Adam The God

Loved watching him play when I was a kid. One of my favourites, along with the Wiz. Thanks for posting, @Ash35. It takes me back. Even though he was a butcher, I wouldn't mind having Anthony McDonald's run and carry in the team either. We need a lot more of that. Something your mob, Ash, have plenty of.

I reckon Hore is doing a good enough job as interceptor / 2nd KPB. I reckon we can play Tom forward this week, because I doubt he'd have a match up down back anyway. He's likely to be playing on O'Brien, so there's a chance he could get busy.

Every right to defend himself, mate, but I just disagree he needs to defend himself.

Not sure why we'd bring in Oscar here. Who's his match up and what does he bring to the side that we don't already have with Frost, Hore and Hibberd? Given Hawthorn's KPF stocks are pretty thin, I wouldn't be bringing in another defensive tall. I'd be looking at more pace for the likely Hawthorn spread on the G. I'd be looking at Spargo or Sparrow to replace Jack. Spargo is probably the more likely.

He started forward for a few weeks in a row, but they stopped that because we couldn't get the delivery right. When we start to deliver better inside 50 and set up better forward, Oliver one out will be a dangerous player.

I thought that a moment ago when Thomas was being interviewed at the end of the first half and he said 'with our young group' etc etc. They're actually in a pretty similar place to us. Carlton have Murphy (31), Simpson (34), Kreuzer (30 in 2 weeks time), Jones (28), Curnow (30 in November), Thomas (32 in June) and Casboult (29). So seven players playing today that are 28 or older. In comparison, on Wednesday night without Jetta (29), we had Jones (31), Lewis (32), Gawn (28 in December), Hibberd (29), Melksham (28 in August), Garlett (30 in August) and Smith (28). You'd have to say Jones and Lewis will hang up the boots at the end of this season and Garlett will either be delisted or retired. Not sure how much longer Smith will be on the list and how far is Hibberd from the end? I'd say he's got another two years maximum. How long does Jets have? It'll be interesting to see how we deal with our older players in the next 2-3 years.

Absolutely, defence is a part of the problem. We let them waltz out of our backline at times. I think they let us do it once for the entire night and even from this position, I think we still stuffed up our chance to score, which was pathetic. Against Richmond we failed to lay enough tackles inside 50. Disagree with this. Preuss constantly brought the ball to ground against St Kilda, but we were outnumbered at ground level, because the delivery was simply long and to a contest (usually 3 or 4 on Preuss). We certainly lack contested marks in our forward half, but we also lack instinctive, hard-working crumbers. Garlett is instinctive and can be great on his day, but doesn't work hard enough, regularly enough. Outside of Jeffy, we literally have no other option at the moment for natural crumber. Does anyone know if Bedford is likely to be an option this year? I think this was done to inexperience and a lack of leadership at crucial times earlier in the season. But when it came time to stand up and be counted, our guys did it. And won not one final, but two.

Jesus. I just had a look at his numbers. I knew he was breaking distance records, but I had no idea he was averaging 26 touches. Incredible. I try to avoid footy when Melbourne lose, so haven't watched much other football this season.

It was always going to catch up with Hawthorn, their lack of top picks over a string of years. They haven't got enough talent in their team. Ironically, their game style is much better suited to the 'G than Tassie. They'll run rings around us next week, despite having a weak midfield. Their game style is so much better, particularly on the MCG. The thing about Clarkson is they'll always be on the fringe of the 8 or the top 4, because of Clarkson's ability to establish a system that enables him to bring in average players to play 'system'. Their ability to rebuild will be based on trading and shrewd recruiting, because they won't have many top 10 picks.

Of course, but it's not a good look and to me, he doesn't need to say anything. We need to get better on the field.

I recall one mark. He may have taken more. But I recall him turning it over by foot twice coming out of defence. Still taps to dangerous areas in our defensive 50 too often, IMO.

I disagree with the notion that he's damned if he stays quiet or damned if he says something. I've been saying for a while now, STFU, Max. Stop banging on in the media. He's not damned if he doesn't write an article in the Herald Sun. FCS, he doesn't have to write anything! Focus on getting better, not writing bloody articles.

The system is broken and our efficiency inside 50 is diabolical. These two things are no longer fitness issues. We're 6 weeks into the season now. I bought it for the first 2 to 3 weeks, you're alluding to even 4 weeks, that time is now up. We're still butchering the footy or playing directly into the hands of our opponents too often from the get go in games for this to be a fitness issue.

Yeah, but even including the Richmond game where we barely laid a tackle in the forward 50, we're third for tackles inside 50 in the competition. We've been tackling. Our problem is we never convert our territorial dominance. Bizarrely, we spanked Geelong for territorial dominance. They were just way better at using it inside 50, helped by our high press.

