Pates

I have no idea if this Lever talk has any merit, honestly if he was not properly informed well in advance then that isn't cool by the FD and Goody. But if we were to trade away a player that might actually have some currency then Lever could be one. To clarify, I'm not saying we should do it, but given we have Howes showing some real development while Disco has taken big leaps this year AND we have Petty who is a much better defender than a forward, we have coverage.

I get this impression that North Melbourne's (and probably ours as well to be fair) QC/lawyer is Lionel Hutz, while Carlton's and Collingwood's is Mr Burns's massive crack team of lawyers.

You would think if they were going to contest it they would come armed with more than, "I didn't mean it, promise!" I don't think he meant to cop Sparrow high but he acted recklessly in the situation, this ban will hopefully mean he adjusts his style of play going forward to avoid knocking players out.

Sure sympathy for a guy who recklessly throws his arms and completely knocks an opponent out. Meanwhile if Kozzie even looked at another player with intent, "give him 5 weeks!"

Difference is that ANB wasn't at early pick, but in essence fans are way too impatient. They're expecting every player drafted to show their worth after 5 games and if they haven't then they're on the pile. I like Kolt's energy and willing to give him time to find his groove, I feel like he will be one of those "when it clicks" sort of guys that we may be waiting and waiting and then suddenly one day he'll announce himself.

The funny thing is that every Melbourne fan sees it, and would be absolutely on board with them putting him in cotton wool and getting whatever surgeries he needs done. So I don't understand why the match committee persist with him when a) he's hampered, and b) he isn't even playing well and is in fact a liability at times.

Hope he kicks a goal and everyone gets around him. This run of games that I would classify as "winnable" could actually be very important for shaping 2026. I'm so sick of losing to the Blues, especially since we've been dudded and/or dudded ourselves in most of the losses. That "lie on the line" from Petracca's match winning goal still annoys me, a total guess from the goal ump.

Prior to his injury I had AMW as one of the breakout players for the season, I really hope he's able to come back in good nick. Surely he gets a 2 year extension.

To me Jake doesn't look right physically, when the ball hits the deck he looks slow and lost at sea. If he is carrying an issue that could be resolved by surgery I'll be livid if the club opt to do it at the end of the season rather than just getting it out of the way now. TMac can cover Jake, if May is not right we can put Petty in his rightful position in defence. Management of players has been as issue for a long time, I'd hate for Lever to be another victim of it.

I haven't been able to watch the full game, but it's really heartening to hear Jeffo given praise because honestly the rest of the conversations have been far more negative (forgetting that he is a year younger than JVR). I really want them to persist with him in the team, and I'm hopeful that with Petty likely to return they send Petty back to defence to cover May. Or at the very least keep him in the team and have JVR/Jeffo alternate as the second forward. We have to give them time, if they don't make it then so be it but we can't say we didn't try.

I listen to both DeeBrief and Demonland for different reasons. I feel like Demonland does far more of a deep dive and in fact the DeeBrief boys do even admit "I haven't checked the stats, but..." so what I get from them is more about the passion and the vibe which does to be fair often reflect a lot of what other fans feel. I haven't listened to this honest deep dive, I might do that later, but if they are suggesting Buckley is our best replacement option that sums up our position with Goody. Change for change's sake isn't going to help the situation. I think we're all just fed up and frustrated that we haven't gone on with a great foundation to have more success (even just finals wins!).

What's the fix on-field or off-field? Logically off-field gets a natural boost if what happens on the field improves. So with that in mind I would have us look at would be to move on from Alan RIchardson, and at the same time look to improve our team of assistants. Jones can stay but he should be doing an apprenticeship not be in charge of the midfield. I would move Chaplin back to defence and maybe just maybe we can get someone who was actually a forward and knows the craft to be in charge of the forward line. I would also say thank you and goodbye to Mark Williams, our skills are deplorable and I just can't help but feel a new voice is needed there.

Absolutely ideal world would have had JVR being under the wing of Brown, but his body was shot when we got him. We managed to squeeze enough out of him to get a premiership but I also wonder if we did not manage him properly. I think of a stretch where we had something crazy like 3 games in 15 days and he played all of them, big shock his knee was cactus after that. I absolutely agree with what is being said that we are not developing him in the best way possible, not only is he having to player the key forward role, but he's also got to be second ruck to Max. At this stage of his career his is neither of those things, and it's killing him. I still have hope, but he is not a big hulking key forward and he never will be.

Underwhelming INs to be honest. I'm probably the odd one out but I'm not overly upset if Jeffo gets another week at it. It won't happen but I really want to see Tom Campbell given a second ruck role, let JVR just be a bloody forward for a day. The trade off could be that we leave Jeffo out, plonk TC up forward as a tall target. We really should be winning this and if we don't, Goody should feel really uncomfortable going into Monday. I'm not totally on the sack Goody side of things but losing to North twice has to fall on his shoulders.

I'm actually really glad that someone has brought this up. Goody is the figurehead and gets all the criticism (rightly or wrongly) but it has shocked me that Richo escapes the conversation. Listening to the Demonland podcast something I actually agreed with from @binman was that the coach is actually overrated in his influence and importance. I ultimately think that while he is the head of it, it is a coaching team, and much like some of the players we have they are simply B-grade. To me that responsibility lands on RIcho as he should be always looking to make sure we have the best coaches across all lines and roles. Personally I don't think he has succeeded in that. You could also argue that he is responsible for our high performance program, or at least finding the best people for those roles. Again, looking at our drop since 2021 I think it's hard to make an argument that they have had us in the top tier of this area.

