Leaderboard

It was a full pace hip and shoulder to Snake Simmonds’ head, as he was bending down to get the ball. Could have killed him. Today it would have been 12 games minimum. It diminished Long as a player in my eyes.

Are we looking for inspiration for going through dark periods?

I’m just wondering if we might put players in their natural positions as a crazy idea. Lingers on the wing instead of half forward. Petty and Disco in the backline instead of reinventing as forwards Sparrow in the middle instead of a wing. Put some of the players brought to the club as tall forwards / ruck chop out actually in that position - they could not be less effective than what is there now, Roo excepted.

Maynard took Gys out, there we was no ball in dispute. The Kick had been completed To see players laughing and joking on monday, whilst putting in an insipid effort made me feel CHEATED

What annoys me most is this idea that dynasty’s just happen and anyone with talented players should get them. They are a f’ing hard thing to do

Some of our best form this year - the come back against Carlton, the St Kilda win, has come because Langdon has gone to half forward with ANB going on ball. BBB has played in 6 games for 7 goals, including 2 goals in his last 3 games with an average of 4 touches. Since he was inexplicably picked for the quick back up against the Crows he's been about as useful as a big red witches hat on the field. He can come back in, he'll soon go back out.

If Goodwin can turn around our season and guide us to a 6-4 record post bye then I will have a new amount of respect for him. It would have showed that he can successfully coach against adversity with respect to losing his best player for the season as well as the confidence in the playing group being at its collectively lowest ebb, as well as its pressure and skill execution. As it stand right now, the club will struggle to win 2 more games if things don't turn around whatsoever.

We are a nice club who’s culture is soft as butter and every other club knows it. I love Max to bits but his leadership style couldn’t be any softer. Goody has very little aggression in him either. Lack of response to Maynard in last years final or last weeks game is just one example of how soft we are. How many times do teams go after Max all game on and off the ball. Zero reaction from any of our players including Max. Why wouldn’t teams continue to do it. It’s not just on field either we are soft as off field too. We let Grundy go for a bag of chips because it was the right thing to do and we are nice. If Petty doesn’t sign a contract we will get bugger all for him too because nobody will believe we will hold him to the last year of his contract. We are too nice to do that. Going off the reports it looks like some of our new recruits might have a bit of aggression in them( Kolt and Kentfield) so I’m wondering if it’s something we are trying to address but it’s just as likely that we will coach that aggression out of them. Also I’m not talking about thuggery, just a willingness to stand up for your teams mates and go hard at the footy when required.

As well as two on the fulls. Absolutely butchered our scoring shots. And I don't buy it was because Collingwood had all their shots from 30m directly in front. It's factually not correct. Both their rucks kicked ridiculously acute angled goals.

I'm hoping the last game of the season has some ramifications for them and we can hurt them with a victory.

I really hope Trac comes back to the club and gives guidance on game day and mentor the mid group. He can still provide a lot from the sidelines.

Definitely giving us some curry. Not buttering us up or papadaming over the cracks .....

Different kennel. Same breed of dog.

So strange we are in tenth all of a sudden. Just two games in beating Freo ( which smashed our %) and Eagles....which weren't unreasonable to imagine we could have won ....would see us in second spot on the ladder. Go figure. It's a close season for sure but Traccas injury I feel has cemented our fate of it wasn't already.

He's playing the best we have. If you think there are players running round at Casey - who have won 3 matches all year - that would make any appreciable difference, there's a bridge in Sydney that's up for sale.

