The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Tuesday, 25th June @ 8:30pm. Join George, Binman & I as we analyse the Demons victory at the MCG over the Kangaroos in the Round 15.

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Comment more so than a question. 

Thankyou for your podcast. Tried the de-brief last week and it was a abomination. Like listening to the audio version of a demonland match day thread. In Binman, George and Andy we trust. 

Ps. 4 points is 4 points. Will be at the G for the game against Wet-toast. Come on you demons!

I’m probably going out on a limb here but I’m not enjoying the hate re Clarry. I see a young man trying to make amends, who has not had a preseason and is trying his guts out week in, week out. What would dropping him and sending him back to Casey achieve? He gets heavily tagged each week and doesn’t seem to get a fair run from the umpires unlike others who seem to be in the ‘untouchable category’.
What does the panel think? Am I on my own here?

4 minutes ago, jane02 said:

I’m probably going out on a limb here but I’m not enjoying the hate re Clarry. I see a young man trying to make amends, who has not had a preseason and is trying his guts out week in, week out. What would dropping him and sending him back to Casey achieve? He gets heavily tagged each week and doesn’t seem to get a fair run from the umpires unlike others who seem to be in the ‘untouchable category’.
What does the panel think? Am I on my own here?

💯 

i found that to be the most demoralising win i think i've ever seen but i'll take the 4 points

why do you think this season is so even, sydney aside?

Two questions:

1. Two good quarters: the first and the third. With an important game against the Lions on Friday, is it possible the team were instructed to ease up on their effort to conserve energy in the last quarter?  We were flat in that last quarter. 
 

2. Is the problem with our inability to capitalise on turnover in the back half primarily method or skill? The family has been away the last two weekends so I’ve watched more non-Melb games than usual. When other teams turn the ball over, they spread the ball, with players running past 1-2m wide of the ball holder with the effect that they spread out from the contest. It reminds me of our “running in waves” method in 2021. However, we seem to want to go in a more direct line forward rather than wide. This means we often attempt to loop the ball forward over opposition players.  This “loopy technique”, if I may call it that, also seems to have undermined our handball technique in general play, with players looping their hand balls when it’s not necessary.  Bring back the running in waves method, I say. 
 

Related, why do so many of our players look surprised to receive the ball? There must be confusion over the method or, alternatively, the players are so bereft of confidence that they think of the ball as a hot potato  
 

Love the pod - keep up the good work!

Edited June 22, 2024Jun 22 by Nairobi_Demon

Really disappointing that Oliver not only failed to step up without Trac there but had one of the worst games I’ve ever seen from him.

He’s clearly not improving as the year goes on and if anything he’s dropping off more the deeper we get in the season.

Is it time to drop him to the 2nds or just rest him in till such a time as he is able to contribute at a required level? This cant be good for both his confidence or the team moral to know we a player who is getting a free pass.

7 hours ago, DemonWA said:

Comment more so than a question. 

Thankyou for your podcast. Tried the de-brief last week and it was a abomination. Like listening to the audio version of a demonland match day thread. In Binman, George and Andy we trust. 

Ps. 4 points is 4 points. Will be at the G for the game against Wet-toast. Come on you demons!

No need to criticise the Deebrief here.

It's just a different approach to the same feeling, the Melbourne Football club.

I enjoy both podcasts for different reasons. Both have merit in my view.

6 hours ago, jane02 said:

I’m probably going out on a limb here but I’m not enjoying the hate re Clarry. I see a young man trying to make amends, who has not had a preseason and is trying his guts out week in, week out. What would dropping him and sending him back to Casey achieve? He gets heavily tagged each week and doesn’t seem to get a fair run from the umpires unlike others who seem to be in the ‘untouchable category’.
What does the panel think? Am I on my own here?

He is far from his best, it's almost as he was abducted by Aliens last year around June and the Clarry we have today is a bad clone or something, can't believe the quick decline from just 12 months.

Really it's hard to know what's best to do with him. I think the real Clarry is still somewhere inside him, but how do we make it flourish again?

How did you feel about the way K Brown debut was handled?

I feel we are not doing justice to our F/S players, see Taj.

It may explain why these kids sometimes have confidence issues even at VFL level. Must be very frustrating to be given such a small opportunity and then be dropped the next week.

Was the fix ‘in’?  How did you view the umpiring in the last qtr?  I think that we got smashed around the ball and the whistle in the last.  May said in his interview to CH 7 - ‘when they started getting all the downfield free kicks and 50’s it was going to be tough’….  Your thoughts on this ??

@binmanAs an old coach once said to me: If you have to rely on stats, then you are not watching the game.

9 minutes ago, the pearl said:

@binmanAs an old coach once said to me: If you have to rely on stats, then you are not watching the game.

How old is your coach?

8 minutes ago, binman said:

How old is your coach?

Ah. Now you are playing the man, not the ball. This could be seen as a meaningless pressure act.

27 minutes ago, the pearl said:

Ah. Now you are playing the man, not the ball. This could be seen as a meaningless pressure act.

Are you being serious?

Playing the man?

You just accused me of relying on stats and not watching the game.

