Jaded No More

Agreed. It would be irresponsible and wrong of any club to give him an opportunity to permanently destroy his life. This stuff is no joke and that he wants to go again just shows me that he’s already had one too many head knocks.

Spot on. There isn't a Melbourne supporter who doesn't universally admire Jack's attack on the footy, his endeavour, hell his consistency. He is always giving 100% of himself, and that is an admirable quality. That doesn't mean he is faultless or have no clear deficiencies. It also doesn't mean that the way he goes about his footy isn't sometimes detrimental to the overall outcome of our midfield performance. If he stays, great. Although I wouldn't support him getting a 5 year deal. There are only 2 players on our list I would give those deal to, and that is Trac and Oliver. But, that aside, nobody here would be upset if he stays. On the flip side, if he left and we got a really good outside mid in return, I don't think we would be worse off.

One can't help but wonder if Jack was drafted to Melbourne in 2019, how his career would have panned out. It's been a bumpy ride for him, and I wish him all the best in his future endeavours.

Perhaps team first footy wasn't the right choice of words, but to me a player who gets in the way of his teammates and doesn't know his own limitations, is detrimental to his teammates. There is no doubt he goes hard and gives his all every week. I never doubt his desire or application, and never have. I have no problems if he stays, and I believe there is a role for him in the side, but I definitely do not rate him as highly as our coaches clearly do. And I never commented on his skills. His skills are fine for the role he plays. I think he would be better suited to play in a midfield where he is the main and best clearance player. He isn't at Melbourne, and from the outside looking in, hasn't learnt to play second fiddle to Oliver. From my perspective both Oliver and Langdon had better seasons and were more crucial to us winning the games we did. Coaches don't agree, and that is fine. They have their own matrix that we clearly don't see.

Perhaps he plays the role the club wants him to play, but when I see him bash and crash his own teammates and repeatedly get caught with ball in hand, it doesn't appear that he gels with the rest of the inside mids, and to me we play better when he isn't in the centre bounce. Regardless, at his age and with his history of foot injuries, 5 years is far too many.

Jesus I hope this isn't true. 27, dodgy feet, can't play team first footy.... 5 years? Let us hope the club isn't that stupid and learnt from their idiotic Harmes deal.

If I thought we had the slightest chance of winning a flag next year, then sure. But his age profile doesn't fit our list.

If the club is happy with where his body is at, and he doesn't cost the earth, you'd be absolutely stupid not to go there. Good age profile, prolific and proven goal kicker, he can do a bit of forward rucking too. 100% a yes for me if the circumstances fit. He would be a massive upgrade on McDonald. And LOL at people saying he can only play in space as a lead up forward. Maybe that is exactly the sort of bloody game plan we should have, given in normal seasons we play on the wide open spaces of the MCG! He is someone we can structure a forwardline around, and who would take the best defender each week, giving Weideman more time to develop, and Jackson some free hits.

It comes down to this for me, would you trade him for Tom McDonald? Yes you would. We have barely no bargaining chips in terms of draft picks, and we cannot trade future picks either as far as I know, as we already did this year. So it will come down to a player trade, and in which case, I would take an outside runner with good skills to fill that second wing spot, and get rid of a slow lumbering tall who hasn't done anything since 1987 and is on big dollars.

Tmac for Polec? Where do I sign?

With the exception of our backline, all other areas on the field this year were not great in terms of strategy or selection. I have no idea anymore who is responsible for what, but no doubt the midfield and forward coaches need to go. I believe our ruck coach is also our goal kicking coach... which worked out a treat... not. We have to invest big money in getting top quality assistants, because god knows this current group headed by Goodwin, leave a lot to be desired in terms of strategy, selection and execution on matchday. If we are sticking with Goodwin for 2021, we have to give him the best support possible, so he either succeeds, or he fails and we can make an easy call that he isn't the right guy, even with top quality support around him.

