stevethemanjordan

Comparing Watts and Bennell is laughable. As far as footballing output goes, Bennell has Watts covered by a mile in every aspect of the game.

He's named on the bench. Perhaps he'll be a late out or perhaps May will spend some time forward.

Here's a little something I'll share from a contact I have. Recently, Goody spoke at an event to a small group, (I won't divulge) but there were no media in attendance. The first thing I'll say is that both my source and I have been critical of Goodwin and his media performances in the past, however at this event he was very different, was honest and opened up a great deal more regarding this season. Some talking points and discussion: * The disruption and snowball effect the pre-season surgeries had cannot be underestimated. Didn't have nearly enough time with the players to not only get the required conditioning in, but to run and trial drills, build cohesion etc etc.. (We all know it's had an impact but he stressed the point again). * He believed in some ways that we were lucky to make the prelim with the list we had. We were slightly ahead of where he thought we should be by the end of last year and the hype that followed us into this season was too much. * There are some issues with staff and coaches right now and there will be big changes made end of year. (The event was held before the McCartney news broke) * The main message was that there will be some big changes to both playing list and staff at the end of the year. He doesn't believe we have the list to take us to the promised land. * Goody didn't say this but my source got the impression that a captaincy change up could be on the cards. (Gawn). I'll put my hand up to say that normally I'm hyper critical of Goodwin in media interviews for the lack of insight and information he shares, but I was assured that he was a completely different character away from the camera. Thought I'd share, looking forward to the end of this year.

Oscar played again after being dropped because Steven May got injured, not on the back of form at Casey. So if it weren't for Steven May's injury, Oscar would still be in the VFL and the 'myth' would be a truth. Would it not? I think you need to accept some truths about Oscar Binman. I understand you don't like the criticism. Maybe just say that rather than what value he offers us. I am a Weideman fan and of course I'm disappointed in his season. However, Oscar has never played a game or even shown patches of the same quality that Sam has on occasions. He was a top 10 pick even after missing most of his 18's year due to injury. Oscar was a speculative pick in the 50's, doesn't possess any top tier traits and has below average speed, reactions, intensity and defensive skills. It's a silly comparison.

Nobody knows what the future holds for Harley and what a move to Melbourne could do for him. Over the years, demonland has always held this weird ultra conservative view to these types of trades, yet is more than happy to give several years of 'development' to players with a toe-nail of the skill that someone like Harley has. People are still waiting for Oscar to become an AA as an example. Vanders has spent half a decade injured on our list. And let's not revisit some of the high draft picks we've had but wasted over the years. Give the bloke a one-year contract on minimum bones. What's the worst that could happen? A failed year for an individual? We're second last on the fooking ladder with a list brimming with the same weaknesses. Here's a way of addressing that and could cost nothing. The upside is enormous. Posters need to think about Hawthorn. Dew in 2008? Imagine the meltdown here if we picked up a 110 kg elephant? He won them the Grand Final. Burgoyne? Scully? O'Meara? It's time for us to do something un-Melbourne-like.

What's funny is that @Satyriconhome was at pre-season and took objection to the entire 'interrupted pre-season' thing. You guys should chat. Interesting that he hasn't said boo for a while. Wonder why.. We all know it's been a factor. However, yourself and a few others give it far too much attention and weight and consistently leave out much more important factors that have existed for a couple of years now, but for one reason or another supporters don't like hearing about them. Also, those 'O-mac myths' are becoming more real everyday Binman. Tomorrow night should be interesting at selection. Please don't use injuries as an excuse if he's left out.

You can count on the fact they will. Something along the lines of, "Yeh well our injuries are worse" or "at least we got within 30 points of last year's grand finalists". "I'll take X, Y and Z positives out of tonight" "I thought Oscar did really well to keep Mihocek to 11 goals". Etc Etc. Yawn, Yawn.

It's all wrist slashing remember everyone.

Is slow, isn't a great defensive runner or player. It's a big no from me.

Yeh, we all did. No doubt you were happy with the effort. Got within 30 points. Lots of positives to take out of it. We'll be right. You know, the usual.

I agree, who'd have thought!

Can I book you in for a palm reading sometime?

ANB finally out for JKH which took far too long. Goodwin sure does have his favourites.

The coach oversees the list management and recruitment of players to 'fit' a game-plan. Goodwin's game-plan. Most obviously, the game-plan implemented and therefore the coach must take some of the blame for developing a list that either cannot execute said game-plan on a consistent basis or be flexible and creative enough to find any other way of navigating a win during a match. Now you may bring up injuries again like the rest of the peanuts that continue to only talk about the severity of our injuries, but tell me about the sort of depth we have at VFL level then and whose shoulders does that responsibility fall on if it's not up to scratch? Tell me about the trends that have developed over the last few years regarding the way we lose games and the way opposition sides so easily exploit our clear and obvious weakness areas? "so easy to score against". "don't run hard enough defensively" "too many get sucked into the contest to often" "exposed on the outside" "their fundamentals let them down" "their skill level is poor across the board" M8. Media experts and the footballing world have been talking about those issues since well before last year's prelim. Wakey wakey.

Well this is awkward.

Remember that time our list was rated number 1 by champion data at the start of the season? I remember. He is working harder, but there's no way the guy is second best general forward in the game. That is just silly.

He'd offer more to us running around with half a calf than most of our list at the minute. He hits targets and kicks goals. I'd absolutely throw him a 1 year contract.

Can you explain to me what happened in the West Coast prelim, Hawthorn game last year and Collingwood game last year? Do you think fitness was a major issue too?

Deplorable?! Unacceptable?! Is that what I read? He's just a wrist-slasher if you ask me..

The happy-go-luckies are still at stage 1 unfortunately. Or fortunately for them really. It's the reason they're always positive!

I'm thinking we've got to give O-mac at least 15 more pre-seasons to build his body before we can expect an AA defender. Seriously, some of you just have no patience whatsoever. Lower your expectations. If we win 3 games next year you guys should be grateful that we even won three! Srsly. You guys.

Mate, you'll be saying that no matter who we lose to for the rest of your life. #perspective

We lost because of our turnover count which allowed them those repeat entries. Which ultimately comes down to skill level and decision making of players.

Skill level across the list and Goodwin's propensity to recruit and play average skilled players in the forward half and through the midfield over the past two seasons explain everything. Whether it's turnovers in the forward half, defensive half, innefiency kicking into our forwardline or out of our defence, it's all there.

Yeh nah. I've been saying it since the beginning of the year actually. You might think something like moving Fritsch back into the forward-line is 'changing things up' but the fact that we've been losing games the same way all year tells me not much has changed. It should tell everyone that. Clearly.