Lord Travis

He handed Goodwin a finals ready list that Goodwin himself helped shape and get a head start with. In a few weeks times Goodwin will either be 1/4 or 2/4 for making finals. It's not good enough. We've failed to adapt to 6-6-6 and failed to adapt to everything else as quickly as most clubs. 4 years on and we still don't really know if Goodwin can coach. He still doesn't know how to get the players performing consistently either. It's not good. The chaotic unplanned nature of 2020 will buy everyone a pass. 2021 is huge for the club. Deep finals run or bust IMO.

Your calculations are pretty accurate. We need to win all 3 remaining matches to make it. If we lose one, it means we've dropped a game to a direct competitor and we miss out. 2020 is done. Even if we miraculously make finals, we won't be challenging and will likely be straight out. Time to start planning for 2021. Midfield needs to be overhauled. Coach needs to change. Game style need to change. Selection committee needs to change. We're a ways off being a legitimate contender.

Excuse seeks to justify failure and avoids accountability and change. Reason seeks to acknowledge and accept a fault, the first step to positive change. The club can beat its chest and make all the excuses it wants. The reality is this club has been a failure for over 50 years and it doesn’t appear like we’re making great strides to changing the weak mentality that’s plagued us. Some people are pointing to 3 states in 5 days or whatever as an excuse. We’re not the only club to have done this. Others have done it and still won. It’s not a valid excuse, and the club and it’s supporters need to demand more if we ever want to become successful again.

Good clubs don’t make excuses. We continue to make excuses and remain a loser club.

Not many decent players left to come in. May as well start preparing for 2021. Even if we miraculously win all 3 remaining matches and make finals, we’re not going to do any damage. Give the Jordan, Bedford, Baker types a run.

Believe Brayshaw injured his ankle when it was rolled badly. Will miss 2-3 matches. Harmes has minor hamstring strain and will likely miss 2.

I think it's both. We have poor midfield structures, especially around stoppages. 3rd for hitouts, yet 15th for clearances. We can't seem to take advantage of Max's tap dominance. Part of it is definitely poor effort from the players though. 18th for tackles is purely work rate, especially when you're getting less of the ball! Last nights loss was a combo of poor coaching and poor effort. Swans pulled the easiest coaching move in the world that usually always works against Melbourne.... play an extra player behind the ball. We continue to bomb it in to out numbered contests and they sweep it back ad nauseam. Coaches didn't adjust to this all match. Players also put in poor effort though. Watching Brayshaw and Melksham raise an arm as a token attempt to tackle was infuriating. Watching Viney and Petracca jog half pace towards defense while their Swan counterparts sprinted past them was infuriating. We were outworked all across the ground.

Footywire has most basic stats for teams and players. https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/fts_team_rankings?type=TA&year=2020&sby=29 For some of the more obscure stats you need to have access to Champion Data or official AFL Stats Pro. Our only positive stat this season is 5th for inside 50s... however we're bottom four for locking it inside our 50 and bottom four for converting. It's useless banging the ball in there if you can't score and it comes straight back out!

2020 key midfield stats: 15th for clearances 13 for centre clearances 18th for tackles 16th for opponent uncontested disposals Those four stats are damning. Poor work rate and poor stoppage setups. Coaches are clueless. Players and confused and lazy. Our midfield is nowhere near the top teams and needs a big re-shuffle. Build around Petracca and Oliver, the rest of the one paced inside mids can be cast aside.

Neitz or Yze/Johnstone. Tall forward or a capable outside mid with elite kicking skills.

Our midfield is nowhere near the best in the league. At best it's middle of the road. We have a midfield stacked with inside ball winners, yet we're ranked 15th in the league for clearances. Our one wood has been worked out and is now bottom four. I've been complaining for years about the need to re-balance our midfield make-up. I think we're at the point now where we can safely say we need clear out some of the players like Brayshaw and Viney and bring in cleaner ball users. Not only are they not winning enough ball, they're using it poorly when they do get it. Viney in particular has been shocking recently, smashing into his own teammates and having no awareness of structures or his surroundings.

