RadishDee

What does the panel think that King will bring to the table in terms of game style, game plan, position changes? We've seen the trade period and what it's brought, though perhaps the changes were more out of necessity than structure to support the game that he wants to play. Given everything we've seen so far from the King era, what would we expect the game and team to look like come round 1?

For a guy who kicked 31 goals last season (3rd at the club) and an average of 1.7 per game (2nd at the club), Melksham must be pretty stiff to miss in a lot of these lineups.

I think we've got what it takes to compete and soon from this trade period. If you want positivity, you've come to the right place (albeit in the wrong place, aka Demonland) Before I get into my takes on all these trades, my biggest concern for us this year was the defence. We were too easy to score on if teams took us on down the middle. (St Kilda, Collingwood x 2 games come to mind but there would be others too). Our talls were too slow and our smalls weren't accountable enough. This trade period, with Trac and Oliver leaving, there are obviously holes in the midfield, but we have talent to fill it. But that talent leaves more holes in the defence. MCVEE & JIATH I think losing McVee hurts us more than many will realise. We had very few defenders last year who could actually defend, especially with speed. Jiath is a great pickup to replace, he can be accountable in defence and can move quickly. They are even listed at the same height. We lose a bit in disposal, but we didn't have to trade as much out. With Judd obviously leaving before the trade period even started this is good business. HEATH Is basically a nobody in AFL land so no one's paying attention to him. Rucks are cool and fun and obvious at the ground but most rucks aren't particularly important and getting less important by the year. Heath doesn't need to be Gawn, he just needs to be the guy for a bit. Everyone is pretty sure Kalani is the next great Melbourne ruck, but we need someone to play until he's 20 or 21 at least. Dogga was supposed to be that guy and then some. Heath is a year younger than Jackson, and while he's a talent downgrade he's perfect for us. He can learn his craft, he knows he'll be next in the prestigious line of Melbourne rucks, but he can cement a spot by giving it his all. MIHOCEK You need someone to take the best tall defender. He can do that until JVR develops a bit more and hopefully helps JVR develop a bit of confidence. STEELE As many were saying today, he's got leadership at training and on the field. He can do what Viney does but with slightly better disposal. OLIVER & PETRACCA It hurts to lose them, for sure, no question. They'll always been Melbourne greats. But they were paid like top 5 players in the AFL and they haven't been close to that for a few years. There are mitigating circumstances, to be sure, but if we want to be about winning, we have to be ruthless. They weren't earning their wages, so our best move is to move them on. (Was it dumb to give them those contracts? The answer is clear now. Hopefully the club learns from this.) In addition to the draft haul, we unlock a lot of cap room, which gives us flexibility to not only attract FA talent but to retain the key players we have now. We also get a bit of positivity around the club. I think both players have been a negative presence around the club in the last 2-3 years. It's not said about Petracca because he has better management, but his actions last year (and yes the club was culpable too) would not have ingratiated him to the group. You can see some of this at games. Petracca gets visibly frustrated during games and hasn't seemed joyous in a long time. Clarry has perhaps been better on the field, but it's no secret that his presence at the club has not always been positive. How does someone like Bowey or Chandler feel when they're giving everything in a games, not getting paid the massive bucks, they're here because they want the glory and you've got these guys going around the field with the bad attitude getting $1m per year? And we're still losing. Let alone what it does for a guy like Langford. In summary, I'm optimistic, MFCSS be damned1

Here's me on this thread when the notification 'Saint Lands at Demons' comes through on my phone.

Thanks for the podcast this year Andy, Binman and George. It feels to me like in a lot of games this year rather than the 'learning how to win' thing, it's a setup problem. When the opposition goes direct (especially from kick-ins) with the game on the line there is always space in the middle of the ground. Friday night seemed to me like another one of these games. In the last quarter there was always space in the centre for the pies to move the ball easily. This strategy has also worked from the get-go which explains our horrible first quarters this year. So my guess is the structure of the all team defence is just leaving too much space in the middle and we're not able to either congest the centre or turn the ball over and score easy goals. Is that how you see these close games too? The optimistic thing here is that those issues could be fixed with a relatively small structural or personnel change and the impacts would be doubled. We'd concede fewer easy goals through the middle and score more of our own, a potential 12 point turnaround. Yes this year has been disappointing but I don't think we're as far off the top teams as many think.

