Dr. Gonzo

Especially when the players we are kicking to are midgets like Hunt and Garlett as happened on several occasions last night

I have to say the softest performance last night was the Melbourne supporters who didn't turn up. 72k and a predominantly Richmond crowd. There should have been at least 10k more Melbourne supporters there. The crowd has an impact on players and umpires and we let the team down when we don't show up to provide the support. We want these marquee games we have to turn up to them regardless of our form. Coll/Ess supporters always turn up to Anzac Day regardless where they are on the ladder.

Pace AND kicking skills

Bareacking for other teams is simply not an option where I come from. Your footy team is inherited, not something you can pick and choose when it feels convenient

Hogan was gone either last year or this year. Tmac was our number 1 forward in 2017 while Hogan was sidelined for most of the year. He is capable of being the number one forward he is just woefully out of form/injured at the moment.

That's a glib and profoundly untrue statement

VFL player

I agree - the only difference being Thompson and Hardwick were a bees [censored] away from losing their jobs. Goodwin is safe. Hogan - wanted out Watts - right call Kent - perennially injured, wanted security of a longer contract Tyson - right call, absolute butcher of the footy, gets caught - now playing reserves for North Bugg - right call, no longer playing senior footy Pedersen - right call, past it Vince - retired I don't understand how anyone can bag the club for these decisions

That is the most damning stat I've seen. Unacceptable.

Take out Hogan, Hannan, Vandenberg and TMac in the worst form of his career and who is going to take a mark in our forward line? We can't score because we can't mark/contest inside 50.

I think our mids busted a gut tonight. But the difference between us and the Tigers is they play smarter. They stick to their structures so theyre not constantly sprinting back and forth across the field. By midway through the 3rd our mids were stuffed from and the Tigers ran over us. Every time the Tigers won possession of us they had someone set up across half back and someone else on the back corner of the square. Our guys had to sprint to make position every time then when we inevitably turned it over due to poor decision making/poor disposal they had to sprint back to cover their opponents. There's only so long you can keep doing that until it catches up especially with no reward. I don't think you can say we didn't try tonight. But trying is the bare minimum. We need to learn to play smarter and get rewarded for our effort. We can't kick 1 goal for a half of footy and expect to win games

And he would have gone to Collingwood

Maybe the coaches have tried to make some changes but the players keep reverting back to "chaos ball" when under pressure and getting little from our marking forwards. Maybe this is the reason there have been references to "buy-in". Not saying this is right but from the outside it's hard to know.

Oh please The way many of you on here carry on remind me of a bunch of old women. Give the woe is me [censored] a rest, it's tiring and unbecoming.

Its stupid but the fact is our players retaliated and so were being told do it again and I'll reverse the kick. Razor is an a-grade [censored] wanting the spotlight on him but that's the answer we'll receive.

Having AVB and Hannan our exacerbates this. They are usually good linkup players across half forward and are strong overhead for all their other faults. I like Petracca across half forward because he is creative enough to set up some plays inside 50. He's not confident kicking for goals (set shot or general play) for whatever reason so put him higher up the field where he can create a link between half back and inside 50.

Give me a spell

I don't think it's our defensive structure the problem is our forward structure. We win enough footy, we get it forward enough but we have no space to work in. Our key forwards can't take a mark and we have no crumbers sweeping the loose balls. A couple of times yesterday we were running into an open goal just had to work through the defense and stuffed up both to es allowing the Saibts to rebound it out. Our forward line is a shambles, I think we desperately miss Hannan and AVB across half forward and TMac is in the worst form of his career. Petracca is played too close to goals needs to play more across half forward and Melksham is also out of form.

Midfielders down hill skiing is probably part of it

We didn't move Kent on, we offered him a contract but due to his injury history it was only a 1 year contract I think. Saints offered 3 so he went with job security and you can't begrudge him. The club did the right thing it's just unfortunate.

Why? If the AFL was rigging games we would be on the beneficial end, they want us (and Saints, GWS) to win a flag. It doesn't make sense other than the typical supporters think they're getting a bad run from the umpires.

What crap. This wasn't an issue last year was it? Every time we lose or start a run of bad form this seems to get rolled out.

Careful, with talk like that we'll be done for not tanking again To be honest I'm still confident we have the list to win a flag (obviously some changes will occur as they do every year) this just seems like the down year we had to have (a la Cats 06, Tigers 16 etc). We've improved every year since 2013, it's extremely hard to just keep going up up up until you win the flag. Now obviously most didn't think it would go this bad but maybe it has to before rebounding next year. I'm still confident we will be in contention for the flag in 2020 and for a few years after. I think we may be looking at a cleanout of the assistants though to rejuvenate the players and the gameplan.

We have no structure at all or if we do it's impossible to tell what it is. We look completely lost just forever under pressure. Our key forwards can't mark (TMac has been terrible all year, Weideman still has a way to go). We look like an Auskick team at times just crowding each other, playing hot potato with the footy. In all our games bar last week the opposition have literally run rings around us. Goodwin is safe but our assistants should be very worried. Our recruiters need to add pace and skill to our mandatory contested ball winning ability. I still think we're missing Hannan and Vandenberg a hell of a lot as those link up players through half forward, that's where we've been breaking down. But the ball use from half back has not been great. Oliver has regressed a bit, Viney was trying his guys out but finding it difficult to have any impact. Salem must be leading the BnF no-one else has been anywhere close to his consistency and class.