Adam The God

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.

He's had a large say in our list recruitment and strategy over a number of years. I don't think he gets to lay the blame on the list either. I suspect he's out of ideas though.

What a disappointing and pathetic post.

Skills come when there's confidence at this level.

Hope your brother and your wider family are doing okay mate. There are more important things in life than footy and I wouldn't begrudge any MFC supporter for dipping in and out when their mental health can/can't handle it. It's important to recognise when it's a good time to step away. The footy club just doesn't give back enough. I was quite happy for the AFL not to come back this year. I've said a few times recently that maybe it'd be better if the AFL as an industry folded, but I know that if the MFC were playing well, I'd probably think differently. But as someone who goes every week to see it with my family, COVID has put into perspective what's important in life. My wife is pregnant, I'm spending as much time with my family as possible (non-football time which is great), zooming with friends and realising that there's more to life than disappointment every weekend. We've ultimately got to look towards the positives as much as possible, and I, like you (it seems), do have many fears for the world, but we have to find positivity where we can and your new hobbies sound like a good direction. We need more things that bring us together and less that divide. I hope that the MFC can bring us all together again soon, but for now, we're a mile off.

Have to agree. There's such inconsistency with the messaging in the press. I hope internally it's better sorted, but you've got to wonder. Bennell needs to play. Simple as that. I think our systems are shot and the ones that work aren't being aided by poor decision making/skill execution.

Terrible kick from Oliver before but he's not the problem. The commentators on Fox and 7 have gunned for him all day. He's won a heap of contested possessions.

Every time Petracca gets it we get a goal.

BTW. Viney has been truly horrible in this game. Has he had an effective disposal?

We've been terrible but the umpiring is so inconsistent and one sided. The down field before from Rivers and the throw from Martin earlier. So inconsistent.

Was this always the case though?

The MCC is very little help to the MFC. My understanding is that the MFC is not seen particularly as a part of the MCC, when I thought it was. These payments are good news, but I hope we've got strategy around dealing with the MCC going forward. The less MFC people on the board, the less they care about MFC.

I welcome the positivity in the OP but disagree with the sentiment that the midfield is the strength when the OP also acknowledges the difference between our inside 50s and the opposition's. Our midfield doesn't defend and our disorganisation is as much a coaching flaw as personnel.

Just want to remind people our completely disorganised defence and zone is the responsibility of Troy Chaplin. May and Lever haven't played enough football together and will gel more with more football, but positionally we're still lost. Smith looks a lot better this week and May is very good at killing the contest. Kozzie looks completely lost when we're in defensive mode. I'll watch closely in this second half for his positioning. Think he'll be a beauty though. Cannot understand why commentators continually pump up Petracca but criticise Oliver. King said Oliver was probably our second or third best player. Max is a great ruckman but Oliver is our best player by so far it's not even funny.

I don't think so. The long kicking to contests and crumbing is the Richmond style with pressure. We don't have enough leg speed. I want us to be bold and play to our strengths. (see below). I agree. That was playing to our strengths.

It's an interesting one this, because I think Saad is exactly the type of player that is only good if you want to play a certain system. I thought we were going for an Adelaide zone system (circa 2017), but we seem to have drifted away from this and more towards territory with a pressing zone. This makes sense given our stoppage and contest work, but I think we need more strings to our bow. I'd support us targeting Saad if the coaching team were convinced we wanted to play a complimentary style to his gun and run game.

I watched a quarter of the St Kilda game today and you could immediately see their brand, which was built off hard two way running and pressure. We haven't run hard two ways since the Hawthorn semi final in 2018 and even then struggled for much of 2018 to run both ways. It's all well and good to win the ball every now and then from the contest but if you can't defend opposition stoppages, you're going nowhere. In the first quarter against Carlton we locked the ball in and played territory like we hadn't since 2018, but I believe we try to play a system not suited to our forwardline (or our list), which is Richmond's successful blueprint. If you look at how Richmond enter forward 50, they go high and long to packs too, but they have fast crumbers on either side of the packs, something we don't have enough of on our list. I want us to be bold and innovative with our game style like we were across 2017-2018. It didn't always work, but when it did, it set us apart from the rest of the competition. I fear much of this innovation came from Jennings, so it'll be interesting to see what else Goodwin has.

It'll be interesting to see our brand tomorrow. We may not sustain whatever we bring for 4 quarters, but I want to see a recognisable brand.

I'm not interested in riding him for it, but it wasn't once, it was three times and all of them resulted in Carlton scores. Games played or not, Rivers worked it out in his first game. Joel's been on the list for 5 years now and really it's a pretty basic rule I would have thought. Understand who's around you, if it's your turn to go, then so be it. What worries me is it's either player, coaching or both. It's certainly been a problem at Melbourne for as long as I can remember. Joel's best game for the club has been forward. If he's got a crack at it, I reckon that might be his go. Pressure forward with a bit of x factor.

We'd also gain 20k bandwagoners like Hawthorn and Richmond now have, which is why I reckon we could get 70-80k one day, but it needs success.

Not sure if this has been mentioned but Troy Chaplin, the Defensive coach... just wow. How can players still be leaping for the same ball? Rivers seemed to understand when to stay down and where to guard space, but Joel Smith after how ever many years he's been on the list, still hasn't worked it out. Smith, Chaplin and Goodwin really have to take some responsibility for this decision making. It shouldn't be happening with a player in his 3rd or 4th or whatever it is, season. Structurally though, the first half was solid from a defensive POV, but we still fail to do the basics well. Worried what Essendon will do next week even though they're a pretty ordinary team themselves. What's frustrating is that there are many, many average teams in the competition. If only we got anywhere near our 2018 form, we'd easily be top 4 or 6.

Explains a lot, mate. Thanks. ?

I don't want to be too negative here, but I haven't posted for a while, because to be honest, after how we performed in Round 1 off the back of 2019, I've been quite happy to see no football for a while. However, I think we can put out one of the best 'on paper sides' in the competition, certainly top 8 worthy. But where the negativity comes in for me is that not only does our talent drop away steeply after the best 22 (ie very little good depth), our coach who is ironically all about systems, hasn't fixed our systems that could enable plodders to be plug and plays in a well-oiled system. Without a decent system, it doesn't really matter how many good individual players we may have out there. I reckon Goodwin's goose is cooked unfortunately.

I mean this is the thing isn't it? Absolutely the difference between Collingwood finishing 13th however many seasons in a row and them leaping up the ladder the last three years. And on this two way running, WTF was wrong with Clarry yesterday? He seemed to be labouring 5 minutes in and slowly jogging about. Petracca failed to impact in the H&A season again too. One game, but some worry mental signs for mine.

I don't think it's so much about outrage mate, but more about what systems have they worked to improve all summer? Forwards were often failing to lead at the ball carrier, midfielders kicking sideways to 2 on 1s in our forward fifty. Looking at the team sheets going in to yesterday, you thought, right, we've noted their tall targets down back and we've picked a smaller side. Good thinking, so we'll try and keep the ball away from those guys, but all we did was bomb it long all day. Instead of outrage, I'd say there's reason for disappointment.