poita

Congratulations to the winners. Gawn was clearly our best player this year, although down on last year, and should have won outright. Oliver was very good at times, although he is capable of so much more. The next group, third to ninth, played okay in patches but were collectively miles below the same group last year. Hunt was very ordinary this year, so anyone finishing out of the top 10 had a terrible season. Hunt scored 199 votes out of a possible 840 (21 games), which equates to an average rating of 2.37 per game. That sounds about right to me, but it doesn't say much for the likes of Jones and Hibberd who polled even worse.

I believe that Tomlinson will improve our list as he is a capable AFL player coming on to a list that is massively lacking in talent and composure below the top 12-15 players. I also believe that he is not a player worth acquiring at any cost. As we have seen from the Lever and May debacles, there is a significant inflationary impact from paying overs to underperforming senior players. If we see Tomlinson getting $600K a year for four years and failing to consistently finish top 10 in the B&F, I fully expect to see Oliver, Salem, Petracca, Harmes and Viney asking for significantly more over the next 12 - 24 months.

Locking in players such as Chandler and the Wagners prior to the trade period, and even the draft, is just plain dumb. Who knows what might eventuate in those periods and how many spots on the list we might need free. It's not as though any on that list are going to get a game anywhere else. As it stands we have two spare spots on the senior list, which seem likely to be taken by Langdon and Tomlinson. So where are we freeing up the spots to take 3-4 draft selections, which is the absolute minimum we should be looking for? Our list management is just abysmal.

Say what you want about Watts, but we currently have two key forwards on our list, neither of whom have played since round 16. In the past three post seasons Goodwin has presided over the departures of Watts, Hogan, Pedersen, T.Smith and Keilty and has brought in the grand sum of zero tall forwards. Our forward line was a complete shambles this year. At some point we are going to need to recruit some key forwards who are ready to play. They don't grow on trees, so I'd like to see a list of better options that could be available if we ask the right questions.

That table doesn't even include the worst pick of the bunch - Addam Maric at 21.

Whereas Weideman averaged 10 possessions and 1 goal a game in his fourth season.

If by "natural leader" you mean he likes to stand by himself and point vigorously at the opposition players that he refuses to be accountable for, then absolutely yes. If this club was fair dinkum Lever would start next season at Casey until he shows he can do the job he was recruited for.

The stupidity of this club knows no bounds. Anyone with half a brain could have seen this situation coming from a million miles away. Step 1: Parachute in two players on massive salaries who, on the rare occasions they are actually fit, arguably make the side worse not better. Step 2: Make laughably insulting contract offers to players who are actually on the field working their guts out each week. Step 3: Lose said players to rival clubs for inadequate compensation. I'd definitely keep Frost before Lever, and probably before May as well given May's age and inability to play 20 games a year. Losing Frost at this point would be a disaster.

Terribly underwhelming at this stage. Bedford & Chandler were late picks, but neither will make it. I would delist one this year and one next year. Wagner, Lockhart & Dunkley are pretty similar players to each other and to a type that we are already oversupplied with. There is no great point of difference with any of them. I suspect we won't keep all three. Hore exceeded expectations, but I agree that we can't play he and Lever in the same side. Nietschke was a left field selection who has lost a full year to injury. Expectations will be low for next year. Yet to see anything from Sparrow or Jordon even at VFL level that suggests they will be anything special.

Right. So he didn't want to leave at the end of 2018 to join a team that was widely viewed as being a premiership contender, but now that we're a basket case he's happy to come across. Some people will believe anything.?

If we are that keen on him, I cannot comprehend why we didn't make a serious play for Langdon as part of the Hogan deal last year. Now we have zero bargaining power and will end up paying overs to bring him in this year.

I don't have any issue with the timing, but why did it have to be a three year deal? It should have been one year to start with and, if we challenged again in 2019, then he gets locked in long term.

I'll buy an 11 game membership next year, because that is what I do. I am too far invested in the club to back out now. Having said that, if the club is going to continue to serve up the 2012/13 era quality of football that we copped this year, I expect to be paying 2012/13 membership prices next year. This year's price increase for long suffering members was a disgrace.

Ego is the key word with Viney (and a few of his teammates). There is absolutely no need for Viney to take on tacklers or try and crash through packs the way he does. He might have got away with it in junior football as the hardest nut on the field, but it doesn't work at AFL level. I still think he can be a really good player, but he needs to play the percentages a lot better than he does at present.

I would have said no re tanking until 6:30 last night, now I'm not sure. We are truly awful, but there is no accounting for those selections.

