Signs of improvement?

[Chelly 810]

The Demons haven't kicked a football in anger yet this season but after tonight's Tiger debacle there's a fair chance that we might find our way off the bottom of the ladder for the first time since 2007!

So we're already in with a big chance to show automatic improvement even at this early stage of the season.

[Harcourt 146]

The Demons haven't kicked a football in anger yet this season but after tonight's Tiger debacle there's a fair chance that we might find our way off the bottom of the ladder for the first time since 2007!

So we're already in with a big chance to show automatic improvement even at this early stage of the season.

Exactly what I was thinking as I left the ground tonight, let's not count our chickens yet though!?

[Jumping Jack Clennett 1,777]

Another (less optimistic )way of looking at it is that Richmond absolutely flogged us in our last AFL match, and look how hopeless they looked v. Carlscum. A Richmond supporter mocked me for barracking for Melbourne in the carpark after the round 22 game. I couldn't help feeling he had a point, as I sarcastically congratulated him for coming ninth again.

But then again.........we gave Hawthorn a fright in the NAB Cup, with their miraculous kicking being the only reason they won. And they looked brilliant against Geelong,who murdered Collinw#$%*d. So I'm hoping we've improved. On that form we should smash 'em by 100 pts!

Wouldn't it be great if a couple of the debutants turned out like Cyril Rioli! Ready made stars in their first season!

You never know!

[titan_uranus 24,963]

There's quite a bit of talk about the round 4 clash between Richmond and us. Everyone expects Richmond to be 0-3 with Geelong in Geelong and the Bulldogs in the next 2 weeks. The media is trying to spice up this round 4 clash as D-day for Wallace.

[Whispering_Jack 29,740]

There's quite a bit of talk about the round 4 clash between Richmond and us. Everyone expects Richmond to be 0-3 with Geelong in Geelong and the Bulldogs in the next 2 weeks. The media is trying to spice up this round 4 clash as D-day for Wallace.

Yes, we're off the bottom for the first time in 19 months. Not much of a big deal when you've been beaten comprehensively by a team that's being touted to finish outside the 8 this year.

I thought we were outcoached today, apart from the fact that we fell away in our skills and decision making as the game went on.

Our forward line is a shambles and doesn't get good service from midfield and our structures and positioning were poor.

I saw one ray of light out at Casey yesterday in the form of Addam Maric who is a player who knows where the goals are and is desperate to kick them. Unfortunately, we don't have any tall KPP's readily available who can kick bags of goals on any given week, let alone every week.

[Lil_red_fire_engine 11,090]

Our defensive structure was good although the quicker Buckley is out of there the better. Our midfield is pedestrian and does not suit the style of footy we appear to be attempting to play. The question is do you coach to what you have or instill where you want to go? I would still do the latter. It should not be a suprise that our forward line was poor. It has been raised all preseason and there is no answer until Jurrah and Watts and whoever else we draft are ready...

[DeeBest 13]

I think there is a significant point worth raising. In the past two years the club has drafted 6 "Top 21" draft picks (Morton, Maric, Grimes, Watts, Blease and Strauss). Only one of them played today. There's still a core group of our future not yet in the side.

The forward line is messy, the ball movement forward is often wide and slow. Nobody seems capable of cutting through the opposition with a quick switch of play (ala what Geelong did to Hawthorn a few times on Friday night), to get through the congestion we handball, and handball and handball. Eventually someone stuffs it up.

There was definate improvement from last year out there today, Collingwood next week will be a good test but then Port and Richmond will give us a good guide as to where things are at.

[tez 6]

Our defensive structure was good although the quicker Buckley is out of there the better. Our midfield is pedestrian and does not suit the style of footy we appear to be attempting to play. The question is do you coach to what you have or instill where you want to go? I would still do the latter. It should not be a suprise that our forward line was poor. It has been raised all preseason and there is no answer until Jurrah and Watts and whoever else we draft are ready...

pretty hard when everyone up forward is standing still or behind, when buckley backed his own judgement we scored a goal, hwere else would you like this guy to be played only other spots are wing as not tough enough for the middle or half forward would kill his running style

[Demon16 69]

It should not be a suprise that our forward line was poor. It has been raised all preseason and there is no answer until Jurrah and Watts and whoever else we draft are ready...

i understand where our forward line is at and the prospects coming through, but is there any danger we could try a radical idea like Brad Green as a leading forward in the meantime? in the rare times that Miller and co do get thier hands on the ball, the chance of a decent shot at goal is minimal.