Excellent Cale Morton interview with Ben Gibson, well worth a look/listen: I saw it on YouTube. Fascinating insight into the down years a decade or more ago. Morton certainly comes across as a pretty smart bloke! ”The watch with Ben Gibson”

Gus coaching now ?? This isnt just about Gus... it's about the jumper....about what as a team you're prepared to take. Apparently we indentify as marshmallows...fuschias....happy campers.....all smiles and backslaps....woohoo. Strangely another club....and coincidentally the same one , took offence ( rightly so ) to "all duck and no dinner" and let it's uttererer know all a out it. The only thing more sickening than Gus getting maliciously flattened.. was anyone being nicey nicey to the filth before tge game, in full view of many thousands of Melbourne Supporters. What you do down the pub at the cafe is up to whomever. If youre wearing that jumper believe me there's an expectation to honour it and your team mates. No one's respecting our jumper .

But how could he smother? He came in to Brayshaw’s right side, the kick was executed on the left Maynard only had eyes for his opponent.. Nothing to do with Red and Blue glasses

Jackson gone as well. It all adds up Schache and Fullarton have contributed almost zilch, massive decline in a short period of time

I'd really like to see some others players get some more exposure in the midfield now that Trac is out and Viney and Oliver are out of form. I'd love to see Rivers, Windsor, ANB and McVee get more midfield time. I think our season may be shot and we lack depth in this area so it would be great to see how some of these players perform with decent minutes in there.

Good listen. I thought Gibby was going to ask him point blank if it was true that Gawn spewed on Tom Scully in China but they didn’t go into a lot of detail on that front..

Of course it’s my opinion. You make a point of belittling different opinions to your own. The MFC is in danger of going down again, for an extended period, we better learn to fight hard right now. The last few weeks haven’t been a good indicator

Come on, you can do better than that. Wooden spoon! Wooden spoon!

I don't buy that reasoning. If the club as a whole told the players to not ruffle up maynard then we have issues. I reckon we'd be the only club going that would let Maynard walk away from that. It bugs me. I'm not talking get suspended but cop a fine. All preseason and season long we've talked the talk, just shut up and walk the walk.

It pains me to say it but we really do play, "Bruise Free" footy!

That was a disgraceful and cowardly hit.

Agreed. To let a homegrown asset like Yze disappear was a travesty.

Collingwood managed to find a few players who just ground a superior opposition into the ground. They did it with thuggery but the competition will wake up to this strategy of attrition which achieves only degradation. WE now have a chance to promote some of our next generation . WE can still make finals and even succeed GO DEES

Spicy article from James Massala

SPC, you are correct as I remember it was the bravest kicking in danger in the history of the game.

I might be wrong, but I thought it was Joel Selwood.

The ridiculous thing is that we're playing better statistically than either Carlton or GWS were at this point last season. And by a considerable margin. We're also only two games off the pace compared to last season. Petracca is a huge loss obviously but Lever returning is huge and I hope Goodwin sticks firm with either Tomlinson or Petty in defense, and bloods Jefferson. We went an extended period last year without Oliver and also Gawn (even though we had Grundy). We've hit this patch at probably the best time: before a bye, before we play North, and before a fairly reasonable draw home. Five more wins from here gets it done: North, WC, Essendon, Gold Coast, Port, Bulldogs, GWS, Collingwood.... all very winnable. Brisbane in Brisbane honestly the toughest may match we have. We're not dead yet.

Huh? Roco has been running a good footy website with decent editorials as well as having his podcast reviewing and previewing every match of every round before it was even a thing for 8 or so years now. I don't know anybody else that has given so much energy and time to watching and discussing the actual games and not just the news and off-field stuff. Why are you potting him?

It's an opinion piece from one of their editors and a Dee's fan - not something from their FD. And not any different from anything you're already reading here.

Lol I’m a blue sky junkie, but this season is clearly boned. I’ve well and truly recalibrated my expectations.

When he stuck his hand out to Petracca, he should of been pushed over onto the ground, free kick to him at that point is really unlikely and who cares anyway. Our response to him was pathetic We have an ever so slightly soft underbelly and teams know it.

Not sure we have the personnel in terms of tall forwards

don’t worry.. with good coaching we can can rid him of those habits.

Some positivity for your Thursday

Happened to May a few weeks back. Absolutely deliberate

I think it was Joel selwood at the cattery.

