Great Northern Summer

Is there any genuine key forward we could poach? We could have pushed for Josh Kennedy or Taylor Walker last year and we’d probably be playing this week if we did. Get the reasons we didn’t pursue the latter, but even the former would have been ideal. Even if we got someone for 1-2 years, perfect to fill the void whilst we are in the window as we wait for our talent to develop.

All weren’t actually that bad (Cook aside as we never saw him at all). Massive upside we didn’t see. It subsequently came out the club’s training work rate and professionalism was unsatisfactory. We lacked any decent sort of leadership at the club. That probably led to the downfall of their careers. They’d probably all thrive if drafted to us now.

For that reason, I’m still perplexed why TMac wasn’t subbed against Carlton for Schache. Goodwin’s brief explanation in the press conference after the game was bollocks. It’s a fair question that deserves an answer. After the week before with Gus, maybe they were worried a player would get injured and they’d be a man down altogether?

We bought Todd back from the Crows just before Jack was drafted.

I, like most/all of us, have no real idea about who should replace Yze. All we see if faces on screens, we don't really know what these assistant coaches offer and what they're like in the inner sanctum. Yze made it clear in his Richmond press conference that he was essentially the 'game day coach'. I suspected this for a long time, as did many of us. A big reason Goodwin coaches from the bench, being the morale/people leader, not the technical leader (same as Leppitsch / McRae at Collingwood). We therefore need to not only replace an Assistant Coach, but recruit a game day coach. From the little I actually know, I would be loathe to go after Hird. Not because he's not good or flawed. Due to his ego. He applied for the Essendon job at the end of 2022 after spending half a season in a full-time capacity at an AFL club after being initially let go by Essendon, and actually thought he should have got it (Sheedy being his mouthpiece). When he didn't get the job, he got out of the AFL industry altogether (again). If the man had credibility, and really sought a Head Coaching role again, he would have gone to another club in an Assistant Coaching capacity (I'm sure there would have been at least one taker). But no, it was beneath him to do that. He wouldn't be interested in coming to us anyway. Ratten doesn't give me the impression of having much energy. He looks pretty down beat and flat. This was my feeling in his last year at St Kilda. You don't just roll a Senior Coach either that has two years on a deal to go. At North, he may have done the right thing standing in for Clarkson, but again, he didn't come across as overly inspiring or someone a younger player would walk over water for. We really need to find a good tactician.

19 years ago...

Hopefully it's Zorko!

I’ll feel better if GWS and Lions win, not just because I hate the other two sides, but because we should have beaten both of them, and it’ll leave the continued feeling of ‘what if’…

Totally agree with your theory on the Grundy fall out. That's what I suspect also. We applaud Max for the good things he does. Unfortunately it goes both ways and he was responsible for a numbers of poor efforts that cost us the game against Carlton - the two missed shots at goal, and the touch on the line. We need our best players, particularly our leaders, to be better.

His family will be happy. Richmond supporters in it.

And Grundy - club not standing in his way

Admittedly, his breakfast program with Tim Watson is as chringeworthy as anything gets. They have literally nothing to talk about and end up talking about absolute rubbish, I mean absolute rubbish, especially when the AFL season is over. I made the habit of just leaving on the station driving a while back, but absolutely do not listen at all anymore.

In 2022, Jordan was one of our biggest momentum killers on the wing. Never played on, even when he had no pressure on him. Enabled the opposition to get back to our forward line in large numbers, making it very difficult to score. He's not the only one that did this, but certainly the most noticeable in my eyes. His influence in 2023 was minimal compared to 2022, given lack of opportunities. Didn't make the most of the opportunities he had though. Hunter at least tries to move the ball on. He doesn't come to a complete halt with no pressure on him. His main issue is a lack of penetration in his kicking and lack of ability to kick the ball far.

He might want to stay local, but I'm not sure he'll be bending over backwards to stay at the MFC. He shopped himself to Essendon last year and was keen to leave. We were open to this, but had a change of mind when Brad Scott didn't make himself available to meet with Harmes early enough leading into the draft period, so the club ended up holding Harmes to his contract. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we would certainly be ahead if this went ahead - may have got a second round draft pick for him.

Good luck to him. Reality is, he's a very vanilla player. Serviceable, but doesn't excel in anything. Seems to be a player that may have been better suited to a previous era (i.e. late 90's / early 00s). What is annoying is the players that have a point of difference that we let go (i.e. Bedford; even Hunt for his sheer pace - which we lack).

Exactly, like the 2003 Grand Final. That was one of my favourite non-Melbourne games. Collingwood thought they were the big thing, went into the GF favourites after beating the Lions in the soaking wet in the Qualifying Final. That first quarter was absolute gold. It definitely affected them for the next two years, although they probably exaggerated their lower ladder position for draft picks (Pendlebury and Thomas).

