Howard_Grimes

His consistency and consistency of performance has been a rare positive out of this year. Strong form in the VFL. No doubt Goodwin won't bring him in off the back of it!

Supporter forums are pretty self-explanatory. And the club would obviously educate young players around the risks involved of reading sites like these, reading too much social media commentary or media in general. For your own mental well being, maybe I could advise that you continue to provide the training reports/player updates and then (like you have advised those young players), not read/respond to certain topics that tick you off so much? I think that would help you and many of us.

And how many nuffs on here were on board with it! My god.

An example of his cleverness and ability to execute inside 50? Of which he goes at about 50%? I'm sorry but what you've written is incredibly misleading. Petracca has the ability to do those things, yeh sure. But his execution lands at less than 50%.

It's just delusional Melbourne supporter 'woe is us' talk. We lost the game because we were absolutely awful. Skill-wise, competitiveness. Unless there was a non-call on a play that would have guaranteed us a goal, put us in front at the last second, it's just pointless to talk about. We were pathetic. Goody needs to be held to account. Carlton's kids dominated us. Our senior players simply do not care anymore.

It's just unfathomable that people believe Goody is not a major part of the issue. Whether it's selection integrity, an inability to motivate our senior players, lack of positional change, slow to adapt, it is clear as day that this club needs a change at the top. I just cannot believe that there are supporters who think he still has what it takes and that he is not part of the problem. The signs are as clear as day that the senior group are simply not responding. And when that occurs, you know something is up. Having been involved in high level sport, I can only imagine how Goody's repetitive, boring and robotic messaging around 'what we value', 'what needs to be at the level', 'how we want to play' must be landing. One of the most important attributes of a coach is motivating a playing group and he is simply failing abysmally in this area. The writing is absolutely on the wall. Do supporters realise we were almost at full strength and Carlton were missing half their best 22 just about? That is a [censored] disgrace. A disgrace. I don't care what it costs financially, if supporters believe that this senior group is going to bounce after another pre-season of Godwin's messaging, you've lost it. I know for a fact from certain people connected with the club that there were already a handful of players who were against the way Goody wanted to play. That they thought it was not working, was boring, boring for the fans. I mean it's clear as day that there's truth in that given the lack of fight, motivation and connectedness across the group week to week in match day performance. Absolutely clear. If he stays next year, we might see more senior players want out than we'd like. If he goes and we bring someone like Buckley in, I can see a spike in performance immediately from a senior core group who are desperate for a fresh voice and someone who can set a new standard and bring a rebirth of motivation, performance standards, lightness and fun. This current setup is dead. Goodwin will talk positives in every media conference, he'll continue to spin the "I have incredible belief" talk no matter how bad it gets. The decision needs to be made.

Didn't lose us the game. Our own ineptitude did that for us.

Howard_GrimesMembers4 days comment_2661588 " Blues have several of their top 10 most important players out and are in worse form than us... So in short, I'm prepared for Charlie to dominate, a no-name VFL level player to kick multiple goals on May and for us to lose the game by 5 points. Can't wait. " Jeez I wasn't far off that prediction pre-game. Charlie was very good, the no name player was Ashton Moir and their kids all stood up against us. We lost by 8 and not 5. Big changes need to happen, even if it's for more short term pain next year. This group and coach are going nowhere. How is it possible to script a Melbourne loss so easily? It's genuinely amazing.

Ahhh, if it's not 'loading' or 'not being fit enough', it's the umpires eh? Demonland never fails.

What are these threads turning into..

As I've ranted about for years, having too many one-dimensional players or a high number of players who possess poor kicking across your list greatly restricts any meaningful change at a game-plan level. And whilst we're still in a 'transition phase' I'm hopeful that Goody puts the long-term success of the club first and his relationship hat to the side come end of year. Some hard calls need to be made and Goody simply has to drive those decisions.

His consistency in performance and ability to bring his strengths and display them at such a high level for such a long period of time was phenomenal. His capacity to hit a contest at top speed and extract the ball from congestion during those years was unmatched and was of such enormous benefit for our team. And I think for someone like myself who can be highly critical, I probably took that skill for granted given his propensity to butcher the ball/give it up easily with silly handballs. 200 games is an enormous feat, so congrats to Clarry, we've been lucky enough to watch you at your best over those years. Stevetheman

Would be happy to move him on for both club player, have stated exactly why many times and mentioned Fritsch as a player I thought would be good to move. Also, people seem to forget you can trade future draft picks so worrying about next year's draft class is a non-issue. It's also a non-issue because as we've seen so many times, the direct pick you inheret from a trade is not always the one you go to the draft with. So obviously it gives you options to move up, trade for another player etc. And the fact remains, these things need to happen for clubs to move forward. I'd welcome it, I think Bayley has been unbelievably underwhelming for a couple of years now and his lack of defensive actions and team first actions have been seriously bad and I'd go as far to say have rubbed his team mates the wrong way. Another one who Goody has let slide on multiple occasions, which I haven't agreed with. Time to evolve this list. Oliver next.

Blues have several of their top 10 most important players out and are in worse form than us... So in short, I'm prepared for Charlie to dominate, a no-name VFL level player to kick multiple goals on May and for us to lose the game by 5 points. Can't wait.

"We move the ball realllly fastttttt from backhalf to forward halfffff".

You have me mistaken for someone else I'm afraid. Perhaps ProDee. I miss that poster.

