layzie

It was a good year with a crap finish and now questions over our methods. That's in a nutshell.

There are learnings out there, you just have to find them.

Some old time stuff there!

After beating us many teams coaches or players in interviews started with "We know Melbourne do XYZ". I t was pretty frustrating after a while.

Sounds most likely because if Essendon knew they were paying $500K of Luke Parker's contract it would give them more insight into would the overall financials and that just seems a bit off.

Would this require balance sheets of clubs to be released to other clubs? Or would the club looking to partake just hand over $500K to another club in good faith? It would seem to give clubs a better idea of what players at other clubs are earning as well. I may be missing something and possibly this information is now available everywhere for clubs but until someone jumps in with that kind of info this sounds gross.

Talk about opening a Pandora's box. Imagine one company paying another company's employee to get more tax breaks or something like that? Not sure, need to know more but it doesn't have a good sound to it.

He's right

I guess the question is how do we prepare for this better next time? It's pretty unlikely we're just going to have a soft draw fall into our lap to finish the season so we need to make sure we're as fresh as possible despite these big time finals like games.

Hope we don't get linked to Williams, already sick of being linked to guys with immovable contracts.

For the panel: In your opinion, the most glaring issue with our forward line is: - Personnel - Structure - Strategy Don’t want to add too much because I’m keen to hear your instant reactions to these but some quick examples. Personnel – eg lack of a key forward that can contest and bring the ball to ground regularly. Structure – eg Selection and the mix of players that make up the forward group on a given week. Strategy – eg Our setup at forward 50 stoppages, our delivery into the 50 etc. I've narrowed it down to these 3 things but feel free to add if another comes to mind.

Agree, the banners were epic!

Firstly I don’t disagree with you, the facts are the facts and we didn’t get it done enough against quality opposition. What kind of bugs me with this hindsight view that people and media always seem to take is that it doesn’t tell the whole story. - We play the Dogs in Rd 1 in a GF rematch with the opposition desperate to atone and kick things off on the right foot in 2022 - We play Essendon in Rd 3 who although lost the first 2 were still a finals side from last year and looking to get on the board with what was still a decent team before becoming a basket case. - We play Port in Rd 4 on their home deck. Again, a prelim finalist from the previous year needing to make a massive statement at home to get their season back on track - We play GWS in Rd 5, another previous year finalist sitting at 1 and 3 and needing a win - We play Richmond on Anzac eve, finalist. - We play St Kilda in Rd 8 who were sitting 5 and 2 and giving a lot of teams problems around that time. Now I know a lot of these teams nose-dived but it’s easy to forget that there were a lot of big challenges here that we passed with flying colours at the time. If people think our 10-0 start was all easy wins then they are out of their mind.

Was just thinking the same thing AF! If anyone has it in him to re-sign a bunch of guys up with having leverage in mind for potential trade it's Bell! Reminds me of 'sign and trade' deals you see in NBA.

This is all part of the journey. We’ve got a window of 3-5 years with this group and there is always setbacks along the way even with the dynasties we’ve seen. Complacency, diminishing hunger and culture challenges are always in store for good teams aiming to become great teams. Let’s not pretend that the great teams of the past were immune to these sorts of things. This is the moment for opportunity and it will be exciting to see how our group responds and grows from these challenges.

We definitely need some class on the wing and I wouldn't be opposed to trying Salo there.

It relies on getting that early lead. Our game style is extremely taxing and you almost knew towards the end that if we didn't nail every opportunity that we'd left the door ajar. That brings me to the next point, ok so we didn't take a lot of chances early but our best footy this year came when we were able to generate scoring chances in quick succession. When we went long periods without even a shot at goal we really struggled. We would get it into our 50 and even lock it in for a stoppage on Fri night but in that second half it seemed extremely difficult for our small forwards to get the ball with a smidge of space and get some kind of look at goal. So forward conversion rates are definitely one thing, I wasn't super annoyed with the early inaccuracy as long as we kept creating chances which after half time we inevitably didn't. We need more guile in front of goal, there is a reason Sydney have made it this far.

When I look at the Pies and Swans back 6 I see one thing in common. Dash. They have some serious dahs when it comes to rebounding the ball out of 50 and while some would look to the skill in which they can hit targets it is the run out of the back that really gets things started through the middle with 1 or 2 guys riding shotgun. With Collingwood in particular it has been so hard to stop especially late in games when they have hung in there and then turn the burners on against and already tired opposition. Looking at our rebound from defensive 50 (when we aren’t kicking long down the line from a mark), I can’t remember many times where we’ve just gotten it and gone. Yes there are a handful of times when Jayden Hunt takes the game on but those are almost novelty plays. I know this doesn’t really sound like a speed of ball movement thing but I feel like these sequences are started at the moment with run and carry, drawing opposition in and then using quick chains to break away. I’m not sure but I feel like this is only going to become more of a thing as score from transition becomes more apparent again.

It might be unpopular but these are the conversations list managers have. I personally wouldn't trade him but you gotta give good to get good and the stakes are high.

When is the ceremony? We could use a lift!

Yep, starting to think along these lines too, we needed competition for spots. I don't know if we did any favours and possibly let some complacency creep in when some guys knew there was no threat on their spot in the team. We had no change going into this game, maybe a tough call needed to be made? I'm not sure these are just suggestions.

Is it the MCG or is it fitness? Or something else completely? We're very keen to find an elephant in the room when it could just be a chicken or the egg scenario. I don't have the answer but we need to focus on the controllables being our fitness program, gameplan tweaking and personnel. This will hopefully translate to better home form.

I guess we're getting nothing and have to like it.

You're right DemonWA, it was a good year. It doesn't feel like it right now nor does it feel like a pass mark but we finally have a football team that is in games consistently and never blown out. It would have been a pretty Melbourne thing of the past to fall off a cliff and finish outside the 8 but in the long run we are on track. We'll be back next year. Will we win it? No idea. As long as we do everything we can to give ourselves the best possible shot then that is literally all we can ask.

The music between goals was gross. Something bottler teams like St Kilda do. Doesn't belong in AFL, maybe an NRL thing but not AFL.