JimmyGadson

Had a prior commitment actually. But unlike you and the happy-go-luckies, I can completely understand why some supporters don't show up. Give them something to rock up to. Maybe some consistency in effort and application? Dknow, just my thoughts.

Everyone calling for Max to be protected by umps. Why not call for our own players to dish out the same to oppo ruckmen? Perhaps even get them to protect Max? Show some anger? Care? Passion? Just a thought..

Here's our chance to begin to build something. Max Gawn openly stated a few weeks ago that the players were angry about the way last year finished but to me, I saw very little anger or energy in the way we played against Freo. The happy-go-luckies pot me for having concerns after a win. Not realising the worrying signs on display against a depleted Freo who aside from their midfield, were very ordinary. Here's a little sneak peek into my thoughts regarding our middle of the road club - I was at both finals at the G in 2018. Lined up at midday with the old man outside gate 2 to get prime position seats. Centre wing, level two MCC. The best. From the first bounce in both games, I remember seeing an awinspiring ferociousness that I simply haven't seen since that 2018 season. I don't understand why. Goodwin, the assistant coaches, the FD and the players would continue to talk about the 'Melbourne brand' which was starting to gain traction throughout that year and opposition clubs were wary of us. We were hard, tough, uncompromising and in those finals, especially the Geelong game we swarmed the opposition. We were building. Building after how many rebuilds since 2007? Ask yourself? One prelim loss later and we're back to being on the edge of irrelevant, whilst teams who were below us, less developed than us and less talented are now leapfrogging us. Why? How? I refuse to believe that the exodus of assistant coaches at the same time was simply coincidence in 2019. You're a damn fool if you don't think was a level of friction within the coaching ranks. We all know about the infamous pre season of 2019. The injuries, the limited pre seasons to so many players, the lack of continuity, etc etc. But of course, it was and became our excuse and we were given a free pass.. Move forward to round 1 of 2020 after a gruelling pre-season with a new world class fitness guru. We were raring to go. That's what we were told. We were hurting, we were hungry, we were the fittest we'd ever been. New doco out for all to see. We were every cringeworthy eve of season cliche one could think of and then some... We had West Coast, round 1 back at Subiaco. What an opportunity. What an opportunity to come back and atone for our Prelim debacle. An opportunity to make a statement. No crowd. The pressure was off. We simply fluff it. Game Plan/personnel/limited list changes? Which is it? Can't be fitness. We simply do not show up and it was basically a snapshot for our entire season, covid or not. End up finishing 9th after dropping games to two clubs should be well behind us in regards to development, talent, gameplan execution, maturity. All of it. Fast forward again. To round 1 against a depleted Freo unit at the G. Again, Max tells the afl world openly that we're angry. Goodwin has again decided against making serious list changes over the off-season. We come out, look ordinary at best from the first bounce and end up just getting over the line possibly thanks to two star defenders only. I saw little energy, anger, enthusiasm or killer instinct from nearly all the players who have been there since 2018. Where was Max's anger? Where was our Melbourne brand? It's round 2 and we're up against a side who have previously been a premiership contender on two separate occasions. 2004-6 and 2009-12. During those years, we have done absolutely nothing except fail on our attempts at rebuilding. We get one right under Roos and Jackson and now we're back on a knife's edge with a coach who has preached the same messaging to us since 2017. "We want to be a hard and ruthless club". Well show it to us against St Kilda. Here is an opportunity for our club to gain some momentum. Here is a side we should be ahead of. Here is another litmus test that in my honest opinion, will be a serious indicator as to whether or not we've addressed any of what Goodwin and co have banged on about for years. They've talked about maturity and consistency being a theme over summer for us. Well [censored] show us for damn sake. We have an opportunity to go 2 and zip at the start of a new year. No more response games after a poor showing. No more excuses. Take a look at what Sydney and Adelaide did over the weekend. Application and commitment. [censored] show us Melbourne.

Lol. The crowd number is a direct correlation to our performances over the last two years. Suck it up. Over to the players. Inspire us.

There were times that we absolutely dominated forward half. Freo were truly awful both in their forwardline and their movement from defence. Helped of course by Lever and May who arguably saved the game for us... What I'm talking about specifically is the same problems that are clearly evident. Connection between mids and forwards. Our completely out of whack and sync midfield. Max Gawn's tap dominance to what effect? The continued deployment of inside midfielders as wingmen. The poor skill level, the poor execution, the lack of intensity from our more senior players. The list goes on. Yeh, of course there were also different looks to the game too but that was not dictated by us. That was because Freo completely worked us over in the midfield, right up until the last quarter. It was because they had a makeshift forwardline who had no chance due to the way the ball was coming in. It wasn't our pressure. It was their poor use. Lever and May are almost the best one-two defenders in the comp and with a depleted freo forwardline, we dominated and obviously our drive had to come from there.

Harme's game yesterday was almost comical. His defensive efforts and repeat efforts are also absolutely appalling for the level. No doubt he'll be named starting mid next week though. If not for May and Lever, we would have lost. Yeh, a win is a win and all that haha. But seriously, what has changed in the way we play? We will get annihilated by St Kilda in a single quarter next week if we dish the same up. Where is the passion and desperation from the first bounce? How does an AA ruckman dish up that kind of performance at the start of a season against a rookie? We are the weirdest sporting team in the world.

