Older demon

Brilliant work, and yes, I can see the change. Just a gut feel, but has going short seen an increase in turnovers, especially from May?

Just an observation on game style and a point of difference between Casey and the senior team. I have watched a lot of the Casey games this season and note that after a point, they rarely kick long to the wing. Bonner did it once yesterday with the wind, and it came straight back and resulted in a score. For the rest of the game, Ollie Sestan took the kick in rarely kicked it long and found a short target every time and in some instances got the return possession. The commentators noted the calmness of maintaining possession down back and then moving it forward with fast play on football. Compare this to Steven May's long bombs to the left side of the ground (usually to Max with 3 players hanging off him). Whenever May starts to kick short, he tends to miss his targets and turn it over. Perhaps this is why he favours the long bomb! When Howes and Adams tried the cross-goal short, yesterday they both turned it over. It is a skill. There is a bit more risk and pressure with this kick, but Sestan nailed every one of them and set the team up for the surge forward. The ball movement, VFL level, albeit at a lower standard, was a joy to watch. Contrast this with the tortured way the senior team tries to execute this. To me, this is coaching and, to a lesser extent, player ability. I believe it allowed Woewodin to shine on one wing and Culley on the other, or in the centre. Fast movement and lots of ground play allowed the smalls to dominate, especially Laurie. I applaud the Casey coach; he has that team firing and playing a brand of football we want to see from the senior team. I would be giving Sestan a contract as soon as possible (he came off a significant injury break and did not miss a beat yesterday). Finally, I am conflicted re Laurie & Woewodin as they both showed yesterday that they have something to offer, and I ask "Are there any mature-aged players out there who are any better? Don't eject players for the sake of it unless you have a replacement who you think will do better.

Picket

Although the AFL team has completed its Casey has not, and all MFC players are available for Casey until they are eliminated from finals. The MFC players trained at Casey last night in the cold and pouring rain, and if they qualify, are happy to keep playing. I suspect, but cannot confirm, that this may be the reason why not all exit interviews have been conducted or any delisting published until all Casey commitments are finalised Kolton qualifies, and Ollie Sestan trained and is available for Saturday as well. I believe Jefferson is injured, but Casey will field a strong team.

I think if nothing else, this year has shown that age doesn't matter. Choco started the last 2 years saying that selection isn't based on your birth certificate. It goes both ways be it young or old. If your form warrants it you will be rewarded. Taylor Walker at his age is an integral part of the Crows forward line, Howe at 34 for Collingwood holds the backline together, Max at 34 has never played better, Lachie Neal is 32, Zorko is 36, Pendlebury is 37, Danger is 35, Tom Stewart is 32 Blicavs is 34, Gunston 33 the list goes on. If you are good enough and your form warrants you to play. The hope that youth and potential win games and flags is a false dawn. It is different to the past, where a youngster may be gifted a game because they are young The club has identified that it needs more players in the 25-28 range, as we have gone for youth the last few years. Those with short memories have forgotten the hole in the list, clearing the old guys, including James McDonald and co. And what a brilliant idea it was to make Grimes & Trengove co-captains. Rebuilding is more difficult than it has ever been, just look at North and West Coast in the last 3 years. List building and recruiting isn't a year-to-year thing. Recruiters have been watching players from the age of 14, monitoring their development as part of a long-term plan. Whoever the new coach is, his input into recruitment will be sought, but will be minimal. Time and time again, coaches are quoted as saying they leave player recruitment to the experts I am delighted that TMac & mewlk are back on board for another season

6 - Max Gawn 5 - Christian Petracca 4 - Clayton Oliver just kept getting better 3 - Harvey Langford ⭐️ 2 - Christian Salem 1 - Jake Bowey

On a sobering note I wouldn't be too swift to swing the axe. We have little or no draft capital to trade with. Cal and Toby will be the new blood and the lab talks about getting in more 25-28 year olds. A stay of execution and allow a new coach 12 months before making wholesale changes. It would be nice to find some players that can kick, hit a target and handball who know how to ice a close game

Please accept my thanks to Ghostwriter, Harvey Wallbanger, Kev Martin and all posters

Agree, axed is too severe. At this time of year, many assistants will not have their contract renewed. It is an AFL rule that the assistants have to be notified of their future contract status before the end of August. I thank him for his service, but as the club has declared they feel the need for a new voice, it is difficult to see any of the current assistants lasting beyond their current contract.

