stevethemanjordan

Agree, this is the main one. But you forgot Gardiner. Harris Andrews, Darcy Gardiner and Josh Walker.

Many have been pointing that out for the past 4-5 years. Clearly there are other contributing factors as to why we're so easy to score against, but Oscar and Frost bening our first and second key defenders is the main one. That is without question. Neither are trustworthy enough as one-on-one defenders or intercept players. First three goals of the game vs Essendon. 19:24 - First goal against Essendon, go and look what happened. WTF are Oscar and Frost doing? Did they forget that they're not both supposed to be manning Zac Smith? It's just comical stuff. 13:56 - This one is amazing. Oscar is caught in absolutely no-man's land. It's just incredible. His decision to leave his man (Bellchambers) to try and influence the contest was a complete fail given he ends up on his own in the middle of both Bellchambers and Hurley who had the kick. Wow... This of course begins the domino effect whereby Hibberd leaves his man Tippa to press up to Bellchambers. Bellchambers then kicks to a free Tippa which in-turn results in an indecisive Wagner becoming lost and leaving Fantasia on his own when all he needed to do was stay on him. So the break-down starts with Oscar's baffling positioning on the wing and ends with Wagner's inability to assess the situation and stay with his opponent who was clearly going to be in the most dangerous position. 6:58 - Stringer kicks the goal. Frost's man in this particular play. Hibberd was poor in letting the ball out so easily in this scenario but Frost decides to waltz over to the goal square whilst Stringer stays in the play and of course the ball bobbles out to him and he goals. Man, the sheer amount of stupidity I witnessed from Frost on Friday night was incredible. I simply can't describe every time he made a monumental error of judgement by leaving his man when to try and influence a contest when he didn't need to. Because there were too many of them! I just cannot believe that people rate these two. It's unfathomable.

That guy was the worst.

I'd like to formally announce my candidacy for a Mod position on demonland. Imagine how good this place would be with the bans I'd impose on certain posters. Srsly. For examples, a poster disagrees with a view I have on Oscar McDonald/(or any topic) and BAM!..... Immediate life ban for said poster.

No.

I don't mind getting a top 5 draft pick this year knowing that next year we have a full pre-season, two brand new key position backs and an opportunity to change our forward setup ala Geelong this year. We're still young and Goodwin is still stubborn but will realise he has to change. ANB, Oscar and Frost cannot play for us if we're a genuine contender.

Yeah. A year and a half too late. Looking forward to hearing the Oscar fans come out and defend him again. @binman

I just find it funny that posters thought O Mac was good... And potenshy AA one day. Hahaaa Oscar and Frost as our key defenders is like watching the circus.

Cool, so looks like our backline is working well. I like that Goodwin deploys a man-on-man system.

Watch ANB miss this.

Was about to post the same. He makes some great points and I remember that first 10 mins of the third clearly as well. He is right about the positives. But the inefficiency going forward has been there for two seasons and as he stated, cost us games last year. I think it's a personnel thing, clearly Goodwin doesn't as we've gone with the same players (or at least 'type' of players) in pocket/half forward roles for two years. The same problem exists.

^ Agree 100% We're zero and 2. Given our bog ordinary kicking going inside 50, coming out of defensive 50 and general bombing long, one would assume that bringing in another 200cm target would work in our favour for all those promblem areas. Gawn would be able to play forward and clearly have more energy when playing as ruckman. This week's selections have my baffled again.

Talky talky talky.

I agree that they both try and cover for Oscar all too often. However, why would Oscar not have been dropped by now if you're arguing that their poor form is solely because of Oscar's mistakes? What does it have to do with their ball use, composure and touch? Nothing.

Harmes' inconsistency in performance to date is killing us. He is way down in ball use, making stupid decisions, missing tackles and fumbling balls. Someone who I believe is pretty chuffed about his 2018 and is expecting it to happen again. He needs a wakeup. I fear that Trac is too caught up in his own mind about wanting to be 'the man'. It's almost as if he believes he needs to do something spectacular every time the ball is in his area which takes his concentration away from the basics. Clean first possession, make the right decision, hit a target. Etc. Jones clearly needs to lift significantly. Can't believe how much his skills have dropped off. Fumbling, missed kicks, missed handballs etc. ANB.Goodwin needs to wake up and drop the guy. Physically, he is supposed to be an extra number at the contest because of his running ability. Over the last two weeks I have never seen someone have such little influence as an extra number at a contest. What is he offering us? Jetta and Hibbered. WTF is wrong with them? If we get a 15% lift from those guys, we win on Friday night. Viney is back on track even if he's playing sore. Brayshaw needs to learn to become damaging with the ball. Oliver is a freak. Max needs one better this week. Tom and Weed will be fine if we start kicking it to their advantage and not between them both. Dees.

Jeff's best is better than any small forward we have by a country mile. His worst, however, is abysmal. It's Essendon at the G and it's time to play him. We have absolutely zero opportunist dead-eyes and Jeff has money in the bank when it comes to making a goal from nothing. Time to back him in. We're zero and 2.

I wasn't sarcastic enough.. Apologies.

I'd like to add that we have a number of players who are also out of form.. Several in fact..

Hawthorn took a scalp in round 1. Defeating Adelaide, a team who should have had a home-ground and fitness advantage given they had a longer pre-season. Hawthorn were knocked out a week earlier than us in finals. We lost to Port at the G who were playing four kids and had a number of senior players missing. Then we lost to Geelong by 80 points. You mightn't like him. But he's not wrong.

One guy I'm not worried about in the slightest.

Their system is the same, yeh. I didn't question that. They have completely changed their forward-line as far as personnel go. They've followed suit with teams like Richmond, West Coast and Collingwood. It suits the modern game. High pressure, highly skilled and smart forwards who can hit the scoreboard. Their ability to lock the ball inside their forward-half has gone through the roof now. They have opportunist forwards. Where are ours? ANB and Sparrow? Inside mids? Goodwin relies on system more than personnel. Which is why he persists with players like ANB playing at half-forward and Tyson on a wing etc. Geelong were able to lock it in because we're a rabble in defence. We play a zone system which means that small opportunistic forwards can always cash in when a ball spills in their forward 50 area. How many times did it happen against Geelong? Four defenders go up for the spoil, ball comes down and it's party time for Dalhaus, Miers, Rohan etc.

I maintain that our pre-season form wasn't an indicator as to how we were going to start the season. Certainly not to this extent. I was always worried about underdone players who had what myself and many others termed to be 'interrupted pre-seasons', only to be pulled up by that bearded guy who hasn't said boo since. (I wonder why). You can't say that the Richmond game was a bad sign. They were next to full-strength and we were missing a host of best 22 players and lost by a kick. The Brisbane game was when we saw some ugly signs, but still, we shouldn't have lost to Port. Not with the team we put out vs theirs and not on our home deck. The first quarter wasn't a slow start was it? The reason we've lost both games go no deeper than a lack of care with ball in hand. We lost to Port due to our skill errors and we lost to Geelong because of our skill errors. When they're down, we're awful. But when they're up, we're great.

For many Melbourne supporters. The MCC are predicting 58,000 on friday night. That's your disinterest and disengagement right there pal.

Winning a contested possession does not equal winning a one-on-one FYI. It means there are opposition players in the area.

Astute?! Ha! Goodwin telling us what we already know doesn't help. Him addressing it at some point would be nice though.