Simon Goodwin’s day of reckoning as Melbourne coach is coming, unless the Demons learn to score.
Melbourne have a scorecard only Rory McIlroy would be proud of, with 74, 66, 62, 46 and 57 after five rounds.
They have won just four of their 20 quarters so far in a year they traded out their future first-round draft pick. They have one win in their past 11 matches.
The scoring woes are on Goodwin in 2025, even though his senior players and a dysfunctional board and administration are to blame for leaving him without any hope of success last season.
A system to score more this season either doesn’t exist, which is not the case, or the players’ bad habits are so deeply ingrained the coaches can’t change the way they play.
Goodwin wants time for the new direction to fall into place as he believes the past few seasons have been too unstable to perform effectively. He will be given that time by a board which is sensibly not going to react in a knee-jerk fashion. He deserves that.
Goodwin pointed to the third quarter against Essendon as how he wanted the team to play. But it was an outlier built off pressure that had not been seen in the first half and two kicks inside 50 from the coachable and team-oriented Jake Melksham.
Having rued reverting to type when the pressure was on last season, Goodwin said post-game he will back his players to find form and adapt to the system they are training.
But he also needs to take action to make sure the non-negotiables apply to everyone.
Christian Petracca, Clayton Oliver, Steven May and Bayley Fritsch, who seemed to forget somewhere along the line they are playing a team sport, appear right now incapable of being selfless on the football field.
The courageous Ed Langdon goes about his football in the right wayCredit: AFL Photos
Of course, they are trying, and of course they want to do the right thing, but are they listening to the right advice?
The effect of Angus Brayshaw’s absence is material and the minds of Max Gawn and solid performers Ed Langdon, Jake Bowey and Kade Chandler must wander as they high-five these teammates in an attempt to keep spirits high. What the young players think is anyone’s guess.
Petracca’s dump kicks inside 50 in the first half should have led to him being sat on the pine, while Oliver was tagged out of the game in the first half and continues to play catch-up after his wayward behaviour two years earlier. May blamed everyone in sight when he dropped a mark late in the third quarter and sadly Fritsch is low on form and confidence. The only consequence is constant criticism, which they seem to ignore anyway.
Jack Viney has been a great warrior and an excellent player, but the club’s decision late last season to extend his contract until 2028 was hasty. The board needs to accept responsibility for that.
Goodwin bemoaned the team’s lack of fight in the first half. To be brutally honest, their much-vaunted search for love for each other has seemed as convincing as hearing couples on Married at First Sight describe their feelings for their partner.
Claiming connection is strong off the field is fine, but there is no evidence that’s the case on the field and what happens on field is the most relevant indicator by a mile. Until on-field connection happens, cynicism will prevail.
The different level of support they gave for each other in the third quarter and the dare they suddenly showed made you wonder whether they had undergone a MAFS commitment ceremony at the long break. It didn’t last, however, with their heads dropping again in the final quarter, a quarter they have not won this year.
Christian Petracca can still turn a game but he can also forget to do the basics. Credit: AFL Photos
Post-game, Goodwin seemed to put the onus on the forwards’ inability to make the most of the eight more inside 50s and nine more centre clearances (they kicked just one behind from centre clearance) than their opposition.
But Fred Fanning would have struggled to hit the scoreboard with the delivery inside 50 from the premiership stars who seem to blame everyone but themselves for any outcome they don’t like. One explanation is they are down on confidence and not thinking clearly, trying too hard now to make actions match their words.
The young group, Jacob van Rooyen, Harvey Langford, Xavier Lindsay, Judd McVee, Bowey, Caleb Windsor, Koltyn Tholstrup, Trent Rivers and co. have the talent and character to take the team forward quickly once other issues are sorted.
They will only be sorted if the same questions are asked again.
Have some senior premiership-winning players at Melbourne been indulged for too long, or did the football department led by Alan Richardson allow some to veer off track? Are the inconsistent standards, as identified in the review and as seen in the second and third quarters on Saturday night, being addressed?
That is a question the board must revisit because there are doubts on the evidence so far the internal review really answered that question.
Let’s hope Melbourne members don’t decide to assess their options in as ruthless and business-like fashion as some Demon players have in the recent past. Who could blame the fans for weighing up whether to be at the MCG next Saturday afternoon to watch Melbourne play Fremantle?
