Bring-Back-Powell

I don't think we'll get within a bulls roar of finishing 10th irrespective of a wild card. We are worse than mediocre this year.

I think a wild card weekend would add some more excitement to the season. We’ll clearly agree to disagree on this subject.

I think there's more fundamental things that could change the fabric of the game, to warrant more of an outcry than the wild card weekend: Shorter quarters down to 16 minutes per COVID 2020. Less games during the year. Last touch out of bounds (although in fairness this change probably wouldn't be a disaster) I just don't understand why people are getting upset over an additional 2 football game weekend in late August instead of just a slate of AFLW games, and the fact that finishing 7th or 8th would become a vulnerable position. Would it really make much of a difference in the scheme of things? And I also think that the fact that dead rubbers will be way more prominent in this year's run home, the AFL will be triggered into bringing this in next year.

I reckon I'm on my own on this forum, in terms of wanting the wildcard weekend introduced on a weekend (last weekend of August) that's currently an absolute dead zone on the football calendar. 1) It's an absolute shambles that teams 10-18 are already out of the finals hunt meaning the amount of relevant remaining games will decrease dramatically. Didn't happen last year, might not happen next year, but this year is going to be a mediocre last 8 weeks. 2) The wildcard weekend places a premium on finishing 6th or higher. 7th or 8th turns into an 'also-ran' position, so we're rewarding excellence. 3) Imagine if we got on some sort of roll and won 6 of our last 8 games to finish 10th and faced the Dogs on our turf on a Saturday night at the MCG, on wild card weekend. Would the wild card naysayers give the game a miss? 4) As a heavy consumer of AFL games (not just MFC games) I think it would be an exciting addition to the football calendar, having 2 stand alone games with a heap at stake.

I'm amazed he was our fifth highest rated player V GC with 10 possessions, 4 score involvements and 1 mark.

Anyone else laugh when they saw Carlton at the top of the ladder? No shock that in 4 of our 5 wins we've been in front at quarter time. The quarter time score essentially tells us if we're going to win or lose a game of footy this year. The outliers being that in the North game we were in front at quarter time. Conversely in the Brisbane game we were behind by 3 goals. Quite a shocking (in a positive way) result that we beat Brisbane.

Well they've been pretty tolerant towards the garbage we've mostly dished up since the West Coast Harley Reid game of round 10 last year so I don't see them going all judgmental all of a sudden if we go 0-3 against teams fighting for top 4 in the final weeks of the season.

I've heard it varies over the life of the contract but I'd imagine $1 million is the average per year at the very least. He was genuinely a liability at times on Saturday, particularly early in the game, for such a highly paid player.

A big 5 weeks for Simon. We have the fourth easiest fixture between rounds 17 and rounds 20 and that includes the highly losable Adelaide game which inflates the difficulty. Then in round 21 we have West Coast which is a non negotiable, albeit at Marvel. What happens if we go 0-5 or 1-4? The final 3 weeks are Dogs, Hawthorn and Pies, so it's hard to judge him purely on W/L during that final period.

Watching the game on Saturday was the first time I've been open to the idea of Oliver playing for another club. The product he's putting on the field is so far off a $1 million per season commodity it's not funny. And I'm also understanding that we're not going to get a first rounder for him if a club is willing to pay the majority of his contract. Trac on the other hand - you'd really wanting to get something good in return.

Interesting comparison, although Tapscott looked a lot more comfortable at AFL level in his first 2 years.

Kozzie's very lucky he can keep escaping suspensions with these low level strikes. May did not and should not have copped a suspension. Not sure it warranted the melee. And I especially loved that we were at out toughest during this useless melee which resulted in Ainsworth running 40 metred unattended into the easiest goal of his life. (Pathetic)

A concerning high end pick considering we went to a lot of trouble to trade up for the pick. That bit of play where he took a nice contested mark and then centred it straight to the oppo was infuriating. However, you can't really fully judge a player until they reach 50-60 games AFL games so we'll reserve judgment until then, assuming he makes it to 50 games.

A few little positives: Melksham’s 11 scoring shots would have to be one of the better individual forward performances of the year. Yes he missed a few elementary shots, but 3 of his 5 goals were class. Petracca had a belter of a game today. Kozzie’s kicked 14 goals in his last 5 games which is unquestionably All Australian stuff. 3 goals and 25 touches today has to be considered elite stats. And our ball movement and punish off turnover was excellent in the last quarter.

The riskier decision is to retain Goodwin IMO. Membership numbers have absolutely gone down the toilet since the end of 2023 (70,000 down to 55,000) our win/loss record is going to the dogs by the week and the overall respect garnered within the AFL community and our own supporter base is rock bottom. I would keen to hear a counter argument as to why Goodwin should be retained for next year. If the answer is he’s a premiership coach, then look at Hawthorn/Clarkson/Kennett/Michell as an example as to why hard calls are needed.

Get everyone fresh for the North game as we might be a chance for that one. Was Kozzie’s hit suspendable or a fine?

Weather here is very mild and overcast, equivalent to a mid autumn Saturday afternoon in Melbourne so the usual heat and humidity won’t be a factor (although strangely enough we won here last year when it was in the high 20’s) As others have mentioned, GC are playing for finals and should be winning this home game accordingly. I just hope we don’t beat ourselves which we’ve done the last 3 weeks.

I was sort of agreeing with you. The entire media was after his head after an insipid first 4 weeks, and yet somehow played a good game against us in round 5. Amazing right..

And yet he still managed to play a fine game against us at Gather Round.

This is the bit that doesn't make sense to me with respect to dropping JVR and having Petty playing reduced forward minutes. We'll often have a fourth gamer who looked hopelessly out of his depth in game #3 against Collins and Andrew who will probably take 25 marks between them. Fritta and Melksham will have to station themselves deeper into our 50 to support Jeffo.

Today we have 500 members more than North. In 2023 we had 19,000 more members than North. St Kilda (of all teams) and Bulldogs (with justification) have moved past us. If we have a really bad end to the season from a W/L perspective and Goodwin retains his job, we will clearly have the worst membership of all Victorian clubs next year. We will have a supporter base completely devoid of hope for the present and future.

The only part of selection I’m annoyed at is JVR being omitted. We are absolutely killing his continuity and his attempts to get back into 2023/bits of 2024 form. 90% of the club can’t kick a set shot from an angle, Petty being the prime example when he killed our momentum V Port with a 25 metre miss from a slight angle. And yet JVR nailed one from a seriously tight angle. Why? Because he has a proper goal kicking routine. We’re losing games purely due to inaccuracy and yet we drop this guy. Windsor needs to come back in ASAP. Young Stars of the game are generally fully developed and ready to be consistent AFL players after 50 senior games, so it’s a complete waste of time if he spends weeks at Casey. We know he’s a known AFL commodity on the wing, so play him there. If we lose on Saturday, I’d rather lose knowing we were clearly the inferior side rather than bemoaning a 2.7 goal quarter which cost us the game. Sick of that movie.

Agreed. The guy gets better by the week and has a ripper kick on him.

Excellent call by Goodwin and Co. Finally some selection integrity. Dropping an inform T Mac after the club's best win since the 2021 grand final for an injury riddled veteran off a singular VFL return game was anything but integrity.

We have a ton of problems. A ton of them, and some of them start at the very top of the football department chain. However, the Kade Chandlers of the world, who probably commands $250K a year and provides good value for money in terms of his output, shouldn't be the "poster boy" as to why we've been a dismal football side since round 10 last year, as you've espoused above.