praha

How the hell does an all-time club great "check out". How does it get to that? Like I am not giving him a pass at all here, but we're not being told something here. It reads to me like the club's collective EQ matches that of a potato. You then have the likes of Oliver, who goes off the rails and needs support. And the club's response is, "Shape up or ship out!". Oliver's 2022 season: 1. AFLCA Player of the Year 2. All Australian 3. Best and Fairest 4. ANZAC Eve medal 5. King's Birthday medal 6. Lou Richards medal The above isn't exclusive to 2022. Oliver's 2023 season: "His standards aren't up to it. He's on the trading block!" What the heck? Now Trac is saying he isn't happy with the club. Maybe Oliver isn't the problem here. Maybe in throwing Oliver to the wolves, it has divided the club. Which is ironic given some of the players we've brought in this past 24 month period.

We will come to regret trading Oliver if it happens. Even if he never gets back to his best, to turn our back on easily a top 10 maybe even top 5 Demon would be catastrophic. This isn't blood Treloar. Or Taranto. He's a 4x B&F winner. All Australian. An absolute champion of the club. My view as someone that has managed large teams of 20-somethings is that you have to really identify and understand the motivations of different personalities. He's still a kid at heart. They all are. What were we all doing in our 20s? It will be very hard for me to return if any of Viney Trac or Oliver leave.

The fall from grace comes after the flag. Hence the fall from the "grace". Also we didn't finish top 4. We finished 5th and 7th. And didn't win a final in that period. Geelong has missed finals twice in 17 seasons. Collingwood has played in 4 Prelims, two Grand Finals and won a flag in the last 6 seasons. On top of two Grand Finals and a flag at the start of last decade. Really is that the comparison you're making?

Last off season was almost exclusively about Melbourne. Much of the stuff reported on about the Bulldogs turned out to be true. They haven't done much since this moment. And they still might miss finals.

Make of this what you will but there is a lot of angst at the club at the moment. Lots of commercial and "coterie" frustration due to the club's performances. This stems from a brand of football that is unattractive and not bringing in fans to games. Additionally, ratings have been dismal for Melbourne games, which will likely see the club relegated to Foxtel next season. This is leaking out at the same time of murmurs about Viney and Petracca... very random criticisms of Pickett... ongoing talk about Oliver. There are media darlings that are planting stories to help ignite change internally. Where that change will be I don't know. But I am still dumbfounded that some here thought we would escape all of this after two straight finals exits, and the performance of the past 12 months. This is a colossal fall from grace that no other team has experienced this century. If we'd started the season like we ended it, we'd be bottom four. And we played our worst football before Trac was injured. Getting ready for a bumper off season.

Port, GWS, Carlton, Brisbane. Four games we lose through just dumb football. Like why are you hanging back defensively with 1 minute left? Push up! Put pressure on them. Anyway, good riddance this season. Let us never talk about it again.

Peak Billings snap on goal.

lol subbing JVR out.

Late season game against Sydney rings a bell. Similar vibes tonight. Had beaten them earlier in the season. Then got pumped.

night games against non-vic clubs just don't work for us.

We aren't winning the Collingwood game. We never looked like winning. Yes we had a million more inside 50s but we were basically playing marker's up. Arguing losing Brayshaw lost us legs doesn't make sense because we dominated possession. We never looking like winning even when Brayshaw was playing. Against Carlton we were the better team for probably 70% of the game and had a chance to put it away probably 6-7 times in the last. Shocking coaching, poor player management and poor selection cost us that. Combined with poor onfield leadership from Viney, Petracca and Oliver who all made poor decisions in that last quarter. We badly choked and it had nothing to do with losing Brayshaw. Honestly if your argument is that we didn't win the flag because we lost one player, then we are in serious trouble. I totally respect the spiritual and cultural impact losing Brayshaw had, but I strongly recommend going back and watching the Carlton semi again if you dare. Our gameplan, finishing, rotations... *we* lost that and it had nothing to do with losing Brayshaw.

I mean, we've lost 4 straight finals all at the MCG after two top 4 finishes. That's not just rare. It's glorious in its ineptness. 2024 isn't the only blemish in all of this. We've been working towards this for a while.

He doesn't say anything new but nothing he says is wrong. Controversially he says that offering Brayshaw, a player only one concussion away from retirement, a six year contract was a mistake. He's not wrong. He also alludes to the club knowing about Oliver's issues but still offering him an eye watering contract. He says trading Grundy was a mistake. As was gifting them to Sydney. He says letting Jordon walk was a mistake. He says we risk doing a Tim Taranto-like mistake by giving up too much for Houston. Some here dare not admit it but nothing he said was wrong. He also said that Goodwin's coaching is predictable and boring, and that it'll cost us prime time spots and crowds next season. Again, not wrong.

Last year's finals really broke me. I hope this crop can recover and bounce back next year.

Problem with clubs like Melbourne and St Kilda is they lack pride. They don't have large enough fan bases to feel the scrutiny. So if the finals is out of the equation, they put the cue in the rack. You can tell based on effort. There are occasions when they're just genuinely not very good. But I remember 99, 2001, 2003, 2019 and now 2024. Good teams that have bad seasons and they just limp over the finish line. Saints ain't that good but they're better than this. They were awful today. They've given up.

I'd be very surprised if McAdam plays another game for the club this year, perhaps ever.

They won't market a night game in the middle of winter to families. It's a waste of time. Best option is probably international students with free tickets.

they were bad seasons because we weren't just there to make up the numbers in finals. not winning a final in both seasons made them bad seasons.

If we'd stuck with Grundy we'd be doing better than we are now. Getting Grundy was the right choice. The coaching team completely cooked that thereafter. Anyway, our drafting has been good. It only takes one good trading period to turn things around. We need to replace Brayshaw, and bring in a bit more pace. JVR is coming on as a decent alternative to Jackson. He took a bit longer but he's looking good.

2022 and 2023 were both bad seasons though.

Goodwin still deserves to turn things around next season but he's burnt his tickets up quicker than any other coach in recent memory. He has coached poorly this year. And as a club we've been poor this year just as we were in 2019. It might take a while to right this ship. But it's definitely the end of an era.

You absolutely couldn't get more Melbourne than winning a flag on the other side of the country while we're in locked, losing 4 finals at the MCG in a row, and then absolutely [censored] the bed again when your best player get injured. I've said it once and I'll say it again: Goodwin is a [censored] coach if absolutely everything isn't going his way. He's Hinkley 2.0. We have another decade of this to look forward to.

I'm leaving.

i counted 4 missed talkes in that sequence.

This game is basically just a slightly ****ter version of our last 4 finals. Never look like winning but weirdly don't quite look like losing.