Dr. Gonzo

3 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Yze has the Richmond job, i have been told…

Yep should be announced this week

4 hours ago, ElDiablo14 said:

On the topic of exit interviews, who do we think are tradeable players?

Salem, JJ, any other?

Salem's not going anywhere FFS

4 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

Ill play devils advocate. 

Not being a pedant, but genuinely curious.  

In your view....what DO we have right ?

( not for a moment suggesting there's nothing right )...but what is ?? 

Our defence, our midfield, our structures - even our forward line I think we have a good mix but not much depth in key position stocks. TMac and Brown got us a flag but it was their last crack, they are now finished.

We have a very very good head coach who has won a flag and got us top 4 after H&A 3 years running. He has developed a great rapport with the players which has seen all our key players sign long term despite significant interest elsewhere. He has developed a gameplan which is sound and stacks up with the best teams.

Where we fail is in our execution, we could do with a couple of elite ball users, one in the midfield, one at half forward. We need a back up ruck considering Grundy is gone.

I would shuffle our assistants, Stafford should go, Yze will go, we could use a ball movement coach ala Caracella. I think Goodwin could do with some freshing up in the coaches box, some new ideas to challenge/reinvigorate him.

Off-field we are kicking goals, Pert has done a great job, Roffey has been very good. 70k members, a potential home base at Caulfield.

We have a lot going right and fell short by a kick in two finals. Yes we can and should review and address our deficiencies but we have a lot going right, it is hard to finish top 4, harder still to win a flag. Had Petty stayed for we may have achieved that.

4 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

Genuine question - why is there so much hate for us on the socials? Sure we won a flag, but I don't get it. It's mainly from supporters of clubs who have been nowhere near it for years.

Demographics, we're seen as toffs from the top end of town so people revel in our misfortune.

4 hours ago, Ned said:

Maybe try and get Whitfield? Great decision-maker and kicker. Just a thought.

He would be a great fit but signed a long term extension recently didn't he?

57 minutes ago, Nudge said:

Our fwds know how to do this, but our strategy is fwd half game thus ALL we do is about making that happen. 
 

we kick straight we win BOTH finals EASY!!! It’s that simple.

 

Mcadam a good TM’s tart, all else we need is Yze replacement, Brown/Tommo/Harmes/TMac contracts gone & we can rebuild our war chest to go again.

with those funds we need May replacement in 2024-25, ball users on outside & 1 More contested mark/solid finishing fwd.

 

Do this and we’re good for another 4-6 YEARS yet.

 

As for Gerard Healy, anyone whom doesn’t know — we treated his brother really poorly as captain in his eyes and he’ll always hate us for that. The hate is now less obvious ergo under surface as he often tries to be pro-Melb but as his choke quote highlights, inside he still hates us.

What did we do to Greg? Shaft him to give the captaincy to Garry Lyon after his knee injury?

21 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

We were 7 points up with a minute to play…

Good Sides don’t lose from there. 
We have lost 4 Finals in 2 years on the MCG. That is a Failure, and big changes must occur over Summer

 

Changes need to occur but we won't be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We have a lot that is right, just need to address some of our deficiencies.

That last 90 seconds reminded me of the last 90 seconds against the Blues in 2022 but with roles reversed. We did everything wrong and they took advantage.

Just now, GonetoCA said:

Watching the Giants last night, I couldn't help but wonder what happened with Toby Bedford. Melbourne treated him as a specialist medical sub player, the #1 unused sub in the competition. He heads north, and immediately becomes an elite small forward, applying pressure that we could have sorely used on Friday.

He's matured, he had some chances last year but didn't really take them. His best game, ironically, was against the Giants. We didn't want to let him go, he wanted to leave - about annoying considering he was an academy player I think but it is what it is.

4 minutes ago, Nudge said:

Players miss goals not coaches — one sort of game that cannot be replicated in training conditions!

