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If he can’t, he won’t play. We hope! Should’ve been subbed on Friday night. Dunno what they were thinking, other than the pain being from the contusion (corky) and he’d run it out. They didn’t know about the fibula of course, but it’s clear he wasn’t running it off. It’s a bit worrying how grimly they hold to the idea that a NQR Tracc is better than any alternative. Hasn’t worked for Richmond and Dusty, won’t work for us. His game relies on unimpeded strength and power.

Happy 18th

As much as I despise Chris Scott as a person. What he has done well is integrate young players into the team over the years with the protection senior players. We have had opportunities to integrate players this year, being 10-0, injured players, players returning too soon from injury. We have had opportunities to do so this year but have not aside from possibly Bedford. For me we have had players at Casey deserving of an opportunity but not given one other than being named in a squad. We have had players in the ones underperforming that have not been kept honest by dropping them. Sure we finished second on the ladder with a relatively hard draw which you have to be happy with but I feel that we have missed opportunities to be better with player selection, development and method. Anything less than a Preliminary final berth will be an epic fail. The buzz word for us this year was to be “ruthless” as a football club. I don’t think we have been unfortunately.

Watching the other finals, I admired - and am extremely envious - of how open their forward lines were and how forwards were often leading into open paddocks of space. Our forward line is like a mosh pit and no one leads or has space to lead. When you’ve only got one key forward, surely a mosh pit is not a winning plan.

Frankly, I'd like to see some personnel change. We've been incredibly inconsistent for the entire second half of the year and I've remained annoyed like others that Goodwin has simply refused to blood players that have been in form at VFL. Chandler for instance. Is he the stiffest bloke going around? What happened to rewarding form? I believe the club and supporters will get a kick out of changing some things up this weekend. Brisbane just had a debutant and look at what happened? I'd love to see JVR get a gig and bring Bowey and Chandler in. We need a shake up, it's just all too boring and vanilla atm and the 22 need some excitement and a rev up. Make it happen Goodwin.

Wouldn’t mind having the AA ruckman starting the game in the ruck this week

Just watched the replay and it gives me some heart. We fumbled a lot and lacked some discipline at times. Sydney came to play and deserved the win, but we lost the game if that makes sense. I think we are good enough to turn things around and get back on track. My biggest concern is our injuries. If we don’t win next week it won’t be due to lack of effort from our players.

Sydney got 3 goals from 50m penalties - I have not seen any explanation for the Franklin 50m. The free was appalling but I see how it was paid. Jake Lloyd kicked his only two goals of the year - one was unbelievable from the boundary Rowbotham kicked one that was a fluke that bounced across a number of players. Hayward kicked a screamer from 50m on the boundary Max gifted them a goal with his kick across CHF The umpiring in the 2nd qtr was amongst the worst seen this year. Our kicking was shocking except for Fritsch's boundary goal BBBs mobility and ability to halve contests was terrible. Melksham missed 3 We missed 4 chances in the 1st 10m of the last qtr The Swans pressure was almost the highest of any team this year. Ours was also high but we were fumbly and had guys like ANB that were woeful Other teams have learned to prey on our post clearance possessions and Sydney were great when the ball hit the ground. And like against geelong they were able to spoil the ball an extra 5-10m away from our crumbers. We're not dead yet but we need to tidy up a lot

Not buying the doom and gloom. I've seen enough sides in identical positions to us now (with even worse form coming into finals) make GF's or actually win it. Dropping the first final isn't necessarily an impediment to winning a flag. Just this century you've got Brisbane in 2003, Sydney in 2005, West Coast in 2006, Hawthorn in 2015, Richmond 2020; then teams who have made the GF after losing in week 1 include Sydney in 2016, Collingwood in 2018 and Geelong in 2020 just in the last 6 years. Add to that the Bulldogs who won a flag and made another GF (2016 and 2021) playing each week. Very historical but both flags our own coach played in were 4 week finals campaigns - in 1997 they won them all and in 1998 they lost the first one then got three in a row to claim back to back. Let's hope history repeats.

