JimmyGadson

Challenging players of both sides to play with the right spirit. The spirit of Frawley. It was a football game honouring Frawley and raising awareness for depression I'm not sure what you're knocking.

Surprised me, got my faith back, really happy. I saw some of that Melbourne brand from 2018 again. Lots of contributors, great pressure and fierce tackling. Midfield were huge, ANB best form of his life and like others have said, Goodwin showed some different moves during the game to change it up which is promising. Can't underestimate what early momentum can do for a side, especially ours. Great start, let's keep it going. Break the shackles. One more thing. Kosi. Wow.

People forget that if our contest game is taken away, or if a decent oppo side get on top of us in that area, we're in big big trouble. We started so well. And that's when we look good. But we literally have no other way of being able to stay with a good side if they get on top in clearance.

Aside from having two first choice key forwards unavailable, all other points you mention are directly on Goodwin. They have to be. Your post doesn't make sense. Three of those points you've raised have been issues since he took over. He has had ownership of the team since 2017 and therefore has the final say on what type of side he wants to build to fit his game-plan. As far as your other post goes, Ross Lyon took his sides to grand finals and had them competing inside the top four regularly. I have no idea why you'd make that comparison. His sides were focused on defence more than attack but they were so good in that area, more often than not it didn't matter that they weren't high scoring. They were consistently strong in one area for a long period of time and were extremely hard to beat. The complete opposite of us. Of course every side across the AFL has its weakness areas. But since 2018, we have been beaten by top 8 sides consistently in exactly the same way. And any time that occurs over the course of seasons without much change, to a club who is supposed to be challenging, the coach is naturally going to come under heavy scrutiny. Remember, we are meant to be challenging for top four by now. And we're not. We can't even make the 8.

But it's not each week. It's been three years + of the same problems. That's a large enough sample size to suggest Goodwin has not been able to deliver his message, is it not? Either that or he is so stubborn in believing we can cover those areas of weakness by playing the game on our terms solely. But that hasn't happened either has it? So, if we lose tonight and it's due to a breakdown again in those same areas we've seen for the last three + years, what do you think is happening?

This should be on Goodwin's whiteboard pre-game. Agree wholeheartedly. And if we lose because of both those things, there's clearly something wrong with the messaging, game plan and therefore Goodwin as coach. Go dees.

If you'd read my post properly, you would have noted that I said if we lose 'in the same manner' we have been for years, it will be clear to me that Goodwin has lost the players. I'm not sure why that's so hard for people to come to grips with. Good teams know how to play us. Goodwin has done nothing to combat it. If we can win tonight, I'll have some faith. If we lose the game because of a complete drop off in a quarter and St Kilda move the ball with ease from contest to outside, it'll be the nail in the coffin for me as far as Goodwin goes.

Agree with those that express their concerns regarding Freo being able to waltz out of contests at times just as easily as the Dogs did in the last praccie game. Concerning is an understatement really. I mean. You'd imagine we've addressed it a number of times since 2018/19? So confusing. If we beat St Kilda, I have faith that Goodwin has not lost the players. If we lose and lose in the same manner we have for years, this season becomes completely dead until Goodwin goes for mine.

