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I think Windsor will be fine, but he needs to be played in the role that allows him to make the most of his abilities at this time (ie the wing). He also will benefit from doing a full pre season next year if he is completely over his foot issues. Would Caddy do any better in our system than our current players? I'm sure Goodwin would coach all the flair out of him within the first few months and he'd end up competing for marks in packs instead of leading.

The Herald Sun has devoted a significant amount of text in recent days to the current NGA rules and some of the ludicrous rules that are in place. Ah-Mu has not been mentioned, but there are numerous examples of players being eligible due to being born to two Australian parents who were living outside Australia at the time, or having an overseas-born parent who has lived in Australia for the past 30 years. There appears to be a growing mood amongst the Victorian clubs for local NGAs to be scrapped and for the AFL to assume responsibility for attracting and developing indigenous and multicultural talent. Clearly the northern clubs will want to maintain their current systems, but anything has to be better than the current mess.

Is anyone actually left to run our AFLW program? The staff turnover over the past 12 - 18 months has been phenomenal. Should the club's communications officer really be in charge of list management? Hard to see how either role can be performed properly if that is the case.

Max is an absolute star, but he should be deadset embarrassed by the lack of progress he has made with his goal kicking. It is an indictment on both him and the coaching staff.

We've taken something like ten draft picks in the past four years, of which only six have been in the top 35. I'm guessing both of those numbers compare unfavourably to every other side in the competition, but particularly in the context of facing consecutive bottom four finishes. That is simply a disgraceful failure to turn over a rapidly ageing and increasingly shallow list. Jason Taylor has shown himself to be a good judge of talent when he is given the opportunity to find it, but Tim Lamb has denied him this. We've [censored] away countless draft picks trying to be clever, eg trading away multiple picks to move up slightly for the Tholstrup selection in 2023. I'm okay with bringing our 2025 pick forward to take Lindsay last year, but overall we gave up far too much to do so. Now we have reached crisis point with no first round pick and only one selection in the top 50 at present. In an ideal world we would delist 8-10 players this year and the same next year, but realistically we'll be unlikely to move on more than 4-5 in each. Therefore we should look forward to contract extensions for the likes of Salem, Spargo, Hore McAdam and Melksham so that they can continue to flaunt their mediocrity for further seasons.

We were dead after round 5. Sure the wins against Freo & Brisbane were nice surprises, but the weight of evidence from the past 2 years strongly supports the view that we are a terrible football team.

Every one of those 50 metre penalties yesterday were there, and probably all of the free kicks inside 50 as well. Our discipline has been terrible in recent weeks and we deserve what we get. Viney's effort in the third quarter was disgraceful, particularly given the limited time remaining in the quarter, and I'd drop him for that alone.

Tom Sparrow, what is the point of him? 100 plus games and he can barely get a kick, never is accountable for one of the HBFs who destroys us each week and generally wanders around getting in the way. How he hasn't been to Casey this year is extraordinary. Surely Brown or Woewodin could do just as well.

That's what Salem has been doing for four years, so Howes is in good company.

10 wins in the past 29 games. We are the absolute definition of a bottom 4 side. After the bye we simply have to play the kids. Melksham, Lever, Salem should not be playing senior football. Probably May, Viney and Oliver as well. Knowing Melbourne we'll probably give Goodwin an extension over the break, when we should be finding his replacement.

Viney should do the decent thing and rip up his contract tonight.

Clearly the entire playing and coaching groups have got overseas trips starting tomorrow, because none of them have any interest in playing football today.

What exactly is the point of Sparrow and Melksham? Neither has any interest in finding the ball.

We'll never become a decent side again whilst May and Lever are playing together. May is consistently inconsistent and Lever is just woeful. Van Rooyen, Pickett and Langford have been our only decent players thus far.

I fully agree that the competition is a joke, but why wouldn't Casey have a bye in the same week as the senior team? If they didn't, Casey would be fielding 23 Casey listed players whilst the MFC players take their mid season break.

I still feel that our forward line issues are much less to do with personnel and relate far more to our system, ball movement and positioning. We all know Petty is unlikely to ever become a 50 goal a year key forward, and I certainly see his long term future as being in defence. However it is hard to blame him for our current woes when you have Rivers repeatedly bombing away and hitting Howe on the chest, or Oliver kicking out on the full running into an open forward line, or any number of the other blatant skill errors that we saw on Monday. When we put the ball to his advantage and allow him to compete fairly, Petty is not losing too many contests. Van Rooyen in his current mindset is probably a different story.

"Mixed" seems a significant improvement from 7.21. Maybe we will graduate to "Adequate" before the end of the season.

Given how the Brayshaw, Viney and Oliver deals have panned out, I find it unbelievable that the club would go down that path again so soon. I love Pickett and would love for him to play his entire career at the club, but locking him up for 9 years (irrespective of the money) is just ridiculous. There is really no downside for Pickett, as he gets paid whatever happens. And, if the west is calling out to him in a couple of years, does he put out his hand for another pay rise? All the risk is with the club who is stuck with a contract for a player who could lose form or interest in the game, or get seriously injured at any time. And let's be honest, in 9 years time he may well reach the 16 week suspension threshold for automatic deregistration from the league. If we can find some middle ground and give him 5-6 years, that would be perfect.

Daisy is an absolute superstar both on and off the field, and we are so lucky to have had her at the club when we did. Hopefully she will return in a coaching capacity at some stage. As an aside, it is fantastic that Daisy and Erin Phillips have been acknowledged for their outstanding contributions to the game. However, and this is said as a fan of the AFLW, I do hope the AFL don't go overboard in trying to fast track large numbers of AFLW players into the Hall of Fame over the next few years. The same eligibility criteria need to apply for the women as for the men to maintain the integrity of the HOF.

Long, long overdue and very much deserved. I was too late to see Robbie Flower at his peak, but Garry Lyon was clearly the best Melbourne player I saw play until Gawn and Petracca hit elite status. He was an All Australian as both a defender and a forward, he captained Victoria when State of Origin was still big business, he was a fantastic captain and leader of the club and a great spokesman as well. Unfortunately injuries cost him a lot of games, and possibly cost him a premiership as well, but he was as good as anyone in the game when fit. Congratulations Garry.

The umpiring was pretty ordinary yesterday, with a handful of particularly awful decisions, and yet it still wasn't the reason why we lost. However, if the AFL was serious about helping the umpires out, the first thing they would do is provide them with a permanent training facility instead of shunting them off to whichever school oval or gymnasium is available on that particular night. The next thing they would do is give genuine support and training to junior umpires in the local leagues, instead of relying on kids in their late teens to mentor kids several years younger than them. They would then identify and nurture those with high potential and ensure that they are given everything they need to improve.

I've been critical of Goodwin, but he did plenty right yesterday to give us a chance of winning that game. Ultimately we weren't good enough to do so. I will say that I think his management of our younger players has been really poor. Lindsay clearly needs a rest (probably should have been the St Kilda game), and arguably Langford as well. Windsor is horribly underdone and out of sorts, and needs a spell at Casey. Tholstrup has been played underdone, deservedly sent to Casey and then brought back without much justification. We've had Sharp and Jefferson sit out this week as emergencies for no reason, when getting game time was more important.

The effort was outstanding, but we're just not a good enough football team to overcome the breathtakingly bad skill and decision making errors that we throw in every time we get some positive momentum. It felt as though almost every Collingwood goal was the result of a Melbourne turnover.