Smokey

All things considered, that performance fills me with some confidence going in to next year. Onwards and upwards. Big summer ahead.

Maxy currently showing anyone talking about trading him to be a damn fool.

Of all the craziness that gets written on this forum - the thought of trading the best ruckman in the game is right up there. Whether or not you believe his ruck craft benefits us significantly or not doesn't change the fact he is highly mobile, of elite fitness and clunks important marks in our back half week after week. The words trade and Gawn should never be uttered in the same sentence. If we had better midfielders that were able to take advantage of his tap work this convo wouldn't exist. I'd rather focus on surrounding him with better players.

I hear what you're saying and it makes enough sense. And perhaps I'm the naive one, but if I'm a player or FD member I'm making a point to stay well clear of places like this. The internet and its users is a generally a very hostile place, and with the rise in it's use a rise in mental health issues have been correlated. I wouldn't be surprised if they are told to avoid places like DL specifically to be honest (especially when the chips are down a la season 2019). Feedback from anyone other than coaching staff is pretty useless to these guys. In the end they are professional athletes, and even though they may not appear professional right now - they are still a group young, highly tuned athletes who are focused on what is being drilled into them at training and on game day. These blokes jobs are hard enough physically and mentally, the last thing they need is to read the unhinged thoughts of a bunch of middle to late age tragics like us. With cameras following them around, people taking photos of them without consent when at the pub, endless interviews, media commitments and brand advertising they have to do, I would imagine the thought of going home and reading what people have to say about them when online isn't even on the radar. And nor should it. Should we expect more as fans? Absolutely, this has been the most disappointing season in recent memory for mine. I just hope lessons learnt this year will be addressed over the next 6 months. And for god sake - the rub of the green on the injuries front wouldn't hurt!!!

Surely you are capable of coming to your own conclusions without relying on some sort of review? Josh is a professional who is highly regarded among senior figures. Look elsewhere for the answer to our season, it ain't here.

Nice post, but lets get real - how on earth does the mentality of supporters have any effect whatsoever on the 22 blokes that go out and actually play the game every week? And what does "demand better" actually mean? Abusing them at games? Angrier posts on DL? Getting saty to go and have 1 on 1 convos with them all at training saying he demands better?

Not bending over, just can see our situation for what it is. The financial hit we will cop because of this year will have deep rooted effects. We went from a "sort of" destination club to a club that, from what I'm reading, is looking for hand outs again. You've been around long enough - 2018 was the peak of this era, now queue the trough. Your online demands for on field performance equate to zero.

Then I truly feel you. If this year and all its promise has taught us anything, its that our club's scars are so deep that we will never see true success again. Wimp? If you measure courage by following a bad football team then I'm not even sure what to say to that.

It's truly fascinating that you haven't bored yourself to death by posting the same message over and over with slightly different wording year after year You're not gonna see a flag from the MFC mate. Accept it.

Good get, I guess. He didn't exactly set the world on fire during his tenure at St Kilda but the fact is Goody desperately needs to be surrounded by experience and this is a good start.

Of course. I'll bet my bottom dollar anyone saying they won't will still come on here week to week to talk footy next year. The trick is to not base your entire life and happiness around a footy team! Everyone is disappointed, but if you are actually at the point where you feel you cant mentally go on supporting a footy team who's having a bad year, then yeah it's probably for the best - see ya later!

Fair point. Lever has obviously struggled since the knee issues, but one thing I constantly see when hes on the park is him barking orders at other players. Jones and Viney are seemingly incapable of doing this, probably because they don't have the footy IQ to direct play. Sure, Lever would be a risk to promote as the knee could go again, but the last thing we need is more captains like Jones and Viney. I don't actually mind the Melksham suggestion either tbh. May is obviously another good option, but I reckon we should be looking for a captain that has 7-8 years left in them, not 3-4. Stability is desperately needed everywhere in our team, and captaincy is no exception.

Is it just me or are the media trying to make a mountain out of a molehill here? "Almighty spray"? How do they come to that conclusion? Does anyone have audio on what was said? I must be missing something here, otherwise once again the media are purely speculating. Obviously this is a frustrating year for all and I'm sure tensions are at boiling point everywhere. I guess we have no one to blame but ourselves for giving the media nothing much else to talk about ...

I think Max does enough and doesn't need the burden of captaining. That and he doesnt really show the on field generalship expected of a captain, although he certainly leads by example with his effort and output. Just let Max do what he does best - play great footy. Lever for mine.

When you are in a positive to predict that, please let me know so I can put a bunch of money in my sportsbet account. Thanks in advance!

What is finals success? Making the finals? Winning a final? Premiership?

I'm not a fan of him as a captain, but if ld rather him on our side than to play against us.

Footy is a billion dollar industry. Is it any surprise that its management has fallen upon businessman concerned mostly with a bottom line?

Id guess the reason could be that we understand Hore is a known quantity and obviously best 22 next year, so we are giving Omac one last look in a new role to see if we can get anything out of him other than being back half depth. That's what I'd be doing at this stage anyway.

Our ruckman being named in a notional team that could never actually exist is truly of little concern. Wake me up when AA selection translates into winning games.

We know how bad we are right now. What does digging up increasingly obscure stats to prove it actually do for us at this stage?

This has already been analysed ad nauseam.

Dumb thread This place would be better if the creation of threads was vetted by admins.

Whether they are giving a legacy star a sendoff game or not is quite different to talking about the internal processes of a footy department. I'm sure you'd get a similar response from Goody right now if Jones were playing for Casey and on his last year right now. I don't recall many candid media appearances from Clarkson which divulge the internal workings, vision and roadmap of their footy department ...