titan_uranus

It's important we wait to hear what really happened. But if he started drinking, I'm concerned. Not because drinking is a sin. But because I recall him saying he was off alcohol because of what it had done to him in the past. Am I wrong in thinking that? I might be. Whatever happened, it's a truly disappointing end to a disappointing year. Personally I want to see him stay. I think he's one of a handful of missing links that could make us much better.

It's a different situation to Richmond's. It's still stupid. But that's not the issue. The issue is whether Hunt and Petracca were properly listening to Goodwin or just mucking around.

Would love to see the stats on his metres covered. I feel like the last two weeks he's been running up the ground more, both applying pressure in the forward half but going beyond and getting back to help the mids defend. Then using his pace to make an option on transition.

Mate. No. I love Jackson but you can't drop Brown after that game. I would 100% be up for Harmes replacing Melksham but if Goodwin didn't drop Melksham through the home and away season given the rubbish form he produced, it's not happening if we make the finals. I'd keep Baker over Sparrow for structure. I'd drop Smith for Lockhart but keep Tomlinson whose workrate and spread is important to our transition.

Agree. I've heard he carried an injury through the patch of games from Collingwood-Fremantle but not sure if that's true. Either way, he has the capability to be an elite half-back/outside midfielder. But we don't get it every single week. Today was exceptional.

I usually agree with you @A F but not on this. I thought Smith was hopeless at every turn. He's continually out of position on transition, which means he doesn't read the play and/or gets sucked too far up the ground. He gets beaten in one-on-ones. He had 5 touches and 1 mark, so he wasn't giving us drive or intercept marks (by comparison - Lever had 10, Hibberd 10, May 7, Tomlinson 7, Salem 6). And he's not damaging with the ball, and indeed his one handpass for the day was straight to a Bomber. It was, as far as I'm concerned, a shocking game. As to your other post, I'm not sold on Goodwin either, but I'm not sure you can put the fourth quarter down to Goodwin. I'm far more confident putting it down to our players going conservative, thinking that if we slowed the game down we'd take the heat out of it. We started playing to protect our lead rather than to score. Maybe part of that's Goodwin's responsibility but I'm more confident putting it at the feet of the players.

Yeah that really got me. I'm sure he'd fume if a commentator made some joke about Collingwood supporters not having teeth or something. He's also a rubbish commentator, made me yearn for Dwayne Russell getting the mic.

Why would anyone post that? He wasn't on Daniher. He gave up 3 goals to Stewart. And gave up a shocking handball turnover in the middle of the ground, and otherwise gave us nothing. Was just a bad game from someone who shouldn't be playing IMO.

If we make the 8, we deserve to play finals. If we miss, we don't. Why do the Dogs deserve it any more than we do if they lose to Fremantle and finish the season with a worse record than us? Carlton finished 9th in 2013 and still beat Richmond who finished 5th. Then nearly won the semi final the following week. You never know.

6 - Gawn 5 - Langdon 4 - Salem 3 - Hunt 2 - Fritsch 1 - Oliver

Well, we won. Only played one good quarter but, to be fair, it was a good quarter. As bad as the fourth quarter was, our core players stood up in the final 5 minutes to get the last two steadying goals. Really impressed with Hunt's game, 4 goals a good reward. Gawn, Oliver, Salem, Petracca and Langdon all played really well. Weideman's stats won't show it but I thought his workrate was good and he created opportunities for us. No idea what Melksham adds to the side. Smith was towelled up by Stewart, he's just not a defender but he gets by because of May, Lever, Salem and Hibberd.

Terrible quarter, the only reason we didn't lose it by a handful of goals is they are just so bad. How Melksham made it through the entire season without being dropped is just dumbfounding. Would be classic Melbourne if we lost from here, against a genuinely awful side playing bottom 2 football.

Last week did a good job on Haynes. Today beating an AA candidate in Ridley. This isn't a poor player whose goalkicking is the icing on the [censored] cake, he's just goalkicking away from being a B+ to A grader.

I wouldn't be getting too excited just yet. We should be far more than 28 points up. They are absolutely atrocious. But they are a confidence team and despite their defensive pressure being terrible they're still generating inside 50s and getting some looks. If they get an early goal or two, or worse, if Daniher gets his hands on the ball, we know we can concede goals. Fritsch's goal kicking is getting worse. Gawn, Oliver, Petracca, Langdon, Salem and ANB all playing really well. If this is our last game, Hunt, Brown and ANB are giving the club something to think about.

In terms of next year's fixture, double up games aren't the big issue. They rarely are. The big issues are prime time games, travel, shortness of breaks and venues played at.

I would love to look at the number of scoring shots compared to previous higher scoring years. Are there fewer shots on goal, or is goal accuracy down? I'm sure it's a bit of both: the skill of kicking set shots for goal has deteriorated in recent years.

I'm all for us being interested in Saad but he's worth more than a second round pick, so something's got to give there.

All we know is this. If we beat Essendon, the Dogs will win. If we lose to Essendon, the Dogs will lose.

Fair enough. Is Lockhart going to be delisted? Can't get a game, can't even get a spot in the emergencies, was beaten to the small defender spot by Jetta who, though we all love him, was not in form when selected, got dropped out of nowhere.

Bills, Chiefs, 49ers (Although I don't have huge faith in my 49ers, thought we were reasonably disappointing vs Arizona this week).

This is fair. Putting close games to one side, we went 0-5 against the top 5. Our competitors for finals spots got over the line at least once in their attempts to beat the top 5 (Collingwood beat Geelong and drew with Richmond, St Kilda beat Richmond and Port, the Dogs beat West Coast, GWS beat Geelong and Richmond). Our competitors also have losses to "weaker" sides (Collingwood lost to Fremantle and Essendon, St Kilda lost to Fremantle and North, the Dogs lost to Carlton, GWS lost to Adelaide, North and Sydney). So we're not alone in dropping those two Sydney/Fremantle games. IMO, as frustrating as the Sydney/Fremantle losses were (Sydney in particular, given they're a bottom 4 side), it's the fact we didn't win even one of our five games against the top five that has us in this mess as much as anything else.

I know what you're getting at but there are plenty of fringe players who are premiership players. Shai Bolton last year, Daniel Venables the year before, Jacob Townsend the year before that are three examples. Mitch Morton and Steven Armstrong are classic examples.

We beat Hawthorn by 43 and Collingwood by 56. Those aren't the issues when it comes to our percentage. I'd instead be looking at losing to Sydney by 21, Fremantle by 14, or Port Adelaide by 51. Even giving half a yelp in any of those games would have reduced the margins and stopped the bleeding of our percentage.

Talent-wise, he'd be ideal for us. But you have to question why he keeps getting dropped by a side that hasn't had a great deal going for it in the forward half.

A hard no from me. Over-rated (or getting rated on his prior Port form rather than his Hawthorn form).