That's not playing the man?

Give me a spell

It's been a very long time since stats were not used by coaches to help understand the game.

Hell, AFL clubs employees full time stats analysts.

Ours, like at other clubs, sits on the interchange bench and feeds info direct to the coach the whole game.

The players have a screen in front of them with key data, eg pressure rating.

The players are advised at the breaks of key data, eg time in forward half, contested possessions etc

I watch the game pearl. Live at the ground when we play in Melbourne, then on replay.

I also analyse stats post game. Helps me understand and contextualise what I've watched. 

Others may not. And just 'trust' their eyes.

Each to their own.

Edited June 23, 2024Jun 23 by binman

42 minutes ago, the pearl said:

@binmanAs an old coach once said to me: If you have to rely on stats, then you are not watching the game.

was it malthouse?

Well whatever you think of stas imo I think its pretty clear what's going wrong statistically. We are getting murdered on turnovers. And that's unrelated to stoppage and clearance issues, which are secondary.   48 points this week, 61 against the pies, I think 90 against Freo.  You can see it happening every week and it's cringe worthy. 

We are moving the ball too fast by players that suck at kicking and decision making.  Rivers has to play middle for the rest of the year. He isn't elite but he's not an absolute butcher like the rest of them. 

Not to pile on Oliver but how ridiculous was his clearance kick from half back when he didn't even bother looking up the field when he was clear.  Goodwin and Max talks about learnings. Give it a spell I reckon,it's not that hard to learn to have a look. Happening for years now.  I get that he's frustrated but he's meant to be a senior player of the club.

Goodwin has to take some blame.  Every person watching could see Oliver being upset. Why not change it up, play him out of the goal square for 5 minutes. Maybe he kicks a goal and gets some confidence. Our midfield and structure isn't some sort of Jenga tower that's going to collapse if players are moved around but he acts like it is. 

 

Finally our own accuracy and our opponents inaccuracy won us a game. The only silver lining I can take from a win that felt like a loss. 

Kudos to Kynan Doggy Brown for that run down tackle. Love the show of desperation from a first gamer showing the rest of the boys how it’s done. 

I have grave concerns about the efforts of Bayley Fritsch. He goes missing for large chunks of the game. Plays behind his man. Doesn’t chase. Isn’t providing a target. He’s not the only culprit. 

Our forward line and entries into it are a dysfunctional mess. Is it because we have 2 back men as key forwards or is it time to bite the bullet and get an actual forward coach that understands leading patterns and how a forward line functions? 

I watch a lot of non Dees footy each week and constantly see other teams hit up their key forwards lace out on leads. I can count the times on 1 hand the times I see a Dees forward hit up on a lead in the last 4 years. 

Edited June 23, 2024Jun 23 by Singa

6 minutes ago, Singa said:

Our forward line and entries into it are a dysfunctional mess. Is it because we have 2 back men as key forwards or is it time to bite the bullet and get an actual forward coach that understands leading patterns and how a forward line functions? 

I watch a lot of non Dees footy each week and constantly see other teams hit up their key forwards lace out on leads. I can count the times on 1 hand the times I see a Dees forward hit up on a lead in the last 4 years. 

we could have matthew lloyd, jason dunstall, and tony lockett as our forward coach and it would make no difference such is the poor quality of ball coming i50

skill and execution under pressure is the problem

We had something like 9 players 22 and under on the ground for the North game.

This to me highlights that we’re already future focused and trying to develop our list. Yes we haven’t got much depth right now being hit by injuries but I feel like we are doing what we can and asking a lot of young players to step up into challenging roles. 

I’m bullish about the future with Rivers, van Rooyen, McVee, Bowey, Tholstrup, Howes, Brown, Windsor, Woewodin and Turner to name a few. They all have a huge amount of improvement yet in them in the years to come.

Was really happy with the win given the past few weeks. I am very much hoping for a Binman special funky result against the Lions! 

Good to get back on the winners list

And i'm happy to see our old game style back!  i don't care about the long bombing to the pocket.

That was an extremely bruising and hard game of footy, Roos really came to play.  We are lacking class and polish especially now without Trac so i think we need to play these grinding games of footy.

Do you guys think we faded out in the last quarter because of the way the game wa played, or could it be that familiar trend that happens to teams after a bye,?

Also what do you think this game could do in terms of impact on this weeks game v Bris, i was already worried but now even more so after a tough physical game against the Roos.

Hello gents, I love the podcast - even when we lose. There is usually something positive to take from any game and Binman and George always find something to cheer us up and reduce Andy's MFCSS. I agree with many here who think the North Melbourne game felt like a loss. To be held scoreless in the fourth quarter after a dominant third quarter is hard to accept when playing the bottom team. I suspect it has a lot to do with the number of young players in the team at the moment and the fact they are getting tired a this stage of the season. Oh, to have Toby Bedford, James Jordan and Harmesey back in the team - and Grundy! Given these trading decisions, and the constant changes in player positions across the field this year, do you think there is any chance the Melbourne Football Club  might be in danger of being fined again for tanking? At least we could afford to pay the fine this time around...  Keep up the good work chaps!