jnrmac

Why? We are playing poorly and have been for weeks. It is beyond dispute. The stats back it up. If we fix the problems we will win. If we don't win we clearly wont have fixed the problem. the coaches know what the problems are. It whether they can do anything about it that matters.

Usually Pickett is in the first bounce. regardless, It is absolutely on the coach if it keeps happening. Change it up or something. Anything but doing the same thing week in week out for the same result.

No on rests in the fwd line any more, that went out in the 70s. The fwds are expected to run up the ground and support our exit out of defence, then sprint back into the fwd line. We are out of kilter vs the comp with regards to game time. Oliver seems to get better in final quarters though. He has generally been outstanding the longer the game goes on.

I want to see a ferocious Melbourne from the first bounce. The achilles heel of Goodwin - getting the team up for the contest from the word go.

Maybe. Perhaps if you could compare Langdon and Brayshaws pressure points (which I don't have access to) that might tell the tale. It seems to me the whole team has dropped off. Intuitively if one part (say midfield) drops off then it affects everybody. Its all in or nothing

No one said the sky is falling but if you can't see the relationship between our pressure earlier in the year and our performance then versus now you aren't watching very closely. I too would be hopeful that the coaches are addressing it but we are 3-3 from the last 6 games and they haven't addressed it yet.

It starts in the middle. GWS waltzed out of the middle and smashed us in clearances. It is in the fwd line where earlier in the year we were holding it in. Our defence is under huge pressure and is holding up but can't keep doing it forever. You can see it with your own eyes. We not running and closing down oppo thrusts. We're relying on scoring from our def 50. We're also playing a lot more stop/start with fewer play ons than earlier in the year. But above all we aren't pressuring the opposition when they have the ball. Thats what good teams do, That's what we did earlier in the year, We have stopped doing it.

Goldstein has played more minutes this year than Max. Just sayin..

Most of us can see when the team is not switched on in the first few minutes of a game. Very frustrating We know when the team pressure is off and they are not working hard enough. It was clear against Collingwood, the Giants, and North. Well here is. What most if us intuitively know: From Pure Footy: Aside from an alarming drop in scoring in recent weeks, Melbourne also has an issue when it doesn’t have the ball. “In the first 10 weeks of the year Melbourne was the No.1 rated pressure team in the competition, they were flying,” Hoyne said. “Since then their pressure has dropped to 14th.” James Jordon’s pressure point are down from 63 to 29 per game, while James Harmes, Charlie Spargo, Christian Salem, Clayton Oliver and Kysaiah Pickett have also dropped their pressure significantly in that time. “If you’re poor without the footy, you’re not winning the flag. It’s as simple as that,” David King said. So all of those saying: 'nothing to see here', 'if you had of asked me at the start of the season that we would be 12-3 I'd take it', 'everybody stop panicking' etc etc take a good look at the stat We were no 1 for pressure, now 14th. That's alarming and it is the easiest thing to fix. Its effort and attitude. If we don't bring it its on the leaders and the coaching staff. So why isn't it being addressed? Why has it dropped? Why has no-one been dropped (other than Melksham and Weid) for not putting enough pressure on? This is the difference between finishing top 4 or finishing in the bottom half of the 8. Are we going to let this opportunity slip us by? Are we going to hold the leaders and coaching staff accountable or simply do what weak teams do and blame othersor the draw or some other BS. And say 'gee we had a good year didn't we?' We as supporters need to demand more of our team and our club. Its not good enough to play the way we have been in the last 4 to 6 weeks

Salem shoud be dragged if he kicks less than 20m. We need 50m bullets and he is the one that can do them,

Oliver, Pickett and Petracca kill us..Wow its like our whole midfield can't kick. Gawn is better than the lot of them I thought Spargo was better than that. Didn't he kick 8g 1b last year?

I think it will. Early in the year theball was being brought to ground allowing our crumbers and pressure players to hold it in there. That doesn't seem to be happening as we look to hit targets more

I was looking for stats on this and found the following. We are definitely not holding the ball i50 like we were: The Demons were ranked the fifth over the first 14 weeks for retention per inside 50 entry. That has dropped to 11th over the past fortnight.

7 from the top 35 is interesting. McDonald and Langdon I get as they are super fit. Tracc and Oliver I dont get. May and lever probably aren't doing the big kms And Gawn, well he's a powerhouse. Surprised to see Goldstein doing similar minutes

Adrian Anderson says hi....

Lets hope they don't risk him going for 4 weeks by resting him.... He always kills us!

Earlier in the year we were holding the ball in our fwd 50. It seems this aspect has dropped off. And that is Spargo Kozzie ANB Fritta plus the wings and mids helping out. GWS exited pretty easily and thats a concern.

ANB going under the radar. Been average for weeks I reckon, 1st qtr he made some awful decisions and set the tone. Had a free kick 70m out, his man on the mark was prostrate on the ground and he just sat there and wited for him to get up instead of taking off and getting the ball deep inside 50 He is somewhat undroppable under Goodwin but needs to lift IMO

So frustrating the umps don't know and enforce this

Yeah WTF its only been 57 years

That's not correct. It's 10m

Oh don't worry they will if needed We are world champs at that

Here's the thing. It wasn't a bad day in the office as you say. To say so is glib, 'oh well we're 12-3' This has been building for weeks. We have only played 3 or 4 good games for the year - where we have played 4 quarters. The rest in reality have been scratchy wins an dpoor losses. We seem incapable of starting well, getting a lead and building on that lead. That is not the signs of a good side. Yes we can defend but our defence is under huge pressure and can't stop everyting. We are 3 and 3 from the last 6. We havent kicked 10 goals in the last 3 matches. Our fwd line is dysfunctional. We haven't kicked 100 pts since round 7. In the last 3 weeks Kickett has kicked 1 goal, TMac 1 goal, Spargo 1 goal, and Fritsch got 3 yesterday taking his tally to 4. That is not going to take you deep into September. We are papering over the cracks because we are 12-3. Our vaunted midfield yesterday were terrible. They were obliterated. They have been playing poorly for weeks by only playing in patches. Yesterday they were completely outclassed and were shown up. Bathwater maybe. The sefless footy seems to have disappeared and it was bees to the honeypot yesterday - what happens when players lose trust, don't play instinctive first give football and start worrying about their own stats. We have a hard run home and if the problems aren't sorted quickly we will be rueing a massive lost opportunity. Goodwin has had a good year but his history as a coach shows some deep flaws including not being able to get players up for the first quarter, being stubborn in selection and losing games to sides we should in reality smash. Think 2 losses in 2020 to bottom 4 sides that cost us a finals spot, think 2017 loss to 14th placed COllingwood when we didn't lay a tackle in the first 20mins of a must win game to make finals. This year poor wins over North, losses to the Pies and Adelaide. It's clearly not time to throw everything out and start again, nor is the sky falling, but lets be realistic about where we stand. We have had a good run but the next 4 weeks are probably the most important in the last 15 years. Crumble and this could set us back a long way. Stand up and acknowledge where and what we need to do better. GoDees

GWS had 2 players 5m from TMac when taking his shot on goal. The protected zone is 10m Brayshaw had a GWS player waltz past 3m away. WHen the ump called play on he tackled Brayshaw. That is a 50m every day of the week. Mumford ducks with the ball in the centre and collects Gawn's knee. Free Mumford, i50 shot on goal There were at least another 10 I can recall but can't be bothered detailing. Hopeless as usual.

Last 3 games: Less than 10 goals each week Pickett 1 goal TMac 1 goal Spargo 1 goal Fritsch 4 goals. Infuriating.