I've been trying to put my finger on why I suddenly don't feel anxious about the club during games. Then I realised, I actually trust this team. They say trust is something that cannot be given it must be earned. And being a generally positive person, I freely admit I've given my trust quicker than some other DL'ers may do - but jesus when they keep working through games I knew that they would lose in the past (in my heart of hearts) - then trust will flow. It's a strange feeling to trust a team to win - feels good. A last point, if you want a reflection on where this club is now think about how Carlton FC must feel about their team and squad, because I can guarantee you they have a really strong case of the CFCSS. Put another way, if we really want to beat Carlton this weekend all we need to do is get inside where we as a club have been at for the last three years before we began turning this corner. So here's how you beat a mentally weak, habitual loser of a club: 1. You niggle them, pressure them constantly, and beat them early. In short you bully them on the park and let them know that they are not at the same level as you are. They lack resilience 2. You play a four quarter game and never have patches where you aren't competing. You are ready to pounce when they inevitably have that patch in the game when they question whether they are good enough to win and they go quiet. 3. You hit them late in quarters 4. You get on chains of scoring - once they are down they struggle to bounce back and lack resilience. If these weaknesses sound all too familiar, that's because they are, that was us less than 12 months ago.

Do we know if Weideman broke his finger? ?

I think there are probably a couple of different ways to look at it. There are the basic stats (often known as 'counting stats') like kicks, handballs, clearances, hitouts, etc.... basically anything where you are just counting the things that happen on the field. Then there are the more advanced stats which can give you an idea of what, in particular, actually helps your team to win. The 17-4 centre clearance stat is a counting stat. It simply counts how many times a team clears the ball from a centre bounce. This will include a dominant clearance where a player runs out of the stoppage and kicks a goal directly, but it will also include a 15m scrub kick forward to a defender (who then moves the ball quickly for a counterattacking goal). Counting stats are nice, but only have limited use. The very interesting thing I saw was that, despite being 17th for centre clearances, we're actually 4th in centre clearance score differential. This indicates that the relative quality of our clearances is extremely high. If you look at the players we have in the centre, we have some very damaging players .... Petracca, Oliver and Viney. If you look at the setups, Petracca often runs a bit of a 'Hail Mary' run through the stoppage. The odds of this coming off are pretty remote, but we have Viney to disrupt anything that goes wrong. We obviously didn't on the weekend but generally our lost clearances are pretty ineffective whilst our won clearances are very dangerous. My favourite stats are ones to do with the expected gains based on a particular event. Things like strokes gained in golf, or expected runs in baseball. Here we can quantify the fractional gain of a good drive vs safe layup shot, or expected number of runs from a sacrifice bunt in baseball vs letting a hitter swing away. It doesn't mean that a golf shot saving you 0.1 shots will have a direct result on that score, but it means that over 100 shots you should be saving 10 shots on average, which builds up over time. These statistical models are built over time using a huge number of instances. I think about footy in a similar way. Something along the lines of the expected scores for different types of clearance, which should show you what to prioritise. For instance, a high quality centre clearance (which is delivered cleanly, unpressured, and deep to a forward target) might average (for example .... these numbers are made up!!) +2.5 points each, whilst a pressured, shallow, hack kick forwards might earn you +0.1 points per clearance. This would mean that a clean clearance is 25 times as valuable as a poor one, so we shouldn't be prioritising poor clearances to the detriment of good ones, even if we get a lot more of them. By the same token, we should be trying to prevent opposition clean clearances as much as we possibly can, even if we have to stop our own wins to do so. A reminder that I made up those numbers to explain an idea. They aren't real! What is real is that the 'counting stat' is far less important than the number of points we are expected to score from centre clearances vs the number we are expected to concede. So this explains why we have Petracca running kamikaze whilst others often are very defensive, and that the presence of Viney is crucial in them. We could definitely be getting more clearances by putting players like ANB, Spargo, etc in there because they can make use of the extra space available in the centre bounce, and sending Petracca (a power player who isn't a great stoppage player) into the forward line. This would improve the counting stat of clearances but we would score fewer points per clearance because the quality of those clearances would drop markedly. So there is a tradeoff: quality of clearance vs quantity of clearance. Quantity is the easiest thing to measure but it can often be misleading when trying to do what you're trying to do ..... which is to score more points than the opposition.

