titan_uranus

Have you seen Carlton’s injury list? They’re no certainty to win again. That’s why the door is open.

To confirm, they only need Carlton to lose both games. They don’t care about the Dogs or Hawthorn. If Carlton lose both, then they will pass Fremantle and make finals if they beat us and Fremantle loses to Port next week. Our game is first so they may be in the 8 on Friday night, leaving Fremantle to need to win to make it on Sunday evening. By the way - this would be the precise situation for us had we held on last week. We would be playing Friday night for a chance to take Fremantle’s finals spot (again, assuming Carlton lose both games).

Nope, they’re out to catch Fremantle. All they have to do is beat us and Fremantle lose to Port and they pass them. They also need Carlton to lose both too but with their current injury list that seems likely right now.

Sickening result but good for us. Suddenly our Friday night home game is going to get more attendees and more TV eyeballs. Also gives us really tangible motivation - return the favour from 2017.

If Collingwood win today this won’t be a dead rubber for them. I’d therefore almost prefer it if they do knock off Brisbane. Would give us some good motivation, and another 10,000 to the crowd.

Awful take. You don’t have to care about weak fans, but the club does. Galvanising the supporter base, and probably the players too, is far more important than moving up 1-2 draft pick spots. In a flat and even first round to boot.

27 scoring shots to 18, 18 goals 9, +3 tackles despite also being +63 disposals, 10 goals to Turner, JVR and Petty combined, +10 CPs and +9 clearances against GC’s first choice midfield with no Oliver, no Trac, no May, Gawn injured, Pickett quiet, and the only non Queensland side to win away to GC this year and by 9 goals to boot? What the [censored]?!? Is it annoying that my first thought was that if we had held on last week, we’d be genuinely playing for finals next week? (Yes, it is annoying) After the week we had, for us to do that is significant IMO. Could so easily have given up and had an eye on the off season but we did the opposite in the face of stern criticism. There is plenty that needs improvement, but clearly kernels to work with.

Just a reminder that if Fremantle beats GWS, and Hawthorn and the Dogs win as expected tomorrow, then if Carlton loses to West Coast they are almost certainly out of the finals - they would have to beat St Kilda next week and then would need either Hawthorn to lose to North (and to make up a 1.5% gap, but the chance of Hawthorn losing to North seems miniscule) or the Dogs to lose to GWS (and to make up an 11% gap, which is almost too much for one game).

Some of what I considered to be the key points: Our depth failed to stand up in the absence of Gus/Smith and the later injuries to key players The off-season presented "distractions" and we didn't cope with them We've "lost some alignment" within the group One of the issues Trac is frustrated about is the response to his injury, even though the club continues to say the response followed all protocols (because it was "reviewed") We need to "benchmark" off the better sides and work out whether there's something in our game plan that doesn't stack up The club will be communicating this review process with members We started the "benchmarking" process halfway through the year, to work out if there were things we needed to improve mid-season but also to prepare for the off-season The "benchmarking" is also with elite clubs outside AFL He accepts fans will be frustrated with the club's failure to bring in a key forward He sounds frustrated with this news coinciding with Houston's interest and leading to him cooling "Will Jack Viney stay?" "Yep"...but then "I expect him to be playing". That answer started very convincing and ended very unconvincing.

You know this is part of the problem, right?

Your post was good until the last line. We've made list management error after list management error for a few years now, Jaded.

To be clear though, in the OP linked podcast Tom Morris suggests he hasn't asked for a trade, on the basis that he doesn't want to and have to then deal with the request being denied.

They beat Fremantle two weeks ago. They also have wins over Hawthorn (Round 1), the Dogs and GWS. But they've also had one of the biggest fixture leg ups we've ever seen, and botched it - they have not left Melbourne since 2 June, which was Round 12. It's now 16 August, and Round 23. They go to Brisbane next week, which means they didn't leave Melbourne for 12 weeks. 12 weeks. No travel. And they're still going to miss the finals. (the other fixture leg up goes to St Kilda, who finish this season with their last 6 straight games, and 8 of their last 9 games post-bye, at Marvel Stadium, and are also not going to make finals).