Pollyana, formerly fifty-five right? I've always assumed you're one of the older breed of demon supporters on here. Rhino Richards your right hand man. Binman along side both. Baghdad bob bringing up the rear. Ready to jump on me anytime you think I've fallen into the trap of contradiction.. Or for the fact that I have been questioning this club's decisions time and time again, rightfully due to its mediocrity. I could write a book on where I think we've gone wrong since 2018 and what I'd have done to add and compliment our list immediately. The addition of Lever and May have been great. Langdon has exceeded my expectations but all should have been targeted earlier. We've been slow to make change, that's we're we've failed. Lever was never going to be able to perform to the level he did at Adelaide with Oscar and Frost as his support. I called that from the beginning. Lever played in a system with Talia and Hartigan. Two mature, big bodied defenders who allowed Lever to bring his elite level intercept game every week. Obviously the fact he did his ACL didn't help his ability to get continuity together with our back five back then. In 2018 we were playing Dom Tyson, Nathan Jones, Harmes and Vandenberg on the wings. Our downfall in games even back then was that we had so many similar types being naturally drawn to the contest, slow to react, questionable skills and decision making. What has changed significantly since? We've added Langdon. One player with a point of difference who has been a welcome addition. But again, why did it take so long to target a wingman. I'm not the only one who was up in arms about it back then. And why have we not addressed that area further? It's 2021 and we're still playing inside mids on wings. And no, Brayshaw wasn't good on the wing against Freo. He had just a game. 18 possies, 9 of which were handballs at only 60%. Four turnovers. I don't know what you were watching. He came third in a brownlow playing in a position he's played his whole life. Then there's the small forward issue. We have a ripper in Kosi. But why the hell did it take so long for us to target one when we've been needing one since 2018 also? The list management team work on the back of what type of players Goodwin wants to fit his game style and plan. They've made questionable decisions at best and the ones they have got right have come a seasons too late. Take a look at what St Kilda have done over the course of a couple of years to completely rejuvenate their list post Richardson. I understand it's not feasible to bring in the quality of Lever, May, Brown and Langdon over the course of a year. But we could have easily brought in stop-gap players who possessed attributes we needed. Attributes and strengths that would allow for others to play their natural game. The saints have done it with a lot of recycled goods whilst maintaining their high end talent. The dogs have similarly done that whilst retaining their elite players. And now we're seeing sides that should be further behind us in development leapfrogging us or gaining ground. Brisbane, freo, Carlton etc. Goodwin is stubborn. And we had an exodus of coaches go because of it. He has one season to right the ship or Perty can kiss goodbye all the plans he has of making us a powerhouse. If he has learnt anything in his short time with us, it'll be that Melbourne supporters are sick to death of talk, rebuilds, "heading in the right direction", ad nauseam...

Well you must have a terribly hard time deciphering what is true or false on a day to day, hour to hour basis and for that, I'm sorry for you.

You don't know Google very well then!

I don't care that the happy-go-luckies are in denial with this stuff.

Haha, I guess everything you've learnt in your life is then also false?

There's this search engine called Google on the internet. You can use it to find what you're looking for.

Clayton Oliver has been genuinely questioning his future. I've heard it personally from connections and it was well documented over the off-season. Keep living under a rock if you don't believe it. We've had our talent influx, they've developed, we're meant to be competing for top 4. We were sold this by Roos, we were literally given a clean slate and all the foundation in the world on a silver platter. This is completely on Goodwin now and post season 2018, he hasn't convinced any of us. If young players who are hitting their prime are sold something from a coach which isn't working, naturally they'll question where they want to be moving forward. And given the magnitude of our drop off from 2018-19, it is as much to do with Goodwin's program as our injury crisis. I don't think enough of the happy-go-luckies understand what exactly is riding on this season. Unfortunately it ain't just a win/loss season anymore. It will be more than a loss on the ladder column if this season is a failure. We will begin to see stars wanting to go elsewhere.

Great post. To me, it seems we're a season or two behind making the right list management calls both to keep up with the changing game and to compliment and add to our strengths. The fact that we've seen more meaningful change at a coaching and FD level, with little return in onfield performance since our exciting 2018 finals is concerning to say the least. And now, everyone is questioning Goodwin's worth. Including players. Players like Oliver, who if decides to leave, will be catastrophic from a Melbourne branding pov. Roos must be rolling his eyes at some of the list management and positional change decisions Goodwin is making. Angus Brayshaw is an inside midfielder who came third in a [censored] brownlow after a year of playing there. What the hell is going on? As far as I'm concerned, Brayshaw, Viney and Oliver should be our starting mids with Trac and Kosi starting forward and rolling through the middle. The wing position is more important than ever this year with the new man on the mark rule. Langdon has been huge for us and I simply can't understand why we haven't brought another one in or at the very least given Oscar Baker the chance to make it his own. Baker was no worse than Harmes or Jones in the practice game against the dogs and I actually thought he was really good against Richmond. What have we got to lose? Gus simply has to be playing in the guts. He is being absolutely wasted on a wing. Unbelievable.

