9 hours ago, deva5610 said:

Don't let the last 7 minutes excuse the heartless performance leading up to it.

Not happy at all.

Your original post perhaps highlights you, didn't have the heart to stand by it.

It was just one of those nights, the thing i liked the most was Goody keeping the boys out in the field after the siren and having a talk to them in a real tight circle.
 

There was no backslapping, I took it as what we do from here will define us as a club. Can’t wait for next Sunday. 

9 hours ago, Deestar9 said:

Grundy was great …ranked 5th highest player on the ground & nearly every tap in the last 12 mins went to our players. He’s missed nearly a year of football ..is playing with a new team & a new game plan & you expect perfection. He wasn’t the problem. Losing Max is literally losing 5 players .. next week we know he won’t play & Will structure accordingly. Put Gawn & then no May..Kozzie..Salem an underdone & probably very upset Viney ..it was a hard ask. They fought it out & if you’re a premiership aspirant like the Lions ..,you don’t take your foot of the pedal at any stage 

Where did 8 say anything about expecting perfection or even that I thought Grundy was poor?

I’m just concerned he doesn’t have the aerobic fitness to cover as much ground as he’ll have to without Gawn. 

9 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

You’re good and quick with the stats mate.

Can you tell me the last time we kicked 4 or less behinds in a game of footy.?

Our goal kicking was on point tonight, if nothing else.

Round 14 2020 vs St Kilda, we kicked 8.4. 

But that was a COVID short game. 

Last full length game was Round 3 2019, we kicked 18.4 v Essendon. 

Bulldoze the Gabba and build a new one for the Oympics.

7th highest clearance differential ever (well while stats are available), usually in our favour. 

Take a 2 goal loss and move on. 

Perhaps it's already been said (I don't have the stomach to read the entire thread), but have we just seen an argument against a night grand final?

9 hours ago, deegirl said:

Just got into bed to discover the cat had spewed all over it. I think he’d seen the clearance differential. 

I was going to write up my thoughts for the game, but i can’t do better than Deegirls one line summary. 

2 hours ago, BDA said:

Good teams have bad nights. It happens. Our top liners will not be as bad again. no need to over analyse or over think it.

Shake ourselves down, get back on the horse, prepare well this week and perform as we know we can against Sydney. If we deliver another insipid performance next week, then start pulling things apart.

Edit: And no changes this week other than for injuries (and May if fit). The same team needs to be given the opportunity to atone.

I agree, one bad game, especially at the start of the season should not induce panic. I’m just disappointed that we had a golden opportunity with most of our squad in to deliver some payback to the very team who booted us from the finals. I was expecting fire in the belly and making them accountable, but we just looked sloppy and disorganised with little leadership other than maybe Lever. We’ve now given those guys 2 wins. Sydney is going to be an even tougher prospect. Will we bring that fire in the belly, irrespective of what the news is with Max? (Because one guy no matter how important does not and should not make or break the team)?? I hope so otherwise Sydney are going to pants us, again. I’m hopeful though, we certainly have the talent to match them even without Max, and Kozzie. Would be good to get May back though if fit. And hopefully Petty is ok. 

Edited March 24, 20232 yr by Red But Mostly Blue

1 hour ago, joeboy said:

Realistically once Gawn went down the entire preseason structures and game plans went out the window.

The psychological impact on ALL players was understandable and realistically a major impact that NO team could overcome.

I agree.  After hearing Nathan buckley’s comments about the exceptional talent and leadership of Gawn, it’s no wonder the team struggled.

good luck maxie 

The result of the game is of no consequence to our season, the result of Max's scan is of every consequence to our season. Fingers crossed Demonlanders, I'm an optimist by heart but I'm worried he's gone for the season.

8 hours ago, dee-tox said:

Wowey has a finger injury and out for a month.

Bugger ...thanks for the update

39 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

It was just one of those nights, the thing i liked the most was Goody keeping the boys out in the field after the siren and having a talk to them in a real tight circle.
 

There was no backslapping, I took it as what we do from here will define us as a club. Can’t wait for next Sunday. 

Yeah this resonated with me, too. This stuff can unite. We have the talent, we just need the belief that these moments however bad do not define our year. I’m also looking forward to Sunday. A little worried as Sydney is a bogey team for us, especially in Melbourne haha, but it would be a seriously firm statement. 

Had our deficiencies exposed for the comp to see.
Have the balls to run at us and we look powerless.
Collingwood with their relentless run and ball use will eat us.
 

Edited March 24, 20232 yr by Fork 'em

A lazy, safe performance last night. No risk, no reward off half back. Brisbane let our mids touch the ball and fed off our fumbles.. they were clinical, we were not sharp enough. 
Hope for the best on the injury front and move on.

10 hours ago, deegirl said:

Just got into bed to discover the cat had spewed all over it. I think he’d seen the clearance differential. 

Possibly the the best summary of a performance i've seen on DL

10 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

Whilst Melksham was awful and TMac not much better, this game wasn't lost by the forward line.

We gave them no chance with our abysmal clearance work.

Any dominance we have over other sides in the competition doesn't exist if we don't at least break even in the middle. Being thrashed as we were at every single stoppage in the first half is far more significant than our forward line.

Couldn't agree more but the form of T-Mac is a little concerning.  He's been trailing his opponent to the drop of most contests, even those higher up the ground, the last two matches.

JVR should come in for Melk after that performance.  He barely touched the pill or an opponent with 70% game time.

