praha

Before his injury he was having a career best season. I think the latter half of the season was a combination of bad player management regarding injuried, and an inability of the playing group to manage and deal with expectations. IMO he falls victim to both scenarios. He is a very tradeable asset so if the right deal comes he's definitely not "untradeable" like a Hogan or Oliver. I wouldnt seek out a trade for him but if a team inquires, I'd listen.

I can see Frost becoming a Sean Wellman type player for us.

Wow what a breakdown.

First time poster... I expect to see all of the rumours in this thread reported on SEN tomorrow.

Round 1 is probably the best scenario to appease the Pies. The first week tends to attract big crowds and so kicking it off against Collingwood would probably get 70k through the gates. Having it after QB probably limits the appeal and if one team is already knocked out of finals, it makes a 50k+ crowd tougher to get through the games. Two clashes before mid-season benefits both sides.

I work a 24/7 roster and give up extra pay on weekends to watch Melbourne. I'll be requesting Sundays every week next year. It's just not worth it. I just calculated: I missed out on close to $10k in extra salary this year.

Yeah but that doesn't really dismiss my point.

Except they weren't brought to the club in their twilight, and they weren't brought over as mentors. They all arrived as depth to what was already an exceptionally talented side. We got Cross and Lewis over for the sole purpose of providing leadership. Which is my point about it saying a lot about the experienced leaders already at the club.

Consider that a lot of the people in marketing and social have been at the club since the Neeld years, even before, when we went on a hiring spree to expand the brand. Problem is that social teams have really tough jobs these days, and in the early days of Facebook and social media, a lot of people were applying for and getting "social media" jobs not realising that they are effectively taking on a customer-facing PR role, which is much tougher than B2B PR and management because you have no control over how the message is amplified. The entire social industry is grossly underskilled and Melbourne FC always seems to be battling negative feedback. Posts can go viral very easily. The draft post was a massive oversight, even if it was done in good faith with the intent to be informative. A lot of brands have these PR graduates or "influencers" with no corporate experience in these roles, and it's effectively like putting an Instgram model in charge of your entire brand.

If that were the case we wouldn't have needed to get Vince, Cross, Lewis over the years. Especially not Lewis.

We'll either thrive and rise, or crash and burn. There's no in between imo.

We're beyond that now. We were desperate for someone like Cross. If we need to get guys like McVeigh then it just proves my point that Jones is treading water. We keep getting in these old blokes that are beyond their prime, and expect them to magically instil their Jedi wisdom on the youngins. You can't do that unless there's a changing of the guard because the very fact you're getting these guys in is an indictment on the current experienced leaders at the club like Jones and even Gawn, who have been there for century. Seriously, every club seems to be fine crafting its own leaders except us. We have to go begging to the Jedi council for a new Master every 12 months.

Just what we need. Another player whose heart is elsewhere but comes to us to offer "leadership" on a retirement plan. No thanks.

Verbally committed means absolutely nothing in the context of a legal transfer. Anyway, I'd dump Watts, Frost, and a second round pick for Lever and a first rounder.

Is it?

No he didnt. He actually had to correct them a few times and say "when we make it", which might be interpreted as him saying it was an inevitability but he stepped in a few times to make it clear we hadn't actually made it yet. He spoke confidently about finals but he never acted as if it was a sure thing.

Don't get too worked up over this stuff. It's pointless now. Move on and focus on next year.

Members are important stakeholders though because they have a bearing on brand value. The more people directly engaged with the club, the better. So we're actually part and parcel of the business and its sponsors because we're a reflection of brand loyalty and support. Paid members are considered to have high purchase intent, which helps the club grow and attract additional financial sponsorship. There is a disconnect though and I agree that we're treated more like fodder for the coffers. Goodwin's dismissive nature of past record I think is indicative of this, and PJ does it to a degree when talking about building membership numbers to attract sponsors. It worked at Essendon because the members had something to be proud of during his tenure (even if they weren't winning finals). We've grown in numbers and have gone to games in record numbers, only to see our team fail to lay a tackle in the first 10 minutes of the most important game of the past decade. You couldn't find a bigger disconnect between playing group, club and support base than that. The PR approach is a damned if you do damned if you don't scenario. The club had to respond publicly. For any other club this would be a wake up call but history shows we'll likely see more of the same. I wouldn't be surprised if we take a step back next year and revert back to 2011. That's the cynic in me that thinks the loser stink lingering aroung the clubrooms will remain.

Finals have been a KPI for 2 years. Failed both times. If we don't make finala next year then Goodwin would be under enourmous pressure. Top 4 should be the goal. However many wins that takes.

