Autopsy 2023 Season Review – Good, Bad & Ugly

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danster168

danster168

Brownlow Medallist
10k Posts Veteran
Apr 29, 2016
11,125
9,744
AFL Club
Melbourne
With the season over, let's all review how we saw the 2023 season on reflection.

Good:
  • Top 4 Finish
  • Emergence of Trent Rivers
  • Experience playing in front of 2 x 95k crowds.
  • Fremantle having a poor finish and giving us a top 5 pick and earlier 2nd rounder than expected.
  • The immaculate season of Judd McVee.
  • Beating the pies on Kings Bday.
  • Melksham winding back the clock.
  • Joel Smith producing in finals.
  • Viney having a career year.
  • Opting for JVR and seeing the end of Ben Brown. JVR's match winning 4th Quarter against Richmond.
  • Melksham goal to beat Brisbane out of nowhere.


Bad:
  • Decline in Ed Langdon and Salem's form.
  • Forward line function.
  • Oliver 10 week hamstring injury.
  • Petracca goal review vs Carlton.
  • Brayshaw head injury.
  • Jefferson's form at Casey. I would've liked to see more. He had a 1 possession game.
  • Melksham's ACL.
  • Not seeing Blake Howes debut. It would've been nice at some stage just to see.
  • Pickett never really getting the mid time we were promised in the off-season and overall had a disappointing year.
  • JVR's mis-timing of his jumping and having a few brain fades means he still has a long way to go to become a good AFL player.

Ugly:
  • The serious long-term injury to Petty, no thanks to Tom Sparrow missing a 15m target.
  • Trading for Brodie Grundy. (Also costing Max another AA Guernsey)
  • Not making a prelim.
  • Goal kicking accuracy.
  • Being soft on the big stage and not standing up for teammates after the Brayshaw concussion. I didn't like the lack of fight personally.
 
Last edited:
Just on Pickett quickly, he had a disappointing year in some respects, but he is also a victim of his own success and expectations.

Kicked 37.30 but had the most tackles of his career and had 23 goal assists (next best season was 9 back in 2021). Still a very impressive output from a young small forward.

Also needs to find the balance between playing with physical aggression and giving away dumb free kicks and suspensions.

Like everyone else on here, I want to see him play in the midfield more often. Maybe this is one of the reasons we are chasing McAdam? That game in R1 where he had 20 touches and kicked 4 should be happening a few more times next season.

Glad to have re-signed him long term and hope he's able to win some finals for us in future years, as if he converted 1 or 2 more chances in both games I would be looking at his season very differently.
 
It's all fairly negative tbh, any progress we made in the second half of the H&A season, Goodwin threw out the window in the finals.

Good:- McVee
- Rivers
- Joel Smith at times
- Melkshams second half of the year was epic.
- Viney while Oliver was out.
- JVR
- Freo shitting the bed.

Bad/Ugly:
- Salem becoming a VFL footballer.
- Tom Mcdonald playing AFL football.
- Langdon becoming a soft panic merchant who hates contact.
- Re-signing Goodwin for no reason.
- Goodwin recruiting Grundy with no plan in mind and just hoping it worked, at least we should get back what we paid so not a disaster.
- Goodwin naming Scache as a sub and not playing him is absolutely laughable and one of the worst coaching moves I can recall.
- Goodwin having to learn the same ******* lessons 3 or 4 times in the same season ( Playing a 2nd KPD to free up Lever, giving Kozzie a run in the middle etc etc)
- Goodwin continuing to trot out a boring, outdated gameplan that just sucks to watch ( I think this is the worst thing above all)
- Goodwin not even able to take us to a prelim in a year where there is no standout team and a premiership was there for the taking.


I think next year our best 22/23 will be still solid, but our depth will be borderline non-existent and if we get hit by injuries I wouldn't be surprised if we missed finals. We need to absolutely nail our first 3 draft picks this year and hope they can all contribute in their first years like Kozzie, Riv & Jackson did in 2020.


