titan_uranus

Julian DeStoop on SEN said JVR was also dropped (along with Windsor and Lever). Anyone else heard that?

Gold Coast is going to be the side to miss the 8, right? A post-bye slump as per usual? What an absolute fail it will be if they do miss from 8-2 with the list they have. (Meanwhile I expect them to comfortably account for us on Saturday. They should be fired up knowing their finals spot is on the line).

Meanwhile North will be a draw behind us. No matter what you think of our year of change, to be a draw out of the bottom 3 at the bye is not even close to good enough.

Don’t agree with this. There’s no aspect of Trac or Clarry’s performance which suggests they’ve “checked out”. Far from it - Clarry’s defensive efforts are to me the opposite sign. Just because they’re playing poorly doesn’t mean they’re not playing for Goodwin.

You could argue the true turning point was the off the ball free paid against May, to Franklin, when we were 17-odd points up and all over them. Never recovered from there.

What an utterly bonkers post. Our 2016 list included Dawes, Lumumba, Stretch, Kent, Ben Newton, Garland, Pederson, Michie, JKH, Weideman, Hulett, Bugg, Mitch King, Ben Kennedy, Mitch White, Josh Wagner, Dean Jones, Terlich and Max King. Plus poor old Grimes and Trengove whose careers and bodies were shot. In what world was that a “strong list”? But then I love “flag aside”. He’s underachieved so long as you just ignore the [censored] premiership we won. [censored] me.

Unfortunately, this is correct (although right now I’d love to see if AMW could make a bit of a difference to our ball movement). We’ve had a comparatively smooth run with injuries this year. Yet we’re bottom 4 at the bye.

He did! Carryst! He acknowledged that it’s on both players and coaches to ensure that what we practice actually shows up on game day. He also acknowledged that our forwards were rubbish and we kicked the ball to them with no composure. Nothing “fantasy land” about anything he said.

It’s really not. That says more about Clarry, though. This board has become incredibly anti-Trac, after what happened last year. I can understand it to an extent, but I also think Trac gets raked over the coals by many on here when he is actually doing pretty well (today he was poor but he’s is a focal point after almost every loss). Poor old Clarry found some form as a defensive mid but can’t seem to pick up the offence side of his game. And now has to compete with Viney for centre bounce attendances.

No, he’s not right. I get you’re angry, we all are (at least we all should be), but even allowing for Gawn’s poor kicking he’s not an “anchor” on us as the OP said. He’s a star and without him we’d be closer to 18th on the ladder. Edit: and the subsequent post that he lets us down as much, if not more, than Lever, Viney, Trac or Clarry is offensively wrong.

Goodwin made multiple mentions of our inability to compete aerially in the forward line today. We must, as a result, drop at least one of Petty, JVR and Melksham. We can’t drop JVR unless we’re prepared to have Petty do the relief ruckwork, which was disastrous last year, or we bring Johnson back. I don’t mind Turner forward but we’re doing him no favours by moving him around so much. Of all the “big moves” we could make, I doubt we’ll drop May or Lever so unless we soft drop one of them, I suppose TMac in and then Turner forward to replace Petty could work. Jeffo for Melksham I suppose. I’m all for identifying better ball users but Billings isn’t up to AFL level and I don’t think Laurie is either (albeit how could we know for sure as he rarely gets full games). We’ll probably just drop some kids and bring back Sharp and Tholstrup though, won’t we.

Goodwin in his presser made a few telling (IMO) comments: He said 3-4 times that one of our key problems was our inability to compete aerially in the forward line, and that our third quarter spark came from competing better in that space. I’d be staggered if at least one of Petty, JVR and Melksham aren’t dropped for our next game as a result He said that under pressure we “reverted”, and when pressed ok what that meant he mentioned our inability to lower our eyes or to be composed when kicking. Again, I’d be staggered if we didn’t see some sort of midfield change in our next game (whether that’s dropping someone or shifting magnets to lower the likelihood of Viney, Oliver, Trac and Rivers doing all the kicking inside 50). IMO our biggest and most fundamental problem is that under pressure we cannot reliably execute our plans, and revert to habitual type, which is to rush or dump kick the ball in the hope we’ll subsequently lock it in or reset and go again. One major contributor to the pressure we are constantly under is our goalkicking - continually missing easy shots, particularly early in games and quarters, heaps the pressure on when our opponent inevitably kicks their own (which is happening far more now than in 2021-23 because our defence is nowhere near the level it was then, and is structured differently as well).

