Jump to content

Featured Replies

10 minutes ago, Gouga said:

 

Isn't the more relevant issue whether he is out of lockdown in time for our main training session?

My query was on the poster's comment: It is a 2 week recovery at best.

Re his training, it depends on when he tested positive.  Given that Petty didn't train on Thursday morning, it would suggest he will be out of isolation on Thursday at the latest.  

When JV came out of covid isolation he did a special training run a few days before a game.  They may do that with Petty and he plays.

Edited by Lucifers Hero

 

Tomlinson was great, and much better replacing Petty than he was replacing May... but hard to see how he stays in to be honest, unless of course Lever plays. Toby Bedford is out.. although I'm sure Marvel will suit him better than most grounds, but is caught in that awful place of better than VFL.. not good enough for AFL. 

Clayton Obviously comes back in. As frustrating as he can be, the calls to drop Fritta are ridiculous. Tom Sparrow is the watch for me, I really like him, but he is often central to a broken chain of play. 

Also Christian Salem is a shadow of the player he was last year.. and obviously is coming from a long way back.. his strength is decision making and execution.. he is way of on both and looks slower that he usually does. 

This is a game that potentially could be lost at Selection.. Melky was pretty good and had a fair dinkum go.. but can he back up after an energy sapping Alice Springs and go again on a fast deck against a side will go quickly.

May - Naughton

Petty - Bruce

Lever  - JUH

Hibbo - Weightman

 

13 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

Agree on Bedford but he does have a great tank, his work rate looked good (from crappy tv angles) and Port’s dangerous back flankers never came in to the game. There’s not another alternative (Chandler, Dunstan, Laurie) that really demanded his spot. 

If you didn’t value Melksham’s game today despite all his usual Melkyness then you’re just being unfair to Melk and Goodwin. He was tasked with occupying Aliir and Clurey and he did what was required. Put in a solid stint defensively too. Not sure it was enough to keep the spot for next week but again, the alternatives aren’t inspiring. Melk did a successful job, a 51% pass maybe, but a pass none the less. No one can say Weid would’ve done the same. 

How can you question why I didn't value his game and then go on to say youre not sure if he did enough to retain his spot? 

I think it was a left field choice and unnecessary given we were smashed through the midfield and lost in most key stats and if it weren't for Pickett's individual brilliance we may well have lost. 

When you lose your best clearance player, you surely replace him with the next best at the level below. We didn't do that and we nearly lost. That's a mistake and we got away with one. 

We're not playing anywhere close to a top four side let alone the reigning champs and we've been down now for a good while. 

And when you have players like Fritsch who for three or four weeks in a row have burnt an open team mate, you know that your side isn't in sync.

I would drop fritsch just for those efforts and supporters here might laugh but if I keep hearing the club continue to preach that we stand for 'selflessness' and a 'team first approach' yet we allow a player to continue to be so unbelievably selfish, then we have a problem. And problems like that fester away of not dealt with. 

Max Gawn, Jackson, May, Salem and Fritsch need a rocket. 

Get moving dee's. 

Edited by JimmyGadson

 
4 minutes ago, JimmyGadson said:

When you lose your best clearance player, you surely replace him with the next best at the level below. We didn't do that and we nearly lost.

… except we won. 🙄 

12 hours ago, DubDee said:

I can only assume the coaches have been talking to him. And he is not listening. You can excuse 1 or 2 but that one today, there is no way he doesn’t see Spargo running into the goal square 

I agree, he played ok otherwise. But we need to stamp this out before finals. Maybe being dropped will get the message home?

Fritsch is not getting dropped.

Neither is Salem or any of our other first 22 players for those suggesting that.


6 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Fritsch is not getting dropped.

Neither is Salem or any of our other first 22 players for those suggesting that.

I said last week, I'd drop him for his burn in the cats game. 

But, you're right goody wouldn't. And won't. 

The media attention might do the trick in terms of sending a message.

22 minutes ago, JimmyGadson said:

How can you question why I didn't value his game and then go on to say youre not sure if he did enough to retain his spot? 

I think it was a left field choice and unnecessary given we were smashed through the midfield and lost in most key stats and if it weren't for Pickett's individual brilliance we may well have lost. 

When you lose your best clearance player, you surely replace him with the next best at the level below. We didn't do that and we nearly lost. That's a mistake and we got away with one. 