* the lot of them.
 

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stEdy said:
Just on Pickett quickly, he had a disappointing year in some respects, but he is also a victim of his own success and expectations.

Kicked 37.30 but had the most tackles of his career and had 23 goal assists (next best season was 9 back in 2021). Still a very impressive output from a young small forward.

Also needs to find the balance between playing with physical aggression and giving away dumb free kicks and suspensions.

Like everyone else on here, I want to see him play in the midfield more often. Maybe this is one of the reasons we are chasing McAdam? That game in R1 where he had 20 touches and kicked 4 should be happening a few more times next season.

Glad to have re-signed him long term and hope he's able to win some finals for us in future years, as if he converted 1 or 2 more chances in both games I would be looking at his season very differently.
Click to expand...
No reason why he can't be a Shai Bolton. Still only 21. Plenty of time to work on his tank and midfield work. A player like Koz you need to just let play as well. Instinct and natural ability. Let him run wild through the middle.
 
stEdy said:
Just on Pickett quickly, he had a disappointing year in some respects, but he is also a victim of his own success and expectations.

Kicked 37.30 but had the most tackles of his career and had 23 goal assists (next best season was 9 back in 2021). Still a very impressive output from a young small forward.

Also needs to find the balance between playing with physical aggression and giving away dumb free kicks and suspensions.

Like everyone else on here, I want to see him play in the midfield more often. Maybe this is one of the reasons we are chasing McAdam? That game in R1 where he had 20 touches and kicked 4 should be happening a few more times next season.

Glad to have re-signed him long term and hope he's able to win some finals for us in future years, as if he converted 1 or 2 more chances in both games I would be looking at his season very differently.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's fair on Pickett. Still only a young player. If he averaged 40 goals a year for 12 years he's an all time great small forward and he was 'disappointing' this year.
 
Topkent said:
Betts kicked 133 goals in his first 5 seasons. Koz has 135 in 4 seasons and his first year was 7 goals. He's an exceptional talent
Click to expand...
The stats don't lie I guess. I still feel he is prone to fade in and out but that's happens with most small forwards.

What he needs to work on is aggression. He gives away too many stupid free kicks and he is going to seriously injure someone if he doesn't take the bump out of his game.
 
Daemon said:
The stats don't lie I guess. I still feel he is prone to fade in and out but that's happens with most small forwards.

What he needs to work on is aggression. He gives away too many stupid free kicks and he is going to seriously injure someone if he doesn't take the bump out of his game.
Click to expand...
That's the exciting part. It does feel like he had a down season and was inconsistent and he's still returning great numbers.
 
Good:
  • Rivers
  • McVee

Bad:
  • Game plan - don't need to go over it again, we all know the issues
  • Didn't seem to be running powerfully. Good at grinding out games and finishing strongly in 4th quarters so it's not that we're not fit, but within chains of play we don't outrun sides the way we did in 2021.
  • Stagnation of the development of the majority of players

Ugly:
  • Our forwardline
  • List management
  • Coaching
  • Arrogant attitude
  • Being boring and frustrating to watch.
  • Another year closer to wasting a premiership quality core
 
Another good - we can absolutely win a premiership next year if we change the game plan, work on skill execution in pre-season and make good recruiting and drafting decisions.
 
Second a lot of things already said.

Good:
McVee the biggest highlight. Solid defender and really good when he does get the ball, doesn't waste it and not afraid to take some risks.

Rivers also improved a fair bit.

Also quite impressed by JSmith. He's a meme but held up pretty well throughout the year and was (relatively) reliable up forward given the shitshow that was our attack each week.

Hunter was a shrewd pickup. Not a star but did his job well most weeks.