It was really interesting listening to Petracca talk in his interview with Lyon and Watson (available on the MFC website); he talked about how they sit down every season, discuss and map out the things they want to deliver, the way they want to play, the culture they want to set, and so forth. Petracca said the difference between this year and previous years, was that they actually did what they said they wanted to do. One of Paul Roos' closing speeches when he left the club was to tell the players that whatever happened from that point forward was up to them. As a bloke in my late 30s now I can vouch for the fact that for young men, sometimes it really does take a long time for the message that your future is in your own hands to get through. It's easy and natural to fall in to a habit of relying on others to get you there. It can be a lightbulb moment when you suddenly realise: it's up to me. You could have been told that by senior people 1000 times and think you understand, but it's not until it clicks in to place mentally for the individual that you really buy-in. There's no way to force it to get through, you just have to wait for the maturity to take hold. That's what I think has happened to this group of players. There's a lot to be said for maintaining consistent leadership with a constant focus, too. One thing Goodwin has in common with recent dynasty coaches such as Thompson, Hardwick and Clarkson is that he had the blowtorch put on him by the footy media and his own club supporters, right before the side came good. The administration of our club (and those other clubs) remained patient and committed, and are now benefitting from the rewards. Compare this with the administration in 2011 who shat the bed, panicked and set the club back years. We're going how we're going because the club backed Goodwin's leadership, his (and their own) ability to tweak and tinker to get the right personnel in place, including players, coaches and administrators, and they didn't panic and deviate from the master plan when there were bumps in the road. It's a massive team effort, of which Goodwin deserves a good slice of the credit. All the stuff listed in the OP is, with all respect to the OP, complete bollocks. Those are just tweaks on the periphery. Where Goodwin deserves credit is just for doing his bit, which was to continue to lead the implementation of a coaching and development programme that was agreed to and put in motion all the way back to when Roos and Jackson were running the show, and absorbing all the heat in the process. On a side note, I really like listening to Petracca be interviewed. To me, in listening to the subtle changes in the way he speaks now, you can tell the difference between the young man who was eagerly regurgitating what the coaches said to him, to a player who has absorbed and processed the message, and putting it back out there with his understanding of it. He gets it now - it's clear. It's not that he wasn't trying to before, it's just taken that final maturation step for it to click in place. I can't wait to see what the next few years brings for him, because the sky really is the limit now.

** Sam Weideman has entered the chat **

Does anyone else find their week increasingly becoming a little bit structured around Melbourne Demons content (leading up to the big game on the weekend)? 1. Monday take in the DeeBrief Podcast - usually good, but a little insular and in-jokey sometimes, but a good humorous take 2. Tuesday DL Podcast - a little bit slower paced - but with some heavier stats analysis so I like it. 3. Wednesday - bit of a deadzone - look at some Melbourne Football content - especially Gus and Gawny, Talking Points, and Injury Report. 4. Thursday - Deeluded - great guests, but a bit light in places. 5. Friday - bit of a deadzone (ideally game day). So on, am I missing anything, I know that some people listen to RSN Podcasts? First time Dad, who love to listen to a podcast while walking the little demon. My personal gripe: 1. Not enough VLOGs 2. Not enough video analysis based around statistics and strategy.

Fascinating range of opinions. Two things of which I’m confident - humans crave certainty (and are seduced by those who peddle it - hence Trump), and humans also love simple answers, particularly to conundrums. Two things of which I’m even more confident - certainty ain’t so certain, and nothing’s ever so simple as it appears or we want it to be. There is however a simple answer to the Dees 8-0 start - it’s multifactorial!

