Adam The God

I said it earlier in this thread. I suspect they like Goodwin because he treats them as mates and they dislike Roos because he tells them some hard truths. I'm concerned by some of these murmurings. It could spell trouble for Goodwin's reign.

This is exactly what I think happened.

It's not like McDonald or Garland provided anything up the ground either. Pretty much no rebound, so why the hell were they playing off Daniher? Ineffective and unaccountable. That's just unacceptable any way you spin it.

I've been wrong before, but I just wonder if this is that was the game that broke the camel's back and next week we'll see the team really unleash with a more attacking game style. I'm hoping Roos will know his ego failed him yesterday and that there's a big chance we will stagnate this year unless we revert to the attacking game style played over the NAB challenge and the first and fourth quarters last week.

McDonald had a great start to last year and then fell away badly in the second half of the year.

I think you address the important issues first. We're not vying for the flag this year. We're looking to make finals, but will probably just fall short. We had far more pressing concerns at the draft and trade tables than outside speed. We've addressed our need for a second KPF with the Weed and added to our midfield with Kennedy and Oliver. The jury is yet to decide on Bugg, though I suspect he'll be a fringer. We did go after Bennell and he would have been perfect, but at the moment we're clearly taking the route that we will build the main building blocks first, become competitive enough that we can attract opposition talent. This is when we'll add that second ruckman and outside pace through free agency and trading in the coming two to three years.

The way teams move the ball in the modern footy can make their opponents look incredibly slow. Case in point, we made GWS look slow in the last quarter last week. I don't think many people would call GWS a slow team, but they were made to look it. Some of it is the speed with which you spread, the other element is how you use possession by hand and foot. Geelong in their prime were a great example of this. They weren't particularly quick, but their use of hands and accurate kicking allowed them to appear quick. I'm not saying we're quick, I'm saying we don't necessarily need to be and that wasn't the reason for our loss today. Further, it's got nothing to do with our fitness. We're clearly managing the loads of our younger players pretty well. We certainly did with Oliver last week anyway. Brayshaw shouldn't have played, but given he got half a game into him this week, I'd expect him to play again next week. With regards to fitness, we also used ten less rotations last week than our opposition. So it's really got nothing to do with a lack of fitness. Today was all above the shoulders, as many of us have now pointed out.

The interesting thing is he wasn't a liability last week and I wouldn't have said he'd played within his limitations either. He was quite expansive but it came off for him and therefore us. It was either a lucky week for McDonald or it has something to do with the run and spread from our team, enabling an easy option to kick to and more space for him to line break. I'm not totally sure which one it is yet, though given our lack of run today, it's probably the latter.

None of us really know as we don't have access behind those doors, but I would be staggered if Roos didn't dish it out behind closed doors. He's a politician. Did you ever watch him sit ON THE COUCH and calmly effectively deny he was coming to Melbourne for weeks on end? He's a cool customer in the public domain, but I've heard he's a hard man privately. He definitely bruised some egos when he came into the club and rightfully so. My uninformed guess is that Goodwin isn't a bruiser and that he's the good cop and Roos is the bad cop. The potential problem could be when Goodwin eventually takes over this group, can he separate 'mates' from his 'players'? Maybe I'm not giving Goodwin enough credit, but too many people on here seem not to offer that same courtesy to Roos. I certainly don't disagree that we blew it today though.

I just hope Roosy doesn't try to play a lock down contested possession game to counter that. We must attack next week. We look absolutely hopeless when we move the ball slowly. We need to work hard, move the ball on quickly and hit targets.

I would have gone with Frost in hindsight. And I reckon Oliver will play next week. Unless he is really struggling for match fitness, I reckon he'll play pretty much every game up until the bye. Just as Brayshaw did last year.

Is it just me or did Kent and Vanders look overweight today?

This has been McDonald's problem. Like many others on our list, they show absolutely no sign of consistency. If our team is to show signs of consistency then they must too. Watts is another one. These guys have played enough games now. They've played almost 50 games under Roos and his FD. Jones and Vince show a level of consistency, but pretty much everyone else on the list struggles from week to week. We have the younger guys in the first one to two seasons and their form will naturally fluctuate, but it's time these guys with 80-100 games experience delivered some consistency. I just can't understand why the FD clearly seems to keep telling McDonald to back himself with ball in hand. It seems incongruous that a coach wouldn't have told him by now, but if so, why does he persist in trying to cut off more than he can chew?

We need to start playing as a team. That instruction should come from the coach(es). During that final quarter last week, we played as a team. I don't recall us stringing together five minutes of team play today. So we can bemoan our lack of leadership or we band together and ensure everyone plays a role. I believe Nathan Jones is a good leader. He sets the example, but he's not a superstar, I love him, but he's not. So he can't always impact games in the same way as a Luke Hodge - he needs support. Play together as a team and you counter some of this. Hopefully the younger blokes who are apart of a seemingly very good development program (ie. McCartney) are learning good habits now, enabling them to be good leaders down the track. Ultimately though, we might have to wait a little bit for this.

I agree and welcome to Demonland, but I would merge this thread into the Post Game discussion thread...

With the size of some of these opposition forwards, we really need Frost to come on and nail down the full back position. That will allow Tommy Mac more flexibility as well.

Gold Coast winning tonight won't help our cause though, combined with the other match that occurred today.

Given his biggest faults at the moment are stemming from frustration and inexperience, it's worth thinking of him as a bloke in his second season, not his third. I agree that his attitude is frankly pathetic at times, but the more footy he plays at this level, the more experience he will have at countering situations that don't go his way. His leading patterns, his work rate, his team mates' ability to kick to his advantage etc. Also, Lynch has played 82 games now, to Jesse's 22. The difference in experience is so vast they're pretty much not even worth comparing at this stage. I get the frustration. Trust me, I do. But Hogan is gonna be a beauty and I trust this FD to ensure that he's learning from every game.

Come on, DD. You're better than this. Rubbish post.

I think that's fair. Jeffy a little unlucky as well.

Does he need to say this in public? Maybe. But you can bet he's saying it behind closed doors...

Good one, Jerry. I liked it.

Disagree. Trenners is competing with Matt Jones and/or Salem, IMO. I don't believe Trenners is an out and out inside mid either. He's a winger or half back/half forward, who can play through the middle.

Cannot believe the knives out for Dom. Seriously. He can be slow to react and his skills sometimes suffer as a result (remembering he's a bloke that plays in an area of the ground where the pressure is at its highest), but I think some of our supporters are getting ahead of themselves if they think he's not good enough or deserved of being dropped. Still one of our most promising midfielders. The guy has had an injury-riddled start to his career, but he can find the football and at his best has shown he's a goal kicking midfielder. Something we severely lack. Further, he had the third most disposals for a Demon behind Jones and Vince. Cut him a bit of slack. Particularly, when there are other blokes running around barely touching the pill.

Let's revisit this in a couple of months then, shall we?