NeveroddoreveN

Actually noticed he was lot further up the ground for most of game. My guess would be as last line of defence he was struggling if the ball hit the deck. Being further up the ground it is not so catastrophic if he fumbles a ground ball. Personally i think he has been pretty out of form the last few weeks and actually struggling to bend over and pick up the ball. Also he has more opportunities to use his reasonably good foot skills to better effect having more options through half back and middle of the ground. As great as both Lever and May have been in last line of defence, i think both are a little flaky if they do not mark or spoil it out of bounds. Bowey/Mcvee/Tomlinson/Rivers...even our wings are probably more suited to that last line for us these days.

Read your inbox. I know you don't like to hear ANYTHING negative about our players or coaches or anything MFC. I will not be posting on this forum for some time so that is one less person you going to have to ignore. Believe it or not... was just posting what i thought even though it might have been horribly slanted towards the negative. It was not written to hurt yours or other peoples feelings, and for others to jump down my throat because they simply disagree or don't like the manner in which i attacked a coach of the precious MFC we all love. I get it, i defend our players and coaches too when i feel they are getting attacked, especially if it is not warranted or ignorant. ANyway, not sure why i even bothered to respond...i am out.

Tomlinson was actually dropped after Collingwood game. You are saying i am off the mark and lack footy knowledge is simply not true, Last 2 weeks we been dominated by the best intercepting defender...Stewart then Haynes. Earlier in the year it was no accident that Petty was playing lock down roles on these type guys, and although we were not getting high value goal output. It was stopping the intercept mark and rebounds being allowed to start freely. Not at all what i was suggesting. Petty forward/Tomlinson back.

Ok. My deal is i live for football, i am no less passionate about it than you and spend much of my days talking about my beloved football club. Because i say anything disparaging about the coaches or the players for that matter, is becuase i am passionate and i care too much if anything. If we loved and supported our team all in the same manner it would be a pretty boring forum fwiw. Your comments show maybe you care too much also. I am not here to start drama. Most of the time i am just typing what i think or feel, much less eloquently than others. To say that the Demons don't need passionate supporters like me who actually walks around in Melbourne gear most of my days is really insulting, just because i don't share your exact views. Put me on ignore, if that is what you need to do. Sorry my posts upset you.

Neither of them have been in good form, so my answer would be no they probably saw it coming. Tomlinson on the other hand would have been utterly shocked after one of his best performances in red and blue. We have not won since he was dropped. i will ask you a question in all seriousness...Do you think Spargo has done anything to get back into the team? Or BB/Harmes/Melksham over Tomlinson for their form?

Maybe if his coach was professional, it would be recipricated. You have one of your best days/weeks at work and then told to go have a rest for 3-4 weeks as you are virtually redundant now....Suck it up buttercup!

JVR was actually having more success at halving contests...as was Petty. How many marks do you think BB will take the way we deliver the ball? You are correct in saying he can't pick it up. It is like we are hoping BB is the answer to our forward woes, when the method is the thing that is broken. Shifting personnel is not going to change much result-wise.

I can imagine.. IS shocked with Goodwin/coaches getting dropped after Collingwood game. Gets left out vs Geelong and replaced by an underdone Petty. He played reserves and was one of our best. Then gets taken to Darwin and can't get a spot over Melksham/Harmes/BB. Would be furious if in his shoes. To think that Goodwin does not have/and play faves is ludicrous.

Close this thread seriously. We have another 3 threads talking about this matter incessantly. He is out for 3-4 weeks, get over it. Clearly was managed well.

Yeah, what do you think he has said to Tomlinson for last 3 weeks.....The FD deserves no levels of trust when they clearly select favourites over fringe players who actually are in superior form. Goodwin has utterly lost the plot. Brings and out of form Charlie Spargo in...Here is an idea Goody put him wing lol. Ridic selection that will not help us. BB kicks 3 goals and gets an instant recall. He is not a competitor we need. He does not bring the ball to ground and is useless once it hits it....None of our style hits up leading talls what is the point of selecting a big floppy bloke that can't hold his ground. Melksham? Give me a break. I said before the year started if we are still playing guys like Melksham/Hibberd we are actually going nowhere fast. Neither are the future and we got many more talented players under them that SHOULD be getting games into imo. Dropping Harmes for JJ is the only thing he got right in another week of selection blunders. We will be super lucky to beat St Kilda. We actually need a new coach, i think SImon is going to find ways to bring us back to the pack...We are only going to have to put up with dodgy selections/favourites/dodgy gameplan for another 5 years or so until they work out he actually was the problem all along. Lots of faith in the players....Zero in our coaching staff atm, with good reason.

