William

On membership: I have been a long-time member and pay for the Trident’s category - so not cheap. I have been to all the games in Melbourne for years and many games in other states. I would also think that I would be one of the most travelled supporters who has laid out more than most in terms time and money to attend games given I live in NSW and fly to the games in Melbourne each week. So I don’t expect anyone would be able to doubt my commitment to the club. However, I decided today that I can’t be bothered going next Sunday to Marvel (a ground that I dislike and where my reserved seat lapses under my home and away membership). I kept going through the decades of bad years - faithfully. Someone once asked me why I kept turning up when the team loses so by so much so often. I replied: “There is an aesthetic in the struggle” - and that was my approach. I would, of course, regularly interrogate myself to wonder why supporting a team is so irrational (especially in the context of the MFC). My father supported MFC so I did - a child’s commitment. What is the adult logic in that? I have never successfully answered that question to my own liking. It is what it is, as they say. At any rate, I am done for the time being. I am sick of the nonsense that the coach pumps out in his weekly media appearances. It is frankly insulting. It is not about getting ‘value for money’. It is about not being part of a scam and the way the coach smoothly shifts between ‘learnings’, ‘it is not about winning’, ‘we are building something’, ‘the game plan is about to be understood’ and all the rest of the corporatised nonsense he gets from some management training seminars or wherever just insults the intellect of the membership. The lack of response from the senior management who seem to cosy up and enjoy the wine and food on game days but refuse to publicly take responsibility. It is ludicrous that we have an interim leadership who cannot do anything because we are waiting for the real leadership to arrive - when we are in the throes of a football season where key decisions are required and we are performing so intolerably. So I have decided to not go this weekend and save the travel time and dollars and my happiness. There is no aesthetic in being scammed by the club any longer. When October comes up, I will review my long-term membership status - currently I am doubtful I will continue if the senior coach is still there at the head of the scam.

The question for me is: are we on an improving trajectory or not? All the talk of the lag before the so-called ‘new game plan’ starts working etc can only go so far. Eventually, the team has to be evaluated for trajectory. The answer is clear: our trajectory is downwards and has been for some years. Whatever the reason, in any institution or organisation the top leadership has to take responsibility - that is why they are paid so much over the odds. There are lots of overpaid senior players as well who appear to be on a downward trajectory and others like JVR who are simply not up to the task. I saw an article this week that analysed the shift away from contested strategies at the centre to a new ‘outside’ dynamic. MFC is still trying to reinvent itself with the former and the players who excelled in the past with that strategy are not suited to the new way. I would terminate the senior coach (nicely) this morning.

Yes, the senior coach must miss seeing JVR wandering around aimless, out of position and when he accidentally gets near the ball he drops the mark. Good selection I reckon. As bad as bringing Lever in and persisting with Viney. If only Spargo came in too - then it would be near perfection (-:

I wonder what the proportions are on Demonland for Goodwin to go or stay. There is also a lot of posts about the membership falling away again, which appears to have an empirical basis. Certainly home game attendances this year so far are down from 2023 (average 40,335 compared to 48,974) or around 17.6 per cent, although, interestingly, if you had have asked me for a rough off-the-top of the head estimate based on sitting each game in the Olympic stand this year I would have predicted the fall off was greater. Demonland is a sort of echo chamber though and the threats to abandon memberships etc are hollow unless the Administration and the Board, who make the decisions actually fear there is a trend that has to be dealt with. Perhaps those who have had enough and actually want to see the coach gone and a major shakeup should ensure that message is transmitted to the decision-makers. Petition via Change.org or something like that would be the way, which would also get press coverage - in other words a grass roots uprising. But, of course, like all activist campaigns, one has to be sure before one starts that the numbers are there. Otherwise, the end result tends to be the opposite of what was intended. It goes back to proportions and what people are willing to do to exercise change. I have been reading a lot about the nouveau group in Japan in the 1960s (as an academic exercise) who wanted to overthrow the establishment and fracture the US domination of the constitutional machinery after the War. They splintered badly because despite opposing the establishment they adopted the habits of the same in their personal lives and propensities.

Well one good thing today is that the sun has come out shining in Victoria and we didn’t have to waste time going to and from the game. I predicted we would be a bottom 4 team this year and that is proving to be accurate. So the level of disappointment is not as much as it might be. Coach should resign. Planning to move various players on in one way or another should be articulated.

Sure, did you see JVR this morning? Barely up to VFL (reserves) standard much less AFL seniors. The only thing I would say is that he wouldn’t be offering his usual liability if he was playing in the seniors today because the ball has barely gone into our forward 50.

Sorry, Carlton are better, which tells us all.

Except the Port player is mobile, knows where to be to get the ball, and can take a mark or two.

I am not a big fan of H. Petty but the decision to drop JVR is way too late. He has become a liability and shows no forward skill at all. Hopefully he will not be recalled. I would also have dropped Viney - he is out of his depth now and has become a liability. Lever is overrated these days and it is good to see him out. We will now get to see what MJ can do and it is not before time.