Yep, just extraordinary And I can't see how or why we'd play him if he's not fully fit He's been a liability a couple of time when playing ill or injured, and thos concept of having him rest forward is silly, the forwards and their defensive run/transition forward is key to our structure and fitness is critical

I honestly don’t get it. All the grief that I heard how we the supporters were robbed last year when the finals were played in WA. This year we have 65k plus members and I imagine plenty more supporters and yet there is talk that we might be lucky to get 60k to the G this coming Friday (which would include Lion’s supporters). We are the reigning premiers, who have managed to snag a double chance in a very difficult season and our own fans are writing us off. We have the home ground advantage, surely the least we can do is give our boys a definitive home crowd advantage. Strangely and very sadly I have more faith in our players (despite being banged up) turning up and giving their all , much more than I have faith with our supporter base turning up and giving their all. (Sure, we may not be the most vocal but do we have to be the perhaps the quietest?) Please prove me wrong.

Was noise an issue when we beat hawthorn and Geelong in 2018?? Was noise an issue when we were up by 12 points in the 3rd quarter…? crowds are generally noisy when winning and quite when losing… we were losing for most of the 2nd half.. no shock that the fans were quite

Weid could do a lot of jobs - accountant, architect, fireman But footy player doesn't appear one of them

I rarely look at this thread after a loss until a couple of days have gone by. While the result was miserable, I wouldn't despair just yet, nor would I be particulalry confident. With all the faults in our game style which have doubtless been discusseed in this thread, and with a large number of our players having a shocker, how is it that we only lost by 3 goals? And 3 goals came from 50m penalties. BTW, was there any media commentary about Franklin's staging?

Shin splints are an inflammatory reaction at the bone-muscle junction between the tibia and tibialis posterior muscle (helps to ‘lock the foot’ for push off), which can lead to bone ‘stress’ and thus a ‘stress fracture’ if prolonged. A hairline fracture has an acute traumatic onset, a la Tracc’s, which as you say is the fibula and not a deal-breaker for weight-bearing (assuming it’s somewhere mid-shaft, not at the ankle mortice). As previously mentioned, if he’s good to run, jump, land, take-off, pivot, etc, so be it.

I said it before and I'll say it again these results may end up going our way. I would much rather play Geelong in a prelim than Collingwood! I think Geelong are definitely overrated and we played the best team in Sydney on Friday and really couldn't have played any worse but almost got it done. Pump Brisbane next week, and play the cats at the MCG where the crowd will likely be 50/50 rather than 70/30 in a prelim against the pies. We make the granny everything can happen. Who knows Petracca may be back to 85% by then which will be huge. I'm not writing us off!

I dunno. 90% of the game is played between the ears. Steven May deliberately took 3-4 high risk kicks through the middle of the ground from defence. They come off and we are running through the middle and the Swans are panicking about our waves of players and speed. Sadly, he missed them, Swans goaled, and we all went into our shells and played too predictably again. This is where a fit and healthy Salem makes a huge difference. He can take that kick and make it and we do different things, and clubs set up differently around us. It’s hard to ask that of Bowey just yet, but he should be doing that too. We have to balance risk and reward better - especially at the G where we haven’t got it right and are far too predictable.

At least it’s not Fritta with a hairline fracture. That’d be a big injury. Sorry. It’s been a long week, and this place needs to lighten up.

Watched the replay today with the conscious effort of seeing how Trac's body would respond after his injury. Pretty much every time he kicked the pill he was in obvious pain... Amazing effort to play out the remaining 3 & a half Qtrs. The timing of this injury couldn't have come at a worse time. He'll probably end up playing due to the stakes... but he really shouldn't be.