What's this nonsense about Petty being shaky? Sure, he was a little shaky against Hawthorn, but he was solid the other night. May and Lever have also had their share of shaky moments this season too. It happens when you're playing in defence and the pressure comes or players infer pressure. I think Harry was out-marked twice up the ground and didn't quite hit the kick to McDonald that cost us an early goal - that play was a little unlucky, but sloppy. He did however take an important intercept mark when the Swans were coming and was never exposed deep. He also played our deepest anchor role at times (see First Crack and On The Couch). Petty will get better from here with more continuity and become an important cog in our team defence. The more he settles in now, the better he'll be, and the better our team defence will be, come the pointy end of the season.

How about 6 factors that made me keep the faith: 1. Communication It's clear the players love to play for him and that has been directly endorsed by Brendan McCartney. Every player that we've wanted to retain has re-signed. We've got every player we seriously chased from other clubs (except Jamie Elliott who didn't move anyway) and they've invariably said "When I met Goody I was onboard" 2. List Management He's gone after the right players in the right order to strengthen our squad - Hibberd, Melksham, Lewis, Lever, May, Langdon, Tomlinson, B.Brown. Josh Mahoney deserves a lot of credit here, his list management was superb from trading players in and out, to strengthening our draft hand at the right times. And it helps having a great talent spotter in Jason Taylor. 3. Ruthlessness He's not afraid to make the hard decisions. He traded poster boys Watts and Hogan. He made Max sole captain. He was a very good player who got the absolute most out of his talent and it's clear he's driven. Where others see boring monotone, I see steely determination. 4. Game Style The contest wins big finals and that's the bedrock he's built the team on. Since the Northey days we've been flakey in this area and it was clear we weren't ever seriously challenging for the flag because of it - when the whips were cracking we wilted - but not now. Next he's focussed on defence - the second pillar to winning flags by replacing OMac and Frost with May and Lever. 5. Maturity Our best players are now up around the 100 game mark - Petracca, Oliver, Salem, Brayshaw, Gawn and, as above, we've brought in quality experience to augment them. It can also take time for a coach to hone his craft - look at Bomber Thompson and Hardwick. 6. Reasons. We've has setbacks along the way but there were explainable reasons for them, not excuses. I've acknowledged this year he's run out of "reasons" and we have to play and win finals and it looks like we're on track. I think the adversity we've faced over the past few years will ultimately stand us in good stead and remind us that it doesn't come easy.

Wish my news was of a more positive nature though. Will try and find out more, but I believe Weed will come in and both he and TMac will have stints in the ruck.

Fken fingers and toes - more trouble than they’re worth.

To be perfectly frank i reckon much of this post is load of old cobblers. And it feels a bit disingenuous to boot. The title of the thread is Goody's five big changes. But that is not what it is about. It feels like these so called 'five big changes' that have supposedly 'helped our team' are really a pretext to create a conversation/discussion about this question: 'who was responsible? Should Goody get all the credit?'. And not credit in general sense, but credit for a list of arbitrary 'changes' that are are presented as facts, when they are all highly contestable (and for what its worth i disagree with almost all of the assumptions in them. If i were to pick 6 things that have been key factors in our success this year they would be completely different). Perhaps this is unfair, but the opening post seems more about creating another opportunity to knock Goody and diminish his contribution. As opposed to generating the discussion implied in the thread title about what changes have been factors in our success. But what those factors might be is a different discussion than one related to the question 'who was responsible? Should Goody get all the credit?' Which to be honest is a much less interesting discussion, because really, as It's Time points out why does it matter? Is anyone debating how much credit Hardwick should get compared to say Leppa or Williams? Of course not. Does anyone talk about Clarkson's assistants other than in broad terms. No What about Longmire - how much credit for Cox? Or when Roos coached how much credit should Longmire have got. Or Goodwin under Roos for that matter. Perhaps goody was the mastermind and Roos a puppet (joking)? As JG rightly notes it is a team performance. The best coaching groups work in harmony with each person playing their role and to their strengths. They seem to have got that synergy right this year. As an example, i love Goody coaching from the bench as it seems to really play to his strengths. And yze in the box seems smart move too. And choco as pre game motivator seems to be working. But at the end of the day the head coach is the captain of that team. Besides the conversation about which coach or football department employee should get credit misses a key point. Surely the people who deserve most credit for our incredible performance and level this season is the players.