Totally agree. I think the problem is every time Goodwin tinkers with our game it has had varied results. 2019 i believe was when he tried to make wholesale changes to our game and we forgot the basics. We do it earlier in the season and look good but it backfires a few times and we revert to safe and slow/wide. Scares me during his entire tenure we are going to revert to this gamestyle time and time again regardless of what assistants we have. Selection and gamestyle will kill us before injuries imo...we got the players.

Have got no doubt we will be in most games with our current style, but we sure aint winning finals like this.. We keep doubling down on this style of game and the players just need to fluff a few moments, every game in the balance....We are actually way to good to play in this fashion. We are just keeping average teams within striking distance. We get very few quality entries playing this current style and it seems to me the players are not having much fun, not many backslaps or smiles going on out there. We don't have to go away from being a good contested team, but we do actually need to stop trying to set up for repeat forward stoppages if there is no quality to them. Better to win the ball back through middle of the ground and actually hurt the opposition. Currently imo we are playing THE most negative game of all the AFL teams currently. Our coach is ridiculously stubborn. There is a complete lack of trust in our team with our game plan. The players are implementing what Goody wants, apart from the inaccurate kicking. They would be losing faith that he has the actual gameplan that lets them play like a champion team. Everything is so restrictive atm, there is no freedom in the way we are playing the game. It is like we don't actually enjoy the regular season grind, we should be embracing pressure with a list this good, yet we seem terrified when the games are in the balance. The mindset of the coach needs to change, or we are just going to fluff a few moments to blow our season playing a style that keeps every team in it up to their eyeballs.

Best of luck young man, hope you get a run at it and help ignite us with you skills, run and dare!

When it comes to selecting players i think picking Harmes/AnB actually hurts us. i would be moving Bowey forward to play his role but in more of a point guard role in basketball. A distributer who creates which his sure ball handling and great skills. Sadly ANB busts a gut but fumbles from start to finish of games, wet or dry. He is never going to overly get better in this regard, he is a limited player we revolve our gameplan around. Harmes tries really hard but run around like a headless chicken with zero idea of structure. When he plays i know we are in trouble. Harmes out of the midfield and get Rivers in there who has clearly been our most improved this year. He deserves a shot and would create some much needed drive/grunt/desperation/ability. Then get Woey/Tomlinson/Turner/Howes in the backline to replace Bowey/Rivers. Pretty sure JVR should not have been dropped for BB. i believe we are making so many selection blunders atm. Pesonally i have no faith that our coach can get it right. He seems like he is fumbling with a great list. He was a great player. He is not a great coach. Stupid or stubborn or defensive minded either way it is killing us.