That's true but I think our forward structure needs fresh eyes. We need to train our forwards to create leading lanes, movement creates space etc

1 hour ago, The Chief said:

This is spot on. I can’t divulge how I know, but Yze is basically the match day coach, all tactical decisions during the game go through him. No changes during the game are made unless Yze agrees.  Goody’s focus during the game is on reinforcing messages to players, passing on Yze’s and line coaches feedback, providing positive encouragement and giving feedback on KPI’s/ key statistical measures. Nothing negative or overly critical is said to the players during the game. 

Well we need a new GameDay coach because Yze will be a Tiger next year.

Stewie Dew?

21 hours ago, Dodos Demons said:

We have a few off half back. Just be nice to have (or recruit) some forward of centre. My fear is that we are in the premiership window now so don’t have too many years to find and refine. I have faith in our recruiters. Important trade period. 

Bowey to half forward

21 hours ago, BDA said:

During the finals campaign of 21 we were purring. Moving the ball with purpose and freedom and belief. What inspired that? Where has that gone?

We play with too much fear now. The balance is slanted too much towards defence in my opinion.

I don’t know if its in Goody’s make up or not but the players have to be allowed to express themselves sometimes. There’s a weight holding them down the last 2 seasons. It’s all system system system. And system is important, don’t get me wrong, but players need to be let play. I think the straight jacket is impacting our decision making. We take the safe option or wrong option too often.

And I might just be talking through my hat. But if I’m a player I’d rather die with my boots on than be caught out playing the percentages over and over and losing in the same way.

I agree to an extent taking the last two years as a whole but I thought we came out against Carlton playing with more movement and freedom, ie quick play on, using the corridor etc. So is it a coaching thing or do the players revert to the safer options when games tighten up?

Vale the greatest name the sport has known

We have Ports pick?

Edit nevermind 🤦‍♂️

17 minutes ago, Garbo said:

Sure this might be the best option based on where our list is at, but Goodwin needs to take responsibility that we find ourself in this position. Early in the season we were a much more accurate side when players were still fresh, as the season wore on and players become fatigued our accuracy become less and less. I’ll use Petrcca as an example if we made him a fwd of centre player only and didn’t have him going the full press all game as a true mid he might start kicking a few more goals, making some smarter decisions with kicks into 50. The fact we really largely on the same core players to play 90% game time at the contest isn’t sustainable. 

Sure fatigue may be a contributing factor. So we should play a less defensive game and open ourselves up to opposition scores - then what happens when we still have trouble converting? We can't stay in games.

I'd like to see us play with a bit more flair and I think they were looking at that early last night (and last offseason) but we still lack personnel up forward. Brown and TMac are finished, Max can't kick, Grundy can't mark, JVR is still a kid and Petty and Melksham were injured. Moving forward I'm confident if we can keep the combo of Petty/JVR/Fritsch/Kozzie/McAdam with ANB/Spargo/Chandler floating through we will have a pretty potent forward line and it will allow us to play a more attacking style having confidence that the forwards will contest and convert.

1 hour ago, BDA said:

And the team that wins their elimination final has momentum and confidence versus the losing qf team.

Plus the pre finals bye which allows them to freshen up and lessen the impact of having to travel

1 hour ago, titan_uranus said:

If "really controlled the game and should've been up by far more at halftime" was a thing, we'd be premiers.

We were good vs Port. Not great, but good. We certainly weren't comprehensively beaten. I don't think that game goes in the same bucket as Brisbane, Essendon or Geelong.

Sure it's subjective, but then you would have to put the King's Birthday game in the 50/50 bucket too. That's fine.

1 minute ago, Garbo said:

Sure not every miss but the in the totality of the season we see the same patterns again and again. It’s never one miss or bad decision that’s costs the game really it’s the 20 others put together. We kick 17.9 and everyone would be having a laugh at max missing 

So what's the solution? What can we do to tinker with the gameplan to fix this? If the issue is accuracy due to poor overall skills then surely the best gameplan is to create as many opportunities as possible and hope that enough of them go through to kick a winning score, which is exactly what our gameplan is.

