Matsuo Basho

I'm sure they will. At what level, in what position and in Wed's case at what club is not presently written in stone. Nothing is certain in footy.

I get that many don’t agree on Patton, but he’s not the “only option”. Read the OP - plenty of names there. If we end up with pick 5-10 every chance it will come into play for a key forward. Goodwin will be acutely aware that the club can not afford another season like this one. Jobs on the line time. Ben Brown would be one worth the risk IMO. Are we fair dinkum or just going to play it safe from here? You’ve got to roll the dice.

Where are the goals going to come from? 3rd best defence versus third worst attack by the numbers. Monumental task. Goodwin has to take some risks starting with bringing in Preuss and releasing TMac further up the ground. Get it in there quickly, get crumbers around the big fella and maybe things fall our way. Same line up this week won’t gave a hope in Hades.

Those sides with the names Grinter and O’Dwyer on the team sheet really gave us an unsociable edge at that time. Strawbs was a frightening specimen to behold in full angry pills mode.

Trevor Barker and Brad Hardie? Come off it.

Opposition forwards hold no fears about Oscar and Frost and are able to demand and receive ball in the corridor of goal. That would account for a good deal of those scoring accuracy stats. Maybe they just also practice more than our guys do and have better line coaches. Key defender Troy Chaplin has been our forward line coach. Why not someone who truly understands forward craft and goal kicking mechanics? Surely it’s not that hard.

It sounds like you think you're smarter than all of these people combined. Which probably just means you're being deliberately controversial and contrarian to carve a reputation. You're analysis of Lewis is so one sided as to be comical. He was excellent in his first year at Melbourne (finished top 6 in the B&F), played a smattering of very good games last year before ultimately getting caught by Father Time. He was a big part of the reason our backline tightened up and looked more composed over 2017/18. No doubt he was only ever worth a two year deal but on-field was clearly not the only reason Goodwin brought him in to the fold for three seasons. I've seen far worse investments made by this club over the journey.

To clarify I take more of a ‘pound for pound’ view of this type of question. I focus on the talent level of the players in question and factor that in. It has not surprised me that TMac has come back to earth this season. I think his 2018 was an anomaly for a guy who is not a natural forward. That said he’s been awful no doubt. Petracca as a blue chip investment should be playing at a level 30% better than this at this stage of his career. Another season stuttering along like this and he’ll be trade bait.

You could raffle ‘most disappointing’ among a bunch of them. Petracca, McDonald, Brayshaw, Oscar, Weideman, feel like Steven May needs a special mention as well despite barely playing. An opinion was asked for. I gave mine.

Have been really please with the resurgence of Jayden Hunt. Quality player. Can't go past Petracca for most disappointing. No.2 draft pick in his fourth season averaging just 16 touches and barely a goal a game.

Clearly it's too big a risk to run with Weid and TMac again in 2019. The former may or may not come on and the latter may just have been a one season wonder in 2018. He is not a natural forward anyway. If we're serious about competing for the Cup next year priority number one must be a goal square gorilla who can bullock, straighten us up and kick 45+ in the process. The backline cavalry is set to return, the midfield quality is there, but with Hogan gone priority number one on the trade front is obvious. Free agency presents an interesting if ageing bunch. Levi Casboult, Ben Reid, Sam Day, Jarryd Roughead, Majak Daw, Justin Westhoff and Josh Kennedy (WC) are listed as as 2019 FA's. Would any of them offer something for a couple of seasons for an MFC priming itself for a flag tilt in 2020? And if so who'd be gettable do you think? I'm a fan of the left field option of having a crack at "The General" Jon Patton as some of you know. Huge risk versus reward option I know but the Hawks are keen and we should be able to trump them in terms of an offer to GWS given our ladder position. He wouldn't cost the Earth like some of the names people come up with like Jeremy Cameron and Ben Brown, although I would not be averse to us having a crack at the latter. And what about Esava Ratugolea as an option? Let's get creative Demonlanders and solve this pressing piece of the list puzzle.

