There I've said it.

I am not jumping off the boys but facts are written all over walls based on performance.

Its the Cats and Pies to win.

 

 

I'm down on last night but this thread is dumb

12 minutes ago, Bates Mate said:

I'm down on last night but this thread is dumb

C''mon Master, you know it's true. Might seem like an overreaction but i am pretty confident that offense is the new black and teh Dees can't match the best.

We can kid ourselves about loading and bad luck all we want, the writing is on the wall. We have continually failed on teh big occasions.

What exactly will change in 6 weeks? Not much

Edited August 5, 20222 yr by COVID Dan

We’re premiers with champion players. We can still win but need to rediscover our manic intent. We’re just 5% off at the moment in all respects but for sure can turn it around 

2 minutes ago, BDA said:

We’re premiers with champion players. We can still win but need to rediscover our manic intent. We’re just 5% off at the moment in all respects but for sure can turn it around 

I hope we do.

Fact is though, that form says we don't.

Our record against top 8 sides is extremely poor. Writing is on the wall

Someone with a screen name "COVID Dan" creates a dopey thread. Fancy that.

Will be lucky to make top 4, so premiership is no chance, can only hope we do a Richmond in 18 when they couldn’t back it up and it spurs us on to win the next 2 after this year 

4 minutes ago, A F said:

Someone with a screen name "COVID Dan" creates a dopey thread. Fancy that.

Might be a dopey thread to you, but it will be a fact come 8 weeks time.

Then who will look dopey then? Tough guy calling out people for having an opinion?

11 minutes ago, COVID Dan said:

What exactly will change in 6 weeks? Not much

A lot can change in 6 weeks.

Will it?

Who knows...how about we check in around 6pm on GF night and see who won it.

Just now, rjay said:

A lot can change in 6 weeks.

Will it?

Who knows...how about we check in around 6pm on GF night and see who won it.

I agree. I am not saying we can't win.

Form says we won't. Also we probably won't have to wait that long. Happy for this to be dug up. But i am super confident I won't be the one eating humble pie.

Can’t win it this year. We aren’t well coached, and are too predictable. Teams have worked us out, and our conversion rate inside 50 continues to be poor. We never worked out our synergy between mid and forward, and it’s pretty much sunk our season. Apart from a purple patch last year, which we were fortunate to all witness. It’s much the same from Melbourne. Long way off the well coached sides IMO.

Edited August 5, 20222 yr by KingDingAling

4 minutes ago, COVID Dan said:

I am not saying we can't win.

You started a thread 33 minutes ago called ‘Demons won't win the flag in 2022.’

Whilst we’re a little way off it at the moment, I believe our ‘best’ is better than anyone else’s.

 

I haven’t given it away. If we took our opportunities, we would have probably put the game away by 3 quarter time. We just beat Fremantle away from home, and it was only a few weeks ago that Freo were touted as Premiership favourites. #flagmantle

Historically, it’s not as if the great Premiership dynasties have finished top of the ladder every year - that’s not what matters. They pace themselves. They do what they need to do to go top 4 and they don’t go too hard too early. I remember Alistair Clarkson rested half his team in one of the final rounds a few years ago.

We’ll probably finish top 4 and from there, we know we can beat anyone.

Pies are having a dream run. An 11-match streak with an average winning margin of 8 points? Are you serious?! Sooner or later their bubble will burst and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they went out in straight sets.

I admit there are worrying signs and the fact that we’re trialling Joel Smith forward would indicate the Club are aware Plan A, B, and C have failed and we now need a better goal-scoring option. 

Edited August 6, 20222 yr by wisedog

We lose a game we should have won to a team who are going to finish top 4 and you come out with this absolute [censored].

We are one of many teams who can win it. You have given up already? Jesus, I hate this [censored] place after a loss. 

Overreaction. We just played in the match of the season and fell short by a kick to a team in red hot form.

If we kicked straight it would have been game over at half-time and the footy world would be saying it's ours to lose.

We have another gear in us for finals, Pies are playing in overdrive and about to blow a gasket.

I still expect to be there on GF day.

If we can find a CHF or hopefully see TMac return soon there is still hope. Otherwise I just can't see it.

14 minutes ago, COVID Dan said:

Might be a dopey thread to you, but it will be a fact come 8 weeks time.

Then who will look dopey then? Tough guy calling out people for having an opinion?

My opinion was it was a dopey thread, because you've gone the early crow. Reactionary if you like. But are you saying you're the only one allowed an opinion?

18 minutes ago, A F said:

My opinion was it was a dopey thread, because you've gone the early crow. Reactionary if you like. But are you saying you're the only one allowed an opinion?

I guess you were trying to prove that you're more dopey. I apologise.

Just a tip there hot shot, there is a difference between discussion and being a jerk.

I'll let u work it out chief 

Edited August 5, 20222 yr by COVID Dan

23 minutes ago, A F said:

My opinion was it was a dopey thread, because you've gone the early crow. Reactionary if you like. But are you saying you're the only one allowed an opinion?

So your idea of sharing your opinion is being a [censored].

Good for you

Are there kiddie prizes or gold stars for opening threads?  That can surely be the only reason that this has been started now.

Agree this is quite the morbid post, but tend to agree, but here's a few reasons IMO.

1) Other sides have worked out that we like to go down left side and are ready for us. And because we rarely switch there's no chance to expose other players or other entries. To alter that line of attack in three weeks is not possible.

