Lucifers Hero

I didn't say A graders. I said the quality of our top 13-15 - I'm sure most people can list those themselves. Naming the top quality players added in the three years since he left is much harder.

Mahoney, Misson and Taylor were at the club before Roos arrived and outside his coaching remit. McCartney was Goodwin's 'captain's call' as a mentor (who he has now given the flick to). Drawing a very long bow to blame all those on Roos!!!! If people can't see the quality of the the top 13-15 players Roos left us with, well they aren't paying attention. Phenomenal change in the list quality in his three years. Very few good players have been added since he left, albeit the jury is still out on recent recruits. What real improvement has there been in our overall list and list balance over the last 3 years; either recruiting or development? Players have plateaued at best and the list is looking out of balance and average+.

Macca walked away from his final year contract at the bulldogs so I think the money angle sells him short. And was't his mfc contract at an end anyway? My sense is that Macca is a man of integrity and knows how to weasel word things to be diplomatic if he had to. He hasn't done that here. In fact the opposite. I may be naive but took his comments as genuine.

ANB is OOC this year. There was some talk by a journo a month ago of a new two year contract but nothing has eventuated.

mccartney-sees-bright-future-for-dees Very optimistic about our future albeit tinged with regret about leaving (appears to not be of his choosing). Very classy comments and exit.

Totally agree 'sue'. Hence why I'm still backing Goodwin to see the error of his ways in his game plan, the list management decisions to deliver it and in his coaching panel selections.

3 years ago, Goodwin inherited a core list of first choice players. Some have gone, those remaining are: Jones, Viney, Salem, Jetta, Gawn, Petracca, Brayshaw, Harmes, TMac, Oliver, Weideman, Garlett. So he had quite a head start on a list than other new coaches at their 3/4 year mark. Feel free to do the analysis and back up your point that other new coaches 'did not get dissimilar' results (ie 17th on the ladder) at their 3/4 year mark. But be sure to factor in inheriting a core list like ours, named above and after a two year apprenticeship as coach-in-waiting. I didn't say my analysis was only applicable to mfc. TBH, I don't know and don't care about other clubs. If you want to do the analysis to demonstrate your point on my data and post being 'disingenuous', go ahead.

Fair comments 55. I agree with your '6 in the best 22'. Also agree the jury is out on some others. Was really addressing this part of STMJ's post: The main message was that there will be some big changes to...playing list...at the end of the year. He doesn't believe we have the list to take us to the promised land. Goodwin's game plan and trades have determined our current list and he is largely responsible for it. Goodwin was given a highly talented core list. After 3/4 years of recruiting we shouldn't need 'big' changes; it should be tweaking.

Many thanks for info. Would like to comment on the two highlighted items: Staff and Coaches: Goodwin's line coach appointments: Chaplin, Plapp, Rooke. Goodwin's staff/advisor appointments: Egan, McCartney, Jennings. The latter two were during Roos' reign but were Goodwin appointments as Roos, rightly, was allowing Goodwin to build his own team. His 3 line coaches were and are horribly inexperienced in the AFL or in the roles he gave them. So much so that Rooke was moved out of his line coaching role midyear. So I hold Goodwin 90% responsible for the mess of our coaching panel and related staff. The other 10% goes to Mahoney who oversaw the coaching panel build and endorsed the appointments. Playing List: The 28 players added in Goodwin's reign for his Game Plan: Rhetorical question: How many 'Best 22' from those 28 players? The jury is still out on some but I don't see very many. Not much of a bounty after 3/4 years! So its a bit rich for Goodwin to say 'we don't have the list to take us to the promised land' as: the coach sets the game plan, the coach makes the calls on trades, Recruiting fill the list gaps for the required game plan, with the draft picks left after trading. Taylor hasn't had much to work with for the last 3 years and it shows in the state of our list. I see about 12-14 good to very good players on our player list then if falls away very quickly. Overall, imv Goodwin has made some very poor decisions on coaches, staff and players. I find it staggering that our club is now having to make major repairs to our coaching panel and playing list after just 3 years. I have been going on for the last two years for an experienced person (call it director, mentor, GM Football or whatever) to help Goodwin avoid the pitfalls our rookie coach has fallen into. That Mahoney has not done that is an indictment on him. I'm still a believer in Goodwin but he needs to steady the ship, take a long, hard look at himself and start making better decisions. Edit: Was there any mention of the game plan?

Gutsy calls by Pyke to drop Eddie and Hinkley to drop Dixon. Also a gutsy call a few weeks for Teague to drop McGovern for being unfit, not to return until he is. Big call for a coach wanting to win every game. Good on him for setting standards early. Good examples of difficult calls to maintain the integrity of selection decisions and set behavioural standards; Walk-the-Talk. The ever classy Betts: “Yes a bit disappointed on being dropped,” Betts said. “But at the same time super excited that this kid gets another run at AFL level, turn it on little brother.”

Ratten is the wild card. He has his own approach which we don't know much about. Also, reckon he will use some Hawthorn 'tricks' he knows work well against us. Its a situation which makes him and the Saints quite unpredictable making it difficult for our coaches to develop tactics - something they did very well, from the get-go, last week.

It does affect the football 'soft' cap ie the max a club can spend on football department without incurring a fine.

Damage control, maybe? Its been a bad PR week (not of the club's making per se) so they need good news out there......

The Age is reporting Mahoney saying: “He’s passionate about the role and genuinely excited to get started, so he will be great to have on our team for years to come.” So all good!. Maybe the press release should have read 'from' 2020 Darren Burgess

Source? Maybe other clubs weren't prepared to pay the asking price, just saying. Its good news but not sure its a coup!