I think the above point is greatly underestimated by many in the footy world (not just DL), historically the really good teams of late have only had a run of success when their best players have played a significant amount of games together, Geelong had Ablett, Bartell, Enright, Scarlett, Hawkins, etc., the Hawks had Hodge, Lewis, Mitchell, Roughy, Buddy etc., the Tigers had Cotchin, Dusty, Grimes, Vlaustin, Riewolt, Edwards etc. all getting to those 100 games played together before they really clicked and dominated. I know the Hawks might have pinched one a little earlier, and the Tigers have probably brought in more players from outside to complement their list, but in all cases it's been a core of around 8 - 10 very good players who trust each other and instinctively know what the others will do which then make executing a game plan much easier. I think we've now got that, and those guys who've only been on our list for 3-4 years from other clubs, May, Lever, Langdon, Tomo, Brown, Hibberd, Melk etc. all seem to come in and fit with those guys, as compared to trying to change the game plan to suit the recruits. It takes time and all those great recent clubs had speed bumps along the way, Geelong nearly got rid of Thompson, same as Richmond and Hardwick (they went 3-10 in 2014, and then 2-4 in 2015 and then 2-7 in 2016) so the heat was on early season for them before 2017, while the Hawks were ordinary in 2005/06 before pinching the one in 2008 and missed finals in 2009.

Pity that Caroline Wilson’s on leave and therefore not available to carry out a full and proper investigation of the incident from all sides.

Frankly it's a seriously pointless exercise to have a thread without any creditable knowledge guessing which coach is responsible for what especially as your point seems to be mainly to try and find everything that Goodwin isn't responsible for. Why don't we just be happy that we are witnessing the biggest one season improvement since '64. There's so many reasons for it I find this exercise misdirected. It would have been better to have been a thread about what's improved. The players are saying the single most significant improvement is nothing to do with the coaches it's the playing group culture which is playing for team not individuals. To paraphrase Trac this week on SEN the culture change originated after the two loses in Cairns which made the players realise the culture was broken and needed to be fixed by them and across the club. They even spoke to Bartlett about it. He puts the success of that down to a collective maturity in the group. It's taken 3 1/2 rebuilds since 2007 to get enough players through the system to reach the current maturity which appears to be reaping these benefits. If you want to credit someone for the coaching credit Bartlett and Pert for holding faith in Goodwin's gameplan and ability. MFC history has been a coach with Goodwin's record would have been sacked by now and we'd be dealing with yet another upheavel probably with another unproven coach. For what it's worth if you go back through Goody's messaging from day one it's always been about the contest. That's what we're seeing now and that's what makes it look more sustainable than any MFC team I've seen since '64. Of course there are a lot of other changes we are seeing this year to the way they are playing and for sure various of the coaches have had a hand in that but let's praise the collective and particularly Goody for embracing the changes not hindering them.

