At the break of Gawn

33 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

This is what it’s all about

Goodwin doesn’t care about Draft Picks

he backs himself to Coach like Bellamey (long term)

i thought this last summer when Watts was disciplined. 

Goodwin couldn’t care whether Jack was a number 1 draft pick

Adelaide also has the best captain in the league and a great leadership group. Tex is a lad who can have fun but is as selfless as anyone out on the field. We've had an uncommunicative, angry and downtrodden midfielder who doesn't posses any leadership qualities who just bombs the ball in. Then we now also have a young kid who just loves a tough ball get and plays 16hrs of pc games on his days off. 

I can't see this club going anywhere until we have a proper leader. Jettisoning guys who don't fit the "serious persona" won't get us anywhere. 

3 minutes ago, jumbo returns said:

I hope he goes so that he can have some respite

Then, all the focus can be on Bugg

Over to the haters...go nuts

I can't wait to see who we're going to blame all our problems on next year. 

13 minutes ago, DSP said:

Watts as good as gone according to Waldron on Hungry for Sport  SEN. On $500,000 apprently and needs to be moved to make way for Lever.

So, the Dees sign him for 3 years and then one year in realise they can't afford him to sign a key back who they've been on the lookout for a number of years?  Doesn't add up or unless it's really bad list management. 

2 hours ago, picket fence said:

Ok 

1 I wanted MARTIN before either Trengove or Scully ( trawl through my posts and you will see!)

2 I was again on the money wanting Wines instead of Toumpas who was and has been as useless as an ashtray in a motor bike.

Hell, recruiting at MFC when these Mistakes were made has stuffed the club!

Martin would just be a tradie playing footy for Yarawonga if we had selected him. The club would've tried to break his bad boy spirit and he would've hated AFL and left. It was around the likes of Jake King and co he further developed his "don't give a [censored]"attitude while still concentrating on his football. He flourished in Richmond's feral culture where as Melbourne would have suffocated him.

https://twitter.com/7AFL/status/911893088875945984?s=09

Goody's response here sounds like they want him to fulfill his 3 yr contract. But he does normally play a very straight bar bat.

1 hour ago, SFebey said:

You mean like these media performances???

 

 

 

A lot worse than Watts' one. Every time I go on instragram, there's a story update of Hogan, Gawn and Harmes [censored] faced in Bali sipping on bintangs. 

6 minutes ago, mo64 said:

And apart from looking like a [censored], wtf does it achieve? We lost to the same opposition in round 23, which cost us a place in the finals. How [censored]'n stupid is he to agree to it?

Players do these puff media pieces all the time. I think the club can't continue to be in perpetual mourning until round 1 and ignore these media requests. 

28 minutes ago, SFebey said:

Disgusting..lots of smiles and laughs from Jack, even re-enacted the QB goal with Titanic music FFS. What a weak and embarrassing club we are, how that even made the news makes me cringe.

Clubs interested, Collingwood one. He's a nice guy with all the skills and no heart. Said no when asked about a rift between he and Goodwin.

I'd say he's gone

Geez, are you in your 70s? It was just a fluff piece that he probably agreed to after someone from channel 7, his mgr and the MFC media arranged. The clear intent was just for him to address the trade rumours, and they probably asked him to reenact his goal. 

The people on this forum... Ffs. So dramatic.

14 hours ago, mo64 said:

Goodwin was on SEN morning show on Friday. Was asked about the Watts and Salem rumours. Basically said that they won't talk about our trade intentions publically. He added that they would talk with the players involved whether the rumours are true or not.

He was asked the question of whether you structure your forward line based on what you have, or on how you'd like it to look. His answer was a bit of both, but you predominently work with the strengths you have.

He then went on to say that we have assets in Petracca as a power forward, and Hogan and T Mac as key forwards with running ability. Pretty clear that T Mac will be played up forward next year. That would suggest that Lever is already penned into our backline.

No mention of Watts as a forward asset. Make of it what you like

Also didn't mention Garlett, Hannan, Weideman and was specifically talking about a "power forward". Make of it what you like

2018 will show us if 2016 was a flash in the pan or if he really is the most dominant ruckman in the game. 

I think it's a bit strong to say Jones "threw him under the bus". From what I know, Jones and Watts are good friends, so I doubt he'd intentionally air something that he'd feel that was sort of betraying him.

If you listened to the interview - and you're a regular listen of SEN - you'd know that the person asking Jones the question, and baiting him on it, was Garry Lyon who has probably criticised Watts' intensity at least 100 times since his debut. In fact, although he is a Melbourne supporter, I'd argue that Lyon is Watts' biggest critic in the media circles (but strangely acts all "chummy" whenever he interviews him).

Watts' biggest enemy is perception. As posters have mentioned, he likes to have a good time and enjoys life outside of football. When you're dominating on the field, no one cares all that much what you're doing off the field (to a certain extent). See Dane Swan.

However, when you're on-field performances aren't up to it. It's the easiest and most obvious flaw to point out. 

We all love to speculate on Demonland, but the only person who knows the real truth is Jack. If he really feels that his laid-back attitude is just who he is, and he does put 100% into his footy, then there is a clear clash between him and the FD. If Jack feels this way, I have no doubt he would've requested a trade already. However, if he does actually agree that his standards can lift, and his rocket is warranted, then the ball is in Jack's court to prove it that he really does want to get to that next level. 

Listened to the interview and all this talk about habits, making the right decisions outside the club, McCartney talking about falling into old habits, comments in Roos' book; all points to a severe mismanagement of our young players in the Bailey and Neeld years and setting the right professional habits. 

Watts clearly had no idea how to be a professional athlete until Roos entered the club and this set back his development years and years. Old habits die hard and if he doesn't get traded this year then, after what has now been communicated to him, then he'll be playing a lot of VFL football next year if he doesn't demonstrate some change in these professional habits.

