Adam The God

Problem with this is that McDonald didn't give the umpire a chance to make the call, because he didn't raise his arms to contest. It was still too early, but it was line-ball for me.

Hore is a good interceptor, but he's an ordinary kick and a worse decision maker. What's the basic under 12 rule? Don't kick across goal unless you have an absolutely clear option. He does this every week. Every second kick seems to be an incredible clanger. I like the idea of taking the game on with our kicking, but you have to know your limitations and know when the time is right and when a kick is not on.

Talk about typical Melbourne. Only Melbourne turns what should have been a 6 or 7 goal (minimum) victory into a loss. Our kicking in front of goal was pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. I can't recall Petracca ever snapping a goal or kicking a goal around his body. He missed an absolute soda in the third to go with his under 12 miss in the first 5 minutes of the game. Great that he's getting it, but by missing shots, he's undermining all our hard work. Practice your set-shot kicking. Tom McDonald needs to do the same. His snap from the pocket was not AFL standard. Baker was okay in his debut, but struggled with the pace at times. But he's a better option than Stretch IMO. It's an indictment on our outside mid stocks that he's still getting a game. I don't want to be mean to Billy, because he seems like a real trier and I don't think the yo-yoing selection he's faced in the last 2-3 seasons has helped his development, but we can surely see he's not going to make it now. And I'd love to be able to see what everyone sees in Fritsch, but I'm sorry, his lone asset of skill now alludes him too. Turnover merchant. As for our leadership, it'd be easy to say that we have a lack of it, but I don't think it's as simple as that. Gawn was for the most part brilliant tonight and Viney tried hard, but needs to play to his limitations more often. But I want to point out something Jones did tonight that for mine, turned the momentum of the game. It's nearing the end of the third quarter. We've dominated most of the game and are 19 points up. We fail to capitalise on a forward foray and it pings up the other end and there's a stoppage. Our almost 300 game co-captain stands Shuey at the stoppage in our defensive 50. The ball is about to be bounced and Shuey jogs to the other side of the contest. Jones fails to see this and is caught ball-watching. West Coast win it, Shuey is standing by himself as Jones is still ball-watching, and Shuey kicks a relatively easy goal from a defensive stoppage. A goal we should never concede. If it were a first or second year player, you might be able to cop it, but there are not many players with Jones' experience that would switch off like that or lack the game sense in that moment like he did. This closed the gap to 13 points and the Eagles propelled forward again and managed to get another shot on the siren that Sheed missed. It's embarrassing to call Jones a champion of our club. He's no Flower. He's no Lyon. He's no Neitz. He's no Schwarz. Leadership-wise, James McDonald was a mile ahead of him. Nathan has been a loyal servant who we could say wore the jumper with care in very dark times for us. Constantly putting him up on a pedestal is lovely, but it's sentimental for sentimentality's sake. On the positive side, our ball movement at times mirrored 2018 and we played with dare and a dash. It was terrific to see. Particularly, in the first three quarters. We also set up defensively really well and we stopped West Coast from switching the ball too easily. I thought Petty was quite impressive in 1v1s, despite occasionally getting caught in transition. Salem was again a stand out. His tackling was a real feature. I'm liking what Hunt is bringing to our forward half, but he, like the rest of the forwards, needs to continue to work on his goal-kicking from set shots. That said, he's been pretty good from set shots this year. Harmes has become a proper mid. He's on the cusp of A grade now IMO. He's almost as important to stoppage wins as Oliver. But WTF has happened to Brayshaw?! Anyway, that was the inevitable nail in the coffin for our 2019 season. You watch us win 7 or 8 games now (GWS, Freo, Lions, Carlton, Dogs, St Kilda, Sydney and North) and finish 12th or so and miss out on a top 5 draft pick that we could really do with to strengthen our forwardline or midfield.

So far, the 6 6 6 rule has been an absolute disaster. Lower scores, dull games. The game is close to unwatchable as a neutral in 2019.

It was a very good goal. He's decent as an interceptor, but his field kicking is terrible (Clarry saying he's a beautiful kick is bewildering) and he's 50/50 1v1. He'd be justifiable as a back up interceptor, but he turns it over almost every time in the defensive half, which we just can't afford. He was certainly better this week. He halved and won some contests, which he hasn't done since the middle of last season. Each to their own, mate.

