demoncat

Hard to know exactly where we end up at the end of the season Play like we did against the Suns and our depth looks great, but play like we did against the Dons and we have holes all over the ground Having said all that, in general I’d say we’re in need of two lockdown defenders (one tall and one small) and another gun midfielder How JVR/Jeffo/Kentfield fare for the rest of the year will also tell us if we’re in need of key forwards too Natural improvement of those guys, as well as our other high draft picks - including Taylor and Matthews who I think could really add something - may lessen these needs, but we’d still want to add more depth regardless In terms of available players I’d be looking at Jordan Butts to come in and sure up our defensive depth - he did a stellar job on Sam Darcy a few weeks ago so could fit the bill as that bigger bodied lockdown defender we’re crying out for Finally, unless we really put it together for the rest of the year I think we’d need to pass of Butters or Humphrey - I love them both but I don’t think we’re one piece away from contending, but time will tell

Reckon out of all of them Bedford is the one that got away He’d be a shoe in every week in King’s system

Finally got around to listening to King’s presser and I found his comment that he’s “still learning about the group” (or something to that effect) very telling Says to me that he didn’t see that lack of effort coming yesterday, and may have found out that there can be an attitude/motivation problem with the playing group Again, silver lining is it’s early in the season and he has the chance to go to work, but we’re very far off being an unconditional team at the moment

Yeah nah

I think the unfortunate answer is that we’re short a gun midfielder We need a genuine accumulator who can win their own ball but still has the speed and skill to spread and impact the scoreboard (is that asking for too much? 😭) I know King wants to be a low disposal high impact team, but sometimes you just need someone to go in there and get you the pill 30+ times (or at least be smart enough to position themselves to get it that many times) Reckon we’re at least one more draft and trade period away from a really contending in any meaningful way

Appreciate you fellas keeping the pod going in Andy’s absence! My question is what (if any) positional changes would you make in light of today’s loss to Essendon? Particularly in regard to our younger players I’m not sure Windsor will make it as a CBA attending midfielder and think he needs to develop into the best wingman he can. I also don’t think we’re doing Lindsay any favours playing him behind the ball. Langford looks a natural inside mid but does he have the tank to go inside yet? Appreciate the insight, and go Dees

An incredibly disappointing performance but unfortunately one that all Melbourne supporters would have seen coming King has done a great job of instilling belief in the players and revitalising the game plan, but I reckon this week will be a real test for him and how ruthless he is willing to be in regard to selection and player positions The silver lining is that it’s happened early in the season - let’s see if we respond

No more feel good stories in the media this year pls

On a similar note - this is very damning on Richardson I don’t doubt he had good intentions but he clearly doesn’t have the tact or competence to manage sensitive internal issues and relationships His poor communication around and management of the Trac situation - particularly the messaging about why Trac was taking time off in Noosa - made a bad situation far worse, and clearly contributed to the breakdown between parties It was then mentioned that he had to undergo communications training as part of the 2024 internal review, with the implication being that this was a weakness of his And now it seems he’s again mismanaged a situation by inadvertently spilling sensitive and confidential information, without any understanding of HR and welfare practices Honestly ready to say see you later - we don’t need any more controversies due to people’s incompetence, and he’s been at the heart of a couple now

I think Guerra has been very good at improving us off field - our improved comms and game day experience has been very noticeable since he has come into the club Having said that, he’s clearly still coming into his own as a football CEO I’m willing to cut him some slack but he’d want to learn the right lessons from this and tighten up on the internal mechanisms of running a club

Yeah that doesn’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence… (appreciate the info though)

On the face of it this seems to be very unprofessional by the club To conduct what essentially amounts to a welfare check without any HR or legal representatives present raises serious questions about the club’s practices and judgment, particularly given the topic of the meeting Richardson also has a poor record as Football Manager of managing sensitive situations at the club (see the Petracca situation in 2024), so it doesn’t inspire much confidence that he’s handling these matters Having said that, and as others have pointed out, we can only go on what Morris has reported, which clearly has a degree of bias given it’s been leaked almost two months after the fact and without any indication the leaker attempted to resolved this via the club first I’ll reserve judgement until if/when more details come out, although the club’s statement seems to suggest they aren’t too worried, so perhaps there’s been a bit of mayo added to Morris report…

Appreciate people sharing what they know, but can we please try getting our stories straight before posting? Sam Edmund has already confirmed that there‘s no break following scans, so hopefully it’s only a minor issue Regardless, rest him this week and get him right

Agree with your points @whatwhat say what , but Bont is already a left footed version of Bont!

I think Langford will be a gun inside midfielder for us for a decade plus, but we have to remember he’s only in his second year and is still developing his tank and understanding of role I actually think he’s a similar player to Callaghan, albeit not as quick but with (potentially) a stronger contested and fwd game, plus both have great running patterns and a beautiful left foot If Langford could follow Callaghan’s trajectory we’ll be very well set

We are just putrid at the basics at the moment

Fumbles becoming a serious issue for this team now

Rivers got dropped because he hasn’t been very good to start the year - it really is that simple And while a few others have also started poorly (Sparrow and Lever come to mind) I think it’s Rivers’ lack of defensive intent that has seen him dropped first Can’t be missing tackles and not contributing to scoring chains

I get that Redleg and I hope we’re using whatever leverage we have with Gosch’s, but I reckon we’re over egging just how much leverage Gosch’s will give us in relation to government and AFL support for Caulfield (unless you’ve heard different?)

But why Redleg? It just seems obtuse to link the two when it seems they would have no bearing on one another?

Going to be a few players of his quality available from Brisbane and Suns over the next few years (Jed Walter and Jake Rodgers are couple of names that come to mind) Hopefully we can be the beneficiary of them being on the periphery of the QLD super teams!

On another note, I really feel the club owes the members an update soon Obviously they can’t make an announcement around Caulfield if negotiations are still ongoing, but there’s been enough noise about us committing (and then not committing) to Waverley, as well as the supposed troubled state of Caulfield, to warrant some kind of statement

I don’t understand why the club is linking Waverley to Caulfield, as surely where we’re based over the next few years has no bearings on negotiations? I mean if the club doesn’t want to go to Waverley that’s one thing, but I really hope we’re not fumbling the bag here and end up with neither Waverley OR Caulfield because of some misguided attempt at using Gosch’s as leverage

Not being a smart [censored] but what in your opinion have we been lacking? Whether it was last week or across the preseason we’ve been consistent with the trends of the modern game - turnover, transition and speed of ball movement have all been improved from last year Unfortunately we fell back into bad habits tonight but that was as much about Fremantle being a level above as it was us struggling under pressure I still think the intent was there, but we either fumbled at critical moments or Freo were strong enough defensively to stifle our ball movement We need to improve our defence and get more experience into the kids, but I don’t think the regime don’t understand our issues - quite the opposite in fact

That kick to Trelly that enabled him to mark without breaking stride was sublime