Ok, I have five big changes that have helped our team this year on top of the key one from last year. What I'd love to know is who was responsible? Should Goody get all the credit? I'd love to say I know the answer, but I put my calculated guess at bottom of each move. Interested to hear your views on who is responsible. 1) Loyalty to senior players In the past Goody has got excited with his new toys (I remember his glee at seeing Oliver play even when Roosy was boss) and promoted players ahead of their time. He was behind the Oscar Mac ahead of Dunny move, he promoted Spargo as an 18yo and kept him in throughout the finals, he pushed Sparrow in for Rd 1 of 2019, he was all over Kossie and added Toby Bedford in at Rd 1 of 2020 for good measure. This year, however, he stuck fat with Jones and Jetta early when almost all of us had them written off, he played ANB over Chandler for Rd 1 and he stayed loyal to Harmes as a mid. In previous years Bowey would have played 5-6 games by now, but not this year. Person responsible for making Goody see the light: I reckon he listened to Yze or Chocco on this - my tip is Yze because up until this year the Hawks stuck with senior men and mature bodies. I also reckon Goody's own off-field issues may have helped him see the importance of staying loyal and giving first shot to your senior players. 2) Giving Hunt another go down back Ok, so under Roosy, Goody used to love watching Jayden chase back or provide run. Then early in 2018 he decided that Hunt and Frost weren't reliable enough kicks and wanted to follow the Hawthorn/Geelong precise ball movement way. Jordy's influence I suspect. They were banished with Jayden given the occasional lifeline as a pacy forward. You could see him trying to improve his kicking efficiency, often with a two-handed ball drop to ensure its accuracy. Gone also was any notion of a torp, which he unleashed so successfully in Darwin four years ago. This year someone decided that having Hunt down back again would mean Salem did not have to play on the opposition's quickest forward and as a result would have a fraction of a second more time to set things up. They also saw that under the new rules, Hunt could usually set off and break lines at will if allowed and that assisted our chances of catching other teams over the back. And I don't have the stats, but I reckon his efficiency is pretty high this year. We'd all like him to do a bit more, but his closing speed has helped with our manic pressure on opponents. Person responsible for making Goody see the light: I reckon it was Chocco who spotted early that Hunt's kicking may not look a thing of beauty, but is just as effective as his teammates. Chocco also used to love run and carry defenders at Port, so maybe he sat down and said, we are too slow down back, Hunt's your man and Goody listened. 3) Going back to ANB ANB was another one of Goody's love childs six years ago when he identified that he was better as a hard-working high half-forward than as a midfield bull (partly because he isn't actually a bull). ANB has always been our No.1 trainer, he works his butt off, but eventually, like most Demonlanders, Goody lost sight of the hard yards he does in games and started counting his turnovers. The result was he was dropped after being one of our best three against Carlton in Rd 2 last year and when he eventually came back in and was over-exuberant in a tackle, the club left him high and dry to cop a four-week dangerous tackle penalty with no appeal. This year Goody decided to reward his training excellence again and, apart from the Roos game, Nibbler has rewarded everyone with his persistence, his tackle pressure and with a rise in confidence his clever vision plays have mounted (he's not a Robbie Gray and probably never will be, but he's definitely best 22 material) and even the most niggardly of DL'ers now can see why he's been kept on and not delisted. Person responsible for making Goody see the light: I reckon this one might have actually been Goody himself. He did love ANB when he was a youngster and Goody himself wasn't a beautiful player, but he was a hard-worker and got better and more reliable as he aged. 4) Returning Harmesy to the middle There was some logic in trying him down back. In 2020 the club could see Trac had to play more in the middle and with Viney and Oliver, not to mention Angus, in the mix, Goody decided that Harmesy was expendable in the core and might be able to provide run and tightness down back. Harmesy has always been one of our vibrant players - he bumps, he blocks, he has little digs at opponents and he gets caught with the ball (a lot). But he also gets out of trouble (a lot) and he also is almost always the first on the scene of any scrum-style formation and we already know from 2018 that he loves tagging and is not scared of big names. His game against Freo (half of it with a broken hand) was mega courageous and his game and intensity against Sydney was exceptional. He's our Liam Picken - he's quick, he can mark pretty well for his size and he works his butt off. In one sense, Viney's injury is a blessing as it's allowed the move back in the guts to happen without mucking up rotations. He's not a matchwinner, but he's probably our most important role player. Person responsible for making Goody see the light: I am sure Harmesy was keen to head back into the middle and I reckon Yze may have made Goody more aware of how other sides hate playing against him and what he bring to the table with his ability to get quickly to contests. 5) Playing three talls up forward and down back This one is still a bit of a work in progress, but I reckon Goody stopped toying with alternate formats (remember how Goody went five smalls up forward against WC in Rd 1 last year) and decided three bigs up front and down back was the go. He was forced to modify this a bit because of injury and classified Fritter as a tall for the first six weeks, but now has a more even mix. Jacko's mobility has helped negate the groundball issues that three talls can create anyway. And May's kicking skills mean he has a tall defender that can break lines as well, so we can get away with what appears a top-heavy set up. Person responsible for making Goody see the light: Once again I am not sure if it was Chocco or Yze's knowledge of other programs that forced him to see the light on this. But we can all see it's working down back with Lever and May backed by a regenerated Tomlinson (until injury) and hopefully Petty grows in confidence (he was exceptional pre-season) on the resting rucks the more he plays. Finally I'd just like to add that the biggest and most crucial change occured last year and it clearly has helped our entire group feel more worthy and at home. 6) Making Gawny captain You have to remember that Goody annointed Viney and that Jack was the son of a great and was everything you could (normally) want in a leader with his desperation and courage and fearless hard work at training and in games legendary. But Jack, for all that, is a bit of an individual. He's smart, he's got a good life with a very supportive family. But he couldn't unify the guys and he didn't have the whole side's ear. Gawny may have been a knockabout but he's jungle smart and way more approachable on any number of issues. The umps love him and his banter (so he has their ear as well) and and I think we all underestimate how courageous the big bloke is, partly because he's a big bloke and you expect it. He loves all the old blokes (not just the smart ones) and it is that ability to make everyone at ease that has made him a super leader on and off the field. And if you watch his games, he steps up even more when he's needed. Closely tied into this is that he has advocated the word of Goody that the players have to be more selfless and work for the team, not as individuals. Person responsible for making Goody see the light: This happened last year and I think the players actually finally got a say and Goody felt under pressure from the media and partners after such a poor 2019 that he had to make the change.

