NeveroddoreveN

If VDB is not laying crunching tackles he should not be in the team imo. When he is up and about creating pressure he makes our team walk taller. When he is not he adds very little. Having to manage training loads means he can't do the running required on game day. Honestly it is like local suburban footy, where a gun player does not have to train but is picked in the 1's regardless. But this is the AFL....if you can't train properly you actually can't practice properly, nor run out games without extreme player management. I don't think VDB is near good enough to be automatic in our team. VDB has been like a barometer for us at times. We can't depend on him to get us up and about these days though, we need to find the next guys ready to step up!

I hope that our whole team plays on the edge of angry. How many times have we seen midgets bullying Max by hitting him all day. How about get angry and fight back Max? Or maybe team mates protecting our own? The only one i seen that really stands up for others on our team atm is May...and probably one of the few to give advice or a much needed bake to a team mate too. Insipid performances are the opposite of playing angry, or even being slightly angry from previous failures. The proof comes when the real stuff starts. Are we actually going to get angry and uncompromising to play against, or just continue to go through the highs and lows and just expect it all comes together at some stage. Every game is a war to be won. If i see insipid performances or drinking of bathwater which leads to more insipid performances i will vomit. Our team needs to turn up on a regular basis, have their head in the game, get involved in the game and stop putting in substandard performances. Am sure we are all sick to death of it!

He is one of the harshest critics of Carlton. We need to not be so precious when we get scrutanised by the media. We either take it on as constructive feedback or put it in the Fugazi category. Personally i think we need to take this stuff on board. We have very little respect from other teams let alone the media. Our insipid performances are the reason we have a target on our back. Stop being a flaky side that puts in 100% effort for 100% of game and opinions will slowly change. Why do we need to keep ego's in check? Is it possible some of our team are happy getting big sums of money and just happy being AFL footballers where pretty girls just throw themselves at them? They seem happy to just run around and get a kick at times to me. Over last few years i can't think of one game we have lost where we have busted our guts for 4 quarters. We have a long way to go to reach Finals, let alone winning a GF. We simply do not work as hard as other teams for as long. It is a shame, we have the talent.

It does seem a bit of a scattergun approach to recruiting. I tend to agree we probably rate internally our guys too high on blind faith. Salem is a great player but not sure has the pace required for wing to work up and back down the field. Bowey for the wing seems a better fit. Another option i think worth testing would be Bowey to HBF, and release Salem into HFF effectively taking Melkshams spot. I find it concerning we have forward and back groups that seem to have their cards stamped that they can't play at other end of ground. We have flexibility within our list but seem very gun shy on trying them in other positions. i don't believe Goodwin has a clear plan ultimately. Watching players like Hunt get switched from back to forward, to back and forward, then back again really makes me think we are not developing a lot of our list at all appropriately.

Watching the game vs the Doggies he actually found space quite a few times on the outside but was not seen or used as the outlet. He does seem to have the tank and looks a decent kick. Hope to see a lot more of him this during the year. Seems to have the ability to play inside or out. He could be a point of difference to our other on ballers. Really hope he gains confidence and gives us options going forward!

Really not sure about this one. For mine he gets lost ball watching a lot of the time. It is why he did not work at HBF and probably won't on the wing. He needs to constantly make decisions whether to attack or defend and has extremely low footy IQ for anything but a follow role imo.

How about Bedford? He has big tank and came high in time trials last year. Extremely fast, not sure what his best position is currently as have not seen enough of him. Probably deserves a chance if we are just going to roll through a heap of players in this position throughout the year.

