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What they are saying at Moore Park

Lucifers Hero
Lucifers Hero
in Melbourne Demons

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Beat us twice last year by being harder than us.

Would like to think we'd get some motivation out having them embarass us in a final on our home deck...but that seemed to mean nothing against Bris last week.

This is a huge test for the resolve and competitiveness of our group. We need to see that we can match it with tough teams. Get pushed around again by this type of side and the evidence will be mounting that our guys aren't hard enough to beat the big boys.

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    57 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

    Reid and Hickey out is great for us. Both of them killed us last time. I'm worried about their smalls more than anything. 

    Agreed, hence why I think Max out might be a blessing.  We can replace him with an extra small/mid sized player while our remaining talls take care of theirs which will be less of a threat with Reid and Hickey out.

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    6 hours ago, Lucifers Hero said:

    My Favourite:

    Nothing witty or insightful enough to capture my interest.

     

    My fave this week is your fave this week, Luci. 😁

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    I'm choosing to think that the absence of Gawn will mean the Swans will get beaten by what they don't know somehow. 

    Edited by layzie
    Unclear phrasing

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    2 hours ago, rufus said:

    Beat us twice last year by being harder than us.

    Would like to think we'd get some motivation out having them embarass us in a final on our home deck...but that seemed to mean nothing against Bris last week.

    This is a huge test for the resolve and competitiveness of our group. We need to see that we can match it with tough teams. Get pushed around again by this type of side and the evidence will be mounting that our guys aren't hard enough to beat the big boys.

    Seems a bit harsh but there is an element of truth. The Lions just wanted it so much more than our mob on the night. Max going down should not have made them play like that. I'm expecting a big response from us resulting in us with the 4 points on our home ground.

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    20 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

    Seems a bit harsh but there is an element of truth. The Lions just wanted it so much more than our mob on the night. Max going down should not have made them play like that. I'm expecting a big response from us resulting in us with the 4 points on our home ground.

    Nathan Buckley on SEN this morning spoke rather elegantly about the impact emotionally Max going down had on the team.

    He said "...the team lost its skipper and leader and both Max and the team felt it was an ACL at the time...."

    Buckley cut the team a lot of slack as a result. More than just losing a key ruckman, it was the emotional side of seeing Max clearly upset that he believed affected a alrge number of the team.

    All good now though he thought.

    Edited by Demon17
    font

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    5 hours ago, Sydee said:

    Oh please - two pre-season training runs you can't take much out of those.

    The real stuff is Rounds 1 & 2. Yes, we beat up on the WB's but something is NQR there atm and the less said about last week the better. I don't know what the excuses are that you have eluded for the Brisbane game but hope there is some reason for pretty poor effort. We were lucky the lights went out and we got to pick off some easy goals in the last 12 minutes to avoid percentage damage. The Lions had no real motivation to play out the game it was well and truly over by then.

    So disagree with the “no real motivation “

    comment. If the popular opinion is true & they are GF aspirants…% is a massive factor in any season. They dropped around 15% in that 11mins & with their % sitting around 79% they had everything to play for.  How interesting you dismiss our preseason form ..our WB win & also our last 11 mins of the Lions game . Let’s wait till we’re a few games in before such massive negativity…

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    My hope is that the Gawn injury is a blessing in disguise as it’ll sort of force our hand to play JVR who might just be the star we need to change our attack.

    It also gives the rest of our leaders a good opportunity to standup. I was very disappointed with how the group reacted when Gawn went down. Other than Lever, the rest of the leaders did not deliver. 
    Viney especially needs to have a good game this week after a poor showing last week. 
     

    I want to believe last week was a one off. If we beat the Swans we are 2-1 and head into a stretch of “softer” games in a great position even without Max. Lose and you’d want to make sure you win all of the next 6 games. 

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    1 hour ago, Jaded No More said:

    My hope is that the Gawn injury is a blessing in disguise as it’ll sort of force our hand to play JVR who might just be the star we need to change our attack.

