titan_uranus

I know, but I watched the team song clip on instagram a few times and I couldn’t see BBB or Hunter in the circle.

If the photo/unity was a message to anyone, it was to the fans/sponsors. Most assume that Trac’s social media silence is indicative of him wanting out. Whilst it might be, it could also be indicative of someone who has been too vocal and is now sheepish and doesn’t know what to say. It’s easy enough to assume he didn’t go to the GC because he’s disjointed from the club, but there is probably another perfectly good reason he didn’t go that we all don’t know about. I might be completely wrong and he could genuinely have thrown the toys out of the cot, but I just reckon we’re all prone to assuming the worst when we maybe shouldn’t.

Why hindsight? We all felt it at the time. Those two fourth quarter misses from Billings and Tholstrup hurt.

Unless you have Carlton beating West Coast, a 1 point win over us and a Fremantle loss to Port puts Collingwood in the 8. Carlton winning tonight pretty much ends them but the Blues’ injury list means that’s unlikely.

Again, this is wrong. They only care about Carlton. If they lose, Collingwood is alive.

Were B Brown and Hunter there in the rooms too? I didn’t see them in the song clip but that might just be me.

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.

That article explicitly says that Trac wasn’t meeting Neale to talk about leaving: They talk about mindfulness and AFL360 gigs. That article and Tweet are the absolute worst of AFL media.

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?

My read on the Trac situation (all based on the reports with no inside knowledge): Prior to KB Trac wasn't happy with certain things - I'm going to assume this is broader than just "we're not winning" and spill into things like fitness, training, dedication, 1%ers, stuff like that The KB injury occurs and Trac probably feels poorly treated by the club, if not the decision to go back on the ground then the aftermath (e.g. the social media post or the messaging around what happened to him) Sitting at home in isolation watching us continue to lose and our season fall apart exacerbates the feelings that have been bubbling away the previous few months He starts saying things out loud about his dissatisfaction, whether to friends/family or being overheard in public At some point he approaches the club to discuss his views, and either says flat out "I want out" or something more like "I'm not happy with where things are going and it's making me consider my future here" The club says something like "well you're here for the next five years so we better work on it" That correspondence doesn't sit well with Trac It gets out to Morris The club's statement only says he'll be here because he's contracted because that's the line we're running - no denial of his unhappiness, nor of him wanting out or suggesting it's heading that way, because that part is true Trac doesn't say anything, in part because it's true that he's unhappy and/or wants out and/or has suggested he will be reconsidering in the future if things don't change, and in part perhaps because he feels a bit sheepish or caught out for mouthing off and it got out into the public The natural response from many is to either side with Trac, and say it's the club's fault for standards slipping or promoting/failing to address poor cultural issues, or to side with the club and say Trac's sooking. IMO, if the above is even remotely close to the truth, it's a combination of both. No player like Trac should find themselves in this position. If he had issues, he needed to keep them in house. But the club has failed to contain a series of genuine problems over the last 12-24 months and finds itself now in a terrible position. We're copping it everywhere and we have no way to respond. How does this look for target players, or sponsors, or our fixture chances in 2025, or our 2025 crowds and membership figures, or our ability to retain home games at the G, or all those things that matter. This needed to say in house, but whatever is going on, it needed to be raised and dealt with. At least now the club has no choice but to confront these problems. If that means assistant coaches go, good. If that means Pert, Richardson or board members go, good. If that means our fitness program is overhauled, good. Whatever it is, it needs to happen. The only thing we can't do from here is nothing.

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.