bing181

For all the talk of game plan and playing style and yadda yadda, a head coach's primary role is to lead the ship and make sure all players are on board. He's there to support his players and the group. Goodwin couldn't have been blind to what was going on, but he thought he could (and should) back the players - his commitment to them was well-known and one of the reasons they spoke highly of him. Did he go too far in that in tolerating unacceptable and damaging behaviour? Hindsight would say yes. Also hindsight, it perhaps says something about the leadership group. You can't imagine a Hodge, Lewis and Mitchell putting up with too much BS.

The then-President texted him and let him know that she was available to talk any time. He was in a very bad way at the time, I don't know that he was taking many calls ...

Goodwin felt betrayed because Richardson supported the move to sack him. There's no indication that Richardson was not supporting Goodwin up until that point, or that the FD was fractured. As for the FD being "such a mess", except for the head coach and the backline coach, it's basically the same, including the fitness/medical and recruitment/list management teams. And Richardson is still in his post.

Sharp has been named on the bench for the firsts.

Also unpredictability. None of those players are going to be standing around.

Gutsy from the selectors. 5 on the bench and not a tall among them. Bit of a statement, all that talk of speed isn’t just talk.

H Sharp. 2 goals.

Interesting that it was Guerra who set the ball rolling, even before he became CEO. I always suspected that it had come from Green with Richardson close behind. Also interesting that Lamb was part of the decision making on Trac etc, thought all that might have come from higher-ups and the FD (Richardson again)with Lamb etc. not really in the loop.

Presume Sharp and Heath go out of that. But who’s the third? Tholstrup? Maybe Melsham will become our break glass/reduced minutes 5th on the bench.

Add to that by the time he signed we'd lost Gus and probably knew we'd be losing ANB. We needed stability and leadership around the place (confirmed when you see what has happened over the last 6 months). Also worth remembering that in the year that he re-signed he won the Bluey as our best player. Some people seem to have learned nothing from the moving on of James McDonald.

SEN article, doesn't really add anything but puts it all in one place. Kozzie Pickett in Darwin to deal with personal issueThe Dees star is dealing with a non-footy matter.

As a songwriter perhaps, but I'd always underrated Gilmour as a guitarist - my loss. He's a beautifully soulful player.

Lucky you. It's odd how with the passage of time there are groups that you wished you'd seen, even if you weren't particularly into them at the time. Floyd are one. My interest/respect for them has grown through more exposure to David Gilmour.

Grundy refused to play.

Agree on the first two, but Flanders: 28 possessions, 500+ metres gained? If Steele manages that we'll hail it as the trade of the century.

For mine, not quite. As much as anything, that St Kilda loss was as much as anything down to a lack of on-field leadership and smarts. Yet we still have the same 2 warriors as leaders. Understand that they don't grow on trees, and bringing in Steele and Mihoceck is in part a recognition of the situation, but still ...

Jesus.

No it's not. The fact that we let go 3 of our big name players, including 2 that we're having to pay out, plus changing our CEO and President, plus restructuring the FD/Board relationship with a new senior post, would strongly suggest that the issues went a lot deeper than just Goodwin - or any individual for that matter.

I think you'll find he said he'd been working on his set shots.

Oliver wasn't BOG. Good game, not taking that away from him, but nothing all that dissimilar to what we were seeing last year. Petracca on the other hand ...

Those decisions were made (long) before King arrived.

Great the players we've brought in and great to see the young players developing ... but we ain't replacing that in a hurry.

And people wonder why there was no Melbourne dynasty.

Goodwin was always stuck between a rock and a hard place. I agree with you that he was probably onboard with the moves to shop Clarry around. But he could never admit to that publicly or even privately as it would have destroyed his relationship with Oliver in the eventuality that he ended up staying.

Fixed it for you .... Decisions were made before King arrived. Richardson, Green, Smith, Guerra, perhaps others on the board and in the FD. It was never just about Goodwin.