We're not playing anywhere close to a top four side let alone the reigning champs and we've been down now for a good while. 

And when you have players like Fritsch who for three or four weeks in a row have burnt an open team mate, you know that your side isn't in sync.

I would drop fritsch just for those efforts and supporters here might laugh but if I keep hearing the club continue to preach that we stand for 'selflessness' and a 'team first approach' yet we allow a player to continue to be so unbelievably selfish, then we have a problem. And problems like that fester away of not dealt with. 

Max Gawn, Jackson, May, Salem and Fritsch need a rocket. 

Get moving dee's. 

Sometimes it’s more fun reading the losing oppositions forums where they at least pay our team some respect ..,

Agree DG Fritters skill is that he can kick goals from any angle and usually does and apart from one stuff up we thought that he played his role well despite some heavy contact from the Port boys before and after disposal. Being at the game there were numerous times when the ball bounced really strangely bouncing sideways over their heads totally different to what the players were expecting which cost us a couple of goals.

 
27 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

… except we won. 🙄 

Yeh.

Game of margins, I'm sure you want the side to finish top four and on current form we won't.

So I'm sure you can appreciate the concern.

We're patchy as all buggery right now.

3 minutes ago, JimmyGadson said:

Yeh.

Game of margins, I'm sure you want the side to finish top four and on current form we won't.

So I'm sure you can appreciate the concern.

We're patchy as all buggery right now.

Loading...


Luke Jackson and Gawn are offering little up forward, to me we need that second tall forward for the resting ruck to take the third tall defender.

Out Melksham

In one off Weid/m brown/jvr

Then it comes down to player fitness Oliver and Petty straight in if fit with Bedford and Tomlinson the likely outs.

Or try Tomlinson as a forward we picked him up for his running capacity play him in thar TMac running tall forward roll, keeping B Brown closer to goal.

1 hour ago, Demon3 said:

Tomlinson was great, and much better replacing Petty than he was replacing May... but hard to see how he stays in to be honest, unless of course Lever plays. Toby Bedford is out.. although I'm sure Marvel will suit him better than most grounds, but is caught in that awful place of better than VFL.. not good enough for AFL. 

Clayton Obviously comes back in. As frustrating as he can be, the calls to drop Fritta are ridiculous. Tom Sparrow is the watch for me, I really like him, but he is often central to a broken chain of play. 

Also Christian Salem is a shadow of the player he was last year.. and obviously is coming from a long way back.. his strength is decision making and execution.. he is way of on both and looks slower that he usually does. 

This is a game that potentially could be lost at Selection.. Melky was pretty good and had a fair dinkum go.. but can he back up after an energy sapping Alice Springs and go again on a fast deck against a side will go quickly.

May - Naughton

Petty - Bruce

Lever  - JUH

Hibbo - Weightman

 

So maybe give Salem a rest  

1 minute ago, Kent said:

So maybe give Salem a rest  

Salem has missed too much game time this year.

Needs as much time on the ground at top level as he can get.

52 minutes ago, JimmyGadson said:

How can you question why I didn't value his game and then go on to say youre not sure if he did enough to retain his spot? 

I think it was a left field choice and unnecessary given we were smashed through the midfield and lost in most key stats and if it weren't for Pickett's individual brilliance we may well have lost. 

When you lose your best clearance player, you surely replace him with the next best at the level below. We didn't do that and we nearly lost. That's a mistake and we got away with one. 

 

18 minutes ago, JimmyGadson said:

Yeh.

Game of margins, I'm sure you want the side to finish top four and on current form we won't.

So I'm sure you can appreciate the concern.

We're patchy as all buggery right now.

Your comment, “we nearly lost” was about the selection of Jake Melksham. You didn’t name him, but you were replying to another poster’s appraisal of him. 

Had we lost yesterday, as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, he would’ve copped a shellacking of biblical proportions on here. And just as sure is the fact that I would’ve avoided this thread like the plague. 

But we didn’t lose. 


So, what’s the next best thing to do? I know, let’s focus on how we nearly lost because he was selected. (Because that is essentially what you’ve done.)

I’m sorry but the way he is spoken about here makes me sick. I just don’t understand why he is so maligned by certain ppl here. And I’ll never understand it. Therefore, at the risk of irritating certain people, I’ll continue to point out each and every time he is unnecessarily bagged. 