Bad:
Injuries at s**t times - mainly Petty, Melk and Fritsch.
Grundy - ended how we should've expected, but still frustrating.
Kozzy - still some great games and moments but the inconsistency and ill discipline is getting annoying. Needs to be thrown on the ball more often, can be a real weapon when he's involved all game.
Lingers - coasting too often. Didn't do much defensively or offensively

Ugly:
Same old problems we've had for years. Mid/forward connection a perennial problem. We've got skilled HFFs we do our best to keep our of games by blasting over their head, or wind up playing them as the deepest forward.
Never quite being properly belted - it's the hope that kills you, etc. We were so close but so far it felt like. Capable of the best and worst passages of play you'll see. I'd like to be in the optimistic, not far away camp (and some days I am) but others it feels like we're driving straight toward a cliff.
 

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Lord Nev said:
Click to expand...

Disagree somewhat – our losses over the last two seasons have followed a distinctly similar pattern. Goal kicking might have cost us in the Carlton game, but our lack of forward connection/scoring power and conservative ball movement have been ongoing issues that haven't been addressed.

The worst thing we can do heading into this offseason is pat ourselves on the back and put our failures purely down to goalkicking.

Sure, don't trade half the list, but acknowledge that, in our current state, we're not a viable premiership threat. We're not far off, but if nothing changes notably, we'll be back here again next year.
 
Scythe94 said:
Disagree somewhat – our losses over the last two seasons have followed a distinctly similar pattern. Goal kicking might have cost us in the Carlton game, but our lack of forward connection/scoring power and conservative ball movement have been ongoing issues that haven't been addressed.

The worst thing we can do heading into this offseason is pat ourselves on the back and put our failures purely down to goalkicking.

Sure, don't trade half the list, but acknowledge that, in our current state, we're not a viable premiership threat. We're not far off, but if nothing changes notably, we'll be back here again next year.
Click to expand...

I mostly liked the 'cool your jets' bit tbh. I think there's been some ridiculously over the top takes in the media and online. It doesn't have to be all bad or all good, looking at our margins and the main reasons we lost tells you we're not far off, so I think the panic has been overcooked.

Obvious areas to improve and plenty of opportunity for innovation. Whatever happens this offseason, with likely 3 top 20 draft picks coming in, McAdam, fingers crossed with better luck with injuries, we're actually in pretty good shape to launch at next year. There's a lot around that, and my barrow to push this preseason is players doing extra, but I'm not gonna jump on the 'weak as piss/mass changes/sack Goody' bandwagon.
 
Good:
Rivers leap forward, to take Hibbo's mantle.
McVee all up a great addition.
Bowie's improvement.
Viney's step up.
Melkshams marking, and general forward craft
Tomo's improved defence over last years effort.
ANB another improved season
Brayshaw's work ffrom the centre
joel Smith's late season marking and goaling
Petty's impoved help when forward
Woewodin's start to his career
JvR generally

Bad: same old same old... game style.

Fritta's gone back to soft.
Langer's gone back to soft.
Hunter also a bit soft when inclub heat is off him... Also iffy defensively, and poor brushed off tackles.
Lever's 'all down the line' with jake.

Ugly: hmmn, a thousand little things adding up, together with an off attitude, it seems.
 
Lord Nev said:
I mostly liked the 'cool your jets' bit tbh. I think there's been some ridiculously over the top takes in the media and online. It doesn't have to be all bad or all good, looking at our margins and the main reasons we lost tells you we're not far off, so I think the panic has been overcooked.

Obvious areas to improve and plenty of opportunity for innovation. Whatever happens this offseason, with likely 3 top 20 draft picks coming in, McAdam, fingers crossed with better luck with injuries, we're actually in pretty good shape to launch at next year. There's a lot around that, and my barrow to push this preseason is players doing extra, but I'm not gonna jump on the 'weak as piss/mass changes/sack Goody' bandwagon.
Click to expand...
You're potentially right, however, Goody has always struck me as a pretty stubborn type, so I don't have the greatest amount of faith that he'll try and implement the volume of changes needed – and after two consecutive straight-sets exits, they are needed, even if we're not that far off.

