Adam The God

I'll take 44,000 this year. Let's make finals, win a final and we'll be able to surpass the 45,000 barrier next year. 50,000 is very gettable by 2020.

Quite true. We don't know how they were treated internally and maybe they were thoroughly respected, consulted, felt valued etc, but we can only comment on the external messaging and to my mind, if that was me, I could have interpreted that as a shot to my ego. I guess given how carefully PJ choses his words, I would hope Bartlett would do the same. And look, perhaps there wasn't a lighter way of saying it, but that does seem unlikely.

It's more how you manage an organisation or a team of people working for you. As someone who oversees film productions, I can tell you that people feel a lot more valued and work harder when they are respected. I think this is a completely separate issue to the participation award culture in schools and in some homes, which will see a generation of kids grow up with absolutely no resilience what so ever. Instead, I see this as being about organisational cohesion and the evidence says ensuring people feel valued and part of a team (good culture), is how you get the best out of the majority of people. It's also a key pillar to ensuring loyalty. Loyalty is also clearly a trait PJ has worked hard to build up within the walls of the footy club. Time will tell if Bartlett's messaging around topics such as this, will impact on the culture of the club.

Or... Petty debuts alongside Oscar. Particularly, with Port's talls. My gut tells me Harry will debut this week.

Demonland might become more interesting for it, but the club seems a little less tight lipped in the last week, than it has in the past. Or maybe I'm simply reading into it...

That would be the Federal Government you're thinking of. You know, the ones trying to privatise the ABC, having already handed Murdoch tax-payer-funded Telstra. That's a great organisation now isn't it? The more you privatise, the less customers get. It's all about cutting costs.

I'm not sure if I've got this, but I would hope there'd be a commercial element to the precinct we would own and could then exploit for profit. This is what we've always needed and in the MFC heartland. Fingers crossed. Another one for @Chook in Perth. Kudos again, mate. Wonder if the Sun went public after Chook's post yesterday. It wouldn't be the first time...

There is some grey, mate. To say Goodwin's job is under pressure would be ludicrous, but to say there's expectation would be closer to the mark.

Due respect? Not sure he's earned it... He's talking absolute rubbish as usual.

Or someone at AFL House said "settle down, Tom".

As I said to my old man, I'd be worried if Malthouse had endorsed Pert. I remember what happened the last time he endorsed someone that came to our club from Collingwood. The bloke is a doddering old gronk.

Fair enough.

That'd be consultation then...

Kent lost me in his second season with a string of lazy performances. He's a goal kicker (when he's kicking them straight), but hasn't improved on his work rate in all his time at the club. He's old Melbourne.

I'd be staggered if the AFL's man wasn't consulted on Pert's appointment. Staggered.

Spot on, mate.

I'm excited. PJ would not have endorsed a candidate that he didn't trust or think could do the job.

A better option than Tom Bugg, but that's not saying much. May make it in a new environment but have said for many years, he won't make it at Melbourne. Best for both parties if he moves on. A bit like Howe, Dunn and Watts. He's run his course here.

Pretty staggering, given the exists of all 4 teams to beat us on the G have been almost identical. That is, a short kick in to compress our press and then boom, over the top of our press. Since the early games we've placed our anchor a lot deeper but we haven't fixed up the front of the ground, where our forwards give easy exists to the opposition. Then maybe the common denominator here is games in which we refuse to work hard and choke a bit. Still, it'd be nice if we had another system that slowed the game down or was capable of soaking up pressure and then hitting on the counter. This system would close the flood gates and shut the game down if we're exposed to top 4, finals-like pressure.

I think it's important not to base your list management strategy on one game. A game in which we clearly didn't put our best foot forward. We matched Collingwood for clearances last year without Gawn. I think we have to be prepared to revert to more defensive/less aggressive set ups at stoppages if Gawn is being nullified or beaten. Peter Wright is a decent footballer, but I'd prefer we kept using Smith or Weideman as second ruck and kept Hogan and Tommy as midfielders or forwards.

I think we're a top 6 side fully fit. Add Gaff to that side and we're nearing top 4. Our biggest problem for mine is that despite what some say, our depth is really ordinary and our bottom 4 to 6 are a) too inconsistent at best or b) Not good enough to be playing in a top 8 side.

Yep, good call, mate. I'll cop to that. I disagreed. Humble pie unfortunately devoured. I hate the idea of Collingwood improving and was loving how meh they've been since Malthouse, but they seemed to have turned a corner. I'm not convinced they can sustain it and I'd also like to see us bring our A game against them before taking too much from today's result, but they're better than I gave them credit for. On your Phillips call, I reckon that's Harmes' job or even ANB's next time, although Harmes seemed to be minding (or trying to) the +1 off the back of the stoppage. But I reckon Gus, Viney and even Jones are too good at winning the ball to sacrifice them in order to stop a runner.

Having thought about it, I like this idea. Good post, mate. Ideally, Petty doesn't have to play yet, but he might be the best option back there and allow more foot speed off half back. I hope they try it and let Harry debut in SA.

I thought there'd be a Vince thread first, but I guess that's where my head is at. ?

I think it was both. We shot ourselves in the foot in four major ways today. 1) we didn't bring it to the midfield contest 2) we didn't bring the tackling pressure (across most of the field) 3) we failed to spread hard for each other to provide the switch and therefore open up easier kicks 4) we failed to look to move the ball quickly (mostly because of "3")