The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Monday, 15th May @ 8:30pm. Join Binman and I as we analyse the Dees fourth win in a row for the season against the Hawks.

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Once again many thanks for your entertaining and informative podcast which I look forward to every week.

Our taller / tallish  KPP players continue to tantalize and confuse.  

Clearly May and Lever are our two  primary defenders, but who if any is the third? Petty probably is the best but he is needed up forward for now at least and provided a great contest in the first half today.   Disco? Tomlinson?  Adams presumably at least a year away but is he showing signs at Casey?  Do we need to pinch another developed tall defender in the trade period?

The recently liberated JVR is developing beautifully  but slowly as one would expect of anyone in his role, and it is a hell of a lot to ask him him to be the key, yet.  Petty showed great signs before injury today and looked like a breakout was coming. Sadly I doubt if we see either BB or TMcD near their best again, due to chronic injuries.  Jefferson, like Adams in defence, looks at least a year or two away.   Brundy and Max fill in well but is this sustainable as a preferred option?   How about Joel Smith if he can keep his body together?  And of course our 6 goal GF premiership forward, Frittata, plays as a sort of tall but has been down on touch in recent games. 
 

Interested in your thoughts on these key areas, both short term and medium term. 

Thanks for your efforts as usual guys.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about Clarry's game, and if you think there have been changes this year.

He is averaging 5.2 marks this year. The last few years he has been around the 3.5 mark.

This has seen him pick up a few more uncontested possessions. He has pushed his kick/handball ratio a bit higher as well.

Do we see this as a deliberate change in his game? Is it about trying to break the tag/attention he gets when at the coalface? Or just a result of sharing on-ball minutes with a few more players Rivers, Kozzy etc. (resulting in him being a bit more outside)?

Edited May 13, 20231 yr by deanox

Thanks for your continuing excellent work on the podcast Andy, George & binman. Essential listening for the dedicated Demons fan.

I'm interested in getting your views on how & where Salem is going to be slotted into the side after be completes his conditioning playing for Casey. Also, your thoughts on JJ's game as sub against Hawthorn and his position in the side for the remainder of the season. 

Similarly do you think there's a role for James Harmes going forwards and, if not, do you see merit in him being traded out a year ahead of free agency? Or should we keep him as depth?

The pressure rating plummeted in q2 after being huge in q1. Do you think we thought, let’s give as little as we have to now, slow everything down and keep as fresh as possible. Essentially read what they were giving and equal that?
 

I thought our attack on the ball carrier in q1 was huge and was something I’ve been wanting to see more of recently. The way we were peeling off to get to the next possession in the chain and kill it was as good as it’s been for a while. It faded as the game went on. Do you think we decided to try some other defensive tactics/structures or just got worse at it over the duration of the game? Or did hawthorn just make it harder for us to do that as effectively as the game went on?

the quality of possession seemed to decrease as the game went on. Do we put that down to the sun going down and dew setting in?

8 hours ago, D4Life said:

How many teams have 3 genuine forward talls?

Demons greatest defensive challenge last year was ball coming in fast and hitting the ground, so Demons have gone extra mid size in defence vs 3rd tall to help with the ball hitting the ground!

Look at other teams in the mix:

Pies - Mihocek & McStay

Cats - Hawkins & Cameron

Lions - Daniher & Hipwood

Doggy’s - Ugle & Naugthon maybe Lobb

Saints - King (TBC) & Membrey

Tigers - Lynch (TBC) & Riewoldt 

Carlton - Curnow & McKay 

Port - Dixon, Finlayson + ?????

Dogs and maybe Port can go three talls, but if you go big, if opposition knock it to the ground with great discipline they are off to the races. I feel this is how the Pies defend!

So May/Lever with Hibbo/Rivers taking the 3rd tall with Max/ Grundy also providing some cover!! Leaves Bowey, McVee, Brayshaw, Salem to cover small/mid size players!

Goodwin & FD have learned from last year and are modifying our team structure to suit what is required to be in the hunt in 2023!

While earlier in the year, I thought Petty would go back, but on reflection above with how few teams have three decent tall forwards and Petty on the way to a break out game yesterday, feel we might stick with a smaller defence. Your thoughts gentlemen re smaller defence and Petty staying as a forward?

For a few weeks now I’ve felt our handball decision making has been poor and passing/receiving skills sloppy and often fumbly. The Choco kicking clinic has for the most part worked wonders, do we need a Choco handballing clinic?

Edited May 14, 20231 yr by Nairobi_Demon

Anybody who was doubting Charlie Spargo's importance to the team and whether or not he is best 22 can just sit down and take a seat. 2 goals. Welcome back Charlie.

Can we take anything away from a game like this against an opposition like Hawthorn?

5 minutes ago, pewpewpew said:

Can we take anything away from a game like this against an opposition like Hawthorn?

