binman

My take on the next coach:

Short version:

Despite my misgivings about Buckley i think appointing him coach would be a good move and i'll fully back him in if they do.

Long version:

I'm ambivalent about Buckley. He was a famously defensive coach that, yes came close to a flag but was sacked on the back of a woeful season and his replacement turned much the same list into a competitive unit immediately.

And the knock on him as a coach was that he wasn't a great manager of people and had a propensity to judge others by the myopic, hyper driven standards he set for himself as a player.

Add to that I've never much liked him.

Against those misgivings i think the following counter arguments hold significant weight:

• Personally i think we need to go with an experienced coach like Buckley or Longmire that has gravitas and would not need to 'earn' the respect of players the way any new coach would

• I agree with Goodwin and Langdon that we're actually not far away from being a contender again, meaning we are not in full rebuild mode - a scenario that suits an experienced coach

• (on that point, the fact that Buckley is even interested suggests he also believes we are not far from being a contender - no chance he is up for years long rebuild like McQualter and Yze)

• An experienced candidate like Buckley or Longmire would also have the power, within limits, to call the shots on key hiring and firing decisions which will be important as we need a broom

• Buckley would demand veto on assistant coaches and no doubt create his own team of line coaches, something that i think is very much needed (ie new assistant coaches)

• I think some tough calls also need to me made about our high performance program - Bucks, who was ahead of his time on the fitness front, will have firm views in that space and I suspect would drive change

• It is reasonable to think Mcrae built on the foundation Buckley built - I think that's particularly true in regards to driving training standards

• They were clearly already a super fit team when Mcrae took over and their success under Mcrae's would simply not have been possible without that base given his method is so aerobically taxing

• Landing Buckley soon would go a long way to assuage my concerns the executive made an ill considered, vibe based decision to both sack goody and do so three games from the end of the season

• Many have noted Buckley has mellowed and he himself has acknowledged he has to chill a bit in terms of his interactions with players, particularly those that are perhaps less driven than he was as a player

• He was on a bit of a hiding to nothing at the Pies as the whole legend player becomes coach of their team narrative arc often has an unhappy ending (Voss being one such example)

• Buckley is unquestionably a good media operator and whilst it would be great if that wasn't such an important KPI for s senior coach the reality is it is - particularly for a club that has relied on the senior coach and captain to front the media for the last three years

So, all things considered I hope we land Buckley and I'll fully back him in if they do.

There would certainly be an irony in Buckley coming in and having immediate success with a team that had struggled in the previous two seasons.

By the by, in terms of choosing bucks, or indeed any coach, I'm of the view that whilst the coach is of course important the impact of an AFL coach is hugely over rated.

I'm more concerned the clubs sorts its governance and get the high performance stuff right.

33 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

Worst list management decision ever by us.

Weed says hi

It will be Sparg's call but we do not have the luxury of trading out a player who is far and away our best kick inside 50.

3 hours ago, Dee in a Kilt said:

@binman this is a gentle nudge to start this communications thread. Hasn't this week amplified the issue! A public statement was not pre-prepared. Players heard via the media 🙄

Huh?

I think that answers the question as to whether the idea of a collective voice to provide constructive feedback to the MFC has legs:

4 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I have been watching and specifically keeping an eye on that the last month. Still way too much bombing down the line and playing the wings.

Total bollocks.

But whatever.

51 minutes ago, Deeko2 said:

I'd be surprised if it was leaked from the board.

Could have very easily been Goody himself who leaked it out? Maybe even accidentally.

His family would be aware straight away obviously, then it wouldn't take a great deal from then on.

Also, Gawn knew from 7.30am this morning. He might have messaged a few mates and then its basically out and about in the world. Bad news travels incredibly fast.

Which is why i said in previous post that it was either directly leaked by the board or knowing full well as soon as Goody was told it would get out there, they allowed the jungle drums to beat for hours.

The result is exactly the same.

Dees fans find out from Tom Morris our premiership coach has been sacked.

If they wanted to treat Goody with a modicum of respect they could have spoken to him in the evening, given him some time to come to terms and had the presser ready to roll 8am this morning giving no time for the ghouls to go to work.

I have little doubt they backgrounded Gleeson a few days ago to lay the ground for Goody's sacking.

33 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Goody's relationship with our senior players is very special and was both a positive and a negative thing in the end.

Also lol at this drive by around the Casey facilities.

