https://x.com/1116sen/status/1750035450633617839?s=20

Strength: Defence.

For the past three years, the Demons have been ranked top five in points allowed and have consistently been viewed as possessing one of the best backlines in the competition.

And after a rocky off-season that saw a little bit of movement in the trade period, plus some unwanted off-field attention, the backline has remained the same and only looks to improve further with continuous growth from players like Trent Rivers, Jake Bowey and Judd McVee.

Established stars such as Steven May and Jake Lever will be prominent in helping the team’s defence stay as strong as possible, which will be further helped by the likes of Christian Salem and Adam Tomlinson who have proven they can hold their own when required to.

Expect another strong season down back from the Demons, who will look to bounce back after a disappointing end to their 2023 season.

Weakness: Ruck depth.

A year ago today, this wasn’t seen as an issue at all. Now, with the departure of Brodie Grundy in the off-season, this has become a glaring problem that could hinder the Demons’ chances of success if Max Gawn was to go down injured.

Even though they recruited Tom Fullarton from Brisbane to help fill the void if the skipper was to go down, the contrast in quality at the position is significantly worse compared to what the club had up their sleeve in 2023.

Gawn should be placed in bubble wrap after every game this season to ensure that the six-time All-Australian doesn’t miss any footy in what seems to be one of the Demons’ last chances at a premiership run.

Zac Sharpe

Who is Zac Sharpe and why is he getting money to do what we would and could all cheerfully do better for free?

 

Does this man watch any games to say the weakness is in the ruck, Jesus Stevie Wonder could see it was the forward line that was the problem....

  On 24/01/2024 at 07:15, Little Goffy said:

Who is Zac Sharpe and why is he getting money to do what we would and could all cheerfully do better for free?

 

LG, I wouldn't cheerfully do it for free.

But I'd charge less than he would.

Why do they even bother. That’s got to be some of the laziest football journalism so far and that’s saying a lot considering the conga line of suckholes hanging off the afl teat these days. 

Who tf is Zac Sharpe, my 3 yr old could of wrote up something better.

Collingwood won a granfinal with a average ruck 

Some excellent points on the quality of journalism here.  If you look around the league, how many Ruckman would you actually rate?  The answer is not that many.  The game has changed where a quality ruckman is a very rare commodity and a quality tap ruckman rarer still. 

Grundy is a better tap ruckman, but not as good as Gawn around the ground and particularly not as good as filling holes in forward or back (which is so important these days).

That is some of the real advantages of Max, not only is he a real presence in the midfield and around the ground (applying pressure etc), but he can fill holes and take big grabs all over the ground.  Its like having an extra KPP on every line.

Do we need a quality back-up ruck to win the flag?  We didn't in 2021 and did pretty well without one last year.  Im pretty sure Trac even got a hit out in last years finals?

What is more important than a 'ruckman' is someone who will apply pressure and cover ground, get to contests etc.  Hopefully Fullarton and Schache (I have been very down on him previously) can do a good job of it, as well as T Mac and JVR where required. 

The MFC has tried the 2 ruck system since 2019 with Preuss, Jackson and Grundy.

It only worked 2021 when Jackson played one of his best matches in the Grand Final.

Both Grundy and Preuss were tried working with Gawn but only worked when Gawn got injured.

I understand that we don't have a quality 2nd Ruckman but we will never know how good Fullarton or Schache are unless Gawn gets injured.

How many teams can afford a quality Ruckman playing in the 2nd 18's.

Our major weakness last year was not getting the quality ball into the forward 50.

Don’t forget Will Verrall he was highly rated as a ruck/fwd in his junior years, he had a significant pelvis injury early last year but is now starting to show a bit. Listed at 199cm Will is same height as Tom Fullarton and Josh Schache, so we potentially have three players that can provide 2nd ruck / fwd relief for the side whilst KFW at 206cm continues to develop at Casey. If they all stay fit Casey will benefit from our ruck strength in 2024 and beyond.

Im not sure Grundy was that good.

I thought his tap work and ground skills were above par but he failed to be a marking target forward and back.

He would still be a good replacement if Max went down but certainly not the best.

Hopefully Fullerton provides enough support 

Having an A+ ruckman is an obvious asset.

But, as has been said many times before, the Toiges won 3 flags with Nankervis as their ruckman. And for those with long memories, so did Brisbane years ago with Keating*. And another flag with another ruckman whose name I can't remember!

 

*Aaron, not Paul.

  On 25/01/2024 at 22:51, Winners at last said:

Having an A+ ruckman is an obvious asset.

But, as has been said many times before, the Toiges won 3 flags with Nankervis as their ruckman. And for those with long memories, so did Brisbane years ago with Keating*. And another flag with another ruckman whose name I can't remember!

 

*Aaron, not Paul.

