middleagedemon

Seems the club have employed a work experience kid for socials! Good to have lingers hanging around though.

Robertson has some attributes, but class ain't one of them. Which is why he's playing twos.

Houston is not worth two first round picks under any circumstances and there's no world I can see us giving two up unless we're planning on completely compromising our ability to regenerate our list before draft picks are taken by Tassie. It would be utter lunacy. Also, that champion data stat is pointless. We all know hes not the fourth best player in the comp. In fact, there are a handful of half backs I'd take ahead of him.

Love the look of him. Hopefully slides to 6!

One more thing I'd like to add on this Goodwin thread. The other day, a mate sent me a snapshot of a Facebook comment a lady made from an article about the dees. She ripped into Goodwin after one of our putrid losses. The comment got a few likes and one like in particular was from one of Petracca's brothers. I think it's interesting that Trac's brother would 'like' a public Facebook comment defaming Goodwin knowing full well Melbourne supporters would be reading the comments of this particular post and see that he 'liked' it.. People may brush that aside, but I have wondered for a while now whether Goodwin still has the players on his side given some of the performances we've dished up. Makes you wonder.

Of all excuses used for this season's flop, the absence of Gus and the news of him not doing well would be the most legitimate in my view. Especially for his close mates at the club in Gawn and even Clayton. And I hope they can all reset over the off-season and maybe Gus will then be okay to come in a resume a role at the club.

It's the classic goal-post shifting that is the more hilarious thing from Binman and the like. It's now fatigue apparently!!! Fatigue! I mean, give us a break! How did fatigue go for us when we managed to peg GWS back in that last quarter? Was it fatigue in the first quarter alone against the Bulldogs? How are we measuring this exactly? You can't take that bunch seriously because there'll be an excuse that becomes 'The Reason' for our failings for that given season. Which is utterly ridiculous given these are commonalities ALL teams go through and just covers over underlying issues that have existed for too long. Injury and fatigue hey. Wow. How you measure these as a supporter depends entirely on what level of bias one holds for their team. For Binman and co, the dees always seem to be victim of such cruelties, more so than any other side in the AFL! That's because this particular group of dlanders have held the long-standing and unequivocal belief that we are the best team in it, we have undoubtedly the best game-plan and the most talented list. If you vehemently believe the above to be true, you're no doubt going to throw up one or two excuses as 'The Reason' for a failed season. Which is exactly what this crew have done since the 2022 finals campaign, all the while completely ignoring a set of underlying issues that have plagued us even throughout our 2021 home and away year. Along with the obvious disadvantages that all teams face every year, why don't we look at some of the contributing factors that have remained with us as a side for far too long now. And are the reason that all supporters get so frustrated with Goodwin. 1: Jackson replacement/genuine Gawn support. Why is it that Goodwin defenders cannot seem to handle criticism of the failings in this area? It's been a significant fail given the way we have relied on him and provided next to no support. If dlanders are happy to throw up the injury excuse when he's out or when 'carrying' injury, how do you not point the finger at Goodwin and co for providing no support in a game where injury is bound to happen to anyone at any time? Especially so when part of your game-plan has been built around Max Gawn. 2: Midfield balance/attribute diversity I've banged on about this for I don't know how many years and it has plagued us in just about every game in which a team brings heat to our midfield. How much longer will it continue? Look no further than the first possession that we had on Friday night against the Dogs. Viney racing for a ball in dispute, gets to it and has two free Melbourne players if he manages to hook a dominant hand handball over his right shoulder. But no, he sees red, handballs blindly forward straight to a doggies player who takes possession. That kind of play is emblematic of our entire midfield unit when any serious heat is applied. And it happened all night. We have a contested heavy, ball winning heavy midfield unit who all lack in the same area when under pressure. Composure and disposal. It is that simple. We win the ball in tight and give it up almost immediately when the heat is applied. And every single side that have a half decent midfield know this when they play us. As the game goes on, the more desperate our mids become to win a clearance/contest and the more we swarm to the same ball and man with ball, in part because these mids have been 'ball winning' players since they were kids and desperation kicks in. The commentary around our lack of pace/run and the 'fatigue' comments are actually by-products of what is happening in close. We give the ball up that easily when heat is applied, it makes the opposition look quicker, fitter and like they have more players on the ground. When opposition half-backs could see the standard set by their mids on fri night, they knew they could have a field day by rolling the dice and streaming off their men, getting that call right the majority of the night due to how easily we were giving the ball up in close if we were getting our hands on it. (Which for much of the night we weren't even doing). So then it's two fold. You've got oppo half-backs playing their own game of footy as their mids are just consistently either winning first possession themselves and handballing out of congestion and then to running half backs, or they knew if we were to get first possession, we'd likely cough it up thanks to the the heat their team mates were applying in close and our lack of composure and disposal came to the fore. When the dogs bring heat like that, they look a million bucks because they are one of a few clubs who have mids who excel at feeding a ball out of a contest with a quick, smart handball under pressure. Libba and Bont specifically are specialists at this. Even Treloar has better hands in close than most if not all our mids. Now, clearance altogether has two parts to it. The one I listed above and the second being our actual setup at both centre bounce and stoppage. Both our positioning and lack of connectedness with Gawn has been wildly inconsistent for too long. Another issue that Binman and his brigade seem to ignore when they say things like, 'oh well, we don't place a premium on clearances anyway'. How about nah. Clearance gives you complete ascendency if you get it right. End of the third Q grand final? 3: Forward setup/personnel. Again. How long? Let's go back to last year's finals and those who basically said inaccuracy cost us the flag. That might be so, but that has been in part down to game-plan and personnel. And inaccuracy has cost us in plenty of other games over the last few years. I'm not sure what Goodwin expects when he plays two key defenders as key forwards and one young kid who is still learning how to be a forward at AFL level. (JVR played a lot of defence as an under-aged kid and I don't classify him as a classical key forward). Our inability to land one has been telling. We have a make-shift forward line that consistently looks like a dogs breakfast with little to no predictability in the way it moves. At the very least, Ben Brown was a straight line ball leader, which created vacuums of space for specialist forwards like Fritsch or Kosi to creep into. Goodwin has seemed happy to continue to play 'competitors' which means our kids are again happy to bomb away into the forward 50 with little to no intentionality. This problem also goes hand-in-hand with our midfield issue which I highlighted above. We have average ball user through our midfield when under no pressure and they're poor when under pressure. So, what will it take for us to land a specialist forwards assistant coach and perhaps a complete re-think of the type of players we want to have inside 50? Are we prepared to continue to play Fritsch when the ball isn't perfect for him given his complete disinterest in competing defensively? Another factor in why opposition teams waltz the ball out of our defence. Opposition defenders completely exploit that part of Fritsch's game. Do people notice this? When will Goody hold him to account? I won't hold my breath given the myriad of issues we have in our forwardline anyway. Ben Brown at full fitness is what this team misses more than supporters give credit for and we need to bring in another player of that type pronto. So, whilst I'm not in the 'sack Goody' camp. I certainly think that he's done this team no favours in the last few years and if he is not to blame, who we blaming? The umpires? Injury? Fitness? How about no. Those things will be there every year, period. Sure Petracca has been a missive loss. But that's even more telling! If a team is that reliant on one player, there are some serious underlying issues. And just so it's clear, I'm no doomsdayer. I believe we can rectify, recalibrate and go again whilst we still have some key pillars. But we need to absolutely nail this off-season and nail the pre-season and actually fix some of these underlying issues that have existed for far too long. If not, it will indeed be a wasted era.