You answered your own rhetorical question. None of those players have been picked because none of them have demanded selection at Casey, and we're not going to gift them games for the sake of it. One sure fire way to damage your playing group culture is to play players who don't deserve it.

https://www.3aw.com.au/sam-mcclure-gives-the-latest-on-the-unfolding-situation-at-melbourne/ Sam McClure in this grab said that he knows "for a fact" that other players at the club didn't like how Clarry was treated, i.e. saying they'd have been dropped for a month when he didn't cop anything. If true (and yes, it's McClure), that tells me one of two things has gone wrong: The club's response to Clarry's situation was not the right approach having regard to the rest of the team's dynamic and views The club's response to Clarry's situation was correct, but we don't have a stable playing group who can appreciate this, and/or we weren't able to explain our approach to those other players in a way which they'd accept and understand. Maybe the report's not true. He told everyone West Coast wasn't picking Reid because he wasn't going to go there last year. So yeah. But if it's true, it's not good for us.

https://www.3aw.com.au/sam-mcclure-gives-the-latest-on-the-unfolding-situation-at-melbourne/ A slightly different report from Sam McClure (who, I know, is going to give the same reaction to many on here as Tom Morris). In this grab he says that Trac has already asked to be traded, and the request has been denied. I'm not sure that's been reported before. Perhaps that is the reason he hasn't said anything this week. Perhaps Morris report that "if he were out of contract he'd ask for a trade" is indeed wrong, but not for the reasons some want to think. It's wrong because the truth is that he's already asked, but the club is refusing because he's contracted. Hence the Pert and Goodwin "he'll be here next year because he's contracted" remarks. Food for thought.

This game feels so weird. Obviously because of the events of this week. But also, it's our first dead rubber since late-2019, and before that 2016. Which is funny because we had a decade of essentially only playing dead rubbers. But having been up for even just these last 5 years, it's so flattening to now be so checked out before the end of the H&A season.

Paywalled so I haven’t read the article.

I think he means Houston?

“It is understood Houston has had second thoughts about making the move to the Demons despite Melbourne’s strong interest in the All-Australian playmaker. It is a blow for Melbourne who had their eye on Houston to help improve their delivery from the back half. But the club will be forced to look elsewhere as it is aware Houston is considering other options. It has been a turbulent week for Melbourne which is holding talks with superstar Christian Petracca over his frustrations with the club which have put a cloud over his future in red and blue. The off-field issues at Melbourne mean Houston is considering other clubs in Victoria to continue his AFL career, but in any case a deal could be very difficult.“

Parker’s struggling to get a game because Sydney’s midfield is stacked. I’m not convinced he’s the best option out there but he’s so much better than Billings and Hunter that the comparison is silly.

Not against this. Certainly in favour of the first three - I'm also in favour of the sub being not Melksham, but not sure if he deserves to be dropped.

Garry Lyon said on radio this morning that his understanding was that North asked the question and Viney said "no thanks".

I have absolutely no idea how you reached this conclusion. You must not watch his other press conferences. Go watch any of the ones he's done in the aftermath of one of the press hit jobs, and you'll see him when he's unsure and uncomfortable. I've just watched today's and I agree with the OP's general sentiment. He was proud to stand up for his players. He was open and honest about ANB and Clarry. He correctly identified Trac's concerns as being a positive - clubs need to have a strong enough culture where the players can feel empowered and able to raise concerns. He even had a wry smile at the point where he was about to say the phrase "contest and defence", knowing that Kane Cornes has been insulting him all week for those words (and he correctly said that he is constantly on the record as saying we need to be good in all three phases, the third being offence, and that we're not good enough at punishing turnovers). This was as good a press conference as I recall seeing from him, and about bang on what you'd want to see and hear from him after the last 48 hours.