Some good signs in this game, I was thinking most of the week it had a chance to get very ugly for us. The signs for the future are looking quite good. I'm excited to see what the future holds and the changes that can be made in the team and game style. The attack again was quite good today (though some bad misses on gettable shots). But again, the defence needs more work. As we start to look towards the end of the season, what would the panel like to see from the defence to cause some (albeit not much) optimism? As an aside, Kentfield looked good again at Casey though I hope for his development's sake they keep him there for the rest of the season. Let him get next preseason in and unleash him on the competition pairing with JVR in 2026!

The swings of this year continue to hit hard. Where do we go from here? The most depressing thing for me is that we are looking at significant time to improve if we continue with the current trajectory. The coach isn't changing, so we can't expect any change to gameplan, tactics, selection, or skills improvement. Some player movement is expected but it's not going to make us a better kicking team any time soon because our longer contracted players are our poorest kicks. So we seem to be doomed to endure this for at least 3-4 more years. My question to the panel is what should the club be doing today to bring our next premiership closer? Because I'm not seeing the club pursue anything that's actually doing that.

A good afternoon at the footy! The attack continues to improve, starting to hit goals, hit up teammates, things starting to click. It's nice to see this come together. Strangely, the concern for me at the moment is the defence. We're still giving up a lot of goals per inside 50 and giving up lots of points on turnover. What does the panel think needs to change to improve? Do we bring in a proper mid-size defender? Does AMW fill that gap? Howes? Rivers?

While I've been gloomy about the team and our prospects for weeks, this game has given me some hope. Hear me out. This year we average a goal from 20.9% of Inside 50s (15th in AFL) and we allow a goal on 27.3% of our opposition's inside 50s (dead last by over 1%). The Crows are a top 4 side who score a goal on 26.2% of inside 50s (3rd in AFL) and allow a goal on 20.0% of inside 50s (also 3rd). In the game yesterday we scored a goal on 26.2% of our inside 50s (yes, the same as what the Crows average). This is a huge improvement over a stingy defence and it should not be underestimated. We allowed a goal on 23.6% of their inside 50s yesterday, which while still not great the exact AFL average and is clearly an improvement against a potent attack. I think we can avoid too much more cellar-dwelling, but we do need to continue to make improvements. We also clearly need a small/medium defender who can defend players like Rankine who also seem to run riot over us. (What I wouldn't give to have Hibberd back!) Can we start to see some light at the end of the tunnel?

How many more weeks of terrible forward half play does the footy department think is acceptable? It's already been about 70 (going back to 2022). Another season or two should do it? Each week the club needs to be doing the things that are going to get us closer to another premiership. So question to the panel, what do we do to achieve that? Because staying the course right now seems to be getting us further away. For mine, the Petty experiment has to be killed. He may bring the ball to ground, but when he gets a shot he's not punishing enough. Petty and Turner look like the future of our backline, so they should play as such. If Jeffo and JVR are the future up forward, let's play them there. If they go 3 weeks without kicking a goal, the club must persist. It matters very little that Petty gets 10 balls to ground a game that then result in 1-2 goals but butchers the ball when he has the chance himself. Goodwin gets some tactical things right on occasion and he won the flag, but he gets a lot wrong. Selection, interchange, sticking with tactics too long. The panel has acknowledged all of these problems this year on multiple occasions. Replacing Goodwin doesn't mean that we have a potato as a coach, we get someone in with their own tactical thoughts, some fresh ideas, no preconceived notions about what works and what doesn't. Maybe they wouldn't do much better, but do we really think that the next best coach waiting in the wings would be worse? I am seriously concerned that the quality of our youth is not developing properly. We are already starting to see worrying signs of regression from Rivers, McVee, Sparrow, and Windsor. These were supposed to be the backbone of the next generation to achieve lasting success, but these players already a shadow of themselves. I don't want to think about what this could mean for Langford and Lindsay. Maybe this team can achieve the ultimate again before Max, May, Viney, Lever and others have to inevitably hang up the boots, but we need something drastic to change to get there and the team isn't changing at the moment. Perhaps on the lighter side, although I love the pod, I have been frustrated for a few weeks about the disposal quality question. I have heard the panel tell us that Langford, Lindsay, Bowey, McVee, Pickett, Melksham, and VanRooyen all as great/elite kicks. By my count that's 7 players. Is this really true? Who are the actual really great kicks on the team?

