Ted Lasso

Not sure if you've noticed, but not many aspects of our game are in great shape at the minute, we can have the greatest defense of all time and it won't matter if we can't score or win the ball in the middle.

From memory Charlie Curnow slid a few places in the draft because of a similar issue with drink driving, imagine if we took him instead of Sam Weideman! we'd have won the last 3 flags

lets get Taj, Bowey, Rivers and Windsor into the midfield rotation, if we don't have the star power we once had, perhaps the best tactic is to share the load and change the look of that area. It's pointless to front up with the same B minus midfield mix and get beaten the same way for the next 8 or 9 weeks, we've got the rest of this season to try a few things, re-establish our identity as a team, work out who is going to help us win our next flag and re-launch for 2025 we aren't going to win a flag with Petracca out and Oliver and Viney so far away from their best footy.

I think supporting the club also means admitting when we get things wrong, clearly we've made a huge mistake in the handling of this situation. I think the opportunistic media are very good at piling on with the benefit of hindsight but i also think we perhaps deserve it a little bit. Even the Collingwood players were shocked he was allowed back out on the field, but somehow our medical team cleared him? i don't get it, this mistake had the potential to be career ending or worse and i think Tracs family have every right to be as upset at the club as they are.

Can we still re-negotiate the terms of the contract i wonder? for example bring 90% of the money owed into year 1, so that the impact would be lessened given the 90% cover?

I think a lot of managers and prospective players will be watching very closely what steps we take to address any underlying cultural issues at the club like Clarry, Smith, Hunter, and so on. I think you're right on face value we will appeal, for the reasons you've mentioned. It would seem very likely we will be buyers in the market as well with what should be a significant amount of cap space opening up with retirements and departures in the next 1-3 years. If we're going to throw a godfather offer out there, Logan McDonald is one i'd absolutely go for, if we could get Stengle at his feet that transforms our forward line.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Clayton Oliver/Joel Smith situations are all playing a role as well. Clarry in particular, i think players might feel he was let back in too easily without perhaps having to earn it properly?

It isn't up to the player if they're able to return to he field, the doctors have a duty of care to make the best decision for the player even if they aren't happy with it. I do believe the club possibly if they had their time again wouldn't make the same decision and allow him back out there.

The challenge i see is that we built our list for the contest/defense/chaos game plan, and if we move away from that it's difficult to see how it can work without a re-build or re-set, we simply don't have the high quality ball users that teams like Collingwood and Sydney have. I think the decision to draft Windsor reflects a little bit of an admission of this. if we are going to move in that direction i think we have to look at potentially trading one of our gun mids to re-balance the list. but that relies on there being someone on the market that suits our needs more, and one of them that we'd be willing to part with having any significant trade value

I'd like to see Taj step into the Petracca forward/mid role.

I thought Windsor showed some class and composure at times, but really we didn't have very many winners on the day. I really hope Goody doesn't try the inaccuracy excuse for this one, the Pies were clearly the better team

There is nothing worse than losing to Collingwood, but putting up an effort like that after what they did to Gus really hurts, it feels like the soul of the club is gone, the players don't seem to want to actually fight anymore.

I definitely think there would be some benefit in shaking up the off field and the game plan, it seems we need to re-load if we are going to be a serious contender again anytime soon

I support this message.

The best way to honor Gus today is to beat the Pies

Bont has a real knack of going missing in games when the Dogs are battling.

Not much better of an apprenticeship than to learn and take over from max gawn

I have to respectfully disagree with this, multiple years of consistent finals didn't impact the fitness levels of Richmond or Hawthorn when they had dynasty eras, even Port Adelaide, Brisbane and Geelong have consistently contended without any major concerns around their fitness that i've seen. It's really difficult to give an informed opinion without knowing the layout of our pre-season and the numbers of the players throughout it, but it's certainly something that really needs to be reviewed by the club if there has been some drop off in this space. I've said this a few times however, and it's that we average between 9-13 players 24 years and younger every single game this year and a lot of thoes guys are 18-21. It does take time to build fitness to a level to handle the rigors of an AFL season, and potentially a few of the young guys might get some level of a pass, but i would be interested to see the fitness levels of some of the senior players compared to previous years.

Every team will be doing this to us every week now, we are going to have to reinvent ourselves to remain competitive

North Melbourne would be closer to Fremantle than we are right now. let that sink in.

we could lose by 120 points here, there is absolutely no excuse for a list with the talent we have to EVER perform this poorly, but especially against a team that sits outside the top 8 on what is meant to be our home away from home. The coaches need to go away and have a good hard look at things and make sure we're actually on the right track. the players look confused, frustrated and unhappy

I am defintiely not out of sympathy with the call that the midfield is a huge area of concern especially with the talent we have and the output consistently being well below what you'd expect. being ranked 11th for clearances with a midfield containing Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Gawn and so on is really strange. in saying that i think our issues run quite deep, i find it baffling that since 2018 when we lose, the losses generally look very very similar but it's hard to identify any obvious shift in game style to correct this. I'll forever be grateful for Simon Goodwin in delivering us the first premiership in 57 years and we've had 3 consecutive top 4 finishes which obviously isn't horrible, but i do wonder how this list would perform under a different coach, for example if someone like Craig McRae had hold of this list would we be a better side?

We haven't been able to Win the ball on the inside win the ball on the outside defend ball movement defend slow entries move the ball turn the ball over effectively lay tackles win contested marks and much more. hard to name a single thing that's been AFL standard in this first half

I know he's a premiership coach, but when you consistently lose the same way the pressure is going to come on Goodwin sooner rather than later.

Geez some of our supposedly elite mids are lazy. Roosy came in with the goal of teaching them to be 2 way running mids and they've very clearly forgotten a lot of that. If you watch the mids of Sydney compared to Melbourne the contrast is insane