Goodwin is frustrated but the club still hopes they can turn it aroundCredit: Getty Images
The coach has been a good one at Melbourne and deserves respect. No one would be working harder to fix the scoring woes he knows not only the team needs but the game, as an entertainment product, demands.
Forget love. Start with selflessness on the field and see where it takes you.
West Coast’s woes
Liam Baker played in two 10-goal losses in his first 100 matches with Richmond.
He started his career only needing to play his role, while champions of the club separated the Tigers from their opposition.
Liam Baker understands the depths the Eagles have reachedCredit: Getty Images
In his first five games at West Coast, he has played in three losses above 60 points.
But the two-time premiership player has never been near a team that has lost contested ball by 60, as West Coast did on Saturday against Carlton. No player has ever played in a team which has recorded a total contested ball count of 77, a record low for that statistic.
“It’s pathetic, really,” a shattered Baker said post-game.
He is not wrong, but it’s less a statement on the current team as it is a reflection of the club’s decision since 2022 when they have won 10 of 73 matches.
Like Baker, club CEO Don Pyke also played in two flags in his first 103 matches with the once mighty, now unrecognisable Eagles. It would hurt him to see the colours at such a low ebb, as he prepares to stack up good decision after good decision in an attempt to win back the respect this once great football club has lost.
The Pyke position carries a high degree of difficulty as the thrashings are so embarrassing, it’s inevitable some will look for the exit door. New coach Andrew McQualter isn’t going to let that distract him. He has resolved to stick to long-term solutions.
He conceded that such a huge disparity in contested ball was unacceptable but will stick to his position of blooding young players and maintain selection integrity by sending players who don’t perform back to the WAFL.
He can be reassured the new chair Elizabeth Gaines knows the state of the list and the focus will be on recruiting the right players and getting games into them. That’s step one. West Coast must also pour coaching resources into development, as they have 22 players on their list who are under 22 years old. That is too many young, inexperienced players on one list to develop effectively unless that becomes the club’s focus.
Baker, along with Jake Waterman and Jack Graham are 27 and shape as the real leaders of this group. Oscar Allen might need a fresh start just to enjoy football again, if nothing else.
“It’s a tough transition period, but we just need to stick with what we are trying to do,” Baker said.
Harley Reid will be taught the right way, but he remains a developing player, albeit one who has already played in 11 60-plus point losses in his first 25 matches, more than any other No.1 pick since 2000 apart from expansion team No.1 selections Lachie Whitfield and David Swallow. That’s how low the once great Eagles have fallen.
The Cat and the bird
Geelong needs to help Bailey Smith make smart decisions off as well as on the field.
What was said to Patrick Dangerfield as he walked up the race was unacceptable and offensive, but Smith’s reaction wasn’t street smart.
The issue isn’t whether it was offensive or meeting any expectations he carries as a role model. Smith just had a ‘Barry’. That’s a Barry Crocker, not the beer, by the way.
Giving the bird to a person four metres away who is looking for a reaction from an AFL player is about as cool as playing your car stereo full blast when driving down Chapel Street. It only adds to the polluted atmosphere the idiot in the crowd created.
Bailey Smith played well against Adelaide.Credit: AFL Photos
To be fair, Smith’s explanation to the media was authentic and likeable but also a little cringe. It was like watching a rerun of the ABC’s ’90s Saturday morning music show, Recovery.
The fact the AFL only fines him loose change with a $1000 penalty indicates everyone at headquarters is happy for such interaction to continue. They may say he was provoked. Players put up with all sorts of rubbish they should not have to, but that’s an unsavoury fact of life. There can be no tacit approval given to reacting.
Smith’s performing well and is clearly a character, but his reaction compared to Dangerfield, who is a great player who represents the club and the competition with class, was just silly. What did it prove? The Cats should use the incident as a teaching opportunity for Smith.
Because anyone with life experience (and Smith has plenty) will know a couple of birds in the wrong hands delivered at the wrong time to the wrong people could lead to something much worse and no one wants that.
Keep walking, report the behaviour, ban the fan.
Gather Round a huge winner in SA
Forty per cent of the 270,000 who attended Gather Round came from outside South Australia; 27 per cent, or 72,900 of tickets sold, were sold to Victorians. The concept is a winner, and potentially a winner wherever it is held.
No one should discount Hobart, Perth, Sydney or Gold Coast making a bid to do it bigger or better, or even differently. It’s difficult to imagine the round being anywhere but Adelaide, but variety is the spice of life.