Binman me ol' sparring partner. I'm disgusted in how we're going. Howard Grimes, another fantastic drummer from the golden era of soul. Go Dees.

It shows diddly squat. The reasons behind why we seem to 'get up' against better opposition is of far more interest and intrigue to me. And on many occasions those performances have come off the back of extremely poor games the week prior. Of course some still claim those bumps in performance were 'loading' related, but again that's just one of those blanket excuses that seems to be oh so convenient in many cases. We are a long way off the top. Why? Because the top clubs at this level do not drop off like we do so consistently.

Unfortunately for us Melbourne supporters, a lot. But great to have a player who can hit a handball like that under pressure. We need more of them. Making the right decision and executing under pressure more often than not. The best teams in the comp have several players like that and we need more.

I've been guilty of writing off players early in their careers or at least not buying the hype. Every case is different. But let's look at some important details in Kolts case. I'd argue his body coming into the AFL system was already behind many of his peers in that draft group. Never had a full season at under 18's level. Played VFL last year and then straight into a modified off-season at the end of 24. Following the modified off-season, scans showed a stress fracture which meant he's completed virtually no serious pre-season training. Now for him particularly, this is having an enormous impact on his game-day performance imv and would be the main reason behind why is in and out of the sub role and not playing full games. It's completely management related. Any young player who developes stress fractures that early on in their young careers would be treated the same. And perhaps his 'annoyance' at being sub is due to his competitive nature and his desire and want to play. I'm willing to wait until we see him have a full off and pre-season before making a serious call. I agree with others that he hasn't shown a standout trait but again, a lot of this can be down to low confidence coming off no pre-season. I for one love his engagement, energy, celebrating of team first acts and his competitiveness. And I've also liked some snippets I've seen around his decision making in general and his smarts. Now I'm not in the slightest saying Kolt will become Cripps. BUT, he was similar in that he needed to grow into his body, lose the puppy fat, get his body right and complete a full-pre season before anyone saw glimpses. I don't think anyone would have seen much to be excited about in his 2014 year. Go and have a look. I have a feeling Kolt will bounce after he gets his body in order.

You may want to look up the definition of Troll. I don't listen to the podcast although I listened to the intro of the latest one and when I heard the rhetoric around the media attention put on us vs a team like Essendon, I had to chuckle and stopped it there. There's just far too much of a Melbourne bias when it comes to this media vs Melb nonsense. I mean Essendon lose a close match to GC with about 10 of their best 22 out? No [censored] the media will let them off the hook. We lose to the Gold Coast and produce one of the most pathetic opening quarters after coming off a bye with how many premiership players playing and injuries to our best? I mean come on. Common sense! We're 14th and have had the best run with injury out of all clubs just about! I've read your reasons for our losses and some of the excuses used over the years and they were never what you've just listed. Perhaps you're coming around, which is great. Although I do disagree about your point regarding the need for a quality half back flanker with kicking skills. I think that is a complete waste for us and it's odd you'd say that given the stat that listed us as in the top few from moving the ball from d50 to inside 50. Our issues again are around a chunk of the list being too one-dimensional and sharing similar weaknesses. And I'd say those types of players are more problematic through the mid-forward part of the ground. Our midfield group, our running wingers and half forwards and our forward line in general lack greatly in execution, decision making and creativity. Having a defensive hard running half forward or winger with bad skills vs having a player who perhaps doesn't possess the tank, but uses the ball well and creates shots on goal from their decision making/is dynamic is more of the player we need. Look at the best forward lines and midfields in the AFL right now. Attribute diversity, players with points of difference. A dynamic a complimentary group of players is what all the best sides have. Look at Adelaide's forwardline around ANB. Look at Hawthorn's. The Dogs. Collingwood. Etc. And as I've said so many times before, it's taken far too long for Goodwin to make the hard calls that were needed when the tides were turning. They've turned and we are being left out at sea.

I mean, it's pretty simple. The happy clappers just ignore the thread if the negativity is just too overwhelming. Not that hard!

3 frees against, 5 turnovers and of those 23 disposals, 16 were handballs. He also had 15 uncontested possessions. Meaning 82% efficiency is expected from that makeup. I mean for god's sake, scratch the surface a little here. He is absolutely shocking at taking care when disposing of the ball and has been for years. No care when kicking. Use your eyes for christ sake.

Why do supporters like you draw a positive conclusion from the fact that we happen to be the one of the fastest at transitioning the ball from D-50 to inside 50 yet the net result is exactly the same as when we were playing a slower transition game? Is it just because you like the idea of moving the ball quickly? Collingwood who sit first on the AFL ladder are 13th on that list. Fast to move the ball with handball but slower by foot. Again, the zoning in on these types of stats is for what reason exactly? You casually point to the actual problem. Which you've been casually pointing to for some time, going on to say that if we improve our our accuracy at goal and efficiency inside 50 the gap between us and the best teams will close. I mean, how many times have we heard this? So why not share your thoughts, (three years on and perhaps less casually this time) on what you think needs to be done to address it? Would you agree that some significant chess pieces need to be moved to get us on our way? Or are you (similarly to many on here) too attached to the individuals that make up our list?

Great post and you clearly are a good enough observer. List/personnel issue and not enough has been done over the years to make meaningful change. Regardless of what people say on here about yesterday's drafting.