What happened to Melbourne?

[PowerfulPies2023]

Premiership 2021.

2022 were cruising at 10 and 0 before they lost to freo after being 5 goals up then lost to Sydney as well. Led the Lions by 5 goals in a semi and got overran.

2023 choked vs Carlton in the last 20 seconds or so. Straight sets exit again.

2024 and 2025 were average seasons now their team is breaking up and their coach replaced.

How did the wheels fall off so abruptly?

 

[kane249]

Age caught up to them combined with the off field stuff.

It was the same side that rocketed to the prelim in 2018, so a large part of that core had been there for awhile.

Natural rise and fall of most teams (not named Geelong)

 

[lalorGOAT]

It sll started falling apart after melksham punched may. A decent culture and they would've won one or two more flags.

 

[Whiskers]

Dees will shock everyone and be the big improvers of 2026.

They just killed the trade period, got rid of players who are past it and unlike Carlton got 3 GOOD 1sts for a player who is past his best. How come Carlton get the praise for rubbish 1sts and not Melbourne?

It is easily the best trade of the draft.

If they traded Oliver a year earlier their position would be even better.

 

[Seattle Mariners]

Simon Goodwin

Simon Goodwin

Age

48

Ht

185cm

Wt

86kg

Pos.

Def

Career

Season

Last 5

D

20.9

5star

K

12.1

4star

HB

8.8

5star

M

4.0

4star

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2.5

4star

No current season stats available

D

9.4

3star

K

7.2

3star

HB

2.2

2star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.2

4star

left the club in an absolute shambles.

 

[Purple Suit]

Simon Goodwin left the club in an absolute shambles.

It seems to happen when a team wins a flag. The whole organization can get a bit relaxed or they go too hard trying to win another.

Simmo did both things.
Hardwick went too hard.

I suppose it's better than imploding without winning one. I also think Melbourne might escape being WC level bad for still drafting/developing decently and making the move now.

 

[WillHayward]

They are better off than the Eagles after 2018.

 

[matthew_s]

They are better off than the Eagles after 2018.

Will they be in another 12-18 mths?

 

[PowerfulPies2023]

Will they be in another 12-18 mths?

You guys are bad. You probably only win 5 games max next year being generous. I fail to see where you're going to improve. Realistically you'll be lucky to win 3.

 

[jakson68]

Won the flag only a few years ago.
Has a run of multiple years with double up first round picks, prior to Tassie.

There would be quite a few other teams, that wouldn't mind being in such a situation.

 

[WesternSydneyHawk]

I think a few things went wrong.

Going right back to when Melbourne were building the Petracca/Oliver/Viney/Gawn list, there have been two huge deficiencies.

The first is key forwards. The second is fast moving run and carry players (outside mids/wingmen/small forwards).

Originally, Hogan was going to be their star key forward. But then for a mix of health and family reasons he moved back to WA.

The Dees have tried to fill that gap, throwing guys like McDonald and more recently JVR up forward. But they've lacked a consistent A-grade KPF.

In 2021, they papered over that crack by bringing in Ben Brown

50

Ben Brown

Age

33

Ht

200cm

Wt

100kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

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Last 5

D

10.7

3star

K

7.7

3star

HB

3.0

3star

M

4.8

5star

T

1.2

3star

G

2.2

5star

D

7.9

2star

K

6.3

3star

HB

1.6

1star

M

3.7

4star

T

0.9

2star

G

1.0

4star

D

8.0

2star

K

4.6

2star

HB

3.4

3star

M

4.4

4star

T

1.4

4star

G

1.2

4star

for a couple of final seasons. Arguably, that helped win them the flag. But then he retired and the Dees were left with the same problem.

The next one is that other than Pickett, they've lacked smaller fast moving players who are good ball users.

Related to that, even for some of their best players, like Petracca, disposals were not necessarily the strongest part of their game.

Now, for a long time, how they made up for that was by having a midfield that was arguably the best at the game at winning clearances.

They had arguably the best ruckman in the game in Gawn, arguably the best all-round mid (alongside Bont and Danger) in Petracca, Oliver (people forget how good this guy was before his off-field issues got to him), and Viney.

So their system was often to win the clearances and slowly inch it forward towards goals.

In the years leading up to their flag, they were hugely inconsistent. And there was a massive gap between their best and worst footy.

From 2016, they finished 11th, 9th, 5th, 17th, 5th, and eventually premiers in 2021.

So it's not like they were a team that consistently won finals for a few years leading up to their flag.

What happened after they won the flag is the issues that were always there came to the surface.

The lack of quality tall forwards. The lack of run and carry players who are great ball users.

The game moved on in a direction that highlighted the deficiencies in Melbourne's list. Intercept marks, run and carry, clean ball use, and quality tall forwards became more important.

Meanwhile, Goodwin kept on coaching a system that wins flags in 2021 into 2024 and 2025.

On top of that, you had May's off-field incidents. You had Oliver's substance use challenges getting worse.

And instead of drawing a hard line on that stuff and delisting or trading them, Goodwin coddled them instead.

And the board didn't just back him doing it. They signed those guys to big money contract extensions!

The club could have easily traded Oliver for a Jeremy Cameron

5

Jeremy Cameron

Age

32

Ht

196cm

Wt

94kg

Pos.

