poita

I'd almost rather be sponsored by a betting agency or pokies operator than an insurance company when you hear how they conduct their businesses. At the end of the day the business models of both are based around screwing the little guy as much as possible.

I was disappointed when we let Jayden go, particularly regarding the way it was handled, and it is a shame that the move to West Coast didn't work out for him after the first year. Very few players make it past ten years in the AFL and 172 senior games is a great effort. Well done Jayden - I hope to see you back playing in bayside Melbourne next year.

The last thing this club needs is more levels of management and less accountability at each level. Presumably we would have the coach reporting to the head of football who reports to the strategy boss who reports to the CEO who reports to the board. As if any experienced coach is going to accept that. I'd much rather we support the coach with the football staff that he needs to get the best out of the playing group, rather than putting in more managers to meddle. That's the problem with hiring people who have worked in government entities - they are good at spending money and bad at taking responsibility.

I'm very happy with Tommy Mac getting another year, and okay with Melksham getting the same. However, I don't understand why we always rush into locking away veterans and rookies prior to the trade period, and I especially don't understand doing it when there is no coach in place. It significantly impacts our options in the trade period and in the drafts, so we end up with sub-optimal situations like taking Johnson in the national draft when he could have been a rookie.

Will all these star performers, why did we drop from 11 to 7 wins? The reality is that the majority of our list went backwards significantly. Bowey and Turner are the only players I'd argue have materially improved. Joeboy is spot on with the vast majority of that analysis.

The way May acts is exactly what I saw from the "cool kids" in my son's under 13 team. He abuses teammates, says things without thinking, carries on like everything is someone else's fault, undermines coaches and leaders, etc. The only reason it has been tolerated, as it was in the under 13s, is because of his football ability. Now that he is a liability on-field as well as off, it is well past time to cut him loose.

100 point loss coming up. Our kicking efficiency must be about 2%. Sub May off now before he embarrasses himself further.

I'd entertain offers for any / all of May, Salem, Sparrow and Langdon. Lever as well. Oliver is not going anywhere unless he takes a massive pay cut. Petracca is not going anywhere unless his new club offers up a king's ransom for him. Hopefully McDonald plays on, but I'm not fussed about Melksham. McVee's situation is definitely a concern. I'd be happy to see Sharp play VFL for the remainder of his contract.

I'm so glad we've gone in with an unchanged side this week. When you achieve perfection, as we clearly did last week, it is important not to mess with things too much. I also think it is important to recognise the stellar contributions of this group over the course of the season. Who would have ever thought that we could win as many as 7 games this season, and finish as high as 14th? Well done, boys. When I see the likes of Salem, Sparrow, Langdon, Chandler and Sharp performing at such a high level every single week, I have such high hopes for the future. Hopefully we can give them all 10 year contract extensions over the off season. It is unfortunate that the guys at Casey, despite being in terrific form, can't get a run at AFL level. However we have so many superstars in tremendous form in the senior side that someone has to miss out.

I'm sure I'm in a tiny minority here but, if we're about to delist Jack Billings, I'll be disappointed if he isn't given the respect of a final AFL game. A 12 year AFL career is nothing to be sneezed at and, unlike Lachie Hunter, he has been highly professional and committed since he arrived at the club. I'm sure he would offer more than Sharp tomorrow night, to name just one of many serial underperformers.

I reckon we might have had 10% of the crowd last week against Hawthorn, and that was a free game for members. This week we might struggle to get 2% if we're lucky. Good luck to anyone planning to attend to witness the slaughter.

The development of our younger players has been putrid for years. Williams has to be held accountable for that. Clearly it is time for fresh ideas and new voices.

Morris is CHF, so 5 in total.

Tomlinson was hardly a mistake - he was a free agent who gave us 6 years of quality service on a moderate wage. I think he could have outperformed May this year, but I understand not wanting to keep three 30+ key defenders on the list. Billings has done everything asked of him this season - I absolutely believe he would have contributed more than Sharp, Spargo, Sparrow and Langdon with the same opportunities this year. None of Schache, Fullarton and Sharp cost us much, but I agree that there was precious little evidence that any of these could become regular senior players. Grundy (and McAdam) are the two decisions that stand out as being horrendously bad.

It's probably not much fun being a talent spotter when your only opportunities to draft players are in the first round and your dumbass list manager has traded away all the later picks. Everyone has seen the top 20 players a million times over and we can all identify that the Langfords and Lindsays of the world are going to be quality players. The real skill, and presumably the real satisfaction, comes from identifying the diamonds in the rough that everyone else has overlooked. He has not had that opportunity in the past four years. I wouldn't be surprised if he is considering his options elsewhere.

I thought Beasley was tracking for a mid season return. Ditto for Gillard. 9-10 weeks would see them done for the entire regular season.

Chadstone is almost precisely the population centre of Melbourne - not sure what it is "ages away" from unless people are choosing to live in the sticks.

Don't get me wrong, it's great that NWM is staying at St Kilda, but don't tell me that he is staying for loyalty - he's staying because St Kilda have given him an absolutely massive pay day (and because he knows that neither Adelaide or Port can trade for him). He'll be out the door as soon as his contract expires at the end of 2027 and he can walk as a free agent.

Last time we went down that path we ended up with a list full of players like James Strauss and Addam Maric who were great in training drills, but who couldn't get a touch on game day.

I suspect his basic instructions from early last year have been to make a contest and stop his opponent taking a mark. Anything extra at that time was a bonus. I don't recall him being outmarked very often this year, so it is likely he has been getting plenty of positive feedback from the coaches. Clearly he has taken plenty of confidence from this and is now taking contested marks himself. Getting reward for effort also helps - he has kicked 7.3 in the past three weeks. Unfortunately I'm not sure we can afford to keep him forward next year with May declining so rapidly.

May has been poor all year, he looks unfit and is clearly lacking confidence in both his body and his ability. It would be better for both player and club if they go their separate ways at year end. I said early last year that we needed to have May's replacement ready to go by the end of 2025. Unfortunately Goodwin was too busy trying to save his job that he wouldn't move past May and Lever. Now we enter 2026 with a massively inconsistent Turner as our number one defender, unless we are prepared to send Petty back.

Extremely poor today. He was so slow to make a decision and generally put his teammates under huge pressure.

Woefully inept performance for all but the last 5 minutes when Hawthorn had moved on to next week. There are comfortably 10 players from today who I'd be happy to never see play for the club again. If we go into next year with Sparrow, Langdon, Chandler and Salem as walk up selections, we're certain that to be bottom 6 again. Select them when there is a defined role and they are in form, but they play VFL otherwise. May is done and should retire. We need to start from scratch in defence, probably building around Petty. And Sharp, as expected, was completely useless. He offers less than nothing.

Sharp is playing his 17th AFL game this week - I'm pretty sure the limit is 12 to be eligible for VFL finals. I would have thought Howes would be okay either way as he has only played 10 AFL games, but perhaps the rule is less than 12 AFL games.

Also, not sure if it has been mentioned earlier, but congratulations to Harry Petty on reaching 100 games this week. It has been a long road to get there, but his last few weeks have been solid. Hopefully he can have a big 2026.