You know that Kal is in the state athletics as a high jumper? He clears 2 metres, which isn't quite Olympic standard but pretty damm good. At a recent training, he was available to talk to and when the conversation came to his dad and his ability to leave, Kal casually mentioned he had his dad covered leap-wise. And in the recent Casey game in Brisbane, he went for a mark that was too early and leapt over the pack. It will be interesting to see if, as he develops some size if he still has that freakish leap.

With today's result, Casey gets next week off. Unless it cancels eligibility, there is no reason for a Casey boy not to play in the seniors next Friday indeed, it may be good prep for the following week. The extra week means Sestan should be right for the VFL elimination final.

The board are responsible for the operation and governance of the Melbourne Football Club. The men's senior team finishes up this week. Casey has at least another two weeks and maybe beyond. The women's team has a season that finishes in November, and hopefully has finals. The AGM is in December, and Steven Smith has stated all along that he would, with board approval, ascend to the post of president. I see no deviation in this other than Caro trying to make a mountain out of nothing. Just because the AFL team is finishing doesn't mean the club goes off on holidays. To think this is disrespectful to our AFLW team. The CEO will take over from the current incumbent CEO, David Chippindale, who has done a pretty good job up to now. Smith is a current board member and conferenced in on board meetings even while on a planned holiday to Europe. Not a bad way to spend your first year on the board and then stand for president at the AGM rather than jump in cold turkey. Meanwhile, Guerra, while not in the job, is well aware of all the operational stuff. The membership has no clue how they run day to day, and nor should we. Yet we believe a journo who writes more opinion pieces than investigative reports (I am led to believe that is her favourite line), and no one ever goes back to check the accuracy of her whispers. Even Deddy has been critical of the stuff she dishes up on the other channel.

I have watched the first 12 minutes and will turn it off. We have the most unskilled ball butchers in this club. They could not hit the side of a barn from 10 metres. It is the same suspects every week. Apologies, but Brown has no ball skills at all. Jed Adams tries a bullet pass and kicks it straight to the opposition. It is like watching the seniors yesterday. Mentha showing a bit is the only glimmer of hope. They could clear 10 players from the list with a new coach, but they wont

6: Gawn 5: Rivers 4: Salem 3: Petty 2: Trac 1: Van Rooyen

Yes, it seems hard to believe we won so much of the footy; however, consider this. Chaplin said that not much will change except for a few minor tweaks that have all been mentioned. We are still essentially playing to Goody's game plan. Just look at the number of times we kicked long to the left pocket. May still kicks out long to the same side where Max is (with 3 hanging off him), and when he does try to pass it short, he turns it over. Unlike last week, we rarely ran and played on preferring to revert to the safe mark, ponder, short kick, then turn it over. I lost count of the number of times a player led and was ignored. The teams that have caused us the most heartache are the ones that always have someone running past. Kick the ball to position and rarely turn it over. Some of the vision and bullet-like passes inside 50 show just how much we need to improve and change our style. Some Wag said Well, Goodwin is gone, we cannot blame him now, well, he lives on with the type of game we play, which is obsolete . THis is why the board is correct in that we need a new voice and a radical change of game style and assistant coaches.

Because if they can kick the ball and not turn it over, they will get a game every week.

There are times when I really don't like Caro, and this is one of them. She makes stuff up, and most of her columns are now highlighted with "Opinion piece" I know Steven Smith and had a chat at a Gosch's training session before he went to Italy. He stated that he wouldn't assume the role at least until the AGM, as it would be too disruptive to take over on his return from OS. He was at the President's lunch on Sunday, let it slip that Italy was really hot and that he video conferenced into board meetings while on his holiday. Caro I call BS. She cannot have it both ways, either. You cannot say there is a leadership vacuum due to the president being acting and the CEO absent, then say Green is being dictatorial and overreaching. The fact is he was appointed to be president and until the AGM and elections come up, which may well be in December, he is the president, end of story. As for Keith Thomas, the moment he put his foot in his mouth, he was never going to be selected. Or did she neglect to say that? Her history of bagging this club, whether it be tanking, Goodwin and bad behaviour, inuendo re Oliver or any other opportunity to badmouth our club, indicates to me the best thing is to ignore her.

