stevethemanjordan

Or Nicho..

No, midfielder. I'm passionate because we've been screaming out for a quality key defender with a mature body for how many years?

I was waiting for the Oscar/Andrews comparison.

Agree with all bar Robinson. Whilst he's important, he is not in the class of the others on that list. Zorko, Neale, Cameron and Andrews are all better than any like-for-like player we have. May might have Andrews covered for the moment, but he is the best young kp back in the league along with Darcy Moore.

Rest him. Play Preuss for a few weeks and then play them together as a trial for 2020 ffs. Season is gone, time to experiment a bit. Reward players like JKH, drop any senior player who is not pulling their weight. Goodwin needs a rocket himself.

May was simply unbelievable today. Unbelievable.

Can someone remind me of the 'Melbourne' brand again?

Seriously, I'm embarrassed to be a Melbourne supporter if there are posters that think this is a bad look. Good God.

Nah. I loved it.

We'd also be on top of the ladder rn if we'd won every game so far this year! Amazing really!

Joel Smith says "G'day".

Elite runner, great speed, sloppy disposer. Not sure how he'll address our diabolical use going inside 50.

Try telling a certain someone who was at training telling us all that no player would be underdone.

Oath. It's these types of positional changes that he refuses to budge on and it worries me.

The Weid-man was clearly more influential than his numbers suggest, that's obvious for anyone who watched the game. But it has to be said that Goody is rarely considered when making statements. He has a bit of a history at getting himself in a muddle or saying silly things. Whether it was earlier in the year when he said "there are no excuses" only to follow up by explaining that a number of players had "interrupted pre-seasons" or consistently spitting out the same carp in post-game pressers. I understand he probably feels a need to spin positives at every presser for the fans, players, sponsors etc, but if we're going to be brutally honest, the game against Freo wasn't an improvement. The very same problem exists due to personnel. Sure there were a handful of individuals who stepped their game up but we won't be getting close to Brisbane if we perform at the same level. (Unless of course Brisbane manage two significant injuries to important players during the game).

Vital? This joint is out of whack. I'm all for giving time for Oscar to develop, I've never said we should delist him and I've never called him a spud. But vital? I mean, really.

Coach of the year... A few would be candidates, clearly. What's of greater interest to me is that most of those names mentioned have one thing in common. They've all made significant change. I'm yet to see Goodwin change. Be it game-plan, selection, recruiting philosophy etc. He is very head strong and stubborn and is obviously 'staying the course'. And whilst there are a number of factors that have contributed to our poor season, one is clearly Goodwin's refusal to change his style along with the changing game AFL game. As the OP suggests, 2019 off-season could be and should be our make or break.

Tassie m8.

Yeh look, I hardly need to add anything. I called for this years ago. We now have two quality defenders in May and Lever at the club, it's just a pity about Lever's injury luck and May's early mishap. Oscar is now out of the side which was inevitable given the level he was playing at. I hope he improves and of course he'll be handy at VFL level but enough about Oscar. It was always coming. We have other things to worry about now.

No, I've never said I would delist him or similar. But as a 'limited' role player, I don't see him playing it at a consistently high level. And he certainly hasn't improved year upon year from the day he was recruited has he? He needs to stop making so many ball use errors, stop fumbling and start impacting at the contest. Only then will we see some consistency in performance and from there we would be able to talk about 'upside'.

Haha. What a classic stereotypical happy-go-lucky Melbourne supporter comment. People love to hate him because he plays a team role? Intriguing. He is fairly criticised when he butchers the ball, fumbles the ball and has very little to no impact at the contest. His performances this year have displayed those weakness areas and his demotions from the team are evidence. It doesn't matter if you're as fit as Craig Motram and can run up and down the ground all day if you're constantly making errors with the ball or not impacting when near it.

Wondering if this is an okay place to talk about Oscar McDonald...?

Am I the usual troll you're referring to?

It's a thing. As someone said, the eternal optimists will see this as a huge positive. The opposite can be said for the pessimists. Something had to give and from what I've heard from a few with connections to the club is that some of those Macca rumours weren't far from the truth. Not all is rosy. Prelim to third last. It's a big deal.

Petracca, Oliver, Gus, Viney. All of them at their best are quality players. The difference between their best and worst football is the single biggest problem we have, (along with a host of others). I don't understand it. I can't understand how so many on our list can all be playing near their worst at the same time. Trading Brayshaw a year after the umps recognised him as the equal third best player in the comp would be premature to say the least. The bloke hasn't even clocked 70 games at the level. How's about we bring in some quality ball users and serious runners to play around our contested bulls and see what happens first. Our list is extremely unbalanced and Goodwin is the major concern presently. Game plan, selection and list build. It's up to him to change.