Could be, but I’d prefer to give credit to Sydney for being the better side Glad Goody didn’t make any excuses like Chris Scott in the prelim last year

We forced more turnovers than Sydney 81 to 75 yet they scored 70 points from turnovers from their 91 points in total and we weren't able to capitalise when we turned the ball over? We folded under the pressure of Sydney's high pressure. How can we combat that in the future? If we get through the Lions and somehow get through the Cats we are most likely going to have to play the Swans or Collingwood in a Granny and we've seen the results of our 4 matches against those 2 high pressure teams.

Just get there everyone who can. We got 90k crowds to our first two finals in 2018 and I'm sure it made a difference. You never know when we'll play our next one.

When your trust between your players is just a little off, it shows when you play teams (like us last year) that; don’t second guess a quick hand pass, make the effort to run past for overlap, leave their man to impact the contest. The boys have looked ‘tight’ all year and we have not prioritised our own pressure game all year and I would love to know why. Form is not to be flirted with; if it is such a taxing game style then rotate players through the forward line. That is my main critique of the FD this year, and tbh the whole club, we just seem rather arrogant in how we go about things. Altering your forward pressure game style because your defence CAN absorb it most of the year is, I am sorry, an arrogant and misguided thing to do IMO.

All good points. I predicted a damp squib for these finals, with the lions tigers game being the only close one. Could not have been more wrong. The pressure the swans and pies brought is almost like a new style. I mean pressure is fundamental to finals footy obviously, but the pressure both teams bring to disrupt exit from stoppages is something different. Curiously both teams had significantly less contested possessions than their opponents - the swans minus 25 and pies minus 21. On our sytem, I can't get my head around why we have changed it so much. I had expected us to go hard and fast against the swans, which we did. We didn't get ant score board seperation in the first half, so cam out and played fast in the third. But we never tried to control the tempo, which is a key part of our system. Well, it used to be. Yes, that was in large part due to the smart way the swans stopped us doing so, for example by tagging langdon and Salem (who we use a lot to control tempo) and denying us time and space. But we also fed into the pace of the game by going for high risk kicks into the corridor. Made more high risk by gawn and may trying them - and giving up three goals in doing so. So weird for us to be play such high risk, high reward footy. And we paid the price we normally make other teams pay. I don't know what the numbers were at games end, but at half time I think I saw on the scoreboard we had scored maybe one goal from turnover and they had scored 4 or 5. Such a perplexing game tactically. Yes, a big part of that was the great tactical work by the swans, but nonetheless we contributed to the tactical weirdness.

I was a few seats behind the bench, noticed a few players looked really flat, Neal-Bullen, Brown looked zonked every time he came off, I wonder if others had been touched by a bit of illness, no excuses, some just seemed to be not their effervescent selves, And it mirrored in the crowd I think, I came back into the gate at the start of the second MCC side, heard a muted roar, thought Sydney had kicked a goal, but no Kozzie did, was really surprised such was the noise level. One more observation, from ground level, Sydney's spread from the stoppage was unbelievable, it literally looked like a haze of red and white when they got going.

Totally agree on the 7:50 start time: too late for most kids. I get that it’s about getting people in on a Friday evening after work, but I’m sure most people could get there for 7:20.

Stupid by the player to play on, stupid by the football department to allow him to play on. stupid to give Brisbane a target for next week or indeed Geelong if we get that far. stupid for the long term player management of tracca stupid stupid stupid absolutely stupid not to use a fit player with two legs for the balance of the game. if Smith is not better than a one legged Trac then he should have not been medi-sub and should not have been resigned for another term. mind boggling stupid in my opinion

Brayshaw - 11 turnovers Viney - 9 turnovers Gawn - 7 turnovers Petty - 7 turnovers Lever - 6 turnovers Hibberd - 6 turnovers Sparrow, ANB, Spargo and Melksham combined for 5 turnovers total. Sydney scored 70 points from turnovers. That's the game right there. Not saying those 4 played well by any stretch, but they're not the reason we lost.

