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Dropping Oscar doesn’t make sense to me, thought with him the team it allowed May and Lever to play their roles a lot better

I don't get it, and I don't like it. Oscar was poor last week, but we've had a settled and functioning backline since he came in. Last week we had a disgusting drop in pressure and increase in turnovers, so it's no wonder the back half performed worse than it had the previous month. Adelaide has a relatively tall forward line (Himmelberg is 198cm, McAsey is 197cm, and Walker, Fogarty and Lynch are all 193cm). Was this the game to throw the third tall defender out and, presumably, rely on Hibberd to play on someone 7cm+ taller than him? Or are we sending Tomlinson into defence when he hasn't been training as a key defender all year? Or are we really dumb enough to put Fritsch back into defence after the abject failure that was Fritsch in the backline in 2019? It doesn't make sense to me. Meanwhile our midfield last week was poor and we've made no changes. All of Sparrow, Jones, Brayshaw and Harmes retain their spots. I don't mind Bennell and ANB changing up our forward half mix, and I absolutely agree with TMac being dropped, but I'm concerned that we're going to disrupt the improvement and progress we saw in our back half. Maybe it's MFCSS, but I can see one of Adelaide's talls doing a Kent Kingsley and bagging 5 against us, making Lever and May look woeful as they repeatedly find themselves out of position trying to cover too many talls without support.

So if we're trading one of them, it's Brayshaw. No offence to Gus, but he's not even in the same field as Oliver. I'm not even so sure the club would look to trade Gus and, even if they did, I'm not sure we'll get what we want. It's easy to say trade one, but it's harder to get the player we need. They have to be out there and available. Also, harsh assessment on Bennell. His best was excellent, and even if he is a little past it due to his injury history, we've seen that he has the capability to contribute at a good level to our side.

I'm really surprised Jones gets another gig. No idea what value he is adding right now.

Double Mac out, will please many posters. I thought Oscar had been decent and that our backline looked better with him in

Embarrassing and not a surprise. It was infuriating to hear that interview with 3rd gamer Georgiadis last week saying he enjoyed running around against us with little pressure and being allowed free run to fly for marks. It just shows when we are not switched on we have bugger all intensity around the ground, to the point where even kids can gain confidence and dominate us. On the other end of the scale, we barely had a rising star nomination in 4-5 years. Not that it's the be all and end all, but it's a measure that shows our kids don't develop as well and take far longer to have an impact or make it. Player development is still the biggest weakness the club has had for decades IMO.

Oscar has been dropped because he let a player of only a few games experience, Georgiades, wipe the floor with him. Mind you, Goodwin needs a slap for a poor matchup. His reaction time is so slow that he can only play against Gorillas. He should only get a game if there is an obvious opponent.

FMD !!! I love Demonland!!! I’ve never seen Oscar get so much support!!

Amazing how many credits certain players are given more than others.

Thank phark this bloke is back in tomorrow night. It's no coincidence that we play better football when he is in the team, it's happened on multiple occasions now. Not blessed with skill but raises the bar for the whole team with his attack on the opponent. Love him!

Too top heavy massive trouble when it hits the deck. Our backline is functioning well leave it alone

I understand where both of you are coming from and while expressed differently, I really appreciate the support.

I like the selections personally. Would have brought in Hunt or Rivers for a bit of speed perhaps. But Adelaide arent a quick side either.

Lloyd definitely deserves to have his name spelt incorrectly in this thread title. He's irrelevant.

T Mac needs to take a bath in WD40 his body just cannot allow him to be agile enough to play Key fwd

Makes an awful lot of sense. Top call. As you say the coaches role has become ridiculously broad (in the last 15 years or so i reckon). Spread too thin and too much responsibility for man management, so to speak. On game day a NBA coach has one, two max assistants. Too much going on for multiple voices. I reckon AFL is the same. Too many voices. Get a coach whose expertise is tactics, strategy and game day expertise. Get a gun GM who do all the man management required a list of 40 odd young men demands. I reckon it is no coincidence Geelong and Richmond's recent success coincides with Neil Balme being at those clubs and heading their football department.

I personally feel like footy is about to take a bit of a shift in the way football departments are structured, and become more like the NBA with a lot more of the power going to the GM of footy and the senior coach effectively only focusing on coaching the team and game day tactics. I feel like the role of a senior coach has become so broad that it's really difficult to find someone capable of being good enough in enough areas that it covers the area's they aren't as strong. if i were in charge i'd be looking for the absolute best GM of footy avaliable. and then seeing how Goody (or someone else) goes in a significantly reduced senior coaching role.

Melksham's one of the rare players at the club that can kick a ball properly and through the big sticks. He stays.

One of my pet peeves is that other clubs have young guys come in and have an immediate impact. We have a crop now that were all high draft picks, but we are talking 5-7 years into their careers to actually contribute in a meaningful fashion. Power are a great example - Rozee, Duursma, Butters have been important players in the Powers rise, despite being 1st or 2nd year players and then Georgiades pops up as a first year player and contributes also. We seem to pick a lot of project players and by the time they are ready, it might be too late

This is like when you're looking for your sunglasses and eventually someone says "they're on your head!" No wonder Goodwin can't find the problem.

