Nasher

Forget the scoreline. This is an absolute hiding. Still time for the scoreline to finally reflect yet.

The ball is a bar of soap by the looks of it. There’s hardly been a clean possession from anyone. Our defending has been heaps better - they can’t get it out of half back. This game should already be over though, but of course we lead by the 9 behinds we kicked. If there’s a five minute lapse, Freo kick away. Come on Melbourne. Bury them so I can bloody relax a bit please.

I hate these types of games. We’ve come off a bad loss, so even a win is going to be annoying on some level. I don’t even want to think about a loss. Bring back that feeling from our mid season streak where we were licking our lips at the prospect of playing crap teams.

I trust the FD because I feel I have no choice but to trust the FD. Unlike you I can never say with any level of confidence that my idea would have worked better than the one that was implemented. There have been just as many instances where the collective wisdom potted a FD for a decision and were proven completely wrong. The collective wisdom also only sees a small portion of what has gone in to the decision; the rest is completely invisible to it. Trusting others to make decisions that are completely out of one’s control doesn’t make that person a sycophant, it just makes them self aware. I work in an industry where the outcome of the (complex) choices of my team makes become visible to the public, and believe me, the criticism I have seen out there is so misinformed that you have no choice but to laugh and ignore it and get on with the job. As a footy fan, I don’t know if I’m just a woefully misinformed member of the public, but without the decades of experience in the industry I reckon I probably am, and I reckon you probably are too. By the way, I’m not saying FDs never get things wrong - obviously they do. Neeld’s FD got pretty much everything wrong, it is plainly evident from the results. Just highlighting the danger of assuming we could do a better job from our armchairs.

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.

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.

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.