D Rev

One of the best non-match report, match reports! Thank you!

I'm not 100% against JVR playing in the ruck, not too much, but it is necessary in the modern game to have talls that can pinch hit there. Luckily for us, he's pretty good at it. Unluckily for us, there doesn't seem to be anyone else that can do it. The question around Petty's form is a good one. He had a limited pre season but the drop off here has been stark. As for letting Jordan go, he didn't have a great 2023 and we don't have any insights as to what Sydney offered him - aside from guaranteed match time - so its hard to criticise the club for that.

We got these guys with the space in the list and salary cap that we had. They were always going to be top ups, which is fair enough for a team that has finished top 4 for three years in a row. They haven't worked out due to extra pressure created by a raft of reasons including; general injuries, Angus retiring & Clarrie self destructing. Id be happier to criticise the lack of improvement from the rest of the playing group, particularly around kicking and forward structure, than to criticise the recruiters. There's also a good reason to question why the Perry "experiment" has continued.

I think it was just for this season

They got Danniher from Essendon and Hipwood out of the academy.

The criticism on here has all the credibility of a plan that involves 7 small nuclear plants being owned by the Government, from a Government that does not want to own things. It's a team game and not everyone is going to be a star. This bloke could be very, very good though. The lad has played under 12 games and shown plenty. Loves the contest, is agile and has plenty of upside. He will never be a target forward, but a good 3rd option - and can swing down back. How many young players do we have that can do that and have his upside? Not many. I'm excited for his future with us.

Tell me more about this free Koolaid...

We definitely need to keep playing the kids. Turner, Windsor, Taj, Howes, McVee, JVR, Bowey. No harm in bringing in Kolt and maybe Sestan for a red hot one. I'm not a fan of Laurie or Captain Terrified (Billings). BBB looks like he has got to part of his 6-week cycle where he can move, so bring him in to pinch hit in the Ruck and give JVR some help / a rest. Let the rest know that they need to step up in Tracs absence and not only do some great home cooking, but win the hard ball, set lofty standards and exceed them.

This is from the M Malthouse who has been working at the MFC for so many years? Oh wait. Might as well ask my dishwasher for an opinion. It doesn't work either.

Good point on Pettys agility, I keep forgetting about his pre-season. I agree it's worth trying him down back as its not working up forward. He's a smart footballer, I really think we could be getting more - or maybe Casey could! Agree on the 2017 finish, I used that season as a comparison as we were in a similar place; hopefully we do better and barnstorm to the finals and set a standard for next season.

We've obviously changed the way we play to minimise injuries so as to avoid getting to the finals completely banged up (again). Unfortunately: * We don't have the skills to play a less contact-style game, which has hurt us * We lost Gus and Clarrie in the pre season, which has hurt us * We haven't been able to cover the loss of Lever through stubbornness (why is Petty still up forward?) and inability (Tommo / others can't do it) We do have some good kids coming through, it feels like we aren't *that* far away from being a factor again. There will be a bit of a clear out at the end of the season, hopefully it frees up some salary to bring in some talent to top up and let us make a charge again! Very excited to see how we go at this, 2017-style, for the rest of the season - nothing to lose!

The filth really have smashed us in the last couple of years. Am actually genuinely afraid of what might happen in the last game of the season now; pestilence, plague, flood? Will be interesting to see who steps up from here & how Goody re calibrates us back to 2017 status.

So you'd let Max, our Premiership Captain / team barometer and leader / heart of the team go for draft picks and try and hang on to Petty? Do you remember when we let James McDonald walk and the spirit of the team left with him? We should try and keep Max until the bitter end. Would make a great ruck and developmental coach. Losing him would leave a massive void not just in the team, but at the club.

Every year each team turns its list over by about 10%, I'm pretty confident BBB, Schache, Tommo, Petty wont be with us next year. Its possible that Hunter will go to, other possibles would be Laurie, Melksham, TMac, Chandler, Taj and McAdam. I'm not sure what is happening with Brayshaws salary, I'd really hope that the AFL is paying for it - or Workcover? Similar, though less impactful - what of Smiths salary? In all, that's a good amount of space to free up and should bring in some draft picks. Do we get compensation for Brayshaw with pics? There seems to be quite a few players with senior experience that could slot into our list, I quite like the look of a few of the GWS guys including Cadman, Riccardi and Brown. I wonder if if Oliver could be lured from the Cattery? You'd also hope that the likes of Jefferson, Adams, Seston, Kolt, Verrell, AMW and K Brown will all start playing seniors next year.

