rpfc

Jesus. Calm down. He is a fine kick when he takes the time he can take. Contrary to your disposition occasionally - people can disagree. I have my view, and you have yours.

Goalkicking is completely seperate to field kicking. They are different mindsets. Petracca - when he is dumping the ball out of a contest is a net negative. When he uses his feet or hands to get out and forward of the contest and takes a beat to hit an option - he is at his best.

Who second rucks? I am all for flagellating the FD over selection. But dropping a 32 year old because two future MFC Hall of Famers are there and you want to reward a young man who seems to have found his stride in the backline - is not the imbecilic decision many seem to think it is. This isn’t keeping Oliver in the team last year… Drop Spargo/insertnamehere instead? And shuffle the team? Why? Can we just win?

One man’s poor kicking ability is another man’s poor decision making. Ours has always been the latter - our game plan for years minimised the clarity of where one would kick it so it has been a hard habit to shake. For example and against popular opinion, Petracca is a fine kick - he hasn’t had to take the extra .5 of a second that players of his ilk should take to make a better decision and also lower his eyes when territory is not as important as it used to be. Now he is more inclined to take that extra time and deliver a better outcome.

Miers has a win/loss percentage of 65%, Spargo has 64%. He hasn’t known the old Melbourne.

But I don’t like his behaviour after our poor 2024 and him being a brand…

Ah we need an ex-forward to coach him… I don’t know about that ‘direction’ - what I have seen is a forward line that didn’t push up as much as it had in previous years and trying to make the ground bigger when we move out of our backline - completely necessary for getting out of def 50. That isn’t ’stay back and wrestle’ unless you don’t know how to move as a forward. He does not move when the ball is ‘coming down the field’ and only tends to move when he is the next in line to get it - this gives his opponent a free ride to watch the ball and not worry about what our CHF is doing to attract the footy and define and exploit space and make him think twice. This is something that would be talked through in his first year and he hasn’t got better. Bring in that former forward to be a specialist if you want but I see it as a waste of money until JVR can show aptitude for basic forward craft.

Jefferson isn’t good enough. Adams a low pick looks not much, Howes looks a battler. JVR isn’t a natural forward and has stalled as defenders know to stay on his hip and carve him up. McVee, Bowey and Windsor look great and continue to progress. Tholstrup has been injured but battled. Early on the last two. Who else are we talking about? Chandler has gotten better this year. I don’t think you can make a cogent argument that we are not developing players well enough.

You’re assuming we haven’t put the effort in already.

Or he might just not be that talented. Considering I could give him advice about leading patterns and utilising space and attracting the footy from when I have seen him up close - the current coaches would be fine to talk him through the tape. It’s straightforward ‘forward craft’ that he has not shown much aptitude for… And we are looking shallower with entries, we are doing better than we have in years with how we look inside the 50. He has to hold up the other end of that bargain - otherwise the mids will fall into bad habits if the options aren’t there.

I think we let him coach out his contract, he will know when to go too.

Coming into the year I thought we can recover and play finals but I thought this list was past a flag run. So my big test for Goodwin was more around the relationships at the club and keeping the right people happy, and recovering the Petracca situation. Despite the rumblings - I think CP5 is back on track and our lowly position is more about injuries, and our lack of executing our new game plan due to skill level and normal teething issues. So I am ambivalent on Goodwin. He is not a cancer so if he stays I don’t mind - however, this list shouldn’t be 3-6 so I can get why a decision would be made to move on.

No it won’t it will stay the same. That’s what we are saying.

When he signed his deal, it was reported that he and CP5 get a percentage of the cap. So this may be wrong - but I understand his salary goes up as the cap goes up.

No but current wage is based on past returns.

‘SHAMEFUL’ It’s shameful? He. Is. Not. Playing. Well. He. Has. Been. Dropped. Already. So the Coach agrees with the sentiment, and the shame is hardly on the fans that expect base level of effort from our most skilful player.

Should this thread be renamed - welcome to blah - Paul blah?

We were at Casey when we won the flag. Can the hand wringers remind themselves of that when they self-flagellate/copulate on this topic? Thanks!!

We have played one very good game, and two good games. It’s not a case of ‘one week at a time’ it is more ‘ask me how we look in one weeks time’…

Yeah, but he’s our hot head…

Nah, if he isn’t up to it because he has had a baby - he can play VFL. Otherwise, he is up for criticism and deserves it.

In this team, shots at goal should not be a determining factor in selection - it’s just not how the rewards settle from when we play our best. Chandlers manic pressure at one point led to a Petracca goal that CP5 pointed at Gawn for a competent handball - but it was Chandler - and the pressure applied by our other forwards - that brought about that goal. A goal that reads out to Petracca with a goal assist from a ruckman.

He is playing his what 5th game? 1st night game at the G? He is in the top 5 best 18 year olds I have seen at the club.

3rd was pretty good yeah? Super pressure and great commitment to the handball territory game that gets us going. Last 10 mins in games like that are for teams like Richmond to save face. I remember those days…