If we need to give Weid his opportunity... here it is! ... but, if we need to switch like for like, its Majak

It took 3 attempts!

MFCSS. Thank you for clarifying that @MrReims, lest some people get the wrong idea and think it's some detestable ultra-right faction of the MFC.

Nice post, but you're tough to single out Brayshaw - his win/loss record is 50-52 and he's only had two seasons in his career where he's played in more losing games than winning ones, one of which was his first one, the other being the car crash that was 2019. I don't think he qualifies as a player who's a bit used to losing. Really the only ones on our list that were there for the really dark times are Jones, Gawn, Viney and McDonald; three of which are leading the resurgence.

He's got credits in the bank for just on this year alone. By bloody hell if he puts in another performance like that then I'd also seriously considering dropping him as well to send a message, because that was as lazy as a performance I've seen from a Melbourne player in a long time.

I just don't get it. Sutton comes out yesterday to complain that complacency has crept back into society, re: COVID. And yet he ticks off having level 4 of the Southern, Olympic, and Ponsford stands closed, which as you say promotes crowding. Sunday should get 45,000, and with the top levels closed, there won't be many empty seats in the lower levels, and thus no social distancing.

Makes getting our Centre clearances back on track even more crucial this week, as I feel Jackson has been pivotal in turning things around for us in the center the last two weeks.

Weideman plays. Brown rucks forward.

I've never listened to a podcast. Still not 100% sure what one is. and im not sure i give a rats either

I dislike branding people losers, especially the ones who did keep their heads up and keep working when times were awful. It is a huge test of character to keeping giving your best effort when you know the only thing at stake is your self-respect. There's a slightly different kind of 'loser', though - the one that is only interested in winning and tunes out of anything else. Any Carlton supporter will tell you that the trouble at their club is above all a case of players only wanting to do the 'fun' stuff. Carlton can score prolifically and attack very well but when things go against them far too many see it as someone else's job to tighten up. "I'm a great attacker / I'm a great rebounder, defensive efforts are for Weitering to do." It was also pointed out to me that Carlton have given away five or six goal runs in every single game this season. Of course, against Melbourne, that'll be when they decide to draw a line and become determined to work both ways. Many people don't understand MFCSS. They think it is just a lack of faith and trust in the club. You have to think big picture - MFCSS is a lack of faith and trust in the entire universe. An upcoming lowly opponent will sack their coach and have a stirring rebound game against us. That mid-ranked team will get their best two players back and finally have their preferred structures in place when they play us in round 18 after everyone else has had a soft go at them. We'll be the only club in fifteen years that misses out on a priority pick by one excess win, but also be the only club that gets grotesquely shamed for 'tanking' even when we were clearly genuinely awful. MFCSS dictates that Teague has been told to get the players fired up or get himself fired. He is almost certainly, right now, having coffee and smashed avocado with Patrick Cripps and saying just the right things to restore his confidence and focus. We're going to need to bring our best game this week, do not doubt it.

