Lid on 2018 - have we gone to soon? Nervously hanging out for Friday

Today was the loss (yet another one) that we needed to have.

The danger in continuing on the way we are is that the club and the usual muppet lid-offers legitimately think that we are some sort of decent team.

We aren’t.

We have been devoid of leadership in the moments we’ve needed it throughout the year and today was no different, and that is with Hurley, Heppell, Jobe, Goddard and Kelly all on the ground, then you’ve got Hooker, JD and Zerrett who I believe are all in the leadership group.

The midfield is putrid.

It is easily, EASILY, amongst the bottom 3 midfield groups in the league.

Zach Merrett is an elite outside player who can accumulate. Broke his streak of 20+disposal games today.

Parish looks pretty good but I doubt his opponents aren’t losing sleep over his abilities at this stage.

Heppell is a solid player to have in the rotation, although I’m not sure what it is that he does best anymore.

Fanta and Walla are good players who add some speed for a couple of minutes each game but they are only bit players through the middle at best.

McGrath in the middle is a pipe dream at the moment.

After that though, there isn’t much that opposition teams would really have to put any time into to counter because it’s so vanilla.

We are in a very ordinary spot right now, because if we are honest, we need to replace Jobe, Kelly, Goddard from our regular 22 and we have nobody waiting in the wings to cover for any of them.

Travis Colyer would want to find some form in the next 7 days because he has gone from invaluable to completely and utterly replaceable. He has offered next to nothing this year and at his height he is an absolute liability.

I don’t blame the players, they have clearly given it their best so far this year and have been found wanting (yet again).

It’s time for Woosha and Disco to rebuild our midfield.

Properly.

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and thats the worst place to finish, neither here or there

This is my take

Today’s loss, should be the sign we actually need a list turnover of massive proportions. We need to do a north Melbourne and make hard calls on guys who are 28+. A lot may not agree with me and that’s fine but I’ve seen enough. Too many players not up to it consistently. I would look to move on/delist the following from today’s side, and a few others

baguley
Colyer
Watson
Kelly
Gleeson
Goddard
Green
Stanton
Hocking
Long
Morgan
redmond
J.merrett
howlett
Luenberger
Myers

I do not believe any of them players are either 1, consistent enough, or 2, part of our next top 4 tilt where we can win a flag from. All for various reasons but honestly I cannot see ANY of them guys playing a part in a push forward. Some maybe a little harsh but I’d love to hear a good arguement to suggest any of them can play a valuable role going forward

We need a rebuild, and the more we put it off, the longer this fkn years of mediocrity will continue. I want to see mutch, begley, mcneice, francis, laverde, Ridley through the senior side. We need to see what some kids have got, regardless of vfl form.

We have been in this position, and this state of mediocrity/unknown for way, way to long. Make a fkn change. And please, just spend every fkn pick we get in midfielders. If getting beaten by the worst midfield I’ve seen in a LONG time doesn’t make you worried, nothing will. Jesus Christ we are shocking through there

I’m sick of this. Something needs to change. Completely expect people to call me out for overreacting to a bad loss, but I reckon we were all saying that certain posters were over reacting to losses like this for the last 10+ years when we’ve had losses like this

We’ve got some talent. But we’ve got issues with this list and club far, far deeper than a few talented players

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Harsh on Gleeson and Green, and I reckon Redmond will get a one year deal.

Myers has another 2 years left on his contract!!!

Finals are done now so start building for the future. Start giving some of these kids a game. They cant do any worse

Give jobe a farewell game.

If the players arent doing what they are supposed to then drop them. Dont just expect things to magically get better as we have been all season.

Tell worsfold to actually do some coaching during the game

Can you see any of them three being part of a flag tilt? I can’t

Redman has a deal, as does Leuenberger, and I think Colyer. That’s not really the point.

I think the draft sanctions we copped are starting to bite now too.

We don’t have a lot of top tier talent emerging from underneath. We have a couple who show promise but not enough.

What did we lose again? A 1st and second round pick one year and a second round pick in the next year?

