Go Ds

Indeed. Maybe some on the board expected a top four finish. But our flag odds and to some extent those 5 debutants contradict this.

Can you refresh my memory who was so confident of our prospects this year? We were probably 30 to 1 in March. I know on here some of us were quietly confident. But lots weren't even that! Then we broke some record with five debutants in round 1! Two of those had barely had a month as official players yet still our selectors chose them over our flag-ready warriors?

I sure hope the board didn't rely on speculation like that!

If the thought hadn't crossed his mind he would have never said he had the backing of the board. Could you imagine Fagan or McRae saying that? What's comical? Persevering a little longer with a coach who broke one of the longest ever droughts less than four years ago and who hadn't lost the players?

Since Brett Ratten Carlton up to Voss had 4 coaches none lasting more than 3 and a half years. I'm sure those 4 coaches in 8 years has been detrimental to Carlton's progress. IMHO you want stability and long-term coaches. At least Carlton realised this. (Melbourne maybe not)

Yep, it's all about results. Unfortunately it's too much so. You could hypothetically have a team lose 16 games by under a goal - week after week where just one bounce, dropped mark, missed 'sitter' goal or opposition fluke goal, injury, wind change etc etc - and despite ending the year with 6 or 7 wins and those 16 losses and percentage of 130 they start the next year under pressure. That same team may have been the 2nd best too. I'm not gonna claim I know where our team's at and how likely much at the current flaws can get fixed or lessened. But IF we really are not that far off it's incredibly wrong to remove our only living premiership coach for an unknown quantity. The silly thing is if things really fall apart for the next few years the general public will never know that we had actually been painfully close to Goody getting that 2026/2027 flag.

2 of the most important ones have been quite compromised for a year plus. It's disingenuous to leave this out. And correct me if I'm wrong there's not much Goody could have done to prevent Oliver and Tracy's plights.

I saw a Facebook post on Monday from a bookie offering 200-1 that Collingwood miss the finals! Something like 14 or 15 different things have to happen for this marvelous dream to eventuate.

Damn! I wanted more bang for my.... Buckley!

Boosting team morale won't help a team win a game?!!

You should have told him it was only ... for fans. 🤣

Jerry Seinfeld's what-the-deal-about spiel about sports fans was that ultimately we support laundry.... we love Howe, then he plays in a Collingwood jumper and we hate him. We get Grundy ... or perhaps Mihocek ... and that fresh new Melbourne jumper means now we love him. Go back many decades ago and Catholic and Protestant schoolboys would throw rocks at each other and marrying someone from the 'other' religion well, you'd think twice .... and I'm talking about here in Australia. This all seems as frivolous. While I love AFL fans booing and hissing at pantomime-like villains I really don't care about Buckley's past clubs. I sure hope the current grumbles are in jest. BTW is Barassi our last official coach to have actually played for us? It never bothered me that the coaches since came from 'enemy territory'.

Yep, assuming they'd get their man would have been stupid. Just imagine if Buckley, Longmire, Simpson and the most promising assistant coaches all genuinely and categorically had stated they weren't interested and we ended up with a dud (and thread on here soon after about it) ...we'd be getting back to circa 2013.

How sad! If we get Buckley it would be "he never won a flag (and maybe he was out of coaching too long or that McRae did way better with apparently the same team). If we got Simpson or Horse it'd be how their sides ended up dreadful ( or just dreadful in GFs) Just about anyone else it would "we should have got an experienced coach ...or stuck with Goody." It's so easy to whinge.

Yep, there's often plenty of upside. Often the surprise premiers (who were not in the market in March) in hindsight had all sorts of little hints for improvement the year before. Of course even Roos and the naysayer journos are in the dark really about a lot of where the Dees are actually at. But I'm glad Roos has some confidence and , quite simply, it's too easy to get stuck on our current ladder position or much-mentoined flaws and forget change can be possible.

In late breaking news Maynard to hang up his boots and become Melbourne's assistant coach. 🤣🤣🤣

Conversely footy journos and commentators saying we can't doesn't make that true either.

I don't think that was the angle he was taking :)

I just saw Paul Roos saying we can win the flag next year. He said we still have lots of premiership players, are nowhere near as bad as many claim and cited Chris Scott, MacRae and Longmire doing similar(!) Roos declares Melbourne 'could win a flag next year' amid...Melbourne currently has no senior coach and sits 13th on the ladder, but Paul Roos believes the club could have a quick turnaround next season.(I saw this on Facebook and it was on something like the ABC Sport page.)

Petracca almost lost his life last year. Perhaps that's an exaggeration but if he believes it surely that'll affect his on-field confidence. Also if players are meant to be in peak physical condition wouldn't a month or two of being an invalid affect that? He may improve a lot next year. Fingers crossed

In 2021 in close games (margin 12 or fewer points) we were 4-2 and a draw. When the margin was 7-12 it was 3-1. Since then for games 1-6 margin we're 6-12 and for games with a margin 7-12 we're 5-7 (and all games under 13 points we're 11-19) This year in the 2 goal or fewer points margin games we're 2-5. If I'm not mistaken we lost our last 3 of these games in '24 so that's 2-8 since midJune last year! I am so f****** sick of the close losses!

In 2021 in close games (margin 12 or fewer points) we were 4-2 and a draw. When the margin was 7-12 it was 3-1. Since then for games 1-6 margin we're 6-12 and for games with a margin 7-12 we're 5-7 (and all games under 13 points we're 11-19) This year in the 2 goal or fewer points margin games we're 2-5. If I'm not mistaken we lost our last 3 of these games in '24 so that's 2-8 since midJune last year! I am so f****** sick of the close losses! (The new format is infuriating! Somehow I clicked on the wrong link....again)

@Demons11 It's so hard to win flags. While a close loss isn't quite the same as a GF win I doubt an ordinary coach gets that close.

He may be nervous at his 'next' GF. But would the players be? If say 10 from '21 play in this their experiences will probably well and truly nullify Longmires individual...demons

Can a player use being sub as an excuse? I think partly yes BUT even factoring time on ground does he ever look at home in the seniors? I'm happy to be corrected but it always feels like he averages but a few disposals only per quarter (despite fresh legs!)