I mean if I worked for such a disappointing organisation I would at least wanna look around... but I guess I have rarely worked anywhere where I liked more than 2 or 3 people, and the rest were absolute flogs, but that is the nature of the industry I'm in. I highly doubt that Oliver or Trac are going anywhere, because even if they wanted to, the club would never ever let them go while contracted. I cannot think of any trade offer that would even tempt the club to consider it. It would be a PR disaster, not to mention would set our team back a decade. The best thing this club can do in the off season, assuming Goodwin is staying, is moving heaven and earth to get some top quality assistants, and hopefully another pacey wingman (and also a crumbing forward, and a FF, but like... wishful thinking all 3 would happen), and actually make finals next year! Elite players who can have their choice of teams, eventually get tired of playing for loser clubs who do not give them the opportunity to play finals or win flags. They either leave or they stay because the money is too good. That is just the reality.

If the max number of votes you can get each game is 40, that is a 10 from each coach, and Melksham received such low votes, I would suggest he was not highly rated by the coaches this year. That he kept getting a game, suggests to me that Goodwin was making the final call here. No way does a player so out of form keeps getting a free pass because a line coach is backing him in for 17 rounds. Especially as they moved him from the forwardline to the midfield, so presumably our forward coach was unimpressed. I have no idea about the captaincy call, which is why I didn't mention it. How it did not go to May though, is seriously beyond my understand, but then again those are much more complex calls than simply saying "this guy is out of form, he has to go" We all know Goodwin has a close relationship with Melksham and Hibbo. I was glad they made the call to drop Hibbo, and he has repaid the faith and had an excellent season. If Melksham did well in the votes, I would have thought that maybe he was doing a role that I didn't understand but that the coaches were very happy with and so be it. But clearly the coaches were not happy with his performance, and if you look at other guys who finished around the same mark as him, you can clearly see those guys were not given a free pass at the 22 each week.

Lol so he got dropped for being late because he was getting a Covid test and they left him behind? Jesus these rumors aren’t even good!

Clearly Goodwin is the only person who still rates Melksham given how few votes he scored for someone who played every game despite failing form. Further shows that Goodwin plays favorites.

Very surprised Viney finished so high and especially ahead of Oliver and Langdon.

Agreed. Pretty pathetic, but hardly surprising. The internet is full of faceless losers.... just look at Demonland ?

I think that's purely because it is our second breach.

Either way, he made a very poor decision, and it cost the club $50,000 which it can hardly effort, and Bennell 4 weeks off his next season (if he has one), which he can also hardly afford. If he really needed to swap cars, and I do have to ask, the players are in a hub, why do you have a personal use car to begin with and where did it come from? If that is the case, I am sure that if he told the club, they would have sorted something out with the AFL, especially if it was due to baby seats etc. That he was out and about in clear Covid breach, while his team was playing for their spot in the top 8, is concerning. It is far from a hangable offence, but it doesn't sound or look good. His head isn't all in it, and that is the real problem. He should have been watching the game with the other players, not doing whatever he was doing up on the Gold Coast.

That is a good question. The fine must be because he left and went somewhere he wasn't allowed to?

No he didn't, but I have no idea if it was because he was found out and then stopped. From what I read he's isolating in a separate hotel now. I doubt his plan was to leave the hub and not return, given his partner and baby are both still in there.

We made progress off the back of finishing 17th last year, a completely unacceptable position, even with injuries. We have not made any progress since 2017, where we finished 9th, and then went on to play prelims in 2018. Progress from there would suggest consistent finals appearances and wins. Not finishing 9th and saying "oh good, we jumped up from bottom 2", when we never ever should have finished that low to begin with.

If Clarkson wants us, and he and the president don't see eye to eye, why would they hold onto him? Their list is in a rebuild mode. Now is the perfect time for Clarkson to go if he doesn't want to rebuild a list from scratch. I am not saying this will happen, but I am saying that if Clarkson wants out, Hawks won't force his hand, given their performance this season and where there list is at.

Completely different situation. Harley has form. May broke team rules, not league and state rules relating to Covid. Drinking is not illegal. Going outside of the hub to an authorized place is and puts at risk our entire club, not to mention the AFL. Imagine he caught Covid, walked back to the hub and we made finals. Not to mention we are hubbing with another team who is in finals. It has disaster written all over it, which is precisely why the AFL is so hard on these breaches.

Club statement suggest he was at an unauthorized household. I don’t even know what that means, but Pert does not sound pleased.