Overpowering them was always going to happen. We just had too much class all over the ground. That said the disposal in the first half was a bit shocking.

Max, Lever, Turner, Rivers and May were great.

Viney looked like he was going through the motions. Petty and Chandler very disappointing. TMac's kicking was back to 2014 levels!

53 minutes ago, Jibroni said:

Happy for Disco but that was a porridge game to watch.

Im not sure whats happened in the last 2 weeks.

Yeah, and lowest score by Richmond v Melbourne since 1965. Woeful.

14 minutes ago, DemonWA said:

Hows all the 'supporters' hand wringing at half time like the world was ending. Turn off your phones in future.

Walked it in. 

Valuable experience for a heap of the young guys infront of a big crowd. 

No doubt room for improvement but bank the wins and keep working to get better 

Sorry but that was the most insipid performance - one I couldn’t have even predicted. Our midfield is seriously underperforming. 

3 minutes ago, dee-tox said:

TMac's kicking was back to 2014 levels!

Maybe back to 2004 levels - kicking to Oscar down the driveway but breaking the neighbour’s windows…

36 minutes ago, layzie said:

Burn the tape 

Scatter the Ashes at sea

2 minutes ago, Gawndy the Great said:

Sorry but that was the most insipid performance - one I couldn’t have even predicted. Our midfield is seriously underperforming. 

We would have lost to half the league playing like tonight, luckily there was a bottom 4 team in front.

50 minutes ago, Maldonboy38 said:

How can I enjoy a 7 goal win so little?

Horrible, horrible, horrible unpressured kicking. No reasonable excuse or reason. So much great turnover football at half back then trash kicking through midfield and into F50.

Petty? Looks disinterested and lacking intensity. Needs a Casey run to get his mojo back. Give me a clumsy ageing BBB. 

No way can we continue with Howes, Woewodin, Windsor, Howes and Laurie all in the same team. 

Another game where the best Dees midfield I have seen in my lifetime gets owned/equalled by an injured rebuilding one. Can't tell you how much I hate that.

Hats off to Lever, May, Gawn and Langdon. Well done Tuner and Fritsch for their cameos. Laurie impacted well when he came on. 

Perfect post. 

We arent competing for the flag, and barely for the 4, if Howes Woey Windsor and Laurie are mainstays. We could maybe carry 2 of them, but our bottom 6-8 just become so poor - it's not the list profile of a competing team. Especially if our stars continue to underperform and the more developed youth (Petty, Sparrow) offer next to nothing. 

Right now Oliver is a liability. Tag Trac and our midfield is all but worked out.

i know he is trying, but he is so far from his best it’s not funny. 

 

Good to see Kozzie get into the action more often and pick up an equal career high 20 touches which is almost double his average as well as a couple of neat goals. 

Look it was interesting pretty but I don't really care as much lately. I guess it's just still fun to win haha.

The first half was simply incredible. It was almost like we'd been teleported back into the Neeld era for an hour. WTF was that?

It was far from his best game but Windsor intercepting that kick with a couple of seconds left, not messing it up by playing on, and then nailing the 50/50 set shot was not something I've grown accustomed to supporting this team over the journey. Superb effort.

The win sucked, absolutely no sugar coating that, but I remember in 2021 when we kept winning ugly everyone on here was banging on about "if we play like that against the good teams yadda yadda yadda". Enjoy the wins, bank the points and hopefully don't [censored] it up in September this time. 

17 minutes ago, bush demon said:

Yeah, and lowest score by Richmond v Melbourne since 1965. Woeful.

We had our worst 22 or loss the round prior.

Followed by our worst 43 pt win the next week.

Any danger of winning a centre clearance? Or any clearances at all?

 

 

Week in week out the AFL has another tribunal controversy to deal with as it attempts to address concussion issues and balance player safety with the contest. I'm quite torn, as I enjoy the heavier aspects of our sport, but recognise some of what went on in the past is not really okay. I don't enjoy the AFL's bumbling efforts at a fix but I also don't have a magic formula. The one thing though, no matter how inconsequential or not, Marlion Pickett should take at least a two-week break for striking Oliver. We can't get the other stuff right, but if the intent is there in a non-playing action, it should be an immediate suspension in my opinion. 

8 minutes ago, dee-tox said:

Overpowering them was always going to happen. We just had too much class all over the ground. That said the disposal in the first half was a bit shocking.

Max, Lever, Turner, Rivers and May were great.

Viney looked like he was going through the motions. Petty and Chandler very disappointing. TMac's kicking was back to 2014 levels!

Brizzy dee I think said, Drop T Mac, deetox said, his kicking 2014 level, really, he wasn’t alone kicking badly and I reckon he’s been solid every game this year. Pretty sure Goody won’t be dropping him on his current form. It was certainly ugly in the first half but as usual our Dee’s just keep on going for 4 quarters, and that is why I can trust this team, brilliant or ugly.

1 minute ago, Skuit said:

Week in week out the AFL has another tribunal controversy to deal with as it attempts to address concussion issues and balance player safety with the contest. I'm quite torn, as I enjoy the heavier aspects of our sport, but recognise some of what went on in the past is not really okay. I don't enjoy the AFL's bumbling efforts at a fix but I also don't have a magic formula. The one thing though, no matter how inconsequential or not, Marlion Pickett should take at least a two-week break for striking Oliver. We can't get the other stuff right, but if the intent is there in a non-playing action, it should be an immediate suspension in my opinion. 

He’ll get one. Still, pretty disgusting behaviour that deserves more 

3 minutes ago, Undeeterred said:

He’ll get one. Still, pretty disgusting behaviour that deserves more 

Intentional / low impact / body = fine. 

Meanwhile, if you did that to somebody in public, it would be considered assault. 

