Lucifers Hero

A bit of talk on here of Goodwin playing favourites. I find it staggering that a coach under so much pressure to salvage the season would do that. And I would hope the selection panel (Mahoney, Richardson, etc) would pull him into line. So I can only assume that the panel has other reasons for the selections. Having said that I don't get the mucking around with the regular structural changes fwd and now back with little attempt to settle a team and develop cohesion across each line and connection up and down the field. No wonder our ball movement is so bad and we turn it over between the 50m arcs. I see we have gone in without a 'crumber' and no true small fwd (I don't count ANB as either). Already I have the feeling the plan is to be defensive and play to 'not lose' rather than play to win. Sigh...

Our Balance Sheet strength is underwritten by: the Bentleigh Club but it is 'illiquid'. Its market value is well over that in the Balance Sheet but it would be hard to sell at a fair value in the short/medium term. Property of any sort is going nowhere in Victoria, especially a 'development' site requiring sizeable borrowings as banks are getting toey. the cash/investments from the sale of Leighoak. This was earmarked to help fund our new facilities. We contribute then the AFL and other governments contribute. The only way we can get cash from the Bentleigh Club without selling is to borrow against it. But where would we get the cash to fund the borrowing? Pokies money is all but gone. As key financial stakeholders do we members/donators want the club to borrow or use the Leighoak monies to pay out contracts? imv, no, it only weakens us financially going forward. Morris is parroting something he was told but doesn't understand what he is saying.

Without trying to defend Roos I thought part of the reason for Goodwin as understudy was to give him time to develop relationships with all players while not having to worry about all the other coaching stuff. So there was less need for Roos to do so as his tenure was limited. Re the last para. There is a selection committee and while a coach may be protective of a player with a personal issues etc one would hope that at some point the team comes first and if there are good relationships it can be explained to the player in a respectful way. I've been suggesting Neil Balme or equivalent for the last 2.5 years.

Other 'gorilla' fwds have slimmed down in recent years: Hawkins, Dixon, Kennedy (WCE). It has been suggested Buddy slim down. So it would be going against the trend if we bulked up TMac. Given that he has had foot and knee problems carrying extra weight doesn't seem helpful.

Goodwin's role is only coaching and some player development. Various coaches say coaching is about 30% of the job. They leave training, development plans etc to assistants. List management, fitness, player contracts, football operations, player welfare and football analysts all report directly to Mahoney, GM Football. So I feel the structure is ok but we don't have the right people in coaching, development or GM Football. Mahoney has been at the club for our darkest decade. There comes a time when someone is no longer part of the solution; they are part of the problem. So I agree we should be looking for a new GM Football. But also new assistant coaches and better development staff.

I can't see the article but we had 4 in 2016: Oliver, Petracca, OMac, Harmes and Roos put in a big plug for Hunt in the last few rounds. None since.

I understand where both of you are coming from and while expressed differently, I really appreciate the support.

Max put a qualifier on playing the Crows: " … but my scans were relatively good this week, so it's all systems go at this stage." My guess he will nominated in the team tonight and the leave it to the last minute tomorrow to decide. The clue will be in whether Tomlinson and TMac are selected and/or who is the nominated emergency.

More detail AFL website article I find this comment attributed to him, troubling "He said the Demons knew what they did wrong but were still trying to discover the reason for it". Not sure if he was referring to the lethargy or why we keep making the same mistakes. Either way if we don't the reason we don't know how to fix it! Echoes of Goodwins vague comments of 'working on the 'problem'' but we don't see results.

Maybe it is the new curfew and shut downs but I'm not feeling as generous as your good self. I wish I was confident the AFL will fund another staffing bail out for us. Our predicament might just given them the ammo they need to merge clubs in post covid economics. Many other clubs will say we have had enough chances and keep stuffing it up and will argue there is a fair chance we will do it again.

Many on here and especially @rjay and I were pushing for an external review more than 18 months ago. Obvious what the issues were. But what did the club do 2019 post season - they let Mahoney review his own department. Good changes were made to the fitness and analytics side. But abysmal decisions on the coaching side. Meantime we have lost a year and our talented players a one year closer to being Free Agents.

Hooray!! AFL spin “The AFL has today concluded an internal matter regarding a member of the AFL Media team, Mitch Cleary...according to the league Cleary “has acknowledged it was a mistake” to post the photo, and he has now returned to work". They could have delayed standing him down until after the review, a mere 24 hours and saved Mitch a lot of grief.

Good on her for speaking up for Mitch and understanding it is job and livelihood that someone at Richmond fc has lent on the AFL to take from him, idenfinitely.