Hard to disagree with much he says. I actually think we need these type articles to actually put some fuel in our belly. It usually takes either the media, or the president to fire us up. We play better when unsociable. After a few wins the media start some feel good articles and way too often we put in an insipid performance vs a team we should be beating. They did not allow us to play "Our" way is a load of bollocks that happens too much also. Win ugly, win pretty, put in 100% and try and win every contest. Tackle with intent, trust you teammates, shepherd/block, stop blazing away and kick to advantage. We have a few guys who give a 100% on any given day. We don't hold each other accountable for anything less than 100% effort, nor does our coach. Thinking Melksham/Harmes/Brayshaw/Tmac for starters last year. They should have all been dropped multiple times. They were too lazy to chase and that is 100% lack of effort....it happened too often. These are senior players showing an example to the young guys coming through. It is disgusting to me, but it does come down to culture and not many other teams would accept the lack of effort, and not being prepared to do the basics. We don't seem to be able to play very smart football. In 2018 we had almost the perfect game to scare anyone. Why have we gone so far away from this?? We have tried to add layers to the game and they forgot the basics of football....it is ridiculous. We have played football like an under 12 team all hunting the ball, with no discipline. We tried stacking our backline to stop the bleeding. We quite often don't pressure the ball carrier, most of the team are frantically running backwards to catch their man. Opposition just loops around, or gets out the back and we tend to not pressure the ball carrier for much of the field. We give ground for free. This is game plan, lack of effort, or low footy IQ, quite likely all three. We have the players to really start setting the standards. They need to get angry, like us supporters that are starved of success and can do nothing but vent, or hope. They have control of the narrative by virtue of their actions. I hope they all are reading this thread and getting thoroughly angry at many of the comments and make a pact to never give anything less than 100%, for any reason. If you think one of your teammates is not putting in, ffs tell them. Demand more of each other. Supporters want nothing more than success. We probably want it more than the players do. This needs to flip. They control the narrative for good, bad, and everywhere inbetween. Get angry Demons. McClure would have.

Played wing myself a few times and it was definitely easier to rack up possessions than sitting in the forward line. The issue i found is that i blew up rather quickly as the running required was extreme compared to playing forward. Whoever plays the role is going to need to have a fair sized tank unless we plan on just rotating players through there.

I think the reality is that you can't just keep putting Jones/Sparrow/Harmes rotating through a position of huge importance. None have remotely the right skillset for the role. When suggesting both Fritsch and Petracca, i realise it not ideal as we do not have other players with their skillsets and they are valuable in other positions, but something has to give, we need to find a solution here from our list. ANB could be an option, he definitely has the tank and runs hard both ways. Part that makes this sound appealing is that the HFF role he would vacate could be filled by quite a few others on our list. Another option may be Rivers....has a lot of the attributes needed and a fast learner from what i seen so far. Has the kicking skills required to be a decent option anyway!

I would say the real issue was Tmac on 750K+ and nobody even showed interest for half that money. We move him on i am sure we'd have Phillips. As it stands we are stuck with Tmac for another year, no real wing and to make it all worse we are trying to play Tmac into form for over 2 seasons now. I would expect Goodwin will pick him for most of this season, just hoping he comes good again. Unfortunately we have another year of underwhelming McDonalds. Will be rapt if he finds form again fwiw, he is that important to us. Just can't see it eventuating where he reverts to 2018 form, it has been awhile now!

Add Bontempelli to that mix too. After seeing how much better his kicking has gotten put a few on him to win the Brownlow, he was scintillating yesterday. Last few times we played WB both Daniel and Bont destroyed us. We can't be serious without tagging these 2 at least. Next time i would be lining up Kozzie on Daniels and saying just stick with him and pressure him relentlessly. Harmes should be playing tight tag on Bont, or put VDB on him for brief period and just tell him to smash his body. Amazing we did not try and tag any of their major ball magnets. We need to put much more thought into curbing other teams and the way they want to play, we are far too sociable and let them do as they please. It is on the coaches to have a plan....vs EVERY opponent. We can't just play our way, the other teams simply will not allow this! We need to do similar and be much harder to play against. Need many more selfless role players prepared to just stopping their playmakers getting any easy kicks, won't be holding my breath though. We want to play our way 100% of time. It is flawed, every team puts thought into opposition, not sure we do honestly. We seem to get beaten in same manner by same oppositions too often. Groundhog Day !!

i did consider VDB briefly but like you mentioned he can barely cope with training and playing. His loads are constantly being monitored. I like the idea of Kossie for leftfield option. It is not like we can't do without him forward at this stage of his career. A few runs he did from half back breaking lines was exciting enough to see that he could be used in other areas of the ground perhaps like a Liam Ryan type. He would need to learn the role but could be the answer. Be nice having Langdon/Kossie pace on either side of ground. The more i think about it, we need to try him there to find out what he has got. You know he would have the required pressure and speed for the role.

