Chook

2021 is in my vernacular

At worst, a WAFL Mickey Mouse premiership coach. At best, the man who gave us everything we ever dreamed of. And yet all dreams must come to an end eventually. I salute the dream; for what is sport, but dreams made manifest? Thank you Goody. We'll meet you further on up the road.

Please god no. I'd rather stick with Goodwin than "acquire" Hinkley.

I want a name coach who can command the respect of our (IMO self-absorbed and entitled) senior players from day one. Adam Simpson would be my preference from this vantage point. He is a premiership coach who led his team to a premiership based on a KPP-based (forward craft mandatory) premiership. That's what we're lacking. But I don't know what no-name assistants are out there, so I am open to anything.

I'm good. I think it's the right decision. It's a chance for everyone who cares about Melbourne and their part in the Melbourne story to reflect, take stock, and think about what they want moving forward. EDIT: I include Simon Goodwin in that as well. He's a great coach, and I'm 100% sure he will coach another side one day. He's as rolled gold as they come, but his time at Melbourne was well and truly up.

Sounds like a no true scotsman supporter to me.

I'm a supporter. It's not my responsibility to run the club. It's not even my responsibility to financially support the club. They play well, I buy in. That's where the relationship ends.

This will be an easy listen on a Monday night: https://x.com/1116sen/status/1947178476747837859 David King reckons it's May's responsibility to pull out of the contest when he thinks he'll get there second. Lovely. Imagine all the contests players would pull out of if they had to be sure they'd get there first.

The issue is I don't think Oliver has any real trade value. He's much more valuable to us than any other club would give for him (specially Geelong). Petracca can go forward, and if we played him as a forward more that might be ok. But we play him too often as a midfielder, and that just kills us. Viney will be retiring soon, so I wouldn't think we'd get anything for him. I also really want to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, trading out Viney like we got rid of James McDonald.

I've thought about this for a while, and I reckon we trade Trac and keep Oliver. Petracca has a lot of value still, but he is a prime offender in poor disposal inside 50. I think Oliver has other strengths (in and under, contested disposal, etc). We can use Oliver as an inside mid, but Petracca's class comes from his explosiveness, but unfortunately in our side with so few good ball users we can't carry his rainmaker kicks inside 50.

Yeah it's pretty bad...

It's like Salem and Bowey are TRYING to find bad options. Just take a breath fellas.

Just gonna focus on you figuring out how to use the new thread button.

Demonland is my business. I've been here a while.

Oh cool! That's Jordie McKenzie's old number!

So make a thread about it.

This guy seems to have a great head for footy. Has someone tapped him to become a coach at all or no?

Exactly, hence us being miles off. Saying we're not as bad as you might think is all well and good. I'd rather look at where we want to be and talk about how we get there than look at where we don't want to be and talk about how we're "not quite as bad as all that." One lens gives you a goal to aspire to and the other breeds mediocrity.

I'm not comparing us to other sides. I'm comparing us to ourselves c.2021 We're miles off.

Do you reckon Xerri wants to be known as the best ruck in the AFL and can't hack that he isn't?

I would shake my head and wryly laugh if/when our backline actually functions better with Tom McDonald.

He won't. He needs multiple pre-seasons if he's to make it.

Isn't Mark Williams our kicking coach. He's about 20 years past his use by date. I understand he's a respected figure and likes the job but I actually don't think he can do it.

I just think he's nowhere near physically ready, and may never be. Some people just can't build the strength and fast twitch muscle to play AFL at the top level. He still looks like he has the puppy fat of a high-schooler. Can he even grow whiskers? If he doesn't have any stand out attributes (he doesn't that I can see - other than perhaps a good footy brain), and can't build the AFL-ready body, he's going to have a bad time. I'm happy to wait, but he'll need another couple of ripper pre-seasons at least.