Lord Travis

Could possibly wind up handing over pick 1. That would be disaster.

This season is so poor that there's a very real possibility we will be handing over Pick 1 in the draft to North Melbourne. That would be the ultimate embarrassment and clearest possible evidence of a stuff up. FWIW, from sources within and close to the club, I'm also hearing plenty about board changes. Board and leaders are unsure if issue is coaches or players. Also hearing that the coaches are unhappy with a certain "clique" of players who appear to be embedding poor behaviors into other more impressionable team mates. We are legitimately back to Neeld era culture of division. Things are not good internally at the moment. I admire positivity of some supporters, but fact is we are a long way off the pace and have issues as a club we need to address before we can ever dream of becoming successful onfield again.

I've been banging on about the midfield on here, saying it's unbalanced and we have too many see ball get ball types who completely lack poise and effective disposal skills. I also recommended trading Viney or Brayshaw out for a more rounded midfielder to achieve better balance. There are plenty of clubs like Essendon who desperately need contested inside ball winners and would pay for them. It would be hard to say goodbye to loved players, but tough calls need to be made. If they're not, then we continue to be a bottom four side and sit through another rebuild.

Not sure if Lyon is the man for us, but at this stage anyone would be better than what we've got. My only concern with him is can he implement a modern gamestyle that isn't so defensive. Lyon has at least coached teams to sustained finals runs. He got both the Saints and Freo competitive for blocks of 4-5 years and into grand finals. He's done more than any Melbourne coach in my lifetime! What other coaching options are available? Obviously Clarkson or someone of that ilk would be brilliant, but realistically who is out of contract or looking to move?

That free kick was pathetic and handed them a crucial goal to get a break on us. The umpire even admitted no prior opportunity, but "didn't try hard enough to get rid of it" despite it being held to his body underneath his arms where it was physically impossible to handball it. That umpire should get the sack and a curb stomping for good measure. Trac is singlehandedly keeping this team afloat. He lead our goal kicking last year, and is the main reason we won vs Carlton a few weeks back. He's been brilliant this year. Hopefully he doesn't waste the good years of his career playing in a bottom four team for years on end. Nothing would be more frustrating as a player than being dragged down by no hopers around you and answering to a dimwit coach. Here's hoping he doesn't leave!

[censored] you Clarry learn to kick you [censored]!?!

Not that it would make a difference, but the umpiring today has been ducking terrible. Haven’t noticed it be bad for a few weeks, but today has been poor. Frees incorrectly paid and not paid repeatedly. I wish I could repeatedly [censored] up at my job and have no repercussions!

Don’t blame them. He’s a stat accumulator with poor disposal and doesn’t impact games. Going backwards.

Richmond are just taking the [censored] now. We were a bottom four team all of last year and we have potentially gone backward. We’re handing North Melbourne pick 1 at the end of the year. Someone needs to be held accountable for this.

Scary thought, we might be handing North Melbourne pick 1 at this rate. Absolute shambles.

Yep. Was very noticeable and shows where our team is at. No comradery and cliques formed again. We’re dangerously close to hitting Neeld era levels.

What coaches are available? Ross Lyon? Goodwin is clearly not taking us where we need to go.

Time to switch off until 2021. This team is becoming non-competitive again.

The Petracca one that handed them a goal was a shocker. The umpire even admitted no prior opportunity! Pathetic!

Oliver’s disposal today has been abysmal.

We’re trying at least, we’re just not good enough. Talent is there, gameplan is not.

[censored] these umpires

Seen enough to know the Smith experiment down back is a failure now. He’s got a horrible football brain. Try him forward or get rid of him.

Fair point, but he’s in HORRIBLE form this year. Looks set for retirement and is worse than even TMac for us! We’re a chance today due to the weather and their poor form. Anyone here thinking we could contend and make finals is probably dreaming at this point. We are miles off it and have a long road ahead of us again. So frustrating!

The increasing number of rules changes are to blame for the poor watchability of the game. There were far less rule changes in decades gone by, but over the past decade the AFL has introduced all sorts of new rules purely in an attempt to counteract coaching tactics and what is perceived as less watchable. Low scoring doesn't mean low quality e.g. Sydney vs West Coast matches. Basically all these rules changes made by the AFL have backfired, as it's a coaches job to maximize everything they can to win within the rules. If they stopped changing the rules to combat the coaches tactics, the coaches themselves would find ways to combat each other and gamestyles would naturally evolve as they did in previous decades. The AFL need to stop trying to interfere with the game and let it evolve naturally. On a side note, we were a strong team in 2018 and super high scoring. Rules changes to enforce 6-6-6 crippled us with our extra men pushing up from behind the ball and into space. Our coaches still haven't adapted to those rules changes.

I expect the Saints to get up tonight in a close contest. There's a few potentially good games this round!

It's truly baffling. Player management and development at the club is poor at the moment. AvB clearly wasn't up to AFL level either and had 10 less disposals than Bennell and less impact too. Does the same thing happen to him now? Gets dropped and given the message you were only picked because others weren't available and you're not actually up to it. Knowing our luck Harley will build fitness and be fully fit finally and then walk at the end of the year to a Hawthorn or the like. *MFCSS kicking in* I hope we see Harley at AFL level again soon. He just needs gametime into his legs and will contribute even when not at full fitness as we saw in round 2. Be interesting to see what the selections are for this weeks match...

Team has worst forward line in history.... bloke kicks 4 goals in reserves... "Yeah look Harley we need you to tackle more and worry less about scoring goals. Try to take on four opposition players at once and create more congestion, that's what we really want to see. Goals aren't the aim of the game, we need congestion and repeated entries into 50 amounting to nothing" Great coach we've got...

I'm guessing they want him to lay a tackle. He looked clean at AFL level but definitely avoided contests, ran around on his own and offered zero defensive intent. First game in years though so not phased.

His ruck impact has definitely diminished the past 18 months. In 2018 he had the most hit outs and was 100 hitouts clear of second place. In 2019 he dropped to third and was over 200 hitouts behind the leaders, dropping off by over 300 hitouts off his 2018 season. The same thing happened with his hitout to advantage stats. Gawn actually attend more ruck contests in 2019 and yet his number dropped off. It seems opposition ruckmen have worked out better ways to combat him. Hopefully we see big Max rise back to being the dominant ruckman we know he can be. That said, it's proof that the ruckman position has little bearing on games. We've had the leagues best ruckman for 5 years, and we've made finals once from five and lose the majority of games. The coaches haven't been able to find a way to take advantage of his dominance. Either it's an indictment on them, or the position is somewhat redundant. Back on this game, I expect the Tigers to beat us. I think we'll give them a fair shake, but even with their poor form and injuries they have too many stars and experience not to get over the line. I expect a big game from Martin who has had a few down weeks since returning from injury.