titan_uranus

It's not that subjective. It's not fair on Goodwin to suggest last week was some fluke driven by May and Petracca. Our team set up, zone and ball movement were all indicative of a plan that came together to stifle St Kilda's ball movement. It worked. He coached very well last week. Tonight was a return to normality though. Sydney had a plan for us, whatever plan we had didn't work, and Goodwin was powerless to change it mid-game. Couple that with his inability to ensure we were ready to go at the first bounce and you get classic Goodwin.

Agree. He's done. He's been done for weeks but the two left foot kicks tonight were confirmation to anyone who needed it. It's sad. He deserves to be applauded and remembered for the effort he put in over 15 years. But he shouldn't be playing and we need to make that call and move on.

The two absolute non-negotiables IMO are that OMac and Jones go out. If Jones isn't injured, he gets dropped. Neither of them should play next week and if either does, something is even more wrong than I want to believe. Smith seems to be the opposite of Lever. Lever plays well for two months but gets criticised by a select group weekly. Smith is hopeless but continues to get defended by a select group. Personally, I thought the entire backline was too focused on Papley and let the rest get off the hook. I thought Smith was too loose. Papley could have kicked a few on him but didn't, which I put down more to luck than Smith. Smith also had just 4 disposals, took zero marks and laid two tackles, so he wasn't giving us anything else. I wouldn't hesitate at all to drop him. Failed experiment, IMO. Then there's the forward line. I'd absolutely keep Weideman in unless he needs to be rested. He's kicked multiple goals every game until today. He has credits and doesn't get chopped after one bad game. Fritsch has some credits, but fewer. The same cannot be said for Melksham, ANB or Spargo. Melksham should have been dropped multiple times this year. We cannot carry him and Fritsch. Both too lazy, both too selfish, neither defend, both go missing, neither learn from previous mistakes (Fritsch with poor leads and missed set shots, Melksham with ill-discipline). I'd get Pickett straight back, I'd play Harmes down there rotating forward (he looked significantly better late in the game when he was forward/midfield), I'd give Bedford a game, and I'd drop at least two of Melksham, ANB, Spargo and Fritsch to make that happen. Brown is mediocre but TMac's not in any better form. Not sure which option is worse. At least Brown's set shots are OK. The midfield needs to lift. We have to ask questions about Viney's medium/long term future but for now, get him rotating forward more and make sure we get a better balance of minutes through the middle.

Another disgraceful performance. It keeps happening. The players aren’t willing or capable of making the necessary mental changes to play consistent football week to week. And Goodwin is repeatedly failing to get them going. I agree with all those referring to the opening bounce. You could tell from the very start we were flat. Inexcusable. It’s time to accept a few realities about our list, realities many of us already knew. Oscar McDonald is not good enough and will never be good enough. He has had enough chances. He is an utter liability with the ball in hand and his defensive work has, somehow, regressed this year. He is a complete disaster, so much so that Goodwin threw him forward to get him out of the backline, but he was so bad there he then had to swap him with May. Just terrible. IMO, that should be the last game he plays for this club. Same goes with Jones. It was bad enough that he turned it over with a left foot shocker, but for him to then follow that up minutes later with a rinse and repeat left foot shocker is all you need to know about him. He is done. He shouldn’t be playing. It’s sad, we should honour his achievements, but he is a wreck out there. Is it a coincidence that when we brought Smith back our defensive set up fell to pieces? I’m not sure. But he’s not a footballer. Melksham should have been dropped 5 times this year. He is lazy, selfish and pathetic defensively. So is Fritsch. I don’t think we can play both. I thought Langdon was our clear best all day. His missed goal was deflating and he clearly has a goalkicking issue, but at least he can hold his head up as an example of someone who played their role to the required standard. Gawn’s marking was great and I actually thought his tapwork was fine. The issue in the middle was the mids falling to pieces: fumbling, quick fire handballs to no one, poor decisions, lazy kicks. Harmes looked lively in the fourth when given the chance to play mid/forward. Can we accept now he’s not a defender? Just like 2016 and 2017, they get our hopes up and then fail. I don’t know how many more times we can have someone bake us in the media, or someone say “that will burn in our guts”. It’s a pattern and maybe we need a reset of some sort to break it.

I've been watching. Every game. You would know that if you showed up after a win. But you don't. Lever's 6th in the Demonland POTY votes by the way, so I'm clearly not the only one. And Wagner played well last week. Deserved his game this week.

No doubt Goodwin has to cop responsibility for us being flat from the first bounce for the 10293th time in his coaching career. But we cannot absolve the players. Half-hearted tackles, no defensive running, hollywood handballs, dropped marks, missed kicks, laziness. They have to pull their fingers out too.

