Gawndy the Great

Yes im well aware. The salary cap position is always a challenge and we dont know whats actually been contracted with our players in future years, which may force us into doing silly trades like GC to manage salary cap. If we traded Harmes, retired Hibbo, Melksham and Jordan left, without doing anything else, we probably have enough for Himmelberg assuming no other cap mismanagement. There would be other players on the market no doubt that we'd be into but he would be at the top of a lot suitors. I reckon if we are not mentioned with any links to him in the next 8-10 weeks then its not happening. These things tend to leak.

This game has disaster written all over it (for the MFC). Carlton are really under the spotlight and are under huge amounts of pressure to perform. If the playing group is united, we are in for one hell of a fight. Even with their big outs.

We clearly need to turnover some players in our list. At the end of this year: Tommo - 30 (contracted until 2024) TMac - 31 (contracted until 2024) BBB - 31 (contracted until 2024) Hibberd - 34 Melksham - 33 Harmes - 28 (contracted until 2024) Jordan - 23 There is easily a minimum of 2.0M there (assuming avg AFL salaries) possibly more. There is plenty there to attract Himmelberg and possibly another player then take our 3 picks from the draft and promote some rookies.

there was no oppo pressure. It was a glorified training run. We did however seem to use it against Dogs and Swans , so it worked. The contest structure is absolutely mind boggling but it’s Goodys way or the highway. Can’t see it changing anytime soon.

Will at least stop us dump kicking into the forward line.

Yeah my thoughts too.

I’m ok to split the. It’s as it was evenish game from an individual performance. Dogga really starting to deliver on his potential. Starting to feel like our initial displeasure of getting shortchanged on that trade is coming back.

Just wait and see…. No joke he is getting off.

What are the 1 or 2 stats that are telling of our problems. The last few weeks we have said effort / pressure, but the last 2 weeks pressure has been ridiculous elite. So the boys are clearly trying. We say that Goody is being out coached - what is this specifically? Matchups? Team selection? Game plan ? execution? There is something clearly off but it’s hard to put the finger on it so keen to get the panels thoughts if it hasn’t been answered yet.

They know how to use the corridor and win clearance. That is basically the only way you can beat to them there.

He is progressing through by the sound of it, but it will be the full tilt running, rapid acceleration, deceleration loading that’ll determine match readiness. 3 weeks is a minor hammy whether we risk it 3.5 or so will be interesting. If he does a major one it could be season ending so a big call either way.

I thought the run home is worth discussing given that we are close to midway through the year. 12 wins gets you into finals and 16 into the top 4. There is an extra game this year so it’ll be interesting whether this effects the required wins to make it into the 8/4. We are are 7-4 meaning there is a bit of work to do. Where do our wins come from. My views below based on current form gets us to 14-9 which ends up being 6-7 territory. There is probably a few more wins in there but I have not the confidence to call em right now. Geelong are gettable , Adelaide and Lions on our home deck we’d have to have real hot shot… but that is assuming we get our ducks in order. We get Petty and Oliver back after the bye so no excuses. Melbourne v Carlton - W Melbourne v Collingwood - L Geelong Cats v Melbourne - L Melbourne v GWS Giants - W St Kilda vs Melbourne - L Melbourne v Brisbane Lions - L Melbourne v Adelaide Crows - L Richmond v Melbourne - W North Melbourne v Melbourne - W Carlton v Melbourne - W Melbourne v Hawthorn - W Sydney Swans v Melbourne - W

I actually don’t mind this.

Was thinking about this thread today and it occurred to me that we are having a very similar year to 2018 where we were a high scoring team, inconsistent and couldn’t really beat the the top 4 teams. Is it possible that in our efforts to try to emulate a faster moving , offensive team like Lions and Pies, we have over compensated and basically stopped defending as a team ? Quick to point fingers at others? When we come across good defensive sides, our offensive plan is lost at sea and we just default to boundary, slow, bomb kicking We are also addicted to front of stoppage clearances and yet rarely punish the opponent when 1/10 clearance falls our way and our stoppage setups are too offensive and often leave us flat footed. Predictably the media scrutiny is well upon us and so it should be. There are no easy solutions, just hard work, hard training and a big rebound on Friday night to get the confidence up before the big test on KB. Our next chance to beat a top team. The boys should really set themselves a target before the bye - nothing to lose type mentality and go all in. If the shoe was on the other foot, I certainly wouldn’t want to be playing us coming off 2 straight losses and our pride and courage questioned. The Pies will have two soft kills in consecutive weeks and will lose a bit of edge so we have the advantage of being a bit more battle hardened then them.

I have no trust. The effort which was lacking in the last few weeks was there. I think we had a 237 rating at one stage. But I don’t trust the coaches to change the plan, I don’t trust the players to try something different and take some risk and I don’t trust their skills under pressure. Long road back from here. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.

What happened to Sidebottom?

Perhaps it was the remaining fixture, but definitely heard something about us having the hardest fixture.

I heard that we have the toughest 2nd half fixture based on the current top 8

I hope Dimma goes to Suns and we take Dew as an assistant. Maybe a chance to snag one of their guns.

Who runs with Curnow? It’s not Lever and May doesn’t have the agility. Tommo will get a bag kicked on him.

The issue is game plan. Everything is secondary or directly traceable back to it. specifics - 1. structure and shape. Outnumbered at contests, doesn’t allow us to transition the ball fluently when we do win it. Instead we dump kick it to another contest and ultimately fail. There is no overlap run and wingers are pushed right to the outer. 2. stoppages. Getting murdered with scores from forward half stoppages. Half the team are defending space and are flat footed when they should be pressing up on an opponent. 3. Skills. Kicking efficiency, tackling forward tackles, ground balls. These are the 3 things i would work on first to try and nullify the opponent from scoring. We are very leaky this year. Get this right then you can work on a whole host of forward half issues.

Our last 12 months has been telling. You can blame the playing group only so much as the form goes up and down. We lack system and method that can win games. I’d be happier to accept a loss knowing we are trying to play different, more boldly - use corridor some more. But the stubbornness will cost us 2023 and I cannot really see Goodwin changing anything next year. I don’t think Yze or Choco will be with us next year so we need to think who we going to target.

Yep we have a 5 loss run coming up. Strap in for the turmoil that will follow.

Our key players lack agility . Gawn is useless post contest, May can’t get a ground ball, Lever looks uncoordinated and doesn’t know what he’s doing, Trac fumbly and lacks composure and clean possession. We don’t have any weapons off half back, which for our intercept and turnover game is a huge issue. Bowey and Salem just lack speed and composure. Also it’s the second week now where we are behind with a few minutes to go and just lack any idea how to take a bit more risk and use the corridor. not much we can do about it this year unfortunately - target a few good ball users off half back and take a few kids in the middle to rejuvenate the list. Game plan needs to be completely overhauled top to bottom. Stoppage footy is all but done.

I know it, you know it, everyone on here knows it. opposition coaches know it and laugh at us when we dont. The FD though are on a different planet.