poita

As much I have criticised some of Howes' work over the past year or so, I thought the Freo game was one of his better efforts at AFL level. Therefore it is disappointing that he hasn't been able to work his way back into the squad since then. If the club is convinced Blake's future is as a defender, they really need to have a look at Salem's position, particularly once finals are out of the equation. Other than racking up cheap little possessions, I don't think Salem is offering much as a defender, or as a creative option. I would also like to see Howes get a run up the ground at some point - let's face it, he couldn't offer much less than Sharp or Spargo at this point.

My Dad's metal drink bottle sets off the alarm every week and he gets his bag checked as a result. I'm not sure what they would do if he just kept walking, as anyone with a concealed weapon would.

Not sure whether everyone will be able to access this article, but none of our draft prospects are listed in the top 40 prospects. I assume we're better to buy low and hope they flourish in an AFL environment, rather than having to spend big and hope they make it. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/draft/afl-draft-2025-top40-prospects-for-june-ranked-ahead-of-national-under18-championships/news-story/fda887b8d8c4deae27b2f1e3e92cf9b5?utm_source=HeraldSun&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Editorial&utm_content=HS_PREM-PM_NEW_01&net_sub_id=285217633&type=curated&position=17

Anyone who doesn't think that goal kicking is a skill that can be improved over time needs to look at Russell Robertson's progression across his career. His career goal kicking accuracy was 50% early on, lifting slightly to 55% by 2004, although his kicking was pretty poor that last year. He worked his backside off in the 2005 pre season to improve his technique, and kicked 73.30 that year (71%). He went at above 60% for the remainder of his career as well. There is really no excuse for current players to not be able identify and fix their issues (technical, mental or otherwise) with all the resources at their disposal.

Let's be honest, the $500K we earn from the game equates to around 2000 adult members, or 1000 memberships with a reserved seat. I'd rather we spend our money trying to find some new long term members and sponsors, rather than flying 50 or so people up to Alice Springs to have a mid season holiday and to put in a half arsed effort on the field. There's no doubt we do plenty of good work in the Alice Springs community, but it is not translating to financial benefits for the club or even to support at the ground when we play there. By that measure we could hold our pre season camp up there, or play pre season games there, and still achieve the same good. I think its time to move on and to focus on building connections within Melbourne.

A 5 - 7 win/loss record, a percentage below 90% and six losses of 28 points or more. That is not the profile of a finals side, nor is losing (by big margins) to all of North Melbourne, Essendon and St Kilda. Clearly our season is dead and has been for a long time. The Brisbane game was a pleasant surprise, but the reality is that we've beaten nobody else this year and certainly not by a margin that would suggest that we have come to terms with the way we need to play. Collingwood on Kings Birthday is not the time to throw the magnets around and take risks (it will be ugly enough with the current group), but thereafter we need to get games into that next tier of players. That gives us 10 games to work out whether the likes of Fullarton, Henderson, Culley, Howes, Woewodin, Brown, Kentfield, Sestan and Verrall have a future before we need to make a decision regarding new contracts. Howes, Brown, Woewodin and Sestan are the key names that we have to take a look at, because none of these really justify more time on the list if they don't show some serious signs in a hurry.

Goodwin had two very good weeks against Brisbane and Sydney, but he had an absolute shocker yesterday. I hope we didn't just assume it was going to happen for it yesterday and failed to lay the necessary groundwork. My concerns: Our worst defenders (Windsor & Lever) were regularly dragged to the goal square and asked to compete one out. Both are totally inept in this role and should have been switched out. We didn't show any respect to St Kilda's lesser forwards (Keeler, in particular). Every defender needs to be accountable for an opponent. Salem and Lever are two of our worst in this respect. If Langdon was tasked with the job on Wanganeen-Milera, he failed dismally. Someone needed to apply some physical pressure against him, and that's not Ed's strength. What exactly is Sparrow's role? Keeping the ball away from Wilkie, or at least providing a contest against him, was a non negotiable. If Melksham wasn't up to the task, someone else should have been given the role. Once again we play a sub who has no X factor. A player coming into the game with fresh legs needs to be able to run and carry, or at least give us a different look. Laurie offers none of this. We did nothing to help Pickett through his tag. At the very least he should have been given stints in an open forward line. No wonder he gets frustrated. We can't keep playing a forward line that is so slow. Johnson, Petty and Melksham are all plodders of the highest order. You can perhaps play two, but not all three. Plenty has been said about the goal kicking. Clearly it is an ongoing issue that nobody at the club can fix. Do they not care, or do we not have the right people in the roles? Either way, I thought St Kilda outplayed us for most of the game and fully deserved to win.