Richardson said the opposite. Said the Coaches wanted a bit of a statement and Leaders said no. Max our Captain is not an aggressive type and Tracc isn’t either, actually shaking Maynard’s hand and patting his head before the game. Viney may have not got the chance and has a shoulder injury, so maybe wise not to further hurt that. For the rest, they didn’t bother. I am sure Gus and his family would have been impressed, not! The difference in attitude between the sides is apparent, when you look at how they gang tackled Langdon for a lighthearted comment and then the quotes of Maynard that he was surprised he didn’t get any treatment. I don’t think anyone even tackled Maynard during the game. He certainly bumped a few of ours. It appears our game attitude has taken a big hit.

A lot of rubbish in this thread about our medical team. and I hate the pies as much as anyone but Moore did not intend to injure trac. Seriously. Some people need to get a grip.

He’s def carrying an injury. Not sure if it’s the shoulder or something else. I noticed a few times last week that he had very little mobility. Hopefully whatever it is will come good with the bye. Agree that early season I think he was in career best form.

It's interesting that since 2021, we have had Max injured, Oliver injured and now Tracca. As much as one wants to be positive, we probably won't see our midfield anywhere near its absolute best. It used to be our biggest weapon. Let's face it Oliver, Tracc, Viney and Gawn at the peak of their powers was a great combo to behold. And we used to cobble together a pretty good fwd line with Tmac, Bbb, Spargo, Anb and Fritta. Kicking 100 points plus didn't seem so hard. And now ( certainly with Lever out, Petty moved forward and May getting older( we can't boast the best backline anymore ). It's another close season ( minus the Swan's) so we will probably stay in touch of the eight but we've come down to one player being injured, determining if we will make them. There's a chance we will break into them but it's the slimmest of slims. Probably likely to cause one or two upsets between now and the finals but imho won't make them. After our SA success, I didn't think I'd witness our decline like this. Top four seemed assured and so soon we are all pretty sure we won't play finals. What a brutal game. When we went out in straight sets in 22, I think I was still distracted by all the success of breaking an over 50 year drought. Last year, I was gutted. It was really bad luck on the fwd injury front. Especially when Milkshake had really stepped up. I know we would have won with Jake and Gus. Quite convincingly. This time the smoke from the whole Maynard event distracted me. And now with what's happened to us in the last six weeks, I've settled back into seeing things more clearly again. It's just so incredibly hard to win premierships. After 56 years of absence, one would think that fact is seared into my frontal lobes. It doesn't take much to derail a flag chance. Like last year with Jake's Knee and Maynards agro, a while years sweat and tears are erased away in a week The problem is We've tasted success and we realise how wonderful it is. I just wish watching the 21 GF replay hadn't lost most of its magic for me. I think the hardest thing to accept is not seeing a flag in person at the MCG. I was really thinking I would be attending one with this list winning more than just one. The whole COVID thing doesn't lessen our flag to me in the slightest. I just so wanted to see one not through a TV camera. It's definitely not going to happen this year and I doubt if it will in the next few. I'm past blaming players and trying to work out where the club went wrong. For me it's about accepting that the window is closed but that we need to get back to making a new one pronto.

Dale Thomas talked about how Carlton had the hard conversations with each other at the exact same point in the season last year. Following that, they shot into the 8. We need to do the same, discuss how we are going to make the most out of this year and don't skirt on the hard truths. We may not play finals, but we can't be fixated on results - it's about attitude, intent and commitment.

The issue is with Petracca out we've now lost our best player. The positive of this is we are going to find out which players have the leadership skills and mental aptitude to take the club forward. They can't hide behind our best players now.

Sestan was told a few weeks ago that he was close to selection and was given a couple of key items to work on in order to debut. I haven’t followed the Casey games closely but I think he is going ok, might be a smokey next week.

In putting a lazy 100 bucks on Norf