praha

I think it's more a Melbourne bad luck thing more than anything. Farmer Hogan Jackson We have a tendency to lose once in a generation forwards and KPP back to WA. Honestly I reckon it has to do with the club being so heavily concentrated and "Melbourne" in nature. Other clubs like Collingwood have a large footprint across the country with supporters scattered everywhere whereas the Demons are distinctively Victorian with a very centralised supporter base in Melbourne, so there's less exposure to the MFC for these players when they're growing up. And thus it's harder to feel "at home" when they arrive. Imagine how alien the MFC is to a kid from WA vs saying Collingwood or Carlton who probably have at least 1 supporter in every year level in a school. They'd go their whole life without meeting anyone with anything to do with MFC until they're drafted. So to a degree I agree, we should focus on Victorian kids and really lean into our focus here. But also maybe we can work on improving our footprint over in WA. Because it honestly seems like we are to WA as Barcelona FC is to Australia.

I was born in 86 lol

In the 80s and 90s the "go home" factor seemed to have more to do with partners and just wanting to raise a family where the player grew up. These days it does seem more to do with going home to mummy. It's the generation. Anyone born post-1995 has basically lived in the womb well into their 20s. I have a bunch of direct reports all born in the late 90s and early 2000s, these kids get "anxiety" if you dare ask them to not arrive an hour late. And god forbid you don't recognise their one month of good performance (after 10 months of [censored] performance mind you)...

The most shocking thing of that video is that we played an away game against Geelong.... in Melbourne.

Geelong's KPF weren't the difference today. They won off the back of pressure and relentless transition off the turnover. Which evidently is exactly how we won last year.

If we play Geelong at GMHBA and none of Essendon Richmond Carlton or Collingwood do, I'll....do nothing but be [censored] off.

Oh [censored] it's Sunday

Hate to be one of those people but definitely felt rigged. Got off from suspension and polls in the last round, 3 votes, when he wasn't even close to it. Daicos best on by a mile. Also polled 3 vs Adelaide when they got absolutely destroyed. Bizarre outcome.

Ah yes the old, "Why doesn't this female exec let me do and say whatever I want?" criticism.

We'll get two top 12 picks for Jackson. Use the higher of those picks to trade for 2x top 25 picks. Use one of those picks for Grundy. In all seriousness though it's crazy Pies are letting Grundy walk. Arguably a fit Grundy this finals series would have been the difference. Cox did nothing all finals. I know they want to sign DeGoey but they still beat Freo without him and they have enough mids to be okay without him. Cats did fine losing Kelly.

So there can never been reconciliation? Even with Australia? Australia as a country as a genocidal history. Suggesting there can't be recognition of the most progressive thinking Queen ever, and someone who actually recognised contributions to improving the lives of Indigenous, suggests this movement has no interest in actual reconciliation. It's on a pathway to nowhere.

What disappointed me was that Sir Douglas Nicholls was knighted by the Queen for his contributions to the Indigenous community, and he spoke very fondly of her. It was a mistake and oversight by the AFLW and Daisy has fallen for a pretty shallow movement from within a dense progressive movement. This takes us a step back imo.

stevie j

Club needs to sign him asap. After losing Jackson because mummy wanted him to go home, if we lose Kozzie because he doesn't like the city of Melbourne, only for him to go to [censored] Adelaide, I will vomit up my [censored].

I think it's because you can genuinely sense the burn in Gawn. When it was happening in 2013 after a 140 point loss, it wasn't as genuinely poignant.

It's "Melbourne" in the sense that we had two home finals against interstate teams, lost them both, and couldn't even get to the Prelim after starting the season 10-0. Straight set exits actually aren't that common. And certainly not from teams only at the start of their premiership window. Most of the time when it's happened it's happened towards the end. Hawthorn for example were staring down the barrel of a straight sets exit in 2015 after being comfortably beaten by the Eagles in the QF. They bounced back in the semi and beat Freo in the Prelim in their second Perth trip in as many weeks. They demolished WC in the GF who had barely travelled. After the QF Hawthorn were bruised and looked really quite bad in that game. Every wrote them off. They turned it around in 7 days. Melbourne isn't the only team with sore bodies and a tough fixture. Last year was great but we won't get much respect from the wider football community until we beat the big boys on the MCG in front of 70k. We choked consistently this year but then looked a million bucks whenever we played in completely different cities. Being the best team around when barely anyone can watch you live is great until you actually start having to compete against the crowd. As soon as people started showing up and making noise, we choked. On Friday, in typical Melbourne fashion, we'd kick a goal and the "Make some noise" clips would flash on the big screen. The crowd would roar and the team's response was to drop marks and get beaten in contests despite outnumbering the Lions players. Worst was when the scoreboard was flashing, everyone was screaming, and Gawn tapped it down Zorko's throat... classic! No doubt injuries, fitness, coaching all played a role but good teams find ways to win. That we put to bed most Melbourne stereotypes in a year when we were in lockdown, only to return to being the league's whipping boy as soon as we can attend games again, is distinctively "Melbourne".

