What's gone wrong with Melbourne in 2019?

[Sttew]

Goes to show just how deep the losing culture is in a club starved of success for so long

 

[Chaisa]

The injuries haven't helped. I think they'd had nearly double the amount of games lost to injuries than the rest of the comp.

It's certainly not the only factor though. It feels like there's just not enough defensive pressure in the side, and there's no obvious Plan B if they can't win the ball.

Their forward line looks disgraceful. Oddly it was actually pretty good last season (though they had the advantage of lots of I50 entries, and Hogan was still there). McDonald and Neal-Bullen's form...yikes.

Hard to call whether it's a case of last year being an anomaly or this year being the perfect storm of s**t. It wasn't like they were bad in 16/17, so I feel like it's more the latter. But can they recover from it?

 

[Damon_3388]

It's certainly not the only factor though. It feels like there's just not enough defensive pressure in the side, and there's no obvious Plan B if they can't win the ball.

They're #6 in the league for tackles per game, and #2 for tackles inside 50 per game. They have a crack across the field.

They're also 17th in disposal efficiency, and 17th in rebound 50s. No rebound (Michael Hibberd has fallen off the face of the earth since his career year in 2017), and sloppy ball use.

 

[scarlett1986]

There goal now is a top 3 pick and a good draw fir next season.

Joke of a club

Winning form going into next season is more important than pick 3 compared to pick 7 or 8.

No team has ever just bounced back in recent time (very rare). They are done. Windows shut

Think

1. Western Bulldogs
2. Wce 2016
3. Fremantle
4. Crows 2018
5. Port

No excuses. You can't just reset and blame it on injuries. Every team listed blamed it on injuries. The games evolved. New style is needed for them no such thing a magic switch.

Injuries and fittness, a large chunk of best 22 didnt take part in preseason main group training, and it really shows in structures and set ups and coheasion. What hurt with injuries to the best 22 players is that a lot of the time the player that would move into that spot was injured or already playing out of position covering another injury and first picks of depth players were injured and so on resulting in players like sparrow getting games early or out of form injury carrying players being forced to play. Starting to get better and get players back from injury now and get some winning form is very important for next year

 

[Punts]

Winning form going into next season is more important than pick 3 compared to pick 7 or 8.

Injuries and fittness, a large chunk of best 22 didnt take part in preseason main group training, and it really shows in structures and set ups and coheasion. What hurt with injuries to the best 22 players is that a lot of the time the player that would move into that spot was injured or already playing out of position covering another injury and first picks of depth players were injured and so on resulting in players like sparrow getting games early or out of form injury carrying players being forced to play. Starting to get better and get players back from injury now and get some winning form is very important for next year

Agree totally but does the club look ar it that way?

 

[nahnah]

Good team, bad coach

 

[scarlett1986]

Agree totally but does the club look ar it that way?

Of course, thats why they're getting players fit and bringing them in, and showing improvement in the west coast game and adelaide game. I think every club is clear that gaining lower draft picks and promoting a losing culture damages the club far more than an improvement of a couple of spots in the draft can make up. Drafts a lottery, would you tank from pick 5 (ollie wines) down to pick 3 (jimmy toumpass).
Now if we have players that require surgeries toward the end of the year i completely agree sending them in early is the way to go so they get a better preseason. Thats perfectly acceptable.

 

[deck]

Interesting to see the 6-6-6 rule hasn't been brought up. Melbourne regularly had used a extra player or 2 off the back of the square at centre bounces to help with the clearance work. Would be interested to see how effective is was vs the 6-6-6 for efficiency out of the clearances last year.

 

[Eternal Schism]

1. Our number one forward is not used to getting the best defender. Hogan used to take that and McDonald profited of number 2 playing on him.
2. Blokes like Oscar McDonald need to go back to the 2nds, our defense was held up by blokes with experience last year which is now lacking. Our players need more size often being out bodies.
3. Oliver and Jones disposal is abysmal at times, like they are panicked and hand balling anywhere.
4. Inaccurate kicking is bad football.
5. Injury list as long as it can possibly get forcing us to use inexperienced young blokes who are not up to afl standard.
6. Players not putting in as many 2nd efforts as expected (based on last year)

 

[scarlett1986]

Interesting to see the 6-6-6 rule hasn't been brought up. Melbourne regularly had used a extra player or 2 off the back of the square at centre bounces to help with the clearance work. Would be interested to see how effective is was vs the 6-6-6 for efficiency out of the clearances last year.