The coach and the players have stunk it up for a year and a half. Nothing has changed. And we have a full list. Anything else is just a pathetic excuse.

I am more worried about not wanting to turn up last Thursday. That game was over in 5 minutes Port Adelaide performed at a high standard tonight after a 4 day break Thr MFC over many years has often chosen when to go and when not to, other clubs just get on with it

Ratings? Virtually every time we are on Prime Time we completely embarrass ourselves.

Watts was a great kick. He almost never helped us win. We need players who have both attributes.

Rob is all class & his view is one that’s shared by 90% of the AFL ‘inner sanctum’ & whilst this years still not gone yet.. one eye clearly must be on list mgmt & again noise is there that we are already looking hard at some very much ‘needs’ based options which we have track record to show we are capable of, diff is this time it to correct what we incorrectly saw as our needs in past 2 off seasons. Foot Skills & A marking target with a big tank. That’s what we need and it’s what we will do all we can to get. Brayshaw would’ve been enough last year but currency far too low now, so best bet is free agency, as the other 3 top kids are never going anywhere not on your life and rightly so. Jeremy Cameron has been and very much is still on the Radar, but obv it’s at best a long-shot of 30-1 but be known, Melb ARE trying to facilitate a deal & have more space opening up than ppl realise with Jones gone Hogan off books 100% now & missing on Elliot LY. Butler wow what an oversight, esp considering many MFC coterie tried to get him to MFC it was just so obvious and yet.. But, Casboult is the one we missed on and could’ve had LY but hindsight’s a wonderful thing, still a chance but now Brown is looking the most viable and he dies have a good tank and provides much of what JH did and Weids would compliment him well. Georgiadis another we will do all we can to get but that’s a pipe dream considering he’s from WA, but with Dixon & Marshall one May be sues to top off a need for them as they are close on the premiership clock and could use one of them to pry a defender out of another club so who knows an opportunity may arise from a 3 way trade. Hunt, Brayshaw will be trading chips but again value not there u led Gus form turns quick, if it does then value goes up exponentially. Gibbs someone club may look at for his composure and foot skills if he comes free, the other one’s the club are looking at is Sheed whom I’d love & Parish. Hore and just foot skills missed as is Perry’s work at contest and hands he’s a genuine option as key fwd his contest stats show that. Fritsch needs to go back and will to shore up the foot skills, Rivers will return for same reason.. I think Jordon needs to get a look in on wing & Bedfords pressure may be handy if we get talls mix right first. Glen Bartlett backed his guys in LY & is now, quite rightly, letting rip as he’s just beyond angry believing the list is right but that the run and carry strategy should be what we are driving but he doesn’t have the nous to recognise that style can’t win against teams like WC and doesn’t hold up without more leg speed outside. Banking Geel & Lions wins would have us top 4 so doom gloom way overblown, every other club can have bad games and be written off as Clanger I mean crikey Dogs are all over place, Pies now 3 deal Howlers, we will be 5-5 if Nth don’t stun punch us (which they darn well can) and that’s far from dead and buried!

I totally agree. I thought it was an article that written by someone that didn’t want to offend anyone who might in the future be interviewing him for a footy dept job.

Bulldogs - Bont, Libba, Macrae, Dunkley, Wallis Too many inside mids!!! Wallis played forward pocket last night. Maybe they should trade the Bont!!!

o mac very stiff can't understand not keeping the backline the same yet continuing to pick jog and jones

How the f--- is Brayshaw still getting a game? He has been putrid

I wouldn't go that far with it - Oscar being in the side has allowed Lever to play his natural game in defence, so in some ways, both have benefited over the last month or so. I don't think we miss Frost at all to be honest. May is essentially his replacement and he's having a far better year.

Lloyd should go and grow his flat top and sprinkle blades of grass.

Still way too many inside mids. Amazed we are carrying all 4 of Harmes, Brayshaw, Jones and Sparrow. Should be two at the most but ideally just one of them.

Forward line already looks better on paper., Backline we had just got some balance and we drop Omac after one so so week. The midfield is the problem but we persist with playing too many like types who cant run and cant hit a kick. My problem is though when I look at those not playing I dont know who plays in the midfield ahead of them To fix that problem?

Crows have a fairly tall forward line this week don't they? Seems a strange call at this stage.

I couldn’t see us losing to Essendon when they were essentially made up of all VFL top up players and yet we did. I never take anything for granted with Melbourne.

This. Something must be wrong with him i reckon. Must be carrying an injury still. In terms of condition he has never got close to his best since his foot issues. Funnily enough i thought he looked in better shape in the Suns game than he did after a three week block of uninterrupted training and not having to recover from games.