In one week, I’ve gone from thinking we can sneak into the top 4 to, we might as well open the gate and start bringing in Begley, Mutch, Francis, Ridley, Lav, Redman, Clarke and anyone else young who shows a bit in the VFL for at least 3 or 4 games to give them a taste and to stay if they perform.

We need to find a way to promote Long (anyone need an operation?) and maybe even give Sammy a look by the end of the season.

Technically it’s not all over red rover, but we are out of excuses. The decrease in expectation might let us to ■■■■■■ a couple, but it is well over a decade since we performed well in the second half of the season and the expected improvement we were hoping for now seems like a pipe dream.

Now we know we can lose to anyone, anywhere, and we can continue to play well for up to 3/4’s and no one will be surprised if we are run over in the last. Those below us generally play each other, and the number 2 or 3 draft pick could easily be ours if our rivals gain as little as 1 or 2 games and percentage on us. Even pick one isn’t out of the question after today, but it would take Brisbane winning 3 or more likely 4 games given their percentage is only 30% less than ours, and we would have to lose all the rest.

It is pretty sad that the wheels could seem to have fallen off so quickly, and the likelihood is we will blunder along and get 3 or 4 more wins and end up around 14th. That is not a bad draft pick, and we should be looking at trying to get an A grade midfielder and hopefully Dodoro will work some magic with a couple of the later picks.

The truth is we need a beast like Jobe was who can lift the team on his shoulders and run with it. In the meantime, I think it is time to make some space for the youngsters and the likes of Green and much as it pains me to say it, rotate out some of the veterans, not enough to completely disable the side, but enough to make room for at least a couple youngsters at a time.

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That, plus our first round pick was pushed to the end of the 1st round (ended up being 20 instead of 12)

Maybe Woosha is waiting for us to spit the dummy and then, he can do the hard stuff without criticism???

Today should be the trigger to offer Martin 1.5 a year. Fk me I’d kill for him at our club

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Gleeson played really well today dude. Like he was arguably our best player.

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Tell me about it. But the club prefers to grow our own. Just look at where that has got us.

Throw the kitchen sink at guys like rockliffe,martin and kelly

By that logic I’ll delish Zach Merrett too. We are miles off a top 4 tiki, how many “list turnovers” do you need until we eventually get one right? And at the moment, it’s the experienced players hurting us.

Gotta between us and richmond.

Only have to work mininal hours between the months of march and august. We may edge them out on the $'s.

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Why, we’ll just play him off a half back flank.

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Dodoro out! Apart from a few gems like Zac and Raz he has been a disaster. Its only early but I see Langford and Laverde both picks in the teens as wasted. Not good enough forward or mid. Francis built like Tarzan but appears to be Jane. Morgan injury prone, Redmond going nowhere. Long a clogger. I could go on and on…

3 finals in how may years??

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Q for everybody.

At the end of last year I thought our team had started to look like something. Any normal club ( no sanctions) would have hit the draft hard, spent another year blooding new players and then looked to build on a cohesive game style.

We haven’t, so my question is, Has the returning players hurt our development as a side?

Apart from the obvious players, Hurley, Hepp, Hooker, the rest are borderline.

  • Watson is getting by on reputation
  • Howlett is fringe on his best day
  • Belly has been ok, pass for me, but it’s not like we have much choice in the ruck
  • Colyer appears to be unable to play well in this game plan
  • Stanton and Hocking can’t get a game.
  • Myers can hold his spot, good in the twos average in the AFL, two more year son his contract may come back to bite big time.

I think the club and coaching group thought these guys would walk in rusty and be up and going by mid season for a finals berth. Now 15 rounds later, we are 11th, only McGrath has debuted and we are stuck trying to figure out what’s wrong.

It’s pretty clear now we are not going to make finals. Every game is an opportunity for next season, in particular finding out about players, blooding new talent and building for next year.

Every game we give to a Howlett, Stanton etc is one a young player misses. It’s time to build from what we started last year and stop playing to the past.

I would rather play Francis (unfit), Begely, Mutch, Clark, Morgan, Redman, Ridley and Jerrett for the rest of the season. If each of them don’t get 5 games we have failed in our development for the year.

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Play the kids or sack Dodoro. He picked them