You are such a dumb [censored] troll. Lever has been in our best about 8 times this year. Wagner's played one game! And was decent! It's not even possible for him to have got a game "on the back of poor games".

We were off, intensity wise, in the Port game. That was somewhat understandable: we had a four day break, they had either 5 or 6, and they're on top of the ladder. There is no excuse today. The Swans played the same day we did (so we're a few hours behind not a day or two), and they're in the bottom 4. They're also missing Franklin, Heeney, Mills and Rampe. To have players jogging around in the first half of a must-win game with finals on the line would be unfathomable if it wasn't something we've seen repeatedly before.

As bad a quarter as we've played all year, unforgivable given the opponent and what's at stake. All of the hallmarks of bad Melbourne are on display. Weak tackling efforts. Hollywood handpasses. Turnovers. No plan forward of centre. Outnumbered seemingly everywhere. Slow, being outrun. It's all there, and it's all terrible. OMac's made a mistake every time the ball's gone near him. Smith close to likewise. It's bad enough that Jones turned it over on his left once, but to do it again after taking a mark inside 50 is disgraceful. Melksham didn't touch it that quarter, Weideman can't get near it, ANB's struggling. We saw Essendon pull back a 36-point deficit after looking equally incompetent last week. Other than that, I can't think of any reason to think we have any chance in this game.

This is 2019 Melbourne. 6 inside 50s for one point. They've had 8 inside 50s for 4.1. This is the same side who had 9 scoring shots in an entire game against Fremantle two weeks ago, but has already had 8 scoring shots in a half today.

Does Jones NEVER learn lessons? I can't take this.

I'm happy to go early and say this game is done and so is our season.

0-4 in clearances this quarter. Inexcusable given our opponent is a poor clearance side. We are completely off.

That early OMac handball is why I struggle to accept he's best 22. He picks it up and just gets rid of it, panicking. Is that three crumbing goals we've conceded now?

Fox showing Sydney's won the clearance count 3 times in their last 20 matches. Yet beating us in that area today.

We're leading in CPs 35-31 but trailing 6-8 in clearances. Despite that, it's 14 inside 50s to 5.

Surely a 50 against Papley for being in Brayshaw's protected zone? He should have kicked that regardless, though. We played poorly but have a 3 point lead. Question is whether the breeze will cause us grief in the second quarter.

And we've now had the three Demons going up for the same ball and spoiling each other. It's all happening.

It looks to me like they're flooding back, cluttering up our space. A weakness we've had for years.

This is bad Melbourne. No plan forward of centre. 8 inside 50s for 0.2 compared to 4 inside 50s for 2.0. This has disappointing loss written all over it.

Shopping him around? After everything we did to rehab him and get him back to playing? Despite the obviously strong relationship he has with May and, it seems, with Goodwin (possibly/probably Burgess too)? No way. IMO Bennell's issue is intensity - he hasn't been sprinting or chasing hard enough when he's been in the side. If that's because he's fearful of injuring himself, that's something he has to work on. But I've seen enough to believe he still has the desire to make it, and the talent to be a best 22 player for us. After putting all this work in, I cannot imagine we'd be giving up now.

I will approach all four of our final four games the same way: with extreme nerves. Our form against the weaker sides this year has been solid (comfortable wins over Adelaide, North, Hawthorn and Gold Coast). But with the significance of each of these final games comes pressure, and we all know we've struggled with expectation before. We should have Sydney covered. They have been distinctly mediocre all year. Their win over GWS was exciting but IMO an outlier. Their only other wins have been vs Adelaide, North and Hawthorn (and each of those was by less than two goals). Since beating North in Round 3, all their losses have been by at least 26 points except two: Richmond (a well-publicised defensive slog) and Collingwood (Collingwood's inaccuracy kept the Swans in it but Collingwood dominated most stats). And they're missing a handful of key players.

Yeah nah I don't think that was a sign that Fremantle are that good. Richmond was off. Turnovers where they usually wouldn't make turnovers. Sloppiness. Didn't appear to be caused by Fremantle pressure, seemed very unforced to me. And despite Richmond clearly being off, Fremantle kicked 4 goals. None of this means we should take them lightly. We shouldn't take anyone lightly.

I assume then you look at West Coast's bench of O'Neill, Nelson, Hutchings and Rotham and think "premiership material"? He hasn't played defence for years. Like TMac, he's a forward and that's where he'll play. Otherwise he won't be playing seniors.

Maybe it is a fitness thing. Jetta's been named as an emergency, but Lockhart hasn't. So if it's not fitness, Lockhart's gone from best 22 to behind Jetta (and Rivers).