At the break of Gawn

Hopefully Pickett kicks a few tomorrow. Would absolutely cement his position in the AA side.

Anyone else feel like some of these Thursday night fixtures are giving some teams a bigger leg up in terms of longer breaks? Round 19 Blues had a 9 day break against us while we only had a 6 day break. Round 22 Dogs had a 10 day break going in against us and kicked 6 goals in the last. Round 23 Hawks have a 9 day break against us while we're backing up off 6 days. I wouldn't be surprised if scores are close at 3qtr time and we get run over again. And before you say, "swings and roundabouts" for those Thursday night teams, if you play a Thursday night game your break is usually 5 or 6 days before so you often just get a 1 day difference between the two teams. For the week after, there are some teams getting 9-10 day breaks vs an opposition getting 6 days.

I honestly can't work out the Jobe Watson selection. The guy has been out of club land for years, wasn't part of any successful era at a club, his media commentary has been less than impressive, and I'm unaware of his involvement with other panels. Does anyone have any insight on this? Feel like they missed a trick not asking a Jimmy Bartel or a Jason Dunstall type.

Meanwhile, the Saints somehow have year on year membership growth despite going backwards with a coach who's the biggest spin doctor in the game and deflects more than anyone. Honestly baffles me how Saints supporters are lapping up what Ross says.

I think it's pretty irrefutable that Goodwin and the board weren't on the same page about his position being under consideration. The board didn't communicate that to him and that reflects poorly on the board. If he had known it was under consideration, I think Goodwin is someone who would have said so and not used words like "no inkling". I understand why the board came to it's decision, but I'm disappointed how they kept Goodwin in the dark that his position was under serious threat.

Just be aware he left at the end of 2021 and wasn't at Geelong in the recent successful period where Chris Scott learnt to actually win finals.

I think if you compare Carlton and Melbourne over the last couple of weeks, Carlton's board made it very clear to Voss/Wright that their presentation was going to be used as a direct input to used to decide whether or not they continue with Voss or make a change. For Melbourne, it seems that they lacked that transparency with Goodwin and here he is thinking he's giving a standard update to the board when he was actually supposed to present why they should keep him. Just imagine having a standard catch-up with your boss at work, and then a week later told it was actually your performance review meeting and you were completely unaware and didn't get to showcase everything you've done over the last 6 months? That's what it feels like has happened. I'm just disappointed with the lack of transparency between the board and Goodwin and I can't work out if it was deceitful, cowardly or just plain incompetence.

Ironically it was the unrest of Melb supporters that partly contributed to his demise. For every person like you or me who felt the timing was wrong/too soon, you can find several others who said "good riddance".

Geez the Dogs are good at clearance. I know we were terrible, but 85% of their first possessions resulting in a clearance is crazy good.

Did Petty receive permission from Eddie to wear the prison bars?

I'm becoming less and less fussed about keeping Petracca and/or Oliver. The fact is they are superstars of an era in the past. They would barely scrape in as top 50 players now. Look at some of the young talent us and the Dogs had on the weekend. Ed Richards, Freijha, Sanders and Langford are all young talent from the draft who'd I'd rather have or (keep in the case of Langford) over Trac or Oliver. I think we're just getting blinded by sentiment on these guys and not considering some of the talent we may get through the door instead.

Reflecting on Sunday's game, and what just kills me is how well our method stacks up against good teams, but we haven't been able to beat Carlton, Saints, Port etc. That's our season gone. I feel since the bye, the team has definitely started to adapt much better to the new game plan and what we saw on Sunday is just a continuation of what Goody has been trying to do. Whoever our new coach is, I feel this group is definitely on the right track. I wouldn't be making massive changes to this style (I think Joey said we've been close to top 4 on some of our key indicators since the bye on First Crack) but some of the focus needs to be on eliminating the inconsistencies with our effort and application. We've seen us play some unbelievable footy over a few patches, but the focus next year has got to be maintaining it for longer, and we've got to do something different with stoppage. I really think our fitness program needs to be scrutinised and I just can't work out why we're so damn good in third qtrs.

Carlton sacking Brad Lloyd is a smart move. The board should seriously be questioning Richo's position.

Bucks is definitely throwing his hat into the ring based on what he's said on the couch. I think the board will have to sell to him a bit about the training base plans and board stability. Bucks' analysis on the Pies problem was excellent btw. I also thought Lewis's comments were interesting. He's always very measured but he often gives you a good little insight into Melb. I think there's still a bit of immaturity in the locker room and players were becoming too comfortable with Goody as he was everyone's friend. Someone who has that balance of empathy and care but someone you always know who's boss is what they need.

If we can even clearance and get some territory we'll win this. The dogs defence is woeful.

Dogs fans don't travel from Marvel. Dees fans say they won't go until Goodwin is sacked and then they still don't show up.

And I applaud JT for doing a terrific job at that (although I'm not sold on Kolt yet), but did Tim Lamb do enough to get outside players who can run and use the ball? I'm not sure he did.

Today will be a good test for our on-field leaders. Gawn, Viney, Trac etc will be able to tell straight away if some efforts are off and should pull them into line.

Effort hasn't really been the problem apart from a couple of starts. List management needs to take some responsibility. There's been no injection of slick ball users and good runners apart from some kids via the draft.

Just also regarding Buckley, I also remember once Goodwin saying in an interview that he found Chris Scott, Buckley and Longmire the hardest to coach against due to their in-game tactics. Interesting if you look at head 2 heads and it's probably his worst record. Goodwin vs Buckley - Goodwin 2 Buckley 5 Goodwin vs Longmire - Goodwin 4 Longmire 7 Goodwin vs Scott - Goodwin 5, Scott 8.

Chaplin was forwards coach in 2018 where we were the number 1 scoring team. I'm not against getting someone different but he's a highly regarded senior assistant and wants to stay at the club.

There are some really good assistants still at Collingwood who Buckley has a good relationship with including Skipworth and Boyd. They would be two great acquisitions to come across with him and probably destabilise the Pies at the same time! A good outcome could be: Bucks: Head coach Boyd: Defensive Coach Skipworth: Midfield Coach Chaplin: forwards coach

I was having a look at what changes the Pies made from 2021 to 2022, and although most people will say it was just McRae that replaced Buckley which yielded their turnaround, there was actually a lot that went on so I think it's a bit short-sighted to say Buckley was the problem. Here a list of coaching changes that occurred: IN: Craig McRae, Justin Leppitsch (strategy and defence), Brendon Bolton, Josh Fraser, Neville Jetta OUT: Nathan Buckley, Robert Harvey, Brenton Sanderson, Damian Carroll Skipworth and Boyd stayed while Selwood was promoted to midfield coach. Graham Wright joined in early 2021 as head of football so he was also another change albeit earlier. In essence, a truckload of changes were done on the coaching end. The key player changes from their best 22 included: Nick Daicos, Lipinski, McReery, Ginnivan, Cameron as sole ruck, a fit Elliott and a full season from Moore plus the improvement of Josh Daicos, Quaynor and Noble. Impossible to say whether or not improvement would have happened if Buckley had stayed, but the assistant coach shakeup was dramatic.

I just realized that if we beat the Dogs on Sunday we basically guarantee Collingwood to make the 8. What a terrible choice 😑

Now that this is confirmed, it makes for a really interesting sliding doors moment for both clubs. Melbourne has taken a new path to get better while Carlton is staying the course and sticking by Voss. It's going to be a really interesting narrative next year and both clubs will be heavily compared. I'm surprised Voss survived but I also think Wright is a very astute operator so he must have a good reason.