deespicable me

It was emotional I agree. But to keep it in context, we are a shell of what we were and a team that has a hard edge. It has taken a while to come to light but every good team has a group of hard men who when the fights break out, when the physicality crosses the line, they come to the fore rallying the flag. I don't want to single out one player and pick on him but in this case I will. Bowie. Since Bowie has come back into the team we have hardly won a game. I understand the model that says we want class off the half back line, but with our team this isn't working. Look at our strength versus weight body index. We are too light. We have got our recruiting wrong. Billings, McAdam, Bowie, Fullarton, Shache. These are all players who lack grunt in the contest. On top of that we have a number of similar players within the team. Bowie, Petty, Windsor, Howes to name a few. It is a balance. I'm not calling for any of those players to be dropped necessarily but you have to have the grunt players to keep it in balance. We don't. And until we redress that imbalance we are always going to get beaten by teams that go to war with us physically. Collingwood understand this. They are a dirty team. Until we get a team that can physically stand up to them we wont win anything. If Goodwin can get it together for that one game, round 24 and topple the Pies and maybe do enough damage to stop them winning this years flag, then that will be enough for me. Because our list says we have forgotten about the art of war.

Yeah I do and I was bouyed by that win. Similar to the win against Geelong this year. We've fallen a long way since those heady days. What I didn't take into account was the point WCW made as to what were the Brayshaws wishes. This may have clouded our judgement to go in so soft. Combined with the Fremantle loss maybe we needed a reset. But I still maintain Moore knew what he was doing and we've been handed a lesson by Collingwood, and if we don't learn from that lesson we stand for nothing. In these situations we really miss both Brayshaw and Hibberd. We really miss hard men.

I was very interested to see the fall out from Moore's use of his knee as a weapon. Anyone who thinks Moore didn't know what he was doing or that he didn't know where his knee was going is being naive in my opinion. They practice using their knee and jumping into a bag all the time at training. I don't think he wanted to end Petracca's season but he certainly aimed to hurt. It was a follow up to last years Maynard "dog" act. This was the first time we had played since then and even though Melbourne's focus was lost by it's pathetic effort the week before Collingwood's wasn't. One of Moore's generals had been called to account and the Collingwood Captain was going to back him up to the hilt. This was an act of war. Collingwood won the war again and we didn't even know it was a war. We have come out looking like fools. Again. If we are to survive as a team in this era of potential greatness we have to realise whats going on. I am really only interested in one more match for the rest of the year. Round 24 against Collingwood. They have done it to us again. We have let it be done to us again. Until we beat Collingwood and physically beat Collingwood, we will never be any good again. Basic combat warfare. Come on Goodwin, get your head out of the "woe is me" [censored] and get us up for one game.

Hello men, Love the podcast and you're contributions to the club. We are very lucky to have you guys involved and your positive analysis (although Binman would suggest it is an even analysis) has helped me to appreciate the game a lot more. My observation last night in a tide of positives, all well deserved, is of an opposition player in Zac Guthrie. He had a great game. I know we held (possibly through Turner ) Stewart to a low involvement in the game, but I wonder if they were happy to let that happen as long as Guthrie was having such an impact. I thought Nibbler had a poor game by his standards, but was more worried by the efforts of Billings and Chandler. I think Guthrie played on, or more, ran off Chandler for most of the night. Do the team see this as a concern moving forward. I think we should look at developing a taller half forward option as it looked to me to be one of the only negatives on a great night. With the availability of McAdam and Melksham after the bye, I think Billings and Maybe Chandler have put their spots in danger. Thanks and Go Dees

This will be a good game. I think Geelong should be favorites and have the better form, their last two wins full of merit. Melbourne got a bit beat up before the bye with Oliver and May both playing injured. Our advantage is that we have had two long stretches between games and after taking a while we got our game going in the second half last week, we are the fresher team this time around. May, Oliver and Petty should be improved, we should be focussed and hopefully Geelong are a bit flat.

I'm not so sure. Your argument is sound enough and along with Dee Dee on the previous page you cover well the reasons the ground isn't open for training. the other one being the grounds people would prefer as little traffic as possible on the surface, but I still maintain it is very doable and it's your negative attitude that is the same as those in charge and the reason it doesn't happen. As with most things in life, things generally don't happen when there is no financial benefit to the people in charge. Just open one gate and keep people in one area. Security could be covered mainly by cameras that are already in place and staffing wouldn't need to be a lot. I agree a lot of the training sessions wouldn't attract a lot of people but the lead in to Anzac Day and finals would and it is an iconic stadium, a chance to see players training there would be a very positive attraction for the game.

I think the interstate sides get a pretty raw deal having to live out of hotels and fly every second week, so letting them train at the various stadiums they are going to play at that weekend is a good idea. We have just seen first hand the toll travel and reduced time for recovery does to the squad, so any advantages given to interstate sides makes sense. But what I think we should see is the same for Melbourne clubs at Melbourne Stadiums. I think fan engagement would be strong. At the start of each week the schedule for "training at the G" could go out and maybe even for a gold coin donation to charity there are regular training sessions that people could go to. There could be coffee carts etc and the clubs could make a big deal of it. Next week in the lead up to Anzac Day I think if marketed properly you could get 5 or 10,000 attending. The downside is staffing but I'm sure it could be doable. Further teams should be able to train down at that sh*t-hole Kardinia Park

I think there is a spot for Hunter this week.

I love your turn of phrase and I agree.

