Lord Travis

I've been pretty vocal in my disappointment with him this season. He's a good athlete, but he's got poor football IQ. The amount of times he's flown for aerial contests and spoiled/crashed into 2-3 Melbourne defenders already going up is disgraceful. His game against Carlton was one of the worst by a player in red n blue this decade. He's been really poor in defence, really poor. Statistically, this season in defence he's rated well below average in every single stat available except tackles, where he ranks average. In my opinion, he should never play again in defence unless we have horrendous injuries. There's still hope to try him as a forward, where he showed a bit in one preseason game 2 years ago. If he can't excel as a marking target forward, then I'd rate him an easy delisting candidate. At 24 years old he should be hitting his peak, not struggling to even be an average league footballer and find a position. He's the type we need to stop carrying on the list for too long if we want to become a successful footy club again.

He was on Day for most of the match until Day got thrown into the ruck late in the game. He comfortably beat Day and also peeled off to assist other defenders too. Similar to Weid, not big stats but played his role well. Oscars positioning with defensive zone was light years ahead of Smiths. He reads the play quite well and doesn't get caught out as often, which is a good sign that he and the other talls in May and Lever have better understanding of each others games and are able to stick to their roles easier. It allowed Lever to peel off and intercept more and more as the game went on. Credit to Oscar for a decent game. He should be in the team again based on form and structure.

Apologies if it looks crap as I’ve done it on my phone. Names bolded are not currently in the team, injured, or no longer at the club. That is A LOT of change in 12 months! Hopefully we build some consistency with selection now as we had better structure on the weekend.

He played his role yesterday. He provides us a strong target inside 50, and though he doesn’t clunk all the marks he crashes packs and creates opportunities for our smalls. Another thing I liked is that he doesn’t get sucked up the ground like others in the forwardline - he anchors himself closer to goal and it improves our entire structure. If he plays that same role he did yesterday he’d kick 40 goals a year and setup many more. He needs to stay in the team and needs to be played forward, not swung around the ground in the ruck. Sure he can take ruck contests inside 50, but he stays inside 50.

People = ?

Gus had a poor game yesterday, but I still feel it’s due to not being played in a suitable role. His best footy, and coincidentally the teams best footy, comes when he is at centre bounces. In 2018 Gawn to Brayshaw was the best centre clearance combo in the league. We get more value from our clearances when Brayshaw receives the ball defensive side and the charges into space to deliver inside forward 50 by footy. It’s usually Petracca who feeds him too. Gus needs to play on ball. He’s one of our few mids who can hit the scoreboard as well. At the moment he’s being shoved between outside roles, flank, onball and as a result he’s struggling for consistency. Viney and him never play well at the same time. Whoever is on all plays well. We need to balance our midfield better. IMO it works best when we have the on all unit of Gawn, Oliver, Petracca, Gus. Need less bull at the gate inside kids getting sucked to the ball.

That game from OMac was better than Smiths whole career output. Experiment done. OMac is no superstar, but he can shut down a tall and allows others like Lever and Hibberd to get free and intercept and provide drive. Similarly, Weid is no superstar but he provides a target and straightens us up. Always chimes in with a few goals too. We look much better with them both in the side.

Blame Jack Watts. Wait no... who’s the current whipping boy again?

Excited to see Rankine play. He’s probably the most exciting junior I’ve ever seen at underage level. X factor out the wazoo. Think this will be a close match but Suns will get up in the end despite us having more scoring shots.

This has been covered in both the Goodwin thread and the Craig Jennings thread. We basically need to slow down and have some composure when looking for targets. Our overly contested and play on at all costs gamestyle only harms us, and goes against the way successful teams are currently playing. We are the easiest team to coach against. 1. Sit players off the contest, watch our mids all get sucked in to win the ball. Once the contest is done, either pressure them into rushed long bombs or the ball spills out and you're free to gain possession under little pressure. 2. Play a short kicking game creating uncontested marking chains. Our mids are too lazy defensively and our zone doesn't work. Do those two things and you'll beat Melbourne 100% of the time. It's sad we're that predictable and ineffective. Since 2018 we are the worst team in the league with a record of 6-21. On top of that, nearly all those 6 wins have been by less than 2 goals, we haven't had a convincing 4 goal + win since 2018. We're truly in rubbish form and need a shake up fast.

We won't feature so I don't really care. Just make it whatever stadium has the largest capacity. Perth?

He'd be tall forward providing ruck backup. Essentially Weidemans role if Weid leaves or doesn't perform. As I said, I don't think he's the right player and would only take him if he cost us bugger all. Ideally, we go get a strong performing tall forward who actually kicks goals. Throw the kitchen sink at a Jeremy Cameron type. We should always have two tall forward targets. We'll finally have that structure this week for the first time this year and I'd wager we'll perform better as a result.