    It also gives the rest of our leaders a good opportunity to standup. I was very disappointed with how the group reacted when Gawn went down. Other than Lever, the rest of the leaders did not deliver. 
    Viney especially needs to have a good game this week after a poor showing last week. 
     

    I want to believe last week was a one off. If we beat the Swans we are 2-1 and head into a stretch of “softer” games in a great position even without Max. Lose and you’d want to make sure you win all of the next 6 games. 

    Our attack has Bayley Fritsch, Kozzie Pickett, more CP5, a rejuvenated Ben Brown, an good role playing smalls. 

    JVR can play a role but it is more important how we move the ball, rather than who we move the ball to.

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    1 hour ago, Jaded No More said:

    My hope is that the Gawn injury is a blessing in disguise as it’ll sort of force our hand to play JVR who might just be the star we need to change our attack.

    It also gives the rest of our leaders a good opportunity to standup. I was very disappointed with how the group reacted when Gawn went down. Other than Lever, the rest of the leaders did not deliver. 
    Viney especially needs to have a good game this week after a poor showing last week. 
     

    I want to believe last week was a one off. If we beat the Swans we are 2-1 and head into a stretch of “softer” games in a great position even without Max. Lose and you’d want to make sure you win all of the next 6 games. 

    This rang true with me as well. Leaders have to do the hard stuff and was really surprised at Jacks handling - perhaps he felt terrible as the one who caused the injury. I can understand that but the other leaders were really really poor at getting the team to reset. It took up until lights out to make any real adjustment in endeavour. 
     

    It’s a rare thing to deal with - granted - and I hear that the footage of Gawn went up on the screen several times, which without context is probably telling everyone it’s an ACL. 

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    2 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

    My hope is that the Gawn injury is a blessing in disguise as it’ll sort of force our hand to play JVR who might just be the star we need to change our attack.

    It also gives the rest of our leaders a good opportunity to standup. I was very disappointed with how the group reacted when Gawn went down. Other than Lever, the rest of the leaders did not deliver. 
    Viney especially needs to have a good game this week after a poor showing last week. 
     

    I want to believe last week was a one off. If we beat the Swans we are 2-1 and head into a stretch of “softer” games in a great position even without Max. Lose and you’d want to make sure you win all of the next 6 games. 

    I’m also in the same boat about Gawn not playing. We’re now not as predictable.

    People forget we went 2-0 without Gawn last year. We beat the Lions by 10 goals at the G and beat Adelaide away. Viney was also inspirational in both those games.

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    I'm not sure a team that got pantsed as horribly as they did only 3 games ago (not to mention it being the Big Dance) should be as cocky as they are.

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    I'm thinking this may be a blessing in disguise after the way we played when Max went down. They still had the kick it long mentality but now from the first bounce they won't see big Max down the line so will hopefully start losing the eyes and using the angles to slowly work out up the ground when Sydney holds us up.

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    Everyone is so confident about JVR being our Messiah. But has he really dominated in the twos( the way, say, Hibbo has).?

    Has he ever kicked a bag for Casey? He’s only 193 cm, shorter and lighter than, for example, Tomlinson. I think it would be a huge error to expect him to do any rucking.

    I’m having trouble expecting a big showing in his first game. How I hope I’m eating my words on Sunday night!

     

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    21 hours ago, Nascent said:

    You usually have good mail so this is somewhat comforting (so long as it's not a lingering issue).

    I know there are a lot of (non-covid related) illness going around at the moment including respiratory and gastro.

    There was an observation in the gameday thread I recall that said Oliver had a spew before the game started. Could be something there.

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    40 minutes ago, Jumping Jack Clennett said:

    Everyone is so confident about JVR being our Messiah. But has he really dominated in the twos( the way, say, Hibbo has).?

    Has he ever kicked a bag for Casey? He’s only 193 cm, shorter and lighter than, for example, Tomlinson. I think it would be a huge error to expect him to do any rucking.