*I thought it was Clark not Aaron or Paul

  On 26/01/2024 at 00:49, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

*I thought it was Clark not Aaron or Paul

I stand corrected !!

Jamie Charman and Beau McDonald also say hi!! Premiership ruckmen for Brisbane, not exactly household names!! 

 

  On 26/01/2024 at 04:13, Winners at last said:

I stand corrected !!

Jamie Charman and Beau McDonald also say hi!! Premiership ruckmen for Brisbane, not exactly household names!! 

 

So does 199cm Greg Dear.

  On 24/01/2024 at 15:11, JJR said:

Who tf is Zac Sharpe, my 3 yr old could of wrote up something better.

😀

But would of your 3 yr old know it’s written up, not wrote up?

2023 Points against 

1st St.Kilda 1575

2nd Carlton 1592

3rd Melbourne 1604

4th Collingwood 1656

2022 Points against 

1st Melbourne 1483

2nd Fremantle 1486

3rd Geelong 1488

4th Sydney 1616

 

2021 Points against 

1st Melbourne 1443

2nd Geelong 1456

3rd Port Adelaide 1492

4th Western Bulldogs 1501

 

We’ve been the best defensive side over the last 3 year, our problems lie forward of centre. I think we’re at our best defensively when we play 2 talls plus Lever. Our entries inside fwd 50, lack of separation, goal kicking inaccuracy and at times players out of position (lost count of how many times when kicking to a marking fwd there’s not a crumbing fwd in 20 metres of the contest) has cost us. Fritsch is a gun, great mark, set shot and can prove to be a difficult match up. I’m interested to see what McAdam brings, and hopefully Petty gets back to full fitness quickly. Ultimately we need to take more risks and back our fwds in, quicker more direct ball movement. I think I read in a recent training report that Bowey was delivering the ball inside 50, I would to see us make some changes do we don’t repeat past mistakes. 

  On 27/01/2024 at 08:59, Bombay Airconditioning said:

2023 Points against 

1st St.Kilda 1575

2nd Carlton 1592

3rd Melbourne 1604

4th Collingwood 1656

2022 Points against 

1st Melbourne 1483

2nd Fremantle 1486

3rd Geelong 1488

4th Sydney 1616

 

2021 Points against 

1st Melbourne 1443

2nd Geelong 1456

3rd Port Adelaide 1492

4th Western Bulldogs 1501

 

We’ve been the best defensive side over the last 3 year, our problems lie forward of centre. I think we’re at our best defensively when we play 2 talls plus Lever. Our entries inside fwd 50, lack of separation, goal kicking inaccuracy and at times players out of position (lost count of how many times when kicking to a marking fwd there’s not a crumbing fwd in 20 metres of the contest) has cost us. Fritsch is a gun, great mark, set shot and can prove to be a difficult match up. I’m interested to see what McAdam brings, and hopefully Petty gets back to full fitness quickly. Ultimately we need to take more risks and back our fwds in, quicker more direct ball movement. I think I read in a recent training report that Bowey was delivering the ball inside 50, I would to see us make some changes do we don’t repeat past mistakes. 

If we’re to improve our attack we simply have to get the ball into the hands of the best kickers forward of centre …problem is we don’t have many elite kickers hence our game plan will remain much the same. The difference being (if we stay fit and Oliver comes back) we can play Petty, Fritsch, JVR, ANB, potentially Adam’s and Petracca in the forward half. If Gawn can go back to floating a kick behind the ball and guys like Bowey, Rivers, Spargo and perhaps Salem can be the kickers into the forward half we all of a sudden look much better. Sounds easy. 

  On 24/01/2024 at 07:53, demon3165 said:

Does this man watch any games to say the weakness is in the ruck, Jesus Stevie Wonder could see it was the forward line that was the problem....

You’re right… for 2023.

I think this piece is about our weakness in 2024. And with Fullarton now down, maybe they’re right. 

  On 27/01/2024 at 13:41, Fanatique Demon said:

You’re right… for 2023.

I think this piece is about our weakness in 2024. And with Fullarton now down, maybe they’re right. 

You really think so? if but's and maybe's are a great talking point and if that happened yes it will hurt but those things can be overcome to at least lesson the problem, but a having a problem with forward line entries hurt you more. I am hopeful that a change of game plan with forward line entries will be far more effective this year than the ruck problem.

Given we’ve coughed up leads in 3 out of our last 4 finals (and narrowly lost the other one), I’m going with ‘mental fragility in big moments’ as a key weakness.  
 

Really hope we can fix that one.

  On 24/01/2024 at 10:07, Roost it far said:

conga line of suckholes

Thanks for reminding me Rif, that I come to Demonland for the information but stay for the poetry.😀

  On 30/01/2024 at 04:51, leave it to deever said:

Thanks for reminding me Rif, that I come to Demonland for the information but stay for the poetry.😀

Doing it for the people