On 9/16/2017 at 6:24 PM, WERRIDEE said:

Robbo's a muppet. I think he worth an early 2nd round pick. 

Agreed. Just wants himself to look prophetic after he wrote that article about him.

1 hour ago, Petraccattack said:

We wont get close to a grand Final with Watts in the team. He would crumble in the heat of a final. Would be like playing with 21 men.

So your argument is invalid.

And your body of evidence of that is???

Seriously, even Buddy has a questionable finals record. Don't make claims which are total BS. Kicking the winner against the pies was as finals as you get.

4 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

Petracca was on Triple mmm yesterday.

Some footy items:

 

• His Exit meeting:  To bring his 2017 disappointment and hunger for next year into pre season and is expected to play more in the midfield next year.

   

• Weight not an issue.  Endurance and consistent running need to improve for more midfield. 

   

• Will tag along with Oliver to improve after being asked who he will follow around to get his conditioning right.  I reckon that is a good choice given how Oliver's professionalism and preparation have received great praise from the coahces.

•  

  Mentioned Jones, Viney and Oliver have been invited to the Brownlow.  Love that Oliver is invited. 

On a lighter note:

• Will be a barrista at Lavazza marquee @ Melbourne Cup.

   

• Off to Byron with some mates - get out of Melb for the GF.

   

• Then off to the US with Harmes and Tyson and someone else (non football but seemingly well known).

   

• Then to the Maldives with his girlfriend. 

 

A very engaging young man.

Harmes is already in Bali. He must really be enjoying his off season.

A Jekyll and Hyde year for Jack. After the Bulldogs game I thought he was going to have a better year than 2016 with the form he was in.

Unfortunately it all came crashing down with his hamstring. No doubt came back under done, but he put his hand up for selection which means he was fair game. It was Jack's first significant injury and he and the club handled it poorly. Possibly due to Jack's inexperience on how to properly come back from one.

2018 I'd like to see Jack play more up the ground and use his elite skills to put us in a positions ready to attack. His chemistry with Hogan is also very good so a full year together might help both of them have very good seasons together. Fingers crossed.

I can believe this. Watching Essendon on Sunday, their ball movement is super quick compared to us. It's also how they almost beat the Swans at the SCG earlier this season. They go straight down the corridor and even spuds like Valverde and Stewart kick goals from this quick entry into the F50.

Unfortunately one of Vince's quality is not humility. I think he'll be boasting his "I'm like a fine wine - I get better with age" line around to Goody again for another year, so I highly doubt he'll be the one to volunteer hanging up the boots.

Frost is the obvious Trade bait. I think he'll get bundled in the Lever deal somehow.

Watts' time to trade was 2015 - I can't see the club trading him one year into a 3 year contract. I'm also of the opinion that his recovery was botched by the Misson & co and was in that limbo bracket of "I'm not 100% fit but I'm not going to call an end to my year; so I'll play hindered and hope it's good enough to still play in the team and play finals"

I somehow wonder if Tmac being mentioned as trade bait has suddenly come about after his disastrous game against the Pies or if it's been sometime coming as people think he's reached his ceiling?

There's a heap of pressure on Goody's new game plan now. He'll need to refresh it and bring something back even better as clubs have now worked out the coming off the square stuff.

1 hour ago, Clint Bizkit said:

Gawn needs to do less media, I like when he's having a bit of fun but when it comes to serious football talk he's out of his depth.

As someone else mentioned, in an interview on SEN during the week he gave a perplexing answer about most players playing in finals as juniors so they weren't too worried about our lack of finals in recent years.

Rance does a heap of media yet it doesn't affect his game at all.

I'm more concerned with his arrogance. Last year he was the underdog fighting for top spot. This year he thought he was the King and just cruised a long and then started to get beaten by the hungrier ruckmen. Don't think he won a ruck battle this year apart from round 1.

The whole team's form had been terrible since we lost to Sydney.

Name one game where we played 4 qtrs since then.

A no from me.

Roos should put his hand up and say he got it wrong on that trade.

I was just on twitter before, geez there's a lot of crap being thrown Melbourne's way. Especially by Collingwood supporters, even directly at players like Bugg, Watts, Gawn etc

Oh and then there's Warwick Capper tweet asking people to put out their cheese platters to commiserate the Dees missing finals. FFS

Might just deactivate my account for 6 months.

8 minutes ago, SaberFang said:

We score 9 more points this year and we play Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval in a fortnight.

• We beat Port Adelaide by 23 points at the MCG 5 weeks ago.
• We beat Adelaide by 41 points at Adelaide Oval 2 months ago.
• We beat Port Adelaide by 40 points at Adelaide Oval in Round 21 last year.
• Port Adelaide have defeated 1 team inside the top 8 all season (Sydney in Round 1, when they were shite).

Oh and, after today, I guess we can count West Coast! What a resume! They've lost to every other finalist, like the pretenders they are. And yet they sit pretty at top 4 because, unlike us, they actually put lowly opposition to the sword.

Point is, we had every chance of playing week two of finals this year with a match against Port at AO. Typical of the MFC, we completely [censored] it up in glorious fashion.

The way we played on Saturday, I wouldn't have given us much chance. 

I know as supporters we are all extremely disappointed with how the season ended with no finals, but looking at the big picture of ultimate success, I'd almost argue that making the finals and then getting bundled out week one would have just been short term satisfaction to players and supporters alike. 

BUT, by just missing and the disappointment that has followed, does this spur the players even further than a soft exit out of the finals with a pat on the back saying "well done at least you made finals"?

I'd like to hope so, as 2017 was never going to be our year anyway, so does 2018 look better for us?

having some finals experience would've been nice though...