jnrmac

Juddy's Grandmother wasn't much chop as a source.

The facts are we played our best football when we had the most injuries. Coaches and players rose to the challenge when we won 3 of the 4 games with 6 day breaks. We were innovative, unpredictable and the acid was on players to step up. I find it hard to believe we made a fundamental change to game style as suggested by BigMac Jnr. Not saying it didn't happen but it didn't look to me like we did and no-one here appeared to pick up on if we did (which would be unusual). The form of individual players dropped off which may have been related to injury or maybe related to fitness or not being able to keep up wit the game plan (both physically and mentally). It is beyond dispute that the coaching staff failed in the last round. For that team to run out and play as poorly as they did the first quarter is unforgivable. Particularly given our poor starts throughout the year. The fact is we lost 3 of our last 5 games - against lowly sides - and nearly lost a further one against the Lions after leading by 29 pts at the 15m mark of the last quarter. I don't believe this relates to game style being changed.

Happily trade him and a pick for Whitfield

It didn't work did it. He failed at his job of getting them ready for games. 11 times we lost the first quarters and we only kicked 5 goals once in an opening stanza....

Yep. 9 more points and we would have been playing finals.

Good point about the sponsors. I imagine the sponsors would have been excited to finally see melbourne make finals. This, after all, is a massive potential for exposure and one of the reasons why a sponsor invests in an up and coming team. The extra few weeks of exposure with only 8 clubs left to exploit it is gold. If the club has treated the sponsors with the same disdain as supporters then this bodes very poorly. Now I have no clue about how they have treated sponsors this year but I know form first hand experience in the Neeld/Gardner years that we were woeful. The club was happy to take the money but the sponsors were almost unanimously peeved at the way the club treated them. The Mission Foods debacle was instructive. We have improved emormously since this period (from a very low base) and I would hope that the sponsors have had the club engage with them about the finish to the year. But the way they have treated supporters has me fearing they haven't done the right thing.

Stretch is the ideal wingman if he can generate some overall improvement in his contested work....

His best is terrific. Sill heart in mouth with ball in hand. Needs to be smarter about leaving his man but can see why the coaches tell him to back himself. Hopefully can iron out some of the deficiencies....

Pathetic and churlish response. If I was an investor in a company that was responsible for such a performance I would expect, and it would be a given, that the company responded to an appalling result. Jones response was his personal social media account and is akin to the Sales Manager fronting investors rather than management. The club looks weak and disinterested in speaking to it major stakeholders.

If he hasn't got his head around what went wrong then we definitely have the wrong coach.

The Hawks clearly changed their game plan earlier this year. They suffered losses and chnaged their playing positions of several personnel. In the process the put to the sword the claims that it "takes several years for a team to change its game plan"- an idea that was pretty common on these boards during 2007-2014..........

I don't think we had those three in the middle in the first quarter. Is that what you are saying?

He did recruit Vickery and Frawley....

Well its clear then, if your mates have settled it. What exactly is the cause of our problem as you would see it? Because I know what I see and the simple stats in the OP make it irrefutable. We are terrible at one on ones in the defensive 50. The worst in the league in fact. Not even in dispute. Given Jetta and Hunt are excellent one on one defenders that doesn't leave too many does it? And when we get thrashed by the likes of Daniher, Brown, Grundy (when fwd), Cox, Walker and Buddy its pretty obvious where the problem is. Some here are trying to argue that our defence is great and its our midfield that is the problem. It doesn't hold water and our clearance stats are pretty good (we are 4th for overall clearances, 4th for centre clearances and 6th for stoppages). Some don't want to see that and their perogative. But its wrong. Its wrong with what we see week after week and its wrong with the stats that make it clear as day. As for this statement about OMac "I think he has improved remarkably and will be a star". I'm afraid you are delusional if you really think that. He has improved no doubt. No one I have read has denied that. But he is barely adequate as a defender and has no urgency or physical presence.

Who said anything about self-pity? Your post is complete nonsense. You are saying the coach has no responsibilty for what has transpired. This is our club. The coach is an employee. He has presided over a failed season. I think we are owed an explanation and an outline of what he plans to do to fix it. It's a disgrace that he hasn't been heard from.

Who would have thought.... Some of these players/coaches are beyond teaching....

You are wrong on two key points: In the last 6 weeks we were last for i50 efficency. ie Scoring. "Pace of ball movement" we are 18th in the AFL as measured by C/Data. No idea how it is measured.

In 2005 Sydney had a very settled team. Not one change between round 15 and the GF. Absolutely amazing stat.

Haven't heard from our coach. Pretty poor if you ask me.

You haven't been listening OD...

We love the wind....

How stupid would we look to have traded pick 2 and then pay $10m for Kelly a couple of years later. We have done some dumb deals but I'd be pretty sure this isnt going to be one of them.

For you: Saints 8 shots to 5 Blues 4 shots to 5 Cats 7 shots to 6 Free 5 shots to 7 Tigers 7 shots to 4 Ess 4 shots to 6 Hawth 9 shots to 2 Adel 5 shots to 4 Kangas 13 to 7 Suns 9 to 3 Coll 5 to 7 Dogs 1 to 6 West Coast 7 to 4 Doesn't bolster your argument at all. Our first quarters have been shite all year. Look at the two bottom clubs at the time Hawthorn and North. Disgraceful. Want to deny there are mental problems that aren't being addressed about our starts? Nice pot shot. Try again.

Richmond supporters don't live in Richmond. They can't afford it.....