Wiseblood

I want the coach to come out swinging... behind closed doors. Jordan Lewis already mentioned the review was pretty brutal, and that's good enough for me. Why do we need him slamming the players in public? That achieves nothing but appease a few of the veteran supporters who think it actually helps. Goodwin's job is to protect the players in the press and do the hard stuff when the media isn't there.

To be fair, it took him years to become 'The Rev'. His first 4-5 years were nothing like the rest. But I loved his last few years in charge when he came out of his shell.

I said this elsewhere, but I think he's being played out of position. Having him across half back means the ball isn't in his hands as much as we'd like, and therefore his impact on the game is not flash. Just look at his kick that his Fritsch lace out in the first term in amongst a plethora of players. If used correctly his kicking could be a real weapon, but we aren't getting him in a position to use it enough. Perhaps a move up the ground to a wing would help in this regard?

Yeah, that'll do it. Yell. Wonderful.

Totally different eras. Clubs don't want coaches going off in press conferences, they want them to be measured in their responses and to be as uncontroversial as possible. Get used to it as that's the way it is.

But that will never, ever happen. Players are expected to front the media, while the coaches have to do these press conferences regardless.

So every former player that gets into coaching has to stay at the club? Look what happened last time we gave gigs to former players within the club. We had pretty much the worst season in AFL history. You hire the people right for the job, regardless of where they played. It shouldn't factor into the decision.

Much like Lewis last night, Goody has no option here but to answer questions, protect his players and protect the club. It's what he does every week. Would you be happier if he came out and smashed a few players for their effort? Went off his nut about the game? I doubt it. He has to give a press conference every week no matter what the outcome of the previous game, so if you don't want to listen to it, then don't. I have no idea what you really expect of him in these situations.

Hunt is another one I missed, even though it was last season. He was tearing it up in the first part of 2017, got the concussion and played on. He's never been the same player. I know that the injury isn't the whole cause, but I think most would find it hard to deny it had an impact. I don't want this to focus on Viney either as I believe he was mostly to blame. He wanted to come back, pushed himself and paid the price for it. No doubt Misson and the like could have come down harder on him, but I think most of the blame lies at Viney's feet on that one. No chance we rest Maxy. Resting wasn't the point of the thread, either, so I'm not sure why some went that route. Gawny is fighting fit and smashing them, so let's make sure we keep it that way! I wouldn't say Petracca's form has been up and down - he's been down pretty much since the finger injury. Same goes for Melksham. They might be training fully but that doesn't tell the whole story. Their is a correlation to be made between their dip in form and the injuries they suffered prior. Others have made mention of injuries to others over the last 18 months as well (Hunt being a good example).

Poor bloke. Nothing he said would be good enough for most, so I'm not surprised by the reaction. But he got asked the question and he answered it honestly. Can't ask much more than that.

So I'm not normally one to start threads like this, but I felt like I'd seen a worrying trend over the past few months with players suffering 'mild' injuries, missing either no time or a very small chunk of time, and having their influence on games diminish as a result. I've highlighted five players here, with two standing out, but there may be other instances I've missed. Christian Petracca Averages from his first 5 games, prior to the finger injury, where he missed just 1 week: 23 possessions, 11.2 contested, 3.8 clearances, 3.4 tackles and earned 5 free kicks. Averages from the following 8 games after the finger injury: 18 possessions, 8 contested, 2.1 clearances, 2.5 tackles, earned only 1 free kick in the last 8 games! Jake Melksham Averages from the first 11 games of the season, prior to suffering an ankle injury against the Dogs and missing no game time: 15.5 possessions, 7.5 contested, 14 goals (avg. 3 scoring shots a game), just 7 frees against Last 3 game averages after the injury: 11.3 possessions, 3.3 contested, 2 goals (avg. 1.3 scoring shots a game), already given 7 frees against in 3 games. Tom McDonald While this is only a one game sample, so averages wouldn't work as much, he did have his worst game for the year on the weekend. Prior to the Saints game he has kicked 2 or more goals in every game (1 on the weekend), had double digit possessions in each (only 8 on the weekend, just 4 contested) and we all know his impact was severely limited after his injury against Port Adelaide. The other two are Oscar McDonald and Nev Jetta - both have suffered head knocks a few weeks ago and, while their stats don't show anything major, they have both come up in recent times as having less impact and influence on games, where prior to this Nev was being talked up as an AA selection and Oscar was lauded for his improvement. Both have fallen away over the last few games, although you could also attribute that to what's been happening up the field as well. Now, all this could be just coincidental, but I do think there is enough proof to possibly suggest that we may not be giving some players time to get over their injuries. Petracca, Melksham and Tom McDonald were all in doubt prior to the games they played in - should they have been given more time and did we rush them back too soon? I know they are important cogs in our side, but should we have considered this more to ensure they got more out of themselves through the season? The bottom line to me is that these five players are crucial to how we play, and in recent times their influence has waned, and this can be linked back to the injuries they suffered. While it's nothing to rant and rave about, it is something to consider, and hopefully Dave Misson and his team are able to help in getting these guys back to full fitness to allow them to have the impact and influence we need going forward in our push to break the finals drought.