Yes, he was excellent in 2021, and was deservedly All Australian that year. The overall strength of our defence allowed him to thrive in a role that suited him perfectly. That was almost 4 years ago now, and he has barely played a decent game since. Teams don't allow him to play off his man and take intercept marks anymore, and he is absolutely woeful in one v one contests. I don't see a single useful thing that he brings to the team, unless you value pointing and looking exasperated. Goodwin's obsession with playing Lever has destabilised a defence that was functioning well, and has seen us dump our best performing defender. Can Lever step up his game and become a meaningful contributor again? Doubtful. Will Goodwin man up and resolve the issue he has created? Highly unlikely.

Hopefully Johnson spends his month off learning to play football.

This is what Goodwin and his bunch of clowns get for messing with a defence that wasn't broken. McDonald was our best defender and we dropped him for no reason. Lever in contrast is a disaster. Johnson is just a waste of space and his ruck work is inept. The sooner Van Rooyen returns, the better.

Can we sub Lever off? He is completely useless.

He has a history of throwing himself recklessly into packs. That has to catch up with you at some point. I love the guy, but how's that four year contract looking at the moment?

Looks like a far more equitable draw than last year from a playing perspective. 3 interstate teams out at Casey Fields is probably not ideal from a $ perspective, but the early afternoon time slot is preferable to later slots. I don't think the club could have too many complaints.

I remember seeing Caleb Lewis play at St Bedes Mentone a few years ago and, even at a relatively low level, he just looked like a serious player. I was excited to see him link up with Casey, but I don't think he ever played more than a couple of games for the club. He is certainly one I will be watching with interest.

Actually the opposite is likely true. I have been through many ATO audits and you always give them some easy wins so that everyone leaves happy. I'm sure Geelong have offered up some low hanging fruit so that the AFL can claim they have taken this issue seriously and lessons have been learned all round.

Hi Palace Dees, Crystal Palace are my EPL side for exactly the same reason. I don't remember there being much other than a loose alliance at the time, but clearly something stuck for a few of us. Having Mile Jedinak there for a while probably helped keep me interested as well. It has been great watching this group step up over the past 18 months, and hopefully they can add some more depth to the squad in the offseason so that the Europa League doesn't become a massive burden next year. (Like you my son also jumped on the Liverpool bandwagon, so we are both pretty happy at the moment.)

McDonald is twice the player May is at present and ten times the player Lever has been in the past three years. In a year of poor selection calls, this is by far the worst. I'd actually drop at least 15 players before McDonald based on contributions this year.

Just to clarify, your argument for not having academies is that we would have drafted Callum Mills instead of being left with Clayton Oliver? Notwithstanding Oliver's recent issues, that's just bizarre.

What is a score involvement? Does that mean the full back has a score involvement if a kick in travels the length of the field? Are we that excited about Spargo's score involvements if the ball is touched 3 more times before we score? Or if he jams his teammate in the pocket on an impossible angle? Footywire lists him as contributing 1 goal 4 behinds and 4 goal assists in 8 games. How is that an acceptable return from a permanent small forward?

Just confirming that this is actually round 9, and that there is not another ridiculous bye on the horizon. The game is being played in Preston at 2:05pm on Saturday 24 May.

Tholstrup isn't nearly as good a player as he thinks he is. Until he realises this, and starts putting the work in, he's going nowhere.

Johnson, Petty, Melksham and Fritsch might just be the slowest forward line of all time. Is that this week's cunning plan?

6 potential inclusions and I would be happy to never see 5 of them wearing a MFC jumper again (Petty the exception). Our depth, as has been obvious for two years, is abysmal. I don't understand the point of cycling through our tall forwards every second week. We need to have a run of games with Van Rooyen and Petty playing together and see what they can do. Fullarton and Johnson aren't AFL standard and we're wasting our time giving them games. Jefferson is probably in the same bracket if he doesn't have excellent VFL form behind him. I'm glad Tholstrup has been sent back to Casey. He looks miles off the level to me, and playing him without VFL games was ridiculous. To date his strongest attribute seems to be his uncanny knack of being where the ball isn't. I'd be playing him 60% mid / 40% fwd at Casey and telling him he come back to the AFL side when he has picked up 30 possessions 3 weeks in a row. And finally I'd love for someone to tell me what Charlie Spargo's KPIs are that make him a guaranteed selection each week. They clearly don't involve kicking or creating goals, which I thought would be a prerequisite for a small forward.

I'm more than happy to dodge Thursday and Friday nights, and the club can hardly complain about missing out on these given their woeful performances and horrible brand of football. Sunday games are not ideal with junior football, but its up to the club to make this work.

Every junior player in the country, and most senior players, deal with training and playing in substandard conditions. Most of them kick for goal better than some of our players. There is absolutely no excuse for highly paid, professional footballers to not be able to deal with variable wind conditions. Kickers and punters in the US play in snow and seem to manage okay.