Mental Demons

I think Rivers has been unlucky, he has been going alright and far from our worst. It seems Rivers has been dropped to fit OMac and Jetta in the backline. There will be plenty of time for Rivers but OMac and Jetta better show some grunt, it should be only one of them. Tomlinson was poor drafting. He does not fill any gaps and is not actually not good at anything in particular. He is just OK at a few things that is why GWS let him go. The best Tomlinson can offer is depth if there is an injury. Bennell for Hunt is like for like. Suns to win. No Rowel but Rankine is in for his first game of the year and he is a gun.

I agree these are attractive odds. Unfortunately this outcome also relies that our game plan "brand"will do the winning despite a footy department that has been unable to institute our "brand"in a year and a half. We can not rely on our coach out coaching anybody for a win. We have earned the long odds. They are long odds for a reason, to pull in suckers. Attractive odds like getting 3 to 1 for a Trump win in a two horse race sound like good odds too. The reality is that Trump is not going to win either.

Viney is good enough to be in our midfield rotation. I doubt he would have much trade value that would make it worth getting rid of him. If we are keen to get back in the first round, we would have a better chance of getting a priority pick. There is a good case. Our trading has been awful and incompetent. We don't have to lie or tank, it is obvious to one and all that we are a hopeless case. Our success in the first year of Goodwin was after Roos did a rebuild and developed a game plan. Football moves on quickly the game plan Roos developed was not successful for him, was an improvement but not successful. This was under virtual AFL administration. It would still not be successful the game is much quicker now. Goodwin is not a great coach and does not think on his feet. Our worst problem is the clown that does the trading, this is not Goodwin he is stuck with what he is stuck with. I think we should go cap in hand to the AFL and point out that we are the opposite of competitive and ask to go back into an AFL administration. When left to our own devices we will turn it back to crap. I think our problem is a bit historical. We are the oldest club and until the 1960 we were a power club of the competition. We became the yardstick that everybody was determined to beat. As our club is aligned with success all the clubs with working class roots wanted to beat us. Despite having wealthy business supporters, we are really bad at managing the club on all levels. If the AFL wants a Melbourne team they need to manage the club.

I would only make a couple of changes. Smith does not do enough and every time he gets the ball it looks like he has to think about what to do next. Hore would be a better option if fit. We would have done better if we played Jetta instead of Smith. At the moment Smith is wishful thinking and too aspirational. We play a zone with lots of holes. Bringing in another Tall forward would help TMac and be at the expense of a small. I think Brown offers more than Weid but getting games into Weid may improve his trade value. As this season is shot I would be trying to sort the wheat from the chaff and try things. we also have a problem with Tomlinson, he is not great at doing anything well. It why GWS got rid of him. He is a crap ruck, he is not a natural forward and he is bad at making opponents accountable in the backline. His work on the wing does not end in scores, he need to develop some edge to his game at the moment he is an also ran. We have a few speedy types who could offer more on the wing

There is more to it than that. The club drafts and recruits the players and the coach picks who is playing and decides how they play. We tend to draft much better than we trade when we seem to get stuck with overpriced under performers. It is these guys that are our big problem we can't afford not to play them even if they are ordinary. We only have one proven key position player and that is not the players fault. Goodwin is a very ordinary game day coach and his assistant's big claim is being able to out coach Goodwin with a side that is less talented than the Dees. The team that Goodwin inherited from Roos was much better than the one we have today. That is not the players fault. We need a decent football manager and coach and a rebuild this team is not going to have success with Goodwin.

The tiger outs and the rain will drag the Tigers back to our level. We picked a wet weather team and are in with a chance.

I had not seen this and don't mind admitting that I may be wrong. However it is contrary from the internals I heard around the the club at the time. I do believe that Hogan was happy to see out his contract and as a professional see what his options were. I don't read the H-S because I don't think it is a reliable news source, and there is an element of placating press release about it. It does not sound like other interviews I have heard from Hogan. I did hear that he was unhappy about the trade and was making the best of it. The point is we lost an important player and got nothing to replace him with.

From what I have heard Hogan was happy to stay and it was the club that was keen to move him on. You can say he wanted to go home or he would have left after his contract but I think it is only the club and fans justifying the trade to feel better about it. I believe he had a taste of success and wanted it to continue. I have not seen any statement from Hogan saying he wanted to go home at any time. It was the club that did the deal and it has wasted 5 years development. It probably will ultimately cost Goodwin his job because he does not have the players needed to have success. The MFC is crap at trading.

I agree about Leaver because he is a smart footballer. To trade Hogan and bring a too old too expensive May and Kolodjashnij is what closed our premiership window.The Suns regeneration has a bit to do with finding a sucker to take May. We would be in better shape if we took Hanley.

This whole year is about the advertising and AFL economy. The hope is that next year wont be a compromised season. I don't mind what happens this year as long as it is good for the future and there is good team and player development. Who knows, it might just be good practice for a compromised season next year. The shortened games seem to favour smaller quicker teams and our team is trying to adjust. I don't think Goodwin will take this team to finals again anyway. TMac is our only proven key position player and he seems to be taking his time adjusting to the new game but he has been improving. Most of our spine is guys playing out of position, this is a bigger block to success.

These unchanged selections give me a bit more confidence of a win plus the Tigers outs are a help. More so if it is going to be wet. AVB and Bennell bring very different skill sets to the team. AVB 's aggression and bash and crash at the contest will be more help against the Tigers than a delicate outside runner that can only play half a game. Both are good enough and against other teams this selection may go the other way. It took AVB a couple of games after a long injury break to hit his straps but he was soon amongst our best.