I suspect it was a drive by of pert who yes was CEO when we won the flag but as good notes that followed a period of stabilty when PJ and Mahoney were in charge.

The implication being Per didn't bring stability - and nor did he deliver a home base, something he made central to his vision from the get go (and then stepped down but remained in a project management role to deliver the home base - which he has again failed to land).

Sliding door moment when the board rejected PJs advice to go with a succession plan involving Mahoney becoming CEO and instead went witn Pert whose ladt few years as CEO of the pies were fractious.

4 hours ago, biggestred said:

no. have some class and wait until the players know.

That's exactly what the board should have done. Pathetic by them.

How bloody typical the club didn't get ahead of this and show Goody the respect he deserves and make a proper announcement instead of leaking to Tom Morris (whichbis clearly what's happened, ir if they didn't they knew it would come our because they told Goody ladt night and didn't have a presser first thing this morning)

That puff piece by Gleeson the other day was basically a board written background piece and in hindsight laying the ground fir today's strategic leak.

Just now, 3183 Dee said:

Apparently, they do have a coach appointed, but he can’t start until next May.

Its funny coz it's true.

Just now, 3183 Dee said:

Apparently, they do have a coach appointed, but he can’t start until next May.

Its funny coz it's true.

Just now, Smokey said:

Forever a legend of the club, thanks Goody. Best for all parties concerned however.

A rare strong position from an otherwise impotent board.

That remains to be seen.

How strong a position will it be if they haven't sorted a strong replacement, or at the least have some serious irons in the fire - not to mention a clear timetable to sort a new coach in a timely fashion.

I mean, how do we go about trading players in and preparing for 2026 if we are still faffing about in November trying to land a coach.

Just now, Dee Zephyr said:

Same here, I'm the only Dee at work and surrounded by Dog supporters. One of them has been at me for the last two weeks, constantly telling me Naughton and Darcy are going to have a picnic without May and Lever back there. I want them to miss finals.

I like the dogs but I hope we neuter them.and then clip the wings of the hawks and pies.

1 minute ago, beelzebub said:

And we did so by thumping the BOTTOM teams, undermanned at that and whose only carrot is 'another' pick.

Yet all you mention are actually valid observations.

And I'll be interested ( really ) to see how those metrics go this week against a team motivated by finals.

Hopefully not too many team changes and we can have another look at this (our ) setup.

Looking forward to it. No expectations, just interest.

If we are going to fairly assess where the team is at we should take into account how we perform gains the best teams, teams that are motivated by finals.

In the last month we have been competitive against the top 2 teams on the ladder atm - the Pies and Crows - and also the Suns who are 6th with a bullet. And in May we pushed the Lions who are currently third.

In all those games out transition footy has been really good. In almost all of those games we likely win if not for inaccuracy.

No reason to think we won't be competitive again the Dogs this week.

6 hours ago, Pirlo said:

Sorry to be horrible, but that Eagles game was always going to mean less than nothing. They were abysmal and totally incapable of bringing the game to us. I suspect Goodwin won't change much because he knows he needs a scalp to present to the board at the end of the season as evidence we're going okay.

With that in mind, I suspect it'll just be Lindsay for Sharp and Culley to sub.

What I'd do, given I support Melbourne and not the ambition of a group of coaches to keep their jobs by running older blokes into the ground, is as follows:

McVee - Petty - Turner

Lindsay - McDonald - Bowey

Langford - Viney - Langdon

Petracca - Jefferson - Chandler

Melksham - JVR - Culley

Gawn - Windsor - Rivers

Campbell - Oliver - Salem - Howes

Sub - Mentha

Out: Melksham (managed), Sparrow (omitted), Sharp (omitted)

In: Jefferson, Campbell, Mentha

My personal view is that every single AFL game is meaningful, regardless of opponent or whether finals are no longer a possibility.

Agree West Coast were very poor but thought their effort level was pretty good actually.

