Jaded No More

This happened to the Pies before their 2023 flag where they had a drop off before the end of the season. I’m definitely not counting my chickens. @binman do you think Pies are loading ahead of finals?

Like choosing between [censored] your pants and vomiting Lose lose.

I always say if you survived Neeld’s reality bus, you’ll survive anything We are all trauma bonded for life

Not sure we will necessarily go after big names. You might have a new coach lure some free agents to fill gaps and we can also now trade 2 years worth of picks. Our list is not in a diabolical state. There’s a lot of natural growth to come from our young players, and you have the opportunity to get Trac and Clarry and Lever and Fritsch back to their best and very quickly rise back up the ladder. May, Viney and Melksham are the only 3 best 22 players who will likely continue to decline with age next year. I’d add Gawn too but he’s somehow getting better with age. Freak of nature.

I wonder if McQualter would have some interest in him. Not saying we’d get a massive trade, but likewise what’s the point of keeping him on if we don’t think he’s worth a game in even the deadest of seasons.

So… no change then Disappointing. If I knew I was coach for only 3 weeks I’d go absolutely wild. Kosi in the ruck. McVee to FF. Max Gawn on the wing. It’s maybe why they haven’t called me about the coaching job yet 😬

The supporters haven’t paid their membership and that was a problem. Unfortunately losing 15,000 members in 2 years when you’re a small club hurts. Do I think the board took that into consideration? Yes. But no they didn’t trawl Demonland and read the “Is Goody The Right Guy” thread. Nobody has that much time on their hands. What the rank and file supporter thinks is irrelevant to club decisions, but of course if you’re asking supporters to put their hands in their pockets and they refuse, then that’s an issue. It’s also an issue that we have so many fair weather fans who pick and choose when to support the club. I wish they’d just go away.

Chaplin is the forward coach now, so hopefully Lever is not involved in that. I would think Melksham could help out whether he is playing or not (hamstring playing up?). He's been involved in coaching during his ACL recovery. Besides Chaplin can still talk to the forwards then bring the group together. And we also have Williams and Richo who can help out. Team selection tonight is going to be so interesting. I'm most intrigued to see if Chaplin, as forwards coach and now senior coach, plays Jefferson or a different forward mix.

And THIS is exactly why there was no point waiting to sack Goodwin, because you don't want to hamstring a new coach with assistants he doesn't want, because of a missed deadline. It's critically important to get someone on board ASAP, and if you get a feeling from your preferred candidates that they have assistants in mind lined up, then you cut ties with your current assistants as soon as possible. It's also the right thing to do by them, as it gives them more time to line up a job elsewhere. Same goes for list management. Players will be having exit interviews in 3 weeks time. There's a distinct possibility we will have a new coach signed up by then, and they can be involved in those interviews, or at the very least players can be told who their new coach is, and that may be an important factor in their own decision making. Our season is over on the field, but it's just starting off it. A really massive off season coming up.

Who says we won't do that? Who says Smith caught up with Buckley but didn't also ring Longmire and Simpson? I am confident that we've spoken to a number of options before we made the call to remove Goody as our coach. While I prefer we went for an untried assistant, we unfortunately have too many issues that IMO only an experienced coach with gravitas and media pull can fix.

Wait so you expect a football board who meets regularly to discuss club matters, to NOT discuss our on field performances and coaches after a 0-5 start? The club wasn't going to sack Goody if they didn't believe they had some really good strong alternatives interested in the job. You don't sack a premiership coach and then go "so, who do we call now guys?". This is a really big decision and I would be really disappointed if it's one that the club came to on a whim. It needed to be discussed and thought about for a long time, rather than made as a rash reactionary decision to a single performance. Good on Smith for being proactive and involved. We complain that our board sits on their hands and warms their seat, but then we complain when they don't? You can't win with some fans.

I'm not. We did what a good board should do, and discussed the possibility after a 0-5 start off the back of a poor 2024. We obviously didn't want to jump the gun, and we rightfully gave Goody more time which is totally deserved. Some will argue that he deserved even more time, but for mine the pain would have been the same if we did it now or in 3 weeks time, but now we have 3 extra weeks to land our next coach. 3 weeks is a long time in footy and you need a new coach settled in by the time trade and draft periods roll around.

You can look at what happened from a win loss perspective around April 3rd and also know that Steven Smith went overseas shortly after. Connect the dots. I would be shocked if we decided to sack Goody with 3 rounds left in the season, without making any contact with potential replacements first. Even we are not that incompetent!

