Adam The God

Collingwood haven't won a flag, but you could certainly argue Cox fills this need.

There's no way Oscar lost us that game, but it's as clear as day now, that he's not good enough. His positioning is terrible, his body strength actually seems to be getting worse and due to a perennial lack of confidence, he consistently makes the wrong decision. I backed him for a few years, but my patience ran out at the start of 2018. Clearly, the patience of the FD was exhausted around the same time, if not the season prior. Frost is an improving option and while Petty develops and May and Lever are injured, he's good support. Oscar has not improved and should no longer have a place in this side once May and Lever are back. I'd be playing May, Lever, Hore, Frost, Hibberd and Jetta back there in 2020, enabling Salem to move further up the ground with KK (if he can stay on the park).

I'm not particularly interested in reflecting on too much about the game, but I did say to my mum who I was watching with tonight, midway through the third quarter, when we were 31 points up and Sloane was out, 'we won't lose it from here, they're a man down and he's their best mid, if we do, it'll be one of the worst loses of the last decade'. Sure enough, this football club managed to deliver again what no other can. Pathetic really. When the game was there to be taken, we shirked a bunch of chest marks and blazed away and missed sodas in that last quarter that would have buried the opposition. The only real positive for me out of this game (aside from the moments of good ball movement when Adelaide switched off), is the continued form of young Oskar Baker. He shows poise under pressure, in traffic and makes the right decisions more often than not. He looks like a real find. Well done recruitment and development team, and well done, young man.

We talk about Oscar and for good reason, but I reckon Tom is on par with him. Oscar rarely manages to halve contests, let alone win them, while Tom rarely marks anything, let alone kicks goals. 10 from 11 games is a pathetic return for a player of his maturity. The delivery has been rubbish, blah, blah, blah, but he doesn't mark the bloody thing.

Why is there a thread about Jeremy Cameron? Has this come up in the media or is the OP just throwing it out there based on nothing?

Oliver started at full forward in the last quarter. I think they do throw him forward at times, but eventually you have to try and get him into his best position in the midfield. I like that he's taken a couple of contested marks recently. If he can add that to his game, he'll be able to kick a few more goals as a result when played one out in the forward line. Contested marking is what Cripps has on him at this stage, but Clarry is a much better kick.

Of course, I'm not inside the walls of the football club. All I can see is what I see on the football field and since this allegedly happened, his confidence has never seemed to be quite the same. Speculation without talking to Petracca, but there is certainly a correlation. As for Stretch, that's for all to see. He's gone into his shell over many seasons now, as he's been in and out of the side. And until this year, regularly only got one shot at it at a time. On the football field, he seems to have come back each time, weaker for it.

A lot more to it than that. As someone who is a coach, every player has different triggers. I'd argue he's had to wear quite a bit of expectation and hype. He's having a good season and his mental frailty only seems to come into it when he's taking set shots and he overthinks things. He wouldn't be the first AFL footballer to go through that.

https://wwos.nine.com.au/afl/afl-matthew-lloyd-criticises-melbourne-christian-petracca-efforts-in-finals-win/0f7951fb-66f0-45cf-8730-e6a71ec3ab36 Not the greatest source, but better than nothing: Lloyd’s criticism around Petracca’s game comes following the revelation from former AFL great Brian Taylor, who revealed earlier in the year that the young forward had been identified as being selfish. “I’m led to believe that there was a video run and it was run on loop of the same player over and over again moments before they went out onto the ground – not giving a handball,” Taylor said on Triple M’s The Mid-Week Rub.

I know this is a Stretch thread, but I reckon our coaches (Goodwin?) have severely mismanaged Stretch and Petracca. Stretch has yo-yoed in and out of the side for 3 or 4 years now, while someone like ANB has had continuity and managed to get some confidence up last year. Stretch doesn't know what his game is anymore and he seems to overthink everything. Petracca has done a lot right this season, but that internal spray they gave him mid last year for not passing off in one set up has really damaged his confidence. His goal kicking wasn't great in the early part of last year, but it has got worse since the moment that selfish play of his was allegedly pulled out in front of every team mate. He tries to do too much too often and sometimes those dinky kicks inside 50 come off, but more often than not, he should be backing himself in to kick the goal. I suspect that if Goodwin had his time again, he and his team would have handled Stretch and Petracca differently. Billy won't make it now and Christian can't seem to take that next step, which is convert his multiple shots on goal into scoreboard power. He'd be a very good player if he managed that.

With our lack of defence in the forward half and in the midfield, people are kidding themselves if they think things are going to turn significantly by bringing back our 5 best defenders in Jetta, Hibberd, Salem, Lever and May. The defenders barely have chance if the rest of the team don't work hard enough.

Surely through 2008-2013 we didn't win too many quarters. Today felt like 2012 to me though, until the last quarter. I'm over it really. I had only just begun to trust this side towards the back end of last season and now they're a complete rabble.

We have a lot of frankly VFL footballers playing at either end of the ground too. Collingwood and the Bulldogs showed in recent years that injuries shouldn't matter if your system and work rate is there. We were okay in 2017 in this respect, but not only are our systems out this year, our work rate at times has been abysmal. The midfield defensive transition is still VFL grade level too. I'm in the group that says our FD needs a massive shake up, a new head of footy and I wouldn't be against turning over every assistant coach we have.

It'll just move to Kayo (Foxtel). I think you'll find the TV rights will be astronomical during the next term, bigger than this time around. If Kayo/Foxtel/Murdoch don't get them, Kayo/Foxtel are done in this territory. The AFL will know this and will maximise their deal.

I haven't heard these comments yet, but I find that to be a slightly troubling statement to so openly discuss on our official website (I presume?). Winning should always be the focus of the players, the coaches can take that attitude at some point though.

I think it exacerbates it. His biggest weakness is positioning and game sense. On a wing he'd be like a lost child.

Because it could be argued that McDonald failed to properly contest in that moment either.

This is fair. Good post as usual, mate.

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.