bing181

Stretch wasn't that bad, I'd give him at least another match or two to find his feet (again?) at this level. It's a big step up from VFL. Re other changes, two factors that will probably come into play are: - we have a very short turnaround (as noted) - Casey have a bye next week

Good for Jeffy's own sake that he's getting a bit of his mojo back.

Nice. That back line on paper, plus the late withdrawals, on top of how we haven't been playing, it looked like a mountain to climb. A scrappy, hard-fought win away from home against a good side, I'll take it. Now to back it up, and keep backing it up. Still a very long way to go.

Sure, but the forward line isn't really the problem, it's up the other end of the ground where we've been leaking goals all season. Even against Essendon we managed 18 goals - which, incidentally was the 3rd highest score in the whole round.

Good that the club is taking it seriously. Precautionary as much as anything?

Seriously? Jeff "zero tackles" Garlett is not the saviour. If defensive pressure is the mantra, he's the last person you want in the team, it's like giving the opposition an extra player down back. As for the goals part ... how many did he kick at Casey on the weekend? Having said that, I like Garlett a lot, but he's so far off the pace he's unrecognisable as the player he once was.

It's happening because players are playing as individuals, not as a team. At the very least, they're not trusting each other.

It's not just about a single season - this is a group that will be together for 5+ years (10 years for some). People should go back and look at what happened to Geelong after they got to the Prelim in 2004. They spent two years going "backwards". Then ... wham.

I knew I'd regret opening this thread. Don't ever change.

Can't see us winning this - but expect a better showing, at least.

Losing this week won't necessarily end our finals chances. But if it does, it won't be these losses that cost us a place in the finals per se, it'll be not having had a large slab of the team - including most of our key players - unavailable for full training until mid-January (or later for some).

“Once everyone starts buying in and we start defending well we’ll start playing a lot better football” James Harmes. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2019-04-09/we-can-turn-it-around-harmes

You're presuming that if they're understanding, they're implementing. It should be pretty clear that they aren't.

Or perhaps go back and look at the entry exams, because maybe they're not actually the smartest kids after all. Once again, our list just isn't as good as a number of you seem to think it is. If it was, we'd be winning matches. Simple.

Easy. Because you're looking at the list through rose-coloured glasses. Stop kidding yourself. Our list is just not that good. You could put half a dozen players we had out there on Friday on the free market and there wouldn't be a single taker for them. What the list has is potential. It doesn't yet have talent.

Seriously? We fluked our way to a Prelim? I for one have complete trust in the club and FD, and a few games aren't going to change that - even a season won't change that. Unlike some (many?) here I never thought we were a premiership club this year - or even next for that matter. We need to get a couple more seasons (and preseasons) into players like Weideman, Salem, Harmes, Petty etc. for that to happen. You're never going to win a premiership when your key players (Viney, Oliver, Brayshaw, Gawn and a few others) are still on/under 100 games, you need close to double that. People here talk about the players getting ahead of themselves. Mirror?

The problem isn't so much the players we're putting on the park, but what they do when they get there. Hard to see them making many changes. Maybe time for Petty?

Speculation.

Predictable.

Of course it's not true. Fantasyland.

Would be great if he could get back to his 40-goals-a-year self.

The draw is a [censored]. Given our opponents, if we finish in the 8 we'll already have improved on this year. Let's not forget that in most of the home and away season this year, we'd hardly beaten anyone in the 8.

who currently has a serious foot injury, who didn't want to play for us anymore, and who's OOC next year.

Just made the mistake of watching some Hogan highlights. Weep.

Think that either Port or Adelaide will be tied up here, both have lower first round picks that they want to move higher.