23 minutes ago, drdrake said:

Luke Jackson and Gawn are offering little up forward, to me we need that second tall forward for the resting ruck to take the third tall defender.

Out Melksham

In one off Weid/m brown/jvr

Then it comes down to player fitness Oliver and Petty straight in if fit with Bedford and Tomlinson the likely outs.

Or try Tomlinson as a forward we picked him up for his running capacity play him in thar TMac running tall forward roll, keeping B Brown closer to goal.

Tomlinson's not a forward ... or a winger. His only position is as a backman (which he's OK at) or nothing. 

 

Can't see any other changes than the obvious, considering we won.

In: Oliver, Petty
Out: Melksham, Tomlinson

5 minutes ago, Kent said:

So maybe give Salem a rest  

I think you stick with him as he has runs on the board, but hope we see increased output.

20 minutes ago, drdrake said:

Luke Jackson and Gawn are offering little up forward, to me we need that second tall forward for the resting ruck to take the third tall defender.

In one off Weid/m brown/jvr.

Or try Tomlinson as a forward we picked him up for his running capacity play him in thar TMac running tall forward roll, keeping B Brown closer to goal.

If Gawn and Jackson can't get it done then you wouldn't think Weed could just step in all of a sudden and answer our prayers! He's had more that 50 games to do that and it's worked twice.

With Tomlinson he doesn't play tall because overhead is a major weakness. 

56 minutes ago, binman said:

I said last week, I'd drop him for his burn in the cats game. 

But, you're right goody wouldn't. And won't. 

The media attention might do the trick in terms of sending a message.

No chance we win yesterday without Fritta. He is our best forward. If he burns a teammate once in a blue moon then so be it. 


1 hour ago, JimmyGadson said:

How can you question why I didn't value his game and then go on to say youre not sure if he did enough to retain his spot? 

I think it was a left field choice and unnecessary given we were smashed through the midfield and lost in most key stats and if it weren't for Pickett's individual brilliance we may well have lost. 

When you lose your best clearance player, you surely replace him with the next best at the level below. We didn't do that and we nearly lost. That's a mistake and we got away with one.

Oliver back in and the temptation to pick JVR fresh off a bye against the Doggies are the 2 reasons I’m not sure Melk is safe. Otherwise I maintain he did his role and it was the right selection. 

We could’ve promoted Dunstan, but he can’t hit the side of the barn by foot and he’s seriously slow in transition. Harmes and Sparrow largely nullified Rozee and Boak’s running game. Boak got an early and a late goal but little in between. Rozee’s impact was far less than his stats, he had lots of nothing touches.

If you offered me the choice of:
A) Port winning around the ground stoppages and  hacking it to our backline 
B) Boak, Rozee, Amon, Butters getting time and space in transition
I’m taking A everyday of the week 

Individual brilliance went a long way to Pickett’s goals but he also got the ball with enough time and space to produce the brilliance. Whilst far from amazing the ball movement and forward line function after 1/4 time was solid. 

 

21 minutes ago, Winners at last said:

Tomlinson's not a forward ... or a winger. His only position is as a backman (which he's OK at) or nothing. 

 

Has Tommo ever been tried as a forward?  Some successful back men have naturally become forwards.  He is a fairly big body and his defensive mindset could paradoxically be useful in our forward line. Just speculating. 

10 minutes ago, monoccular said:

Has Tommo ever been tried as a forward?  Some successful back men have naturally become forwards.  He is a fairly big body and his defensive mindset could paradoxically be useful in our forward line. Just speculating. 

He played forward for GWS for mainly tepid results.

 
36 minutes ago, rjay said:

Salem has missed too much game time this year.

Needs as much time on the ground at top level as he can get.

Yes, he does. He is kicking like someone with a sore knee. I think he needs to stop getting hands out the back while he has no penetration in his kicking however.

Jarrod Waite started off as a full back for Carlton and ended up as a handy F.F for North. We know one of our defenders can play up forward. Tomlinson may be retained.  On the part where Tomlinson played forward for GWS with tepid results means "jack Sh.t". 


Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.