Should be a cracker podcast with binman bringing us some stats to back his position that we're on the right path, our heavy loading phase is actually right now rather than middle of the season now, clearance isn't an issue and we're still on track! No need to worry everyone!

Controversial but I'd like to see what Bowey could do as a small forward going into next year. Alongside koz.

Probably true.

Thanks for the welcome, I must admit it has been comical to see that the username has stuck for this long! As per the norm, I'm happy to disagree about Houston's kicking so I'll leave it there. I'd like to see McVee have a crack on ball but I just don't see it happening because Goody. And as for Trac and Rivers, I think we'll see a split again with forward and mid. He's too valuable around the ball to be mainly playing forward. But I guess we'll see. Either way, I think this off-season will be remembered as one of the most important for us given the state of our ageing stars and I'm intrigued to know what kind of moves we pull to ensure their longevity. Especially Max's.

Second-rounder at best. His body has continued to let him down which has seen him underperform since '21. I still think he'd be a game changer for us if he was able to bullet-proof his body and have consecutive uninterrupted full seasons.

Top 6 pick here we come. The way we're playing, I can't see a win coming from our last four games. I would have hoped against a depleted Collingwood, but we seem to have nightmares thinking about playing them and the game is over in our heads before we even take to the field. A good thing long-term, with some welcome changes on the horizon. Would love for us to work our way into obtaining two picks inside 10 this year.

I miss him too.

I understand the need for foot skills through our midfield, but foot skills is not Houston, I can assure you. Houston is a long and penetrative kick, like Rivers. He is not in the McVee mould of kicking or vision. He has really average speed and agility and has had one year considered elite where he finished AA as a half back, not midfielder. I genuinely sense that posters have confused us going for him as a mid as opposed to a half back replacement for Rivers. If Riv replacement scenario was true, it'd make more sense, but I'm still ultimately confused at the link. Houston's traits do not give us anything we don't have in our midfield. I implore posters to watch even some highlights videos of him to get a glimpse. The link is bizarro. And as for the two first rounders to get it done hahaha. That's Sam Landsberg (whatever his name is), on yet another pointless footy show talking hypotheticals and thinks that's what it'd take to get him out. Which it probably would given he's under contract for something like four yearssss!! The whole thing is just so typical of AFL media. Pick something up that is more than likely utter nonsense, run with it, talk hypotheticals. Next thing you know, dee's are giving up two first rounders for a half back that has had one elite year in the position. Hilarious! As for who I am. That remains a secret... (yes, it's me. I'll play nice this time).