It was a good year by 2019 standards. It was a pretty poor year for the club. One of the club's KPIs is to win at least one final in the AFL and AFLW. Just because you won a flag one year doesn't mean you get a pass the following year. Consistently beaten on our home turf against fellow contenders. Refused to give strong young talent a chance in the AFL. My mate commented today that it seemed like Goodwin and co were resigned to the fact this wasn't our year by about round 20, and didn't want to compromise the VFL team's season. Hence stuck with the same team. Worst case scenario being we still play finals regardless. He is a Pies supporter and said it was obviois Goodwin just refused to make changes and simply gave this squad one last crack before losing Jackson and making some trades in the off season. At least one win though would have been the minimum. Losing both finals in the way we did.... huge fail. We need to set high expectations. A Prelim at least was the bare minimum.

Honestly I reckon we just choke when we play there.

Must be tough for the kid, especially to leave off the back of that end to the year and his performance. Not going to do much for his personal brand.

People have to move on. We lost and it sucks. Much to look forward to over summer with the NBA and cricket, we'll get a good pre-season under our belt... I'm honestly excited about what list changes will take place.

Pies have a heap of finals experience as well as exciting young talent. People judge them off the back of 2021. They've played in 10 of 15 finals series since 2007 and all of their experienced players have big game performances on their resume including three grand finals and one flag. They are a genuine flag threat. Weird everyone has been writing them off all season.

It was fun in parts but the second half was an emotional grind. Two losses to Collingwood, then Sydney, Freo and Bulldogs losses...they were especially tough because opposition fans really gave it to us. The second Collingwood loss legit almost gave me PTSD...it was not a pleasant experience and everyone seemed to take great pleasure in beating us. Then two finals against interstate teams... last night being much tougher to stomach than Sydney. What made it so bad and tough was that 7 of our 8 losses were in Melbourne and 6 of them at the MCG... we were basically laughed out of the MCG. To be honest I am not too fussed about losing, it happens. When gets me worked up is that we won a flag in another city while we were all locked up, and the return is basically us being laughed out of our home stadium time and time again. It's a cruel sport. Just heartbreaking stuff really. To be honest I am accepting now that flags are very hard to come by but seriously 50% of it is just *hunger*. We didn't have it. Or enough of it. Wouldn't say it was a wasted year as I'm sure something will come of it. But I am worried that Goodwin has wasted a year in no further development or blooding of new talent. Time will tell but history isn't on Goodwin's side with this sort of capitulation. Anyway, onto the NBA season.

Complacency imo

Given we just "did a Melbourne" after being top 2 all year and going out in straight sets, the most typical way to respond next year would be to lose the opening round to North, but then win 10+ in a row somewhere during the season, and then lose an elimination final to...wait for it.... ESSENDON. You just know it's going to happen.

Weird vibes all season. No way Longmire or Scott put up with Salem or Brown performances as long as he did. He coached in a trance all season and it showed: zero corridor footy. The club needed a teleprompt to get fans to "be loud", literally seconds later we see 4 Melbourne players fumble it in the forward 50 while the two Brisbane players throw it onto their boot to a teammate on their own 40 metres away... absolutely demoralising football for half the season and tonight was the cherry on top. You could absolutely smell it in the air after that goal on the siren, you could predict Brisbane would take that goal into half time as a real morale boost. Our response was to play with the same energy like as if it was round 3. The defining moment was on the AFL Reserve wing late in the third when Gawn dropped an absolute sitter. Hardly any pressure. He was cooked. You knee then and there the season was done. We were cooked but we play a style that's complicit in it. Goodwin is going to have to coach his [censored] heart out next season to make up for this utter disgrace of a finals series. This year's performance doesn't completely undo last year, but it goes a long way to feeding the "covid one hit wonders" narrative.