praha

That is our record against top 8 sides during H&A over the last two seasons. Only one other team hasn't won against a top 8 side this year. I'm sure you can guess which team it is. What do we put this down to? Inexperience? Coaching? Luck (or lack thereof) of the draw? Culture? This is over two years. Not just this year. The more we see, the more reality starts to hit home. What does this club stand for? I've not pondered that question since round 2, 2013. Here we are, six years on.

Salem, Oliver, Jones, and Frost all need to hit the scoreboard. Yes even from the backline. They can all slot it on the front from 50.

Poor coaching, lazy adaptation (or lack thereof) to 6-6-6 rule, dysfunctional leadership, and growing pains for Oliver and Brayshaw, who have both been found out as being extremely one dimensional. Dunkley for the Bulldogs is demonstrating the type of player Oliver *should* be, or become, but Clarry is going through the motions and simply playing the year out atm. His performance is eerily Scully-esque circa 2011. His mind appears elsewhere. Very concerning. Brayshaw seems down on confidence. Mcdonald has attracted No.1 defender with Hogan gone, and so it's been a learning curve for him. Same with Weeds. Garlett, Spargo, ANB have been useless. There goes out forward line. At one point this year our entire back 6 in Salem, Lever, May, Jetta, Lewis and Hibberd were out. This leads to lack of cohesion and connection with the mids due to lack of experience playing together. The variables all point to a pass for Goodwin given all of the above but the entire coaching team's approach has been a symptom of this and I feel Goodwin has been found lacking. It will be a learning curve for him as well. The stats point to a list badly lack depth, but also a coaching team that had not prepared for nor considered the worst. We've blooded some talent in Petty Lockhart Hore Dunkley but these are atm depth players. That Hore was the general in our backline for a few weeks shows how badly hit by injuries we were. Again though, we've maintained a healthy core, continue to win the ball and continue to get the ball forward. Goodwin's defensive coaching prowess is nonexistent it seems and he would be on notice. You don't go from premiership fancy to bottom 2. I don't care how badly hit by injuries you've been. Will be a fascinating next 12 months. Watch this space (if you dare)

History shows that midfield and contested ball dominance almost always equates to wins most of the time. As always, however, Melbourne leads the way in breaking records no one knew existed. We set standards no one else dared set. And we add new meaning to "inefficient". If we were salesmen, it would be like selling 100% of your stock with a return/refund rate of 80%.

Goodwin won't get as long. Richardson has had to battle horrid injury lists and just broadly poor form. But this was always going to happen.

While I am indifferent to OMac, I'm uneasy about dumping a young KPP that has room to grow. ANB is clearly not up to it but if Tmac and Jetta are any indication, then I think we can develop OMac into a solid player. He also showed in patches last year that he can be a very good player. At times he was even being lauded as a potential AA backman. The club has also indicated that they're developing him to build his strength. He's unlikely to go imo. At the end of the day he's a key defensive player with finals experience, that managed a few scalps towards the end of last year. He has always been a scapegoat for our troubles but any poor performance from him is typically a symptom of rather than a catalyst of our issues.

It was a shocking decision. Yet oh so predictable. Dare i say it was a distinctively Melbourne moment.

maybe. on the flipside we made a prelim last year. so either our list over performed or our FD and coaching team over performed. if the latter then Goodwin should and probably is under internal pressure. If the former then a rebuild is necessary. Some here seem to think nothing is wrong: we don't need a rebuild nor is anything wrong in the coaches box. Mind you we are staring down the barrel of finishing 17th. Five years after we last finished equal 18th in 2014, Roos' first year. There are a lot of perpetual negativity nancies on this forum. But many of them are right. Good clubs have the occasional down year. Poor clubs flat out bottom out. Nothing has changed. Consider our list turnover in coming years: Lewis Jones ANB Hibberd Jetta OMac JKH Garlett AVB Hannan Potentially Brayshaw Either retired, traded, or delisted. Or on the decline (Jetta and Hibberd). We have very little depth upside. Dunkley, Lockhart, Petty have potential. But they so depressingly remind me of fillers from the Roos years. I can't fathom how anyone doesn't think we need a genuine rebuild and restructuring. It's like it's a dirty word. We need to be quick and harsh. Otherwise we're going to end up back where we were in 2012. Make a decision on Jones. Choose between Viney or Brayshaw. Now is the time.

The Lions started last season 0-8 and scored 2-5-17 in one match. They are now a legitimate flag threat. I don't know what that means. But it's both depressing and encouraging at the same time.

That was a 2015 Roos era-esque performance. A weirdly good-bad performance. There to win but never truly winnable. Looked good yet bad at the same time. Anyone that thinks we haven't regressed has rocks in their head. We played like a team with the end of the H&A in sight. Our skills are horrid. Our gameplan is predictable. We took one step forward on 2018. We've taken three steps back in 2019. Brayshaw looks like an average VFL play. Oliver looks like he's been Melbourne'd. We have no forward line. Our backline is dysfunctional. We lost Tyson yet have ANB and Brayshaw to pick up the slack for useless possessions. Jones and Lewis are hopeless. We were solid for 2 quarters but utterly pathetic in the 1st and 4th. 5 tackles to 25 to start the game.

defensively we've been great all day. possession alone isn't a good indicator. they've rushed forward a number of times and our defensive pressure has been superb.

I know I'm normally a merchant of negativity around here but I think we have done well to curb their pace and spread.

they are annihilating us

56% disposal efficiency. horrid.

almost every Bulldogs entry has come from a free kick up the ground. also 18 tackles to our 5.

Hold the phone: a small forward that goes missing when the rest of his team does? wow!

Being "red and blue forever" generally means you sign a 1 million a year contract at an expansion team. We should do everything in our power to make Oliver as disgruntled as possible at MFC so that he plays well and accepts less money to stay at Melbourne out of spite. nothing says "[censored] you" like signing 3 consecutive 1-year contracts for less money. We should also drop him a few times, and then see if anyone will accept a package of him + ANB for a second round pick.

If Jetta returns I wonder who would have made way for him should Hore not have gotten injured. I suspect potentially Lockhart or Dunkley. But would have been interesting. Hore has slotted into Lewis' and Bernie's role rather well.

Yes love the kid but seems to be thinking two sentences ahead of what's actually coming out of his mouth. So he mumbles because his brain is thinking one thing and he's saying another. It's the conversational equivalent of dividing by zero.

In their defense they had 50 minutes to overcome what was effectively a 7-goal deficit. Whilst also stopping our run. Their intensity in the 4th was unreal and even if we had full rotations, they'd still have staged a comeback. When they got within 5 points, I noticed a few things: 1. Oliver stepped it up a notch. He started to control much of our drive. 2. It took us 15 minutes to realise but we started playing smart, boundary side football. 3. We started winning stoppages. This is important because we were badly down on rotations, and our entire centerline was running on fumes. The win showed good character but it's not done much to curb my concerns. That said I thought we mildly resembled a finals team in parts during the 2nd and 3rd quarters. We've won 4 of 6 close games this year. We should have been the Eagles and Crows. But we appear to have forgotten how to really bury teams, an issue that was present throughout 2015-2017.

how much time

Panic panic panic.

we are crumbling to the pressure. BAD.

Here they come. Down to 1 on the bench.