Adam The God

I expect nothing less from the Murdoch press than this rubbish, but given the lack of TAC in 2020 and the ensuing COVID-19 flow on effects, I'd say our trading in this instance looks even better. Time will tell, but the 2020 draft was likely to be severely compromised and now the 18 year olds being drafted have missed a pretty crucial year of development.

Anyone got vision of this footage? What does it show?

Is the insinuation here that there's friction between Mahoney and Barlett or that people aren't happy with them individually?

It's an interesting observation, because I'd say that from back to front our only strategy is kick long to a contest. Since our intercept numbers are heavily down on 2018, I'd say that within our system there, if we could move the ball quickly from the back half on turn over, we can score very quickly. Melksham's goal last week was proof of that. It took 4 kicks to score: * Hibberd's attacking kick into the corridor. * (dropped by the Richmond player) into Petracca's hands, his kick to Fritsch at half forward. * Fritsch's kick to Melksham in the square, goal. Our connection from the midfield to the forwardline is too slow on the rebound or misdirected from centre clearance. Our connection from the backline to the midfield is too slow and predictable. Both problems are associated with the midfield though and work rate. Given our alleged fitness levels, it's an intriguing dynamic.

We certainly need a focal point up forward, enabling Tom to roam from backward of centre to CHF, and occasionally deep forward. Daniher is not the man though. I wonder if it's actually Jackson with smalls around him. But a lot of pressure for a kid. In the shorter term, we should be trying Weideman.

It's an okay list but it's by no means an indicator of stardom or meaning much at all.

NAB rising star means very little.

Yep, he's still a young fella finding his way. I hold out hope he'll be okay.

This makes me feel better everyone: Overall, I don’t think the Dees’ position is a dire as some make it out to be. Their 2020 players who were 23 or younger on January 1 this year have 399 career AFLCA votes between them – more than you’ll find on any other AFL list.

FWIW, when we're up and about, Charlie Spargo is often involved in most scoring chains. He doesn't get it a lot but he's a good decision maker and solid user when he does. We could do with a bit of that around half forward. He's a better bet for mine than a few others.

Clearly doesn't watch other sports. It's a ridiculous comment and so much of his analysis is revisionist.

Yup, completely agree about it being decision making based as I said in another thread this evening. I just feel like we've been saying that for years about Melbourne. If we could just improve our decision making... I hope youre right about us being close. I reckon the confidence took a battering against Richmond and I reckon we're close to falling off the cliff for this year.

I reckon it's systems, coaching, a lack of confidence, a bit of laziness and then skill via decision making (which I think has always been the MFCs problem) comes into it.

And what do we put this down to? Serious question. And let's not just say Goodwin's game plan. That's far too easy.

He set the tone late in 2018, but he's the worst handballer at AFL level I've ever seen and his kicking is inconsistent. I think he's still got value to the team, but we'll be a much better team if others pass him.

Potentially, although Goodwin was a big fan of ANB in 2018 and when Roos had him yoyoing in and out of the side in 2016, Goodwin backed him the following years.

Abso-[censored]-lutely. I also think this year is mostly exceptionally poor, because our team, despite the obvious holes, is playing nowhere near its potential.

We had a forward coach last year (Rooke in the first part of the season and Rawlings in the second half) and neither fixed the connection issue between mids and forwards. Part of it is the way the overall team (mostly from the midfield and backs) is being coached to play fast and/or simply long. The other part of it is the lack of a decent forward coach and how this impacts on the forwards' learnings. But I think there must be a forward coach this year, because they all break off in line groups at the breaks.

As I've said elsewhere, Ross Lyon would be an ordinary move for our club. A dour coach with a 2005 game plan is not going to get us anywhere. It's Clarkson, Yze or even Beveridge for mine.

It's not a new tactic at all. Higgins and others have been doing that to multiple teams for a while. As for Lever being stationary, you can't clear out your entire defence and I wouldn't blame that incident on him. The golden rule for juniors is never kick short in defensive 50 unless the player you are kicking to is absolutely free. That was entirely Max's fault. He's a terrible kick as a rule and should be looking for a longer target or someone completely free.

Yep, Petracca was very good when he got it. I think the lambasting of Oliver is overplayed. Sure, he could improve his disposal, but for my liking, the players around him need to improve their disposal more so. Oliver is the extractor and constantly wins contested possessions. If he was giving to a Harley Bennell it'd be a different story.

We've tried that before and chose incorrectly and got the old boys club mentality. I don't care about MFC blood as long as the incumbents are good at their jobs. And that last bit is now questionable.

On this point I agree to an extent, but still think that this is so much in the way the players are being directed to play. They are clearly being told to go long down the line and try and get a contested mark or reset for stoppage. Problem is it bounces back too easily. Our spread and work rate has always been a problem. I would have thought that being allegedly fitter this year, we'd be able to push into space and use the width of the ground to find holes like most teams do and Collingwood perfected in 2018. But we don't do this. We simply go long down the line to a contest. So do Richmond mind you, but their fast crumbers are perfectly positioned every time. In fact, those Richmond kicks are often up and unders in order (I presume) to ensure players have a chance to get positioned, but they also have two clear KPFs that bring the ball to ground or are dangerous enough to take contested marks. I'd love to coach against Melbourne. We have absolutely no idea what to do when the game is slowed. As soon as the tempo is slowed, the only way we can possibly score is for the opposition to make an horrendous turn over. One of my football clubs has finally won something and that is Liverpool. If you watch the way Klopp and even Man City play, it's actually a very similar style to Collingwood's and it uses the width of the pitch to ensure it eventually out positions players in the zone and creates space in dangerous areas. I think you're a Liverpool supporter too, so I won't patronise you, but it's a very pervasive tactic that much of the AFL plays now, but that Melbourne don't seem to.

My understanding is we no longer own the Bentleigh Club, so that might explain it...

I really think boiling it down to just kicking is a complete oversimplification of what is going on. I think @tiers summed it up best in that it is a combination of poor leading and poor kicking, but I'd also add that confidence plays into it as well (which Tiers might be alluding to as well). What I found frustrating upon reflection about yesterday is that when we play fast, and we can play fast (as we showed at times yesterday), we can replicate 2018. Ironically, Richmond play fast and it's won them two flags. They play a different style, but it's all about moving the ball quickly forward and not enabling zonal defence to set up properly. This is why Lever kept being caught out of position. Not very many teams can constantly set up defensively and quickly to cover fast ball movement, so we'd beat most teams, most weeks with fast ball movement. What's happened I think is that we've slowly lost confidence due to a lack of poor leading and poor kicking, which has increased the problem, but that the players don't seem to have a blueprint for if/when the opposition makes us play slow. It seems to be long down the line to Max or that's it. Yesterday, Tom played further up the ground and I think that's his go. He has to 'out-motor' his opponent between backward of centre, all the way into deep forward 50. As for Jetts, although I love him, he's only got a high DE by foot because he barely kicks over 20 metres. We need to attack more with our kicking, which given our low confidence is going to be unlikely.