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Realistic hopes for 2024

Wells 11
Wells 11
in Melbourne Demons

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We now have no Trac, no Brayshaw and an Oliver and Petty  on half rat power . On top of this  we have maybe 3 players or more  hobbling through their final season ....and no Joel Smith. So I wonder what there is to realistically hope for in 2024. We aint winning a flag without Trac and the rest of the above...that much is clear.

So on one hand I could say what would be theoretically best is a full capitulation, a clean out and some good draft picks a la 2019 and maybe a good FA or trades. But there's a looong way to go in 2024 and I don't like the feel of that enough to hope for it. 

On the other I think we could still push for a finals birth and, if we got there and won one, I reckon that would be impressive with the reality of our 24  list ... and we could at least get that "straight sets" monkey off our back. Barring that I'd like to at least see them refind their mojo, energy  and connection and build for a decent 2025 shot. Maybe see a few younger players tried and assess with more clarity?

Any thoughts? 

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    You had me at “Realistic” W11. 👍🏽

    Not gonna lie… I felt nauseous reading your second paragraph and I imagine you felt that way while typing it. If we weren’t only halfway through the H&As this might be something to consider but there’s still such a long way to go in an unusually long season.

    But I like your ideas in the final paragraph. Now is definitely the time to entertain the prospect of giving the young guys a run.

    Given the current state we’re in, to win even an elimination final would be fantastic. 

    Edited by WalkingCivilWar

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    5 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

    Now is definitely the time to entertain the prospect of giving the young guys a run.

     

    100% agree 

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    Sneaking into the top 8 and playing finals would be ideal.

    Sadly, I don't see it happening.

    A full capitulation in the latter half of the season would be an utter disaster though.

    What happens for the rest of the season? I have no idea whatsoever.

    Losing Christian Petracca is a massive blow. He is a star for the Demons and a vital key to any Premiership hopes.

    All I hope is that the players (and coaching staff) show some fight and hardness. At the moment, we are seen as being "soft as butter" and we have lost the respect we only briefly gained after finally winning a Premiership in 2021.

    Some serious discussions about culture, hardness, player development, connection into the forward line and list management need to be addressed at the conclusion of this season. We probably need an entire football department review again in my opinion.

     

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    Realistically, I think we will miss the 8 this year. We have 7 wins now. Looking at the fixture and considering even a little improvement  - and that will be hard without Trac - I can’t see us winning more than another 3 or 4 games. We play North, (H) Brisbane (A), West Coast (H), Essendon (H), Freo (A), GWS (H), Bulldogs (A), Port Adelaide (H), Gold Coast (A) and Collingwood (H).

    If we get four more wins, we’ll be on 11. It’s doubtful that will be enough for finals.

     

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    Alot rests on what happens against North.

    Clarry looked amazingly like being Clarry before he broke his hand. He could turn it around quickly.

    Petty looked like Carey against Geelong. I don't buy into the checked out narative but he needs to be dropped to regain the confidence. 

    Lever will be back soon and our defence will be boosted with him and May's ribs back to normal at around the same time.

    I'd role the dice and play Kozzie as a midfielder resting forward pocket. We need to be more dynamic.

    Have a crack at North this week and see if it clicks but if it doesn't don't make North's mistake of missing Harley Reid. Nose dive.

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    We’ll be doing super well to go 3-7 to close out the season.

    Aside from West Coast which I think we’ll knock over, every other side we play looks to have gone past us like an absolute freight train. That includes a North Melbourne who are clearly taking advantage of a horribly depleted Collingwood, something we should’ve precisely done this week.

    And despite Goodwin giving us a rave review post game last week, don’t underestimate how poor a loss it was to a team missing their entire premiership centre square. The last two weeks have been the worst under Goodwin.

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    Top 5 draft pick and a very active trade period. 

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    Playing the kids is all well and good, but who is going to look after them and lead the way on the field (apart from Gawn)? “Playing the kids” is easier said than done, it’s a balance. Last thing we want is for the kids to be played, easily pushed around with no senior players to look up to or stand up for them. 

    Edited by Ethan Tremblay

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    The losses to WC, Freo and Collingwood aren't scrutinised enough. We are badly out of form and very poorly coached right now. We're definitely entering "Please explain" territory from the board because we've lost all momentum after the flag and simply haven't been able to grow or really take advantage of that success off and on the field.

    Collingwood will come back and win. But North are playing well atm. On current form we are probably ranked 16th-18th over the past month.

    We should still play finals but on curreny form i reckon 10 wins maximum.

    Edited by praha

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    we're cooked.

    focus on 25.

    play the kids try to restore some pride. try to restore some form and confidence particularly Petty. We need him to regain some of his trade value. Get Trac and Clarry fit and firing again. See what we can do in the trade period and have another crack at the flag

     

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    Looking at the Roos today, I think we start thinking about who we are going to get with pick 1

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    Here’s a hope I have for 2024 and beyond, although I’m not sure it’s realistic…

    I hope to be able to watch non-Dees matches while chatting on DL in the NON-MFC thread without having every sadsack and his dog hijacking said thread with posts about how sch!ttt the Dees are.