Been a shining light in a rocky year, the player I'm most excited about going forward. Put him on ice, forget round 24. He's been enormous for us. Give Windsor and Kolt a pre-season under Trac's wing and they'll have a big say in what our season could look like next year.

The Houston links I just can't understand. He's on a 3-4 year deal isn't he? And we're thinking we'll prize him out by offering what kind of draft capital? It just screams like a desperate Essendon or Carlton move a few years back when they were convinced they were flag fancies. Isaac Cumming I completely understand, he's a RFA. But honestly, does anyone in their right mind believe we are going to make a big play to 2.0 version of Christian Salem who is under contract? It would murder our list management. I liked @BScotti's post and thought they identified some key areas that have hit us really hard and we've still not worked it out. The Jackson role replacement is paramount for an ageing Max I'm and I hate the idea of using any of JVR, Disco or Petty in that secondary role. I think it's lunacy throwing Van Rooyen into the ruck given the risks involved and what it takes away from our forwardline. Ben Brown's absence from our forwardline takes so much away from us also. Not necessarily on output, but he was a master of forwardcraft, his leading patterns were so good and that allowed for everyone's roles to be easier. We've not looked the same in that space since his demise. Who we find as a Jackson replacement is another thing altogether given the lack of options. But if we're going to prize anyone out under contract, it should be a Jackson replacement. Rowan Marshall for instance. Not a half-back flanker who has had one elite year. Christ. It's an issue for sure, especially with Max ageing. I still think we absolutely fluffed the Grundy expiriment and were far too quick to throw it out. I'd have thought it would take a bit longer than a handful of games together to build some synergy and for each to impact in different ways. If only Goody was as stubborn on sticking with it as he is on so many other things. I find it so interesting that Goody has been happy to persist with two key defenders playing as key forwards for more than a season but threw out the Grundy/Gawn pairing after a handful of games. It's just wild. Is it any wonder why we've continued to have forwardline functioning and innacuracy issues whilst having Turner and Petty play forward? No. At least the Gawn/Grundy situation gave us ascendency in other areas, even if one of them struggled up forward. And who knows what could have happened after more than a season of them playing together. So bizarre. Our midfield is clearly lacking one more creative speedy distributor. And given the talk of how strong this draft is regarding midfield talent, I think it'd be an opportunity missed if we weren't to trade a future first and nail two top mids of this draft. (this is if an opportunity doesn't present itself to prize out a forward/ruck from a club using a pick). We can correct over the off-season and I hope we do. Because of the coaching staff believe that we will be challenging again next year without addressing a forward/ruck, addressing our forwardline in general and our midfield, we will be left behind very quickly.

We miss him so much more than I thought we would.. Gaping hole, spiritually as well as his on-field stuff.

You said the difference between winning and losing came down to GWS's best players ability to perform across four quarters didn't you? Insinuating that we didn't. And then you proceeded to explain why. Which was fatigue and inexperience to Gawn, Oliver and Rivers.

As always, incredibly insightful Drysdale. Do you actually have an opinion on anything? Or are you incapable of having one? Sure seems like the latter.

Well observed, I was similarly in disbelief in that last quarter at how many clearances they won. Can't all be fatigue given we've been repeat offenders in that space this year. With Gawn in the side as well as Petracca and Oliver we've had games we're we've been comprehensively beaten at clearance. It's an issue that needs serious work in the off-season. Personally I think we need to become far more creative in how we utilise Gawn's strengths going forward and I think seeing him in less centre-bounces will be a good thing. We just need to find the right forward/ruck who can play in tandem with him and they need to stick at it.

Christ almighty the excusing around here is gold to listen to. Do you think that every year we don't win a game of footy it's because of injury/umpires/the wind suddenly changed direction?

Well said. To be clear, I think it's an important factor, clearly not the only one. And I appreciate the complexities involved within a coaching group and their relationship with a list. I can't help but feel the group needs another McCartney type of figurehead at the club. And one more brainiac/strategist to take our forwardline. But what do I know.

Of course we should have a look and I think we're at a stage where our list is crying out for some fresh voices, faces and ideas. New coaches in an AFL environment breathe new energy and are generally a catalyst for renewed notivation and individual growth across a playing list. I think it's one of the most important factors going into next year for us and I think that is absolutely clear from looking at our performances this year.

It's not tanking. Tanking has a specific definition. I'm saying I'd rather finish outside the 8 and I think we'd be better off for it.