Colm

I’ll second this as a topic for discussion. Nathan Jones said it a few weeks ago, we all need to reassess our expectation of Melbourne, on the weekend we were without Trac, Gus and Lever. From a purely leadership perspective that is massive. On top of that we have Oliver really struggling and several player out of form and low in confidence. Post game thread went into meltdown even though we won. There will be a time when we will wish we could see the likes of Max, Viney, Clarry and Maysie running round the G one last time. If we reset our expectation it might allow us enjoy wins like we just had. Love the Podcast lads. Keep up the good work.

Think that pick is currently pick 30. In a draft that is meant to go pretty deep that’s a good pick.

Agreed. @Lucifers Hero has always been one of my favourite poster.

How good would it be if Max played until he’s 37. Not sure it’s on the cards though. At the time of his 200th I remember him saying that he wanted to enjoy it as he didn’t think 250 games was very likely.

There clearly a wide range of reasons for our midfield drop off. Oliver being so down on form, the return of the tagger has also meant teams are able to tag Trac. Previously when teams tagged Trac, Oliver would have a field day and vice versa. Losing Gus has clearly had a big impact too. Id love to see comprehensive state on our overall fitness from last year to this. Feels like we just aren’t fit enough this year. New game plan, overall coaching, strength & conditioning and player development all probably require looking at. No one can look at those stats and say some level of change isn’t required.

No I said May if we don’t believe we are going to be in the top 4 next year. Don’t think anybody on Demonland would ever say we should trade Max.

We are a nice club who’s culture is soft as butter and every other club knows it. I love Max to bits but his leadership style couldn’t be any softer. Goody has very little aggression in him either. Lack of response to Maynard in last years final or last weeks game is just one example of how soft we are. How many times do teams go after Max all game on and off the ball. Zero reaction from any of our players including Max. Why wouldn’t teams continue to do it. It’s not just on field either we are soft as off field too. We let Grundy go for a bag of chips because it was the right thing to do and we are nice. If Petty doesn’t sign a contract we will get bugger all for him too because nobody will believe we will hold him to the last year of his contract. We are too nice to do that. Going off the reports it looks like some of our new recruits might have a bit of aggression in them( Kolt and Kentfield) so I’m wondering if it’s something we are trying to address but it’s just as likely that we will coach that aggression out of them. Also I’m not talking about thuggery, just a willingness to stand up for your teams mates and go hard at the footy when required.

He’s def carrying an injury. Not sure if it’s the shoulder or something else. I noticed a few times last week that he had very little mobility. Hopefully whatever it is will come good with the bye. Agree that early season I think he was in career best form.

Not sure we can rely on Max in two years time, especially if we keep running him at 90% game time every game. Think the club really has to make a call in the coming weeks whether or not we will make top 4 next year. If not then perhaps May could be the big name that gets sacrificed. Would be a good fit for a number of clubs and would have trade value. But to do that we need to lock in one or both of Tmac and Tommo into a new contract for next year. This is why I feel we must make decisions now as other clubs would already be taking to both of them. Same goes for Petty- if we think we are a real chance for top 4 next year then I wouldn’t let him go this year. If we are going to have a mini 2 year rebuild I’d put him back in defence next game and let him get some form and trade value back. Id still love to keep Petty if he will sign a new contract.

Too early to judge the last two years but the Windsor looks the goods and there’s high hopes for the Kolt. Time will tell on the likes of Jefferson, Sestan and Verrall. Also picked up Judd as a rookie same year as JVR. Laurie hasn’t impressed me but there wasn’t really any good players picked after him. Shame cats jumped in front to pick up Holmes. Why not go back a year further when we picked up Jackson, Kossie and Rivers. No doubt we have lots of problems at the min, not sure JT is one of them.

Still have full confidence in JT. Not so sure about Lamb. Seems our trading has gone downhill since Josh Mahoney left.

If Petty doesn’t sign a new contract soon we might be as well to put him back in defence. Let him find some form and increase his trade value.

I think it’s fair to say we aren’t winning a flag this year. Best we could hope for is finishing in the 8 and winning a final and getting that monkey off our back. What we need to now make the call if we think we are a chance to bounce back next year. Perhaps a quick external list review. If we decide we are not winning a flag this year or next then we need to get very aggressive with turning over our list while we still have some mature players that have trade value that won’t be part of our next flag. We still have a very talented young group of players so it’s not a total rebuild. Just a mini rebuild, the pies have shown it can be done Our last rebuild was hampered by new clubs coming into the comp. I’d rather we get aggressive in the next couple of trade periods to avoid it happening again.

Started reading this thread just after it started, got as far as one poster saying he would be out for 2/3 weeks. Was happy to be in denial. Now that I’ve returned it seems most posters have move on to the anger stage. Take your time and recover well Trac, this season is done, no point rushing back.

After what happen the last time we played the filth, if this game wasn’t going to be a line in the sand game I can’t for the life of me see why the round 24 game will be. Not having a go, just can’t see if we had no mongrel in us for this game how we will have any for round 24.

Langers called the filth all duck and no dinner and 5 of their players jumped on him in the first two mins. That scum bag finished Gussys career and our finals with that deliberate shoulder hit and not one of our player puts a hand on him the whole game. We are soft as butter and its big part of the reason we are out of the 8. Better to stand for your teammate than stand for [censored] all.

God I [censored] hate the pies. If we achieve nothing else this year please dear god may we smash the filthy scum on KB game.

Searching for an reason(excuse) why we total dropped our work rate all over the ground. No pressure in f50 or all over the ground really. WC seemed to have players in space for the 4 quarters. We have often started poorly this season but have always finished well and our fitness levels seemed to be as good or better than anybody else. We were nowhere near it tonight. Anybody know what our pressure rating for the game was?

Ok that sucked. We just didn’t have any legs. Couldn’t keep our shape. They had players out everywhere all game. Out worked and out classed. Only thing I can think of is we thought this was a gimme and used the 10 day break as a tome to put in a big training load. If we did it shows lack of respect to our opposition and we got it wrong big time.

Sydney haven’t had their captain(Mills) all season. He’s back in the coming weeks. Plus they are without their best defender tonight too. I had thought they were over rated, time to have a rethink.

There were a few positives I thought. Some of our tall timber looked promising. If BBB kicked straight he would have and maybe should have had 6/7 and he looked to me that he wasn’t going at 100%. I’d say he will just tick along for a while before doing a mini preseason and be ready for tail end of the season. Thought Jeffo and Verral showed signs and hopefully will continue to improve. Kolt had solid game. MacAadam looked lively in the last quarter so hopefully he’s getting his fitness up and can have a better game next week. Unfortunately I think we are light on in terms of real good talent coming through. Our injury list is very short at the minute too so there’s not many to come back in. It’s not surprising- we’ve lost Gus, Smith and Dunstan for various reasons. Traded Grundy, Harmes and JJ and in addition to that we have promoted some of our best talent to the first team.

Great call Mel👏

I like it in its current form and length. Fits very nicely with the amount of driving I have to do on a Tuesday. You can always play it at 2x if that suits you better.

During the same report that Ralph said Petty was likely to stay at the Dees, he said Adelaide are keen to trade in a player and that their first two picks are on the table. I think they have a F/S pick this year that is likely to go in the first round so they will be happy to trade out their first couple of picks and bank a lot of late picks for points. If Petty doesn’t resign we have another death ride. Really hope he signs soon

Must be the lifestyle, maybe the cheaper cost of living or perhaps the farm they though in.