2) James Jordon worked as hard, if not harder than anyone on Friday and was in our best handful. But how many times did he do anything but normal link work. He hasn't got the speed to break lines. Ideally he should be in the middle playing as big-bodied mid. We have to find a right-side wingman who the players like going through - this ties in with our failure to switch right. Jackson isn't a long-term option as a wingman, but I'd be playing him there for the rest of the season to try and convince May and Salem and Hibberd to risk going long to him. He ain't going to be outmarked. Sadly it's too late in the season to try such a radical change.

3) We no longer take risks. When we go down the left side (as we do 95% of the time), rarely do the players risk sending a long bomb over to a player on the other side. Langdon took a clever mark and goaled in one of our few switches like this in the 2nd term. We are so ingrained in trying to beat sides down the wing, that we restrict our options and when we turn it over, sides like Collingwood take us on through the middle as our zone defence reorganises itself. We ultimately need another tall target to allow this to happen.

4) The tall target may well be JVR, but Goody doesn't like changing his setup (we are still the reigning premiers after all), but after another loss (our sixth in 10 weeks) he should consider it. But he won't now, it's too late in the season. Goody, this season, also has underrated (or forgotten) the excitement that comes with having a first or second gamer getting a chance. We all know they don't play the percentages or do the customary but that sometimes leads to a spark. But JVR won't play this year.

5) Clearly we aren't as fit this year as last year. Losing Burgess has been costly and I suspect the new fitness guy allowed a few of our senior players (now premiership players) to get away with not doing quite as much hard work. It's too late now to turn this around, but a stiff session that finishes with 8x200m reps this Tuesday or Wednesday will help. You don't need to sack the fitness manager, but hopefully he learns for next year that nice guys finish ... without a flag.

6) Speaking of nice guys, clearly Trac has won plaudits this year in this area. His profile has gone through the roof with ads, and post-match TV interviews and he's just so nice. Earlier in the year he even started picking up opponents off the ground after tackles.  Sorry Trac, you are a great bloke, but we want you to be a great, hard footballer. You can't have both. Nice guys finish ... without an All Australian. And he can't change his nice guy DNA around in three weeks.

7) When it comes to taking the game on we got a lesson from a 19 year old last night in Nick Daicos. He has the confidence to run and switch and he tackles. Unfortunately we haven't had that player down back, with the exception of Angus anywhere near that. I still think Rivers could become a great running defender but he just hasn't embraced that role like we needed yet. His effort when he failed to spoil McCreery on the wing was enough to tell me he need to go back to the school of hard knocks. He might yet become an absolute star, but it won't be this year.

8) Our search for a running defender isn't just a Trent Rivers issue. Jayden Hunt can also cop a bit of the blame, but you can tell he's playing really close to his opponent and he just hasn't quite been able to launch on the counter attack. But to be honest he's closer to reaching that role than Rivers at the moment. But Hunt will most likely be dropped this week. Finding a running defender won't be this year but at least Angus should be back in the sweeper role next week after being tagged out of it after half time against the Pies. And Bowser needs another go there as well.

9) ANB has been playing our high half-forward through the middle all year and he presents and keeps moving as well as any player in the game. It's an incredibly tough role, requires courage and awareness and is a bit like the job of a No.10 in soccer - it's that crucial. It's just that ANB hasn't been able to break free this year because sides are on to him  - I haven't got the stat but I reckon he'd be our most tackled player all year by far. There are only two players who could do this role this year instead of him - Petracca and Viney. Will Goody switch either out of their midfield positions to do so. Not likely this year.

10) I mentioned earlier we don't have the fitness but based on how we looked against the Pies we also don't have the athleticism - or at least the confidence and speed that taking the game on brings. The classic example is Olly who continually handballs when he is by far our best runner. He seemed to have gotten over that fear last year and for much of this year but I suspect he's gone back to looking at his SuperCoach points since he hurt his thumb and a safe handball is worth more than an errant kick that almost wins a game. He's the best player in the side with Trac and he just has to show the confidence (and arrogance).

11) Given that we lost so badly to the Pies run and also struggled in that department against Geelong a few weeks back, there's no doubt Joel Smith's athleticism is needed at the minute. If we don't go JVR, and I suspect we won't, he's the obvious swingman to provide a spark up forward and gives is the flexibility of having someone who can be sent back in case of injury. He's not the messiah, but he showed enough early in the season before his 15th injury, that he can cope with AFL level at last.

12) We all get that in general our central midfield is the best in the league, but at finals (and we are pretty much there now) you have to shut down players as well and Harmes has his flaws but at least he works his butt off and niggles. We need him to be assigned a player each week in the middle - Walsh followed by McCluggage etc. He will still need a break and that's where having a raging bull like Viney should come in as well with the pair waxing on the poor star who is chosen. But that won't happen this year. 

13) Finally Goody and the coaches are so caught up in their three-group (forwards, mids and defender) training method these days that the old ability to switch players mid-game on to dangerous players no longer exists. Changing players can mentally make it harder for opponents to keep their flow. It used to be a tactic that all the great coaches from Barassi through to Hafey employed. But it doesn't happen any more because coaches don't like taking risks. 

So just in case anybody doubts my message, here it is again. We are premiers and we are playing safe and our coaches and players aren't taking risks and that's understandable to a large degree because we are premiers. But ultimately that's why we won't be going back-to-back this year. Next year is another story.

Had we won last night, I wonder if there would have been a new thread about us being premiership favourites? One game at a time.

Edited August 6, 20222 yr by Wodjathefirst

Can we win the flag from outside the Top 4? At this rate we won't make it. But if we win a couple of finals we'll give nightmares to whoever is still in the running.