Seriously? He was moving like a cripple in the second half. I was gob smacked, and remain so, that Goody didn't bring Smith on for him. I mean, what the point of having a medi sub if you don't use it when needed? We were basically down a player for a big chunk of the match. We really needed the run Smith and energy would have contributed. Totally baffling.

Best part of this thread is the match by match interpretations and then the inference of whether he is committed, or what his trade price is.

Um - it was satire. Obviously not very good satire.

So you're saying this time in the most important game of our season were just going to let Brisbane walk all over us? Did you watch the last game of the season what we did to them?...We cost ourselves against Sydney. They didn't beat us convincingly. God the negative people on demonland destroy souls.

That Geel v Coll game was honestly one of the all time classics, great footy.

Sensible post in the cold light of day Sue. Thanks. We now don't meet swans till GF which are the team I fear most this finals. but know they can be beaten by us with more efforts and a few lineup tweaks. Cats can and should have been beaten except for the AFL rule of "No paying of holding the ball by umpies in the final quarter against Geelong F.C". Lions are certainly beatable by us and will be the year biggest dissappointmen if we don't. And we have the AA full back in stunning form. Cameron and hawkins don't scare me. Other results like Pies losing and Tiges/Dogs being eliminated also work in Dees favour. Up the Goody and team to re-set and get Friday night done which I trust in them to achieve.

4 great finals. 2 standout themes: defensive pressure and taking your chances to score. Defensive pressure. Tigers v Lions the only game where the winner didn't demonstrate it, so I would reckon the only team that can't win the GF from here is the Lions. Taking your chances to score. Dees and Freo were both wasteful but both teams can adjust that in a week. Looking at the quality of football, Cats, Pies and Swans looking the most likely at this stage. But I have had a mantra for this entire season - our best is still the best. I hang on to this so continue to believe we can win it.

The problem as I see it is we have taken our pace out of our game . Look at Trac he look to have more bulk and has lost some pace . Playing the best ruck in the comp at full forward to start the game hasn’t worked. Picket needs to be told he’s not a star just a fairly good footballer. Look at his stats throughout the season . He’s played maybe 5 good games not good enough. The loss of Burgess has cost us . We have failed to run most games out. We have strength but our pace has gone. We are selecting a team on last year’s reputation and have not changed our game style ,which has become very predictable. No changes are made during games with no plan B or C .We have a lot of talent on the list but it’s not being used enough . We fell into second place with early wins against much less talented sides but that doesn’t win finals.

@kev martin Kev, I agree - the idea that the G is somehow an advantage for us is apocryphal: it is also the home ground for Collingwood and Richmond, but the advantage is greater for them, due to the size and noise of their supporter base. Unfortunately, at most Melbourne games, our crowd may outnumber the opposition, but is not loud enough (in my opinion) to give us that significant advantage. This might be going slightly off-topic, but I believe that a home base is crucial now, to galvanising our support that has built up so well these past couple of years. Some may say it’s a question of social demographics, but I see all the fences still painted from last year, the banners still up on the houses and I believe the passion is there, it just needs to be harnessed and concentrated. I drove past Punt Rd oval yesterday, taking my daughter to her netball GF (they got done 12-9, bloody umpiring!) and saw the crowds going in for the Richmond AFLW game, with merch stands etc and it really struck me for the first time how disadvantaged we are, as a club, not having a base to congregate at. In fact, it could be a massive reason as to why the club has been so starved of success over the years. In order for the G to be anything more than an historical significance for the MFC, our supporters need to own it, to create a hostile environment like Richmond and Collingwood. That’s hard to do, when you don’t have a place to congregate and call your own.

You’re entitled to your opinion of course, but how can the best team in it have a 0-5 record against the top 4 sides? Last September I would’ve agreed with you. This year we’ve been too inconsistent in the second half of the year, which is the half you want your game in order.