But that doesn't mean the game is not meaningful. Just a few examples of why that's the not the case for Saturday's game include (but are not limited to):

• Such games are the perfect opportunity to practice implementing game plan and specific strategies, particularly important for teams like us who are moving from one method to completely different method

• On that front we saw some really positive signs in terms of how we transitioned the ball from the defensive half, for example we scored 3 goals from a kick out which is huge return

• Fritter continued his resurgence - good for him, good for us

• Fritter and Petty clunking their marks up forwards reinforced how much better we are when we take advantage of our inside 50 kicks (we are actually transitioning the ball really well this season and getting it inside 50 is not problem - just haven't finished off our work)

• Regardless of opponent nearly 60% of inside 50s to score ratio is impressive

• We got a good look at Culley and what he can bring to the table

• Maxy surely locked in his AA selection - and he continued his simply incredible contested marking this season

• Bowey had another blinder and surely, he must be in the AA frame now

• Clarry played his best game after quarters time in terms of real impact - his hands were terrific, and his endeavor remains first class which bodes well for next season

• We got a good look at Windsor in the middle; he played his best game for the season and i think it's clear he will play as mid going forward

• We kicked 10 goals in a quarter

• We won but nearly 15 goals and Koz was quiet

• And perhaps of most importance, we looked untied, cohesive, played with great energy and the players seemed to enjoy themselves - all terrific signs given last week's fourth quarter nightmare

41 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Dogs are 2-6 outside of Marvel and Ballarat. It's going to be a decent challenge but it's 9th vs 12th when you look at it on paper and it's at our home ground. At least we know who their mids are going to kick it to.

Gawn?

1 hour ago, Cassiew said:

Went to the game as planned. Sooo glad I did. Gawn had a fantastic game. Petty played well too. Fritch good. Only Kozzie a bit rusty. Niece and nephew had a great day and enjoyed seeing their team win. A special shout out to out to all who attended and showed their love for the team despite a setback.

I really enjoyed the game live. Was always going, but glad I did.

Even watched the replay

On the replay there was footage of koz being given some pills of some description, and the commentators notedhr might be a bit off.

Despite his quiet game, how's this for a stat to show just how important he is for us - from his 26 disposals (which is not a bad haul) he had a game high 10 score involvements.

Nearly half of his disposals contributed to a score on a day he didn't kick a goal and only kicked a point - that's seriously impressive.

Koz's pace in the middle is so important. And for the same reason I really liked Windsor in the middle.

And for similar reasons I really like Tracc playing predominantly forward - he creates a matchup challenge, is awesome one on one and him playing forward allows faster plsyers like Windsor t8 take his spot in the middle.

I've been bullish on Culley, and was super pleased he played so well. Is a rich slow but like Langford thinks quick and had high footy iq.

He's also tough, is a neat kick and has good hands. If he can get super, super quick he can cement a spot in the bbest22 as a wing or high half forward.

Speaking of high half forward chin's running was berserk yesterday. I loved his attitude and intent.

22 minutes ago, Travy14 said:

OK we beat the bottom side, but we beat them by 84 points. When was the last time we put a side away like that. This is the kind of response we have wanted from the Dees many a time and never got it.

So just a bit of praise for that, but I am still boiling from last week!

When was the last time we kicked 10 goals in a quarter?

I thoroughly enjoyed going to the footy yesterday. Loved it.

Shout to the 16k dees fans who were there with me. Great energy.

18 minutes ago, sue said:

I rarely disagree with much you say Binman, but as I've argued, the best person to tell a young bloke he is being subbed is the welfare office since he should know all about that players's circumstances and how to best deliver the news.

I'm not necessarily saying it's an issue, I was just summarising caro's points.

BUT I can see why an argument could me made that at the least it might create challenges.

The runner sends messages from the coach, and by definition is connected to the coach and has to have a close working relationship with them.

Let's say for the sake of argument Windsor was reallly upset with Goody last week for electing to sub him, which wouldn't be that surprising as he was very stiff to be subbed (when I wanted to work out who was subbed I put my binos on him.and he looked filthy).

Windsor is so upset he wants to speak to the welfare officer.

Does he really want to speak to the fella who gave him the message, is in constant dialogue with goody and has a close relationship with him?

And does he want to criticise goody to conca?

Maybe, but maybe he doesn't want to be fully honest with conca for fear it will get back to goody.

The idea that Caroline is sinking the boots in 8j that article is off the mark.

To be honest, if anything she went easy.

I mean she left a couple of easy wacks on the table.

Darren Shand was supposedly hired to lead cultural improvement and drive leadersip yet caro didn't make the obvious point that the efficacy of that work is at the very least in question.

And she mentions Pert and the home base, but gave him and the club a complete pass on the fact he was supposedly staying at the club to drive that project and 6 months lager we appear no closer to it being landed.