Maybe start by losing a few kg's and improving his mobility. That's if that is even possible....

The difference might be that at other clubs they're not relying on new players to win games. They have a leadership core that do the grunt work, Our 'leadership' is very sketchy

vandenBerg officially in.

Max put a qualifier on playing the Crows: " … but my scans were relatively good this week, so it's all systems go at this stage." My guess he will nominated in the team tonight and the leave it to the last minute tomorrow to decide. The clue will be in whether Tomlinson and TMac are selected and/or who is the nominated emergency.

Agree we need players who impact games. And agree Watts never impacted games nearly enough. And he was certainly not a competitive beast. But even the best teams will have no more than handful of players who can really impact a game, in terms of being the difference between winning and losing. The key is you have mix of players, with a mix of attributes and a mix of positions they can play. Competitive ball winners, outside runners, marking targets, crumbing forwards etc etc. Watts influence was underrated i reckon as he regularly led our goal assists and by far our best inside 50 kick. That influence has been evident more in his absence. The key thing is he was our only elite kick (lewis had dropped off by then). And we so desperately need one now. Many said fritter was a like for like but as we have seen heis kicking is fr from elite. The ridiculous focus on competitive ball winners who love a contest (nd presumably a fierce will to win) has lead to alist that has way too many similar players and saw us take Sparrow at 29 and Jordon at 33 in the same draft. And for that matter saw Brayshaw get less time in his best position when sparrow got big minutes in the guts, forcing brayshaw play more mintes where his lack of pace was exposed. Compare the mix of players port have drafted - roze, georgiades, butters, marshall, dursmaa. All different, with a range of attributes, and all playing in different positions (having done so in juniors)

Wines is exactly the type of player we don’t need. We have half a dozen of his type. And a month ago he was in a rut, just like Clarry is now. Clarry’s disposal has been terrible but it’s not a career problem, I suspect it’s mental. A bit of confidence and we’ll see him back to his best. And as a side note, what we recruited Toumpas to be is exactly the type of player we still need. Someone to play on the opposite wing to Langdon and perform consistently. We botched the pick on the wrong player but hindsight is 20:20.

Dude, seriously... dont try that rubbish on me. I gave a compliment to another poster, whilst also challenging the stereotype that only blokes know footy. Your follow up was totally unwarranted. Own it.

The article makes some interesting points. One of those is the argument that there is merit to a club staying strong and keeping the faith despite the outside noise. It also makes some odd points. He suggests trying Hannan or Fritsch in the backline, in some sort of attempt to replicate Howe. What has Hannan shown to suggest he could be a defender? And worse, did the author not watch Fritsch in the backline in 2019? The stat about inside 50s vs tackles inside 50 (4th vs 14th) is important, but the question is what is the cause of that? IMO, one of the causes is being outnumbered forward of centre, meaning that it's too easy for our opponent to clear the ball before we can put pressure on. Another cause is kicks resulting in intercept marks: I'd love to see the stat for intercept marks conceded, and I suspect it would be high. No chance to lay a tackle if they've marked it. And another cause is the wrong mix of forwards (e.g. too tall vs Port). I don't agree that we need to find a different sort of "high half forward" to put pressure on. We have them: Melksham, Hannan, Pickett, vandenBerg, even Spargo/ANB/Hunt when they're in the team, can all chase and apply pressure. But it's much harder to do when we butcher the ball and turn it over going inside 50. If we hit more targets, or create more even-numbered contests inside 50, we'll be able to generate more pressure. So much of our malaise stems simply from turnovers. If we reduce the turnovers, many facets of our game improve.

In 2013 the club asked for and received a grant of $1.4Million from the AFL ... not long after Mark Neeld was sacked. It was rumoured at the time that we did have a cash-flow issue in 2013 and we did post a loss of $1.7Million that season (the only loss between the years 2008 - 2018. But I believe that Goodwin doesn't need the team to make the finals to keep hold of his position. 7 - 9 wins will see him survive especially if we see W/L tallies of 5 & 6, 7 & 8 etc as the season progresses. Every time we get a win the call for Goodwin's head dies down dramatically. Anyway, we have far bigger issues than just the coach. We have deep-seated cultural problems which runs right through the club from the Board down. And the players can't be let off the hook again either. They play on their own terms and have done for years.

We need all members of the team to want to win and not settle for second best (not just a couple of them). They also need a variety of AFL level skills that can be performed under pressure but they have to be able to "will" themselves in the game. I hope one day we find a team that can get a 70% win/lose ratio.

Which is why i said "Anyone who thinks women dont "get" footy should be referred to your posts." I shouldnt have to explain myself surely....... Seems others got exactly what i meant AF.

Strange that so many on here have said so often, “in Jason Taylor I trust.”

LH's gender has nothing to do with her posting.

Anyone who thinks women dont "get" footy should be referred to your posts. You are close to my favorite poster because you understand not just the big picture, but also get the finer details and dont sugar coat our standing in the football world. Keep it up please.