Join @george_on_the_outer, @binman & I on the Demonland Podcast Monday night 25th July LIVE @ 8:30pm for breakdown of the Round 19 loss to the Western Bulldogs.

Listen & Chat LIVE: https://demonland.com/podcast

Call: 03 9016 3666

Skype: Demonland31

If there is anything in particular from the match that you wish us to discuss or you have a question or comment then let us know here.

Could you discuss Spargo if you get time please? Reading the changes thread I’ve seen a few mention he should be omitted this week for a couple of reasons, low possessions and not hitting the scoreboard. 
I don’t think he should be omitted, from where I sat on Saturday night I witnessed him working tirelessly up and down the flanks to become an option. He was ignored a few times and a couple of those times were inside 50. Plus his kicking is elite going inside 50, some players have stated half forward is an extremely hard position to play.

Hi Team, love the pod each week. I wasn't able to go to the game in person so would be great to get your analysis on where and how our system broke down to produce:

• 0 tackles inside 50 to 9 (partially our efficiency inside 50 but still stark number), 
• 18-32 stoppage differential,
• 47.5% efficiency i50 for Dogs, very unMelbourne like

Can you talk to Gawn's/Goodwin's postmatch comments mentioning the dogs winning the territory battle and played in their style post game...how did the Bulldogs force us into a shootout and is there anything structurally or in our system we can tweak outside of 'the curse' to help correct these breakdowns in the lead-up to finals. Goodwin seemed to know what the problem was but be good if you could do a reverse Goodwin and lay out what you think the structural issues were and possible fixes as you do so well each week.  

The other game's we have lost we have played our style for the first half and gotten run over, this seemed the first match of the season where it wasn't played in our style and our system was well off. 

I for one am pretty happy that despite being outplayed and the game played in the Dog's style, we still probably should have won the match. Speaks to us being well off our game but on pure talent still so strong we can match it with anyone even when we are off. 

It would be great if you could discuss how Melbourne should learn from the defeat earlier in the season to Freo and how we will turn things around. From memory, the Dockers kicked a lot of centre bounce goals which is something I feel we’ve been better at defending the last few weeks.

Edited July 25, 20223 yr by At the break of Gawn

Discussion point: our draw this year vs last year from this point of the season.

I'm not concerned about missing finals, more so this years draw doesn't lend itself to scenario where some players can gain some needed confidence and fitness against the lesser sides like we did last season.

Beating good sides can bring confidence, but last year after we lost to the dogs we got a soft kill against the suns and a road trip to the Eagles which should've been a soft kill but due to conditions it became a bit of slog.

This year, we are playing only top 8 or top 4 candidates and with the tightness of the competition all of them are going to be brutal games, which won't help the sore bodies we have.

 

Could you discuss how that was an amazing game from the Dogs.

Yes in terms of our season its a bad loss, but no way can the dogs play that week in week out.  8/10 they lose that game by 25+ points.

this is the blueprint to beating our defense, Freo did it and the Hawks did it against us too.  it shows how hard and how good you have to be.

We also played a very good game, and a couple of kicks (or holding the balls) fall our way and we are clear top with Geel,  our fwd line is a worry but it was last yr.  T-mac is back running today so i assume putting his hand up for selection at captains run.(amazing how 2 years ago this guy wasn't wanted at the club) 

and yes this loss puts us in a bad spot, but if we win 1 more by the end of the year we probably finish top 4 and if we win 2 we will finish top 4.

I'm forever optimistic but we also have to come to the realization  that winning back2back is very hard, but we have the guys that can do it!

Lok forward to listening.

Outside of the Brisbane game can the panel discuss a time this season where we have looked like the 2021 version. Have other teams figured out how to beat Melbourne and we have failed to counteract this?

 

I look forward to a great pod guys!

An observation of mine over the past 3 weeks has been small changes in our gameday tactics to combat known issues:

1. Efficiency when kicking inside forward 50
2. Scores generated from turnover / rebounds

Teams have kicked a lot of scores from turnover between rounds 11 and 16, while also limiting how much we scored from turnover. I imagine our inefficiency going forward was probably the cause of teams being able to score more from turnover (many kicks to spare defenders who could then launch the rebound quickly). At the same time though we were still beating teams (or breaking even) in clearances and contested possession. 

Since Round 17 against the Cats, it seems we have tried a more rebound / counter attacking style where we sit back from the contest (very) slightly to win the post clearance possession or intercept, and launch attacks from defence. Against the Cats we had a few opportunities to get through their press, only for a fumble, a bad bounce, or the ball sticking in the heavy track, derailing it. This was more evident and successful against Port (which probably suited the much wider ground in Alice). 

