Jaded No More

He would have enough sway to do that for sure. But Morris says he’s not unhappy with Goodwin, so it’s hard to know what info Morris is reporting truthfully and what he is making up.

And his dad was also connected to Hawks. Go figure.

How do you figure that all 3 of these CONTRACTED players will not be with us in 2025? Did Viney look like someone who wants out on Saturday night?

Great point about 2020. We absolutely need to refresh the FD around Goodwin and get some different energy. Yze was really loved and respected by all our mids. His arrival at the club was very important and I think his departure has been really costly (although I of course understand that he had to jump at the top job when one was offered to him!). Finishing bottom 8 when you’ve been top 4 and premiers for the last 3 years, must be really frustrating. It is for the fans, so why wouldn’t it be for the players who work so hard to succeed? It’s been a truly horrible season.

In any workplace you have unhappy people. It’s never good when your best employees are unhappy tho, and if it’s true it needs to be fixed and fast. Being back at the club would definitely help you would think. And if you believe Morris 🤮, he did say Trac is not unhappy with the coach, which contradicts the reports that he’s unhappy with the direction of the club. Is he unhappy we directed our season to a bottom 8 finish? Coz like same Trac.

My understanding is that LJ indicated that he was happy and keen to stay after the 2021 flag. And in fact up until midway thru 2022 he never said he wanted out. Hindsight is a wonderful thing tho. Especially when it comes to trading and drafting.

Jackson refused to deal with West Coast, so it’s a moot point. As for Meek it’s possible that they said it’s Meek and a second rounder and we decided that a first round pick was better than Meek. Which it is. They were never trading Treacy. It’s like if they came to us and said here’s Brayshaw but we want JVR. You’d tell them to go take a long walk off a short pier. Understand your frustration but just look at Pies overpaying for Shultz and that’ll make you feel really good 😂

How do you know that we didn’t and Freo didn’t tell us to go away? At the end of the day Jackson was uncontracted, so we didn’t have a lot of leverage. We got maximum draft capital in return. It’s the best we could have hoped for, and at the very least him leaving landed us Windsor, who I believe will be a better long term player. Plus perhaps Jefferson will end up as good as Treacy… or Buddy Franklin according to some posters on here 😂

Please take your facts and leave

I think we should rest him and send him off for surgery on his hand. I guess the club has different considerations regarding his mental well being and how connected that is to his ability to play each week. If it was my call he’d be off to get his hand fixed today, and given an early return date to pre season training with clear fitness markers that he has to hit (skin folds, kms run, etc).

I too sit right near the bench. Not only was Oliver dripping snot as he was coming to the bench (it was quite the sight 🤮), in the first quarter he was on hands and knees on the field, with our team doctor, sticking his fingers down his throat in an effort to make himself throw up as he was presumably unwell. As someone with a serious phobia of vomiting, that nearly ended my 25 year stint at the football 😂 JVR also looked absolutely cooked every time he ran to the bench. It was like the jogging to the bench was going to end him. COME AT ME FACE PALMERS 💪🏻

My apologies your royal highness 🙄

Are those 8 blokes aware that he's coming back from a serious injury and has had no pre-season? He might be just as poor playing defensively if he's struggling with his foot, except playing forward he is less costly when he's out of form than playing as a defender. Besides if those 8 fans came on Saturday night, they would have seen Petty play really well and take some very good marks playing up forward. You summed it up when you said our fan base is fickle. That's all there is to it, they pick and choose when to show up based solely on ladder position.

I think that he's held up his end of the signed contract for a very long time, winning 4 B&Fs (including in our premiership year), 3 AAs and 2 Coaches Awards. One bad season doesn't define someone's career, especially someone who has achieved so much already. He has to play a lot better next season, and if he doesn't, I am sure discussions will be had. But throwing away one of the best players to ever pull on the red and blue because of one bad season, where there are legitimate reasons for his output, is not only bad form it's bad culture. Also to say he is not invested is very unfair. You have no idea what he was/is going through off the field. He has battled so many personal demons, and a terrible hand injury that he still needs fixing. Someone who isn't invested is not putting in the hard yards to get themselves mentally fit to play like Clarry has. I think he would be feeling far more frustrated than any of us by his form. Do you think he goes home and is happy that he can't perform to the level he's used to? But for someone many inside the club thought would struggle to play at all this year, he's played all but one game and that is a massive credit to the hard work he has done off field on himself.

It is their right of course, but it's also a ridiculous reason not to attend a game. Are people refusing to go because Rivers is playing midfield? Or because TMac is back in defense? I understand that sometimes we don't play the most exciting brand of footy, but if we were playing the exact same way and winning and contesting for a flag this year, we would get the crowd numbers. The rest are just excuses. Our fans stop turning up when we stop winning. It's never been any different.