Fwd

Career

Season

Last 5

D

12.5

3star

K

9.0

3star

HB

3.4

3star

M

5.4

5star

T

1.6

4star

G

2.6

5star

D

10.0

3star

K

7.1

3star

HB

2.9

2star

M

4.6

4star

T

2.0

3star

G

1.9

5star

D

8.2

2star

K

5.0

2star

HB

3.2

3star

M

4.6

5star

T

2.4

4star

G

2.0

5star

or a Jack Ginnivan or a Massimo D'Ambrosio. Those guys were up for trade.

Melbourne chose not to do it.

So you had half the squad hitting the gym hard to win that second flag while others were in the papers for what they did on Saturday night. I'm sure that would have been demotivating.

You also had the double blow of Petracca's injury, and the backwards way the club handled communicating that to the playing group.

The good thing that Melbourne did in its recruiting is bring in a lot if quality young players in recent years. Guys like Rivers, Langford, Windsor, etc.

Which means they should bounce back fairly quickly.

But yeah, there's also a whole heap of things they did wrong that eventually caused the wheels to fall off.

 

[Ando727]

The Dees have tried to fill that gap, throwing guys like Simpson and more recently JVR up forward. But they've lacked a consistent A-grade KPF.

Don't disagree with most of your assessment, but who is Simpson?

 

[Obeanie1]

You guys are bad. You probably only win 5 games max next year being generous. I fail to see where you're going to improve. Realistically you'll be lucky to win 3.

Can you see where Collingwood will improve with all the youg players they drafted recently?

Oh....thats right....they havent drafted any kids for years now.

So no wonder Pies supporters have forgotten how kids get better with development.

Never ending cycle of trading their top picks for mature talent has pretty much left them relying on trades and regualer father sons to improve. And they have no decent picks this year.

 

[Heaps of fun]

Will they be in another 12-18 mths?

Yep. I reckon Lindsay and Langford will be massive for them. Windsor will come good. Then by that point they'll have another year or two into this year's group of first rounders.

 

[iameviljez]

2022 were cruising at 10 and 0 before they lost to freo after being 5 goals up then lost to Sydney as well. Led the Lions by 5 goals in a semi and got overran.

2023 choked vs Carlton in the last 20 seconds or so. Straight sets exit again.

One thing that strikes me about all four finals losses in the 2022 and 2023 finals is that Melbourne won the i50 count in ALL of them.

In 2023, they lost the QF against Collingwood with 69 entries vs 37, and then the SF against Carlton with 26 scoring shots vs 18. I suspect that broke a team that was already pretty disharmonious.

In 2021, they were good enough to cover their forward line deficiencies. That wasn't enough any longer for the next two years.

 

[Dee Train]

Our best chance post 21 was 2023. Wasted our dominance in those finals. Glad I was overseas otherwise I’d need a new tv…

 

[Jootube]

Don't disagree with most of your assessment, but who is Simpson?

 

[iameviljez]

Our best chance post 21 was 2023. Wasted our dominance in those finals. Glad I was overseas otherwise I’d need a new tv…

I was absolutely gobsmacked at that QF.

Collingwood was the best side all year, don't get me wrong, but they were EXTREMELY lucky to skate through that finals series.

 

[Dez!]

Goodwin failed to evolve, kept trying to play 2021 football every year without trying to change.

We also wasted our chances, we had Collingwood over a barrel but slipped on a banana and fell off the edge.

Losing Luke Jackson

9

Luke Jackson

Age

24

Ht

199cm

Wt

102kg

Pos.

F/R

Career

Season

Last 5

D

8.3

2star

K

3.3

1star

HB

5.0

4star

M

1.5

2star

T

1.0

3star

G

0.3

3star

D

8.3

2star

K

3.3

1star

HB

5.0

3star

M

1.5

2star

T

1.0

2star

G

0.3

3star

D

8.3

3star

K

3.3

2star

HB

5.0

4star

M

1.5

2star

T

1.0

3star

G

0.3

3star

was also huge for us.

 

[WesternSydneyHawk]

Don't disagree with most of your assessment, but who is Simpson?

A typo, I meant Tom McDonald.

(Many years ago I knew a guy named Tom Simpson who looked a lot like Tom McDonald, which is where the mixup came from. My bad!)

 

[iameviljez]

Losing Luke Jackson was also huge for us.

Agree, but Clayton Oliver's issues have been big, too.

 

[Demon in Hell]

Dan Andrews and Jacinta Allan.

 

[T2B_]

Dees will shock everyone and be the big improvers of 2026.

They just killed the trade period, got rid of players who are past it and unlike Carlton got 3 GOOD 1sts for a player who is past his best. How come Carlton get the praise for rubbish 1sts and not Melbourne?

It is easily the best trade of the draft.

If they traded Oliver a year earlier their position would be even better.

Gee the salt has spilled out into random other threads now

 

[PowerfulPies2023]

Sean Charles
Cuthbertson
Darren Kowall
Sean Wight
Hopgood
Grinter
Lovett
Lovett Murray
Lovell
Jackovich
Stynes
Tingay
Hilton
Yze
Viney
Neitz
Lamprill

 

[matthew_s]

Dan Andrews and Jacinta Allan.

Don’t forget Jeff Kennett closing all the asylums!