I saw Ollie at the game yesterday, and his cheek is still swollen, and he believes he is 2 weeks from playing. He aims to be back for the first week of finals at Casey.

I do hope Melk and TMac get offered another year. On the list I think there are 6 delistings from this year and only 3 draft picks. 3 off the list is the minimum and maybe we can get 3, 24-28 y.o. good players to join for next to nothing.

I heard the same rumour. Actually was told that a board member had coffee with Buckley after the 0-5 and am sure it wasn;'t to ask if Simon was coaching well

Well, I didn't like losing, but if that is the way we plan to play, I am sure we will win more than we lose. I can't help feeling we lack a focusing presence up forward. Petty was good, but we got lucky a few times, kicking high and long to Melk & Fritch. Max marking in the goalsquare scares backmen. It is early days, but Kentfield at Casey could be the one. Big, strong, can take a pack mark and takes no prisoners. Culley has been a surprise, but sometimes it is harder playing in a lower team to get a kick. His 2 games have been impressive. Windsor has shown how bad a decision it was to play him down back. He is a mid and adds pace to the midfield, as does Kozzie. Just need to tidy up their disposal. My other take is that 10 disposal nothing games aren't contributing enough, especially if you don't kick goals. Yes I am talking about Chandler & Sparrow. They need to do more and get more involved. It is evident that Goody's game style that won a flag is outdated and you need pace, precise kicking, disciplined structure and run and gun play. P.S. Max is simply awesome.

Gawn Rivers 4. MCDonald 3. Salem 2. Oliver 1. Petty

What has been lost in all the talk of who the HEAD coach will be is that no one has considered who the appointee will have as assistants. Only one poster mentioned Bucks with Sanderson as his tactician. Goodwin and his team were all on the same page with regard to tactics, training, selection etc. Goody did not do all this alone. Yze, when he went to the Tigers, was asked about being the head coach for the first time. He responded that Goody was on the boundary and that he (Yze) was doing all the coaching from the box. With Goody gone, the same coaching team move in and they aren't changing much. The process of the new coach is as much about who the figurehead is as well as who his/her lieutenants will be. Goodwin had Radford, Jones (both relatively inexperienced AFL-level coaches), Bassett, who had been out of the game a while and Jamar as ruck coach. Only Troy Chaplin has been a constant there, and he was moved from the backline to the forward line coach. Include Richardson, the team manager and Griffith as fitness coach, and you have the real scope of the coaching replacement project Newly appointed coaches like to bring in their own team and have to manage (read as deal with)existing coaches bound by contracts. All assistants have to be notified by the end of August if they will be renewed next season. We know Richardson has a year to run. Chocco is out of contract, and I have no idea of the status of the other team members. The combination could be a rookie coach, say Skipworth or Enright, with a new experienced mentor as manager, say Adam Simpson.

Why can't we take the players on face value and see that, as professionals, they can move on quickly? They do it every week. Recovery and review day 1, and move on and plan the next game 2 days later, irrespective of whether we win or lose. They assess and move on. That is what they are trained to do. What we think they are really saying or judging how they feel is more a reflection of our own thoughts and feelings, not theirs. If Max says they have moved on I believe him. I believe that the interim coach, having declared he is not going to apply, has been as open and honest as possible. He isn't going to change much, as it is so late in the season. They may make a few tweeks and have selected a largely unchanged side. Casey played a belter yesterday up north with all of the MFC players showing up. Look at the vision of the players as they announce Adams impending debut. They really don't look like sad, maudlin, woe-is-me victims. 7 of our last 8 quarters have been some of the best football they have played this season. The one shocking quarter has affected us all. I hope they have a red hot go, play good attacking football and start gathering some momentum to take into the pre-season.

Moving on assistants or having them out of contract helps if there is a new coach coming in. The new coach will want to bring their own team of assistants in with them, with a common game plan. Appoint a new coach, let assistants go and bring in the new team. I think there is a deadline in August where assistant coaches must be told if they will be re-employed or if they are to be let go.