JV7

Jay Clark reporting McCartney is leaving at seasons end.

I actually can not recall a bigger drop off from a side in recent memory. Sides that either won premierships or made prelims to drop off the next season but were still there abouts were; Dogs (2016-17) Hawks (2008-09) Crows (2012-13) & (2017-18) Port (2014-15) If it wasn’t for how pathetic the GC are we would be rock bottom, in reality we were extremely lucky to beat them. 3 of our 5 wins have been under a goal, it’s just not acceptable. This side could not be any worse then were it currently sits, it’s an absolute joke. Goodwin & co have escaped the heat so far this year, if we are 1-4 or the like in the first half of next year the clubs football department will be flipped on it’s head

Honestly good luck to those who head to the G today. Your a better supporter than me, I have been to just about every game in Melbourne & multiple interstate trips over my 20 odd years as a supporter. I consider myself as hard core as most but this season has me so disenchanted & disengaged, I don't really care for the result. I will have to force myself to watch on TV, I just want this season over already.

I'm just curious no intent behind it, I follow the club closely and I don't really see what people want. As much as we wish for it, clubs are never going to be honest when it comes to injuries, whose out etc. The whole ins & outs of AFL clubs & the AFL in general is a complete different world. No one on the outside has any idea what goes on inside the 18 clubs. Never asked why, I asked what is it the club isn't communicating to us ?

Just out of curiosity, what is it that everyone wants the club to communicate to them ?

Same people calling him to be delisted are probably the same people crying we traded out Kent & Tyson and we now have "no depth" takes a squad of 40 odd to build a club. Only 22 can play each week & ANB at his best in in that 18-25 range, he proved more than that last year. He is not alone on output this year.

I remember back around 2008. A friend of mine knew Shane Crawford, he told him that Stuart Dew was named on the bench but starting forward. All the Hawks players piled onto Dew for first goal and of course he kicked the first goal, I remember at the time thinking “gees their carrying on for the first goal of a game” later that weekend found about it all, paid for their footy trip.

Hore - outstanding pick up, he is a mini Lever. Easily slots into the back 6 in our best 18. One positive of injuries to our backman is the opportunity it has given him. Baker - Think he has what it takes, adds some pace to our midfield & his skills are up to it. Hopefully by seasons end he has taken his game up a notch. Sparrow - Haven't seen enough of him to judge. Seemed okay round 1. Keilty - Just a good VFL player, not up to it. Lockhart - whilst he has played a couple of good games I'm not entirely sold on him to be honest. Jury is still out for mine, I just don't see him as a player who gets a game if we to be a top side, may be a stop gap for a bit.

Interestingly we are still #2 ranked side in contested possessions & clearances in the competition. They say you win 70% of games when you win the contested ball count which is clearly not the case for us because our contested ball is skewed. We are the #1 ranked side at winning contested ball at a stoppage but ranked 14th for contested ball around the ground, so as a lot of us are aware we are fine at winning the ball at stoppages it's what we then do with it & how we struggle to win the ball around the ground... We are also the #1 ranked side playing on from a mark, which in a modern game where controlling by foot is best. We also take the least marks equal with goal coast, so we rarely take marks but when we do we are off & going. Again our inability to control the football but foot kills us. We are the worst side for scores per inside 50 since the inside 50 stat was bought in in 1998. 16.8% of the time we score... We saw last year for large periods of games dominating inside 50 for no score so we there is proof we can turn it around.

If Weideman was at another club I guarantee a lot on this board would be calling for us to chase him. We saw his potential at the end of last season, he showed improvement on the weekend barring the obvious miss. Also people crying we've had no first round draft picks yet calling for us to trade it for a key forward this year... Please. TMac & Weideman are not alone on their output from the back end of last year. Chill the F/%k out and give the 11 remaining games a go before calling for these changes

The way I relate the signing is I follow the NFL & over there they sign back up Quarterbacks to lucrative deals for the sole reason to be a backup incase of injury. These blokes don't even play reserves, literally just practice each week in the event they may be needed. Seems Preuss is exactly that at the moment

I have only read through bits & pieces of the topic but as usual there is massive overreactions. People calling for Goodwins head, was it Goodwin's fault our players missed simple set shots or his fault we kicked inaccurate all night ? I stopped emotionally investing in games after the saints loss which is extremely hard for me to do, the season was well & truly over then. The fact we played some really good footy for large parts of the game with still so much personnel out should be encouraging. We aren't playing finals this year so all we can do is hopefully get something of our best 22 back after the bye & play some footy together & take some momentum into the pre season. The overreacting in here is over the top the season has been gone for a long time

As much as I am not a fan of JKH I think he comes back after a good return game last week. He is a better option than C.Wagner. Weideman returns for T.Smith. Petty looked sore last week so he makes way. Lockhart also looked sore if not rested then Fritsch can go, had enough of him. IN: JKH, Salem, Hibberd, Weideman OUT: C.Wagner, Petty, T.Smith, Lockhart/Fritsch Can not wait till sub par VFL footballers are no longer making up the numbers. C.Wagner J. Wagner Lockhart T.Smith Stretch Spargo Fritsch is borderline. There in lines one of the main problems at the moment.