    Yeah nah, not realistic at all. 

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    3 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

    Here’s a hope I have for 2024 and beyond, although I’m not sure it’s realistic…

    I hope to be able to watch non-Dees matches while chatting on DL in the NON-MFC thread without having every sadsack and his dog hijacking said thread with posts about how sch!ttt the Dees are.

    Yeah nah, not realistic at all. 

    I don't have a dog.

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    • Haha 2

    31 minutes ago, praha said:

    The losses to WC, Freo and Collingwood aren't scrutinised enough.

    You think? We've had every second supporter on here wanting to trade out half the team, put the rest on notice, sack Goodwin, sack all the assistants, and sack Roffey and the Board. There's been countless media articles on the demise of the Dees, how we aren't tough enough, how Maynard got away with everything, how Petracca shouldn't have gone back on and forward line connection criticism x 1000 for three years.

    How much scrutiny do you want? It's currently just a huge pile on.

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    12 minutes ago, mauriesy said:

    You think? We've had every second supporter on here wanting to trade out half the team, put the rest on notice, sack Goodwin, sack all the assistants, and sack Roffey and the Board. There's been countless media articles on the demise of the Dees, how we aren't tough enough, how Maynard got away with everything, how Petracca shouldn't have gone back on and forward line connection criticism x 1000 for three years.

    How much scrutiny do you want? It's currently just a huge pile on.

    internally yes but Goodwin and the coaching team have mostly escaped it. Schwartz has really been the only one to externally in the media question Goodwin's tenure.

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    14 minutes ago, mauriesy said:

    You think? We've had every second supporter on here wanting to trade out half the team, put the rest on notice, sack Goodwin, sack all the assistants, and sack Roffey and the Board. There's been countless media articles on the demise of the Dees, how we aren't tough enough, how Maynard got away with everything, how Petracca shouldn't have gone back on and forward line connection criticism x 1000 for three years.

    How much scrutiny do you want? It's currently just a huge pile on.

    External Scutiny…

    Ever Since Pert was interviewed by Garry Lyon it has been a facade

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    i thought this ⬇️ was funny…

    39 minutes ago, praha said:

    I don't have a dog.

    But then I saw this ⬇️ which is even funnier…

    13 minutes ago, praha said:

    internally yes but Goodwin and the coaching team have mostly escaped it. Schwartz has really been the only one to externally in the media question Goodwin's tenure.

    You said those three losses weren’t  scrutinised enough. You didn’t mention Goody’s tenure. You read Mauriesy’s reply. You realised what a moronic statement you’d made. You changed your point to Goody’s tenure. Hilarious! 

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    - Kolt to play and look comfortable
    - AMW debut
    - Laurie to hopefully start to show something and get some midfield time
    - JVR to have a purple patch 
    - The entire team to begin to embrace/understand flowing ball movement and the basic concept of the fat side 
    - Fritsch to sub or Casey

    Oliver, Viney, ANB, Pickett, Salem, Rivers, Kolt, Laurie, Chandler all to see centre bounce time.

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    21 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

    i thought this ⬇️ was funny…

    But then I saw this ⬇️ which is even funnier…

    You said those three losses weren’t  scrutinised enough. You didn’t mention Goody’s tenure. You read Mauriesy’s reply. You realised what a moronic statement you’d made. You changed your point to Goody’s tenure. Hilarious! 

    I'm here all week!

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    I'd like for guys to be actually rewarded for their VFL form and guys getting dropped for poor form.

    AMW, Kolt, Laurie to play an extended amount of games instead of chopping and changing.

    I'm no Fullarton fan but reward him for his consistency at VFL level. Ridiculous that Turner gets a game up forward over him.

    Get Brown in for Petty. 

    The inconsistency in team selection this year has been utterly bizarre. 

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    2 hours ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

    Playing the kids is all well and good, but who is going to look after them and lead the way on the field (apart from Gawn)? “Playing the kids” is easier said than done, it’s a balance. Last thing we want is for the kids to be played, easily pushed around with no senior players to look up to or stand up for them. 

    Aye laddie ....thers's the rub eh.   And sadly so.   Do we limp, hobble and sputter  with the likes of current team sheets...and accomplish ??  ( i really don't know , but not thinking a great deal ) .... or  look to rotate a few of the 'elders' on the pitch JUST to help out the kids where ever possible.

    For me the rest of this year is about learning/evaluation/ and miles in legs.

    Even if we fell into the finals ...we arent lasting 5 mins there. This is  not one of those fairytale years....not by a country mile. Give the kids banks of games... see who takes to it.  Really, what's there to lose ?? 

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    I’m sorry but I don’t see us winning many games at all for the rest of the year. Down on form and belief, and probably spirit too. Bottom 4.

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