rufus

There were at least 6 sentences of incomprehensible jibberish in his piece in that clip. I have no idea how he, along with many others in the 'media', have roles presenting information when they cannot get a point across coherently. I am completely unclear whether he thinks this is Petracca's fault or Melbourne's fault. He is not Robinson Crusoe in that regard as there have been many others over the last few weeks who have flip flopped their narrative based off nothing more than rumours about what's been said to various people. Not for the first time in this whole sorry saga, Max summed it up best when he wondered whether journalists were actually supposed to deal in facts?

Agree regarding Smith. Someone please convince him. I don't feel like the current leadership has understood the depths that this club has been to. One flag was a gift to leadership to help accelerate us on the path to respect and relevance. It feels like everyone thought the job was done and this pervaded all the way down to the playing group. As a club we are sitting right back where we were prior to 2021, which is completely unforgivable. Agree with everyone who has said they are sick to their guts of all the self congratulatory rubbish about the great culture that they've built. The evidence just doesn't stack up.

I agree that Max should get the choice of what he wants...if he happens to think giving it up might prolong his playing career then that should be factored in. One of our all time greats in multiple facets. I also don't mind the call out for Rivers down the track. He consistently plays with the kind of effort and intensity that we need other players to be dragged along to. Will he be yet another interstate player that can't do their 10 to 15 years away from their state of origin though? He seems like a stronger character than that to me.

Agree it's been hard to watch our style over the last few years, but those wanting Goodwin to change to a more attacking style without player personnel changes are going to be very disappointed with the result. Yeah we might score more, but we are going to get routinely smashed. Our style has been matched to our playing group. We are slow and we do not have many good true contest winners. We've lost 2 of them in Hibberd and Brayshaw, and now probably have Gawn, May and Oliver (at his best) who can win those contests that genuinely decide scoring opportunities (McVee and Rivers show signs of being able to out point opponents when they get exposed in contests where they don'thave numbers to help them out). Freo, like Collingwood, have smacked us by exposing our weakness in aerial contest by moving the ball through areas where we don't have numbers advantages. If we want to go more attacking with this playing group, they are going to need to bust their butts applying pressure and creating turnovers around the contest, and getting back to help our defence after we turn the ball over (and we're going to need to acquire some better contest winners). We have fallen so far off in the pressure department that it's just really hard to see this happening.

Again no idea the full extent of what has played out here. We'll probably never know the full story and nor should we. Although there has probably been damage done to the club along the way, IF it's true that part of the frustration has been a lack of professionalism from the playing group, then we should all be thankful 1000 times over that it's been laid bare. We should also wonder how the hell it was ever allowed to happen (again). It's looked obvious from the stands that the desperation to compete and dominate just hasn't felt like priority number one over the last few years. This club needs to change full stop. Regardless of what's going on off the field, it's what gets done on the field by the players that defines the club. I hope Petracca, and everyone else in the privileged position of wearing the jumper, are determined to be the ones who really drive the change that we are crying out for. The coach has been critical in all of the teams that have had dominant periods over the last 15 years (Hawks, Cats, Tigers), but it was the players that committed to excellence that really drove the success.

Using high draft picks on interstate kids is just the dumbest of the dumb. The big Melb clubs may be able to do it...but with the weaker clubs like ours, we just can't hold onto these guys. The delusions of grandeur seem to spread all the way from fans through to our list management team. There's enough talent in Vic to focus high end drafting here. Looking for role players at later picks from interstate is OK as they are less likely to be stars who can call the shots.

Unfortunately the poop show that has unfolded over the last few weeks gives us zero chance of convincing any best 22 players to join us. I reckon it will also complicate the Petracca trade because no one will agree to leave their club to join us. From what I've heard, the misplaced arrogance of our playing group over the last few years might not have helped endear our club to outside players either. This is a high priority to correct if it is a reality.

Very interested in this game. We have a good record of strong performances during weeks where internal politics involving the players come to light. Yikes. Seriously though, in my opinion we are not going to win another one with our current group of senior players, regardless of how the dust settles with the current issues. So it's going to need to be many of the guys playing tomorrow that are going to get us to 14. Not too worried about the winning or losing, but how they go about it and how much pride is shown in the jumper and in each other will speak volumes around where this next wave is at.

