Bring-Back-Powell

It's genuinely shocking that we're miles worse with Trac and Oliver back into the side. Every Melbourne supporter pinned their hopes on these two. My expectation was 11th -14th due to our forward line on paper. So I'm not shocked we're going to miss finals. I am shocked about how bad we could potentially be this year, and how bad our talented players such as Gawn, JVR, Fritsch, May and Viney have been. If these players can lift to somewhere near their average, then we'll start winning a game or 2.

On the assumption Kozzie, Lever and Windsor are in..... So the only certain outs for Friday night are McVee and ANB from a team that beat the then undefeated Geelong to be 6-2 and be 4th on the ladder with the 4th best percentage, and only 1 win off the league leading Sydney. How can you now be talked about as a bottom 2 with minimal turnover?

Some sample quotes from the Adelaide Bigfooty forum from today’s game: “ANB been poor.” “Even ANB trying to do too much.”

Chris Scott did a very similar press conference tonight to the 2021 prelim with respect to not revealing potential excuses to the loss. I wonder if he was referring to the humidity you pointed out. So Geelong have gone from having a bye and being fresh into this week (per the original fixture) to now coming off a 6 day break in punishing humidity. Not that it matters in the scheme of things…:

This is such 2012/2013 loser talk but if we can contain the margin to around 6 goals, then maybe we can instil a bit of confidence heading into Gather Round and maybe jag our first win of the year. Geez how we’ve fallen off the cliff since that Saturday night in April last year when we beat the then league leaders Geelong.

Agree with this. Aside from a couple of howler moments it was the best of his 3 games today, and a positive that he had 3 set shots. People automatically think Fritta is a dead eye but he’s definitely had moments in his career where the radar’s been off. I think in 2020 he kicked more behinds than goals and in rounds 1 and 2 of 2021 I think he kicked a combined 2.6 or something.

Listening to Goodwin’s answer leads me to believe it’s a genuine line ball outcome in terms of ACL.

Not one thing has gone our way on the injury front this year, so let’s hope we finally catch a break.

Sadly. Yes.

He’s the only player that looks like a half competent league footballer at the moment.

What’s the over/unders margin line for a sacking after the Geelong game? He’s on the Friday night stage next week so the whole footy world will be watching.

Kozzie to come back via the 2’s. We don’t want to upset the chemistry of our forward line which is humming at the moment.

Good choice of sub. Was calling for this earlier in the week.

Anthony Hudson eloquently described tonight’s come from behind inspirational Bulldogs win over Carlton as this: “Such a Luke Beveridge performance” Can anyone here describe what a “Simon Goodwin performance” looks like?

Essendon and Carlton have both brought high pressure into their games after their week of scrutiny. Hopefully we can do the same and it will serve us well.

And not giving 1 second of playing time to a starting sub in a semi final while the opposition’s sub is instrumental in their game winning passage of play. The head coach should not be kicking own goals in a final.

Agree with this. Even though we went in favourites against North, something just didn’t feel right about that game - as you said it was probably the Marvel factor. We unequivocally play the MCG far better than Marvel, we have the wood over Gold Coast, GC are far less trustworthy than GWS whom we almost beat, and there’s also the “bounce back” effect” for clubs that have copped it from the media and fans. I still think it’s a tall order to win tomorrow.

Yes he played well in round 1 as a defender and I said I'd consider (not demand) him as a forward tomorrow seeing as though T Mac is in the side as defensive cover and you're not going to have a defence of May/Lever/Petty/T Mac. If T Mac wasn't in the side then I wouldn't consider Petty as a forward. JVR hasn't hit the scoreboard in any meaningful way in 8 of the last 9 games. As our nominal number 1 key forward I expect more output. EDIT - Lever is out, so clearly Petty won't be forward.

I don’t disagree with that but we’re entitled to expect a better return from JVR than 1 goal a game from his last 9. In fairness, he needs a reliable and experienced key forward to assist him but he won’t be getting that this year.

Agree with all you points aside from Salem. He's been fine to start the season. Petty's not a number 1 defender but was forced to play on Larkey and got beaten. With T Mac still in the side I'd consider Petty up forward due to he being one of the better contested marks in the side. And given our forward line is atrocious at the moment, we need to continually explore various options. Yes, JVR should be on notice but who else do we have? He's end to the 2024 season went under the radar (in a bad not good way) and he's followed that up with an extremely poor start to 2025. As in one of our worst to have played both games.

Melksham fits the sub role perfectly this weekend for where he’s at. Excellent selection.

Anything helps I guess. The defence should be far more organised with those two running the show.

2025 isn’t exactly shaping up to be a party for him.

If we’re dishing up Sunday’s effort 2 in every 3 weeks for the rest of the year and win 4 games for the year, then I think you definitely can.

In - May, Johnson, Melksham (sub) Out - Jefferson (inj), Lever (inj) Woewodin. I know Goodwin was confident that Lever would be ok for next week but he has a history of over promising on the injury front. The only positive about not having a first round draft pick this year is that winning games won't come at a cost. So if we do start 0-4 and finals are done and dusted, we can hopefully build as the season unfolds, accumulate some wins later in the season with the knowledge it won't cost us in the draft order, and then carry that momentum into next year (because we've sure carried our losing form from late last year into this year).