The senior coach ultimately has to take responsibility for sustained poor performance. Yes, the coach doesn’t manipulate the ball on the field but that person designs the strategy, oversees the coaching of that strategy, and picks the team that is intended to implement the strategy. Hats off to our coach for identifying major problems like forward connection etc. But then it was not as if these were not visible to all, accredited senior coaches and the rest of us. The problem though has been repetitive. Remember Einstein’s Parable of Quantum Insanity (Google if you cannot remember it). So the repetition then marks him badly. Either: The strategy is flawed - possibly. The coaching of the strategy is flawed - possibly. The players selected to implement the strategy are flawed - definitely. All of which come back to the senior coach and some of it (point 3) comes back to a shared responsibility between coach and recruiters. Either way, the senior coach is responsible. He keep persisting with players that do the same things. Viney has consumed his own kool aid - thinking he is a brute force tank and does silly things repetitively. Why is he selected every week when he keeps kicking to the opposition? Spargo is slow and cannot kick it far enough. He does tackle but that isn’t enough. Petty is not a forward and should be in defence although his speed is a concern. JVR is neither a forward or a ruck - he is a major liability in the forward line. I know all the arguments - youth, confidence, etc - but they do not explain his running patterns each week and his failure to mark. Look at Sam Darcy - similar age, games etc - he is a forward. Some say don’t play him in the ruck so he can concentrate on being a forward. For most of the last 20 or 25 games that has been the case and his performance has been dismal. Why keep selecting him? Windsor - being wrecked by pushing him out of position. I could go on. We really haven’t been in contention since 2023 and even then. So why has the senior coach insisted on trying some of the contenders that we have acquired from the draft? For all those reasons, and some more, 9 years is enough and a dignified exit should be encouraged by the MFC management. The costs of inaction will be continued mediocrity, lost memberships, lost sponsors, and a dismal period for those who stay loyal to the red and blue.

Sure. Two dropped marks as a KPF cost us goals in the second quarter. Normal service resumed.

We 'persevered' with him for 5 rounds at the start of the season and his performance was, frankly, embarrassing. It matched some of the poor showings last year. His game last Monday was similarly poor - looking lost, never being where the ball was to have an impact on the scoreboard as a forward, and unable to cause any turmoil in the packs (much less take a contested mark). So what do you expect to happen in the next 3-4 weeks? I predict just more folly and the liability will continue.

What an extended run around the places on the ground where he has no impact, no scoring chance and just looks lost all the time? That is a strange concept of ‘worth’. At some point, MFC supporters will concur that JVR is not a viable AFL prospect in his present incarnation as a forward. Perhaps he could make it as a defender but I doubt it given his immobility and his lack of marking ability. As a forward though he doesn’t contribute and we have had plenty of sample observations over the last 18 months of that fact. Give some of the other prospects a chance to show what they have to offer is a more ‘worthwhile’ strategy IMHO at this stage of the ‘lost’ season and add JVR to the trade list.

I am good friends with an ex StKilda player and we usually see each other early Monday mornings in the Virgin lounge as we catch the early flights to our different work destinations for the week. We obviously talk football a bit. The topic of MFC's terrible kicking came up and his conjecture is that all the players are in states of exhaustion at the time of kicking for goal because the game has sped up so much to when he played. Then why is MFC worse and he thought that other sides were just fitter. Several testable hypotheses immediately emerge and being that way inclined I sought out some data. Here is a graph that is quite interesting because it puts to bed several possible hypotheses. It is the Goal/Behind Ratio from 1980 to the start of this week's round. It is calculated by dividing the total goals of sides each season by the total number of points. The Total net of MFC, just takes Melbourne's goals and behinds out of the overall aggregate. The MFC ratio is that pertaining only to Melbourne since 1980. The use of a ratio means that the length of the season, number of teams and other variations (like Covid-19) don't really influence the trend. So: 1. Goal kicking accuracy overall improved then flatten out and since 2018 has been slightly improving - which negates on face value my friend's tiredness conjecture. The game has become faster over the course of this time series. 2. The variability of MFC's ratio would be replicated if I did the same analysis for other teams individually. The smoothness of the aggregate is just because some teams are better than others. 3. Since 2018 and up until this year, MFC was broadly tracking the aggregate, which puts to paid the idea that we have become worse over this period. It doesn't however negate the conjecture that for key games poor kicking has cost us winning - like some of the finals in 2022 and 2023. But over the season, our kicking accuracy has been broadly in line with the rest of the competition and improving. 4. This season something dramatic has happened at MFC that is not being replicated in the overall competition. MFC has dropped to its lowest ratio for this 45-year time span - down to 1.02, which means we are kicking as many points as goals. The ratio in 2025 to date for the rest is 1.42. MFCs average between 1980 and 2025 (to date) has been 1.36. So while I don't think the explanation provided by my friend is satisfactory, something is amiss with MFC.

He has been abysmal all season and should not be played again. He is not the answer long-term and we might be able to get something from trading. Tom McDonald should be playing and now the season is done we should see whether M. Jefferson can do the trick. I stood next to him today in the Betty Cuthbert room and he is one tall fellow which doesn’t mean he will work but he has the height. I especially like D. Turner today who can take some great marks. But they should leave him in defence. Petty is also not the answer down forward - he is quite languid and doesn’t seem to be able to hold his marks.