That is nonsense, the point is they were skilled and trained enough to have a plan and disciplined enough to get it to work. I do get your point that we have never had a shortened game without a crowd while social distancing was in place against Geelong. I think they showed more versatility than us and that is our weakness. The blame for that is at Goodwin's feet. In the post match Goodwin said as much.

It was enough to beat us and Goodwin could do nothing about it. I am not sure what your point is.

I could but I am not so much interested in other teams. I am more interested in the demon deficiencies and how they can be addressed. Suffice to say the best teams are versatile and practised in countering the play of other teams. This seems something Goodwin is not competent to institute.

Yes it says we are doing one thing right. Unfortunately it also suggests are couple of other things. It shows we are one dimentional and Goodwin has not developed any plan B or way to counter the most obvious way to beat a team that can only seem to play one way. It also highlights what a poor game day coach Goodwin is. We did enough to win talent wise, just really badly coached.

Fine, address it but don't drop him. He brings hunger and intent he will be better for the experience. He is a strong mark and strong 1 on 1 and a really good kick. As for the laughing, I am glad the kid is enjoying his footy he is not the only one having trouble taking this season seriously. Jetta and May also let through a couple of easy goals every game. Jetta for mismatches and no system of double teaming support and May with his kicking. We lost because we did not make the most of our opportunities. Our defence is soft we have no specialist key defenders. We have no spine. Tmac is our only proven key position player. Small or tall is as specialist as we get at the moment. The big problem is the most of our defenders play the same position and there is not need or room for them all. Lever, May, Hore, Rivers, Hibberd are all intercept defenders. Frost was also a intercept defender but was able to change his game to be an accountable lockdown defender. It was his true value, why he was defender of the year when we traded him and it is what we have been missing. O mac is slow and the short games do not suit slow players. Omac provides a contest but we really need more versatile defenders this year and it is why we have tried Jones, Salem and Harmes there to try and make something happen. May had one of his better games but he is still an issue and watching the Suns, I think a big part of their rebuild was finding a sucker to take May.

Sends the wrong message to who? How old is Lockhart ? How many games has he played? Who is playing better to push him out? In this start stop season I thought he was really good and took the mark of the day. He has a future and will get better with more games. He did tire but it was not why we lost and he still offered more than others have offered lately.

I thought the team played well considering the instability they have had this season. Anytime you lose a game by less than a kick and have more shots than the other team suggests we had our chances. We know the system Goodwin has developed is quick and hard to stop. It is the coaches fault that we are one dimensional. Unfortunately we are stuck with Goodwin unless we don't make finals next year. We can't afford to get rid of him before that. We have to make playing accountable footy as part of the plan. Man up when the other team has possession. It looked good when we did it in the last 10 minutes but it did not look like part of the game plan. Our best footy is catch us if you can and the best defence for that is keeping's off. There were positives today and everybody will be better for the run. Nobody played really badly today, it would be hard to find someone to drop. Mostly everyone did an OK job of being competitive and playing to their strengths with just the odd mistake. The cats are a quality, well coached and versatile team and we were competitive with them. Vanders looked rusty, Hannan, Kozzi and Lockhart were ins that paid off. Tmac showed glimpses. Rivers, Fritch and Melk did not have their best game but still did some good things. I would consider swapping Salem and Tomlinson at times is the situation suits. Today their skills would been better suited to have Salem on a wing and Tomlinson down back. I don't care if this season is just used for practice for next year. If the virus is still around, the footy may not be any better but we will be more use to it. We have the advantage of being quick which really help in these shorten games.

It was suggested and to reference that is reasonable. I come here to talk about the football, you folk can talk about twitter if you want. I would suggest that if twitter is so upsetting, well you don't have to use it or look at it. Life goes on without twitter. A lot of idiots seem to use twitter and an anonymous troll should not be such a threat. There are laws and standards to deal with these issues. It is nothing to do with footy.

It was suggested that Nev may be missing because of said emoji. It is a reasonable question. By the same token re-publishing the same tweet is what you are complaining should not be done. Nev and May have been our most damaging defenders for about a year. In fact the Hogan - May trade closed our premiership window and the team needs a mini rebuild and a new coach.

I don't need a clown like you to tell me what I mean. I said what I mean.

Nev should focus on his footy and if an emoji is beating him he should pack it in.

The topic does not bother me . My issue is that it is not about football. Highlight it as much as you want does not make it about football. The way Nev has been playing he won't be a senior player for long and it is not because of an emoji. Making it about footy and giving it 5 pages is exactly what the troll aims to do. Giving a troll air is feeding it.

I am not uncomfortable talking about anything. At no stage did I say shut it down and you suggesting I did is also virtue signalling. It was not about football and should not be on a footy forum, There are other forums here it is better suited to. The moderators are wrong to have the discussion here. Giving posts like this attention is the wrong message to send. 5 pages about a god-dam emoji is nothing to do with football. A discussion about Nev 's drop in form and why he was dropped is appropriate here. Football is not life and you must not have much of one if you can't see past the club and players. Understanding how the technology works is real power and education.

Why is it ridiculous? One thing we have is depth. We have a number of players who are equally bad at getting the job done. This season is already for the advertising. Anytime your B team is competitive with your A team it means they are very interchangeable. I see little problem with running a few numbers through a few games to see if anyone is so inspired to grab the opportunity to make a career. If we get nothing more than a couple of A team regulars that have earned their place, then it will be real progress.