Featured Content

  • PREVIEW: Fremantle

    A month is a long time in AFL football. The proof of this is in the current state of the two teams contesting against each other early this Saturday afternoon at the MCG. It’s hard to fathom that when Melbourne and Fremantle kicked off the 2025 season, the former looked like being a major player in this year’s competition after it came close to beating one of the favourites in the GWS Giants while the latter was smashed by Geelong to the tune of 78 points and looked like rubbish. Fast forward to today and the Demons are low on confidence and appear panic stricken as their winless streak heads towards an even half dozen and pressure mounts on the coach and team leadership.  Meanwhile, the Dockers have recovered their composure and now sit in the top eight. They are definitely on the up and up and look most likely winners this weekend against a team which they have recently dominated and which struggles to find enough passages to the goals to trouble the scorers. And with that, Fremantle will head to the MCG, feeling very good about itself after demolishing Richmond in the Barossa Valley with Josh Treacy coming off a six goal haul and facing up to a Melbourne defence already without Jake Lever and a shaky Steven May needing to pass a fitness test just to make it onto the field of play. 

      • Thanks
      • Like
    • 0 replies
    Demonland
  • NON-MFC: Round 06

    The Easter Round kicks off in style with a Thursday night showdown between Brisbane and Collingwood, as both sides look to solidify their spots inside the Top 4 early in the season. Good Friday brings a double-header, with Carlton out to claim consecutive wins when they face the struggling Kangaroos, while later that night the Eagles host the Bombers in Perth, still chasing their first victory of the year. Saturday features another marquee clash as the resurgent Crows look to rebound from back-to-back losses against a formidable GWS outfit. That evening, all eyes will be on Marvel Stadium where Damien Hardwick returns to face his old side—the Tigers—coaching the Suns at a ground he's never hidden his disdain for. Sunday offers two crucial contests where the prize is keeping touch with the Top 8. First, Sydney and Port Adelaide go head-to-head, followed by a fierce battle between the Bulldogs and the Saints. Then, Easter Monday delivers the traditional clash between two bitter rivals, both desperate for a win to stay in touch with the top end of the ladder. Who are you tipping this week and what are the best results for the Demons?

      • Thanks
    • 27 replies
    Demonland
  • REPORT: Essendon

    What were they thinking? I mean by “they” the coaching panel and team selectors who chose the team to play against an opponent who, like Melbourne, had made a poor start to the season and who they appeared perfectly capable of beating in what was possibly the last chance to turn the season around.It’s no secret that the Demons’ forward line is totally dysfunctional, having opened the season barely able to average sixty points per game which means there has been no semblance of any system from the team going forward into attack. Nevertheless, on Saturday night at the Adelaide Oval in one of the Gather Round showcase games, Melbourne, with Max Gawn dominating the hit outs against a depleted Essendon ruck resulting from Nick Bryan’s early exit, finished just ahead in clearances won and found itself inside the 50 metre arc 51 times to 43. The end result was a final score that had the Bombers winning 15.6 (96) to 8.9 (57). On balance, one could expect this to result in a two or three goal win, but in this case, it translated into a six and a half goal defeat because they only managed to convert eight times or 11.68% of their entries. The Bombers more than doubled that. On Thursday night at the same ground, the losing team Adelaide managed to score 100 points from almost the same number of times inside 50.

      • Sad
      • Clap
      • Like
    • 0 replies
    Demonland
  • PODCAST: Essendon

    The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Monday, 14th April @ the all new time of 8:00pm. Join Binman, George & I as we dissect another Demons loss at Kardinia Park to the Cats in the Round 04. Your questions and comments are a huge part of our podcast so please post anything you want to ask or say below and we'll give you a shout out on the show. If you would like to leave us a voicemail please call 03 9016 3666 and don't worry no body answers so you don't have to talk to a human.

      • Thanks
    • 59 replies
    Demonland
  • PREGAME: Fremantle

    The Demons return home to the MCG in search of their first win for the 2025 Premiership season when they take on the Fremantle Dockers on Saturday afternoon. Who comes in and who goes out?

      • Thanks
      • Like
    • 334 replies
    Demonland
  • VOTES: Essendon

    Max Gawn leads the Demonland Player of the Year ahead of Clayton Oliver, Christian Petracca, Kade Chandler and Jake Bowey. Your votes please. 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 & 1.

      • Thanks
    • 24 replies
    Demonland