bing181

Kind of what I was getting at. But I'd suggest that a happy, committed group of players are also more likely to push through when fatigue sets in at the end of games/quarters. i.e. fitness is as much between the ears.

Interesting that there have been no comments regarding our fitness - even though it's the same fitness team. Selwyn is still the main man. Perhaps all those last quarter fade-outs of the last couple of years were never about fitness after all - not in the physical sense anyway.

That game has to be seen as a vindication for all the changes that have been made over the last 6 months. Positive vibes all around, including from the media - e.g. notice how few articles there were referring to us that mentioned Petracca, even though he took the game apart in Perth. The grey clouds have lifted.

You're probably right, but with 7 votes it could have split 5 - 2.

Not the place, but perhaps one day we'll have a decent discussion on Demonland regarding the actual role of the head coach - and everyone else in the FD for that matter. Assistant (and even development) coaches have a lot more input in what goes on than many here give them credit for. Sure, King is Head Coach and it's his name at the top and as you so rightly put it, he's the one who has to front up to defend decisions at the Press Conferences. But it's a coaching team. Without any inside knowledge so could be well wide of the mark, I don't believe that the decision to play Kolt on NWM came from any one person or any one process. It could have started with a question to the fitness staff, and King mentioned Kolt's fitness profile as making him ideal for the job (fast enough, but can run all day). I would imagine that even the development team got involved. etc. etc.

It just really intrigues me what people think the assistant + development coaches do. Sit around all day playing Pokemon on their phones and then putting out the cones for training?

Fritsch's 6 in the 2021 Granny don't count?

Or AMW ...

Great to see the win, thank god for a functioning forward line. Mihocek is the player we've needed for 4 years, just straightens us up and creates space (in every sense) for the other forwards. Was pleasantly surprised by Jiath, more than did enough, and thank god for Steele. Apart from he and Kozzy, our mids were MIA. Lots of room for improvement there - hard to imagine Langford having a worse game again - but when we win games it's not going to be through dominance around the ball. As many suspected, our defence is problematic, especially the smalls. We won but they still had 32 shots on goal, more than enough to win and win comfortably. Attacking defenders are great, but sooner or later we're going to need good one-on-one defenders. Hopefully some room for improvement, only our first game. But more than happy to take the 4 points and get the monkey off our backs, does wonders for the self-confidence. Especially happy for JVR, he's clearly put in a power of work across the off-season.

The issue with Lever is he's having to play as a 1 on 1 defender because we hardly have any. Lever's strength is as a free agent and interceptor, he's never been good - or even OK - as a lock down defender.

Get Xavier Taylor in, even if he's not ready. Backline needs bolstering. St Kilda had 15 goals and 32 scoring shots - that would win most games.

Wait till we start loading.

Lots to like, backline not so much. Getting cut up by their smalls especially. Where's Nev Jetta when you need him?

Only if you're playing a team who are playing their first match. But doesn't have to be a huge advantage. Any advantage is an advantage. (Old Chinese proverb).

So long between drinks, seems like a lifetime ago. Impossible to feel optimistic or pessimistic about this, no idea what we're going to see. But alarm bell for me is the way that the teams that played in Opening Round have the rub on the teams just starting their season. Longmuir was pretty filthy on it after the Dockers ran out of legs against Geelong. If we're to have a chance we could need a decent margin at the last break. But heh ... go dees.

McVee will be fine. He's too good a player to not re-find his mojo. Just not against us ...

Sure. The need to repeat the 21 premiership and confirm the dynasty was a millstone around everyone's neck. Everyone's, not just Goody. Omnipresent and relentless, it's no wonder a few turned to substances and unhealthy habits, must have been quite a pressure cooker atmosphere. Goody had to go as much as anything to release the pressure valve, to definitively break with 2021. The clean slate we keep hearing about isn't so much a break with Goodwin's Melbourne, it's a break with the flag and everything that went with it. We start from zero, with no expectations to weigh people down.

We all enjoy seeing a good Essendon thrashing, but for mine this is becoming an issue for the AFL. Essendon, Richmond, West Coast, North, maybe even Carlton ... you just can't have the same teams languishing year after year. It's become pretty clear that rebuilding just through the draft isn't enough, but these club aren't attracting the kind of players they need to turn things around either. Compare what's going on with those 4 clubs to the 4 north-of-the-border clubs, night and day. We all need an equitable comp where fans have some kind of hope each week, otherwise they won't turn up. Not good.

Don't disagree, but he seems to have upped things a notch under the new regime. A game style which suits his strengths?

Essendon are what a bottom-out rebuild looks like. Got plenty of good kids with potential, but you'd think they'll need a couple more years. And take Merrett out and ... ??

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.