Unfortunately, it's not just our forwardline. Our midfield is culpable for the poor delivery too.

I reckon we need to improve our system and recruit players who compliment what we're trying to do with that system. That's how we'll bounce back IMO.

Last year we converted more chances and were better structured in our forward half and we hit targets inside. Now that we're not converting our midfield dominance and failing to put scoreboard pressure on, we're losing games. As simple as that. Having said that, I agree with your call RE game plan having always been suspect. I'm over it and we need to adjust.

It's pretty clear that the players and coaches have no idea why we're not winning. Gawn is still banging on about defence. Yeah, it'd help us if we were better defensively, but what's killing us is our forward connection and our ability to hit the scoreboard. It worries me that he and the rest of the coaching staff apparently don't see this. We're second for clearances and CPs and third for tackles inside 50, but last for efficiency inside 50 and DE. So it's blatantly obvious that if we were more efficient in our attack, this would cover our weaker defence (as it did in 2017 and 2018). Further, if you're attacking, it means the other team can't. Whatsmore, scoreboard pressure seems to be a dangerously underrated factor here. Whenever we fail to convert our forward half dominance and eventually leak a goal out the back, it's like a psychological knife through our hearts. Are coaches and players on the same page here? It seems Goodwin is saying it's forward connection and Gawn, the representative for the players, is saying it's defence.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/teams/melbourne/jordan-lewis-puts-melbourne-players-mind-on-the-job-after-bing-win-against-west-coast/news-story/eae39a2f331e99ecd0288957c0e4bfd3 https://www.google.com/amp/s/coupler.foxsports.com.au/api/v1/article/amp/afl/afl-2018-james-harmes-lifts-the-lid-on-the-email-that-set-the-tone-for-melbourne/news-story/c9d87c489445df79dcbd8ff942601927

Whilst I think we'll finish in the bottom 3 or bottom if our form continues, it's fascinating going through the league-wide statistics. We're in the top half on most stats and are second for CPs and clearances (and third for Inside 50s). Conversely and tellingly, we're dead-last for DE and Efficiency Inside 50. It may seem like an easy solution. Clean up forward entries and disposal, and we start to look like a top 8 side again. However, the question really is, how much is our system enabling our dominance in CPs and clearances? Because if our system is the reason for that dominance, time in 2019 won't help us when we look for ways to change our downward momentum. But if we can change system and maintain our CP and clearance dominance, we would stand a chance of playing finals, especially with May and Lever returning, along with half forwards Hannan and VDB. I have no faith that the system will be completely revamped mid-season, nor do I believe it can be. That said, the example of Clarkson shifting gear in 2010 gives me some hope. And a few other points. - Fritsch needs to play on a wing. He's hopeless anywhere else. - Incredibly we'll be third for Tackles Inside 50 by the end of the round. This is majorly influenced by the forward half game we play. - can we maintain solid team defence with 6-6-6 and attack with weight of numbers on the press and use the ball better entering forward 50 on the slingshot?

That really depends on whether we can bounce back next year or not.

We'll lose by a similar margin that we did on ANZAC Day Eve. I've fallen pretty quickly to 7, but I oscillate between 7 and 2. That's part of the MFCSS crap, following Melbourne teams every week for 30+ years.

I can't seem to find a link to support this, but I could have sworn since signing May, the Club had said we've still got money in the cap to target another FA at the end of 2019. I'd say Jones' 2014 contract is almost certainly heavily front-loaded and I doubt his retirement will free up much coin, nor would Lewis' likely front-loaded contract.

Absolutely. We had a bit of a reputation in 2017 of being trash talkers (ala GWS - notice they haven't made a GF either), hence Goodwin's constant calls in 2018 of being humble. I reckon we got ahead of ourselves at the back end of 2017. That's cultural and the fact that Lewis has to send an email around to the players to ensure they stayed on target, that to me, speaks volumes for the rest of the leaders and the culture inside the club. It follows that not a great deal has changed. Let's be clear though. This is not the only issue at play with our poor form.

The fact Jones is experienced is what's kept him in the side. Not his leadership. He's an incredibly poor onfield leader. His head drops immediately, he doesn't rally the troops and in fact, often contributes to a rot setting in. Or like in the case of the St Kilda game, starting the rot, with the first clearance, he kicks long into the arms of a waiting defender. Yep, this was trotted out at the end of last year by Fifty-5 and co, whose nostalgia clearly got the better of them. He's past it. Most keen footy observers would concur, except for a few Melbourne supporters.