Great news for us. It is some rare good and encouraging news which gives supporters and players something to get excited about. Will also help allay fears prospective players might have of joining us.

The AFL seems to be pushing it Mid Season Trade Fox's view of Rules for eligibility: - Must have played eight AFL games or fewer this season (ie less than half of all matches) - Must not be listed as out for the season on the club’s latest injury list - Must not have been first drafted within the last two years (2017 or 2018) - Must not have been signed through the 2019 pre-season supplementary period or 2019 mid-season draft Suspect Fox needed to change their criteria to include 'Not traded in, in the last 2 years' to ensure the likes of Preuss aren't eligible. Fox's best guess at our eligible players: Mitch Hannan Declan Keilty Jay Kennedy-Harris Jordan Lewis Braydon Preuss Tim Smith Billy Stretch Corey Wagner Hannan probably shouldn't be there as he has limited games due to injuries. Lewis shouldn't be there either. Wouldn't begrudge the others wanting to be traded. It could have helped us cover some of our injuries this year so I'm ok with the idea of mid season trade Edit: thanks @olisikfor the correction - yes it is trade not draft. Have changed title etc

Sorry, but what I posted was not wrong. I named the players at Richmond and StKilda who had interrupted preseasons and/or injured in the first half of the season. The article you posted earlier was iirc the top 20 players. My comments were based on the top 8-10 players at those clubs. Many of those I named for Richmond and StKilda still have not returned. It would be helpful if you had quoted the whole post. Whether you accept what I presented is up to you but please do not tell me it was unhelpful. I don't have a narrative and don't push any particular view. On the contrary my posts on all subjects are generally researched and I include facts and information whenever I can locate such. The point of the post from which you extracted a small part was to say I believe the club needs to stop talking about the preseason and injuries because it just invites unnecessary criticism. If you are happy for them to keep talking about it fine.

I've seen ladders which reverse the narrow wins/losses and we won only 2 or 3 games and are bottom 3. Another ladder removes the GCS results and we are bottom 17th. So on what measure does the ladder position not truly represent as much as many are reading into it?

We could do with a real fwd coach!! Don't know who our fwd coach was in 2016 but it wasn't Chaplin as 2017 was his first AFL coaching gig. Not one has a career as an AFL forward so how on earth can they teach players forward craft they haven't experienced let alone been successful at. It is no wonder our players can't get separation or run to the right places to connect with mids. It is no wonder they then lose confidence and look to pass it off or miss set shots. And it is worth noting that only Garlett has AFL experience as a forward prior to joining mfc. The rest have been 'taught' forward craft by the above Defenders turned fwd coaches! With defenders as coaches it isn't surprising they think converted backmen/mids (Mcdonald, Melksham, ANB), kids or ex VFL players will get the job done. It seems to me there is little appreciation of the need to put in the appropriate resources to teach them how to be AFL level forwards. Please don't tell me we have to use the players that we have. We had good experience forwards (Watts, Kent, Hogan) and while there were good reasons for letting them go they were not replaced with experienced forwards. Forward play is a specialist craft and deserves to have at least some specialist forward players and some specialist and experienced forward coach. What we have is just not good enough. In fact it is laughable to expect winning scores with converted mids and defenders. And it certainly doesn't help to change the forward 'coach' every 12 to 18 months. Recipe for inconsistency which is exactly what we have. I have said elsewhere a first rate forward coach has to be our 1st priority. And it wouldn't hurt to have a ball-movement coach to help develop some connection with mids.

I hope so ET. Gven that Goodwin hasn't given him many votes doesn't bode well for him in the B&F. Will be very disappointed if he isn't in the top 4. Something is wrong if he doesn't get due recognition.

Malthouse and Pert could not be in the same room without dagger looks across the room let alone 'break bread' or have a chat! malthouse-rips-into-pert-over-new-afl-role at the demons

2nd round picks will range from #19 to #36 (excluding academy etc players) A very wide range! Our 2nd round pick will be around ~20-22. Hope people aren't saying we use that as 'the second rounder' for Langdon!! Would much rather use it for someone who is a proven goal kicker of any shape or size.

Better late than never! Goodwin can't win! Some say he doesn't change enough and when he does someone else says it should have happened earlier! Anyway, the 'brand' (ie game style) changes have been happening for quite a while but yesterday was the first time they all clicked. Allocating specific player roles was also good tactics which helped the revised game style.

Yesterday was one of Goodwin's best coaching efforts. It looked like he simplified the game plan and simplified player roles. Things I noticed: - Played more like WCE in prelim: Slowed down movement out of backline. Jones and Salem took their time to find targets. Switched the ball across half back often, particularly by May. a more kick/mark/control game as shown by the # of uncontested possessions, kick to handball ratio, and # of field marks. - He gave players simple and very clear roles: Lewis at ff to keep McGovern deep. Fritsch our lead up marking forward (took 14 marks!!!) Those two positional moves really opened up the fwd line and made it easier for connection with mids. Gus to tag Yeo May to go one-on-one all day with Kennedy. The Wagner boys on the wings - Played 'tempo' footy - controlled by Jones and Salem and to some extent Harmes in the midfield - Played mainly one-on-one defence rather than zone.. Its probably a bit early to say the manic/chaos style with zone defence is dead but there are very clear and significant signs that our coaching box has got the message than in 2019 the top teams are the slowest to play on and the lowest teams are the fastest to play on. We may have done some of that recently but yesterday was the first time I noticed a significant and simultaneous change in game style, player roles, ball movement and tactics. It worked. Damn shame we didn't get the 4 pts. The coaching box deserved it. There is still a lot of work to be done but if I read yesterday correctly Goodwin has taken a huge step towards flexibilty and change.