Adam The God

So what you're saying is we won't win as many as last year? You're posting utter tripe tonight, rufus. Take a bex and lie down.

Nothing has changed after today's loss (although abysmal), except we'll have to carry that loss around our neck's all season. I still expect us to win between 10-12 games. Hopefully in the back half of the season we can start to find some consistency with our performances and string a couple together.

They've definitely been taught to spread. Our players didn't bring the work rate. I have no concern with our development team. In fact, it's arguably the standout attraction of our club to prospective players. I've no doubt Oliver will be as good, if not better than Parish.

I'm beginning to think you're right. I did expect Roos to take a bit of a backseat this year and just cop the heat when we didn't perform to expectation, but perhaps that's not what's happening? It certainly could be argued that Roosy's ego got the better of him today against an old foe in the opposing coaching box.

Well, it was only a matter of time, I guess. Parish looks good, but you know it's possible that Oliver might be as good or better. Think Judd and Hodge. What a load of rubbish.

I must admit I thought this is what Roos would do this year. Sit on the bench, instruct and motivate, while Goodwin would relay messages from the box. This is what he did with Longmire. Why isn't he doing it with Goodwin? He was always going to take the heat for the players. We wouldn't want Goodwin doing this now. Not sure we're 1/3 of the way there with the list. I reckon we're closer to 3/5. :D No, seriously. Some of the talk on Demonland last week about the strength our list was embarrassing though.

Yep. They talk about Richmond supporters going through pain. And Bulldogs and Saints supporters going through pain, but I reckon we've got it on all of them. And that's not a good thing. We are a pretty resilient bunch though. I DGAF what opposition supporters think, but 33-35,000 of us at least have stayed loyal and somehow manage to find the effort to back up again every week, after every pitiful performance.

You don't "limit the damage" against a VFL side. You attack.

He's been treated like a superstar since the moment he played game 1. I think our club pandering to his every need is a good and bad thing. Obviously, no one player makes the club, but at the same time, he is a player you can build a club around. That probably sounds paradoxical. However, his second efforts are pretty much non existent. I wonder if the coaches are scared to bring him into line? That may sound ridiculous, but the way the club panders to Jesse, it wouldn't entirely surprise me.

Maybe it's time to insinuate him into the midfield? I think it's all about confidence. Two years ago he was a confident player, who would regularly rack up 25+ possessions. Hopefully he got a little bit out of getting his hands on it today, but he's certainly a shadow of the player he was two years ago. We need to keep backing him though. He offered a lot more than half the team. Okay, I'll bite. What the hell are you talking about, PD? Let's wait and see what happens for the rest of the season. I'm not saying this performance of ours will be forgotten, but winning 10-12 games (which I still expect us to do) will go some way towards attracting talent like Prestia. What I couldn't work out is why we were playing McDonald as the rebounding defender and leaving Garland to take pieface. Why didn't they make that switch a lot earlier? Let Garland play a bit looses, as he does anyway, and use him to rebound. He does have the capacity, but hasn't done it since 2013.

I wonder if Roosy's ego got in the way of today's game? A fight between titans of another era, so he allows the game style to revert back to a stoppage based, contested style, but Worsfold's men were clearly playing the modern day style of run, carry, spread. Disappointing if that's the case. I wouldn't. His kicking at goal killed us, but at least we was able to find the ball today. He was quite influential at the start of the third. He just couldn't put it on the scoreboard, but he was in everything. I reckon he's a confidence player and given he managed 23 possies, I don't think dropping him is something we want to do. At least get something out of today's game. Tyson managed to get a bit more of it and laid a few tackles. Had he converted his three shots, he would have been one of our better players. It's not like we have a Prestia to come in to replace him. Despite what some people seem to think, we still lack a lot of solid midfield depth. Agree with all of that. But particularly on McDonald who I screamed out to have some composure. He panics and it's a real worry for a player of his 84 game experience. By now, he should have learnt his weaknesses, be steady in a contest and make the right decision. He repeatedly fails to.

