The Taciturn Demon

I think it's the role she's playing at the moment. Just not sure she has the speed or polish to make a difference at the moment. One thing I think Melbourne does pretty well in the women's programme is develop players and help them improve. I hope they can do this with Pisano.

Freud would say you meant Lever.

I can see Rivers being frustrated by his lack of midfield time this year. But I'd be astounded if the club entertained a trade.

I'm going out of pure obligation. I know it's going to be dire.

Probably not relevant, but Taylor and Buckley (as coach) would have crossed paths at Collingwood.

Reminds me a bit of Brad Hill many years ago. A smooth-moving, skilful winger? Yes please. For HOW much? No thanks.

OK. Now I want Buckley.

Absolutely wild. I know a million isn't the top-one-percent marker it once was, but it's still a huge amount. More than five percent of the total salary limit on a single medium forward who averages 1.3 goals a game! What?

I reckon you've nailed it. There seems to be a prevailing attitude on this site that he's just not a very good footballer. I disagree. Although I can see there's a chance the constant stop-gapping has held him back and that, even if he does return to defence, he won't be the player he was. But I'm more hopeful. Yes, he played his best footy when May and Lever were at their absolute peak. But I think he can develop a strong partnership with Turner and perhaps Adams. Amidst all my negativity about the future, Turner and Petty as long-term defensive partner (and Kossie and Langford as centre bounce midfield partners) give me hope. I like van Rooyen. I want him to succeed, but as someone else put it recently (sorry for forgetting your handle), he has a very hard ceiling. We need to find a genuine number one KPF as soon as we can and stop the wishful thinking about band aids and swingmen.

Coaches' votes: 10 Tyla Hanks MELB 8 Olivia Purcell MELB 6 Shelley Heath MELB 2 Eliza McNamara MELB 2 Kate Hore MELB 1 Sarah Lampard MELB 1 Britney Gutknecht WB

Oh, that's interesting. I could have sworn I heard (from someone vaguely reliable) that the facilities had dropped below the AFL average. Thanks for the clarification.

I have no doubt distance has an effect. But I suspect players and staff can tolerate a long drive if the facilities are good. I remember when we created the agreement with Casey, one of the oft-repeated pros was that our facilities would go from the worst in the league to some of the best. Not sure if that was still the case in 2014, but I suspect they weren't comparatively terrible. It sounds like they may be now.

What do you mean by everything else?

I could easily be imagining this, but didn't Oliver go through a similar shift five or six years ago? I remember (possibly in full Mandela Effect mode) the media and supporters talking about him going from very promising young insider to potential champion thanks to his bursting run and link play.

Good lord. Are you saying this whole thing isn't a bit?

One of the most wonderful parts of winning the whole thing in '21 was being able to dispense with old ideas and superstitions. I realised, "Oh, we're not fundamentally, culturally incapable. There's no wide conspiracy against us. I don't need to delude myself into believing we routinely lose because of umpires. We don't need to accept that slightly above average is about as good as it gets." In part, we have Goodwin to thank for this. He allowed us - or at least me - to raise my expectations of the Melbourne Football Club. "At least we made finals" and "we broke even for one/two/three quarters", which have always seemed like tepid acceptance of mediocrity, now seemed ludicrous. They still do. I don't lament Goodwin's sacking because I no longer think two consecutive straight sets finals exits and two consecutive finishes in the bottom five finishes is "just what you have to accept from this club". I don't see kicking a few goals in the last quarter against a team that has absolutely pantsed us as something to hang our hat on. I don't see "transitioning" as a reason for losing by ten goals against North Melbourne. I don't see shocking inconsistency as something to be waved away. Goodwin and his team made these higher expectations possible. I'll apply them to the new coach as well.

Hanks Heath Purcell Chaplin Mahony Hore

Is the logical conclusion, then, that you never change a coach?

I'd go a step further and say definitely could not have happened under Goodwin.

I think he's gone, but he's making a decent late run, isn't he?

Miles off. I thought we were a fair way off at the start of this year. I could see a narrow path to sneaking into the eight. Now that seems absurdly over-optimistic. Our top paid and once best players (minus Max) are either horribly out of form or over the edge of respective career cliffs. (I've admired the way Petracca has returned from his awful inury, but his last few weeks have been so deflating.) We've lost any semblance of consistency and our period as the most difficult-to-play-against team in the comp seems like a fever dream. We get thrashed by the best teams. We get thrashed by the mediocre teams. And we get thrashed by the stragglers. The team with the worst list in the competition beat us by breaking one of the most unlikely records in the book. We've lost important second-tier players and have resolutely kept playing third-tier players who don't make us better in any meaningful way. Our overall kicking skills remain the worst in the league or very close to it. Yes, we have some beauties under the age of 20. So does just about every other team. I love Paul Roos, but if we win the Flag next year it will make Leicester City 2016 seem unremarkable.

If we make finals next year it would be an absolute miracle. It would be one of the great football department performances of the last 20 years.

Exactly. Everything about his public statements suggest to me he'd prefer not to be in the job. Or at the very least he finds aspects of it extremely difficult. If he revels in the 'power' of the position, he does an extraordinary job of hiding it. And, also, what does he stand to gain out of some weird little power play to squeeze a couple more months out of his tenure?

And we don't have one of the best home ground advantages in the country.