At the break of Gawn

They can’t do anything wrong and will kick goals from the 4th level. We can’t do anything right.

Carlton also 2nd on the ladder playing our exact 2023 game plan but with some better forwards. Just shows it still goes alright. Will be great to see the contest and territory game back today.

Maybe I’ve been sucked in by the Jake Lever interview and all the other media interviews this week, but I can’t see how we lose today to a undermanned Collingwood. With the talent that we have, and an expected 100% application of effort, we get the job done. Dees to win the inside 50 count by 15+ Dees to win contested possession by 10+ Dees to play a strong forward half game. Dees by 26pts

Some real bottom of the barrel players for the Pies. Surely our response for last week and with their weaker team we get the job done.

I feel like using the evenness of the competition is giving this group an excuse. The coach and players have already come out and said last week was unacceptable, even Lever said in an interview that complacency has seeped into the group. I absolutely expect a fierce response tomorrow and hopefully it continues on after the bye.

Neither of them lost to the Eagles or by 90pts though.

This qtr shows no team is immune to pressure. Even the best team in the comp by a mile. Makes me wonder why some teams just don’t dial it up more.

Surely that’s one of the best surnames going around.

I reckon It will be: Out: Hunter, McAdam, Tomlinson In: Laurie, JvR, Howes Tomlinson had a shocker last week and the Pies have a very short forward line so I think Howes will come in for him.

I’d almost suggest we need a royal commission on how we lost to West Coast, but I guess I only have to look as far as last week’s loss and understand.

Jake Lever’s interview on the Deebrief podcast was excellent. Highly recommend giving it a listen. He alluded to a few things: 1) Effort and prep. I’m paraphrasing here but he basically said “There may be some complacency that’s seeped into the group. It’s winter in Melbourne now, and when you’ve just come off a win to get the pressure off your back, you sometimes don’t do all the necessary steps to back up the next week. Sunday’s loss shows there’s no room to be any less prepared with how tight the comp is.” 2) This also led to a focus on the group to ask themselves are they doing everything necessary in their preparation each week. 3) There has been a bit of an over correction on focusing too much on offence and not the hallmarks of our game (contest and defence). This is being addressed and expect a more contested brand from this week.

Go up the top of the page. Goody interview on 3AW

Thanks for posting this. It sounds like this week there'll be a much stronger focus on our DNA (territory game).

We had Carlton on the ropes in that SF. If Gawn and Pickett had kicked either of their goals we would’ve been in a prelim where anything could have happened. The old game plan won us a flag and 3 consecutive top 4 finishes. As David King said on 360 tonight, it’s been a complete over correction.

I had a listen to Daniel Hoyne on Sportsday. He was asked what positive things he could say about Melbourne, and he said it was pretty difficult to. To summarise, he said: "We're not getting sucked into one game and the loss to Freo. We look at the overall trend across the '24 season. They have have lost what made them a good footy side of the last 3 years. They were 1, 1, 1 the last 3 years on contested possession. They are now 12th 1,1,2 territory team over the last 3 years, they are now 15th. They have wanted to be different to their previous final campaign to open up their ball movement and get more of an offensive return. But the reality is they are the 6th worst ball movement team. So their ball movement return hasn't been there. They've lost their DNA from a contest and territory perspective, and they're not getting anything from their turnover game - Only North and West Coast are scoring less and punishing less on turnover. Lastly, defensively, they're just mid table at defending the turn-over game. It is the first time Melbourne has been negative on contest and territory for 9 years (!!)" He also went on to say, "Credit to them for trying something different, especially early on in the season where you have a bit more time up your sleeves. However, also from an individual perspective 1) Harrison Petty is the lowest rated player across the competition. 2) Steven May is having his worst season of his career (from a ratings perspective) 3) Oliver is having his worst season of his career All the reliance goes to Max and Trac and a little bit of AnB. He also then added "It's going to take a lot for this to change for them to get into premiership contention" Healey asked, "Can they do it in a space of 10 weeks?" and Hoyne's response was "I'd be very surprised if they could make such a big change"

If you spend any time on Twitter/X, you’ll know that Collingwood supporters are the most insecure supporter group in the comp by a country mile. They can’t stand the idea of another club being better than them. Considering the strong debate in the AFL on the equality of the competition at the moment, I’d argue we have the most deserved and equal playing field premiership this century. In a few years, the interstate clubs will point to our premiership and say this is how the Grand final should be run.

I suggest everyone give this a listen. David King hits the nail on the head about our game style. Saying Melbourne has had a case of identity theft was actually pretty funny and damn accurate.

Agree. I actually think Goody is a good coach and I applaud him for trying a new game plan, but we can’t have any stubbornness here. A good coach can recognise when something isn’t working and put his hand up and admit it.

Be careful what you wish for. Binman will now blame fitness or heavy loads on our loss. The problem is much deeper than that. Unfit teams have a tendency to have terrible last qtrs. Our last qtrs have been pretty good this year. Even Kane Cornes noted how fit we looked against Port 2 months back (considering the guy is a fitness freak I’d trust his judgement). I agree we are probably carrying a few players who aren’t fully fit but which team isn’t these days? Like everyone else on here, I’m just guessing, but my best guess is there’s a disconnect between the coaches and the players surrounding the game plan. The players no longer believe it works and when you’re not 100% invested, then effort can fall away quite quickly.

I’m not sure I agree with this. We’ve had some terrific last qtrs this year (Port and Geelong for example). Also I heard in an interview Tmac said that the program hasn’t changed much since Burgo left. Goody has always been strict on fitness and skin folds. Think of May in 2019, Watts in 2017 etc What I think is the players probably looked gassed because they defended all day. We let them take 140+ marks.

Consistency is a massive problem for the whole club because they’ve adopted a game plan that only works when we get the game on our terms. Unfortunately, once the opposition gets on top of clearance and possess the ball, we have no answer. If you remember 2018 we also had a massive consistency issue where we had a game that could absolutely belt teams but as soon as the opposition got their way we had no answer (think the PF, the round 4 debacle against the Hawks). If Goodwin persists with this game style, we’re basically saying goodbye to the season. Teams can make fundamental changes midway through the year. Carlton did it last year. We need to make the change now.

King and Dicko (who I don’t rate much but he was good) savaged us on First Crack. Showed stats that it was our worst loss in a decade. Showed numerous bits of vision of the confusion between the kick/mark game vs the long down the line. The group is stuck somewhere in between and don’t know what to do. King said if we don’t go back to our contested game our season will just wither and die.

Thinking about how frustrated Trac looked on the field, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a media story brewing about a disconnect between the players and the coaches (like the Yze criticism a couple of weeks back). Clubs aren’t immune to these stories so I hope it might bring about the change that’s needed.

I thought he was pretty good. I’m glad he also mentioned the coaches. We need an overhaul.