Further to this; What can we take away from the first 9 games of the season considering who we've played and who we've lost to? The only Top 8 team we have beaten is the Western Bulldogs and that was in the first  game of the season when the Bulldogs didn't have their act together. We lost to Brisbane currently 3rd and Essendon currently 10th when the Bombers were up and about. We've also beaten 11th, 13th, 16th, 17th & 18th. Obviously the real test comes in the next 5 to 6 weeks when we play 4th, 12th, 9th, 1st and 7th.

23 minutes ago, Deeminion said:

Anybody who was doubting Charlie Spargo's importance to the team and whether or not he is best 22 can just sit down and take a seat. 2 goals. Welcome back Charlie.

I'll add that anybody who claimed that Michael Hibberd was finished can join the Charlie Spargo naysayers.

Congratulations to Steven May on playing his 200th AFL game. He was immense on the weekend with his strong marking and spoiling.

I really thought Trent Rivers had an exceptional game. Possibly one of the best he has played for the club. That long range goal was just superb. He should have license to have a ping whenever he is in that position.

Does this game tell us anything about our potential top four opponents: Collingwood, Brisbane, Geelong, Port and Adelaide. Apologies Essendon, who walloped us.

Props to Judd McVee. He's been flying under the radar the last few games after bolting out of the blocks. Thought he played an excellent match on Chad Wingard who was held to 8 possessions and is usually very dangerous. You wouldn't have known he was playing.

3 minutes ago, bush demon said:

Does this game tell us anything about our potential top four opponents: Collingwood, Brisbane, Geelong, Port and Adelaide. Apologies Essendon, who walloped us.

Can you elaborate on what you mean here? Do you mean to say what does our performance in the match against Hawthorn tell us about how we are likely to go against potential Top 4 teams? Or something else?

Just now, bush demon said:

Does this game tell us anything about our standing with  potential top four opponents: Collingwood, Brisbane, Geelong, Port and Adelaide. Apologies Essendon, who walloped us.

 

14 minutes ago, mandeelorian said:

I really thought Trent Rivers had an exceptional game. Possibly one of the best he has played for the club. That long range goal was just superb. He should have license to have a ping whenever he is in that position.

He seems to have a really good knack of knowing when to leave his man and present to make an option, that goal in the last was a great example of this. 

3 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Can you elaborate on what you mean here? Do you mean to say what does our performance in the match against Hawthorn tell us about how we are likely to go against potential Top 4 teams? Or something else?

Yes, thank you. .y impression of the game is that we played well but would have been punished bigtime in turnovers and better finishing by the higher placed teams. 

Fantastic podcast the last few weeks guys. Keep up the hard work. The effort is very much appreciated by this overseas fan.

After watching every single game on the Watch AFL app I was fortunate enough to travel back home last week and got to see the Dees in person for the first time in nearly 4 years.

A couple of things I noticed about our wingers. Hunter is very physical. A number of times when he was corralling a player who would then give off a handball he always made sure to give them a nice bump just to let them know he was there. I like this type of physicality. It's not thuggish and let's the opponent know psychologically that there are no cheap handballs. You have to earn it.

Because I was sitting behind the goals I noticed that Ed Langdon would often be the extra player dropping back into defence and because of his pace and endurance would often get back there before some of the defences joining our sweeper (usually May) to set up before everyone got back making sure he could cover any errant opposition forward that got loose.

I've seen both Hunter and Langdon get criticism this year for being off their games but I think we are playing our wingers differently this season now that we have two genuine wingman. Hunter playing offensively on his wing and Langers playing more defensively on his wing.

What are the panel's thoughts?

Are we sticking enough tackles outside our 50 at the moment? There were a few moments where the likes of Day, Nash or Newcombe started dashing through the middle/wing and our player would make contact but couldn't wrap them up,  They would slip out of the tackle and get away.

We currently rank 1st for tackles inside 50 but 12th for overall tackles. Interested to hear your thoughts. 

Assuming Petty plays, is there a role for him as a defensive forward on Aliir?

Looking forward to this pod, boys.

A cheeky question for binman. Given Harry Petty’s excellent showing before being subbed on Saturday, his continuing presence in the forward line, and Goody’s clear intentions from his post-match presser, is binman prepared to accept that Petts will be a forward going forward (David Neitz 2.0, as I’ve been predicting since 2019), and not be shuffled back to defence as an expression of our ‘best team’? 2021 is 2 years ago…..things evolve. 

A cheeky question for George if he’s on. Is George prepared to accept that Nibbler is in the first 10 picked weekly? And if he doesn’t accept it, will he ever? 😉

Excellent podding boys, and only getting better. 

RE @binman and Goodwin being a defensive coach and McRae being an attacking coach.

I'd argue Goodwin started off super aggressive and attacking, and he's evolved into a strongly defensive coach.

Collingwood remind me quite strongly of us in 2018, just fitter. I agree, their approach makes them very vulnerable. A bit all or nothing or perhaps, all duck, no dinner.

Edited May 15, 20231 yr by A F