Miss the Daniher years now. They were a rollercoaster but gave us some great footy and some hope. I'd take finals every second year with a grand final appearance over being cellar dwellers every year! That video shows the exact two types of player we are lacking. The two biggest holes on our list - a quality tall forward and a quality kicker in the midfield. Yze - a classy midfielder with good kicking skills who accurately hits up leading forwards. Neitz - a strong marking target with confidence who takes the responsibility of the set shot and kick goals consistently.

Reckon Smith pips him... just.

Pass.

Wake up you pack of losers!!?!

Is Lockhart injured? Hard to see any feasible reason why players like Smith would get a game ahead of him, even as a forward option. If Smith plays on Papley, you can mark Pap down for 4+ goals. Papley has a very high footy IQ, Smith amongst the worst going around. Papley will give him a serious football lesson. We should still win this match comfortably, but I think the selection committee have been poor this season.

Good to see Vanders out, but disappointing to see another list clogger selected in his place in Smith. Definitely would’ve gone Lockhart instead. Ins otherwise are good. Glad to see Fritta back as we need goal scoring power.

Wow Crows going to win a game finally!

Polec has been made a scapegoat at North for whatever reason. He's not performed badly this year at all, though he's not had his best season. He was dropped after a BOG performance for some inexplicable reason, and is statistically their 6th best player this season. On talent and output we'd obviously take him. He's better than 25-30 players on our list. The question is why is he now looking at his fourth AFL club? Are there off-field issues or attitude issues? There has to be something more to it than what we're seeing, because on output he walks into any AFL team. For people shooting down the idea of Polec, here's a comparison of Polec vs Ed Langdon in 2020. https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_player_compare?playerStatus1=A&tid1=12&playerStatus2=A&tid2=13&type=A&pid1=4080&pid2=3451&fid1=S&fid2=S They're very very similar. I'd take another Ed Langdon, sorry Jared Polec, on the other wing if there's no detrimental off-field issues.

I liked what I saw of Archie Perkins last year. Played forward and midfield, showed ability to burst away from opposition through middle and good hands when playing forward. Not sure he'll be around at our first pick, but looked a likely type. Jack Carroll from WA looks a solid prospect as a balanced midfielder who knows how to find ball and make good decisions with it. He might be around at our first pick, though his stocks may be rising due to actually getting to play this year.

Finlayson contract talks stalled with GWS. Proven key forward. Do we target him?

He's got explosive pace and when up and running he's the type of midfielder we're lacking - someone with the ability to play both inside and outside. That said, he's had injury issues dating back to before he was even drafted. Unless it's on rookie wage, it wouldn't be worth the investment trying to get his body right. If he's got poor attitude as someone else mentioned, then it's a pass.

I gave him a shout out in the game day thread last night as he goes unnoticed most weeks. His hard running was match winning. Twice in the last quarter he busted his gut getting back deep into defense and saved goals when our defenders were caught out of the contest. The media and game watchers won’t have noticed it, but the coaches will be highlighting it internally this week. It was brilliant work rate and showed his mental toughness when his teammates were all struggling. Winning or losing, he always busts his [censored] and should be commended for his brilliant work ethic and attitude. I was very happy when we recruited Langdon and said on here he’d finish top 5 in our BnF before he even played a game for us. His 2019 at Freo was very underrated. His output was exactly the same as Brad Hill, if not slightly better. By trading Langdon in we got what we needed for our wing and paid far less than Saints did for Hill. He’s also a few years younger. Sure he’s not an elite kick, but he gets the job done more often than not. IMO he’s one of our best recruits in decades. He’ll own a wing at the MCG for the next 7-8 years.

Awesome game tonight and he keeps pushing his claim. If he keeps up this form it could be him and Andrews as the two AA key defenders.

YES [censored]