Pirlo

Jon Ralph is right. The longer the silence endures, the clearer it becomes that "wanting the club to be better" won't happen as players we are targeting decide to avoid the chaos. He's obviously suffering with his MH, which makes it very tough to know how to react.

This would make Jeremy Howe for Ben Kennedy look like inspired list management on our part.

Billings could not have telegraphed that handball more.

That's a literal kick to disadvantage.

Apparently he wants so sing the song again before he goes. Words vs actions...

Every single decision going their way today. They can elbow us in the head freely, but we can't tackle them.

He is out of his depth. He needs to dominate for Casey first.

There are five kids at Casey who should be playing over Kolt. Doing neither him nor us a favour by playing him now.

Never seen Rivers play so poorly. All that hard work...

We've gone from flag favourite in round 7 to bottom 6 and 4 losses on the trot. We've kicked 2 behinds in 20 minutes. What do you want from them?

It is crazy how far we have regressed. Haven't seen us like this for many years.

Rudderless. Big change is needed. There is no pride in this jumper from those who wear it.

Good for him for playing through the pain, but why did he do so when he was not fit to play? A hand injury does not excuse the lack of running and chasing. A hand injury does not excuse the hack kicks forward. And if it does, then why was he playing? We are a footy club with ambition, aren't we? We thought we could play finals last week, even though it meant 3 10 goal victories.

The more I consider it, the more frustrated I am at the short term thinking here. Teams don't generally release news like this until after the season, when the player requests the trade and the club releases a statement saying they will assent, but they're a valuable player and the compensation has to be adequate. Petracca leaks a statement that he's unhappy with our culture, Houston's manager rings and says they will be looking elsewhere, so what does the MFC do? Release the news that a much loved clubman wants to go home, and we're the kind of good hearted institution who will let him go. Richardson, as Richardson does, releases a milquetoast statement that we "will now work with the SA clubs to organise a trade that benefits Melbourne and Alex". But what's in that for the Crows or Power? We have told the bloke he's going home, we have made a song and dance of how kind we are to our players ("please reconsider, Dan!") and we now have precisely no leverage as Goody then made it clear that his family issue is important and we want him to be at home. Adelaide held us over a barrel for an inferior, older player with less time left on his contract last summer. We handed over a second round pick, and he has played VFL all season. We now have to sing for our supper to get that pick back from them, for a far better player who they know they will be able to get for a token pick as there is no alternative. We have robbed Peter (Jason Taylor and team, the most functional part of our club) to pay (take the heat off) Paul (the guys presiding over a fast-sliding footy program). Just like we did last year when we traded two seconds for a three pick upgrade in the teens as part of an attempt to get Harley Reid.

North wants Viney, and Todd has stepped away from their team for these negotiations. Viney may or may not want out. Petracca is upset at the direction the club is going in, and wants out or at least big change. ANB wants to leave with two years on his deal, cites family reasons. All break within a week of the club exiting the finals race. But there's nothing sinister at all? Just three of our five club leaders wanting out? Think critically and be uncomfortable. We've had one player ask to go home in about five years before this year.

Is it easier to get out under contract if you torch the coach, or is it easier if you defend him and ask for a favour in return? I guess we'll see this trade period, if either or both of them leave.

The club puts out a damage control email, something they never ordinarily do unless there is a big story, and people genuinely take it as the club being in control of the story and putting the journalists to rights. If this was idle speculation, and Trac was perfectly happy, they wouldn't have bothered to release a statement. The footy club is a business that these people run. They have at no point denied the story, and simply said they won't be indulging a trade request but will be taking his feedback about the direction of the club in the nature it was intended.

They only show up when we win, grinning at the race as the players walk down.

The club owes it to its members to drive a high standard. It doesn't owe anyone wins, sure, but it certainly owes it to those (like myself, and many others here) who pay a lot of money every year to support the team to ensure that everything is being done to prime us for success. Keeping the same forward coach and giving him three seasons to fix a problem that gets worse year on year? That's not ROI for members, and we have every right to demand that errors like that are rectified.

McVee, Howes, Turner, Tholstrup was my initial count. I missed Hore because he's 28, so didn't click for some reason. Who is the sixth?

One thing to be optimistic about is that the Tiges don't have any kids near the level of Windsor or McVee. One issue is that they're being belted even with their Pickett (Bolton) and Rivers (Baker) playing every week.

Multiple stars = 2? Petracca and May. Please don't say Brayshaw, who has become a byword for damage control. He's been retired since February. Windsor, granted, is a miss too. People aren't falling over themselves to feel good about a 2 point loss because we did it in the most suffocatingly boring way possible. 100 points scored total on a beautiful night for footy. The only way we can get near a win against good opposition is to strangle teams. We're 13th in round 21, when the club was going full boar for a flag this year. The message has changed from Goodwin and co because they know that acknowledging their failure could see them in the gun. I'm not going to fall for the PR, nor will I infantilise a group full of Premiership stars who've forgotten how to play footy. That team last night had FOUR players who have played under 50 games, and one of them is McVee.

A really honest assessment of this group would say that Windsor, JVR and McVee look like real prime talents - although JVR's second form slump of the season has me concerned when other young forwards are finding a way to kick 3 every other week. Making him ruckman for a fortnight after his best patch of the year was robbing Peter to pay Paul. Rivers and Pickett obviously stars, but they'll be in year six next year and can't really be considered young guns in the build. Bowey has barely had a good game in two years. Rubbish by foot at the moment and has a lot of work to do if he doesn't want to continue the slow journey towards Casey. Turner has some good assets. Sticky hands and a good kick at goal. Fades in and out of games too much at this point. Moniz-Wakefield has dash. No idea why people are pencilling him in as some star though. Was getting the ball 10-15 times off the flank in his first few games and doesn't seem damaging by foot. Lots to work on, but has some tools to develop. Tholstrup has a huge amount of work to do. In my eyes, he has no obvious strengths at AFL level. He had some form in the VFL where he'd win clearances and kick goals on the run, but he's showed neither of those at AFL level yet. Not pencilling him in by any means but obviously hope he comes good. Woey could maybe be a player long term. Good endurance runner, brave and actually has an eye for goal on the run. Again, lots would have to go right because he isn't taking his chances just now. Jeffo - who knows. Much better back half of the year for Casey and should be playing AFL this weekend. Brown - great tackler. The coaches don't have much faith, but I'd love to see more. Howes looked good early in the year, but has looked lost at sea since he was dropped after the Eagles game whenever he's come in. Don't think he's a defender, but don't know where else he'd shine either. I've been a fan, but am concerned.

Port were 13-7 this afternoon and would have sat sixth if they lost that game. They're not some juggernaut We lost 6 games in 22 and 7 in 23 with an extra round. The effort was there, the polish was not. Shouldn't dismiss people's concerns as "rubbish" as if we'd just taken it right up to the 07 Cats and hadn't come off 2 shellackings in 3 weeks.

I am a bit confused re. Clarry. What surgery does he need? Didn't he already have the hand op?