That team is a [censored] disgrace and it is an embarrassment to everyone connected with the club that they have let it get to this point. Woeful drafting and list management, terrible injury management and pathetic selection have combined into one total [censored] storm. If you lose players you bring in the next in line for the position, you don't just throw everything up in the air and say let's not play a forward line this week. If it is good enough for Clarkson to say "you lose a soldier, you replace him with another one", then it is certainly good enough for me. Preuss and Keilty may not be great footballers, but they'll generally give a contest and they are certainly both better value than Spargo and Chandler ever will be at this level. Let's play Goody's Selection Bingo: players selected with injury / fitness issues - Melksham at the very least players selected with no VFL form - Spargo & Chandler ignore the players who performed well in the VFL last week - Keilty, Wagner & Preuss named in best players Goody's favourites in for no apparent reason - Neal-Bullen no key forwards - its not as though there aren't any options at Casey no ruck support (yes Sydney don't have a ruckman, but why not capitalise on a clear advantage?) And, if somehow we manage to beat Sydney, that's not due to great coaching or selection. It's an indication that they want to win even less than we do.

Carlton don't actually need to achieve anything at this point - if there is sufficient hype around them, they become an attractive proposition for someone like Coniglio who has his hand out for big money. Bring in some experienced recruits + the continued development of young players + favourable draw from bottom 4 finish = Carlton challenging for top 8 next year.

Good for Kade and I hope he plays well, but that is a ridiculous decision. Assuming the stats below are accurate, he has kicked 2 goals in the past 6 weeks and has never had more than 8 kicks in a game at VFL level. He comes into the senior side off a game with 5 effective possessions. The bar for getting an AFL game has never been lower. http://websites.sportstg.com/team_info.cgi?action=PSTATS&pID=206009870&client=1-118-10449-518179-26138799

God forbid the supporters (ie those who tip their hard earned money in each year and go along to watch the team play) actually have an opinion on what is happening to the club they love. You might be better suited to the opera where you can politely clap the performers at the end of each act.

Totally agree. Jetta was the same. Hannan before that. And what exactly has been the point of having Melksham hobble around the field over the past couple of weeks?

Whatever Jennings' skill set and knowledge may be, clearly something isn't working this year on and off the field and things need to change in a major way. Good luck to him if he can move higher in the industry. I'm no fan of Goodwin, but clearly he has some credits in the bank from 2018. He now has the opportunity to surround himself with the right people of his choosing for 2020. From there it is all on his shoulders.

Less than 32K to a game on a Saturday afternoon at the MCG against our oldest rival. A week after 38K against the competition's most popular and in form team. We could fall short of 20K this week if the weather forecast is poor. The appalling performances of the coaches and players this year has now gone far beyond simply writing off 2019. This season will take us years to recover from, both on and off the field. Gate receipts, memberships, sponsorships - the financial cost will be horrendous. The club simply has to give members some hope for next season if it wants people to rejoin. The same ordinary players making the same basic errors under the same highly flawed game plan week after week is serving no purpose. I could perhaps cop some end of year pain if there was some promising young talent coming through, or signs of a more sustainable game plan emerging, but there is nothing to get enthused about. The less said about the game the better, but the thing that summed up the match (and the season) better than anything else was the regular sight of Steele Sidebottom at centre bounces with the entire Southern Stand wing to himself whilst Nathan Jones pushed back to defence with zero impact. Even more comical was when we copped a warning for not starting with 6/6/6 because Dunkley wandered across to Sidebottom at one point whilst Jones was still covering grass on the point of the square. A clear sign that coaches and players either have no idea or don't care (or probably both).

If Lever was anywhere near as good as his reputation would suggest, he would (arguably) be worth what we paid for him. But the reality is that he is currently a mediocre player in a mediocre team, and there is a fair argument that we overpaid. Forget what Lever achieved in 2017. Adelaide was clearly the best team in the competition for 25 of the 26 weeks. They didn't concede many inside 50s and those that they did concede were subject to plenty of pressure. In Talia, Kelly and others, Adelaide had a very strong, reliable defense which allowed Lever play off his man and be third man up on a regular basis. Rating him on that basis is like testing a car on an autobahn and applying the performance specs to a dirt track. The Melbourne side of 2019 leaks inside 50s like a sieve and most of them are under zero pressure from the midfield. Our defenders are unreliable and inconsistent with their effort, which means that they are hard pressed to worry about their own man, let alone cover other players when Lever decides to go wandering off his opponent. Lever is primarily a liability in this side because he doesn't have the body strength to stand next an opponent. Hence he has to play from behind, so when the opposition deliver the ball well as Collingwood did to Mihocek on Saturday, he stands no chance. All the intercept marks in the world count for nothing if he is conceding multiple goals to his direct opponent. I'm not sure what he was doing in the 12 months he couldn't play football, because he clearly hasn't been spending time in the gym building upper body strength. Plus his kicking is putrid.

What insurance does Tim Smith provide? He's injured for about 16 weeks every year.

My son yesterday received an invitation to a pre match function before the Sydney game for first year members. Nice touch - apart from the fact that the function is in a bar, finishes at 7:50pm on a Friday night and he is 9 years old. I have been a member of this club for 30+ years and have never been invited to a club function. Why are long term, loyal members continually taken for granted by the club whilst first year members on 3 game memberships are given preferential treatment? This sort of stuff is why we will never be anything other than a middle of the road club.