Matsuo Basho

No doubt. The need to recruit outside class is beyond obvious. Need a Jack Martin type delivering it to Weideman as opposed to a Jack Viney. Let the bulls get the thing. Leave the silk to others.

You’re right with your earlier call AF about it being a ‘dagger through the heart’ and just psychologically deflating to see attacks repelled with such ease in our forward 50. Any midfield group is going to subliminally drop off if they keep pumping the prune down there with nothing to show for all the hard work. Our forward line is just diabolical.

Disagree. A fit Lever and May changes the whole complexion of the backline and the side in general. Last line players and flankers walk taller and play with more confidence when the pillars in defence are rock solid. Without a decent spine in a football team the whole organism turns to jelly. As we are now witnessing. Key forward is therefore right now our biggest and most pressing concern.

$700k is not high stakes these days for a 25yo key forward. ‘High price tag’ is the $1.2-1.5m it would take to get Jeremy Cameron’s manager to answer the phone. Patton’s injury history is a risk but again the Hawks aren’t baulking at it and Patton himself seems brimming with confidence. Risk v Reward. The bigger risk is doing nowt and expecting a different outcome in 2020 IMO.

It concerns me that he thinks the problem is a defensive one when we have a forward six who can’t buy goals for love nor money. We sold the farm to get Lever and May. Look no further for the issues in that part of the ground. Forward of centre however the problems are very real. There are personnel issues there that must be solved!

The list has also been overrated. Depth non-existent. Guys like Oscar, ANB, Frost, the Wagners, Kennedy-Harris etc are not AFL standard. High draft picks Petracca and Weideman are looking like busts, ageing warhorses Lewis, Jones and Jetta have fallen off the cliff. Cracks were papered over last season with the finals wins. This is a necessary bushfire to clear out the dead wood.

Go get a key forward and two outside mids, get Lever and May fit and firing, retire Jones Lewis and Jetta, tweak the game plan ... we can bounce back into the top eight next season and contend for the flag. Believe it. This season however ... shot to ribbons. We will finish bottom four. Play the kids.

http://www.espn.com.au/afl/story/_/id/26588673/draft-wrap-no-1-prospect-rowell-already-afl-standard

If we finish bottom which is a strong possibility. - Draft Matt Rowell with pick 1 - Trade out Petracca to Port for pick 15. - On trade pick 15 to GWS for Patton - Pick 19 to GCSuns for Jack Martin In: Patton, Rowell, Martin Retire: Lewis Jones Jetta 2020 side: Hibberd May Hore Hunt Lever Salem Rowell Oliver Martin Fritsch TMac Hannan Melksham Patton Weideman Gawn Brayshaw Viney Harmes Stretch Sparrow Kolodjashnij

Goodwin says “easiest team to play against”. He needs to add “easiest team to coach against” too. He and his assistants have been worked out, exposed and now systematically eviscerated. Players may be rubbish but the buck stops with him.

I’m being followed by a Moonshadow Moonshadow Moonshadow.

Called the Watts trade well before it happened. Called the Hogan trade well before it happened. Heard similar choruses of "it's not happening" "never" "no way" "you've got no idea" etc etc Watch this space.

I've repeatedly said a pick between 10-20, not 20-25. I believe we can get a first rounder for him now while he still has cache. Say for argument's sake Port come to us with an offer of pick 13 for him, we would be mad not entertain it if we thought we could parlay it into something more valuable to our list structure. Mad as hatters.

Sorry, but 16 touches and a goal a game from a super hyped no.2 draft pick in his 5th season is a manifestly pathetic outcome.

Different types of player. Patton can be the Hogan replacement we need. Straighten up the side, bust packs, kick goals, make everyone in the forward arc walk taller. Watch Weid blossom with The General taking heat off him. Petracca is a ‘cream on top’ player and an overrated one at that. Patton makes us structurally a better side. Changes the whole complexion of the team. He’s a game changer. Which is why Clarkson has earmarked him as Roughead’s long term replacement. Petracca out to facilitate Patton in is about putting us back into contention as early as next season. Anyone who thinks we can roll the dice again on the same forward structure is living in deep denial.

Just get him.

Agree DV8. Can you remember Christian ever smothering a footy in desperation or laying a sequence of bone crunching tackles? Where is the sprinting to contest after contest? Where are the second, third and fourth efforts? That’s when you should be hanging your tongue out, physically spent and gagging for oxygen. Not when you’ve just kicked a flashy goal off the back of others’ hard work. Petracca is a downhill skier - the biggest on the list - in need of a major attitude readjustment. Let him be another club’s problem.

Right on DV8. Risk aversion and conservatism. Look no further for the cultural underpinnings of no flag in 55 years.

The number of Demonlanders who think they’ve got Al Clarkson covered in assessing recruiting prospects is truly impressive. Those Hawthorn know-nothings and their track record of abject failure!

There were other warnings signs prior to the debacle in Perth, too. Despite the finals wins (against jaded Hawthorn and Geelong sides) we got smashed on a number of occasions by the real premiership contenders. Goodwin had no answer to Buckley, Hardwick and Simpson on the big days that mattered. QBday, Anzac game, Prelim ... comprehensively walloped in all of those games. The rest of the AFL fraternity have clearly done their homework based on those hammerings and systematically pulled our pants down so far this year. That said injuries and ill luck have not done Goodwin any favours and there are still critical list and personnel issues that need to be addressed. These I’ve alluded to in the Petracca and Patton threads. Im actually optimistic and believe Goodwin can turn things around fairly quickly with some canny and bold decision making. But first he needs to admit his own errors, failings and shortcomings. And he needs to reach out privately to the likes of Roos for help. The 2019 debacle can be a blessing in disguise for the MFC, or it can send us to footballing Siberia for another decade. The million dollar question is does Goodwin have what it takes to achieve the former? Time will tell. He’s got 12 months and one draft/trading period to fix it. He can’t afford to put a foot wrong from here.

I’d like to suggest that the real reason for the low morale of the football club is that we just went from preliminary finalist to wooden spoon candidate in 8 games. You should change your profile name to Dee-Nial.

I suspect you’re right to an extent but practically what do you do about it? The guy just inked a three-year extension. Both Roos and Goodwin’s interests align here. Goodwin will be a dead man walking in 12 months if he can’t right the ship. And if the implosion continues Roos is going to be ridiculed for doing half a job, choosing a poor successor and abandoning the Dees too early. They need each other. Goodwin especially needs the mentor. Like you I’m still not convinced he appreciates the magnitude of the task, both practically and culturally. Along with the Gold Coast job MFC senior coach remains the hardest gig in football.

Would not be surprised if he and Simon had already had informal talks about ways he can help. Roosy doesn’t strike me as the type of bloke who’d want to see his MFC legacy obliterated in twelve months. Proud man. And Goody is mad if he doesn’t think he needs the advice.

As others have pointed out the Hawks may think they have him stitched up but how are they going to compensate GWS for him? AFL rules say they can’t trade out their first round picks again this year. There’s a window of opportunity for us right there but it would require some seriously bold and aggressive trading on our part to trump the Hawks’ offer. Everyone thought May to Collingwood was a done deal last October until we shipped out Hogan and leapfrogged them on the checkers board. Nothing’s done until it’s done. And to concede that Clarkson can just waltz around and do as he pleases unchallenged is exactly the type of thinking that will keep a club like ours at the foot of the ladder.

Pointy end draft picks are far from a ‘complete gamble’. Compare how many stars and elite players have come from picks 1-5 compared to picks 30-35. Without even doing the research I can confidently say at least 5 times as many. From our own list alone Gus Brayshaw and Clarry say hello.