Unless an irresistible big fish wants to come to us I'd hope we go to the draft and replenish our list with some top end talent. We desperately need a key forward so may have to get clever there in order to trade one in. Scanning through the BigFooty 2019 Draft thread young KPF's are thin on the ground this year.

Probably worth the investment on the balance of it although the drop off in speed, reflexes and form was probably quicker than the club would've hoped. I think Salem in particular has really benefited from his influence.

The game Preuss played against Sydney was better than anything either Weideman or TMac have produced all year. Must play against Collingwood on Monday.

Nice post. Points well made. I think those 13/14/15/16 misfires are costing us though now. He couldn’t find a clever small forward or a few more likely talls nation wide? Maybe I’m a harsh judge but for a club like ours you need so many factors to go right - recruiting being almost at the top of the tree. I wonder if it isn’t time for a fresh mind and a new set of eyes in the recruiting hot seat. If we can do better his position should be looked at ... and we can do better. What would it take to get Stephen Wells out of Geelong I wonder? I’d ask him what he makes and offer to double it.

He’s kicked a paltry 6g 5b in 7 games this year. 22g 14b over his 27 games so far. Going at well under a goal per game. How much more slack should we cut the guy without running out of rope?

Replace half of those eight with quality depth players that Taylor could've/should've selected over the past five years (instead of the VFL battlers we're running with) and suddenly you're much more competitive and a 3 and 8 season at round 11 is 5 and 6. Season still alive with key personnel to return. These are the margins you work with in a cut throat elite competition. Taylor's recruiting outside the cream of R1 has fallen short and needs to be looked at. Not enough promising talent pushing up through the ranks for spots. Too much capital being given away in trading to bandaid over the cracks.

"Most of your best 22 missing"? What are you talking about? On the weekend Melbourne had 14 of the 22 that played in the 2018 Prelim out there.

Your replies and mock up team have completely missed the point of lack of depth in the list. It is inarguable that the list is not weak beyond the best available 22 players.

He’s the National Recruiting Manager. Buck stops with him, particularly when it comes to 18yo talent and left field mature aged smokies. I think you’d be surprised how little influence other members of the FD have inthese selections. There’s a massive reliance on your recruiting head, who has watched these boys week to week over several seasons. And no-one’s debating he has come up with “multiple best 22 players”. Just not enough of them. How do you (and others) account for the paucity of depth in the list? Injuries can hurt a club sure but it’s gone past that and absolutely crippled us. Hard questions must be asked.

In short, yes. No-one’s saying it’s not a challenging job. This is elite level professional sport, not tiddlywinks. The club is 16th on the ladder with a list that bats about as deep as a sidewalk puddle. If you get paid the coin to find good players it’s a pretty simple equation - produce or clean out the desk! No excuses fielded or accepted.

That’s a pretty big ‘knock’ to gloss over the way you’ve done. Taylor’s primary role is to bring in young talent at minimum cost through the draft, not have us overpay for players later on because of repeated misfires. You’re always going to be behind the eight ball if that’s your model. In addition to young talls and rucks he has also failed to draft any genuine small forwards of quality in five years. Another ‘knock’.

That’s fine and I agree with you on BT but are you of the opinion Goodwin should under no circumstances tear paint of the walls in a general and if strategically required individually when a situation merits it? If our supporters feel that last quarter didn’t merit a hard-hitting response from Goodwin post-game, heaven help us. These professional footballers might be millennials but last time they checked I’m pretty sure they realised they’re also men.

Calm 100% of the time? Dear me. This is footy. Did you ever play? There will ALWAYS be a time and place in combative sport played between men for passion, inspiration, fire and brimstone. For calm leadership 100% of the time better seek out a desk job.

All clubs go through tough injury trots. The better ones sustain performance in large part for having recruited and drafted solid depth talent through the list. Our current ladder position and percentage indicates we have failed in this area. There are some decent players in that list sure. But not enough. Too many misfires across the half decade.