Edited April 24, 20241 yr by Skuit

The first half turnovers were awful. At one point I thought there was a jumper clash, we were kicking it straight to them. 

But if it wasn’t for the turnovers they otherwise barely troubled us. Fewer second half turnovers saw us blow the game open. 

I get the whole “play like that next week and we get destroyed” thing. It’s obviously true. But I’ll bet we won’t play like that next week. How often have we found these ANZAC Eve clashes to be tight, scrappy and contested early on? Feels like most years. The Geelong game isn’t going to look like that. Plus I’d account for us taking a bit of time to adjust after the bye.

The backline is going gangbusters. Windsor’s turnovers aside, he’s doing so much right off the ball. Contrary to some on here, I liked Howes’ game and feel like he is reliably holding down a role without fuss. Turner could be a revelation. 

I noticed that Trac, Oliver and Viney all had around 76% TOG. Something feels up with their fitness - whether they’re injured, “loading” (shudder), or we’re deliberately resting them more in game. But it’s a bit weird.

Woey was poor, sadly, and we barely gave Laurie a look. But I’m far more concerned about Petty and, to a lesser extent, Sparrow. 

Looking forward to how we follow this up next week.

I think @Webber might have questioned it during the game day thread: couldn't believe how many times we kicked it straight to the opposition, often we’d kick it straight on their chest with no one else around. It honestly felt like we were mistaking their jumpers for ours OR (conspiracy incoming) maybe with their all black jumper/shorts combo and reduced yellow sash they were somewhat camouflaged in the night so we just weren’t seeing them?

I recall on the TV noting that as their players crossed the logos/graphics on the wing on the grass they simply blended in.

1 hour ago, ElDiablo14 said:

Jackson 2.0?

Jack Watts 2.0. The least physical big man I've seen for some time.

Always happy with a regulation 43 point win but my god some of the footy on display especially in the first half was woeful. Can't blame fatigue on this one!

What happened to our forward pressure? It was a staple of our game in 2021 and seems miles away now. I get we are playing a different style but we still shouldn't be letting teams waltz it out with ease.

Richmond’s lowest score against us since the week before Kevin Bartlett played his first game. Gotta love our defence. 

I think the theme at the moment and perhaps for the entire H & A season is developing and improving our rebound and forward half connection… tonight we had lots of “learnings” which will hopefully serve us well, and we doubled their score. 
All good.

Bring on the freak’n Cats. Bunch of front running wannabes.

Go Demons.

❤️🏆💙

We did what we needed to and won by 7 goals.

With Lever allowed to play on a small, he was hugely influential all match with 15 intercepts and 26 touches. Crazy stats. He was best afield for mine.

Disco Turner was fantastic. Not only did he hit the scoreboard, but he presented really well. Kudos @binman. Pretty sure you called this. Anyway, I hope Disco gets real confidence out of that game and takes on the Geelong and Carlton defences now. You could see his first set shot was quite tentative, but once he got the gimme in the square to open his account, his looked confident in his other two set shots, which were really excellent kicks. Especially his second goal.

Kozzy's front half pressure and unpredictability is so, so important. He's becoming a top 5 most important player for what he brings to our forward half, occasional midfield bursts and the way we want to set up on slingshot.

I thought the trajectory of the game was interesting too. We conceded territory and had them kicking long into our crowded D50 for much of the first quarter and looked dangerous on the slingshot, which is exactly how we want to play this year. Concede territory if we can't get a clean, cutting centre clearance and play counter like Collingwood last year and Geelong for however many seasons. The problem with the first quarter is we fumbled and failed to switch the ball when we were often set up for the switch and had some potential scoring chains break down through taking the wrong options in tight and on those angled kicks.

In the second quarter, we refused to switch the ball (I think our first switch for the game incredibly came in the last quarter) and tried to play fast and took the wrong options or failed to execute the right kicks or handballs. 

This fast play has McQualter's fingerprints all over it, although maybe it's Goody? Many have been crying out for more offence, well, this is how you get it, but you have to execute. And yes we do have the players to do it, because look at the second half. Our aim is to slingshot straight away with angled kicks or handball releases off half back, but as we all saw, we kept picking the wrong options. I think with time (hopefully at the back end of this season), we'll get this balance right and it will become more instinctive and if we do, look out.

With the second half, we started hitting targets and stopped fumbling and our 'potential' scoring chains turned into scores. It can be a relatively simple game when you hit targets and play quickly.

I do really think we need to utilise the switch way more than we do. An incisive switch opens up teams in the modern game. We didn't set up for it against Brisbane because we were knackered, but in this game we often set up for it, but didn't look to switch at all. If we're going to be a serious contender this year, we need to add this move to our arsenal. 

Anyway, all we needed to do tonight was win comfortably and despite the first half scoreline, we did.

Huge fortnight coming up. If Geelong beat Carlton and we go 2 zip over the next 2, we'll be a game and percentage ahead of Carlton, who if you listened to the media or their supporters already have the flag in the bag. I suspect Geelong will account for them and Geelong may well be the bigger threat this year.

One final point, whilst he struggled, the 1 centre ruck contest Petty attended was really fascinating. He halved the tap and then his follow up work at ground level was something I didn't think he had in him. Super nimble and explosive. He almost created a score out of it too. I hope we alternate Petty and JVR in the 2nd ruck position from now on, because it means JVR isn't as knackered when he's forward, and gives us a bit of unpredictability with three different rucks. Plus, it gets Petty into the game if he's having a quiet one. Same with JVR.

Onwards, go redlegs.

Edited April 24, 20241 yr by Binmans PA

Here I was coming on to demonland  to enjoy the win. Sheesh.  I’ve seen enough dees games over the years to know you  celebrate 42 point wins.