I don't particularly want to open up this can of worms, but I will. I wonder whether things would be different had Roos come for the long haul. Had he been entirely invested in bringing back the Demon like he did the bloods. There's no doubt he's done wonders for the culture at the club, but this soft-bellied performance today certainly sets back quite a bit of the hard work done over the last 12 months. Can Goodwin bring a new spirit to this club?

Unfortunately, it will have. PJ will be furious. Had we continued the momentum we were a small chance of cracking 40,000 members this year. There's no hope now unless we don't lose another game until June. Good luck.

Then they all have the ability to turn it around again next week. Because those three were brilliant last week. Harsh on Jones (who really lifted us at the start of the final quarter) and Vince wasn't our worst either, but I'd agree with the rest of your post. I said it before. Matt Jones was one of our best players, if not the best player in the first half. He faded a little bit and made an error or two in the final quarter, but people have put on the blinkers for this one. I'm not Matt Jones fan, but he earned in position in this side throughout pre season, played well last week and was serviceable today. And Roosy is clearly trying to shield the players in the media. I've no doubt he'll be pulling no punches behind closed doors. It does nothing to [censored] all over the players in the media. It only loses their trust. We need to regroup and make sure we turn up next week. If we do, we're a chance. Does McPherson come under the pump this week? I'm not happy with the midfield either. Dumb footy, bombing it long to the contest every time. People are right when they say we lacked forward structure, just as we did for much of last week. Perhaps it will click at some stage, but the players are certainly struggling to learn how and where to move the footy to. We basically don't have a plan B if Hogan doesn't mark it or we don't move it quickly. We just continually bomb it on the head of Hogan, who is being double and tripled team from week to week. I don't like Hogan's attitude and his work rate is almost non existent at times, but the delivery to him today and much of last week was abhorrent. I think as a young player, he still has a lot to learn about where to lead to and the work rate required to be a dominant forward. Take a leaf out of Nick Riewoldt's book, not Jack Riewoldt's book.

That looks like panic to me. I hope they do too. That's what killed us this week. We thought we could just turn up. How anyone that's been at the MFC over a year could think we'd get away with that is as thick as two planks.

Unfortunately, Jack was the old, timid Jack Watts. Had a couple of good moments with ball in hand, but he was clearly carrying a niggle that he couldn't get over. He shouldn't have played if that was the case. We're just as likely to win next week. This is what I had hoped we were past. That is, the inconsistency from week to week. I'm more confident going into the North game than I was going in to today.

And some people were insinuating we didn't need Prestia.

Unfortunately, it's not. And Goodwin was also in the coaching box today...

You could see the lethargy oozing from our players. I watched so many of them jog between contests and jog between set ups. No wonder we were miles off being able to cover the switch off half back. I'm going to point him out again, because I thought he was pathetic. Dean Kent. Not a single touch in the first quarter. One in the second. And five in total for the day. He jogged most of the day. This is not a bloke that has been out of the side like Brayshaw (who was almost as ordinary today). But Kent has had the full pre season competition and Round 1 run up and still struggles to get involved in play. He'll probably play again next week, because we lack leg speed, but if we're serious about changing the culture at the club, he should be dropped. Oh and did I mention he had a solitary tackle for the day?

Essendon were first to the ball all day. The umpiring usually goes your way if you do, except if you're Melbourne.

Well, isn't this thread a disgrace?

Yep, deplorable. I could only name those three players as well and upon reflection Jeffy too. What an indictment on the rest of the team. Some of Gawn's tap work today was bewildering. I think those players owe the supporters big time.

I'm sorry, but what would Dunn have contributed? He's practically the same height as Garland and McDonald. In fact, I think he's shorter than McDonald. Lumumba looks ordinary when we don't work hard, but he did look good a couple of times when we took it from end to end.

I'm not sure that's entirely true. Our blokes didn't work hard enough. You could seenthe Essendon switch coming every time off half back and we were consistently too slow to act. Combine slow thinking with a lack of work rate and you'll see how we got beaten by a third rate opposition. But credit to them, they worked a lot harder.

If the Weed is half as good as Daniher I'll be very happy. He's not the greatest kick, but he's so hard to defend against with his reach. Their quick ball movement helped him too.