For all the reasonable points you’ve made here, lumping Max in that “anchor” comment undoes them all. Yes his goalkicking is terrible but he gives unconditional effort and consistently high quality football, whilst also being physically targeted weekly by opponents who play the man, not the ball, because they know they can’t compete otherwise. I’ll cop criticism of his kicking, which is wholly justified, but not anything else. Max deserves praise.

FFS let this conspiracy theory [censored] go. We lose games because of ourselves. Let’s get our own rubbish under control before looking anywhere else.

We’re back in the bottom 4, which after the last three weeks is where we belong. For all the gains we made during the 5-1 streak, we’ve cooked our season by losing two games to (at the time) bottom 4 sides in the most maddeningly classic Melbourne fashion. Better analysis will come but for now, the overwhelming feeling is that we’ve taken a promising run of form and absolutely [censored] it up against the wall right when we needed to buckle down and focus before the bye. As disappointed as I’ve probably been since 2020.

That tweet was posted yesterday. He surely travelled with the team as the travelling emergency, doesn’t mean there’s definitely a late change.

Final team In: Viney Out: Tholstrup (omitted)

In: Viney, TMac, Sharp No outs yet. Viney named in the 18. Bench is JVR, Windsor, Tholstrup, Langdon, Howes, Rivers, Sharp, TMac

Waited for what, though?

The bolded bit of your post is something that doesn’t really get considered by those who query the length of deals like this. We all want him to stay here for his career. Whether that’s 1 contract, 2, or 3, who cares. We’d end up in the same place when all is said and done in 9 years. Getting this contract locked away allows us to move our focus to the rest of the list/market, with more certainty over the future. Yes, it’s a lot of money, but if we don’t offer it someone else will, and it’s one of few levers we can pull to get him signed. It’s also a massive sign of faith in the club, which, whether we like it or not, is a good thing for us. He’s marketable, popular and a genuine match-winner who is still improving yet is already at or exceeding the output of comparable players at comparable stages of their careers. I can’t express enough how much of a win I see this as for us.

In this clip Mitch Cleary says Viney still has to clear concussion protocols before we can pick him: I don’t know if that’s because his progress got delayed by the hand injury but it’s concerning that he still hasn’t cleared protocols. It’s been 6 weeks.

melbournefc.com.auInjury Report | Viney in the FrameJack Viney is a chance to take on the Power.Sestan’s absence this weekend explained - a minor hammy. Viney “a chance”. Doesn’t sound promising tbh.

How the [censored] is this at all related to what @Dee Boys correctly said? We lost to the clear flag favourites by a point in a game we played well in (this is what is getting lost in the result - yes, we suck at close games and we still waste forward half territory, but we simultaneously neutralised Collingwood’s ball movement and generated enough supply of our own, to an extent maybe 1-2 other sides have done all year). The idea that yesterday is the catalyst for needing a rebuild/major change is insane. If anything, yesterday is confirmation that this side can play good enough football to challenge, but that rounds 1-5 have snookered any chance we have of making finals.

Insofar as we continue to prioritise territory, the inefficiency issues are in part on Goodwin. But at the end of the day he can’t execute the plan or the kicks on the field, that’s up to the players. He can’t be there to hold Fritsch’s hand when he marks 15m out but plays on without looking. He can’t be there to mark Gawn’s errant kick into the corridor. We all know our list is riddled with players who are poor kicks. Under pressure, their poor kicking comes to the fore, and their instincts (bang it, because I can’t hit a short target) take over. Hence the repeated losses of close games.

The appalling umpiring feels as bad as it does because of the way some decisions either sapped momentum or handed them a score. But we continue to let ourselves down in the same ways. 21 inside 50s to 9 in the second quarter but we lost it by 8 points. Fritsch playing on from 15m out. Gawn’s turnover in the middle of the ground. Oliver out on the full in the last 2 minutes when a point could have snared us a draw (almost as good as a win given our percentage). Losing a close one (our record in close games over the last few years is really poor). We are such a low-skilled side by foot, even when we bring elite pressure, stoppage and defensive gameplay to keep the runaway flag favourites on the back foot most of the day, we still can’t do enough on the scoreboard.