Disappointing. He's one who always looks like he's up for the contest. Has improved constantly over the course of his career. The exact type of player who we need leading the club culture.

I wonder what it would cost to get Bellamy out of the storm and get him in a role to try and right our culture? The storm have been amazing for so long, I reckon Bellamy could help with out losing culture.

Feels like excuses to me. We're great and consistent at that. If you go out there, you play with pride. Tonight, like a number of other games this year, should not be acceptable. Find a way to compete. You don't have to win, just don't be embarrassing.

I tend to agree, except I'd stick with Goodwin. The young players aren't what's killing us right now so continue blooding them.

Yep. A team that generally has at least 9 players with 150 game of experience has been belted 5 times. Including by a Collingwood team missing a heap of their best and a terrible West Coast team. WTF are these senior players doing?

Teams that have pride don't give up 35 scoring shots to 14. I wonder when the Pies last waved the white flag like that? And people wonder why no one wants to go watch these guys play. Yeah it's because of that mean Maynard. Yeah poor Oliver's had a bad run. Oh but we get stiffed by the umpires. And our crowd just doesn't make enough noise so how can we expect the players to be competitive? Starts and ends with the players. Weak.

Dogs for mine. Great midfield depth, now have bigs standing up at both ends, and are hitting form and fitness at the right time. They are also amazing momentum riding football club.

I like watching good, hard, competitive sport. I don't trust that we're going to produce it. Coming off a straight sets finals exit last year, our crowd turned up ready to rumble vs Coll in the first final, only for the players to come out with the intensity of a pre season game. They lost trust. The whole club proceeded to blame an unfortunate injury in the 1st quarter of that match for our season's demise instead of the astonishing level to which our players got out-muscled and out-hustled to start that match. It was yet another indication of how little this club understands of how to harness the passion of the supporters. The players and FD have fumbled a golden opportunity to regain trust within the supporter base, and respect across the football world, over the last couple of years. I also don't trust our senior players. I don't trust that they will not lose way too many genuine one on one contests, or that they won't make the most calamitous mistakes that belie their level of experience. I have no idea what it is about what we expect of our senior players that sees such inconsistency with them. TLDR. I don't really enjoy how the MFC goes about competing.

Yes. 10 players with 150+ games of experience and I feel for the coach...you just don't know what you're going to get from those guys who you should be able to bank on. We've unearthed some decent young talent this year but are we just going to see those guys fall off a cliff as they hit their peak years as mostly seems to be the way at MFC? We won a flag with a pretty young and promising list and their overall ability to execute in the contest has just been poor for 3 years. Commitment to applying pressure seems to just be when they feel like it...it isn't a non negotiable. After trying to recruit players by spruiking that we see 3 or 4 flags in our short term future, there will likely be 8+ teams that have won at least a single final since 2021, and we won't be one of them. We are about to be passed by Hawthorn. Again. The fumbling of the whole thing by the whole FD is jarring. And on the crowd thing, it needs to be a two way street. These guys continually find ways to let interstate sides come here and embarrass us on our home turf...and why exactly would people want to turn up and cop that?

We are a completely different team when we are applying high pressure to our opponents. We are able to force turnovers in much more dangerous positions on the ground which generates so much more space forward. All of a sudden our forwards look capable. It was really evident even from the way our forwards sprinted to man the mark as Essendon chipped around their backline. These things make a huge difference to how teams are able to exit from the back half. Like it or not, it has become clear that we just don't have the talent levels of the other great sides of the past 10 to 15 years...so once we drop of our pressure we become very ordinary. Hawks of 2010's were good enough to ebb and flow their pressure and when they turned it up they could just bolt away. Richmond's successful team seemed to be able to bring the pressure very consistently which is what made them so successful. Our pressure hasn't been that consistently good since about quarter time in the GF in 2021. If we can bring it to last night's levels more consistently then we may still eek something more out of this group.