Cause Melbourne.

Oath, the only way this way this team progresses to finals is by having a solid block somewhere throughout the year of winning several games in a row. If we can't do that, Goodwin has failed in my view. We are in that prime age spot with most of our top tier talent. As Bombay says, we should be giving absolutely everything to this first month so we can gather some momentum. If we're fair dinkum we're either 4-1 or 5-0 by round five. All of those games are winnable. And we should be putting everything into them.

Disagree with both of you. 18 touches with 9 handballs and 9 kicks going at a touch over 60% with four turnovers. I watched him closely, and aside from a few good individual pieces of play, he was underwhelming. The bloke came third in a brownlow after playing his natural game ffs. Are we thinking about this?!? I am completely disillusioned with Goodwin. Against better sides, his lack of transition speed will be found out. His natural instinct is to see ball get ball so I've never understood Goodwin's propensity to play natural inside and contested ball winners on a wing with a role that goes completely against their natural game. We've always had issues with our mids being sucked into the contest. And part of that is due to playing natural ball winners in outside positions who find it hard to hold space. When has it worked over the last two years or three years? Tyson, Jones, Brayshaw, AVB.. Tom Phillips was there as a cheap option over the trade period. Look at how played for Hawthorn on the weekend. A natural wingman. Gus is not even a top runner at the club either so the extended quarters and fewer rotations are not going to help him. His ball use is iffy at best. I will wait a few more games when we play better oppo, but it's already concerning. We've seen this before and to what effect?

Did I just read that Brayshaw will be playing wing for the year? I cannot understand Goodwin.

What on earth was the injury? And why would he have played the entire game out with it when we had a sub? Doesn't add up.

Christ supporters are silly. Oliver is obviously a special player. Hard, unbelievable at getting his hands on the ball at a contest, evasive, generally a really good kick to advantage. But there is absolutely no question that a large number of his handballs are simply not only not damaging, but put his team mate under immediate pressure. It doesn't matter if he goes at 80% efficiency if his handball is straight to a team mate under heat. How do supporter not see that? It's part of why there's so much commentary surrounding his use. If he gets that out of his game and looks to players like Pendles and the bont as far as releasing to the right team mate, then he could be the best midfielder in the comp. Too often Oliver is going at a million miles in his mind and gives a completely unnecessary handball too close to a team mate under pressure. I would rather Oliver get caught holding the ball looking for a better option than give it to early to the wrong option. He is the kind of player who has the ability to hold onto the pill longer and off-load to a team mate in a better position, preferably one outside the contest. Go back and look at how many times our players gave unnecessary handballs to a team mate who was less than a metre from them. It's the fault of the players calling for it as well as the giver. Can't do that against the saints.

The fact that one of the pre season themes was to be more 'selfless' as players says it all does it not? When I think of our midfield, I think of a bunch of individuals with amazing individual potential and talent. Directional talk, selfless gives and blocks, sacrificial defensive running etc is not something that comes natural to any of them. Gawn probably less in that category but the lack of awareness surrounding his tap work and boundary throw in positioning surprises me every game.

I think you're trying to put a positive spin on something that was not planned by us. Their ball use going inside was absolutely appalling and quite frankly we had a get of jail card in Jake Lever and Steven May Our game absolutely still relies on us being on top in clearance and contest. It has to, given the type of players Goodwin puts in and around the ball. Things like positioning, not getting too sucked in, spread etc are all elements that we've been poor at and continue to be poor at. Outside of Fyfe, our mids should have easily accounted for the younger, less developed and less hardened mids of theirs. But we didn't. Oliver, Harmes, Brayshaw, Petracca and Gawn needed to take the game by the scruff. I think it would be wiser to wait until we play a half decent opposition with not so many key players out before making a call regarding the weekend's game. I think it's clear as day our game style against Freo was not by design.

Carey?! Hahaha.