Jaded No More

I wish Jones was our problem. If Jones was our problem, we would be winning premierships. There is no doubt that we are devoid of leadership. It speaks volumes that our leadership group got smaller this year, and that our vice captain is an over the hill has-been who spends more time giving away free kicks and falling over, than actually leading or directing traffic. Viney is our best leader. He is 22. He is injured. The player I saw talking and directing last night was Lever, a 21 year old who has played 5 ordinary games for this club. Unbelievable. Gawn is in the centre of basically every play, yet he never directs traffic. I remember back in the day Jamar and Moloney and Jones would often talk in the centre square before bounces. Jamar. God help me! Yes we were crap back then, but we would dominate the clearances. We got destroyed last night in the centre bounces, and yet nobody once came in and tried to change things up, or direct traffic. Jones is an admirable character, he is a good player, he fights hard, trains hard, leads by example and gets the best out of himself. He is probably not super savvy, or a student of the game. He is probably our captain because I don't think there is anyone remotely better right now. But he is not our problem. At the end of the day, he is not making positional moves, he is not setting tactics, he is not selecting the teams. He absolutely thrived under every coach we have ever had, mother-effing Neeld included! He can follow instructions and do the team thing. Others around him clearly cannot.

Hogan needs to stick to his forward role. It literally gives us nothing to have him play mid. We have zero consistency up forward and no real marking targets. Gees we miss McDonald!

I was happy with the effort for about half the match. But this is not little league. We are an AFL team who methodically and frequently put in half an effort. I can understand running out of steam with 10 minutes left because we were a man down. But FML our second quarter was pathetic, our skills from the get to were woeful and our game plan is as bewildering as it is dumb. So no, I was not happy with the overall effort and neither should our coach be! We are not in development mode anymore ffs. If after so many damn years we are still happy with “effort” that results in a 7 goal loss then I give up.

Jesus I’m very worried if he doesn’t know how to handle his group of players who he has been involved with for 4 years now. If they need a cuddle I suggest they go find their mummy, not look for one from their footy coach.

Weid was one of my highlights and his rucking was pretty good too. Gawn needs to calm his farm and stop smashing balls to the opposition goal side. Yes we know you are big and you win lots of hit outs, but just stop.

Well Goodwin seems happy with the effort, so I guess nothing to see here. Move along. Fake news.

So glad I’ll be away for Queens Birthday Holidays > Hell > Watching Melbourne

They were scoring easy shots out the back all game. Yes the last was the worst, but they kept scoring so easily while we wasted 20 inside 50s for 1 goal. Again. Also got slaughtered in clearances.

Fair enough. It looked like he was cramping as he kept stretching. Didn’t listen to the post match (too much rage), did they say which hammy or how severe?

Why don’t we just run over our players with steam rollers. Replacement training for that camp. See who survives!

Do we know if Kent’s hammy is the same one he tore previously? Poor bloke, just got back in and was doing ok. He was cramping before halftime, came to the bench and got told to stay on. Genius management.

If we win the next 4, I’ll be shocked, amazed and delighted. With this game plan and a side full of plodders who can’t kick, handball or run fast, we are going to be lucky to beat St Kilda and Carlton who are both due for a win.

I thought last week’s capitulation was out of character and an aberration. Guess not. So I think the game plan is have 3 forwards and 10 defenders. Try to win ball, handball around to raise everyone’s Supercoach rankings. If ball is not yet turned over, find Gawn on the boundary, bomb to him. Hope he marks. If he marks, make no attempt to run back, just let him kick it to whichever poor bastard is playing at FF with 3 defenders on him. Ball comes in, ball rebounds out. Opposition score. Have I nailed it?

Every Melbourne player in the backline. Richmond finds 2 unmanned. Goal. This team is rubbish.

Waiting for the inevitable demolition. I hate this club so so much sometimes.

Typical. We had good effort. Did not capitalize. Richmond score the 3 easiest goals you’ll ever see. STOP HANDBALLING IN THE BACKLINE YOU PACK OF MORONS!

And yet some refuse to blame the coach. We have to be the dumbest side going around. We kick to 3-1, we all go up in contests while they crumb goals out the back. We panic. We over handball. We are lost. What has happened to this team? We have gone so far backwards it’s frightening. Not one winner tonight except Oscar who has been solid all year.

Lucky they can’t kick. We are a joke. Can anyone explain the game plan to me?

Goodwin’s game plan is a disgrace.

Hogan’s hero segment is a law suit waiting to happen

Dragged them down to our level. Still so wasteful going forward. We are infuriating to watch. Hunt and Hibbo seem a bit more switched on which is nice.

How can you even respond to this before we’ve played? You need to see where we land with injuries, possible suspensions, form etc.

Raining in Collingwood at the moment, sky is very grey and gloomy.

I think that we can handle, it's more actual rain that seems to make us literally have a meltdown. Besides even in the rain last week I felt that we were down a tall, so Weids playing is not an issue. He isn't exactly a clunky forward, he is quite agile and he can give Gawn a chop out in the ruck, which after Harmes' effort last week is much needed.