Harmes is a very limited footballer with pretty low footy IQ and big ego. I expected us to get beaten by a much stronger doggies outfit. Moment in the last quarter i found really concerning when Bedford passed to him on the boundary line. The kick was near perfect and Harmes did not work hard enough to get in front. He then gave Bedford a massive spray saying something like that pass was censored! Bedford is a player like all our young guys who needs to be encouraged. When i see someone like Harmes blaming a kid who actually did the right thing is an ugly look. We need to be fighting the opposition, not each other. If i were part of coaching staff i would be ripping into Harmes over that and saying it is not acceptable on any level. If he had been advising him on what he could have done better , that's fine. But that was not the case here, clear frustration and the blame game is real. All this coming from a guy who played like a headless chicken off half back for full year. Probably one of the easiest positions on the ground to play. Do not rate him at all before that incident, rate him even less now!

Agree he is of so much value in the mid or forward role. It is hard to find a solution without robbing another area of the ground. Maybe Joel Smith is the answer, he is quick, amazing closing speed, can take a mark. Just not sure he has the football smarts. Hunt should be the obvious one to play wing but for some reason does not seem to stay involved in games 100%, he drifts in and out of games, perhaps not big enough tank for role though either. There must be a solution in-house!

Quite possibly the case! Found it interesting when Viney was interested in heading to Geelong during trade time. They were prepared to pay him around the 500K mark. We were prepared to renew him 4 years at 650K+. You then add in players like Brayshaw who is on over 600K, Harmes on about 450K, Tmac on well over 700K. None of these guys should be in in our highest paid players. IMO we missed a trick offloading Viney and getting in a wing who would have been far more valuable to our team.

Tomlinson is an interesting one and i am not sure why he he gets canned by so many here. He is basically playing Oscars role and doing it much better than Oscar ever did. i recall that game during Marsh series and we had around 60 touches between Langdon/Tomlinson and we looked much more threatening as a team. We only played Tomlinson there for 1 or 2 more games before experimenting with him back. We seem to occasionally try different things regarding setups but very quickly revert to some other BS when it does not work out for short period. We need to persevere and teach some players how to play the position. Thinking logically about it i am leaning more towards Petracca playing the wing role. He can be an option on the outside at centre bounces and has the tank to run all day. Really is a conundrum trying to come up with the solution without thinking outside the square. We seem to have tried nearly everyone over last few years in this position!

Spot on...i was dismayed we missed out on Isaac. We did not even seem interested in Phillips who is a walk up start in that position and would make us lot stronger immediately. We missed the boat on both both these guys. Baker does not really seem suited to the position. Maybe a HFF but does not seem a natural for wing position. Jones being in the team let alone wing is really concerning to me. All teams are quick nowadays, you can't select too many plodders or you chasing tail all day...like last few times we played WB. Teams like WB and Port/Brisbane are going to tear us apart with their legspeed all over the ground if we continue to pick our slower/older players. Going to be a long year! Not sure the players believe in Goodwin either, there just seems to be something missing. Even more concerning is that we have to park ego's. Seemed this was always an issue of drinking their own bathwater and putting in a stinker after a win. We have achieved zilch as a footy team in a very long time. Achieved nothing with current crop unless you count top 50 players, which we have a sprinkling of. Our mob needs to get angry to play well, when we are bullying teams and making it all bash and crash we bring the skill levels down and can match it with anyone. When we are not angry teams just waltz on by. We seem to lack the intensity required over 4 quarters. We are a laughing stock of a team with some very good players among us....Surely it is time we played like a team that is hungry/angry and doing everything they can to bridge the gap.