You just listen to his press conferences, and every time, he repeats 'contest-defence' ad naseum and tends to brush off questions about our forward connection and scoring, besides the occasional throwaway 'we're working incredibly hard'. Three of this year's top-four are pretty attacking teams, and the other one has two Coleman Medallists. Teams are visibly moving towards generating more attack off half-back now, as opposed to focusing purely on the territory/forward-half game which relies almost solely on turnovers to generate scores. I do wonder if refreshing some of the assistants could have merit, even if it's just a fresh set of eyes.

Without doubt, it's on the players too, but I can't help but feel a small list regeneration over the offseason could help – in terms of getting some better kicks/runners into the team, holding players that are coasting accountable (see Langdon, Salem etc), and by hopefully adding some talent ahead of the ball, which might create the mindset shift needed for us to put more focus on our attacking game.

I'm not completely doom and gloom, but with the picks and outgoing players we have, there's certainly a chance to transform our game for the better.
 
Lord Nev said:
I mostly liked the 'cool your jets' bit tbh. I think there's been some ridiculously over the top takes in the media and online. It doesn't have to be all bad or all good, looking at our margins and the main reasons we lost tells you we're not far off, so I think the panic has been overcooked.

Obvious areas to improve and plenty of opportunity for innovation. Whatever happens this offseason, with likely 3 top 20 draft picks coming in, McAdam, fingers crossed with better luck with injuries, we're actually in pretty good shape to launch at next year. There's a lot around that, and my barrow to push this preseason is players doing extra, but I'm not gonna jump on the 'weak as piss/mass changes/sack Goody' bandwagon.
Click to expand...

The issue is you've gone out of your way to absolve any blame on the coaches outside the Schache sub decision. I'm a massive Goody critic but I've never called for him to be kicked out this year, the fact is we've literally had the same issues going forward six out of the seven seasons he has been at the helm.

Can we improve with a bit more injury luck next year? Sure.
Can we improve our list significantly in the trade period? Sure, but its unlikely to be significant immediate improvement.
Can our coaching panel rectify the same issues we've had for Goodys entire reign? I sure hope so.

FWIW I fully agree with you the players probably got a bit ahead of themselves, the language from them and the way they've played would indicate that is true to some extent.
 
Scythe94 said:
You're potentially right, however, Goody has always struck me as a pretty stubborn type, so I don't have the greatest amount of faith that he'll try and implement the volume of changes needed – and after two consecutive straight-sets exits, they are needed, even if we're not that far off.

You just listen to his press conferences, and every time, he repeats 'contest-defence' ad naseum and tends to brush off questions about our forward connection and scoring, besides the occasional throwaway 'we're working incredibly hard'. Three of this year's top-four are pretty attacking teams, and the other one has two Coleman Medallists. Teams are visibly moving towards generating more attack off half-back now, as opposed to focusing purely on the territory/forward-half game which relies almost solely on turnovers to generate scores. I do wonder if refreshing some of the assistants could have merit, even if it's just a fresh set of eyes.

Without doubt, it's on the players too, but I can't help but feel a small list regeneration over the offseason could help – in terms of getting some better kicks/runners into the team, holding players that are coasting accountable (see Langdon, Salem etc), and by hopefully adding some talent ahead of the ball, which might create the mindset shift needed for us to put more focus on our attacking game.

I'm not completely doom and gloom, but with the picks and outgoing players we have, there's certainly a chance to transform our game for the better.
Click to expand...

I think there will be a bit of a refresh with the list that will come from 3-4 high draftees, 1-2 trades/free agents, and then a few like Howes, Woey, maybe even Jeffo having a fair crack next year. You're right in saying we need less stubbornness, both in terms of game style and selection/roles, with you on that, and it's why I was disappointed that we seemed to go back into our shell at critical times this year.

The Goody press conference stuff is a bit silly IMO. Press conferences mean nothing and have no bearing on what actually happens behind close doors. I get that us supporters get riled up about them, but let's keep that in perspective, it's just straight bat media stuff. Goody absolutely hates doing those kind of things, so I have a fair bit of understanding for him in terms of just being super boring and sticking to a bit of a script.

