The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Monday 26th March @ 8:30pm. Join George, Binman and I as we attempt to dissect the loss against Brisbane.

You questions and comments are a massive part of our show so please post anything you want to ask or say below and we'll give you a shout out on the show.

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Fingers crossed for Maxy. Whether it’s an ACL or a more minor, relative to an ACL, knee injury, Max will miss a considerable amount of footy this season. What is the best scenario to replace him?

How much are you taking out of the final 12 minutes of the match?

When analysing how our midfield got smashed, can you discuss the connection between Grundy and the midfielders?

I was fairly happy with Grundy's game last week and he seemed to be trying against the Lions.  But can't tell if I'm just being overly hopeful

Should we tank for Reid?

18 minutes ago, adonski said:

Should we tank for Reid?

I'd rather freo tank for Reid.

Five Key Questions 

1- The Gawn injury update? By Monday we hope to have some answers. (Can we thrive with Grundy as sole ruckman  )

2- Smashed in the clearances. Smashed!! How? Why?
Lost clearances 30-60. Centre clearances 10-20. Stoppages 20-40. You cannot win in those numbers. 

3- Harmesy. Career worst game. I don’t like to single individuals but wow he was bad. How? Why? Tackling was terrible. Disposal poor.  Fumbled all night. Didn’t tag so ineffective. Metres gained 40. Frees against 4.  He cannot stay in. 

4- Poor coaching or players ignoring strategy.  Why did we play the slow and stop and wide ball movement game. Who’s coaching this? Simply allowed Lions to block the passages to goal. When we moved the footy quickly and ran, we were dangerous (especially in the last 11 minutes). 

5- How good was Lachie Hunter? Very good. He was smart and creative. Looked to score and add extra defensive and attacking runs. Very good addition. Langdon looked out of sorts but Hunter proudly represented the Wingers club 

I’d love the thoughts of the panel on Ben Brown’s impressive first two games of the season. 

I’ve seen unselfish goal assists, buying into team defence by going deep into the Defensive 50, clever snaps around the body, nailing goals on the run as well as set shots from long range. 

Brown is also currently the joint leader of the Coleman Medal with Curnow and Cameron on 8 goals from two games. 

Personally I think 2023 could well be BBB’s best one yet in the red and blue.

Edited March 25, 20232 yr by OhMyDees

I'd like to get your thoughts on a couple of the results in some other games. Last week the Power thrashed the Lions who in turn thrashed us (excluding the last 12 minutes) and the Power too had their lights turned out by the Pies. Where does that place us in terms of the Magpies who are now rightly the Premiership favourites.

How does our thrashing of the Bulldogs look in light of an injury riddles Saints also thrashing the Bulldogs by 50 points?

Here are my questions for the Demonland podcasters.

 

Is it time to finally debut Jacob van Rooyen?

 

Who do we play on Tom Papley? Judd McVee? Unless we bring back Michael Hibberd? Who played an excellent game for the Casey Demons in the VFL.

 

After such a poor performance in the midfield do we bring in James Jordon or even Luke Dunstan?

 

Lastly, what do we need to do to actually beat the Swans?

I’d love to hear you address the obvious question re rucks. TMac and Grundy just don’t seem fit enough atm to play the role. Shache is concussed and won’t play this week but going forward even he isn’t a genuine 2nd. JVR shouldn’t be asked to step into that on debut . Seems like a lot of our game plan fr 23 was based on aerial supremacy and now suddenly it’s a glaring weakness. How do we approach the next 4-6 weeks? 

Not in any way making this an excuse for our loss, we got done like a dinner (and the final 12 minutes was simply one team switched on, the other off- exactly what happened in the WA lightening delayed game).

The ground was ‘cricket season hard’ and produced a different sort of bounce for the ball. It was particularly noticeable in tight contested play and Brisbane handled it well and we appeared very clumsy (even taking into account humidity and heat). I presume Brisbane train at a facility that has a less hard surface and a more typical bounce.

My question was going to be why couldn’t we adapt like Brisbane did but I think I’ve just answered my question.  We just had an off night on so many different levels. Fingers crossed it was just a one off. 

Edited March 26, 20232 yr by Wodjathefirst
Typo

If May doesn’t get up for Sundays game who takes Buddy?

How can a Melbourne side be smashed 20-10 in centre and 40-22 in stoppage clearances. Was it:

- The structural loss of Max

- The emotional loss of Max and the leadership he brings

- Something else

- Combination of all 

Edited March 26, 20232 yr by layzie

G’day Andy, George and Binman, enjoying the post game podcasts ruminations, analysis and forecasts again, please keep up the great work.

I have recently moved to northern NSW, on Friday afternoon I drove 150 kms to Brisbane and dealt with the difficult parking situation around the Gabba on game day. All very different to MCG in many respects. I’ve been spoiled for the last 60 years.

 

Arrived at the ground as mfc bus was dropping off the team, (we allowed plenty of time to deal with car parking issues) everyone looking very relaxed, I made the comment to another supporter, “they don’t look like men on a mission”

Observations: Qualified by “it is only round 2.”