On paper you would think both home teams win but take nothing for granted in season 2022. Another thing I hope that disappears with Gill is 7.50 start times, there just horrible.

Last season, we could rely on Salem to not only beat his opponent, with great one-on-one defence, but launch attacks through the corridor with pin point passing. I'm worried he is avoiding contact and had little confidence in his legs. His setting up from defence was worth three of four extra goals a game last season. We've lost that drive off half back. Then there's Lever, Gawn/Jackson, an injured Tracc and ANB with no confidence. We'll need others to step up big time on Friday.

At quarter-time In our game, despite being a couple of goals up my overriding thoughts were that Sydney’s pressure was better and we didn’t handle pressure as well as them. As a result, we fumbled and got caught a lot and for me that was one of the biggest reasons we lost.

I think the big problem is the gun KPF we need isn't available or willing to come to Melbourne. Therefore, we're looking at trying to maximise our strength in the ruck. IMV, we need to look at a different forward make up entirely next year anyway.

Bowey is elite by foot. I guarantee he will be in next week :)

I reckon: Sydney will have no issues with either Collingwood or Fremantle (though if I were Sydney I'd definitely be barracking for Fremantle to upset Collingwood, just to avoid any potential Collingwood close game hairiness) Geelong will blow Brisbane off the MCG if they get the Lions in the prelim. It will non-competitive But if Geelong get us in the prelim... I'd have much rather we won last night and given ourselves a week off to recuperate before getting either Fremantle or a chance at revenge over Collingwood. But we have no choice but to dust ourselves off and launch ourselves at our bunnies. Hopefully some start to pump up Brisbane's tyres, as is common for the EF winner against the QF loser, so that the pressure is released from us a bit. If we can make the prelim, we'll be underdogs, which might suit us perfectly.

Just watched a young key position player in Jye Amiss who in his 2nd game of AFL footy just take control of doggies defenders and made a solid contribution. The mind boggles that to this day JVR hasn't really come close to a debut. Time for ego to put his stubbornness aside and just play the kid next week.

We don’t need to spend 700k+ on a 29 year old injured ruckman. Or any ruckman for that matter. The role is the least impactful on the ground. We need quality tall marking forwards and skillful midfielders and forward flankers. Spend the big bucks on the key forward!

That was last year, which has zero relevance right now. Teams are making us look very basic in 2022. Our game plan has been dismantled, taken apart, and exploited.

I really don’t understand. We literally never use one unless we have a concussed player. I don’t think Smith wins us the game. But why the hell would you make poor Trac play out a game when he can’t even walk.

I cannot begin to explain how much I detest this post. Honestly, there's little more "pathetic" than bagging out our club for their efforts this year. You write as if defending a premiership is both easy and supposed to happen. Neither is true. We had just one fewer win this year than last year and finished 2nd after the H&A season in a year that has produced high quality football from a number of sides and has produced as even a top 6 as we've seen. All that with 11 of our 22 games against the eventual top 8. Arguing that the wheels have fallen off because we lost a close game to a good side is ridiculous. And I will never let anyone get away with trying to reduce our 2021 achievement into a "heist", or a fluke, or anything like that. Our 2021 season was one of the great seasons of recent memory. If you want to hold every future Melbourne season to the 2021 standard, that's on you, and you're going to get disappointed because you're being unreasonable.

Hairline fracture means the bone is still stable, thus can bear weight. If he can do everything he needs without being pain inhibited, he will play I’d say. One week off won’t make enough difference to the vulnerability of the bone to bother missing. It’s all about the pain. If he can’t play with the pain, then he won’t. The one risk in playing on a ‘vulnerable’ bone (it’s essentially a strut), is if he gets the wrong external contact, the bone is more likely to fracture completely. To be brutal, this would heal happily in the off-season (surgery if displaced) and be good to go in early pre-season. Tough decision, but I reckon we all know what he’d want to do.