poita

The scariest thing about that performance is that we are not in any way a young side. We had two first year players, Rivers & Pickett, who are not close to being our worst players. Our next youngest player was Oliver, who is in his fifth season and has played 86 games. We're wasting time and effort putting games into Smith, Lockhart, Vandenberg and others who are deeply flawed players. We're carrying guys like Wagner x2, Kolodjashnij, Brown and Preuss who can't get near the senior side. None of these guys are going to improve at age 24 and above. Where are our promising youngsters? Who are the budding replacements for Jetta (30), Gawn (28), May (28) and McDonald (almost 28)?

Max is the least of our problems, but his shocking kick from defence in the first quarter set the standard that the rest of the team followed for the rest of the day, and he compounded it by dropping several fairly straight forward marks in the same quarter. I agree that he is trying to hard and hope that he doesn't burn himself out in what is already a stressful period for everyone.

Totally agree with this. And we have the same issue in the forward line as well. That is 100% on the coach and the selectors.

Remind me again who were the key defenders when we finished top 4 in 2018? I'll give you a clue, they weren't Smith or Lever.

He has been over coached to within an inch of his life. In his first two years he was playing on instinct and thriving. Now he is second and third guessing himself, and taking disposals off balance and under pressure. I suspect it has something to do with coaches trying to mess around with his ratio of kicks to handballs.

A largely inept performance by a playing group severely lacking in basic football skills and game sense. Only Petracca has consistently elevated himself above the malaise this season. Goodwin needs to take responsibility on three accounts: 1. He is asking this group to play a style of football that is above their capabilities. 2. Every player on this list has either been recruited by or re-signed by him. 3. He won't select the players necessary to play this style of football, eg key forwards and good kickers. As for the players: May - solid again defensively, but his kicking, which I generally rate, has been woeful this year. Salem - an over rated, under achieving, selfish footballer. Harmes - we looked better when he played midfield. Just leave him there, Goodwin. Petracca - a class above every other player on the ground. Viney - King Dumb Dumb of all the dumb footballers on our list. Is less of a player than he was in round 1, 2013. Lever - the opposition's best defensive forward. His work to consistently spoil May & Gawn is first rate. Brayshaw - another who is currently being wasted on the periphery. Gawn - solid, but hardly dominant, against mediocre opposition. His lazy kicking is unacceptable. Oliver - looks to be a confused, over coached player. Just let him do his own thing. Hibberd - best game for three years. Langdon - works hard for little result. Melksham - a selfish, lazy and arrogant footballer. Should have been dropped last week and must be this week. Hannan - needs to maintain current level of hard work. Tomlinson - should be embarrassed by his lack of physicality and competitiveness. A major disappointment. Vandenberg - Lacking match fitness and skills have not improved. Rivers - has looked out of his depth in past two weeks, but we have to persist. McDonald - we've bulked him up, now we push him back up the field? The mind boggles. Hunt - a waste of space when he won't put his body on the line. Fritsch - looked much better playing half forward. Pickett - looks like a auskicker playing against men. Has developed some awful habits in the past fortnight. Lockhart - a mediocre footballer who has had all the flair of his first year coached out of him. Smith - an athlete with no football nous. Only useful running in straight lines.

The Richmond game last year was the one occasion in the past 18 months in which Goodwin tried a few different things, eg McDonald back, Hibberd running with Martin, etc. It didn't work on that occasion, but it was disappointing that he never went back to these ideas at any stage.

Just so I'm clear where the line is, pokies are out but alcohol and sports betting are okay? Good to know. Where do we stand on firearms and tobacco? For what it's worth, I'm happy to take money wherever we can get it, so thanks to 78 Degrees.

If it is his responsibility to support the senior coach and the playing group by providing the resources that they to maximise their performance, then I think he is significantly underperforming. Who are the bright, young assistant and development coaches on our books? Chaplin and Rooke have been around a fair while now, and neither convinces. What qualifies Plapp to be an AFL midfield coach? What are the KPIs for these guys, or do we keep shuffling their roles until we find one that suits? We haven't had a rising star nomination in almost four years - where is our player development? Why do we only hit the draft hard once every four years when we have list lacking in depth and top end talent? The North trade was a disgrace, but only one of many in recent times. Who is keeping Goodwin accountable for the performance of the team? What is Richardson bringing to the table? I'm assuming Mahoney ticked off Goodwin's contract extension before it went to the board - that alone should be cause for dismissal.

I don't care what happened decades ago. I care that we made a preliminary final in 2018; have since added May, Lever, Langdon and Tomlinson; have a full list to pick from and are currently as bad as we have been at any stage in the past ten years. How can this board, this coach and this playing group have taken us so far backwards in the space of less than two years?

Yep, I'd hate to have one of those, hey Dan?

As I expected we lost that game at the selection table. Lockhart, Hibberd, Hannan and Vandenberg did sweet FA between them. It is laughable that Bennell wasn't considered fit enough, but Hannan and Vandenberg both were. We won't win another game until we bring in another tall forward. Salem and Melksham were both awful again and should be next to feel the axe. Salem should have been traded two years ago when he had some value - now he has none. I was wrong about Melksham delivering a half-decent game every few weeks - he has been terrible this year. None of our players want to take responsibility for taking the game on and trying to make things happen. Instead we'd rather go backwards or sideways, rather than taking a shot at goal. Instead of our forwards being able to compete one out, they end up competing one v three by the time the ball arrives. Salem's effort was abysmal, and Tomlinson didn't make any effort to line up the goals either. Six goals in a game of football in perfect conditions, thus making seven in our last six quarters. No wonder we sit last on a combined ladder of seasons 2019 and 2020. Goodwin has taken us backwards at a rapid rate, but his job is safe because the board that gave him a ludicrous contract extension is still in charge. Once again I ask, what is one thing that Goodwin did to change the course of this match?

