The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Sunday, 12th May @ 8:30pm. Join George, Binman & I as we analyse the Demons loss at the MCG against the Blues in the Round 09.

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Not sure where to start fellas. A big shout out to Wowey, very clean and composed. Trac elevated to another level which is hard to believe. Super proud of that comeback so I’m surprisingly calm. 
 

My question concerns the forward structure. On TV we seemed very outnumbered in our F50 for most of the night. We’re they keeping numbers back or just transitioning quickly?

Once again we came out and could not hit a disposal in the first quarter. This is becoming a habit.  Is there an explanation?

Very proud of the comeback but just a bit too late. 
 

As always incredibly thankful to the three of you for your (usually) calm and reasoned analysis.  

Edited May 9, 2024May 9 by monoccular

Slow start killed us. Commendable fight back but ultimately it was our first quarter and inaccuracy that killed us. I would love to blame it on the 5 day break but we had some run in us at the death.

Umpires absolutely murdered us in the first half. 11-3. Frees evened up throughout the rest of the match but the were some horrible non-decisions that killed us.

As everyone knows we lost this game in the first quarter. How can we, and why do we, go missing, panic, and lose structure so easily?

I suppose this is rhetorical and borne out of frustration from seeing us unexpectedly on the backfoot from the get-go yet again.

The recovery (whilst admirable) becomes almost irrelevant under the circumstances, as that is what very good teams do, which we are ... almost.

tracc has had a few lackluster weeks in the middle . goes forward and kicks a bag of 5 . should we consider playing him up forward considering his recent midfield form and our uninspiring key forwards ?

That’s 3 games in a row against the Blues that insufficient goal review technology has cost us the match. One day a team will lose a Grand Final as a result of Soviet era tech. 

13 hours ago, monoccular said:

Once again we came out and could not hit a disposal in the first quarter. This is becoming a habit.  Is there an explanation?

Very proud of the comeback but just a bit too late. 
 

As always incredibly thankful to the three of you for your (usually) calm and reasoned analysis.  

Agree with all 3 points. 

The slow starts can be extended to first halves. In the past 4 matches we have kicked a total of 11 goals in the first halves and 29 in the second. One or 2 matches can be considered an anomaly, but 4 is a pattern.  Can this be;

(a)  explained

(b)  rectified

 

Hi gents, following on from a comment last week, does our forward line lack a “captain”? Should we consider making Track a permanent leader of our forwards? I was very impressed watching him at the game and he was pushing instructions to the other forwards to move into different positions etc.  maybe he would split his time like Kozzie?

Edited May 10, 2024May 10 by Magnus
Adding kozzie sentence

Hi guys.

Very disappointed with the result( and ordinary umpiring) but impressed with the teams comeback in the last quarter. 
My question is in retrospect was it an error to bring Bowey back in after a long lay off? I haven’t been able to determine if he wasn’t quite right or he was subbed off as he was having no impact.

Also very impressed with Woewodins performance. Surely getting a full game into him next week is the way to go.

Keep up the great work. Your podcast gets me through my long drive to Melbourne each week and always lots of good food for  thought.

Absolutely love the show guys. I would like to discuss midfield performance post 5 day breaks. We have in the past heard how the midfield and high half forwards can cover huge kilometres in a game. We have tracking technology, and individual player hot map data on ground coverage.  My question is - Is it known whether the midfield and high half forward collective distance covered is less or usual post a 5 day break. MFC game plan relies on 2 way running. My sense is the runners look slower. Could Binman's stat guru assist here? Should we have more players go through each side of the 5 day break. 

Were our centre stoppage set ups too aggressive in the first quarter? Even when they started putting scores on us, we never really reverted to a defensive set up, and continued to go for the clean break away clearance.

Hi gents love the pod.

I didn't get to watch almost any of the game, but it seemed to me that the 5 day break was an issue for us, hence the slow start. Once both sides tired out, we seemed to have the run of the game. Is that what it looked like live?