Great post @Altona-demon. Those early season 'come from behind' wins against St Kilda and Geelong were very important in terms of building self-belief.

I really wish people would wear masks on the packed trains to and from the football like the LAW says you should. Less than 10% of people are wearing masks, and I just don't get why. It is always crowded on those trains, how hard is it to slap a mask on? FFS the complacency of so many is going to really screw us. And I don't know why nobody is monitoring it either. We should have people on trains, especially footy trains, ensuring mask compliance. At the moment with 0 new cases beyond this one returned traveller, it seems unlikely the crowds will be cancelled. We know the risk of being outdoors is super minimal.

He was a shocker for the whole 4 quarters

With surprising regularity the people who almost pathologically seek to undermine Goodwin's standing make points so spurious as to diminish their own standing. Three of five 'big changes' are Hunt, ANB and Harmes? And having two tall forwards plus Fritsch is a major re-think? And playing Jones and Jetta for a few games is a new declaration of loyalty to the old guard? Flibbadbliddabbada. Pfft pfft.

Weed. Is it really a debate

Dogga has been playing as a forward, back up ruck, a role both TMac and Weideman have played before, I think Sam does it better, a no brainer for me, Weeds in!

If majak gets called up before Weid start imagining him in Black and White!

Yes, he was helping the publican tap a new barrel to the pumps. Was shocked to find violencing going on in the premises.

If they don't bring Weideman in now they may as well offer him up in the mid season draft

Will miss his ruck craft. Weid might offer more up forward, but Dogga is our most effective ruckman at the moment.

That’s a big shame, Max’s form has been down the past couple of weeks and now he’s without his apprentice.

Annoying but will also freshen his body for second third of season and also give Weid a look in.

I am more than happy for the permanent base to be Casey, just that a lot on here and within the club are not

MFCSS Melbourne Football Club Supporter Syndrome. Just on the players and their 'scarring' from losing so much over their careers, ... Dustin Martin started his career losing a lot of games, he has had a similar experience to Brayshaw, Oliver and Petracca, the team did change and turn it around. I'd also argue that players like Jones and co who have a lot of games in the L column are 'enjoying' the winning feeling even more and as such now have a taste, and the team itself knows what it takes, how to respond, I think losing those games has built resilience into the team ... but that is only evident when you start winning. Look at the kangas, they have no idea how to win as a group, but when they snag one, they'll understand why it was a different performance to a losing one.

And if you visit the Ground during the weekdays, you will see that it is covered with lighting modules which are there to make the grass grow. To put it simply the MCG is unavailable weekdays and from October to March. ( How many times does this need to be explained?)

You know what DJ if we win it I don’t care where the gathering point is just win the bloody thing.

Where does training at Casey rate in terms of big changes? Fitness is an obvious factor but I haven’t seen us cover the G like that before. The speed in which we shift across the ground when a team attempts a switch is lightning.

with you, we've been spoilt by the tremendous year Tommlinson was having. considering the supply the Swans got, Petty and the entire back 6 stood up incredibly well. considering his opponent mclean dominated the week before i was really happy with Petty

Too good. ?

In 2021 women should not have to have anyone defend their honour, because nobody should be behaving like a complete nuffy to women. How about you let women go out, have fun, wear what they want, drink what they want, and not take it as an invitation to be a pervert or a dead set loser? Kthnxby.

Yep, fair slice of backhanded compliment in the phrase: Person responsible for making Goody see the light If that is the starting point not much room to credit goody for anything.

I counted 14, I thought the ump was very quick to call it. I can only imagine it was because he took the ball from the contest he “felt” like he had the ball for a long time. I have to say Harmes was A LOT better than I expected him to be, a couple of issues but he looked more like 2018 Harmes. I wonder whether he has a clearer role when Viney isn’t in the team with him.

What game did you watch mate? Harmes was brilliant!