Lord Travis

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.

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!