bing181

Yes, lord forbid that they have a life or are able to smile. They should be walking the boundary in sackcloth and ashes while being whipped.

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?

I think that's the point. They want to play him to get out on the park again and back into form, especially given that he's not really keeping anyone out. Short-term pain for long-term gain?

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?

For those who are lamenting us being 0-3, buckle up, it's about to be 0-4. Hard lessons being learnt.

I just feel that people who think that we have a premiership-winning team on the field at the moment are kidding themselves. There are probably half a dozen out there that most of us wouldn't have had in our Round 1 team, and even if we did, wouldn't be too bothered if they were omitted. Also feel that they're "putting games into" some of them (KK for one), trialling positions for others (Hunt forward), and using others as band-aids when they'd be better off elsewhere (Fritsch down back).

Maybe it's because of the players we have out there? Just an idea.

Improvements in areas that needed improvement - back to scoring decent amounts again, 18 goals. But ... back line. Just not happening at the moment. Petty for Frost? Only getting one game out of the first five for Steven May isn't ideal either.

Sure, but it's a lose-lose situation. If they speak frankly they're saying too much, if they say nothing and speak in platitudes they're saying too little.

No, it's a "not training with your team mates" thing.

Not sure what the point is here, or even where this comes from. No-one's been saying that the list is "compromised". Goodwin just confirms what many have been saying, that we need to "start playing better as a group and a team and start helping each other." If anything has been "compromised", it's the time we've had together as a team over the summer. Which has already been commented on here by training-watchers prior to the season, and reflected in comments from coaches that it's been hard to work on drills with players unavailable.

There's a name for that: recency bias (which is in itself a subset of the availability heuristic).

Speculation.

There are no givens in sport, and much of what happens is beyond anyone's control (e.g. injuries/luck, your opponent's injuries/luck). Acceptable or not doesn't come into it. If as a club we do everything we need to to get to the finals, and we still don't, then so be it. Though I still think many here are seriously underestimating the impact of our non-preseason. Not in terms of player match fitness (though that's certainly a factor), but in terms of team play. If training together as a team wasn't important, players could just train their fitness individually then meet up at the club before each match. What we're currently seeing is exactly what you'd expect for a team that has had limited time *together*.

What would be most welcome would be that structure and gameplay are (more) effectively executed.

Maintaining possession our biggest current issue. Too many turnovers, and as Goodwin said, not connecting forward of the ball. Almost impossible for the moment to string together chains of possessions the way we were doing last year. Rusty as.

Suspect that the FD realised that. You don't send all those players in for (elective) surgery, thus compromising the pre-season for the whole team, if you're in a premiership year. I get the feeling that they realised that we still have some developing to do, so took the chance to sort out any potential longer term injuries so that they wouldn't impact the seasons ahead - when hopefully we really are premiership contenders. Short term pain, long term gain?

Agree with much of what you say, but I don't know that it is. That "outnumbered 3 to 1" situation that we saw time and time again in the forward line should have left Melbourne players to swoop in and get the ball once it hit the deck - after all, it nearly always WAS being brought to ground. But we don't seem to have any small, running forwards to do the damage and finish off. For the moment.

Not a question of lack of effort - teams (in any domain) have to train and play together, and that's what we're missing. We're not a well-oiled machine at the moment, we're hardly even a machine.

I don't see anyone here question us being Top 4 material. But that's Top 4 at the end of the season, not at the beginning where many of our key players are just cranking up after a reduced/non-existent pre-season.

Can't see us winning this, still too early, too many players underdone, and most importantly, too little time spent playing/training together. Still think we're going to have a rough few weeks, could easily start the season 1-4. I could be wrong.

He has a name: Esava Ratugolea