Way i see it we could actually be a really exciting side but our coach is deploying the troops in completely the wrong fashion, positionally, tactically and it shows zero trust in our players. It is an indictment on Goodwin we are playing such negative drivel with the most talented list i have ever seen. Quite simply there are changes that need to be made with our gameplan. *Use of wingers...The way we use ours is disgraceful. Are they instructed to run as wide as they can along either boundary side? There is zero possibility that we can have either of our wings linking up in the same play. They very rarely have any option other than a kick down the line the way they are deployed. My Suggestion....Get them to run the lines of the outside of the square...If one needs to move across to mid wing the other should be running more through the middle so they are at least within kicking distances of each other. Also they will have option both inside and out. *Use of half fowrards/half backs...Mcvee, Bowey, Kossie, Chandler, Rivers are all good ball users that we are not using with our current style. Our forwards are defending the length of the field and are all getting lost withing forward 50 on repeat stoppages. Our backs are pretty fine, they need to be trusted to defend with the help of full back line and onballers. My suggestion....Bring all the half forwards up into the corners of the centre square, likewise with the half backs. We could have a combination of Mcvee, Bowey, Kossie, Chandler, Rivers + Petracca Viney, Sparrow, Langdon and Hunter that could all be running rampant and controlling the centre square and really hurting teams on the rebound by hand and foot. Selection Integrity/positional changes/possible favourites....We can't keep getting this so wrong. Tomlinson needs to come back into this team badly. He never should have been dropped, it is one of the bigeest selection bloopers i have ever seen. Petty did not set the world on fire as a forward but he did stop the best intercepting defender from getting a free run at it all day, In his last game before where unfortunately got injured, he was looking like he was going to have a break out game in the position offensively. He needs to go back there it is no accident in the last 2 weeks Stewart and then Haynes has destroyed us without someone like Petty making them accountable. We probably win both games with him forward and Tomlinson back. Our system is mess but we have the cattle to actually fix this. If SImon is prepared to trust them and use their skills with a more open, attacking gameplan, the sky is the limit with this team. Our assistant coackes in Yze/Williams/RIchardson would be throwing ideas at Goodwin. Last 5 weeks i see a lot of doubling down on style of game that is ugly and unproductive and unexciting for the ridiculous amount of effort they are expending. WIth this list we should not be trying to stay within games, we should be actually whalloping some of them with way too much grunt. We have some exciting players, let them play Simon, stop this old gamplan where you presume they are all unreliable by hand/and or foot. Let them play, currently they are all hampered by this hideously negative combative mess you have created by design. Listen to the assistant coaches, don't waste this great list.

I barely think that would matter as he would be unlikely to threaten on the scoreboard. If we gunna go some last resort set up, which imo is not great regardless of which player you have one out, Petracca would not be my choice. Try it with Kozzie one out and tell him not to go outside 30m arc. Trying anything would be great atm, don't really give a stuff who they choose but it would be nice to see any sort of adapation in game plan that creates some movement and gets away from this congested mess we seem to desire.

Yet we won the centre clearances 15-2, 6-6-6 ahead of them and we made virtually nothing of those entries either. Our system is pretty dysfunctional atm and it is not just due to inaccuracy......Our gamestyle leads to not very good looks at goal. Exhausting style to watch let alone play i would imagine! The players are doing what the coach is telling them to do set up for repeat stoppages. Also i believe that Goodwin has got the selections massively wrong over last few weeks and it is hurting us immensely. We were doing ok with Petty as a defensive forward that was starting to find to impose himself and come up the ground as a marking option. In the last few weeks Stewart then Haynes destroyed us. Both were allowed to do as they please. It is some strange coaching, dropping Tomlinson then shifting the magnets with Petty who was really showing something as a forward, who actually helped block for JVR. With Petty and JVR combo we at least compete in the air and on the ground. We also lock down their best interceptor, which we 100% need because we choose to dump kick all day into F50.

Scaring them or us lol? If he could hit the side of a barn regularly it may work, but he just can't he is so technically flawed,

He spends a lot of time analysing our own team too! You might want to get those red and blue blinkers off. I am curious, you disagree with just about all of his arguments, maybe outline some of them....A lot of what he says is fact and does not take a genius to work out. *If we click there will be no one can beat us is baloney. That is just blind optimism currently.

Have never like watching Collingwood play until Mcrae started coaching them. Now i am watching all their games, sure they have flaws and holes in parts of the way they move the ball.....BUT, boy are they exciting to watch, they take the game on with skills, and it is attractive to watch. Find myself often wondering what a Mcrae-like coach would do for us...It looks a lot more fun playing for Collingwood than with their game plan allowing plenty of flair,. ANd i see most of their players just loving the pressure and busting their guts when games are generally on the line. Their style is much more attractive brand of footbal. Is it better? Yeah i think so in a lot of ways! If we were playing a style that was anything like Collingwood i would guarantee more supporters would turn up. Sure they are there to win matches but mostly to entertain and showcase their skills, Teams like Collingwood/Port in the footy are doing it with flair now.....Much like England does in the cricket now too. i don't think it mindless adoration of Collingwood at all. More envious i would say Would love to play a more exciting brand considering i believe our list is superior to both Collingwood and Port. Our game vs Collingwood we smothered them, it was really unattractive game. Adelaide vs Collingwood was super exciting to watch. I watch every Melbourne game but am not enjoying our style or way we just want to seem to ground teams down, or ourselves. From week to week i am not seeing a particular style, nor growth of a particular system in the 3 phases of the game that Goodie talks of. We been pretty good at 2 phases of it for a while now, but we really are not great with ball in hand, skill execution and decision making is generally really poor within our team......with a few exceptions.