    I’m having trouble expecting a big showing in his first game. How I hope I’m eating my words on Sunday night!

     

    For me I don't need him to come in and kick 4, I just want him to be physical. Crash the pack, get it to ground and help bring the small forwards into it. Hopefully give his opponent a bit of a run around as well and clear some space for Brown to lead into. 

     

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    2 hours ago, Jumping Jack Clennett said:

    Everyone is so confident about JVR being our Messiah. But has he really dominated in the twos( the way, say, Hibbo has).?

    Has he ever kicked a bag for Casey? He’s only 193 cm, shorter and lighter than, for example, Tomlinson. I think it would be a huge error to expect him to do any rucking.

    I’m having trouble expecting a big showing in his first game. How I hope I’m eating my words on Sunday night!

     

    Fans aren't expecting JVR to be a messiah, but they are keen to see him as he's ready for AFL level. If he doesn't get game time this year, he'll likely head back to WA IMO.

    He has kicked bags of 6 goals, 5 goals, 4 goals at Casey. He kicked 37 goals in his first year in the VFL, which put him 7th in the entire league, and with more goals than many other AFL listed players, including our own Josh Schache.

    He's 195cms and 96kgs. He's now bigger than Tomlinson, May, Lever. He's the same height as TMac, and same weight as Petty. He's built his body up and is AFL ready. 

    You're right we shouldn't be expecting him to dominate or play much ruck in his early AFL games. His VFL form has been strong though, and he is ready for his chance at AFL. He's overdue really. On form and potential, he should be in the team instead of TMac as a KPF, but the selection committee is poor and often plays favourites and doesn't reward form.

     

    Back to this game though, I can't see JVR getting a debut unfortunately if TMac is still not listed as injured, despite moving like the titanic and having zero impact. The Swans midfield is probably the best two way midfield in the game and has good versatility with players like Mills, Parker, Heeney all capable of playing vastly different roles when required. I'm expecting Warner to have a 25 disposal 3 goal 3 Brownlow votes type game. He's been in outstanding the past 12 months and is probably still underrated by the general football public. Goal kicking mids are gold. We struggle to contain those quick players and need Hibberd back to sit on Papley too.

    Tipping Swans by 21 points.

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    1 hour ago, layzie said:

    For me I don't need him to come in and kick 4, I just want him to be physical. Crash the pack, get it to ground and help bring the small forwards into it. Hopefully give his opponent a bit of a run around as well and clear some space for Brown to lead into. 

     

    This is especially important against the Swans because Paddy McCartin is a great interceptor. JVR might not mark everything but he generally doesn't lose a marking contest. He often looks like he's out of the contest but somehow manages to force his way to spoiling or knocking his opponent off balance enough to effect a spillage.

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    On 3/28/2023 at 10:06 AM, Lucifers Hero said:

    As odd as this may sound, Max being out could be a blessing.

    They have one player over 200m (Ladhams) available who has played any AFL games and then only 45.  A key tall fwd, Reid is also out.  Hickey is out.

    With Hickey and Reid out they have no player 195+ cm who has played more than 80 games.  So by necessity they will go in relatively 'short'. 

    Without Max we still have an abundance of tall players.  Surely their lack of experienced talls is something we can exploit around the ground.  Grundy will take care of Ladhams in the ruck.

    Feeling a bit more optimistic🙃

    That Reid grows another leg against us, does f all against other teams.

    We play well with Gawn out teams can't shark against us as much.

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    On 3/28/2023 at 10:36 AM, Lucifers Hero said:

     

    They have one player over 200m (Ladhams) available who has played any AFL games and then only 45.  A key tall fwd, Reid is also out.  Hickey is out.

    With Hickey and Reid out they have no player 195+ cm who has played more than 80 games.  So by necessity they will go in relatively 'short'. 

     

    Buddy says hi.

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