I would love a medal, for continuously trying to make sense of the need for posters to take every single thing that someone else says that they disagree with out of context. You wrongly noted we only missed 2 of our best 22 against Port, and I corrected you and said we also missed May (who I assume you agree is a best 22 player). You then went on and on because another posted noted that we were 'severely undermanned', not me mind you, another poster. So I just wanted to point out, that had you actually read this thread from the start, you'd know that straight after the game the ONLY comment I made was about our skills and decision making costing us the game. I never mentioned injuries. All I wanted to do was point out that you forgot to mention May in your list of outs. I even made a joke about him not being great, you know, to lighten the mood. Demonland is such a miserable place when we are losing, not because people are rightly frustrated and want to express their views, but because everyone who wants to be a sad sack gets so overly sensitive when someone else tries to refute their opinion, or show them the positives.

No it’s not, it’s just missing key players. I did note well before you did, in this very thread, that our skills and decision making are not good and were why we lost. Just thought I’d remind you that Trac and Windsor are not the only best 22 players we missing yesterday

Well when two of those players happen to be one of the best players in the game and one of the best defenders in the game, it’s quite something. Most teams missing their FB and number one player would struggle. Like if Port didn’t have Butters yesterday or Aliir Aliir I reckon we win.

Also missing May, but I guess he definitely doesn’t help stop goals so who cares about him 😂

You of course ignored the post where Brisbane is ranked number one for the number of players who played every game. I don’t disagree with you that we needed to get support for Max, but that doesn’t change the fact that we were never going to replace someone the quality of Gus or Trac or an underperforming Clarry in a mid season draft. I brought up Curnow because every side has injuries, but some players who get injured have a far bigger impact than others. IMO Trac is far more important to Melbourne than any of the players Brisbane have lost to injury, not to mention a far better player. For example I think the Dogs can’t win a flag without Bont even if the rest of their list is fit. Whereas Sydney bat very deep in their midfield so losing Mills didn’t hurt them. The point again being that the number of injuries is neither here nor there. It’s the impact they have on your side. Like last year, losing Melksham who is not exactly a premiership winning make or break player, but as you’ve noted yourself, was a massive out for us because our forward line was already down with other injuries. This year the injuries and lack of form has hit our midfield hard and it’s showed. Our midfield numbers have been atrocious in many games, but again let me be clear, that injuries alone are not the only problem. Set ups, game plan, fitness have all been major issues for us this year. Injuries just made these things worse, and can’t be brushed off as an excuse. We all know that having a healthy list is one of the most important factors when it comes to winning a flag.

Also thought this was an interesting one re: Brisbane

I already said that it’s not just injuries that have killed our season, so not sure why I have to debate this point again. All I mentioned is that it’s too simplistic to just list games lost thru injury. I mean why is Gus not included? He’s missed 22 games. We planned our season with him being on the list, only to lose him on the eve of the season without being able to replace him via draft or trade. Likewise Joel Smith. Brisbane started like a dumpster fire and picked up pace as the year progressed. They’ve done very well and credit to them. Let’s see if they fail again when it counts. My guess is they will. Let’s also see how Carlton goes now if they’ve lost Curnow for a while. Don’t think they’ll make the 8 without him.

Pies are sitting where we are. I never said it’s the injuries alone, but it’s absolutely part of the reason. On paper Clarry and Petty missed two games, but we all know they never got close to hitting form because they had interrupted pre seasons. There are a number of factors for why we are where we are, it’s not just injuries, but they certainly didn’t help. In a season so tight, the number of games we’ve lost by under a goal is the difference between 13th and 4th.

Also missed Lever for 4 games, Gawn missed 2, Bowey 8 weeks, Salem I don’t even know how many, Petty off no pre season and a serious injury, no Spargo, Melksham out for half the season, and the list goes on. And while some of those players are not make or break, what the sum of the injuries does is force you to play lesser or younger players for way longer than you would normally. That takes its toll over a long season. May is probably a 2 point difference yesterday as an example.

We tried changing the game style earlier in the season. It was very obvious we tried playing more attacking but we don’t have the players to play that style. And we lost the few quality ball users we had in Bowey and then Salem, plus Trac. We then reverted back to a contest and defense game style when it became obvious that we aren’t capable of executing a more attacking game style. I fully support changing the game plan and understand it’s important to evolve with the competition. But I also understand that we’ve been a bloody good team for 3 years now, and have given ourselves serious shots at multiple flags. I sat thru the Neeld years and I longed for the day that my side was competitive and a shot at finals. I didn’t care how we played, I just wanted not to be an uncompetitive embarrassment. And last night was a really good competitive performance. Regardless of game style, that is good enough for me to want to attend games.