6 minutes ago, rjay said:

The point is he's not here, the right candidate would have been well entrenched in the job.

Particularly given the importance of implementing the recommendations of the 2024 review.

Just now, binman said:

The breakdown in on field leadership in the last seconds was symbolic of our club wide lleadership problems.

We are a rabble off field.

We appoint a CEO in May who can't start until September.

Our cooms director is covering 2 non realted roles including AFLW.

Our runner is also our welfare officer vreating a potential conflict of interest (my example - telling a young bloke he is being subbed).

The acting CEO went for the job and didn't getbit.

Despite green pushing back on the idea he is an interim president it is widely assumed he us keeping the seat wan for Smith, who is tipped to assume the seat. In September.

Its been left to Goody and Maxy to carry the can all season, just as it was post match on Sunday.

What it didn't say or ask was what is Gary Pert doing?

25 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Paywall. Can anyone paraphrase it?

The breakdown in on field leadership in the last seconds was symbolic of our club wide lleadership problems.

We are a rabble off field.

We appoint a CEO in April who can't start until September.

Our comms director is covering 2 non related roles, including AFLW.

Our runner is also our welfare officer creating a potential conflict of interest (my example - telling a young bloke he is being subbed).

The acting CEO went for the job and didn't get it. Not ideal given he is an acting role for 5 months, particularly given our poor onfield performance.

Despite green pushing back on the idea he is an interim president, it is widely assumed he is keeping the seat warm for Smith, who is tipped to assume the seat. In September.

Its been left to Goody and Maxy to carry the can all season, just as it was post match on Sunday.

31 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/the-fractured-football-club-behind-melbourne-s-eight-seconds-of-madness-20250731-p5mjc5.html

Have at it.

IMO, it’s an unsurprising piece which fairly highlights the lack of leadership everywhere at the club, on and off field.

Typically strong and balanced article from one of the few footy journalists I respect

Communication element:

Video content for:

• Website

• Social media

• Emails to members

• Other?

Opportunity for improvement

Successful clubs in elite sporting competitions such as the EPL, NFL, NBA, Serie A etc produce a huge variety of video content for its fans and prospective fans.

Content ranges from short videos for platforms such as X, Instagram and Tik Tok, longer form videos for platforms such as websites and you tube, feature length videos and even multiple episode series in the style of Drive to Survive.

AFL clubs do not have the same resources but engaging video content is equally important for AFL clubs and is a key part of the value proposition for members and as a tool to attract new members.

There are many examples of this key aspect of the club's communication being criticised by Dees supporters on Demonland, such as this thread from Feb 2024 started by @Dannyz.

The OP starts with this sentence: 'I think it's time to place on record how poor our media output has been since the departure of Ben Gibson.'

Since Ben Gibson's departure from the MFC in December 2022 the video content produced by, and for, the MFC has been, with some very notable exceptions (eg Koz going back home), largely underwhelming. And there has been way, way too little of it.

It has been nearly three years since Ben Gibson's left and in tge intervening period the demand for video content across multiple platforms has exploded.

The MFC is miles behind other AFL clubs in this space and addressing this opportunity for improvement is both a total no brainer and the lowest, of low hanging fruit given good quality video content can be produced extremely cheaply in 2025.

Suggested actions

• Prioritise the creation of engaging video content that can be delivered across multiple platforms

• Ensure that content is diverse in: style, tone (ie funny, satirical, educational), type (human interest, sport science, tactics, match previews, analysis etc) length, topic, audience (ie kids, fans of other clubs, fans of the dees who are not members, new members, older members. diverse communities etc etc)

Idea:

Of course the production of such content has a cost. Personally i would prioritise resourcing it and employing someone to do deliver it (perhaps we do?).

However if that's not possible, and even if it is, MFC could explore developing a mutually beneficial partnership with Monash University.

Monash's Caulfield Campus - which is only a good Harvey Langford drop punt from our proposed new training base at Caulfield racecourse - offers a Bachelor of Multimedia and Digital Arts degree, which focuses on digital arts and multimedia design practices.

And Monash Uni's Monash Media Lab, is also located at Caulfield. The Monash Media lab is 'a state-of-the-art facility for journalism, digital media production, and multimedia storytelling' that has 'purpose-built television and radio studios available for commercial use, incorporating quality recording equipment to give your production professional polish.'