Pates

Something I'm really hoping to see is an aggressive trade period, I think there are going to be some hard calls made on some older players we shouldn't rule anything out. Go hard or go home this trade period.

Considering that off the back of last year's disaster we should've in theory been given a kinder draw we have definitely been shafted. There are more systematic issues within the team and the club that we need to fix before we'll be a contender but one would hope that next year we get a kinder draw to make up for this (though it's extremely unlikely).

What has been a constant frustration for me watching Melbourne over the years is that we seldom finish the season well. 2018 was the exception to that and we stormed into finals. Aside from that we mostly end the year on the back of 4+ losses in a row. Look at Roos' final year, we were a chance to make the finals but limped home and gave Roos the send off his heaviest defeat. Just once I would like to see us finish the year well regardless of whether we make the finals. Force the other teams have to get the job done as well.

Incredible turn of evens with GWS losing, it puts the equation in a very simple place again (for both clubs). Win or don’t play finals. I feel like we need to roll the dice a little and play Bennell, he may not be defensively up to it yet but his creativity and ball use is the best at the club, and he could be the spark that lights us. I would probably say Bedford misses for him. I think we also bring Brown back in for Preuss, I loved that tackle but I think structurally we need a proper second forward not just a big tall bloke who can chop out Gawn. I’d also say Smith goes out as well, perhaps for Lockhart or Nev. ANB could be on the blocks perhaps for Hannan. Ive been pretty out with my predictions but these are the changes I’d make: Out Preuss - In Brown Out Bedford - In Bennell Out Smith - In Lockhart/Nev Out ANB - In Hannan

Just when you think you’re out you get pulled back in.

I’m not going to pot/give up on a kid in his first year but that isn’t his first relatively straight forward miss. If we need to get someone to come in to mentor him then do it, but right now he seems to be dropping his dacks at really good opportunities. When he missed that goal I saw I shift on the ground from the players on both teams, it gave confidence to Freo and sucked the life out of us. The trade was fine, it’s up to the team/players to get value for it.

This may sound silly but I feel like he played his one tactical brilliance with the players running out of the backline towards goal before the 6-6-6 rule came in. It’s like after that happened he didn’t have anything up his sleeve. Credit to Freo today, they have a style and they played it well. It’s drilled, whereas we just have no system. That has to come back to Goodwin and a lack of tactics.

Are you sort of suggesting a Football (soccer) style match day manager style? I wouldn’t be against it for that matter. If we do end up saying bye bye to Goody I think we have to go with someone who has experience already. Voss is the only one of the younger brigade that comes to mind on that. Clarko for me would be the ideal get given his history with the club and he is the most successful of the current day coaches. But so much would be dependent on whether i) if the Hawks end his contract and ii) if he’d have any interest in coming to us.

Just about done with this club. I think Goodwin gets next year not because he deserves it or because it's necessarily the right thing to do but purely because he's contracted for another two years. He's close to lost me now. If a coach can't get his team to perform against lower opposition with finals on the line then you have to question if he's got it in him to get us to the ultimate glory, and if the answer to that question is no then you're left with only one answer. As for the players, twice in a row you wouldn't have known we were playing for finals. The effort was a little better than last week but still lazy and dumb at times. Fritta was actually one of our better players but he summed up our play with that third quarter effort where he couldn't pull a kick and instead did a nothing (short) handball to Rivers and we turned it over for a goal. I also can't help but think that if Kozzie had kicked his soda goal things may have been different, went up the other end and they got the resulting goal. I'm just done. I'm shattered. In short, I'm a Melbourne fan. To hell and back? I know they had to give the pre-season doco a name but it's a bit of a slap in the face of the Melbourne fans who seem to live through this constant hell of mediocrity ever god damn season.

What was the 50 for? Was it back chat?

For someone that really witnessed some interesting events (and being a part of them) there weren’t many tough questions or answers. I would’ve been keen to hear more about what he thought about the sacking of Bailey and everything that followed. Poor guy still doesn’t get luck with injuries! But good on him for having such a positive attitude, honestly if I was him I’d probably be cursing the world.

Hats off to all involved, sensational podcast that absolutely captured every emotion involved. I was only 10 at the time so all I remember was not wanting Melbourne to die but not really understanding any of the mechanisms involved. I remember asking y dad what he was voting (had voted) and he definitely voted no merger, I also remember holding that no merger sign (in hindsight I wish I’d held onto it!). Some big revelations/claims in there as well, the part about Joe Gutnick saying he’d cross over if the players backed it was very interesting.

Would love this to happen, I like Reiwoldt’s analysis of for structure and running when he’s on fox footy.

