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The Reason Behind Demon’s Form Slump

Demonland
Demonland
in Melbourne Demons

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7 hours ago, Fanatique Demon said:

Fatigue from loading keeps coming up. If we were the only loading team, that would make sense. But surely other top teams are loading too. They must be handling it better than we are.

Do you mean like Brisbane?

The team who were top of the ladder, have now lost 3 of their last five, barely got past the giants (giving up nearly 100 points), were appalling in their low scoring, mistake ridden win over the saints (who lost two players before half time, and were down to one on the bench for the last quarter) and just got smashed by 10 plus goals?

Edited by binman

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    27 minutes ago, binman said:

    Do you mean like Brisbane?

    The team who were top of the ladder, have now lost 3 of their last five, were appalling in their low scoring, mistake ridden win over the saints who were down to one on the bench for the ladt quarter, and just got smashed but 10 us goals?

    @binmanDees were excellent tonight, but I also thought we were on the end of "reverse loading".  ie Brisbane might be going through their own high intensity training.  Brisbane barely got out of a walk after half time and were absolutely cooked - we should have won by 100+ points. 

    I wonder if we tapered off for the last week or so given we had lost 3 in a row, had lots of key injuries and external issues (ie May).  Goodwin and Yze definitely used the words "refresh" in the media this week.  The result suggests we did.  If we did taper off, what affect does that have on us down the track?

    The return game will be very interesting.

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    43 minutes ago, Engorged Onion said:

    Do you genuinely believe the last 3 weeks was down to attitude?

    Yes, serious about attitude. 

    If joking I would have started out by saying, two teams walked into a bar and one walked out early.

    To drop leads like we did in the last three games, meant to me they were drinking the bathwater during the game. 

    This win against Brisbane showed we can and have to, fight for the whole, game. Great leadership, endeavour and will by our no nonsense captain, Viney.

    Not much back slapping and antics till very late into the last quarter.

    There seemed a change in attitude to me. They stayed switched on, remained serious and gave very little to the opposition. 

    Hard weeks on the track can also be about working on skill and strategy deficiencies, not necessarily physical efforts.

    From the warm up in tonight's game, I noticed an effort in getting tackles made. Maybe "hard weeks" on the track meant, "mouth guards in".

    Edited by kev martin

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    7 hours ago, Fanatique Demon said:

    Fatigue from loading keeps coming up. If we were the only loading team, that would make sense. But surely other top teams are loading too. They must be handling it better than we are.

    don't forget we started the pre season 6 weeks later than most clubs

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    26 minutes ago, BillyBeane said:

    The return game will be very interesting.

    The final series will be more interesting & informative.

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    1 hour ago, Engorged Onion said:

    Are the last three posts on this thread serious? Hunt and ruthlessness? Do you genuinely believe the last 3 weeks was down to attitude? Or that it's too early to load? (multiple cycles in a 6-7 month program)

    Goodwin just spoke about 3-4 hard weeks on the track... That's some fairly useful information to make sense of what has been influencing performance.

    Freo: good first half, our talls got smashed, mids and half backs tired. Hardly a surprise to lose after playing the 2 cellar dwellers back to back.

    Syd: key defenders got bathed, midfield looked tied. Almost did enough to pinch it too.

    Coll: more tall injuries and same ineffective attacking game with the talls. 

    Tonight: physical freshen up, chance to train in some adjustments, huge mental and game plan shift with less reliance on Gawn and more desire to take the game on. Pressure right up and dare/dash back in the game style.

    Physical and mental freshen up would be the biggest factors.

    But the game plan switch and the mindset that was part of it surely played a role. We played like hunters rather than the hunted. 

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    3 hours ago, binman said:

    Do you mean like Brisbane?

    Um, do you think they are the only other top team? I said, top teams. Freo seems to have been doing ok. And as I recall, we are the only one to have lost three in a row. 
     

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    3 hours ago, kev martin said:

    You called it DD.

    Fought for the four quarters. 

    You highlighted one of the missing ingredients (excluding the consistent goers) IMV Kev 👍🏻

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    6 hours ago, kev martin said:

    Hard weeks on the track

    It's not even what he said.

    (I know you're only quoting EO).

    Agree that that reference could be about anything from skills to game plan to who know what. But heh ... yadda yadda loading.

    Edited by bing181

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    5 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

    Tonight: physical freshen up, chance to train in some adjustments, huge mental and game plan shift with less reliance on Gawn and more desire to take the game on. Pressure right up and dare/dash back in the game style.

    Also less reliance on tall KPF's and bombing it in. Maybe Tom Mac out is a blessing in disguise.

    For the rest, spot on. As Petracca said, "After the break we're a lot more energised ..."

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    4 hours ago, Fanatique Demon said:

    Um, do you think they are the only other top team? I said, top teams. Freo seems to have been doing ok

    Not to mention Cats and Pies, 4 wins in a row. Or come to it, Dogs, Suns and Richmond, won 4 of last 5.

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    17 minutes ago, bing181 said:

    It's not even what he said.

    (I know you're only quoting EO).

    Agree that that reference could be about anything from skills to game plan to who know what. But heh ... yadda yadda loading.

    Well, we clearly disagree on the factors driving the performance and that's ok. Nonetheless, it all bodes well for the rest of the year.

    Go Dees. 👌

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    The difference between Thursday night and the the previous three weeks was our sustained pressure for most of the game. This includes not getting complacent with a small lead and actually going on with it.

    This allowed us to get back to playing the footy that made us the best team.

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