titan_uranus

The rules are abundantly clear. Media articles: fine. Unsubstantiated rumours: not fine.

Pretty grubby stuff. Takes quotes from the presser out of context completely and describes Goodwin as being “defensive” when he wasn’t at all.

“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.

Trac's been back since at least Friday, which is when he was seen at Captain's Run. Gawn said he'd had some preliminary chats with him. There's every chance that's right - with Trac not in at the club with everyone else all the time, it could easily be a situation where they've said they want to chat properly in-person, not by text or over the phone or something. I know that if I were Gawn and I had a situation like this, I'd be offering to sit down with Trac and go through whatever's on his mind. If he has concerns, let's address them properly, in-person, not over the phone or by text. Gawn was door-stopped, so he said what he could think of. I just wouldn't read too much into his choice of words. Also, like @Gator, I read the posts about the interview before seeing it and I had expected it to be far, far worse than what it really was.

If you think this, I don’t think you properly appreciate his role or modern footy. And that’s without acknowledging his status as a leader of the club.

Snap.

The timing reeks of a leaky club, more than anything. That’s what concerns me. Why are we leaking again after years of seemingly not?

This is some A-grade rubbish from you. Firstly, the article explicitly says he requested a trade weeks ago. Not this week. Secondly, there is no report or suggestion thatViney or Trac have requested trades. Thirdly, you either don’t have kids or have had a charmed run. But the suggestion that you can plan for kids and map it all out and it all goes to that plan is misguided and honestly, to those of us who do have kids, offensive. Who are you to judge him or his partner or his child on what is working for them? Take your disappointment and vent it somewhere else.

Disastrous news. Not because of some sort of broader problem but because he’s a heart and soul leader of the club and a key player in our side. Largely irreplaceable.

There’s no report that he requested a trade. The only thing that comes close is the hypothetical “if he were out of contract he would request one”. Which could be true, but could also easily be exaggerated journalistic guff.

I should have known the great @WheeloRatings would have the answer!

So the statement tells us that the club has been speaking with players to get feedback on what's gone wrong this year. Piecing things together, it seems like Trac has taken that opportunity to ventilate issues he has with the club. If we believe Morris, those issues don't include Goodwin. Given how bad our fitness has been this year, I am going out on a limb here and suggesting (with no evidence at all) that one of his issues with the club has been our fitness program. I just wouldn't be surprised at all if his injury made him reflect more strongly on the fitness/health aspects of the club.

I’m confident this is not correct. One thing explicitly said in the report is that he’s not unhappy with Goody. The Viney talk is simply talk that North have thought about trying to get him, not that Jack wants to leave. The Oliver talk has never included “he wants out”. And over the last few months we’ve had a stack of players re-sign. Bringing all of that together, I don’t think the players are ”crying out” against or “not believing” in Goody or the game plan. I suspect they do believe in it, but are struggling to execute it.

Whilst I don’t know that sending the players to America is the answer, I suspect the sub-standard facilities have more of an impact than we want to believe.

You know what’s interesting about this? They didn’t show a single piece of footage from the game on the weekend as an example of us being “boring”. Both Cornes and Lloyd are quick to grab footage and work with it (like the May stuff in this clip) but not one clip here. I’ve argued earlier that I don’t actually buy it. Our lack of scoring on Saturday wasn’t for want of trying. It was for want of ability. We can’t move the ball quickly because we can’t kick or handball quickly when under pressure. We tried. We failed.

Source? Even this report says he’s not upset at Goodwin per se.

The report is that he’s unhappy with the club (but not Goodwin) and if he were out of contract would request a trade tomorrow. If true, this is a “sack whoever it takes to appease him” situation. This club will fold if Trac leaves. It’s not just who he is on the field, it’s who he is off it. He’s connection to our supporter base, he’s marketable, he gives us relevance where we might not otherwise have it. He has, until King’s Birthday, been so incredibly passionate about this club. If changes can be made to make him feel more comfortable, then we make those changes. Stuff concerns about putting one player above the rest. Exceptions get made for people like Trac.

Definitely worth bearing in mind. Our fixture this year has ended up being brutal from a repeat match perspective: Brisbane, Port, Dogs and Fremantle, along with Collingwood (and West Coast). The minimum six games against North, Richmond, St Kilda, Adelaide, GC and Essendon. GC, by comparison, has had 8 games against this crop - and they're one of them! They've squandered one of the all time easiest fixtures this year.

Out of interest, where did you find this?

It's actually (ridiculously!) possible that 14 wins misses: Brisbane wins at least one (14.5+) Fremantle wins both (14.5) Dogs win both (14) GWS therefore loses both (14) Hawthorn wins both (14) Carlton wins both (14) The lowest percentage of GWS, the Dogs, Hawthorn and Carlton would then miss (currently that's Carlton, 1.1% behind Hawthorn). Imagine if Carlton miss despite going 14-9... Meanwhile, also ridiculously, 13-10 might be enough to get in: Fremantle loses both (12.5) Carlton loses both (12) Essendon loses at least one (11.5 or 12.5) (could be worse if Hawthorn or the Dogs don't win again) In that latter scenario, Collingwood make finals if they win both. We'd also have remained in the running had we won on Saturday (and our percentage would be irrelevant).

Our pursuit of Houston would have started a while back, at a time when we would have expected our first round pick to be 10-12 or something. As the season has fallen apart, and that pick is now 6 with a possibility of becoming 5 (or even 4 if we want to get really pessimistic…), the club may well have had to reconsider. I’d sure hope so, anyway.