Of major concern going into another season we seem to have found no answer for the opposite wing to Langdon. It was only a year ago where we had something like 16 players tried in that position throughout the year. SO far this year we have rolled through Tmac/Harmes/Sparrow/Jones... none of these guys fills me with any confidence they can play the role for long periods. We recruited Rosman perhaps for the wing role but it may take him a year or two to find his feet, and he may not be the answer. Definitely not for the short term anyway. We need to find a player that is going to embrace the role and play there for more than few minutes in a game. I don't believe we will go anywhere if we just have a revolving wing filled by whoever. We had the chance to address this deficiency during the drafts but it seemed trading Tmac held us up from getting anything done. Who are the options for this opposite wing? Bailey Fritsch - runs both ways hard, great mark, lovely kick. Tackling is probably bit below par but i can see he has many of the attributes needed. He likes space, it could be a good fit for him. Harmes/Jones - Putting these guys in same category, they should never be played on a wing, both give very little in terms of offence or for that matter defence. Tmac - Not sure where his best position is at all these days, he barely looks like an AFL level footballer. Bowey/Laurie - Not sure either of these guys will be the answer either. Maybe Bowey but he looks more like a flanker to me. Baker - Does not seem to have the tank to play the role for long periods. Works hard to get forward, but does not seem to work nearly as hard going back. I don't think he is the answer either. Petracca - Can play mid or forward, wish we had few more of him. Could be dynamic wing who helps the connection all over the ground, can win his own ball, can mark, can beat many opponents one on one. He would be a nightmare match up for any wing. Oliver- Would be great for the position but he is needed around the ball. Best to keep him there! It is a massive conundrum for our coaching staff overall, we can't just keep rolling players through there as stop gaps. After going through nearly everyone on our list (not all mentioned here) i believe Fritsch and Petracca are our best options. I would like to see them rotated/switched between our half forward line and wing at around the 50/50 ratio. Have one of them forward at all times and the other running his guts out up and down the wing. We need to get creative and find the answers, any viable solutions that is not going to rob us of too much in other areas of the ground? What would you do in the coaches position?

Major differences in the way way we are playing the game compared to how we played against Doggies last year. We are being bold from the Kick ins, often going long to around middle of the ground. We are not getting sucked into contests like bees to a honey pot, we are holding our space and not giving them easy options. ANd we are without quite a few of our best players. We are going to tear them apart this half with a fitter and disciplined young Melbourne team. Go Demons 100+points for the game!!

Makes sense we would advise him to get some more experience at a lesser albeit talented level. Go away, work hard and if you are tracking well, there is a spot for you next preseason to prove yourself after a year more footy. The opportunity is there if he is good enough, obviously just not in 2021 at senior level for MFC. Will definitely watch his progress with interest, i don't think we are giving up on this one just yet!

We will have both...just not the guys you want atm. We will be fine without them for few games. We got options to be a functional forward line before they get back though. Most team don't have a great CHF/FF package.

To me the more important part is the 2nd paragraph....basically the message is saying we are going to put much more pressure on in front half and have trust in our backline. Instead of being outnumbered forward and kicking repeatedly to that outnumber we are evening out the field and trusting forwards to play their role, as well as backs to play theirs. It's a change we had to make....Having a stacked backline and nobody to kick it to when going forward was one of our biggest issues imo. We seemed to play better with a man on man mentality that we only saw for few brief moments last year. These changes make everyone more accountable with a bit of clarity around what each role should look like. A semblance of a gameplan is going to get these guys running around with purpose, rather than headless chickens they have been over last few years. We have the talent, exciting times ahead as we find our mojo as a team with new attitudes, and a tenacity to take the game on at all times.

In the B match vs Richmond he was in the right spots quite often, but not much seemed to go right for him during course of match. Bowey/laurie/Petty/Bedford were pretty clearly our best players on the day and all get rewarded with a taste. Petty could possibly swing forward or back depending on our needs vs Dogs. Rapt to see young talented players given the green light ahead of someone chosen for the sake of having a key position forward. We have enough up and coming talent that every week should create headaches for team selection, hopefully keeping all of our list hungry!

I think if we are creative enough it could be done and he may kick 20-30 goals from a wing and be far more valuable. You could release Salem to a half forward flank, then put Bowey playing off a half back flank. If Salem was to get 10-15 touches in that role he would set up so much for us with his creativity. We have tools to work with and try a few different things/set ups. This hypothetical setup i don't think you would actually lose a great deal. Salem would probably kick 30+ if he was played there, Bowey would be fantastic off half back from what i seen in the B game(his disposal skills and speed/leap will equate to making at the next level imo, lock in for round 1) and i really think Fritch would make a good attacking winger. He has played both defence and attack, he really works hard on repeat sprints/efforts. He is also a beautiful kick of the football most times. Simon has a lot to work with, i believe that is why many are bullish about where this team can go. I think we are in for some exciting times this season, as i would expect both Williams and Yze will have a large input on gameday as we start switching some magnets around to really make us an unpredictable and dangerous team for any opponent. Looking forward to watching Rosman and his progress, he looks like he has a lot of assets and a great prospect and my gut feel is he will make it too. Hopefully he gets a taste at some stage this year and really comes on over next few years. Nice to have talent developing and not needing to get thrown to wolves as we would have in the past haha!