Against the Dogs we probably reverted more to our close contested style in the first half, and went back to the rebound style in the second half - which proved costly. But in both the Port and Dogs games, our forward 50 kicking improved a lot, and from one game to the next. We managed to kick 100 points from 50 forward entries which would be our highest ratio for the year I imagine. We even kicked into the centre part of our forward 50 or a lot more than we have all year (which when it didn't work also resulted in a few successful rebounds from the Dogs straight through the guts). 

In those three games we've been beaten at clearances and in contested possessions. I think that's by design - Goodwin is trying to tidy up weaknesses of our game, and thinking it's easier to do so if we relax in other areas - clearance work, and defensive forward movement.

I imagine the plan is to combine that 'refresher' on rebound strategy and kicking into forward 50, with our plan A - strong clearance and contested work, defence first forward movement. This will give us the two modes we saw in the finals last year. 

Have any of you noticed similar changes in tactics the last few weeks, and if so, do you think it's part of the tune up before the finals, or simply us not being up to the style that is popular this year?

4 hours ago, Demonland said:

If there is anything in particular from the match that you wish us to discuss or you have a question or comment then let us know here.

What was the reason for no tackles in forward 50 Bulldogs had 9 Lack of forward tackling leads to our defensive structure breaking down and scores against 100 points or more.

 

Looking forward to the poddy, as always!

if you can fit it in, I’d love to hear the views of the panel on whether the Jackson / Brayshaw contract issues are / are not impacting on team performance.  Thank you!

We'll be LIVE in 30 minutes

Listen & Chat LIVE: https://demonland.com/podcast

Call: 03 9016 3666

Skype: Demonland31

Thanks for all your questions tonight. We're going to change things up tonight to accommodate a lot of them so stay tuned.

Thank you to all of the poster who proposed questions, comments and analysis. I really enjoyed incorporating it into the format of the show and would love to continue to do this so please feel free to post comments, questions and analysis each week and we will give you a shoutout and answer any questions on the show.

Thank you to @Dee Zephyr @BigMacjnr @At the break of Gawn @MurDoc516 @Travy14 @Jibroni @Stu @Deeoldfart and Kieran who called in and John who left us a voice message.

This show is dedicated to you guys.

 

Another entertaining and informative podcast, guys. Learnings galore.

No offence to Andy and George but I’m not sure I’d listen each week if Binman wasn’t a regular. He is positivity personified; his confidence is irrepressible and totes infectious. I mean, I love you an’ all Andy but geez, Debbie Downer much?!?! 🙃🙂

Edited July 25, 20223 yr by WalkingCivilWar

Great podcast as always. I wish I had more of  @binman optimism as I am still concerned about our current form and health of some key personnel. Hopefully a better performance and victory Friday night will prove us doubters wrong.

Fantastic as always guys.  Thanks!

All eyes will be on @binman from now on 😀😃

43 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Another entertaining and informative podcast, guys. Learnings galore.

No offence to Andy and George but I’m not sure I’d listen each week if Binman wasn’t a regular. He is positivity personified; his confidence is irrepressible and totes infectious. I mean, I love you an’ all Andy but geez, Debbie Downer much?!?! 🙃🙂

Andy and Binman are the perfect Yin and Yang for me. Binman I could listen to forever and very few people I've heard have been able to explain complicated things so quickly. Except the loading theory though we'll need the Binman thesis for that.

Andy often reminds me of my instant reactions straight after the game and being the realist. I've often felt the way Andy does so I relate to him too. 

@layzie
Same here, Layz. Except I’m 99% Binman and 1% Andy. 😝

Edited July 25, 20223 yr by WalkingCivilWar

I wasn't always so negative this season.

Here is a visual representation of my bullishness about the Demons as the season has gone on.

21 minutes ago, Demonland said:

I wasn't always so negative this season.

Here is a visual representation of my bullishness about the Demons as the season has gone on.

I've backed that horse.

Looked a million dollars in the gates.

Looked a frozen chiko roll in the race

more definitely more andy than @binman, but listening to relentless anti-mfcss from the latter is somewhat...cathartic?

wish i had anything close to the confidence!

it's an absolute must listen when it goes live as a podcast - great work as always

Edited July 25, 20223 yr by whatwhat say what

This was me in the first 10 minutes when Andy's MFCSS was at 150%

2 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

This was me in the first 10 minutes when Andy's MFCSS was at 150%

I was actually dialed down. I had some more doomsday scenarios that I could have unleashed but reeled it in.

5 minutes ago, Demonland said:

I was actually dialed down. I had some more doomsday scenarios that I could have unleashed but reeled it in.

My eyebrow would have exploded!!!