I remember one of the Fox commentators, maybe on On the Couch or First Crack point out examples of Grundy being very lazy in the Essendon loss when he was our sole ruckman, which led directly to Essendon goals. They showed examples of what Gawn had done in other games in the same settings and clearly, it did show Gawn covered far more ground and was willing to go way further than Grundy. As pointed out, Gawn has to take some responsibility too. Why does it take Grundy getting dropped to finally stand up and assert some influence on the game? That being said, and as I’ve pointed out before, the fact that Goodwin went from saying mid-year ‘Grundy is at a club that values him’ to a month or so later being dropped effectually for good, shows that there is something else to this story. At least half the games Grundy and Gawn played together were in the wet, where the combo was never going to work. What does that leave? Maybe 7-8 games maximum in suitable conditions? How is that a proper sample size to get this combination working? We saw how useless GWS as an entire team was in its first 10 or so games with a new system/coach, but it stuck together and look at it now! We all love Gawn, but because of who he is, he is probably the most influential person at the club. Maybe he just said straight out, mid year, ‘I want to play as the sole ruckman’ rather than giving the combo time to work, and Goodwin had to make the call whether to sit on the fence and keep plugging away at the original plan without pissing off Grundy, or telling Grundy ‘sorry mate’, which would have hit Grundy for six. All strong personalities involved, so it’s hard not to think Grundy didn’t get sour grapes (he is human after all), and perhaps soured relationships in his handling of being dropped. So in all, it’s just led to one giant $&(@show!

But according to Goodwin in the Press Conference, it was because they were keen to keep the 'big body on the ground'. I know I've mentioned this previously, but it infuriates me so much I have to repeat it. A 'big body' that managed two touches all night and zero in the final quarter. Usually a day or two (or three) after a loss, I get over it and move on. However, I've never been more disappointed and despondent over these last two losses in my life, because: - We were the better side in both the Collingwood and Carlton games; - The Collingwood game was our golden door into the Grand Final, the Carlton game because rather than taking our chances to win it (like the Collingwood game), we threw the game away; - There's no clear stand out to win the flag this year, so a thrown away opportunity; - We weren't beaten by sides that won games because they were the better team (i.e. WCE in 2018 Preliminary Final and Essendon in 2000 GF). The only game that comes close to these last two is the 2002 Semi Final. I was a lot younger then and most of the players were older than me, so still my heroes. At the time, it felt like a missed opportunity because I was sure we would have beaten Collingwood in the Preliminary Final (as Adelaide indeed would have done if it didn't cop a heap of important injuries during the game such as Riccutto and McLeod when leading at 1/2 time), but the feeling was Brisbane were going to smash whoever they played in the Grand Final. As it turned out, we could possibly have won the entire thing!

Interesting, if this is true. I remember hearing a former coach (cannot remember who it was - maybe Matthews) recently say that he never talked to the players much directly after a game, particularly if he wasn't happy. He waited until the next day or during the week, because by then, he was a lot more calm and the players were in a better position to absorb any message. He said that a coach spends months/years developing relationships with players, and was at risk of losing relationships in one moment. This actually makes a lot of sense. Let's be honest, we live in a bit of a snowflakey world these days, where you have to be very careful how you say things and when you say things because people get offended at bare minimums of things, so this former coach's comments make a lot of sense.

Craig Jennings was basically our coach in 2018. He was calling the shots. Something obviously happened not long after, whether it was disagreement with his game plan or a fall out, he was gone.

Whose choke was worse? Ours on Friday night, or Essendon in the 1999 Preliminary Final? They're on par with me. The two worst by a mile.

I suspect we are all speculating on what role/s and sort of influence each of our coaches has. Without inside knowledge, it's hard to really know who we should keep / let go. That being said, turnover is a good thing, to get new ideas and fresh voices. Our off-field coaching team is completely different from our 2018 finals charge, and it's arguably time for another change. Seems like Yze has gone, so that's the first domino to fall. As for the other, Choco has always given the feeling he's at a club for a good time, not a long time. He's a dominant figure who has a lot of influence, but may become too much when he's there too long. That appeared to be the away at GWS and Richmond. If he leaves, getting another older generation figurehead to replace him may be a good plan - someone like Ayres. Cannot blame Yze for putting in everything into the Richmond job, given he was apparently a close and unlucky 2nd twice last year. He even had the Essendon job until old mate Scott decided to apply at the 24th hour. Reading the article in the Herald Sun about him today though, I walked away with the feeling his mind was totally on the Richmond job since late in the season (his first interview was in the bye-before-finals week). If he's notionally our tactical/game-day coach, this isn't a good thing, given where his focus probably was.

I’d love to get Garfield Ayres in some capacity. A fantastic communicator and highly respected figure that would add significant value to us.

Raising this hurts even more to think we basically let Bedford walk…

Lions v GWS GF coming up hopefully! I actually think it’ll happen. Don’t mind which of those sides wins, as long as the other two don’t (who showed they were inferior to us in the finals). I still have a soft spot for the Lions because they knocked off Essendon and Collingwood in the 2001-03 GFs, something I’ll be forever grateful for.