Probably just anyone who disagrees with his loading arguments. Earlier he was saying how he did not make personal insults, now he just insults the masses. It was most likely directed somewhat at you.....Well thought out post from someone who has no eyes or ears!

Is it really a 50/50 chance though....What percentage do you think we are winning these ground balls. My guess would be less than 10% we turn into a score. If you ever played Footy at ANY level....Lowering the eyes, ie not playing like a blind man is actually neccessary to hiit targets. Really hope it has some relevance or we are majorly stuffed!

Not to dare question anything regarding loading.... as it seems to go from about here to the end of the season. I actually don't get why all of a sudden this a factor. We have come off a bye, with a 4 day break allowed to players and a normal-ish training run leading into the Geelong game. *Majorly doubtful we put in "extra" loads over this break...When were they? We did not use those 4 days to get extra training sessions in. The bye may be a factor and i am SURE it is considering other results coming off one. The talk of loading as first point of conjecture during this part of the season gets way too much emphasis on this site. It is a factor, but not the reason why we lost last night. There were plenty of reasons we wound up losing....I doubt loading was in the top 5 honestly.

Not going to write of our season but sheesh, we have some concerns! Really believe this one was lost with some bizarre coaching decisions. We have not used a "horses for courses" approach very much over last few years. Players in form should be rewarded by continued selection when they are in good form. Conversely if they are out of form for extended periods, they need to be dropped. Dropping Tomlinson off one of his best games was just flirting with disaster...There were about 10 guys ahead of him that could/should have been dropped before him. !00% this sends wrong message to the entire list about rewarding performance. Not the First time he has been dropped off good performances either. We replace him with Petty after a 6 week lay off? Who by all accounts had just played his best half as a forward before he got injured? We throw Max forward, Petty back and drop Tomlinson who was really starting to gel in the backline. The blueprint on how to beat Tom Stewart was out there from Port the previous week...Yet we did nothing of the sort and let him intercept freely all day long. It is actually gobsmacking how arrogant our coaching department/Goodwin are in these regards. We seem to want to win or lose in our own "unique" way. Just ignore what other teams have done successfully and try and bash them into submission with a gameplan that that is barbaric at best. Our forward line is constantly set up to make the forward 50 some impregnable zone where we just simply are zoning and not trying to win the ball. It is massively flawed and i can see why we don't score currently. It is way too crowded and some players need to work from outside that arc. Throwing Max /Grundy forward just crowds things even more. *insert forwards coach...Why did we not even look at guys like Stevie J when he was available i am not sure. Stafford is a ruck coach that has virtually no clue when it comes to our forward craft. Before it is too late and our season crumbles, i would switch either Yze/Williams to forwards coach, and hopefully tactically we might offer some set ups that look beyond what they currently are...Watched an under 14's game last weekend and seriously they had a vastly superior structure. Coaching department needs to massively step up. Clarity on roles would be a great start! Can't fix it all at once but steps need to be taken.

We must indeed be listening to different pressers....Nearly every post game Goodwin has mentioned connection. You might be hearing the word and blanking it out. To insinuate that i am ignoring objective facts is twaddle. Maybe you should go listen to some of Goodwins talks. i could almost guarantee you connection has been mentioned by him 100+ times already this season. We are constantly searching for this mysterious thing called "connection". It is pretty clear you don't like King. You go above and aboard to try and refute whatever he has to say. It is interesting you talk of false narrative vs objective facts. Who decides this? You?