Edited March 24, 20232 yr by Demon Dynasty

Not sure how to review a game like that. So many below par performances. Gawn's injury. Lights going out. etc.... But I think a few things need special mention, and although only 2 rounds in, some specific things emerging.

Grundy is not a good mark. I rate him as a player, but not as highly as others have. But wow his lack of contested marking influence is a huge surprise. His ruck work is good, his ground ball work is good, but his lack of presence in the air is a liability.

Harmes is in very poor form, to the point that some of his efforts are helping the opposition.

TMac is in very poor form. Almost nothing is working. 

The tiny short handballs between Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw, Sparrow etc... have been figured out by opposition. Brisbane were right onto this last night and we turned a heap of these over leading to them winning the stoppage.

Contested marking inside F50. Simply put, we are bad - really bad. 

i was not happy when i realised we had tickets to the kids school moonlight cinema last night but sounds like Bad Guys was a better watch than the game!?

In hindsight I should have known this would have been a tough game.

Viney and Fritta playing their first games after injury meant they would struggle. No May and no kossie.

It's a tough parochial crowd that sway umpires.

Max going down was a huge loss.

But all that aside our basic skills were shocking and I've never seen our mids smashed like they were.

It happens. Great see Trac owning it in  after the game interview.  Petty too was uncharacteristically terrible. Harmes and Tmac and Melksham  had shockers to boot. Grundy had zero marks. Not good for a ruckman.

Kudos to Bbb  and Lever.

I'm sure we will regroup. I just hope Max is OK.

I liken it to Virgil Van Dijk's ACL at the start of the 20-21 season. 

6 minutes ago, Maldonboy38 said:

Grundy is not a good mark. I rate him as a player

Yes this. His ball use has been good but zero marks last night and only One against the dogs is a big issue for a ruckman.

48 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

It was just one of those nights, the thing i liked the most was Goody keeping the boys out in the field after the siren and having a talk to them in a real tight circle.
 

There was no backslapping, I took it as what we do from here will define us as a club. Can’t wait for next Sunday. 

I think he was telling them to take no notice of the comments he made about the bump the week before.

..."Boys i want you to bump, block, scrap and fight for every possession like your life depended on it.   Pretend i never said that as it's complete carp...now get out there next week and play like Demons!"

🙄

Hard to get a grip on this one...Not much went right!

Reading through the pregame stuff here on Demonland gave me some concerns.   Overly confident, we are going to smash them because X,Y,Z and Brisbane are bad.  I just pictured our team lapping it all up on the plane ride there and getting a false sense of where we are actually at.  i don't think one person predicted Brisbane would win this one.

Goodwin has really not learnt from last years mistakes.   Rushing back stars who have not trained properly/full intensity for nearly a month is not good practice.  It will continue to backfire....pick FIT players.

Watched Harmes pretty closely last night and there were stages where he was just running around, just trying to touch the ball, no keeping structure, no hand on opponents, so little impact at any stage. He needs to be dropped off back of that. JJ/JVR/Scache, honestly anyone replaces him, he would not be missed on back of performance like that.

Melksham i said at end of last year that we are going nowhere while he is in the team.  Put in a talented kid like JVR instead, give him a chance.  Could not be worse.

Both Viney and Fritsch looked like they could have played for Casey this week....they needed the hitout.  Stop rushing in stars that are NQR! Seeing last month or so of training reports most of could see neither were prepared for this.

We missed so many opportunities to move the ball better...instead we chose to burn the easy 15-25m targets that were in the clear, to kick it straight to the extra defender.  It must have happened 20-30 times i saw, direct turnovers for no reason other than bad choices by so many players....Is this part of our gameplan?

We have a few good decision makers, but yikes we have a lot of guys that seem to opt for the worst choices possible, just need to be better. Use your eyes and skills, you train all week to be better not just dump kicks to outnumbers.

Devastating to lose Max.

We have options in Schache/JVR as possible replacements for him.  Have to include at least one of them next week.....Tmac will burnout fast if he has to play this role for long.

1 hour ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Not entirely sure that's correct.

He went and met with Scott and Mahoney and when Melbourne got wind of it then we put a complete stop to any potential trade.

I believe Harmes was more then open for a trade more so to get midfield minutes. Hence why met them for an interview. 

He's had 2 games in a row playing significant midfield time and he's been poor on both occasions. This form has carried on from last year when he was dropped and made sub towards back end of the year.

If the likes of Jordon and Dunstan have standout games in the VFL today then his position in the team has to come under scrutiny. 

What I pieced together was that we put a timer on it as it was late in the piece and then we nixed it when it didn’t come together quick enough. 

It’s all about effort and mindset in any endeavour. Those that predict comfortable wins every week should keep that caveat in mind.

And don’t give me the Gawn excuse. I am sorry, it didn’t make Clarry blast away or Langdon miss handballs or or or… 

They need to mentally show up - that’s a prerequisite to competitiveness - and they didn’t.

Deal with it.

So we subbed Max out and got Melk

Melk virtually unsighted so that's two players down on the night from the get go.

Add to that the mares of Petty, Harmes, Gus, Viney & T-Mac.

Add to that the mares of Clarry and Tracc in the first half.

No Kozzy

So basically the team was running on a total of about 9 players for a fair chunk of the night.  No wonder we were pantsed for 3.5 quarters

Edited March 24, 20232 yr by Demon Dynasty