BW511

The alarming thing for the club would be the review identified the need for more independence from the players. All controlling Goody was not working, the new player led version is also not working. The players themselves are not holding up their end of the bargain. I’d love a fresh voice for 2026 and feel the players have decided that’s what they want to - they are clearly not following instruction

I would absolutely kill for Butters to be in our side. He’ll do absolutely bonkers things for his team. As tough/kamikaze as Viney, as damaging as Trac and a better kick than our entire side. He had a few kicks out of contest today that were just brilliant, his vision must be phenomenal.

Edited to be more specific about his kicking.

Maybe slightly harsh on Max and I acknowledge he carries the club like no other AFL captain. He absolutely lets us down as much, if not more, than Trac, Clarry, Viney, Lever all do. At the end of the day, he’s paid a lot of money to help us win games. He often does it but his kicking, specifically, costs us on many, many occasions.

I’m not sure Trac ever gets back to being in the best players of the comp, he’s had a very serious injury, granted, but he’s avoiding contact, fumbling like crazy and kicking like an u8. I know he’s doing plenty of work at training, often last off the track, he just seems to be mentally defeated. His value could not possibly be any lower right now

The worst part about this week is we have confirmed what all the Collingwood faithful said last week, we played our grand final against them so this was always going to happen. We can steel ourselves for a big game occasionally (Brissy, Kings B’day) but we cannot perform consistently at the level required to be anything other than pack fodder. If I was a young player at Melbourne, I would be absolutely shattered seeing our senior players pick and choose when they are ‘on’ and also squander opportunities at the rate they do. We are going to be dragging the anchor of Max, Trac, Viney, Clarry, Lever and May for as long as Goody is still coach, so let’s hope the club can see past 2021 and start addressing the future in a meaningful manner

Real interesting one, if Viney wasn’t holding him, Butters was 100% going to flatten him. He’s gone the opposite way to the ball directly at him - I can’t be the only one thinking this?

I was worried that JVR, Riv and Lever wouldn’t have enough currency to get us anything decent. Moving everyone on from your list would barely get us a single draft pick. We’ve got coverage for Lever (Petty, Turner, T-Mac & Adams) and I’d say Turner has waltzed past Lever in the past few weeks. Similarly, we have coverage for Rivers wherever he plays. Trac, Clarry and Viney are all signed long term, so at least 2 will be permanently playing mid. JVR is a little different but on 2025 output, we could play Jeffo all next year and if all but guarantee we break even, at minimum. I’d hope the club is going hard at more forward/mid types as a high priority, they cost money/picks and we will have to lose something of value to gain in that area. Ideally, I’d like more height added to our HFF/Mid rotation. We still need better ball users to complement Lindsay and Langford moving forward.

Interesting period coming up, feels like we are at a significant crossroad. Clarry, Trac, Viney, Koz are all locked in to long deals. We still need a lot of class around the first three to seriously challenge the best - I’m talking every week, not just one big game every 6. I’d be open to shopping JVR, Riv and Lever - I acknowledge there’s not a lot of currency there but we need more fresh faces

You’re saying there’s a chance? (Tongue in cheek although I would love Whitfield)

Jamarra would do too much damage to our brand, no way we take him on after our last few seasons of media beltings

May has plenty of form in berating teammates, earlier in the game he looked to be absolutely blasting Xavier Lindsay?

Petty is shifted around far too easily by defenders, it’s almost laughable how easy he gets outbodied. As a 3rd tall forward he would be great, although we have a host of 3rd talls and lack of #1 and/or #2

I’m sure you would have been at the game today, Binny, but on Ch 7 Luke Hodge was not at all happy with multiple decisions against us. BT kept trying to bait him but he resisted blowing his lid

Collingwood are given a leg up by some very good football IQ amongst their veterans but continuing to lose games n the same fashion for 3 years has to eventually burst the bubble. I said in the postgame thread, one of Pendles or Sidebottom in our side and we win that. Collingwood always looked comfortable, even when we threw everything at them they could manufacture a goal, almost instantly. Our team is so hot and cold with confidence and composure, it was the deciding factor today. I’m not sure this falls directly on Goody, but he certainly hasn’t been able to instill complete confidence for the past 3 years.

That was bizarre. He’s made for these games

The last kick aside, are people really thinking Gawn was our best? Edit: for context, I thought May was streets ahead of anyone else. Clarry second

If we had one of Sidebottom or Pendles in our side, we win that. Just an unbelievably frustrating affair. We do so much right but we have to work twice as hard as any other team to win.

We’ll agree to disagree. The reason that loading causes fatigue is exactly the reason you have stated that it can’t be done. You add extra load to create new adaptations for future benefit.

Not that I want to get into the loading debate here but this is missing the key part, the loading part prior to the rest/taper

No doubt he’s well down on confidence but I think he’s carrying too much muscle weight. It means while he is a little down on belief, he’s not quick enough to get separation and he’s lost some spring for jumping

You’ll never convince a country boy to come to Melbourne when Geelong is an option. Would like to hear about what’s happening behind the scenes, I think West Coast would be quietly keen to get rid of the circus and focus on rebuilding

And they are supposedly re-signing their retired ruckman, Andrew Phillips, in the midseason draft to help Goldy.

If we end up carrying this list of players for as long as you suggest, we are in a bad way.

From what I’ve read, Bergman is a poor man’s Houston. Run and gun and bomb it