Trac going out puts more pressure on the game plan than ever. What will Goody do without an AA mid? Real pressure for everyone to step up now

It's tough on Fritta as he's one of our best kicks, but he's also one of our best forwards. We seem to sacrifice him as a link player to try and capitalise on him as a forward. It'd be great if TMac or Petty could do either job, but it'd also be great if I could fly, so no point worrying about it.

I politely disagree about our early form. I reckon we were also very good against Geelong - that was as good as we have played in 3 years. The Blues game was also very good for 3 quarters, the slow start obviously hurt. You'd have to say that some "learnings" (and yes, I hate the term too) come sooner than others. Our top 6 players are; Max, Viney, Clarrie, Trac, Lever and May - none of them great kicks & I think all of them are safe from trading - so we are are stuck with trying to find skilled players with the remaining cap. Bringing in extra kicking skills is something we tried with Hunter and Billings with the salary cap available, but hasn't really worked. Then we had Brayshaws retirement, Clarrie imploding pre season, BBB being tapped on the shoulder by old man time and Petty going on the FBIs missing persons list. I'm not sure what Goodwin could have done about any of that. On the flipside, TMac has been reborn and we have some good young players coming through in Turner, Windsor, Bowey, JVR and McVee. Kolt, Howes and K Brown (and Jefferson?) come after that. In reality, we need to get some (a?) Half Forwards that can kick accurately into the forward line so Fritter / JVR / Kozzie arent taking shots from the boundary. This means the likes of Sparrow, Langdon (?) and others will need to be put on the table. As for hitting rock bottom, it seems like most teams need to do it to come back up again. We just seem to stay down for longer!

How much worse does it need to get for Goodwin to go? I'd say quite a lot. He's a premiership Coach, which buys you a lot of time. He also has the context of this season on his side. Only the Swans and Roos have been consistent this season, everyone else has had wobbles. Based on how we played earlier in the season, I think it can get a lot better. The Freo game was awful, but we showed a lot more fight yesterday and it was really poor disposal that let us down.

I shouldn't be surprised by some of the takes on here, maybe I'm just incredulous.... ...with all the comments here about "list cloggers", I think some people need to realise that there is 18 teams in the competition and only about one teams worth of great players. The salary cap ensures that quality players are spread around, so get used to not everyone being Ronald Dale Barassi. That's why McAdam etc are recruited - it's all very moneyball. Like every other club, we need to make the best of what we have and minimise risk through our game style. Goodwin does this by getting the team to play a high contest and defensive game. The issue is that we don't have the skills to execute when we are in attack. I actually think we were in the contest for a lot of the game yesterday, our disposal let us down (as it has done for...ever). How many times did the ball ping pong between the half back lines? How many times did we kick it out on the full or straight to the opposition? We aren't suddenly going to teach these guys how to kick accurately, we will need to trade in for that. I dont think we have much in the way of draft picks, so that option is out. Goodwin absolutely has his favorites, I dare say some of the contracted players for '25 will be up for trades for draft picks or decent kicks. I really don't think Goodwin, a Premiership coach, will get sacked unless things go seriously Neeld-shaped. Stafford etc are probably a different story.

OK, so Bowey, Windsor or Kozzie

I really don't think we can take too much out of today, Collingwoods depth problems are worse than ours. Still, plenty of positives with Kolt playing above the opposition and Kent on debut. You'd hope White will get picked up by an AFL team when Tassie joins the league - if he's not too old.

What about Windsor, Bowey and Kozzie? Rivvo - while not small, is a good running and delivery player too.

Im not sure the Bombers have ever been the real deal this season. Was good to see them join the majority of the league in being unreliable. They'll play finals, but not for long.

Im not sure the Bombers have ever been the real deal this season. Was good to see them join the majority of the league in being unreliable. They'll play finals, but not for long.

Is it just me that can't see the name Frampton without thinking of Peter Frampton?