Everyone needs to take a few deep breaths and let others express their feelings in a respectful manner. It's ok to care a lot, a little, not at all. It's ok to be happy, upset, shocked, angry, or a little of everything. Human emotions are not black and white, and for some footy means more than to others and that's ok. I know that @Ghostwriter had a more personal relationship with Goody as she's very much involved at the club and attends training every week. So how about people cut each other some slack and stop being such goddamn buttholes to each other. We are all Melbourne supporters and we all just want success again. We have lost far too many really good quality posters on this site over the 9000 years I've been posing here, because they got fed up with the personal attacks and petulant behaviour of others. Eventually this place will become an echo chamber of sad sacks, negative nellies and egomaniacal nutcases. #SaveDemonland

I felt waaay worse about Jetta, Jones and Hunt missing out on a grand final in 2021. I still feel gutted about Gus, and that hurt won’t ever just disappear. I even feel terrible for Hore. What shocking luck! Very few coaches get to walk away by choice, most are tapped on the shoulder or sacked. That is the brutal reality of the industry. At least Goodwin got to walk away with a flag, success, a playing group that loves him, industry wide respect, and a $1million payout. I’ve seen senior coaches walk away with far less. Dean Bailey’s sacking was a bigger knife in the gut for mine because it was a pathetic reactive decision made by those who deserved to go far sooner than he did.

I don't think people understand how much power Max Gawn has at this club. He might as well be CEO and head of communication. You would be incredibly naïve to think he was not consulted on the decision or support it in some respects. I know for a fact that he's had sway in other decisions and non decisions before, not just within the footy department. He is the football club, and we are incredibly lucky to have him as captain. There isn't anyone else on the list who comes close to being the leader that we need. If Max is on board, and I have no doubt he is, then you can rest easy that the rest of the group will soon be as well.

An unbothered king who just goes about his business and does it week in week out. A fitness freak and a great role model for the young wingman coming through at the club. Well done on 200. Given your fitness level I’m thinking 400 games is not out of the question. May you have an extra special bike ride to celebrate post game this weekend.

It does make me laugh when anyone earning ludicrous amounts of money complains about commuting to Casey. I stand still on the Monash for a lot less than that. Will happily swap.

If people got annoyed with Goody saying not much in the media, prepare for Longmire to give even less. Not sure I’ve ever heard him say anything that doesn’t leave me wondering what he’s actually saying.

While I agree, very few clubs that have changed coaches in recent times have had a good list. Gold Coast and Pies the exception and you can see the result. Essendon, Carlton, Richmond, West Coast, and Sydney all have major list issues. And apart from Sydney have not experienced success in some time (Richmond aside but they’re on the other side of prolonged success now). I’m not saying our list is perfect, but it’s certainly promising enough to play finals.

It's been going on for far too long, ever since Jackson left we've been leaking like a faulty tap. It's really insane to me how we haven't managed to make it stop. It is so detrimental to the club. It also doesn't excuse the club not informing players in a timely manner, or indeed the paying members. Nobody wants to find anything out from Tom [censored] Morris, except that he's resigned from the media.

The much bigger issue is who is the rat that is leaking everything out of this club?

I wasn't talking about the likes of Melksham or Tmac who are on the fence re: retirement, and may well have retired had Goody stayed or not. I am talking about senior players who still have a long career ahead of them, especially those we screamed and yelled about the club getting better. Players have to take responsibility for what has happened as well. Sure a senior coach is responsible for results, but so are his players. Our highly paid premiership players, with the sole exception of Gawn, have put up some truly garbage performances over the last 18 months. Where we find ourselves now is on them as much as it is on the coaches, including Goody. Any change is scary. The reality is that almost every player on our list loved Goody, because he is a really good person who cared deeply about the players. And when you lose a boss that you love, no matter how poorly the company is performing under them, you are scared because what if the next boss isn't nice? But players who are committed to the cause will understand that the club is trying to get better results, and those close to the end of their career should see this as an opportunity to steal another flag. Something that was unlikely to happen under Goody in the short term. I wonder how Pendelbury and Sidebottom felt when Buckley left... I bet they never believed they'd win another flag so soon under a new coach. As for Kos, no matter who coaches us next there is no doubt in my mind that they will see him as one of our most valuable assets. He is by far our best and most important player heading into the future. And we still have Matty Whelan doing a brilliant job in supporting not just Kosi but all of our indigenous players. That won't change under a new coach, unless our board has a mental breakdown.

You could be right, and I agree that their list is not in a great spot. However lets not forget that we have entirely new leadership coming in, which is always a risk for a new coach. Our club has been in shambles off the field for at least 2 seasons. We have 2 important players who might want out. We train across 2 different venues, one of which is a fair way away for most people. Do I think our list is an attractive proposition? Absolutely. I truly don't think we are as bad as our results show, but as a club we are not exactly screaming pick me.

Gold Coast got absolutely screwed. All 4 Gold Coast fans must be fuming. Happy to have pre made plans for a birthday dinner on the Friday night. Not sure I can take another loss to the Pies to finish off a season from literal hell.