I saw this yesterday on Brad’s Instagram and have found myself thinking about it multiple times over the past 24 hours. What an absolute tragedy, been recently married myself I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose your wife let alone the mother of your children on top of that. Really puts life into perspective, a bad day at work, stuck in traffic, the small minute things that we get caught up on in our day to day lives really mean nothing. Let alone a lot of us getting caught up on the current state of our football side, it’s sad it takes tragedies like this to realise what is really important in life. I am sure the club will get around Brad & his family and provide the support needed

I think the theory of don’t play the extra tall because of weather is old school. Unless it is absolutely pelting down for the whole game, ground conditions are usually pretty good these days, dries up quickly & new footys used every score kicked. I would almost have the oppostie view, if it is wet that means more stoppages, more ball ups, throw ins, more contact for Gawn. He’d tire a hell of a lot with the extra stoppages, Preuss’ big body in a slog against Mumford isn’t a bad idea, will it happen probably not

I personally believe that season 2019 is over in terms of making the finals & threatening to win a premiership as the season started out. Some may believe that there is still hope but realistically it is over. For some positivity I thought we could have a thread which focuses on what people are looking forward to for the rest of 2019 & then into 2020.. I will start off with my list: 1. Hunts development as a forward 2. Marty Hores continual improvement 3. Return of Jake Lever 4. Addition of Steven May 5. Getting games into Baker 6. More games into Preuss 7. How Goodwin & the players tackle the remainder of the season, whether they wilt or stand up & respond to the poor start As for 2020 really looking forward to how our backline will look with Jetta, Lever, May, Hibberd, Hore, Salem & Petty. The potential addition of a top draft pick. Hoping for a Conor Rozee type from Port. There is a lot to look forward too, the side & list is still so young. I honestly believe this is just a small blimp on the radar towards a successful period for the Dees.

6- Gawn 5- Hunt 4- Harmes 3- Hore 2 - Oliver 1 - OMac

Massively disappointing to be the better side for most of the night & let a 19 point lead slip but you can not question the endeavour & effort by the side tonight. Grossly undermanned & backs against the wall, no ones mentioned the 6 day break & double travel which is a joke, I don't think any side would have 2 trips back to back let alone on a 6 day break... Proud of the effort just disappointed we didn't get reward

Olivers [censored] handballs can f%%# off

You didn’t blame but gestured if we don’t win it’s because Goodwin isn’t a great coach like the names mentioned, he is 50 odd games into he’s senior coaching career. I am almost certain there would be multiple games that those 3 great coaches have lost over the journey when they were severely undermanned. My point was that Goodwin shouldn’t be herald a hero if we win or a bum if we lose because the great Norm Smith would struggle to coach tonight’s side to a win

You are talking 3 of the greatest of all time here. Goodwin is in his 3rd year, if we lose tonight it is not on Goodwin. He can only do so much with what we have to work with. Our injury list is as big as anyone in the league, a lot of sides would struggle in Perth with the key personnel we are missing. Richmond did it against Port earlier in the year but still had a host of premiership players. I think it’s poor to be lumping tonight’s performance on Goodwin (win or loss). It will be a serious struggle tonight, if we could have even kept the side from last week then I’d say we’d have a sneaky chance with the loss of Lewis, Hibberd & Melksham on top of what we have it would be one of the greatest Melbourne wins of all time. Unfortunately I think this has the Prelim result written all over it

Always tough these games, win & it’s “oh only GC”. Lose and it’s “how bad losing to GC” We simply must just bank the 4 points to keep the season alive, try keep building on 2 wins a row and keep this season alive. A loss and it’s curtains obviously

Not confident at all this week. I have a feeling this is a Sydney false dawn all over again. Suns have been pretty good most of the year, matched it with West Coast over there after QRT time. Going to be a real tough game, probably good to play a side like GC because we lose this we know we are definitely not up to it this year.

Going into last week I was confident of a win & saw we had GC the following week. If we can pull the ledger back to 3-5. WC, GWS, ADEL, COLL to follow. If we can get to 5-7 at the bye. We'd have to go 7-3 in the last 10 to be any chance. Highly unlikely. We all had this conversations post sydney & we saw how that played out.. GC will be no push overs up there this week.

6 - Harmes (people saying about the 2 50s it’s a crap rule & easy to get pinged on, not like he gave away 2 for mouthing off or undisciplined acts, shut down O’Meara & killed him going the other way, easily BOG) 5 - Gawn 4 - Lockhart 3 - Oliver 2 - Salem 1 - Hibberd