bing181

Hmm. The word that he used first in that sentence wasn't "love", it was "respect". "We always respected him and loved him as a coach, so if that's what the board thinks, then that's what the board thinks." Also, it's "respect him as a coach", not just "respect him as a person", it's a professional/football relationship and that respect has to be earned. Also perhaps worth noting, Langdon played the first part of his career under Ross Lyon, so he at least has a reference point.

Hard to see Brad Green staying either once Smith is in charge.

Absolutely this. Also Tassie in the wings.

Surprising (understatement!) news. I haven't seen any commentators saying "I saw this coming", quite the reverse, so pretty clear that there's been a bit going on behind the scenes. Quite what that might entail we don't know and may never know, but seeing everyone is having their 2 cents, here's mine: - getting rid of Goodwin is not in itself a fix for anything. Whatever the problems are, they still have to be addressed, presumably by the incoming coach and FD. - Steven Smith is going to be a very different kind of president to what we've had of late. He's obviously very proactive, and isn't prepared to accept second best, which is going to have ramifications right through the club from the top down. (This predicated on commentaries around the place that Smith was very much behind this.) - It looks like this has been in the works for a while — see earlier reports of an approach to Luke Beveridge. Perhaps Smith wasn’t as willing to accept last year’s review as Roffey and Pert. So why now when they could’ve left Goodwin in place for two more rounds then staged a smoother exit? Why the urgency? Is there (new) info around re other coaches (Voss/Carlton?) and has a race for a coaching candidate forced our hand? You don't make these kinds of decisions without a pretty good idea of what you want as an outcome, presumably there are names. - The board has access to info we don’t — commercial concerns might have played a big role. Membership and sponsorship pressures? Replacing the coach may be seen as a short-term fix, a way to reset the optics and buy some clean air, regardless of results. - As above, but more consequential, there may have started to be a certain shall we say resistance to coming to Melbourne from players and e.g. assistants and FD staff. Everyone acknowledges the holes in our list, but if player managers are starting to say to Tim Lamb that "Player X is looking for a new club but doesn't want to come to Melbourne" that might have set off a few alarm bells. Perhaps same discourse internally: McVee contract hold-up? (but who knows ...) - If there is now a perception that the FD needs a reset, it might as well start at the top. Regardless of who comes in, Troy Chaplin now has the "assistant coach who takes over as interim head coach" kiss of death, and will almost certainly be leaving at the end of the season, so that's one gone. But he won't be alone. Alan Richardson will surely follow, though as with Goodwin, will be catastrophic for our soft cap as he's also contracted for 2026. (Rumours that we're looking at Adam Simpson as head of football?) - But I think my biggest take-away in all this has little to do with Goodwin's capabilities as a coach (as Brad Green acknowledged), but centres on the relationship between Goodwin and the players. A kind of a reverse "the coach has lost the players" where the tail is now wagging the dog. That in an attempt to address issues within the playing group, we've gone too far the other way.. As in my point above, this may be coming from a new no-nonsense President putting his foot down. Expect to see at least some collateral damage in the playing group. Across all that, I really wonder if we'd be here if it wasn't for losing Angus Brayshaw. He was our future captain, the glue that held the team together and as a player, someone who led from the front. Only one player, but the team has been out of kilter on-field and off ever since he was carried off the field at the start of our 2023 finals campaign. Caveat: All of the above could be completely wrong, I don't know the full story. But none of us do. PS. Sorry this got so long. Feel free to ignore.

Laughable. Jason Taylor: "Duties include Managing the National/International Recruiting and Talent Identification programs, member of the List Management Committee ..."

Agree wholeheartedly with everything else, but not sure about this. Grundy is coming home like a house on fire.

"Realism". Seriously? Last week's relentless bagging of the club, the selectors, Goodwin, and those involved in picking Viney (13 clearances, 8 tackles) and Petty (8 marks, 3 goals — could've been 5) says more about the critics than the selections. A great reminder of how far these so-called "realists" are from actual reality. Armchair experts with zero info, no expertise, and none of the cojones required to take a balanced, informed view of current performances. But plenty of conspiracy theories.

Oops ... picked up a superfluous "y" there somewhere, apologies to Jason. Typo.

You might like to address comments re the RECRUITMENT of players to the National RECRUITING Manager, Jayson Taylor.

Actually, the reverse is true. It's in games like this against "weaker" opposition that you see what the team is capable of and what they/the coaches are trying to do.

It's almost (work with me here) as if they don't actually want us to do well.

Backline is a concern without May and an in-form Lever. But agree with previous comments, probably not the game to bring in Adams.

Nek minnit - contract extension.

Great win with lots to like.

Utterly delusional.

Jones was appointed because of his relationship with the players and midfield group. Perhaps not the smartest move in terms of football, but as an attempt to heal wounds and get people back on board, perhaps worth a try. Whether he stays on ... difficult to see, but none of us outside the club know.

No, you cannot guarantee anything. Nor any of us. It's the future and you can probably guarantee with some degree of certainty that the sun will come up tomorrow, but that's about it. I continue to find this Demonland belief that fringe players (who probably won't even have their contracts extended) are some kind of solution to something, bizarre. Howes looked on a different level in his recent VFL games, yet in the AFL he was vanilla at best. And players like Brown and Woey are not even standouts at VFL level. It's clutching at straws.

Maybe because we're still trying to win matches and even a painkiller-filled Viney offers more than any of those? Just a thought.

Generous of you. How patriarchy works 101. The only people complaining about women's sport are **checks notes** men.

And you know this how? You have access to the data?

it's a full explanation. He missed too much of that critical late pre-season/early season period and has been playing catchup ever since. (also see Kolstrup and to a lesser extent Windsor and Lindsay).

Women.

It also requires you to play a condensed season beforehand (2020) with fewer matches and shorter quarters. And in particular it requires you to miss the finals in the previous season so you have a longer break and both come back fresher and sort out any lingering injuries or issues. Knocking yourself around for another month in the hardest games of the year (finals) is one of the reasons it's so difficult to back up from premierships or even reaching the GF. Coming into 2021 we had a dream run in terms of preparation compared to the teams who had played finals the previous year.

Also also FWIW, in my opinion what has happened with the players/team/club over the last few seasons is almost ALL between the ears. Even this year. We can at times play like gods and match it with the very best. And then lose to the very worst, often in the worst kind of way (e.g., inaccuracy in front of goal). We're both miles ahead of the Norths, WCE's and Essendons - and miles behind them. It's not about technique (the players can at times do exactly what's needed), it's not about coaching (we can at times dominate opposition and counter their strengths). Lack of consistency within and across games is almost always down to what's going on between the ears. As to why, and what to do about it ... I have no idea. I do wonder though whether winning the flag has become a millstone around this group's neck, that they can neither move on from it nor refind the form that lead to it. The pressure and expectation to succeed saps away at them - e.g. both Goodwin and Salem spoke a while back about "chasing the scoreboard" rather than focusing on what you're supposed to be doing. There's a lot to unpick.

I was just speaking generally - these players and their loads (and everything else) are managed to within an inch of their lives. I don't believe given the data that would be available to the fitness staff that they're sending players out to play if they're underdone - or overdone for that matter. Also FWIW, I don't believe that fitness or fatigue had a role to play in the last quarter capitulation. Not any more than it would for any last quarter, when obviously players are more fatigued. Mental fitness and fatigue (switching off) on the other hand ...