[1858 285]

Yes, we're off the bottom for the first time in 19 months. Not much of a big deal when you've been beaten comprehensively by a team that's being touted to finish outside the 8 this year.

I thought we were outcoached today, apart from the fact that we fell away in our skills and decision making as the game went on.

Our forward line is a shambles and doesn't get good service from midfield and our structures and positioning were poor.

This is all pretty close to the mark. At times we looked pedestrian by virtue of poor reading of play and positioning and I noticed a fair few players today hang off their opponent too much. We allowed too many Roos players to get on their own (unecessarily) because our players preferred to stay loose once the ball was out of their zone and when it came back their opponent had the jump on them. We still have a lot of slow players off the mark which the Kangas showed up, they were quite quick off the mark and ran in organised/logical lines from stopages. I was dissapointed that we didn't opt to use the corridore too much today also. It may have saved us a few goals but that counts for nothing in the end. All good teams use the corridore effectively and we won't improve on using it if we avoid it so hopefully we work on quicker avenues to goal throughout this season. Our ball use was considerably slower than the Roos and on the odd occasion that a player made a decent lead down the ground, the ball carrier took too long to take his kick and as a result we had more contests in posesion than there should have been.

Jones was frustrating to watch despite being in the thick of it. Miller did not present himself as a useful option (despite our poor kicking) and seemed to have no purpose in his play. The defence struggled at times but you can tell they will improve. We got a fair bit of it in the middle but players just didn't know where to go and we rarely had options going forward especially in the last quarter.

[Demondan 0]

Some good and bad points for today, competitiveness (which we all know is Bailey's favourite word) was up and the boys had a real go. I was however disapointed with some of the skills and decision making throughout the day. We were ensured that those key areas would be improved, and perhaps they were, but alot of work still to be done, but I guess thats not news to anyone. Just want to see the improvement continue and something has to be done with the forward structure, or lack of, as it might have been.

[Cards13 9,117]

we fell away in our skills and decision making as the game went on.

Our forward line is a shambles and doesn't get good service from midfield and our structures and positioning were poor.

I saw one ray of light out at Casey yesterday in the form of Addam Maric

Skills for a team who has focussed on them over summer were worst in the comp again. Yet we have improved on last year.... Turn overs from both hand a foot were horrible still. Needs to improve yet more for us to win any games. Which I think we will during the season.

Our midfield is pedestrian

It should not be a suprise that our forward line was poor. It has been raised all preseason and there is no answer until Jurrah and Watts and whoever else we draft are ready...

So slow today... across the ground especially when we did not have the ball, Davey and the Jet (Jetta) were probably the only ones who showed pace as mentioned Wonna and Maric will lift that but we are still a draft off the pace I think. Not many others with pace we can bring in.

pretty hard when everyone up forward is standing still or behind,

How frustrating is this to see!!!! When we do bring the ball up field the lack of movement is the same as last year! Shocking. Just no one running to create space or running into space gets me grumpy every game. When we do that we look like a decent side. Needs to improve.

I noticed a fair few players today hang off their opponent too much.

We allowed too many Roos players to get on their own (unecessarily) because our players preferred to stay loose once the ball was out of their zone and when it came back their opponent had the jump on them. We still have a lot of slow players off the mark which the Kangas showed up, they were quite quick off the mark and ran in organised/logical lines from stopages.

We got a fair bit of it in the middle but players just didn't know where to go and we rarely had options going forward especially in the last quarter.

The hang off was also frustrating the lack of desire/smarts/fitness to cut off the open spaces ggrrr.

But overall we were more "competitive" but not for long enough, our skills will hopefully improve as the match fitness improves.

Go Dees onwords and upwards.

PS saw Watts in the suit having a feed talking to people and having a laugh can't wait to see him out there charging around.