Another five unforced changes, 12 in two games - absolutely ridiculous. Yet, some people reckon everything is peachy. These selectors have absolutely no idea.

Harmes was fantastic in the second half of 2018, but surely we didn't give him a 5 year contract to wander around the backline looking lost. Put him back in the middle where he belongs, running with the opposition's best midfielder, starting with Dangerfield this week.

I sincerely wish that this thing would never happen, but are you better to focus on the 1% of small minded, miserable people who are seeking some attention and purpose in their pathetic lives, or on the 99% of people who try their best to do the right thing and get along with everyone? I don't think that you'll ever change some people, so it is much better and healthier to find the positives where possible (unless laws are clearly being broken). (That said, I avoid twitter and instagram like the plague, because these are where such people thrive.)

Another inept selection performance by Goodwin & co. Minimum 31 players used in 3 games; at least 9 but probably more changes in 2 weeks, none of which are due to injury. That suggests to me that they have absolutely no idea what they are doing and are making it up as they go along. How about picking a sensible, well-structured side and giving it a few weeks to come together, rather than throwing everything in the air each week? Hannan, Fritsch and Melksham in the same forward line? Have any of them ever laid a tackle or taken a contested mark?

People are really whining about travelling to a neutral venue to play a winless team? I guess they'd rather play Freo at the MCG with no crowd, and have an extra away game later in the year. All it means is that we will have a run of games at the MCG later in the season, possibly against the big Victorian teams, and hopefully in front of crowds. If so, there is a fair chance that we get some prime time coverage if we win some games in the meantime.

The only way Spargo makes it as an AFL player is as Jetta's replacement. Some of his skill errors under no pressure are astonishing for a player who offers nothing in the way of goals, tackles or speed.

I hate the idea of drafting future picks and I'm still not convinced that giving up our 2020 draft pick was a smart move. I'm not saying that we have to use a high draft pick each year, but you have so much more flexibility to orchestrate trades when you have a full complement of picks available. Yes, it is a highly compromised draft, but there are still quality players likely to be available at the top end and there is a reasonable chance that our (North's) first selection is going to be quite early indeed. I'm not sold on Jackson and, if we were so desperate to get Pickett, I would have preferred us to split pick 3 into two later first round picks. That would have given us Pickett plus one more last year, and let us keep our pick for this year.

We are years away from seriously contending. We are weak in all key positions and have little depth across the ground. Our list is seriously unbalanced with far too many mid-sized forwards, and few developing midfielders or talls. We don't turn over the list often enough and carry too many injury prone players. The lack of quality draft picks from 2016 - 2018 will hurt us for years to come. We lack leadership and star quality, and hence we don't perform at a consistently high level across games either as individuals or as a team. Our coach rarely looks capable of swinging games in our favour. We rarely get selection right either. I keep reading that we are a young team, and in some respects we are, but Gawn, McDonald and May are all 28 or older before the end of this season. These guys are our three most important players. All will be 30 plus by the time we challenge again and there are no replacements in the wings. This is a weird season and maybe we could fluke a finals spot with a lot of luck, but really it would be a false dawn.

There is nothing wrong with playing a smaller forward line, as Richmond showed in 2017 especially. The issue is that the delivery to small forwards has to be spot on. Richmond's foot skills are infinitely better than ours, so they were able to find their targets. We have not shown this ability in the past 18 months.

I'm pretty sure that there isn't a player on our list (other than Pickett in his one game) who averages a goal a game. On that basis Brown's 0.96 is pretty bloody good and it is hard to believe he isn't in the side. As for Weideman, he should clearly be playing ahead of Jackson. I fully expect him to be at another club next year - if we're lucky we'll get a pick in the 50s for him. Every week he doesn't play drops his value further.

Another woefully compiled team. Do our selectors even consider who goes on the team sheet, or do they just throw darts at the wall? One badly out of form key forward, plus a developing ruck / forward who is miles off having an AFL body. We get smashed in the ruck every time Gawn leaves the ground, and smashed up forward because nobody can take a contested mark or bring the ball to ground. One genuine key defender, plus a bloke who is key position size but can't defend like one. How many times does Goodwin need to see Lever & May play together before he decides it is not the answer? One slow as treacle small defender to match up on Essendon's multiple quick small forwards. We all love Jetta but Fantasia & Tippa loom as massive threats. But hey at least we've got ten medium sized forwards in the squad. One of them is bound to kick a couple of goals surely?

Don't care about Riccuito's opinion on this or any other subject, but the Lever trade has been a disaster for Melbourne. I never liked the deal from the start and Lever has been a passenger since he got to the club. A 195cm defender on $700K plus a year minding small forwards because he doesn't have the strength to take key forwards - only at Melbourne. But hey, at least he can point well. However you want to frame the deal, we gave up two first round draft picks, one in 2017 and one in 2018. Later picks are immaterial and irrelevant because they hold so little value. The opportunity cost of giving up two first round picks is massive, either viewed in terms of young talent we didn't take or other experienced players we couldn't bring to the club. I don't like his salary or the length of his deal, but it is no more stupid than the contracts given to Kolodjashnij, Vandenberg or Goodwin in recent times. It is about time we started equating contracts with performance.

What happened to Preuss? Was meant to be missing 10 weeks with a knee injury, and has rolled straight into an achilles injury?