So I don't mind our selections, and I feel like I'm a lone wolf in feeling like Sharp isn't a total flop of a player. What I am struggling with is the balance within the team and like for like selections. JVR out for Jeffo? Forward for forward, but one plays as a back up ruckman and can crash packs (supposedly) while the other is more a lead up forward with more craft about his patterns. I would have far preferred Jeffo come in TO PLAY WITH JVR. Windsor for Kolt? Young for young, I'm ok with it but they're different positions. Lever out, and Sharp in? Clearly not like for like. Howes will have to play in the Lever role, which I don't mind him being given that chance. I just feel like this isn't maximising our available list (and really we have a good injury list). Petty being played as a forward is killing him, get him back as a defender swing man. This was a golden chance to do it with Lever out. Jeffo and JVR need to have a block of playing AFL together, if the coaches really think they're our future then given them that chance. The season is cooked so I just want to see development, I just have question marks over whether they are selecting players in the best way to achieve that.

If (big if) he was interested in coming to us we should be pursuing it. Now it's not going to solve the problems we have entering the 50 but it would mean we actually have someone to target that can take a mark and kick a goal. Look at the one time our forward line actually functioned, Big Benny Brown was our key pillar. It wasn't just what he did with the ball coming his way it was the fact he took the main defender and we could build around it.

Honestly I don't think enough credit has been given to our draft/trading team for this, they knew this year was going to be highly compromised and by all reports weaker. Compare that to last season where it was a well rated draft, and we picked up Langford and Lindsay. I obviously want us to finish as high as possible to diminish Essendon's position, but the truth is that it makes little difference to us. Ultimately, I just want us to get as many wins as possible and launch into next season with some solid foundations.

I do actually agree with this statement in that the way things are covered with this list and this period at Melbourne, that's it's been a failure. It's absolutely glass half empty. But we hadn't won a premiership since 1964, we'd had a few decent chances (87 probably is the one that sticks out even if I wasn't a fan at the time) but we'd never made it to the top of the mountain. The fact the we HAVE won a premiership needs to be celebrated more rather than the years following that we didn't. Now does that mean I give them passes for the mistakes we made over 2022/23? No, but I do come at it with a recognition that we bloody well did it! I think the only thing that irks me is that the previous periods we have been in the mix we've either had some bad luck fall our way, or we've come up against teams that were clearly better than us. For me I look at 2022 as a failure of player management, and arrogance leading into the finals. 2023 I saw as a missed opportunity on our end through poor execution, that said we had some bad luck as well with Petty and Melk's late season injuries, and Gus getting taken out by that thug.

I want there to be serious conversations about our mix in the midfield because right now it is definitely not balanced with bulls and finesse. Viney's time attending bounces should be halved, and he should be played more as a pressure forward/tagger than a midfielder. Trac and Oliver can attend bounces together but only when we have the likes of Langford, Lindsay, and Koz around them to be the designated kickers inside. They also need to be told, "if you can't spot a direct pass, look for a lateral kick". Oh and the way we used Rivers last week set him backwards in development, play him as a midfielder. We should be doing everything we can to avoid seeing Viney, Trac, and Oliver in the centre at the same time.

Yeah my memory (although biased I would admit) was that they blitzed us early but from quarter time onwards we beat them in most areas. They just kept being able to snag that "against momentum" goal to slow us down and ultimately our inability to convert that bit us in the bum. I will also always maintain that Gus getting taken out was the biggest difference. He plays out the game then Trac goes forward more, where he was in excellent form, and our scoring ability is greatly improved. Following on the next week I reckon we lost it at selection by not playing Grundy. Baffling and shocking decision by Goody and Co for which I will never understand.

Urgh I had to give up on this article, too painful and just makes me angry seeing other teams being crazy accurate while we miss standard chances. It's been such a frustrating theme for way too long.

Can I ask a silly question, how is it that Hawthorn (who already had a "home" in Glenferrie Oval) were able to get into one new training ground that was state of the art at the time, and then be able to move into another while we have been essentially homeless for decades. Is it incompetence on our part? Is it us being too stuck with trying to be in the heartland of the MCG? Is it funds? Is it size of club, and therefore desirability for governments to help out? I just can't work out how this has been going on for the entirety of my following Melbourne (30 years).

I've genuinely tried to come at my opinions on Goody as calmly and as rationally as possible. After round 5 I was not calm and rational, I was beyond fed up, I was livid with what I was seeing. Now since that time I have seen enough to say that around the ground the game plan is developing and growing, but there are players entrenched in the old style and old instincts, and they go straight towards them when things are falling apart. So where do I land on Goody now? I think he stays at the very least until the end of the year, he is given the opportunity for the board to see tangible signs that a bounce back is coming, and I would even say should be presenting to them to outline it all. I think beyond the end of this year my gut is that he will stay and see out his contract. But here's the caveat; there has to be a plan to change our forward line, and he should be implementing that plan NOW. He can't keep doing the same thing and expect it to magically change. Petty is a handy swingman but he is a defender first, and a forward second. I would say the same thing about Disco but he at least seems more natural as a forward. We have to give JVR and Jeffo proper time as forwards, and have them combining together. JVR should not be rucking, it's hurting his development and we won't know whether they've got something unless we give them a proper body of games to prove it. Casey are playing well, we have players putting their hands up for selection. It's time for us to be ruthless about some of our older dogs, and offer them the opportunity to be tried in different roles. If they don't like it, they get moved on for us to get draft capital. The positive is that I still (maybe I'm delusional) believe we are a few tweaks and a couple of really solid recruits away from being back to top 6 and beyond. But right now we are close but still so far away.

That is embarrassing, to have our best kick be hitting just a tick over 50%. Honestly our players should be filthy with themselves and be doing something about it. I've said it before I'll say it again, they should be paying fines (going to Jim Stynes charity) for missed shots until this problem is resolved. I'm absolutely fed up with this now.