• Game reminiscent of our lightning interrupted game in Perth against Eagles. Team leading at the interruption comes out to save the game on resumption, team trailing has nothing the lose, throws everything at it. Same result, leading team hangs on for the win, any other result would have been unjust. Last time we won this time we lost.
• Signs not good in the first quarter, we heard from track watchers in the preseason that the team was practising fast ball movement using the “receive possession, 3,2,1 countdown now dispose effectively to the team benefit”. That did not happen before the interruption, there was no urgency while in possession and there was a lack of pressure when we didn’t have the ball. Is this all above the shoulders stuff?
• Our method or lack of it, reminiscent of season 2019, poor disposal, bees to the honeypot for contested possession, no apparent system. Not enough pressure when we don’t have the ball. We are better than this.
• Lever was terrific down back and is a strong leadership presence in the backline. Other parts of the ground there appeared to be a complete lack of leadership in Max’s absence.
• Bontempelli is a star midfielder and very regularly his classy finishing inspires his team. Similarly Trac, Viney and Clarry are midfield stars, however so often their finishing deflates their team and their possessions become ineffective.
• A positive, Ben Brown and Sparrow had reasonably good games.
• TMac and Petty are a lot better than what we have seen this season, stick with them for a while yet. Stick with Chandler and McVee for another few weeks in this early part of the year, they both have talent.
• Gus has to work on adding value to his possessions.
• We do need to unearth powerful, strong pack-marking forwards who are technically proficient and reliable kicks for goal. And JT while you are out shopping, a Nick Daicos type and a Jack Crisp type would do nicely, or are these types already on the list?

Am I being too harsh this early into the season? I would like to hear your opinions on any/all of the observations.

I think this was a particularly tricky game with the slick, dewy conditions and hard surface heavily favouring Brisbane. The local knowledge can’t be underestimated.

Given this was somewhat of a grudge match after last years finals exit, plus the talk in the media about the tension between the teams, how did we miss the mark so much with our mindset?

We were flat and behind form the outset.

Petty and T-Mac have both been way off the pace for the first two rounds, I’m sure they are carrying niggles. Both have had rotten luck in the past couple of years. Petty seems like a real warrior but all these injuries are really limiting his output.

Who can we bring in to replace Petty and get him fresh again?

 

Edited March 26, 20232 yr by BW511

So Fagan wants to whine about being disadvantaged at losing a few minutes warm up.  I think they had an unfair advantage practicing on a centre square that was a cricket pitch - and behaved like an ice rink.  How many times did they just smash it out of there?

we lost so much territory it was like playing uphill, and the conditions looked sweaty slippery.  

What do you guys think contributed to the worst midfield performance (leaving off the Max Factor) in 3-5 years?

This was the most fumbly Melbourne performance I've seen for a while. Obviously in our efforts to clear out of the middle we weren't clean but it was more than that. It seemed like every time there was an opportunity to move the ball fast there was something that would slow us down whether it was a handball to someone's shoe laces, a guy fumbling an easy receive and being forced to mop up, or a fairly routine intercept mark being dropped and gifting the ball back. We always just seemed a step short.

The Lions on the other hand looked so slick with the ball in hand and did all the little things well. How does something like this happen? There has been some talk about the conditions being humid and slippery, would that really be the only reason considering this is a deck we looked silky smooth on only 6 months ago?

 

 

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We didn't adapt to the slippery slick ball and we were fumbling it all night. Conversely the Lions didn't seem to have the same problems with the conditions. Perhaps they are used to playing and training in these conditions.

My question is why don't we train to the conditions? I'm not suggesting water logging Goschs or Casey but surely knowing that we might be playing in humid conditions why not lather up the ball with soap or oil at training? Why not train more at night in the lead up to night games? Am I being silly?

Edited March 27, 20232 yr by pewpewpew

Gents

Can you comment on why we don't use a Rivers or Sparrow to kick for goal ?

We often find our smalls (ANB or Spargo) marking the ball just inside the 50 arc and we would be better at hand balling to Sparrow/Rivers to try to score. Those can kick long.

I have seen many opportunities wasted because unfortunately our smalls don't have the power to kick for goal from long distances.

Thanks.

 

 

 

I think most of the main questions around our performance have already been asked. I want to know the opinion or the team resilience aka mental toughness.

I think we can all agree that a portion of our (non) performance on Friday night was attributed to Gawn's injury (or was it?) but what does it say for us to just switch of like we did after he got injured? Not everything goes your way in a game and i thought we were made of some pretty tough stuff. Is this an isolated case or does it speak to some of our performances late last season -  when the tough got going we were not prepared to go in knee deep.

 

We will be LIVE in 1 hour @ 8:30pm

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

Call: 03 9016 3666

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Did the Bears STOP, or were we that good? 

and . . .

Do you have any comments on Trac's post match interview?

Edited March 27, 20232 yr by Queanbeyan Demon

Make sure to acknowledge Clarrie’s 150