7 hours ago, Mel Bourne said:

Have never been overly-impressed by him, but he is only 23. Best possibly yet to come. 

He'd make a great intercept defender, Dogs should shift him to defence.

1 minute ago, Garbo said:

We don’t draft good kicks, our game plan means we don’t get easy shots on goal often, the way we play means players more gassed when taking shots meaning less accuracy, all things he has control over.

If it was a freak occurrence in a single game I would agree it’s not his fault but this happens to often to be luck and if it continues to cost us at the deep end of the season he should be held to account 

So it's because of the gameplan Max chokes and misses a sitter 25m out right in front? Or Kozzie and Fritsch miss regulation set shots they generally kick? Nah I'm not buying it.

I do agree we need to draft some better kicks, hopefully we use pick 5 to get someone in. But that's not on Goodwin, we have a recruiting team that owns that.

11 hours ago, jnrmac said:

We supposedly built a team that is primed for finals footy.

We have lost 4 in a row.

We consistently shoot ourselves in the foot with accuracy , bombing the ball into the fwd50. We have been doing this for 5 years.

We do dumb things and keep repeating them

Our selection policy is a shambles.

We are unbelievably predictable

Two finals we should have won and yet here we are.

How is it the Kingsley takes a team thats 3 and 7 and wins a final as well as winning at 11 separate venues?

How is it that Voss was in the gun to be sacked and here we are 

 

The mistakes are all our own. And we keep repeating them

And you don't understand calls for him to be replaced? At this point we will have another 5 years of this and then we'll say what a wasted era

Goodwin's job is to create a gameplan that gives us the opportunity to succeed. He's done that. It's the execution that is killing us, you say we should've won both games? Why? Because we dominated possession/territory and created enough opportunities to kick a winning score. The fact we didn't is down to execution, not strategy.

That's not to say we couldn't rejig things or consider another strategy, we could and may well do so. But it doesn't mean Goodwin is the reason we are losing.

Just now, titan_uranus said:

IMO we were only properly beaten three times - Brisbane Round 2, Essendon and Geelong.

Port we were a kick from winning late. Fremantle was 7 points and felt far more even than the other three, but just a game were we didn't do enough for long enough.

This is somewhat like 2022, where we led in every single game by at least 10 points and IIRC we led all bar one or two games by 20+ points.

You can honestly count on one hand the number of games we're been comprehensively beaten since Round 1, 2021. A 3-4 record in finals for all that doesn't sit well.

Yeah but Port really controlled the game and should've been up by far more at halftime. I listed the Pies game as a win so thought it fair to list the Port game as a loss.

11 hours ago, YearOfTheDees said:

I believe our game plan keeps other teams in the game. 

Our inaccuracy keeps other teams in the game

11 hours ago, The heart beats true said:

I got home from the ground and saw some of the post match on 7. They were reluctant to say how much he towelled up Curnow. Saying stuff like ‘probably got the better of him.

May absolutely decimated Curnow. He out marked him one on one so consistently that in the last quarter Curnow was just trying to bring the ball to ground.

Steven May was extraordinary in that game. He has every right to be filthy. He couldn’t have done more.

He is a superstar, so glad we recruited him to the club. I love Maysie

11 hours ago, Fat Tony said:

I think Goodwin did a good job through the season. We experimented more but suffered from injuries and poor goal kicking when it counted. 

That said, we were very poor disciplined last night and disorganised. Four forward stoppages, we had no nominated ruck when Max was off. 

We changed things up last night, started the game with intent, were physical, playing quick and through the corridor. But we couldn't put goals on the board, shouldve been 4 goals up early but then TDK gets two in a minute and all our hard work was for nought.

Other than the Grundy/TMac/Schache debacle I don't think we can point the finger at Goodwin, I think he coached exceptionally well throughout the year. Our gameplay needs tinkering, we need a new forwards coach and perhaps a ball movement coach (Caracalla?) but the structure and gameplay holds up. It's just the execution that's lacking.