On form, he's the worst of the 3 listed. Due to injury and form, we haven't seen him impact a game since 2018. He, like Melksham and others, shouldn't be given a free ride. It's poor culture. If he's not ready to play, then don't play him. We have a fit list and plenty of better performing and more deserving players. AVB is hardly a superstar. At his peak, he's a battering ram. At present, he's a waste of a rotation and a liability. Strong culture dictates you perform or you're out. Look at successful clubs like Hawthorn dropping players like Roughhead, Burgoyne, Bruest, Puopolo, Birchall etc when they didn't perform. It doesn't matter what your name or draft pick number was, you need to perform. On form none of AVB, Smith, Melksham, Hunt, Lever, Pickett, Tmac, Tomlinson deserve a game at present.

Right TYPE of player. Wrong player though. He's got the right attributes, he just doesn't show intensity or competitiveness. He's not very "Melbourne" in that regard. If there's nothing else of worth available, then he may be the right option at the right price though.

That was a memorable match for multiple reasons. Nicholson was rubbish that day. Travis stepped up in finals as usual. It had my favorite price of play ever - Whelan bump laying out golden boy Hird and then Travis kicking a goal from boundary line 50 on the run. Beautiful few moments of football. Umpiring cost us that match at the end! As for this weekend, I think it’ll be a close match but still have little hope we’ll find form and win. Gold Coast are competent ball winners and cleaner users. Will depend on if our mids can be smarter for once! Hopefully Weid in provides us better structure. Definitely the right In structurally at least.

Fair call. Everything’s a blur these days. So many years of failure and so few champions or great years. I still remember Nicholson getting toweled up by Matthew Lloyd in the early 2000s. How about Issac Weetra dominating?!

Happy with Smith out. He was horrible as a back men. His game against Carlton was probably the worst I can remember from a Melbourne player. He either needs to make it as a forward now or he’s an easy delist option with us having to reduce list size due to corona fallout.

Cats showing that kicking skills reign supreme. They barely handball, always looking for short kick options. Interestingly 4 of the top 5 teams have the lowest play on percentage. They mark, stop and create uncontested marking chains with short kicks. Conversely we have the highest play on percentage in the league and are the worst team in the league over the last 18 months. Basically proof our gameplan is completely wrong and we need to slow down and hit a [censored] target.

Question paraphrased: Can the issues be fixed and can they be fixed quickly? Jennings answer: It's a 30 second fix. That's just pure strategy and match day coaching. Pretty damning assessment of Goodwin right there!

Interesting to hear a previous coach pointing out these issues and that the club still haven't addressed it years on. Also interesting that teams actively target Oliver and Petracca as weak links defensively and try to launch offensive attacks through the players they're on. Also suggest Oliver be played more forward for his own development. Too many players go at the footy, opposition just wait on the outside. If Melbourne do win the ball, they're surrounded and make poor decisions as a result. Coaches do this on loop to nullify the amount of contests we win. When the opposition get the ball they maintain possession and play keepings off, and we have no way to combat that. They're two obvious strategic things that have brought us unstuck for years now. We are outcoached on a weekly basis. Until we change gamestyle, we can give 110% effort as much as we like, but we will not be a competitor.

His gut running and speed mean he's one of the few players we have covering the required ground and creating offensive opportunities. He'd be tearing his hair out most weeks as he busts his [censored] working into space on the wing, only to watch his teammates blindly bomb the ball long inside 50 directly to opposition instead of using him. Same thing used to happen to Jack Watts. He's also one of the few mids we have working back hard enough to fill gaps defensively. He's having a good season IMO and right now would be top 5 in our BnF behind Petracca and Gawn. Least of our problems and good value trade.

We're statistically the worst converting team in history (since stats were kept). Unless our forwardline and midfield do a complete 180 form-wise, there's no chance of us winning the flag this year. It's getting to the stage where we'd basically need to win 8-9 matches in a row, something we couldn't even do when in ripping form in the 2nd half of 2018. That's not to say we don't have the building blocks to win within a few years, but it's not going to happen this year.

I have unfortunately. Even in their limp pathetic form they have scored better than us, just not defended as well. Real possibility we'll be battling them for the wooden spoon.

For the record, Tomlinson played forward for the second half on the weekend and was ineffective. I agree with most of the article though and it is damning. We're the worst team in the league and some serious changes need to be made because we're a mile off the pace and going backwards.

I'd wager once Clarry passes that age mark in a yers time, that number would close to 0 and we'd have the worst crop of youngsters going round. As an indicator, we haven't had a Rising Star nomination since 2016 and the only player who came close was Spargo in 2018.