Not too unhappy with the result, a win would have been better for sure. But I have to think that in another game and in a final with full breaks, we would be the fitter and better team. The first quarter was bad, but I think it has to be considered an outlier, rather than an indication of where either team is at. Does the panel agree?

I think Binman's notion that each game is not a litmus test on flag credentials is especially important now. We've looked good in many games and looked bad in small stages. I think our best footy is right up there and probably the best 2 or 3 sides in the comp. The challenge for the Dees is delivering that consistently in September. The change to the Red and Blueprint means that sometimes it might not quite all come together, which is not a problem in May. We're growing and improving and Goody always says the team that wins the flag is not the best team, but the team that improves the most. I think we have that in us.

Go Dees.

I was really impressed by Langdon’s game. Was used differently that usually by Goody given Trac played mostly forward but I thought he was really effective. 

Also wondered whether the panel members noticed the heat of this game as it seems to have been multiple occasions of players mouthing off at each other like Gawn to Pittonet and Clarry to the Carlton player who got a free kick on the wing. How much of this was a distraction? I do wonder how dirty the Carlton players were scragging us or whether it was purely a back and forth of words.

Edited May 10, 2024May 10 by OhMyDees

Has the coaching moved to far away from stoppage/contested football. Is this the reason why Trac, Viney and Clarry (although he has had injury and a poor preseason) are out of form? Our strong midfield have been consistently beaten too easily for the first time in years. 
 

I’m interested in Binman’s thoughts on how we can compete better in the contest and keep slingshot footy?

 

The midfield performed better with Spaz and ANB at centre square throw ups. 

For a team that prides itself on "contest and defense" how come we seem to struggle in the rain? 

Also, something that caught my ear in the interview with Max on the club website he mentioned we have struggled the past few times against "big Melbourne clubs" (assuming Carlton and Collingwood).

I find we play really well in interstate hostile environments, however when it's our home ground but we are outnumbered by the louder opposition crowd I wonder if it's a mental thing that plays on the players mind at all (like big club envy, even at a sub conscious level). 

Do you think there is anything to it? 

Edited May 10, 2024May 10 by mpc

Horrible horrible first quarter.

But, to be an optimist after that, it is the best we have played in the wet for 4 years.  Maybe goody is learning! 

Would have been a great win to get but not the end of the world, i do think we need Hunter in the rotation and once Bowie is back to full fitness there is a bit more class through the middle.

not too worried by this loss  

17 hours ago, Demonsterative said:

Has the coaching moved to far away from stoppage/contested football. Is this the reason why Trac, Viney and Clarry (although he has had injury and a poor preseason) are out of form? Our strong midfield have been consistently beaten too easily for the first time in years. 
 

Second this. Can you guys please have a robust discussion regarding our midfield? I don’t want to hear pressure and tackling stats, I want to focus on pure ball in hand stuff because we’ve been poor all year except for one or two games.

 

 

 

As a fitness staff how difficult is it to prepare a conditioning plan for constant unorthodox breaks? eg. 5 day break followed by 10 day break.

Love the pods guys. Always an important part of my week!    
Not really a question, but a comment:
Our start vs Carlton was obviously deplorable (not helped by the free kicks against), but I was very impressed by the ‘ticker’ and ‘belief’ we showed in working our way back into the game, and then ultimately running it down to the wire.  IMO this ‘never say die’ attitude, combined with a full list, can take us a long way in 2024.   
It probably sounds like heresy, but this was the first time in many years that I haven’t felt totally ‘gutted’ after a loss.

I'm going to cut off the questions here. See you tonight at 8:30pm

Listen & Chat LIVE: https://demonland.com/podcast

Call: 03 9016 3666

Skype: Demonland31

do you believe both mfc and geetroit were 'flat' to start their games as a result of the intensity of their clash in the previous round?

2 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

do you believe both mfc and geetroit were 'flat' to start their games as a result of the intensity of their clash in the previous round?

Cheeky. Sneaking in at the exact time I close the thread. 😜