Sparrow kicking inside 50 haha. Gold.

Still hasn't impacted. Turns it over under zero pressure. We have an AA ruckmen against a rookie who can't impact. Winning taps. But zero impact. We are shocking.

It's the same clearance problem as the game against the dogs except this time, Oliver and Brayshaw are back in there. What are the excuses?

Haha. We are truly awful. No list change. Same inside mid problem. Hilarious.

No [censored]. He was underperforming in the senior team for too long. Maybe go back and dig up one of my posts from when I praised him for performing to the required standard at times too. You'll have time to do that given you dug up one from 2019.

Yeh, Oscar at present (2019). During that season. Wasn't performing to the standard. We had nobody to replace him? A year later we get May and then Oscar is delisted. If you're arguing ridiculous semantics, perhaps the semantics that Binman likes. Things like, 'the fact that he's an AFL listed player means that he's AFL standard' then I'm not biting. We all know players are given opportunities on lists. And many of them do not perform. To the standard.

No, actually I never stated that. You and the Oscar fan club keep misquoting me. I would have said something along the lines of, "there were many times throughout his career where he wasn't playing to the required standard". Do you understand the difference? It's not that hard. Mate, you have the guy as your profile picture. The flapping fish in the shallows is you and your merry-go-round pals who keep bobbing up anytime Oscar performs to the required level. The fact that people are going on about his half of footy last night as if he was the second coming of Carey says more to me about how little clue supporters actually have, being so heavily emotionally invested in an individual. Go back and look at my posts regarding my thoughts on Oscar and how I thought the club let him down by playing him too often when he wasn't ready as a means of fast tracking development. I have nothing to defend. The bloke got delisted at the age of 25. A key position defender who was meant to develop into a really good full back for us! That's what I kept reading over the years from yourself and other unabashed supporters of his. 17 other sides decided not to pick him up as a key position defender after he was delisted. What does that tell you? Carlton gave him a lifeline as a rookie, he comes on as a sub with fresh legs, makes an early impact as a forward by kicking two goals. One from a free kick close to directly in front and supporters lose their minds. Talk about loss of perspective! Haha. I would guess that the noise and exaggerated talk regarding his performance last night is simply because his bar was so low! Nobody, not even Carlton supporters were expecting anything. For years he was completely underwhelming as a key defender for us and ultimately he was delisted before what are the prime years for an AFL footballer. Christ my head hurts.

lol, Oscar's performance last night has been blown right out of proportion. Due to a multitude of factors. I'll comment on how he must feel and I'm happy for him. At least it looked like he was playing free of worry.

EDIT* They've figured out how to stop our clearance dominance. Whether it's sharking Gawn's taps or simply pressuring us harder on that first possession/disposal, our clearance numbers are down and we are nowhere near as efficient or clean as we need to be. And yes, opposition sides absolutely allow us to win first possession and sometimes the opportunity for clearance knowing full well that our downfall is that next possession/disposal.

Preventing? Or have they figured out that letting us win first possession isn't the end of the world given our propensity to turn it over when under a bit of heat?

He made a tweak to our defensive system, hardly game-style changing. And the fact that there has been little to no list change and/or positional change supports my claim. We still see inside mids rolling onto a wing/half forward. We see the same mix in the middle. I saw little to no change in the way we entered inside 50 over the first two practice games. It's all very much the same. One would think that with a midfield brigade like ours, we would trade aggressively for players that really compliment what Goodwin is trying to achieve forward of centre. I just simply cannot believe we didn't chase Zac Williams hard to really add a dynamic element to our starting four. Adam Saad, Tom Phillips, Shaun and Jack Higgins... These players should have been replacements for ANB at a forward flank, AVB through the middle, Jones, Brayshaw and Harmes on a wing, Hunt at half back. I just can't see where our improvement comes from this year when compared to the improvement from teams around us who have meaningfully added to their lists. Max and May are closing in on twighlight years. One would have thought we'd be doing everything in our power to reshuffle the list.

But we have been poorer at them.. Well coached and drilled opposition sides figured out how to combat our clearance dominance pretty early on in 2018 and have adapted since. Not only that, the better mids in the comp have also learnt to rove to Max, sometimes better than our own players. Take Bont and Macrae from last weekend as the first good example of the 2021 season. It's happened plenty last year and the year before. Other teams have adapted, we haven't. Goodwin continues to want to play his rigid and one-dimensional game style which has ultimately seen the decline of our performance year upon year since 2018.

I often wondered what world he was in half the time.. I remember one day at the G, I was sitting MCC (centre wing), and had the pleasure to watch him attempt to gather up a bouncing loose ball not two or three... but four times. Nobody around. No pressure. Just big Nicho fumbling over himself in a pre-game warmup. Suffice to say we got flogged that day.

Oath.

@WERRIDEE I'm not sure it's necessary to post a best and next best 22 every week..

Love Max, could have done better with this one though. Speaks before he thinks sometimes does Max.

Hey Sue, you never wrote back! The happy-go-luckies just don't get it.

Ummm Alistair Nicholson..?

Great pick up. Agree that it's worrying this still occurs from someone who would have been told to do these things from under 9's. Baffles me really.