Saw TMac sitting on the "G" for about 5 minutes after the game just soaking it all in. It was nice. He's been such a great servant to the Club and I think he thought, as did many of us, he may have played his last game at the top level and to get a go again was really important for him. I hope he and BBB have great years in what will probably be their last.

Is Christian still in charge? Because he was the one who came out to say Maynard doesn't have a case to answer. All ticked off. All clear. Surely the first thing you do as an organisation is sack THAT bloke.

Maybe not the season proper but it will certainly have a big bearing on whether or not the sky is falling and all of Demonland is going to implode into a vortex of hopelesness.

Yeah some of these trades give you the pip. We gave up two first rounders for Lever. Rated him highly and paid accordingly.

One of the major reasons our commentators don't really educate and discuss the game with enough depth and understanding is the umpiring. It is one of the glaring oversights of AFL as a sport. It's like racing not giving any credence to track bias, it's like ignoring the wind as an influence at Casey. I really enjoy the referall system in cricket. They have 15 seconds to make the decision to "go upstairs", we all sit at home and discuss our choice as to weather it's in or out as do the comentators and it's played out with all the luck and drama of umpires call etc. There is no gag on the comentators except to keep it moving, and interesting. In football there is a gag on discussing one of the most influential reasons for a lot of goals, the umpiring. So as the ball gets taken back to the centre to be bounced the comentators start carrying on about how this is happening and a team is getting on top but meanwhile any true football tragic is more often than not screaming at the TV for the crazy free for or the missed free against. Football is a pretty stupid sport. I love it but while umpiring is so random and inconsistent It is a sport that is very hard to make a lot of sense of.

Sorry forgot to add TMac to that group of 3rd defenders.

I think Howes is mainly in the mix for 3rd defender with Tomlinson and Turner. I think he has a lot of scope and athleticism to be given that role but I would think it depends on the attack. Two big strong forwards I would think the 3rd defender behind May and Lever would be Tomlinson. For example I think we would have to play Tomo against Carlton where he is suited to holding McKay. Howes is still light, so he can't be expected to win one on ones against seasoned forwards, but he has so much upside in class to both Turner and Tomlinson that he should be blooded this year with at least 10 games, and as long as the coaching staff take care of him he can offer our defence a really promising option.

I think posters are a year ahead with Windsor, Tholstrup and Brown. Judd played at least one year at Casey. JVR the same. We are a strong team of senior players and I think Melbourne will give these kids a year in the VFL just as a matter of course. They seem to have a pretty good system in place where you learn your craft and build your body year 1. Koltyn would have to be something special to buck that system. I think the guys that are expected to show up and present as AFL players this year are Laurie, Howes, Woey Jnr and Turner. Adams is the one that no-one really expects to play seniors this year and although he has had enough time in the system now, he does have room for another year of building as a tall, so if he came in and played significant AFL time he would fit the brief as a surprise bolter. Of the newbies I really like Kynan Brown

If we miss the final 8 this year then finally all our whining and whinging will have been worth it and we can all blame Binman!!!

I don't think we deserve any favors

Hmmm, let's see who I can [censored] up the [censored] Oh look at this guy. Oh I can't believe it. That is so lame. I'm going to [censored] him up the [censored] so hard he won't post here for another year He, he ,he RPFC you've done it again Who's king of the boards. RPFC thats who. Take a walk loser

The Crows have been told by the Demons that Petty will not be traded - so Crows will now play hardball over Shane McAdam. Oh now the Crows are just getting petty.

Back Casey for next years VFL flag with triple towers in attack. Shack, Mac and Lobb attack.

Speculation of course. I only get news from here or I speculate Picket. But a lot of people have a story about Oliver being out and about drunk. I know I have. Not to say he shouldn't be of course. Perfectly normal behavior for a young man. Not necessarily for a full time professional sportsman though who has to run 15 km every week and is at the coal face of most contests. He is being asked to sacrifice and compromise and personally I see it as an issue for him at this point in his short life. Compare him to Trac and Viney, both married, comfortable in their own skin and settled down. Again not to knock Clarry at all. He just has a bit of growing up to do. And part of growing up is deciding whats right for you and how you would like to go about it. I think his second half of the year reflected that.

Do not accuse me of being an expert Mach5. Those guys are idiots. Anyhow I apologise for not towing the company line of "it's all bulltish, bloody journos". Anyhow the weeks before Clarry came back into the team our midfield had adapted and was in good form. I think we struggled re-integrating him back into the midfield. That sets up all kind of scenarios.

Well Clarries second half of the year was his poorest on record (in my opinion) and against a sensational last 4 years of great years. His return from injury and finals were underwhelming and I thought one of Goodwins tasks during the off season was to not only change the game plan or focus of our chaos ball attack, but to get Clarrie to buy in and get re-energised within the team. Not necessarily an easy thing to do. Add to that Yze going, who the midfield team apparently loved and theres plenty of space for clubs and journos to see a chance of jamming a wedge into our fragile team ethos after straight set double exits. We can be guaranteed these sort of stories continuing to be shoved down our throat, just as sure as the feelgood stories will continue for the next 12 odd months about Collingwood. It will be MFC who will be held to account for Brayshaws concussion issues, not football hero Maynard. Finally Oliver has yet to become an adult. He might be off-side. These are big issues for us going forward and Kate Roffey through to Goodwin and Max and the whole playing list need to spend time and energy healing, re-focussing and uniting into a strong and driven club. We are in for a wild off season. Whether it's an unfounded rumour or not, it's our response that will count.