I guess another way I've been looking at it is by asking this question: Which of our players are meaningfully better players than they were when they played in a premiership in 2021? I am struggling to think of any that have gone from average to good, or from good to great or from great to superstar. Maybe Rivers and ANB are slightly better? Of that list of 9, I don’t think a single one is a better player now than they were. None seem to have reached a level where their output in terms of helping a team win a game of football is any better than it was then. Our list profile was nice at that point in time...many of our best contributors were not even at their peak age yet. So how did we get to where we are now? A flag should have provided a springboard to better performance from the individuals. I just don't think Goodwin is able to bank on the baseline output that he should be expecting from the experienced players. It would make it very hard to coach IMO.

I think we had 9 players with 150+ games of experience to 3. We are getting absolutely burnt by the experienced players for the umpteenth time is recent MFC history. Someone seriously needs to study how we can have so many players regress to looking like rookies when they hit peak AFL age of 27 to 30. These guys are meant to be guiding the ship. This has happened for us, with a few exceptions, this whole century. It has to be a cultural thing. I am absolutely staggered that we might even be witnessing it with Oliver now too...a guy who improved every year early is his career and seems to have smashed into a brick wall.

Sad to say but he just doesn't go hard enough. His physicality picked up at the end of 2021 but since then he's looked like he's avoiding contact in many cases. Wouldn't be tolerated at clubs like Collingwood and shouldn't be getting away with it here. He's not alone either.

I'm struggling with how to assess Goodwin as a coach now. Is he an outright genius for managing to find a way to get these generally soft one paced plodders to a flag? Or has he wasted the prime years of some very good footballers with a bizarre philosophy on how to defend and attack. In 2021 we regularly had windows where we would burst out of the middle and pile on 5 or 6 goals in 8 minutes. It now looks like we're actually trying not to score. I don't even buy that we are any good defensively. Our players get exposed any time they don't have a numbers advantage in the backline. And that goes for all of them from the experienced players to the new ones. Our 'defense' is just to attack in such a putrid and timid fashion that we always have time to try and outnumber when it comes back. At some point maybe, just maybe, we could have a go at trying to score a bit. You know in a game where the team with the most points wins it might be something worth having a go at.

We are a diabolical football team. 15 scoring shots against a bunch of kids. Overrun by a team we have huge amounts of experience over. This club is quickly sending us back to the depths. Like it or not, it is very simple. We are the softest football club in the land. We have been for a long time. We had an aberration for about 15 months a few years ago but normal service is resumed...we are always gettable because we have soft players on every line, and as a club we've never demanded anything else.

Strap in people. Given how well the football department and admin cashed in on our 'peak' period, I expect we're going to have a ripper of a time during our slide. The arrogance of the club from top to bottom coming off '21 was just astonishing (including supporters with comments like 'why would player x want to go and play for club y when they could play at the Dee's and win 3 or 4 flags). The ball was dropped massively on a chance to rebuild the image of the club. And despite the fact that our stubborn coach enforces a style of 'attack' that borders on mind numbing, he gave the players a style of play that he proved to them could win big games against good teams, that was predicated on applying pressure and forcing turnovers anywhere more than 40m from defensive goal. Yet these clowns just completely stopped applying pressure. A pressure rating in the 150s today? Seriously? And it must have been in the 140s in Q1 of our final v Coll last year. WTF? I mean, really WTF are these guys doing? Does it get a little bit of adrenalin running when they start getting touched up by VFL players? Like make them run harder and throw themselves in to the contest for a bit? They really just don't seem to mind too much.

It's very rare for teams to stay right at the top for 4 seasons...3 happens pretty regularly but getting to 4 is hard. Naturally fringe players look for opportunities elsewhere and the depth just isn't there. Ultimately we didn't cash in on our 3 year window. 2022 was always going to be tough as Geelong were humming...but to choke away decent leads in finals at your home ground against fairly ordinary interstate teams raised real red flags about the competitiveness of our players. And the less said about last year the better...choking in front of goal 2 weeks in a row and watching probably the most ordinary premiership side of a generation take the cake was embarrassing. In the first quarter of our final vs. Coll our intensity levels looked like it was a pre season game...just bizarre and emblematic of a playing group that has just struggled to maintain the physicality required. Glad we snuck one in '21 and gave this generation of fans one to hang on to. But the club, mostly the players, talked the talk but didn't walk the walk and we squandered a golden opportunity to return the club to former glory.