Here we are again, forward 50 efficiency and accuracy costing us games. Still. For a problem that was clear in 2022, why should the supporters and members (let alone some of the playing group) put up with this? We are also SEVEN POINTS PER GAME behind our expected score, well and truly last in the league. And yet, does anything change? Sitting here yet again trying to support a club that apparently doesn't seem to actually have the ability to improve whether through lack of skill or lack or gutsy decision-making is mind-numbing. There are players on this team good enough to be one of the best teams to ever play. The supporters believe that, I believe that. So why does this team continue to achieve mediocrity? Surely there are people out there that can improve this team and want to improve this team. I see nothing from the club's board and staff that makes me believe it has any interest in doing so. Where is our President? Where is our new CEO? Nowhere to be found, accepting the lack of change in fortunes of this team. As far as umpiring goes, why doesn't the club have the guts to have a dig at the AFL for allowing this standard? Yes there are likely fines involved, but it would show the club that yeah we care enough about this to make noise and spend some money on it. Is there any form of protest or comment that the club can make that would show that a lot of the smaller clubs have had enough of the quality of umpiring and the AFL must make plans to improve? We should make the AFL address it, change the storyline to being about the AFL's mismanagement of its own game.

Rant incoming… I am sick to death of this team losing winnable footy games in this way. It has been too many years. And the club has not fixed the problem. We currently sit last in the league in 2025 for accuracy and goals per inside 50 by a full percentage point for each. We have not been above average in either category since 2021. Goodwin and the coaching staff acknowledge it’s a problem but there’s no improvement! Maybe kicking technique can’t be improved in the AFL, then we should have moved players on and recruited better ones. What are the coaches doing if they’re not improving skills anyway? The coaches do selection. Would JVR have benefitted from a game against WC last week instead of a week off after kicking 5 at Casey? Would one of our most accurate forwards this year in Turner been better off in the forward line rather than spending 100% game time in defence? Maybe practising at Gosch’s and Casey means our forwards aren’t used to kicking with a grandstand behind the goals? Get some time at Junction Oval or any other ground with a grandstand. The club, as a whole, cannot continue to accept this. The words of Goodwin indicate that he doesn’t accept it, but the actions of his charges tell a different tune. It stinks of a club that is content with mediocrity and I’m fed up. The supporters and members must ensure that the leadership does its jobs and leads the club with diligence and a drive for success.

This one really felt like it was lost on Thursday. The selection integrity just doesn’t seem to be there. We’ve lost disposal and tackles 2 weeks in a row. Last week’s individual tackle counts: May Rivers Spargo 0 Petracca Langford Fritsch Windsor Henderson Petty 1 Melksham Chandler Sharp 2 That’s almost half the team with 2 or fewer tackles. None of those players were dropped. Tackling doesn’t require skill, just effort. Yet the selection committee selected all of those players again. The only one dropped was Turner with 3 tackles and a goal. This week’s tackle counts: Petty Sharp Lindsay Henderson 0 Langdon Pickett Spargo May 1 Gawn Salem Bowey Melksham Sparrow van Rooyen McDonald Windsor 2. That’s two-thirds of the team with 2 or fewer tackles. Will the selection committee make a statement this week and actually drop some players that aren’t putting the effort in? —-————— Curiously, over the last 10 games, we are third in total pressure acts (289.6) but seventeeth in tackles (53.1). What does the panel think is causing that? Can we assume that our opponents know this so they are happy to invite pressure because the isn’t significant downside?

Obviously lots of problems from the game, but there are positives. Langford looks really good in only his second full AFL game. Turner did some nice things. Chin was great, our most consistent player at the moment. McDonald did well too. Most of all, I can finally see the game plan coming together. Does the panel agree? There are three key problems as I see them: Skill errors going forward giving the opposition time to get back and cover. Forwards (especially Roo) playing from behind and running away from the player with the ball. Tackling technique kept resulting in fast breaks to the cats. These all undermine the trust the players have in one another, which leads to space on the outside for the opposition. Technique and forward tactics have long been big problems for us. I think the reason there are so many calls for Goody to go are because they remain unfixed. How else can these problems be fixed sooner than turning over 40-50% of the list (which could take 4-5 years)?

Something is clearly very wrong behind the scenes. The senior players seem disinterested at best on game days. What’s the cause of this? Coaching? Players? Positioning? Game plan? Does the panel know if things are different on the training track? I recall the early word from the track watchers last year was that energy, talk and spirits were high. Has that changed? Moreover, is the Club going to do something about this before season’s end?