The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Monday, 14th August @ 8:30pm. Join Binman, George & I as we analyse the Demons loss at the MCG against the Blues.

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A frustrating game Andy, a couple of observations

- The Gawn/Grundy combination really struggled tonight. Would appreciate the panels observations on this.

- Jordan was disappointing again. Could Rivers replace him in the midfield? 

 

Edited August 12, 20231 yr by Jibroni

10 minute rant about the umpires and ARC please

2 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

10 minute rant about the umpires and ARC please

Yes please, and then collectively draft the “please explain” letter to the umpiring department. 

Thanks again for all your hard work, and patience with some of us posters.

What do you all think about the Gawn Brundy "experiment"?  Can it be made to work?  Brundy seems to offer very little other than as a tap ruckman.  Certainly NOT a forward and can we afford to just rotate him off the bench?   I guess when playing a team with 2 decent rucks, maybe, but not so sure otherwise.

You will have had an opportunity to see TMc by the time of the podcast - interested in your thoughts of his degree of readiness?   If he can get fit enough to run and mark / bustle he could be the key to replacing Petty.   I have no idea who else (NOT Brundy).  

The recent inconsistency of Melk, Salem, Bowire - is this fatigue / loading related?  Usually reliable but disappointed today.

 

 

Would be interested to know if Binman still thinks we are favourites for the flag. I thought we were beaten by a team that was a lot hungrier than we were tonight with 3/4s of their starting midfield out.

Loving the podcast guys. My Tuesday morning commute is made much easier each week so kudos to you.

Thoughts on Clarrie's return game tonight? I thought he was a little rusty early as was to be expected and the slippery conditions didn't help but he ramped up later in the match.

what is it with the Dees and wet weather footy ? Lost 5 out of 5 this season on a wet slippery deck . 

There are times when we can't play open and need to dump kick into 50. Will Petty's ability to contest missing from the side hurt us in the long run?

Edited August 12, 20231 yr by layzie
*open*

1 minute ago, layzie said:

There are times when we can't play ope and need to dump kick into 50. Will Petty's ability to contest missing from the side hurt us in the long run?

Ope?

2 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Ope?

Open, sorry. Can't play open and fast all the time especially in weather like this. We need to know that we have the ability to bang it in and lock it when we need to. 

This one felt a bit like the final against the Swans. Bomb in, hit ground, opposition take away.

Crucial non-calls that cost us dearly at the death aside from the Trac non-goal… 

- Oliver held at stoppage in the square. 

- Langdon held on half toward flank.

- JVR tunnelled on the half forward flank. 

Umpiring doesn’t alone cost you a game but I was frustrated with the way the umpires refused to make calls late in the game other than deliberate out of bounds…

Didn’t help either that I had a truly obnoxious Carlton fan next to me who ‘accidentally’ punched me in my leg while celebrating. 

Thanks again Andy, George and Binman for what I’m sure will be yet another amazing pod. 

Here are my 5 questions for the podcast this week after the frustrating and disappointing close loss to Carlton.

1) In my opinion, the Brodie Grundy as a forward experiment doesn't seem to be working. What should we do? Time to bring back Tom McDonald? We desperately need a functioning forward line.

2) After losing a close game to Carlton in a finals-like atmosphere with a big crowd at the MCG, what do the Demons players need to learn for next time? Did we panic under the pressure?

3) Are the Demons pretenders or contenders for this year's AFL Premiership? I am sure the media "experts" will be asking the same question about us this week.

4) It was great to get Clayton Oliver back. However, is our midfield too slow? Or is it more to do with the issue of synergy between our players?

5) Did Michael Voss "out coach" Simon Goodwin in the match? Mainly in regards to strategy and tactics? Or was it just a case of the Blues players winning the crucial contests and applying a high level of pressure?

Hey guys

I think people need to stop calling this the Gawn/Grundy Experiment, as this wasn't it. this was Grundy Forward and Gawn in the middle.  Very different to originally planned.

The forward line is clearly where our downfall is, seeing our talls in reserve aren't up to it could our forward line look something like:

Pickett, JVR, Melksham

ANB, Fritsch, Chandler

I'm not sure of a better option, Grundy can't survive as a full forward.

All in all not overly upset with the loss, almost pinched it.  We do need to come out more switched on from the first bounce,  been a few weeks it has taken as a while o pick up the pace of the game.

How does the group feel about letting teams get out to a lead most weeks?

Understand it’s impossible to control all facets of games from week to week. However, we are sure making hard work of things by having to overcome deficits so often.

If that’s the model of finals football, which I think it was, then there’s a fair few things we can’t quite do well enough just yet. We were lead to the ball all over the ground, we reverted back to the bees to the honeypot method around the footy, we can’t kick to advantage consistently, we lacked legspeed and despite some questionable treatment, Max was worked over and dropped his head.

