Nasher

Am I the only one who thinks his form (or lack of) is being overplayed? He's not going that badly. Not great, but not badly. He's just a victim of excessive expectations in my opinion.

Frost is surely in to play as a tall defender. He has his limitations in that role, but he was utterly hopeless in his first season as a forward. I'd prefer Pedersen for that, and that's saying something. You're right that it'll probably be TMac, but I was really hoping they might let him spend the whole game at full forward for once. That is where I see him being best suited. Do I remember rightly that at times in their flag year, Western Bulldogs sometimes didn't contest the ruck? If we did happen to end up with Harmes or some other inadequate contender in there, I wouldn't be adverse to having him just stand in the circle and not jump. Make up for the mismatch by having an extra inside mid in the contest (or ready to tackle the crap out of the ruckman in case he has any smart ideas about snatching it).

Now that's a bold faced lie if ever I've seen one!

Here’s the bit where you clarify if you’re speculating, know something or are just plain making **** up. Suspect I already know the answer.

Looking forward to Harmes in the ruck.

Nup. Sorry!

It’s not even an imagineable outcome for me, but I thought that last week too.

I would love to see Goodwin just stand there in a press conference, completely mute. Don’t answer any questions or make any comments, just stand there in complete silence. He’d probably get bagged for not giving the members the answers they demand, or something.

Thread closed to prevent further heart attacks.

Bloody Burgoyne will be the first to 500 games at this rate.

If the MFC rest Max, they’ll be resting me as well as I won’t watch if the club isn’t fair dinkum about winning. Fortunately I’ll never need to deliver on this idle threat, because the probability of this happening is zero.

The answer seemed honest, and for me, what I wanted to hear. Obviously I want the actions that come to mirror the words; we all do and it goes without saying. It’s pretty rough to pot him over using words in a medium where words are the only tool he has access to. Honestly if people aren’t interested in the words the club has to say, I’m not sure why they’d watch AFL360 or read Demonland.

Redleg, that comment was in reply to Skuit’s post where he indicated I shouldn’t have to constantly defend my position. My point was that I don’t have to; for the most part I just ignore posts that are critical of me. That was a feature I developed in the early days of moderating this forum, where the criticism was harsh and regular. My answer to your question is “N/A” as you’ve never levelled personal criticism at me over anything I’ve said or done. I don’t always agree with your view but I immensely respect your view and the way you conduct yourself in this forum.

I gave Jaded a reply because I’m a fan, I respect her views and we’ve known each other on here for a long time. The opinion of most others is water off a duck’s back, don’t worry!

I’d be inclined to stick with Petty. Send the message: “we know that wasn’t indicative and you are better than that. Have another shot.” I think that would help his confidence. That and Frost terrifies me.

Paragraph 1: Didn’t say that. Please don’t put quote marks around things that aren’t quotes. In fact, I even said in my post specifically that that *wasn’t* what I was saying. I design my entire life around watching football. Paragraph 2: Didn’t say that either. Come on, me, a hipster? ? If my mum would still buy me t-shirts, I’d probably still wear them. Paragraph 3: By all means, rant away! I was fuming too and believe it or not, do understand the pain and share it. Paragraph 4: that’s one thing I will say isn’t good for you and you shouldn’t do I’m sorry if I come across as being insensitive to people’s frustration or despair. As I said, in the heat of the moment I’m right there with you. I was disappointed against Collingwood and Port but I’m very dirty about this game in particular. Check out my pre-game comments - I laughed off everyone who said we might lose - imagine the shock I got? It’s just the completely irrational rants, hours afterwards, that comes from some quarters that drive me spare. I don’t think people *have* to make the logic jumps they do. Perhaps it’s as you say: uncontrollable like a panic attack, but I’m not sure. In many cases it would be learned behaviour. I’m no psychologist though so I’ll leave it at that.

Gold. Didn’t realise anger was a critical ingredient to success ?

Haha. I’ve seen a few posts wistfully recalling Roos’ defensive game style too.

It’s not just the “bigger things in life”, though there is that. It is an emotional passtime - I know that, and I buy in. I honestly felt like the world was ending in the third quarter when it became clear we weren’t going to turn it around. It is painful. It’s just the way we carry on like we’re the only team with issues. Every single team has stuff they don’t do well, that’s why every team has lost at least twice. All the teams have now dropped games they ought not have. We thought we were top 4 ready. Well we’re not. We are a middle side, which is reasonable for this stage of our development, and this is what middle sides look like. Flawed. Then there’s the motherhood statement makers. We’re *never* going to be good. We’ve been this way for *50 years*. No, we’ve been this way for this year. We were worse than this every year for the last 10, and after that you’ve gone well in to irrelevance. Then there’s the ones who blame the club for ruining their lives. “Oh, my son won’t even go for Melbourne now. I have to go to the footy by myself.” My kids hate footy too, and I tell you that I am 100% responsible for that, because of the way I used to carry on like a pork chop when we were poor, which when they were little, was always. Instead of blaming the club, think instead of the experience you create for your kids when you throw an adult tantrum over the outcome. That’s true whether your kids are young or adults. Nobody wants to be around a sour grump. People just need to get a bloody grip.

I do wonder if many of our members ever watch any footy games not involving the MFC. The lack of perspective when we lose is amazing.

Where were all you “clearly not ready” geniuses on Thursday? He had a horrible game, no doubt about that. He had his confidence crushed when he got outmarked in the first contest with Battle - that just lead to a death spiral of mistakes. That miskick was the sort of error that AFL players only make when they’ve been broken. I highly doubt that’s the sort of form he showed in the VFL though. He had his confidence shot in that first contest. It could have just as easily gone the other way.

Yes, obviously he can see that it has consequences, that’s why he mentioned it as the reason for the loss. Do you reckon Goodwin says “nah don’t worry about running defensively, boys. Just attack all the way, she’ll be right”. We didn’t run two ways under Roos either. We ran defensively but were impotent in attack. To me it doesn’t matter which one we do poorly - that only dictates whether the game we lose is a high scoring or low scoring one. We all hoped that we were a side that consistently did this. We obviously aren’t yet. It’s frustrating. I get that. I’m not ready to make the jump from “not there yet” to “never will be”, two years in to the coach’s tenure.

It’s what makes it galling, for sure, when you know they’re capable. I think ‘effort’ is a non-binary thing though. The players probably don’t even realise that they’re not working hard enough in the heat of the moment. That’s where good leadership is critical. I remember Gary Ablett Jr making a comment once that in his first few seasons he always thought he was working his arse off until he one day found another gear and realised he hadn’t been. Obviously there are a number of players yet to find that gear. We can only hope they do.

His main point in the post match today was that we failed to run defensively. That we’re capable of doing it (ref: the 5 in a row) but it’s not ingrained yet. There was no double speak in there at all. It’s not a bad quite as exciting as “structure! Selection! Drinking own bath water! Team balance! Another failed season!”, but the message is there for anyone willing to stop thinking they’re the senior coach for long enough to listen.

This is the worst - feel like I’m on a hiding to nothing by watching the last quarter. At least in the good old days when we were awful, you could watch knowing the game was well out of reach and couldn’t get worse, and just watch in the hope that one of your talented kids gave you some reason to smile. Winning seems unlikely, small mercies don’t cut it anymore and it can get a whole lot worse. I am definitely a sucker for punishment. Let’s go.