Adam The God

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.

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.