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Couple of unfashionable key defenders in Jones and Lobb doing the job.

Carn the Dogs

Bulldogs fast free flowing game highlighting that not every player has to be an elite kick of the footy. Not every attacking passage of play pays off, some / many result in turning the ball over. That last goal to Darcy showed just that. Bulldogs currently lead by a point and may go on to lose but geez they play an exciting brand of footy and they won’t die wondering. If we had the equivalent of Bont, Treloar, Weightman and JUH out we’d be full of excuses. They were robbed by the umpires last week. Amazing what a modern game plan can do.

We had injuries too, we just needed to tweak the game plan, the bit that’s still causing us grief today.

Where to know for Port, they have the succession plan in place, is there any point in letting Hinkley see the year out. Hard to see them making finals, with regards to player retention are they better off making the move now. Any parallel’s for our club?

Change the coach, change the assistants and change the gameplan before we entertain trading out a gun fwd.

Bont Treloar Weightman JUH

Let’s play Petracca as a permanent fwd then give him the same delivery that Fritsch cops and let’s see how he goes.

Is that not how we played against Freo and Collingwood twice last year and we got smashed just the same, also the Bulldogs late in the season. Yes Petracca was injured in the first Collingwood game. By the time we finish our slow transition the opposition has set up ahead of the ball so we bomb it in, funnily enough we bomb it in even if we win the clearance. We no longer have a Ben Brown or player of his calibre who can stand under the high ball and either take the mark or bring it to ground in a dangerous position for our smalls, the other problem for a large part of last season was our smalls weren’t front and centre of the drop of the ball, they were no where near the contest of we had Kosi flying for unrealistic marks. The teams that come to mind that play the quick transition style of play are GWS, Collingwood, Hawthorn and the Bulldogs. Out of those 4 I would consider only GWS to have elite kicks of the footy all over the ground. The other three have some elite users of the footy by foot and like all clubs have some role players who are not as dangerous by foot but play their role and stick to the game plan. In terms of fwds Collingwood and Hawthorn have some very dangerous smalls and the Dogs have some dangerous talls. But what makes them even more dangerous is the speed at which they move the ball, they don’t give the opposition time to get back and set up. This puts defenders in one v ones against very skilful fwds. Have your better kicks kicking out of the back half setting up the quick transition, once you’re out elite kicking is slightly less important as long as players are running to space. Then delivery inside fwd 50 an open fwd line, the kick going in may not be elite but your backing your fwd in a one v one. Our three most dangerous fwds and best set shots are JVR, Fritsch and Kosi. None of them can stand under the high ball and take the mark yet that’s how we deliver it to them time after time, madness. Whilst a great kick, Salem is slow and not penetrating by foot but funnily fits in nicely with our stop and prop gameplan. Get the ball into the hands of Windsor or Rivers to break the lines and set up our transition, onto Langdon / Petracca / Lindsay then into our fwd line. The were two passages of play from the weekend that stand out, one from the hawks which resulted in a Watson goal after he initially dropped the mark, the other from the Bulldogs (not sure of all the players names). Point is the initial kick from their defensive 50 was a low bullet the set the wheels in motion by putting a teammate in space, the other disposals in the passages of play weren’t as good but both resulted in goals. We’re not even trying, our coach isn’t adapting as we continue to play a gameplan that doesn’t deliver wins.

Fritsch laid 3 tackles against GWS which was more some Melbourne players with midfield time. I do acknowledge that he has been poor defensively for a while now. You responded to my comment that “if he was in those fwd lines there wouldn’t be a need for many 2nd or 3rd efforts” as he’d be lining up for set shots. Fritsch ranks 2nd amongst the fwds you have listed behind only behind Greene. How do we know Fritsch wouldn’t change under a new coach, I think you’d find if he was open to a trade a lot of clubs would be wanting his signature.

I agree that an underperforming player should be dropped but how do we set the criteria and where do we draw the line? In addition to Fritsch being poor defensively we have many players struggling with basic disposal. End of the day all of these issues fall in Goodwins lap as he is head coach, I think we can agree that none of these problems are new.

So if players were ill shouldn’t Goodwin have gone with that rather than Max’s personal life? Considering how close everyone else that’s disappointing.

If they’re just going to bomb on his head there what’s the point. People bag Fritsch for not laying tackles, what’s the difference between not laying a tackle and all the ineffective tackles that were laid on Sunday?

If he was played one out / with space and had their delivery there wouldn’t be many second or third efforts required.

Could we try Salem in that role, he’s a good user of the footy by foot but he’s not quick nor is he a long penetrating kick which for me means he’s not best suited across half back. When Windsor is back get him across half back and Salem as the last kick into fwd 50.

Whilst there is no excusing Fritsch’s lack of defensive efforts, I can’t help but think if he played for the Hawks, Pies, GWS etc he would be on the end of great delivery in space or in one v ones.

I’m in the “It’s time for Goodwin to go” camp but let’s not forget Chris Fagan never played AFL / VFL. Whilst we have line coaches Goodwin is ultimately responsible for the style of footy we play and needs to accept responsibility for what we served up yesterday.

Are we the only club potentially looking for a new coach? Port have announced their succession plan. Eagles have a new coach. Essendon recently extended Scott. Yze is in his 2nd season. Maybe Carlton if Voss can’t turn the Blues around.

For those that think Goodwin isn’t the problem can you please share your thoughts on how we turn this all around? The answer is more than just our injuries, see the Bulldogs. Can you tell us how our gameplan stacks up against other sides, stating that we played finals in 22/23 means little as years later Goodwin still hasn’t fixed our delivery inside fwd 50 or our ability to convert once it’s in there. We’ve gone down the path of new assistants so where to now?

Fritsch is a great mark and uses his body well in the contest but we can’t be bombing it in on top of his head. Play a talk on him and the ball goes to ground he’ll win out, play a mid / small on him he’ll beat them in the air.

Yes.

Not yet, that would be a very un Melbourne thing to do. Need to recheck the draw, hoping we play Freo, Collingwood and the Hawks consecutively.

Turner kicked a difficult goal from the pocket in the 2nd qtr I think, we have players that miss from directly in front. Whilst Fritsch laid 0 tackles yesterday which is unacceptable he like Turner would be better suited to an attacking game plan with quick ball movement. Trade for Leek Aleer, he’s only 23 years old, Petty is 25, leaving Turner and JVR up fwd.

Bulldogs have had Bont, Treloar, Weightman and JUH out yet management to beat North and should have beaten the Pies if not for some one sided umpiring. I’m not entirely familiar with all of their players but they played an attractive attacking style of footy. We have no excuses, not sacking Goodwin is just prolonging the inevitable.

Port really showed Richmond didn’t they.