I’ve noticed that when he is forward (and in rare form) his leads are harder than anyone and his hands are actually quite good. Problem he has had is that he just becomes the invisible man for long periods of the game. But personally I agree that he is best as a forward.

Gotta love the way the AFL have really helped us out this year. ?

Anyone know if Freo will be flying on the day of the game? It’s not an excusing for our pathetic performance last match but there can’t be much doubt that it plays an impact to fitness. The fact they’ve gone in with no changes could actually benefit us. I really do think they’ve taken a management approach to some of our changes for this match. Bringing some pace to the line up perhaps to outrun Freo, of course number one is getting clean hands on the ball and then using the bloody thing well!

Brown the unlucky one but his inclusion is clearly to give Gawn a chop out off the 4 day break. Rest of the changes I’m happy with. Surely this has to be Hunt’s big chance, I was really hoping he would make a place for himself in the team but he just doesn’t seem to do enough. I hope we give Baker a real license to run hard on the opposite wing to Langdon, I’ve been wanting to see him in for a while now. Bedford and Kozzie back together, would love to see these two buzzing at the feet of Weid and Preuss. Off a 4 day break and a poor game I think these changes work. I wonder whether they have reassessed that position earlier in the year about managing these breaks.

I had the misfortune of only being in Australia for the Richmond ANZAC eve loss and the following Hawthorn loss in 2018. Far and away our worst H&A losses for the the year. I can’t tell you the last actual win I have seen, I was in Melbourne to see the pre-season win against Adelaide this year. On that Hawthorn loss in 2018, I believe (I could be wrong) that the club had a bout of gastro go through the playing group. They killed it in the 1st quarter but were completely bereft of energy after that. I’m hoping to be around in Australia next year for the season, watch us return to a bottom 4, 5 wins or less team again. ☹️

I feel like we’re yet to see Goodwin pull an in-game master stroke move. It’s pretty much either plan A works or it doesn’t. That would be my biggest critique of him that he doesn’t seem to have any moves to shuffle things if it isn’t working.

This belief that we can’t be trusted to grit the tough wins and solidify finals spots is nothing new at all. I loved the Rev and we had some great years with him but we were so good at choking at bad moments. It just became what you expected and really we have always found a way to make bottom 4 sides look like their top 4 sides. Zero idea how to rectify it because we really see to have it ingrained in every facet of the club including the fans.

It’s was such schoolyard footy to see us adopting that tactic in the first quarter, kicking randomly long without seeing what options was on then only to watch Sydney go the complete opposite direction of looking for space and targets. Weid had a poor game back his teammates did him no favours.

Well done to Trac, he’s been a definite bright spot this year in amongst inconsistency from many teammates. He can get better, which is scary for the competition. Really hope he celebrates with a win.

Genuinely think they should be docked 2 premiership points for this breach. This season has been such a monumental effort from so many parties to get it going and for these two dingbats to compromise it is a disgrace. I also feel for the fact there will potentially be a club physio, coach, fitness staff who now may have to find another job next year because of these two selfish idiots. The ramifications of their choices are far reaching and could've had bigger consequences. Docking them 2 premiership points brings them back to even points so they have to rely on percentage to achieve a higher spot. As for the AFLPA stopping them being fined such a huge amount, why shouldn't they cop that fine? The breach is their doing and as I mentioned above had potentially huge ramifications on so many people. I think 50/50 with the club is the minimum of what they should be paying.

I've had patience with him and even defended him at times, but yesterday was the final straw for me. He became a liability to the team, so much so that we threw him forward in a vein attempt to mix things up though it looked more like an attempt to hide him. Some of the blame has to go to the selection committee though, in some rare circumstances he can be of limited value as a stopper, but most on here were downright bemused by his selection against Sydney coupled with bringing in Smith. Anyway, I would like to see us shop him around at season's end. I don't think I can stand seeing him in the team anymore.

After the Saints match I said Goody deserved praise for the way the gameplay worked, this match the players looked lost everywhere around the ground. Going forward we had no system despite the amount of opportunities we had. It was very reminiscent of 2019. Big fail on Goodwin today. I think that’s our season cooked, I can see us finishing on 9 wins which will have us miss out by the draw Collingwood had with Richmond. No way do I see us beating GWS with that pathetic effort today and now we have to back it up with a short break vs Freo. Wasted year. Time to move on Oscar, he can’t continue to get games and be completely out of his depth. His selection this game was downright baffling considering we brought in Smith as well. I didn’t mind sending him forward as something different but looked at sea there as well so he has go. No time for them to lament this poor performance though, Freo in 4 days could end our season officially.