Dr. Gonzo

You don't think perhaps they were letting off steam after the last 12 weeks where they've barely been able to train together let alone get out of the house etc?

I missed both of those wins against the Bombers! In 1990 my dad must have been off the wagon after our mid-season slump. I remember that day I was at the G with my cousin instead watching his Tigers get done by the Hawks. My uncle was letting me know Melbourne were getting done too but I could see the scoreboard ticking over in the last quarter as we clawed back to a famous victory. Spewing I missed it I never saw is win at Windy Hill. 1991 I missed the Elimination Final. We were on a plane coming back from overseas. When we landed my dad asked who won the footy game and when we were told Melbourne we all started cheering.

Did he extend his contract with the Hawks last year after failing to get a clearance to come back to Melbourne?

That's not my worry, he clearly is a great talent and knows how to play his role. My worry is the team won't reach its potential before he gets too old and we will have wasted a top 5 pick that could've been used on a key forward.

It was lairising plain and simple and he should be pulled up for it. We were 7 goals to 0, if it was 7 goals to 5 I doubt May flies for that ball or at least punches it towards the boundary.

The latent support is there. We just need to have a good run of onfield success (I'm not even talking premierships though of course that word help. A decade or two of being a contender ala Sydney 1996-2016, Geelong 2004-2020 etc) We got 37k vs the Giants in 2018, and I reckon at least 60k to both finals that year (closer to 65k probably). While we have a smaller supporter base than other clubs I have a feeling (just a feeling could be proven wrong) that it's not much of a diaspora and is quite centrally located around metro Melbourne. Therefore we have a greater capacity to pull crowds than other smaller clubs. If we had a period of sustained success we would easily have a base membership of 60k (probably closer to 70-75k) which is plenty enough to survive and thrive. This would translate to attendances obviously which would further help the bottom line.

It's not working

Ha, well it would be relegation without promotion - so not relegation but expulsion from the AFL.

Fritsch is not a key forward. I thought the west coast gane proved that. Far too slight. We need to play TMac out of the square next week (assuming he plays).

I would've thought any reduction in salary would be for this year only - so we would still be on the hook for his original contracted salary for 2021/22 should we sack him. I don't know but that is what I assume.

To clarify Kangas have our pick 6 as per current ladder We don't get a pick back, we used it last year on Kozzie

We don't have to be "big". We just have to be financially sustainable and independent.

Where was Brayshaw when not in the middle? Half forward?

I agree completely. Nor do I think he should be sacked. I was just making the point for those who seem to be death-riding him that there's no way he's getting sacked this year or next year either. At the very least he is our coach til the end of 2021 and likely til the end of 2022.

Laziness and selfishness. Players have been getting away with this for ages. It's crucial, especially in the forward line to run hard for a ball you know you're not going to get to create space behind you for your teammates to work in. Along with failing to shepherd for your teammates after dishing off the footy its one of things that does my head in.

They should be planning and training for this mid-week, we have players and coaches watching tape of opponents and analysing their games - the strategy needs to be implemented before the game so that when things start going against us the players know exactly what to do to halt it. We have enough senior leaders onfield now that this needs to fall on them. The fact we seem unable to halt momentum and reverse back in our favour means we either haven't prepared well enough (that's on Goodwin and the FD) or we aren't able to do anything to stop it (that's on the senior leaders and playing group). Knowing which it is is impossible for supporters though if we do see some changes occurring you can assume that the coaches have at least tried to implement something that the players don't have the capacity to implement 100% of the time. The worry is if they can't do it against Carlton what hope do they have against the better teams.

Yep I was really impressed a couple of times when he went to a contest to help out his teammates who were stuck handballing each other into trouble. Noone else went in to help but Petracca ran to the contest, bustled through to collect the ball and split the contest open helping us maintain possession and move the footy forward

We are definitely lacking a key forward as a crucial part of our structure. TMac is struggling since his foot/ankle injuries, Weideman hasn't come on and Jackson is a 1 gamer. If we can find someone who can clunk marks and kick straight we'll look far better. So many times yesterday we kicked to a lead or one on one but the player was outmarked or beaten easily in the contest

The most disappointing part was seeing how well we played early and then looking like a different team for the rest of the game. Let's see how they backup next week because as you say it's hard to judge due to the interruption to the season however I'm not confident we will have the speed to best Essendon at the G. Will be interesting to see how they go against the Swans today.

Can we afford to pay out his contract? Will the AFL let us? He is contracted for 2 more seasons after this one and the club has seen a massive hole in our revenue and spike in our debt this year and possibly next year too. The competition is reeling financially and Kennett is putting the death of clubs back on the agenda. I don't think we can afford to flush close to a million bucks down the toilet.

I'll have to watch again (dare I?) because last night most of my energy was directed towards trying to stop myself kicking the [censored] out of the couch and scaring the hell out of my kids and inlaws.

Coaching or composure and maturity? If we started doing it halfway through the last quarter then surely that is part of the plan and the players didn't decide to defy Goodwin to act off their own bat?

I hope that's not the message internally! The only reason we won was Carlton missed a few sitters Cripps the main culprit. We certainly didn't lift in the last 10 minutes, didn't even kick a goal in the last quarter.

I mean his family has a bit of a reputation for associating with colourful characters

Dale Lewis - he's been ostracised from the AFL and AFL media ever since