I think the first couple of rounds 666 could have had an impact, richmond, collingwood, and 15 other clubs had the same rules applied and adapted.

 

[Chaisa]

Interesting to see the 6-6-6 rule hasn't been brought up. Melbourne regularly had used a extra player or 2 off the back of the square at centre bounces to help with the clearance work. Would be interested to see how effective is was vs the 6-6-6 for efficiency out of the clearances last year.

On this, post-Lever injury their defence was shot until they started to use Gawn as a spare. That has definitely taken a bit away from them IMO.

 

[tony__montana]

Injuries are smacking them around - thats a significant injury list theyve got

 

[deck]

I think the first couple of rounds 666 could have had an impact, richmond, collingwood, and 15 other clubs had the same rules applied and adapted.

But not every team setup the same way at centre bounces. Collingwood for instance last year setup in roughly the current 6-6-6 setup 70% of the time and were in the top 3. Some clubs were in the 40% range with a 6-6-6 setup.

Melbourne liked to use the 1 or 2 off the back of the square as attacking players. I don't know the efficiency when compared to 6-6-6 but Goodwin wouldn't have used it as often as he did if he didn't think it offered something you couldn't get in a normal 6-6-6 setup. I'm a bit surprised one of the footy analyst hasn't looked deeper into it as they would have the numbers to compare.

 

[deck]

On this, post-Lever injury their defence was shot until they started to use Gawn as a spare. That has definitely taken a bit away from them IMO.

How so? Gawn still played ruck and was in the centre for the bounce anyway so nothing has changed there. If he's not doing it this year then it is by design rather than the 6-6-6 rule.

 

[Drewie11]

Injuries are smacking them around - thats a significant injury list theyve got

You guys seemed to be covering the losses well until Friday night, same fairly decent players missing from your line up

 

[scarlett1986]

But not every team setup the same way at centre bounces. Collingwood for instance last year setup in roughly the current 6-6-6 setup 70% of the time and were in the top 3. Some clubs were in the 40% range with a 6-6-6 setup.

Melbourne liked to use the 1 or 2 off the back of the square as attacking players. I don't know the efficiency when compared to 6-6-6 but Goodwin wouldn't have used it as often as he did if he didn't think it offered something you couldn't get in a normal 6-6-6 setup. I'm a bit surprised one of the footy analyst hasn't looked deeper into it as they would have the numbers to compare.

It worked agaisnt lower teams but got found out against the better midfields. On our march to the finals and our final wins, we set up more tradionally and coincided with our better form. While the 2 off the back worked well when we won clear possession, it also left us open when we didnt.
When i mentioned richmond and collingwood i was referring to the plan of kicking to a fwd contest, winning the ground ball or pressing up and repeat inside 50s. Richmond and collingwood were better at kicking to advantage.

 

[demondavey]

It's an odd year.

Melbourne don't like odd years. They have made the finals only once in an odd year - 2005 - since 1991 and were quickly send packing by the Cats. Melbourne were well noted for their strange season form in the late 1990s and early 2000s when they went from last in 1997 to 4th in 1998, back down to 14th in 1999, runner up in 2000, slipping to 12th in 2001, back up to 6th in 2002, 14th in 2003 and 7th in 2004.

Good news for the Demons - next year is not only an even year but a leap year too. The Dees like leap years, winning the 1900, 1940, 1948, 1956, 1960 and 1964 premierships, while their only grand final appearances since 1964 have been in 1988 and 2000, both leap years. Maybe next year Melbourne will finally break a premiership drought of 56 years?

 

[demondavey]

The first thing I’ll say is let’s keep 2018 in perspective; we lost important games throughout the season (St Kilda, Collingwood, Port Adelaide, Geelong, Sydney). They were games that we really should have closed at some point bar the QB drubbing (which mind you was the first challenge after a month of thumping lowly sides bar Adelaide).