We can finetune the above and are definitely in the mix but Carlton are now a serious threat and have a game plan that stifles us. 

 

Edited August 12, 20231 yr by BW511

Hi guys, love your work.

question for the group. 
 

Carlton’s pressure was over 200 for the whole night and good on them for being able to sustain it for that long but that rarely happens for. Qtr or 2 let alone a game. We stood up to their pressure and could have pinched the game in the dying minutes. What is your view on how we withstood their pressure and were you impressed at how we not only held them at bay but then were able to turn the momentum around to our way?

I thought we actually played very well for large periods of the game. Our defence held up to that first quarter onslaught brilliantly. 

As much as it sucks we were very narrowly beaten by the in form team in the comp at the moment and had plenty of chances to put it away.

Definitely missed Petty's abilities and I think Oliver will be better for the run. I actually think Grundy performed well in the ruck but as a forward target I don't think it's there and to keep pushing it will be to our detriment. 

No question other than the usual forward line setup ones but I'm sure that will be covered. Just a bit of a rant and possibly a counterpoint to all those doomsayers saying that we were terrible. 

10 hours ago, OhMyDees said:

Crucial non-calls that cost us dearly at the death aside from the Trac non-goal… 

- Oliver held at stoppage in the square. 

- Langdon held on half toward flank.

- JVR tunnelled on the half forward flank. 

Umpiring doesn’t alone cost you a game but I was frustrated with the way the umpires refused to make calls late in the game other than deliberate out of bounds…

Didn’t help either that I had a truly obnoxious Carlton fan next to me who ‘accidentally’ punched me in my leg while celebrating. 

Thanks again Andy, George and Binman for what I’m sure will be yet another amazing pod. 

- Clarry’s holding the ball that wasn’t at beginning of the second half that gave them a goal

- JVR clearly tripped in the last few minutes

I thought we had them at the end of the third and was disappointed with the 2 goals at the start of the last. I’m still unsure why we don’t get better value from Max’s dominance.

why are we so flat to start games at the moment?

it wasn't a problem earlier in the year but it's clearly one currently

Another thing I noticed from the game is the fact we refuse to kick the ball of the ground and clear the area.  very frustrating,  a few times our player was just first to the ball and had 2 opponents around them and rather than kick it forward and hopefully get another number to the contest we try and pick it up and handball out.  Then inevitably turned it over and then our number at the contest is lost. 

I noticed this countless times, it looks as if it is an instruction which baffles me especially in wet weather. 

With the caveat that this is mildly tongue-in-cheek and obviously exaggerated, would Binman please explain himself? I took my seat in the top deck of the G — amidst a throng of similarly-bearded amateur tacticians — expecting to observe an outfit at the peak of conditioning whizzing about the turf in uncatchable arcs. But they didn't turn up. In their place I witnessed the stodgy, second-to-it, fumblemaniac leadfoot brigade of the mid-season-preseason struggle to propel the ball over the goal line from 40. Slip n' slide conditions acknowledged, where was the energy?

Edited August 13, 20231 yr by Grr-owl
PedantismSS

Watched the Casey game yesterday with @binman, and needless to say, in the gorgeous sunshine falling onto a perfectly grassed Princes Park, we (by which I mean he) had happy solutions for all the chinks in the Dees armour, all despite Casey falling frustratingly short (poor goal conversion in the last was the killer). So listen in to the podcast, Demonlanders, between @Demonland Andy’s MFCSS in flux, @george_on_the_outer’s rational wisdom, and positive binners happy contextualising, it’s gonna be a CRACKER!
 

By the by, Harry Petty was there in his moonboot. I doubt he’s had surgery yet. They’ll be waiting for the acute foot to settle, making for a less irritable reaction post-surgery. He looked relaxed and happy, as did Max. Charlie Spargo was another level yesterday, ran all day, and more than anyone else gave Casey its best looks at a win. Tommo dominant down back as always. 
 

 

Pressure and structure wins finals.  It has been our ‘one wood’ now for the past few years, with the sugar rush of the pies approach built to counter it.  Now we faced a team that out demoned the demons - their set-up defensively was brilliant, and their whole ground pressure was unbelievable.  And we lost by a fingernail (real or imagined).  I think we are set for September, with just 3 issues that’s stand out:

Skills under pressure

Grundy

Forward line and delivery into it.

Are these the panels biggest concerns, or do you have other big red flashing lights as we approach the big dance?

We wouldn’t be having this conversation if Salem had just kicked the goal - what was he thinking? 
 

And … the Carlton player says he touched it. If he did, then all is well. But if by chance he is lying, then the Carlton Curse is set - and serves them right. 
 

Grundy wasn’t bad as a ruckman. Helped get us back in it. We should play him the rest of the home and away to give Gawn a rest in matches. Then we can dispense him to Casey.