mo64

I'd had Turner ahead of Tomlinson. Most of the damaging AFL key forwards are either mobile (Curnow, Cameron, Naughton, Hipwood, Daniher, Riewoldt, McKay) or beasts {Lynch, Hawkins). Tomlinson is a straight ahead player with poor agility. I don't see him as an AFL defender any more.

Leave Spargo out. We can do better than him. If Bowey can't break into our backline, I'd rather have him playing whatever role Spargo plays. Bowey is better in every facet of the game.

Mitch White is so important in conditions like this.

Baker, lol. JVR goal after all that.

Adelaide have Rachelle and now Rankine. Fail to see how or why the Crows could get him this year. I'm sure Port are putting out the feelers, but I'd refuse to trade him.

So in 2 finals we've lost to a team with a journeyman ruckman in Hickey, and a team missing their regular ruck combination of McInerney and Daniher. If we give up cap space for 5 years, and a decent pick for Grundy, we have seriously lost the plot.

Two of the more laughable things happened in the 1st quarter when we were well on top. ANB marks 35m out directly in front, and passes it to Langdon on a worse angle. Langdon kicked the goal, but the thinking was idiotic. Then Jackson has a free on half forward and passes it to a leading Gawn in the forward pocket, and the ball spills out of bounds. This is symptomatic of our method and thought process.

I have a theory, and I don't think that fitness levels has anything to do with it. Our game plan revolves around winning contests and locking the ball into our forward 50. It requires an enormous amount of effort on the part of the mids and the forwards. With the talent we have, we build up a sizeable lead and yet invariably concede late goals before half time. The scoreboard at half time rarely reflects our dominance. At half time Goody addresses the players and tells them that we have the game on our terms. The opposition coaches of better sides will tell their players that it's impossible for Melbourne to continue at that intensity, and a 3-4 goal deficit is not insurmountable. Once the opposition get within a goal or two in the second half, it's almost game over. But I think it's more psychological than physical. I honestly believe that our players are not fully invested in our negative game plan, because they are not getting scoreboard reward for effort. Once that opposition have neutralised the game around the contests and the scoreboard, it all becomes too hard for our players to go again. The players have an ego/arrogance after winning last years flag. But they're coached to defend rather than show their talents. I think the players have lost the motivation to grind a game for 120 minutes on the back of the 2021 flag. Coaches like Paul Roos and Ross Lyon have limited shelf life at one club. Their game plans are too mentally gruelling on the players. If Goodwin wants a long tenure at the Dees, he needs to look at John Longmire, who's evolved from a negative coach to a positive coach. He's weeded out the "try hards" from the team, and replaced them with skilful players who also give effort. And after listening to all of the Burgess/Brukner podcasts in that last off-season, Burgo's role in the mental side of the game cannot be understated.

ANB played on Rich last time.

I'm not talking about the past 2 weeks. We failed to address T Mac's absence. We had the chance to either experiment with Petty up forward or play JVR. Consistent performers at VFL level like Dunstan and Chandler weren't rewarded. We persisted with ANB and Spargo, when they were giving us little. The whole team seemed to lack energy in the 2nd half of the season. Some players were banged up. Maybe some fresh faces could have lit the spark. But the match committee and coaches stuck with the same players and game plan which continually failed against the better sides.

I agree with Jackson, but BBB is being asked to do more than he's physically capable of. He's basically playing his role from last year and TMac's role. At one stage in the 1st half he was at half back. He tends to start the game well but tires in the 2nd half.

Does that make him a "unicorn"?

You complain about the umpires after every loss. How about analysing the performance of the players and coaches for a change? You might find the real reasons for our losses.

Where are all the posters who slagged off anyone who dared criticise the match committee or coaches? Blind Freddy could see that our 2 finals losses were on the cards, based on our form during the 2nd half of the season. I'm not upset. I'm angry.

Rubbish. It's the game plan. Do you think the key forwards like leading into the pocket, or having the ball kicked on their head? But we need mid sized forwards who do more than ANB, Spargo and Sparrow.

I thought Spargo was even worse, but then again that was his stock standard performance.

Not if we waste a pick on Grundy.

You clearly haven't been watching the last 14 games because we've been overrun in most of them. Your BS loading theory is thankfully dead.

Lucky we loaded. We'll be at our optimal on Grand Final day according to binman.

He's part of a football royalty family.🤷‍♂️

I'm expecting an announcement shortly of a new training facility down at the Cattery.

You are kidding? What's your definition of big money? I'm talking about someone earning over $800K. Prestia maybe, and the rest not even close.

Edwards, Lambert and Caddy have retired. Cotchin and Riewoldt have re-signed for 1 year on probably a lot less than what they were earning. They also had a swag of early draft picks last years after losing Chol and CCJ, so they would be on relatively low contracts. I can't see who else on their list other than Martin and Lynch, who would be on big dollars.

Or if you are a medi-sub, which counts towards your games tally, but never actually make it on the ground.

Thanks for your insight Dr. Deenooos.