So last year we clicked but it was for a month; we beat West Coast away, GWS, then had the two finals wins. The first thing that’s happened was that our list was overrated and overhyped as flag contenders by the pin head media ‘experts’. We never really addressed the structural deficiencies our list had.

We could get the ball inside 50 due to an over supply of inside midfielders, but we struggled to score. Our forward pressure this year has been worse, so loose ground ball is coming out easily and our midfield isn’t working hard enough to counter rebound, then our defence dragged up to a zone, is caught out and we are scored against with ease.

So the issues are;
1. Inability to run and spread from a contest
2. Work rate has dropped
3. Skills of midfielders are really average
4. Defence is smashed each week
5. Still have an I50 conversion problem.

This won’t change unless those 5 points are addressed. We need to recruit a really decent outside player with elite skills, if it means trading hard for it, then so be it. There’s a few off limits for me but I’d not be adverse to losing a decent player; Brayshaw or Petracca. They alone wouldn’t get a gun outside player, but our top pick this year will help.

We’ve just got to fix the forward line. Ball coming in better will help, but the goal kicking is the worst I’ve seen for an AFL club. We just can’t convert. I hope this is a serious focus in the off season, because it’s basic footballing skills that are stopping us from winning games like we did on the weekend.

Our defence will be better with May and Lever but it won’t be fixed, we have to stop this rebounding attacks non stop. This means midfield work just has to be better. The efforts of blokes have dwindled. Seriously. We are a lazy outfit and aren’t doing enough.

Lacking a gun ball used in our middle is killing us. We need someone with elite skills. Seriously. We just aren’t getting back into the top 8 without someone who can hit a target with excellent efficiency. Our list is horribly unbalanced.

Perhaps if club officials scrolled through our board they might actually get an insight into the issues people keep raising. I know we are all a bit loopy on BF, but there’s a lot of knowledgeable people around and some of the basic concepts aren’t being looked at.

 

[Echoes]

Just way, way too many hours spent on Fortnite.



Guess Clayton wasn’t so unprecedented after all?

 

[romeohwho]

Pre season derailed by injuries -then they probably came into the season lacking confidence after final in Perth and early losses reinforced that. Playing better now but still really knocked about by injuries. Might just be one step forward two steps back. Next year might be right up there again.

 

[Toump Ass]

Seriously what has happened here??? Can’t see any threads on how disappointing they have been this year and feel like they are getting away with it

If Melbourne are so s**t how come your mob only managed to get on top of us by two points after we kicked 8 behinds in the last quarter?

(and how was Tex Walkers celebration when he finally kicked a goal, he looked like he'd just nailed the premiership. What an absolute flog, even the commentators said he looked like a dick).

Anyway to answer your question:
Injuries, players out of form, lack of depth, poor off-season.

First year in many we've gone backwards (which happens to every team) so I'm not going to have a meltdown just yet.

 

[captain cotch 9]

They remind me of the Tigers in 2016.
They will bounce back in 2020

 

[demondavey]

If Melbourne are so **** how come your mob only managed to get on top of us by two points after we kicked 8 behinds in the last quarter?

(and how was Tex Walkers celebration when he finally kicked a goal, he looked like he'd just nailed the premiership. What an absolute flog, even the commentators said he looked like a dick).

Anyway to answer your question:
Injuries, players out of form, lack of depth, poor off-season.

First year in many we've gone backwards (which happens to every team) so I'm not going to have a meltdown just yet.

There’s no need to pay out on him or Adelaide mate, it’s a legitimate question the OP has posed.

 

[demondavey]

Injuries are smacking them around - thats a significant injury list theyve got

We didn’t have May and Lever for finals wins last year. It’s not ideal, but it’s not the primary reason. Right now all those two would is put an extra few bandaids on a haemorrhage

 

[romeohwho]

We didn’t have May and Lever for finals wins last year. It’s not ideal, but it’s not the primary reason. Right now all those two would is put an extra few bandaids on a haemorrhage

You would have won if they were playing on the weekend.