Adam The God

Completely agree. But within that gameplan, things can still be improved. Allowing easy exits, IMO, goes against the entire philosophy that Goodwin promotes. I'm almost certain they don't want us to allow easy exits from our forward 50. Goodwin has banged on all year about it being 'a territory battle' and if you 'win the territory battle', it goes a long way to winning the game and ultimately placing your opponent under as much pressure as possible. Yes, this may not have mattered had we kicked straight against Geelong and Sydney, but it wouldn't have helped us against Hawthorn for example. We weren't winning the rest of the battle enough to allow easy exits.

Okay, I can get on board this sentiment further, but disagree with how many guns we need. I'd say we have three, maybe four guns on our list at the moment. Gawn, Oliver, Lever and Viney. In the not too distant future though, Brayshaw will sit alongside them (and arguably already does) and Hogan. That's six and the spine. Add Gaff and Hibberd to the potential of Salem and Petracca, and we'd have guns across multiple lines. If you look at Richmond, they have four guns. Riewoldt, Martin, Cotchin and Rance. The rest are of similar ilk to Brayshaw and Hogan at this stage. They've won a flag and will probably win another one. I don't think our list is the problem here. Sure, Gaff will make us better and maybe one other of anything near his quality and we'll be premiership ready sooner. But I think in the meantime, it's a matter of waiting another 20-40 games and we'll be in the sweet spot. Further, I'd argue we're not overrated, but just rated slightly earlier than where we're at. I suppose you could term that being overrated, but I think our core have shown enough to say we'll have the second best list in the league. If we can hold onto our talent and keep adding the likes of Lever and Gaff, we will be able to compete with GWS.

One of the best 1v1 players and the leading assister in the league is missing from that list in Melksham. Harmes is good enough now IMO too. I think you're harsh on a few others as well. Namely Neville Jetta (who has clearly been playing with an injury since the Port game), Oscar McDonald, Fritsch (despite being overrated) and you could argue Petracca also. Your post insinuates that some of those guys on our list who are not on your list above, won't get there. Petracca, like Salem, will get there in time. However, it is a problem when one of our captains is nearing our bottom 5 or 6 players, having only just turned 30 though. If you look at those who are probably in our bottom 5 or 6 players, we have Garlett, Tyson, Frost, ANB and Spargo. Jeffy can be a match winner on his day. Tyson can be close to one on his day too. Frost may become a half decent role player and would get a game for quite a few clubs. ANB can be an important contributor on his day. And Spargo is young (had a shocker yesterday), but will be a beauty in time. I think you're underrating our list now. With the exception of GWS, in 2019 or 2020, we'll have the strongest list in the competition.

A good coach has a back up plan. If you're failing to kick straight, why would you also not try to prevent easy exits from your forward 50? I don't understand why you wouldn't try to fix areas of your structures that are not working. On this point, I'd also argue that preventing easy exits from our forward fifty would further contribute to our want to lock the ball inside 50/get repeat inside 50s. If we're pressuring those exits, there's more likelihood we can set up defensively down the ground and be ready to counter straight back inside 50. Yeah, Goody didn't lose us the game. Our kicking did, but he still hasn't addressed how to play teams on the MCG when they play us that way. Yet, it's been happening pretty much all year against good opposition.

And not to be that [censored] who quotes his own post, but on point 3, the only reason Sydney didn't handball their way out of defensive fifty like the other sides had done, was because they don't have the leg speed. The scary thing is Longmire showed the competition how to beat us even without leg speed.

There are similarities between all our loses at the MCG against good opposition this year. They've actually been almost carbon copies. 1) we've dominated games early but have squandered our dominance in front of goal (Hawthorn, Richmond and now Sydney). 2) given up really easy stoppage goals and failed to arrest the momentum by creating or taking chances. 3) we've allowed the opposition (Geelong, Hawthorn, Richmond and Sydney) easy exits out of their back half. All of those teams have followed the same exit strategy. Short chip to an unmarked player in the pocket and then another chip to fifty and handballed out or kicked long to the boundary and reset. That we haven't been able to prevent this or put anything in place to stop this is staggering. You could see it was a problem with our forward zonal set up literally an hour into our Round 1 game. So whilst Goody and his coaching staff aren't responsible for our players choking in front of goal, they are culpable for failing to address issues in our system that have been present all year. I'm not going to highlight any one players performance, but for me, we've not only thrown away a top 4 spot, but we've most likely thrown away our finals chance.

They rate what he has. That much is clear.

What is Carey on about? Is he the worst commentator going around? What's he basing Parish becoming an AA on? Handball receives off half back?

Richardson's gone, surely...

Hang on. Why are we trading out Tyson simply for a pick? Gaff would come in as a FA. Unless you package a pick you get for Tyson to get a real 'need' onto the list, I'd be holding on to Tyson as depth.

How was Parish's attempted tackle again there? Butter Parish.

Despite those muppets talking up Parish, gee he's soft. Went back with one hand before. Okay on the outside, but soft on the inside if the heat's on.

Let's hope so mate.

He is not a good ball user. Criminally slow now too, in both mind and body. He's done. Lewis on the other hand has another year left in him. Potentially two. We'll see. The end does come quickly sometimes. I have a feeling he could be in and out of the team in 2020 if he wants to play on. I reckon Pedersen will get another one year deal. I'd give Johnstone a one year deal or delist and re-rookie. I don't rate AVB, but reckon he'll go around again if he can stay fit for the rest of the year. Kent will move on. Pat McKenna has to be close to gone. Likewise, Maynard. Bugg will go too.

Quite a different player and how often does he get on the park these days? Good player, but I'd look elsewhere.

I don't think we turned up...

I'm sorry. That's a laughable call.

The inevitable post... how the [censored] did we lose to St Kilda? What a rabble they are. Their skills and decision making are appalling.

If Carlton aren't careful and lift themselves off the canvas in the next decade, I reckon they'll fold in 15-20 years. They have lost a lot of fans and I'd argue have probably compromised losing a generation of supporters.

Well, you are basing that assertion on 50+ year old stats. Not sure too many teams will win a flag with a top goal scorer only getting 35.

Providing Hunt is matchfit, I'd be going Hunt for Smith and Melksham for Vandenberg.

Kennedy, surely.

I think the thing we have going for us is being able to score big. Sydney simply don't score highly enough. Buddy kicked most of their score. Limit him to even 5 and make sure no one else bobs up and we should have them covered.

Yeah, we're talking set shots though. I found his 50% conversion rate, but that doesn't tell us what his set shots have been like. I think you'll find a lot of those misses were snaps.

I disagree. He's our second best set shot behind Tommy. Would love to see some stats on this - couldn't find any. Think of the Richmond game earlier in the year where Jesse couldn't hit the side of a barn and Jake kept us in it with his kicking.