This i think is part of why ignoring past records entirely can be dangerous. Ignoring the fact the club hasnt beaten North for a decade is fine for the players but the CLUB and fans have had to put up with being bullied by North. Saying the record doesn't matter is a little insulting to fans who have to put up with it. It's the same with finals. Why wouldn't you use not playing finals for a decade as motivation? I think Goodwin has learned some hard lessons this year and a lot of it has to do with understanding what the club has gone through and why fans react the way they do. When you say "losing streaks" or whatever are irrelevant, what you're saying is that the playing group is separate from what the club more broadly stands for. The playing group regardless of whether they have been there for 1 year or 2 years has to take on the baggage of 17 straight losses to North, or 11 years without finals, or 50+ years without a flag. If breaking those droughts aren't used as extra incentive, it's not wonder the team put up the performance it did on Saturday. We went from one extreme with Neeld and Schwab and obsessing over the past, to Roos and Goodwin trying to not just forget but completely ignore the bad. The team will never move forward until it acknowledges the fact it's been embarrassing for a decade. I found Goodwin's messaging about the North drought to be a massive disconnect between coach and support base, and I have to assume it's the same between playing group and fans. If I found out that the club's finals drought wasn't mentioned in the leadup, it would make me feel like my wait and pain has been pointless. Simply saying "we need to win to make finals" isn't enough. Are you going to really take it on and guide this team to its first finals in a decade? There is undoubtedly a disconnect between club and fan in this regard. Goodwin and co really need to take these droughts by the balls, and acknowledge and understand why they hurt the support base so much. Don't tell me the record against North is irrelevant. It is [censored] relevant because it's a god damn competition, and an opponent has bullied the club and its fans for a decade. [censored] own up to it. To me that is the biggest gauge of measuring any potential disconnect.

Goodwin had his press conference after the game. He faced the media immediately after the loss. What could he have said during the press conference today that he didn't say on Saturday?

Roos started with a similar narrative though and had to grow into the behaviour of bundling his performance with the players. In 2014 Roos often separated himself from the playing group. It seems there are similar cultural issues that persist because we now have a second coach who is raising issue with players not followong directives or playing as the team requires. The common theme is Jones in a leadership capacity and I'm just worried that his behavioural characteristics adversal affect culture and playing behaviours. We've all worked in environments with bad team leaders and bosses. They might be awesome at their job but in a position of power and amplification, it can hurt the group below them. I'm just super concerned about the consistent theme between Roos' early years and now Goodwin's first year. That theme is one of the playing group and individuals not doing what is required by the plan and directives. We should be beyond first quarters like that.

I'm not sure the CEO oversees marketing department decisions on occasions like this. There would be a marketing head who would educate the board on long term goals and plans, but ultimately on-the-fly decisions would be approved by that person. Granted the piece itself never explicitly mentions finals as a surety but it was bizarre given the timing. The CEO would be no more influential on marketing choices like that email as he would be on game day decisions, which is essentially zero involvement. It's not PJ's role to approve marketing campaigns or EDMs. If he looked over all of that it would be pointless having a head of marketing. The approval process would end before PJ, and the marketing head would report results to PJ. And anyway, PJ's pregame interview on SEN suggested that if he was involved he would never improve it, because his tone was very much "wait and see". He had to calm down talk of finals multiple times. There's nothing to suggest he would have approved that material. But I wouldn't want to be the one reporting to him on the effectiveness of the campaign, because it's brand damaging and reflects a culture of complacency, which, in a professional environment, mirrors ameuturism.

The club is in lockdown. I suspect there's a stringent PR plan being put in place. The club has to be pretty careful with its brand management. Damned if they do, damned if they don't atm.

One thing I have noticed is the style dictates high percentate shots most of the time. We go for the short pass when entering 50 so we rarely have shots on goal on the run. Collingwood pansied us on Saturday by running and streaming down field and taking their chances. We get a shot within 50 and pass it off to a player on a slightly better angle, who misses. Why the [censored] would Mcdonald pass it off to Tyson who hasn't kicked a set shot goal since under 10s? Against Brisbane we ignored open shots and instead tried the short option to Hogan. Brisbane went bang bang bang and arguably cost us a finals spot. We played too safe. I think it's less the style itself and more so players being unable or unwilling to take risks. We may have played a hard and aggressive style during the year but there was nothing flashing or overly exciting about it, which gives off the perception that the year was tough to watch, which it was. Games were mostly either tight wins or losses. Make no mistake that missing the finals wasnt just about losing games. It was also about being unable to really bury teams when we had the chance. We were hit hard by injuries but that doesn't justify 7 straight goals by the opposition, or allowing an opponent to cut down a 40 point lead. Collingsood was great on Saturday but part of the reason why they're not playing finals is because they let teams go on runs like we did, something like 7 of the last 9 goals. That's the different between finals and Mad Monday. And we fit firmly in that basket with the Pies. Just an average team that doesn't know how to *really* get it done.