Hogan's work rate, generally, is terrific. It's what allowed him earlier in the season to have such an impact all over the ground. He's been quieter over the last month or so, but to suggest his work rate is poor and his season has been 'shithouse' is plain wrong.

Yeah, he's been that bad he's kicked 34 goals this season to be fourth for the Coleman Medal. Does he need to have cracked the ton at this point of the season to get a pass mark from you?

It was an absolute beauty. How good would it be to have him doing this numerous times during a game, rather than just a cameo performance?

I agree, in that I'd love to see him used further up the ground. He has something we need more of - good foot skills - yet he's finding it hard to get his hands on it as he's being asked to play a defensive role in the back half. I just think he could be used to greater effect.

Especially as it means they would probably have to play Baker across half back instead, especially with Lewis and Vince out and Stretch coming in to play off a wing. Doesn't make much sense. The other change I'd like to see is with Salem. Can we use him further up the ground? Is he quick enough to potentially play a wing role for us? He's good defensively and could use his great foot skills further up the ground. Not sure if it's the answer, but I think he is under utilised across half back.

I wasn't disagreeing with any of that. I was more commenting on the fact that Roos questioned why certain players weren't being selected, and then clarified this by saying he hadn't seen these players at Casey and therefore couldn't really comment accurately about it. I was saying that really goes put him in the same boat as us. The dissection of what went wrong on the weekend is more than valid and I wouldn't really argue any of it. Cheers.

That's right, I had a civil discussion with Steve about Oscar McDonald. At least he makes some sense, rather than saying things like Jake Lever isn't a key position player, and that Joel Smith is our current CHB, even though Harrison Petty played that role on the weekend.

How old are you? 12? I look forward to it, Steve. Lever going down with an injury has been pretty catastrophic to make up of our backline, as he and Oscar had been working superbly down there together. No doubt it has hurt us more than I think we care to admit, but I still think Oscar has been doing a pretty good job under the circumstances. Just last week, outside of a couple of 50 metre penalties, one of which was pretty dodgy, he had Charlie Dixon's measure. That's no easy task. Either way, I think finding the right player to put alongside Oscar is the bigger issue than the issue of Oscar himself.

Mate, the onus isn't on me. You're the one who knocked Oscar, so the burden of proof is on you. Not me. And then you come back with this 'attacking posters' garbage when I disagree with your view. You tried to prove a point and it didn't work. Lever isn't a KPD at 195cm, but Joel Smith is at just 191cm? You can't make this stuff up.

Not too sure jumbo, but he was pretty terrible on the weekend. I don't think he makes the cut this week. I think an issue we have with that forward line is we have too many 'marking' options. Hogan, Tom Mac, Weideman, Fritsch, Hannan... all of them are better in the air than when the ball hits the deck (although Fritsch is very good below his knees). The balance there is out of whack and we need to fix it.

I love how you've listed every teams 2 key backs, even if they're injured, but then made sure to leave Lever out as if he doesn't exist. Some rarely even play back now, like Harry Taylor, while others have never played there, like Sam Reid at Sydney. I don't know what this post tries to prove, as it fails miserably.

And he is questioning them without actually knowing what's going on at the club. So, in effect, he is no better than any of us here.

This is the big one for me. The St. Kilda forwards has acres and acres of space to work in, while their midfield had plenty of time to settle and hit a target. Not much anybody can do to stop that, and that rests at the feet of our midfield.

I'm not dismissing it. Don't be so melodramatic. I'd acknowledge that our second key defensive post is now an issue. Oscar is not. Who we have playing alongside him is now the problem we need to solve. They've given Petty a run and, right now, he is probably not the answer. So we'll try something else, whatever that may be. But descending back into this farce of knocking Oscar McDonald, when there is no reason to, is silly. What did he do wrong on the weekend? How many times was he beaten one on one? How many clangers did he have? Not many from memory. Many of the goals were kicked on Petty. I think it stinks that we're back to this again when there is no reason to be.