'Poor' Brooke and Trent They are doing it tough says Hardwick I bet it isn't as tough as Mitch Cleary stood down for doing his job, a job he may not get back. Whateley was scathing this morning: “There’s a couple of layers to this. There’s no understating the tension that has existed between the three parties in this – the Cotchins, Richmond and the AFL,” he said. “Part of the resolution was that the family would not be named, not withstanding Brooke Cotchin had published her own material in the public domain. “It had been mentioned previously on radio and then Mitch Cleary put it out there. “I think there’s every reason behind the scenes that prompted a level of fury and the AFL flinched.” It sounds like Richmond lent on the AFL to take action against Cleary. Shameful for the AFL to have caved in to the pressure. Ms Cotchin willingly went to the beautician, willingly posted to social media then cries foul. Wear the consequences and don't go after an innocent person.

Preuss hasn't been on an injury list for months. So why wasn't he in the first group to go into a hub? Poor insurance imv. We are now without Max, Preuss is only just out of quarantine and had no opportunity to train with the team for about a month. Either he doesn't replace Max or he comes in underdone.

Its time we broke the habit of kicking it to the left side straight to Max. Not having him will force different tactics to exit our d50. On the kickouts, I'm surprised our players rarely take a run and but kick from inside/the edge of the square. Not to be used all the time but a good way to change things up, get over the pack, gain territory and open up space for us. Time for exit d50 creativity.

Just a technicality: He is an RFA so no need to trade - a club could have him 'free' and we get a comp draft pick. He could land us a 1st round or at worst an end of 1st round pick. He is probably our best chance of getting back into the top 20 the draft or to use the pick to trade in a top player. He will also free up the cap space required for said top player. It will break his heart tho and that of many fans ? His ole best mate Ollie is in the same boat (but not an FA) so sentimentality is not a reason to improve the team and set it up for the oft talked about 'sustained success'. Edit: just say @Gawndog98post with similar sentiments. Snap!

I hope desperation doesn't kick in and we play him when we shouldn't. A critical game but not worth taking the risk. We can't afford for him to breakdown and be out for many more weeks. It may be a good thing to teach our mids to shark someone else and structure differently. We have Preuss for a reason. This is his time with support from TMac or Tomlinson.

Just pointing out all the reasons why we should win all three and win them convincingly. And folks should not be thinking the Pies game isn't totally winnable. But not confident of winning any of the next three. Time to show our mettle.

Tomlinson isn't fast but he could be an excellent wingman of the Tom Lynch (Crows) link-man type. He would need to start kicking goals and be in a lot of scoring-chains as the link-man. Or be a wingman in the reinvented Mitch Robinson type. Not fast but brutal and makes excellent positions, sets up scoring chains and kicks the odd goal. Not sure what type of wingman Tomlinson was the the giants but right now I don't see he has speed nor the attributes of Lynch or Robinson. He may end up as one of the not-so-successful trade-ins of recent years.

After round 12 we should be/must be 6/5. Our advantage in travel, fitness, injury and rest is huge: We have 2 days extra break than the Crows from round 9. Crows missing 2/3 top 5 players. We fly to Adelaide but rest there for North game. We have 2 days extra break on North from round 9 game who played on Saturday and they have to fly to Adelaide to play us. North missing a 2/3 top 5 players. We have 3 days extra break on Coll from round 9 game who played yesterday. Then they fly from Perth to Qld to play Syd on Thur (3.5 day break), then fly to Adelaide to play Crows on the Tuesday (4.5 day break) then back to Qld to play us on the Saturday (3.5 day break). Pies missing 3 top 5 players And Collingwood are a rabble off the field with transgressions from: Beams, Sidebottom, DeGoey, Sanderson, Buckley and a President who keeps putting his foot in mouth only for it to backfire when one of his own committ similar transgressions or worse to those at other clubs. Short of major injuries to our midfield there is absolutely no excuse to beat them all especially with 3 of their best players, all match winners, out injured. We should win all three convincingly.

Not all of it. Brisbane + other places. nt-declares-brisbane-ipswich-and-logan-coronavirus-hotspots

Clearly we got it wrong. I've said so ad nauseam. Also said numerous times Mahoney should not have reviewed his own department. For him it was about maintaining the status quo. We did more than just shuffle coaches, we let go many quality coaches and kept/got inexperienced/unsuccessful ones. Not a formula for success.

I believe we are keen to play a game in Alice. But yesterday the NT goverment declared Brisbane a hotspot so restrictive quarantine conditions apply. So who knows where what will happen. This thread has more discussion about fixture happenings. Love your moniker name!

Has everyone forgotten we had a major football department review and overhaul a mere 9 months ago? We chose to have the coaches we have. Or we couldn't get who we wanted so had to settle for second, third best. Lots of names being thrown around. Looks like wishful thinking. I mean why would the names being mentioned want to come to the mfc. Re Richardson. I was critical of his appointment and I've had a really good look at his CV. I see nothing that says he is a good coach or has been part of a successful club. He leaves the Saints and they now sit 3rd on the ladder. I have yet to see a positive impact of his recruitment to mfc. I hope someone can shed some light on why we hired him.