I'm banking on the balance of defence and attack being the main change we take into next year, just like player management seemed to be the big one this year.
 
schmuttt said:
The issue is you've gone out of your way to absolve any blame on the coaches outside the Schache sub decision. I'm a massive Goody critic but I've never called for him to be kicked out this year, the fact is we've literally had the same issues going forward six out of the seven seasons he has been at the helm.

Can we improve with a bit more injury luck next year? Sure.
Can we improve our list significantly in the trade period? Sure, but its unlikely to be significant immediate improvement.
Can our coaching panel rectify the same issues we've had for Goodys entire reign? I sure hope so.

FWIW I fully agree with you the players probably got a bit ahead of themselves, the language from them and the way they've played would indicate that is true to some extent.
Click to expand...

Not absolving the coaches at all.

I'm on record here as saying I thought Goody was too conservative when it really mattered, that Yze didn't seem to stick to his preseason proclamations about midfield mix, that Stafford did a good job juggling the massively varied forward line personnel but it's clear he should change roles, and that Choco deserves heat for the goal kicking. I might not have gone nuts about the coaches like some others, but I'm definitely not letting them off the hook.
 
Scythe94 said:
Disagree somewhat – our losses over the last two seasons have followed a distinctly similar pattern. Goal kicking might have cost us in the Carlton game, but our lack of forward connection/scoring power and conservative ball movement have been ongoing issues that haven't been addressed.

The worst thing we can do heading into this offseason is pat ourselves on the back and put our failures purely down to goalkicking.

Sure, don't trade half the list, but acknowledge that, in our current state, we're not a viable premiership threat. We're not far off, but if nothing changes notably, we'll be back here again next year.
Click to expand...

Yeah you don't finish 6th back to back when you're the best team in the competition with some bad luck. Richmond missed out with bad luck in 2018, Geelong in 08. That's bad luck. Not losing the same way over and over in back to back seasons.

We will not make top 4 if we walk into next season playing the same exact footy thinking we just need some expected luck to change.

Since round 13, the top 4 were Carlton GWS, Brisbane and Collingwood. 4 teams on the up. Meanwhile we are a stagnating side still good enough to beat the bad teams and grind results against some good ones.
 
Topkent said:
Yeah you don't finish 6th back to back when you're the best team in the competition with some bad luck. Richmond missed out with bad luck in 2018, Geelong in 08. That's bad luck. Not losing the same way over and over in back to back seasons.

We will not make top 4 if we walk into next season playing the same exact footy thinking we just need some expected luck to change.

Since round 13, the top 4 were Carlton GWS, Brisbane and Collingwood. 4 teams on the up. Meanwhile we are a stagnating side still good enough to beat the bad teams and grind results against some good ones.
Click to expand...

I am not disagreeing with you and I am also not agreeing with you lol. But...

They will view this year as missed due to not taking opportunities up forward. They will look at games like:-

4pt win over Collingwood should have been 20-30+
15pt loss to Geelong with a score of 8.15
2pt loss to Giants with a score of 5.15

And the two finals games that should have been wins.

A should of could of type of year and they will put some focus on the above I feel.
 
DemonZombie_001 said:
I am not disagreeing with you and I am also not agreeing with you lol. But...

They will view this year as missed due to not taking opportunities up forward. They will look at games like:-

4pt win over Collingwood should have been 20-30+
15pt loss to Geelong with a score of 8.15
2pt loss to Giants with a score of 5.15

And the two finals games that should have been wins.

A should of could of type of year and they will put some focus on the above I feel.
Click to expand...
That's what they said they were doing after 2022 and nothing changed. They go in again thinking it's close we are stuffed.
 
schmuttt said:
This right here is the biggest concern. Take this mindset again and we only get worse.
Click to expand...
Yep. Geelong changed their style in 22' and won the flag. It was shaky at first but they held out and continued the year attacking and ended up clicking. We tried it for a month, had a hiccup and reverted back to bullshit footy.
 
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