When he starts leading at the ball carrier, he'll show some form. He ruined so many of our forays forward, because he simply stands in the same place.

Gee, Goodwin's an arrogant coach. WTF did we revert to our system from the Richmond game when we finally sorted our game style out last week? I was really hoping we'd gain some confidence from that. Instead, the game style this week sapped any confidence we had. Were we tired? Our decision making was terrible and our skill level managed to become worse as the game went on. I'm beginning to think we're in trouble with Goodwin. I just don't understand why we'd be arrogant enough to think we could beat Gold Coast with the bomb game when we'd failed to beat an ordinary Port, Essendon and St Kilda with the same style. And watch a replay of the last 2 to 3 minutes and Jones was simply horrible defensively. As a leader it simply wasn't good enough. I reckon we can put a line through a couple of players too: Hore, Stretch and Oscar McDonald. Not good enough I'm afraid.

We win by 4 or 5 goals I reckon.

Anyone got any other suggestions besides Langdon? He's a turnover merchant.

Show some leadership, Steven May.

I completely agree mate BUT having just watched the video for the first time, does he actually punch him? It seems to me like he throws him / pushes him to the side. Unacceptable to lay your hands on another person, however, I'd also say it's unacceptable to throw beer on someone. Yes, different levels of unacceptability but worth noting. Having said all that, it's a banable offence IMO, because you don't touch another person at the football. And it's more than just a push and shove.

We'll definitely be able to announce 50k at our next home game. That'll be a proud moment as one of many supporters who had stuck fat all these years. What a terrific effort given where we've been.

Thank you, Peter Jackson. Without his help we'd be nowhere.

Oscar was the anchor.

We've changed the system mate. Not only are we not playing 100% chaos anymore, we're playing a deeper zone with the old anchor that we played some games with, even under Roos. Against Hawthorn you need to switch. You need to look for the switch on the MCG constantly, otherwise you simply give it back to the opposition and then get killed on the outside. Pleasingly, we constantly looked for the switch and were set up for it. It didn't always work out but by the final quarter, we'd started to make it work. This caught Hawthorn out and makes us far more unpredictable and tougher to coach against. If this is a sign of things to come, we'll win a few more games. I don't think we'll make the 8. But there are some positive coaching signs. Now we need the underestimated ingredient of returning confidence.

I think we need him across half forward. If he can't get into the game, by all means, through him into the midfield mix, but otherwise, playing him midfield actually means he has less time to pick the option he would from the half forward flank or inside 50.

Yep, congrats, @Drunkn167. Hope he loves it!

I stand corrected, @Nasher. I just don't understand Goodwin's selections anymore. Why bring in Oscar? So he's going to play on Roughead then and Frost is going to play on a small? Surely, O'Brien is playing back? But maybe not, given the omission of Weideman?

Email him then.

Disagree. If the CEO is shithouse, the football club is usually shithouse. Don't get me wrong, I have no idea what's going on inside the football club and do not pretend to. However, to say the CEO has no influence on the on field performance is failing to understand how organisations function. It becomes cultural and the agenda is set from the top down. In terms of speculation, I do find it highly unlikely that we'd go from premiership fancies and top 4 finishers last year, to wooden spooners within 7 weeks, all because of a CEO though. Culture doesn't permeate that quickly. IMO, the reasons for the drastic downturn in performance on field from what I can tell (by what has been said by the club and others connected to it in the media), are varied. From a broken system; players failing to implement the system; players not being fit enough to implement the system; players coming back late because of surgeries; players coming back unfit to pre season; the shortened pre season; potential disharmony amongst the players and coaches; and poor match day coaching. There may well be other reasons not yet revealed, but mid (2-3 seasons) to long term (5+ seasons), the CEO will help shape how functional or dysfunctional an organisation is. In football terms, if the club is dysfunctional off field, it will eventually translate to on field performance. I hope the right decision has been made with regards to Pert. I will wait and see.

I feel like we view footy very differently, mate.

@Mach5 - you haven't heard anything on who we might be targeting have you?

Wow. That poor child looks like a young Hermann Goering.

Luck is a word worth using in regards to May's injury, but so is diabolical. What a massive fail he'll be in 2019. Let's hope he pays us back with interest in 2020.

He's pretty much A grade IMO. He certainly was by the second half of last year.